Manufacturing Italy: A PoN GC (... sort of)

[Director]

I had quite a chuckle over your "a patriotic surge of fish".

Where I live we call it the Jubilee - a bubble of airless water that rolls in with the tide, pushing a mass of seafood and fish up onto the beach. Not sure what's patriotic about it, but there you are.

I quite agree with your priorities - burn the cash, ease dissent where you can and shoot the ones who won't co-operate. The quicker you can build a rail net and harness the industrial power of your new subjects, the better.

Now would be a most awkward time for a war with Austria, but given their avoidance of conflict to-date I think you have some breathing room.

Congratulations on your new Kingdom! And please don't stop this AAR now. I want to see if you ever get the Venetian lands.

 

[loki100]

When you start talking that it will all be over by Christmas, I automatically start to worry... Especially considering that Gary is getting close to Vesuvius - I still think he's going to blow it all up.

Are you sure about that? The screenshot states 'Sicilian victory' - I assume Gary is Sicily in this context?

ah the attribution to Sicily is because I am using a Bourbon general to do the deed ... very historic.

and we do have a fun snow ball fight ...

Ouch Garibaldi is the terminator! Thankfully you look like you have got that situation under control. The extra resources troops prestige etc looks like a nice side effect of unification although I am not looking forward to inheriting that screaming mob.

I'm up to the latter end of 1867 and its just coming under control, but every now and then one province or another has a major upsurge of (non-military) unrest even now. In effect, you really do not want a war at the time you are coping with the process of unification

I think you should send those pretty marines to Tirana and the Dodecanese.

I actually checked out the Dodecanese, there is a rebel army of about 200 power sat there. Virtually unmoveable I fear. However, war with the Ottomans is now looking more likely than war with Austria and yes, the 'men in hats' will indeed be expected to earn their nice uniforms

Does Garibaldi's army has the usual rebel trait, i.e. instant regeneration of casualties?

I don't think so. I've had to split the next post (Jan-June 65) into two so the civil war is in part 2, but after a number of hard battles he takes the hint and collapses (actually as I find in 1866 it is Garibaldi's evil twin but that is for later)

Oh just a thought might be worth getting some colonial troops on the ground in Djibhuti to protect your structures there. If rebels pop up or a native unit passes through the province there is a fair chance they might decide to burn everything down.

I do have to do that a bit later. First I need to get enough control so that I can supply them. In fact where I am in game terms I am building up a small army/navy in that wider region.

I had quite a chuckle over your "a patriotic surge of fish".

Where I live we call it the Jubilee - a bubble of airless water that rolls in with the tide, pushing a mass of seafood and fish up onto the beach. Not sure what's patriotic about it, but there you are.

Sounds a neat way to go fishing. The reference was to a cartoon by a British political cartoonist, Steve Bell. At one stage in the Good Friday Agreement negotions the mad Pr ... ahem ... the wise leadership of the Democratic Unionist Party started on about fishing rights and he satirised this as a 'protestant fish for a protestant nation'. I can't find back the actual cartoon but he more or less destroyed the reputation of one British PM by drawing him with his underpants outside his trousers, as:

I quite agree with your priorities - burn the cash, ease dissent where you can and shoot the ones who won't co-operate. The quicker you can build a rail net and harness the industrial power of your new subjects, the better.

Now would be a most awkward time for a war with Austria, but given their avoidance of conflict to-date I think you have some breathing room.

Congratulations on your new Kingdom! And please don't stop this AAR now. I want to see if you ever get the Venetian lands.

But yes, as in the next post, its cash for votes as far as I am concerned. And I really do not want that war with Austria quite at the moment.

My original goal was to bail out at around this stage as i started this to really explore the industrial/commercial side of the game. But it has a strange fascination and as I've mentioned you can play while doing other things (ie use the longish turn processing to your advantage). So managed 8 months today while converting all my green tomatoes to jam and chutney ... sort of works in combination.

Also I have a rather stubborn streak sometimes. I did my PhD over 8 years while in full time employment, so I may well take this all the way to 1920 ... unless the UK AI manages a sudden death victory.

