Good to see some drama in Estonia.
German Empire is weirdly landlocked and kicking their way to seashore.
German Empire is weirdly landlocked and kicking their way to seashore.
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1853 - 1859 AD, Part One
The Election of 1854 - The Campaign for Estonia's Economy
Kahru Reinsalu's election was hailed as a critical victory for Estonian liberals, but the beginning of his liberal government's time in power was anything but triumphant. The first two years of his presidency saw the closure of multiple factories across Estonia, and his promised tax cuts meant that major spending reductions were made to the military, administration, and education. He did eventually balance the republic's budget through these cuts, but the sudden shock to Estonia's economy and infrastructure made many people who had ardently supported the installation of a new liberal government question whether or not their decision was the correct one.
This uncertainty energized the conservative side of Estonian politics, resulting in several conventions held in Saaremaa by the leaders of multiple political groups and factions to plan for the next election. These conventions led to the combination of multiple conservative organizations into the Estonian National Conservative Party (ENCP), forming a large and unified party to campaign against the Reinsalu government. When the 1854 election cycle began, the newly unified ENCP nominated Juhan Varnik, an army veteran and capitalist investor, to oppose Reinsalu in an attempt to restore order and repair the economy through more direct government intervention.
As a result of the journalistic freedom conceded by the prior conservative administration, the 1854 election was widely reported on by the printed media in Estonia. Many of the reports on the election, however, were edited by government censors prior to their publication in a way that skewed several statistics in a direction favorable for President Reinsalu. Unemployment and the status of industrial production were heavily misrepresented in some cases, resulting in the publication of alternative newspapers by conservative supporters of Varnik. The election was, in many ways, a war of published propaganda between media sources vying to paint their chosen candidate in the most positive light possible -- punctuated by a few debates which focused almost exclusively on economic matters.
Ultimately, the deciding factor in the election was the severe damage dealt to the republic's economic health by the laissez-faire policies of the liberal party. A coalition of the ENCP and reactionary parties triumphed in the election by a narrow margin, winning 55% of votes against the 45% secured by the liberals and anarcho-liberals. Juhan Varnik was sworn in as President of the Republic, and just as quickly as his predecessor had set about a program of slashing taxes and budget allotments, Varnik set about reinstating them.
Upon taking office and restoring full taxation, Varnik initiated a massive program of government spending, subsidizing the reopening of every factory that had closed during the previous four years. Industrial leaders worked in close cooperation with the government, and through their joint investment all of the country's factories were soon open for business again. Unemployment, which had spiked dramatically under Reinsalu, began to decline rapidly, and would disappear almost entirely over the coming years. He also expanded journalistic freedoms in the wake of his difficult election, dissolving all government censorship offices and declaring full freedom of the press for Estonia. The military was reinforced thanks to the restoration of full government funding, which would prove necessary as German aggression was not far off from Varnik's election.
The Four Month War - Germany's Assault on Sachsen
Kaiser Siegbert launched a war for Estonian Sachsen in October of 1856, aiming to conquer the contested German-populated Gorlitz. After two years in office to restore the funding and strength of the military, Estonian President Varnik called on Arabian assistance and gave the order to the republican army to stand firm at the border and not allow the Germans to conquer even a single inch of Estonian land.
The opening weeks of the war resulted in a string of engagements across the border of Estonia and the Daughter Republics, with German troops marching north on multiple fronts and engaging in a series of field battles. Against the Guelder and Elbe Republics, the overwhelming size and strength of the German army led to several victories for the Kaiser's men, undoing early attempts at occupation by their aggressive soldiers. Estonia, however, fared much better. The Estonian army was the third-largest in the world in 1856, compensating for sometimes-lagging technology with sheer numbers and quality leadership. Save for a few militia units used as peacekeeping forces on the outskirts of the republic, the entire force of the Estonian army was concentrated along the German border, and the battles that erupted there involved significant numbers of troops on both sides.
The humiliating defeat suffered by Estonia the last time they came to blows with Germany was at the front of the collective Estonian consciousness when the war began, but the effective defense of Varna during the first weeks of the war put fears of a repeat of Hradec Kralove to rest. The attacking German army under General Seitz was soundly defeated shortly after crossing the border, and several further attempts to penetrate into Estonian Bulgaria would end in the same way. The southern army forces focused their defense around Bucharest and Varna, and German troops would not cross that line for the duration of the war.
The "duration" of the war, however, would prove to be exceedingly short. When several furious German offensives were repelled by Estonia and Arabian forces in Anatolia struck at Constantinople, it became clear that what Siegbert and his generals thought would be a swift march into southern Estonia would be a much longer and costlier campaign that they had anticipated. Surprised by the fierceness of the Estonian resistance and unwilling to commit to a major war at that time, the Kaiser sued for peace in February of 1857, ending the war with a white peace after just four months of fighting.
The end of the brief war was a huge win for President Varnik's popularity. With the economy once again thriving, the government treasury filling up, and the army holding strong against its greatest rival, the success of the conservative party's policies became evident. As a result, the 1858 election saw Juhan Varnik re-elected by a significantly wider margin, with the ENCP winning a crushing victory over dissident liberal rivals. With his popularity on the rise and the country rising in standing among the great powers, President Varnik could look forward to several more years of directing Estonia according to his visions of greatness.
