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montgomeryjlion

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OK, starting over with 1.02 since in order to get it working had to delete the old version:(

Presidential Announcement:

The President is honored to announce the appointment of Monsieur Montgomery J. Lion as chief assistant to the Government and Chief Lion in the Republic of France.
Monsieur Lion will be responsible for all Military, Economic and Colonial Decisions.
(Lion mumbles in Presidents ear)
Oh, and chiefly responsible for the consumption of all Antelopes, Wildebeest and Zebras in the Republic and all it's colonies.
2776951210065816296.jpg

When asked the purpose of the Glass pyramid behind him, the Lion replied that it was to keep an eye on the Zebra herd he had installed in the basement.

Anyway, on to France....

Military:
We don't want to start anything anytime soon. Just to keep everybody supplied and happy is sufficient. Since we start with 3 unsupplied units, we have to move them, these being the garrisons of Mostagnem and Constantine in Algeria, and the Escadre d'Asia off the coast of Saigon. These get moved to the nearest supplied city. (Respectively Algeria, Annaba, and Saigon)
Diplomatic:
Our goal is to be friends with everybody except the bastard Prussians.
So, we'll make nice especially with our eastern neighbors Sardinia-Piedmont (And try to get those French Provinces they own out of them), our Southern neighbors Spain, and the perfidious English across the Channel, who we can never fully trust. We hope to reclaim the so-called Walloons from the bastardization called Belgium (The Dutch can have their Flemish relatives as long as they realize that Brussels is really French). Luxembourg obviously is part of the package. We'd like to maintain good relations with the Southern German states and set up some kind of buffer state in the Saar/Rheinland. But that's all in the future.

Colonial:
Besides the obvious fact that ALL of Africa belongs in the benevolent grasp of the French, we'll see about adding a few pieces here and there elsewhere, but Africa is the goal.

Economic:
Obviously, the ideal is to become economically self-sufficient. In fact, we'd like to become the economic engine of the world.
At the start, however, we have some issues.
First: We've got a number of factories that are losing money hand over fist.
We'll shut these down. Later, when they become self sufficient or when we have lots of money, we'll reopen them:
Ecole Navale in Bretagne
Mechanical Shop in Franche Comte
St. Cyr in Ile De France
Both Steel mills in Lorraine
The Ammo shop in Midi
The Shipbuilders in both Provence and Vendee

Next, we need to try to at least break even on all our resources, and try to build up a stockpile of those we're going to need lots of. These are Steel, Coal, Minerals, Iron, Cotton/Wool, Wood, Chemicals, and Manufactured Goods.

Note that the new version increases the usage of Chemicals, Man. Goods and Iron, so we have to adjust accordingly.

We buy like crazy those resources that are very rare (Cotton/Wool, and Man. Goods) and just try to make a profit on the rest of that list and just try to break even on the rest.


So, at the end of turn 1, our economy looks like this:


83484187.jpg


We move on to the end of January in what future historians will surely call:
The Glorious Age of Lions (And France)
 
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Economic:
Obviously, the ideal is to become economically self-sufficient. In fact, we'd like to become the economic engine of the world.
At the start, however, we have some issues.
First: We've got a number of factories that are losing money hand over fist.
We'll shut these down. Later, when they become self sufficient or when we have lots of money, we'll reopen them:
Ecole Navale in Bretagne
Mechanical Shop in Franche Comte
St. Cyr in Ile De France
Both Steel mills in Lorraine
The Ammo shop in Midi
The Shipbuilders in both Provence and Vendee

Sorry to interrupt, just curious: on what basis do you establish and decide that those factories incur a loss and, thus, should be deactivated? Could you explain it in a bit more details? Thx in advance.
 
Sure, no problem,
I made up a spreadsheet showing exactly what they need, how much it will cost, and what they are making, and what we gain.
So, a few examples:
Ecole Navale:
Input 13 Money, 3 Manufactured Goods, cost 37 (At the start), output, 2 officers, 2 Prestige. No economic gain. Need the Man. Good desperately, shut it down.
Same with St. Cyr.

