Republic of Russia: A Novogorod DW AAR

Deus Eversor -- If you mean total population, I've no idea how to check that -- adding up the individual populations for each province would be very tiresome and comagoosie's generator doesn't create that. Manpower is at 393k as of this update.

BootOnFace -- I actually thought about doing that, but wasn't sure how.

Boris -- Yes sir!

Getting ready to edit screenshots for the final updates. I would ask for requests for the final SOTR and atlas, but, like a dolt, I only have a 1789 save game

March 1800: We open the 19th century with three new cores: Al Karak, Negev, and Sinai.

October 1800: Our first war of the 19th century is against our frequent opponent, the Mamluks.



Mali and Ahmadnagar warn us, but Baluchistan chickens out.

November 1800: It's warn-fest 1800! Ethiopia and Nepal join in the party.

April 1801: We max out Centralization -- a local pretender is quickly dispatched.

July 1801: Peace with the Mamluks -- still one more war to finish them off.



We move our national focus to Mecca to help with the conversion process.

May 1802: Heijian cores.

December 1802: New embassy in Sandomierz.

January 1803: Gangwon converts.

March 1803: Our last idea -- improved foraging. Also, agricultural revolution in Kursk.

May 1803: Grain in Dar Ja'al.

July 1803: Core on Moghulistan (Khiva) from Boundary Dispute. Mecca converts to Orthodoxy. If all the holy cities are Orthodox, shouldn't the entire world be forced to convert to Orthodoxy? At least the Christians and Muslims, anyway.

January 1804: Poland decides to send a spy. He gets caught. Poland will be punished! Now, we must build a fine arts academy in Kachinsk.

February 1804: Poland's punishment.



I force the Swiss to choose sides. For the first time, Switzerland abandons Russia. The only major power I have yet to face is now engaged in war with her former ally. After all the stupid wars with Parma, this is how you repay me?!

May 1804: The Battle of Viborg -- a strategic withdrawal back to the capital.



Poland has been punished appropriately.



July 1804: The Swiss quickly realize what every other Western Power has: Russia is not to be trifled with.



August 1804: Silistria cores. Bavaria DOWs Switzerland, citing nationalist differences. This should be interesting.

November 1804: Agricultural revolution in Yakesa.

April 1805: Agricultural revolution in Berber.

September 1805: UPCA declares independence.

October 1805: Sieradz and Nubia convert.

April 1806: Kargah converts.

June 1806: As we occupy Swiss Finland, some folks from Aleppo move to Butana.

July 1806: Bohemia joins the dogpile on Switzerland. I wonder if they realize that the vast majority of the Swiss army is still in Switzerland? Ordos cores. Aragon warns us.

December 1806: It lasted until the 19th century, but finally, Byzantium loses its independence and becomes a vassal of... Crete. Kind of ignominious, if you ask me. I'd rather be taken out by the Ottoman Turks than an OPM.

February 1807: The Swiss take some cores and cash from Bavaria. That was probably a mistake, Bavaria.

July 1807: Boundary Dispute on Yumen! Time for some more border cleanup!



November 1807: I take what I can -- I want to keep some infamy for some other border cleanup.



December 1807: We inflict a minor but humiliating defeat on the Swiss.



I honestly didn't want to invade Switzerland proper and didn't think to release Finland.

April 1808: Dayz Az Zor and Badiyat Ash Sham core.

October 1808: Ramazan declares independence. I immediately act.



Brandenburg honors and brings some friends. Looks like one final clash between Russia and Brandenburg -- very fitting.

January 1809: Now we're to colonize Hawaii. On it!

February 1809: Ramazan is eliminated.



April 1809: A bloody battle between Russia and Brandenburg -- sometimes it seems like we never left the 18th century.



November 1809: Brandenburg and Russia sign a white peace. I have no interest in pursuing this any further.

February 1811: A new leader! Artamon Repnin is hardly encouraging -- 3/3/5. We hand him a musket and force him to the front lines as quickly as possible. The people of Russia don't exactly want him to die, but it would be great if he breathed a little less.