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Well, it looks like the conservatives are good for Estonia. They can win wars, and the liberals can't, so it seems as if the people should want to support them, but since when were all people, in a democracy, logical?
With the backward technology (which should be fixed asap! ), this is a big win.
), this is a big win.- 1
With the backward technology (which should be fixed asap!
I'm working on that! Thankfully since I'm so far behind, most of the techs aren't taking too long to research.
A very pleasant turnaround of Estonia's military and economic fortunes.
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Wow, Germany caved in to accepting a white peace fast. Good job holding your own this time. Perhaps by the next war it will be Estonia making gains into Germany.
I'm also glad you managed to get the conservatives back into power. Hopefully you can get your economy built up before the liberal tide returns.
I'm also glad you managed to get the conservatives back into power. Hopefully you can get your economy built up before the liberal tide returns.
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Good job getting both the economy and the military up and running. And a landmark defence against the Germans. As others have said, hopefully next time you will be able to push back and break up that hideous band of brownish grey.
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Well I’ve been using some of my national foci to try and promote the party, we’ll see if it works.Wow, Germany caved in to accepting a white peace fast. Good job holding your own this time. Perhaps by the next war it will be Estonia making gains into Germany.
I'm also glad you managed to get the conservatives back into power. Hopefully you can get your economy built up before the liberal tide returns.
Edit: So is there a scenario in which the liberal party / laissez-faire can be really strong? Because it seems like it just insta-tanks any economy it would touch.
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I haven't seen any scenario where it confers any advantages over factory subsidy policies, but if you're super late-game and you have factories with multi-tiered inputs (steel, glass, electrical gear, etc. into automobiles, radio, etc.), and you manage to keep those inputs going and have enough of everything you need (not an easy task) and you've done it early enough that you have very few competitors, you can make crazy enough profits for those advanced factories (and those advance factories only, everything else is still dead in the water) to autohire workers to the point of employment capacity. So- possible, but really really hard to do and with no real benefits as far as I can tell. Also, bear in mind that not every Liberal party is Laissez-Faire, so they're not automatically something to be feared everywhere they pop up. That said, they're still probably the least interesting and least beneficial ideology on average. Except maybe the Fascists, but that's really my personal political views talking.
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Fascists are uninteresting? I would have expected both of the late-game parties, Fascist and Communists, to be pretty interesting to play as.
Well, Fascist dictatorships are exciting. Fascists in power in a republic are kind of underwhelming (in my pretty limited experience; I try to not fall to dictatorships if I can for pretty arbitrary reasons). You'll get to roll back some political reforms, which will probably make a bunch of pops very angry at you, and that's where it will end unless you have the kind of insane revanchism score that admittedly typically gets Fascists elected anyway. Not that that's not kind of fun in its own way. I guess that does make them way more exciting than the Liberals, though.
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I'm not super picky about where I end up, but I do think it would be fun to see my Estonia fall out of my control and go Big Red or Fascist just for a change in pace. I'm looking forward to seeing how this universe's "Great War" shapes up.
Luckily for you in that case, late game Vicky will probably give you about five great wars and a dozen revolutions to choose from!
Sadly Vicky 2 dont allow you to feed vassals (or i dont know how that can be done), i would sphere one nation and then give land to them to create a buffer state against Germany.
Maybe taking land from them and then releasing a nation could be a good idea to not over extend your borders, unless you want to take their more lucrative lands...
Maybe taking land from them and then releasing a nation could be a good idea to not over extend your borders, unless you want to take their more lucrative lands...
I lost the great war on my last Megacampaign because i allowed the Bizantines to exist in Ck2 and ignored them in EU4 (they developed into the leading world power in the late XIX century). I wonder who will be your great enemy on that part of the game
Sadly Vicky 2 dont allow you to feed vassals (or i dont know how that can be done), i would sphere one nation and then give land to them to create a buffer state against Germany.
Maybe taking land from them and then releasing a nation could be a good idea to not over extend your borders, unless you want to take their more lucrative lands...
I lost the great war on my last Megacampaign because i allowed the Bizantines to exist in Ck2 and ignored them in EU4 (they developed into the leading world power in the late XIX century). I wonder who will be your great enemy on that part of the game
Ouch.. From what I've read on the wiki, losing the Great War is pretty nasty business and leads to your country getting chopped up pretty badly, right?
Yeah it’s horrific. I actually just finished a great war in my current play through, and the losing powers were obliterated. France became a secondary power and immediately underwent a socialist revolution, while Austro-Hungary dropped all the way down to civilised nation status! A good way of keeping things interesting late game, but as with most paradox games where military action is a large focus it isn’t the most fully resolved mechanic…
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Well, I'm hoping to attempt a conversion of this to HoI4, so if it really does dice up some nations (even if it's my own) it should create an interesting framework for a WW2 playthrough.
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In this case, dicing up a few of those European blobs would be no bad thing, I admit. Let’s hope when it comes you find yourself on the right side!