Sorry for the delay. Between real life, fixing problems with VIP:R reported in the VIP:R forum, and the new OT competition I've started, i've been a bit occupied. Hope to have another update by the weekend.
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Very Informative AAR, this one should be an AAR recommended to any newbie to this game.
Das Jahrbuch
des Königreich Preußens
im Jahre 1837
Almanac of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1837
des Königreich Preußens
im Jahre 1837
Almanac of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1837
Now that the first year of the game is over, the focus becomes more to ensure you maintain a stable economic system and keep your POPs happy and productive, slowly building up your power so that you will be able to support any military underakings you choose later in the game. Remember, in Victoria having a big army is not enough, you have to be able to support that military machine with a prosperous, stable home front or risk your society be rent by revolution while your forces are busy elsewhere.
Only one factory event fired for me in 1837. If so desired, I could choose to build a fabric factory. I chose not to. It wasn't that expensive, but I already have a level 1 and level 2 factory producing fabric, and so long as I do not have a laissez-faire government I can choose to expand either when needed. So really does not make sense for Prussia to build a third fabric mill at this point in the game.
That does not mean on the economic front things remained stagnant. Far from it, things moved along nicely as more capitalist POPs started to come to a position to fund their own construciton.
Prussia's first capitalist built factory, a nice money maker in a state with lots of surplus POPs to convert for production.
Prussia's rail network expands as a result of capitalist investment during the course of 1837.
Our first capitalist-built factory begins construction in May 1837 in the Rhineland, a nice luxury-clothing factory that will bring in good profits even if less than fully staffed. Capitalists also start construction on a glass factory in Westphalia in October. And the rail network also benefits, with Silesia nearly complete with experimental railways, the iron mines of Erfurt benefitting from rail to increase production, and a rail in Allenstein.
The State decides to expand lumber production in East Prussia.
In addition, I decide to make use of my one machine part in stockpile and expand the lumber mill in East Prussia. With my capitalist POPs starting to build factories, Paper and Furniture are likely to come up at some point, and they use a good deal of lumber. As the cost is only 750 to expand, it will not break the budget.
Overall, by the end of the year, our overall production numbers looked like this :
Good-Produce-Use-Balance (red number means we need to import to maintain production, green number means we export that)
Cotton-0.00-4.73-4.73
Dye-0.00-2.43-2.43
Sulphur-0.00-2.08-2.08
Wool-0.00-0.19-0.19
Timber-1.19-1.76-0.57
Iron-2.48-1.70-0.78
Coal-21.06-1.90-19.16
Cattle-7.58-0.36-7.22
Grain-6.12-0.36-5.76
Fish-1.38-0.36-1.02
Fruit-3.25-1.20-2.05
Ammunition-0.24-0.40-0.16
Cement-0.24-0.00-0.24
Lumber-0.54-0.00-0.54
Small Arms-0.22-0.00-0.22
Steel-0.57-0.40-0.17
Wine-0.19-0.00-0.19
Canned Food-0.16-0.00-0.16
Glass-0.20-0.13-0.07
Fertilizer-0.34-0.00-0.34
Fabric-0.71-0.40-0.31
Regular Clothes-0.21-0.00-0.21
thanks to the combination of population growth placing pops previously under 20K in size to over 20K in size, and the construction of railways, production of many goods increased thanks to improvements in efficiency.
Of course one way to further increase efficiency is to ensure a 3:2 POP ratio of craftsmen to clerks in the factories, and with the income humming nicely, time to consider importing small amounts of the good we do not have to convert craftsmen to clerks
Setting up the trades needed to be able to convert POPs from craftsmen to clerks
Prussia lacks the Precious Metal, Paper and Regular Furniture to convert craftsmen to clerks, and so time to start importing those in. I set the amount to buy 2 each. Unfortunately, while Precious Metal and Paper fill immediately, there is a shortage on the WM of Regular Furniture (it's an input to luxury furniture) so will have to either wait until some hits the market or we start producing our own. But at least we have the trade set and as we are #3 overall, and both ENG and FRA produce furniture, we will be first in line to buy furniture.
Tweaking the budget to lower taxes and increase education spending.
