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See, what did i tell you? Wait till you get Tutankhamen!
Good work neutralising Austria, hopefully your chance for revenge will come. Also, even if you are a Constitutional Monarchy you should be able to choose government, what ideologies are your State Capitalist parties?
Good work neutralising Austria, hopefully your chance for revenge will come. Also, even if you are a Constitutional Monarchy you should be able to choose government, what ideologies are your State Capitalist parties?
How strong are you compared to Portugal (particularly your miltary in Africa)? Their colonial possessions seem to place them as one of your three natural rivals.
Even if Portugal is still a secondary power, it might be worth trying to get Rhodesia before the British do. I expect there might be quite a lot of gold there. Of course, maybe Tanzania has more of the precious coffee - but at least you've hemmed Portugal in nicely already.
I really meant immigration into my country, not a migration between cores and colonies. I thought very low taxes would make my country more attractive to people from other countries, but apparently it does not affect migration this way, at least not when I was trying it with a couple of European countries. Any idea why this sort of migration is limited to the Americas? Strikes me as rather odd, considering the centuries of migration in Europe.
Thanks for all the inputs!
I don't think so, for several reasons:
(1) in my experience, POPs only go to work in factories when the RGOs are full. And there's plenty of open space in Africa
(2) I think international immigration only happens when the destination is in the Americas.
It's very annoying. I have put the relations all the way down to -190 or something, but my 'influence' is still such that they are still in my SOI. The annoying part is that I can't figure out how to expel them - you can't DOW people in your SOI. The 'remove from sphere' button only let's you remove _another_ GP's SOI. Anyone know how to do this?
D'oh, good point! I may well do that. Any suggestions for a good profitable factory type, other than cement? Seems like liquor/winery always does well, and canned food always does poorly - any good rules of thumb/heuristics for choosing this?
I've also been reluctant to do this just because I've been curious to see just how slothful my capitalists can be - I can (sorta) understand their reluctance to build factories, but also I think they have subsidized a grand total of 1 railroad the entire game! This is doubly odd as in my Persia games they were maniacs about subsidizing railroads, I almost never had to do this myself. Odd....
thanks! Yes, that was quite the lucky rescue.
I have, but I only have the one NF, and so if I'm colonizing, I'm not encouraging bureaucrats. Not sure how to best balance this.
Excellent point re Portugal - I'll double check, last time I looked they were around 13th or so.
I had decided against walling off the Brits, on the theory that it would just give them a reason to DOW me, and also southwestern africa is some pretty worthless real estate! May reconsider though now that the 'prime cuts' are disappearing from the table.
Well, I'm up to 1887, and it's still the same old story. The problem seems to be that (a) as a much larger power, they get much more influence 'juice' then I do, and (b) nobody else seems to really be fighting with them (diplomatically). Oh well, I shall continue
thanks!
I don't think so, for several reasons:
(1) in my experience, POPs only go to work in factories when the RGOs are full. And there's plenty of open space in Africa
(2) I think international immigration only happens when the destination is in the Americas.
It's very annoying. I have put the relations all the way down to -190 or something, but my 'influence' is still such that they are still in my SOI. The annoying part is that I can't figure out how to expel them - you can't DOW people in your SOI. The 'remove from sphere' button only let's you remove _another_ GP's SOI. Anyone know how to do this?
D'oh, good point! I may well do that. Any suggestions for a good profitable factory type, other than cement? Seems like liquor/winery always does well, and canned food always does poorly - any good rules of thumb/heuristics for choosing this?
I've also been reluctant to do this just because I've been curious to see just how slothful my capitalists can be - I can (sorta) understand their reluctance to build factories, but also I think they have subsidized a grand total of 1 railroad the entire game! This is doubly odd as in my Persia games they were maniacs about subsidizing railroads, I almost never had to do this myself. Odd....
thanks! Yes, that was quite the lucky rescue.
me neither!I also wasnt aware that coffee could be such a moneybringer.
I have, but I only have the one NF, and so if I'm colonizing, I'm not encouraging bureaucrats. Not sure how to best balance this.
