Manufacturing Italy (a PoN GC)

[loki100]

So we carry on alternative road to unification. Now I need to make a confession. Despite playing PoN while carrying out a range of domestic chores, I found it hard to keep on waiting. So I've modded the start date for the alternative road to unification (south of the Po) to Jan 1864 and as compensation reduced the likelihood of it firing in a given turn.

Anyway, I've just started playing 1865, and Italy is united. Equally I have found Mr Baldy, and he is not happy I can tell you now.

My reasons in part was to allow a bit more action, but equally I wanted to see what sorts of economic and social problems the unification event produces – quite a lot – rather than carry on with this rather effective, steady state, economy I have built up.

Anyway, we are still in 1862, so lets carry on as usual.

Manufactured Goods and Main Economic Events





The reason for the leap in output was one of those inventions that increase domestic demand fired, so I could sell more into my domestic market.

Non-Manufactured.



Replacements



My stock of reserve companies is slowly growing. So at some stage I can either add a new formation or use up that stock when I need to equip the army with new weaponry.

Happy People



Well they seem fairly happy. Note the growth specifically in the urban populations in two provinces.

Diplomacy.



I've only shown the end-June position. I'm just sticking to my usual pattern. Build up a number of friendly relations and then try for commercial agreements. Insult the Austrians.

Events

Another of the inventions that boost demand for goods fire



Again this adds 10% to each demand cell. I've written in the numbers before (remember there is some degree of rounding going on with the visible numbers). Below it I have shown how well, at the initial point, I am almost meeting their demands in the food/common and luxury categories. I can sort out the common good problem very easily (hence the increase in industrial production), but the only luxury I produce is furniture. So for that I am now very dependent on those random purchases. Remember you need a range of goods in each category to satisfy demand - so you can't feed them just with fish for example.

Also since I am pretty cash-rich I decide its a good idea to invest in a range of key inventions.



Rattazzi is in charge now



I carry on with my innocent interest in the flora and fauna of Ethiopia.



And we will introduce more of Italy to the alien concept of the telecommunications – it will never catch on



And the American Civil War ends



And I make no noticeable progress with colonial expansion



or really in terms of gaining prestige

[loki100]

Rattazzi? Seriously? A man whose name conjures an unholy hybrid of rat and paparazzi? His facial hair isn't quite up to his predecessor's standards, but then he does have a pince-nez or even a monocle, so he gets points for that.

So, you're exploring the flora in Yemen - isn't that a major producer of opium? Coincidence? I don't think so...

Oh, and this:



I blame that on trying to comment past my bedtime on an iPad with a 'God-I-hate-this' virtual keyboard. I certainly did not mean any offense to your antipodean cousins.

well its not that I am adverse to insulting Australians, just this is no longer Ming China and my global interests are much more confined

and I agree the eye piece just about compensates for the lack of face fungus ...

Just read this start to finish and will be shamelessly stealing many of your ideas for my game as France!!! Thanks for an excellent AAR

glad its useful. My logic to doing it was to demystify (not least for me) the industrial side of PoN, I think I now have some idea how the economy slots together and can be developed. Glad you are enjoying it.

Now I am jealous, you've only gone and made Italy dangly bits and all

From what I remember of the manual there is a direct link between the number of rail lines and your rail pool. To me it looks like you've added 1 point per built railroad.

Telecommunications decision does indeed look useful which technology did it become available with?

As you seem to be swimming in state funds it might be useful to start building a couple of new shipyards for the prestige gain. If you have something like 1300 turns remaining over the long term 2 new shipyards would net you 5200 prestige points on there own. (Just started this in my game). I'm not sure if it is worth continually worsening relations with Austria after you get them over -25 (and therefore considered to be hostile) as it is costing you 50 prestige points every time you hurl insults at them (might have some hidden bearing though on likleyhood of a crises which I guess is why you are doing it).

Looking forward to seeing what I have to look forward to!

re telecoms, I'm now not sure, but is really useful post-unification at developing the rest of the country. There is a similar one for building sewers with similar effects that I get in a couple of years time.

hadn't realised that about Austria, does partly explain why my prestige is not really improving. I'll stop doing that from now on.

I have 2 shipyards (both usually loss making) so that is enough. I'm actually content at this stage to stockpile cash and capital for when I will need it (ie post-unification)

Makes sense about the rail pool, maybe another good reason to build them outside your own country too.

[loki100]

So with things a bit stalled in Italy, my attention wandered to matters of Colonial gains.

