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Sedgewycke

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Jun 16, 2012
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Hello all,

I cranked up the game this afternoon as japan and think i've figured out basic econ. I'm into early April 1850 and am making money (state as well as private capital). My pop is 52% satisfied and trending upwards. I have a small merchant fleet being constructed in nagasaki harbor and a coal mine as well.

I've been trading with Britain & the USA since the first turn and now France has entered the Maritime Trade Box near Japan this last turn as well. Things are looking up :)
 
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good to see this, it'll be interesting to compare your choices with Thandros'

You may want to sign up with one of the many image hosting sites, as the 'attach' option for the forum is very limited (in the number of images you can upload) and will only ever show them as small thumbnails (not the easiest to read). If you're not sure, check out the AARland FAQ - a link is in my signature
 
good to see this, it'll be interesting to compare your choices with Thandros'

You may want to sign up with one of the many image hosting sites, as the 'attach' option for the forum is very limited (in the number of images you can upload) and will only ever show them as small thumbnails (not the easiest to read). If you're not sure, check out the AARland FAQ - a link is in my signature

i signed up to imageshack but not sure how to imbed them into this forums posts. i'll check your link, ty


edit: I think i have it figured out now but man, the resolution of the default windows paint prog isn't all that great :(
 
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I'm a sucker for PoN AARs - count me in.

edit: I think i have it figured out now but man, the resolution of the default windows paint prog isn't all that great :(

I've found that Paint.net is a pretty decent free package, and you can add bits to it to make it look a bit more professional.
 
Thank you Dewirix.
i DL'd the paint.net app and will see if it looks any better. I've tried adjusting my resolution before taking the screenies but t just doesn't help much with the default MS paint program.
 
PoN/Japan: late Nov. 1850

Hello all,

It's now late november 1850 and the situation in Japan appears stable. The economy is still inching ahead bit-by-bit and my population is now 54% satisfied with the state of the nation. I have not seen any sign yet of the "loyalty bug" that Thandros mentioned in his game playing as Japan. My provinces are still 100% loyal to the Japanese. At least for the moment, heheh.

I would also point out that I have been trading with europe since turn one and haven't experienced the "closed society" he wrote of. In fact, even though Japan owned no merchant fleets to begin with; as soon as other countries' ships are in the nations regional Maritime Trade Box, (turn one?), I was able hover my cursor over the respective trade areas in their home provinces, press the 't' key, (for trade), then access and purchase their offerings. If Japan wins the bid for the goods that turn, their ships deliver it to me the following turn. Well, actually we are supposed to envision individual ships of that squadron plying back and forth between our countries in a perpetual state. In the course of 2 turns (30 days = one turn to calculate the winner of the bid and accept the order; one turn to ship them to you I assume), the goods are delivered to my docks and the total is added to my stockpile.

Sometimes I am awarded sales of the other nations products, and sometimes i'm not, depending upon how much competition there is globally for those commodities. The game mechanics, according to the manual, award the sales to the nation in the MTB that has the highest 'commerce value'. The game manual goes into greater detail about this calculation, but suffice it to say that the size of your merchant fleet in the adjoining MTB and your diplomatic relationship with that country both factor into it. What with Japan with no merchant ships to start the game with of it's own, they usually ended up with the short end of the stick or the 'leftovers' as the manual states.

The only way to counteract this if you REALLY need the goods to build up the country, is to bid at a higher price than your competitors. The way to do this is simply to click the center plate for each item in the trade screen box that you are interested in, and it will add 25% more to your offer.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I've sailed my first merchant squadron all the way to the west coast of South America and have started trading for tropical fruits to sell to the domestic market. the more varied my goods are, the more potential sales, and ultimately the more taxes and private capital I can collect. I have 2 more squadrons of light merchant-class ships in the pipeline being assembled in Nagasaki and Yokohama harbors with plans for more, more, more :D


I have received two missions that can gain me a whopping 400 prestige points if I can complete them both within 10 years. Namely being rated the greatest global producer of rice and fish nearly 80% of the time during that period. If I lose, I still have an economic base built which will assist me with my industrialization plans. As everyone knows who has ever studied sociology or history: the model to industrialization starts with a solid, agriculturally-based economy as it's foundation. This is my short-term goal. All efforts will be toward building this economy and defending the homeland from aggressors; internally or externally. If I can do this successfully with this game, then successive games playing as other nations can be explored.
 
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Seems like a tall order to be rated the greatest producer of rice when there's China around to give you competition.

How are you finding Paint.net?

