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Herbert West

Field Marshal
71 Badges
Jul 24, 2006
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On the bus, the thought stuck me of making a gameplay AAR for once, seeing as they are easier than the ususal story-arr I tend to write (if two are a tendency).

And, seeing that there are many european AARs around but rarely any asian ones (usaully, at least), I decided to go with a relatively easy country, namely Japan. Huge manpower pool, though mostly concentrated around the capitals of Edo and Kyoto, good events to get me civilised, and a great number of uncivs to whack around.

Game info:

VIPR 0.2
Hard/normal

So then, onto the AAR.

Index:

1836-1840
1840-1844
1844-1850
1850-1860
1860-1864
1864-1868
1868-1872
1872-1876
1876-1882
1883-1887
 
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Japan! A very in-frequent passer in these parts but usually very interesting when it does so. I will be following, sir!
 
The first, boring years​

We all know that. Set budget, reorgainze army, normalize population, et cetera. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

army.jpg

I order the troops to converge upon Kyoto. I'll probably disband them anyways, but this is sometihng I do almost automatically.

budget.jpg

Business as usual. Tax everyone half to death, tariffs to max, defence, army maintanance to the minimum, education maxed out, crime fighting non-exsistant. The only thing worth noting is that I overtax the rixh, becouse Japan has ridiculous amount of aristocrats, and I dont like them that much. I'll probably reduce their taxation below 50% in a year or two, but I love to see them suffer :evil grin:

pops.jpg

And I split every pop over 40K that still had room in its RGO. I do this to get the maximum out of my current, low production capability . The effect is visible on the production indicator, and its not that small an increase, luckily. The fluctuation on the left side of the income graph is becouse I promoted one pop to clerk to fill those two factories Japan has at its start with the optimal 3-2 mix.

A quick word on the japan population: most of it is concentrated in the ragions around Edo and Kyoto, as I have mentioned, and these produce only worthless stuff (tea, slik, grain), so there is plenty, really plenty of muscel and brain to tap here once I industrialise. About 60-80 pops total, splitting and growth not included.

You can also see my research, and my literacy. The almost obligatory cohice, freedom of trade was unavailable at start, so I picked the next best thing. Both are moot, as I'll be getting some techs from the dutch, whose letter I will accept, thus I colud actually hoard my RP, but I simply cant stand that lamp icon.

Elsewhere in the world, almost everything goes as it always does, with the exception that Prussia supported the Netherlands and landed itself and Austria in a war with Belgium, GB&BI, and Hannover. The result is as such:

holland.jpg


Prussia is the clear winner, having reduced Hannover to a shadow of its former self, while the Netherlands has gained some provinces of its revolter, it lost a bunch of colonies to the Lion. This actually works against me, as there wont be all that many warsocre provinces around once I want to break free of the dutch. Ah, well, thats life.

And on the other side of the globe, Brazils little breakaway state beats up its daddy.

pratini.jpg



Until 1840, a couple of good events also happened. I got the pre-programmed gold rush at Hyugo, which has now 15 pops mining gold at it, and with tihs income, I got defence spending and crime fighting to the max with no net loss. This money also bought me my first regular division, and I got one cavalry division, and one infanrty division (of normal quality, thus very good for mil score) via event. I finished practical steam engine, and went on to romanticism, becouse i do not know wether or not the dutch letter gives any cultural techs, and thus this was a better way to waste my RP, which is around 0,25/month. Then, I got an event that gave me high& low pressure steam engines. Yuppy!

There have been some pre-programmed militancy events, but they are not really imprtant, i skipped through them.


