Tsar of the Whole World - A Russia AAR

[unmerged(11008)]

Tsar of the Whole World – A Russian AAR

Admit it. You all get this warm fuzzy feeling inside when you go to click on the “Annex” button. Annex here, annex there, and annex everywhere – no doubt for many of you the biggest knocks on Alexander the Great and Napoleon were their lack of ambition. All this talk of cash reserves, prestige, and which factories are profitable have tragically distorted the raison d'être of Paradox games – ANNEXATIONS!! :rofl:

To get the forum discussions back on track and to satisfy my addiction for annexing every country that irritates me during gameplay, I intend on painting the entire map Russia’s puke green. By 1920 all sovereign nations will wiped permanently off the map and all claimable colonies will answer directly to the Tsar. That peaceful prestige route people who play Sweden talk of and boast about winning is nonsense! :wacko: While they waste their energies to discover experimental psychology, I will warmonger with hordes infantry, artillery, and cavalry and show that baby blue farce how prestige is truly measured. After annexation, their 1000s of prestige will instantly turn to nil.

Why Russia?
If for the only reason they would take forever to annex because all of their damn provinces and their insatiable colonial appetite. Great Britain would seem the only other viable candidate for WC, and for me they seem to be an inferior choice. Britain will release dominions which Russia can take swathes out of separately, and, significantly, at the same time since they all will answer that bitch Victoria’s call for help. Russia also has a huge population which is key to fueling my tariff driven economy. I can’t have free traders wrecking my agrarian driven protectionist agenda. Russia’s geography is also most convenient; the only country in the world I’ll have a hard time attacking without a heavy naval investment is France. Russia has a drawback in they will be technologically behind and will never catch-up because of the 1000 of so BB she will accrue by the time research is >10/year. Thus the bludgeon, not the rapier, will be the preferred method of warfare.

Plan:
• Immediately attack Turkey and claim the “Tsar of all Slavs event.” This will add nicely to tariff income, place the entire Balkans to my realm and avoid a too early showdown with Great Britain in the Crimean War. “It will fall like a house of cards”
• Annex China in one fell swoop. China’s hordes are needed for cannon fodder and tariff subsidies; without them it is impossible to recruit and finance an army large enough for annexing central Europe, let alone the world. If this is not done by 1850, I’ll never have enough time.
• Remove the German presence from Central Europe and the British stench from India from 1855-1880. Recruit Chinese hordes during this time and create a 3rd South American front (Brazil is a potential problem with all their provinces) and a 4th USA front not later than 1875.
• Annex every uncivilized country on the planet in between big wars so as to keep war exhaustion at manageable levels.
• By the 20th century, hopefully my only concern will be time in finishing off Great Britain and taking out the USA and France. France is a potential thorn in my plan since they are the last country I can target. Blocking French colonies will be critical.

Potential Problems:
• Time. France and the USA may have too many provinces/colonies to take out in a 30 year period.
• Ability to DOW only one country at a time. I need to attack countries with independence guaranteed and interlocking alliances to get around this bizarre rule. Discipline in taking a quick 7 province peace treaty will have to be heeded in favour of the 10 I might get in another year’s fighting. Napoleon once said, “Ask me for anything but time. Space and men we can recover, lost time, never.”
• War exhaustion. From 1850 on, the Russian people will know no peace.
• France; already noted.
• Countries like Venezuela. I just might not find the time and resources to annex these huge backwaters.
• Finances. Russia will have to have a huge permanent standing army at full maintenance from 1850 on. I will not have the luxury of promoting craftsman and building a nice industrial infrastructure. Chinese tariffs, though enormous, will have a ceiling which I will reach sooner or later. Great Britain must be smashed, Brazil annexed, and the USA reeling before I reach this preset limit.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

1836. Situation: If Russia were a general, the attribute I’d use is “sad sack.” o Literacy rate is literally a “pisspoor” 15% and costs hundreds of pounds a day to run at 100%. The military, while having a nice 75 rating, must be described as “inept” because much of this is invested in worthless man-of-wars which I cannot afford to maintain anyway. There are literally 100 worthless provinces which can never be railroaded because it will drive an economy into the ground and take a century to recoup your investment. What’s the point in building a railroad in Kamchatka? I’ve got 15 years to tap the Bear’s enormous potential and transform it into an annexation juggernaut.

