Rule Britannia - The British World Conquest, a gameplay AAR

[Foxl]

Rule Britannia - The British World Conquest

the British Empire on the first of January in 1836


Well hello there to this gameplay WC game as the United Kingdom with the newest beta patch as well as the the small fix for the colony name change.

I'll try to update regularly, but it could take a while as the game gets slow in terms of decisions to take or fighting wars against major powers.

I'm open for any strategy advice besides the opening strategy as it is set into stone.
Yeah I'll use somewhat gamey tactics - if you dislike them you can try it without but be prepared to face lots of rebels and French armies crushing your expedition forces.

So let us begin.

PS: This is my first AAR in the paradox forums and my 4th ever so don't expect anything fancy or something


and something to get in the mood
[video=youtube;yHNfvJc99YY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHNfvJc99YY&feature=related[/video]



As this AAR is now considered finished here are the save games (as .rar files) and a small summary:

savegames in 10year intervals from 1846-1926

The Rebellion in the Empire - only for high-end PCs


the AAR in 27,5s

 

[Foxl]

The opening moves before unpausing the game:

First all this is a WC so I'll be at war nearly the hole time and if the diplopoints reach 8 I have to attack someone or add a new wargoal in an existing war. The UK was imho quite nerved with the new patch. The assimilation is crawling like a snail, everyone and their mother will leave the home isles even at peace and bureaucrats are a missing class in addition to the clergy. This means France, who will outtech me fast is a prime focus - the same goes for the US (who gets most of my immigrants). And in my "test" games - I managed to promote only two 2 colonies to states around 1900.

Considering war: In the beginning I can only beat weaker second rate powers or uncivs relatively fast. To attack France could cost to much as their mobilized army is just to big same goes for Russia. So I'll use my fleet as much as I can to blockade anyone.

So first screen:


As you can see I've got alliance offers from Colombia and Spain - which isn't that awesome so I declined. I'm waiting for offers from Russia or France as this will delay the DOW of them. I'll take the offer from Belgium as the Netherlands are an early target of mine (due to colonies) and are usually up to "restore order" in Belgium.

Next step is deleting most of my army are as they are infantry which isn't bad with 5att/4def but I'll use Cavalry for the better recon value. No Artillery so far, that would come later. So every province builds Cavs now and my budget takes the first hit. But there are some exceptions with the deleting home islands armies - who will be seeing action (too) soon, Canada/Australia for current/future colony grab. Then I move most of my navy towards Europe and following this is the building of new naval vessels.



As you could see I'm building nearly 200ships mostly steam transports and around 60 raiders. These are my theater forces and transport the armies around. This includes building a few harbours for future colonizing - Mauritius, Singapore, Cooktown, Norfolk Islands and the Falklands.

This will of course be very costly in terms of supplies and building material and as a matter of fact these fleets will be without supplies the first years. So I switch the Tories in as they have state capitalism and I can go on a little factory building spree.



As for research well I'll take the logical choice => Ideological Thought but not after I "Restored the Academia" as the default research "team" isn't a breath taker .. it's imho the weakest of all choices.
My two NFs are used to colonize there rest of British Colombia and to promote clergy in the area of London.

... Aaaand I'm bankrupt

 

[WelshDude]

Looks interesting.

 

[Foxl]

After unpausing the game France needed 11days until they declared war on Tunis which was not surprising at all hopefully they'll leave Algiers alone as a buffer between British Morocco and French North Africa. Yes my first target was Morocco .. why? Because the AI always tries to get them be it France (after Tunis), Spain after Rebels, the Netherlands or Two Sicilies plus I need 4 DP for their territory and I'm not over the limit yet, which is good as I'll need the time for my build up.

While preparing the other typical January DOW comes around.


Nothing special to see ... move along to the british diplo screen, it's high time to attack someone.


Oh I forgot to mention who I'll influence as you can see nearly all is going to China with small amount to Belgium and Brazil.

Now lets move over to the landing zones


As you can see Morocco tried to be clever and moved 21.000 men on the Rock - that completely removed them out of the war. Much to my surprise Belgian forces landed too and even moved against the remaining Moroccan Army + destroyed them.



