Who unified Germany? - A Saxe-Coburg-Gotha AAR ;)

[teta]

Hi. I'm quite new to this forum, but always wanted to post an AAR of my own. So here it is, my Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (subsequently called SCG) AAR. I hope the english won't be too bad.

It'll be mostly featuring gameplay issues, that's what makes this game interesting for me. And I'm not to much into writing. Maybe I'll at least try to come up with some made-up explanations for all those wars, because what SCG needs most is to grow, as it's starting with only one province.

I'm playing Victoria Revolutions with VIP:R 0.2, because of the nifty additional events. But these events have no great influence in the course of this AAR. Only big difference is the number of possible colonial buildings in the time of the AAR, zero. Maybe this makes it a little more difficult. The other difficulty and AI aggression settings are on normal.

So, first of all, the banner of SCG.

Then, the map. SCG is this little light red province called Gotha.

The usual map of the german states at the beginning of the grand campaign. You can take a look at it and the features of SCG in your game, if you want. So let's justsummarize the advantages and disadvantages of SCG. First of all, the obvious disadvantages:
- SCG is very very small
- technologically a little behind its neighbours (especially the bigger ones)
This makes it quite tricky to become the leading german state. Another disadvantage for now also is that there is no access to an harbor, and with that, to colonies and easy growth. So, one of the first goals must be to get a costal province.
Now, the advantages:
- cores, many many cores, in fact, germany, like all the german states
- 1 reserve division for mobilization, and 3000 cash; you'll see the effects
The cores have the effect of relatively badboy free land gains, and the "satellite" effect, meaning fast incorporation of many provinces, especially of the final opponent, Prussia. But also of Hanover, what is "exploited" relatively often. The advantage of our giant mobilization pool is the following: the generated infantry has full strength (10k), and due to the fact that an 19k laborer pop will be drafted, we'll have enough manpower to set up another division. Makes 2 divisions, yay!

So, that's SCG. Now the basic strategy at this point: As often done, we will try to free the german lands of Hanover from the british influence. The next step will be to free all of Holstein from the hands of the danes. With these realms, we should be set up for our mission to civilize.

1836:

So in January 1st in 1836, order to mobilize was given, and with the plenty of stocks, another regular infantry was added. Both divisions were finished around May and moved to Minden (prussian prov, sw of Hannover). War was declared upon Hanover, and the UK joined to defend their influence. The 2 infantry divisions soon overwhelmed the single artillery division of Hanover, because their hasty reinforcing left them without any moral to fight. The artillery was chased a little and finally encircled until they deserted. Now, the lands of Hanover where slowly occupied, and by the end of 1836, a rating of 100% was reached and Hanover finally gave in to become our satellite. Some more months were spend to convince the British that their influence was no more, and a white peace was signed. Later Hanover joined the german alliances.
In an interesting event between the to wars, Emden was exchanged for Luxembourg, being a lot more valuable with its iron RGO. (And, in fact, there was a "bug", so all the provinces gained, except Goettingen, were regarded as only accessible via shipping. But we had no clippers, and could not really afford any, and because of our low ranking, those were also sold to someone else... but that makes it even more tricky)
Soner or later, the mobilization could be increased to 5 (1+4). After the mobilization, our army now had 60k men. War was declared upon Denmark. Holstein was easily annexed, and in some battles, the army could also occupy the whole lands of Denmark, with finally reaching Copenhagen. The Danes furiously defended their capital, but with only around 10k of the 60k men left on our side, victory was finally achieved. Denmark was made a satellite and also seceded Ribe, completing Holstein with its canned food factory.
Quite a lot of Clerks were promoted to catch up in the technology race. At some point, the RP gain was around 1.75. For this, a humble size can be an advantage. And with the canned food, they also got sth to do.

I'm a little short on screenshots, but here is the map of the realms of SCG after this course of events. The year is 1840, so it took around 4 and a half years to reach this goal. Quite acceptable. SCG also moved from place 77 in the ranking to 16.

I hope this AAR isn't to bad. Please give me some feedback. o

 

[robou]

You are quite mad, though this should be fun

 

[oddman]

Gameplay AARs are always good. Keep it up. Does the version of the game allow you to unify?

 

[Enewald]

Hehe, a lot of population gained in 4 years.

 

[teta]

oddman: no, (relatively peaceful...) unification events are still only available for Prussia and the German Empire version for Austria. So a military solution must be taken into account.