The play:
Immediately pause the game. Tariffs, education, army maintenance at 100%. Crime, naval expenses at 0% and defense spending as low as possible. I leave taxes as is. Placate the fools with cash so they don’t revolt or devolve, I’ll get it all back via tariffs anyway. Guns and food are set to buy 0. Every one I build must be stockpiled to build the 3 million man army I need in 1850 to conquer China. Set machine parts to buy around 150. Russia does not start with many but has enough prestige (15) where I might get the first ones for sale.

Diplomacy: Russia has no railroad tech. I ask Prussia who I have good relations for Clean Coal and Railroad for Steamers and something else. They accept. Agents of their own destruction, I like that.

Warmongering: All troops head towards the Moldavia-Wallachia-Ottoman border except 3 divisions whose sole function is to prevent the Turks from walking through the Caucasus region. Checking Turkey’s military rating is unsettling as they probably have rough land parity with me. I don’t have the resources to recruit more soldiers so Blitzkrieg will be the watchword. I only have to occupy Sofia, Constantinople, Beograd, Bucharest, and Tirane.

I notice I lose *a lot* of money on 3 January 1836. Luckily I got whatever machine parts were available and now have the means to industrialize quickly.

Here is how the situation stands after my initial moves:

Russia Opening Moves

Note the income fall off from all the machine parts on the 3rd. Tariff income will allow me to build a factory every other week. Here is what I build:

January 21 - Fabric Factory in Minsk
January 30 - Regular Clothes Factory in Smolensk
February 6 - Paper Mill in Tsaritsyn
February 27 - Furniture Factory in Saratov.
March 23 - Steel Factory in Moskva.
April 30 - Lumber Mill in Niznij Novgorod.
May 18 - Fabric Factory in Kuban
July 6 - Winery in Odessa.
August 24 - Cement Factory in Kyjiv
September 8 - Canned Food Factory in Kursk.
October 1 - Steel Factory in Sevastopol
October 6 - Lumber Mill in Valakia (Annexed from Wallachia)
November 15 - Steel Factory in Sankt Petersburg
December 17 - Lumber Mill in Kazan
December 21 - Steel Factory in Kazan
May 7 - Steel Factory in Samara
August 1 - Lumber Mill in Vitebsk

I would have liked to build another ammo factory, but it was too many machine parts. With the prestige I get for Tsar of all Slavs, I will receive a constant flow of machine parts to build my war armament industries later.

As soon as my troops are in position on 18 May 1836, I hand the Sultan a DOW.

 

[unmerged(17893)]

Welcome to the green earth
I would really like to see how you conquer the world.Keep going

 

[Estonianzulu]

Looks good, and tough. But if you could reduce the size of the screenshot it would making reading the AAR much easier.

 

[unmerged(10426)]

Go go gadget imperialism!

 

[coz1]

Interesting. Now let's see if you can do it.

 

[Voshkod]

Will your tarriff income drop off over time as people start to refuse to trade with you? Or is that even modelled? (I rarely fool with that silder.)

Good luck, and God Save the Tsar.

V.

 

[unmerged(7845)]

I like relentless megalomaniacs...
Good luck and Godspeed with your WC, Sir.

 

[Donnie D]

I´m really seeing forward to the next posting of the situation.....

 

[unmerged(11008)]

Meltdown, Coz, Vincent - Thanks! I'll need it.