With the economy humming along quite nicely, I decide to do some further tweaking to the budget. Over the course of the year I reduced taxes (to increase the militancy-lowering benefit of taxes under 33%) and increase spending on education so that it is now maxed out, producing about 0.67 RP/month.
And it is a good thing that I'm profitable enough to allow taxes to be below 33%, as events worked to cause a bit of murmuring among my POPs during the course of 1837 :
Ernst August's decision to sack liberal professors at Gottingen causes a stir throughout the German lands
Farmers demand State help, can the state afford to ignore their plight?
First to cause waves of grumbling was the decision by the new ruler of Hannover, Ernst August (who came to the throne as a result of Victoria becoming Queen of the United Kingdom. Hannover and the UK were in personal union, but the preservation of Salic law in Hannover prevents a woman from becoming ruler, thus the rise of Ernst August), to dismiss liberal professors at the prestigious university at Gottingen. This upsets liberals everywhere in the German lands, including Prussia, and the impetus for lowering taxes a touch to try and work off that MIL gain a bit more quickly. With a conservative government, liberals will be much less affected by sharing issues with the ruling government in power, so a bit more MIL reduction from lower taxes will help reduce that +1 MIL spike a bit faster than otherwise possible.
Then in the summer protests by farmers led to demands for State support to aid their plight. If compensated, the state treasury would have been hit with a 5000 payment. We had the money, but the impact of not funding, a +1 MIL hit for farmers and labourers, is actually a much less disconcerting prospect. As farmers and labourers are default conservative, having a conservative government means they will work off a +1 MIL hit much faster than the liberal POPs. And checking the ledger after refusing bears this out. Sorting by MIL level, you can see that the most militant farmer POP has a MIL growth rate of -0.61/year. So no compensation for the peasantry at this time.
overall, my levels of MIL and CON at the end of the year are :
by the end of the year the MIL con levels looked like this
Highest Militancy : 5
Lowest Militancy : 2
Highest Rate of MIL growth : -0.04
Lowest Rate of MIL growth : -0.84
Highest Consciousness : 9
Lowest Militancy : 6
Highest Rate of CON growth : 0.49
Lowest Rate of CON growth : -0.50
(to be continued...)
Last edited:
(1837 report continued)
Deciding what to research next as the next tech.
Also in March 1837 research in Market Structure completed and it was time to make my next choice for research. For the moment I'm not interested in naval tech, or culture techs. That leaves Army Professionalism, Stock Exchange and Medicine. Stock Exchange will increase my tax efficiency, but it is important to remeber that with Revolutions, The amount demanded for POP needs increases in relative proportion to the number of commerce and industrial techs you have researched. So for now I'll skip.
Medicine in VIP:R is less of a key as most of Africa is now composed of Uncivilized States rather than empty provinces to claim. Plus the colonization bans in VIP:R run until 1885, so no real need to focus on the techs that allow colonization as a priority.
As it stands now, Prussia has researched only five of the thirty army techs. Given the neighborhood Prussia lives in, researching in Army tech is always a wise investment. And as I have chosen Clausewitzian Attitude, techs that increase morale are always a good thing to choose to make the gap with those nations who chose Jominian less of an issue. And so it's decided, Army Professionalism gets the nod for this round.
Prussia's overall standings at the end of 1837
So at the end of 1837 things look quite stable for Prussia, progress being made on research, capitalists already underway building factories and railways. We have over 10,000 in the bank, manpower building up nicely (also promoted my third general), and have a couple Diplo Points in reserve.
For Prussia, the biggest concern was the situation in Spain as the Civil War between the Regency for the infanta Isabella and the pretender Don Carlos continued.
Carlist offensive in Galicia on verge of success in early 1837 leads to Prussian offers of support for Madrid, which resuls in Isabelline success as the Carlists make peace and cede land, in part thanks to financial support to Madrid from Berlin.
The Carlist offensive towards Galicia launced in late 1836 proved successful, with both Vigo and La Coruna falling by March. As this is not the result the government in Berlin wished, it was decided to send more financial aid to Madrid to match the efforts of St Petersburg and Vienna to support the Carlist pretender. The 1000 loan seemed to be the solution, as Madrid was able to resume the offensive, and finally force the Carlist pretender to the peace table. Though the differences between the Carlists in the mountains of Navarra and the Madrid government could not be completely resolved, Isabel's throne has been saved, and Berlin has gained some good will in Madrid.
