1817 – 1821
I’m tired of this war, my manpower is low and I have to do sth about Oran, I don’t really need or want any provs from Malacca. Instead I decide to weaken them by renouncing their claims and letting go of Java entirely. As you see I wanted two friendly states around: Majapahit and Bali. Somehow the game engine gave the island of Bali to Majapahit, which means I pbly could have force-released one more tiny state. Well, I didn’t reload. It would for sure take one more war to push Malacca off Sumatra, but there’ll be no time for that. This peace resolution secures Batavia itself and the trade through its CoT well enough.
Of course I might have finished this aar here. Nothing really interesting happened, a revolt here and there so I might provide you with some statistics a world map pics and say goodbye, but… First, there were interesting developments internationally. Also, I’d like to share with you my thoughts on the game/mod as such (general praise and some issues).
In January 1819 I reach government 67 and I get to choose my last NI. I take Internal Security, for revolt risk bonus. The last NI is inconsequential really, so don’t count it in in your strategies. Still, it leads to delighted bureaucrats later. In February Theodor von Holten wins another election and retains his post. In August I get another ‘Parliament criticises foreign policy’, this severs my alliance with Great Britain but being rich and them having no other potential allies around I throw some money at the problem and they ask me back.
In 1820 I enact Sunday schools for -1 revolt risk. This almost solves my revolt risk problem. I managed to recapture Oran too (and deal with other revolts here and there). But strangely my manpower is very slow to replenish. Luckily, no conflicts on the horizon (as the game’s coming to an end).
No more provinces core till the end of the game, Cyprus was close though (final stage of the process). The money flow is a bit stunted as I have 9(!) colonies running at the moment. Many of them won’t have been completed by the end of the game.
I took ‘statistics pic’ in January1820. For once check the Asia Power! 5 Asian countries + EO & Russia in the Chart! Also, observe the almost universally 0% inflation. Finally, I think Russia and OE get some crazy bonuses to prestige, it always seems to be at 100%.
In February I get Good Government, thanx to Internal Security, I guess. I get some ‘Subversive Ideas’ event. Odd effects ‘tolerate them’: -1 stab and -2 prestige; ‘jail the thinkers’: +1 tradition and minor penalties to tech. Common, that late in the game, when stab is so precious, you’ll jail them no matter how open-minded you society is. And thus the adventure reaches its end. Happy Danzingers wave goodbye.
Internationally:
1817
Crimea : Genoa – white peace.
Silesia gets 10d from Poland; phew!
1818
Russia : Poland – white peace (?!) How weird is that?
Milan pays Savoy over 200d.
The age of Revolution…? The one in Sweden petered out, I’ve seen nothing, I say, nothing happen there.
1819
Brandenburg becomes HRE Emperor.
1820
Venice : Switzerland – white peace.
And than this happened:
!!!
And yes, Germany left the HRE and what’s more got cores on all over the place; my Hinterpommern included.
Sadly, this republic was short-lived. Out of the blue, I could see the white Austria colour down there again, so I checked the log (quoting):
25 March, 1820 Event: Laws of the Empire in German Republic.
25 March, 1820 Event: Directives to our Envoys in Brandenburg.
26 March, 1820 Event: The hand-picked successor in Election! for German Republic.
26 March, 1820 Consul Ernst Meyer was elected to office in German Republic.
26 March, 1820 German Republic will now guarantee Alsace's independence.
26 March, 1820 Decision: Establish Sunday Schools in German Republic.
26 March, 1820 Event: Greeting the Foreign Emissaries in German Republic.
26 March, 1820 Event: Charm & Gregariousness in German Republic.
30 March, 1820 Sweden allows the merchants of German Republic access to their Centres of Trade again!
1 April, 1820 German Republic broke their Alliance with Hungary.
1 April, 1820 German Republic broke their Alliance with Brandenburg.
3 April, 1820 Event: The Country's Roots in German Republic.
4 April, 1820 Decision: Unite Habsburg Lands in German Republic.
10 April, 1820 Austria will now guarantee Hungary's independence.
I think It was 4 April decision that finished the budding republic off. How sad and how illogical! As it simply means the republic decided to commit suicide.
Still on revolutions: this one couldn’t succeed either:
As for the world map I decided to put one with the German Republic around so I took a screenshot of March 1820. Danzing's holdings in nice orange.
Europe
Americas
Africa
Asia
Australia and South-East Asia
Thank you for following this aar and if you still can bear with me a bit longer I’d like to share with you a few observations / impressions of mine.
Gameplay
The game has been enjoyable throughout. From surviving as a opm->tpm, through the gamey invasion on Ireland (my excuse: being too small, the free conquistador/explorer event wouldn’t've pbly fired for me), through early colonisation, vying for supremacy over the Baltic, until the by no means peaceful 18th century.
As for 27 Nov 1457 as my choice of the date to start the game, I think it worked the balance perfectly. Denmark posed threat to northern Germany and Hansa, its rivalry with Sweden started not too soon. As for Austria it still went aggressively into the Balkans, it had not much luck with inheritances though. Nevertheless, even as not the HRE Emperor, it managed to be a power within the HRE. Poland would have folded if AI had been more consistent.