October 1812: Hawaii is colonized and Timucua now needs a new fort.

May 1813: La Plata and Colombia declare independence.

November 1813: Scotland breaks free of Great Britain.

March 1814: Dear Iraq,
We don't like you as our vassal any more. We want more commitment from you, specifically, your complete annexation. Being our vassal just isn't good enough any more.

Sincerely,

Russia.

P.S. Well, ordinarily we'd mind if you brought a friend, but in Persia's case, we'll make an exception.

July 1814: War!



October 1814: Persia is annexed.



February 1815: He survived his four year term despite our best efforts. He retires to eating paste. His new replacement, Vasiliy Koltsov-Mosalski, is a lot better -- 3/9/8.

May 1815: Dar Ja'al sure is popular -- now people from Sandomierz want to live there.

November 1815: Deccan warns us.

April 1816: Iraq is now annexed.



August 1816: Mamluks, it's your turn.



September 1816: Delhi wants some new territory and calls Russia in. Russia honors her friends, but has no truck with territorial aggrandizement that is not to Russia's benefit. White peace will be pursued.

November 1816: Nile cores.

July 1817: Xuan Fu revolutionizes her agriculture.

November 1817: The Mamluks revolt against independence and join Russia in her quest to ensure no other power matters in world affairs. Ever.



May 1818: Gondwana is given white peace as a token of Russia's support for self-determination.

February 1819: Pyeongan converts.

August 1820: And this AAR concludes with three cores: Ninguta, Mudanjiang, and San Xing.

Next up is the State of the Republic: Endgame.

Remember, all maps will be in the World Atlas.

We start with Russia's council of advisers:



No difference from 1800.

Russia's economy, monthly:



Russia still has a couple of colonies at the end of the game, but they're pretty profitable. Trade income is pretty insignificant at game end -- first time this has ever happened to me, I suspect because I never use many merchants outside of my COTs.

Yearly income:



Taxation is pretty low too -- production is what's carried me throughout most of this game. I almost take in more money from that than everything else combined.

Yearly expenditures:



If you tripled the rest of my costs and added them together -- I'd still pay more for the army.

COTs:



There's some monopolies for you, Boris

Provinces, by tax:



Provinces, by production:



So, at the end of the game, it looks like Delhi is the most valuable Russian province. If we're talking actually Russian provinces, it's probably Vladimir -- its production alone far outweighs Novgorod's higher tax rate. That's certainly not what I would have expected at the beginning of the game.

Russia's economy and the pitiful rest of the world, competing for #2:



Russia's pride and joy -- her army and navy:



Russia could have over a million men under arms, but towards the end of the game I really saw no point.

Her technology:



Even Switzerland is gone now -- Russia is clearly the greatest country in the world!

Armies of the world:



It burns me up I didn't try to take that last province from GB -- if Scotland had defected a little sooner, I could have put 200k troops there and invaded England. Look how pitiful GB's army is, and who knows if it's even on the mainland? That was a missed opportunity.

Navies of the world:



Spain formed like two years before the game ended -- Russia's fleet, again, isn't mindbogglingly awesome, but it is relatively good.

Pies:



That last conquering binge added a few more territories than I could convert, but that's still a huge accomplishment, given how many religions I had at one point. Russia is still your home for grain, wool, fur, and other.

Sliders:



If I did it all again, the only real change I would have made would be to go max free subjects. Max aristocracy would have been nice about mid game, and I never bothered to max out mercantilism, but I think not maxing free subjects was the biggest suboptimal move I made.

Finally, the rulers of Russia:



Two more updates: world atlas and lessons learned.

First, Russia:



The biggest disappointment is that British province in Anatolia -- it drives me bonkers that I've got a limey enclave in Russia. Probably could have cleaned up Central Asia a bit more, but I was content to vassalize. I expanded just a tiny bit further in Russia than I intended to, but actually less than Russia did -- I should be jutting into Germany quite a bit more, I do believe.