Brazil suppresses the uprising in Rio Grande do Sul.
Meanwhile in South America the Brazilian government successfully crushed the uprising in Rio Grande do Sul. A massive counteroffensive launched in Jaunuary overwhelmed the rebel forces and by the end of the year a deal was reached whereby the area around Porto Alegre was given a degree of autonomy under the Brazilian crown.
The fortunes of war turn against the Peru-Bolivia Confederation
On the other side of South America, the Peru-Bolivia Confederation's ambitions to dominate the Andes led to first Chile, and then Argentina to declare war on the Confederation during the first half of 1837. As Chilean forces moved into the Atacama, Argentine forces forced the Confederation to keep forces in the Chaco to prevent an invasion from the southeast.
The future of the Confederation itself soon came into doubt as leaders in Lima, sensing the ship of the confederation on the rocks, launched a revolt in the summer, and by the end of the year had secured Lima and were moving inland towards the Altiplano.
Boer Expansion reaches the Limpopo at Ndebele Expense.
Finally in southern Africa the Boers, having crossed the Vaal River, continued their expansion northward. Having broken the Sotho on the flatlands of the highveld, they next came into conflict with Ndebele, one of the new powers spawned by the Zulu Mfecane. At Mosega, the Boers defeated the forces of the Ndebele, forcing their withdraw north of the Limpopo River as their capital fell to the Boers. Though defeated, the power of the Ndebele remained formidable, and the Boers for now have decided not to pursue them across the Limpopo, in part due to lack of Boer soldiers to both pursue the Ndebele and ensure Boer dominance in the lands already seized.
Deciding what to research next as the next tech.
Also in March 1837 research in Market Structure completed and it was time to make my next choice for research. For the moment I'm not interested in naval tech, or culture techs. That leaves Army Professionalism, Stock Exchange and Medicine. Stock Exchange will increase my tax efficiency, but it is important to remeber that with Revolutions, The amount demanded for POP needs increases in relative proportion to the number of commerce and industrial techs you have researched. So for now I'll skip.
Medicine in VIP:R is less of a key as most of Africa is now composed of Uncivilized States rather than empty provinces to claim. Plus the colonization bans in VIP:R run until 1885, so no real need to focus on the techs that allow colonization as a priority.
As it stands now, Prussia has researched only five of the thirty army techs. Given the neighborhood Prussia lives in, researching in Army tech is always a wise investment. And as I have chosen Clausewitzian Attitude, techs that increase morale are always a good thing to choose to make the gap with those nations who chose Jominian less of an issue. And so it's decided, Army Professionalism gets the nod for this round.
Prussia's overall standings at the end of 1837
So at the end of 1837 things look quite stable for Prussia, progress being made on research, capitalists already underway building factories and railways. We have over 10,000 in the bank, manpower building up nicely (also promoted my third general), and have a couple Diplo Points in reserve.
International Events In 1837
For Prussia, the biggest concern was the situation in Spain as the Civil War between the Regency for the infanta Isabella and the pretender Don Carlos continued.
Carlist offensive in Galicia on verge of success in early 1837 leads to Prussian offers of support for Madrid, which resuls in Isabelline success as the Carlists make peace and cede land, in part thanks to financial support to Madrid from Berlin.
The Carlist offensive towards Galicia launced in late 1836 proved successful, with both Vigo and La Coruna falling by March. As this is not the result the government in Berlin wished, it was decided to send more financial aid to Madrid to match the efforts of St Petersburg and Vienna to support the Carlist pretender. The 1000 loan seemed to be the solution, as Madrid was able to resume the offensive, and finally force the Carlist pretender to the peace table. Though the differences between the Carlists in the mountains of Navarra and the Madrid government could not be completely resolved, Isabel's throne has been saved, and Berlin has gained some good will in Madrid.
Brazil suppresses the uprising in Rio Grande do Sul.