Voshkod - Income will drop somewhat when pops run out of cash. There are no trade embargoes here, all excess production is freely available on the world Market. I can have 1000 BB and still buy England's machine parts

Estonianzulu - Yeah I hear you. However method I use to shrink the screenshot (either through Photoimpact or HTML code), the text becomes distorted and illegible. I was wondering how other people make their screenshots a more manageable size. Any advice here from you or anyone else would be most appreciated

Donnie - Update hopefully tonight.

 

[unmerged(20908)]

My screenies end up in 1024x768. I then make JPEG thumbnails of 640x480 or so. I use them as pictures linking to the full-size PNG files. Want every little detail? Click on 'em.

 

[unmerged(11008)]

As hoped for, Ottomans Balkan satellites join the Turks and set themselves up as the first of hundreds of annexations Half my forces go through the “satellite corridor” (it literally is a pathway to Tirane) annexing on the way and the other half make for Constantinople. Fighting in the Balkans is pain because half the provinces are mountains, my forces are small, and I have no generals. Nevertheless I am undaunted:

"August 24, 1836 : Moldavia is now a part of our nation!"
"October 1, 1836 : Wallachia is now a part of our nation!"
"March 1, 1837 : Serbia is now a part of our nation!"

Some events are just silly. No, I do not want to make client-states out of my legitimate conquests thank you Then again, we can’t say Paradox does not have a since of humor as the rebel hordes which flowed from Romania and Serbia bitchslapped my 2K pathetic divisions. I’ve never feared rebels before and I must say this was ridiculous.

Russian War Vs. Turks

Rebels or no rebels, the Ottoman collapse was inevitable. Yes, anger the world and claim the Tsar of all Slavs :rofl: Three things look nice in this screenshot. The Balkans are puke-green (though that Austrian white blob makes for an unsightly bulge which must be hammered down in the future), my daily income from all the new tariff paying subjects of the Tsar, and a 6 digit bank account in 1837 despite massive factory/rail investments and a major war.

Tsar of all Slavs

The next 10 years are somewhat boring. Every food & gun is stockpiled so as to create a 3,000,000 man army in around 1850 to take out China. Rails are laid, but not gratuitously; only in the provinces I will derive a noticeable economic development. I hit the 1,000,000 pound mark in December 1844. Rebellion in the Balkans is unrelenting. Here is a typical scene with my all but dead armies banding together against huge rebel forces - usually the rebel-empire dynamic was the other way around o

Elsewhere around the world, nothing unusual happens, which is good. I’ve seen times where the USA conquers and colonizes Canada which would have made them difficult to annex. The USA-Canadian border goes the historical route. Annam and Siam remain independent from Anglo-French imperialism which saves me the trouble of evicting them from that region. If I had any army or navy to speak of, it might be a good idea to jump the gun and annex them now before the Europeans do so. But I’m going to need every soldier I can muster against China and I’d have to build a bunch of transports. I will wait and hope for the best here. French coastal claims in Africa are blocked but I cannot stop their penetration into the interior. They have no competition there and will claim all of central Africa Where is the massive Dutch colonization when you need them? I also block the Americans and French from claiming the Pacific, but I forget about Okinawa to the French of all countries.

I cant seem to make screenies any smaller without making them unviewable. Perhaps I should set up a seperate link. Next installment: the conquest of China.

 

[coz1]

I look forward to the conquest of China. And you are right about how nice the Balkans look in Russian Green. As for screenies, I tend to crop the country stats off so that it fits better, also, once you do that you can shrink it enough to fit without worrying about being able to read it. Just a thought. Linking works just as good, and saves on download time for the thread, so it has its points as well.

 

[Donnie D]

Good luck Conquering China.
Hope ya survive...

 

[unmerged(11439)]

entertaining!

(Can someone explain the Tsar of all Slavs event? what does it take to make it trigger what does it do? besides giving the balkans to Russia.)

 

[Ardryn]

entertaining!

(Can someone explain the Tsar of all Slavs event? what does it take to make it trigger what does it do? besides giving the balkans to Russia.)

