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I assume everybody is stunned by the glorious flowchart and therefore haven't commented. :)

I should update here later this week, if not sooner.
 
I assume everybody is stunned by the glorious flowchart and therefore haven't commented. :)

I should update here later this week, if not sooner.

Probably they're trying to apply that flowchart on US election in middle of Hurricane Sandy's visit to the East Coast. Hard to be online for that.
 
Stunning indeed! I have figured the political actions by pops out on my own over the last year, but always by inferring what happened if I tried to do this, or that action. So it was a bit of a makeshift and non-scientific approach, and I hadn't bothered to clarify it by making a good chart about it. This really helps a lot!

haha Sirce is right on the spot, I thought about making a one post AAR about the US election :)
 
Probably they're trying to apply that flowchart on US election in middle of Hurricane Sandy's visit to the East Coast. Hard to be online for that.

Stunning indeed! I have figured the political actions by pops out on my own over the last year, but always by inferring what happened if I tried to do this, or that action. So it was a bit of a makeshift and non-scientific approach, and I hadn't bothered to clarify it by making a good chart about it. This really helps a lot!

haha Sirce is right on the spot, I thought about making a one post AAR about the US election :)

Glad you've enjoyed the chart; I would actually like to see how my flowchart would apply to the US election.
 
Glad you've enjoyed the chart; I would actually like to see how my flowchart would apply to the US election.

Most of the people go with party loyalty immediately. The swing voters would probably fit your flowchart relatively well. Vicky 2 takes a lot of party loyalty to lock a voter into their party.
 
I'm a little confused about the specifics regarding voting and the flowchart, stunning as it was.
If you have a pop group of 10,000 capitalists, and Jingoism is their dominate issue at 40%, will all 10,000 capitalists vote for Jingoism, or will 4,000 of them vote for Jingoism?
 
Most of the people go with party loyalty immediately. The swing voters would probably fit your flowchart relatively well. Vicky 2 takes a lot of party loyalty to lock a voter into their party.

100% agree. Democrats vote Democrat, Republicans vote Republican, and to hell with most of the issues. That should probably be the end of the political discussion. :)

I'm a little confused about the specifics regarding voting and the flowchart, stunning as it was.
If you have a pop group of 10,000 capitalists, and Jingoism is their dominate issue at 40%, will all 10,000 capitalists vote for Jingoism, or will 4,000 of them vote for Jingoism?

This is a murky area, and it partially depends on your vote franchise. In First Past the Post, the result returned will be Jingoism. In Proportional Representation, 4000 will vote Jingoism. Under the Jefferson Method? Somewhere in between the two. We have Jefferson Method, of course. :rolleyes:

Working on a new update as we speak!
 
Chapter 14: Siam: Cupcake for the ages?*

*For the non-American football fans: In college football, most schools schedule games against teams that really, really stink to build up their records and/or self-confidence. These games are called cupcakes. (Cupcakes are also a delicious dessert, but that's neither here nor there.) In other words, Siam is training for a much, much bigger war to come.

August 22, 1912: I had to go back to my save and analyze the results of this election; it still mystifies me (at least partly).

electionof1912.jpg


At first glance, there's no way the Liberals should have lost, but something very interesting happened. The pro-military crowd shifted ideologies. The jingoists got bigger, which helped the Imperialists, but for the Conservatives, that's pure pro-military for you. Why did a chunk of the pro-military crowd become conservative?

MIL dropped. One of the main things that makes aristocrats liberals is angry poor and middle class; thanks to reforms and generally awesome management by me, MIL went down. Therefore, the Aristocrats who voted Liberal last election returned to their natural Conservative roots, and presto chango, the ruling party switches. Some of the Liberals also went Socialist; the 14 hour worker's movement is becoming increasingly popular.

August 29, 1912: If 46 Dreadnoughts meet two Clipper Transports, do the Transports make a sound other than KABOOM? A question for the ages, to be sure.

October 3, 1912: The 1st Cavalry Corps puts ashore at Ratchaburi. Thanks to mountainous terrain and dig-in, we're in for a world of hurt.

October 13, 1912: Ouch.

ratchaburi.jpg


Yes, I won, but that casualty rate is pretty bad. My cavalry did negate some of the dig-in bonus, or it would have been much worse. Remember, too, this is Guards against Infantry (the Guards came later). I've really neglected my poor army.

