Manufacturing Italy (a PoN GC)

[Stuyvesant]

I like the Italian way of thinking that puts the North Pole as far south as you can possibly get and still be in the general area of the Arctic. I mean, it's cold enough as it is in Gothab, why would you want to venture north any further? I doubt very many people will be willing to dispute the matter with Italy, given the reputation of its diplomats and the itchy trigger finger of its armies (I suspect you must have fought the most large-scale wars in this game of any power - major or otherwise).

Your 'entrepreneurs' have now branched out into counterfeiting, it seems?

The US presents a bigger potential problem than the British. You've tied your own economy so closely into their resource production, that I imagine a war against them would hurt your prestige accumulation badly, regardless of the outcome. Do you have any other tools at your disposal to slow down their rise to power?

[Director]

Your 'artisans' are clearly alchemists who have mastered the art of turning other materials into gold. Since this is Italy I'm guessing platinum, maybe, or some of those hard, shiny carbon thingies.

Poor Italy - so maligned, so misunderstood. Hated by the Turks, the Austrians, the British, the Germans... and studiously ignored by the French, who haven't needed you (yet). Since you've stayed out of the Far East your 'Haven't Pissed Them Off Yet' list is getting quite short.

1880-1900 was the period in which American industrialization really took off, with American manufactures first satisfying that colossal internal market and then flooding out into the markets of the world. It isn't surprising that American presige is growing, just interesting that it took this long. Was there a Civil War? If not, that could help explain the slower developmental tempo. Historically, it is believed that the USA replaced Britain and Germany as the greatest industrial power sometime in these two decades.

As you note, you don't have any good reasons to get into a war with the USA (other than gaining some prestige) and a lot of resource-based reasons to keep them happy. So... time to look for ways of raising prestige elsewhere. "And now, exciting tales of the Italian Army in the World War! Brought to you by American coal, the choice of warmongers worldwide!"

Anything going on in Japan? This should be the time period when they make a move up if they are ever going to do so.

[loki100]

I'll do the usual responses etc with the 1904 updates, but I've been playing around with the end game and using Christophe's excellent Entente Cordiale script to try and set up a situation where the next 5-10 years should see escalating tensions.

I thought it would be useful to explain why, as well as what I am trying to do.

Since this is a gameplay AAR, I always feel uncomfortable at changing the base game to suit my changing interests. However, as maybe clear from the last two updates, I know don't think I can win the game (ie have double the prestige of my nearest rival). The USA is gaining around 9000 per annum and by mid-1905 (where I am in game terms) have all but caught up with Perfidious Albion. They will keep track with me from now on, and may even start to catch up a little. I will though end up by Jan 1920 with the highest prestige.

So I sort of feel that my original goals within the provided game have been met. This was always designed as a 'how to' (or more accurately 'how do I') and while I don't pretend its an infallible blueprint, there is a lot in here for anyone coming to terms with the economic, diplomatic, colonial and military elements to the game.

If I stick with the game as provided, I sort of suspect GB is there for the taking but beyond that its a case of managing the economy till the game end. If the WW1 event chain does kick in, it won't make sense to see a GB-German clash. As Director says:

Poor Italy - so maligned, so misunderstood. Hated by the Turks, the Austrians, the British, the Germans... and studiously ignored by the French, who haven't needed you (yet). Since you've stayed out of the Far East your 'Haven't Pissed Them Off Yet' list is getting quite short.

Now that is valid, there is a large list of powerful nations wishing to pick a fight with Italy - Britain, Germany, Austria and the Ottomans. I have my Franco-phone alliance and a weaker one with the pro-Russian Slavic block. I have a good hands off relation with the USA and China.

What I could do is to simply impose an alliance on that basis and set up an end game Great War. So that is option #2.

Or, I can carry on testing ideas and scripts with a view to helping the development of PoN. This is what I'm tempted to do. The next post will contain a script I've adapted to make the logic to the Entente Cordiale become a Anglo-German anti-Italian block. If I can make the diplomacy start to move that way, I'll then add material to bring Austria and the Ottomans in. Equally, I think I will accelerate the Balkan events. So this may see no Great War, but leaves the potential there - far more risky and interesting to play with. In addition I think I'll give both Austria and Germany a 'revenge' diplomatic option, trigger off a combination of our mutual ill-will and force ratio. So if I pull the bulk of the army out of Italy, I am running a risk of getting a visit from one of my Teutonic neighbours.

At the moment Russia and Japan are at war, from checking that will set off the 1905-06 revolutionary wave in Russia and I think should give the Tsarist regime the same logic to look for prestige in foreign adventures to shore up loss of domestic legitimacy.

So quick question - would anyone really feel offended if the end-game to this AAR was not something that could even feasibly happen in the base game?

Edit - with some testing I am putting together a script that will encourage an Anglo-German alliance, give Germany a real bias to gain Alsace-Lorraine and generally increase the chance of war between France, Italy, Germany or the UK. I've sorted out the basics, with triggers and am starting to add in likelihoods - ie if Germany has greater land power then its more likely to use its might. Once I have those 4 in place, I'll start to work on bringing in Russia and Austria (probably as less committed). Equally I'll see if I can make it more likely that any of the core powers will back their ally, even in an aggressive war.

[loki100]

Ok this is the first adaptation of the Anglo-Prussian rapprochment script:

SelectFaction = $CMN
SelectRegion = $Anglia
StartEvent = Event_nam_CMN_Anglo-German alliance|1|2|NULL|NULL|$Anglia|NULL

Conditions
MinDate = 1906/01/04
MaxDate = 1920/12/31

SelectFaction = $GBR
CheckAILevel = 1

EvalIsAtPeaceWith = Ger

SelectFaction = $FRA

EvalIsAtPeaceWith = BEL
EvalRgnOwned = $Luxemburg;NOT
EvalRgnOwned = $Wallonie;NOT
EvalRgnOwned = $Vlaandern.NOT

SelectFaction = $GER
EvalDiploItem = FRA;$diAllianceTreaty;NOT
EvalDiploItem = GBR;$diAllianceTreaty;NOT
EvalRgnOwned = $Bayern
EvalRgnOwned = $Sachsen
EvalRgnOwned = $Hannover
EvalRgnOwned = $Wuerttemberg
EvalRgnOwned = $Baden
EvalRgnOwned = $Saar
EvalRgnOwned = $Pfalz

SelectFaction = $GER
RegInit = 1
SelectSubUnits = Area $Continents_Europe;FactionTags GER;Domains $Land

SelectFaction = $ITA
RegInit = 2
SelectSubUnits = Area $Continents_Europe;FactionTags ITA;Domains $Land

RegEval = 1;>;2 - ie this makes Germany an attractive partner in a war for revenge - they are bigger than Italy
RegDeactivate = NULL

SelectFaction = $GBR

RegInit = 3
SelectSubUnits = FactionTags GBR;Families $famHvyWarship $famLightWarship $famRaiderShip $famHvyCoastalShip $famLitCoastalShip

$famCarrierShip $famSubmarine

SelectFaction = $GER
RegInit = 4
SelectSubUnits = FactionTags GER;Families $famHvyWarship $famLightWarship $famRaiderShip $famHvyCoastalShip $famLitCoastalShip