Meanwhile in South America the Brazilian government successfully crushed the uprising in Rio Grande do Sul. A massive counteroffensive launched in Jaunuary overwhelmed the rebel forces and by the end of the year a deal was reached whereby the area around Porto Alegre was given a degree of autonomy under the Brazilian crown.
The fortunes of war turn against the Peru-Bolivia Confederation
On the other side of South America, the Peru-Bolivia Confederation's ambitions to dominate the Andes led to first Chile, and then Argentina to declare war on the Confederation during the first half of 1837. As Chilean forces moved into the Atacama, Argentine forces forced the Confederation to keep forces in the Chaco to prevent an invasion from the southeast.
The future of the Confederation itself soon came into doubt as leaders in Lima, sensing the ship of the confederation on the rocks, launched a revolt in the summer, and by the end of the year had secured Lima and were moving inland towards the Altiplano.
Boer Expansion reaches the Limpopo at Ndebele Expense.
Finally in southern Africa the Boers, having crossed the Vaal River, continued their expansion northward. Having broken the Sotho on the flatlands of the highveld, they next came into conflict with Ndebele, one of the new powers spawned by the Zulu Mfecane. At Mosega, the Boers defeated the forces of the Ndebele, forcing their withdraw north of the Limpopo River as their capital fell to the Boers. Though defeated, the power of the Ndebele remained formidable, and the Boers for now have decided not to pursue them across the Limpopo, in part due to lack of Boer soldiers to both pursue the Ndebele and ensure Boer dominance in the lands already seized.
This sure is good stuff. Keep it up.
Nice reminder, that thing about commerce and industrial techs driving up pop demands.
Nice reminder, that thing about commerce and industrial techs driving up pop demands.
Das Jahrbuch
des Königreich Preußens
im Jahre 1838
Almanac of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1838
des Königreich Preußens
im Jahre 1838
Almanac of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1838
The activity of 1838 tended to be rather slow, as Prussia's capitalists hummed along at their own pace, no major domestic events evolved to rock the boat and even on the international scene there was a period of calmness, though events suggested tensions that could lead to more conflict in the years ahead.
The one lonely group of glass blowers in the Westfalian glass factory.
On the economic front, the glass factory came into production in Westfalia. Since we already produce enough glass, I decide to convert one pop from farmer to craftsman and rearrange employment so that the biggest craftsmen pops are in the steel factory and one small craftsman is in the glass factory. He only adds 0.04/day in glass production, but it still makes a 0.40/day profit, and if I need to ratchet up glass production I can always add more workers.
One good development on the economic front was our stockpile of furniture finally reached the 1 unit of furniture needed to convert a craftsman pop to clerks. First to be converted was a craftsman POP in the level-2 fabric factory in Silesia, which only had one small clerk POP working in it. Once converted, the daily profit of the factory rose from less than 0.10/day to 1.50/day, illustrating just how helpful to efficiency clerk POPs are.
Converting POPs greater than 40,000 in size then splitting is a great money-saving way to deal with converting craftsmen and other POPs.
The lumber factory in East Prussia also came online at the end of 1838, and so needed to convert POPs to staff it with craftsmen. One trick for those new to Victoria:Revolutions, you can save yourself a good deal of money by converting a POP that has more than 40,000 size and then splitting it afterward to create two new POPs. You only pay the cost to convert the one POP. And with craftsmen POPs this is a very good savings. So I convert East Prussia's 2 North German POPs that are >40K in size, and a pop of 19,600 - when it goes over 20,000 its productivity will increase, raising output. Understanding the intricacies of the POP production system and making them work for your advantage is an important aspect to creating the most efficiency out of your production.
Prussia's Rail System at the end of 1837
Capitalists also continued to construct railroads in 1838, as the Silesian line was now completed, and construction at Torgau allowed the line to be connected to Berlin.