Europe:



Obviously, Italy was never going to happen, but Naples was one of the surprise stories in this game. Burgundy, Switzerland, Bohemia, and Spain are all very powerful -- GB has actually been knocked down a couple of pegs, at least in Europe. One other thing I would have done here is annexed Hungary, given a little more time. I just never got around to it, always seemed like something more pressing needed to be done. Austria is surprisingly weak in Europe at this point; smallest I've ever seen it.

Africa:



Swahili survived until the end of the game -- so did Mali and Mutapa, something I've never seen. Also note Brazil and Parma. The German powers colonized quite a bit of Africa here -- particularly the southern tip.

North America:



This, my friends, is something of a clusterf*ck. The biggest independent power is Mexico, which is in the central United States. The CA in UPCA is apparently "CAnada." Venezuela is roughly the Carolinas. Haiti is actually Cuba. Peru is in Mexico (not Mexico, you fool, Mexico!) Just a totally bizarre end map for North America. I think the white just west of Spanish North America is Louisiana -- I won't swear to it.

South America:



I think it's Burgundian Savoy because Savoy is in a PU with Burgundy -- I won't swear to it, but that makes the most sense. Colombia is the one country that declared independence in almost the right spot in this game. Peru is at least in South America, unlike Venezuela. Again, very strange.

Russia and her vassals:



And finally, planet Earth, the last screenshot of this AAR proper:

This will be my last official post in this AAR -- I'll still answer feedback, as always, and we'll continue the voting for the next AAR on this thread. I'm also going to try converting an edited saved game (so Russia has her proper place in the world) to Vicky2 -- I'll probably post my initial progress on that here, unless it's stable enough for an AAR of its own.

The Good

-- I completed every single goal I set out to accomplish and exceeded them beyond my wildest expectations.

-- I was much more focused on tech on this game than I ever have been in the past, and I think it shows.

-- The right NIs are incredibly powerful, and I definitely think I chose the right ones (with some assistance from the studio audience, of course ).

-- I beat every single European power in the game at least once.

-- I humiliated every non European that came into contact with me.

-- With some assistance from an earlier user (I forget your name -- if you let me know, I'll add it) - I unlocked the massive power of production buildings, which launched my economy into the stratosphere.

The Bad

-- I should have been a lot more aggressive with Holy War -- I forgot I would lose it after 1650. I could have easily wrapped up in the Far East a lot sooner.

-- I was much too wishy-washy with sliders; I had no long term plan, and it cost me.

-- I think I ignored the navy too much, actually -- this kept me out of the New World, for the most part, and while that wasn't a focus, it would have helped me leverage more territories in Eurasia.

-- I have a nasty habit of DOWing early, before I get troops in position. This isn't so bad for Russia -- it just means more attrition for those foolish enough to engage during winter -- but for a smaller country, those first few days could be everything.

-- I may have actually been too aggressive with production buildings -- for some of the more marginal provinces, other choices would have been better. Some provinces (The Kurils, for example) were just shy of worthless. I really need to explore using the other buildings too.

The Ugly

-- I need to stop assaulting so much, particularly when time isn't really a factor -- it cost me a few armies and a lot of infantrymen. At the very least, I should wait until I've got a breach in the walls.

-- Use spies more. A lot more. I had plenty of spies this game, but never really maximized their use. If I'm going to go Plutocrat (my original plan, later abandoned), I need to use them.

-- Use the terrain! I probably spend 99% of the game in the political mode, which means I can take a lot of terrain penalties. When I have so large a tech and numbers advantage, it's no big deal, but for smaller countries it could be suicide.

-- Attack less, again, for smaller countries.

Remarks on DW

First, I have to say that DW is a huge improvement, even if you're not playing an Asian country. The horde system changes are absolutely fascinating; the later beta (which I didn't use for this one) even lets them take territories, and colonists are a lot more valuable in the early to mid game with hordes.

Second, the building system makes you act more strategically -- you can't just have every building in every province, since you can only have one level 5/6 building and you need magistrates for them all. As a disadvantage, provincial decisions are more or less useless now.

Third, the trade system and the triggered modifiers can have a big role in the game, and gives merchant republics a little more flexibility than they otherwise would have. I like that you can see them now -- they aren't hidden.