November 28, 1912: Ratchaburi falls. Huzzah!

December 24, 1912: One brigade of Infantry tries to slip past me. It does not succeed.

January 1, 1913: The UK gets North German Ghana from Russia. Excuse me while I put my head back together.

January 9, 1913: The Russian Empire declares war on China, but not with the Boxer Rebellion CB; they've got territory in mind. (Sofianova, to be exact.)

January 17, 1913: The North German Federation becomes Communist. Bismarck is spinning in his grave right now. I wonder how this would play out in HOI3?

January 25, 1913: My second trip to Ratchaburi goes about as well as the first.

secondratchaburi.jpg


Going back over these screenshots, I'm kicking myself for neglecting my army so much. Perhaps nearly a hundred Dreadnoughts was just a bit excessive...

March 27, 1913: Russia's doing very well. Since I'm getting my butt kicked by Siam (to a certain degree), a war with the Chinese Empire seems just a tad silly.

March 30, 1913: Another bloody battle. I'm not posting screenshots; it's just too depressing.

April 21, 1913: Bangkok falls. I've got everything south of Bangkok too. Also, you now see the reason I spent so much time improving colonial range.

colonizingalaska.jpg


I actually feel this is kind of gamey, in retrospect; the AI, for some reason, never colonizes Alaska, because it doesn't know what you and I know: there's gold in them thar hills! (Also oil.)

May 5, 1913: The Siamese want to surrender. Fools! Surrender is a sign of weakness. You go squish now!

addsiamtosphere.jpg


May 28, 1913: Third Ratchaburi, in shocking news, is a bloody nightmare. (Both in the British cursing sense and the literal sense.) I need to do some serious tech upgrades.

July 29, 1913: Two more Siamese provinces fall.

August 4, 1913: The Siamese plead for their miserable lives. Never! Not until your largely useless country is in my sphere! (At this point, it's sheer fury and vengeance. Never conquer the world angry.)

August 23, 1913: Temperance Halls go away. It'll reduce POP militancy, which is important for what I have planned.

September 13, 1913: Pratchinburi. 69,000 Japanese face 25,571 Siamese. Losses: 30,000 Japanese. 8843 Siamese. Moral: You don't want technical parity in an area with really, really lousy terrain.

October 23, 1913: The Chinese find us Cordial!

November 9, 1913: Infiltration is finished. Let's work on these horrendous casualty rates, shall we?

armyprofessionalism.jpg


January 26, 1914: Another misleading event; the bonuses are great, but the actual area of application is tiny.

menforthecolonies.jpg


March 2, 1914: More making the Army die less quickly.

armydecisionmaking.jpg


May 16, 1914: The Russians get Sofianova and Manzhouli from China.

June 10, 1914: The war is over!

newlandinsiam.jpg


August 15, 1914: Remember how, in the chapter title, I called Siam a cupcake? Well, they were, even with all of my casualties, because I've got a much bigger opponent scheduled. I start justifying a CB against said opponent.

August 20, 1914: To prepare for the mysterious foe, I decide to choose a much better ruling party. Voters. Pfft. What do they know?

switchingrpafterelectio.jpg


Note that my MIL was previous .20.

September 25, 1914: My new, casualty averse army, is pricey. Let's get some more cash out of our people, shall we?

bankinspectionboard.jpg


February 7, 1915: I crank all tax rates to 50%, even for the middle class.

April 21, 1915: Italy jumps on those Commies in the NGF.

April 30, 1915: China and I are Friendly.

May 30, 1915: The USA gets North German Rhineland from France. I had no idea they were even at war.

June 2, 1915: I'm going to hold a Colonial Expedition. Only £500!

July 2, 1915: The mystery opponent is revealed.

chinaprovince.jpg


The showdown occurs next time!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At this point, I'm going to continue simply for the sake of continuing, but I think I've done (most) of the purely tutorial stuff I'm going to. If I've left something out, please let me know and I'll address it in a future update.

Has anybody tried the HOI3 converter yet? The sheer thought of Communist Germany really makes me want to see what'd happen in WWII.
 
Hmm... But why Taiwan?

Partly because Japan had it historically, but mostly because it's an easy target I can capture without dealing with hordes of Chinese soldiers.
 