Excellent point re Portugal - I'll double check, last time I looked they were around 13th or so.
I had decided against walling off the Brits, on the theory that it would just give them a reason to DOW me, and also southwestern africa is some pretty worthless real estate! May reconsider though now that the 'prime cuts' are disappearing from the table.
Well, I'm up to 1887, and it's still the same old story
. The problem seems to be that (a) as a much larger power, they get much more influence 'juice' then I do, and (b) nobody else seems to really be fighting with them (diplomatically). Oh well, I shall continue thanks!
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whoops, I had missed the inputs on page 5! Thanks again for the feedback!
I shall check! thanks for the tip(s)!
I'm significantly stronger than them, but they, using their Portugese charms, have managed to ally themselves with the UK and the Netherlands.
Isn't Rhodesia where 'Oranje' was? Or maybe where 'Transvaal' is? If so, I have the former, and have been unable to attack the latter.
I shall check! thanks for the tip(s)!
I'm significantly stronger than them, but they, using their Portugese charms, have managed to ally themselves with the UK and the Netherlands
.Isn't Rhodesia where 'Oranje' was? Or maybe where 'Transvaal' is? If so, I have the former, and have been unable to attack the latter.
Last time I played you couldn't expel any country from your own SOI, so you have to look very far ahead in this game before you let anyone in.
Are your rich taxes still at 100 %? If that's the case your capitalists might very well be out of cash and then they won't build. Have a look at your capitalist POPs and see whether they have any cash.
re expelling - bummer
re rich taxes - they are at 20%. So nope, that's not the problem
Quick SAF history lesson: (former) Transvaal, (former) OFS and British South Africa (pre Boer War) were combined in 1810 to form the Union of South Africa. Rhodesia would be the lands above Transvaal and west of Portuguese Mozambique.
thanks! Then I already own it - it's the "Danish" in "Danish Africa" in my earlier screen grab, no? I know the lands to the west of the "Danish" are Botswana (tiny spoiler alert - a few years after this grab I colonized Botswana
)
thanks! Then I already own it - it's the "Danish" in "Danish Africa" in my earlier screen grab, no? I know the lands to the west of the "Danish" are Botswana (tiny spoiler alert - a few years after this grab I colonized Botswana
Yes it would be and the ''3'' would be Botswana, soon to be Danish Bechuanaland
.
Chapter 7: from Bullee to Bully
Chapter 7: from Bullee to Bully
Welcome back, everyone, to the next 10 years of adventures in Dane-land! This chapter boasts lots of action on lots of fronts, and ends with my asking for your advice as to a major strategy decision.
When we left Denmark, it was the start of 1880, and Denmark was expanding as rapidly as it could into Africa, and was at peace (for once), hamstrung only by a lack of POPs (and hence a lack of NF/Industry), and by an inability to either (a) get Sweden out of Russia's SOI, or (b) get Austria out of Southern Denmark.
Instead of going purely chronoligically this chapter, I'm going to go 'column-major order' and trace a few 'columns' (e.g. the fate of a few countries, the progress of industry, etc.) before coming back to the main chronological thread. Hope this isn't confusing, I am much more sympathetic to people writing history books as a result of writing these AARs
Prussian Peculiarities Propagate
At the end of the last chapter, Prussia, who has not attacked a single European power the entire game, wound up and took a mighty blow at .... Egypt, grabbing a coastal province. What were those guys smokin'?
Well, whatever it was, not only does it continue in April 1880 as Prussia launches a war of annexation on Ethiopia, but the rest of Europe catches a contact high, as during this session the European powers take turns carving up Egypt. Denmark also manages to get in on the fun - I'm going to fast-forwards here to the end of the session, check out the dismemberment of Egypt as of 1890:
From top to bottom, that's France, the Ottoman Empire, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, and Prussia - Egypt is left with a total of two territories - Alexandria, and the western Sudan. And, as of the end of this chapter, Prussia is engaged in a war of annexation on them! Wow.
The Danish role in this was to grab the two southern territories (the southern half of the Sudan in 1883, and then snatch Khartoum (the northern Territory) out from under Prussia's nose in 1889, while Prussia was busy conquering it as well - by having more limited war goals, I was able to get it before Prussia could. Bwa ha ha.