Anyway, standard reports

Manufactured Goods and Other Economic Events





As you can see, my actual output was pretty steady across this period, I closed a few sites down at the end as the stockpiles were building up.

Non-Manufactured



Only thing to note here is I have rather overdone the wine sales against wine production. Easy to compensate for though. Other than that, I'm holding most stocks steady.

Replacements



Not much to say here. Steadily building up my reserve of unallocated manpower so I might be able to expand the current army or to absorb the cost of a major upgrade.

The Happy People list



Well they mostly are ...

Diplomacy



This shows the end of December position only. Well not much has happened to change the overall trends.

Events

Well the chance to do even more telecommunication stuff comes up. This means I can now have 4 such decisions in play at any one time.



[color="#FF0000"]Edit - the figure is wrong that column I have marked total population is, of course, population growth - an error I will persist in making for the next 16 (game) years ... nothing if not consistent [/color]

Note that each time it is played, it reduces the revolt chance (not militancy), increase the development level (ie more efficient production) and increase the population pro-rata (ie more potential consumers and workers).

And Sicily seems to have rebelled, this is a mystery that will be solved in a couple of years time



Anyway, to increase my colonial activities I decide to build a prospecting unit. This has to be built in Italy and shipped to where I want it. If I understand properly this one increases the chance of resources being discovered (at the moment a lot of provinces in say Ethiopia are shown as having no resources)



I find I can build a new trading post, and in a province that does coffee.



Later on some earlier colonial decisions yield more prestige



And its time to ship my prospectors off to Africa



Not that it really moves my colonial control very much



Diplomatically I find out that Austria and Prussia are still on a major love fest



No doubt this will lead to dodgy self-serving 1-1 draws in the future, but at the moment it makes a war to gain Lombardy a bit foolish.

Overall my economy is now pretty powerful



This is compared to 1649 at the start of the game, so I've managed a major economic expansion.

But prestige is still not my strong point



Now I've since realised I should have stopped insulting the Austrians as that was costing me prestige, but Belgium ... I'm sorry but ... I mean the wonderful Dani Klein is not even born yet. Now that does hurt.

[loki100]

Excellent reference to the 1982 world cup - blatant and shameful.

yep, there have been a few other stictch ups but that one was beyond shame. So glad that Italy did them in the final, esp after the German performance in the semis. I was living in Rome at the time, and it was a wee bit lively

I really have to thank you for this AAR loki. It's really given me a much better handle on PoN, which I have found really overwhelming every time I have tried it.

Glad about that. My basic goal was not to offer up a particularly subtle or brilliant bit of gameplay but to get the basics of the economic model sorted out. I think I'd now have the confidence to try one of the more interesting states. One problem with PoN is it is a very good simulation of the 19 Century, and that means as one of the smaller powers, there really isn't a huge amount you can do at times.

Garry, is that you?!

Solid work and (potentially) exciting colonial action! It is a shame that, after all your diligent work and steady growth, you're currently considered out-Major-Powered by Belgium. Well, we'll see who has the last laugh when circa 1914 comes round.

it is indeed, Mr Baldi, now I thought he was meant to give it to me?

At least the Belgian embarrasment is ended in the next update. Not sure what had happened to suddenly put them onto the list.

Economy is looking good.

I was wondering if your army support costs had risen as drastically as mine with the building of your new trade fleets. The state funds required per turn has recently shot up from 23 to 40 (the army has had only a few support units attached to it)?

Can't wait to see what you get up to with a unified Italy maybe you can invade Belgium ?

Not especially, I think its about 30-35, so its not something I am really taking note of as I can absorb the cost easy enough.

Yes Belgium must pay ... I mean that was so indicative of my (lack of) progress

[loki100]

So 1863 rolls around. Still hoping for an Austrian suicide mission but I suspect its more a case of picking up Italy by the alternative route. One thing I suspect is that way I get to keep Nice and Savoy. I do like Tomme de Savoie so there is that advantage. In truth so little happened, except adding another bit of railroad in southern Italy, I've conflated the reports to the minimum.

Manufactured Goods



Non Manufactured



Replacements



Happy People



Events

More gold, not that they will agree to sell it to me



My fleet on its way back is in need of the chance to recover organisation. So I decide to stop it off at a French owned port.



Another change of leader. Well this one looks the part too. Hope he stops being beastly to Garibaldi (if, that is, I can find Garibaldi)



The Schleswig-Holstein question is asked again. I thought someone had already answered it?



Prestige



So really nothing too much happened there. Some ongoing scientific investigations of Ethiopia, and a pretty steady state economy. Sorry about the short update, but it was a case of checking a few small bits and clicking the turn processing button.

