You probably meant 1% of the population to be accepted culture Bureocrats (or however it is spelled).
Fixed.
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Fixed.
Thank you for this AAR! I am trying to learn how to play Vicky 2 (MORE PEOPLE NEED TO DO TUTORIAL AARS!)
Please do one for te newest expansion for Hearts of Iron 3! I just need to learn how to play that and I am set!
Please do one for te newest expansion for Hearts of Iron 3! I just need to learn how to play that and I am set!
First of all, thank you for the description of technology school. I have been a bit confused about how the switching between them works until now.
On another note, why have decided to go after the Sindh? How is your Japan as a future naval power going to effectively hold territories in the Indian Subcontinent / Central Asia? :wacko: Or do you may be plan to liberate India from the British?
On another note, why have decided to go after the Sindh? How is your Japan as a future naval power going to effectively hold territories in the Indian Subcontinent / Central Asia? :wacko: Or do you may be plan to liberate India from the British?
First of all, thank you for the description of technology school. I have been a bit confused about how the switching between them works until now.
On another note, why have decided to go after the Sindh? How is your Japan as a future naval power going to effectively hold territories in the Indian Subcontinent / Central Asia? :wacko: Or do you may be plan to liberate India from the British?
Probably a naval base for colonising East Africa, as well.
If somebody buys me TFH, I'll think about it.
More importantly, misterbean's Germany, Take 2 is pretty detailed and covers everything short of TFH.
First of all, thank you for the description of technology school. I have been a bit confused about how the switching between them works until now.
On another note, why have decided to go after the Sindh? How is your Japan as a future naval power going to effectively hold territories in the Indian Subcontinent / Central Asia? :wacko: Or do you may be plan to liberate India from the British?
Sindh was partially a target of opportunity and partially a way to squeeze myself into India/Central Asia. Africa's more or less colonized at this point in the game.
I'd totally buy you TFH if you would 100% do it
A kind offer, but I'm honestly pretty bad at HOI3. I don't know if you ought to be reading a tutorial I wrote for it.
Do a "hitchhiker's guide" instead. That would be much more fun.
Maybe.
I've actually got a project in mind for the next AAR after this one, and it'll be AHD again unless I get TFH.
That would be great. Honestly you're one of the best tutorial writers out there. Paradox should really hire you for your AARs. I'm serious. I know how to play Vicky 2 because of you and I am really indebted to you more than you know.
Thank you very much! I'm glad I've helped at least one person with this.
I haven't been able to afford AHD yet, but i like this AAR. Gives me an idea for what to expect when i do have the cash to buy it Also i love reading indepth tutorial AAR's Always nice too see how other people play the game!
Also i love reading indepth tutorial AAR's Always nice too see how other people play the game!
I haven't been able to afford AHD yet, but i like this AAR. Gives me an idea for what to expect when i do have the cash to buy it
Glad you've enjoyed it! AHD was a day one purchase for me. It does a lot to improve the game, even if the 1861 scenario is somewhat limited.
Include me in that count as well
Excellent!
Should be an update this evening; it'll be kind of boring, but as I've said in the past, I'm naturally a very conservative player in Vicky 2 and I don't start wars I don't think I can win. Of course, sometimes I think wrong.
Sounds like there's some fun going on.I don't start wars I don't think I can win. Of course, sometimes I think wrong.
Chapter 11: The birth of the modern Imperial Japanese Navy (we're an Empire, right?)
October 1, 1885: We finish up Stock Exchange and proceed to Business Banks.
I thought it would be appropriate to spend a little bit of time explaining why I choose certain techs. In most circumstances, you will not end up with every technology in the game, which means making some hard choices. That's good -- a strategy game without choices is a very long, very boring movie. One of the things that AHD has done is make money more difficult to come by, which consequently makes the Commerce branch really, really important. You can borrow a lot more money -- we'll see that later -- but you want to avoid borrowing if you can. In every game, you'll need to work with the Industry branch. It'd be an interesting idea to play a game in which you never industrialize; you'd pretty much have to stick with Planned Economy, though. It would also be very, very hard.