The others:
Mechanical shop in FC: Input 6 Capital, 3 Steel, 3 Coal, 3 Minerals, 1 Wood, total cost 62, Output 4 Mechanical Parts, Value 48. Losing 14 total turn. And minerals are in very short supply. Once we get a railway there, the output should double, making it viable.
Ammo shop in Midi: Input 6 Capital, 1 Coal, 1 Nitrate, 3 Chemicals, 1 Iron total cost 48. Output 4 Ammo, 1 Supply, value 45, losing 3 a turn. And if we leave it open we'll run out of chemicals. Can't afford anytime soon to build a chemical plant, and ammo is available on the market. Again, with railway, and time, will become viable.
Final example: Shipbuilders:
Total cost: 69, output in Provence (which has a railroad) total value 53, in Vendee (No Railroad) total value 35. Shut them both down until we can afford it.
Steel mills in lorraine will make money once railroad is completed but may leave them shut down due to minerals lack.
Sorry, I tried to attach the spreadsheet here but keeps saying invalid file.
You can try here:
http://www.4shared.com/folder/XyrThsVG/_online.html
MJL
 
OK,
The bastard Americans refused to sell us even one bale of cotton. We were thinking of launching a surprise attack and bombing them back to the stone age but realized this would be an improvement so shelved the idea, for now....

If we don't get more C/W (Can we make up our minds. Is it Cotton? or Wool? They are NOT the same thing) soon, we'll have a lot of textile workers with a lot of time on their hands (Anybody for Bocce Ball?)

So, a few minor adjustments while we're waiting for capital to accumulate and turn 2 economy looks like this:

91329686.jpg



BTW, we've figured out that if we let capital get below 500, the Capitalists raise inflation, so we have to keep it above that limit at all costs since even an idiot like me realizes that Inflation is a BAD thing....

A few things we've noted from the beta:
1. Changes to prices of commodities now appear in the log.
2. We got new leaders!! (Hooray)

Also, got a note that many of our population is upset that taxes are so high
(3%, we haven't, and won't change them)
3%? Any country in the world would LOVE to have 3% taxes. Damn Frenchmen....
Anyway, selling of goods on the Home market will make up for that so we can safely ignore it.

Begin building a Minerals Quarry in Bourgogne (Because it has a railroad. Output of a minerals quarry in province with railroad: 6. Without: 3. Same cost to build. Railroads are handy things.)

Moving right along.

Turn 3 in a few hours.
Have to do some work.:(
 
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Well, the bastard Americans were listening and finally sold us some of that CW stuff.
Unfortunately, too late as one of our Textile Factories shut down.

The important thing to think about here is WHICH factory shuts down.

The AI seems to pick just a random factory using the commodity that has run out.
Not necessarily the factory we want to shut down.
So, the AI shut down the textile factory in Nord, which is making a nice amount of cash.
We re-opened it and shut down the one in Normandie instead, which was barely breaking even (Again, the railroaded province as opposed to the one without)

So, we've accumulated enough cash to start up a logging industry in Aquitaine.

The US proposed a commercial agreement to us which we happily sign (After donning gloves and having the scientists inspect the paper carefully for signs of contamination. The thought of Americanism creeping into France is frightening indeed. Send us your cotton, we'll send you our poor, needy, insane; oh and you can have the Germans too).

Fortunately, all is quiet on the diplomatic front, with no arguments about the North Pole as of yet.

Next turn we'll start a minor amount of playing with the Colonies, since there are a few colonial decisions that use only State funds, which we are beginning to build up a small fund of.

Not choosing any of the various referendums or such as we prefer to keep the money and make the people happy by the most basic human need of all, good old greed.

Economy:
26922309.jpg


"It would indeed be a tragedy if the history of the human race proved to be nothing more than the story of an ape playing with a box of matches on a petrol dump."
-David Ormsby Gore
 
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And moving on to Early March.
Once the economy is humming, hopefully by the middle of the year or so, the pace will pick up and we won't have to tweak every turn. Actually, close to that point now and should be possible to basically ignore the economy next turn which we'll try.

So, signed the Commercial Agreement with the scum across the pond, er, Americans, (Or, as they're popularly called anywhere south of the Rio Grande, the NorteAmericanos)

Beta is now giving you messages that state usage of your merchant fleets so, for us:
Western Europe (284 out of 720)
Mediterranean (578 out of 720)
Oceania (237 out of 240)

The patriotic French people went crazy last turn, buying up over 1000 Pounds worth of goods, meaning a nice boost for our Capital reserves, which means more things to build:D

Also, our Mineral Quarry opened, which is a nice boost for that. One more and we should be out of the woods on minerals, we hope.