Overall, at the end of 1838, our overall production numbers looked like this :
Good-Produce-Use-Balance (red number means we need to import to maintain production, green number means we export that)
Cotton-0.00-4.73-4.73
Dye-0.00-2.43-2.43
Sulphur-0.00-2.08-2.08
Wool-0.00-0.27-0.27
Timber-1.19-2.72-1.53
Iron-2.50-1.70-0.78
Coal-21.45-1.90-19.16
Cattle-6.74-0.36-6.38
Grain-6.49-0.36-6.13
Fish-1.40-0.36-1.04
Fruit-3.53-1.20-2.33
Ammunition-0.25-0.40-0.15
Cement-0.25-0.00-0.25
Lumber-0.82-0.00-0.82
Small Arms-0.23-0.00-0.23
Steel-0.58-0.40-0.58
Wine-0.19-0.00-0.19
Canned Food-0.17-0.00-0.176
Glass-0.24-0.13-0.11
Fertilizer-0.35-0.00-0.35
Fabric-0.82-0.40-0.42
Regular Clothes-0.19-0.00-0.19
As regards the Population, the year ended with little change in levels of militancy, many POPs that had level 5 militancy in 1837 mellowed down to level 4 by the end of the year. Overall, my levels of MIL and CON at the end of the year are :
Highest Militancy : 5
Lowest Militancy : 2
Highest Rate of MIL growth : 0.01
Lowest Rate of MIL growth : -0.81
Highest Consciousness : 9
Lowest Militancy : 6
Highest Rate of CON growth : 0.49
Lowest Rate of CON growth : -0.52
As a result at the end of the year Prussia's overall rankings looked quite solid :
The completion of Army Professionalism resulted in another tech choice opportunity. This time, the choice made was Mechanical Production, which will not only provide 5 machine parts (which at this point in the game simply are NOT available to anyone but England, who produces them) but also several inventions that will boost efficiencies in production. With RP generation now at 0.71/month, it is averaging around sixteen months to get through a tech research. Hopefully the global supply of furniture will begin to grow, allowing conversion of more clerks, which will help boost my research as well as my production. But for now, Prussia must wait.
On the military front, a manpower pool of 41 exists, if we want to create more standing armies we can.
The selection of generals Prussia has as of the end of 1838.
On the leadership front, the bullpen of generals is looking quite respectable. Have not appointed any to commands yet, and I try to keep at least one general in reserve, so that if I need to switch a good commander from one position to a more critical military position I'll have the chance to rotate them.
It's important to remember though that stability should not be confused with stagnation and while at first glance Prussia looks strong and stable, a quick glance at the economic development in other nations suggests some cause for concern.
Comapring Prussia to other nations at the end of 1838, ordered by exports
The burgeoning rail network in Britain and the Low Countries, with spotty development in France.
As these images show, Prussia may be developing steadily, but others are expanding faster. Britain, which starts out with 31 factories, is now at 48, while France, which started with 23, now had 35 and even more dramatically the United States, which starts with only 6 factories, is already up to 15 and has already overtaken Prussia in exports. Now there have been a maximum of 5 factory build events for these nations, so net construction by capitalists in Britain is at least +12 factories, France +7 and the United States +4 that would be capitalist built. While France may not be building railways with abandon (it tends to build factories first), Britain's growth is paired with strong rail construction, as can be seen in the map above. The USA as well is expanding its rail work, mainly in the Northeastern part of the country.
The key to this growth in Britain, France and the USA is of course the laissez-faire governments all three currently have. Prussia is the most powerful of the interventionist governments, but the data may suggest that it is starting to fall behind further in the economic race. It might very well be that Prussia will need to consider appointing a laissez-faire party to give the capitalists the spurs.
The idea of instituting some political reforms may also be in the air over the next couple of years, as plurality continues to grow. While only one single POP in the entire country has positive MIL growth, the continuance of a pure monarchy may indeed not be the best policy to follow to ensure a strong and stable Prussia in the long term.
International Events In 1838
Peru returns to the family of nations.
The most notable overseas event in 1838 was the collapse of the Peru-Bolivia Confederation following its defeat at the hands of Chile and Argentina.
Otherwise, the world was quiet, but in certain regions there were tensions rising. Conflict between the Ottoman sultan and his independent-minded tributary in Egypt seemed to be growing, with the British formally offering support to the Ottoman sultan should it come to blows. The British were also beginning to have problems with the Chinese over the trade in opium, which the Chinese wished to ban but the British claimed was further Chinese interference in trade. For the most part though, the world was at peace by the end of 1838, a rare experience indeed.