 

[loki100]

January - June 1865: Part I - industry and research

I’m going to split this post into two (it wouldn’t do after all to blatantly break the forum rules). The first will sort of cover the routine events and the second the civil war with Garibaldi’s evil twin (this will become clear in the next year or so) and other ongoing events.

So we are united, not very happy and in the midst of a civil war.

And this is what I have played 336 turns seeking to achieve.

As is often said in the streets near where I live – “aye, right”.

Anyways, lets dispose of the economy stuff and then we can look at the civil strife and my renewed colonial actions.

Manufactured



Heres the main industrial report. Main thing is I am importing manufactured goods quite substantially so I can then convert all that private capital into new plants and thus develop the south.

Equally I have set taxes very low and invested a lot in research so as to burn off that state cash mountain (down from 10,000 to 3,800). From some reading there is a flaw in the AI routine (esp for smaller states) so it hordes cash, hence the amount I have inherited from the other states.



This just shows the shifts in actual production. Some is trying to balance my stockpiles but most is down to the waves of unrest that means I lose whole or fractional chunks of production at different stages. Also I had closed down marginal stuff so as to maximise capital for new investment - you can see this in the table above where my private capital is growing quickly despite the building programme.

Non-manufactured



Not too much to say there, letting a few stocks fall (mainly as the production centres are closed due to unrest), or to save capital for investment.

Population



Not much to say here either. Overall I am making some progress but the unrest is relatively random and ongoing. As you can see at its worst, it actually destroys a portion of my stockpiles.

Here’s the last screen with a bit more detail:



This shows the 3 worst of levels of unrest and their respective impacts.


Replacements



Still really processing the army upgrades post unification. I am gaining a net of 39 companies a turn compared to 7 pre-unification as well. But broadly I’m absorbing the upgrades and the combat losses without too much trouble.

Some more useful discoveries pop up.



I think I am gaining a glut of these as the extra research points from unification are pushing me over the edge on a number that were just meandering along.

I also gain access to the decree about partial mobilization. Well I don’t really need it now, but it would be handy in case of a major European war (this is related to the discovery about reserve formations)



This one improves the efficiency of my industry



And this is useful as it immediately improves contentment, it also gives access to a useful card that can be played to improve development and population levels



So building sewers increases my population (makes sense) and increases my prestige. So Vespesian still lives?

And I can improve the navy



Not sure if this has been discussed but in PoN you can upgrade naval units (unlike in the Paradox game system), but they need to be in the passive stance and on a shipyard (or naval base … not so sure of this?)

This one assists me in competition in foreign trade.

 

[Powloon]

I do have to do that a bit later. First I need to get enough control so that I can supply them. In fact where I am in game terms I am building up a small army/navy in that wider region.

If I understand it properly each colonial structure in the province (missions, trade posts etc) provide supply for up to 3 combat elements (the equivalent of a colonial brigade) so you can get men on the ground to protect your investments before you have control.

Glad to see you are sticking with it! It has been a fascinating read so far (not to mention it provides me with oodles of useful information on what is to come). I to also almost enjoy the longish turn processing as with 2 young children I can flick back to the game in my rare moments of spare time (also explains the slow progress of my own game)

 

[loki100]

If I understand it properly each colonial structure in the province (missions, trade posts etc) provide supply for up to 3 combat elements (the equivalent of a colonial brigade) so you can get men on the ground to protect your investments before you have control.

Glad to see you are sticking with it! It has been a fascinating read so far (not to mention it provides me with oodles of useful information on what is to come). I to also almost enjoy the longish turn processing as with 2 young children I can flick back to the game in my rare moments of spare time (also explains the slow progress of my own game)

ah, thanks for that tip, as it is I got away with it, but I guess I could have lost an awful lot of investments.

Yes its wierd about PoN. What is to many the fundamental barrier - the turn processing - can be a bonus. I never play it as I would play any other computer strategy game (ie basically watching the screen), I set it up and if its a non-combat turn pay attention when it is over. I often annotate/edit files while it churns over. You can sort of do this with other AGE games but usually there are enough active moves and combat that you need to pay close attention during the turn processing phase.

