Post Your Heart of Darkness Empire!

[Daiyoukai Ramza]

Are you the guy on Reddit? Be sure to keep us updated with how it goes.

Nah, though that guide is what inspired me to give it a go.

I'd like to see how you do for sure, got a soft spot for Krakow.

Well, I... uh...

...got eaten by Russia. I foolishly forgot to keep track of their alliances, saw what I thought was a chance to nab some polish provinces while they were getting beaten down by Germany and the UK, and... then realized my mistake when I ended up fighting not only Russia, but Austria-Hungary and Italy, too. Needless to say, I lost that war.

That's what I get for staying up for 30+ hours instead of getting some shut-eye.

 

[Flobalob]

Well, I... uh...

...got eaten by Russia. I foolishly forgot to keep track of their alliances, saw what I thought was a chance to nab some polish provinces while they were getting beaten down by Germany and the UK, and... then realized my mistake when I ended up fighting not only Russia, but Austria-Hungary and Italy, too. Needless to say, I lost that war.

That's what I get for staying up for 30+ hours instead of getting some shut-eye.

Nice, sweet.. try again.

I intend on doing a Luxembourg campaign, as a side note. Not sure whether to make a fully fledged AAR, I definitely have the time.

 

[Jorlaan]

Aww that's too bad
You inspired me to start a Krakow game on my own, I got a few amazing swings of luck and now have 3 states: the rest of West Galicia, Schlesien and Posen. Russia has been amazing to me this game, farm more lucky than I'm used to.
Austria had taken Schlesian from Prussia then got in a devastating war with France over some Italian triviality, so I managed to snag Galicia when Schlesian in two wars, then had some great timing/luck in pounding down Prussia for Posen. Currently hoping I can snag West and East Prussia and then I'll just need to turn on Russia...
Never done this well with Krakow, never even managed to get Galicia so this is amazing.
If I lose just one war I'll likely get eaten by my neighbors, so if I survive I'll post a pic.

 

[klingonadmiral]

After finally updating my HPM to 3.5, I played my traditional Germany game which do in any new version of any Paradox game:

Good old fat Greater Germany. Yugoslavia and the United Baltic Provinces are Satellites. Once again as a Republic, the population seems way more militant in HPM 3.5. Shortly after I put the Reich together (late 60s, horribly late for which I blame Bavaria clinging to GP status and the Crimean War not firing until the late 60s). Italy, France, Russia and the UK got dismantled. The Italians when they tried to take South Tyrol back, the French and Russians in the Second Great War (there were only two Great Wars) and the UK when Portugal tried to take some Belgian colonies. Scandinavia formed very late after the Second Great War pushed the Netherlands out of the GP club. First recently westernized China fileld to vacant spot, but they got warlord'd.

Spoiler: Sphere

Mitteleuropa stands tall and allows the German industry to pull far away resources into it's factories while giving the rest of Europe acess to the high quality German goods. It's also the Secondary Power club - Belgium is #10, Yugoslavia #11, Switzerland #13, Hungary #14 and Poland #15.

Spoiler: Rest of the World

Africa

Once the Scramble for Africa started I agressively eat up the Nigerian minors while having Sokoto, Egypt and Ethiopia sphered. The latter two decided to attack some of my civilians and had to be forcefully subjugated, Sokoto bend their knee willingly. The Somali minors were also eaten. From there I pushed south in the east and connected Nigeria to Egypt. The Belgians got the Congo, but once they inherited the Free State the Portuguese went down hard on them, waging 4 colonial wars against Brussels, in two of which I intervened.

Persia and India

With the dismantling of the UK, India returned largely to local rule. The last remaining pockets of foreign influence are Belgian Ceylon and Bengal, as well as large swath of land adminstered by the Republic of Yugoslavia stretching from Gujarat to Hyderabad.

China

Sitting largely uninterrupted except a few minor European incursions that forced it to surrender some harbours, Qing China had westernized by the 1920s. The strain of modernization however proved to much for the dynasty, and the ancient civilization was once more torn ansuncer by local warlords. The Japanese quickly exploited the situation and established puppet regimes in Manchuria and northern Formosa. In the heartlands, Beijang China and the Nationalists are emerging as the dominant powers.

Indonesia

Big Malaysia emerged from the former British posessions, Java was seized from the Dutch in the First Great War. The Dutch actually failed to establish dominance over the Archipelago, with Java being reelesed by rebels in the 1850s or so and only reconquered by them in the 80s. If I had the Infamy to spare (and I had in retrospect, didn't know the infamy for the Anschluss was reduced to 10) I would have conquered it earlier.

North America

Surprise, the reversed Civil War happened! The Union was permanently torn asunder, but the two Americas each stands as a Great Power in their own right (even if the Free States are way more powerful). And even with the Americans divided, Mexico failed to regain her territories.

South America

Pretty standard. Nothing really ever happens in South America. Peru managed to retake their Chilenean cores and took that one province off Brazil, but failed to conquer Ecuador until some of their cores there were gone.

Germany finished the Panama Canal in 1928, standing as yet another monument to German ingenuity and superior engineering.

Spoiler: Internal Matters

1930s Germany stands as a liberal, left-leaning welfare society. One of the most extensive social security networks in the world guarantees the financial security of the vast working class, and the recently elected Socialist Workers Party is determined to further enhance the pwoer of the proletariat.

But while the left in Germany is strong, it is a democratic left and has little sympathy for the dictators in Rome and Russia who claim to be the champions of the proletariat, but have done nothing but laid it in chains.

