Trek Wars: The Final Frontier Strikes Back

[Specialist290]

30% tariffs and near-max taxes on the lowest income bracket -- yikes! That sounds like a long-term recipe for disaster, though I suppose most of that money coming from high-value industries helps.

 

[Surt]

The making of Greater Zulu land?

 

[diskoerekto]

-----Chapter 1, Section 5: Sunday morning-----​

So I'm up and had breakfast and I think I have a little time until I will need to do something. So here goes. Normally, in a presidential dictatorship one is not supposed to be able to push reforms. I am guessing, since enemy occupation shoots war exhaustion up, and war exhaustion shoots militancy up, the parliament is letting some reforms be passed. Only political reforms though, no social ones. I am reluctant to move away from being a dictatorship, not yet. I intend to rule through Andries until the ship that is our weird country can steer itself. Now what I will allow is public meetings because I had some of the best few weeks in my life during one.

#occupybloemfontein​

---​

Now back to the juicy parts. War is juicy right? With all that blood and stuff. The Zulu army was not really very happy to see us win that siege so they seem like they're coming for us.

Everybody hold tight and pray to a deity of your choosing

---​

The war breaks off and we start with clear superiority in skills and tactics and they are attrited away. Let's see if that is enough.

That dice roll though

Well we can roll a 9 too.

That was a close one.

We won but lost a lot of good men. Good thing they're only bits on my computer.

---​

All that fighting and hostile occupation seems to raise militancy so it's time to pass another reform.

Now socialist trade unions are allowed as well. Stand up all victims of oppression, for the tyrants fear your might

---​

Now things started to go our way. We besieged and took the Zulu capital of Ulundi as well while their army is in a stupor just north of us. After this we go besieging the last province left to finish this war once and for all.

It's been a difficult run so far but all seems better now.

---​

Well but of course things took a turn and with their huge army the Zulu came to Ladysmith and finished the siege when we still have some work in Durban. They're off to Winburg to continue what they began. The good thing is, since they are not on occupied territory anymore they will start receiving attrition, and since their capital has fallen too they are having trouble getting supplies so I expect faster attrition.

This will never end

---​

I'll finish the siege here and wait for them to lose more men to attrition. I hope we can pull it before Winburg falls as well but well that really needs some luck. In the meanwhile, some inventions had fired in the past months and we finally finished researching steam engines. Now onto market structure. We need some economics science as well.

hi tech powerhouse

I REALLY should have remembered to research the faster research techs before anything else. That was dumb.

---​

I also realized the militancy was again high enough to push another reform. The reforms are really important because they all increase immigrant draw. For a nation that's trying to industrialize, it is one of the most important things to be able to draw immigrants. On the other hand, having so much war exhaustion means our economy can crash any time. War exhaustion slowly decreases the efficiency of mines (among other things) and the mines are what is keeping our economy afloat. So even though I like all this reforming, I should wrap this war real quick.

No elections but the grip on parties are loosened. I am guessing house parties?

---​

After Ladysmith, the Zulu took back Ulundi as well and moved on to Winburg. I'm still besieging Durban. They're still receiving attrition. Now we have a small positive event. I went with the one that also gives prestige, the amount of research points is not that much.

We need a lot of prestige, if you're not top 16 nation you are not allowed to colonize

---​

Finally the siege of Durban is over. We seem to lose a handful of provinces everytime we win one. But now is the time to look fate in the face. We march to Winburg ASAP.

They lost a lot of guys to harsh conditions. We need to win this. Maybe we can even make it before Winburg falls.

---​

The armies hit each other and we seem to have the momentum. Barely lost any men while they dropped from 10k down to 2k. If we win this one the war would be practically over.

c'mon guys just hold on

---​

Well, life is but a series of broken dreams, isn't it?

to be continued...

 

[stnylan]

It reads like it is turning into a close run thing.

 

[Surt]

Defeated by ... bad dice ... tell the general to throw those out and buy some new ones.

