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Thanks Nik. My brother requested that I do a CK1-DV game. Now that that is finished I can get back to this. I'll be publishing regularly there, and getting this one back to where it should be.
Well, I decided to keep trying for improvements. I have Japan by June of 1864, with all my needed supplies bought for China. I am 4 months ahead of my previous best.
It may be... *just* possible to take China by December of 1865. That would leave a full 9 months to prepare for Civil War 2.
The strategy improvements are pretty subtle. The starting wars haven't changed. Civil War I followed by Mexican war I. Annexation of Japan. You have to wait for your boats to come on board. This time I finished off Mexico well before the boats were done, and I staggered them. It made taking Japan more complicated, but the three month lead at the invasion in April of 1862, for final defeat in June of the following year was still 4 months ahead.
Still tinkering with my Japan strategy a bit, to make sure I have all my goods purchased when the Japanese war ends so that I can purchase 100 divisions of native Japanese cavalry and roll right into the China war.
It may be... *just* possible to take China by December of 1865. That would leave a full 9 months to prepare for Civil War 2.
The strategy improvements are pretty subtle. The starting wars haven't changed. Civil War I followed by Mexican war I. Annexation of Japan. You have to wait for your boats to come on board. This time I finished off Mexico well before the boats were done, and I staggered them. It made taking Japan more complicated, but the three month lead at the invasion in April of 1862, for final defeat in June of the following year was still 4 months ahead.
Still tinkering with my Japan strategy a bit, to make sure I have all my goods purchased when the Japanese war ends so that I can purchase 100 divisions of native Japanese cavalry and roll right into the China war.
I think keeping up this AAR for as long you have is an accomplishment in itself. Glad to hear that there is some progress on the world conquering.
Thanks. I will try to get some screenies up. I would like to close this file. School for me is ending soon, and I'm hoping to have a bit of time.
China has been conquered. May 3rd of 1866.
I am 450k in debt, but I am currently making about 200 per day. Japan is completely occupied by rebels, but I have 20 divisions now deployed to Japan to squash the rebels. I also have a rebel problem in Mexico that will get dealt with once I have the transports.
I have 20 steamer transports, and some 120 divisions of native cavalry and 20 divisions of full cavalry.
Some interesting changes. I am so large at this point that the USA will not DOW me for Civil War part II. Just tested this. This is good, because now I don't have to mobilize, and can preserve my populations. It also means that I can devote the time and the effort to break the USA with 'Have we sacrificed too much'. I couldn't do it before because I wasn't sufficiently large enough where warscore was irrelevant. Now that I have China, warscore will no longer touch me.
We also have an interesting opportunity that wasn't available in the prior game. I think this would make a good point to restart the AAR.
I can intervene in the Prussia/Austrian war for Germany. I have DOWed Hanover, bringing in all the NGF Minors, and attempting to knock out Prussia. At present I can deploy a total of 20 divisions into Europe, to create havoc.
We also have the standard Chinese rebellions to put down, as well as the aforementioned 'have we sacrificed too much event that we can impose on the USA.
I am 450k in debt, but I am currently making about 200 per day. Japan is completely occupied by rebels, but I have 20 divisions now deployed to Japan to squash the rebels. I also have a rebel problem in Mexico that will get dealt with once I have the transports.
I have 20 steamer transports, and some 120 divisions of native cavalry and 20 divisions of full cavalry.
Some interesting changes. I am so large at this point that the USA will not DOW me for Civil War part II. Just tested this. This is good, because now I don't have to mobilize, and can preserve my populations. It also means that I can devote the time and the effort to break the USA with 'Have we sacrificed too much'. I couldn't do it before because I wasn't sufficiently large enough where warscore was irrelevant. Now that I have China, warscore will no longer touch me.
We also have an interesting opportunity that wasn't available in the prior game. I think this would make a good point to restart the AAR.
