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Neutrality is Overrated, a Belgian WC AAR

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A Few More Dutch Wars

From here the Belgian approach towards the Dutch was simple. Declare war, occupy Amsterdam, and then accept whatever peace deal the Dutch offer. Then repeat. There is actually very little detail to report because at this stage the Dutch army was wiped out of Europe, so it was just a matter of time to collect all the Dutch colonies.

After the Fifth Dutch War

5thdutchwaryb5.png

After the Sixth Dutch War

6thdutrchwaraz0.png

After the Seventh Dutch War

7thdutrchwargh0.png

After the Eighth Dutch War

8thdutrchwarkj5.png

After the Ninth Dutch War

9thdutrchwarpt7.png

And finally after the Tenth Dutch War

10thdutrchwarmn7.png

In my next update I’ll give a state of the Empire address where we will look at the maps, and economy (I’m already in a financial crisis and it’s only 1838)
 
10 dutch wars, I'd hate to see how many you'll do with Russia :D . Is the bad boy relevant in this AAR or did you..."opt" it out? If it is, man your dead when those treaties of sorts expire.
 
What's your prestige at the end of all that?

Not bored at all - I just found the repeats slightly amusing ;)
 
Your badboy is over ninethousaaaaaa ... okay, I'll stop it. :rofl: And now tell me how mighty Belgium will stop the French & Germans from eating all the Belgian waffles, ja?
 
The State of the Empire, January 29,1839

stateoftheempirejan2918ld6.png

For the most part, I’ll simply post the pics that tell the picture of how we’re doing. There’s the good, (our expansion), the bad (our debt), and the ugly (our prestige). Oh yea, and then there’s or badboy at 131.71.

I figure I have a five year window before those guarantees start to expire, so in that five years I have to build up a strong enough military to deal with the eventual badboy wars.

factoryoverviewjan1839af0.png

Actually 11 factories is a lot at this stage of the game.

Then there’s the economy

jan291839belgianeconomyqt6.png

And the political situation

jan291839politacalsituacl2.png

Actually looking at it I might be better off with the liberals in power.

Next come the maps of the Belgian Empire. First Greater Belgium…

jan291839greaterbelgiumqf8.png

Then the Belgian West Indies

jan291839belgiancaribeaml9.png

And lastly the Belgian East Indies

jan291839belgianfareastgk9.png
 
Where Do We Go From Here

Which brings us to out strategic options: We only have 5 divisions, obviously not enough to survive the badboy wars to say nothing of achieving world conquest. We need to conquer more people in order to gain more money in order to survive. It’s one of those pre-emptive things.

Here are some choices

France
I think we could launch a surprise attack that would catch the French unaware, and allow us to capture Paris before the French were ready for a counter strike. Of course I might fail, and the game could be over pretty quickly. Also France is one of my guarantors, so I don’t know that I want to end that

Spain
Spanish colonies are in the same area as mine, so it would be a nice expansion, the problem is I lack any fighting ships, so I’m not sure that I could pull that war off

Denmark (and her satellite Holstein)
The benefit of this one would be a two for one deal. I could annex Holstein, and make some gains against Denmark. But I’m not sure how much profit I could gain from the war.

Germany
There’s money to be made in Germany, and plenty of prestige, but I’m not sure if I’m ready to take on Prussia yet, let’s just move on.

Russia
There’s war indemnities, but…

Anam (and her satellite Cambodia)
Definitely doable with only three divisions, this is probably my favorite option at present

Portugal
If I could make the landing, then I could definitely beat the Portuguese, but is there any money in it?

Any other ideas…
 
Quirinus308 said:
Which brings us to out strategic options: We only have 5 divisions, obviously not enough to survive the badboy wars to say nothing of achieving world conquest. We need to conquer more people in order to gain more money in order to survive. It’s one of those pre-emptive things.

