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unmerged(58493)

Second Lieutenant
Jun 29, 2006
152
0
The Great Race, Transvaal! (For real this time)

As you may or may not know, I once attempted a Transvaal AAR over a year ago, during the summer of 2006. It was ultimately an abortive endeavor, as I started up my senior year of college and electively chose to stop playing . Thus, the AAR sunk into oblivion, though it is available in the libraary

But now I’m graduated, single, and without a TV. So, I have a good deal of time on my hands during the weekday evenings, I’ve decided to take Victoria back up once again, this time with the Revolutions expansion pack installed. Transvaal has never lost its place in my heart, and I’d like very much to see a new Transvaal AAR through to its conclusion.

I’ve played a game through the expansion pack as Prussia/Germany, so I believe I have a handle on the basic mechanics of the expansion. I do not claim to be a great player, but I will be playing this on Very Hard / Normal. I choose to do so because I think the game can be altogether too easy on the Normal difficulty, and that it’s still quite playable at Very Hard, even as Transvaal. I think that I'm up for the challenge.

I should be posting again tomorrow with an ‘opening’ to the campaign: a short historical description of Transvaal, its situation at the beginning of the game, and my goals to achieve by the end of the game.

Until then, happy trails!

034cfc22.png
 
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Let's get to it.

The history of the Transvaal Republic is a unique one. Culturally-Dutch settlers living in and around the Cape of Good Hope -- unhappy with British imperial rule -- began a north-easterly migration during the 1830s and 40s, known as the "Great Trek." These "Voortrekkers," or pioneers, would establish three independent countries: The Transvaal ("Beyond the Vaal"), The Oranje Free State (also named after a river), and the Natalia Republic.

Throughout their existence the Boer states were in conflict with the indigenous Nguni peoples, most notably the Zulu. The Boers benefited from the discovery of precious minerals in the area, though this would eventually call down the imperialistic ambitions of the British. Natalia was formally annexed in 1843; Oranje and The Transvaal remained independent until they too were annexed after the Second Boer War (1899-1902).

GET TO THE GAME!​


So, what is so fascinating about The Transvaal that would make one want to play it? Transvaal is not a large European country capable of conquering the world... however, it has ample opportunity to expand, and the ability to do quite well by the end of the game.

What are my goals, you may ask? I have 3, from most important to least:

1) survive the game
2) finish the game as a GP
3) control all of Africa

I'll only be placing one big restriction myself during the game: focus on Africa. I won't be cavorting around East Asia to pick up income and manpower, nor attacking the "motherland" of the Netherlands to pick up efficient factories, nor picking off easy targets in the Americas. None of that.

What are the characteristics of the Transvaal?

The Bad:

-- Small population: 500,000 plus change
-- The dominant national culture, "Dutch," makes up a very small proportion of Africa, which will hurt our production-efficiency
-- Rubbing elbows with two European colonial powers at the beginning of the game: Portugal and the UK. By the way, the UK start out hating us.
-- There is a coded conflict with the British at the end of the game, though it can be avoided if they've lost control over certain territories by 1899.
-- Not much money
-- One reserve-quality infantry unit

The Good:

-- Transvaal will be able to maintain a pretty stellar RP rate throughout the game once we begin to industrialize. Clerks will make up a relatively high percentage of the population, allowing for this.
-- Our next-door neighbor Oranje will be an excellent tech trading partner for the first few years of the game.
-- "Gold Rush" / "Diamond Fever" events will fire, giving us control over valuable resources.
-- Transvaal can grant statehood to any African territory, allowing for widespread factories... though the vast majority of our population will be of non-national cultures, we should be able to build up a industrial base that will suit our needs.
-- The Transvaal starts out bordering the Zulu nation, which can be annexed quickly for a nice population boost and access to the sea.

That's it for now, though soon I'll be posting my progress for the first few years of the scenario.
 
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This looks interesting!

One question: can you explain "statehood" to me? I myself dont own the game but I have a basic knowledge of it due to reading AARs and such.
 
Looks cool! I'll keep my eyes on this one.
 
Statehood means that you have to pay for education and crime fighting in the state, but allows you to build factories there.
 
We've already seen the beginning geopolitical makeup of the region; now I'll discuss my political choices at the beginning of the game.


Transvaal was a huge beneficiary from the changes made by Revolutions. I hope to gain control of all of Africa, which means that I'll be expanding quite a bit, with all of the associated costs: building and maintaining an adequate army/navy, building colonial buildings, etc. With the new features availalbe to capitalists, I no longer have to pay for my own railroads and factories: with the right conditions, they'll cover the majority of the costs associated with building railroads and factories. While it is true that it is much more expensive to promote pops than it once was -- still the responsibility of the government (me) -- we still come out ahead.

The geopolitical state of "South Africa" was once much larger than it is with Revolution, allowing for a large factory population... now we start out in the "Transoranje state," comprised of the Transvaal and Oranje provinces. It's a rather significant difference, but hopefully won't be too much of a disadvantage.

