The Lone StARR, A Texas Great Power

Chapter 8: The War Where Everyone Dies

In the last chapter I showed how I beat the U.S. and was able to acquire the state of Missouri. Well, when I loaded up my game this morning I was thinking of how I could continue to expand. I eventually came to the conclusion that I would have to take Oregon but to speed things up and avoid a war with the U.S., I decide to just go back to my save right before I accept peace with the U.S. and demand they give me Oregon as well. By then I was on course to overrun the entire country so I could have gotten away with a lot more.



This does put me slightly over the infamy limit which I was afraid of at first since it would take me about 3 years to get back down to 25. I decided to risk it anyway, and then I decided to take another gamble.



Seeing as I already had Oregon and was above the infamy limit I figured the U.K. was going to try and launch a containment war against me. I just figured I'd take the first shot and try and take Washington which I had a unification CB for. At the start of the war I had a couple of things going for me. First off, most of the U.K.'s brigades in North America were still busy fighting the U.S. in their containment war. They did have one decent sized brigade out west but I wouldn't have to face the bulk of their army till later. I was willing to bet the farm that the U.K. wouldn't attempt an amphibious assault or be able to get military access through the U.S. so if they wanted to fight me they were pretty much forced to walk all the way across Canada and then head south through Washington. This allowed me to send most of troops up to Washington without having to worry about any other fronts.

Pretty early on I try and occupy both Seattle and Walla Walla. Eventually the larger British army out in the west decides to attack and I am able to defeat them easily. A few months later I am able to kick the British out of Spokane..




Now things start to get tough. By this point the U.K. has finished their war with the U.S. and they are almost certainly moving their troops west across Canada to attack. I figure that since it's January now they probably won't arrive till April at the earliest. I keep a close eye on the Canadian provinces just north of Washington and by about mid may I notice 45k more troops to the north and that they were marching towards Spokane, which I was currently occupying. I decide to pull my troops back since I didn't want to have to split my forces to deal with the threat. The British march into Spokane and then immediately head for Walla Walla, and it is there that I prepare my defense.

The British weren't like the other nations I went to war with in the past. Other nations would usually keep a few brigades back around the capital, but the British didn't have a capital on the continent so they were willing to throw everything they had on the continent at me.



I probably should've zoomed in for that pic but that is the entire British army of North America in a 100K stack going against my 50K Texans, 24K were on their way from Seattle to reinforce my army. In the end though I end up inflicting a crushing defeat on the British raising the war score by a whole 9 points. I then chased them into Spokane where I defeated them again.




I continue to pursue their armies across Canada going as far north as Prince Georges then back down to Vancouver where I finally defeat the entire British North American army and wipe out all those brigades and 100k troops. I probably could have healed and gone on to occupy more of Canada but I didn't want to take a colony in Canada I didn't really need, only to raise my infamy and have Britain declare war on me every 5 years to try and get it back. Plus my armies had been beat up bad to, I only had about 15k left of my original 75K so I try to get those guys reenforced and try to occupy those regions in Washington in order to get the war score cost down. This was the last battle before the British were all dead.



There really was no fighting outside of Washington and British Columbia. The British did try and blockade me but they didn't always keep it up and I eventually got my first naval victory in the game against the British.



By now I have the war score up to about 24 and after about a year and a half of war Britain is ready to be reasonable.



The truce with Britian should last me long enough that I don't have to worry about them trying to contain me. The other great powers really don't have much power in North America (other than the U.S.) so I shouldn't have to worry about them either. I managed to get Peru and Colombia into my sphere and I am working on getting Guatemala and Uruguay sphered as well. I'm going to start trying to rebuild my economy and reenforce my units so they will be ready for the war with the U.S. which will likely come soon. I've almost got machine guns researched and after that there is only one more tech I need before I can start to colonize Africa. This should be fun. Anyway here's an updated map of the Republic of Texas.

The problem with taking land from the U.S. is that it would push me over the infamy limit and I don't want Great Britain attacking me every 5 years. I might be able to defeat them on land in North America but if I want to colonize I'm out of luck.

Concrete said:

Very clever play there, gaining land, and managing the possibility of war while over the infamy limit very well.
Something to note though, I see that you're down to #7, you should probably really buckle down on industry, maybe some naval factories to match the construction of a fleet, as I presume you will need one if you are to expand off-continent.

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After I went to war with the United States their industry just sky rocketed while mine was a bit stagnant and seeing as the stupid political parties made it LF there wasn't much I could do. I eventually figured out that if I reduce tax for capitalists down to 1%, max out poor taxes, and lower tariffs that my score would shoot up to but by now there is already a huge gap between the #5 and #6 power.

