I Am Siam - A V2 Minor Strategy AAR

[CaptRobau]

Great game. You must play do a 1.4 + mod someday. Maybe AlterVicky or one of the realism mods.

 

[Stuyvesant]

Glorious finish, even if you did fall from second to third place in the power rankings. But to be honest, I think your last-minute economic crash actually added some flair, some drama to your AAR and made for a better story than if you had simply powered on, incrementally increasing the gap between you and the French. At least it gave us readers one last thing to bite our nails to, while the last seconds were ticking off the clock.

An entertaining read and a great display what minor powers can be - at least in 1.1. Any plans to do another experiment, but then in a more recent version? Or is having three simultaneous HOI3 AARs enough, for the time being?

 

[Felicity]

Read this entire AAR through in the past three days- I loved it and learned oh so much. A really wonderful progression from barely winning wars against other uncivs and taking on France toe-to-toe and making them concede! A thrilling ride the whole way through.

It's not really a minor strategy AAR anymore!

 

[unmerged(317726)]

This AAR got my attention because... heh, Siam hell yeah! I haven't finished reading yet, but it's already an impressive AAR!

 

[Rensslaer]

An absolutely fantastic achievement! I'd love to see you do another AAR in Vicky 2 with either 1.3 or the 1.4 beta. My hat is off to you!

Thanks, Avindian! Thanks for sharing the ride with me! Not sure on a V2 AAR right away -- need to clear my HOI 3 AARs out first.

All hail Siamese South America (SSA)!

Yaay! Thanks for your kind comments and viewership!

brilliant stuff and suitably nail biting end ... so near to #2. Thanks for this, you, and a few others, have effectively taught me V2 from the clarity of AARs. In this case the ride from seeking to be the biggest in SE Asia to looking down on most conventional major powers has been impressive. A final bit of praise, I really like the clarity of the images you pull together in all your AARs.

Thank you, Loki! I really appreciate that. I do try to convey as much as I can in the edited screenshots without being confusing. Keep me posted if you start playing V2!

So you mean to tell me that Siamese troops were camping out in the Balkans for years, unable to return to their homeland? :rofl:

The UK, and to a lesser extent France, are almost impossible to overtake in V2. My friend experimented with weakening the UK. He disbanded their entire army and navy, demolished all their factories, released every possible country that could be released, repeatedly switched ruling parties to get militancy up to 10, and then had other countries declare war on the UK to humiliate them (which he had the UK accept).

Incredibly, within a few years the UK's scores were practically back where they used to be.

We came to the conclusion that British India was the key to their power, The last screenshot shows that all but a few of the top resource-producing provinces are in India. Since the UK can't voluntarily release these provinces, we'll have to have other countries declare war on them for it.

Interesting experiment, in weakening the UK -- sounds a little like what's happening in my country! I'm sure you're right about India -- maybe needs to be nerfed somewhat. No, my troops were stuck in Serbia and Wallachia for 5 years, in between wars, but I did have naval access to my troops in "Siamese Bosnia" for those years. Honestly, the way I got surprised by the number of Turkish troops, I might not have been able to hold that section of my empire if I hadn't been able to deliver troops from Anatolia and Egypt into Bosnia through a friendly port.

Awesome AAR.

Given the number of achievements you managed, who would blame you for being 300 points behind France ? Not I... you have taken an unciv nation and brought it only less than 300 points behind the second place. Congratulations.

Reading your AAR, it almost seemed easy to do. But we all know different. You succeeded, despite a few hardships, where i have failed even with civ nations.

Last but not least, like loki, i would like to praise you for the clarity of your AAR, the lessons you tought us... or at least tought me, on strategy in the game.

Thank you so much

Thanks, Gigau! I'm honored to have had your readership and benefited from your kind comments! I'm glad you enjoyed it, and learned from it. I was lucky to be playing v1.1, it sounds like -- probably couldn't have done this with later patches.

Yet another great AAR. I just wish I could play like you I look forward to all your future works.

Thanks, Klewer! Thanks for your encouragement. I have 3 HOI AARs underway -- I think you've posted in at least one of them -- so I'll still be quite active.