$famCarrierShip $famSubmarine

SelectFaction = $AUS
RegInit = 5
SelectSubUnits = FactionTags AUS;Families $famHvyWarship $famLightWarship $famRaiderShip $famHvyCoastalShip $famLitCoastalShip

$famCarrierShip $famSubmarine

SelectFaction = $ITA
RegInit = 6
SelectSubUnits = FactionTags ITA;Families $famHvyWarship $famLightWarship $famRaiderShip $famHvyCoastalShip $famLitCoastalShip

$famCarrierShip $famSubmarine

RegInit = 7
RegSum = Registry 3 4 5
RegEval = 7;>;6
RegDeactivate = NULL

(this allows my putative 'we hate Italy' bunch to work out if they have naval superiority over Italy)

SelectFaction = $ITA
EvalVP = >; GBR

SelectFaction = $ITA
EvalVP = >; GER

(simply tests that Italy has the prestige to be seen as a global problem)

Actions

SelectFaction = $GBR
AddDiploItem = GER;$diShowSupport;CURRENT
ChgFacRelationships = GER;10
SelectFaction = $GER
ChangeFacMorale = 10
SelectFaction = $FRA
ChangeFacMorale = -5

SelectFaction = $GBR
AI.SetDiploItemBias = GER;*War*;90;*CB*;10;*Military*;200;*DipSupport*;3 00
AI.SetDiploItemBias = ITA;*War*;200;*Military*;50

SelectFaction = $FRA
AI.SetDiploItemBias = ITA;*CB*;50
AI.SetDiploItemBias = GBR;*War*;300;*DipSupport*;0
AI.SetDiploItemBias = BEL;*War*;*Military*;300;*DipSupport*;200

EndEvent

What it basically does is to make the British and German AIs look at Italy as a mutual threat and as a first stage gives them a diplomatic support action. If that starts to firm up their alliance, I'll start to play around with creating a two block alliance that is somewhat firmer (ie make France very German-English phobic). I think the narrative is one of mutual interests. Britain will back Germany over Alsace-Lorraine, Germany will agree to prevent any further damage to the British Empire - they have complimentary armed forces (ie Germany has no navy, Britain is short of land units). With A-L in play, France needs chums. The real focus to German and British discontent is of course Italy's power.

As you can see, its got a couple of tests - Britain wants to know if Germany is a valid partner (ie it can take on the Italian army) and that alliance wants to know if collectively they can cope with my navy.

To that, Austria has a legitimate issue over the Sud-Tirol and the poor Ottomans have been invaded 3 times by Italy in the last 50 years, plus Italy has torn N Africa and Palestine away from them. Plenty of reason for annoyance there?

[Director]

Loki, I'm interested in the game and your gameplay. So long as you don't have steam-powered German flying dreadnoughts descend from the Moon...

Hey, you know, that actually sounds pretty...

SLAP!



Um, OK. So where was I? Ah. Well, as long as you don't have Serbia reforming the Holy Roman Empire by... actually, that sounds...

SLAP!



Ah, just do what you want. I'll read it.

[Asher413]

Loki, first and foremost thanks for the wonderful read- it's been informative and entertaining!

Second- since you've already gone a bit 'off script' (usually justified in solving pitfalls in the game's mechanics- ex. Scotland.), and as you've said before the world you've created doesn't mirror our real world in 1904, I'm more than fine with a realistic scenario that you script. While PON is awesome, one place it falls short (for obvious reasons) is having the events mirror the dynamics of your particular game 60 years in.

While I would be curious to see how the base setup would fire World War I events in your case, I also am in 1902 in my own game, so I'll have a chance to see in due time. And of course, in the end, it's your baby, and you can do whatever you want with it!

Good luck in your new world order!

[Stuyvesant]

Loki, I'm interested in the game and your gameplay. So long as you don't have steam-powered German flying dreadnoughts descend from the Moon...

Hey, you know, that actually sounds pretty...

SLAP!



Um, OK. So where was I? Ah. Well, as long as you don't have Serbia reforming the Holy Roman Empire by... actually, that sounds...

SLAP!



Ah, just do what you want. I'll read it.

Methinks somebody needs an outlet for those bubbling creative juices, before they stew your brain. Of course, that's really just wishful thinking on my part. Anyway, about loki's query proper:

Anywhere you want to take this game is fine with me. It's not like you're modding things to make it easier on yourself.

The chain of events you're outlining is far more plausible than a historical WWI in this timeline, but that's really only one more reason to go that direction. It's what you want to do, it's what's guaranteed to send out the game on a gigantic bang... What more reasons would you need?

Looking forward to the ratcheting up of tension and the inevitable descent into bloody madness.

[Matnjord]

As the others have said, whatever it takes to plunge the empire (and the world) you've carefully and lovingly crafted over the last year (one year, two years? my gosh, it's been a long time already) into a demented and bloody apocalypse, please do it. We shall watch with joy and glee as the the final battle between pizza and schnitzel (which is better and why? Discuss!) is fought to the last peasant.

There is still an important question though. On which side will the USA stand? They might want to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the 1812 war by having another go at Canada.

[loki100]

Feedback to 1903

I like the Italian way of thinking that puts the North Pole as far south as you can possibly get and still be in the general area of the Arctic. I mean, it's cold enough as it is in Gothab, why would you want to venture north any further? I doubt very many people will be willing to dispute the matter with Italy, given the reputation of its diplomats and the itchy trigger finger of its armies (I suspect you must have fought the most large-scale wars in this game of any power - major or otherwise).

I seem to recall there was some Italian aristocrat in this era who was very much part of the group (Nansen, Amundsen et al) who were trying to reach the pole. I think he tried to reach it by balloon.

But yes, I think for most people, southern Greenland would do. Lets face it you join the Caribieri and you have a choice of posting – the Solomon Islands or the North Pole. Thats a tough one.

Your 'entrepreneurs' have now branched out into counterfeiting, it seems?

Your 'artisans' are clearly alchemists who have mastered the art of turning other materials into gold. Since this is Italy I'm guessing platinum, maybe, or some of those hard, shiny carbon thingies.

I think we can chalk this up to another hidden realism gem in Pride of Nations. I have an active organised crime network manufacturing money ....

The US presents a bigger potential problem than the British. You've tied your own economy so closely into their resource production, that I imagine a war against them would hurt your prestige accumulation badly, regardless of the outcome. Do you have any other tools at your disposal to slow down their rise to power?

As you note, you don't have any good reasons to get into a war with the USA (other than gaining some prestige) and a lot of resource-based reasons to keep them happy. So... time to look for ways of raising prestige elsewhere. "And now, exciting tales of the Italian Army in the World War! Brought to you by American coal, the choice of warmongers worldwide!"

This really captures the problem. War would cost me about 50% of my coal production and other nice things like some tobacco fields and oil installations. But also, as in the next post, they match me for armed forces. So any direct challenge is not going to work out in my favour. Unlike with GB I can't gamble on both gaining prestige for myself and knocking them down at the same time. In this game, its hard to see a real threat to them, or a reason why the US should abandon its relative isolation.

