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Part the Eigth - The End of Desert Escapades

We begin by continuing to colonize, expanding into East Central Sahara.

Let’s have a look at the world and it’s various wars.

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Of these, quite a few of them are relevant to us.

-The 2nd Confederate Liberation of Missouri - This war will hopefully knock the CSA out of the playing field when it gets re annexed by the US. This means that I will not be heavily contended, and I always get nervous when I play with the CSA, as their foreign relations are not as predictable as the USA

-War of The Halaib Region Concession - This is a continuation of the colonial expansion of Spain, expanding from their presence in the Asmara Region in Egypt. This means further competition in the forbidden continent, something which I’m not really looking forward to.

-2nd War of The Farafra Region Concession - This is another continuation of Italy’s Colonialism.. I expect them to be a country which I’ll border soon, as they’ll probably continue into the surrounding deserts.

The Deserts of Africa are getting busy.

July 24th, 1883 - Krakatoa explodes - I love these small flavor events, and how they can be inconsequential in a way, but really freaking cool. I would love a mod which introduce more and more of these, as they do a lot for the game. Unfortunately, Iceland doesn’t have any of these, but I can dream. :)

September 1st - Mechanized Fishing Vessels - This reduces my RGO size in Iceland, prompting further Colonial Emigration.

September 12th - Semi-Automization finishes. I continue with Assembly Line in order to get get further optimization of my production capabilities.

October 1st - Precision Work

January 1st, 1884 - Whitney & Colt’s Standardized Small Arms

March 29th - Sweden falls to Swedish Anarcho Liberals. It seems like this game is hearkening back to 1.1, with some very prevalent revolts.

May 1st - Steamer Transports

June 1st - Commerce Raiders

August 1st - Rhetoric of Hate

December 11th - Assembly Line finishes. We continue with Business Banks.

January 1st, 1885 - Electric Machinery, Machine Tools

March 19th - “Sabotage” - Again, we benefit from not having an upper class in our only voting state.

July 9th - Cyprus declares independence from the Ottoman Empire. Again, this is the first time I’ve ever seen them free themselves. Unfortunately, the empire still has cores, and will probably re annex them at some point in the future.

September 9th - Business Banks finishes. It is followed by Private Bank Money Bill Printing.

April 1st, 1886 - Fordism

May 1st - Liquidation of Assets

June 7th - Private Bank Money Bill Printing finishes. I continue with Investment Banks.

June 23rd - The CSA and the USA white peace, unfortunately. This was the result of the massive rebel presence in the Midwest for the most part.

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July 1st - Double Standard

November 1st - Drying Techniques, Industrialized Armament Industry

December 1st - Fixed Intermonetary Exchange Rate, Terrorism

January 19th, 1887 - As I predicted, the OE Dows Cyprus.

May 25th - The boredom makes me go crazy, and I commit a very bad decisions. I start the construction of forts in all of my current provinces except for coastal provinces in which I construct naval bases. The construction begins, but then halts and remains paused for the rest of the session. The only times in which construction progresses is when I reload the game. I really hate hyperindustralized UK in many respects.

June 1st - Refrigerator Technology and Investment Banks trigger. I continue with Central Bank Money Bill Printing.

July 1st - Oil Pumping Machine

October 1st - Edison Light Bulb

April 1st, 1888 - Industrial Production Investments

May 22nd - Central Bank Money Bill Printing finishes, continued by Modern Central Banking

July 1st - Wright and Langley’s Hydroplanes

October 1st - Industrial Distribution Investments & Bell&Grey’s Telephones

January 10th, 1889 - Baden falls to Pan-German Nationalists, prompting the formation of the German Nation.

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Hopefully this means the the colonizing powers will be distracted by this new threat, but it’s unlikely. Germany’s current borders have most of what generally forms, except it is missing Slesvig and it has a few states which Prussia acquired from Austria.


April 28th - Germany enacts the decision “Encourage the Ruhr Boom!”. I find myself incredibly jealous of this, and have to find that I appreciate that this decision and the other decisions which increase provinces life ratings. However, I agree that they shouldn’t be so overpowered as that would make them quite overpowered.

