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I wasn't expecting you to, of course. I was just joining in the frivolity.
Same
I only said these countries for the lulz
I wasn't expecting you to, of course. I was just joining in the frivolity.
Ah, you guys got me. Shows that I shouldn't take any of you serious.Same
THis was so amazing...
Thanks, Omen, TonyJoe, arosenberge14 and MarkusH. It's good to hear you enjoyed reading this AAR.
It's certainly nice to end an EU3 campaign with a bang instead of an extended mopping-up.That was a great AAR. It was cool to see a world-scale war in EUIII for once.
After-match interview
Jim: Dear viewers, we're back after the thrilling conclusion of the match between Germany and Japan. With me is our favourite reporter, Bob.
Bob: Hah! Everyone knows you're the most popular, Jim, but thanks anyway.
Jim: You know Bob, I think the most popular guys right now at the moment are the team captains of the German and the Japanese team.
Bob: I think you might be right, Jim.
Jim: So guess who are here in the studio? Ulrich, team captain for the Germans and Hiroshi, captain of Team Japan!
Bob: Good to have you here, gentlemen.
Ulrich: Thanks, good to be here, Bob.
Hiroshi: Hello, Jim and Bob.
Jim: Thank you for coming. Hiroshi, congratulations with your victory.
Hiroshi: Very kind of you, thanks.
Jim: Well, gentlemen, it was quite a match, wasn't it?
Ulrich: Indeed, quite exciting. Too bad Hiroshi's boys were so unsporting to use unmanly and underhanded methods like strategy.
Hiroshi: Hahahaha! If using the strategy was the hallmark of the unmanly, your boys would be girlier than Arnold Schwarzenegger in a Hello Kitty suit.
Jim: Good to see that you guys get along so nicely.
Ulrich: Of course. The Japanese team and Hiroshi in particular are top notch athletes and losing to them is no shame.
Bob: So how do you guys think were the highlights of the game before the Final Battle?
Hiroshi: For me it had to be the first Japanese-Ming Unification War in 1560, you know, in Turn 9. Bit of a gamble, didn't work out the way I wanted but it was great fun to be enclosed by the rebel hordes coming out of the darkness. A rare experience.
Ulrich: It did indeed looked like fun. For me, I think my team's finest hour was the period 1430-1440, Turn Two. Probably our best turn, as we gained four provinces, six vassals and two Personal Unions in just 10 years, turning Bavaria from a small nobody into the largest German power. Not only that, but the turn was very exciting to us. Sending all those spies to Saxony, waiting until one succeeds...was nerve wrecking. And the decision to start a war mere months before we had to return was also very exciting.
Jim: That was indeed a very nice turn, I think I also enjoyed it very much. But gentlemen, what were the least fun aspects of the game?
Ulrich: Well, for me it was the natives' tendency to overbuild the army beyond the support limits. I still don't see why they thought that was necessary and it cost a lot of money, both in maintenance and in constant rebuilding the army.
Hiroshi: That was peanuts. My team had to suffer the complete loss of the army and the complete loss of the navy twice. Still, the most irritating aspect was the endless rebel bashing during the Final Battle. After the defeat of France, more than 90% of my team's time was spend on mindless rebel hunting. Especially as the rebels didn't pose a threat to the Empire or even to the war effort.
Ulrich: Also, I personally didn't like that our team got new restriction and rules over time. If they were all introduced at the start, we didn't need to constantly adapt our strategy to the rules.
Bob: I can understand that. But you have to agree that we all, including the Referee, underestimated the raw power of Germany. Even with all the restrictions, Germany was extremely powerful. For example, even with maximum Decentralisation and the -2 magistrates/year penalty imposed in 1600. The extra turn that Japan got, helped closing the gap a bit, but even with the inheritance of China, the Japanese empire at the end was weaker than Germany alone.
Hiroshi: It was indeed also a surprise for me to see how powerful Germany was. While I knew it would have access to the best provinces in the world, I would have though the restrictions put on the German team would dampen that...Luckily my team achieved the goal we had from the start: controlling most of Asia before the Final Battle.
Jim: Which brings us to the next question to you gentlemen: what were your grand strategies?
Ulrich: At the highest level, I think Hiroshi's team and my boys had basically the same strategy. We both wanted the biggest war economy and for that reason we ignored colonization.
Hiroshi: You got that right. The idea was to have as much manpower, as high a land force limit and, to a lesser degree, as high a naval force limit as possible. Income was a secondary issue. Colonies provide almost no manpower and very little gains in force limits. Also, colonization was a luxury that Japan couldn't afford, with the Asian wars and the Westernisation.
Bob: But still, couldn't you get lots of colonies and build Land and Naval buildings for manpower and force limits?
Ulrich: In hindsight, that might have worked. We didn't anticipate that both Germany and Japan had too much manpower: at no point during the Final Battle did either of us dip into the manpower pool. So we could have managed with way less manpower. However, we both could have used higher force limits. So if buildings have provided a better source of force limits than non-colony provinces, colonization plus Land and Naval buildings would be a valid strategy.
Hiroshi: I don't know. With having control over our nations for only half of the time, we had only limited control over the buildings build. I still think that Ulrich's team and I did pretty well.
Jim: Another strategy you both used was the heavy use or even abuse of Personal Unions.
Ulrich: Indeed. It's probably the best way to expand into territory owned by nations with which marriages are possible. As both teams decided to expand in the own backyard, it made sense to use Personal Unions as our main Casus Belli weapon.
Hiroshi: A big drawback of this strategy, however, is how dependent it is on luck. It's mostly due to luck getting a P.U and it's completely left to Lady Luck if you inherit one. For example, I never managed to get a P.U. with Korea simply because their legitimacy never dropped significantly.