Poor Italy - so maligned, so misunderstood. Hated by the Turks, the Austrians, the British, the Germans... and studiously ignored by the French, who haven't needed you (yet). Since you've stayed out of the Far East your 'Haven't Pissed Them Off Yet' list is getting quite short.

which really does capture the geopolitics of the end game ... and led to all sorts of thinking and scripting

1880-1900 was the period in which American industrialization really took off, with American manufactures first satisfying that colossal internal market and then flooding out into the markets of the world. It isn't surprising that American presige is growing, just interesting that it took this long. Was there a Civil War? If not, that could help explain the slower developmental tempo. Historically, it is believed that the USA replaced Britain and Germany as the greatest industrial power sometime in these two decades.

Anything going on in Japan? This should be the time period when they make a move up if they are ever going to do so.

There was a civil war, in about 1859-62 if I recall. But as in the next post, its clear that the US is now the workshop of the world and that is driving their prestige.

Odd you should ask about Japan ... they are on the verge of engaging in war with a European power to indicate their arrival on the world stage.

Feedback 2 (what now)

Loki, I'm interested in the game and your gameplay. So long as you don't have steam-powered German flying dreadnoughts descend from the Moon...

Hey, you know, that actually sounds pretty...

SLAP!
Um, OK. So where was I? Ah. Well, as long as you don't have Serbia reforming the Holy Roman Empire by... actually, that sounds...

SLAP!
Ah, just do what you want. I'll read it.

There is something about the late Nineteenth Century/pre WW1 era that lends itself to steampunk. I think its an echo of how much that era (regardless of political alignment) believed in scientific progress and industrialisation. The idea of armoured Zeppelins or huge land tanks so fits into an age where nothing seemed to be impossible and the concept of excess was not one widely shared.

And then that technological innovation set against a revival of some pretty archaic government and social norms ...

Loki, first and foremost thanks for the wonderful read- it's been informative and entertaining!

Second- since you've already gone a bit 'off script' (usually justified in solving pitfalls in the game's mechanics- ex. Scotland.), and as you've said before the world you've created doesn't mirror our real world in 1904, I'm more than fine with a realistic scenario that you script. While PON is awesome, one place it falls short (for obvious reasons) is having the events mirror the dynamics of your particular game 60 years in.

While I would be curious to see how the base setup would fire World War I events in your case, I also am in 1902 in my own game, so I'll have a chance to see in due time. And of course, in the end, it's your baby, and you can do whatever you want with it!

Good luck in your new world order!

You've captured my dilemna. On the one hand I want to see if critical event chains work and if not what can be done to repair them. That will help improve PoN over time for everyone.

On the other hand it can be a problem with more deterministic games. Such events make the early/mid game more realistic but can seem badly out of place once a different world has emerged. Here, I think the key is that Anglo-Italian rivalry must have replaced the historical Anglo-German rivalry.

Methinks somebody needs an outlet for those bubbling creative juices, before they stew your brain. Of course, that's really just wishful thinking on my part. Anyway, about loki's query proper:

Anywhere you want to take this game is fine with me. It's not like you're modding things to make it easier on yourself.

The chain of events you're outlining is far more plausible than a historical WWI in this timeline, but that's really only one more reason to go that direction. It's what you want to do, it's what's guaranteed to send out the game on a gigantic bang... What more reasons would you need?

Looking forward to the ratcheting up of tension and the inevitable descent into bloody madness.

What I have at the moment are two related events. The key one simply makes the German and British AI kiss and make up. Equally it raises the risk of either going to war with Italy (3 times over the base random chance) or Germany looking for a showdown with France over Alsace-Lorraine.

The second makes Austria and Germany evaluate their relative force ratios to Italy and be much more likely to declare war if I strip away too many units from the Mainland.

What I am working on is a couple of scripts that bring Austria, Belgium, Russia and the Ottomans into this concept and trying to think about what would be realistic (esp around Russia).

I'm also trying to work up a script that will make it possible for one of the parts of the core alliances to think about going to war in support of its ally, even if that ally started the war.
Key to all this, is to set up potential and possibilities, so it all becomes a huge guessing game.

This is also constructed around the idea of a 'full' war. The difference is these are less likely to end early if the relevant power still has the capacity to wage war.

As the others have said, whatever it takes to plunge the empire (and the world) you've carefully and lovingly crafted over the last year (one year, two years? my gosh, it's been a long time already) into a demented and bloody apocalypse, please do it. We shall watch with joy and glee as the the final battle between pizza and schnitzel (which is better and why? Discuss!) is fought to the last peasant.

There is still an important question though. On which side will the USA stand? They might want to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the 1812 war by having another go at Canada.

In addition to the comments above, I think I will accelerate the Balkan events from 1908-13 so they happen a bit quicker. That should provide an additional bit of fuel on the fire.

I'm not sure about the US. It has good relations with me and relatively poor with Britain. So I don't see any reason for them to back either side, my instinct is towards isolationism.


The bigger issue here is the nature of relations with GB. Its clear that if any other power wants to win, it needs to supplant GB as #1. In our time line, if we put to one side, insanity and a family hissy fit among inbred idiots, Germany took that role. In effect, Britain's ambition for Europe to be of little threat while it played with its Empire came up against Germany's desire to dominate Europe. Post-Napoleon, Anglo-French rivalry was real, and sometimes came close to war, but fundamentally they could co-exist. France's manpower decline meant it could no longer, on its own, aim for European supremacy and its Empire sort of could co-exist with the British.

I've put Italy into the role of Germany. Now that doesn't mean an Anglo-French alliance is impossible except I am no threat to France and in fact have been in close alliance for 40 odd years. A more realistic move, if Britain decides to engage seriously in the continent is a German alliance. They both have reasons to want to clip Italy's wings and the Austrians in particular have legitimate territorial dispute with Italy.

[loki100]

Well the good news is that compared to 1903 things happened in 1904, but again this was mostly a case of keeping the economy stable. The main events are more warnings of things to come.

Industrial Reports


Manufactures



Non-Manufactures



Militancy is still in the 55-60% range, but not causing any real problems even though population growth outstrips food production by the end of the year (it was down to 55% by the end of the year).



An important part of my industrial and trade strategy is I no longer have any constraint in terms of Private Capital. In mid-July I was running a balance of payments deficit of 3000 (this fluctuates from a small surplus to about this level as I put more or less goods up for sale).



Key thing is that deficit is completely absorbed by the private capital I earn from domestic sales (23,753) and colonial sales (1,019) from both domestically produced and imported goods. Equally I am earning over 600 per quarter from the use of my merchant ships.


Internationally, Russia and Japan square up to each other. This was particularly odd as Port Arthur is Chinese, as is all of Korea and all of Manchuria.



A little bit later, I notice that Vladivostock is under blockade. I do hope the Russians don't plan to send a fleet from Europe to challenge the Japanese.



If that war drags out into 1905 then I think Russia is in for serious domestic unrest.

Prussia celebrates by getting involved in a serious colonial war.



Since I am pretty sure they have no fleet, I don't think this was the brightest thing for them to have done.



Yep, pretty silly really.

To celebrate the coming period of enhanced belicosity, the Dreadnought comes into view. So lets have a look at one:



That compares the stats for the final variant of the Steel Battleship. Remember these are the stats per ship (element) and each counter contains 4 ships.

