Styria Redux

[tamius23]

Styria Redux

A direct continuation of The Story of Styria, an EU3 AAR.

There is only one goal in this AAR: to form Germany from Styria, and it will end when (if?) I succeed. I haven't decided yet what would happen if another country were to form Germany.

This is being played on AHD 2.31 using the EU3toVIC2 Converter mod.

[tamius23]

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: December 1, 1835 - December 6, 1835
Chapter 2: December 6, 1836 - August 13, 1836
Chapter 3: August 13, 1836 - August 5, 1841
Chapter 4: August 5, 1841 - February 11, 1852
Chapter 5: February 11, 1852 - November 29, 1864
Chapter 6: November 29, 1864 - October 15, 1877
Chapter 7: October 15, 1877 - February 22, 1887
Chapter 8: February 22, 1887 - November 18, 1894
Chapter 9: November 18, 1894 - January 14, 1909
Chapter 10: January 14, 1909 - December 31, 1935

[tamius23]

Chapter 1

Let's begin with the world map.



And here's a close-up of Europe:



Since forming Germany is the ultimate aim of this AAR, here are the provinces I need to do so:



The red line marks the boundary between South Germans and North Germans.

I changed a few of the cultures' colours (in France, Germany and Silesia) for easier differentiation between the new cultures in the mod.



Here are the current eight Great Powers. I suspect Orleans, Alençon, Pisa and Naples won't stay there very long, and will end up replaced with Spain, Sweden, or Russia, which I asked the converter to merge. (It didn't include Nizhny Novgorod.)

You can see Styria is a democracy, a government type I haven't played in Victoria 2.

As part of my strategy to unite Germany, I have set my two National Foci on Switzerland's two regions, to encourage soldiers and expand the army.



Oh.

[MrQwerty]

The chaos continues! Good luck in forming Germany, even with the great challenges you will have .

[Malurous]

That's certainly a promising start! I guess it's fitting for the second part that you have to fight for your life this early.

[sprites]

heh you need parts of Ukraine to form Germany?
and the converter made OPM with ultra high prestige , maybe they were rpestigious in 1820?

Good luck with Burgundy!

[tamius23]

Feedback

MrQwerty: Thank you! While the map is quite chaotic, the world's countries seem to be doing their best to neaten it up a bit, which is nice.

Malurous: Why is it so fitting? And I certainly expect to be thoroughly beaten by Burgundy.

sprites: Yes, I need bits of Ukraine and Moldova... and Morocco... blame Moldova on Bavaria's having a CoT there. How Germans ended up in northern Ukraine I have no idea. Morocco is Lübeck's fault.

Orleans and Alençon must have been very prestigious in 1820. They're now beating one another up to decide which is the best French minor.

[tamius23]

Chapter 2

Burgundy doesn't actually have a core on Grenoble - otherwise they'd have taken it from me long ago in EU3 - but it has a French culture, and since Burgundy is a French Great Power, it can take it from me, à la Prussia and Elsass-Lothringen in normal Vicky 2.

Army-wise, Burgundy has 123 brigades (un-mobilised) and Styria 43. Worse, 12 of those are stuck in South America, and my transport ships were inexplicably converted to frigates, meaning they can't be sent across the ocean.



…



Against Burgundy I have no hope. They vastly outnumbered me and were overrunning Switzerland. When I noticed their engaging one of my largest armies with one of their largest, an almost certain victory for them, I surrendered to save the army for use against Tuscany.

War Situation - June 1836

Northern Italy:



Short work is being made of occupation by two of my puppets, Lombardia and Siena. The third, Savoy, is looking a bit lonely and pointless in Turin.

The two Tuscan armies in Postojna (Slovenia) and Venice both came up from Serbia and Bulgaria.

Serbia:



The hidden Tuscan army numbers 2,000.

Looks like one battle I'll win and one I'll lose.

South America:



Very little Tuscan resistance, so Styria is occupying each province with a brigade of Peruvian peasants.



Stop that.

[Avindian]

Wow. I do not envy your start one little bit. I have to object to the entirely logical countries, though. It's much more fun when Zanzibar rules South America!

[tamius23]

Yes, I'm using the converter mod, which adds all the logical countries in. Well, Afghanistan has cores in Germany, so they're mostly logical.

And the start gets worse! Yay!

Chapter 3

Here's how the war is going in early 1837, i.e. badly.



Bavaria has many more soldiers than me - 88 brigades to 28 - so I let them have Istria. The plan was to fight Bavaria at some point, but now I worry that won't be possible.



This is an example battle from my war against Tuscany. I am attacking, granted, but I outnumber them and this was just after I beat that army. They must have better tactics than I.

Irritatingly thanks to Bavaria taking Istria what remains of those 12 brigades are all the troops I have in Austria and Italy. The rest are stuck in the Balkans or Brazil.



Argh.

Czechoslovakia are helping them.



I can't keep both Tuscany and Czechia at bay so I let Tuscany eat Lombardia, which I carved out from them anyway.



1839. This could potentially save me! I was expecting to lose either Bosnia or a part of Peru that the Czechs demanded. The unoccupied province in Austria is Judenburg, my capital, which has a stack of troops to protect it nearby.

Tuscany is being overrun by rebels as a result of being smashed by Russia. I fear I may suffer the same fate, as rejected Czech peace treaties have ramped militancy up to 5.



