Sing a Septinsular Song (Ionian Islands)

[Qorten]

Impressive and ingenious effort, Selzro. You've written quite a library already for Victoria 2.

[Avindian]

A TPM great power; not too shabby, although I fear the Ottomans may deprive you of that status soon.

[Selzro]

Many thanks, Qorten and Avindian. The Ottoman threat is great but, as you will soon see, this is the one game where I've found it pays to preferentially research naval techs over land techs...

[Selzro]

Canto The Fifth


When we last met our Islands they faced horrid odds,
All alone ‘gainst an empire, a feat for the gods,
But the navy, though small, made a daring attack
And surprised the dread Turks before they could react.

In Taras’s wide gulf the first battle was fought,
Bringing thusly the Sultan’s invasion to naught,
While smaller ships sailed to the Straits of Otrando
To set a blockade on the Illyrian coast pronto.




The Ionian ships were outnumbered by far
But their iron-cast hulls cannon balls couldn’t mar,
And while they overcame their wooden-walled foes
The new army to Cyprus made haste unopposed.




The old brigade from Corfu and Zante’s new troops
Surrounded the island like so many loops,
And in a few months, both had succeeded
To raise a free flag as Nicosia befitted.

Meanwhile, the Ionian Fleet saw it fit
Its forces in different locations to split.
The flagship, Kapodistrias, patrolled the Aegean,
While Kolokotronis took on a new mien

And steamed to keep watch on Albanian coasts.
The Turks, quite unable to use their large hosts,
With fleets of small ships sought to overwhelm
The Ionian seamen and so take the helm.




The flagship prevailed with barely a scratch;
The ironclad suffered but won its own match.
Those two ships, with some smaller transports then made,
Turned Ottoman admirals very afraid.

The Ionian government demanded Cyprus;
The Porte was finding those terms rather fibrous.
When Ionians took the Aegean they smoldered;
When Ionians landed in Libya they folded.






In the 20th of June of 1885
The Sultan allowed himself to be deprived
Of Cyprus, thus ending the war of two years
That started with such great Ionian fears.




There was much jubilation in all the Greek lands;
Aristidis Kallergis became quite the lad,
When the fleet for a victory float he assembled,
Though the two clipper transports were soon disassembled.




But victory wasn’t just cheers and parades.
There were outstanding loans that had to be repaid,
While the laissez-faire policy of the Seven Isles
Had doomed local industry to war-time demise.




Cyprus, though with industry, was not free of problems;
Very low literacy, that served as an omen
Of the long road ahead to bring the island to speed.
But the happy, then, people could pay little heed.

[King50000]

Do you have the numbers for how many of the OE ships you sank?

[Quacky]

That is a most masterful victory in battle.

[Selzro]

Do you have the numbers for how many of the OE ships you sank?

Unfortunately, no. I can see 6 Ottoman ships sunk in a couple of victory screenshots (5 frigates and one man-o-war), but there should have been a few more frigates sunk in other engagements, though they tended to retreat when they got beaten up. So maybe about 10 ships in total, maybe more.

Good to see you again here, Quacky!

Edit: Incidentally, the lesson gained from this war was that monitors fare better than ironclads against swarms of frigates. In previous games I tended to construct almost exclusively the latter, since they combine greater attack with decent speed, and can keep up with steam transports or more modern cruisers and still deliver a decent punch - also, they benefit more from tech advances. But at this early point in the game, monitors, with their superior armor, can take a longer beating from smaller ships, while damaging them at relative leisure.

I often had to pull back Kolokotronis to port to repair its damage, but Kapodistrias remained in the Aegean, facing the Turkish frigates on multiple occasions, with very little damage to show for it.

[Mr. Santiago]

What a witty concept you have here for your AAR! Keep it up!

[Fire and Ash]

Wow. Nicely done.

How you got your research points up so high? You little island monster!

[coola567]

The Ionian Islands are made up of one state, so raising clergymen and clerks to the required level should be no problem. Also, he researched many RP-techs early on, and that Egyptian grave gave well over 1000 RP aswell.

[Quacky]

Its the advantage of being a 1 state country, the problem of course is as soon as you take anything it ruins it

[Fire and Ash]

Just tried two games as the Ionian due to this AAR. The first I got independent, but got hit by cholera. Lost a third of my pop. D:
The second one I did well pop wise but didn't get independent. Three rebellions, each time 1 rebel unit appeared on the capital and each time it just disappeared for no reason. D:

Great AAR!