At first glance not that impressive. Average fire values are the same, but the increase in Rate of Fire is important as is the extra protection (up from 15 to 20). However, if we look at what damage is done its clear the Dreadnought's guns do more damage compared to cohesion hits (the 5/20 compared to 3/20).

Equally if we look at the fire values in more detail (the right hand screen) we can see that at long and medium range there is a huge difference in effectiveness.

If those two clash, the battleship will be lucky to inflict some cohesion hits. It can be struck powerfully at long and medium range before the fire values equalise at short range. Equally its unlikely the battleship will fire at long range (it only has 2 chances to fire in a given combat phase).

Quite rightly, this is indeed a new generation of war ship. All I need to do is to find someone prepared to fight. But I had better not lose any -each, if destroyed will cost me 100 prestige (ie 400 for the counter).

So, a new fleet is ordered, 12 Dreadnoughts, 8 Light Cruisers/Destroyers and I add in an existing hospital ship (this improves recovery of cohesion post-battle). Come 1905 I'll expand that, but I want to be sure the global steel stocks can cope with these new builds.

Just as everyone seems to be going to war, another batch of my commanders decide this is a good time to retire.



Prestige.

Rather than just do my usual report, I thought it might be useful to provide some details on the more important nations. You gain this by clicking on their flag on the F10 screen (these are all for October)



I can't show GB due to my negative relations. But we can see that the USA is the dominant economic power and has a pretty impressive armed forces. I am ahead in commerce (I presume this means trade), social stuff and, of course, as the most diplomatic nation on the planet. Note that Italy, US and Germany all have the same technology score (726) so I guess all are equally up to date. I'd assume that GB and France are much the same so any clash between those nations will see equally well equipped armed forces.

Just out of interest ... look at the size of the Russian armed forces.

The end of year update is:



So my prestige is up 9,000 (from 212,340 to 221,204), GB has gained 2,700 (from 126,297 to 128,987) and the USA gains 9,000 (from 117,110 to 126,061). I can't see GB holding onto second place for much longer. More importantly, the USA is keeping pace with me,so I have little chance to go from 86% of the target (ie double the nearest rival) to 100% in the final 16 years.

[Gen. Monkey-Bear]

Wow, those numbers are sobering. I recommend that you proceed to ally with Russia in the coming years

Any idea how powerful the Austrian is? That may be concerning if they form a German Alliance.

[loki100]

Wow, those numbers are sobering. I recommend that you proceed to ally with Russia in the coming years

Any idea how powerful the Austrian is? That may be concerning if they form a German Alliance.

I'd love to get into a closer relationship with Russia but they are resistant. At one stage they were refusing as I had bad relations with their allies - I assume this was Serbia and Bulgaria so I made friends with them too. But they still will not agree a defensive alliance.

Not sure about Austria, my relations are too bad for them to appear on the F10 screen. There are a couple of 1500-2000 power armies on my eastern border and I have no reason not to suspect they have recovered from our earlier wars. I'd hope they are lagging in terms of tech though.


As to the game changes, I think I've worked out how to model this to give uncertainty and possibly still test out the in-game Great War chain.

My assumption is there are two fundamental disputes in this Europe. One is the Balkans, with Austria trying to assert its power and Russia increasingly protective to its slavic chums. The other is the 'Italian Problem' which to me involves primarily Britain, Germany and Italy. So the two disputes intersect in the sense of the German-Austrian alliance but have very different protagonists and logic.

So I've retained a close-to-our-world Great War sequence but advanced it by a couple of years (and as a balance reduced some probabilities as to when it will happen). So the 1908 Bosnian crisis is now scheduled for 1906, the 1910 Black Hand events for 1908, 1st Balkan War 1910, 2nd 1911. I think here was one reason why the basic event chain broke as those wars did not end (there is no reason) and if not, the chain breaks. So I've added in, and changed the dates, of Christophe.Barot's war ending scripts (part of the great work he and Kensai are doing on key event sequences). In turn, Archduke Ferdinand goes to Sarajevo in 1912.

That should trigger an Austro-Serbian war and soon after an Austro-Russian war. That will escalate, assuming France and Russia sign their treaty, to something akin to the Great War including a German invasion of Belgium. Beyond this I am not sure, as this puts GB in a difficult position. One on hand I presume Belgian neutrality matters for the same reason as it did in our time line. On the other hand, we won't be seeing the historic break in Anglo-German relations that happened at the end of the Nineteenth century. In part as Germany is no real threat (it has no fleet) and in part as whatever their differences, they share a dislike for Italy. So at the moment, I've downgraded the scripted DOW from GB to a CB and a drop in relationships.

In this instance, I could in theory abandon France and take the prestige hit.

This links to chain #2. At the moment this assumes at the start of 1906 and anglo-German closeness. I have then told the diplomatic AIs for both Germany and Britain to be much more likely to declare war on Italy. I have also given Germany a much stronger interest in Alsace-Lorriane and the likelihood of war with France (I've assumed this is their price for being Britain's continental army). If Germany goes to war with Italy, most likely Austria will join in. If Germany goes for France, Austria may well stay neutral (both are coded as probabilities).

A variant of this is I have assumed that Austria and Germany are both looking for a chance. So if they gain a certain ratio in terms of land power, they are more likely to attack - this stops me sending the entire army off on a foreign adventure.

If I am right, I think the WW1 chain is the most likely to be the outcome, but in combination this sets up a nice level of uncertainty and interconnected crises.

[Stuyvesant]

Looks like the Russians mobilized on a grand scale for their tussle with the Japanese. Now, to get those troops across the sea to Japan proper... That'll be hard, though they could simply try the numbers game (drown enough Russian soldiers in the Sea of Japan and eventually you'll create a corpse-bridge).

Can you sell your outdated battleships to the Russkies, or am I confusing it with the event where your shipyards decide to sell ships to other nations? Would be a nice way to get rid of your surplus steel hulks and give the Russian navy a fighting chance in return.

I like the outlines for your event chains. Bloody war at some point soon seems all but guaranteed.

PS: Do I now need to go and create a forum account at Matrix games to follow your latest War in The East insanity?

[Matnjord]

PS: Do I now need to go and create a forum account at Matrix games to follow your latest War in The East insanity?

Oooh, a War in the East AAr? Please, share us the link!

As for your planned WWI event chain... well, seems well-thought out, not much I can say about it, I'll just wait impatiently to see the results.

[Stuyvesant]

Oooh, a War in the East AAr? Please, share us the link!

It's in his signature. Go forth and enjoy (so far, mostly Russians getting smashed silly but the Germans starting to run into an earlier-than-usual coherent defense).

[loki100]

Looks like the Russians mobilized on a grand scale for their tussle with the Japanese. Now, to get those troops across the sea to Japan proper... That'll be hard, though they could simply try the numbers game (drown enough Russian soldiers in the Sea of Japan and eventually you'll create a corpse-bridge).

Can you sell your outdated battleships to the Russkies, or am I confusing it with the event where your shipyards decide to sell ships to other nations? Would be a nice way to get rid of your surplus steel hulks and give the Russian navy a fighting chance in return.

I like the outlines for your event chains. Bloody war at some point soon seems all but guaranteed.