Lightning strikes twice in the UK
Early in this chapter, the Eye of Sauron (the UK) turns to China, as it rips off two nice hunks:
(1) is the British gains into China (and Burma), (2) shows the Chinese gains westward, while (3) shows that Russia has annexed Afghanistan, and is ever-so-close to a naval base on the Indian Ocean.
But then in 1887 lightning strikes twice in the same place, as for the second time this game....
Rebels overthrow the UK government, for the second time throwing out all their SOIs. For the second time, no GP (like France, Russia, etc.) capitalizes on this. Sigh.
The State of Danish Industry
I've been whining about (err, I mean, pointing out) the problems I've had building up my industrial bases - for one thing, this entire game, my Capis have built a grand total of ... .0 factories. I almost spit out my Diet Coke when in April 1883
oh my god, my capitalists actually build a factory! Of course, it's a quite stupid build, but at least I know the game isn't broken.
Other than that heart-pounding excitement, nothing happens until July 1887, when I read this forum, and take winsingtonIII's advice, and realize I can change ruling parties to one that has 'State Capitalism'. It turns out of all my parties, only the 'Reactionary' party allows this, so I switch to them. Even though they only have something like 10% of the vote, the populace seems fine with this, and it lets me build a whole 2 more factories. Just to show that if anything, this is over-building, here's my industry screen as of 1890:
Feeble indeed. My hope is that as some of my more populous African provinces convert to States (more on this below), I can build some factories down there - mainland Denmark continues to suffer significant emigration, by the end of this chapter population is down to about 400K total, down from about 600K peak.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but what about all the wars?
Thanks for bearing with me through the 'drill-downs' into Egypt, the UK, and Industry, it made more sense this way than zig-zagging back and forth in the chronological narrative. But now back to the chronological narrative!
Other than the already-mentioned stuff above, things are all quiet from 1880 all the way up to 1884. In June of that year, Italy, a nice solid new power, offers me an alliance - I accept as a counter-balance to Austria. In December of that year, I get cruisers, a huge improvement in naval firepower - I immediately start steadily producing a flow of them.
The first almost-world-war
Just a few months later, in April 1885, Portugal DOWs me. Unfortunately, their much more powerful ally, the Netherlands, joins in. On my side, both Italy and France answer the call. This is a mixed blessing, as on the one hand it makes my side clearly the stronger side. On the other hand, France takes leadership:
wasn't there something in the 1.2 patch notes that said this wasn't supposed to happen anymore? This is the 2nd time this has happened to me.
At any rate, here we have it, an almost-world war - 2 GPs on my side (France, Denmark) vs. 1 GP on the other (Netherlands), with 1 second-rank power on each side (Italy on mine, Portugal on theirs).
This will be the first real test of my navy this entire game - will all my focus on naval technology pay off? I really don't know what level my opponents have (a nice touch - EU3 gave you too much info), so I'm anxious when in June 1885, in my first real test, my main fleet (all of 9 warships) sallies forth against a 20 ship dutch fleet:
I win very easily, but inflict no casualties - they just flee back into port. A few months later they come back out again, and I thrash them:
Yes! however, note that I only get 0.1 warscore - more on this later.
It must be nice to be France
Almost immediately after the start of the war, France gets a massive rebellion:
In a sign of how powerful France is, in just two months, not only do they manage to break the back of the rebellion (1) , but while they're at it they blockade Portugal (3) and the Netherlands, and start a land invasion of the latter (2):
impressive!
In Africa, a confused scrum breaks out, as Portugal nicely holds the central position between my northern and southern African colonies. While I slightly outnumber them overall, they do a good job using the central position. I gradually tighten the vise on them, but it takes a while, and in March 1886, less than a year after starting the war, when I am just about to annilhate the entire Portugese African army (45K men, who I have surrounded and in a battle), France slightly screws me:
They take some provinces for themselves, and I get nada. Grrr. Well, in their place, I would have done the same
One slight silver lining here - after his war ends, I take Dewirix's advice, and notice that Portugal is down to 23rd in the GP rankings - no more colonization for them!
