Chapter 19: Clean up on Aisle 9
January 1, 1873: I decide to experiment a bit to see if a Liberal party will drive my UH liberal. I avoid the Young Turks, since they are L-F, and I have too many factories needing subsidies along with the industrialized world's most inefficient factories.
To celebrate, we declare war on Ethiopia. I have 5 brigades in theater, and they actually outnumber me. The AI, however, decides to attack my defensive general in the mountains, which helpfully solves that problem.
February 28: Spain decides to be annoying. Egypt is MINE! ALL MINE! Unfortunately, with a craptastic navy, I can't project power to try and take anything from Spain. Yet.
June 1: Not sure if I noted this, but another German minor falls to Pan-Nationalists. Unfortunately, Prussia can't take advantage of the <minor> parliament event, because they have no sphere of influence, so they can't form Germany. This means I have to eat all the minors myself (at 20 infamy per minor).
July 12: Finally! When I
want the AI to take someone out of my sphere, they take forever. I had 100 influence saved up, so I immediately retaliate by dropping their influence to Cordial - preventing them from intervening.
July 29: The alliance with Panjab is severed.
August 24: Spain has grown smarter: their main army is staying on the coast where support limits are higher. Also, war is declared on Panjab. Same story as Ethiopia: they have more troops, we have more brains. Another attack against a defensive general in the mountains ends about as you'd expect.
However, Panjab has invested in a lot of forts. The conquest will take a long...long...long...time.
September 2: Our oppressed POPs will now be wanting more freedom.
October 5: We discover breech loaded rifles.
Sergeant: Put your breeches in the rifles, then aim at the target.
Private: Are you sure about that?
Sergeant: WTF else do you think breech loading rifles mean?
Private: What about when I want to take a second shot?
Sergeant: Um...take your enemy's pants?
We immediately start building Guards. Once the first set of Guards are done, I'll start disbanding Turkish infantry to replace them with Turkish guards. Unless I get them killed doing something stupid first.
Machine guns are next!
November 6: Resigned to needing to take out German minors one by one, we declare war on Saxe-Meiningen. Saxe-Coburg-Gotha is next on the 21st, then Braunschweig on December 7th, and Lippe-Detmold on the 21st.
December 8: Bavaria accepts white peace from Prussia. Disconnected territories seem to often lead to this idiocy. Maybe a regional war score system is needed...
January 8, 1874: Italy declares war on Austria to try and retake Emilia. This might have gone well for them, except my truce with Austria has run out, my armies are in place, and I don't share.
I wait 2 weeks for the Austrians to run to the Italian border, before I prove that the Ottomans also know what to do with an unprotected back. Our goal: Istria
February 28th: Here come the Austrians...running right smack into the jaws of my trap (cue Admiral Ackbar). That sea of of green occupations in the outliner is the eastern half of Austria, which is 100% rebel controlled (and rebel free!)
March 25: And there goes half of Austria's remaining army...
Meanwhile, a nasty influence war is going on over Bavaria and Baden. I'm trying to get enough influence to drop France's influence from Friendly to Cordial, but Austria keeps discrediting and banning me. Expect a quick declaration of war the second I get France's influence dropped. (I have no idea why Austria didn't call their allies in this war - Bavaria actually can field almost as big an army as Austria.)
April 7: Saxe-Meiningen is annexed. The other 3 minors I went after earlier follow pretty quickly.
May: Austria has 19 brigades left, mostly being chased around their countryside by my armies. The main problem is that they have access through Bavaria, preventing me from killing them off.
August 24: Time to kill more minors, starting with Mecklenburg.
October 19: Ethiopia is annexed.
October 30: Ack! Rebels!
December 3: Spain attacks my armies in Ethiopia with nearly 2:1 odds, only to sign a white peace. They had taken over half of Tripoli/Libya which still got them 0 war score. We celebrate by adding Venetia to our goals against Austria (and Central Hungary on the 11th)
December 21: I was so busy killing people, I forgot to check the budget slider. Whoa! Over 800 pounds/day in subsidies! This requires a round of closing/destroying factories. Some will remain subsidized because the workers can't go anywhere else, and there's really no profit for me in angering craftsmen.
January 17, 1865: Denmark declares war on Austria. 3 on 1!
February 19: Mecklenburg is annexed, so we declare war on Hesse-Darnstadt, Frankfurt-am-Main, and Nassau.
March 9: Austria's almost completely occupied, so my armies need something else to do...