While the war was raging I got one of the improved gold rush events - that will stop at least some of my ppl fleeing the country.



The war goes on and the Rock falls. Well it can't be helped, I'm sorry for the capitalists who tried to build the railroad there.



... And France shouted: "FIRST!!!". :S



And my war is over a little later. Note as I always wait for the enemy to make a peace treaty proposal - save a diplo point. Exceptions: Annex states as this doesn't cost a diplo point and very long peace proposals as I can't see if all what I want is included.



While my build up during peace continues the usual DOWs fly around and I got more gold rush events with and without the bonus.

DOWs: Brazil vs Bolivia; Portugal vs Oman; Egypt vs Ethiopia

And the conclusion of the Prussia&Austria vs Denmark war.
Prussia get Jylland while Austria gets a part of Schleswig Holstein. Lets hope that the NGF at least forms.

With all wars raging, I forgot to take my only decision, you might ask why do you want to give a province away?! Well, first of all it nets me important prestige I was third.. errr second before and first after taking. And second the province is colonial, while it'll be a state after it rejoins the US and if I'm gonna take it back it remains a state and not a colony - yes I'm looking at you Belize in British Guatemala.



And the conclusion of the Texan Independence War:


meh, I hoped for an annexation by Mexico well thats Viki for you.


So time has come where I've got 9DPs - sadly the Netherlands was quiet so I'll take my war elsewhere ... for now.

 

[Foxl]

I usually pick the indian/asian minors as first targets as they are weak have somewhat nice provinces and can be defeated without much trouble.

I pick you Tibet for your boarder with China!! As Russia is getting much more influence than me and that has to be corrected.





I pick call my (indian) allies to do the main work while they are low-tech just like the Tibetan army it's better they suffer and not me.

And Spain sees it's chance for a landgrab in Northern Africa after the good parts are gone.


That could end very interesting if Spain actually manages to land some army in Algiers.

Since I'm now over the allowed badboy, everyone gets the containment CB against me so I prepare for the declaration of war from my arch rival France.



Nearly my entire navy blockades the northern coast - one fleet ~20ships will be in reserve and around 30ships are stationed at the Rock to block the first breakout. Sadly I have only one Admiral so I'm prepared to lose some battle as the French Fleet is quite strong.

Since I'm over the limit, it's time for more war so Gwalior is next. Meanwhile roughly half of my cavalry is recruited in India.

And here it is, the 1. DOW even if it hits Belgium.


Note if Russia had joined, I would have still defended my poor ally. Since ...



Yeah Russia always does that - so my poor Canadian troops march towards Russian Alaska while my Fleet will blockade them in Europe.

And Sikkim gets attacked by me.

Here's a small overview about the Russian Forces. Yeah their navy is especially dangerous and don't ask me why they mobilized.




And here it is - the DOW I've been waiting for.



I'm now at war with France, Russia, the Netherlands, Spain + random countries
war goals towards:
- France: everything outside France except Algiers and Tunis (to expensive?!)
- Russia: only Alaska as they are to difficult to beat for the moment and Alaska is already a state
- the Netherlands: all colonies
- Spain: all colonies
so the peace order is: Russia, the Netherlands, Spain and finally France.

As the next updates will be picture/information heavy, I'll try to break them down by year.


@WelshDude: Thanks for reading!

 

[Foxl]

1838:

Well the start in 1838 was quite slow as I have never fought such coalition - Spain was the newcomer. On the other hand this will only leave me with Portugal as a colonial power after getting everything from my current wars. Sadly these wars will be around for at least 7-10 year because my jingoism is to low to demand colonies faster. In the meantime I'll burn my DP elsewhere.

Like here:



Haiti is in the same group of targets like the asian minors except it'll be sphered by the US if you wait to long and as I don't want a war with the US right now - that's for the ACW - I'll take Haiti out now same goes for Hawaii.

In the Öresund while my small reserve fleet is on it's way to blockade the Baltic harbours of Russia it mets the mighty Russian Navy.
Pathetic...