Also Mexico had a revolution and I can declare war on them now but I seem to have lost my war of unification CB on them even though they still have Nevada Utah. I tried loading the game as the U.S. to see if they still had it but they only had acquire core. Not sure what happened there.

Chapter 9: Carry On My Wayward Son


It looked like it would be another peacefully few years but early on I got a acquire state cassus beli (my first of the game) against the USA. I did have a truce with them but the CB would expire before the truce ran out and I decided that I would rather lose 20 prestige that (I could gain back during the war) then wait and have to take a huge infamy hit. Ever since I took over Missouri I had been eyeing Illinois as it had a good size population along with some respectable industries. It would also allow me to split the United States in half and make it difficult to send troops to the western half of the country in the event of another war. They would still be able to go through Michigan but that would take a bit longer.

My big concern with Illinois though was that it would cost 49 points to demand in a peace deal. I could maybe get the war score up to 40, but the United States was still more powerful then me and I likely wouldn't be able to occupy the regions in Illinois to get the war score req down. I eventually settled on Kansas because it was no longer a colony and I already had it surrounded on three sides. So I move into to declare war, I also tried to throw in a containment war goal later on.



I was outgunned at first, but over my past few wars I've begun to understand the combat system of Victoria 2 more and more. My old strategy to try and wipe out an army was to just keep pursuing it after it had been beaten which worked very well in EU3 but not so much in Victoria. During this war I employed a strategy of trapping which allowed me to wipe out a few U.S. brigades early on. Basically I would let the Yanks invade one of my provinces, then I would send a single brigade to the enemy provinces around the province they were invading to cut off the retreat. Next I sent in a huge army to defeat them in battle. Even though they may have barely lost the battle they have no where to retreat to and are wiped out. After that I pretty much had total control of the Rocky Mountain states for a while. The real battles were starting to take place back in the Midwest. Almost immediately I had ordered my troops to try and invade Kansas in order to lower the war score cost of acquiring the region.



The Americans instantly sent their large armies west to fight but they had to maneuver around Missouri which stood as a speed bump. I was able to distract some of their armies by putting a weak army in the border provinces of Missouri. Then their large armies would move in to try and occupy Missouri since they thought it would be an easy win. Once they started the battle I would then move my larger armies in to the battle and my side would get the edge. I was able to do this several times, each time the Americans would just throw more troops into the battle to be killed. The largest battle of the front occurred at North Platte where I was able to keep the Americans occupied for quite some time. The battle didn't change much in the ways of territory but I did give me some more time to occupy Wichita (which seemed to take 3X as long to occupy) and kept the Yanks from taking back lands out west.



A couple months later the Yanks finally manged to get a couple of armies out west and they launched a string of attacks against my armies out west (I won all of them handily) at about the same time the U.S. decided to Mobilize their troops which gave them about 50 more brigades. I was a bit worried here as I didn't know if these mobilized brigades would be as strong as regular brigades. I decided against mobilizing my own brigades and continued to fight on, hoping the U.S. would be reasonable in terms of a peace treaty soon. I then got a huge victory in Bozeman which pretty much sealed the western front for me.




A little bit later I get a peace offer from the United States saying they would be willing to give up Kansas. I had set containment as a war goal but I didn't think I would be able to get the war score high enough to get them to accept it even though the score was already in the 30s.. Plus I also wanted the war to end so I could focus more on my industry. I accepted the peace and took the hit for missing the war goal. This is what the map looked like before I got the peace treaty.



I still controlled all my own territories as well as Kansas, Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming although I knew I couldn't hold those for very long. This is what the map looked like after the war.




After that it was a pretty uneventful decade. I've already researched all the required techs to colonize but I still need to research more naval techs so that I can upgrade my naval bases. While my industry is booming I am starting to slowly lose ground on the U.S. and the CSA is picking up steam. Near the end of my war with the U.S. the CSA managed to nab the #8 spot and knock off Spain. This is both good and bad for me. Good in the sense that they will now be competing with the U.S. rather then be their little pawn, and bad in the sense that they may want to take back their lands. I've managed to build up good relations to this point but I haven't been able to get them to ally with me, even as my sphere they still wouldn't.

Due to the threat of another American/CSA attack I've gone and added Mexico back to my sphere. While I have managed to beat the U.S. on my own, I could' have really used Mexico's help and I needed to make sure they didn't get into America's sphere. Plus I seemed to have lost the war of unification CB against Mexico so I wouldn't have been able to get Nevada-Utah anyway. I've also added Uruguay to my sphere and am working on Chile. Colorado and Washington are now states, and Oregon is in the process of becoming one. Several of the regions I took from Mexico are now becoming cores of mine in no particular order. I've also managed to find oil in a few regions including the newly occupied Topeka, all though this doesn't seem to have much an effect yet.