I can intervene in the Prussia/Austrian war for Germany. I have DOWed Hanover, bringing in all the NGF Minors, and attempting to knock out Prussia. At present I can deploy a total of 20 divisions into Europe, to create havoc.
We also have the standard Chinese rebellions to put down, as well as the aforementioned 'have we sacrificed too much event that we can impose on the USA.
I have a few questions. What would people like to see? I would like to restore all the old screenies to the prior portion of the AAR. Would you like the return of the Dukes and the storytelling or would you prefer a straight up game play aar, no frills Falconhurst style.
I would like to commit to a schedule of putting out an update every week again if people are interested in reading.
I would like to commit to a schedule of putting out an update every week again if people are interested in reading.
Well, continuing on. Had a few setbacks/strategy refinements. I am going to have to back up a bit. Korea managed to successfully revolt from under me (barely, by about a month). China also reformed - due to a legacy occupation from the Taiping days that I inherited. Reorganized a few things and was able to squelch the Chinese rebellion. Japan has been successfully pacified. It is now March of 1867.
The Prussian Austrian war continues. After I KOed Hanover, that had the effect of rebalancing the war. Austria was unwilling to stand down and has stabilized the war with Prussia.
Now, Prussia is in deep trouble. Italy has had their war over the Papal States fire, and has gone to war with France over the Papal States. Austria has reversed their losses against Italy and appears to be trying to smash them out of the war entirely while fending off Prussia. France has rolled over the Rhineland, which Prussia can no longer access as I block them with the NGF. Prussia is already 40 percent war exhausted and is embroiled in the 'Great War' with France and Austria and their strategic situation does not look good.
I could intervene and smash Italy but that would draw me into another war with Prussia, that I can't really exploit as I have access to only 20 divisions.
I also want to prepare for Civil War part II, the 'final solution'. This is going to be the first time that I break the USA with 'have we sacrificed too much', which dissolves the United States. With that goal in mind I am invading Morocco to acquire 100 native divisions so that I can invade the United States. I could do it from China, but I want to use those troops against Asia.
The longterm plan will be to have two stacks of 100 divisions, one operating in Asia, one in America/Europe. This will reduce my need for transports. I have not substantially reduced my debt due to building transports and investing in industry. I have to build up another doomstack. Once China calms down I'll start with the RGO expansions in China itself and continue to increase.
This is the toughest part of Vicky, btw. Pacifying a conquered China, while regaining control of Korea/Japan, and continuing your expansions. Once I get past this point, where China is not rebelling everyday, the game becomes much more enjoyable.
The Prussian Austrian war continues. After I KOed Hanover, that had the effect of rebalancing the war. Austria was unwilling to stand down and has stabilized the war with Prussia.
Now, Prussia is in deep trouble. Italy has had their war over the Papal States fire, and has gone to war with France over the Papal States. Austria has reversed their losses against Italy and appears to be trying to smash them out of the war entirely while fending off Prussia. France has rolled over the Rhineland, which Prussia can no longer access as I block them with the NGF. Prussia is already 40 percent war exhausted and is embroiled in the 'Great War' with France and Austria and their strategic situation does not look good.
I could intervene and smash Italy but that would draw me into another war with Prussia, that I can't really exploit as I have access to only 20 divisions.
I also want to prepare for Civil War part II, the 'final solution'. This is going to be the first time that I break the USA with 'have we sacrificed too much', which dissolves the United States. With that goal in mind I am invading Morocco to acquire 100 native divisions so that I can invade the United States. I could do it from China, but I want to use those troops against Asia.
The longterm plan will be to have two stacks of 100 divisions, one operating in Asia, one in America/Europe. This will reduce my need for transports. I have not substantially reduced my debt due to building transports and investing in industry. I have to build up another doomstack. Once China calms down I'll start with the RGO expansions in China itself and continue to increase.
This is the toughest part of Vicky, btw. Pacifying a conquered China, while regaining control of Korea/Japan, and continuing your expansions. Once I get past this point, where China is not rebelling everyday, the game becomes much more enjoyable.