Domestic policy

At this point, a summary of all the choices I deem relatively relevant shall be given. This also is some sort of look into the future, as it regards the complete time frame of the scenario.
First of all the technology decisions. Before we can afford the relevant military power, industry and economy need to be strengthened. Fun fact, SCG doesn't even have freedom of trade. Being not available for funding in 1836, practical steam engine was researched, which also has a nice benefit. And after that, trades with Bavaria, Baden and Wuerttemberg became an interesting option. The initial relations are quite good (100+-), and they are also deemed to cease their existence, so no later opponent (after unification, that is) is strengthened by cheap techs. Luckily, freedom of trade could be exchanged for the new practical steam engine application, and some moneys. Especially money is what we need, see further considerations.
After that mechanical production was available for funding ( interestingly, this seems to be sooner as for, say, Prussia). After working off the RP cost of freedom o t and mech prod, with its inventions firing, agricultural RGOs became quite lucrative. And the gained lands consisted mostly of them. But: almost all of the bigger farmer POPs were promoted to clerks for RP gain. The more important agricultural RGOs now were those in the aspired colonies. The colonial wars will be summarized later.
After this course of events, simply every available industry, and secondly economy tech was funded, or due to the mentioned 1.75 RP/month (~2 techs/year) traded for. Mechanized mining was relatively popular with Gotha, Goettingen and Luxembourg being iron RGOs. Because of the possible monetary gains along with trading techs, this was also the preferred way of gaining techs (it always took some time to find the right partner for trade, who had the techs available and some cash reserves; due to the good relations with satellites, also Denmark and Hanover were of interest, but most often SCG dealt with Bavaria and Wuerttemberg, sometimes with other german minors or Belgium).
Eventually, experimental railroad and later the level 2 railroad were developed. Being unable (economically and political) to build railroads, this was not prioritized all to much.
Two techs out of these scheme that were deemed important in the colonial time were strategic mobility (speed and shock, especially neat against the uncivs) and eventually muzzle-loaded rifles. Always choosing clausewitzian(?) theory, morals were never all to high at this point, but still enough to overwhelm our unciv friends. Later, after catching up to the highest (possible) industrial/economic tech levels, also military staff system things and alike were traded. Also, breech-loaded rifles became important the moment it was time to stand up against our german rivals. But that is a story for later.

That said, let's see the (well, most important) political decisions. In the beginning, SCG was the usual conservative german monarchy, meaning interventionism, protectionism, moralism, residence and jingoism. That was relatively unimportant while Hanover and Holstein were conquered. But now, decisions had to be made. Possibilities were to stay that way, maybe changing into constitutional monarchy anyways (which has, in my opinion, only advantages over pure monarchy).
Alternatively, become liberal. Liberalism nowadays does some neat things, especially for the capitalist POPs. And, I am not too much a fan of jingos, and the clerics. Choosing liberal makes it possible to make those small soldier and cleric POPs work (cause of anti-mil/pro-mil and pluralism or atheism). And, in colonies are also amounts of clerics. The manpower there will be preserved, as it's the primary goal, next to economic exploitation. But, converting not-national POPs (SCG has, unsurprisingly, only both germans as its ethnics) requires full citizenship, which is only available going with our Revolutionär Partei (revolutionary party, anarcho-liberal).
As you might have seen in the screenshot, this party indeed was chosen. The process was the following (using all possible advantages, maybe a little exploitative): changing the political options made us a constitutional monarchy (only 1 militancy for changing parties, and no plurality militancy). Afterwars, reactionary forces were applied to power (one odd gameplay thing; if you didn't guess it already, voting rights were now completely removed; so, no more elections, makes constitutional monarchies the better monarchies ). Then, social reforms were set to good health care (yay growth, especially in good populated colonies), what the liberals would not accept. Then, finally, the anarcho-liberal Revolutionär Partei came to power. And the social spending was... frozen (another odd gameplay thing... as the impact on growth (some .03%) still applies).
Clerics were send to work, as were those small soldier POPs (giving almost no manpower, but working for good money, as the working efficiencies are another gameplay oddity).
Now, after only pointing out the yays of the liberalism, the disadvantage: free trade. That always spoils the neat advantages, as tariffs are often called free money, for a reason. Those Liberals know that too.
But going with this was regarded an acceptable compromise. And, with support for the capitalists, and railroads invented, it also wasn't to bad. And the danes made good capitalists.
These politics were never to be changed again. The mil +2 due to two forced changes in the ruling party brought us to the critical 7, and 8 for some POPs. But, with being good citizens, only one revolt ever happend, which can also be seen in the 1840 screen. Also, if any liberal POP (and that were many, an most of the large ones, because they were converted to clerks ) reached the 7 mil, they would became anarcho-liberal. And now they would realize that "their" party rules the lands, making them fall below 7 again relatively fast. I think that was a little luck on our side, because mil was relatively high all the time (remember Hanovers professors an the Greek Constitution).