[loki100]

Not sure if this is relevant or not but I think you posted that your maritime tax rate was set at 12% this might be affecting your competiveness when it comes to buying over subscribed products like gold. I believe that the AI uses the lower tax rate (or at least gives an increased chance) to decide which nation it will sell the goods to. The other thing you could try is doubling (or tripling) up merchant fleets as the highest merchant rating in the trade box has a better chance of getting the goods.

There is definately a lot of nothing to do when you play SP!

Ah, hadn't realised that part of the effect, its one of the taxes I tend to put up when I need cash as it has no impact on population happiness. In the next update I'll show the very real advantage to lowering your tariffs as well.

The gold isn't being sold to anyone, but I end up paying extra to get some from Columbia which helps a bit

The mighty Belgium... Deposed from the Great Power ranks by Japan. Pre-Meji-Restoration (if I can trust history to be accurate). And S-P still nowhere to be found... Well, I'll give you this: a bunch of Katana-wielding, screaming Samurai do strike more fear into the average person than your elite marines (with their oh so fetching hats), so perhaps it's all a matter of perception.

A question from the last screenshot: do you have any idea how the two countries best at killing their own countrymen at the field of battle (China, by far, followed by a distant USA) also manage to have morale that's head and shoulders (and torso and legs...) above everybody else's? Shouldn't those bloodbaths results in lower national morale, rather than higher?

Aye, at least the shame of publicly lagging behind Belgium is no longer on show.

You gain NM for killing enemy units and taking provinces, so oddly I guess in both cases their NM reflects their recent sucesses in their respective civil wars.

... ok, this maybe the last update for a few weeks (I'm off climbing in the area between Piedmont and Savoie - Gran Paradiso - after the weekend for about 15 days). I may put up another post tomorrow as I can then report on Sardinia-Piedmont's very first battle, with anyone, anywhere.

[loki100]

So my small kingdom continues to develop while the rest of Italy remains un-unified. Externally I briefly become the favourite of the entire globe, which is nice but not really what I want.

Anyway, here’s the standard reports and a promise. The next report will feature a real live battle report. Yes Sardinia-Piedmont is going to engage in warfare …


Manufactured Goods and Major Economic Events


(not much to say)


(manufacturing static across the period)


(an exciting new report – my tax rates)


Non-Manufactures


(I’ve not shown all the ‘tradepost has shipped’ messages but as you can see I am starting to receive some useful items)

Replacements


(not much here, have a decent stock of reserve companies but still cannot build very much of any power)

Happy people


(slight rise in grumpiness as I was a bit behind on enacting reforms)

Diplomacy


(this shows the end position and is downright weird. I mean the world, apart from Austria, is in love with me. I think it was as I’d reduced my tariffs as I am fairly cash rich at the moment)

Yep, everyone ended up liking me. I think it was as I had lowered my tariffs quite substantially.

The laid back Mr Minghetti becomes PM



And the Greeks want to make use of my high class (and under-used) shipyards



Suits me

And I discover another of the demand increasing technologies


(shows the new demand levels)


(I’ve selected one item from each of the goods ‘classes’ so you can see how much of the new demand I can meet)

The only problem is the luxury goods aspect where I am very reliant on those random events.

Since I am relatively well off, I am investing quite heavily in research at the moment.


(the lines showing in orange I am investing extra in – essentially trying to modernise the army if I can)

Austria and Prussia still really really like each other



Progress, well non-progress

[loki100]

It's nice to see those tradeposts instead of mere traders delivering more goods. The highlight for me was the Greek ship order - very cool that that is modeled in the game.

Aye, I'm slowly getting East Africa and modern day Yemen under control, so can start to place trading posts on a regular basis. In turn that is generating a reasonable flow of coffee and opium. By the end of 1865 I even am in a position to build a coffee farm in the region.

Even better, as in the next post, the Greeks pay for their ship.

Just noticed that Great Britain has obtained twice the prestige of the second place USA dosn't that mean they have won and game over? Is there an option to disable this victory condition or does the game just continue (or have I misunderstood the victory conditions).

I also like the ship order I wonder if this is a product of having several shipyards or just a completly random event?

Looking forward to seeing who you smite with SP's military might.

Looking at the screen you found (which I will start to use soon), GB is 50% of the way to its Prestige target, so I wonder if its both criteria? Ie get the base score and be double the rival? That may give logic for a player to get into a late game war to ensure/prevent that outcome. I must confess, I've paid no attention to how to win PoN at all. I started this really with the goal of understanding the economy - which I sort of do now - but I am thinking about taking it to 1920. Depends a bit on how dynamic the colonial game becomes.