Played on through to 1869. Lots of backtracking. First run through - had Russia DOW me in February of 1868. I had the larger military score - 73 to about 103. Decided to play on. Took quite awhile but eventually forced Russia to peace out for all of Siberia. Got stuck again right afterwards, when China reformed. I I couldn't consolidate China as I had to remove troops to fight Russia. Decided to rerun the game
On try 2, I decided to test what happens if I maintain a sizeable (200+) manpower pool. Russia declines to go to war with me. Interesting, I didn't know that the AI cared about my existing manpower. Then I did my original plan which was war with the United States for Civil War part II. I hired 100 divisions of Taureg cavalry from Morocco, and deployed 60 divisions staggered out to overwhelm their defenses. By the time I reached 75 percent war score, the Great War finally ended with France peacing out against Prussia and Italy. Austria declined the peace offer and continued warring with Prussia. Once they signed peace, France decided to enforce a containment DOW due to the border in Morocco.
I had a difficult time prosecuting the war with France by attempting to clipper dodge and land on Metropolitan France. So, once again I had to make a choice whether to accept the save and continue on from there or retest and see if I couldn't do better this run.
In run number 3, I tested what happened if I put troops on the Morocco border with Algeria. This time the Great War never ended. That will be very useful to me later on if I can intervene with 100 divisions attacking from North Germany into a war exhausted Prussia to finally break them. Prussia is a tough, tough nation.
Redid the game. This time, while I was preparing my armies for Civil War II, the AI noticed my troop buildup near Richmond. The AI realized that if they waited they would get crushed even harder. Was too late, they DOWed me but my 40 divisions were enough to carry the day. Ended up shipping over another 20, and took all of the Great Plains. Few people, no factories. 30 provinces.
3 different games, 3 different DOWs. Civil War II ended with total victory and few casualties. Only significant battle was the battle of Albuquerque, where American troops from California guarded the passes west. Next up, Prussia war part II, as a continuation of the Great War.
On try 2, I decided to test what happens if I maintain a sizeable (200+) manpower pool. Russia declines to go to war with me. Interesting, I didn't know that the AI cared about my existing manpower. Then I did my original plan which was war with the United States for Civil War part II. I hired 100 divisions of Taureg cavalry from Morocco, and deployed 60 divisions staggered out to overwhelm their defenses. By the time I reached 75 percent war score, the Great War finally ended with France peacing out against Prussia and Italy. Austria declined the peace offer and continued warring with Prussia. Once they signed peace, France decided to enforce a containment DOW due to the border in Morocco.
I had a difficult time prosecuting the war with France by attempting to clipper dodge and land on Metropolitan France. So, once again I had to make a choice whether to accept the save and continue on from there or retest and see if I couldn't do better this run.
In run number 3, I tested what happened if I put troops on the Morocco border with Algeria. This time the Great War never ended. That will be very useful to me later on if I can intervene with 100 divisions attacking from North Germany into a war exhausted Prussia to finally break them. Prussia is a tough, tough nation.
Redid the game. This time, while I was preparing my armies for Civil War II, the AI noticed my troop buildup near Richmond. The AI realized that if they waited they would get crushed even harder. Was too late, they DOWed me but my 40 divisions were enough to carry the day. Ended up shipping over another 20, and took all of the Great Plains. Few people, no factories. 30 provinces.
3 different games, 3 different DOWs. Civil War II ended with total victory and few casualties. Only significant battle was the battle of Albuquerque, where American troops from California guarded the passes west. Next up, Prussia war part II, as a continuation of the Great War.
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Prussia isn't 'broken' per se. Tough nation, toughest troops in the game. Prussia rolling Jominion is such a chore, it takes forever to break them and they always stack up on Berlin.
Beat Prussia + Italy for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and most of the Baltic coast. Prussia was unhappy with it, but they had been outright beaten. Italy wasn't a challenge as they were warring with France. I took most of Southern Italy, though not the factories. Usually I don't bother to take factories until the nations are beaten down, as I want the territories instead.