The Second almost-world war
In the middle of the first almost-world war, a second breaks out. While Prussia is still dead-set against attacking Austria, luckily the reverse isn't true, and in October 1885 Austria idiotically DOWs Prussia.
This idiocy is trumped in April 1886 when Russia also DOWs Prussia - this makes some sense as a backstab, though their war goal (1/2 of Ethiopia!) is another sign of the African infatuation everyone seems to have.
check out the balance of forces - Prussia is one beefy power:
I call this an 'almost world war' because it's technically two separate wars, but effectively it's 2 GPs (Austria, Russia) against 1 (Prussia).
As soon as the war I'm in with Portugal/Netherlands ends, I debate whether to DOW Austria. I decide against it, as Sweden (allied with Prussia) is busily evicting the Austrians out of Austrian Denmark - if I DOW, I won't be able to conquer the province, because I'm not at war with Sweden. My plan instead is to pounce as soon as the Austro-Prussian war ends, while they are still weakened.
As I had predicted, the second almost-world-war fizzles out, as in June 1887., after just 1 year in the fight, Russia white-peaces out (they got off lucky, I'm surprised Prussia didn't demand something). Just two months later, in August 1887, Austria gives in 'admitting hegemony' with Prussia. (those of you who have played Austria or Prussia - what does this mean?)
The Danish mouse roars - the third almost-world war
Well, whatever it means, I've been waiting not-so-patiently for 30 years for Austria to be in a vulnerable position, and i'm not going to wait any longer - in August 1887, literally the day after Austria settles with Prussia, I DOW Austria.
On my side, I decide not to call allies - if I call France, they will just take leadership and I won't get what I want out of the war. If I call Italy, Austria will probably smack them around.
On their side, they do call allies (ooh, scared of little Denmark, are we?), and the OE answers! Little ol' Denmark is up against two GPs - luckily the OE can't really hurt me much.
A bad sign, and a good one
The war starts on a bad sign, as Italian intelligence reports:
A 95 ship fleet moving out of Austria and towards me. As my main battle fleet is something like 16 ships, this is somewhat worrisome, but what the heck, the die are cast... I move my military into Austrian Denmark (empty thanks to the eviction the Swedes had just performed), and get ready for some naval rock-em-sock-em.
The first test comes in November 1887, when my 16 ship main fleet (with +3 attacking leader) attacks a 35 ship Austrian fleet.
I breathe a big sigh of relief, as it appears I have a huge technological edge on Austrians. Not just in ship type (they are almost all frigates, it appears, while I have a motley mix of commerce raiders, monitors, ironclads, and a few cruisers), but also in Attack/Defense/Org - their morale plummets to zero in just a few days, and I win very easily. Yes! The only 'bad news' is that I hardly sink any ships, most of them flee into a neutral port.
I send my small but mighty fleet on the attack, chasing 30-ship Austrian fleets hither and yon, and sometimes catching them. The highlight comes in March 1888, when:
I vaporize 30 Austrian ships, without losing a single ship myself! Yes! However, note that I only get 0.1 warscore from it - looks like maybe you only get points for sinking heavy ships??
The same thing happens a few months later:
I sink 57 ships, lose 0 - nice ratio
From victories to stalemate...
By August 1889, after two years of war, we are in stalemate, basically. I have conquered Austrian Denmark, and sunk roughly half the Austrian navy. Austria has somehow managed to sneak forces into Greenland and the Comoros (the little islands north of Madagascar), but no biggie. However now we are in stalemate. They really aren't going to do anything to me, but short of a land invasion into Austria, I can't do anymore to them, and my warscore is only +4. More on this later....
