*This is played post latest patch so a few new noticeable tweaks were made which I will show below.*
It is November 1806. Spain is at war chasing its own dominance targets in Tunisia. Denmark and Sweden continue their months long struggle on the Scandinavian peninsula. Russia and Austria remain at loggerheads with the Ottoman Empire and her satellites: Moldavia and Wallachia.
Great Britain after securing her first few land dominance objectives is hungry for more Though our naval dominance is 100%, our land dominance is only 28.5%. This puts in a tie to reach the required victory conditions, with Russia at 64.20%. Though her armies and navy have taken a battering we look for our potential next targets. Though Bruxelles and Utrecht are the next nearest provinces required for victory, they are out of reach for our meagre force. Safe in the hands of their French master – at least for now. So we must look further afield. To Portugal perhaps and the provinces of Lisboa and Porto? Or to Sicily to invade Naples and Palermo. Perhaps even further then, to Ottoman controlled Athens (Athanai) or Candai?
The Ottoman controlled objectives could be seized pretty quickly and without much of a fight seeing as they are otherwise distracted. Portugal is closest and would allow us bases to support Gibraltar. Though we should not be so hasty as we still guarantee Portugal's independence. Then there is the Spanish question. Would they attack us in turn? So perhaps Sicily is the natural next step. It is isolated, allow. Possibly only France would come to its aid, but seeing as they were in a war against enough, that would be unlikely. So Sicily it is. It is okay to feel bad. They were an ally after all. Though we don't want to annex them, just take over two of their most important cities. Guilt... did any of you have a catholic upbringing?
8 November
A quick check on our capital shows that we have only one remaining KGL infantry brigade ready to deploy. I can take the opportunity to demonstrate a new addition to the game. Rally points can now be seen on the map, as represented by the blue icons you can see in the picture. Naval rally points have the boat present, will army rally points have a soldier depicted on them. Neat!
The infrastructure upgrade from Developed to Civilized in Manchester continues and will be ready in February next year. That will add a lot of benefits in terms of tax, manpower and supply to that province. A change in the way squadrons are represented now displays their overall strength as a percentage rather than ship count. Shame I liked seeing how many ships were there, but at least its more logical in terms of knowing the operational capability.
Manpower remains a source of worry. Though we have 90k that equates to about maybe 25-30 brigades. Though we can never really be without 30,000 men to fill the ranks of the fallen. We gain just under 5000 a month (or 2 or so brigades – depending on manpower), that's would be 69,000 a year, where it not for our war exhaustion and regime type – Constitutional Monarchy.
Also – not 100% sure, but I don't recall getting a breakdown of factors governing relationships with the player's nation. Seems now that relation scores are not static???? That tooltip shows the info for Hannover our satellite. So a yearly change towards being friendly is quite reasonable (esp. for NON-satellite nations), but it will take us to long and use too many resource and effort to even try.... oh why do they hate us... why!?!
18 November
We approach Spain to improve our relations with them Though we have far to go to get them anywhere near wanting to join us in Coalition.
21 - 25 November
New transport squadrons built in Cardiff are relocated to London and reassigned to the Blue Squadron/Fleet. Bringing the total number up to 8 transport squadrons. The final KGL brigade is recruited and joins the ever growing Home Army in Chatham.
30 November
A quick look at the Budget screen show that we made 118 ducats last month. If we can double that next month, we will be able to upgrade the development level of another 'Developed' province to the max level – Civilized. Idea points have flat lined at 54 points. So if we are to be in a position to adopted a new one, we will need to get back into conflict. Otherwise rely on game events to provide us with a few more.
Now we take the opportunity to look at the relations sees the following countries as they see us:
100+: Austria, Prussia, Ottoman Empire, Sicily, Portugal, Nassau,
100-51: Sweden, Russia, Saxony
1-50: Wurttemberg, HRE, Algeria, Wallachia, Moldavia, Hessen, Piedmont, Tuscany, Baden, Oldenburg, Bavaria, Morocco, Persia.
0-100-: Spain, Egypt, Italy, Oldenburg.
100-200: France, Tripolitania, Tunisia, Papacy, Switzerland, ?Hannover?, Denmark
1 December
With winter taking hold in the northern and eastern territories, it is time to prepare to go to war. Afterall we don't want to do the obvious – do we? So it is time to reorganise Wellesley's force. A quick check shows that it numbers over 55,000, the left flank will attempt to Hold, the centre will attempt Up the Guard and the fight flank will attempt to Delay. We can also see another tweak, by highlighting the soldier number we get NEW information of movement speed, I suspect is the maximum army speed and a list of brigades that are slowing the army down somewhat. We notice that it is almost at full capacity with only 208 more replacements needed.
A brief comparison between London our biggest provider of supplies and Hannover our news supply centre reveals the following:
Hannover
- Supply Production: 42/day
- Supply Stored: 1.49k out of 1.49k
- One unit (Hannover garrison) is consuming 8 supplies/day (it is a small force)
- It can also transfer a total of 200 supplies overland and 30 through unblockaded ports.
vs
London
- Supply Production: 797/day
- Supply Stored: 24.82k out of 25.53k
- Ten units are consuming 104 supplies/day (several garrisons and the home army)
- It can also transfer a total of 1.32k supplies overland and 790 through unblockaded ports.
So its very easy to see which centres of supply are vital to our forces, and why ports need to be kept free from blockades.
3 December
As we didn't quite break the required 1000 ducats in our treasury, I order two new Frigate fleets built in Cardiff. To replace the squadrons lost returning from Denmark. With more time to review the game log I see that Tuscany adopts the Close Blockade idea, while France adopts Platoon Fire.
6 December
A review of the other Major powers sees:
- France very friendly with Baden, Hessen and Bavaria.
- Prussia at war with Oldenberg and friendly with Bade, Hessen, Mecklenburg and Bavaria, along with its satellite Saxony.
- Sweden Friendly with Mecklenburg, while at war with Denmark.
- Ottoman Empire, Wallachia and Moldavia at war with Austria, Russia and her satellite Persia.
- Spain remains friendly with Morocco and Portugal as it begins its conflict with Tunisia.
16 December
The time for waiting has passed. Now we act!!
The Medway Fleet stationed in Yarmouth is renamed Gibraltar Fleet in ready orders. Wellesley's Force are loaded onto the ships of Red Fleet to be escorted by Gibraltar Fleet. Both are ordered to Gibraltar with all haste.
General Sir John Moore is assigned command of the Home Army. He is our best leader after General Wellesley.
18 December
As the fleet begins its journey we notice that War Exhaustion remains high at 1.63.
- National Revolt Risk: +0.81
- Morale of Armies/Navies: -0.08
- National Manpower Modifier: -4.90
- Reinforce Speed -8.1%
It is the last two items that of concern if we should march straight into yet another conflict! At least between our Ruler (-0.14) and being at peace (-0.5) it should be gone in about 3 or so months.
29 November
By this date France guarantees Oldenberg's independence. A little late now as Prussia is about to annex it. Russian and Austria took another slice of dominance objectives (Soci and Belgrad) from the Ottomans. Saxony and Tunisia adopt Expert Foraging and Volley Fire ideas.
31 December
A quick check of the Fort mapmode shows all the forts in the Mediterranean region. Green depicts fort levels of 3 such as Gibraltar. Blue shows fort levels of 2 such as our targets of Palermo and Naples. Red shows fort levels of 1 such as Rome and Messina.
As the 2
nd year of our game ends... Sicily appears on our horizon of conquest. What will the year 1807 await...