Then I had another quickie war against Mexico. This game is slightly behind my first playthrough in North America, due to all the European wars. Took most of the eastern side all the way down to Mexico city. That will make future wars somewhat easier.
Finally, there was Prussia war part III, the war of the two emperors. I have not had 'strategic openness all game - meaning that I have a peace treaty with every enemy on my borders. Russia was the last to interrupt me. Russia takes a long time. This time I got 25 territories in Siberia once I broke Saint Petersburg after a very long war. Russia managed to fend me off and didn't lose many troops but could not contain mine. I built 100 new divisions for this war in China, and rolled through their defenses. Unfortunately I did not take all of the eastern seaboard, that would have been nice to eliminate all the Siberian pockets, and we now own Omsk. It might not look like much but that makes it 3k kilometres from Omsk to St. Petersburg instead of the 4500 kms from Altay to St. Petersburg.
Prussia bailed on their ally Russia for a cheap and quick 'peace out. They had no difficulty overrunning me and I had to break 30+ divisions in Berlin. Cost me most of my remaining Japanese soldiers. Prussia conceded most of central Germany this time. They have just one province that they share between them and the NGF. That one province also enables them to send troops from Thuringia to the Rhineland. I cut Berlin off from Thuringia, splitting Prussia into 4 parts.
Denmark (3 provinces in Jutland), the Rhineland, Thuringia, and Prussia-Silesia-Brandenburg - the core of their intial Duchy. I've done significant damage to their ability to resist France, but it will take more wars to finally break them. They are down to just 105 military as they can no longer sustain their larger forces.
Next up our long awaited rematch with Hanover for all but one province of the NGF and another land grab for 150+ from Prussia. I will have to wait for the Western Russian troops to return. Troops are being set up to run through Persia and central Asia. Biggest unciv targets are Persia and Egypt. I don't want to wait much longer to take them.
Prussia + NGF
Austria + SGF
Then a colonial war stacked in the middle of these wars to run concurrently.
Japan is almost out of nationalism but I have +2 war exhaustion. Time to let that run down for a few months.
Beat Prussia + Italy for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and most of the Baltic coast. Prussia was unhappy with it, but they had been outright beaten. Italy wasn't a challenge as they were warring with France. I took most of Southern Italy, though not the factories. Usually I don't bother to take factories until the nations are beaten down, as I want the territories instead.
Then I had another quickie war against Mexico. This game is slightly behind my first playthrough in North America, due to all the European wars. Took most of the eastern side all the way down to Mexico city. That will make future wars somewhat easier.
Finally, there was Prussia war part III, the war of the two emperors. I have not had 'strategic openness all game - meaning that I have a peace treaty with every enemy on my borders. Russia was the last to interrupt me. Russia takes a long time. This time I got 25 territories in Siberia once I broke Saint Petersburg after a very long war. Russia managed to fend me off and didn't lose many troops but could not contain mine. I built 100 new divisions for this war in China, and rolled through their defenses. Unfortunately I did not take all of the eastern seaboard, that would have been nice to eliminate all the Siberian pockets, and we now own Omsk. It might not look like much but that makes it 3k kilometres from Omsk to St. Petersburg instead of the 4500 kms from Altay to St. Petersburg.
Prussia bailed on their ally Russia for a cheap and quick 'peace out. They had no difficulty overrunning me and I had to break 30+ divisions in Berlin. Cost me most of my remaining Japanese soldiers. Prussia conceded most of central Germany this time. They have just one province that they share between them and the NGF. That one province also enables them to send troops from Thuringia to the Rhineland. I cut Berlin off from Thuringia, splitting Prussia into 4 parts.
Denmark (3 provinces in Jutland), the Rhineland, Thuringia, and Prussia-Silesia-Brandenburg - the core of their intial Duchy. I've done significant damage to their ability to resist France, but it will take more wars to finally break them. They are down to just 105 military as they can no longer sustain their larger forces.