As expected a very informative and enjoyable read. I've managed to glean a good few tips from this and an unshakeable image of hordes of zombie nations residing throughout the world of V2.

Imagine three countries. A country with low MIL and CON are a bunch of ignorant sheep, bleating away happily. This is good for absolute monarchies (like us); not as good for promoting more refined citizens who do important things ... A would be a nation of zombies with plenty of brains to eat
 
good progress, I hope you didn't forget the promise about those tanks ;-)

I won't!

As expected a very informative and enjoyable read. I've managed to glean a good few tips from this and an unshakeable image of hordes of zombie nations residing throughout the world of V2.

If only you'd read it yesterday, it would have been more period appropriate. ;) Glad you've liked it!
 
I wanted to post a comment on the very impressive "elections 101", but don't have the time for a long, thorough analysis - I only have a single question/observation concerning countries like Japan, with more than one conservative party. The overall conservative vote seems in excess to the percentage of conservative voters. Moreover, the two parties always get almost the same percentage, despite the difference in certain policies (pro-military vs. jingoist, interventionism vs. state capitalism). And since Prussian constitutionalism has only been introduced recently in your country, party loyalty doesn't come into play here either. Does any of this fit into your pattern?
 
I wanted to post a comment on the very impressive "elections 101", but don't have the time for a long, thorough analysis - I only have a single question/observation concerning countries like Japan, with more than one conservative party. The overall conservative vote seems in excess to the percentage of conservative voters. Moreover, the two parties always get almost the same percentage, despite the difference in certain policies (pro-military vs. jingoist, interventionism vs. state capitalism). And since Prussian constitutionalism has only been introduced recently in your country, party loyalty doesn't come into play here either. Does any of this fit into your pattern?

You have an excellent point here. I can tell you that issue #6 for the 1912 election was Interventionism, which might explain what's going on here. It's something worth tracking, and I'll do my best to highlight it as things progress.
 
While you're all waiting for the epic Sino-Japanese War, why not spend a moment to look at the new edition of the AARlander? It even features an article by your (presumably) favorite AAR writer, but the others are good too!
 
your tied for 1st place on my list :p with selzro. and what is the AARlander anyway?

AARlander is an e-magazine, edited by Derahan.
 
Chapter 15: Tanks, gas, and airplanes

July 2, 1915: The Sino-Japanese War begins with the delivery of 57,000 Japanese troops to Formosa.

July 5, 1915: A quick examination of the situation is promising: the Chinese only have 215 brigades.

July 12, 1915: So, of course, they mobilized. Now, I'm considerably outnumbered.

July 21, 1915: Here's a joke for you!

Q: What do 46 Dreadnoughts call the Chinese fleet?

A: Target practice.

battleofyellowsea.jpg


The Chinese do have more ships than this, obviously, but it was very considerate of them to put so many in one place at one time. Very considerate indeed.

July 25, 1915: The mobilized forces on Formosa -- some five brigades -- are easily swept aside.

September 22, 1915: Tainan falls.

December 17, 1915: So does Hainan and Taipei. I land forces in Dai Nam, who is having a very tough time with Chinese troops.

January 3, 1916: So, of course, Dai Nam signs a White Peace. Cowards.

January 23, 1916: I have plenty of war score to take Formosa, but the Chinese losses have been really light so far. It'll take a battle to convince them. A battle is what they shall have! To fuel my war machine, I'll research Cheap Steel (and the bonus to gold mines.)

cheapsteel.jpg


The good news is Bank Inspection Board increased my balance by +£600 a day. The bad news is I'm still losing almost £4000 a day. I've got a war chest of £1.63 million, so I'm hardly in danger of going bankrupt, but this war will be relatively quick (I think). A war against Russia? Less so. Much less so.

April 6, 1916: The first major battle between Japan and China is suitably epic in scale.

battleofgauzhou.jpg


I'm only slightly ahead in tech (14 to 12), but I have a bigger advantage: all of their troops are recently mobilized infantry. I have experienced guards. I'm going to lose, since no amount of tech will change that equation, but I'll take a lot of them with me. My dig-in and the terrain also make this more even than it should be.

June 8, 1916: Scandinavia forms; they get Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, but Russia keeps Finland.

July 18, 1916: I throw some more troops into the battle; it might look like throwing good money after bad, but all China has is a numbers advantage; the more Chinese I kill, the easier the war will be. My tech is also getting better, while theirs is not.