Psssst... OHGamer... Can we have an update?
Please?
Pretty please?
Pretty please with tropical wood on top?
Please?
Pretty please?
Pretty please with tropical wood on top?
Deo89 said:
If i have time this weekend - real life has hit me like a 2-by-4, so not sure when the next update will be.
though if you've followed the story this far, you'll have a good idea on tactics to at least get your feet on solid ground.
I've also noticed the advantages of converting than splitting, its quite lovely 
Cool AAR so far, so much detail, this AAR will be over 100 pages long easily if you make it to 1936
Cool AAR so far, so much detail, this AAR will be over 100 pages long easily if you make it to 1936
Superb! This AAR has all the information anyone could need... I should buy Revolutions sometime, that much is clear, at least...
This is one of the best AAR's i've read in quite a while. definately my favourite style.
This AAR is coming along nicely. As is Prussia!
Hoping that readers are invited to offer suggestions here, I do have one. It is pretty well guaranteed to take care of Prussian national objective #2.
Put people to work in the coal mines of the Rhineland. Lots of people. All the immigrants you can get - and, yes, with the right reforms you can get plenty. All the farmers, laborers, and craftsmen you can convince to move. All the foreigners you can entice or bribe or conscript.
With lots of pops, outsized mines, and the basic mining techs, you will get, not just high, but positively ridiculous production. You can earn half your total national income from coal, produce more coal in that single state than the rest of the world combined, become at least #2 (possibly even #1) in exports by 1850, certainly 1860. Coal is King!
When I played the Federation of Germany back in version 1.04 days with VIP, the bonuses from tech to coal production were not nearly so high, and the incredibly lucrative "split pop" command wasn't available. Nevertheless, I earned something like $1000/day from Rhineland coal alone. You should eventually be earning that much per mine.
Hoping that readers are invited to offer suggestions here, I do have one. It is pretty well guaranteed to take care of Prussian national objective #2.
Put people to work in the coal mines of the Rhineland. Lots of people. All the immigrants you can get - and, yes, with the right reforms you can get plenty. All the farmers, laborers, and craftsmen you can convince to move. All the foreigners you can entice or bribe or conscript.
With lots of pops, outsized mines, and the basic mining techs, you will get, not just high, but positively ridiculous production. You can earn half your total national income from coal, produce more coal in that single state than the rest of the world combined, become at least #2 (possibly even #1) in exports by 1850, certainly 1860. Coal is King!
When I played the Federation of Germany back in version 1.04 days with VIP, the bonuses from tech to coal production were not nearly so high, and the incredibly lucrative "split pop" command wasn't available. Nevertheless, I earned something like $1000/day from Rhineland coal alone. You should eventually be earning that much per mine.
Uh ?
OK, my questions are NOT directly related to OHgamer's tale; but you're suggestions sounds pretty strange to me:
1. We are in 1838 - which reforms would you pass ? Playing prussia, I only managed to get angry aristrocrats and fed up officers that early in the game. Immigrants usually only appear after gold is dicovered in Koenigsberg.
2. IF you manage to get immigrants, how would you force them to Rheinland, which has poor life ratings ?
3. The "Coal King" strategy sounds tempting - again - in the early game. But I remember coal price falling to 3-5 pounds as the game goes on, because of large production by china. What about "Iron - King - strategy" in Lux and Saxony ?
thanks for your time,
qwerkus
LM+ said:
OK, my questions are NOT directly related to OHgamer's tale; but you're suggestions sounds pretty strange to me:
1. We are in 1838 - which reforms would you pass ? Playing prussia, I only managed to get angry aristrocrats and fed up officers that early in the game. Immigrants usually only appear after gold is dicovered in Koenigsberg.
2. IF you manage to get immigrants, how would you force them to Rheinland, which has poor life ratings ?
3. The "Coal King" strategy sounds tempting - again - in the early game. But I remember coal price falling to 3-5 pounds as the game goes on, because of large production by china. What about "Iron - King - strategy" in Lux and Saxony ?
thanks for your time,
qwerkus