So, at the end of the first four years, Japan has an army of seven, relatively modern divisions, an export amount of a whopping 200 a day, an income of 20, and a bright future ahead, despite, or even becouse of having ridden itself of most of its aristocracy, who now retreat to the shinto shrines (aristos having devolved inot clergy. Good, more RP)


Edit: january 5, 1840: leading scientist defects with Private Banks. Damn, I fear the negative events that will come to equailze this shower of fortune.
 
certainly a different style to me playing Japan, but your tactics certainly make sense. You are going to accept the Dutch Letter? that is bad for Militancy. I normally take the option that gives you two research points for no bad.
 
robou, Capibara, democratickid: Thanks!

robou&Pietbont: I'll accept the dutch letter becouse:

a, It gives a good headstart
b, for an unciv, being an unciv and being a satelite dont differ much, and as I wont be very active diplomatically, I can live with the horrid reduction of diplomats
c, breaking free of the dutch is usually easy
d, I dont give a hoot about militancy that early. It dies down after about five years, and I have enough pops to spare if needed. I need to advance, and fast, lives dont matter:)

Edit: a quick question: will capitalists build railroads and factories even if there is no machine parts in your stockpile and the supply for them is low?

and another: how can you take screenshots of events? F11 does not work.
 
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Capibara said:
What will your first target be? For war, I mean

I'll try to make it a little more interesting by taking a shortcut south. Korea and China are tempting targets, yes, but I wont be in any wars with someone who is a worthy opponent.

Korea will certainly be chewed up, though, but after that, I'll turn south and try to gobble up everthing to the British India border and Australia. It all belongs to the sun!


Update when I can make screenshots of events.
 
OHGamer is god. Thanks to him I can take screenshots now:)

And thus, you get an update.

The wonder, erm, boring years, take two​
Now, with dissent​

As mentioned, 1840 dawns upon Japan with another invention. I then, having about 20K in cash, decide to spend it on stockpiles of such necessities as steel, cement, and lumber, for railroads, and canned food and small arms, for war, of course. I set all these at 40, the canned food and small arms for the reserve troops, obviously, and the rest is simply set at 40 becouse i like uniformity as it makes it easy to check the stokpiles with one glimpse. Produced industrial resources, timber, sulphur, iron and coal are also set at 40, while stuff necessary for pop promotion is set at 10, again for uniformity. This cost us some pretty pennies, though. 18 thousand.

stockpile.jpg


See, all nice and smooth.​

Then, the way to the big stage slowly opens. We begin our hammering on the gates of the civilised states with the Tenpo reform.

tenpo.jpg

Techs. Yo.​

Next, the flavour event Supply Act happens. While it is in itself no big deal ( a ltitel prestige gone, a little reltaions gained with the civilised ones), the opening up of Japan is beginnig to make itself felt.

Lo and behold, the dutch notice these islands. Let us hear them.

lettera.jpg


They offer us strange new ideas for our service. We have indured worse under the warlords. We accept.


letterb.jpg


The population, however, seems to miss the point somewhat. Note: the revolt risk is actually the highest in whole of Japan, the average is about 0,4%.

revolt.jpg

I noticed I got above 10 prestige, so I took the liberty and asked Russia about those little colonies in Sakhalin. There is probably an event that regulates this, but I never wait for this, and I now may even use this as a bargaining chip. The idea is to sell these claims to the dutch once the vassalize me in exchange for their claims in Indonesia, then, once we go to war, I simply re-occupy Sakhalin. Ignore the date, I had to re-play from 1841 becouse of a friggin blackout. I bought Sakhalin nevertheless.

sakhalin.jpg


The dutch also gave me 5 machine parts, four of which were used to buy a canned food factory in Kyoto, with 30 and 40K ish pops now filling it up (always a must, mostly for the feeling of feeding your own troops, but aslo for some income, though Japan will ahve to import cattle for this, i am afarid.), and once piece that was used to buy a railroad in Nagasaki, our main source of coal. Maybe I should have railed the gold rgo province, but I usually play countries where coal has to go first. And with the immense production multiplier some techs give (the end result is about 500-600%), even countries with few coal RGOs, like Japan should railroad coal provinces first. Then iron, then the rest.

