Chapter 10: Don't Retreat...Reload!
February 25, 1860: With no Russians left to shoot (for now), our officers suggest Big Game Hunting in Aqaba. This pisses off the locals (who aren't thrilled about the nick name "Big Game").
A look at industry in Kars: Due to occupation, we now have 2000 craftsmen...building those factories was a good idea, apparently!
March 14: France signs a military alliance, with promises that they will run screaming if anyone actually attacks us. The "Franco-Ottoman Treaty of Mutual Defense Unless It's Hard" treaty is celebrated in Paris and Constantinople.
A look at the armies of the world. News flash: Being in an army in the early 19th Century is dangerous.
March 22: People the world over are flocking to our nation to live the Ottoman Dream
April 22: One side effect of taking Austrian provinces, is that I somehow ended up inheriting an Austrian army in Denmark.
July 31: The USA declares war on Mexico to take Texas. Being an AI USA, it will probably need 5 wars to take their cores in the Southwest.
September 10: Egypt, hearing the call in the AAR thread to invade them, decides to lay siege to our embassy. Smelling free prestige and reparations, the Ottoman army spends a couple of years thumping them. The Swedish abandon us in our hour of "need".
December 26: We finish researching Idealism (+50% RP) and flip to Mechanized Mining, so I can build steel factories.
February 4, 1852: Mechanized Mining is complete, so we start on Basic Chemistry (en route to Medicine).
February 11: Verb forms, sweetie - You cut down to size, I cut down to size, Egypt got cut down to size. Sometimes, being discriminatory in V2 is bad (but not often).
May 13: Egypt accepts peace (Cut down to Size). Our troops are thrilled to not have to stand around in the desert anymore. The war took a little longer, as I moved my armies back through occupied territory before suing for peace (to avoid unnecessary attrition).
May 25: One of my favorite bugs: Garibaldi's Redshirts occupy the Papal States, giving S-P the event to form Italy. The Papal States are, of course, excluded.
August 14: Having just formed their new nation, Italy decides to be suicidal and immediately take back Lombardia. Austria is allied to the UK.
September 29: Austria adds a war goal to take Emilia from Italy.
November 21: Italy is now a great power (#7)...dropping Russia to #8.
January 20, 1853: Oh look, the UK annexed Belgium. Remember how the UK defended Belgium from the Netherlands? The real reason why...
March 20: Basic Chemistry is complete, Medicine is next.
May 10: Kalat is added to our sphere.
November 15: Italy admits defeat. Kalat celebrates by besieging our mission and ending up at war with us - only to get crushed by our ally Panjab.
January 26, 1854: Wha?
Oh, and France decides to take Catalonia from Spain. (They succeed in November.)
November 16, 1854: Greece gets the Ionian Islands from UK, and we manage to sphere the Netherlands.
March 2, 1855: This looks familiar.