Quoting you from the first page.
Amazing. Absolutely amazing what you did there.
Starting with a minor country not even knowing what to expect and conquering yourself up to rank three only 300 points behind the second is more than an impressive achievement. And this AAR is even more: It helped me to understand VII like no tutorial ever could, congratulations and many thanks for this great work! I can't wait to read your next VII AAR.

Wow. Thanks for reminding me, Sactwu! It's hard even for me to remember how far I'd come -- after your post, I went back and read page 3 where I was afraid of being overwhelmed by Dai Viet even BEFORE a major disaster which I narrowly overcame! It seems like this has been going for more than 9 months -- those early days seem so long ago. I'm really glad you learned from it like a tutorial -- that's been my intent from the beginning, and I enjoy doing these strategy AARs.

end of an era, the AAR taught me a few tricks

Thanks, S1234567890m! Glad you learned from it!

Thanks Renss for a most pleasant, educational read.

You're welcome, kptb! Thanks for saying hello at the end -- and Welcome! I always sense that you're there in the background, watching, even if you don't say anything.

Woo go Renss !

Thanks, FinnishFish! See you over in the other AARs!

What, you finish an AAR?

Gratz!

I've finished AARs before! Well, one, anyway. Two if you count my little HOI 1 AAR. This makes 3.

Wow, great stuff, and inspiring to my own gameplay. What's next?

Thanks, Kyrion! Well, my intent is to finish my 3 HOI 3 AARs -- they're all a bit much. At one time I was working on 5 AARs at once (I will continue updating Sforza, in EU 3, but not as quickly as my HOI 3 AARs). Eventually I will come back to V2, and I'm even considering a CK2 AAR once that comes out. Never played either version of CK, but it looks fun.

His Majesty the King commends you on an excellent century.

You know.... Me and my family see portraits of the King quite often in the restaurants we go to. In fact, I'll be visiting one in a couple of hours where they have a photo of King Bhumibol visiting with Elvis in his Korean War uniform!

Congratulations! Great AAR with plenty to learn from it. The evil-imperialist French AI clearly sabotaged your economy in the last few months, but you are still second in our eyes!

I hope you don't abandon Vicky altogether, though... How much do we have to pay you over and above whatever your HoI readers are paying for you to stay? :rofl:

Thanks, Aldriq! I'll come back to V2, but not right away. At the end, I'll list some ideas I have rolling around in my head, and you guys can tell me what you might most want to see next.

Great game. You must play do a 1.4 + mod someday. Maybe AlterVicky or one of the realism mods.

Thanks! You know, I'm not very familiar with the different mods -- what are some that you might recommend? I enjoy realism, but that means different things to different people. I guess I'd be more interested in a mod with more realistic diplomatic interactions. What's out there?

Glorious finish, even if you did fall from second to third place in the power rankings. But to be honest, I think your last-minute economic crash actually added some flair, some drama to your AAR and made for a better story than if you had simply powered on, incrementally increasing the gap between you and the French. At least it gave us readers one last thing to bite our nails to, while the last seconds were ticking off the clock.

An entertaining read and a great display what minor powers can be - at least in 1.1. Any plans to do another experiment, but then in a more recent version? Or is having three simultaneous HOI3 AARs enough, for the time being?

Yeah -- drama! For you AND me! Thanks! I'll stick with HOI 3 for the time being. I do like V2 alot, but HOI 3 is really my favorite of all the Paradox games.

Read this entire AAR through in the past three days- I loved it and learned oh so much. A really wonderful progression from barely winning wars against other uncivs and taking on France toe-to-toe and making them concede! A thrilling ride the whole way through.

It's not really a minor strategy AAR anymore!

Welcome, Felicity! Glad you were able to join in at the last moment! Three days, huh? Thanks for making the commitment -- I'm glad you enjoyed it!

This AAR got my attention because... heh, Siam hell yeah! I haven't finished reading yet, but it's already an impressive AAR!

Thanks! Welcome, Das Goat! I'm not sure how long it will take you to catch up, but I hope you enjoy reading the rest!