 

[loki100]

January - June 1865: Part II - Civil War and Colonialism

So onto part 2. For those of you who like your strategy games laced with a bit of combat this post is, unusual. There is combat … quite a lot, as I battle the evil twin Garibaldi.

Civil War

I beat Garibaldi badly (no actually I beat him but with high losses) in the famed snowfields around Naples.



Unfortunately he escapes. Even worse he hurt Ferdinando, an insult that will reverberate down the years.

He’s also nipped out the trap and gone to Rome



Since I am now taking actual losses and its winter, I’ll leave him alone for a few turns while I deploy and reorganise.

An act of kindness he repays by attacking Rome. The man (or his evil twin) has no shame.



Fortunately he fails to take the city but the next turn he makes a breach.



Well that is going too far. So my redeployed army hits him hard and only 5000 of them escape.



He is still capable of fighting back though



But is slowly driven onto my forces (in offensive stances) that block his retreat



Where what was left collapsed and surrendered.


Colonial actions

I was a bit scatty at the taking of screenshots but with the new colonial decisions there is a delay between playing it and it being enacted. Anyway my initial focus is the horn of Africa and am trying to gain a decent foothold there.

I am not playing with ‘extended claims’ so colonial action outside my designated regions costs me Prestige. However, I have decided to also push into Yemen as the Opium and Coffee are valuable and strategically it gives me a strong position at the base of the Red Sea.



In turn by late June that gives a new rather fruity decision. I am going to own Africa before I own Milan (take that Bossi)



Army deployment

With the Garibaldi menace ended, its time for the army to move north. In effect, I align my 3 army corps along the Po. I have ordered more artillery to improve the combat power of the formations made up of units from the other Italian states.





And the fleet is gathered at Genoa to upgrade.



And prestige slowly improves



Hopefully this will pick up as I develop my colonial presence. In an odd way, my contest from now on is as much with the Ottomans as it is with the Austrians. I still can’t touch the latter so can only deploy to take advantage. On the other hand the Ottomans have real estate I want and can slowly take.

 

[germanpeon]

Good to see some order being restored to the peninsula in the wake of Garibaldi's shameful shenanigans.

Do the Ottomans have some means of contesting your seizure of their colonial possessions? Can they also play colonial actions or deploy units there to nullify your efforts, or do they perhaps have claims on the region that they can press if and when you take full control?

I'm wondering if you plan for a full-scale war with the Ottomans soon. Tensions are already quite evident, and Tirana beckons, just a short hop across the Adriatic... not to mention Libya. Indeed, you may have more to gain from a conflict with the Ottomans than the Hapsburgs, at least in acreage.

 

[Stuyvesant]

(actually as I find in 1866 it is Garibaldi's evil twin but that is for later)

Now, this does make me seriously wonder: as we all know you can tell an evil twin from the 'tache or goatee they sport, how do you tell an evil twin from the non-evil sort when all men had very manly facial fuzz in this era?

Nice to see the drag of the newly acquired territories on the well-oiled engine that was S-P. Unrest, strikes, Garibaldi the Menace to Society^tm... It sounds very realistic, moreso than the Italian unification in Vicky (the first, I've never played enough Vic II to know one way or another) where you're just left with a greatly expanded state with a bunch of happy people and generally a nice amount of industrial infrastructure.

 

[Powloon]

It must be fun to have the whole range of game options to finally play with!

I'm wondering if the post unification situation in Italy is less a deliberate game mechanic and is more to do with the AI mismanagement of the nations you acquired?

Have you had any 1* colonial type leaders appear?

 

[Dewirix]

Presumably you can only upgrade ships to a limited degree. Iron cladding existing warships makes sense, as does adding better guns (to a degree at any rate). I'm assuming that you can't keep upgrading them though, as it would be pretty silly to send your wooden warships to port to have them transform into armoured cruisers.