One very important point to keep in mind when buying on the market is to use the B screen very carefully to select where you're buying from. Don't just select it carelessly. Many markets are over-subscribed and many are under-subscribed. In other words, there are 18 Iron available in the Low countries this turn and 31 requested (including us, wanting 15) meaning there's a good chance we won't get all and may very well get none of what we asked for. On the other hand, La Plata is selling 2, and nobody wants them, so if we take 2 off of the Low Countries buy and move it to La Plata, we KNOW we are getting 2 iron. Worth studying....

We're going to keep buying more and more food (Grain, Fish, Cattle, sugar (Well my son thinks sugar is a food group anyway), and coffee (my wife KNOWS that coffee is a necessity) as the population will use all, up to a quite high point, that you give them, therefore, your capitalists are happy, your population is happy, and you're happy. Smiles all around.

So, economy for now:

76803871.jpg


Now, a few colonial options:
The Chief missions only require state money, not private capitol or Manufactured Goods. They're always worth playing, and we have about 100 spare money to play with (So we keep over 1000, which is a bit of an artificial threshold but better to have too much...).
So, main areas that we can expand in that are under contention are in West Africa from Senegal from Cote d'Ivoire (Bassam).

So we'll play a bribe on Bassam (Only one allowed), a bribe on Casamance near Senegal (Likewise, and critical to cut the British off) and treaties on both Kaolack and Podor. This will help us expand in the future.

Finally, we start a Mineral Quarry in Alsace and end turn...

"Power undirected by high purpose spells calamity; and high purpose by itself is utterly useless if the power to put it into effect is lacking."
-Theodore Roosevelt
 
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So,
as stated, we essentially skipped a turn to let things rebuild a bit.
The money is rolling in (Well trickling in, but coming nonetheless).
About enough to build a site a day.
But we're going to skip one so we can build a railroad in Auvergne, because there are already sites running at essentially half capacity there:
2 Mineral, 1 wool, all of which I need desperately and a railroad will essentially double their output, meaning I'll save quite a bit of cash in the long run.
So, because railways in mountains cost 25% more (Very key to keep in mind, especially if you want to avoid inflation) we wait until early April to build it.

And....
First thing, a crisis with Prussia over the North Pole...Sigh...
Why isn't there an option saying "They can have the Polar Bears"
So, because we don't want war at this point, and because we're lazy, we pick one of the pre-set agendas, namely the delay agenda, which maximizes the odds against war even if we lose a bit of Prestige. We'd rather stake that prestige on important places, like Africa.

Also the already in progress railway in Meuse finishes, giving a nice boost to our Iron production, which is handy.
And we start the railway in Auvergne.

And we finish quite low on funds, steel and manufactured goods (633, 37 and 35 respectively) so finish turn and pray the Prussians get the North Pole like they deserve....


Okay, Late April and things worked out as we hoped, Prussia got a narrow prestige victory (529 to 285) and kept the North Pole....
Hopefully, that's the end of that...

So, we finished our other new mineral quarry in Alsace and we have a look at our Economy.

So, what we're going to do this turn is start on what we call the Restaurant of Dreams strategy:

If you buy it, they will eat it.

So, we'll buy more and more consumer goods which our consumers will in turn buy, pushing up the Home economy, making us money, and making the people happy. As long as we're making progress, we'll keep at it.

We are going to utilize the first available useful (in our eyes) Industrial option, which in this case is a Steel subsidy. We've got the money. Never seen it fail, and we could use the steel.

60417588.jpg


We have noticed that new naval units are appearing in our ports which is nice:)

We're going to try a few more chief treaties, this time in Indochina:
A cede in Vinhlong
A treaty in Saigon
And some bribing in Dongquai.

Just getting our CP up so that we can slowly but surely expand.

Unfortunately, until we get a surfeit of Mechanical Goods we can't start the Africa plan.

End Late April....

"An infallible method of conciliating a Tiger is to allow oneself to be devoured."
-Konrad Adenauer
 
Happy to see you restarted this AAR,

Unfortunately I can't see your pictures, are you using the right attachement method ?

Regards
 
OK, We're back...

Apologies that the pictures disappeared for about 12 hours.
My son shares my imageshack account and didn't recognize them so deleted them:wacko:

He has been corrected....;)

So, jumping right ahead to Early June.
Money is still coming in well....

