Noone expects the BeAARglomp!

[Mishgan]

Noone expects a BeAARhug!

OMG NO! Not another Russian AAR. And not another Russian AAR by Mishgan. I mean, what's wrong with that guy? Does he have nothing else to do?

Well, he does. However, I feel somewhat disappointed at how the Revenge of the Bear ended due to... technical difficulties of a certain order, if I may use the metaphor to not fall into censured lexicon. And continuing just with the story without any gameplay to back it up was just like writing fanfic and not an AAR. Wasn't as interesting.

And since VIP 0.4 came out, I decided to try it out. So I ran a couple games as various countries, then actually read the VIP 0.4 readme and saw there were supposedly new events for Russia. So I loaded up a game as Russia and played all the way to 1852 or so and was pleasantly surprised by all the nice new events added.

So I have decided to return with a new Russian AAR, inspired by and a heir to the Revenge of the Bear. But unlike the case with the previous one, where I started off like twenty years into the game without planning beforehand, I shall plan beforehand. More or less. I've created a new copy of the V:R installation and shall modify the relevant scenario files in that just for my game.

The planning includes a radical overhaul of the state layout. Here is the planned layout as I envision it.


Click for huge picture of endless pain. Yay .gif messing up as usual. Anyway, as you can see, only Finland pretty much stays the same, everything else gets an overhaul. The layout is not finite, I might change some states. The layout is based on the RL division of the Russian Empire, with lots of censured lexicon involved for the Paradox map that had quite some provinces that made no sense.

There shall be some more changes before I begin. And of course, I reserve the right to mod the game to reflect administrative and population changes as demanded and explained by the story. Quite obviously, no cheating, what's the point in that anyway?

The AAR shall begin in 1836.

The AAR's style shall be history book. I reserve the right to branch off into sarcasm and irony when I deem appropriate. Comedy relief is to be expected.

The AAR proper shall begin a tad later.

 

[Mishgan]

Noone expects the BeAARglomp

Ye Table Of Things That Matter
Or
Ye Index​

Ye Prologue


Chapter 1: And so the great game begins...


Chapter 2: Unexpected dividends in Russian America


Chapter 3: Kiselyov's reforms and the synod of Polotsk


Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Khiva campaign of 1839-1840


Chapter 5: Fort Ross War or How OTL Went Bollocks


Chapter 6: End of the Fort Ross and Aroostock Wars


Chapter 7: Interior Developments in the Russian Empire 1840-1845


Chapter 8: Colorado River Cession


Chapter 9: Crimean War


Chapter 10: Treaty of Paris


Chapter 11: Italian Unification

* - * - *

Ye Formal Repository of ReadAAR Referenda

It comes in the life of every AAR that the author and player is sometimes at a loss of what to do and where to go. Sometimes, the player's intervention through modding is required to adress certain issues of AI behaviour. However, how to ensure that such modding does not give an unfair advantage to the player over his opponents? And how not to alienate the readAARs if the author does something they find stupid, lame or outright dumb?

It thus comes in the life of every AAR that the readAARs are called upon to give their ideas and thoughts on matters. And to avoid complicating things, referenda on various questions may be held. This here shall be the formal repository of the referenda in which the BeAARglomp readAARs participated.​

Oregon Question
The Aroostock War degenerated into the Third War of American Independence as the British won victory after victory. The final settlement saw the state of Maine annexed into British North America. The status of the Oregon Country in the matter was unclear.

• 
  Option A: 4 votes (Nikolai, Herbert West, Patukov, The_Shepherd) - ADOPTED
  Option A entailed that the British Empire would have forced the United States to cede not only Maine, but also all rights to the Oregon Country. With California in Russian hands and the Oregon in British, the United States are cut off from the Pacific Ocean.
  
  Option B: 1 vote (KaPuTTz)
  Option B maintained the OTL status quo, which would have led in 1846 to the OTL treaty of Oregon staying in power.
  
  Invalid bulletins: 3 (Enewald, RGB, 4th Dimension)
  Three bulletins were found scribbled with "It all belongs to Mother Russia".

 

[unmerged(59077)]

I'm nearly as surprised as that husky.

But tell me more.

 

[Akaki]

As always: crush Germany and unite Poland under TsAAR's rule ^^.