 

[diskoerekto]

And if only some modern national leaders had learned that 1830s-40s Vicky lesson on tariffs and their effect on the economy ... ... just sayin’

In fact, playing Vicky does teach one a lot about economical concepts. Playing it should be a prerequisite to becoming a leader in real life

The Zulus just want a decent cup of tea.

I have in real life very good Turkish tea, but I think they are looking for the rooibos. I'll offer them some soon

30% tariffs and near-max taxes on the lowest income bracket -- yikes! That sounds like a long-term recipe for disaster, though I suppose most of that money coming from high-value industries helps.

The tax efficiency is so low that even 100% tax is effectively 30% or something. Still, after stockpiling the strategic stockpile and building 2 harbors (if I manage to get them from the Zulu) I will decrease them (maybe also I'll wait to pay off a little bit of debt to get rid of the interest). The thing is, even with the current rates (and on next episode I am further increasing the tariffs for some time) the POPs are not drying off, most are affording everything they need some even go for luxuries and the ones that cannot afford much are the ones that insist on working herding goats instead of mining diamonds or sewing clothes instead of homebrewing steel.

As I said, after the time critical things like the stockpiling of machine parts etc or building harbors finish I am planning to drop them starting with the tariffs. Good thing is, economy and the POPs are still holding off and they don't seem to be suffering yet.

The making of Greater Zulu land?

Defeated by ... bad dice ... tell the general to throw those out and buy some new ones.

The situation seems grim, isn't it It is ironic that even the God of this imaginary universe is somehow bound by rolls of dice. It is ironic, and a little bit poetic.

It reads like it is turning into a close run thing.

Ask me that, and as I confessed before I did do some save/load cycles when the Zulu AI turned crazy and decided to decimate my army before losing half of their men to attrition. I am calming my conscience by thinking that was what they did in my test run

Speaking of which, I will be at the end of where I came with my test run after I write the next episode. It will end with a decision that needs to be made and after that the training wheels are off.

 

[Bullfilter]

So (as I’m not familiar with the game’s battle mechanics) how did Transvaal lose with roughly even numbers after winning when massively outnumbered before? The screenies for the second battle looked different, so I couldn’t work out how ‘bad die rolls’ had led to the loss.

I like your humorous mixture of RL and in-game play in the commentary, too. Very entertaining!

 

[Surt]

So (as I’m not familiar with the game’s battle mechanics) how did Transvaal lose with roughly even numbers after winning when massively outnumbered before? The screenies for the second battle looked different, so I couldn’t work out how ‘bad die rolls’ had led to the loss.

I like your humorous mixture of RL and in-game play in the commentary, too. Very entertaining!

Last time the Zulu's attacked over river into hill (or mountains) with a bad general, if they got lucky they now have a better general (no general might even have been better last combat ...) and are defending and rolling good.

 

[diskoerekto]

So (as I’m not familiar with the game’s battle mechanics) how did Transvaal lose with roughly even numbers after winning when massively outnumbered before? The screenies for the second battle looked different, so I couldn’t work out how ‘bad die rolls’ had led to the loss.

I like your humorous mixture of RL and in-game play in the commentary, too. Very entertaining!

Thanks for the kind words, that is the what AARs run on

Well I'm also not the expert on the mechanics of the game but that surprised me as well. The pics are different because in the second war I didn't find the chance to click on the battle in the heat of the moment to see the details before it was over. What I am guessing is a combination of bad dice roll and a threshold of amount of soldiers under which falling means an auto defeat. But that's just speculation (and horrible grammar I guess, English is not my primary language)

EDIT: Also what Surt said, being on the defensive vs offensive, better general, better rolls... They still dropped from something like 10k to 2k while my army was a little less than 3k and dropped to 2k, the momentum seemed like I was going to win this one. That final strange thing was probably a threshold of sorts like I said, or I have no idea.

 

[Bullfilter]

Last time the Zulu's attacked over river into hill (or mountains) with a bad general, if they got lucky they now have a better general (no general might even have been better last combat ...) and are defending and rolling good.