If you don't have DW yet, you ought to get it. It really does improve the game a lot.

Final remarks

I want to thank everybody who was so supportive and helpful for my first EU 3 AAR. The list is too long to name This was a blast, and I'll definitely do more of these in the future -- it makes me enjoy the game more and also improves me as a gamer, since I have to think about how I'd explain this to an audience. If you're a lurker, start an AAR -- you'd be surprised how much better it makes these already awesome games!

Upcoming projects

The Italian AAR.

Current poll:

Tuscany 6
Naples 2
Milan 1

Converting my saved game for this to Vicky 2, after editing it to update from 1789 to 1821. Possibly AAR worthy, if the converter is stable.

If mods get fixed with Vicky 2, an independent Ukraine AAR is a possibility.

Once I get HOI 3 back and some cash (or, of course, I win the contest ), perhaps do an AAR of that with somebody.

If anybody has any other interesting projects, by all means recommend them. I also want to remind people to keep voting for the Italian AAR -- remember, it's a run off, so everybody can vote again (unless your vote is in the poll above). I'll announce the winner next Friday at around midnight CST (-6 GMT), and probably start the AAR the following week.

Thanks again to all my readAARs and commentAARs, especially! I'll still monitor this thread and make posts, but the AAR is for all intents and purposes completed.

Feel free to vote for me in the just-announced AARland Choice AwAARds -- EU3 Gameplay, of course.

Ashantai: Many thanks! You were one of the very first to reply and I'm glad I kept your interest.

Iwanow: I seriously thought about taking church attendance duty at one point, but ultimately abandoned it. I always try to max my techs in every game I play; it's just how I am, I guess I took the overseas provinces mostly because missions told me to -- I don't like cancelling missions unless they're ridiculous or impossible (yeah, sure, I'm going to beat the royal navy in 1500 ) I was wondering if there was an element of randomness or not in the whole trade goods thing -- I didn't get a single gold province in Siberia. I had two gold provinces the whole game; Samara and the one you get from Georgia (Alania, if memory serves).

Michaelangelo -- Not your fault; I kind of rushed to the end there One other thing I've learned is not to play too far ahead, or a) you forgot why you did things and b) you get bored. I will not make this mistake again. Glad you found me, though, and I'll register your vote.

BootOnFace: Thanks for the kind words! After some fumbling, I tried the converter -- it did a more or less good job with the provinces, but there's still a lot of work to do. It doesn't help that I had such a weird experience with colonization (and that not all countries in EU 3 are playable in Vicky 2). The worst part, now, is that your army doesn't transfer (at all), nor do techs. Everybody starts with an absolute monarchy, etc. The thread is here: Convert Project.

Boris -- Thanks!

To give more people time to vote, I'm thinking about doing a Vicky 2 AAR in the meantime, with an independent Ukraine. It'll be similar in style to this one -- I'm going to focus mostly on the economy, but will do other stuff too. I can totally handle two AARs at once, and the Italian AAR should still start on schedule (next weekend), unless RL gets in the way. For now, I'm working on editing the save game to make sure Ukraine doesn't have to fight for her cores.

EDIT: D'oh! Forgot to post the new voting list!

Tuscany 6
Naples 3
Milan 1

Unless there's another vote for Milan by Sunday, we'll eliminate them from the run-off and allow the Milan voter to change their vote.

Here's the link for the Ukrainian AAR I just started, I hope to see many of you there! Syni Kyiva, a n00b Ukrainian AAR

Deus -- Thanks for the kind words!

USSR -- That's okay -- I was a lurker myself for many months before I posted.

Remember, you can still vote for the next EU 3 AAR --

Tuscany 6
Naples 3

Polls close next Friday at midnight, CST. Until then!

Sirce and Ashantai -- Your votes are recorded.

Ripheus -- Tuscany it is! I agree with you, Florence does seem to get most of the credit for the Renaissance, which is partially deserved and partially not -- there were a lot of terrific writers/artists/thinkers who weren't Tuscan.

Here's the latest poll:

Tuscany 9
Naples 3.

Keep voting!