While France is storming towards my ally Belgium it does something stupid like Russia - it mobilizes. Why does France do that?! Afaik the standing army of France is much bigger than my (European) Army but it won't matter as I probably won't fight them.



Here you've got a small overview over France. While their navy does not seem to impressive it is actually as they tend to build new Men-o-Wars / commercial raiders and stack them in 10-20ship fleets with admirals. More to that later...

In February my BEF finally lands in Holland.


As you can see attrition is killing me as I haven't researched Medicine yet. And most armies didn't even have a general leading them. Of course this attack is tricky as not only is the mobilized army of the Netherlands still active - the French Armies could reach me too if I or BEL take a boarder province.

Meanwhile in the Baltic

The blockade is active now I only need to wait for my mounties to arrive at Alaska.


Several maps:

European Theater:


I've got to mention the Papal States another important warscore factor against France.

Asia:


Honestly I hate South-East-Asia ... way to many islands, no direct front line and prone to spawn rebels ... on islands.

the Caribbean - or little Asia

Again islands but not to many and only some like to rebel - mostly islands of the Antilles

no pic from Africa as it's quite boring and everyone has only 2-4 provs there with the exception of Portugal and me

Dow against Bhutan and annexation of Gwalior.

France makes short work of Belgium and the Netherlands counter attacks.


The Spanish expedition force from Algeria tries something.


And Sikkim goes down => war on Nepal. While I'm waging war, I'll upgrade every coastal prov with a harbour and every prov with forts. I'll do that from now on constantly. The forts are especially against rebels and the harbours for shipbuilding and repairing.

My future sphered ally Brazil manages to take some land in the Amazonas from Bolivia, which is good .. I think?

The bloody battle of Rotterdam came to an end, if they actually had a general this would be a defeat for me. After this it's chasing the army time.


And Bhutan goes down while I chase the army to it's death.


July:
The Rock gets captured again and has still no railroad while Portugal takes Oman Lindi and declares war on the 27.000 men strong Zulu nation. Egypt won its war against Ethiopia and takes the Negele Region.
And I finished my first tech and got a new NF. So what next? Nothing - the RPs are saved for an important 1840 tech. The new NF will be used to promote clergy in the next state.



Well thanks for nothing Belgium? At least don't allow them to march through your territory.

August:
Nepal is annexed. War on Hawaii as my small fleet is finally there.

The status of the Netherlands - I'll have to move my army soon. Fortunately the French marched right back to France after Belgium peaced out.



October:
Brazil likes me as future ally and declares war on Paraguay.

And Haiti lost its army as did Hawaii but that wasn't worth a screen.


US annexes Texas...


November:
And somehow France had managed to get an army to Canada - I had to move an army from Ireland to counter that.



The Netherlands are captured 3 armies will move away while one will stay. My supply-limit is now 115/89. Attrition and fighting without leaders is really killing my pops.

France lost this army of guards - yep the ones its starting with ..


December:
Hawaii and Tibet gets annexed. And I've got finally my boarder with China. Plus Brazil entered my sphere.

 

[Foxl]

1839

A big part of my BEF finally leaves Holland. An army will stay there in case of a white
peace between Belgium and the Netherlands and the necessary capture of Luxembourg and Eindhoven.




Meanwhile my harbour on Mauritius is completed so I use 2 NF to colonize the two islands next to Madagascar.

And Haiti gets annexed.



As you can see the Ottomans are still fighting(?) Tripoli and Portugal gets trashed by
the Zulu. And I declare war on Johore to get the ball in Asia rolling. I will leave a
brigade on every island as Rebels will pop out soon enough after my experience. One must not forget that Britain also deals with the Liberal Revolution events.

And Johore gets soundly defeated in the first fight. Doesn't help them that my forces were numerical superior.



A small blockade fleet was on its way to the Antilles. And look what I found there.



A part of the French War fleet with a +3Def Admiral ... great. Since I have to capture the islands in the Caribbean, I sent another fleet.

And British Colombia is colonized. woho



The free NF will promote Clergy again in South-East England as my clergy % is reaaaaally bad (~1%). In the lower part of the picture you see a future problem - the 33.000men strong Dutch Army. That makes the war over the islands a bit complicated.