I was very happy to see the Greeks placing an order at your shipyards. One of the things that gets me about V2 and EU3 is that every country is dogmatically autarkic - If you can't build a particular unit, you can't get your hands on it full stop. Given that navies still sell older vessels on (see the Chinese and their ex-Soviet aircraft carrier), it's frustrating to be stuck with Men o War when in reality you'd just order up some cruisers from the Clyde.

 

[loki100]

Good to see some order being restored to the peninsula in the wake of Garibaldi's shameful shenanigans.

Do the Ottomans have some means of contesting your seizure of their colonial possessions? Can they also play colonial actions or deploy units there to nullify your efforts, or do they perhaps have claims on the region that they can press if and when you take full control?

I'm wondering if you plan for a full-scale war with the Ottomans soon. Tensions are already quite evident, and Tirana beckons, just a short hop across the Adriatic... not to mention Libya. Indeed, you may have more to gain from a conflict with the Ottomans than the Hapsburgs, at least in acreage.

The Ottomans can indeed try to wrest control back from me by playing their colonial cards. My guess is they have far less than I do, or less capacity to use them (some of the more powerful ones require you to expand diplomats). Equally once Djibuti goes Italian (if I recall sometime in 1866), then they gain a CB on me for holding 'their' land.

So as we'll see, I start building up quite a powerful transport fleet over the next year or so. In part this is to ease sending units to E Africa and allow me to keep a small squadron in that region. But primarily I'm looking for the sealift to be able to shift at least 2 of my main forces from facing Austria to war with the Ottomans. I have potential 'cores' (well the PoN equivalent) not just on Libya but the Levant, Albania and around Adana (SW Turkey) so its scattered but it could make me the power in the East Med, esp if I then step out of my assigned theatre and go for Egypt.

Now, this does make me seriously wonder: as we all know you can tell an evil twin from the 'tache or goatee they sport, how do you tell an evil twin from the non-evil sort when all men had very manly facial fuzz in this era?

Nice to see the drag of the newly acquired territories on the well-oiled engine that was S-P. Unrest, strikes, Garibaldi the Menace to Society^tm... It sounds very realistic, moreso than the Italian unification in Vicky (the first, I've never played enough Vic II to know one way or another) where you're just left with a greatly expanded state with a bunch of happy people and generally a nice amount of industrial infrastructure.

Aye in vanilla V2 its painless. Unify, gain a lot of land and a new flag off you do. I've not played an Italian state in AHD but again I think there are no real drawbacks.

I think once we all see the good-twin Garibaldi it will be perfectly obvious what the difference is between them ...

It must be fun to have the whole range of game options to finally play with!

I'm wondering if the post unification situation in Italy is less a deliberate game mechanic and is more to do with the AI mismanagement of the nations you acquired?

Have you had any 1* colonial type leaders appear?

good question to which I have no answer. But the unrest is at the worst in the two provinces with some infrastructure and development (Parma and Tuscany) and those were, historically, where popular insurrection overthrew the local rulers and came close to proclaiming an Italian Republic. In turn it was that (not distaste for the sight of blood) that made Louis Napoleon suspend military operations against Austria. So it maybe hard coded.

No colonial leaders yet ... but I do end up with a rather entertaining solution to the Garibaldi problem.

Presumably you can only upgrade ships to a limited degree. Iron cladding existing warships makes sense, as does adding better guns (to a degree at any rate). I'm assuming that you can't keep upgrading them though, as it would be pretty silly to send your wooden warships to port to have them transform into armoured cruisers.

I was very happy to see the Greeks placing an order at your shipyards. One of the things that gets me about V2 and EU3 is that every country is dogmatically autarkic - If you can't build a particular unit, you can't get your hands on it full stop. Given that navies still sell older vessels on (see the Chinese and their ex-Soviet aircraft carrier), it's frustrating to be stuck with Men o War when in reality you'd just order up some cruisers from the Clyde.

There are a mass of small mechanics in PoN that are just pure genius. Sir Garnett's Chinese AAR shows how if you are the winning side in a war, world opinion becomes more suspicious about you.