To be honest about the first point I'm not exactly sure. The mission wording states 'greatest producer', but since the game only lets me see what China is offering on the global market, (currently in my game I'm offering 15 units of rice and N. China has 7 units for sale), I'm wondering if the game actually is looking for the greatest global 'supplier'. I guess I'll find out in 10 years <sheesh>. I already have all the rice paddies I can possibly build in place. The only way to increase production from here, (I'm cranking out 20 units ATM), is to wait for invention and construction of railroads and industry techs to come around. We'll see.

I do in fact have a huge fishing industry to exploit. I haven't even barely scratched the surface of the potential in that venture. We'll see how it plays out.

As far as paint.net goes. The last screenshot I posted I used it. I guess what is bothering me is the text I insert is so darned fuzzy. Do you think it has to do with imageshack or the what? I followed loki100"s and Narwhal games and their screenies text additions seem so crisp. I'm no graphics artist to be sure :unsure:
 
at the risk of a wee bit of off-topic, we both use faststone-capture to take images not the default print-screen option.

There are two variants, the freeware just allows you to take full screen images, the paid (I seem to recall a 'for-ever' license was $19) for version allows to crop the images as you take them and to annotate the image before you save it (which is very handy if you play ahead and want to remind yourself what you were up to). You can also take videos of the turn resolution phase.

I believe that FRAPs works in a similar manner. I use paint.net and its fine for everything I'm ever going to do to an image.

Hope this helps - feel free to pm if you want to discuss any more.
 
well you seem to be doing better than me. Notably you've actually worked out how to buy stuff. Unlike me who just knows how to sell. Well Trade is the Part I understand least.
 
PoN/Japan: early Nov. 1851

Hello all,

The economy is stil running fine and money is pouring in to the imperial coffers. My 4th merchant squadron is awaiting orders to weigh anchor for the South China Sea and unfortunately I have come to find out that the game only allows you to build a limited number of units of each type. Consequently, my grand vision of a fleet in every maritime trade box, and a monopoly on the rice and fishing industry, has been brought low. Oh well, perhaps it can still be pulled off in the future with some kind of tech advance.

From studying Thandros' AAR, and noting the timestamp in his sreenshots, it appears I'll be having a visit from the USA from Commodore Perry and the 'new age will dawn' complete with a national revolt of the conservative, samauri leadership to deal with. In an effort to head that off, i've taken to building up the militia; known as 'provincial forces' in this country.

Each provinces' city started with at least one brigade-sized provincial force, representing 2000 sword & bow carrying peasant levys, 1000 samauri line infantry also (armed with sword and bow), and 2 elements of 250 men and horses each, of samauri calvary. All these units being melee-only, have a range of '1',so in order to try and counterbalance that; I've taken to building and attaching a regiment of field artilley to each brigade with a range of '6'. These are the lowest form of artillery, noted as being only fit for colonial/natives expeditions, lol. Also, I have a handful of generals to spread around and I've tried to place one in command of the provincial forces/arty group, of each major city that it allows.










I've added a level (1) pre-industrial fort to Edo, as this city contains a lot of my industrial structures that need protection. I will try to raise more but the cost in scarce manufactured goods, (22 each) ,will take time to gather up.

I did get a message that Korean pirates were off the coast of Japan and sent my flotilla of war junks out to try and join battle with them. Unfortunately, after a few turns of lying in wait on offensive mode, with special orders to intercept, found no sign of them. I returned them to Nagasaki for supply and re-org.

So my situation is summed up as: fortifying the island, building up my econ, and generally itching to start a war, just out of boredom. I did build a flotilla of corvettes that will be available next turn so i may just go hunting pirates in the indonesia area for amusement. have fun everyone.
 
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Hmm, from what I've just read it seems a little anachronistic to depict the Japanese regular infantry as sword and bow troops. I'd have thought Napoleonic-era muskets would have been more appropriate. Regardless, it's unlikely that you'll be in a position to go up against the other powers without some serious modernisation, and the new artillery is a good step towards that.

As far as paint.net goes. The last screenshot I posted I used it. I guess what is bothering me is the text I insert is so darned fuzzy. Do you think it has to do with imageshack or the what? I followed loki100"s and Narwhal games and their screenies text additions seem so crisp. I'm no graphics artist to be sure :unsure:

Did you let Imageshack resize the image? That could cause the blurring. It might also be an artifact of saving as a JPEG. I'm currently using PNGs as my default image format.
 
Hmm, from what I've just read it seems a little anachronistic to depict the Japanese regular infantry as sword and bow troops. I'd have thought Napoleonic-era muskets would have been more appropriate. Regardless, it's unlikely that you'll be in a position to go up against the other powers without some serious modernisation, and the new artillery is a good step towards that.