Next up our long awaited rematch with Hanover for all but one province of the NGF and another land grab for 150+ from Prussia. I will have to wait for the Western Russian troops to return. Troops are being set up to run through Persia and central Asia. Biggest unciv targets are Persia and Egypt. I don't want to wait much longer to take them.
Prussia + NGF
Austria + SGF
Then a colonial war stacked in the middle of these wars to run concurrently.
Japan is almost out of nationalism but I have +2 war exhaustion. Time to let that run down for a few months.
Well what would you like to see, Nikolai? I asked earlier what people would prefer - a reboot scripted much the same as the other updates, or just the gameplay with the screenies?
I plan to have a long playsession tomorrow and then one over the weekend. Prussia war IV will be up. Splitting the forces up around the globe is a much better way to do this than in my previous run. I'm down to 450k in debt but will start expanding Chinese RGOs and expanding my factories to level 2+ for Steel, Lumber and Cloth. Those are the basis of a true industrial economy. I don't have much of the 'higher' economy running yet. No artillery and no small arms, and no explosives. That will come once I have my industrial base established. I am really short on lumber and cloth. Mostly because I'm running regular clothes.
Played through until 1875. This is going to be an interesting AAR. 
Norway formed! Hawaii successfully revolted! Abu Dhabi gets donated land from me (it makes sense). War between the French and the British. And the eternal grudge match between me and Bismarck continues!
Norway formed! Hawaii successfully revolted! Abu Dhabi gets donated land from me (it makes sense). War between the French and the British. And the eternal grudge match between me and Bismarck continues!
Been awhile. Haven't forgotten about this. I've played up to about 1880. I am quite a bit ahead of my previous game with the war cycles, flowing east to west as I conquer more of the world. Just finished off a war against France for most of the remainder of France's colonial empire as they are allied to the Americans, who also went down. USA still has 35 million people, but the next war will finally start to hurt their industry. They own everything they owned in 1789, plus California (for all the immigrants), and Idaho, for all the industries.
I finally reunited Virginia, and fixed my Northern border so that I finally have a decent buffer. I am pretty tired of the sieges in Wheeling and Charleston. Next war with the USA will be to take Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana and push them back to the applachians.
Next up, Prussia + Italy to finally gain a corridor from Germany into the Mediterranean. There are two sections which are quite difficult, getting a connection between Europe and Asia, and between Asia and Morocco. Once I have those, I can deploy Chinese divisions into Europe which is the start of the endgame. I need to take all of Crimean Russia and connect it up to Galicia to have a corridor all the way to the North Sea.
Not sure I'll make it as Spain has a ridiculous price on their territory, but I'm getting there. Over 900 territories conquered, with very few successful colonial claims. War with Britain is also forthcoming in the massive repeated wars with Britain to reduce and destroy them.
I finally reunited Virginia, and fixed my Northern border so that I finally have a decent buffer. I am pretty tired of the sieges in Wheeling and Charleston. Next war with the USA will be to take Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana and push them back to the applachians.
Next up, Prussia + Italy to finally gain a corridor from Germany into the Mediterranean. There are two sections which are quite difficult, getting a connection between Europe and Asia, and between Asia and Morocco. Once I have those, I can deploy Chinese divisions into Europe which is the start of the endgame. I need to take all of Crimean Russia and connect it up to Galicia to have a corridor all the way to the North Sea.
Not sure I'll make it as Spain has a ridiculous price on their territory, but I'm getting there. Over 900 territories conquered, with very few successful colonial claims. War with Britain is also forthcoming in the massive repeated wars with Britain to reduce and destroy them.
Played up to 1883. Won a quick war against Argentina and Brazil. Also won a colonial war with the dutch for the eastern half of Borneo, the Celebes and all their small islands around the world. They kept western Java, Sumatra and Borneo, but I'll be back for the rest.