Thanks for the kind words, that is the what AARs run on

Well I'm also not the expert on the mechanics of the game but that surprised me as well. The pics are different because in the second war I didn't find the chance to click on the battle in the heat of the moment to see the details before it was over. What I am guessing is a combination of bad dice roll and a threshold of amount of soldiers under which falling means an auto defeat. But that's just speculation (and horrible grammar I guess, English is not my primary language)

EDIT: Also what Surt said, being on the defensive vs offensive, better general, better rolls... They still dropped from something like 10k to 2k while my army was a little less than 3k and dropped to 2k, the momentum seemed like I was going to win this one. That final strange thing was probably a threshold of sorts like I said, or I have no idea.

Ah, ok, so it started at 10k v 2k (didn’t see/pick that up). I thought that the start point was 2k v 2k. With the other factors (which are all common Paradox mechanics) that makes sense. Thanks guys!

 

[M4N0LOL]

Subbed

 

[diskoerekto]

-----Chapter 1, Section 6: Let's finish this-----​

I thought this Zulu war would be one section but it is apparently longer than expected and every time I sat down to write I had less time than I thought, so what was to be section 4 is now sections 4, 5 and 6. I intend to complete this beast now. Where we left was an unexpectedly long war of attrition with Zulu with us losing half of our provinces to them including the capital with war exhaustion through the roof and militancy climbing while only managing to briefly control 2 provinces while keeping most of the army intact. On the other hand, Zulu army has attrited (I know this is not a real word but conveys the meaning anyway so I will keep it even though it is underlined red by spell checker) away to more or less our numbers. We will try to finish their army off before it finds the chance to reinforce or die trying. If that works it's only one more province to control and this would be over.

Our last loss probably made a spike in the unhappiness of our populace, the parliament is asking for more reforms to pass to poor Andries, he's been chewing his hat for the past few years and a lot of greys appeared in his beard. The situation must be really dire, because for the first time they are willing to pass social reforms as well. Most of them cost money directly, or at least require more administration so cost money indirectly. Most of them have more or less similar immigrant attraction bonus, so I go with the one that helps with education. That is for roleplay purposes as well as trying to increase our horrible literacy rate thus research speed. Also, I am an idiot for forgetting to research the research speeding techs for this many years, that probably costed me like 3 less techs researched in total or something.

Population couldn't have cared less about having a school system. Being better educated would change that too.

---
​

After waiting briefly to resupply we attack the remnants of the Zulu army that had just won a (hopefully pyrrhic) victory against us last time we met, our brave men once again are on the offensive. This time the battle is swift (too swift for an excited diskoerekto to take a screenshot) and victory is concrete. Zulu army is no more.

I hope this is the last time we face a Zulu army

---​

Something must be going bad, because normally one wouldn't expect neither a reactionary party nor a conservative parliament to allow so many reforms to be passed. Again, social allowed too. Again, schools it is.

So the school system is now acceptable, as if any teenager will accept any kind of school

---
​

It is also time for the newspaper bunch:

Nobody afraid of the Prussians, and no new German songs composed. There must be a connection somewhere.

---​

Most of the excitement is over, Zulu seem to have started to build new units in 2 provinces but hopefully we'll get both of them before they are ready. They might be also waiting to stockpile things to be able to start building the units. I hope this is the case. The first province is here. Every siege takes nearly 1 year this is really taking long.

One more siege left

---​

While waiting for the last province to fall, we finish researching market structures. Also, there were some inventions that fired after the last time we finished our research so I put all of them together in one screenshot. Like a stupid, I researched something other than the faster research technology. I couldn't have passed the holy face of Karl Marx. Also, I did not understand why chemotheraphy gives -5% army attrition. It's not like the soldiers are dying of cancer in the jungle battling against the Zulu?

I. Should. Have. Researched. Idealism. Instead.

---​

But the parliament is insisting we make reforms. Well this is something we'd like anyway.

So now we have like the best school system in the world, immigrants of the world; come here!