I'm not sure there is a limit to ship upgrades. What happens is the image for the relevant unit in the force pool changes (now all my sailing ships also have little funnels). So I suspect a heavy warship (ship of the line) could well end up as a cruiser at the game end. It is slow but so very different to the standard Clauswitz model that it seems unintuitive. So maybe there comes a point where such incremental upgrades doesn't work.

 

[loki100]

July-December 1865: Some Consolidation

So the evil Garibaldi is banished from the soil of Italy, most of the new Italians seem less than happy but I have lots of fun colonial things to do (who knows this might even distract them from being unhappy?)

So lets start with the standard stuff.


Manufactures





So here I am steadily adding more industry, overall production is slowly increasing as a result but also as I juggle between prioritising the growth of the capital stock (for new builds) and of current output. It will be some time before I reach a steady state and quite a while before I have the majority of my agricultural sites open.


Non Manufactures



This is broadly steady. I’m letting a couple of stockpiles run down a bit so as to generate capital for reinvestment.

The Population



Here I enact the final method of reducing militant feelings – send in the army. It pays off and I have since come to the view I should have done this earlier and more often.

Replacements and the army.



After all my earlier problems here, all of a sudden I have enough conscripts to produce all the replacements I need and expand the army. I’m starting to construct a small army for colonial style operations and will ship them to E Africa when my colonies expand [1].


And then the new developments.

Diplomacy

I won’t do many general reports on this any more as it is not that important. In part more of my diplomats are being spent on colonial actions but also as I keep to much the same pattern. I have identified a group of countries that I want as friends for various reasons and keep working on them.



You can split this group into three. The UK and France are effectively my protectors, but also I can build factories, farms and mines in their holdings thus giving me direct access to some goods. The bulk of the rest are there for trade (ie commercial agreements) but I’d like a defensive alliance with the Greeks (chance of war with the Ottomans).

The other big issue is that Austria and Prussia are still rather fond of each other.



Anyway, lets go to Africa.

I carry on plugging away with the bribes



(note that all these have a maximum gain in CP but some also have useful secondary gains such as in prestige points).

This shows the dispute between me and the Ottomans at Djibuti. I am now the de facto but not yet the de jure power there.



To further enhance this control I find I can now build a military outpost there. Since I also want to build a coffee farm nearby (so as to extract even more than just my trading posts), I also decide I need an exploitation and collection centre.



The net effect is that in this region at least, I am now quite important.


Domestic infrastructure.

But its not all about developing my empire in Africa, I’ll build some nice sewers in Italy as well. As you can see this has all sorts of benefits. In the longer term the two key ones are every time you play it, you gain 15 population points and a small boost in terms of prestige



Which rather neatly brings us too … prestige



So oddly things are settling down. Militancy is slowly dipping but as I find, the worst events in terms of unrest will continue to appear for the next couple of years. I think this is realistic, once people are really annoyed they rarely quickly revert to being passive. My new economy is coming together and my focus is as much on the Horn of Africa as the Po.

1 - of course I know now I could (& should) have sent some troops now as the colonial structures would have yielded a little bit of supply

 

[Stuyvesant]

... most of the new Italians seem less than happy but I have lots of fun colonial things to do (who knows this might even distract them from being unhappy?)[/SIZE]

Well, if you ship enough of them off to die in the deserts of the Horn of Africa, I'm sure it'll take their minds of being unhappy. Dead people not being prone to exercising their mind and all that.

Overall, good steady progress. Too bad Djibuti only is worth one... erm... 'star point' (prestige?), but you've got a solid presence and the beginnings of a rather neat base to start terrorizing spreading your benign, civilizing influence to the surrounding regions.

 

[Dewirix]

Are you prepping for a war with Austria at some point? If PoN pushes them into a confrontation with Prussia, that would seem to be the time to push for the liberation of Milan, Venice, Trieste and Split. Is it possible to grab all of those in the same war?