Transvaal
I've been wanting to DOW my satellite, Transvaal, for a long time, but (a) have had no CB, and (b) due to a bug in the game, you can't expel somebody from your own SOI, and you can't DOW somebody in your SOI, so I've done nothing. But the game seems to really really want me to, as in November 1889 I get an event that is specifically tailored to give annexation DOWs against Transvaal:
I really hate to do this, and have never done this before, I but I really think I'm going to edit the save-game file to move 'Transvaal' from SOI to Friendly - this actually seems closer to the spirit of the game, given the event above. If this causes any of you to react with horror, let me know, I could reconsider, I hate saved-game editing except for bug fixes (hell, otherwise, why not just edit your saved game to give yourself 100 dreadnoughts, or a billion pounds, or whatever? what's the point of playing?), but I think this qualifies as a bug fix.
Speaking of Africa....
I've mentioned Egypt, and Transvaal - overall, in Africa, I have continued my mad expansion, and have quite the large empire now, including blocking the UK from northern expansion:
The Austrian Dilemma...
Let me end by coming back to this Austrian issue. As I mentioned above, we've been at war for 2.5 years (it's now January 1890), and my warscore is stuck at 4 - it won't budge as I exterminate the Austrian fleet, and there's really not much else I can do to them. (Oh, BTW, the OE white-peaced out about a year ago). Here are the options, and I'm quite torn:
(1) stick it out. My war exhaustion is at 2, theirs is at 10. Why not wait? Maybe they'll eventually cave, maybe they'll eventually get rebellions. Or something. The only real risk I see here is that in 6 months I'll probably get DOWed by Portugal/Netherlands again, and this might stretch my navy mighty thin. Oh, and I can't convert provinces to statehood while at war....
(2) white peace. I have 3 different African provinces ready for statehood, but you can't do it while at war. If I'm not going to win anyway, why not quit now, and do the statehood conversions, before the next Portugese war? This should let me up my Industrial score, one of the 'big 3' for GP ranking.
(3) call Italy. The good news is, if they answer the call, I still maintain war leadership. The bad news is, they only have 49 brigades, to the Austrian 170.
(4) call France. The good news, if they answer the call, they have 148 brigades. The bad news is (a) that still might not be enough, and (b) they will take war leadership, which will screw me. Also, if they don't answer the call, and break the alliance, this might embolden your Russias, your UKs, etc. to DOW me.
I'm honestly torn here - any votes/inputs/suggestions?
Chapter 7: from Bullee to Bully
Welcome back, everyone, to the next 10 years of adventures in Dane-land! This chapter boasts lots of action on lots of fronts, and ends with my asking for your advice as to a major strategy decision.
When we left Denmark, it was the start of 1880, and Denmark was expanding as rapidly as it could into Africa, and was at peace (for once), hamstrung only by a lack of POPs (and hence a lack of NF/Industry), and by an inability to either (a) get Sweden out of Russia's SOI, or (b) get Austria out of Southern Denmark.
Instead of going purely chronoligically this chapter, I'm going to go 'column-major order' and trace a few 'columns' (e.g. the fate of a few countries, the progress of industry, etc.) before coming back to the main chronological thread. Hope this isn't confusing, I am much more sympathetic to people writing history books as a result of writing these AARs
Prussian Peculiarities Propagate
At the end of the last chapter, Prussia, who has not attacked a single European power the entire game, wound up and took a mighty blow at .... Egypt, grabbing a coastal province. What were those guys smokin'?
Well, whatever it was, not only does it continue in April 1880 as Prussia launches a war of annexation on Ethiopia, but the rest of Europe catches a contact high, as during this session the European powers take turns carving up Egypt. Denmark also manages to get in on the fun - I'm going to fast-forwards here to the end of the session, check out the dismemberment of Egypt as of 1890:
From top to bottom, that's France, the Ottoman Empire, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, and Prussia - Egypt is left with a total of two territories - Alexandria, and the western Sudan. And, as of the end of this chapter, Prussia is engaged in a war of annexation on them! Wow.
The Danish role in this was to grab the two southern territories (the southern half of the Sudan in 1883, and then snatch Khartoum (the northern Territory) out from under Prussia's nose in 1889, while Prussia was busy conquering it as well - by having more limited war goals, I was able to get it before Prussia could. Bwa ha ha.