While virtually every tech in both of those branches is worthwhile, that's not as true for the other fields. While every Army tech is excellent and makes your soldiers better, each one also increases your supply costs. You don't have the same problem with navies, but the Supply Range techs are of minimal value -- I'm going to research them to slightly extend my colonial range, but in most games, I don't bother. Only the UK has a big enough navy that also has to do a lot of traveling. Taking attrition isn't a huge deal once you're out of the wooden ship era and have enough naval bases.
The Cultural Techs can be fantastic, but the longer you wait, the less useful they are. Free research points are always worthwhile, of course. The prestige techs are, most of the time, a waste. They used to be must haves when westernization needed a certain prestige score; now, they're less useful. The educational efficiency techs are good targets early in the game if your literacy rate is low. Most of the time, I stop my NF generating techs at Nationalism and Imperialism; the later ones have some nasty penalties for certain inventions. I really don't know what to make of the Psychology techs. A boost to starting experience is great, and quicker reinforcement times are even better. The last one gives you Radio, but Radio comes so late in the game that's it not all that helpful.
Those are my general thoughts on technologies. I prefer a Five Year Plan, to borrow a phrase from Stalin, for most technological goals. You should have a specific objective in mind and then not deviate from it unless something drastic compels you to. At the moment, my Five Year Plan is "get cruisers" and "be able to afford cruisers."
December 25, 1885: Xinjiang westernizes.
February 26, 1886: So does Afghanistan.
April 17, 1886: Brunei cores.
May 1, 1886: I get a Cut Down to Size CB against Makran. As they're in the British sphere, I think I'll pass.
September 12, 1886: Here's my next tech, with Business Banks finished.
I need O-Chem for Cracking, so I can build Fuel Refineries. Cruisers do not run on pixie dust, regardless of what you have heard. (Also, do you know how many pixies you have to strangle for one pound of dust? Talk about inefficient!)
October 21, 1886: Johore and I are officially Friendly.
January 22, 1887: NGF, in its impotent rage vis a vis France, goes after Austria instead.
March 8, 1888: I get the invention for Monitors. I have a love-hate relationship with Monitors. They've got awesome Hull values -- better than Ironclads, if you can believe that -- but they're slower and have weaker Attack. IRL, monitors were mostly river-going vessels; bad things happened to monitors in the open sea. For a long time, I refused to build Monitors. I won't in this AAR, but there is one thing they're really well suited for: escorting transports. The amazing amount of punishment they can take means that they can hold off almost anything short of Cruisers while your transports slip around the enemy navy. They're the Engineers of the Navy; Vicky 2 Engineers are so pointless I won't even mention them in this AAR. Well, I just did, but I won't again.
April 28, 1888: O-Chem is done. I'm going to briefly deviate from my path of "only work on things involving Cruisers" to pick up Early Railroad now. The Railroad techs are another family that can be tricky to deal with; Capitalists have no problems funding them, most of the time, and they're universally awesome. However, the payoff for the Railroad techs is pretty delayed, since you have to wait for the railroads themselves to get finished. That means I have a nasty habit of forgetting them. I shouldn't, but I do. In any event, the tech cost is really low, so I'll grab it now.
June 15, 1888: France gets Senegal out of the NGF.
August 15, 1888: NGF reclaims Schlesien from Austria; a good trade, I'd say.
November 1, 1888: I pick up Gaslights, one of the nicer inventions: +10% to all Factory Throughput isn't anything to sneeze at.
November 9, 1888: A very fine event that comes out of the otherwise okay Distribution Channels invention (from Business Banks).
You'll notice a lot of high tech events will reduce farm size; the idea is to get people into the factories, where they're more helpful.
December 5, 1888: We finish Early Railroad, which will give the capitalists something to do. Electricity is a slight departure from the "only cruisers" plan, but every advanced factory in the game requires Electric Gear, and we'll need those for Dreadnoughts and other fun things.