June 1st - Daimler’s Automobile

August 10th - Modern Central Bank System. I follow it by researching Associatism, hoping to get The Talkies and it’s associated prestige some time soon.

November 1st - Gold Standard

January 9th, 1890 - “Colonial Corruption” - We choose to aggravate the nonexistent capitalists, as opposed to losing precious, precious prestige,

February 6th - Associatism finishes, followed with Phenomenalism starting.

March 10th - East Central Sahara completes. The words “Icelandic Africa” are no longer displayed over the state of West Morocco, not even in part.

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We continue into the Niger Region.

March 19th - Spain asks for Military access. I acquiesce to their demands, as this prevents them from attacking me, and could lead to further agreements.

July 1st - Interest-Inflation Weapon

September 11th - “Lockout” occurs, forcing the lightly populated and disenfranchised poor of West Central Sahara to be more socialist

September 22nd - Egypt asks for Military Access

November 9th - Phenomenalism finishes. It is followed with Experimental Psychology

January 1st, 1891 - Integral Distillery Process

April 30th - “Labour Unions” - This makes the people of Iceland proper more socialist. A this time I also notice that Communism hasn’t triggered yet, which is kind of unusual.

November 13th - Experimental Psychology finishes, leading to Psychoanalysis. The image of Freud on the tech screen is a little bit creepy, in all honesty.

November 17th - France asks for Military Access

February 11th, 1893 - Psychoanalysis finishes, Market Structure begins.

March 20th - Spain offers me an alliance. I have to say no, as I do not want to be attached to West Europe’s punching bag.

May 1st - International Monetary Exchange Rate

July 1st - Capital for Investors

August 10th - Market Structure finishes, followed by Business Regulations

December 13th - “Union Busting” - I target the rich again,

February 13th, 1894 - The USA dows CSA. hopefully they’ll finish the job this time.

April 1st - “Membership in the International Olympic Committee” - We except, to get more prestige. It’s not like we were doing anything else with our money.

May 1st - Industrial R&D Investments

May 5th - Business Regulations bow out to Market Regulations

September 1st - Polypoly Structure

November 1st - Patent

November 30th - I can finally create my first military unit, created from assimilating soldiers from the native populations of my colonized regions. I choose not to, mostly because I would have to pay the production costs, and I have no reason to do so. As I said earlier, I am not planning to use Soldiers to accelerate colonization, as I feel this is cheap considering the AI does not use this.

March 1st, 1895 - Limited Partnership Company

April 1st - Oligopoly Structure

April 8th - The Philippines declare Independence from Spain. Surprisingly, I have seen this in a game before.

April 27th - Market Regulations finish, in the chute is Late Classical Theory

June 1st - State Bind Monetary Mechanism

July 1st - Joint Stock Company

July 24th - “Eaten By Cannibals?” - Blast and Damnation!

October 1st - Monopoly Structure

October 21st - Late Classical finishes, Collectivist Theory begins.

November 1st - John Stuart Mill

January 25th, 1896 - Ottoman empire requests Military Access

February 1st - Trademark

June 15th - “Liberty Shines” - Nations will sing our praise, if it;s the last thing they do.

July 14th - Collectivist Theory finishes, we choose to store up our RP for the turn of the century.

July 30th - China embraces Westernization.

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The nation is immediately propelled into 8th place, and that;s without significant Prestige or any Industry. At least they might contain the UK. It does mean that I will most definitely never be able to return to the G8.

August 15th - For the first time in ages, Icelandic Reactionaries appear once more. They are a result of my not supporting the Soldier populations. They still do not have enough persons or gain in order to become a significant threat.

September 1st - Karl Marx

October 1st - Karl Kautsky

November 17th - Karl Niger … I mean I colonize the Niger Region. I continue onto the Abeche Region. Considering my surrounding colonies, I think this will be the last colony for me, as I think that the other countries will cut me off from further expansion.

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-January 27th, 1897 - China assumes Great Power Status, knocking Italy out of the top.

April 2nd - ”Working Less or Less Work?” - we support our unions, mostly to make sure we don;t change anything. Also the bad effects target the mostly non present upper class..