PS: Do I now need to go and create a forum account at Matrix games to follow your latest War in The East insanity?

You can see the difference between Russia mobilised and at peace in the next update. Their relative combat power dips to 280 once they send the peasants back to the fields. It pushed my turn processing from around 3-5 mins up to 8-10 as the AI churned through working out how to reach Japan - but it didn't seem to adopt your solution.

Yep, I think a slightly modified WW1 is the most likely end point, but I've created a nice international tension for the coming period.

Don't think you need an account just to read the Matrix forums.

Oooh, a War in the East AAr? Please, share us the link!

As for your planned WWI event chain... well, seems well-thought out, not much I can say about it, I'll just wait impatiently to see the results.

Aye, the real test is how the diplo AI reacts to the instructions to be more likely to go for war with Italy. This is really just a test as I want to see what ratio over the default value is likely to trigger a real difference - and then retrofit that score into a revised Piombieres decision chain.

It's in his signature. Go forth and enjoy (so far, mostly Russians getting smashed silly but the Germans starting to run into an earlier-than-usual coherent defense).

Its not that coherent. There are 6 weak para brigades holding the front from Bryansk to just north of Kiev and nothing at all south of Dnepropetrovsk. As with some of the changes here, its a bit of an experiment to see if you can end some of the more gamey stunts in WiTE without adopting masses of hard to police house rules ... and SigUp is great to play against (though our emails lack the casual abuse of a certain game of Revolution under Siege I could mention).

[loki100]

As discussed elsewhere in the thread, this is the last year using the basic structure of PoN. From 1906, my adaptions to diplomacy (risk of conflict with Germany, speeding up the WW1 timeline) will be in place.

Key issue in this year had little to do with Italy. The USA is now the world's number two nation and is gaining prestige at much the same rate as I am.



That means I am never going to reach the game ending goal of having double my nearest rival's prestige (but equally I can't see any alternative to Italy ending with the highest prestige score).

Anyway, I hear you all crying out for details ... so ... on we go:

Industry

Manufactures



The situation for manufactured goods remains pretty stable. I've added some more coal mines which is shown in the improvement of net domestic production from +28 tp +68. This allows me to maximise domestic production where I cannot import. The drop in oil is easily corrected by increasing my imports, the drop in textiles is of no real concern (they are just one of a number of ways to meet demand for common goods).

Non-Manufactures



As is typical of this late game period, oddly I am having to do more work to keep those stocks where I need them. Wood is the latest problem as there is very little for sale. I could build some more wood farms as my coal position is improving and it is important as an input into some factories such as manufactures.

One reason that dyes are steadily increasing is not production from my dye mines but as a side product from the chemical industry.

In China, the Boxers seem to be under control, so I decide its time to build some more rice paddies, this will help to meet some of shortages.



And in Brazil, I notice a vacant sugar slot,





I am more or less meeting their needs and militantism drops to the high 40% range as a result




Manpower

I noticed at the start of the year I had a small manpower crisis.



Its nothing serious but I did disband some land formations just to stop my reserve pools running down. Not least with the more aggressive Europe I have planned, I really do not want to be struggling to replace my losses.

Well I guess this will help me deal with any resulting headaches.



Colonial Actions

My explorers are busy. By the end of March, I've discovered all the Central and Eastern Sahara.



There are still a few small parts of Central Africa to uncover and then all that is left is NW Africa.



This shows the areas where I have a positive SoI.



The consequence is my per turn prestige gain is now up to 13.


Leadership of my glorious nation continues to shift.




A lot. I mean look at those eyes, he either likes his drink or is falling asleep on the job.

Internationally, the control of Burma continues to cause problems.



For some reason the Russians have taken it from the Chinese and the British are not happy.

In response, the Russians and Germans become the best of chums




Domestically, my shiny new Dreadnoughts are ready. I now have a fleet based around them and another main fleet using the pre-Dreadnought class Battleships.



In raw power, that means my two main fleets have around 10,000. There is about another 3,000 power scattered in various fleets guarding parts of the Empire.

Prestige



The main thing is I am no longer interested in GB. They are number three in the global order of things. The problem is the US is a much bigger problem. As discussed before, I can't try to damage them by a war as I am completely dependent on my coal mines in their territory. Also its very hard to work out how I could do any meaningful damage. GB was spread out and if I guessed right with my force assignments I could defeat them in detail. The US, I assume has all its army at home.

Anyway, I have gained 9,500 (from 221,204 to 230,878) and the US almost 10,000 (from 126,061 to 135,907). Unimportant little Britain gained just over 3,000 (from 128,987 to 132,121). While I am currently at 85% of my goals this will slip back from now on if the US continues to gain prestige faster than I do. Since I am almost 95,000 ahead of them, I can't see them actually catching me before the game end.

I missed Russia and Japan making peace (the drop in Russia's military power indicates they have stood down their reserves) but it really helped with turn processing. During their war, the game was running very slowly as the Russian AI plotted all its moves.

One good thing is my NM is only falling slowly from its high point at the end of the war with Germany. It is still 132 which may be very welcome in the near future.

[Jim-NC]

How is contentment in the rest of the world? I ask, as in our MP game, we have noticed that a lot of the minor countries have completely shut down (Central America, Switzerland, Parts of South America). This causes problems in that those nations lose the ability to produce useful products that you can purchase. You might want to look at that. In your game, you mentioned that the Swiss have never worked your coal mine.

I did some research, and contentment checks are done in Late January and Late July each year. You may need to write a script to increase contentment for much of the world you don't currently control.

[Director]

The only reason I can see for Italy to stand loyally by France is that a defeated France makes possible a Germany dominant in Europe, or at least re-orients the usual division from east-west (Franco-German) to north-south (Germano-Italian). I agree with your geopolitical reasoning by-and-large. The obvious two 'friction points' are the two powers that were last to achieve nationhood: Germany and Italy. Either a German-Austrian war of revenge will fall on Italy or Germany will decide to settle accounts with France. Unlike you, I'm not at all sure that Britain would join in (think Franco-Prussian War rather than WWI) on either side. Absent twenty years of tail-twisting by an immature and rresponsible Kaiser, Britain might not care if France goes down hard. I am also not convinced that Russia would come in unless the war issue involved the Balkans.

There isn't much you can do to the USA but I will suggest a few options. Take the 'DelMarVa' peninsula (the strip of land between Cheapeake Bay and the Atlantic) and fortify the neck, or try grabbing Florida and defending that. Or wage a purely naval war with the option of grabbing a few islands if any present themselves. Ideally you'd want a place you could dig in and force them to attack you head-on, and that means someplace where your splendid new navy could rule the waters. Politically you'd want to occupy the Boston-Washington DC corridor as far inland as the Appalachian Mountains because that's the minimum condition under which the Americans would quit. Of course, you'd need the whole army plus mobilization to do anything serious; the old Confederacy alone is about the size of Europe. Transporting the whole army overseas would be a logistical nightmare and open you up to invasion from one of your angry neighbors. So... no Italian-American War, I agree: even if there was something concrete to fight over it is just infeasible.