[Selzro]

Thanks Mr. Santiago! As for research, as coola567 and Quacky said it's easy to optimize your middle class with a single-state country. Also, the Ionian Islands (like Greece) start out with 22% literacy, which is higher than the rest of south-eastern Europe, and I prioritized philosophy and literacy-boosting techs. The downside, as Quacky succinctly put it, is that any conquest in the region reduces your overall literacy considerably. I had 60.5% by the end of the Ottoman War, and once I got Cyprus it dropped to 38.3%... At least I should be able to get Crete as a colony, and wait for its literacy to improve a bit before making it a state.

I got lucky (or was it unlucky?) with my rebel situation. Being occupied by France and the OE boosted my war exhaustion to over 90%, and that caused my militancy to constantly rise for the next 10 years... The problem was keeping more rebels from rising up after the first ones succeeded, so I kept passing reforms to keep militancy in check until my war exhaustion decreased. When you only have one under-supplied infantry brigade, there's little chance of putting down an unwanted rebellion. I'm glad my AAR was an inspiration, Fire and Ash!

[Selzro]

Canto The Sixth


November, the anarchists chose to revolt
But the new, improved army managed to hold.
Democracy yet one more victory won,
Though there were yet survivors to violence prone.




Overall, things seemed well in 1886;
Ionian influence had encompassed Greece,
And colonists working in distant Mombasa
Had broadened the borders towards the savanna,




While Ionian agents in Cairo’s precincts
Had lessened American influence in Egypt;
So Sweden was the only help it could get
If by some chance unfortunate, invaders it met.




On May 28th, 1887
Diplomatic ties with Egypt were severed,
And warships led by the hero Kallergis
Moved in to place Cretans under their aegis,




While far in the west, in Messinia’s Straits,
The lone ‘Kapodistrias’ lay there in wait
To guard against naval incursions by Sweden;
Sure enough, transports appeared as if bidden.




While Stanotas fought off the northerners’ fleet,
Kallergis won a more immediate feat,
Sinking the Egyptian Cretan-bound clippers -
The dolphins did feast on men’s flesh with their flippers.




A war of blockades would then promptly begin,
That Ionians started, much to Egypt’s chagrin,
But the latter constructed new frigates with haste
And soon had a navy with aggressive tastes.

While Ionian ships were spread thin in the west,
Kallergis’ small squadron was put to the test
By swarms of Egyptian ships off Limassol;
But Ionian sailors fought once more with soul.




A new monitor steamed with haste to that battle,
The ‘Rigas Feraios’, its name taking the mantle
Of the Enlightenment’s greatest liberal Greek;
A hero to islands so democratic.

The war of maneuvers, fights and blockades,
Lasted all summer, but before leaves changed shades,
Sweden accepted the Ionian dictates:
Crete would be part of their United States.




Crete was received as a colony first,
But even that way, its Greek citizens burst
With enthusiasm; not as excited the rest,
But they’d soon see the benefits of joining the West.




In November, the army and fleet were both gathered
In Crete, to show off the Islands’ new power.
It didn’t impress as much as was hoped;
Within a few months the state’s status had dropped.

[loki100]

this is a wonderful AAR, nicely written & indicative of the fun to be had with all sorts of nations in V2

[gremlok]

This is hilarious, very well written. Love the style.

EDIT: ROFLM - I might make this my signature
"Sinking the Egyptian Cretan-bound clippers -
The dolphins did feast on men’s flesh with their flippers."

[King50000]

This is hilarious, very well written. Love the style.

EDIT: ROFLM - I might make this my signature
"Sinking the Egyptian Cretan-bound clippers -
The dolphins did feast on men’s flesh with their flippers."

I thought the same thing

[TheExecuter]

Enjoying this immensely.

Onward, to Ionian GLORY!

Sing, oh sing great bard, of the glories of the islands...

[coola567]

Those insolent Central Americans!! Let them pay for not recognizing the awesome power of the Ionian Islands!! Mash them, I say, MASH THEM!!!!

[Selzro]

Thanks, everyone!

The USCA is rather far for retribution, I'm afraid, and the Ionian tactic of blockading ports and occupying islands until the enemy capitulates wouldn't be very likely to work there... In any case, the Islands' brief GP stint served its purpose: to decrease US relations with Egypt so that Crete could be taken without American interference. I call it the "prestige-powered ballistic GP maneuver". Now that multiple nations are building up their industries (including Japan, which westernized in 1886, as I neglected to mention), Ionian score will have an increasingly difficult time catching up, even if I were to go the Avindian path and conquer/industrialize Korea.

I'll be gone for a couple of days, but I should have the next update ready and up sometime on Sunday.