 

[loki100]

A short Turkish interlude

Not a proper post but to bring in a possible explanation for the colonial dynamics between me and the Ottomans. This thread on the AGEOD forum is from a bit ahead of my current game date but indicates the Ottomans have a severe shortage of diplomats and will soon enough not have any.

Some of the more effective colonial cards cost you diplomats so I suspect once I have taken control there is little they can do to redeem the situation and it will become increasingly unlikely they can respond with a DoW either.

Again its probably a reflection on PoN's emphasis on realism ... in this case Turkey is doomed to spend the last 30 odd years of the 19th century being slowly eaten by rebels and the surrounding powers.

I intend to be at the feast

Well, if you ship enough of them off to die in the deserts of the Horn of Africa, I'm sure it'll take their minds of being unhappy. Dead people not being prone to exercising their mind and all that.

Overall, good steady progress. Too bad Djibuti only is worth one... erm... 'star point' (prestige?), but you've got a solid presence and the beginnings of a rather neat base to start terrorizing spreading your benign, civilizing influence to the surrounding regions.

Yep, its what colonies are for ... at least its what the British empire used its colonies for.

Agree that in the abstract Djibuti is relatively worthless. I hadn't realised the rule that colonial structures yielded some supply so what I wanted was to grab some land, develop it militarily - fort, naval base, depot - and deploy some mobile forces there. The naval base is key as at the moment my ships are really suffering on the journey and I am using french ports to recover in. I can then expand out.

What I want is a strong base, most of the coast etc, then I can deploy a decent army with proper logistics and take out of the Ethiopians (which is worth an awful lot of prestige)

Are you prepping for a war with Austria at some point? If PoN pushes them into a confrontation with Prussia, that would seem to be the time to push for the liberation of Milan, Venice, Trieste and Split. Is it possible to grab all of those in the same war?

Yes, I am still caught between keeping the bulk of the army on the Po and my schemes in the colonies and with the Ottomans. I've never fought a proper war with PoN but it has a warscore system similar to V2, but I am not sure how much I would need to take to gain that set. If the game was realistic, the price for Lombardy-Venetia-Udine should be relatively low (no one had much dispute that those were 'Italian'). Trieste (with its large Slav population) and Trientino (with its large German population) should be more costly. Austria could argue internationally that Italy had no more claim than they did.

The 'greater-Venice' stuff, ie what Italy got post-WW1, should be hard to snag as no one internationally accepted that logic till the desire to punish the Central Powers became the dominant theme at Versailles and the other post-war conferences. In the interest of keeping this short, I'll skip my usual rant about Woodrow Wilson and his idiocies.

So, hopefully I get the core 3 merely for occupying them, but I will need to inflict a lot of damage on Austria I think to get them to disgorge Trieste etc.

At the moment, Austria and Prussia persist in a solid love-in.

 

[Powloon]

I am itching to get going and remove the burden of empire from the Ottomans. Every time I look over the map North Africa keeps grabbing my attention and is regularly the focus of a crazy plan for that turn. If this game teaches anything it is how to be patient :happy:

When you checked the unification events what date range does the peaceful unification event occur over?

 

[loki100]

I am itching to get going and remove the burden of empire from the Ottomans. Every time I look over the map North Africa keeps grabbing my attention and is regularly the focus of a crazy plan for that turn. If this game teaches anything it is how to be patient :happy:

When you checked the unification events what date range does the peaceful unification event occur over?

Me too, its a gamble but I have to just decide that the Austro-Prussian war is not going to take place and then I can enact my plans for the Ottomans. As a wee spoiler alert - they are a lot tougher than they may appear to be.

Formally the default chain starts in 1865, I modded it back to 1864 and then lowered the % chance to happen (I got bored waiting). I had a well run S-P with the economy doing its thing and utterly unable to do anything else.

As in the next post, at least it has broken the log jam (a bit)

and an apology

I'm insanely busy - well actually I'm insanely broke - so have taken on a lot of short term work ... I'll try and keep this one trudling along but time on the forums will be rather scarce for a while.