Hansa
I think I managed to preserve the Hansa spirit. First playing the Helius’s Hansa sub-system (of intricate, believable entanglements between small trading factions, unlike the bland HttT one). Than, having left the League, taking trade-focused Danzig to the New World AND managing to control the key spots on the Baltic and a few important posts on the Med and on the way to the Spice Islands.
'A threat to Hansa' was a mechanism which needed polishing. Poland was trapped in a vicious circle of dowing and then releasing Riga. But as the Hamsa model I liked so much is gone in MMU, we may let the matter drop.
Whether my MMP Danzig with its mercantile history, diversity, NIs and sliders would stand a chance to survive the era of nationalism, I don’t know. Unlike in my Navarre aar, I didn’t create a federal state, with regions preserving their traditions. Danzig, the metropolis city, would've become a true melting pot. I believe in my alternative history a Danzinger wouldn’t really mean a German, certainly not a Pole, a Danish, or Greek. It would mean a Danzinger.
Trade
One might say trade is overpowered. To some extent it is, but only as long as you remain small. Simply, there’s not that much to splash on, I for example could afford a uni on Ősel. Also, trade supremacy requires dedication/specialisation. As soon as I started colonising (different focus) money became tight. I had to budget. Establishing colonies, building and maintaining trade/war fleet, and finally developing new provs is costly. There was however a point in the game, where tariffs made me obscenely rich. (Again not broken imo, I had to invest in 1000d staple poerts.)
On the other hand, AI keeps building manus all over the place; Europe, Asia - just everywhere. I ope MMU works better in this regard.
Islands
Now, this is sort of unrealistic. AI is poor at attacking and defending them. I admit, having become a naval power, I exploited it. For, say, Ősel becoming uninvadeable territory, was NOT that plausible.
Colonisation
I admit again, I did use a gamey tactics and even though I didn’t take any of Ubik’s routes, racing for ME&C was fun and I find this far better than in vanilla. There are a few mechanisms which open up colonisation, which in turn will require some focus and dedication from the player. Wiz’s addition to settling provs and clashes with natives, even ghost colonies (this must be Ubik’s creation) added a lot of content to the process. Now, another nice surprise: the end-game pic shows USA, Brazil among other break-away states; a player would pbly have avoided the secession.
A few gripes I have regarding colonisation:
1) Bug – a province where colonisation failed, on being resettled does not restart the coring process
2) Land of Opportunity – I fear this idea has very limited use (especially with its demanding pre-requisites). It seems suited for big colonisers, but won’t they need other NIs much more, like those helping battle adm efficiency?
3) India – two things here, first: save Goa no European interest in the Sub-Continent, second: the massive Delhi poses the question if the balance of powers is set right in the region (this however might have been a fluke)
HRE
Somehow the wars of religion petered out in my game. The second, long war was not triggered. I do think the odds for them to break out should be higher. I felt like I missed out on sth potentially great. I’m yet to witness the severity of the religious strife in any of my games.
Lien is a mechanism I like in general. Still in another game of mine I had Bohemia PU -> inherit Bavaria. In the process Bohemia cored only the capital, the other three provs became lien(s), later reverted to demesne – I find this odd. (If anything it should've been the other way round.) IMO Bohemia should've either cored all Bavarian provs straight away, or (I understand the culture issue here) in situations like this legal PU -> inheritance the lien should lead to faster coring.
Finally, I felt sad about the abrupt, apparently suicidal demise of the short-lived Republic of Germany.
Nomads / Knights
Of course these didn't affect me directly. Still provinces defecting due to nomads shouldn't happen imo. Also, sth should be done about the Knights' happy hoppig (as it may lead to odd situations).
Peace resolutions
I still don’t understand the way the alliance leader is selected. The AL choice may lead to strange outcomes.
I don’t like seeing AI powers going to lengthy wars (e.g. Hungary agains Russia, Portugal against Sweden or Russia against Poland), conquering swaths of land and than …agreeing on a white peace.
Another thing is AI’s tendency to start a new war days after it concluded the old one. It seems to me in this regard MMU works better.
I love long-wait mechanism! Still, I believe it should take France a bit longer to get English continental holdings (and in fact it does, or so it seems, in MMU).
AI peacing out of wars and paying with its ally's provinces is annoying as hell. Basically, the peace negotiations still need some work done (and it seems to me HttT doesn't solve the issues here).
Late game
Is interesting! Back than, when I played vanilla I could persevere for 100 years at most.
The constitutional government and the Parliament spice things up, sometimes radically. (Opm Constitutional Islamic Republic of Algiers dowing the mighty OE!?) It was a bit bland in my game though, as I had liberals win all the time. Maybe it’s because of my NIs and sliders?
What needs tweaking imo are late-game vanilla events and…
Forts. Level 4, maybe 5, should be maximum. All too often AI finds level 5 forts (especialy those with extra advanced buildings/decisions) unbeatable anyway, and we have poor opms besieged by rebels for years on end (casus of Hamburg).
Once again thank you for reading.
Now, onto MMU.
Huh! Now we'll never find out if Danzig survived the rise of nationalism and the industrial era. Thank for an offer though. 