Lightning strikes twice in the UK
Early in this chapter, the Eye of Sauron (the UK) turns to China, as it rips off two nice hunks:
(1) is the British gains into China (and Burma), (2) shows the Chinese gains westward, while (3) shows that Russia has annexed Afghanistan, and is ever-so-close to a naval base on the Indian Ocean.
But then in 1887 lightning strikes twice in the same place, as for the second time this game....
Rebels overthrow the UK government, for the second time throwing out all their SOIs. For the second time, no GP (like France, Russia, etc.) capitalizes on this. Sigh.
The State of Danish Industry
I've been whining about (err, I mean, pointing out) the problems I've had building up my industrial bases - for one thing, this entire game, my Capis have built a grand total of ... .0 factories. I almost spit out my Diet Coke when in April 1883
oh my god, my capitalists actually build a factory! Of course, it's a quite stupid build
, but at least I know the game isn't broken.Other than that heart-pounding excitement, nothing happens until July 1887, when I read this forum, and take winsingtonIII's advice, and realize I can change ruling parties to one that has 'State Capitalism'. It turns out of all my parties, only the 'Reactionary' party allows this, so I switch to them. Even though they only have something like 10% of the vote, the populace seems fine with this, and it lets me build a whole 2 more factories. Just to show that if anything, this is over-building, here's my industry screen as of 1890:
Feeble indeed. My hope is that as some of my more populous African provinces convert to States (more on this below), I can build some factories down there - mainland Denmark continues to suffer significant emigration, by the end of this chapter population is down to about 400K total, down from about 600K peak.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but what about all the wars?
Thanks for bearing with me through the 'drill-downs' into Egypt, the UK, and Industry, it made more sense this way than zig-zagging back and forth in the chronological narrative. But now back to the chronological narrative!
Other than the already-mentioned stuff above, things are all quiet from 1880 all the way up to 1884. In June of that year, Italy, a nice solid new power, offers me an alliance - I accept as a counter-balance to Austria. In December of that year, I get cruisers, a huge improvement in naval firepower - I immediately start steadily producing a flow of them.
The first almost-world-war
Just a few months later, in April 1885, Portugal DOWs me. Unfortunately, their much more powerful ally, the Netherlands, joins in. On my side, both Italy and France answer the call. This is a mixed blessing, as on the one hand it makes my side clearly the stronger side. On the other hand, France takes leadership:
wasn't there something in the 1.2 patch notes that said this wasn't supposed to happen anymore? This is the 2nd time this has happened to me
.At any rate, here we have it, an almost-world war - 2 GPs on my side (France, Denmark) vs. 1 GP on the other (Netherlands), with 1 second-rank power on each side (Italy on mine, Portugal on theirs).
This will be the first real test of my navy this entire game - will all my focus on naval technology pay off? I really don't know what level my opponents have (a nice touch - EU3 gave you too much info), so I'm anxious when in June 1885, in my first real test, my main fleet (all of 9 warships) sallies forth against a 20 ship dutch fleet:
I win very easily, but inflict no casualties - they just flee back into port. A few months later they come back out again, and I thrash them:
Yes! however, note that I only get 0.1 warscore
- more on this later.It must be nice to be France
Almost immediately after the start of the war, France gets a massive rebellion:
In a sign of how powerful France is, in just two months, not only do they manage to break the back of the rebellion (1) , but while they're at it they blockade Portugal (3) and the Netherlands, and start a land invasion of the latter (2):
impressive!
In Africa, a confused scrum breaks out, as Portugal nicely holds the central position between my northern and southern African colonies. While I slightly outnumber them overall, they do a good job using the central position. I gradually tighten the vise on them, but it takes a while, and in March 1886, less than a year after starting the war, when I am just about to annilhate the entire Portugese African army (45K men, who I have surrounded and in a battle), France slightly screws me:
They take some provinces for themselves, and I get nada. Grrr. Well, in their place, I would have done the same
One slight silver lining here - after his war ends, I take Dewirix's advice, and notice that Portugal is down to 23rd in the GP rankings - no more colonization for them!
The Second almost-world war
In the middle of the first almost-world war, a second breaks out. While Prussia is still dead-set against attacking Austria, luckily the reverse isn't true, and in October 1885 Austria idiotically DOWs Prussia.