July 30, 1916: With Alaska colonized, I move onto Canada.

ohcanada.jpg


August 28, 1916: The Russians want military access. Why not? I gather up most of my troops to try to tip the scales at the Battle of Guazhou.

September 9, 1916: I pick off a Chinese Commerce Raider who wandered away from home.

September 12, 1916: Elections are up. I try to beef up Laissez-Faire in Nagoya, but I don't think it'll mean much.

September 24, 1916: Alaska is already paying off -- Gold is found in Cordova. I must be some kind of psychic genius!

October 1, 1916: My armies could use a little more staying power; I'm going to start on the ORG series of techs.

militaryplans.jpg


October 3, 1916: Osaka is pretty darned liberal. That's something of a comfort, since they're the biggest state by far. A quick examination shows why: the biggest issue is Wealth Weighted Voting, and those folks will always vote pure Liberal.

October 23, 1916: The reinforcements get to China late. Check out this death toll, though.

battleofgauzhouresults.jpg


I know something the Chinese don't: I haven't mobilized yet. (Well, the AI probably knows that.) Manpower is not much of an issue; I'll keep this going as long as they want.

October 24, 1916: The "war" election events are nasty for Japan; I want to encourage Pro Military to boost the Liberals, but the biggest Conservative party is also Pro Military. It's a problem.

November 3, 1916: Now Fairbanks discovers Gold.

November 14, 1916: A second battle goes badly; I lose 31k troops for only 7.5k Chinese. Still, they were caught apart from everyone else. I've got plenty of fight left in me, especially since I know they can't invade the Home Islands or even retake Formosa.

November 21, 1916: Ecuador is overthrown by Reactionaries.

November 24, 1916: The war is over!

sweetvictory.jpg


Why didn't I ask for more, you ask? Mostly because I don't want a land border with Russia or the Chinese Empire. My major advantage is that you can't touch me without a powerful navy, and I'm the best game in town, baby.

December 3, 1916: The treasury has rebounded nicely; I'm now making £484 a day.

December 8, 1916: My Colonial Exposition (see last update) goes off without a hitch; 16.5 prestige.

January 17, 1917: More Army Techs. If I'm going to fight Russia (and I will), I need to improve my army.

militarystatistics.jpg


February 22, 1917: The Conservatives won again. The Liberals made a great showing, but in the end, they lost.

conservativeswinagainel.jpg


As Fadi_Efendi pointed out, you're really kind of stuck if you have two Conservative parties. Instead of splitting the vote (see the 1860 USA Presidential Election for a good example), they always work in coalition, so they always win. The only thing you can do is try to increase MIL, which will force the Aristocrats to vote Liberal. That's about it.

March 6, 1917: I increase taxes on the rich to 60%; I'll stay Conservative for a bit to increase the amount I bring in in taxes.

August 8, 1917: Keep up the Cavalry techs, I say!

militarylogistics.jpg


October 3, 1917: The NGF begins its long, sad decline with Hamburg splitting off.

October 4, 1917: Bremen joins Hamburg.

October 5, 1917: Hesse-Darmstadt would rather be an OPM instead of part of the NGF; that's a low blow.

October 15, 1917: I increase taxes on the poor to 60%.

December 1, 1917: I get an awesome new toy!

buildingarmor.jpg


Artillery or Armor?

Now, this brings up the point asked about earlier: which is more useful, Armor or Artillery in the late game? Let's think for a moment. First, look at the stats for Armor. They've got the best base Attack value in the game and couple that with a 50% discipline bonus, which means they are great at inflicting casualties. On the minus side, the low recon value means they'll get eaten alive by forts or dug-in enemy troops. They're the same speed as Guards, which makes sense: early tanks were generally infantry support weapons.

So, in short, Armor add a lot of firepower, but are extremely vulnerable in the wrong circumstances. Let's think about Artillery now. Artillery will, unfortunately, slow down an army, but it adds tremendous attack value of its own without the vulnerability of Armor (or the discipline bonus). The big weakness of artillery is that, if you don't have a big enough screen, they'll get wiped out. That's not so good.

We have to add one more dimension: technology. There are a handful of tank inventions, and of course they'll get the universal boosts from things like Breech Loading Rifles. But there's an entire branch of Artillery Techs (who also, incidentally, get the bonuses from Breech Loaded Rifles and the like), and when teched out, Artillery and Armor have very comparable Attack values.