I didn't expect these paragraphs to be so long, so a hopefully now really short summary of the economics. After liberalism was adopted, the capitalist taxes were cut to zero. Having only the small (~1k) caps in Luxembourg and Kiel, some danes were also converted to caps (good side of full citizenship), making Holstein the industrial centre. They slowly build some railroads, and an explosives factory. Canned food and explosives sold well, so this was a nice part of our income. Also, all those RP clerks now had some use and moved to Holstein. Later, some railroads improved the colonies to, but that was some sort of minor effect (except in Caozhou ).
Another economic decision, next to the military interest in those lands, were which colonies to acquire. Obviously, manpower, nice RGOs and stuff did play a role, especially snatching mentioned Caozhou (it's GOLD, with huge chinese workforce) from China later. Other things will be pointed out later when I'm to show the colonial gains in detail.

With that, military. In short: there are different units, with all its advantages and disadvantages. I some day became a fan of infantry with guard brigades. They have an organization bonus, important when basic infantry orga is relatively low. They are stronger than normal inf (a little) with more defence and one more awesome point of shock, also only with importance in the beginning, if any. Upkeep is lower than that of artillery, and due to the fact that occupying huge tracts of land (as in colonies) also needs manpower, they provide more for less upkeep. Simple infantry without brigades takes to much casualties, and that is saving money at the wrong point, in my opinion. Cavalry is neat against uncivs, but as they also have huge upkeep, and only slowly occupy lands, and are useless later on, I sometimes completely ditch those, as done in this scenario. As this is not a general gameplay thread, the outcome in short: setting up armies of 5 guard-infs was the standard.
Important too, a general. Converting a ~20k POP yielded 20 points and with this, Hahn joined the first colonial army of SCG. You'll see him in all those colonial theaters. He was perfect for colonial engagements, as he had a bonus to shock attack.


With all that much, I hope it's not to boring. So, let's come to a real brief summary of the strategy:
- tech race (taken care of)
- gain harbor/"easy" lands in germany (done)
- gain colonies, for the manpower and moneys
- unify germany by force
- some nationalism bonus

Important, all of this has to happen fast. The rest of germany unified under Prussia is dangerous. Easier to have them all as relatively small enemies, as especially the AI is not very good in cooperating with allies. So, the time frame of this was set to around 20-25 years, as the start is very slow. And without spoiling the outcome, next post will be colonial stuff.

If you read this completely, you are as crazy as the SCGians with their will to become the leading force of all of germany. :rofl:

 

[Enewald]

Yes, a bit crazy indeed. SCG must have an insane ruler.

 

[teta]

Maybe some point i forgot to mention: BADBOY. As the so called badboy value reduces your chances on successful diplomatic deals it's a no go at this point, because of the important tech trades. Otherwise, some meddling in the Netherlands and other weaker powers in Europe and South America were possible. So SCG is restricted to BB free claim colonies. BB wars are not really a concern as we are allied with Prussia and Austria and many more right from the start. A war in this situation would only be very interesting. So with this, let's have a look at the BB free


Mission to civilize

The usual euphemism. It's just feasting on the weak of the game, the poor uncivs. Let's see what it really yields.

The first claims were lands in/near India (today actually around Pakistan). Names are Kalat, Sindh, Punjab and Afghanistan. Here's a finally another screen (if i didn't had such an ancient internet connection, i could do some more imagery) showing the First German Colonial Army.

Well, oddly enough they were actually Danes. With Hahn, who rises shock attack to 6, making them even with cavalry at some point. With this army, the unciv efforts to defend are futile. Irregular divisions simply run on sight. So, finally we claimed all lands except capitals of Sindh, Kalat and Afghanistan, and 3 provs of Punjab, strongly inhabited, summing up to around a 150% rating in peace demands. Picture as follows (as British India shares the color with our noble nation, I've chosen this screen. Green is good.

Almost 10 million more people for our course. At this point, the 4 colonial wars would have driven prestige into negative values anyway, so decisions at home were made to sell the last available prestige for money, offering some techs to our neighbors (selling a techs for money costs 10 prestige, and money is always needed). Yes, the industry tech catching-up was going smoothly.