---​

Our economy seems like it is starting to fluctuate. War exhaustion is finally taking its toll on our economy. RGO means resource gathering operation which stands for all the farms and mines (all non industrial raw material extraction). There is one RGO in every province and except for our small contingent of artisans producing what they please, this is our only way to earn money. If the RGOs don't work there is no gold income. If the RGOs don't work the people working there don't make money. If the people working there don't make money they do not pay taxes. If they cannot afford to buy stuff to consume, they do not pay tariffs. If there is no gold, tax or tariff income we cannot pay the civil servant POPs (soldiers, officers, clergy, bureaucrats) so everybody starves. See the effects of war exhaustion.

War is hell

---​

It feels like this is becoming more and more frequent. Since we have the best school system in the world, it is time to work on our hospitals. We'd use some population growth.

Low quality public healthcare, so we're already better than 2018 USA or just getting there?

---​

I think due to rising unhappiness among the populace, we received an unrest event. So militancy would rise either for Boer POPs or non-Boer POPs. Since our primary culture of Boer is a minority, it is better to choose Boer POPs to have elevated militancy.

For readers not very familiar with Victoria series, POPs are short for units of population. Each POP has an ethnicity, a religion, a class, status of needs met, saved money in their pocket, literacy rate, ideology, political issues, and lastly the big 3. The big 3 is plurality, consciousness and militancy. They are so tightly coupled to each other, they are always mentioned together. So what are they? Are they things? Let's find out:

• Plurality is demand for democracy and rights. External effects are more research points created but more consumption. Internal effect is rising consciousness (together with literacy). Some inventions and many reforms increase plurality, and it rises with time. I don't know how/if it drops.
• Consciousness is demand for a POP's own needs. An unconscious POP votes for ideology and not for its issues. External effect is more consumption. Increased by plurality, literacy, met luxury needs and decreased by clergyman (a class of POP) and enacting reforms. So when you enact reforms the POP thinks you are doing good by them and their consciousness drops a little. On the other hand many reforms increase plurality so in the long run consciousness rises too.
• Militancy is basically militancy. When a POP has high militancy it has higher chance of revolt. A revolting POP also does not partake in economic activity which can have a cascading effect (worse economy, more unmet needs, more militant POPs, more revolts...). It is increased by basically negative things (war exhaustion in our case, unmet needs, disliked ruling party, being non accepted culture etc) and decreased by having needs met, liking the ruling party, being conservative or being suppressed by a nearby army.

So plurality increases consciousness through literacy, and consciousness causes wanting reforms and voting for more progressive parties which increase plurality. While these 2 are directly and indirectly increasing each other, the material needs of the POP rises which if unmet causes elevated militancy. Also, as consciousness increase, POPs become less conservative which makes them prone to militancy as well.

If people become conscious and economy cannot support it you have Russia of 1916. If people become militant and ruler rides the wave you have Germany of 1936. If people become conscious and find themselves ran by progressive parties you have Scandinavia of today. Those might be crude analogies but I guess you get the point.

So here is our event which rises militancy of Boer POPs which was already high to begin with. Also see in top dock economy is flailing crazy and fluctuating. This is probably the fibrillating before the flatlining so Marx help us.

Please don't revolt

---​

You know what they say, it is darkest before dawn or something like that. Ulundi finally falls before they manage to build a unit there and war is over. Our economy and society is in ruins but we are landlocked no more!

Finally

---​

Just hours after Ulundi falls, I send a disheveled Andries to go sit down on a table in front of the Zulus and sign the annexation. He is slowly losing it but I saw some light in his eyes when Ulundi finally fell.

Andries is in tears

---​

Within the first hours of the annexation, with the new manpower, building of a good cavalry unit (dragoon) is ordered. The best we cannot build since they need luxury clothes to build which needs fabric which needs dye which is dominated by UK and the Netherlands. At least we do not have to settle for the worse options. The best unit late game is airplanes and before that artillery but those need to be in the back row so at most half of your army (you can have success with all airplane armies supposedly, but that's gamey). The front line should be made up of infantry (there is the unit called guards which are elite infantry but doesn't seem like it is worth the extra cost) and you should have at least 1 cavalry of sorts per 10 brigades for the recon bonus. Having more is not bad but the bonus caps at 1/10 so it seems like a sweet spot. When we research some techs and have some technology going we should have an army with 1 dragoon (hussar if we can find some luxury clothes somewhere), 4 infantry and 5 artillery. There is some concerns about frontage as well but I do not remember what that was and we don't have the manpower or the industry to build that many units anyway so that's something for the future.