What does this all mean? Essentially, in comparable situations, all else being equal... I honestly have to say Artillery is better. It comes down to bang for the buck, and Artillery is just better at it, especially since they effectively double the size of an army without making it twice as vulnerable. Armor does have their place, and they excel in some situations: against an Infantry heavy army with neutral terrain and no dig-in, an army of Tanks will destroy infantry. Their speed (which increases with some later inventions) lets them take advantage of such opportunities. Don't sneeze at the Discipline bonus either -- they'll do a lot of damage. The problem is they'll also take a lot of damage in anything other than ideal conditions.

Of course, it really isn't either/or, is it? You can easily include Armor in any army and do some serious damage. I happen to think they're better separate, but you can certainly use them in conjunction with infantry and artillery if that's what you want to do.

However, you're going to see that, for most of the rest of this AAR, I'm going to have a lot of Tanks, for one very good reason: all else isn't equal. In fact, I'm never going to research a single Artillery tech. I did this partly to see what would happen if I used lots of Tanks, but mostly because I wanted to keep my army fairly cheap.

I'll start with 25 tank brigades.

March 15, 1918: Panjab wants an alliance. Jerks, wouldn't join against the Chinese, but now you want to be friends? I say yes, but I know they'll bolt at the first sign of trouble.

April 28, 1918: I've given up on the Aristocrats at this point voting fairly. Also, 1.02 million people want Weighted Wealth voting. I give it to them, hoping I won't regret it later.

weightedwealth.jpg


July 13, 1918: We come to a (semi) hidden gem of the Military Science school.

lookingforgas.jpg


Gas Attack is, perhaps, the one true game-breaking technology late in the game. More than Airplanes or Armor, certainly. Gas Attack is a +3 die modifier in all circumstances against an opponent without Gas Defense. If you want to call it the best invention in the entire game, I'd be hard pressed to argue.

October 21, 1918: Anhalt is now independent.

December 25, 1918: Merry Christmas, Conservatives! I'm kicking you out of power. Welcome back, Liberals.

January 17, 1919: We have Fascists revolting in Siam. I'm not worried.

February 1, 1919: I get one of those nice Armor inventions, Tank Exploits, which increases Max Speed and Attack.

June 2, 1919: France declares war on Bremen, who's gone bankrupt.

September 30, 1919: Bremen is annexed by France.

November 13, 1919: Braunschweig breaks free of the NGF. In the meantime, I get a shiny new colony in the Yukon Territory.

November 21, 1919: The AI gives me a free CB against the UK. Um... no.

December 16, 1919: We find Gold in the Yukon.

January 11, 1920: I've almost completely ignored Cultural techs, but no longer. It's time to increase my tech rate even further.

idealism.jpg


February 12, 1920: Welcome back to Vicky 2, Frankfurt am Main!

May 6, 1920: We continue on the RP train.

empiricism.jpg


August 1, 1920: And we have the Gas Attack invention! Commence plans for world domination.

November 18, 1920: I'm going to take a moment to show you the research cost modifiers before showing you my actual tech I pick next; I've got a big target in mind (which rhymes with Mush-a), and I need to keep my army going.

analyticphilosophy.jpg


aeronautics.jpg


February 28, 1921: So the Middle Class is Pro Military and Jingoistic. Great. Conservatives'll win again.

March 3, 1921: More gold in the Yukon.

August 22, 1921: I was right, sadly.

electionof21.jpg


September 8, 1921: Except I'm the Emperor, and I say we stick with the Liberals. Poor fools.

January 1, 1922: With 91% literacy, I feel confident I can cut back on Education to 70%.

February 16, 1922: It's at this point in-game I remember Japan has a free CB against Russia.

May 8, 1922: We'll close this update by discussing the other exciting new unit added at the end of the game: Airplanes.

airplaneso.jpg


Airplanes are the one trick pony to end all one trick ponies: they are pure Recon. Yes, they can fight from the back row, but they suck at it; they get half their normal attack value. This makes them good companions for Tanks, if you're interested in such things, as it'll help counteract their major weakness. They really shine when used separately and devoted solely to occupying territory. Just don't go overboard: an army composed entirely of Airplanes will, if you'll forgive the metaphor, crash and burn.