Russia must control Bucuresti, Sofija, Tirana, Constantinople, and Beograd.In other words, the capitals of Serbia, Wallachia, Moldavia, and the Ottomans (and Bulgaria, if it was independent).it then triggers an event for the Ottos (if Russia goes the "A" route) in which they can accept, and therefore cede the Balkans to Russia, become their sattelite, become uncivilized, and move their capital to Ankara.Or just refuse, causing nothing to happen.Well Russia gets an event saying the Ottos refused.

 

[unmerged(11008)]

The Great Sino-Russian War.

Preparation:

Being Tsar of all Slavs allows a steady flow of machine parts into my Moskva warehouses and out of American, Austrian, and French entrepreneurial hands. The 1840s sees a significant increase in Russian factories. I build:

2 Canned foods (Believe me, it is not nearly enough. I will have to buy at least 1500 food for recruitment).
1 Small Arms (Ditto).
2 Ammo (Hopeless cause to feed gun factory).
4 Steel
2 Clothes
1 Luxury Clothes
2 Furniture
1 Luxury Furniture
2 Fabric
1 Lumber
1 Cement
1 Steamer Shipyard

Yeah, yeah not the most profitable industrial venture. Nevertheless, the sole purpose of these bonus factories (count the machine parts ) is to fuel the Russian war machine. Chinese peasants will fill the coffers via tariffs; 1000 future guard divisions must take precedence over profitable industries.

Recruitment 101:

Much manpower is needed. Colonial war is declared on Khiva. After a brief, but unspectacular campaign:

"December 8, 1849: Khiva is now a part of our nation!"

Pause game. Slide defense spending to 100%. Turn every >20,000 wrong culture POPs (except for Romanians – needed for officers) into a soldier. Hundreds of thousands of Circassians, Azaries, Armenians, Tartars, Greeks, Turks, Bulgars (They must breed like rabbits. They have POPs all over ), Turkmenians, and Albanians are suddenly and unexpectedly marched into recruiting centers. What good is conquering the world if my full productive Russians die allowing others to reap the benefits? Click away until over 3000 manpower is reached.

Because wars kill soldier POPs at a ridiculous rate, all recruitment should be done at one time and only from one province. Thus the 2,000,000 men I expect to die conquering China will only kill off one 10K Turkmeni POP. I will need thousands more manpower to replete the dead divisions and can’t recruit dozens of POPs after every war. My economy can’t sustain, let alone buy, 3,000,000 regulars so Natives, which cost 1/10th the maintenance, are necessary. I hate natives; the ORG sucks, their nominal attrition rate is 7%, and they do not count for shit for Russia’s military value. This is a problem because annexing China will undoubtedly prompt a DOW from UK and maybe even Austria and Prussia if my military value is too low. During the war, once my luxury clothes stockpile is high enough, I will recruit 50 Guards divisions as a deterrent.

Warmongering:

Every single troop is placed on the Sino-Russian border, roughly 3.3 million men. The plan is to use spearheads of four 20 division-armies (roughly 800,000 troops) to smash through what the Germans would call Shwerpunkt (a decisive point) in their front lines. A broad front attack is out of the question as every single province but one is mountainous. 800,000 Vs. 120,000 irregular defenders means quick victory and seizure of the province before the end of the month and avoiding a 22% attrition loss. Mountain strongpoints will be bypassed and not dealt with until completely surrounded and thus preventing escape. 1,000,000 occupation troops will follow to quell the expected partisans. I plan on leaving 1 division in every captured Chinese province. With troops in place, a partisan attack is considered amphibious and suffers an enormous penalty. This is somewhat reminiscent of the German blitzkrieg campaign against Russia in 1941. Without question I’m conducting a shoestring operation with no reserves or back-up plan; if I run out of steam and drown in Chinese manpower, I’ll never recover. Placing all hope in luck, the Tsar cries, “To War!” and on November 10, 1851 : Russia declared colonial war upon China.

