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All right, at present, I have 189 votes in favor to 71 against (since there's no such thing as a half vote). ((Feel free to check my math, Idhrendur and/or DensleyBlair)). Out of total numbers, the ayes have it with 73% of the current vote. If there are no further votes by tomorrow evening at 10 PM (+4 GMT), the plan will pass and I will (finally) play.
 
All right, at present, I have 189 votes in favor to 71 against (since there's no such thing as a half vote). ((Feel free to check my math, Idhrendur and/or DensleyBlair)). Out of total numbers, the ayes have it with 73% of the current vote. If there are no further votes by tomorrow evening at 10 PM (+4 GMT), the plan will pass and I will (finally) play.
((I am neither Idhrendur or DensleyBlair but I confirm that, assuming everyone else abstains, the vote tallies would be 189 to 71. Of course though, I was under the assumption that undeclared votes were split between the players who have declared. That would make the tally 365 to 135 if the vote ended right now.))

--------

I cannot believe it. The Imperialists were champing at the bit to reclaim our former Canadian colonies but now they suddenly approve of doing nothing except exchanging kind words. The Canadian military at best consists of an isolated mercenary militia stuck defending a frozen wasteland. We have Liberals who are walking in lock-step with a Chancellor who flagrantly defies the party's public stance on the military affairs. Even my own fellow Societymen seem to have been enamoured by the Minister's dreams of dominating old Constantinople at the expense of the status quo and our current friends in the Balkans. It seems that the only party I can see who are keeping to their values are the pacifists over in the Alliance.

Mark my words, this Minister's plans will see us lose face on the stage of international diplomacy.

H. von Sigmaringen, New Society Assemblyman
In a letter published in a local Nurnberger journal.
 
I cannot believe it. The Imperialists were champing at the bit to reclaim our former Canadian colonies but now they suddenly approve of doing nothing except exchanging kind words. The Canadian military at best consists of an isolated mercenary militia stuck defending a frozen wasteland. We have Liberals who are walking in lock-step with a Chancellor who flagrantly defies the party's public stance on the military affairs. Even my own fellow Societymen seem to have been enamoured by the Minister's dreams of dominating old Constantinople at the expense of the status quo and our current friends in the Balkans. It seems that the only party I can see who are keeping to their values are the pacifists over in the Alliance.

Mark my words, this Minister's plans will see us lose face on the stage of international diplomacy.

H. von Sigmaringen, New Society Assemblyman
In a letter published in a local Nurnberger journal.

It has come to my attention recently the declaration of Herr von Sigmaringen. He seems to be confused as usual and, given that this is the second time he mistake the statements of my party, I think it is fair that someone correct him.

When Hugo says that I defied the public stance of my party on military affairs he seems to think that I am an Alliance member, given that this is the only pacifist party in our Republic. What my party defends, and has always defended, is that the army must be used to defend the Republic and his citizens and not in foreign adventures so it is perfectly normal and logic that we want to recover what has been stolen. But it also could be that the confusion of the New Society Assemblyman comes from the fact that he does not consider Sommerset (or any non pure German region for the case) as part of this Republic. He may should explain his position...

About the accusations of leaving our allies in the Balkans I ask him: why have we forgotten them? Because we are trying to approach positions with the Byzantines? What a better way to avoid any conflict in the region than near positions with the only other power (or "enemy" if you prefer) in the region? And why do you think we are going to forgive our allies, because we do not send as many diplomatic missions as you would like? We are already friends, we do not need them.

Do not take this as an attack, Herr Sigmaringen. Take it only as a try to calm your legitimate doubts over the situation of international relations.

Best regards

Miguel de la Rosa Pîcard, Chancellor of the Republic
A letter answering H. von Sigmaringen
 
((I am neither Idhrendur or DensleyBlair but I confirm that, assuming everyone else abstains, the vote tallies would be 189 to 71. Of course though, I was under the assumption that undeclared votes were split between the players who have declared. That would make the tally 365 to 135 if the vote ended right now.))
.

((Had you confused with DB; my apologies. I have no idea why. The percentages work out the same, which is what matters. I think it's easier to calculate, at any rate.))
 