This idiocy is trumped in April 1886 when Russia also DOWs Prussia - this makes some sense as a backstab, though their war goal (1/2 of Ethiopia!) is another sign of the African infatuation everyone seems to have.
check out the balance of forces - Prussia is one beefy power:
I call this an 'almost world war' because it's technically two separate wars, but effectively it's 2 GPs (Austria, Russia) against 1 (Prussia).
As soon as the war I'm in with Portugal/Netherlands ends, I debate whether to DOW Austria. I decide against it, as Sweden (allied with Prussia) is busily evicting the Austrians out of Austrian Denmark - if I DOW, I won't be able to conquer the province, because I'm not at war with Sweden
. My plan instead is to pounce as soon as the Austro-Prussian war ends, while they are still weakened.As I had predicted, the second almost-world-war fizzles out, as in June 1887., after just 1 year in the fight, Russia white-peaces out (they got off lucky, I'm surprised Prussia didn't demand something). Just two months later, in August 1887, Austria gives in 'admitting hegemony' with Prussia. (those of you who have played Austria or Prussia - what does this mean?)
The Danish mouse roars - the third almost-world war
Well, whatever it means, I've been waiting not-so-patiently for 30 years for Austria to be in a vulnerable position, and i'm not going to wait any longer - in August 1887, literally the day after Austria settles with Prussia, I DOW Austria.
On my side, I decide not to call allies - if I call France, they will just take leadership and I won't get what I want out of the war. If I call Italy, Austria will probably smack them around.
On their side, they do call allies (ooh, scared of little Denmark, are we?
), and the OE answers! Little ol' Denmark is up against two GPs - luckily the OE can't really hurt me much.A bad sign, and a good one
The war starts on a bad sign, as Italian intelligence reports:
A 95 ship fleet moving out of Austria and towards me. As my main battle fleet is something like 16 ships, this is somewhat worrisome
, but what the heck, the die are cast... I move my military into Austrian Denmark (empty thanks to the eviction the Swedes had just performed), and get ready for some naval rock-em-sock-em.The first test comes in November 1887, when my 16 ship main fleet (with +3 attacking leader) attacks a 35 ship Austrian fleet.
I breathe a big sigh of relief, as it appears I have a huge technological edge on Austrians. Not just in ship type (they are almost all frigates, it appears, while I have a motley mix of commerce raiders, monitors, ironclads, and a few cruisers), but also in Attack/Defense/Org - their morale plummets to zero in just a few days, and I win very easily. Yes! The only 'bad news' is that I hardly sink any ships, most of them flee into a neutral port.
I send my small but mighty fleet on the attack, chasing 30-ship Austrian fleets hither and yon, and sometimes catching them. The highlight comes in March 1888, when:
I vaporize 30 Austrian ships, without losing a single ship myself! Yes! However, note that I only get 0.1 warscore from it
- looks like maybe you only get points for sinking heavy ships??The same thing happens a few months later:
I sink 57 ships, lose 0 - nice ratio
From victories to stalemate...
By August 1889, after two years of war, we are in stalemate, basically. I have conquered Austrian Denmark, and sunk roughly half the Austrian navy. Austria has somehow managed to sneak forces into Greenland and the Comoros (the little islands north of Madagascar), but no biggie. However now we are in stalemate. They really aren't going to do anything to me, but short of a land invasion into Austria, I can't do anymore to them, and my warscore is only +4. More on this later....
Transvaal
I've been wanting to DOW my satellite, Transvaal, for a long time, but (a) have had no CB, and (b) due to a bug in the game, you can't expel somebody from your own SOI, and you can't DOW somebody in your SOI, so I've done nothing. But the game seems to really really want me to, as in November 1889 I get an event that is specifically tailored to give annexation DOWs against Transvaal:
I really hate to do this, and have never done this before, I but I really think I'm going to edit the save-game file to move 'Transvaal' from SOI to Friendly - this actually seems closer to the spirit of the game, given the event above. If this causes any of you to react with horror, let me know, I could reconsider, I hate saved-game editing except for bug fixes (hell, otherwise, why not just edit your saved game to give yourself 100 dreadnoughts, or a billion pounds, or whatever? what's the point of playing?), but I think this qualifies as a bug fix.