If you were going to pick a war, you'd be smart to take on Great Britain again. You have naval superiority and the only common point of land contact is in Africa, with India isolated and (as you showed us earlier) hard for Britain to defend. But unless you wage wars non-stop untill the game ends I can't see you getting to the 2-to-1 point advantage over the US, so I agree you are better off to have one big war and claim victory by point score when it's over. Assuming of course that you win.

[Stuyvesant]

and SigUp is great to play against (though our emails lack the casual abuse of a certain game of Revolution under Siege I could mention).

*Twitch*Trotsky*Twitch*

Well I guess this will help me deal with any resulting headaches.

An effective headache cure leads to a higher population growth? Phnaargh.

The Russians have established an outpost right on the doorstep of India? No wonder the British are pissed off. It's almost a shame you so thoroughly thrashed them earlier, otherwise they might raise to the [s]bait[/s] occasion with vigor. At the very least, you'd have Anglo-Russian tensions, which could well spill over into direct confrontation (assuming the British have any military forces left). All of which strengthens your case for drawing Russia into the Italian camp when WWI breaks out.

[Gen. Monkey-Bear]

An effective headache cure leads to a higher population growth? Phnaargh.

Ha ha, I think we all know where that leads! (Or at least those of us who have been personally "affected" by the unfortunate headache trend)

Good catch my friend, without your creative mind I would not have noticed!

[loki100]

How is contentment in the rest of the world? I ask, as in our MP game, we have noticed that a lot of the minor countries have completely shut down (Central America, Switzerland, Parts of South America). This causes problems in that those nations lose the ability to produce useful products that you can purchase. You might want to look at that. In your game, you mentioned that the Swiss have never worked your coal mine.

I did some research, and contentment checks are done in Late January and Late July each year. You may need to write a script to increase contentment for much of the world you don't currently control.

I checked the larger and more important minor states and they are doing ok. Most have average contentment in the 80-90 range and no obvious problems. I think the extent that I have tried to make international trade important may have paid off in overall economic development (and the AI bonus for this being on 'hard'). I just think the Swiss are clearly too busy digging tunnels in the Alps (see this update) to properly work their coal mine.

The only reason I can see for Italy to stand loyally by France is that a defeated France makes possible a Germany dominant in Europe, or at least re-orients the usual division from east-west (Franco-German) to north-south (Germano-Italian). I agree with your geopolitical reasoning by-and-large. The obvious two 'friction points' are the two powers that were last to achieve nationhood: Germany and Italy. Either a German-Austrian war of revenge will fall on Italy or Germany will decide to settle accounts with France. Unlike you, I'm not at all sure that Britain would join in (think Franco-Prussian War rather than WWI) on either side. Absent twenty years of tail-twisting by an immature and rresponsible Kaiser, Britain might not care if France goes down hard. I am also not convinced that Russia would come in unless the war issue involved the Balkans.

There isn't much you can do to the USA but I will suggest a few options. Take the 'DelMarVa' peninsula (the strip of land between Cheapeake Bay and the Atlantic) and fortify the neck, or try grabbing Florida and defending that. Or wage a purely naval war with the option of grabbing a few islands if any present themselves. Ideally you'd want a place you could dig in and force them to attack you head-on, and that means someplace where your splendid new navy could rule the waters. Politically you'd want to occupy the Boston-Washington DC corridor as far inland as the Appalachian Mountains because that's the minimum condition under which the Americans would quit. Of course, you'd need the whole army plus mobilization to do anything serious; the old Confederacy alone is about the size of Europe. Transporting the whole army overseas would be a logistical nightmare and open you up to invasion from one of your angry neighbors. So... no Italian-American War, I agree: even if there was something concrete to fight over it is just infeasible.

If you were going to pick a war, you'd be smart to take on Great Britain again. You have naval superiority and the only common point of land contact is in Africa, with India isolated and (as you showed us earlier) hard for Britain to defend. But unless you wage wars non-stop untill the game ends I can't see you getting to the 2-to-1 point advantage over the US, so I agree you are better off to have one big war and claim victory by point score when it's over. Assuming of course that you win.

If I went with the base game, then another good poke at GB would be my next action. But in truth, they've not recovered militarily from the last beating, so it would be an exercise in moving armies around but no real challenge.

I'm quite happy with this dual track crisis system I have created - not least it will allow an understanding of how the AI responds to diplomatic instructions - in particular is increasing the chance of a German DOW by a factor of 3 really going to make a difference to its choices? Only Pocus knows the answer to that, but it is possible that we can start to develop both generic and specific scripts that create the effect of a more interactive diplomatic AI.

I am waging war with the USA - just I rather hope they don't spot me. I'm taking more raw materials away in peace than I could ever hope to capture in war. But I can't see much in this time line to snap the US out of isolationism and regarding Europe as a place where things of no direct importance happen. France I will back to the hilt. As you say an expanded Germany and me left with no allies, is not something I wish to see. That last war with Germany was scary enough, now its more likely that Austria at least, Britain possibly will join in.

*Twitch*Trotsky*Twitch*

Do hope you've not forgotten Klim's boating tours on the Volga?

An effective headache cure leads to a higher population growth? Phnaargh.

The Russians have established an outpost right on the doorstep of India? No wonder the British are pissed off. It's almost a shame you so thoroughly thrashed them earlier, otherwise they might raise to the [s]bait[/s] occasion with vigor. At the very least, you'd have Anglo-Russian tensions, which could well spill over into direct confrontation (assuming the British have any military forces left). All of which strengthens your case for drawing Russia into the Italian camp when WWI breaks out.

Ha ha, I think we all know where that leads! (Or at least those of us who have been personally "affected" by the unfortunate headache trend)

Good catch my friend, without your creative mind I would not have noticed!

Well done you two, I'm glad that my attempt to lower the tone of this AAR did not go unnoticed

Few general bits

As part of trying to clean up the world in preparation for the showdown I've been double checking a few things. Its clear the AI has built no ships at all and the British navy (what is left of it) is purely sail based. Odd as the counters I saw were for modern coal fired ships but I wonder if the counter merely shows the most modern they could have? Anyway, I've scripted in a navy for France (about 25% of mine), for Britain (50%), Germany (25%), Austria (10%), so we should see some naval action. I've also told GB and Germany to build some more ships by script. Again it'll be interesting to see how the AI responds to this sort of instruction.

Finally, and a bit less jolly. Thanks to everyone who has asked (by email or pm), fortunately none of my immediate family or friends was caught up in the recent disaster in Glasgow.

So, back to the update, featuring a plot by the British out of Black Adder and very angry Norwegians (and other things of course)

[loki100]

In some ways, 1906 was a simple continuation of the recent period of game play. Mostly economic management and undertaking almost any action that would yield prestige.

Nah, stuff that low key introduction.

This update contains:

Evidence of Italy being very helpful to the USA;
The clearest example of why Perfidious Albion needs to be stopped;
and ... and (I tell you this is a shocker), aggressive Norwegians.

Thats better, in effect both my changes to the wider diplomatic processes started this year. So we have some degree of Anglo-Prussian kiss and make up and I've brought forward key steps on the road to the First World War by a couple of years.

Finally, the US is making substantial progress in terms of prestige and that has made me work out how to try to hold them back. One of the really fun bits to any game of PoN is the degree of scheming and plotting you have to undertake (och, the things I do for my readers).