I have to look at the individual unit cards again, as it seems after i made the post that some units had swords, yet some had smoothbores in their descriptions but they both had the same unit pics. My oversight. Will edit that or put it in my next update.



Did you let Imageshack resize the image? That could cause the blurring. It might also be an artifact of saving as a JPEG. I'm currently using PNGs as my default image format.

I downoaded and am using the fastcapture app loki100 suggested. It has a free 30 day trial. We'll see. I may test out the png file format with paint or paint.net as well to see if I get better results. Thank you for the assistance.
 
PoN/Japan: early Sept. 1852

Hello all,

I checked over my units and discovered that in fact all my units carry smoothbore muskets except the samauri footmen/linemen. this still gives me the same situation, however; as all my soldiers still have a range of '1' carrying either weapon.

This time out a lot has happened. Firstly, the open door policy event happened and I naturally chose to agree to join the global community. Fortunately; it seems my intense micromanaging of my trade, and the resulting 64% approval rating of my population, allowed me to aviod any uprising at all. Every one of my national provinces are either indifferent or happy.

Secondly, I couldn't resist a little military dabbling to keep me from utter boredom while i industrialize. So, after receiving a message that japanese pirates had been spotted up to the north in the Straits of Tsugara, I sent out my little wooden corvette flotilla, with my sole admiral on the hunt. Actually, they intercepted him! They ran headlong into a large group of war junks which sank an element of our proud fleet right away, taking over 800 casualties. My nation's only admiral was killed. :eek: I looked for the survivors that supposedly retreated but they disappered. I believe they were sank as they fled.




I decided to stick to the cheaper war junks as soon as the tradgedy was found out. they only cost me state monies and conscripts to build, whereas; the wooden corvettes require manufactured goods, steel, and officers. if i'm going to dabble it's going to be on the cheap, lol. I laid the keels on 2 new squadrons of war junks, one in Yokohama, the other in Sendai.

Next, since the territory of Okinawa seemed resentful at being under my control, and there was a city with fishing resources to be had, I decided to plant a couple regiments of peasant levies there to try and 'police' the area. After they landed, suddenly it seemed my envoys sent a dispatch to the Okinawans notifying them that our defensive treaty with them was null and void. I deduced my landing 2000 troops on the island must, for some crazed reason, be construed as an act of war? :p



I made the descision to declare war just to see what would happen, and sure enough the island nation capitulated without a shot the next turn. The regiments marched into the city and set up HQ. They were drawing supply off my war junk flotilla standing offshore for a couple turns, but after marching into the capital they looted 20 supply and 4 ammo from the area.

Next turn I had a rebel uprising on Okinawa to contend with and they beseiged the city. The citizens weren't giving up without a fight. Fortunately this caused a 3200 man, musket-armed garrison force, drawn from the inhabitants of the city, to step up alongside my valiant musketbearers. <chuckle> The stats on the garrison units were nearly better than my occupying force! Still, the power rating of the rebels force outnumbered me. This was going to require additional reinforcements, so I dispatched the junks to Nagasaki to pick up a full provincial brigade to bolster my position.



As soon as the relief force hit the beach the rebels rained a murderous fire down on them from their entrenchments . It took a full 3 rounds of rugged fighting and steady advancing on their position, taking almost 400 casualties, when they finally reached the rebel entrenchments. They saw firsthand the horrors of the fanatical Samauri warriors lopping off limbs and heads with their swords. Many of them turned and routed, but they were chased down to the man. The Brigade completely annihilating the rebel force, taking 2000 of them prisoner.



Strangely enough, after the smoke of the battlefield cleared, I see none other than the instigators of the revolt. The USA had sent 'advisors' to stir up the populace it seems against the emperor! After we so graciously agreed to open our doors of goodwill to the westerners, this is our reward. So be it.

 
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fascinating turn of events ... pity your shiny new fleet was wiped out but a good revenge on Okinawa.

well now the perfidious American imperialists are revealed in their true colours, your long term goal are clear - how much of the west coast of N America can you grab?
 
Hmm, losing your only modern fleet looks to be a bit of a blow. It always amuses me in games that pirates fight to death against military formations rather than just trying to avoid them.
 
Hmm, losing your only modern fleet looks to be a bit of a blow. It always amuses me in games that pirates fight to death against military formations rather than just trying to avoid them.

Well they are rather brave when they outnumber you 3:1 I suppose. Let's see how much of a fight they put up later when I roll with the 1st rates and a 2:1 advantage :cool:
 
Those silly Americans, stirring shenanigans on your backyard.