September 25, 1889: This event makes me smile, since Kobe is my Gold RGO.
September 27, 1889: A quick peek at the budget shows me that the Artisans are starving; unfortunately, there's not much I can do about that.
October 1, 1889: With a couple of colonies finishing, I shift two NFs to promoting Consumer Goods Industry (Glass, Wine, Liquor) for the moment, but it won't last.
February 21, 1890: Hawaii becomes an official state!
March 31, 1890: The Artisans are kind of like a bunch of cute lemmings wandering off a cliff; you know the end will be messy, but all you can do is slow them down. This one of those things you can do.
The only thing that will actively help Artisans compete with Factories -- other than not having any -- is to subsidize imports while simultaneously not subsidizing factories. Most of the time, it's better to let them die.
May 25, 1890: Wake Island cores.
October 30, 1890: Siam westernizes.
January 2, 1891: Electricity is done; now, we stick to our original plan. We'll research the "Naval Engineering" path from this point on, which will decrease the amount of time it takes to build our unstoppable Cruiser fleet.
February 1, 1891: Edison Light Bulb fires, so I can start making Electric Gear factories. Capis are pretty good at building them without my direct intervention, and they won't be profitable right away anyhow. I will, however, set my two Consumer Goods NFs to Electrical Industry (Electric Gear, Telephones, Radio). I'll even make the Edo NF Electrical Industry too (instead of Clergy).
March 28, 1891: The UK declares war on the US. The one thing I hate about the UK is that so many of their soldiers are in India or Singapore (although it's better in AHD), so I can't really take advantage of this. I also still don't have the navy I want.
June 22, 1891: Fire Control Systems is done.
August 21, 1891: I'm going to start influencing Kalat. This isn't any well thought out strategy. It's more "Nobody else wants them, why not add them to my sphere?"
November 27, 1891: My merchants are being harassed by Hyderabad. Oh no! I get a Cut Down to Size CB, but again, those blasted Brits are standing in my way.
March 1, 1892: The day has arrived: we have Cruisers! Here's why I'm so excited.
I'll make it easy to grasp: the one and only ship a Cruiser can't easily handle 1 on 1 is a Dreadnought. And I'm not going to build one. I'm going to build 46.
April 11, 1892: Of course, I don't have much Fuel to build Cruisers; I've got to buy it on the open market. That's kind of unfortunate, but oh well. In the meantime, I keep cranking out techs that give me Cruisers faster.
May 21, 1892: I just now discovered that Bali is independent, and I'm going to influence them. It'll be a nice place to stage some troops if I decide to go after the Dutch East Indies.
July 1, 1892: Fate once again plays a cruel joke on me -- it decides to give me Commerce Raiders. Uh, thanks, but no thanks.
August 22, 1892: How little Fuel is available? Württemburg is the #5 producer of it. Bolivia is #3, ahead of France!
January 1, 1893: Kalat and I are Cordial.
January 9, 1893: I cut taxes a bit. (Rich to 20% and Poor to 45%). The Middle Class pie is still over 25% red; stupid Artisans. Just starve or change jobs already!
January 30, 1893: I strike Oil in Brunei, one of the main reasons I went after Brunei so many years ago. Now, all I need is some Refineries and I can make my own Fuel!
May 1, 1893: And the AI gods respond to my pleas, and I can get cracking on refineries! (It's funny because the invention is called Cracking!) I shift the Nagoya NF to Chemical Industry, to boost both Oil and Fuel (well, Fuel, since Nagoya doesn't have Oil.) I do the same in Fukuoka.
May 10, 1893: Portugal goes Bankrupt, but still has a lot of powerful friends. Story of my life (as Japan.)
June 1, 1893: Now, we get Telephones as an invention. You need Telephones for Dreadnoughts, but by themselves they're pretty profitable.
June 22, 1893: My ambassador is insulted by the UK. I meekly apologize and back away. (I really, REALLY wish I could get a GP ally or two and take them down a peg or ten.)