So... actively expansionist through both diplomatic (at first) and military means (hopefully later)... I plan on industrializing states throughout the continent, meaning I'll have to convert non-national pops.

So, here are the 'big three' priorities that I desire of my ruling political party from the most crucial to the least.

1) full citizenship, to convert all of the non-national pops. This is an absolute necessity
2) Laissez-faire, to help out my capitalists.
3) pro-military / jingoistic: I want to have the option to max out my defense spending, both for the prestige gain and (duh) building a world-class military.
4) Preferably I'd have a democracy to encourage immigration, but we'll see how this develops.

Pre-Revolutions Transvaal had a bad deal because it only had two parties throughout the course of the game, neither of which had any real ability to foster immigration (residence/slavery, moralism, conservative ideology, etc.) With Revolutions each country will have at least one party for every ideology. Considering the new policy-specific limitations on the player, this was necessary.

Political reforms: no voting rights, right to ban, state press, no right to public assembly; no social reforms. Finally, the country bears a "liberty" ideal.

Transvaal starts out as a presidential dictatorship with a conservative party (Voortrekker) in power. Neither of the conservative parties are shown in the picture, and for that I apologize. They are:

Voortrekker Partei (starts in power): conservative; laissez faire; protectionism; pluralism; slavery; jingoism; dutch; all (religion)

Boeren Partei conservative; interventionism; protectionism; moralism; residence; pro military; dutch; protestant (religion)

Now, considering my priorities for a political party, I'm in a bit of a pickle:

The Liberal Party is great, except that it is pacifistic. That would mean I wouldn't be able to increase mobilization, nor make the full use of my soldier pops. Ouch.

The Nationalist Partei goes right out the window, without any hesitation.

The Radical Party is great: laissez faire, full citizenship, pro-military. It meets all of my top three priorities. However, it has one fatal flaw: it would never be the winner in a democratic election; instead the liberals would be more-or-less cemented for the entirety of the game. Dang.

So what to do? A full democracy with the pacifist liberals in power, or retain our dictatorship with the radicals in power? After much consideration, I decided to go ahead and go for a democracy with the Liberals in power, most likely throughout the game

***EDIT***
 
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Sounds interesting (and confusing)!

Thanks for explaining statehood to me guys. :)
 
Surviving and succeeding as Transvaal is easy, but THRIVING is something else entirely, requiring one to balance all of the resources to the player, including (but not limited to) money, prestige, dip points and badboy. I'll start out with the pacifist liberal party, and I'll explain further my thought processes in doing what I do. Hopefully it'll work out to be a good game.

For now I'll leave you with this: a Boer commando, looking out across the veldt at the future to come.

wilson-boer-lookout.jpg
 
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That's fine. You have control. ;)
 
Im happy as long as you realize your goal of ruling all of Africa.
 
*Subscribes*

This looks interesting and I really like your gameplay analysis - that's probably the thing every Vicky AAR needs.
 
Hooray for delay! Dig the rhyme! Believe me when I say that I intend to finish the AAR, but the last few weeks have been pretty crazy for me: New job, new girlfriend, holiday traveling, etc. Excuses aside, here we go.

To recap: my three goals are as follows: 1) Survive the game; 2) Finish the game as a GP; 3) bring control of Africa under one banner. The first two are pretty easy

VH/Normal. No exploits will be used, etc. etc. etc.

I listed the strengths and weaknesses of Transvaal above, so I won't do so again here; I will detail my gameplay choices as I make them, and will try to avoid an overuse of pictures, for my sake more than that of your own ;)

Be back soon!
 
Originally posted by Spuzzter:
new girlfriend

Seems like a good enough reason not to update, guess I'm probably not a hardcore forumite :)
 
I played a second Ricky scenario with Brazil, one which was possibly the best scenario I've ever played out. I had a much better handle on migration to optimize industrialization than I ever had before. I was wondering, then, if something similar could be done with African provinces. You see, the only two states where it's really possible to maintain a dutch culture dominance are Transorangia and South Africa; I've seemed to have some trouble getting pops to move from one state to another (specifically, Nguni craftsmen from Natal to Transorangia). Anyone know why this might be the case? I have taxes as far as I can with laissez faire (50), full tariffs, both conditions seemed to work with other games).

Then, I was reading a migration guide on vickiwiki, and I noticed the author mentioned the difference between 'short-range' and 'long-range' cultures, the former of which may not be so willing to move around. So, a few questions: is this true; is this still the case in Revolutions; is there a list of long-range vs. short-range cultures? Any help on this subject would be... awesome..

First decade has been played out, screenshots taken, so I should get something up soon.

Until then, Happy New Year's!
 
Im not so sure how migrations work. Ive gotten it to happen sometimes but God knows why it does and doesnt happen sometimes. If you are looking for a list of long and short range cultures, there is a list in the VickyWiki.