Colonially,
Have gone through all the border regions in Algeria (Zagora, Bechar, Atlas, Laghoual, Biskra) and bribed the chiefs so we can get our CP up. Eventually, we'll get an explorer down there to start crossing the Sahara. Apparently, according to the F6 screen there are about 4 other provinces populated by the Tuareg that we have CP in that don't show up on the map. Don't want those people to think they've been abandoned....

Also, Bribed chiefs in Tunisia and Bizerte. Don't want the Italians to get any ideas that they have any claim on OUR land of Tunisia.

Started a railway in Auvergne so we can take full advantage of the already built mines there. Because Auvergne is mountainous, costs are 25% higher to build railways so that was a big hit economically...

We've seen a lot of comments on the forums about not understanding the interrelationship between the B screen and the F4 screens. We didn't either until we made up our spreadsheet....
So, here's Early June economy:

33394508.jpg


Even though we've got a huge trade imbalance, we're still making lots of money.

Main areas of concern now are Manufactured Goods, minerals and Wood. Still....

We did a steel import move which gave us lots of comfort with that.
Unfortunately, as has been pointed out on the forums, the Coal and Steel economy got somehow screwed up in the Beta, meaning that there is an absolute crapload of both of those on the market and the price has gone down :(

So, might have to shut down the steel mills soon so as to not use up all our minerals and wood.
Chemicals are also a serious concern.


Going to build a Man. Goods plant next but need to build up a big surplus as it's very expensive.

Hoping to get a Goods import subsidy decision but so far just more steel which we don't need....

"Economics is a subject that does not greatly respect one's wishes"
- Nikita Kruschev
 
OK, Biting the bullet in Late June and starting a Man. Goods plant in Bourgogne.
Took more than half of our Capital and Man. Goods but we'll die without it.
Just means that we have to be very conservative for a month...

Now the main race is to keep enough chemicals, minerals and wood on hand...

Like real life, it's hard to predict turn to turn. Gained this turn so...

Send some immigrants to Senegal. Only get them so often and then they take a while to regenerate so need to use them when they do appear.

Bribe the chief of Suarez in Northern Madagascar and Gabon in West Africa.

End turn...

Early July:
Prussia and Wurttemberg get into a tussle about the North Pole...
(Really, really, really got to fix that... Tried a quick test game with France immediately after Beta release and got into a war with S-P on 2nd turn about North Pole....Not cool)

As we feared, some of our site start shutting down due to a lack of minerals.

We take a chance and give a subsidy to the technological effort to discover Muzzle Loaded Rifles since those give a huge boost to combat power. If we get below 1000 money, we'll cut it off.

Minerals and Man. Goods are the chokepoints right now.
But we've got a Man. Goods plant building and a railroad in Auvergne that when finished will give us 6 more minerals per turn.
Do a little adjustment of buying and selling Coal, Iron and steel due to the fact that 3 Steel mills shut down due to lack of minerals (Actually, AI shut down 2 steel mills and one Mech. Parts factory but we need the Mech Parts so reopened that and shut down another steel mill instead.)

Want to see how we do with Money after subsidizing the research, so no colonial activity this turn.

End turn....

Late July,
So, Wurttemberg humiliated Prussia and kept the North Pole.
We're always in favor of anything that humiliates the Prussians (Besides their silly marches, silly hats, silly whiskers, etc. etc. )

Always wondered why we get a message in the log that
"Our agents report that France is negotiating a treaty with Saigon"
Damn, good agents, thanks, guys...
About as competent as MI-6 they are...

Still making a profit with money even with our subsidy, and Capital funds are building up nicely.
Now if we could only get the Man. Goods situation under control...

Also, the Americans (Can't really call them Yanks since most of our interest in them has to do with their cotton) are selling us lots of cotton so we should be able to reopen the textile mill soon.

Basically, making a profit on everything except minerals and chemicals (Of course we're importing like crazy right now, but since we're still making money, no harm done).

So, once we get Man. Goods built up (Next turn should be soon enough), we'll start a chemical plant...