 

[loki100]

January - June 1866: Good Garry returns

So 1866 dawns. Italy is in turmoil (but at least it exists) and the Italian government seems more interested in colonial ventures than in recovering the Po valley. Ah well.

So to the standard reports:

Manufactured goods and other events



As in the table, that more or less completes the rail-net in Italy (apart from Savoy). Ammunition is useful as it sells well and uses inputs that I have lots of, so its quite an effective choice.



I think I’ve missed April from that list, but in effect as I slowly control the dissent, and open new factories, my industry is steadily expanding. I’m doing very little small scale adjustments. Same goes for international trade too, I could possibly optimise things but all my stockpiles are pretty static and I’m meeting the bulk of the (non-luxury) needs of my population.

Non-manufactured



Unhappy persons report



Not too much change here, my goal, if I can is to concentrate on driving up contentment and hope the militancy drains away. I’ve also deployed the Carabinieri in the worst affected provinces (not sure if this helps but it seems sensible) and made use of the ‘army to suppress unrest’ option. Don’t like using this one too much (the NM hit) but it is quite powerful as you can see militancy dip from 8% to 5%.

Military Matters



Another with not too much going on. I’m content to do little in this respect for the moment and stockpile conscript companies for when I really need them.




And the events and changes

I only discovered this exists after a discussion with Powloon (its really handy having another AAR I can copy). It shows a lot more about progress in terms of prestige than the information I have used so far:



So I am #10 and only need 61,500 more prestige points (ie double the UK) to win. Well its unlikely, but I am going to emphasise prestige gaining options from now on.

And, as promised, Mr Baldi is back … angry and ‘hunting’



His explanation about his evil twin is not very plausible but the reinforcements are rather welcome.

And I am very active in the colonial game. Trying to secure my position around the south end of the Red Sea.



While Djibuti (green on the map as I can build a school there – am I not kind and generous) is my main focus, I’m also building up a presence in Aden and Yemen (other side of the Red Sea). This is outside my colonial zone so I actually lose prestige on this (according to the manual but I haven’t seen this in the actual tooltips), but it suits my emerging long term goal.

I think I can really nail down this region (Ethiopia is the medium term goal) and it gives me a useful extra front in case of war with the Ottomans (which is increasingly becoming my means to expand and gain prestige – or contract and be humiliated).



This is from a bit later, but shows my steadily growing influence in the region. In effect these two will push my CPs up to 30/35 and at that stage I can potentially move onto a full colony status.



This is the summary report. I’ve ignored Libya somewhat recently (only really have the cash and cards for one region at a time). The two numbers I’ve shown at the bottom are the cost of colonial upkeep (0 at the moment), my position in the colonial league table (11) and my regular prestige gain (0) as a result. As we’ll see over the next few years all these numbers will alter.

And of relevance for later, the lamentable state of the Ottoman empire is discussed. Not least, it is becoming clear there is a need for an international humitarian intervention to resolve some of the emerging problems in the Balkans.



And by the end of the period, Belgium has overtaken me again (actually I don’t really understand how this list is ordered or selected) and the Chinese seem to be insanely happy.



I am still #10 and have gained just under 400 prestige since February.



And it seems its not just the Ottomans who have problems with revolting citizens.

 

[Joecon]

I suggest you use the troops every time they are available and anything else to hammer your people into shape.
The NM hit seems to have no effect as unless you are at war it just moves back to 100.
If you are really sad, i.e. like me, you can hover over the country flags to see how you are performing in the various different areas that contribute to prestige.

 

[Stuyvesant]

Yes, a humanitarian catastrophe needs to be averted - at gun/cannon/mortar point, preferably. Garry and his hunter boys could have some fun in the mountains of Albania. Those poor, historically-Roman-therefore-rightfully-Italian-even-if-they-don't-speak-Italian-aren't-Catholic-don't-like-us-very-much Albanians need to come in the warm, comforting embrace of the Fatherland/Motherland (I admit to not knowing which gender the Italians prefer). Perhaps you could even build a school for them - but that's probably only for the savage uncivs, right? Oh well, the Carabinieri can surely educate the Albanians, if necessary...