Speaking of Africa....
I've mentioned Egypt, and Transvaal - overall, in Africa, I have continued my mad expansion, and have quite the large empire now, including blocking the UK from northern expansion:
The Austrian Dilemma...
Let me end by coming back to this Austrian issue. As I mentioned above, we've been at war for 2.5 years (it's now January 1890), and my warscore is stuck at 4 - it won't budge as I exterminate the Austrian fleet, and there's really not much else I can do to them. (Oh, BTW, the OE white-peaced out about a year ago). Here are the options, and I'm quite torn:
(1) stick it out. My war exhaustion is at 2, theirs is at 10. Why not wait? Maybe they'll eventually cave, maybe they'll eventually get rebellions. Or something. The only real risk I see here is that in 6 months I'll probably get DOWed by Portugal/Netherlands again, and this might stretch my navy mighty thin. Oh, and I can't convert provinces to statehood while at war....
(2) white peace. I have 3 different African provinces ready for statehood, but you can't do it while at war. If I'm not going to win anyway, why not quit now, and do the statehood conversions, before the next Portugese war? This should let me up my Industrial score, one of the 'big 3' for GP ranking.
(3) call Italy. The good news is, if they answer the call, I still maintain war leadership. The bad news is, they only have 49 brigades, to the Austrian 170.
(4) call France. The good news, if they answer the call, they have 148 brigades. The bad news is (a) that still might not be enough, and (b) they will take war leadership, which will screw me. Also, if they don't answer the call, and break the alliance, this might embolden your Russias, your UKs, etc. to DOW me.
I'm honestly torn here - any votes/inputs/suggestions?
Call Italy, see how it goes. If they lose badly and Austria still doesn't cave then white peace.
Stick it out. If you force an Austrian rebel problem, then you can keep them on their backheels for the rest of the game.
Might be worthing saving, calling France, then checking if you retain leadership. I was in a war against Portugal as Germany, but France was war leader, despite having less prestige and less military power than I did. However, that might be due to the fact that Portugal had declared war on Spain, who I was allied to, but was in France's SoI.
If you can't get France without losing control don't do it - you might as well White Peace out right now for the good inviting France along would do you.
From the look of this screenshot:
Italy seems not to control the whole of the Italian peninsula. If you bring them in, can they get troops to the north to face the Austrians? Have they mobilised yet? Austria's bridgade count is obviously post-mobilisation, so Italy might be able to bring anywhere from 20-50 extra brigades to the party.
How large is your army and do you have the transport capacity to get it to Italy? I would be loath to call them in unless you can make a difference to the war.
It seems clear that you'll have to open up a land front with Austria in order to get back the territory they took from you. I'd say that this represented your best chance and you should go for it. If you can back Italy up, preposition your troops and call them into the war.
Blockading Austria will also raise your warscore. How much do you need to get your land back?
If you can't get France without losing control don't do it - you might as well White Peace out right now for the good inviting France along would do you.
From the look of this screenshot:
Italy seems not to control the whole of the Italian peninsula. If you bring them in, can they get troops to the north to face the Austrians? Have they mobilised yet? Austria's bridgade count is obviously post-mobilisation, so Italy might be able to bring anywhere from 20-50 extra brigades to the party.
How large is your army and do you have the transport capacity to get it to Italy? I would be loath to call them in unless you can make a difference to the war.
It seems clear that you'll have to open up a land front with Austria in order to get back the territory they took from you. I'd say that this represented your best chance and you should go for it. If you can back Italy up, preposition your troops and call them into the war.
Blockading Austria will also raise your warscore. How much do you need to get your land back?
Is it possible for you to get military access through Prussia? If so, you can land your armies on the Baltic coast and March down to Vienna.
Stick it out and hope that Austria will will be infested with rebels within a year. If not, the white peace out if you get the slightest hint that it might not go your way.