And the outcome of the naval battle:



Not really a surprise considering my supply for steamer fleets is still very low and he did have an awesome admiral while I had none.

And another big surprise:



So my blockade and battles showed its effect and Spain isn't a GP any more. Let's see if S-P can use the next years and form Italy.

A small battle occurred on Cuba - needless to say that this didn't end well for the Spanish army there as my armies aren't alone very often and the second army is already on its way.




Also the French navy from before intercepted my transports and blew them up ... at least they were empty.

The invasion of the Papal States worked as planned but my army got hit quite hard.



You see I'm making good progress with the usage of my DP. My finances a bit problematic as mine and my enemy armies and fleets grow and grow. And supplies are getting quite expensive.

Big surprise: Spain "white peaces" Algeria. With is awesome and will be an immediate
target after the war in the Northern Africa ends.
And the second army arrived in Cuba and fights for glory ...




... while the British navy suffers another defeat - don't forget that steamer transports have a defensive value of 10.




In July Brazil finished its war against Paraguay and got again some provs. Johore falls in August, a small detachment remains while the rest of the army is on it's way towards some islands. Also Alaska is now under my control, now I wait until Russia gives it up.




Brazil offered me an alliance (finally) and China joins my Sphere and allies me in
October.



The Ottomans finally annexed Tripoli in December 1839 ... wow just wow.






This French fleet with that admiral is really getting on my nerves. :S

 

[Garuda]

Really enjoying your AAR.

Hopefully Russia will offer peace soon and your blockade fleet in the Baltic will be free to hunt down Admiral Bouet.

 

[Foxl]

1840

Finally reached 1840 ... time to spend some research points.



As you can see my clergy % and literacy is still quite low and my literacy will not really increase as I conquer quite large illiterate populations. But I need them as soldiers.

Right now the only thing of really stopping me is that I run out of soldier pops - if it becomes critical I'll have to promote them too.

Surprisingly Portugal really loses against the Zulu almost 4provs of Portuguese Africa are already occupied. And since it's now election time, I got the chance to guide my pops to become a bloodthirsty world conquering civ - that means promoting of Jingoism and Pro-Military while small bits went to limited and full citizenship / protectorism(MONEY).

The game now becomes a bit faster as I only occupy provs and rarely fight anything. And just I as thought this ... anarcho-lib. rebels spawned.


And on some islands too ... like I said before this is one thing you'll have to remember if you go on conquering spree as small countries will be drowned in war exhaustion.

Spain manages to successfully troll me. While I occupy their provs very slowly, they think - hey lets colonize a portion of Bali because these evil Brits are occupying every harbour nearby.



And while the French try a breakout - my fleet got reinforced by some new and shiny raiders


my Asian expedition army searches out a direct battle with the last Dutch army.


This battle is between the Dutch General Christiaan van Assendelft (+3Defence; 5%Reliability) :S and the British Colbert Napier who was +1 Attack I believe ... as I thought I made a screen but I didn't ... But fortunately I got lucky with the rolls while van Assendelft managed to get a lot of bad rolls. So another chasing began...

Victories!





You might asked where is your army?? Well some brigades got hit really hard and were down to ~500men others had no organization left. So every following battle my chasing army got smaller and smaller while his didn't really lost men.

In August our research-project is finished:


And you see the immediate effects - from 10,93 up to 13,38. This doesn't sound much but it actually is (for now) ~900 RP more per year. On the left side you see a smaller transport fleet plagued by the current supply crises for all my steamer fleets - some have organization but most are at 0.
While a new NF would be quite nice, I choose to research Medicine for a better supply limit and less attrition, which is still the main "killer" of my armies.A better pop-growth, prestige and the min. life rating bonus a useful too. It's really one of the must have asap techs.

Like I said before I lost way to many men and/or organization so another army with 9.000men from British India arrived just in time to rescue General Napier.

The remnants of the other battles are occupying the rest of the island. But after this victory Gen. Napier's own army was down to ~1.500 (2brigades) so my second in command General Plummer (just Org. Bonus) had the honour to corner the enemy army and destroy it in Jambi.