The second colonial theater was in Annam (Vietnam), Siam (Thailand), Cambodia and Luang Prabang. There, one of the numerical greatest battles occurred. Hahn drove them off easily. Some Screen.

I think now that army was still overpowered, but manpower wise the right size to occupy provs at effectively full speed. In the end, huge tracts of lands were incorporated, leaving only the parts sw of Bangkok to Siam and some big provs to Annam. Screen due to the proximity to British India again in odd color.

Let me see... another 7 million. You can also see manpower rising. That's what we came for. Siam has two Opium provinces, making some little money, but we take all we can get.
By now, you can also see, 46 RP... but no prestige to trade and put them to good use. So, some other poor fellows were now becoming interesting for some fast prestige gains: Haiti and the by now independent Dominican Republic. They both had some 1k irregular each. So, easy game. And 2 BB can be accepted at this point. Without the prestige gained no trade were possible, so, they would only cost a little more (if I'm not mistaken). Techs were traded, money was welcomed. Especially selling some techs to Austria at this point, even if strategically not so optimal (it also was mech prod of all techs) resulted in awesome money gains. You'll see at the next screen. Also, a second Army (5 inf-g) was set up with all this money.
Finally, Korea and the masterpiece, what I think should have been done earlier. Korea was relatively slowly occupied, as it is relatively big. The second army took quite a while to finish and sail to the other side of the globe. So, as they arrived, it was almost over. For reasons unknown i just accepted what Korea offered, because getting all was impossible anyway, and i expect that those offers "contain" more manpower (as they are usually agricultural and low value, which also results in drafting soldiers there... but that's only a guess). See what we got.
Maybe I would have forgotten China at this point, if not the had guaranteed the independence of Korea and joined the war. Now, as usually in China, only a relatively small number of provs was to be gained (cause of population). I decided to go for Caozhou. Beijing was occupied, and the later to be demanded provs, and China accepted. Again, see what we got.

Such GOLD RGOs surely are crazy. With that, I decided that we might have enough manpower (you can see the 712+) and an economic chance to support the required troops. This means, we would now concentrate on building up the necessary force to unify our Germany. A relatively huge Loan for now would not be a problem. After we inherit lots of Prussia, the amount would be minor.

At this point, I was still believing that we had to go up against all of the German Alliance. The strategy would be something like first occupy only Prussian lands to make them surrender and become an satellite, alone. The only remaining danger at this point would be Austria. But ignoring their attempts to occupy Silesia, all the other minors would have to be befriended again, with additional gains, especially in the south, as Bavaria makes another excellent satellite. Then, marching with all power for Vienna, and all would be settled. But history decided otherwise, to my surprise.

 

[Enewald]

Oi, from a county to international superpower in 10 years!

 

[teta]

Cry havoc

That's what Prussia decided to do. I expect it was the so called "Conservative Empire" choice. For Prussia not really a good choice (and to my surprise, as we were no monarchy anymore, i expected this course of events to be impossible). For us, Hooray. The troops, still on their march out of China (perfect timing this was) were immediately called home. And, another 2 armies were set up (2x5 inf-g). SCG seems to be one of the neutral states in this conflict, so now we had all possible decisions. Join Prussia? NO, that would mean Prussian led unification, so only war with Prussia was the only option. Again, to much luck at our side. France decided to join the war against Prussia (this event really seems to have been modified ).

With that, Prussia was already deemed to lose this conflict. To their misfortune, we also declared war upon Prussia sooner or later. The north german minors joining Prussia were no tread anymore. But the events were going a little odd. After the first army arrived at home, and war was declared, we decided to wait with the invasion of Prussia, befriending some minors before. Because the 10 new divisions were also still trained. Now, our very first regular infantry division, defending Gotha (can see it south of it) played an important role. Prussia suddenly sent 2 infs at Gotha, a little unexpected, as they were very much busy with fighting France in the Rheinland and Austria in Silesia. The division had to hold out until we now would be able to at least capture Berlin (well, I also expected, to be able to then deploy the 10 inf-gs, i would have to free Gotha afterwars...).
But, as everybody in SCG, they were crazy enough to hold out quite a month, and our army just captured Berlin. In haste, a peace was proposed to Prussia, the obvious claims: satellite (and with that, all lands). Because of the advances of Austria and France (see the following screen where they were standing) they decided it might be best to accept. That was a surprise though. Now the screen after this very moment.

