Doo dee doo dee doo.... Hey, just stopping in to ask when we are gonna get an update. It's been 3 frickin' weeks! 
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superman said:I thought it's been over a month since first and only update
BLOODY FRIGGEN HELL!!! I KNOW SOME PEOPLE NEED TIME TO GET AN IDEA, BUT JESUS, YOUR TAKING TOO FRICKIN" LONG. WHEN ARE YOU GONNA UPDATE????
Eh, you know the writer of this AAR wasn't active in this forum since 11th of February?
We still have dying ba-(looks at script)- i mean, We still have people waiting for the FIRST UPDATE!!!
lifeless said:well he hasnt been on for 2 months...maybe he'll come back....or not
I think he's pulling an "Anonymous"
Oh wow. The suspense seems to be literally killing people. Just got back from a long break from Victoria due to Civ4.
I just installed 1.4 but I shall reinstall 1.3c and at least post up to the point where I have played so far. Let's just say that France is... well, you'll see.
Update coming soon.
I just installed 1.4 but I shall reinstall 1.3c and at least post up to the point where I have played so far. Let's just say that France is... well, you'll see.
Update coming soon.
Background
A bit of metanarrative for those of you who might be interested. You might call it a discussion of the "literary process" I go through when I'm making these things.
Anywho, I save individually every time, so over the course of a normal game I rack up about a gigabyte of total saves. But other than this often saving (especially before and after wars) I just play the game normally. Then, when I sit down to write the AAR, I just go through loading various old save games to get all the screenshots.
It also helps to make the names descriptive so I have things like
Belgium_1856_October_4_Declare_Persia.eug.cfg
Belgium_1857_February_19_Persia_1.eug.cfg
Belgium_1857_March_26_Settle_Persia.eug.cfg
So with all these saves, reconstructing this AAR, despite the fact that 3 months have elapsed is really no trouble at all. I might forget a few of the details, but the core narrative is still intact.
A bit of metanarrative for those of you who might be interested. You might call it a discussion of the "literary process" I go through when I'm making these things.
Anywho, I save individually every time, so over the course of a normal game I rack up about a gigabyte of total saves. But other than this often saving (especially before and after wars) I just play the game normally. Then, when I sit down to write the AAR, I just go through loading various old save games to get all the screenshots.
It also helps to make the names descriptive so I have things like
Belgium_1856_October_4_Declare_Persia.eug.cfg
Belgium_1857_February_19_Persia_1.eug.cfg
Belgium_1857_March_26_Settle_Persia.eug.cfg
So with all these saves, reconstructing this AAR, despite the fact that 3 months have elapsed is really no trouble at all. I might forget a few of the details, but the core narrative is still intact.
1854-1864: Real World Alchemy: Gold into Guns (and vice versa)
Now, as you will recall, the Belgium economy is doing stupendously well. Everyone is in a factory and my luxury clothes factories are making obscene profits. Industrial tech and railroad levels are phenomenal.
However, nearly everyone is in a factory. Where oh where shall we get our soldiers? Shall we convert all those national-pop clerks into soldiers? Surely not.
China is much, much too large to take on with any real hope of success, due to the tiny size of the Belgian army. Even Korea would certainly be a stretch.
So where oh where shall we go?
Can you hear the African drums acalling?
Oman! I choose you!
A short war later, and we've taken a few territories in Eastern Africa and one on the Arabian Peninsula. All told there are about half a million total people in the conquered provinces:
Also, Oman's colonial buildings are all seized. Due to Oman's position, this opens up some interior sections of Africa that none of the rest of the European powers will be able to get to for years!
Africa will be mine! ALL MINE! Muhahahahaha.
...
Err, sorry bout that. where was I?
The men from the conquered provinces are quickly put into uniform, but only about a third of that half-million are actual pops I can convert. (I thought it was more like half, but when I actually look at it, there are clearly only about 57,000 in the actual RGO, and when I hover over the province, it says 179,000. Go figure.) Also, when combined with the fact that my government is anti-military, and I've been "working" the military slider to create as little economic impact as possible, the newly conquered lands don't provide me with a marvelous force.
