Chapter 5: 1886 - 1911
Welcome back to the next 25 year installment!
In this installment, the good news is, playing a very focused small power lets me isolate some of the game mechanics, which was one of the hopes for this game. The bad news is, it's not the 'ripping yarn' that most AAR chapters are. Consider yourselves warned
Mechanic #1 - Reforms
When we left Switzerland in
1886, it had all but 1 political reform, and roughly half the social reforms, and a
very socialist population - 69% of the upper house was socialist. This let me pass social reform after social reform after social reform, often more than one a year, by
1890 every social reform was passed.
This seems to have pricked the Socialist balloon, and support gradually but steadily waned, all the way down to 18% by 1911.
This vacuum was largely filled by the Liberals, who steadily grew from 10% of the upper house in 1886 to over 50% in 1897, which let me pass the last political reform (universal voting). This pricked the Liberal balloon, and support gradually but steadily waned, all the way down to (perhaps not coincidentally) 18% by 1911.
So it seems that the potential for reforms (not necessarily the
demand for them, I don't think any reform ever got above 15% support) is a powerful incentive for voting Socialist/Liberal, and that Socialist 'trumps' liberal here. Once all reforms have been passed, they become 'just another party', and they recede.
BTW, I'm going to mention this just in case any of you are modders or in touch with them - after this, I got at least two events ("Working Less or Less Work", and "Expensive Jobs"), which let you either (a) pass a reform and enrage group <X>, or (b) not pass it, and enrage group <Y>. These events should not fire once those reforms have already been passed.
Mechanic #2 - Capitalist awakening
In every game, I've been driven to distraction by the fact that Capis refuse to build factories for a long time. Luckily, I had 'State Capitalism', so this was OK in this instance.
In
January 1891, the 'bit flipped', and Capitalists went from refusing to build a factory for 55 years to building like crazy:
The 4 factories circled in Red here were capitalist-built. Some things to note:
(1) The factories they chose seem at best random - from left to right, they are luxury furniture (bad choice), glass (yay, it works!), canned food (big loser, but the AI always loves it), and machine parts.
(2) machine parts was an interesting choice, as I already
had a machine parts factory in the next state,
which was losing money - wouldn't this indicate that you shouldn't build another??? In this case, though, it works out, as a few years from now the demand picks up.
(3) This is a factory that makes some kind of gear (electric gear, maybe? I forget), but it's needed for automobiles, and what matters for now is that it needs rubber (the weird-looking circled icon).
(4) Oh, and one last thing - notice that I have 2 states, which are about as equal as two states could be, and yet the capis built all 4 in one (West Switzerland). I'm not sure what's cause here, and what's effect, but West Switzerland grows in this session far more rapidly than East Switzerland (and no, there's no 'encourage immigration' NF), and by the end of this session has nearly double the population. Odd.
On a higher level, I
still don't understand
why Capis 'flip their bit' like this - does anyone? It's not all or nothing, as they did gradually, for example, do more and more railroad building.
World events
Now back to the more 'normal' parts of an AAR - world events (at least through the Swedish prism).
Above, I highlighted the need for rubber. One thing I've found is that even with a very high prestige, the world market is a brittle and fickle place - it's surprsingly common for one factory or another to wedge for a month or more because it can't buy some ingredient for love nor money (timber seems especially prone to this). Accordingly, I decide to exert some influence over some of the rubber-producing nations, and in this session Cambodia, Dai Nam, Panjab, and Sindh all enter the Swiss SOI.
Otherwise, the main event of note in the early going is that in
1893 the NGF, which I had allied with, DOWs France, and sadly calls me. Of course, I don't answer the call, but luckily it doesn't hurt me - I'm still allied with Italy (the formerly Big Bad Wolf is now curled up contentedly by my feet), and later I get an even better friend...
(Oh, BTW, the NGF wins, and takes Alsace-Lorraine).
Back to factories
By
1894 I can build airplane and automobile factories, which are
extremely profitable -check it out:
The level 1 airplane factory, for example, even at only 75% capacity, is making something like 20x what the machine parts factory is making. This holds steady throughout this session.
Here's something you'll never see again....
By
1903 Austria loses GP status (to Mexico). This creates a diplomatic vacuum against the NGF, which I fill, but by now I'm feeling kinda saucy, so I exert diplomatic influence as well, and by
February 1907:
That's right, Austria enters the Swiss Sphere of Influence! Chortle, chortle.