All right...

Some of the ideas I've had that I'd like to play on V2 one day:

1. The USA seeking Manifest Destiny, but not necessarily much else.

2. Prussia again. I'm really not sure if I want to revisit Prussia, after having spent so much time doing Fire Warms in V1 -- it almost seems blasphemous to try to redo what's already been done, but then again I am actually trying to repackage Fire Warms into novel stories, so I'm redoing it anyway. This game would be very different, I'm sure.

3. Austria-Hungary has always fascinated me, and I don't think there have been a lot of gameplay/historybook examples. It seems like a very tense situation for an empire to be in, similar to Prussia, except with more internal turmoil than external.

Those are the main ones I'd wanted to try. Any preferences?

Thanks again for your attention, readership and comments! I've really enjoyed this! Please drop by HOI 3 and see my AARs over there, if you're not reading them already (or read Fire Warms -- I can never mention enough how much I enjoyed writing it!).

Rensslaer

 

[Avindian]

I'd like to see 1) or 3). I know you typically don't do them, but I am begging for a legitimate WC attempt with Vicky 2; most seem to fizzle out after a while.

 

[Caezaire]

You should do a USA manifest destiny AAR. Those are always interesting. Besides, who doesn't like beating up on Mexico, the Ottomans of the Americas?

 

[Klewer]

Definetly Austria-Hungary. Very interesting nation in general and I always play it when possible because there are just so many different paths which you can travel.

 

[Enewald]

König und Kaiser.
Or the other way round.

 

[unmerged(58610)]

Shame about the industries failing Siam. I think you would have finished avove France had you still been at war. You had an economy geared to fighting. Well done.

British India does just spam troops and industries. The only way to stop them is to hit them early.

Austria-Hungary would be an interesting choice. Not too sure what your goals would be.

 

[loki100]

I'd make a small vote for A-H, think that would be interesting to be given the sort of slow languid treatment you gave Prussia in 'Fire Warms'. Fascinating set of options as well, to reform/not reform, contest Prussia for leadership in Germany, Turkey/Russia ... but whatever it'll be worth reading methinks

 

[SirCliveWolfe]

3. Austria-Hungary has always fascinated me, and I don't think there have been a lot of gameplay/historybook examples. It seems like a very tense situation for an empire to be in, similar to Prussia, except with more internal turmoil than external.

Those are the main ones I'd wanted to try. Any preferences?

Thanks again for your attention, readership and comments! I've really enjoyed this! Please drop by HOI 3 and see my AARs over there, if you're not reading them already (or read Fire Warms -- I can never mention enough how much I enjoyed writing it!).

Rensslaer

3 Definatley... you can right the wrongs of Fire Warms!!

 

[CaptRobau]

Thanks! You know, I'm not very familiar with the different mods -- what are some that you might recommend? I enjoy realism, but that means different things to different people. I guess I'd be more interested in a mod with more realistic diplomatic interactions. What's out there?

I could write in my own words what the three main mods are about, but the wiki says it perfectly:

POP Demand Mod: A large-scale mod which changes more or less everything in the game. Adds hundreds of new events, inventions, decisions, and even goods and factories. It significantly rebalances the economy, and includes the Great War mod to enable large-scale conflict in the end-game. See also PDM subforum on the Paradox forums
The Victoria 2 Realism & Rebalance Project: aims at rebalancing the economy first and foremost, by modding the POP demands, the factories, buildings and units. Intends to also provide a stable and functioning economy at game start. Further goals include making military and politics deeper and more realistic. See also VRRP subforum on the Paradox forums
Age of Colonialism: is a lighter mod aimed at balancing the game without making as many in-depth changes as the other two. It features innovative tech-spread and a number of economic and military balances, while attempting to remain close to the original game. See also thread on Paradox Forums
Q: What are the differences between PDM and VRRP?
A: Statement by KonradRichtmark, lead designer of VRRP: [PDM has a] different design philosophy. We start from defining needs, throughputs and other basic economic variables from basic realistic assumptions, and then make everything else work according to that. They have more of a "what works, works" approach, caring less about realism than smooth playability. Their design philosophy is gamist, ours is simulationist. That's the short story, which is bound to be an over-simplification for which I'm sure to get flak from the popdemandmod team if they spot it.
A: by Naselus, lead designer of PDM : ' The two are practically incomparable now, in all honesty. While there's a lot of cross-fertilization between the two, and any good ideas from one usually get ported to the other (or even get adopted independently), they've evolved in very different ways over time. PDM has a lot more decisions added, more new buildings, and is generally updated more often and faster, while VRRP's approach of having one-man-per-job means that things tend to be looked at in more detail. Play both and see which one you prefer, as they feel completely different now.'