I think the Greek event was random, but it maybe that having 2 shipyards helps?

There will be smiting, but I am rather the one who is smitten.

So the suspense continues.

Sorry for not commenting more, but I've been traveling for work.

Is there any prospect of further industrializing your existing territory or are you up against a resource/population constraint?

There are some ill explained mechanics around this. This is where V2 is a lot better in digging into the details. The broad issues are clear, there is (I believe) an inefficiency malus if you only have a few industrial/agricultural structures in a province (so I guess this reflects the lack of the small scale infrastructure that supports the visible enterprises), there is equally a malus if you have too much (overcrowding, competition for labour). You can work out the potential workforce but it involves looking at each province and each factory one by one and writing it down. I'm too lazy for this so am playing it by instinct.

Equally you have a fixed limit of the number of a type of factory you can build. I'm not sure if this pool replenishes as the game goes on but I am in mid-1866 in play terms and am about to build my last luxury good factory. At the moment, the only valuable ones are luxuries and the various munition types. The others are ok, but its hard to sell the products internationally. Since I ideally want to develop Italy after unification, and taking some note of my belief about critical mass, I'm deliberately saving both capital (for building) and things to build so I can develop the country in a more balanced way.

As it is, you will inevitably have a unified Italy with the historic problem. A 'modern' Piedmont and a backward 'Italy'. You can then act as did the new state and ignore the consequences, regarding the south as a drag, a source of manpower for the army, a labour pool for internal migration and not worry if they all go off to America. Or you can try to balance the new economy. Beyond role-playing etc I'm not sure if there is any gain to the latter (this goes back to the rather opaque linkage between player action and population contentment). There are times playing PoN I wish for Victoria's ability to dig through the detailed screen to work out exactly what is going on and why. But then no Nineteenth century government had access to that sort of information or statistics so in a way this black box aspect is realistic.

[loki100]

So as promised, we’ll be seeing my very first battle report. Equally as confessed, I modded the alternative unification decision so it can fire from 1864 not 1866. As a compensation I reduced the likelihood that it would fire in any given turn. I should stress, these two statements are not related.


So on with the report.

Manufactured Goods and main events



(main report, note I did well with the random buying in this period – lots of gold and gems. Also I discovered you have a finite number of each type of factory, so can only build a couple more Luxury Goods)



(indication of industrial activity – dip at the end was to control a few stocks)



(taxes and things – inflation is negative due to the decision to buy manufactured goods)

Non-Manufactured



Replacements



Now in this period I triggered one of the military inventions. So I’ve shown my understanding of how it works. It seems as if those ‘training’ messages draw on replacements and there is, as normal, a chance that the chit will be consumed. It doesn’t seem to have been that much of a burden.

The Happy Persons List



There were no meaningful changes in terms of diplomacy so I’ll miss that out.

And the developments


My new explorers are sent off to E Africa … we’ll meet them again before this half year is over.




And the Greeks pay for their shiny new warship



I also make use of my current international popularity to try and set up a number of commercial agreements. This I manage with Belgium and Brazil.

The Americans and the French have a major hissy fit at each other. Someone mentioned cheese I believe.



France seems to lose badly.

My other major invention in this period may be less jolly but since I have enough cash at the moment (first column in the first table), no need to implement it.



And, here it is, my very first battle report. I’d sent my explorers off into Ethiopia, I kept the first one close to where I am slowly building up a strong presence.

Someone did not like them … someone, sometime will pay … if I can ever work out who it was.



Italy (well ok Italy doesn’t exist yet) will never forget Kanbara. Especially if I ever work out where it is and what happened there.

[loki100]

And thus we move into the summer of 1864. All is languid, Italy slumbers, the occasional insult is hurled at an Austrian, we try to work out who killed our prospecters (who no longer have any real prospects).

The population remains happy



Inventions occur, allowing me to chop up wood even quicker



The urban population increases



The Greeks like their new ship



I discover a new technology that makes my navy a bit more modern.



As with military units, the ‘new units’ message is a bit misleading, I still have the same range of units, just more modern/powerful etc.

Now here is where PoN is very unlike the Paradox model. If that is what you are used to, then you know you need to scrap your existing ships and build new ones. I believe, that in PoN all you need to do is to put your fleet into passive (not defensive) mode in a naval base and they will upgrade for you. Its not completely clear this is happening but what I notice is that the regular use of coal for trains and fleet steadily increases so I guess something is going on.