Herr Chancellor,
I write to you and the good readers of the Zeitung Nuremburg in response to your recent letter.

It is true that the Alliance is the only officially pacifistic party in our great nation. It is also true though that your party has all manner of policies that can only serve the purpose of weakening our forces. Through explicit or covert intents, your policies slow down the recruitment of soldiers to serve the Fatherland, interfere with the army's ability to restructure commands, and encourage a population that is weak to the sufferings involved in wars such as the one you personally advocate. I feel it is only fair to characterise your party's policies as anti-military, yet this is the same military you want to use to liberate a Breton colony closer to a nation which is aggressive to us.

Yes, I feel it is time that we deeply consider whether Plymouth should be a part of the republic. Its population makes no secret that they would prefer to be united with their cultural kin in Brittany. Its location is only strategic if our nation intends to intervene in the Americas or if we intend to continually aggravate the British. Our ethnic brothers in the Americas made clear their stance when they seized the Hohenzollern lands. We have no allies in the region nor will we. That leaves us to consider whether the Chancellor intends to continually provoke the British. These may be scandalous words but they have just as much right to the Plymouth region as we do. And they will keep fighting us, again and again, for it. By committing us to this war the Chancellor is also committing future governments to war, an endless struggle over a territory whose defining export is seafood.

I have made no secret of my recent realisation that Germany must focus on the continent and the Mediterranean. It is only by land that we could ever be defeated so therefore we must devote out efforts to securing the land. To making peace and friendship with the Polish monarch. To ensuring that our friends the Despot of Morea and the Bulgarian Proedros receive the attention the deserve as our clients. To limiting the power of the French who loom along our western border. A Plymouth escapade serves none of these purposes.

Herr Chancellor, I encourage you to read the proposal of your Foreign Minister again. Nowhere does he mention protecting our web of Balkan treaties against the actual Great Powers with interest in the region, such as Pommerania, France, Syria, or even Canada. Not once are the oppressed Rheinlanders of Tunis or Moulins mentioned. There are no plans for dealing with our largest neighbours France and Poland. His single-minded focus on only three nations will lead us to being outmanoeuvred. That is why I cannot in good conscience vote for his plan.

I did not take your comments as an attack, Herr Chancellor, but there is no way to calm my legitimate doubts over this proposal.

H. von Sigmaringen, New Society Assemblyman
In an open letter published by local press.
 
I write to you and the good readers of the Zeitung Nuremburg in response to your recent letter.

It is true that the Alliance is the only officially pacifistic party in our great nation. It is also true though that your party has all manner of policies that can only serve the purpose of weakening our forces. Through explicit or covert intents, your policies slow down the recruitment of soldiers to serve the Fatherland, interfere with the army's ability to restructure commands, and encourage a population that is weak to the sufferings involved in wars such as the one you personally advocate. I feel it is only fair to characterise your party's policies as anti-military, yet this is the same military you want to use to liberate a Breton colony closer to a nation which is aggressive to us.

I agree in this point, except your reference to Sommerset as a colony, as you know. But it is the opinion of my party that the army must be enough big to defend us but not enough as for invite a different ruler of our country to not enter in foreign adventures. May I try in the future to change this in my party, but by now it is the majority opinion and I must respect it.

Yes, I feel it is time that we deeply consider whether Plymouth should be a part of the republic. Its population makes no secret that they would prefer to be united with their cultural kin in Brittany. Its location is only strategic if our nation intends to intervene in the Americas or if we intend to continually aggravate the British. Our ethnic brothers in the Americas made clear their stance when they seized the Hohenzollern lands. We have no allies in the region nor will we. That leaves us to consider whether the Chancellor intends to continually provoke the British. These may be scandalous words but they have just as much right to the Plymouth region as we do. And they will keep fighting us, again and again, for it. By committing us to this war the Chancellor is also committing future governments to war, an endless struggle over a territory whose defining export is seafood.

By other way, I must totally disagree with you on this matter. I understood although I did not share that some people think that a non born in the Republic could become Chancellor but I will never acept that a territory of this Republic can be expelled from it only because it is not enough close to the core or not enough full of ethnic Germans.

