• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

endier

Corporal
89 Badges
Apr 15, 2009
48
0
  • Victoria 2: A House Divided
  • Europa Universalis III Complete
  • Crusader Kings II: Conclave
  • Victoria 2: Heart of Darkness
  • Warlock 2: The Exiled
  • Warlock 2: Wrath of the Nagas
  • 500k Club
  • Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado
  • Crusader Kings II: Way of Life
  • Pillars of Eternity
  • Europa Universalis IV: Common Sense
  • Crusader Kings II: Horse Lords
  • Knights of Pen and Paper 2
  • Europa Universalis IV: Cossacks
  • Semper Fi
  • Europa Universalis IV: Mare Nostrum
  • Stellaris
  • Stellaris: Galaxy Edition
  • Stellaris: Galaxy Edition
  • Stellaris: Galaxy Edition
  • Hearts of Iron IV: Cadet
  • Crusader Kings II: Reapers Due
  • Europa Universalis IV: Rights of Man
  • Stellaris: Digital Anniversary Edition
  • Stellaris: Leviathans Story Pack
  • Stellaris: Federations
  • Europa Universalis IV: Conquest of Paradise
  • Crusader Kings II
  • Crusader Kings II: Charlemagne
  • Crusader Kings II: Legacy of Rome
  • Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods
  • Crusader Kings II: Rajas of India
  • Crusader Kings II: The Republic
  • Crusader Kings II: Sons of Abraham
  • Crusader Kings II: Sunset Invasion
  • Crusader Kings II: Sword of Islam
  • Darkest Hour
  • Europa Universalis IV
  • Europa Universalis IV: Art of War
  • Victoria 2
  • Europa Universalis IV: Wealth of Nations
  • Europa Universalis IV: Call to arms event
  • For the Motherland
  • Hearts of Iron III
  • Hearts of Iron III: Their Finest Hour
  • Hearts of Iron III Collection
  • Europa Universalis III Complete
  • Europa Universalis III Complete
  • Europa Universalis IV: Res Publica
  • Victoria: Revolutions
Hi folks.

While waiting for Victoria 2 being released (which will surly take a while), I'll kill the time with Prussians played nice (or at least a little bit). Also it is my first AAR here to gain some experience in AAR-making.
Constructive comments are welcome. On the other hand, I will not invest loads of time for hyper fancy posts as I have a real life to cope with.

Here are the stats:
VIPR 0.3
Hard - Aggressive

As many of the experienced players will now think: "Oh boy, another prussian AAR where the Germany will rule the world..."
Yes, this will be such an AAR, but I set one goal.
Finish the game at 1936
a) as #1 Industry :)
b) as #1 Prestige :D
c) with 0 Badboy (with may be the hardest thing to achieve) :eek:

With goal "c" in mind, I can't simply go on a conquering spree, but has to play carefully. So enjoy and please forgive my crude english as it is not my mother tongue.

>> Placeholder for the table of contents <<
 
Last edited:
The Beginning

OK folks, let's jump into it...

If you are interested in Prussian history, please have a look in this wonderful AAR from robou.
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=363851

The first posts deal all about prussia history and the initial situation. Thanks for the great work.

Right at the start, Prussia has this situation:



To take the maximum effect of the military presence to reduce militancy, I'll split all infantry units into seperate divisions, except one.

That one group is sent to the direct vincinity of Krakow. The reason will be given later.

The the budget and the trade window is tuned a bit and some days will pass to let the markt calm down and stabilize.

Some days later, it turns out, that I have serious budget problems...


I have to look where to optimize the production.
Sachsen is one candidate. If you look, the small-arms factory makes a nice profit. It can be increased, if all available clerks and the best craftmen POPs are allocated there.
The same you do in Schlesien with the Regular Clothes factory.
The Cannded Food factories are also good in making profit, so I'll also allocate any available clerk to them.
I do not convert any POP yet, as I have unemployed craftmen if I do.

After reorganizing, the Budget is back in the green range and making quite a good profit.



While doing this, I'll ordered the 3 infantry divisions which have no brigades attacked to Strahlsund for a special mission. While they were on the way, the Luxembourg crisis appeared.
I didn't care


Another issue I took care of. As waging a war of agression with Austria would spell certain doom to Prussia, a trick has to be found to have a casus belli against Austria without having the allies being involved. Here is the solution.
Thanks to robou for the inspiration:


Guaranteeing Krakow will put me in the defensive side against Austria, if they dare to declare war against Krakow without involving any of the allies. Also I will have reduced BB-gain from provinces taken.
To be able to play that trick a second time, Krakow has to be protected. So I'll send 2 divisions (one engineer, one artillery) in direct vincinity.

During that time the Carlist event in Spain fired.
As I have great plans with Spain, I'll support Isabella by not supporting the Carlists.


Also one of the nice VIP-industrialization events fire.
A new steel factory :)
I'll put it into Rhineland and converted 2 POPs into Clerks. One of them was over 40K, so I converted it and then split. So I could run the stell factory at maximum efficiency while the wine factory has to cope with less workers.