For all human history what has killed soldiers on a magnitude far greater than battle deaths is what is euphemistically known as “attrition.” Hording all your armies as I have is a death-knell if you do not occupy an enemy province before the month ends. Repeat: if your armies are not in a friendly controlled province by the 30th your soldiers die at the rate of 25% instead of 3%. Without question, this is the most important facet of the game. That 200,000 man spearhead you had is now 150,000 after only a month and it will take years to conquer China. If meticulous care is taken to ensure you arrive with overwhelming superiority in an enemy province on the 1st of each month, your 200,000 spearhead will by 194,000 after 1 month. Anything less than 4:1 superiority won’t win the battle quick enough to conquer the province. Any force less than 100,000 might not capture the province in time. With mountains, I do not attack unless I have at least 10:1 superiority and an enveloping attack. This is also the reason I prefer no generals to “megalomaniacs” (+5 attrition!), “unqualifieds” (+5 again), “careless” (+5), “hellbents” (+10 – immediate dismissal even if paired with “eccentric genius”), “maladroits” (+10 – these guys make Haig look caring). Another thing you must be cautious of is reliability. A negative reliability score also adds to attrition losses. “Mademen,” “Corrupters,” “bigots,” and “cravens” will kill far more of your soldiers than even a “Sad Sack” + “Pisspoor.” Gimme them “Chickenharted” + “Suckers,” anytime :rofl:, they have no attrition penalties.

This attack method might slow down a conquest, but it ensures that the irregular Chinese armies will be hopelessly overmatched at the first of every month and my armies make an inevitable and ineluctable progress and will run out of men (If I do I’m fucked as my manpower is like -900 as defense spending went back to minimum. I was not kidding about the German analogy ). In the first phase of the war, Chinese armies are smashed to pieces and Russian spearheads inextricably move southwards as this screen shot shows:

Sino-Russia War Phase 1

Phase two:

Here the war finds the liquidation of huge trapped Chinese border armies and the loss of all of their provinces North and West of the Yellow River. The Chinese reserves make a last stand just south of Beijing, which has been put to the torch. There are literally 1.5 million troops in this area which I have dubbed “Verdun.” One province has over 600,000 defenders. Bypass and encirclement again are the watchwords. I of course could meet this mob head on and wipe it out, but the battle will take more than a month resulting in more than 25% attrition losses. Here is a screenshot:

Sino-Russia War Phase 2

Again, the Paradox team has a lively sense of humor. The Chinese Emperor very well sees the handwriting on the wall, yet shower me with pathetic peace offerings. 7-8 worthless provinces in the Gobi Desert and Manchurian mountains? Please, I’ve stopped playing with sand and rocks when I was 10.

Phase 3:

Chinese partisans are (1) an incredible annoyance (2) neverending and (3) a serious threat. 3 10,000K spawnings in the same province is not an uncommon occurrence. Most of my 10,000 strong occupation divisions are down to about 2,000 right now. Even with the amphibious penalty, a number of partisans overcome and wipe-out my divisions. This is becoming an insuperable problem as I have to band together 4 neighboring armies to attack the partisans before they reclaim a province. This, of course, leaves a number of “holes” in my anti-partisan screen. Here is a typical report of just 5 days:

"February 15, 1853 : The ingrates of Gejiu are taking up arms against us!"
"February 15, 1853 : The ingrates of Enshi are taking up arms against us!"
"February 15, 1853 : The ingrates of Enshi are taking up arms against us!"
"February 15, 1853 : The ingrates of Tongren are taking up arms against us!"
"February 15, 1853 : The ingrates of Enshi are taking up arms against us!"
"February 15, 1853 : The ingrates of Enshi are taking up arms against us!"