And, we got new diplomats finally so, lets make a few diplomatic moves:

We'll propose a State Visit to the UK (Grouse shooting is very good this time of year in Scotland)
A state visit to the US (We'll ship the wife over so the mistress will be happy for a while)
A state visit to S-P (Hmm, maybe the Foreign Minister can go, he's been a pain in the Arse recently in cabinet meetings)
A commercial agreement and a State visit with Belgium (We'll send a few surveyors with the official party to do some surveys for our soon to be Belgian lands)
While we're at it, we'll request Passage right from Belgium. Never know when it will come in handy.
Finally, a state visit to the Netherlands (The mistress loves Tulips)

We're also going to start building an Exploration party that we can send to Senegal.

And we'll go back to the chiefs in Senegal and do a bit more work on them, trying to get Kaolack and Podor to cede some territory and bribing the chief of Casamance.

Next turn...

And time to take a break...

"Pacifism is simply undisguised cowardice"
- Adolf Hitler
 
Early August

First off, a few oops found...
Already have an explorer in St. Louis, so we'll send the second one once completed to Algeria. First one given mission to explore north east of Senegal.

Also, seems we forgot to tell my consumers not to consume so many damn Manufactured Goods and Chemicals (That's what happens when you play a few test games. Forget things on your list of THIS MUST HAPPEN FIRST) so rectify that by going into F4 screen and telling the French people to stop buying so many sets of Garden furniture (What do Manufactured Goods really represent? Ideas are welcome) and weed killer (Only thing I can think of that consumers would need chemicals for).

That should rectify those situations.

Also, go ahead and get those new Generals and Admirals we received out of Paris. 3 new Admirals receive but only 5 fleets which already have Admirals. Should have enough. Generals might still be tight if they start dying off though.

So, after pushing up more purchase of food goods (At this rate, might have to do some research on Obesity control), end turn...


Late August,
So, apparently word has gotten around about the wifes hygenic habits, as all our treaties and state visits were refused.

Also, Prussia and Wurttemburg are still arguing about the North Pole. (Send them both, we say)

Our exploration was unsuccesful. Try, try again. According to Pocus, should be a 1/3 chance of success.

S-P has begun agitating about Italian reunification. We might have a little chat with Two Sicilies about that. Far better for France to have a disunited Italy.

Requested permission (Imagine such a thing, requesting permission. Whatever happened to Napoleon? We don't request, we order, and it is done. Ah, the good old days) to start work on the sewer network.

We're also going to start the long work of getting the French Army and Navy up to full strength by purchasing replacments. Infantry only for now as we need the Man Goods. Order 13 infantry replacements, which rate we can't keep up but it's a good start.

Start a railroad in Midi, so we can get that Ammo shop up to full use.

Going to need more Vinyards and Fruit Orchards eventually as nobody else does it like us....

Now have cotton coming out of our ears so restart plant in Normandie and cut back on our purchases.

Continue to work on Indochina, with a treaty with Vinhlong, and bribing Phnom Penh and Dongquai (Hopefully, our agents will figure out what's going on and let us know)

End turn...

Early September,
Once again, Wurttemburg humiliated Prussia over the North Pole.

Our Railroad finished in Auvergne, so that should, we hope, take care of the minerals issue. Re-start Steel Mills to confirm.
Although in a way this makes no sense since no one wants to buy Steel and Minerals and Iron are in short supply, making it a net loss for us.
Reconsider, shut them down again.

Need to see about opening a Mechanical Parts factory since we're ony breaking even and will need more for our current and planned Manufactured Goods factories. There are no Mechnical Parts available on the market.

Next turn...

Exploration failed again...
Form small squadron to take new exploration party to Algeria.

Start Railroad in Bretagne since that has lots of Population and so we can build factories there.

Stop all purchases of minerals as we are now running a surplus with home production.

Begin wood logging plant in Dauphine.

Bribe the chief of Bassam some more, same with Gabon

Start sewer work in Paris and Lyon (So the wifes', er, hygenic habit should be helped)

End turn...

Early October,
Now the Austrians and Saxons are arguing about the North Pole.
France formally presents a plan whereas ALL Germans can share, and live at the North Pole.

Plot to move the Exploration party to Algeria was cancelled, no idea why.
Try again.

Start tradeposts in Casamance and Kaolack.

French Merchants start penetrating East Coast of Africa with missions to Lindi, Tanga, Lamu.
Also to North Africa in Tripoli and Benghazi...

End turn...

Late October, here's the situation in West Africa with a new Trading post in Casamance:

senegalf.png


Saxony has held off the scummy Austrians as the Inter-Germanic battle for the North Pole continues.
The French Government arranges another shipload of walrus meat to the Polar Bears who are keeping this going...