So to the details:

Economics (and economic warfare)

Manufactures



Since I have the coal stocks under control, I decide for the first time in ages its safe to expand my industrial base and order a new Manufacturing plant.



Now I decide to wage economic war on the Americans. In effect [1], I decide I am going to cap their expansion, and restart mine, by a sustained campaign of building coal mines in the USA.



And some extra tobacco as well.

So far, the main reason to build in N America has been because the AI hasn't done so. Indirectly I have been helping the global market (as well as myself). I am now trying for a final round of expansion of industry in Italy and directly trying to impose a cap on US expansion. I'm sure they won't notice.



First response is a new textiles mill (helps with the range of Common Goods)

Now this has made me short of manufactures, but I regard it as an essential investment.

Non-Manufactures



In general all this is paying off as militancy dips to almost 40% and contentment remains in the mid-90% range.



Of relevance to a discussion over on the main forum, here's an example of a trading fleet that my shipyards generated by event for me.



Diplomacy

At the start of the year, the British, as scripted, give the Prussians a 'local support' agreement. Its not much, but its the start of shifting the balance of relations between them.



More worrying is the British attempt to take over the governance of Italy. I mean 'Sidney' ... they could at least tried to be subtle.



And the Swiss prepare for an invasion



(if they weren't so lazy that is)


Fortunately, Italy awoke to the threat of 'Sidney' and ousted him pretty quick



Soon after, the evil Austrians grab a large chunk of the Balkans



Since they have a large army on my borders, the Italian Fourth Army is moved to Trieste along with some naval units. I mean, someone has to act to defuse this crisis.



I mean compared to my small force merely designed to protect my borders, look at the size of that Austrian army [2]

Soon after, the Norwegians become a bit antsy with the Belgians. I can only guess that someone could not get to sleep and annoyed the neighbours [3].



And Russia really is suffering from the 1905-06 revolutions.



That is going to be the basis of a great film one of these days.

Prestige



The main thing to note there is my progress to target has dropped from 85% to 82%. The Americans have moved from 135,907 to 146,399 (a gain of 10,500) and Italy from 230,878 to 240,330 (a gain of 9,500). Its not so much that they are catching up but that as they grow as fast as I do then the gap from where I am to the game winning double score slips further and further out of reach. If they gain a 1000 a year more than me, then they won't really catch up till the end of the twentieth century.

In the meantime, GB becomes of little relevance to either of the two global powers.



[1] – yes I know this is incredibly gamey but I really do not want to finish as merely the second most powerful nation on the planet, even if I can't manage an outright win.
[2] – this whole period feels like a re-enaction of Buzzatti's Il deserto dei Tartari (The Tartar Steppe) where the hero spends most of his life in a remote border fort and is forced to retire due to ill-health at the moment when war is due to break out. Reading it you both want something to happen, and, being aware of the horrors of the First World War, actually don't want something to happen.
[3] – a seriously weird and brilliant book about a Dutch geologist going slowly mad on the Finnsmark Vidda in high summer when he can't get any sleep and his interaction with the Norwegians he was working with ... and yes I realise the stushie is with Belgium, but .... .

[Gen. Monkey-Bear]

That is going to be the basis of a great film one of these days.

Is it really that good? (Worth seeing?)

And, regarding this:

aggressive Norwegians

Recent events have indeed warned us of the impending Norwegian takeover, but few heeded the obvious warnings.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Chess_Championship_2013

(I realize that non-chessplayers probably will not understand this).

[Stuyvesant]

The Belgians, being well-versed in the areas of wining and dining, probably made the mistake of questioning the sanity of elevating Lutefisk to a national culinary treasure. I'm sure the Norsemen would not take kindly to that. Belgian Blood Eagles, anyone?

Anyway, the British are trying to infiltrate your government (Sidney? Sid James, perhaps? Sounds like it should be a Carry On... movie), you're shamelessly exploiting the oppressed American proletariat (your version of the US looks a lot like 19th century China to me - or at least what I read over the weekend in a Chinese state-issued tourist guide to Shanghai), the Russians are having one of their periodic parties and the Great Powers are finally starting to notice that Italy is perhaps getting a bit too big for its boots. Things, as they say, are coming to a boil nicely.

PS: I nearly spewed tea all over my laptop when you mentioned that damned Klim. One of these days I'm going to fire up RUS, start as the Reds, put Klim in command of the puniest worker militia unit I can find, and throw him straight into the maw of Denikin's volunteer army or Kappel's corps in the east. Rinse and repeat until I get a confirmation that he was killed in action.

EDIT 1: Of course you can count on me to lower the tone/maturity/general level of sophistication in any AAR that goes on long enough. I've been practicing the fine art of turning innocuous remarks into juvenile innuendo for over a decade now - I think I'm really starting to get the hang of it.

EDIT 2: Every time I see that picture of the Simplon Tunnel, my brain automatically misreads it as the 'Simpleton Tunnel'. Make of that what you will.

EDIT 3: Saw your 'Klim' remark again today and nearly spit half-eaten sandwich over my work computer. The power of the Klim Kurse is enduring, it appears.

[Gen. Monkey-Bear]

Saw your 'Klim' remark again today and nearly spit half-eaten sandwich over my work computer. The power of the Klim Kurse is enduring, it appears.

Heh, shouldn't you be working on the work computer? No worries, I should probably be studying, so I guess we're equal.

And to Loki:
Perhaps the best way to threaten the U.S. is to invade, er, invest in Cuba. I mean, a foreign power there always seems to scare them Just a suggestion, but keep it in mind.

[Stuyvesant]

Heh, shouldn't you be working on the work computer? No worries, I should probably be studying, so I guess we're equal.

<Ahem> That would be a valid point, if I weren't on my lunch break at the time (personal internet use during lunch break is allowed). I would not dream of abusing work time, obviously. With that in mind, please do not notice when I posted this response/rebuttal, particularly please do not notice the time and the fact that I'm on Eastern Time.

Regarding the Cuba gambit: it's certainly a good way to rouse US passions (and we're roughly in the age of Teddy Roosevelt, so it would be rather fitting), but I suspect loki is going for the stealthy knife-in-the-back* approach, as opposed to an all-out bludgeoning contest.

*the stab wounds inflicted being of the economic penetration type, with the lifeblood oozing out of the US being of the monetary (or, strictly speaking, carbon-based fossil fuel) type. This metaphor is almost as convoluted and ugly as the succession of Italian PMs in this game...

[loki100]

Is it really that good? (Worth seeing?)

if you see it, you'll see scenes that have been adapted and re-appear in masses of films ever since. So its technically a masterpiece, it also was made just before Stalin finally clamped down on the artistic explosion that had followed the Revolution. Its immediate descendents are the French and Italian neo-realist films of the 40s and 50s.

And, regarding this:

Recent events have indeed warned us of the impending Norwegian takeover, but few heeded the obvious warnings.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Chess_Championship_2013

(I realize that non-chessplayers probably will not understand this).

Indeed when not gunning down passing wildlife, they are also very good at chess.

The Belgians, being well-versed in the areas of wining and dining, probably made the mistake of questioning the sanity of elevating Lutefisk to a national culinary treasure. I'm sure the Norsemen would not take kindly to that. Belgian Blood Eagles, anyone?

