Ehhh – well let’s see if it stays that way
Milestone no. 1: top16. Deadline set: till 1845-12-31
A. Nature of the goal
Before starting any further discussions on ‘how’ I suggest considering the question ‘why’. And this is a focal point in my analysis – I don’t really like goals that do not really bring anything to the progress – a milestone needs to correspond with it’s name – to be a defining moment in the development of the project.
So why getting to top16, why is it such an important moment in Viki 2? There are two basic aspects of this level:
- being in top16 allows colonizing empty states – that’s a very big change to Viki 1, when basically everyone would do it, provided he had enough resources. In Viki 2 – there are no visible costs, so the profits are almost for free. Such being the case I consider the colonization strategy a key point for the early game of every small country and partly also a nice free backup in mid game. I said ‘no visible costs’ – that’s because there are quite real costs associated with it and the most important is engagement of national focus – thus you trade additional population for eg. additional clergy or soldiers you could get from stimulations. You could also damage relations with another countries, the average clergy level normally drops, costs of education raise etc. But for simplicity reasons I will consider colonization as free profit;
- being in top16 allows leaving the sphere of interest of another country, thus it let’s you declare wars on the countries from that sphere of interest. I will not comment on this as it seems irrelevant to my master plan.
I really like both these aspects of Viki 2 and it really makes the whole game way more realistic than Viki 1.
When talking about colonization it’s hard not to mention the top10 states available, and to make it even simpler I shall divide them into 3 groups depending on their availability in time (I’m on purpose excluding the ones close to Russia on which they have cores – they are scarcely populated and I don’t really need to give Russia a CB on me too early):
- immediate colonization (only 6 available):
o Negele – 0.17m, available only with access through Ethiopian Negele or Ethiopian Werder or Werder
o Werder – 0.16m, available only with access through Ethiopian Werder or Negele
o Kuka – 0.16m, available only with access through Sokotian Zaria or Sokotian Tukari
o Mozambique – 0.16m, available only with access through Portuguese Mozambique or Portuguese Sena or Sena
o Sena – 0.13m, available only with access through Portuguese Sena or Mozambique or Lourenzo Marques
o Lourenzo Marques – 0.07m available only with access through Portuguese Lourenzo Marques or Portuguese Sena or Sena
- post 1850s colonization (only 3 available):
o Zambezi – 0.11m, available only with access through Sena, Lourenzo Marques, Portuguese Lourenzo Marques, Transwal or Zambia
o Zambia – 0.07m, available only with access through Sena or Zambezi
o Bali – 0.01m, available only with access through regional marine base
- post 1870s colonization (only top10 shown):
o Warri – 0.55m (coastal, central Africa)
o Kigali – 0.49m (inland, eastern Africa)
o Lagos – 0.40m (coastal, central Africa)
o Wagadugu – 0.38m (inland, western Africa)
o Uganda – 0.34m (inland, eastern Africa)
o South Cameroon – 0.34m (coastal, central Africa)
o Wau – 0.25m (inland, eastern Africa)
o Guinea – 0.24m (coastal, western Africa)
o Bougouni – 0.24m (inland, western Africa)
o North New Guinea – 0.22m (coastal, Oceania)
As you can see – in the early game if you intend to colonize – you need to get to eastern Africa somehow, while in mid game – the opportunities are waiting everywhere, but you shall get the most by focusing on western, central and eastern Africa.
B. Krakow – assets and issues
Let’s now look at Krakow as a country – what are their assets we could use for our mean purpose and what are the issues to be tackled.