You suggestion that Sommerset inhabitants desire to be part of the Scottish Empire are hard to keep when their own Stadtholder claim the opposite. And your theory about Scottish having right to these lands only because are nearer are directly ridiculous. Or are you going to defend that we should take Rome from the Pope or Sicily from Venice only because we are nearer?

Your lack of sense of duty with our fellow citizen is obscene, but at the same time I recognize your honesty publicizing your opinion so every German citizen can know of your "opinion".

I have made no secret of my recent realisation that Germany must focus on the continent and the Mediterranean. It is only by land that we could ever be defeated so therefore we must devote out efforts to securing the land. To making peace and friendship with the Polish monarch. To ensuring that our friends the Despot of Morea and the Bulgarian Proedros receive the attention the deserve as our clients. To limiting the power of the French who loom along our western border. A Plymouth escapade serves none of these purposes.

Herr Chancellor, I encourage you to read the proposal of your Foreign Minister again. Nowhere does he mention protecting our web of Balkan treaties against the actual Great Powers with interest in the region, such as Pommerania, France, Syria, or even Canada. Not once are the oppressed Rheinlanders of Tunis or Moulins mentioned. There are no plans for dealing with our largest neighbours France and Poland. His single-minded focus on only three nations will lead us to being outmanoeuvred. That is why I cannot in good conscience vote for his plan.

If I am not wrong, it was not so far that you claim we should not even try to become on good relation with our polish neighbor. I am glad to see you have changed your mind.

About your other claims, I already have explained you how good relations with Byzantines will avoid conflicts in the region. If any other power try to pursue any of our friends in the region you can be calm, that this government won´t allow it ((It is not my field, but I agree that maybe the FM wish to say something about this as putting them in low priority for diplomatic points or any other thing))

And if you have been aware during Minister of War plan, you would have realize that our armed forces will be in positions near French and Polish borders the most of time, although it is obvious that with the coming conflict they cannot be stacked in fronts where there won´t be action.

I did not take your comments as an attack, Herr Chancellor, but there is no way to calm my legitimate doubts over this proposal.

H. von Sigmaringen, New Society Assemblyman
In an open letter published by local press.

I only try to calm your doubts and those of any other citizen. It is your decision what you will vote in the matters of your position.

I wish you the best gentleman.

Miguel de la Rosa Picard
Chancellor of the Republic
 
Your suggestion that Sommerset inhabitants desire to be part of the Scottish Empire are hard to keep when their own Stadtholder claim the opposite.

Miguel de la Rosa Picard
Chancellor of the Republic

Did he, Chancellor? As far as I know, the Stadtholder of Somerset sold his little colony to the Scotsmen without even consulting the previous government, and he was banished for it. I'd consider it fair to say that the Stadtholder of Somerset considered his people British, rather than German.

If, perchance, you were referring to the Welsh Stadtholder Von Dwyfor, then I must ascertain that neither has he spent more time in Somerset than I have, nor do any of the Welsh people I met consider him their rightful Stadtholder, after so many years as British citizens. To say that his views represent the mood in Somerset better than the actions of its former Stadtholder would be, frankly, preposterous.

Of course, the views or ethnicity of Somersetians matter not in this debate, not in the least because the government has taken no trouble to verify whether or not their glorious little war would be well-received in said colony. This debate is not about the well-being of Somerset, even though the government tries its best to make it seem so. In this respect, I applaud my fellow Imperialists. As much as we may disagree on this particular matter, I find their reasoning - that Somerset must be held for the glory of Germany - far more palatable than the Chancellor's unfounded claims that this war would be one of liberation.

Chancellor Picard, if you desire my respect; speak the truth.

DDr. Wolfram Siegfried Gotha
 

If, perchance, you were referring to the Welsh Stadtholder Von Dwyfor, then I must ascertain that neither has he spent more time in Somerset than I have, nor do any of the Welsh people I met consider him their rightful Stadtholder, after so many years as British citizens. To say that his views represent the mood in Somerset better than the actions of its former Stadtholder would be, frankly, preposterous.

