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[frogbeastegg]

Today's subject: colonies. In my Brazil game it is now 1880 and my Brazil finally has the cash to fling at colonies and I could use the prestige to bump my position up from 8th. As you might imagine by this late date most colony provs have claim buildings in them but there are some which do not, I gather up the resources and cash to build a mission in one of those empty provs and I get the following tooltip 'you do not have ready access' - WTF!?

I can't find anything in the manual or Memnon's manual about this. If it weren’t for this message I could slap down the cash and resources required to build all 4 claim buildings in very short order. I can’t buy claims; even offering £80,000 leaves the chance of acceptance at 0.

Secondly anyone able to suggest why iron has suddenly become extremely difficult for me to buy? This has crashed my nice steel driven economy and made it impossible for me to build and expand factories. I had an average of £120 a day, now it's a piddling £15; I could cry. It's been like this for about a decade of game time, I have tried everything I can think of to alleviate the situation but sliding down the scoreboard only makes importing harder.

I have one single solitary iron RGO but it only has one POP working in it because when I tried to move labourers from the other RGOs in that state over to the iron mines they vanished. Instantly. No idea where they went; I unassigned them and poof, they were gone, can’t even put them back where they came from. I've given the iron producing prov the best railways I currently have and that has wrung an extra .2 out of the mines but it is just not enough. I need 12 iron a day, the amount I am getting never even makes it past 1 in my stockpile listing; I have set trade to buy 50.

Basically I am in a scoring pothole; my economy has nose-dived and I have no iron to build new factories, I can't go to war for prestige and I can't colonise either, and all the time I am slowly slipping down the scoreboard; I just hit 10th place from 8th. As far as I understand it to get more iron I need a better score, to get a better score with the country I have built I need colonies and expanded factories/larger industrial profit, so it is a catch 22. War is out of the question, both as a means of gaining colonies and of gaining iron.

Everything was going really well until steel became the new gold

 

[unmerged(28537)]

to build a claim buidling the colony needs to be either by the sea or by another of your claim buildings or allready claimed colonies otherwise you have no ready acess

 

[unmerged(22834)]

iron dries up because every nation, like yourself, has so many steel mills. the game always runs out of iron and the only way to get more it to take provinces.

you cant build colonies unless the terrritories u want claim are on a piece of coast. to claim inland provinces, you need to chain link claims from existing claims. o and you can build claims on terriorities which border land you own.

 

[frogbeastegg]

Looks like it is 'suggestions on a postcard, please' time then. I can't go to war (I only have 10 divisions and I don’t want to trash my prestige or already hard pressed economy) and all the unclaimed provs are inland, so it looks like I am thwarted in both colonial and iron ambitions.

 

[Memnon]

Yeah, the consensus is right so far--you need a connection somehow, think of it as a supply line. The only exception is if you buy a claim or land from someone else that gives you access.

 

[unmerged(22834)]

Looks like it is 'suggestions on a postcard, please' time then. I can't go to war (I only have 10 divisions and I don?t want to trash my prestige or already hard pressed economy) and all the unclaimed provs are inland, so it looks like I am thwarted in both colonial and iron ambitions.

welcome to the world of being a 3rd rate power. time for a new game me thinks

next time invest in fabric/regular clothes factories. even tho dye can sometimes dry up, ull have a better chance

 

[cymruwarrior]

Attack an uncivilised nation, granted, that wont get you any Iron, but it could leave you with a net prestige gain if you humiliated it or something, plus later you could DoW it again for only -1 prestige and conquer it.

If you are restarting with Brazil, furniture looks a safe bet, you have timber and exotic wood.
Not sure if you have enough though, never played as them.

 

[frogbeastegg]

I think maybe time to start a new game, then; I can't even go sailing off in search of death or glory becasue I don't have any ships! :rofl:

At least this incident lends itself to a good chapter name for my AAR, 'Oh the Iron-y'.

 

[Inversus]

You have a look at Oman as I believe they have claims in Africa, declare colonial war on them. Hopefully you will have a few transports you take your divs over there and grab there claims.

You could always annex them for more lands and prestidge aswell.

In my Persian game I only grabbed there claims as my BB rating was quite, from which I was able to claim a reasonable chunk of Africa. After a few months of war they will usually offer a white peace, if you dont want to annex them.

Brian

 

[unmerged(10416)]

DoW'ing nations with less than -100 prestige costs njo prestige
I suggest you check the ledger, have it list countries by prestige and work your way up the list. Usually states like Oman, Zanzibar, Ethiopia or Bhutan are totally broke and have gone bankrupt at least once, they should be ripe for conquest. You can just annex them and sell them at exorbitant prices to the UK. (If you have relations better than +180 with them you can sell even the most decrepit African province at over 20,000 pounds.)

 

[frogbeastegg]

Ok, I tried the Oman tip, the pathetic sight of one single division sailing off in a dingy to invade a country half way across the world was hilarious. I shall save the best bits for my AAR, but I managed to claw my way back up to 7th and now, in 1902, I have plummeted again to 9th place. Grrrr!

So, I have claim buildings in 2 out of 3 colony provs and Russia has the third; how can I get that final building? They won't sell it. Same goes for another colony; I have 3 different types of buildings but the only coastal province already has a coaling station belonging to someone else, so again I can't claim.

The game ends in 1920, doesn't it? That means I need something that will kick me up the score board quickly and enable me to stay there.

 

[Darkrenown]

You could declare colonial war and grab the claim. Doubtful if Russia will ever make peace though.