I build my very own coffee field in Brazil



Something happens in late September to disturb the calm:



This message about new money and units joining my army are repeated for each of the other Italian states.

[loki100]

One thing that was keeping me from starting my own game as S-P was not knowing how to unify the Italy (what events to wait for and how to deal with them). I see you've done it, but still not sure how. Did the event Unification of Italy just appear out of nowhere and voila - you're Italy? Seems a bit effortless, would that event fire if you've done completely nothing?
And I think it's great that 4 elements of the army of Parma now serve you as 0 ships . Also, please, make sure that 2000 unknown men and that famous bastard, No commanding general (0-0-0) (full name) pay for the loss of 50 Italian lives! Maybe just assume they were Austrian? Or any next 2k people who cross your path?

there are two different chains.

One is historic - cosy up to France leading to the Treaty of Piombieres, Austria panics and attacks you. If you win (& with French backing you should) you get Tuscany, Parma + Pope by event (historically these were all in revolt after the start of the war with Austria). Garibaldi does his thing in Sicily, you step in and beat the Bourbon army.

Depending on how well the Austrian war went, I guess you could grab all your targets (including Alto Adige and Trieste) or settle for the Po valley provinces.

That all depends on the Austrian AI suiciding and as I've found it doesn't seem to want to do that, despite being insulted and facing a major ongoing revolt in Lombardia and Veneto.

So you have chain #2 which has just fired. All non-Austrian Italy unifies. This is why you have to play those 'unification' cards early on to ensure the conditions for this are met. As we'll see there are consequences which I am still struggling with 2 (game) years later. So yes it is a bit of a non-event, but if you were stuck as Piedmont then the game has no long term challenge. I think its well demonstrated that you can build and sustain an impressive little economy but you will never be strong enough to actually take control of your own destiny. I think that is the key difference to playing say Prussia where you should be able to take on Austria and France (in isolated wars) all by yourself.

Congratulations on the "official" unveiling of Italy! I'm sure flags are at half mast around you're new nation for the lost explorers. Now you are a power to be reckoned with what are your plans?

well I have major civil unrest to deal with, but am now in a position to try and build up my prestige by joining the colonial game.

not sure I am yet in a position to have my very own personal war with Austria though.

That was quite anti-climatic I must say. Thanks ye gods that you will finally be able to do something more than just sit around sending missionaries around the world. Any chance you might go and prove Austria that those 14 years of constant insulting weren't just Italian blusters?

I think its where PoN is a better simulation and in some ways V2 is a better game. PoN to me, captures the mindset of the era brilliantly in that war was rare (in Europe) and the minor powers had to live by the rules imposed by the major powers. V2 allows you to forge a very different worldview. The consequence with PoN and the smaller states is it is very slow at the start, but with Austria I still think I have to wait for one of two things. A crisis that escalates (I still have my French alliance) or them to get into a war with Prussia and I can stab them in the back. Post unification and some new building I have an army based around 4 decent infantry corps so can handle their Italian army with ease - just not the rest of what they could potentially field.

Impressive. You beat the Italians' march to ignomy in Adowa by 30 years!

So, you're Italy - now what'chu gonna do?

get my revenge, if I ever work out who did it. Well you can have a civil war for starters.

The next update shows the transition around unification, I'll then take it to the end of 1864 in the next post.

In truth the next update should be entitled "what the hell was I doing", and when I finally get back into the game I'm going to struggle to remember what I was doing

[loki100]

With this post, what I intend to do is just to show the difference pre/post unification. Some of the comparison points are to the July information as I didn’t take the full set beforehand but it will give some idea of what the implications are.

Industry

Manufactures



The main thing here is the absorption of the stocks (money, capital and goods) of all the holdings by the smaller states. The leap in production is limited (most of what I have inherited is closed). I’m not buying/selling much more internationally (the commerce lines) but domestic usage (last line) is up quite a lot due to increased domestic demand.

Non-Manufactures



Much the same here. You can see the leap in stocks and the small increase in production (most sites outside Piedmont are agricultural) and the leap in domestic demand.

Replacements and things



The main thing to note here is the huge leap in potential conscript companies from 110 to 481 (and of officers but that has not really been a problem so far). I am going to need some of those as the armies I’ve just inherited need upgrading.

Note also the increase in supply and ammunition stocks (again I have inherited this from the smaller states) and the small leap in rail capacity from 31 to 33. Now I think this makes the point that such capacity is indeed related to the number of built railway units as I now have inherited those in Tuscany (built by Tuscany) and Rome (built by me).

