1870-1876: France, Spain, and Sardinia-Piedmont vs Belgium
Now some might hunker down and spam the "Repay Loan" button. But at this stage of the game, that's just plain not the way to do it.
Instead, I go deeper into debt, build factories, and a few more railroads to increase my cash flow. (Just gotta calculate the increased profit of those things, and with the 10% interest rate, that profit often outstrips the interest.)
In a little over two years, I'm making 450+ pounds per day, and the debt has been cut more than in half to about 180,000 pounds:
By September 11, 1874, I've paid off my debt, and am making 600+ pounds per day. To keep the army maintenance slider at max it only costs 520 pounds, meaning that the debt I incurred before shouldn't happen again.
War is declared on Sardinia-Piedmont, thus also bringing in France. The plan is to take Paris, get a large peace treaty with France alone, then, once Sardinia-Piedmont is alone, to pounce on her.
The initial invasion goes beautifully (I start off rather close to Paris now, so that makes it awfully convenient
):
France began the war in late September with a military score of 164. Now, three months later in December, it's 124. At the same time, Belgium's has remained constant at 173.
Two months later, France offers and I accept:
I now have two provinces directly bordering Paris. That should make any future invasion convenient indeed.
Likewise, France has finally been driven from all of Central and Southern Africa:
Now on to Sardinia-Piedmont! Since all my troops are already in France, they can just march directly to Sardinia-Piedmont. No clipper dodging necessary here! Still, it takes a long time to march through all that enemy terrain, so it's November before I have a good handle on Sardinia-Piedmont itself:
At the same time, my African troops grab the last Spanish claim building:
In March of 1876, peace is declared:
Though I only gain 5 Sardinia-Piedmont provinces, 2 of them directly border the captial of Torino, Sardinia-Piedmont now has a whopping military score of 4, and she is also now at -220 prestige, meaning the next invasion will only cost 1 prestige.
And now how much debt for all that? Only 40,000 pounds! And given that I make 600 pounds a day, that's just 2 months to pay it all off. Hmm... army in good shape, finances in good shape. Factories coming online in France, which means that the economy will only become more robust. By golly, I think it's time for another war!
(Badboy is 134 now, by the by. No more trading, no more peace, just conquest!)
And to think, I'm not even halfway through the grand campaign! 40 years have elapsed, and there are 44 more to go.