I wonder how many times will this light cavalry charge

---​

I just realized I forgot cropping many of the screenshots. I did for the rest of the screenshots for this section, albeit not many left anyway. Here is the budget of our economy in tatters. All tax from all strata, tariffs etc are all set at maximum and we can barely turning in a profit. According to the tooltip for maximum administrative efficiency we need 1.4% bureaucrats which we already have so I halved it. I am guessing this might have other implications but there isn't any as far as I know. There are 2 reasons the economy is in this state. War exhaustion is through the roof crippling the production, and the newly incorporated Zulu economy is small however Zulu population is not. They have so many clergyman, bureaucrats and soldiers that the spending for education, administration and military suddenly skyrocketed. So I am starting to compromise the spending starting with administration. Good thing is, most of the strategical stockpile that I wanted to make is mostly stocked.

At least the POPs are getting most of their needs, except for the artisans that are stubbornly producing unnecessary stuff

---​

I'm not sure if due to war exhaustion, militancy, reform desire or whatever else, the parliament is saying we can push more reforms. Even social reforms. So our school system was already perfect, I am pushing for healthcare reforms.

Low healthcare today, single payer tomorrow

---​

Andries finally took a deep breath and relaxed first time for years on a sofa. So I figured this would be the perfect time for me to break him the news:

What the #@*& is an Oman? Oh, a country? Then where the #@*& is it? And why the bloody #@*& do we want to fight them for?

---​

Yet another social reform is being passed. Now we have acceptable healthcare. No Transvaali should experience lack of hospitals.

Yes we can

---​

And of course, as always, we are caught before expectations with the fabrication.

Expected was 2.5 but I like to whine

---​

We better get going. Our economy is not very good and I didn't want to spend a lot on primitive ships (I might have to in the future) that didn't give any colonization points so our glorious army improved by new brigades from Zulu soldier POPs will walk all the way to the Omani colonies that we set our eyes on.

This is where Mao Zedong had the idea of a long walk

---​

And the expected reform. This time it only lets political ones, and all the ones not related to elections are already at max. So, while not letting any elections, I am letting political parties with the caveat that I will be doing gerrymandering. Not that I'm holding any elections but still. I am confused about this, just imagine how Andries is doing.

Stupid or not, immigration attraction is immigration attraction

---​

Ideological Thought is researched. Only +1 max national focus seems not important, especially for a nation like us with very few POPs of their primary culture. Even if we have +99 max, we probably wouldn't have much national focii to use even after decades. Good thing is that I did not start to research something else and let research points pool (one can store 1 years worth of research points), probably the fact that I was forgetting something was bugging me from the back of my mind. Next session, I will start by researching the faster research tech.

I will research Idealism next... I will research Idealism next... I will research Idealism next... Must... not... forget...

---​

Finally the stockpiles are full. I have some other things in mind now which I will increase next session, but the most difficult and expensive part was the machine parts, and that is over. After saving enough money to build a naval base for the future colonial points, I can start to normalize the economy.

400 machine parts, 55 pounds each, 22000 pounds only the machine parts

---​

I know you all missed the newspapers. Without further ado, this year's papers:

I think we should first have 4 Omani, 2 Sokoti and an Ethiopian war; then we will have around 5-6 Portuguese wars

---​

CB is finally ready. We can go for the Omani war.

Andries asks: "Why exactly?"