Assets:
- 0.11m population, which can support 1 army;
- 54% literacy – relatively high level compared to the majors and inferior only to Prussia, Holland, France and Sweden to name a couple of potentially top8 countries, but better or much better than UK, US, Russia or Austria – this value give a reasonable starting position for the technology run, or to put it in another words – we are still in game. The general technology development strategy I intend to implement would be the following: research boosting techs, plurality boosting techs, prestige boosting techs, if nothing is left – infantry and artillery, education and diplomatic influence, additionally somewhere in the middle I want to get medicine as the additional 2% in pops for free cannot be omitted. Please note – I don’t really intend to research all the time, I don’t even have to – collecting research points before major ground breaking dates like 1850-01-01, 1860-01-01 and in particular 1870-01-01 in order to turbo rush the techs seems so obvious that I won't even point to it;
- relatively balanced budget – as I won’t mention it in future I would just roughly describe the general rules for the budget I’m planning to implement:
o 50% PIT;
o max CIT;
o 100% for the army and state upkeep;
o As much as possible for education;
o 0% for bureaucracy;
o 0% for military;
- neighbors with high diplomatic relations and no CB on Krakow core – this has a huge value – you can sleep well as noone will be chasing after you at 4:45 shooting from some just passing by school ship on the first of September;
- sphered by Austria – I prefer sphering to being sphered, but it better then nth. Please note that Russia and Prussia are also in friendly relations and it’s quite normal that Krakow pretty soon starts floating between all these countries. Austria is a nice country to work with in early game – they are pretty strong both on land and sea. Additionally they are willing to join wars on basically all the countries in Europe, unless in a particular game they get allied with them by the time you declare war;
- later in game CB on all 3 neighbors – this is a nice asset, I really love the thought of annexing so many states free of charge
Issues:
- 0 sea ports;
- No military access to any coast in Europe;
- Low clergy level (1.03%) – this would be the first and only national focus, unless colonization is in progress, always in the highest populated state;
- High tendency to drift to liberal government – this is a killing issue for warmongers, as the claim gaining times and average real bb costs are rising.
C. First things first
After analysis of all these factors I decide to pursue the following on the day 1:
1. Ally with Austria – as a sphered country I have a high probability of getting it, later on also ask for military access to tackle the ‘no coast in Europe’ issue;
2. Colonial claim on Portugal – as analyzed in point A – it’s the only country that gives an access to 3 out of 6 states available for immediate colonization.
The whole idea is to have Austria fight Portugal for me and grant me 1 province in Africa without even firing 1 shot nor having any navy – cute, isn’t it?
I admit – it’s not really a very probable scenario, and a few things need to happen to make it real, but it does happen. Typical flow of action is the following:
- Austria, not Prussia, go for Danish War;
- Austria gets no military access through Prussia, so they need to try sending their massive armies through Russia and Sweden (really hilarious sight) and concurrently send navy to Danish coast;
- Prussia does not stand for Danmark against Austria;
- sooner or later Austria gets what they wanted and underway back to Venice their navy accidentally blocks Lisboa – as you know naval blockade of the capital gives huge boost in war score;
- Portugal sues for peace and offers Austria what I wanted;
- Austria gladly accepts as they didn’t even realize they were at war with them, I guess
So how probable is this? I would say – it happens once in say ten games, but as I don’t really see any more reasonable and probable start point – I need to go for it. The other good aspects of this approach are the following:
- I can start claiming immediately, so the loss from not having any bb that could be reduced by 0.1 per month will be limited to the minimum possible;
- I don’t need to recruit an army, so it costs less;
- I don’t need to (nor can) recruit any navy, so it costs less.
Now – why a colonial province in Africa and not Makau or Goa – the answer is in point A – colonies in Africa give access to free population through colonization, Makau or Goa cannot.
So out of the 3 colonies, which one to choose? Let’s have a look:
- Portuguese Mozambique – 0.12m – will cost 14 points of war score;
- Portuguese Sena – 0.10m – will cost 10 points of war score;
- Portuguese Lourenzo Marques – 0.17m – will cost 10 points of war score.