I believe you may be mistaken, my dear DDr. Gotha. I may have been born outside of our Borders, in British territory, but I moved to Somerset at a young age, and lived there until it was sold to the British. I have not spoken to, and cannot claim to be fully representative of Wales itself, but I can assure you that the Bretons of Somerset consider themselves to be citizens of Germany, and the opinion is one of opposition to the Scottish.

-Dafydd von Dwyfor
Stadtholder of Plymouth
 
I believe you may be mistaken, my dear DDr. Gotha. I may have been born outside of our Borders, in British territory, but I moved to Somerset at a young age, and lived there until it was sold to the British. I have not spoken to, and cannot claim to be fully representative of Wales itself, but I can assure you that the Bretons of Somerset consider themselves to be citizens of Germany, and the opinion is one of opposition to the Scottish.

-Dafydd von Dwyfor
Stadtholder of Plymouth

Von Dwyfor, surely you realize that the county of Somerset is not part of "your" Plymouth? ((Going off RL data here)) Regardlessly, the actions of the Stadtholder of Somerset clearly demonstrate that your biased opinion is not representative of the general populace in Somerset - and I can attest this by personal experience.

In fact, this matter raises my interest in the legitimacy of your seat in the Conclave. Could the clerk please check this matter? Legally, Stadtholder Von Dwyfor is neither elected, nor does he hold any de facto position. Of course, this would not be of our concern if Plymouth was incorporated... which raises even more concerns about the motives for this impending war.

DDr. Wolfram Siegfried Gotha
 
Foreign ministry plan passes. I'll start playing tomorrow night, so you have until then if you need to propose or suggest anything else.
 
((Can we pass reform if there is no desire to IG?))

((No.))

FYI: for the present, we will have a Stadtholder of Plymouth as we are disputing, even if not with bullets, the British title to said region.

I'm going to play here shortly and post some kind of update in a couple of hours.
 
1836: A Year in Review

((Note: This update will be from Konrad von Hohenzollern’s perspective, with some straight gameplay stuff at the end. It wasn’t that a thrilling year, to be honest. :D))

Of course, I was delighted to see my son be named Foreign Minister; he has worked hard for many years, and there is nobody more deserving. However, I was pleased to see some restraint exercised. Our forces simply were not prepared to engage the British, particularly with the Bern Reforms, which will see more effective training for our cavalry. I wholeheartedly approve; with the large expanses we rule here in Germany, cavalry is vital.

I know some of my colleagues are not fond of the idea of eliminating redistricting in the Assembly, but I think these non-secret ballots should make sure that everybody has a voice. What kind of party man would I be if I didn’t vote for something that would break the UAI’s stranglehold on politics?

8y3c.jpg


The decisions to pursue Heligoland and Walhalla were similarly popular, and I am proud to say I voted for both.

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My son’s policy – to encourage stronger relations with Canada and to seek an economic understanding with the Byzantines – have similarly borne fruit.

30mz.jpg


kewd.jpg


Of course, the domestic landscape here has changed too. Our prospectors found no fewer than three gold mines – one in Postoina, one in Karlovac, and one in Sassari. This was very good for our bottom line, of course, and I am proud to say that tax rates fell steadily during the year.

n7xz.jpg


The wealthiest Germans pay 60% of their income in taxes, while the poor pay 70%. Of course, these are only the assessed rates; in reality, the rich pay about 22% while the poor pay 26%. The “middle class” is assessed at 65%, with actual payment of about 24%. We were able to fund our army, bureaucracy, and education entirely.

One of the most controversial decisions took place in Judenburg.

jpk7.jpg


A group of aristocrats fought to have the profitable iron mine there shut in favor of expanding the timber industry. The Minister of Finance, Herr de Spinoza, quite rightly rejected such pleas. Iron and steel are the way of the future, as any sensible German knows! We are hardly timber poor to begin with.

54yq.jpg


Yes, the timber market is on the rise, but compare the price of timber to that of iron.