---​

Well we need to seal as much of the coast as possible before the scramble for Africa begins. Since the CB that we can use against Oman only takes one province at a time we have to begin ASAP. Now I have to choose which state of Oman I will choose to attack. On the south is a poorer and less populous 2 province state and on the north is a bigger 4 province state. Choosing the 4 province one seems to be no brainer, and for the next war it will make Omani defense more spread out. On the other hand, taking the state on the border might mean we are blocking Portugal. They can always hop on a ship for the next state, but taking the one on their border might be a strategic move. I am leaning towards the 4 province one but am undecided.

I would've loved to go after Madagascar, too; alas France took them in their sphere of influence in the very beginning of the game and colonized the provinces northwest of it.

---​

There are only a few provinces that can be colonized with the technology before 1870, and those islands northwest of Madagascar were among those. The French gobbled them up immediately. One day we will strike back and take them all.

Now, a decision lies ahead.

 

[Shinkuro Yukinari]

Quite ballsy to justify on Oman soon after a crippling war

 

[diskoerekto]

Quite ballsy to justify on Oman soon after a crippling war

It is 1850 already and I fear (never played vicky 2 that far) in 1870 everybody and their uncles will be trying to colonize Africa so I have to make as much barriers as possible before that.

The war was crippling indeed but I expect nothing like that against Oman. Their capital and main provinces are all the way to the Arabian peninsula and I am not sure how much they will care about their colonial holdings. The whole thing might be over (we now have 4 brigades including 1 dragoon which should speed up sieges considerably) before they ship some troops to Africa (I took a look around with the army I sent, no armies in adjacent provinces). On the other hand, the war after that (I'll probably go for Sokoto for reasons I'll detail in the next episode) will be much more difficult I guess.

 

[OtakuStrategy]

Well if you're going to fuck over portugal like that, go ahead. Surely being trapped between a rock and a hard place by Transvaal wont make them freak out

 

[diskoerekto]

Well if you're going to fuck over portugal like that, go ahead. Surely being trapped between a rock and a hard place by Transvaal wont make them freak out

They need to know we mean business

 

[stnylan]

The sea the sea!

As you say, who cares about the state of the country. Access to the Sea is worth it

 

[Bullfilter]

Looks like the plan is to rope in everything you can quickly, worry about rebuilding the economy etc later: seems like a sound approach! So long as you can hold onto everything you’ve grabbed! Are there any likely threats on the horizon? Do the British start to get interested soon, usually?

Also:

1. Attritted is used commonly in military jargon. Like ‘liaising’. Useful words - go for it!
2. I think the cost of machine parts may have gone up a fair bit.
3. Is there any way (tech, invention, artillery etc) sieges can be sped up? They do seem to take a very long time.
4. All the reforms from militancy seem to be good things on balance.
5. Like the captions - had a few nice little chuckles.
6. Game mechanics explanations very useful for a non-owner - thanks for those.

Enjoying the AAR - keep up the great work!

 

[J_Master]

The big problem with going after Portugal is that some GP's might be friendly towards them, or even allied. I had myltiple games ruined when some random ally descided it was a good idea to siege my capital.

 

[diskoerekto]

The sea the sea!

As you say, who cares about the state of the country. Access to the Sea is worth it

Indeed, now we can enjoy the beaches to the Indian Ocean, and have colonization points too

Looks like the plan is to rope in everything you can quickly, worry about rebuilding the economy etc later: seems like a sound approach! So long as you can hold onto everything you’ve grabbed! Are there any likely threats on the horizon? Do the British start to get interested soon, usually?

The tech that makes it possible to colonize 99% of the empty provinces is a 1870 tech, so I am planning to pee on as many fire hydrants and lamp posts and parkmeters as possible before then to make my job easier locking down the big guys out of Africa. I'll deal with the economy later, and I don't have enough techs to industrialize now anyway. In an upcoming episode I will do a technology deep dive to explain why I am researching what I am researching. Also, all those land grabs will hopefully bring more and more varied raw materials that a future economy will need to be viable.

About threats, I am trying to not think about them to not depress myself. To be honest my test run was only until I annexed Zulu. I am not sure if the British will be unhappy about me. I hope they just don't care what is happening on this backwater nation. As long as I keep the infamy below threshold I should be ok. I guess

1. Attritted is used commonly in military jargon. Like ‘liaising’. Useful words - go for it! ​

To hell with word check, I am using my made up words. If they are already independently made up by military guys as well, it makes my invention double the better!

