• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

unmerged(47003)

Captain
Jul 31, 2005
396
0
Ah, poor little Belgium. While I was able to conquer the world as Switzerland, that was only on Normal/Normal and the Swiss have some definite advantages over the lovely Belgians, namely more education, a higher population, and a more robust starting economy. Plus this is on VH/VH, which should make things interesting I hope.

The despicable land trading will not be used, I assure you. I think there are few things I loathe more than land trading. Hopefully they fix it in the next patch.

A lovely list of known exploits can be found here: http://victoria.nsen.ch/wiki/index.php/Exploits

I will be using the colonial manpower "exploit", as the AI all use it too. Not really an exploit in my book, since it just puts you on an even footing with everyone else.

Also, I shan't be shy about taking colonial buildings by military force. I don't know how that one made it onto the exploit list. Just part of the game. Hopefully they improve the AI on this point next patch too.

Now that that's all out of the way, on with the AAR!
 
1836-1854: Mission to Industrialize

I am not entirely sure how the triggers with the opening war between the Netherlands and Belgium work. In response to that, I just decided to go "all-out" against those despicable Dutch oppressors. I increased my mobilization pool by 5 and mobilized and threw 3 more divisions into training as soon as I got enough guns and manpower. I had just gotten the Dutch onto the defensive in June of 1836, and then the Brits had to intervene and end the war. Still, I picked up 2 provinces which aint too bad:

97967181_2b440112a0_o.jpg


Still, as you can see by my industrial score, I racked up a pretty huge debt over the course of the war. Doh! I bet I could do it better if I did it over again, but oh well. The next few years are spent paying down the debt as well as building railroads in factory provinces.

The next 18 years would be unbelievably boring to all of you, so forgive me for my brevity. Basically, I research industrial techs as hard as I can, nab as many small colonies as I can, and work on maximizing Belgium's small industrial base.

I can only grab 4 small colonies before the big boys take the rest, partially due to my original debt, and partially due to the fact that I know that building in the big colonial areas is a waste of money, as there are other, cheaper ways to gain those territories ^^. The four I take: Okinawa, Amami, and Bonin off the coast of Japan. Also I nab Yebuti over by Ethiopia in Africa:

97967182_9a0d26d746_o.jpg


(Notice that Okinawa has more than 400,000 people on it, a nice colony indeed.)

I also institute full health care reforms sometime in the 1850s I believe.

Where oh where have all the farmers and labourers gone:

97967184_51ecd1f63e_o.jpg


The white provinces have Steel Railroad (Level 4). Those are the provinces with factories in them by the way.

I also realized a simple triusm while playing this game and micromanaging the Belgium factories: It is always worth it to build the highest level railroads in factory provinces. (You can see which ones are factories on the infrastructure map.) Even if you have to go into debt to do it, always build railroads in factory provinces. In non-factory provinces however, generally you only get about a 1% production bonus for the factory, so don't go into debt building railroads in those provinces. The interest will be greater than the increased economic production. Of course this truism varies based on how many factories you have and what your interest rate is and other factors, but this basic rule of thumb seems like it would be almost always true. Building railroads in factory provinces gives you a +8% bump in province and therefore factory efficiency or so, which is quite significant.

All (and I mean every single one) of my workers are dedicated to either regular clothes or luxury clothes production. I buy as much fabric and regular clothes off the WM as I can, and then I just make luxury clothes, making tremendous profits. I am almost sure this is _the_ most profitable way to do it in the early game. Notice my 200 pound per day profit in 1854 in a tiny country like Belgium before I've even fully industrialized or railroaded:

97967185_607c6eec27_o.jpg
 
Best wishes to you, Sir! Looks like you're off to a great start!

Rensslaer
 
lovely another belgian AAR :D

dont mess it up or i will be angry :mad: ;)
 
ohh nice i love when they post screenies of the budget etc. What level are your factories at? And do you have any closed?
 
Screenies are great!

Too bad you weren't as luck as I was, for some reason, the Prussians got involved in my war. So with the Brits keeping the Netherlands under control, I was free to capture the whole Western portion of Prussia, what ehlped was that the german alliance broke down, so Western germany was cut off from the rest if Prussia, and I was able to invade it all without the Prussians sending any more troops!
 
Cool, A Belgian WC. Good luck and let them eat frites! all over the world.
 
But don't dawdle too long. Let war commence!
 
Hello... Is there anybody alive out there...? Can anyone hear me...? Yawn...

means:

Update, man! :)
 
YAY! Bring the delicious Belgian Waffles to England and get rid of that crappy English food. I mean, what kind of name is spotted dick anyway? that makes me wanna puke... anyway, CW.