Abolishing slavery??? Don't you know, there'll be a revolt in Haiti!
That's ok. Haiti isn't a French colony
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That's ok. Haiti isn't a French colony
Well...French colony somewhere!
Actually, what happened in-game, is that half my African colonies were slave traders. For about a week or two, they had no trade goods. Then we discovered gold in them hills. Two of them are now producing gold, a third one is dealing in ivory instead. I don't remember what the others became. But it turned out ok.
It was just something that, given 21st century sensibilities, I could not refuse. Suspension of disbelief came to a screetching halt.
Shameless plug. You have been warned.
If we can get enough people to sign up, we get a special DLC for the upcoming HOI IV. So, even those of you who don't like Hearts Of Iron, help out your fellow forumites, please.
All you have to do is to click the link below and sign up for the Axis.
Thank you. Any and all contributions will be greatly appreciated.
That would have worked better had I remembered to copy the actual link firsto
Anyway, here it is: http://www.heartsofiron4.com/r/nphzbfevcd
If we can get enough people to sign up, we get a special DLC for the upcoming HOI IV. So, even those of you who don't like Hearts Of Iron, help out your fellow forumites, please.
All you have to do is to click the link below and sign up for the Axis.
Thank you. Any and all contributions will be greatly appreciated.
That would have worked better had I remembered to copy the actual link first
oAnyway, here it is: http://www.heartsofiron4.com/r/nphzbfevcd
Because PI turned it into a race between the Allies, Comintern and Axis. And since I joined the Axis, we "win" when we have the most members at the end
Good. Because I joined the Axis.Because PI turned it into a race between the Allies, Comintern and Axis. And since I joined the Axis, we "win" when we have the most members at the end
there's a great joke in there somewhere, but it's too early in the day for me to come up with it
I just spend the entire afternoon playing, so expect a couple of chapters in the course of the week.
I'm not sure I will play HOI but I join the Axis to give my help !
And 1st comment here, but I really enjoin this AAR (been reading the last 2 weeks).
And 1st comment here, but I really enjoin this AAR (been reading the last 2 weeks).
Chapter 36: Nowhere left to turn?
At the end of last chapter, we had entered a regency for our 10-year-old crown prince.
With nothing better to do, I decided to start fabricating a claim on Sundgau. Since I already have claims on Trier and Pfalz, that would enable me to straighten those ugly borders a bit.
I also renewed my royal marriages with Russia and Lüneburg.
Another nice event, giving me a choice between a loss of 15% trade efficiency or 212 ducats.
December, 1737. Long live the king. Maybe now we can go to war?
Actually, we can’t. For one thing, the alliance webs around France are surprisingly strong.
Spain, Austria and Napels can bring a total of 304,000 men to bear. And this is without counting Portugal, their combined Colonial Nations, and a bunch of other minors.
Great Britain, the largest navy, is allied to the Ottomans, the 2nd largest army.
So I guess we wait for better times. In a gesture of pure spite, I pull all of France’s HRE provinces out of the Empire. Sadly enough, it doesn’t provoke them into declaring war. It does cost Austria 15 Imperial Authority, so it's not in vain.
On a more positive note, I finally have a chance to finish the Administrative Idea Group.
I come to the conclusion that I need more transports, so that I can bring all those armies home from the Phillipines and New Guinea, so I start producing 26 of them, bringing me to my force limit.
Outremer goes to war again against Great Britain. They’d better not call in Great Britain, this time. Especially since the Russians have a truce with the Ottomans. If there is trouble, I won’t be able to call them in, as this would be an offensive war.
If I were to declare war on the British myself, Lüneburg would not follow me. They would, however, follow me in an offensive war against Austria, who have just eaten Brandenburg. There was no war, so I am assuming it was a diplo-annexation.
In that case, having Lüneburg around would be interesting. They have an army of 11 regiments, but they hold 11 provinces in northern Germany. It might keep the Austrians busy for a while.
Poor uniforms give me -5% army Morale and random border frictions give me a relations hit of -50 with Spain. Not that this last one makes a difference. We’re already capped out with a -200 anyway.
I like this kind of event. There should be more of these flavour events.
In May, 1739, a second random event gives me more Poor Uniforms. I am now looking at -10% Morale. Really not the best time to be thinking about war.
I start bringing troops back home. 18 regiments that I had send to the Ivory Coast to squash a catholic rebellion are the first ones. I will later send more transports to bring the 10 regiments in Ceylon to my Indian holdings. Hindustan, you see, is also allied to Great Britain.
And Russia won’t sit still long enough for me to even contemplate making a move. They start a war against Ming and Japan, who are fighting Korea and Great Britain. Bad times to be Chinese, I think.
I finish fabricating a claim on Genoa. Two days later, they sign an alliance with Spain. I am really not getting a break, am I?
Outremer not only won its war, but they did it without involving me or Great Britain. That’s good. It means I can continue to count on Lüneburg, should I ever get the chance.
Russia ends its war against Ming in victory, which means they are currently overstretched. Still, they might come in on my next war if I wait a couple of months.
Scandinavia, however, doesn’t like to wait, it seems. They declare war on Poland, and before you know it, the whole thing turns into a free for all. The ones you see here, are only some of the parties involved. Bohemia and Lithuania are also in the war, on the side of Scandinavia.
At least this means that Austria will be too busy to do anything, if I act now.
By early December, 1741, practically the entire army is back in France. The only ones still in Africa, are the 6 regiments guarding my colonies against the natives.