 

[Mishgan]

I cannot edit .csv files with Open Office, because the game then does not recognise them o This is a global conspiracy to bar Russia from dominating the cyberspace of Victorian pixelmaps.

So, lotsa typing in wordpad instead!

 

[unmerged(59077)]

Ugh, so you'd need MS Office to do it in structured format?

Geesh.

 

[unmerged(81390)]

BeAARhug II!!!

I really look forward to this!

 

[Mishgan]

Nobody expects the BeAARglomp

Prologue



Russia in 1836 is... Russia. Yeah, 'nuff said, let's get rollin', Chapter 1 is in the post below.

Now, you really didn't expect a lazy Swissman to write out stuff that you can just as well read on the Wikipedia, did you?​

 

[Mishgan]

Nobody expects the BeAARglomp

Chapter 1: And so the great game begins...​

Herat, the gateway to Central Asia and India. An important city in a strategic location, considered by some as a jewel on the Harirud and by those not native to anywhere south of the Caspian as quite a dusty place. In 1747, the city became part of the Durani Empire and would stay such until the downfall of the Empire and the overthrow of the Durrani dynasty by the Barakzai. The city became independent, something the Shah of Persia sought to remedy to.

Mohammad Shah wanted precious-s-s Herat for himself​

The Russian Empire had geostrategic interests in the Central Asian region, including Afghanistan and Persia. These interests, however, were at odds with those of another Empire which was, unfortunately for Russia, at the rising zenith of its military, economic and political power. This other country was, of course, none other than the British Empire, which had already managed to secure India within its colonial grasp and was spreading its influence even further with each passing days.

The attemps by Mohammad Shah to incorporate Herat into his realms was opposed by British scheming in the region. The Count Simonich, Russian ambassador at the court of the Persian Shah, used some of his own scheming to convince the Persians that it was better to side with Russia than with Britain. The move was succesful, Persia agreed to place herself under the protection of the great Russian Empire. In return, the Shah demanded military assistance in capturing Herat.

Russian arms would prove helpful...​

In the summer of 1836, Persian armies besieged Herat. The siege was aided by Russian advisors led by the Count Simonich himself. The siege would have ended swiftly had it not been for Mohammad Shah's general tendency, but inspire of all and everything, the siege ended succesfully and the Persian soldiers entered the city, with the Shah himself riding forth proudly to claim himself as the new ruler of the city. The Russian advisors preferred to make themselves as discreet as possible and returned to Tehran. The British reaction was remarkably mild and was limited in a brief deployment of a naval detachment to the Persian gulf, which was withdrawn after several Russian regiments in the Caucasus were redeployed to the Shamakhi governorate, from where they could reinforce Persia if so required. The British would take their revenge in Afghanistan only a few years later...

Precious-s-s-s-s...
For added awesomeness, map is in Russian!​

 

[unmerged(59077)]

Going to groom the Persians as your proxy?

 

[Mishgan]

Saatanan perkelen heronvittu! Finally got all the necessary stuff to work!

But it is good to see some familiar faces. Makes me feel like the Overlord in Overlord II, my minions have found me!

RGB: If they behave, Persians shall have boons. If they don't, they shall face boomsticks. And yes, too bad Switzerland is not in the EU, I'd have filed a complaint on MS monopolism with the Commission.

Akaki: Okay, but only because you ask. My first idea was to sell it to Ireland for a crate of Kilkenny.

Ahura Mazda: I hope to deliver as good an AAR this time as I did the last time.

 

[unmerged(178457)]

Well, i more or less read your previous AAR and I like it, was very good written and very detailed and dramatic, was bad than dead, but Again with this new AAR, i have a chance to see how the whole history developmt(and finally start to learn how to play victoria)

I wish sucess mishgan

Att
Nivek von Beldo

 

[Mishgan]

Nobody expects the BeAARglomp

Chapter 2: Unexpected dividends in Russian America​

The years 1836 and the ones that followed were not marked only by the competition for influence in Central Asia between the two great Empires that were Russia and Britain. In the Netherlands, Belgium achieved its independence after a hard fought uprising. In Spain, Carlist troops were besieging Bilbao, all while not managing to break the stalemate in Catalonia between them and the liberal forces. The sympathies of Nicholas I were, of course, with the conservative Carlists rather than with the liberals supporting Isabella.