Anyway this brings me to the halfway point of my game. Looking back I'm kind of kicking myself for not updating to 1.4 earlier since the rebel fixed may of allowed me to take Nevada-Utah back in that war but I guess I can always try again later. I've made a quite few mistakes but I think I'm doing pretty well for a first game. I also want to say thank you to all of you who've continued to read my AAR and help me out over the past few days. Here is a snapshot of the world's greatest powers in 1886.

Edit: Doh, I accidentally put in the screen shot from 1881, you get the picture though.

Avindian said:

You've done a great job consistently beating the USA (although having a still existent CSA doesn't hurt); any tips for dealing with the US so effectively?

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A lot of it comes down to luck. Like you said it helps if the CSA stays alive and if the U.S. starts getting in wars with other GPs that helps a lot to. Other than that the main thing to do with the U.S. is to attack as soon as you're ready. Once you get the Mexican regions and an ally in Mexico or the CSA you've got a chance against the USA. Then when you set your war goals, wait until you get an idea of how the war will turn out. If you think you might be able to push the U.S. back to Washington then go ahead and ask for a nice state but if you think you might only be able to occupy a little bit of territory then take a state like Kansas. This goes for any nation but whenever you fight a war and your goal is a small state you can usually win by just occupying the provinces in that state and fighting defensive battles which should give you an edge. Getting 25+ from battles is a great way to get your goal without having to mass invade.

Also the fact that the U.S. had been contained helped out quite a bit.

flame7926 said:

You really should watch out for CSA, you have their cores, and as soon as they have as many brigades as you they will attack. That is probably why they wouldn't ally with you. How many brigades do you have? Three great powers in North America, wow. Your doing really great, keep it up.

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I still have way more then them but I can't build any more brigades because there is an incredible scarcity for liquour. I really hopes this goes away soon though since I don't think I can last the second half of the game without building any new brigades.

harvesarmy said:

Isn't there a restore order CB on the CSA?

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The U.S. gets one on both the CSA and Texas since they have CBs on all of our regions. Texas doesn't get one on the CSA though since Texas doesn't have cores on the south.

Chapter 10: Corn, Corn, and more Corn


So early on in 1886 I received an acquire state casus belli against the USA. I had to wait a few months before declaring war though since my truce didn't expire until July. The USA managed to sneak back under the infamy limit but they are still going to be contained for a few months, sadly their containment expires at about the same time as the truce so they will be able to rebuild their armies during the war. This seems like the perfect time for me to try and take Illinois with the U.S. short on armies however the U.S. still has one major advantage over me in that they can mobilize about 100 brigades while I can only mobilize 20 something. Taking this into account, I come to the conclusion that I won't be able to hold Illinois once the U.S. mobilizes, especially if they rebuild their armies.

After scratching off Illinois I had to find a new target which pretty much left me with Idaho, Iowa, and Nebraska. I didn't really want Idaho since I wanted to keep my border with the U.K. as small as possible and even though Iowa had 4 regions I only bordered two of them and Nebraska seemed to make more sense geographical. Having Kansas really helped me speed up troop movement since now I didn't have to have my troops walk all the way around the state to get from Colorado to Missouri. It will also serve as a spring board for my invasion to Nebraska even though it doesn't border any Nebraskan regions I didn't already border. Then after I take Nebraska, I can use my new territories to help supply my armies if they decide to invade Wyoming or Iowa. I spend the first half of the year positioning my troops and then as soon as the truce expires I DoW the U.S..


Almost immediately they mobilize which throws my entire war plan out the window. Previously I had planned to occupy as many regions as possible while they didn't have many armies but now that they have 100 brigades from the start I have to try and concentrate on winning big battles and taking Nebraskan regions first. I need to get my war score up fast before the U.S. starts building more professional brigades. Turns out this wasn't going to be as much of a cake walk as I thought. I've always been nervous about mobilizing but I decided I was going to have to here.

I decide to adopt a strategy similar to the one I used in the last war when I took Kansas. I sent about 20-30 brigades to defend my border in Missouri as well as 20-25 brigades out in the Northwest which I hoped would be able to crush the American army out there and take a few regions as well. I also split off a couple of brigades to go through CSA territory and attack Washington. I had no intention of them taking the territory but I figured it would at least draw some of the American forces off the front to come deal with them. Then I could always just move them back into the CSA for safety and attack again later. This strategy proved effective as I was able to keep about 10 brigades off the front line with my 3 brigades out in Washington.