Now it is time to get some Badboy to burn later...
I'll use the three infantry divisions in Stralsund and embarked.
Here is the target:



Why Haiti ?
It has Sugar and Tobacco, two goods which will increase my export budget (or will be provided to by populace). Also as I intend to get my hands on the neighbouring islands, too, it will proove quite profitable.

While attacking, I'll got a major strike. :(


I appeased them by giving in as the cash-reserves they get now will go to my coffers when they buy their goods on the market as I have the tariffs maxed out. No no big deal. And reduced militancy is a nice bonus.

Only a few weeks later, Haiti is now part of Prussia.
 
Going international

Now Haiti in german hands, I'll split the three infantry divisions.
2 of them embark to their 2nd target, the third one will garrison Haiti to quell any revolts there.

Now I want to look how much my neat tropical island will contribute and I found this:



WHAT'S THAT ?
No production ?
No Profit ?

Did I miss something ?

Now as I have Haiti, I have to cope with it...and to continue my strategy. Perhaps an event or a technology I don't have at the moment will get this back in order. Perhaps Medicine will do it.


As I ordered the expansion of my lumbermill in Ostpreußen, now the expansion is finsihed, allowing me to increase the lumber production nearly by 150% by converting some POPs to clerks.


Also my research is now geared to population increase (or to get my conquererd RGO's running. Whatever).


And you see my next target. Johore.
It has two Iron provinces and Prussia needs Iron...lots of it.
It took only some weeks to annex.


Johore is Prussian now. Sadly, the RGOs do not produce anything. :mad:

One division is set for garrison duty while the other one embarks back to Haiti as a "fast-reaction force", if they are needed somewhere.

Later the Göttingen incident happened.


It did not make any serious trouble, but I have to take care of the militancy now. Luckily my first expansion desires are satisfied and now I want to burn off some BB. Actual score: 4.75.

Stay tuned for the next two years.
 
Cool :D
 
Your overseas provinces won't produce anything because you don't have any convoys assigned to them. Overseas provinces need to ship their goods to your capital province.

Set your trade screen to automatically maintain a stockpile of one clipper (ie, buy it from the world market). That way they'll get added to your convoy network whenever overseas production increases. I think you need convoys for any unconnected provinces, even those not overseas, like Westphalia and the Rheinland, too. And Sigmaringen (sp?).

If that isn't the problem, I don't know what it could be.
 
Responses

As it is saturday, I have lots of time to play and here another update comes...

Germanpeon
Thanks for the tip. I simply bought some clipper from the marekt and voilá, the RGO produces.

The Frozen
Yep, I know that the badboy-issue is the most tricky one, but this makes the game interesting.

All others
Thanks for the interst.
Anyone a clue how fast BB cools down ?
I have the feeling that it is about 0.5 BB per year or even less.
 
Boredom and Diplo-action

The year 1838 (and also the following two) are quite calm for Prussia.
We don't fiddle with anybody for land, cash or whatever, simply burning BB and building up our industry.

The first step was getting mechanical production.


Seeing that I have quite a good surplus, I lowered the taxes for the rich to encourage them to build railroads. If they build factories, it's a nice bonus.



Time passes and meanwhile I can research a new tech.
This time the army will be upgraded.



Later on I also researched the according Artillery upgrade, which increased my army upkeep costs by 10 (!). Luckily I have a good running industry...

Events stimulated industry growth...


Sometimes I have the feeling that the game rewards being non-agressive.

Other events struck home:


I declined and got a +20 relation boost with British east india. Hey, we are neighbours and I don't want to haggle with them. My DI were used to increase the relations, too.

Also the Egyptians became annoying...at least for the Ottomans and so we European great powers were called.
I went with the Brits.


To reduce the militancy of the poorer classes I issued some political reforms, which will do no harm for my longer goals, but they increase the income a bit and reduce militancy for the liberals.


As you see, the Konservative Partei will still be in charge as the landed ones are all conservative...

In addition, the first events of the mechanical production fired.
The results are quite remarkable:


Before the year 1840 was completed, I had to decide to go with the naval hero or superior crew thesis. I decided with the superior crew and it was done.


Also reducing the taxes did the intended job.
Railroads were built and two further rails are in construction.
So the Capis are doing their job. (All red circled ones are newly built inthe three years)
.

Meanwhile i increased the relations with British India and Russia. When waging war with Austria, I don't need russia stabbing in my back.
 
Last edited:
Cool, I'll be reading. :)
 
More Boredom or not ?

2nd update for today.

It is still calm in central Europe.

Here is the Infrastructure map of Prussia in January 1843:




I got the choice between the Jominian or Clausewitzian Army.
As a good Prussian, I select Clausewitz.


It seems that prussians strength has been recognised...
The ottoman empire wants to ally with me. Although tempting, I refuse. I want to pick my wars myself.


Russia also asked me to ally. This was even more tmepting, but I don't want to be at war with UK and British India.