April 21st - Siam joins the Civilized Club. What have other persons experienced with Asian Powers westernizing? In this game, I’ve seen Japan, China, and Siam westernize, and this seems like a lot, especially in comparison OT my earlier games.

September 1st - Frederick Engels

September 12th - Tripoli gains Independence from the OE. I immediately raise my Relations, in order to make sure I do not get attacked. This is probably the weirdest of all the revolutions I’ve seen in the game.

December 27th - “Holy Site Disturbed” - I choose to respect their beliefs

January 5th, 1898 - The US annexes the CSA.

February 10th - “Outbreak of Smallpox” - I protect every life, all this is arguable for my purpose of expanding the Icelandic People. If I had taken the more severe option, their would be less member of other cultures, making the by far easier to convert, but by taking the less severe option, the Icelandic culture was hit less harshly.

April 1st - Financial Regulations, John Elliot Cairns

June 1st - Robert Torrens

August 1st - Eduardo Bernstein

February 1st, 1899 - Sidney Webb

April 16th - “Cottage Industry” - I use this opportunity to reduce my consciousness

June 1st - Banking Regulations

August 12th - France Dow Sokoto, but not to annex them. they are simply asking for one of the regions which their colonial empire borders. This is incredibly dumb, but I’m not complaining. At least it means they aren’t attacking me.

August 24th - “Iceland Electrified” - This reduces the RGO size of the Iceland Wharfs even more, prompting even greater Colonial Emigration.

November 7th - “Support for Foreign Abolitionism” - I encourage the dissolution of Slavery in Brazil, mostly because it increases my prestige.

January 1st, 1900 - We enter the new year with a little less than 50000 RP. I begin by Researching Anti-Rationalism, in order to speed up my RP Gain even more.

January 15th - “Demonstration Turned Sour” - I continue to benefit by not having a upper class.

January 27th - Anti Rationalism completes, Mass Culture& The Avant-Garde begins.

February 1st - Nihilism and The Will

February 13th - Sweden begins to bequeath the Nobel prizes. This will be invaluable to me If I am awarded these prizes.

February 18th - Mass Culture & the Avant-Garde ends, and France finishes their conquest of the Benin Region. Behaviorism begins.

April 18th - “Attend The Second Olympic Games?” - Of Course!

June 1st - Socialist Realism

August 1st - Surrealism

October 1st - Quantum Theory

December 1st - Avantegarde Music, Exsistentialism, and Behaviorism. We continue with Electrical Power Generation.

September 4th, 1901 - “Our Athletes are Victorious” - Whoo!

October 1st - Futurism

November 1st - The Talkies, Jazz

January 26th, 1902 - “Holy Site Disturbed” - The same holy site, with the same populations disturbed.

February 1st - The US Builds the Suez Canal

March 12th - Electrical Power Generation finishes, and “Big Game Hunting” We continue by gaining more prestige, and we begin research on Social Alienation

April 1st - Polyphase System

May 1st - Alternating Current

June 1st - Mass Advertising

June 11th - “Demonstration Turned Sour” -again we abuse the fact that we do not have an enfranchised rich strata

November 1st - National Radio Network

March 1st, 1903 - Anti-Trust Laws.

June 16th - The Abeche Region colonizes from here, there is no location where we can go from here. This marks the end of the Icelandic Colonization, but their is still much we can do from here.

To begin, a map of the extent of Iceland’s Territories and the other various colonies in Africa. You’ll notice it looks quite colorful.

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The population of the newest region, the Abeche Region.

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The population of Iceland as a whole

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I think that the most interesting thing here is the Great spread if all other cultures besides Icelandic. Because each culture is relatively small, this should make assimilation by fair easier.

What am I going to do now that I have colonized as far as I can? What will I do to encourage the Icelandic people? Learn this and more in my next installment.
 
Thanks for the great update, amazing how far you've come with 0 soldiers!

July 24th, 1883 - Krakatoa explodes - I love these small flavor events, and how they can be inconsequential in a way, but really freaking cool. I would love a mod which introduce more and more of these, as they do a lot for the game....