(Yes that 40,000 pissed off Enshians Vs my 2,500 occupation force )

"February 15, 1853 : The ingrates of Nantong are taking up arms against us!"
"February 15, 1853 : 60th Corps has arrived in Zhengzhou."
"February 15, 1853 : We won a battle against China in Nanchong."
"February 16, 1853 : The ingrates of Caozhou are taking up arms against us!"
"February 16, 1853 : The people of Hotan are revolting!"
"February 16, 1853 : We are attacked by hostile armies of China in Linyi."
"February 16, 1853 : 3rd Corps has arrived in Nantong."
"February 17, 1853 : We liberated the province of Fuling from China"
"February 17, 1853 : The ingrates of Nantong are taking up arms against us!"
"February 17, 1853 : The ingrates of Fuling are taking up arms against us!"
"February 17, 1853 : The ingrates of Quzhou are taking up arms against us!"
"February 18, 1853 : The Konservative Partei now rule in Württemberg."
"February 18, 1853 : 1st Squadron has arrived in Taiwan Straits."
“February 18, 1853 : We won a battle against China in Linyi."
“February 19, 1853 : The ingrates of Lanzhou are taking up arms against us!"
"February 19, 1853 : We are attacked by hostile armies of China in Lanzhou."
"February 19, 1853 : The ingrates of Xiangfan are taking up arms against us!"
"February 19, 1853 : 65th Corps has arrived in Taiyuan."
"February 19, 1853 : We are attacked by hostile armies of China in Tongren."
"February 20, 1853 : The ingrates of Gongjing are taking up arms against us!"

That’s 15 partisan revolts in 5 days. Attacking China is not for the feint at heart. Check out the newly reconstituted Chinese army bubbling up from conquered lands in this screenshot. Also note all the holes my desperate anti-partisan warfare has created:

Chinese Ingrates

Unlike the Germans in 1941, I *just* had enough forces to capture the last Chinese province. A number of my spearheads had to be detailed on partisan sweeps and the last 2 sent to capture South East China has only 40,000 men left from a possible 200,000. Here was a moment of great joy:

China annexed

With that, the rest of the world was “greatly upset” when

“November 18, 1853 : China is now a part of our nation!"

appeared in the ledger :rofl:. Undoubtedly, the British will DOW me any day and perhaps the German powers as well. The plan is to cede some worthless Chinese desert and empty Polish pasture and utterly smash all 3 in 5 years when Chinese tariffs allow me to field 3,000,000 guards, not natives. That, however, is another story.

 

[unmerged(7845)]

Congrats! BTW, those screenies are really nice!

 

[Henry v. Keiper]

You are a madman...yet you seem to be doing well so far. I can't wait to see what you plan next.

BTW, do you know the casualty numbers for your campaign?

 

[Earl Grey]

This is most excellent, Zeppelin! I will make sure to follow this AAR.

...
That peaceful prestige route people who play Sweden talk of and boast about winning is nonsense! :wacko: While they waste their energies to discover experimental psychology, I will warmonger with hordes infantry, artillery, and cavalry and show that baby blue farce how prestige is truly measured...

What's this? Sweden can use the psychobabble path as one of the first steps to world conquest. Yes, I belive it can be done.

... Russia has a drawback in they will be technologically behind and will never catch-up...

How far behind is Russia in the army techs at start?
Would it not be possible to trade for some army techs at the same time as you trade for a railroad tech?

... (Brazil is a potential problem with all their provinces)...

My experience is that Brazil will not be a problem because the population is relatively small.

Potential Problems:
• War exhaustion. From 1850 on, the Russian people will know no peace.
• Countries like Venezuela. I just might not find the time and resources to annex these huge backwaters.

How do you recover from WE? Is it gradual or is it reset by a single day at peace? It makes quite a difference.

Venezuela as well as all the other South American nations - espcially noteworthy is Argentina - have such a small population that they are easy to conquer.


For resizing images get IrfanView. It's freeware.
For storing pictures online I recommend photobucket.com (coz1 told me about it).

 

[Estonianzulu]

How do you recover from WE? Is it gradual or is it reset by a single day at peace? It makes quite a difference.

It is gradual, very very gradual. I discovered this the hard way. 50% war Exhaustion with UK, I thought it would go away after a month. I was really wrong.
Oh, and great job with China there. 200 thousand men spearheads! That is huge!