• 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.
I'm enjoying reading this. The Ottomans are always interesting in this period - fighting a losing battle to stay in the top eight. Good work with Egypt. It'll be interesting to see how you fare against Russia. I, too, vote for Armenia. Any of the other options only increases the length of your border; Armenia is easiest to defend, and has juicy iron provinces. Plus, it'll be good to reduce Russia's border with Persia.
 
Allready 4 Chapters, wow thats nice progress naggy, i have a hard time keeping up with reading ;)

Thanks and keep up the good work, its been a enjoyable AAR so far :)
 
Subscribes - although I am somewhat disappointed that you aren't in Moscow yet ;)
 
Subscribes - although I am somewhat disappointed that you aren't in Moscow yet ;)

Well, I may not make it to Moscow, but I can guarantee that a lot of peasants will die. How's that?
 
Allready 4 Chapters, wow thats nice progress naggy, i have a hard time keeping up with reading ;)

Thanks and keep up the good work, its been a enjoyable AAR so far :)

I agree with those sentinments already. He's alright writing faster than I would care to. It is enjoyable, seeing the Ottomans beginning to rise from the fire that was about to extingquish.
 
Allready 4 Chapters, wow thats nice progress naggy, i have a hard time keeping up with reading ;)

Thanks and keep up the good work, its been a enjoyable AAR so far :)

Indeed - great AAR!
 
Chapter 5: The Invasion of Kars

January 10, 1842: Ottoman diplomats in Prussia request an alliance with Prussia to stop Russian aggression. They accept.

o5prussianalliance1.png
o5prussianalliance2.png


I tested this later to see what influenced the odds. Essentially, if someone declares war on you, pause and immediately look for alliances before they mobilize. If you wait until after they mobilize, they'll compare their army size to your enemy's mobilized army size, which drops your chances. In this case, if I had waited for the mobilization, the chance would have been Very Unlikely.

January 17: Russia mobilizes, more than doubling their army size. The Ottomans do not, having only 2 brigades to mobilize. However, at the outset of war, all available soldiers were built. Greece, which is in our SOI but not allied yet, is asked to ally - they accept.

January 25: France mobilizes over 100 divisions.

January 31: Prussia joins the war. Since Russia's most populous regions are in the north, this should divert much of their army. Oddly, Prussia chooses not to mobilize. Bastards.

o5callprussia1.png
o5callprussia2.png


A map of the French mobilization. All they have to do is walk across Prussia - in typical AI fashion, ignoring attrition.

o5frenchmobilization.png


February 12: In the west, almost 21,000 Russian troops are sitting on a plain with low org. Hopefully, we can wipe this stack out. Our general bonus is negated by the river and dig in bonus, but we have 3x the org.

o5bofgalati.png


The battle is more successful than I expected! However, the Russians flee north to Iasi, which has 30K more Russians - who then march down to kick my ass. I switch to my best defensive general, only to get creamed in a battle that lasts through most of March.

o5bofgalati2.png


Sitzkrieg.

o5sitzkrieg.png


While retreating from Galati to Braila, Russia opts (stupidly) to send 27000 men after me with no general. However, they get great rolls, negating the penalty from no general and the penalty for attacking a dug in army in a swamp.

o5bofbraila.png


May 4: An attempt to throw Russians out of Kars is "successful". I have forts almost complete in these provinces - I'd rather have them for myself rather than have them lost due to occupation, or completed only to fall into Russian hands.

o5bofkars.png


May 23: A look in Prussia shows a furious battle between 25K Prussians and 52K Russians near Memel...and French armies marching through Austria en route to Prussia. Don't hurry on my account or anything.

May 28: Our naval base in Kuwait is complete. Not that I can do anything with it.

June 30: Ideological Thought is completed. Given that this war may be lengthy, and I may find wolves at my door, I go for Army Professionalism for a tactics boost. The next day I get 1 nice and 1 annoying invention (Authoritarianism: -.02 con in non-colonial, Political Religion: +10% reform desire).

August 2: Another battle to try and keep the Russians out ends up in a hollow victory. My one advantage is that I am far better about avoiding attrition than the Russians.

o5boftulea.png


September 4: Russia tries again to take Tulea with no general, but this time I'm defending with a great general, rather than attacking across a river into a marsh.

o5boftulea2.png


September 9: Look! France is doing something...um...useful.

o5alaska.png


September 29: Russians are thrown out of Kars, but Ardahan falls to Russian occupation.

October 2: Constitutionalism is discovered, giving us our first +5% plurality boost.

October 27: The Russians fleeing from Kars were run down (by selecting a +speed general, then flipping to a +3 defense general the day before arrival), and I get my first wipeout of the war! (War score is now -15 (my favor)).

o5bofvan.png


November 19: A quick look at the budget shows us 30,000 pounds in debt. Ow.

December 11: Russia makes a very, very stupid mistake.

o5bofbraila2.png


December 21: Time for the chase! Since I'm fighting in allied territory, I can switch between +speed and +defense generals on the fly.

o5bofbraila3.png


My new general kicks ass - I'll need him since I can't beat them to Galati...

o5bekir.png


...so I'll just beat them in Galati! This clears out the western front of enemy troops, so I can go about freeing Moldavia.

o5bofgalati3.png


The rest of the war will be cake.
o5prussiapeace.png
o5francepeace.png
 
Last edited:
Too bad you didn't ally with Britain, they'd have conquered ALL of Alaska by now!
 
Time to bail out if you've a positive score or are you going for a long war to actually gain things?

Well, I may not make it to Moscow, but I can guarantee that a lot of peasants will die. How's that?
Seems entirely reasonable - is not the point of ruling to kill the peasantry (I'm posibly channeling the Golden Horde a bit too much)
 
The Ottoman general staff seems like a pretty competent bunch.

The nice thing about Vicky 2 is that you can demand provinces you don't occupy, which makes defensive fighting to rack up warscore a viable tactic.
 
Enjoying this. the Ottomans were my favourite in Vicky 1 and so after my opening - learn the ropes playing USA I'll be with you, in spirit at least.
 
Seems like a great lesson in superior diplomacy and strategy defeating overwhelming numbers (even without the pictures)! How much warscore do you need for Armenia? I might be tempted to add other region that borders Persia (Azerbaijan?) as a wargoal, but perhaps that's getting greedy...
 
Seems like a great lesson in superior diplomacy and strategy defeating overwhelming numbers (even without the pictures)! How much warscore do you need for Armenia? I might be tempted to add other region that borders Persia (Azerbaijan?) as a wargoal, but perhaps that's getting greedy...

Armenia is 16 points (unoccupied), so I think it's 8 when occupied. However, they won't even go for white peace at this point, despite being over 20 points down. They feel confident that having completely lost 1/3rd of their army, they can still beat me with 2:1 odds (which is not wholly unrealistic).

Besides - I haven't yet been able to occupy anything.
 
Armenia is 16 points (unoccupied), so I think it's 8 when occupied. ....

Besides - I haven't yet been able to occupy anything.

aah, so that's how that works - I'd noticed the warscore value for a province plummet, but thought it had to do with war exhaustion or something. thanks for the tip - I'm learning a lot from your AAR!
 
Well, I'm not springing for a monthly Pro account at the moment, so anyone have a suggestion for another hosting site? Preferably one with a high bandwidth limit, since this one blew through most of 10GB in 2 days.