Yup, Austria is 'protected by' Switzerland. double chortle. Never thought I'd see
that happen!
Mechanic - the Geneva convention
In
1910, I am finally able to pass the Geneva convention. I always thought this was a random event, but just FYI, it's not an event, it's a Swiss decision. And to enable it, a GP has to have war exhaustion above 5 - this has been a pretty peaceful game, so this hasn't triggered until now (Mexico, which just made GP, has been in a long and losing war against the US - thanks, Mexico!).
Mechanic - immigration
My status as a worker's paradise has continued to give me lots of immigration (though only really enough to equalize the emgiration to the new world). However, check this out, from
1911:
I could've sworn (I don't have the manuals handy) that immigration was supposed to only be
to the New World, but here we see 3 such countries (Peru, Argentina, and Brazil) losing people to Switzerland. Doubly odd as you can see that there's also immigration happening in the reverse direction.
The State of the World
OK, we're now 3/4 of the way through the game, time for another checkpoint:
(1) 'lucky Brazil' quieted down, hasn't done anything - overall the world has been pretty quiet these 25 years.
(2) the Scramble for Africa is slowly happening, note that Russia has used its Persian bases to grab a chunk of East Africa.
(3) UK is munching its way through China, I think another war is going on there right now.
(1) OMG, the UK is even more of a Godzilla than usual - the 'Age of Colonialism' mod certainly hasn't helped here!
(2) Germany still hasn't formed, Austria and I have been keeping the NGF from getting the SOIs it needs, and it hasn't grabbed them militarily.
(3) Switzerland is #5!!
(4) Surprisingly low IND score from the USA
(5) 'lucky Spain' is doing very well, with a very high IND score.
(6) China and Japan finally Westernized, but probably too little, too late.
(7) the OE, which has I think neither attacked nor been attacked the entire game, has built up a pretty decent industrial base, at least compared to what it normally does.
Switzerland overall
Taking a stroll through the top strip:
(1) #5 in the world, and actually quite close to #4 (the NGF). Amazin'. Industry has finally taken off like gangbusters.
(2) Switzerland is a Researching machine, as we'll see below in more detail.
(3) I've had a reactionary ruling party almost this entire game, ruling in coalition with the Conservatives.
(4) Population has kept steadily growing, I should hit 2 NF before game end
(5) Military POP potential finally took off. I've kept actual military below max to allow more craftsmen.
The Economy
(1) I've had to raise taxes a little, see (3) for why.
(2) Wow, check out how much money the rich are providing, I've never seen anything like this.
(3) I had to raise taxes because of another learning - around
1905 I became able to build tanks, built 10 of them, and then noticed that my National Stockpile costs went
crazy. I hadn't noticed before with bigger empires, but tanks are way expensive - roughly $58 per tank unit - put it this way,
each tank is roughly as expensive to maintain as the
20 non-tank units in the rest of the army.
Factories are going great guns, I find I have to have about 5 (total) under expansion at any given time to keep up with the flood of incoming craftsmen. I've also for the first time ever had to use 'destroy factory' to free up slots. (The telephone factory just opened, BTW - and it was Capi-built, to boot!)
The Population
(1) Note this odd preference for West over East Switzerland. Huh.
(2) 24% of the populace are craftsmen, amazing. And down to just 27% farmers. 6% soldiers is probably a bit high, with Austrian and Italian bodyguards, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.
One last thing, under 'nationality' - I think the big wave of Chinese immigration you saw in the earlier grab is a fluke, overall it's held steady at mainly French and Austrians.
Politics and Diplomacy
(1) Every reform passed.
(2) The voter's ideologies are all over the place now, as is their electoral preference. Now that all reforms are passed, I find I don't really care anymore about this
(3) Man, some people are just never happy
Austria and Italy are allied with me, and in my SOI.
Otherwise I've SOI'ed some rubber-producing areas, and have been fighting for decades with the NGF over Bavaria/Wurttemburg to keep Germany from forming.
Technology
Army:
Everything that can be built, has been built, except for one Artillery tech, which seems silly with only 6 total artillery units. Nothing else will open up until 1919.
Commerce:
The little gains to factory efficiency start to become worthwhile.
Culture:
Probably won't do any more here.
Industry:
The last two will open up in 1919.
As you can see, Switzerland is quite the researching prodigy.
75 years down, 25 to go, and so far things have gone very well - Austria entering the Swiss SOI, triple chortle