Ulrich: I agree, Hiroshi. Luck plays an extremely big role with P.U.'s. If you didn't inherit Ming at the last moment, the Final Battle would be completely different. Either much more difficult for you or much easier for me, depending who would be the attacker.
Hiroshi: The same for you, Ulrich. Imagine if Germany had inherited Poland...that would have been fun! Or even better, inheriting France, Spain and Poland! Germany would probably be close to undefeatable!
Ulrich: True, but I think the randomness of P.U. hurts a non-European power much more than a European power, because European P.U.'s or vassals are strong even if they remain independent. France, Poland and Spain did put up a good fight in the Final Battle as their tech was quite respectable. However, your vassals and P.U.'s, Hiroshi, would only be strong if they Westernised. An uninherited Ming would be little help in the Final Battle.
Hiroshi: I have to agree, a good analysis, Ulrich.
Bob: Any aspects of both your grand strategies that differed from each other?
Hiroshi: The two teams went for different domestic policies. Japan focussed more on a servile , mercantile economy, while Germany went for freedom, both for its citizens and its trade.
Ulrich: What surprised me is that Japan managed to get such high tech, even with high Serfdom and Mercantilism.
Hiroshi: The high Serfdom was countered by high Innovativeness, while Germany was quite Narrowminded, so I think our nations' tech bonus/penalty was quite the same. Besides, Westernisation is by far a greater factor in the tech race.
Jim: Which was a very slow and tortured process for the Japanese by no fault of your team, Hiroshi, but because of the lethargic natives.
Hiroshi: Indeed, that did hurt the Japanese economy very much. With a bit more luck, our Westernisation would be much quicker and Japan's tech would be much closer to Germany's.
Ulrich: Building strategy was also a bit different, I think. I mainly went for Trade buildings, while Japan focussed more on Production buildings.
Hiroshi: Indeed. I wanted to try something different, to see if high level Production buildings could compete with high level Trade buildings. You see, taxes have some advantages over trade income: it's easier transformed into hard cash due to census and a higher base tax also means higher force limits. So while Trade buildings may provide more income, a Production line also provides higher force limits and would lead to less inflation.
Bob: Did it work?
Hiroshi: Not really. Late game, a +1% trade efficiency is extremely difficult to compete with. In hindsight, I think it's better to build Production buildings until level 3 or even level 4 and start building Trade buildings exclusively when you're able to build level 5 trade buildings.
Ulrich: Sound like a good strategy, as low level Production buildings are much better than low level Trade buildings, while high level Trade buildings overpower high level Production buildings. I would do something like that in a next campaign, myself.
Jim: Any thoughts on the Final Battle?
Hiroshi: To my shame, I forgot the old wisdom of Clausewitz's maxim: concentrate your forces. I foolishly spread my forces at the start of the Final Battle and suffered for it.
Ulrich: Hiroshi, you're being to harsh on yourself. You clearly pursued the very rational strategy of minimizing attrition and thus war exhaustion, a very good strategy in most wars. Your only mistake was in approaching the Final Battle as a standard war.
Hiroshi: You might be right. I underestimated how easy it is to get absurdly high war exhaustion if your army consists of a couple of hundred regiments. During the Great Retreat, involving about 300 regiments, my team tried to minimize attrition and still we got almost a whole WE point every month!
Ulrich: Indeed. It was inevitable in the Final Battle for both sides to maximize their war exhaustion in at most a couple of years. Basically, if you have a couple of hundred regiments and fight a big war, don't bother with war exhaustion as it will rise very quickly no matter what you do. I have to recommend you, Hiroshi, that you realized this quickly and that you adopted your approach so well.
Hiroshi: Thank you kindly, Ulrich. When I realized that minimizing war exhaustion was a lost cause and I saw that even if all my troops suffered 5% attrition losses would remain less than my monthly manpower income, I stopped caring about attrition and went for the megadoomstacks.
Jim: Which paved the way for a well-deserved victory. Any tips for other Double Domination players, gentlemen?
Ulrich: A tip I would like to give is that you have to change your overall strategy compared to leading a nation full-time. In particular, in general you need to make choices that strengthen your nation even under less optimal management, as that will be the case half the time.
Hiroshi: My main advice would be to accept your loss of control and be phlegmatic with regards to setbacks caused by the natives. While I expected much more horrible decisions from the natives, there's is no doubt that they are way less competent than even the most incompetent DD contestant. Roll with the punches and accept the fact that your nation is doing worse than under full-time control.
Bob: Wise words. Thank you for your time, gentlemen.
Jim: With that, we have to end this enlightening interview. I hope that you, dear viewers, enjoyed this match as much as Bob and I did and hopefully we will see each other again some time. Goodbye!
The end.
Well done to Japan! This has been a great AAR and I'm glad I was able to follow it through to the end.
Thank you, blsteen, for your participation and kind comments.
Good to hear your liked it, Sybot.
I would like to invite you and all the other readers to my new AAR. It's an EU:Rome AAR, so that might disappoint those who wanted me to do another EU3 AAR, but if you liked my Ming faction balancing act and/or DD's wacky setting, you might enjoy this:
Those Crazy Gauls
I saw this AAR right at its very start, but then took a break from EU3 and from the forums for a while. Just now come back to the forums (for CK2) and saw this in my list of subscribed threads. Excellent timing on my behalf coming back just after it finished up, as I've just read through the whole thing in a single sitting.
It was a whole lot of fun, and I think you met your goal admirably, in that going into the final battle, I wasn't sure who was going to win, but I was sure it was going to be epic. Kudos on a fun AAR, with a creative idea excellently executed.
It was a whole lot of fun, and I think you met your goal admirably, in that going into the final battle, I wasn't sure who was going to win, but I was sure it was going to be epic. Kudos on a fun AAR, with a creative idea excellently executed.