You can see Prussian troops standing in Gotha. But they were to slow, also thanks to the brave men of our very first division. Austrians and the French now had to just accept these changes (well, clearly a gameplay oddity ). After this, the last north german minors had to be befriended.

Finally, peace. At this moment, the following path was very clear. But before, the annexation of Nassau by France, still at war with the minors who supported Prussia, caused unrest throughout the german lands. So, expedition troops were sent to the north german minors and France was weakened in some marches for Paris. Odd tactic. But they finally accepted peace with them. But still occupying Wiesbaden fueled further conflicts.

But for now, the other minors (well, we aren't anymore). I would say, after everybody saw the great performance of SCG at this point, nationalism rose throughout the realms of Germany. Sadly, the rulers did not think so (call it missing event), so it was called out for SCG to complete this process it had started. Somewhat.
At this point, former Prussian industrial power was harnessed and optimized and 45 new division were set up (again, inf-g, in two steps). So the number of units in Germany was now 60 inf-g and, through an event (rally to the flag, which obviously shows what the Germans were thinking), 2 normal infs. I think thats 720k + 20k men. Enough to rule the continent for now. Said and done, war was declared upon Bavaria, leader of the minors and their resistance.
Actually, the following will be a two war strategy, which is necessary anyways, as Bavaria, Baden and Wuerttemberg can't be annexed in one step. And it yields absurd amounts of prestige .
Soon, the minors were befriended the first time and Bavaria our satellite. Austria, joining that, had to secede what we claim core provinces and Pilzen.
Detmold, which didn't join the first war (breaking alliance with Bavaria anyways, so satellite isn't the wrong choice at this point) now was declared war upon (yes, no 5 year wait, it's another gameplay thing). That one or two minors don't join these events is almost a statistical constant, so this time Hesse-Kassel was the one out. The rests of all joining minors were annexed, Austria again lost provinces, south germans, yay.
I was a little slow with making the screenshot, so you can already see what further conflicts were mentioned. Only Prussia, Bavaria and Kassel are left, because they hide themselves behind peace treaties. But not for long.

Mind all those 1st places.

As now clear, France was next. No Unification of Germany is complete without the war against the old arch-nemesis, so for good measure and Elsass-Loraine, war was declared (oddly enough, another bug: a tooltip at the magic button said that war upon France could not be declared until 1854 sth, which was clearly in the past (as it was 1855)... so after a short look at its independence guarantees, Belgium was, even if relations were 200, chosen to be the poor victim again). France just ended a colonial war, and had all its troops except one inf removed from our shared border. With the march through Belgium, it became even more open. You can see the beginning of the war already in the former screenshot. So, after reaching Paris and occupying quite some provs, ~70% was reached, and the whole region around Elsass-Loraine and Wiesbaden was demanded. Belgium soon accepted as expected what we deemed fair.

So by now, not only because of our first place, "the game is won", sorts of. The Netherlands still hold Emden, what is not really of advantage for them. And the second official unrest in our realms (not the colonies) is not our fault, as Wiesbaden just tried to free from French oppression, and we inherited them. By now they are small enough so that they will go home before causing any trouble.

So, as you can see, in 20 years even Gotha may unify what wants to be unified. It was going a lot smoother than i expected from this challenge at first, but being civilized, with lots of cores, and lots of national POPs is just a good thing. Weak are only the uncivs (maybe not all).

With this, maybe you try one of the other minors yourself someday, as it is a great game experience. Also, at this point you have an higher literacy as Prussian led Germany would have (iirc), are not bound by some negative effects (yes, events, like forced peaces, as with the natives in America (VIP specific)) and with almost 80 years left (V:R) you can easily conquer them all... I'm fairly sure. And going from 1 province to 173 (at this point, and more possible) is something not many countries can do. :rofl:

So, thanks for reading.
Greetings to the Feldmarschall.

 

[Enewald]

Oi, now attack Schweiz and Preussen! Then conquer the world.

 

[robou]

Thats quick updating... wow and quick progress. From a minor state too the most powerful nation on earth in a mere 40 or so years. Your gameplay skills are to be congratulated!

 

[teta]

Well, 20 years. I'm surprised about the performance of SCG myself. And thank you.

I also want to make clear that at this point the AAR is over, as there are no "real challenges" anymore. Generic conquering is all it needs from now, and that just takes quite a lot of time playing. Another "advantage" of a small nation is the easy management. At least until the unification. So it was a relatively fast game. As around 6-8h for 20a is short in Victorian terms.