I am now the largest power on every continent. Next up, a 2x war with Russia. Russia alone and then Russia with Greece.
I have won the first war (started in July of 1882, and ended by November (eat your heart out Napoleon), but Russia is refusing to surrender. Partisans are starting to become an issue. Russia has 32 divisions in Archangel, but they can't break out and the rest of the country has been occupied. They've offered me two crappy peace deals and keep refusing my 140 or so percent war deals.
As for my industry, most of the world has been railroaded to level one. The core of the confederacy (+Northern Mexico) is being railroaded up to level 3 as is the core of Europe. Next up will be China's RGOs, and after that I'll have to decide what to do with my money. I may actually decide to do crimefighting or more divisions. I currently make about 2k per day. The only resource I am short on is Ammunition, my Ammunition factories are insufficient to supply all my gun factories. I am also short on Dye. Thanks to being awarded part of Java, I
Currently I use up about a quarter of the world's resources for my industrial production. I have mostly caught up with the migration of craftsmen to the South. Virginia alone now has roughly 30 million people. Texas has about 8 million people. I have a level 12 steel factory in Richmond.
Currently I have about 2800 prestige and about 2500 industry. Military is now pushing 300. Only Britain can keep pace, but we'll see how long they manage.
Prussia remains locked in their eternal war with Zanzibar. They are now up to 100 percent war exhaustion (thanks to repeated wars with me). I sank all the Prussian Transports and took all their port cities. They won't surrender to Zanzibar because they are winning the war, having occupied all of Tanzania. They can't deploy divisions to take Tanzania because they don't own a port connected to their capital. This effectively locks them into permanent war exhaustion. It's been very helpful in crippling their ability to defend themselves, but they have 120 divisions on 14 million people. That's over 10% of their total population in arms!
That's about roughly comparable to the German army in 1918. They had 4.5 million on 45 million people. In the last war they finally exhausted their manpower. I'm shocked they've managed to keep up their divisions for as long as they have.
I am now the largest power on every continent. Next up, a 2x war with Russia. Russia alone and then Russia with Greece.
I have won the first war (started in July of 1882, and ended by November (eat your heart out Napoleon), but Russia is refusing to surrender. Partisans are starting to become an issue. Russia has 32 divisions in Archangel, but they can't break out and the rest of the country has been occupied. They've offered me two crappy peace deals and keep refusing my 140 or so percent war deals.
As for my industry, most of the world has been railroaded to level one. The core of the confederacy (+Northern Mexico) is being railroaded up to level 3 as is the core of Europe. Next up will be China's RGOs, and after that I'll have to decide what to do with my money. I may actually decide to do crimefighting or more divisions. I currently make about 2k per day. The only resource I am short on is Ammunition, my Ammunition factories are insufficient to supply all my gun factories. I am also short on Dye. Thanks to being awarded part of Java, I
Currently I use up about a quarter of the world's resources for my industrial production. I have mostly caught up with the migration of craftsmen to the South. Virginia alone now has roughly 30 million people. Texas has about 8 million people. I have a level 12 steel factory in Richmond.
Currently I have about 2800 prestige and about 2500 industry. Military is now pushing 300. Only Britain can keep pace, but we'll see how long they manage.
Prussia remains locked in their eternal war with Zanzibar. They are now up to 100 percent war exhaustion (thanks to repeated wars with me). I sank all the Prussian Transports and took all their port cities. They won't surrender to Zanzibar because they are winning the war, having occupied all of Tanzania. They can't deploy divisions to take Tanzania because they don't own a port connected to their capital. This effectively locks them into permanent war exhaustion. It's been very helpful in crippling their ability to defend themselves, but they have 120 divisions on 14 million people. That's over 10% of their total population in arms!
That's about roughly comparable to the German army in 1918. They had 4.5 million on 45 million people. In the last war they finally exhausted their manpower. I'm shocked they've managed to keep up their divisions for as long as they have.