7vhw.jpg


One need not be an economist to understand why no such change was made. With all of the world’s wars, I think that the price of iron will only increase.

pvdp.jpg


The British have used their military power to declare themselves the second most powerful country in the world; of course, we all know who the most powerful is!

xzbm.jpg


I have it on good authority that our army will be completely reformed sometime in the summer of 1837; as of now, about two-thirds of our western armies are fully equipped, while we wait for artillery to cross Germany from the Polish border and the raising of more regiments of Dragoons and Hussars.

I for one, cannot wait to see those British pay for their insolence.

Okay, first off, I apologize to Some Georgian – I initially read his proposal as all the armies being equal, so I disbanded a handful of infantry brigades over the standard 5 per army; I can rebuild them, of course, and the western armies have all the infantry they can handle. Only the Polish armies are light. The last few brigades of Dragoons and Hussars should be done around April or so, I think.

Since the event in question was a province event, I went ahead and made the choice myself. That’s not your standard province event, so if something like it pops up again, I’ll let the Chancellor decide. We only had a couple of single option events this time around, including this one:

86h6.jpg


Economy is in overall good shape – that’s about as far as I can cut taxes at the moment without causing a negative balance. We’ll finish Positivism sometime in 1837.

I think that’s it for now. As of this update, all players in the AAR are “seated” (except Firehound15) and will be eligible to vote. Our next step is to see who wishes to change parties. Note that ministers may not change parties. You have 48 hours to decide. (We’ll call it Wednesday at 10 PM (+4 GMT).)
 
(($10 being very good on a tax budget of $2333? And damn, we aren't digging up nearly enough iron. I don't suppose we'll be getting another save?

(EDIT) Another thing, did the UK release any more dominions and, if so, did they end up getting them back as full states?))
 
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(( 1/3 of our budget is keeping our military in a state of readiness. Dang.

Also, no party change for Herr Meier. ))
 
(( 1/3 of our budget is keeping our military in a state of readiness.))

((We are at full army and navy spending in peacetime, which I think may be in error, unless I missed it in the ministers' proposals. It's generally counterproductive if not trying to reinforce badly under-strength units, or if one has so much money as to want to run "corporate welfare" to keep the arms industry going.))

I shall, of course, remain a member of the Alliance, and call upon any Assemblymen who believe we should seek peace and prosperity through trade to join our party.
 
(($10 being very good on a tax budget of $2333? And damn, we aren't digging up nearly enough iron. I don't suppose we'll be getting another save?

(EDIT) Another thing, did the UK release any more dominions and, if so, did they end up getting them back as full states?))

((I had to fire the event for England about four times before the UK got the hint and the states worked properly; if they've released any other dominions, I haven't noticed. Another save is possible, but not just yet.))

((I doubt the Polish will be attacking us this quickly so no problem.))

((Yeah, one thing I forgot to mention in the update was that Norway, apparently, is justifying a CB on Poland.))

((Can we have more then one party per ideology?))

((When the engine says yes, then yes. Right now, no. However, parties can change policies, which we'll look into right after I see if folks want to change parties.))

(( 1/3 of our budget is keeping our military in a state of readiness. Dang.

Also, no party change for Herr Meier. ))

((Well, some of that is for the new units (the dragoons and hussars), so that'll go away.))

EDIT:

((We are at full army and navy spending in peacetime, which I think may be in error, unless I missed it in the ministers' proposals. It's generally counterproductive if not trying to reinforce badly under-strength units, or if one has so much money as to want to run "corporate welfare" to keep the arms industry going.))

I shall, of course, remain a member of the Alliance, and call upon any Assemblymen who believe we should seek peace and prosperity through trade to join our party.

((We are following the dictates of the finance minister, who may of course make changes after the party business is settled. :)))
 
((When the engine says yes, then yes. Right now, no. However, parties can change policies, which we'll look into right after I see if folks want to change parties.))
((Uhhh, what does this mean? You can always have multiple parties for ideologies because it's a normal feature of the game/engine. All the parties are just defined in the common\countries\germany.txt file. If you're worried about mucking up the internal party numbers then just steal a party that isn't currently active.))