Another problem solved.

And just before the end of 1840 - war is declared against Dai Nam but no British army will fight in it

@Garuda: Russia offers me white peace as every other nation, but the warscore for Alaska is just too high - it's 10 while my blockade only accounts for 5-6points, depending if I blockade some of the Asian ports (but attrition for ships). So I had to come up with something. As for Admiral Bouet after the defeat he just disappeared. My guess is his fleet tried to get to / is in France because every other harbour was already controlled by me?! Well it's not that I miss him

 

[Foxl]

1841

In January the Ottomans finished their first war against Egypt. I have hoped for more territorial changes there to make the Ottomans more of a threat to the Russian expansion but meh...



The capture of provs was a bit boring so I was happy when I found a Spanish army on the Philippines - warscore and fun!



In February I attacked Brunei with 9.000 men and Korea with lots of Chinese

Here's a small overview over the war exhaustion and military capability of my main enemies:







I didn't make a screen of the Netherlands as they are at 100% since months.

Another victory and some nice the warscore!



While I do some island hopping - the Chinese armies have some fun:





I'll only land on that small Korean island - at the Chinese aren't really up for naval invasions.

And here is our main problem:



The small % are crawling so slowly ...... I got frustrated .. so war against Luang-Prabang and Bali. Nothing is better to cool down than to beat a small nation. Well Luang-Prabang will be stormed by Chinese but it still works.




And Bali is annexed in the end of October ... and nothing important happens the last few months. Well 1842 might be more interesting

 

[unmerged(189717)]

Nothing is better to cool down than to beat a small nation.

I like this AAR, it's very refreshing to read one with a lot of pictures and less text.

And what's up with the railroad in Gibraltar? What's it supposed to connect? Wouldn't it be more like a tram?

 

[Foxl]

1842

I was still bored so I moved armies around in India to move my western boarder a bit.

Preparations complete:


That General de Robeck is quite useful as +3 Attack is awesome in the beginning of the game, the moral malus could prove to be a problem against more able Generals or Defenders.

Medicine got discovered and I choose to research "State and Government" next for the extra NF. A few days later much of South-East-Asia is now under my control with the exception of Brunei and some other islands:


"some other island"


Time to assign nearly all armies to island guard duty.

In February Brazil peaces out with France and Russia .. whatever ..

Status update of my Chinese attack dog




Quite slow, they should build cavalry and not mass infantry ...

Something good happens:


An Indian minor less to conquer. This will be a problem in the future as I can't hope for that event to fire often or that every Indian minor will civilize and move up to GP with less nations around and with GP status so that they lose their puppet and sphere status, so that they are free to attack... what a garbled sentence ... I hope you get it .. somehow ...

I'll guess I'll have to liberate the Indian minors via peace deal. So I'll have to lose a war ... maybe against Luxembourg or Krakow

Well with the annexation of Beroda I gained: 3 provs, 1,4Mio pops and manpower for 3 brigades quite nice

Belgium tries an April fools joke:

How very funny of you Belgium - first of all I'll give my ally never anything, second you can't annex them since they are a puppet of Dai Nam and Cambodia will be white peaced if Dai Nam gets annexed. But maybe they want the prestige hit and the militancy?? ... then of course it's quite intelligent!

Brunei & Kutch got annexed at time of the end of April and the beginning of May. Well that wasn't to difficult. So I prepared for more war in western India.

Meanwhile another colony is completed ...


and I remembered how it's possible for France to get Madagascar for free - so preparations are made but I scratch them for the moment as Atjeh is still independent ... well not for long.



The US makes a mistake and spheres Mexico ... lets see how the Manifest Destiny plays out.

Another colony!


Now all NFs are used to promote clergy in southern England. I leave the NF usually until ~3% are reached since the low literacy problem will remain for quite some time.

Examples of the states of South East England and the Eastern Countries.





Sadly most of the states of the UK just look like the Eastern Countries. :/

And again some luck:



While it's not Hyderabad, it's one OPM(one prov minor) less.