Agreed - give it time - for Eu3, for example, it took a while, but there are bundles of these. I know I'd defintely download a 'Flashman mod', for example :)

May 25th - The boredom makes me go crazy, and I commit a very bad decisions. I start the construction of forts in all of my current provinces except for coastal provinces in which I construct naval bases.

lol - only in a Paradox game would you see a comment like "I decided to do something wild and crazy .... I ordered the construction of some forts" :)

March 10th - East Central Sahara completes. The words “Icelandic Africa” are no longer displayed over the state of West Morocco, not even in part.

v2758jpeg.jpg

<total digression>
I think we have to tip our caps to Paradox, as generally the game does a fantastic job of label placement. This is an NP-hard problem, which they make even harder by allowing curved text, and they do it very well. Look at the labels for all your neighbors, and all are nearly perfect. The algorithm will violate the border-crossing constraint (c.f. British Africa and Ottoman Africa), yet only rarely, when appropriate - note, for example, how "French Africa" nicely curves to keep out of Icelandic Africa. Some Paradox hacker really nailed this one.
</total digression>

November 13th - Experimental Psychology finishes, leading to Psychoanalysis. The image of Freud on the tech screen is a little bit creepy, in all honesty.

hmm ... perhaps it reminds you of an incident from your childhood - tell me again about your last dream about your father?
As I said earlier, I am not planning to use Soldiers to accelerate colonization, as I feel this is cheap considering the AI does not use this.

bravo!

April 8th - The Philippines declare Independence from Spain. Surprisingly, I have seen this in a game before.

happened in my Persia game, as well.

April 21st - Siam joins the Civilized Club. What have other persons experienced with Asian Powers westernizing? In this game, I’ve seen Japan, China, and Siam westernize, and this seems like a lot, especially in comparison OT my earlier games.

well, i've only played 2.5 games, but i've never seen any Asian power westernizing.


March 12th - Electrical Power Generation finishes, and “Big Game Hunting” We continue by gaining more prestige, and we begin research on Social Alienation

I'm not sure if it's correlated with how much African territory you have (it should be), but "Big Game Hunting" occurs practically on a quarterly basis for me - the prestige gains from it really add up.

What am I going to do now that I have colonized as far as I can? What will I do to encourage the Icelandic people? Learn this and more in my next installment.

can't wait :)!
You're in a really interesting position, as you've reached nearly the limit of what you can do without soldiers - sure, you might be able to contort your way into a Mauritius or Namibia, but the curtain is coming down.

It seems like you have 3 choices:
(1) get yourself a lot more people. Since you're not in North America, and you already have, I think, nearly all the pop-increasing techs and reforms, I don't know what you can do here.

(2) Don't worry, be happy. The game really doesn't require military power/expansion to be successful, I think this is a trap we 4X players too easily fall into. I've played 2 games where the US hardly conquered anything (including Mexico north of the Rio Grande) and yet cruised to a 2nd or 3rd place finish. It might be too boring, but going for a purely industrial play might make you a G8 power. You can also get a high MIL score by churning out dreadnoughts.

(3) Other. I predict this is the one you choose, looking forwards to being enlightened :)
 
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Surume, thanks for this great AAR! I see you've posted another recent update, so I'll make sure to catch that.

I thought I'd add my feedback from AlexSpeed's AAR contest thread, for your benefit and that of others who don't read that thread:

I've said enough already to probably let those who are really interested know I was Judge #3 -- I think I'm the only judge who ranked both Brandenburg III and Surume in the top 10. They both chose really challenging scenarios, and proved themselves successful through good knowledge of game mechanics and strategy. As a Strategy Guide author, I can definitely appreciate that!

Surume's NowhAAR of Iceland I also ranked high (6th) for similar reasons. When I first saw the setup -- a one-province minor with NO advantages -- I thought there was no way to succeed, but he might be able to prove himself in some way. I was surprised -- no, shocked! -- to see him actually succeed. Surume displayed a technician's appreciation for the mechanics of the game -- I wouldn't call his gameplay "gamey", because he did set realistic limits on himself at times, but he definitely squeezed what he could out of the game by knowing the system. While Slan (above) graded him down for this, I actually rated it higher because Surume never presented it as a "realistic" AAR. We knew he was going to make the best out of a bad situation, and he did remarkably well! I wrote the V2 Strategy Guide, and even -I- learned some things from him! :D I also noted he made good use of humor at points.
 