No longer so many happy people



Well the ungrateful wretches. I’ve worked hard for this. The top rows are the old S-P for early July, the bottom are most of the provinces I’ve inherited on unification (it no longer fits on one screen). As you can see satisfaction is down (3rd column) with only Rome pleased to see me (this is before Juventus start cheating Roma out of the Scudetto on a regular basis), but militancy in many places is now well over 20.

And Sicily looks very strange – all those 0s.

I’ll have a view in more detail on those odd population contentment symbols in a moment.

First you can see the leap in population demand for goods that was clear from the industrial screens.



So this has increased substantially for food and common goods. The growth in demand for luxuries is a bit less, but as we’ll see will also be a lot harder for me to meet.

I’ve shown the demand situation by picking one good from each group. As you can see



I’m able to meet all the categories but luxuries.



But first I am going to have to find some way to control the dissent problem. As you can see I have demonstrations in Abruzzo and Campania and riots in the Po (ungrateful wretches in Parma). The latter doesn’t just cost production, it closes production down and threatens my stocks.

Progress



Not too much there. A one-off bonus for unification and more per turn due to holding extra cities … and the Sicily problem.

New things to build



I can now build a couple of one off buildings that will give me a small per-turn prestige boost and a few more officers. I’ll put the army one in Rome and the navy in La Spezia. Note I can only build one of each (the one on the little building symbol).

And the Garibaldi problem

[loki100]

No doubt Garibaldi feels his ideals for a democratic and unified Italy has been betrayed by the cunning Piemontese statesmen, who ended up with the whole of the country without even realising it

Good luck with restoring order. The quelling of "brigandage" in the South seems to have cost more lives than the Risorgimento wars themselves. If I remember correctly I read this in one of the books of Hobsbawm's trilogy - he also famously quotes that, when the teachers of Italian (i.e. Toscanese) arrived in Sicily from the North, the locals thought they were English.

yes, what follows is a monumental pain but historically perfectly correct. One Italian source I have (Giulano Procacci) estimated the military deaths in the period 1860-66 as 40-45,000 (no one seems to know how many peasants died but it must have been far higher). The main problem was Cavour was so desparate to derail Garibaldi (& to be fair to Cavour he feared that if Italy went the revolutionary republican route that would trigger British and French intervention) that he maintained the entire Bourbon state structure in the Two Sicilies apart from the King. This in turn set off a monumental revolt. As with Weimar, the resulting problem of state legitimacy was to haunt Italy all the way from unification to Mussolini.

the language problem lasted well into the 1940s. Carlo Levi was a communist (& a doctor) who was exiled to the region between Bari and Reggio Calabria in the 1930s and wrote a post war classic Cristo si e fermato a Eboli (Christ stopped at Eboli) that did a lot to raise awareness of the neglect of the South. One thing he notes was the local dialect had nothing to do with either modern Italian or even Latin but was closely related to classical Greek (and that he used the Greek from his medical training to communicate).

I think that PON models discontent in a very realistic way, with disturbances affecting province productivity and rebels being almost invincible. It's extremely annoying sometimes, but it's close to what 19th century states faced in "lawless" areas like Southern Italy, Macedonia or Yemen.

And as a side remark, I have a great lot of Italian friends, and I have always been amazed that every time they met, the conversation would always, inevitably turn to regionalism: How do you call this in your dialect, what region do you have feud with, what football team do you support where you come from etc. It's seems that the strong local identities, supported by equally strong local economic and patronage networks, survived 150 years of unification - something which also there, though less pronounced, in say Germany or France.

Yes I quite agree, dealing with deep seated revolt in PoN is painfully slow as is hunting down a small irregular force. As you say it effectively models all the problems of controlling border lands.

SerieA has always had a historic geographic rivalry. Everyone hates Juventus but some of the other rivalries used to be political (Roma/Parma/Genova/Bologna were once seen as left wing ... but that is no longer really relevant) but for example Roma and Perugia had a real tension alledgedly down to the Etruscan-Roman rivalry. There were and are plenty of others.

So Garibaldi has gone native and is pulling a Kurtz on you? Did he also exterminate all the Sicilians, or are they simply not showing up in your province overview because you don't have control over the province?

Not showing as its under rebel control, but yep, he has indeed gone rogue and is very unwilling to be quietely terminated (at which stage the Doors playing 'The End' has to be listened to).