July 13, 1893: Since I've got (or will have) a bunch of shiny cruisers, they need new naval bases.
November 2, 1893: So I get a Cut Down to Size CB on Dai Nam... which is now in my Sphere.
December 21, 1893: I have a very sneaky Colonial target in mind -- what good are Cruisers if you can't steal territory? -- so I'm going to violate my own advice and increase Colonial Range.
January 5, 1894: Bintulu is electrified!
March 2, 1894: Since I've got Telephones now, I'm shifting my last Clergy NF to Electrical Industry. So to recap, that's three for Electrical Industry and two for Chemical.
May 17, 1894: Of course, naval bases take years to finish; I'd better keep pushing out my colonial range.
July 15, 1894: Poor NGF; they just got Schelsien back, and then stupid France comes along and gives it back to Austria.
October 9, 1894: I join the International Olympic Committee.
February 22, 1895: My colonial range is good enough for now; let's work on naval ORG!
April 5, 1895: Host a World's Fair, you say? For £1000? I'll check the cushions of my couch.
May 9, 1895: And the World's Fair gives me 22 prestige; best £1000 I've ever spent.
July 25, 1895: My new Cruisers are pretty expensive; I'm going to go back to increasing Tax Efficiency so I can afford them.
September 10, 1895: I fork over another £1000 to look for the South Pole.
September 30, 1895: I get "A Place in the Sun" (the event, sadly, not the CB), good for 5.5 prestige and -1 MIL and CON in Edo. Not bad.
May 20, 1896: Manchuria westernizes. In case you're wondering how I know, it's because they're signing the Geneva Convention. There's really no reason not to do it; 10% less defense spending is a good price to pay for increased ORG regain, a one time Infamy bonus, and reduced War Exhaustion. I didn't get a shot of my signing said convention, but it happened a long time ago. If you want to know why I'm not jumping on the Chinese Empire at this point, it's because they're in the Russian sphere; the last thing I want right now is to fight them both at the same time. I'd rather fight a Westernized China alone than both simultaneously.
October 13, 1896: I'm still losing money (£400 a day), and the commerce techs aren't helping. I know what's caused it -- my 46 cruisers -- and I know it'll get better. Still, I'm going to research some industrial tech to improve my RGOs and factories.
October 16, 1896: We get Japanese reactionaries. They won't last long (and don't.)
December 7, 1896: Kalat joins the Japanese sphere. Huzzah!
December 11, 1896: Revolutionaries de-Westernize Jaisalmer. What a pity.
For them.
December 27, 1896: If I were a vindictive sort, I'd kill my entire intelligence staff. 8.8 infamy out of a maximum of 10 is no way to expand my Empire!
February 13, 1897: I honestly don't know why (is Kalat that awesome?), but we're out of the temporary recession.
March 19, 1897: Yunnan has westernized.
March 29, 1897: Midway cores.
April 25, 1897: CB acquired. Targeting Jaisalmer.
July 15, 1897: Guangxi is westernized. Only the Chinese Empire is left. (It's kind of embarrassing that my substate is last.)
August 16, 1897: More Reactionaries. I thought everybody liked a winner?
October 24, 1897: Thanks for dropping by, Jaisalmer. Give me the keys on your way out.
November 9, 1897: I've finished Steam Turbine, but for some reason haven't included my next tech in this update. So, you get a really lame cliffhanger.
See you in a couple of days with another (hopefully more) thrilling installment!
It's a good write-up. But I'm not sure the Supply range techs are actually also increasing colonization range. I believe they are just: supply range.
But I'm not sure the Supply range techs are actually also increasing colonization range. I believe they are just: supply range.
It's a good write-up.
I checked the math, and it looked like it did increase colonization range; can somebody fire up their copy and confirm/deny?
one thing I find nice about teching railroads is that if you somehow invested into cement, steel factories you surely know that their value fades over time and heavily and if you happen to get the new tech level for railroads and all those capitalists start to railroad everywhere you get some very nice boost to profitability of those factories.