But these few new divisions do provide me with enough firepower to contemplate some larger enemies. I look immediately to the north of the newly conquered lands, where my troops are stationed to keep an eye on nationalist riots. There is... how shall I put it... an opportunity:
I easily took the capital by March, 5 months later, with few to no losses. Only three provinces were gained, but all told, they had 1.5 million people in em. Remember, baby steps are necessary with these small minors. 1.5 million people may seem like pocket change to a major, but that's a 23% increase in Belgiums total population from the beginning to the end of the war:
Also, weighing in at Number 7, notice Belgium is now a Great Power. 1 more Diplomatic Point per year! Hooray!
Now the next five years 5 years pass in quiet economic development. There are railroads yet to be built and more profitable factories, and the small nation of Belgium cannot afford to fight a war and industrialize at once.
In 1861, Belgium, allied the the UK to keep all the big dogs off its back, gets dragged into a war with the USA. But Belgium does nothing, and the USA just grinds the UK's army to a pulp. Peace is finally settled on the terms that Canada should become an independent nation. (Never seen that happen before,).
Somehow, Liberia and USA's alliance dissolved over the course of all this, and I found them, sitting there, all alone, with -323 prestige and no allies.
Of course, there was only thing to do:
Yay, another 1.2 million people for Belgium!
Now Belgium is making 300 pounds a day, is fully railroaded, has some surplus cash on hand, and has a substantial number of troops:
But wait! All is not well! Notice all those Dutch troops upon the border. Such a blatant act of intimidation cannot be tolerated! This calls for a pre-emptive strike!
Also, there are practical concerns:
As you can see, we have reached a point where it is not possible to train any more regular troops, so any more colonial troops would have to really be "colonial." However, some nice new Dutch pops would solve that little problem for us quite nicely.
(By the by, this does seem exploitish, and I know I said no exploits, but since Britain does it with India, I feel justified.)
A year passes in which new Belgian troops are trained and get in position. Then the invasion is launched:
(Also notice the treasury in the upper-right. The coffers are quite filled. Belgium is prepared to fight for a loooong time.)
For those of you taking notes, notice that there are troops attacking at once from as many angles as possible, in order to take advantage of all the possible envelopment bonuses.
Also, it is no accident these troops are starting to march late in the month:
The will arrive in the Netherlands exactly on May 1. They should route the enemy forces with enough time to also complete the occupation of their provinces before June 1, thus suffering almost no attrition. With the game set to very hard, this kind of planning is almost necessary. The Human player suffers from vastly disproportionate "real" casualties (i.e., the population of their countries actually decreases). Any extended slugging match will result in a Belgium utterly devoid of soldier pops while the Netherlands just sails on obliviously.
There is no room for error. Can Belgium, henceforth having only fought against weak countries, take on a Great Power, the 6th ranked Netherlands? And, perhaps even more of a concern, can it do so without bringing down the wrath of its large European neighbors? Can it do so efficiently so that there is still enough time for world conquest?
Next update coming soon.
Now, as you will recall, the Belgium economy is doing stupendously well. Everyone is in a factory and my luxury clothes factories are making obscene profits. Industrial tech and railroad levels are phenomenal.
However, nearly everyone is in a factory. Where oh where shall we get our soldiers? Shall we convert all those national-pop clerks into soldiers? Surely not.
China is much, much too large to take on with any real hope of success, due to the tiny size of the Belgian army. Even Korea would certainly be a stretch.
So where oh where shall we go?
Can you hear the African drums acalling?
Oman! I choose you!
A short war later, and we've taken a few territories in Eastern Africa and one on the Arabian Peninsula. All told there are about half a million total people in the conquered provinces:
Also, Oman's colonial buildings are all seized. Due to Oman's position, this opens up some interior sections of Africa that none of the rest of the European powers will be able to get to for years!
Africa will be mine! ALL MINE! Muhahahahaha.
...
Err, sorry bout that. where was I?