There are other, smaller mods like my 1836 Improved mod. This changes the setup of the 1836 scenario to be more historic (it's a lot, just read the first post of my thread, it's in my signature) as well as fixing some bugs left by PI. I've allowed Age of Colonialism to incorporate my mod. Not only because of this, but because it adds to the game instead of rebuilding it from the ground up like the other two mods I mentioned above. You don't need to play completely differently for AoC, while the other two mods need to be learned. At least that's my experience.

Then there's the big alternative history mod Divergences. This is basically what Kaiserreich is to HOI2 and its offshoots. It completely redraws the world, creating a new world based on the French and English crowns going together somewhere in the 1500s or 1600s. It's countries are a lot more balanced though, so a Siam-like AAR might be a bit easier (which makes it less fun to be honest).

 

[Rensslaer]

I'd like to see 1) or 3). I know you typically don't do them, but I am begging for a legitimate WC attempt with Vicky 2; most seem to fizzle out after a while.

Thanks! I think either 1 or 3 would be preferable to me too -- all I need is time to start a new game! As for WC's you're right -- I don't do them. I just don't have the patience. And I'm also not confident I know all the little tricks you'd have to use to do it in what I see as a short 100 years. Some folks are good at that stuff, but not me! The only time I've almost done a WC was with HOI 1, and I remember becoming terribly distressed that I had to airdrop paratroops into Nepal, and do the long slog with tanks against Siberia.... I don't want to have to redo all that.

You should do a USA manifest destiny AAR. Those are always interesting. Besides, who doesn't like beating up on Mexico, the Ottomans of the Americas?

I fear to do an AAR that is either too obvious, or has been done too often. But I think I would treat it differently from most. Please forgive my ignorance... I know BigBadBob has done a couple USA AARs in V2, but I haven't read them. Anyone know what direction he took on those? The best USA AARs were done in V1, including Director's, and EstonianZulu and Volksmarschall had great ones too. Any others I should be aware of, that you would particularly recommend? Nothing like TCPilot's alternative timetravel stuff. Realistic AARs with a mind toward historicity.

Definetly Austria-Hungary. Very interesting nation in general and I always play it when possible because there are just so many different paths which you can travel.

I know there were a whole flock of V1 AARs on A-H, but only 3 here that I know of in V2. I did read the early portions of Forgiven's AAR, which was well done, but I don't know if he's continued it. Any really stand out to you? Again, I'd want to do a realistic/historic AAR -- nothing outside of the realm of likelihood. No WC, no Austria invades California, that sort of thing.

König und Kaiser.
Or the other way round.

Ahh, so you want me to do Prussia again? Hmm....

Shame about the industries failing Siam. I think you would have finished avove France had you still been at war. You had an economy geared to fighting. Well done.

British India does just spam troops and industries. The only way to stop them is to hit them early.

Austria-Hungary would be an interesting choice. Not too sure what your goals would be.

Yeah, I was quite beside myself about the economy dropping out in those final months. I'm reminded of the sound the Millenium Falcon made when Han Solo shoved the hyperdrive throttle forward and it didn't work! I would've loved to go after India if I'd ever felt confident.... I just never did! I think I might really enjoy an Austria-Hungary game.