Thanks to the Liberal Revolution and other events I could activate a political reform (Secret Ballots). And I searched for a way to gain more warscore against Russia - Island hopping ... hooray!


After the preparations are completed => most Indian armies now have a general, I declare war on Panjab in August - with the call on all allies. Panjab isn't a pushover as they have much manpower and the terrain is great for a defensive war.

In September another anarcho-lib. revolt happens in the controlled parts of the Netherlands ... I still need more jingoism ...

And Panjab makes a mistake which will cost them their independence.




In the meantime I discover the life rating bonus from medicine and remembered about the island of South Georgia - so NF to colonize. As for Canada or New Zealand - no one can reach it at the moment so the NF are better spend at promoting.



And another nation added to the Empire.

The last battle in Panjab


and the occupation spree



I finish the update with screen on my budget - as you can see I'm quite struggling. I need MOAR provs for taxing.



@Leonaru: Yeah what's up with that rail road, it always strikes me as odd that capitalists build rail roads everywhere even in places where no one lives and nothing important is produced. As for the line itself, my wild guess if it's ever completed it's a circuit or a straight line into the sea.

 

[Mr. Capiatlist]

Your previous post had 25 images and your post that ended in 1838 had 21 images, both of these are over the 20 image limit. Please remember that smilies count for the image limit.

 

[Foxl]

Oh ok I'll change it. I was so focused on 20 pics max - I totally forgot about smilies.

 

[Mr. Capiatlist]

Oh ok I'll change it. I was so focused on 20 pics max - I totally forgot about smilies.

No worries, makes it an easy fix.

 

[Kayapo]

but do keep them coming, i`m loving this.

 

[brycef]

I have to say I'm really intrigued by this hyper aggressive UK in the early game. It definitely gives me ideas.

 

[Wombats O' War]

Great stuff. That takes a lot of focus and patience to manage a war versus the world from day one. Keep it up!

 

[Foxl]

1843

And Atjeh is down - the war wasn't really difficult but it can be tricky if Atjeh manages to invade one island somewhere with their 1 clipper transport fleet ... same goes for Korea.



You can also see that I added a few more war goals against the Dutch. But still it's not enough...

If you don't like somewhat gamey tactics look away ...
As you already knew Russia was quite stubborn to give up Alaska and even a full blockade in the Baltic and Black Sea didn't change that. So I captured Ösel for more war score but I got the Eu3 Idea of letting the enemy come to you, blockade again and destroy the army. Of course this can also go in my direction as I'm landing troops while he is defending ... anyway. Preparations are complete:



now I'm waiting for a nice small army ...

Meanwhile in Eastern Asia



So Belgium how was that war for you? Only place 12 in the world now (it was 9 before) ...

Anyway the Russians came ... with 30.000 men + General meh I really had to think about that one as a defeat could cost me the entire war due to war score.



But I had hope in my superior General from the wars in India - General de Robeck (which sounds somewhat French doesn't it?). If the enemy General isn't +2 or +3 defence this could end well.

Opening moves - note there is no landing penalty?? I thought there is one..



That General Surkov wasn't too bad he had some Organization and Morale bonus but nothing too great or dangerous. And quite hilarious that both started the battle with a 1.

In the end of May Panjab is done for, I believe I lost more men to allied attrition than in the actual battles. :S As my DP where again quite high (8) a new war was needed so I looked around and:



The conquest of South America begins! And Brazil will be doing some work until they run out of soldiers, which can happen quite fast.

The end of the (gamey) battle of Ösel



I really pitied General Surkov, he rolled 0,1,2,3 while General de Robeck at least rolled +3 better with the exception of the first round.

And the Russian reaction:



Thank you very much!In the end Russia was down to 99 brigades (mobilized!) and to 25% war exhaustion.
By the way Alaska is and will my only state in Northern America for quite some time.

In July some declaration of wars flew through the air while I'm still reshuffling and resting my army for South America and further boarder expansion in India. I attacked Sindh and Egypt attacked Ethiopia again!
Bad Egypt!, Ethiopia is usually a 1850s target of me. :/

Not much to do and to see .. so I clicked around my new possessions



That fish must be awesome!