The men from the conquered provinces are quickly put into uniform, but only about a third of that half-million are actual pops I can convert. (I thought it was more like half, but when I actually look at it, there are clearly only about 57,000 in the actual RGO, and when I hover over the province, it says 179,000. Go figure.) Also, when combined with the fact that my government is anti-military, and I've been "working" the military slider to create as little economic impact as possible, the newly conquered lands don't provide me with a marvelous force.
But these few new divisions do provide me with enough firepower to contemplate some larger enemies. I look immediately to the north of the newly conquered lands, where my troops are stationed to keep an eye on nationalist riots. There is... how shall I put it... an opportunity:
I easily took the capital by March, 5 months later, with few to no losses. Only three provinces were gained, but all told, they had 1.5 million people in em. Remember, baby steps are necessary with these small minors. 1.5 million people may seem like pocket change to a major, but that's a 23% increase in Belgiums total population from the beginning to the end of the war:
Also, weighing in at Number 7, notice Belgium is now a Great Power. 1 more Diplomatic Point per year! Hooray!
Now the next five years 5 years pass in quiet economic development. There are railroads yet to be built and more profitable factories, and the small nation of Belgium cannot afford to fight a war and industrialize at once.
In 1861, Belgium, allied the the UK to keep all the big dogs off its back, gets dragged into a war with the USA. But Belgium does nothing, and the USA just grinds the UK's army to a pulp. Peace is finally settled on the terms that Canada should become an independent nation. (Never seen that happen before,
).Somehow, Liberia and USA's alliance dissolved over the course of all this, and I found them, sitting there, all alone, with -323 prestige and no allies.
Of course, there was only thing to do:
Yay, another 1.2 million people for Belgium!
Now Belgium is making 300 pounds a day, is fully railroaded, has some surplus cash on hand, and has a substantial number of troops:
But wait! All is not well! Notice all those Dutch troops upon the border. Such a blatant act of intimidation cannot be tolerated! This calls for a pre-emptive strike!
Also, there are practical concerns:
As you can see, we have reached a point where it is not possible to train any more regular troops, so any more colonial troops would have to really be "colonial." However, some nice new Dutch pops would solve that little problem for us quite nicely.
(By the by, this does seem exploitish, and I know I said no exploits, but since Britain does it with India, I feel justified.)
A year passes in which new Belgian troops are trained and get in position. Then the invasion is launched:
(Also notice the treasury in the upper-right. The coffers are quite filled. Belgium is prepared to fight for a loooong time.)
For those of you taking notes, notice that there are troops attacking at once from as many angles as possible, in order to take advantage of all the possible envelopment bonuses.
Also, it is no accident these troops are starting to march late in the month:
The will arrive in the Netherlands exactly on May 1. They should route the enemy forces with enough time to also complete the occupation of their provinces before June 1, thus suffering almost no attrition. With the game set to very hard, this kind of planning is almost necessary. The Human player suffers from vastly disproportionate "real" casualties (i.e., the population of their countries actually decreases). Any extended slugging match will result in a Belgium utterly devoid of soldier pops while the Netherlands just sails on obliviously.
There is no room for error. Can Belgium, henceforth having only fought against weak countries, take on a Great Power, the 6th ranked Netherlands? And, perhaps even more of a concern, can it do so without bringing down the wrath of its large European neighbors? Can it do so efficiently so that there is still enough time for world conquest?
Next update coming soon.
WOOT! for Belguim! Good job.
Yeah, uh, just because Britain garunteed you're independence in the revolt, don't think they will be nice to you're conquest of Holland.
Yeah, uh, just because Britain garunteed you're independence in the revolt, don't think they will be nice to you're conquest of Holland.
Wow, cool.
Or should I say:
Booooooorrriiiinnnggggggg.
One exploit after another, so lame.
Or should I say:
Booooooorrriiiinnnggggggg.
One exploit after another, so lame.
Money money money...
Good work. Hopefully you won't set off any tripwires where France/Prussia are concerned.
Good work. Hopefully you won't set off any tripwires where France/Prussia are concerned.