France finally gets, and enacts a Goods imports Subsidy.

5 More infantry replacements are purchased.

A railroad is started in Franche Comte to get that up to speed and get our Mech. Parts factory there going at full speed.

Exploration party has reached Algeria by sea and heads south to Aiaun to see about finding the provinces missing on the West Coast.

Exploration party in Senegal still looking which we hope is a good sign...

Here is how the rail net of France looks now as it slowly but surely expands:

railway1850.png


So, end turn...

"The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them."
- Karl Marx
 
Early November, approaching the end of the first year, only 59 to go!

Our merchants in Benghazi gave up and went home.

Our trade deficit is now just over 300 Pounds a turn. Hope eventually to get it down to 0 but not a huge problem.

We institute a Goods Imports Ban (Shouldn't that be Goods Import Ban?)

Order another 2 replacements.

We now have a surplus of minerals and can start exporting.

Since the Steel mills in Lorraine have all shut down, begin building a mechanical parts factory there to give the workers a break from their Bocce tournament.

Negotiate a treaty with the chief of Tunisia.
Bribe the chief of Bizerte
Try to get the chief of Biskra to cede some land.

End turn...

Late November
Start a fruits extraction site in Anjou and a wool farm in Auvergne

France sends merchants to west Africa, including Sassandra, Kumasi, Cotonou, Lagos, Warri, and Biafra.
Order up a Tradepost and Missionary for both Gabon and Bassam.

End turn...

Early December,
Oops, got too greedy with the builds. Got an inflation event.
Oh, well...

Nevertheless, missions and trading posts now active in Bassam and Gabon.
Merchant disappeared from Lindi.

We have been assigned Luxembourg as an objective.
Yep, got that one boyos.


Take the turn off from building anything.
To be paranoid now set ourselves a goal of 1000 spare capital.

France, Early December, 1850:

francedec1850.png



Late December, 1850:
Merchants in Warri disappeared (We need hardier merchants, it seems)

Send a missionary and trading post to Kaolack
And a trading post to Kayes

Send Merchants to Kayes and Bofta in West Africa

Immigrants are shipped off to Figuig in Southwest Algeria to solidify more the French control of the area.

Bribe the chief of Tangiers in Morocco and attempt a Missionary and Trading Post there so we can get a better fingerhold in Morocco.

Finish the turn and the year:)
Only 69 left to go, whee!

"History is a set of lies agreed upon"
- Napoleon Bonaparte
 
Early January, 1851

Nice busy day on the Colonial Front:

Success in building Trading Post in Kayes and Tangiers
Missionaries in Tangier
Traded with Boffa for one turn then Merchants wussed out again
Merchants trading in Kyes
Could not build in Kaolack because it is pillaged, going to have to see about sending in troops

Discovered Maghana province in West Africa, so can move exploration team west to Kayes

senegal11850.png


Build Military outpost in southeast Algeria at Biskra

Treaty with the chief of Bassam and Gabon.

Merchants off to Madagascar in Tollara and Tolanato

Missionary and Tradepost in Suarez in Northern Madagascar

Same for Dongquai in Indochina

Diplomacy:
More Diplomats arrive so lets try this;

More state visit attempts to S-P, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium. In all cases, as an extra bonus, promise to send a container load of Bocce Balls.

A state visit to the USA, promising NOT to send any Bocce Balls.

Propose a state visit to Russia, offering to send them a container load of Asterix comics if they agree.

End turn...

Late January

Trading post in Dongquai and Suarez successful
Confusing message that decision Send Missionary in Dongquai failed, and then another message saying Mission built, and it exists...
Mission built in Suarez

Start Railway in Normandie as we're importing too many textiles from Britain.

Start exploration missions in west Africa, both expeditions now in place.

Send fleet with general to Senegal so he can take African regiment to Kaolack.

End turn....
 