But first, I grab a new Adminstrative Tech. With level 26 comes a new Idea Group. After giving it some thought, I decide to follow through with my plan to grab Trade ideas next. If I want to have a global economy, I am going to need some trade power, along with the extra merchants.
What’s even better, is that I have 411 Diplo Points right now. So I immediately grab the first idea, which gives me a 10% boost in global trade power.
I quietly let time pass by, watching the events in Eastern Europe. Naturally, most of Russia’s army had to come racing back from Siberia, so Bohemia, with no help from Poland, gets put out of action quickly.
In April, 1742, the Ottomans try to take back Crete, probably betting on the fact that Russia will be too busy to follow through on their alliance. They are wrong. Russia really is too busy, but they pull this unexpected rabbit out of their hat.
I accept. Great Britain, surprisingly enough, does not get called in. That means two significant things. One, obviously, the Ottomans are alone against me and whatever Russia can spare. Secondly, more importantly, the most powerful navy in the world is nowhere to be found.
I get access through Baden and Bavaria, and my army starts moving. While they do, I group up the navy and send it to the Mediteranean. Sardinia, need I remind you, is still Ottoman territory.
The first engagement of the war. The Ottoman army is completely unbalanced. Not a big surprise when I say that they will be send packing. They run across the line of Crimean provinces, so I have to get access from them if I want to reach Constantinople
I get a new Quality Idea in November, -25% naval attrition.
I had left an army of 36 regiments in France, just in case, but they are oviously not needed, so I group my entire navy together and invade Sardinia. That, at least, should make this war worth my while, if for no other reason than the strait to Corsica. It is quite a sight, isn’t it, to see those 162 sails proudly flying the Fleur De Lis?
I leave 5 regiments in Sardinia, to continue the siege, and send the rest back onto the boats. They will make a landing in Lika, the province just north of Dalmatia, to help with the work there.
The Ottoman army you see in Temis, has just stackwiped a force of over 20,000 men. Granted, they had no leader, but to wipe them off the face of the Earth like that, before reinforcements can get there is sobering, to say the least.
Of course, that means that I stackwipe them in return a couple of days later.
By August, 1743, most of what used to be Hungary is being occupied by France, and I am just about ready to cross the Crimean provinces. A Turkish army of 44,000 on Forced march causes some chaos with its back-and-forth. Eventually, though, they end up between my army and Russia’s army, which happened to be sieging an enemy province in their war against Austria. Another stackwipe is the result.
By februari, 1744, most of their European holdings are under siege, including Constantinople and Edirne. Across the Bosporus, I can see 86 Ottoman regiments gathering.
Luckily enough, they move off, probably to fight the Russians instead of me.
The Ottoman navy of 71 ships, almost all of them trade ships, is blocking the strait, hoping to keep me out of Turkey proper.
Little do they know that I have 106 ships, most of them Heavy Ships, bearing down on them…
The resulting battle ends, predictably enough, in an astounding vicory for the glorious French navy.
Remember that huge doomstack that I saw heading north? Turns out they were not going to fight the Russians. They just marched around the Black Sea and took out 2 siege stacks, before I can engage them in Sofia. I win, they run, I follow.
In Abkhazia, on the far side of the Black Sea, I catch up to a part of that army. I lose 110 infantry men. They lose 19,000 infantry and 1,000 artillery.
I rack up some more Warscore in a couple of other fights. By now, there is very little they can actually do to endanger our victory, especially since I see a couple of Russian regiments start to put in an appearance on the fringes of the Empire.
Portugal and Spain try to invade Algiers, while most of my army is sitting in Turkey. This could be troublesome.
Will I be able to get back in time to prevent a general disaster, or will the Portugese make their move before I have a chance to react? Find out next time! See you then!
Ha, looks like the Ottoman Empire was a paper tiger after all!
They had 6.3 Morale and 110% Discipline against my 8.8 Morale and 115 discipline. This surprised me, but I didn't bother finding out why. Probably French traditions coupled with 1 or 2 tech levels and (maybe) better ideas.
So, yeah. Big, but not powerful enough to really endanger France.
The French National Ideas are OP in my opinion. Elan, +20% morale, and the +5% discipline bonus after completing all ideas, plus the +20% manpower bonus. All you need to have is the Defensive ideas completed and you'll be the powerhouse militarily. I only know this because I gripe about how OP the French armies are when I play as Castile/Aragon (Spain, who still gets a 10% morale bonus in their armies), Austria, or forming the Netherlands as a Dutch Minor. In my current game as Austria, France has a +0.6 morale advantage and a +10 discipline advantage over me, and I had the army reformer (+10% morale) and defensive ideas moral bonus, we are the same tech level military, and I need to have superb micro skills to overwhelm the smaller French armies with all my forces to prevent them from linking up (like defeating an army of 20,000 with 80-90,000 and they lose all men and I lose a few thousand at most), only then, the terms are more even. (I'm not saying warfare should be even, IT SHOULDN'T, but I've always felt France has a nice big buff, a bit more than perhaps warrented).
It's really easy, from my perspective, to be 'gamey' with the military techs as France and no one will be able to contend with you. Hell, I often lose when outnumbering the French by 20,000 or so men while defending on a terrain space with rivers and mountains, automatically -2 on the rolls, while being of the same tech level and having a commander with similar stats. Just my hatred for the AI BBB...
Plus, I think the O.E. has switched the usual idea groups it pursues with the recent patches, and especially with the new Res Publica DLC. I routinely used to see them pick offensive and quality ideas, but they seemed to have forgone that for other things now. But that's great news for you!
And with regards to the naval battle, what happened to all the Ottoman warships?