1864-1867: France Humbled
Boring eh? Just wait. All the legwork is done. The economy is in good shape. The army is there, along with the technology. Now it's time for the fun stuff.
The war essentially goes exactly as planned. By July, all of the Netherlands' European provinces had been overrun. They made peace on July 18, 1864, less than 3 months after the beginning of the war:
One of the reasons for going to war with the Netherlands in the first place was to nab their 1 of their claim colonies in Africa.
I should mention here, because I forgot to earlier, that there was a short colonial war with France in order to prevent them from claiming colonies. So all of France's colonial buildings in Africa were siezed. France was goaded indirectly into such a war by declaring on her ally Egypt. Then when the peace treaty expired, I declared colonial war on Egypt/France for the 2nd time. The purposes of this were threefold:
A. It's easy to force Egypt to declare peace. Much harder for those pesky French.
B. All that nice Egyptian land seemed to be crying out for liberation.
C. Egypt had more than -100 prestige the second time around, so I didn't take a prestige hit.
Also, due to the conquest of Oman and earlier colonizing efforts, Belgium owns a substantial portion of Africa.
I was going to wait until the Mission to Civilize event fired so I got more prestige for claiming all these colonies, but I changed my mind. I needed the population immediately so I could put it into uniform:
Now what to do with all those troops?
The liberation of all the Belgian national pops and the insertion of them into factories is going to be the key to Belgian financial, and thus world, dominance. So there's only one real target:
(French is a Belgian national culture.)
But France is large you say? France is much larger than puny Belgium? France is a behemoth? France has far more troops than Belgium? Is it possible for Belgium to win such a war?
Why, actually, yes it is:
French troops were enveloped, encircled, overwhelming force applied to specific spots, etc, etc. All the usual stuff.
On January 16, a peace agreement is signed:
So 6.5 million people are added to the Belgian nation over the course of this war, which lasted less than 5 months. 3 million of those are new French nationals who can be put into factories.
I can hear you all thinking now: But what about the BB?
Next update coming soon.
Boring eh? Just wait. All the legwork is done. The economy is in good shape. The army is there, along with the technology. Now it's time for the fun stuff.
The war essentially goes exactly as planned. By July, all of the Netherlands' European provinces had been overrun. They made peace on July 18, 1864, less than 3 months after the beginning of the war:
One of the reasons for going to war with the Netherlands in the first place was to nab their 1 of their claim colonies in Africa.
I should mention here, because I forgot to earlier, that there was a short colonial war with France in order to prevent them from claiming colonies. So all of France's colonial buildings in Africa were siezed. France was goaded indirectly into such a war by declaring on her ally Egypt. Then when the peace treaty expired, I declared colonial war on Egypt/France for the 2nd time. The purposes of this were threefold:
A. It's easy to force Egypt to declare peace. Much harder for those pesky French.
B. All that nice Egyptian land seemed to be crying out for liberation.
C. Egypt had more than -100 prestige the second time around, so I didn't take a prestige hit.
Also, due to the conquest of Oman and earlier colonizing efforts, Belgium owns a substantial portion of Africa.
I was going to wait until the Mission to Civilize event fired so I got more prestige for claiming all these colonies, but I changed my mind. I needed the population immediately so I could put it into uniform:
Now what to do with all those troops?
The liberation of all the Belgian national pops and the insertion of them into factories is going to be the key to Belgian financial, and thus world, dominance. So there's only one real target:
(French is a Belgian national culture.)
But France is large you say? France is much larger than puny Belgium? France is a behemoth? France has far more troops than Belgium? Is it possible for Belgium to win such a war?
Why, actually, yes it is:
French troops were enveloped, encircled, overwhelming force applied to specific spots, etc, etc. All the usual stuff.
On January 16, a peace agreement is signed:
So 6.5 million people are added to the Belgian nation over the course of this war, which lasted less than 5 months. 3 million of those are new French nationals who can be put into factories.
I can hear you all thinking now: But what about the BB?
Next update coming soon.