My troops roll into Nebraska but there is one problem here that I didn't face in Kansas, and that is that I don't border one of the regions, Omaha. If I want to keep my army up there alive I am going to have to send a larger army and eat some of the attrition. I do lose some good men but the U.S. loses a few to as they constantly try and attack only to get beaten badly. These regions take a bit of time to occupy but I manage to take Omaha fairly quickly and then Alliance soon after. There were some bloody battles up in Nebraska but I managed to win up there to keep the occupation going.



On the western front I greatly outnumber the Americans and was tempted to roll into Idaho and crush their armies, however I didn't want to repeat America's mistake from the past few wars. I've found that the defensive army holds a huge advantage when fighting in the mountains so I decide to have my armies just stand there and wait for the U.S. to either attack or head east to fight out there. They soon decide to run east and I send in some of my units to occupy Idaho. This draws a few of their armies back but I now hold the defensive edge. Fighting in Coeur D' Alene continues for some time but with the incredible defensive edge I get from that region I am able to hold off all attacks, despite being outnumbered.




Back in Missouri it was mostly a defensive war. I knew I wouldn't really need to occupy any regions outside of Nebraska so I figured I would just sit back and let the Yanks come to me and I could just hold the line. This strategy worked really well and the Yanks lost a lot of troops and never managed to occupy any of my territory. This was the first, but not the bloodiest battle in Missouri.



By the end of the year I have the war score up to about 25 and the U.S. won't stop sending me offers for a white peace. Still, they won't be reasonable and give me Nebraska so the war continues on a bit longer. I eventually get Alliance and start working on North Platte. The USA is getting smart though (or so I thought) and has broken through my lines by getting military access from the CSA. Fortunately for me though they were just trying to reinforce their armies in Kansas city but wanted to take the long and go through the CSA, then enter the U.S. through Arkansas (which was completely defenseless along with the rest of the country) and head north to fight in a battle that the U.S. wound up losing badly, probably because there armies got lost. Funny thing is I had a similar situation earlier in the war where an American army in Boise decided that rather then just cross the border to attack Kalamath Falls, that it would be easier to walk around Nevada-Utah and take a scenic tour through my country. Anyway, one of these lost armies did stick around in Joplin which bothered me a bit but I just let him stay, I had almost taken North Platte and I figured the U.S. would surely cave after that.

By early April I had taken North Platte and all of Nebraska was under my control. I had a warscore of about 31 but the U.S. still wouldn't hand over Nebraska even though it only cost 13 points now that I had the whole state under my control. I got really nervous since I knew the U.S. was starting to pick up steam and if the war went on much longer they might take some of my provinces and ultimately win. I was about to throw my computer out the window but I decided to play a bit further and then I get this.



As you can see I really didn't have to occupy many American regions to take the state from them. Other then the three Nebraska regions the only other region I occupied was Coeur D' Alene and I had just retreated from there a couple of days before I got the peace offer. I kind of like the new shape of Texas, Nebraska kind of looks like a mohawk for my country.



After the war I was about 100 total points behind the U.S. and I managed to keep the gap at about that level for the next 5 years. I continued to build my sphere in South America by picking up Chile, Uruguay, and Ecuador, I think I will probably gain one or two more and then I will maybe look elsewhere or at least just focus on defending my current sphere. By this time I've finally researched ironclads so I'm beginning to build up a navy. It won't be able to compete with the U.S. navy yet, but it should allow me to at least defend my home waters as well as maybe move some troops around if the need arises.

Techonolgy wise I think I'm about to pull ahead of the U.S., I just finished researching all available techs that boost research points and I am working to research the ones that boost educational efficiency. It might be a decade or so before I am able to reap the benefits but my hope is that by the very late game I will have that edge. I've sort of given up on colonialism by this point. There is only one more tech I need to get to colonize Africa but I still need to upgrade my naval base and by that time that's done I don't expect there to be much left in Africa. Still I plan to have plenty of oprotunities to expand in North America so I don't really need Africa.

The CSA's industries fell hard and they eventually lost GP status for a while. I then managed to resphere them since I couldn't risk them going to the U.S. as an ally but now they are back and they may take the #8 spot again. The problem is they are in a dead heat with Mexico in terms of scoring and neither of them can maintain the lead over the other long enough to gain GP status. Just look at how close the race for the #8 spot is.



I'm pulling for Mexico since that may allow me to take Nevada-Utah and I am less worried about fighting them then I am the CSA who will probably attack me if they get unsphered. Either way I'm surrounded by 1 global power and 2 potential global powers, all of which have cores on multiple states of mine. This is gonna get interesting.