In late 1840 (bear in mind that most truces of mine run out in 1842 and I'll likely be used as a punching bag again then) the tables have turned somewhat. Czechoslovak troops are barely anywhere to be seen; Peru is now free of them. Siebenbürgen was soundly defeated by Styrian troops and under occupation, but the German half of Styria is in a bad way.



As Bavaria and Czechoslovakia conclude their war I use the warscore I gained against Transylvania to reclaim my cores from them. This leaves the score at 3% against me…



and Czechoslovakia is willing to take a white peace. A good result from a war I expected to lose heavily, and a nice dollop of prestige too. The huge militancy hit I used to my advantage by passing some reforms and now I have universal voting.

Now hopefully some peace-time in which to rebuild the armed forces, and suck up to Bavaria.

[Avindian]

It could have been worse, I suppose, but I'm not sure how.

How are all of these countries declaring war on you? Acquire core CBs?

[tamius23]

Yes, all of those are Acquire Core CBs.

Chapter 4

After recuperating from defensive wars, it's time for some offence. Argentina recently fell to rebels so I'm going to snaffle the Chaco from them. I might also take another state, to keep the borders pretty.



Argentina barely resists and I gain a little more South America. The extra prestige throws me into Secondary Power status.



This doesn't bode well. Since their army is approximately four times mine and massed on my border, I just have to hope that when they attack, they take a rubbish state.



Argh.

Tirol, marked in red, is as good as lost. I'm going to end up in three bits.



…



…



Have Tirol.

I hate you, Bavaria.



Now I'm well and truly stuffed. Bavaria beat the transport fleet, then it retreated to Siena. I was going to send troops from the Balkans (13 brigades) to the rest of the country (3).



I've had limited success in the eastern Balkans but the rest of the country is beyond help. I don't have any troops west of Bulgaria.

Outlined in black is Klagenfurt, occupied by pan-nationalists, who have now moved on to the capital, Judenburg.

Those debts were Siena's, not mine



That warscore I gained from Tuscan Bulgaria will let me annex a little of it, hopefully.



Success!

[Avindian]

What you need is a big friend, so that Bavaria will leave you alone. Then again, what fun are AARs where you succeed all the time?

[spiller68]

at the moment you look more like yugoslavia that germany

[TugoTugo]

This AAR is so funny, one of the better I always read.Keep up the good work dude

[Malurous]

Malurous: Why is it so fitting?

Because that's kind of how the first part started as well. It's quite exciting to read about anyway.

I like how you're putting your relative strength in the Balkans to good use, even if it isn't exactly your choice that most of your troops are stuck there.

[tamius23]

Feedback

Avindian: A big friend would be nice, indeed. But no countries would be happy to be friends - I've been stuck with Alençon, Epirus and Finland - because Styria went from Catholic to Reformed (and back again, and forward again) which pulled relations right down to the -100s and less with most Christian countries.

spiller68: You know, I had written that in the last sentence. (but I took it out at the last minute.)

TugoTugo: Glad to hear you're enjoying it!

Malurous: True. I prefer EU3's system somewhat, because the countries are more willing to surrender, less likely to demand territory (like Bavaria did) and it's easier to acquire provinces.

The being-in-bits is troublesome, because I'm not very good with boats, and I have had my transports sunk many times.

[tamius23]

Chapter 5

This isn't good.



What?

That was unexpected. Burgundy, despite justifying a war against me, hasn't flattened me yet.

I noticed that the soldiers I recruited in Kosovo were Quechua.



Not again.

I lost the whole navy to a Neapolitan attack.




Look on the bright side. I'm a Great Power!



…for a bit anyway. The points that gave me GP status were extra military ones for being at war, and I lost them when I got a white peace with Naples.



And now I have to fight Tuscany… again.



Brittany alone is rather weak. However,



they brought in Bavaria. The least I need is to fight a war against Bavaria when I reckon I can barely beat Tuscany, so I give Brittany what it wants. This gets Bavaria off my back for another five years, which is a good thing.



Another war I neither need to nor want to fight.



Here you go, Transylvania.

They brought in their friend Czechoslovakia.



And once again, Tuscany screws itself at the negotiating table by demanding an extra wargoal.

I was totally beaten by them.



I decided I would need some colonies, to boost manpower. The Southeast Asian nations are weak, and Dai Nam owns some bits of China I could get my hands on later.



Naturally, just as one-third of the country's army reaches Vietnam, some silly Great Power like Naples attacks (again). Sigh.



Naples doesn't send any troops to mainland Styria, but attacks the colony in South America. Styrian forces repel them and begin to occupy British Chile. The British agree to a white peace, as they in turn are at war with Tuscany.

Oh, and Naples turned into Italy.



Dai Nam unexpectedly civilised and became able to mobilise. I'm forced to sign a white peace.

That costs me 10 prestige points, meaning I stop being a secondary power.

[Avindian]

Are you close to being in anybody's sphere? Obviously, you were a GP temporarily, but that could be the secret to your salvation... if there's anything left to save.

Keep up the good fight!

[Malurous]

Keeping up the attempts to get colonies is probably the way to go, you need more power from somewhere.

I noticed that the soldiers I recruited in Kosovo were Quechua.

Incas in Europe? What kind of crazy alternative reality is this?