West Africa is awfully crowded. :(

Looks like although you got a decent slice of the pie in terms of territory you didn't get any particularily good areas.
 

I find that generally I need far stronger stuff. :)

Expect the next post to be in a little while I'm busy with school/college applications/life/etc, but to go until 1936 unless something drastic happens (DOWed by someone). However, this will not mean the end of the AAR. You will see what that means in time. I'm expecting to wrap up, before the next AAR contest which was just announced, and I will probably produce an AAR for that. Do you all have a preference for that? I have an idea for an AAR for the all of the main Paradox Games, Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis 3, Victoria 2, and Hearts of Iron 3. Which would you prefer me to do?
 
First of all, excellent job tacklign the deserts! Now, steal land from Britain!... Wait, no-
:D

As far as expansion goes, I have a recommendation. I don't know if you have enough distance to make it, but how is Oceania looking? Generally there are some places that the AI leaves open in my games - maybe you'll find a few opportunities as well? Picking a small power can also be fun and profitable, although I don't know who is left... Either way, a splendid update, once again proving the resolve of the Icelandic people!

Badger_Ken - int digression() { Not only did I laugh at your fort comment and enjoy your appraisal of Paradox's label placement - FLASHMAN! That's all I've gotta say, really. Maybe when I have free time, I should see if I can throw together some more pulpy - and/or period accurate events. It'd be cool, gamewise, and I'd also appreciate some diversity apart from the 'something happens' events. }

Scholar, Jape - Victoria. Making the world work funny in a lovable, laffable way!
 
I have an idea for an AAR for the all of the main Paradox Games, Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis 3, Victoria 2, and Hearts of Iron 3. Which would you prefer me to do?

Well, I thought "Her Majesty, the Freedom Fighter" was a terrific idea for an AAR which sadly was abandoned pretty early, that would get my vote.

...
Badger_Ken - int digression() { Not only did I laugh at your fort comment and enjoy your appraisal of Paradox's label placement - FLASHMAN! That's all I've gotta say, really. Maybe when I have free time, I should see if I can throw together some more pulpy - and/or period accurate events. It'd be cool, gamewise, and I'd also appreciate some diversity apart from the 'something happens' events. }

Thanks! I think what would really make the mod "sing" would be the choice of event responses. Do you -
  1. LIE to the Duke about your behavior during the siege?
  2. CHEAT at cricket to embarass the Duke?
  3. leave the cricket match to STEAL some 'quality time' with the Duchess?

:)
 
Continued great progress. I am mystified as to why no-one has DOWed you...keep expecting to see some nasty war as the title of your latest update. Do you have any clue why they are not attacking? I lost track of your alliance situation, but don't remember you being friends with any heavyweights.

Two thoughts on things you could do now...

With regards to the creation of states, this is problematic for several reasons. First of all, the entirety of my bureaucrats come from the colonies. I don't have any in my my home provinces at all.

#1 -- Now that you are not using your NF for colonizing, you could use it to encourage bureaucrats in the home state. Then (hopefully) some of them will migrate to your colonies and assimilation can start.

#2 -- build a few brigades of soldiers. At some point you will need them for rebel control. They could also benefit you immediately in avoiding DOWs from greedy neighbors, and would think that you could easily afford the maintenance.
 
Continued great progress. I am mystified as to why no-one has DOWed you...keep expecting to see some nasty war as the title of your latest update. Do you have any clue why they are not attacking?

It's on "Very Easy" difficulty, this might have something to do with it...
 
Wow... Tripoli exists. Viva la revolution lol. One of the more colourful Africas i've ever seen. Icelandic Africa so deliciously absurd! :) Be interesting to see what happens next with the resourceful Icelandic peoples.
 
1. LIE to the Duke about your behavior during the siege?
2. CHEAT at cricket to embarass the Duke?
3. leave the cricket match to STEAL some 'quality time' with the Duchess?

All of which would of course end up in various sub-event chains; each one eventually leading to a gain in prestige and a few more extraneous royal/military (an increase in leadership? Or perhaps net decrease, bwahaha!) titles. xD Because for Flashman, Lying, Cheating, and -stealing- really do pay off! :p
 
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