There was one revolt, in, you guessed it, Osaka, some uppity reactionaries didnt want to be modernized, thus, were pulverized instead. As most of my population is conservative, I am tempted to put the conservative court faction into power, but they would not allow me to bulid factories. Not that I colud, as the machine part supply is horribly low. One thing is for sure, though, I will not go constitutional before 1850ish. Its simply un-japanese.
 
It seems the population wants to ride forever with horse and wagon instead of luxury trains, ah well!
Btw, will you try to conquer china in some part in this AAR? Somehow id love to see that happening
 
hmm, i am still not totally convinced, i spose i just don't like killing any of my own people... :(
 
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robou said:
hmm, i am still not totally convinced, i spose i just don't killing any of my own people... :(

That's the price of civilization. Well done buying Sakhalin.
 
Getting into gear​

1844 left us with a slowly modernising Japan, and 45 continues that way.

First, some dutch technology is absorbed, one of the few instances where a cultural tech is given by event or by a foreign nation.

payday.jpg

Then, I begin my research towards my ultimate goal, being civilised. I played some games with Japan where I only civilised around 1880 becouse I forgot about the cultural tech(s) that are needed for this, namely, empiricism, so I research it as soon as possible, with the radical academics in power to give me a multitude of culture choices.

empiricism.jpg

As soon as the tech finishes, I retool my research establishment again ,and go at the professionalism techs for civilising. Foolishly, as this will soon be made clear.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, Austria is in a biiiig mess. It went to war with Switzerland, who got help from France and Great Britain and its vassals, and Hungary used the confusion to break free.

austria.jpg

Cluster-copulation​

Despite all odds, Austira got out without loosing to the great alliance, it whitepeaced both France and GB, but sent a good amount of divisions to hell before that, mostly British Indian ones. Hungary remains indipendent, Austria opted to let them go. I have honestly never, ever seen an indipendent Hungary, so this game is surely going to be interesting, and being a hungarian, my heart beats a bit higher becouse of this:) I hope Prussia will use this to totally dismember Austria.

As we near 1850, machine parts suddenly start to appear on the world market and wander into my pocket. I suspect my strategy of getting prestige cultural techs, and thus, prestige, helped a lot.

I immediately start to build factories and railroad the country. Being state capitalist certainly has its positive conotations as well, as I can bypass the usual glass-alcohol factory spam that early capitalist industrialisation create,s and concentrate on more serious matters. I make myself indipendent in regards of military supplies (small arms, at least), and bulid some basic industries for further intended use.

cement.jpg

Now, we can build such things.​

This results in:

facchongu50.jpg
fackanto50.jpg
fackinki50-1.jpg

factokai50-1.jpg


Factories..

rr50-1.jpg


...and railroads​

Also, the years that have passed since we became a vassal helped to cool the minds of my population.

revolt50.jpg

There is not much to say about the first, non-civilised years, so such updates are rather boring, and I'll spice things up with a list of intended goals:

Civilise around 1864, at latest, then break free of the dutch, and grab some of their colonies, if possible.

Next, expand in South-East Asia before any great power grabs the land (namely, France), and consolidate. Indochina must be ours by 1870.

Then, trun north and grab Korea, as it is a very good base for industrial resources. Indochina, on the other hand, will free up our population from farm duties in most fields.

When we are ready, we shall duke it out with France and/or British India. This has to happen before 1880.

By 1900, at the very latest, we must be on par with the leading great powers in regards of technology. After that, its war.

By the end of the game, all of the pacific, all of East Asia (China not included), and all of Manchuria must be ours.
 
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Very ambitious goals, but that only makes the AAR more interesting, it seems your path to civilization is going good.
 
Very interesting. I would love to see your goals reached and I am sure that you are capable given your confidence and performance thus far.

Good luck. :cool:
 
Very ambitious goals, indeed. Are you still taxing your Aristocrats to death? I guess you must have converted a few Capitalists by now, who do all the the railroading?