To start with you need to disqualify Mozambique – 14 points is too much for Portugal to accept only after ‘blockade’ of Lisboa, so they will not offer it in peace deal. They will instead keep on fighting and Austria will eventually ask for Makronesia (Cape Verde and European islands) and get it, while you end up with a return rate of 0/bb. Out of the other 2 – Lourenzo Marques give 17/bb and Sena only 10/bb, so typically LM would be better, but I personally prefer Sena, as it gives a direct access to high prestige colonization of Sena and Mozambique, while with LM you loose time for colonizing 1 province LM before you can proceed any further, so it will take longer to get high valued prestige points for colonization, which shall bring you from stage top16 to top8.
The final result brings the return rate of 10/bb without colonies, or whooping 46/bb including the 3 colonies for immediate take over. War started on 1836-06-15 and finished on 1838-02-22.
D. Getting myself an army
So with the first war we solved the sea port issue – now we are a happy owner of 3 of them in Sena. Unluckily without any naval base, so forget about repairing any damages. The other bad news is that Sena does not allow recruiting any army. The third bad news is that our status moved up just a bit, but we are still not in top16. But the good news is that neither is Portugal, so for the time being they will not be allowed to seize _our_ colonies.
I decide to start another war – this time against Oman. There are many reasons for this:
- it has a 0.14m pop rich state in Mombassa offering a return rate of 28/bb – much higher than any of the Portuguese colonies in the first war;
- Oman is a coastal country, including they have a capital city on coast – this all means that you can really reap on blockade points in war score – all you need are 5 transport ships, which goes pretty cheap and fast, thx to our 3 sea ports in Sena;
- Portugal will be mad after losing top16 status and they are like 100% sure to declare for Lindi before you wink your eye.
So we start with our claims. As expected Portugal declares for Lindi and get their Mozambique occupied by 2 Omanese local regiments. I’m overjoyed. Whenever possible and ships are ready I declare on Oman for Mombassa and proceed with the ships. Oman is as nice as to manage to occupy all 3 Portuguese Mozambique provinces (additional blockade war score for me – hurrah!) and battle me at the coast of their capital with their only 2 ships – it all sums up to their giving me Mombassa
Again – there was no army involved on my side and the result is splendid, in particular when you take under account that the 2 local regiments that were sent against Portuguese Mozambique were actually from Mombassa and now proudly form the 1st and the 2nd Krakowian Army. War started on 1839-06-30 and finished on 1840-05-03.
E. Next target
I’m still under the top16 limit and really badly need to get some extra points. I could count on techs or safari, but it takes too long. I need the prestige here and now.
I decide to declare on Kutch – a 1 province minor with only 3 local brigades on the coast of India. I need to ask for annexation, so the return rate is killing low – only 3.5/bb, but there are more important goals:
1. Mandvi is capable of supporting 1 army, and I’m not taking about any locals – they offer alive and kicking infantry or artillery, which I need badly.
2. No one really cares for them. OK OK they have some pointless ally of Makaran, but why would I care. The key point is that neither UK nor any other neighbor have cores on this province.
3. It gives us a border with UK, which is also an interesting bonus as UK shall be more willing to propose alliance later in the game. This would certainly help a lot, as I would not really have to worry about some weird Portuguese, Spanish or Dutch claims. Of course there is also a risk that UK gets their random claim event on us as neighbors.
4. And last but not least – this is the biggest country mighty forces of which can be beaten by my 2 locals from Mombassa with their 100% organization – read: nicely pointed sticks
3 times hurrah for Krakowian India! War started on 1841-08-21 and finished on 1842-01-18.
F. Summary
Let’s see where we are after against the master plan:
- milestone 1, status: accomplished
- milestone 1, deadline: accomplished ahead of time (1842-01-18)
- buffer/delay: buffer of 2 years, 11 months, 13 days
- assets: population passed 0.4m + access gained to further 3 states for colonizing offering additional 0.36m, 2 normal and 2 local regiment on the payroll – woo hoo – be afraid China, we are coming
- issues: bb value is way too high, clergy level is way too low
Next update: getting to top8! Stay focused!