Interesting to see the affects of unification that is certainly a massive increase in domestic demand! Have you kept your tarriff rate the same or have you lowered it to better meet that demand? I think I had better start planning now how I get hold of enough luxury goods. I had been putting off investing in a silk farm in France because of the cost but perhaps it is time to bite the bullet.

I notice one of your other objectives Tirana is rebel held have you though of dispatching an expedition to claim it? Thinking about it I am not 100% sure what the status of the province would be if you wrest it from the rebels does it return to its original owner or do you aquire ownership?

With respect to Austria I am guessing you will have to wait for them to fall out with Prussia (should that even happen in this universe)

Sorry one last question did you notice a leap in the number of conscripts you receive per turn?

Looking forward to seeing what happens next.

I've dropped all my taxes. With that huge 12000 pile of state cash I may as well maximise satisfaction and indeed maximise demand (plus usage of my transport ships). Everything but the luxuries are quite welcome as it allows me to open up a few industrial plants.

I think if I took Tirana it would flip back to the Ottomans. So I'll wait till I am ready for that and focus on the colonial developments.

Yes, my per-turn intake is higher, I have a screenshot for somewhere in 1865 so I'll show it then.

As to Austria, well at the moment I don't want trouble as I have enough problems with Garibaldi, but yes I think now its a case of waiting till they fall out with Prussia

[loki100]

Well as may have been clear from the last post a united Italy is not a happy place. Now this is both a monumental pain and very accurate.

In reality there was nothing inevitable about the events of 1859. The period between the signing of Piombieres and Austrian declaration of war saw both Cavour and Louis Napoleon panic that the Austrians wouldn’t bite (and the British were trying to negotiate a settlement that would have seen an Italian federation form instead). When Napoleon pulled the plug on military support it was because a revolutionary Republican movement seemed to be out of control (especially in Tuscany and the former Papal States) and he was afraid this would spread.

Equally Cavour invaded the Two Sicilies to stop Garibaldi who he had previously sponsored again to stop the creation of a republican state.

In general European history books, the unification of Italy is treated as a pair with that of Germany, seen as a set of pretty much inevitable sequential stages and then their attention wanders off. Italian history books refer to the ‘miracle of 1859’ and those from a left wing perspective put a lot of stress on both the suppression of political republicanism by the new regime and the massive peasant revolt in the south.

Which is a round about way to say that what I’ve got on my hands may seem implausible but its not ahistorical.

My first goal is to send a large army to Reggio Calabria in order to retake Sicily. I’m expecting a tough battle as they will be entrenched and there is a malus for crossing the straights.

Some of the army goes by rail



And other parts will be moved by sea. I don’t really want infantry marching down there and arriving too exhausted to be of any real use.



While I’m doing this, I decide to cash in all those nice new conscript companies and raise a fresh infantry corps



Equally I collect together all the various brigades and bits I have inherited from the other states.



I also have a new fleet that I send north to join the rest at La Spezia



Anyway by the end of November, a decent army is gathered, and my commanders are prepared to move. Death to the traitor? Well I do decide on a degree of caution in my combat stance just in case.



Well that was grim, but at least I did win.

Now Garibaldi has run away back to the mainland. So this time I set up more of a trap in an attempt to stop any more escapes and prepare to attack him again.



This gets worse, at least I lost no elements but the death toll is growing. At the same time as all these momentous events, a minor hissy fit breaks out between Russian and Prussia. Seems that Prussia won.



So in the snows of late December I decide its time to end this campaign. Lots of units to block off retreat routes so the end is nigh.



In an attempt to reduce the unrest I try to pass as many social decrees as I possibly can. I also go hunting for more gold than my previous random allocations. Quite prepared, for a while to pay extra. Unfortunately I’m too late to build my very own gold mines.



Not that by the end of December have I got very far in reducing militancy



Economic development.

Despite all the war and chaos, I have an economy to build. This is helped by the huge stockpiles I have inherited, so first goal is to complete the rail net and then start building new industry. I can also briefly reduce taxes and invest heavily in research as I may as well burn down that state cash mountain. I won’t show the economic changes as they are predictable and I don’t want to make this report too long. But my new builds include:



And the united Italy sees a patriotic surge of fish.



Well that is good except I have most of the fishing industry closed down.



Replacements

The new formations are all being upgraded. This is just a single report but I have a lot, with an impact on my replacement stock.



Prestige is growing (slowly) as is the numbers of dead.



Despite all the war, I decide its time to invest in really developing my colonial status. I know have a number of options that will significantly increase my influence





And start to make Djibuti the centre of my actions. I want to take control and build up a fort and naval base before moving on to bigger goals.