And so we continue (Hopefully) with the new Beta Patch 1.02f

List of Fixes and Novelties in 1.02f:
FIXES AND NOVELTIES 1.01f
new: legitimate owner of a region gets back MC from allies.
fixed: No more North pole crisis.
fixed: All capital icons are now working and send to Diplomacy Window
changed: Decisions Missions, Merchant, Tradepost. Missions will mostly create the Mission building. Merchants give 5£ a turn and enable the use of the Tradepost mission. Tradepost once completed creates the Tradepost building.
fixed: can now scrolls the structures in the 'built structures' panel.
fixed: hits lost by units now show correctly in the Military screen
changed (improved): ctrl-click replaced by right-click in Balance and Industrial screens.
new: tooltip on the population behaviors in Population screen
new: decisions cost and 'tech boosting' cost traced immediately in your balance, top of the screen.
new: (still underwork) - Mini tech browser Window, click on the tech category in the Tech screen to open it (in the making!)

Data oriented changes
¤ IA choices modified in multi-choices events.
¤ Japan events and Perry visit events fixed (txt added + balancing)
¤ all models and units file names changed to allow better performance with non-Western O/S
¤ Native American and GBR leaders pictures added

Check it out:
42452441.png


Not sure how the Trading Post/merchant thing will affect us...
Only way to tell is to try so....

Early February:
USA accepted our State Visit with the very strict provisos that we would NOT bring either any Bocce Balls OR the wife... We would almost like them if they weren't so Uncivilized

“America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.”
- Georges Clemenceau

Though at this point they're still very much in the barbarism state...

No other countries would accept our State visits, seems they don't trust Monsieur Le President to not "forget" his wife at the end of his visit.

Our explorers were once again unsuccessful, so we'll tell them to keep trying.

Prussia and Sardinia-Piedmont are both making noises about reunification.
France continues to make equal if not louder noise in favor of disunity.

We got 2 replacement merchant ships that we didn't order.
Never look a gift horse in the mouth... (Why would you, have you ever smelled a horses breath?:rolleyes:)

General le Comte de Palikao arrives in Senegal and, with the 1st Brigade de Tirailleurs, marches for Kaolack to kick some native ass...

Economy tweaked, move on...

Late February, 1851

So, first evidence of new patch:
A bunch of messages show, one for each trading post, saying, for example:
Sir, our Marche d'Oran in Orania shipped some Fruits to Ile De France

Doesn't appear anywhere on the F4 or B screen but our inventory of these items (Fruits, Tropical Fruits has gone up)

And actually, it's just West Africa and Algeria. Nothing from Madagascar or Indochina.
So, we'll see...

Obviously the forge Casus belli was not fixed. I had adjusted that not to run before installing the patch and didn't re-adjust and sure enough first turn, two forged Csus Bellis, Russia from Prussia, and Spain from Portugal. After this turn, will go back in and re-adjust it so it won't happen again. Very annoying...

Exploration parties unsuccessful again. Need to find them a better guide. Michelin perhaps?

Railroad finishes in Bretagne

Start building a chemical lab in Bretagne.

Bribe the chief of Lagos and Sassandra
Go for a treaty with chief of Suarez

Building a missionary does appear to be easier, so we send them off to the Moroccan coast:
Rabat, Safi, Agadir, Ifni, and Aaiun

Start a road network in Annaba to give us a faster path towards Tunisia.

Bribe the chief of Bizerte, and "ask" the chief of Tunisia to cede territory

End turn...

Early March:
More Fruits and Tropical Fruit from North and West Africa, still nothing from Indochina.
Possibly because we don't have a chain of merchant ships there?

The exploration party checking out the Moroccan coast still unsuccessful, other one, it appears successful.

Army gets to Kaolack so we launch Military Expedition Prosecute (Obviously initially translated from the French;))

Attempt to set up a military outpost in Kayes.

Send merchants back to Benghazi

End turn...

"The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
 
Damn,
Why does this forum kick us out every 15 minutes?
Frustrating as hell sometimes....

Anyway,
Lost our last message and can't remember everything we've done.
Anyway, here's the colonial Status comparing start with now:

http://www.4shared.com/file/5YnNAOb9/FRANCE.html

So much to do, so little time....

And here's the economic picture:

franceapril1851.png


And so to bed....
 
Such a wealth of information. Thanks for that, it feels like I'm learning a lot about the game from reading your AAR.

So you just finished your first year... Wow. You've done so much already, it feels like several years should've passed already! Pride of Nations must be one massive game, even larger (longer) than any of its Paradox brethren.
 
This really makes me want to want to buy PoN. Now if I didn't have this master thesis to finish...

Anyway, I really like your style. Keep up the good work. I am just missing one thing: a picture of Monsieur le President. I'd like to have a look at that filou!