Anyway, the British are trying to infiltrate your government (Sidney? Sid James, perhaps? Sounds like it should be a Carry On... movie), you're shamelessly exploiting the oppressed American proletariat (your version of the US looks a lot like 19th century China to me - or at least what I read over the weekend in a Chinese state-issued tourist guide to Shanghai), the Russians are having one of their periodic parties and the Great Powers are finally starting to notice that Italy is perhaps getting a bit too big for its boots. Things, as they say, are coming to a boil nicely.

Carry on up the Quirinale doesn't quite have the right sound but yes, it was at that level. I had visions of it being as inept a plot as that fake rock the British left in Moscow in an attempt to spy on someone.

It could also have been they failed to acknowledge that gjetosk is really a cheese.

PS: I nearly spewed tea all over my laptop when you mentioned that damned Klim. One of these days I'm going to fire up RUS, start as the Reds, put Klim in command of the puniest worker militia unit I can find, and throw him straight into the maw of Denikin's volunteer army or Kappel's corps in the east. Rinse and repeat until I get a confirmation that he was killed in action.

EDIT 1: Of course you can count on me to lower the tone/maturity/general level of sophistication in any AAR that goes on long enough. I've been practicing the fine art of turning innocuous remarks into juvenile innuendo for over a decade now - I think I'm really starting to get the hang of it.

EDIT 2: Every time I see that picture of the Simplon Tunnel, my brain automatically misreads it as the 'Simpleton Tunnel'. Make of that what you will.

EDIT 3: Saw your 'Klim' remark again today and nearly spit half-eaten sandwich over my work computer. The power of the Klim Kurse is enduring, it appears.

I know what you mean. In my various Rise of Prussia tussles with Narwhal he uses a Prussian Hussar unit to great effect. I mean I know with Austria you have masses but that unit so annoys me that when I play Prussia it always gets sent off to die somewhere.

To offer an explanation, Stuyvesant is referring to a RUS PBEM that he very sportingly took part in. His very first AGE PBEM with the most complex game in the series and me and Narwhal involved. The result was a hoot (for me, for a while). I had partisans running wild all over Siberia and Klim sailing up and down the Volga destroying the British navy at will and burning down depots. Narwhal of course put an end to such lunacy in his usual methodical manner but it was fun, if not exactly a restful experience.

Re the Simplon tunnel, if I confess I read it as the Simpson tunnel what does that say about how my brain is wired?

Heh, shouldn't you be working on the work computer? No worries, I should probably be studying, so I guess we're equal.

And to Loki:
Perhaps the best way to threaten the U.S. is to invade, er, invest in Cuba. I mean, a foreign power there always seems to scare them Just a suggestion, but keep it in mind.

Cuba is still Spanish. In truth I'm stuck with the USA. There late game surge is quite scary, but I have capped their expansion (I think) by nicking all their raw materials.

<Ahem> That would be a valid point, if I weren't on my lunch break at the time (personal internet use during lunch break is allowed). I would not dream of abusing work time, obviously. With that in mind, please do not notice when I posted this response/rebuttal, particularly please do not notice the time and the fact that I'm on Eastern Time.

Regarding the Cuba gambit: it's certainly a good way to rouse US passions (and we're roughly in the age of Teddy Roosevelt, so it would be rather fitting), but I suspect loki is going for the stealthy knife-in-the-back* approach, as opposed to an all-out bludgeoning contest.

*the stab wounds inflicted being of the economic penetration type, with the lifeblood oozing out of the US being of the monetary (or, strictly speaking, carbon-based fossil fuel) type. This metaphor is almost as convoluted and ugly as the succession of Italian PMs in this game...

Yep, I suppose you could argue I'm enacting China's current industrial strategy a century in advance.

And I could do with a good looking PM, but I'm not sure that is going to happen

[loki100]

Again, my focus has been on setting things up for the next stage, I'll discuss the details in the 1908 update as it fits better there but I've found the AI has built no ships at all. One thing that confused me is the image on a counter updates to reflect the most recent tech, so a sail battleship squadron will show as a coal battleship if that is the era you are in (not the individual counter but the collective on map unit image).

The bulk of this update concerns economic management as I was still trying to maximise my prestige gains via industrial production.

Industry



Non-Manufactures



I'm doing well enough at supplying food and common goods that militancy is now down to the high 30%s:



However, to improve the flow of common goods, and make use of all my nice new American coal,



I gamble on building another textile factory.



In that image note that Rome is brown (ie I can't build there), I suspect that indicates a lack of capacity (presumably population) to absorb any more industry.

I also decide to start chopping down some forests in N America as wood is becoming a bit of a problem.



To help manage the wood stock in the short term, I close down a number of luxury goods factories. They were all only partially open and I'd rather concentrate on the most valuable:



(what I've done is to close the less profitable. Its a good idea to review these lists every now and then as the most efficient sites shift around as population contentment alters).

Equally, my colonial control in coastal Nigeria improves enough to allow me to exploit some more tropical fruit resources.



I then find gold, but for the moment the best I can put there is a trading post (ie a random flow of 1 unit every 3/4 turns).



On balance, I'm still running a large balance of payments deficit, but this is balanced by sales to my own population so my Private Capital stock remains high.



Not that much happened outside my immediate domestic concerns.

Internationally, the Russian revolutions seem to be ending.



Equally my relations with some of my neighbours are steadily worsening.


(by design, this means that my diplomatic script is having some effect)


Still, ignoring revolution in Russia and war in Central Asia, Italy reaches Beijing – well a small part of Italy ....


[1]

However, the overall feeling of being at peace is shattered by a large revolt in Nigeria. This particular faction I have -68 relations with, so there is no means to end this by diplomacy.



Well a small war will help with my prestige.



Main thing is my % to goals is now down to 80%, and steadily worsening.

America has gone from 146,399 to 156,811 (a gain of 10,500) and Italy from 240,330 to 250,208 (so almost 10,000). The problem of course is if we keep in step like this I will never (well I suspect I can't) manage to reach double their score.

Britain lags far behind up from 135,330 to 139,176.

I'm doing all I can. All the prestige producing cards are in use (even if it is pushing my population growth to outstrip my ability to feed them), industrial prestige is steady in the range 285-290 (and will improve when my new plants open). The only source of prestige left is war.

[1] - if you are ever in Rome, go to see the Villa Borghese. One of the loveliest parks actually in the city and a surreal, eclectic collection of art. All sorts from classics of the Roman Renaisance (Caravegio in all his darkness) to art deco.

[Stuyvesant]

On the bright side, it looks like an impossibility that the US will catch up with you in prestige, so a victory on points seems assured (well, that is unless your self-inflicted World War goes horribly wrong for Italy).

Can you build factories in the US, or only resource gathering operations? If you can build factories too, you could just spam the continent with low-grade factories and then shut them down permanently. Perhaps that would damage their economic growth (even more than your ruthless exploitation of all the fine natural resources the US has to offer).

I was hoping for more from that Russian Revolution/insurrection. Maybe next time.

Your "Coal... mine" pun is pretty bad, yes. I guess one could say you didn't dig deep enough? Or that you didn't extract the full value from this rich comedic vein? Didn't quite strike the mother lode?

I'll get me coat now.