I'd make a small vote for A-H, think that would be interesting to be given the sort of slow languid treatment you gave Prussia in 'Fire Warms'. Fascinating set of options as well, to reform/not reform, contest Prussia for leadership in Germany, Turkey/Russia ... but whatever it'll be worth reading methinks

By "slow and languid" are you describing my playstyle, or the fact that I took 2 full years to finish the darned AAR? I don't expect I could do a similar work today -- the historybook mixed with plentiful fiction/narrative scenes. It's just too much work, and I'm directing my fiction-writing time toward real novel projects these days. One of these days you may see a prequel to Fire Warms in the bookstores, followed by a series of similar novels. The thing that most fascinates me about Austria-Hungary are their position surrounded by potential enemies, and their multi-cultural demographics, which could present unique challenges.

3 Definatley... you can right the wrongs of Fire Warms!!

Heh! Stifle Prussia in the crib? Hmm...

There are other, smaller mods like my 1836 Improved mod. This changes the setup of the 1836 scenario to be more historic (it's a lot, just read the first post of my thread, it's in my signature) as well as fixing some bugs left by PI. I've allowed Age of Colonialism to incorporate my mod. Not only because of this, but because it adds to the game instead of rebuilding it from the ground up like the other two mods I mentioned above. You don't need to play completely differently for AoC, while the other two mods need to be learned. At least that's my experience.

Then there's the big alternative history mod Divergences. This is basically what Kaiserreich is to HOI2 and its offshoots. It completely redraws the world, creating a new world based on the French and English crowns going together somewhere in the 1500s or 1600s. It's countries are a lot more balanced though, so a Siam-like AAR might be a bit easier (which makes it less fun to be honest).

Thanks, CaptRobau! That's very helpful. I'm nowhere near ready to start such a project, but this gives me an idea of what options I might have. I've been through a number of beta projects, so I can imagine it must be interesting to work on these mods, or elements of them, as you have.

Thanks, again, everybody, for your readership! I'm going to be over here in V2 less frequently while I work on finishing my 3 HOI 3 AARs. That might take a while. But I'll try to keep an eye on goings on here, as well. Many of you have already come over to see my WW II AARs, but if you haven't do please drop by!

Rensslaer

 

[Enewald]

No!
I meant K.u.K!

Seine Kaiserliche und Königliche Apostolische Majestät

someone

von Gottes Gnaden Kaiser von Österreich,
König von Ungarn und Böhmen, von Dalmatien, Kroatien, Slawonien, Galizien, Lodomerien und Illyrien;
König von Jerusalem etc.;
Erzherzog von Österreich;
Großherzog von Toskana und Krakau;
Herzog von Lothringen, von Salzburg, Steyer, Kärnten, Krain und der Bukowina;
Großfürst von Siebenbürgen, Markgraf von Mähren;
Herzog von Ober- und Niederschlesien, von Modena, Parma, Piacenza und Guastalla, von Auschwitz und Zator, von Teschen, Friaul, Ragusa und Zara;
Gefürsteter Graf von Habsburg und Tirol, von Kyburg, Görz und Gradisca;
Fürst von Trient und Brixen;
Markgraf von Ober- und Niederlausitz und in Istrien;
Graf von Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg etc.;
Herr von Triest, von Cattaro und auf der Windischen Mark;
Großwojwode der Wojwodschaft Serbien

Make it longer.

 

[Henry v. Keiper]

Congratulations on a good end

 

[KyrionMyrthar]

A-H would be fun to read. I've been tempted to try a game with them, myself (not as an AAR).

 

[Graymane]

Just wanted to say what a great AAR! I've loved reading most of your AARs and this one was no different. I learn more from these AARs than anything else.

 

[fLAKDRAGON]

Wow...fantastic job man. I just got V2 the other day, after a Steam sale, and the very first thing I did was launch a game as Siam. And the very next thing I did was cry as China steamrolled across my borders in 2 years. After reading through this, and going down a bit on difficulty (my first Paradox game, forgive me!) I finally got to civilize, and now I'm playing around in a stalemate war with Dai Nam. Really good work, very instructional, and nice to see that my dreams of a mighty Siam are not impossible!

Oh, and sorry if this is considered making a zombie thread: as is obvious, I'm rather new hereo

 

[TekcoR]

Great job and a good ending!