Cubans tried to start a war for independence ... I had to move an army there to help my men.



And the final battle for Sindh ended.



My DPs were getting dangerously high(8) again in December so war against Morocco (truce was over) and Madagascar as my troops from Atjeh finally arrived .......
no I believe they were in position since July/August I simply forgot about them. :/
Isn't it great to be in the army of the British Empire?!

And the Moroccans didn't even stand a chance.



@Kayapo: I will! At the same time I will finally finish a game of Victoria 2 again, I finished 3 so far which is still 2 more than Eu3.
@brycef: I'm not hyper aggressive ... the world just doesn't understand me. And ideas for world conquering are always great.
@Wombats O'War: It's more patience then focus right now, I'm already forgetting some armies in the field.

Thank you all for reading!

 

[Foxl]

1844

The Cuban rebels got finally crushed as my other army arrived. Still more hassle then necessary.

And the army of Madagascar is gone


and I finished "State and Government" so +1 NF for me -> to clergy promotion. While most wars went go enough I need better military techs to decrease my casualties.

I went with Strategic Mobility - +0,5 Recon for every army + defensive upgrades (more def, dig-in Cap, Fort level).

And war against the OPM Makran - yes I was bored again. So I battled their massive army of 3.000 men with no General...



Like shooting fish in a barrel.

In the end of February Brazil still didn't take more than 1 prov from Uruguay, who didn't even had an army .. grml! The award for the most useless ally went from Belgium to Brazil.
And in March Ethiopia surrendered it's Werder Region to Egypt, while I annexed Sindh.

New regions like Sindh and Haiti become more important as I could immediately recruit new armies from their provs. 3 from Sindh and 7(!) from Haiti.


Meanwhile in South America:


The War for the Bolivar Region of Venezuela started. Who had a total of 2 brigades (1was mobilized) which got up to 4 during the war.

Remember S-P? They managed to wrestle Lucca from the Austrian sphere.

And I got lucky again but still not Hyderabad


Info: Bikaner is/was a small OPM in Northern India - meh ... at least it had manpower for another brigade.

Shuffling in India continues while I annexed Makran in March .. and Morocco in May.

Gamey tactic incoming so again look away.
The current second in Prestige is the US who has ~300 points less than me. So I'm breaking a truce to attack Cambodia with my newly formed army from Dai Nam.



I used that high militancy to


enable low health care so that the losses due to constant warfare(emigration) and attrition get a bit contained and I used "the rest" to enable another political reform later. I forgot which one ... but it wasn't voting - voting is always the last political reform I push through.

Kalat is next in India/Asia. And my armies bring victories home - not shown here is Cambodia as they were overrun.





FINALLY:




+ things in South America and Africa

*plays 2x Rule Britannia"


Note: I didn't wait for them to make a peace offer as the list was to long to see if all is included.
Note²: I captured that Spanish Bali island.
Note³: My income really exploded after this conquest +1000 more which was used to lessen taxes on my ppl.

Brazil and Belgium used this to peace out against Spain, thank you guys ... well at least they didn't contribute to anything. So nothing is lost.

Next target for war goals -> Spain


small engagements in Venezuela



nothing serious

And S-P took Modena out of the Sphere of Austria.


A small overview on my Military status:


You see the capture of the Rock is really hurting me - besides the heavy loses in battles at the beginning of the game and using British armies instead of "locals". But there is nothing I can do at the moment as Spain has around 50 brigades and I suspect
France with its 130+ brigades to swoop down on me when I invade Spain.

In October Cambodia is annexed and suddenly Siam looks really interesting but it has enough brigades to make me pay for every move + I can't expect that China will walk through my territory with enough brigades to invade Siam.

And Kalat is done for too...



as is Uruguay ...



and Madagascar.



A small war exhaustion update as I informed you about mine:

Belgium: 23%
France: 44%
Spain: 42%
Russia: 20%

And I reached a critical % of clergy in South East England

The NF moved to my next state.

The last movements of the Venezuelan Army


And a small surprise



now I definitely can't rescue Gibraltar. :S