2. I think the cost of machine parts may have gone up a fair bit. ​

Ask me that! Good thing is there is a cap (5x the nominal value if I remember correctly) every good's price can go up to; bad thing is machine parts have been there for a long time. I bought the first batches comparably cheaper, so if economically push comes to shove I can sell a little on a profit to try to turn my debt around I'm sure this wasn't what Paradox had in mind when they implemented this but speculation might make me some money.

The problem with stockpiling machine parts is, even if you are ready to throw money at it (there is auto borrow so when Transvaal has the chance to buy any, they just loan and buy until the buy limit I put is met), there simply isn't enough supply of it. The system goes like this: Whoever produces first sells if anybody (a POP for needs or a factory/artisan for input) from the same country wants any. I need to warn, no discount. The world price is the price, just no tariffs since it is same country. After in the same country then it is with the other countries in the same sphere of influence. So, after the locals of Britain buys the British machine parts, the Indian minors etc buy them (again without tariffs). After that, every country (or POP/factory/artisan in that country) has the right to buy with the order of prestige (this time with tariffs set by the receving country). This has the side effect of suddenly running out of money when you have a bump in prestige after a won war or a positive event. If one is not prestigious enough, no matter how much money one has one cannot buy it. For example I am trying to buy some luxury clothes (5 units of that is necessary to build one brigade from the good kind of cavalry, in another upcoming episode I can explain the different units as well) but have only been able to buy 0.4 units or something since the beginning of the game.

After a steel mill, a machine parts factory might be the first thing I'll build if I ever manage to industrialize that much.

3. Is there any way (tech, invention, artillery etc) sieges can be sped up? They do seem to take a very long time.​

It seems like 1 brigade takes 1 year to complete a siege. We now have 4 brigades which should bring it down to 3 months (this caps off at I guess 10-15 brigades or so). One of those brigades is a dragoon with a recon value of 1 (there's a 1850 tech that makes it 2 but that is waay down in the priority list). Wiki says for formations up to 10 brigades, the brigade with the highest recon value's recon is used for siege calculation which gives 50% faster sieges per point of recon. This should take it down to 2 months if both wiki and my math is correct. I hope there is a pleasant surprise and it goes even less.

forts make sieges longer and siege units (engineers or tanks, both unresearched atm) nullify fort effects but other than nullifying forts they don't provide a bonus.

4. All the reforms from militancy seem to be good things on balance.​

Yes, I wanted to push as much reforms as possible anyway (in Vicky 1 presidential dictatorships were able to pass whatever they liked, not the case in Vicky 2) for the immigration pull bonii, so that's a serendipitous siede effect of being occupied for years.

5. Like the captions - had a few nice little chuckles.​

To be honest I swiped the idea from Blut und Schlacht where I spurted some coffee on my monitor because of a caption on Thor's ass or something, during writing I chuckle myself as well

6. Game mechanics explanations very useful for a non-owner - thanks for those. ​

you're welcome, a lot of the stuff I'm learning as I go anyway as well so it's better to share. Maybe I can call this AAR 10% educational or something

Enjoying the AAR - keep up the great work!

Thank you for all your good wishes, it is always good to hear these

The big problem with going after Portugal is that some GP's might be friendly towards them, or even allied. I had myltiple games ruined when some random ally descided it was a good idea to siege my capital.

We are not going after Portugal per se anyway, we are just gobbling up their neighbors but they might get aggressive. Let's hope that does not happen until we are powerful enough to maatch them and their overlords Spain. It seems like Spain has taken Portugal in their sphere of influence. Good thing is, except for a tiny island Spain does not have any holdings this side of Sahara. If the overlord was England or France that could've been a big problem. I plan to have an army to match theirs by the time I annex Sokoto and Ethiopia (if I can ever pull that off) but we'll see what the game has in its bag for me.