There is no state in the world that can rival the sheer size of the German industrial sector - admittedly after the Germans made sure that the Briutish could no longer compete when occupying them. The industrial heart of the republic is Silesia, with Bohemia the Rhineland and Greater Berlin form other important economic centers.

I actually ran into money issued in the 1910s, in my first war against the British and Portuguese I actually took a loan. I had to reduce Administration and Education budgets to make ends meet, and even had to *gasp* tax the upper class under Laisez Faire. Turn out supporting a 250 regiments army, over 20 Dreadnoughts with adequate cruiser support and extensive social reforms is pretty expensive.

Also, that pretty huge middle strata group that doesn't get their basic needs are 1.14m Artisans. Stupid Pops should promote to something useful if they wanna eat *sigh*

Spoiler: Great Powers

To plunder, to slaughter, to usurp, they give the lying name of empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.

Spoiler: Bonus: London

Or: When the British decided to throw an entire generation away.

 

[StanislavSoltys]

A million British troops died in a single battle? Or is that 10 million?

 

[niallmcfc]

A million British troops died in a single battle? Or is that 10 million?

If you invade the UK they have a habit of slamming mobilized troops into your highly developed tank brigades, despite colossal end game dig in penalties. For added fun, have gas when they haven't got defence yet. It's a wholesale slaughter, happens every time you invade.

 

[Jorlaan]

Looks amazing, the kind of Germany game I enjoy. Only things missing for me are Bulgaria and a full Greece.

 

[jackelgull]

japanse Africa? How did that happen?

 

[ringhloth]

After finally updating my HPM to 3.5, I played my traditional Germany game which do in any new version of any Paradox game:

Beautiful Europe. Awful Africa.

 

[mrguymiah]

Nice, sweet.. try again.

I intend on doing a Luxembourg campaign, as a side note. Not sure whether to make a fully fledged AAR, I definitely have the time.

Don't do it in that 3.04 patch. I tried. You physically cannot get enough positive factors for an alliance with France or Prussia.

 

[Flobalob]

Don't do it in that 3.04 patch. I tried. You physically cannot get enough positive factors for an alliance with France or Prussia.

On the contrary, I got myself into the French sphere and DOW'd Netherlands for my independence, since I figured that with France on my side it would be much quicker (and less damaging to me) than trying to incite a revolt in Luxembourg. Once I had DOW'd I was freed of my satellite shackles and able to form an alliance with France and call them in to the war. Probably took an extra year or so when I realised that Prussia had decided to ally Netherlands so I had to suitably increase my relations with them so they would not join in. So I managed to be both lucky and unlucky, and on August 8, 1840 Luxembourg was released from Dutch claws, at least a year late.

Spoiler: Glorious Freedom

Now comes the hard part.

 

[Ayetach]

Using the Minimalist mod, I played as the British Empire:

I did two other observation games with this as well with these results:

 

[klingonadmiral]

Nothing going on here? Well, how about a Subcontinental Superpower?

An old game of mine (finished before Stellaris came out), and probably my proudest achievement - even if the Mughals are surprisingly easy. Made a few serious mistakes that game (like attacking countries for cores through a truce, tanking my prestige; and not building factories in advance) that cost me the #1 spot.

 

[prymcik]

My 5th try as Japan, never played an uncivilized nation before but hell was it fun!

 

[TolHydra]

Japan is tons of fun.

On one hand you got rid of the british malaya and got all of sumatra, which is really nice on the other there is the dutch Sandakan and the fact that you still have 16 years remaining to fix it

 

[Gnorf]

What's this? China independent? Blob!

 

[prymcik]

Japan is tons of fun.

On one hand you got rid of the british malaya and got all of sumatra, which is really nice on the other there is the dutch Sandakan and the fact that you still have 16 years remaining to fix it

It was the first time I managed to beat the 150K rebels that spawned after enacting my last reform.
Was trying to be cautious and not attract the attention of big boys. All the land I got from the Dutch, Spanish and English I won in defensive wars.

 

[Ayetach]

My latest game as the Republic of Germany using the Minimalist mod:

I was keeping an open-ended game and took the crown from the gutter event to form Germany. With the tightened liberalism in the country I decided to go for a sort of 'American Giant' capitalist republic and expanded Germany's influence and power. All of Scandinavia and most of the Eastern States ended up in my sphere, I also managed to nab Switzerland but Belgium was particularly hard to hold on to since the Netherlands & France were vying very hard for that one. Ultimately I aligned myself with Italy and we dominated most of the European affairs maintaining a solid peace (there was two world wars however.)

 

[klingonadmiral]

Gave my favourite tag another go:

Now with 100% more worker's liberation! Funnily enough, while having a lot more territory and a lot more population than in my last run with them (just scroll up a bit), my industry is quite a bit smaller (3768 vs 4112) - I still beat my other run by like 500-600 points though (mainly because of having pro-military Communist instead of anti-military Scoialists).

Sadly couldn't end the imperialist slavery of inland Burma, but alas the vile Vipers of Britain know the proletariat will not rest until their brutal oppression of Asia comes to an end!

Also couldn't take Armenia from the Russians because of infamy concerns, and Iraq was at times in the German sphere while allied with Russia and Britain, and while I would have loved to bring the anti-bourgeois revolution to the Mashriq, no thanks.

 

[Endless Rain]

Who are the rebels occupying that province in northeast India? Also, who is rebelling in Xinjiang?