In a grand flash of foresight I annexed Johore. Here is the real reason...


And finally Austria couldn't resist. The Trap is closed.


Hooraay!
The war was quick and swift.
Only a few weeks later, Austria wanted peace:


At first I refused as I wanted a fourth province. The war dragged on, but Austria didn't cave in. Finally I accepted the 3 provinces. I could have saved 5 Months and about 40K manpower if I accepted it right at the beginning.
OK, I'll put it under "Lessons Learned"

After being back to peace, I'll stabilized my economy, did some diplomacy with Bavaria (they seemd to need Stock exchange qite badly...) and prepared teh Krakow-trap again.




Also a traitor was cought and swiftly executed.
Saxony wan't amused, but they can be happy that I didn't something worse...
OK, I wanted the prestige gain...
 
War with Austria and Denmark

The 5 years between the two Austrian-Prussian wars were calm, but Austria seems to be sucidal and attacked Krakow again. The trap sprung a second time.



After a grand Bloodbath in Karsbad, where I cut of Radetsky with 120.000 men from any support and then sucessfully reduced the pocket, Austria proposed this treaty.



I accepted.
Just after demobilizing the troops, Denmark went wild and pressed the Slesvig question. I declared war.


The war went better than anticipated.
One army goup went to Stralsund to push the danes back to home, the other group annexed Holstein and pushed further into danish territory.

Then London came up with a protocol. I refused to give up all gains I made.


I want all. And nearly got all.


I should have accepted the London Protocol and not annexed Holstein. The provinces I got are good, no question, but my Badboy ramped up to 15.5 (!).
Seems to be that I am counted as agressor.

At least, peace is secured again and a deal with Hanover is done.


Also the trap is set for a 3rd time.
All good things will come thrice.




Based on the fact that BB is cooling of with 0.5 per year, I have now 31 years of peacetime to deal with.
It will be intersting what the German unification will do to my BB score.

Here is the Infrastructure map of Prussia in 1848


I already researched early rail road and as Iron railraod is unavailable until 1860, I have plenty of time to build.
At least my Prestige ramped up to 2nd place. And having researched lots of cultural techs, additional points will come in.
 
Last edited:
Gj :d
 
Good job so far, like the Krakow trap. Personally I would've pressed for more provinces in Bohemia rather than Slovakia as the percentage of Germans are much higher there. Also, the RGOs are much better.
 
Responses

So, today I could play another bunch of years to please your undying appetite for updates. The next one will be on wednesday (at earliest).

Dysken
I am toying with the idea of releaseing Hungary from that or having something to offer then it comes to trading provinces. We'll see. Actually I am draining all craftmen from it.
When coming to the 3rd Austrian-Prussian war, I heeded your advice.

Legosim
We will see how Unification affects my BB. If it goes to high, I have to 2-step annex African countries and release them again.
 
Bashing Austrians again and lots of Diplomacy

Beginning with 1848, the fun period begins.

The Bismark event looks quite nice (5-6 new Infantry units) but as the liberal revolution is still raging, I can't risk accumulating the militancy.
So I lost 2 infantry units which defected but reduced the militancy of those who are agitated by the liberal revolution, making Prussia a calm sea during the liberal storm in Europe.


The idea of releasing Hungary was foiled...


I decided to have the austrians cope with themselves.

Then the guys in Frankfurt offered the King of Prussia being the German Kaiser, but mere as a Figurehead than with real power. Also 200 Points prestige is quite nifty. I declined and got additional prestige.


After Austria reintegrated Hungary again, they looked to Krakow a third time and the trap worked again. It is getting tedious now.
3 Months later, Prussia took additional provinces in Bohemia. Krakow is still independant, so spending a DI for arming the trap a 4th time is not a waste.


Havin lots of DI's available and nothing to do, I decided to buy colonies that conquering them. The first country is Portugal:


The second is Spain:


And Russia:


I got +150 relation by staying neutral in the Crimean war, so the deals were acceptable.

These deals cost me around 120 prestive due to tech-giveaway. Researching the cultural path before prooved quite handy as the whole investions provided the prestige I needed.


Leter I got this event


Normally I would have choosen the gunboat diplomacy, but in this game, it would have me cost 2 years of inactivity or one province, so I payed 1 prestige here.

Until 1856 nothing happened in the european theatre.
I looked where nations are in the negative prestige (in order to make a colonial war and perform a 2-step annexation) and found some targets.
In the next summary I'll provide the (already attacked) targets.
But then this happened just after UK dealt with tasmania.



Please have a look here...


What happened here ?
The wordmarket goes crazy. (Just look at the exports).
I saved the game and will check if it goes back to normal after reload.
Luckily only 2 days are broken. I hope it is OK when I reload the game. If not, continue playing would be senseless.
 
You do realize, though, that paying for stuff with techs costs you 10 prestige per tech? Your prestige went from ~420 to 335 after the deals.
As for the world market, it says you are selling 100,000 units of products on that day, are you running the trade AI? It may just have dumped a year's worth of grain or so on the market.