And while the wars all over the world are quite a thrilling story indeed, there were also a number of interesting developments within Russia. Such as the renewal of the Russian-American Company's monopoly over trade in and Russian America, which included the administration of Alaska and Fort Ross in the name of the Imperial crown. The Russian American Company's sphere of activities was not limited to Russian America, as it also had commercial interests in the Russian Far East and even undertook expeditions as far as Hawaii, which whilst being initially succesfull were recalled by the authorities in St.-Petersburg.

St.-Petersburg decided against direct administration of Russian America​

Profits from the Company's activities in Alaska and Fort Ross were falling, with the main economic activities concentrating in the Russian Far East. Alaska was a far remote territory, hard to govern and hard to reach. The Russian Far East took far greater priority in development, after all Russian hold over the northern shores of the Pacific ocean was still shaky even in Eurasia, so what to say about Alaska which required true expeditions to reach from European Russia? And so the Company's monopoly over Alaska was renewed and the territory remained under the Company's administration.

It was not all bad news for the Company, though, and an unpexpected dividend would be brought by an event no clerk could have foreseen during his accounting operations. In early winter 1836, a patrol of the Russian American Company stumbled upon a group of smugglers led by native indians. What exactly the band was doing within the territory under the administration of the Russians would never be clear. In the ensuing firefight, the native indians and a couple European smugglers scampered off, whilst the others were killed or wounded so gravely that they did not survive the trek back to the Russian fort. In the camp, the patrol discovered an impressive stockpile of goods.

In fact, the Russians didn't even have to hang the smugglers, as they were killed in the firefight​

After a quick investigation, it was established that the smugglers were subjects of the British Crown. What they were doing so far from home with silk and tea in the frozen reaches of North America would forever remain a secret. The goods could have come from the Hudson Bay Company, or any British colonies in Northern America, or even from the United States of Northern America themselves. Regardless, the Russians were not about to go finding out who the owners were, even more so considering how bad logistics in Northern America were in the days.

A search party sent to retrieve the escapees returned bare handed. The goods were confiscated in the name of the Russian crown and sold off by the Company at various markets, adding somewhat to its yearly results. The news eventually hit Russian newspapers, and then the world media and was printed on frontpages of all major news outlets as one of the most epically failed smuggling operations in history.

The governor of Russian America, Captain 1st Rank Ivan Kupreyanov, joked that a couple more such smuggling operations, and the Russian colonies in America would turn a hefty profit.

 

[unmerged(178457)]

Well, i know little about history of russia in the Victorian Era... what effect will have in Alaska in general when... the decission to sell them to Usa or Britain fire?

Good updatem very well made, keep with these

 

[unmerged(59077)]

Hah!

I like that event. Should stem you over until the gold rush.

 

[unmerged(81390)]

Perhaps they had smuggeled the goods from Asia and intended to bring it to Canada/USA through Alaska, rather than the other way around...

 

[Enewald]

Map in Russian?
How awesome is that!!

 

[Mishgan]

I have played all the way to 1841 and have food for at least three updates, one of which will concern interior developments in Russia proper. And shall include the Synod of Polotsk, which shall make part of the update. That is an event not included in VIP or anywhere, much to my surprise. Quite an important little historical thinger that Synod was, yep.

Also, Russia shall go to WAAAAR! But it won't be anything epic, really.

Nivek Beldo: I do not know whether Alaska shall be sold or not. The nicely placed smuggling event, hitting relations with Cree-Athabaska (which border Russia in Alaska to begin with) has given me some... ideas.

RGB: It's a nice event, just not when it chooses some random ally of yours. But I actually chuckled when I read where the game engine "placed" the event: a -200 hit in relations with Cree-Kolbaska is totally worth it!

Ahura Mazda: Maybe. Regardless of what they were up to, the RAC will find a good way to spend the money.

Enewald: Tervetuloa Helvettin! [+sp]

 

[unmerged(59077)]

a -200 hit in relations with Cree-Kolbaska is totally worth it!

When life gives you sausage, confiscate cargo?

 

[Legosim]

Ahh, another one. Looking good so far.