Here are some choices

France
I think we could launch a surprise attack that would catch the French unaware, and allow us to capture Paris before the French were ready for a counter strike. Of course I might fail, and the game could be over pretty quickly. Also France is one of my guarantors, so I don’t know that I want to end that

Spain
Spanish colonies are in the same area as mine, so it would be a nice expansion, the problem is I lack any fighting ships, so I’m not sure that I could pull that war off

Denmark (and her satellite Holstein)
The benefit of this one would be a two for one deal. I could annex Holstein, and make some gains against Denmark. But I’m not sure how much profit I could gain from the war.

Germany
There’s money to be made in Germany, and plenty of prestige, but I’m not sure if I’m ready to take on Prussia yet, let’s just move on.

Russia
There’s war indemnities, but…

Anam (and her satellite Cambodia)
Definitely doable with only three divisions, this is probably my favorite option at present

Portugal
If I could make the landing, then I could definitely beat the Portuguese, but is there any money in it?

Any other ideas…
Click to expand...

Im thinking Anam and/or Denmark. But the unforeseen opportunities will help you, question is when.
 
I am pretty sure that you could have just annexed the dutch once you occupied Amsterdam, unless their colonies in the West Indies were states. Once you occupy all of a country's states, and it's three or fewer provinces, you can annex, regardless of the number of colonies. It's most useful with the Netherlands.
 
Clean up south east asia. RAther you than the French.
 
I dunno, but in my opinion, you should start to sabotage the German unification as soon as possible, because sooner or later (probably sooner) we'll probably try a Sichelschnitt again ... :rofl:
 
Annam! With five divisions, wouldn't taking on a major power be suicide?
 
Everybody likes to pick on Annam. :rolleyes:
 
War in Southeast Asia

Obviously with only 5 divisions we are not in any position to take on France or Prussia, so the decision is made to go after Annam and Cambodia. In the mean time 9 new cavalry divisions were ordered to prepare for a future war in Europe.

We sailed our fleet to the coast of Cambodia, and there we waited for a diplomat, and we waited, and we waited. One of the problems with breaking all those peace deals with the Netherlands was a -450 prestige. This means we only get 1 diplomat a year. The troops stayed in their boats off the coast of Cambodia for 6 months before we were finally able to act.

aug61839warincambodiasr1.png

The plan is relatively simple. We will land in Cambodia and drive north until the country is completely occupied. After we annex Cambodia we will raise 9 native divisions to assist with Annam, and then to perform police duties with the rebellions that are sure to follow.

The landing occurred on August 20, 1839

aug101839invasionje9.png

The initial landing was a success, and we set about the process of occupying the city.

While this was taking place, the pops back home decided to launch an election campaign. I guess I’m rooting for the liberals, but truthfully I’d rather be an absolute monarchy, oh well

nov41839electionlauncheps5.png

The next battle for Cambodia involved two enemy divisions, but they were still outnumbered and outgunned. It wasn’t much of a battle.

sept301839cambodiadh4.png

We were enjoying the war, when even more good news came in…

aug271839interchangeabldu2.png

Finally on December 5, 1839 Cambodia joined the greater Belgian Empire.

dec51839annexcambodiame7.png

About this same time, those initial cavalry units were ready for deployment. We have an extra diplomat now, so we can start another war in Europe, but the problem is where, France to the west, or the German states to the east.
 
A Slight Stumble

With Cambodia annexed the Belgian army began it’s invasion of Annam by cutting the nation in two at Touran.

jan71840battleoftorunlb5.png

Again there’s not much of a battle as European technology surpasses the Vietnamese irregular troops. While occupying the province the Vietnamese sent troops into Cambodia, forcing us to split our army in two. Two divisions struck north to continue the offensive, while a third division went to clear up Cambodia.

feb81840vietnamui5.png

With everything apparently going well in Indochina, it seemed like a good time to start our war in Europe. The target we chose was the tiny single province nation of Lippe-Detmold. This of course put us at war with the entire German alliance. Not a pretty picture.

feb141840warineuropeit6.png

Meanwhile we suffered our first defeat against Annam as my two divisions were not enough to push the Vietnamese out of Hue.

apr81840lossathueqf3.png
 
That doesn't look good. :wacko:
 
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