[loki100]

When you start talking that it will all be over by Christmas, I automatically start to worry... Especially considering that Gary is getting close to Vesuvius - I still think he's going to blow it all up.

Are you sure about that? The screenshot states 'Sicilian victory' - I assume Gary is Sicily in this context?

ah the attribution to Sicily is because I am using a Bourbon general to do the deed ... very historic.

and we do have a fun snow ball fight ...

Ouch Garibaldi is the terminator! Thankfully you look like you have got that situation under control. The extra resources troops prestige etc looks like a nice side effect of unification although I am not looking forward to inheriting that screaming mob.

I'm up to the latter end of 1867 and its just coming under control, but every now and then one province or another has a major upsurge of (non-military) unrest even now. In effect, you really do not want a war at the time you are coping with the process of unification

I think you should send those pretty marines to Tirana and the Dodecanese.

I actually checked out the Dodecanese, there is a rebel army of about 200 power sat there. Virtually unmoveable I fear. However, war with the Ottomans is now looking more likely than war with Austria and yes, the 'men in hats' will indeed be expected to earn their nice uniforms

Does Garibaldi's army has the usual rebel trait, i.e. instant regeneration of casualties?

I don't think so. I've had to split the next post (Jan-June 65) into two so the civil war is in part 2, but after a number of hard battles he takes the hint and collapses (actually as I find in 1866 it is Garibaldi's evil twin but that is for later)

Oh just a thought might be worth getting some colonial troops on the ground in Djibhuti to protect your structures there. If rebels pop up or a native unit passes through the province there is a fair chance they might decide to burn everything down.

I do have to do that a bit later. First I need to get enough control so that I can supply them. In fact where I am in game terms I am building up a small army/navy in that wider region.

I had quite a chuckle over your "a patriotic surge of fish".

Where I live we call it the Jubilee - a bubble of airless water that rolls in with the tide, pushing a mass of seafood and fish up onto the beach. Not sure what's patriotic about it, but there you are.

Sounds a neat way to go fishing. The reference was to a cartoon by a British political cartoonist, Steve Bell. At one stage in the Good Friday Agreement negotions the mad Pr ... ahem ... the wise leadership of the Democratic Unionist Party started on about fishing rights and he satirised this as a 'protestant fish for a protestant nation'. I can't find back the actual cartoon but he more or less destroyed the reputation of one British PM by drawing him with his underpants outside his trousers, as:

I quite agree with your priorities - burn the cash, ease dissent where you can and shoot the ones who won't co-operate. The quicker you can build a rail net and harness the industrial power of your new subjects, the better.

Now would be a most awkward time for a war with Austria, but given their avoidance of conflict to-date I think you have some breathing room.

Congratulations on your new Kingdom! And please don't stop this AAR now. I want to see if you ever get the Venetian lands.

But yes, as in the next post, its cash for votes as far as I am concerned. And I really do not want that war with Austria quite at the moment.

My original goal was to bail out at around this stage as i started this to really explore the industrial/commercial side of the game. But it has a strange fascination and as I've mentioned you can play while doing other things (ie use the longish turn processing to your advantage). So managed 8 months today while converting all my green tomatoes to jam and chutney ... sort of works in combination.

Also I have a rather stubborn streak sometimes. I did my PhD over 8 years while in full time employment, so I may well take this all the way to 1920 ... unless the UK AI manages a sudden death victory.

[color="#FF0000"]so that is the first batch copied over, we have a united and very annoyed Italy ...[/color]

[loki100]

I’m going to split this time period into two. The first will sort of cover the routine events and the second the civil war with Garibaldi’s evil twin (this will become clear in the next year or so) and other ongoing events.

So we are united, not very happy and in the midst of a civil war.

And this is what I have played 336 turns seeking to achieve.

As is often said in the streets near where I live – “aye, right”.

Anyways, lets dispose of the economy stuff and then we can look at the civil strife and my renewed colonial actions.

Manufactured



Heres the main industrial report. Main thing is I am importing manufactured goods quite substantially so I can then convert all that private capital into new plants and thus develop the south.

Equally I have set taxes very low and invested a lot in research so as to burn off that state cash mountain (down from 10,000 to 3,800). From some reading there is a flaw in the AI routine (esp for smaller states) so it hordes cash, hence the amount I have inherited from the other states.



This just shows the shifts in actual production. Some is trying to balance my stockpiles but most is down to the waves of unrest that means I lose whole or fractional chunks of production at different stages. Also I had closed down marginal stuff so as to maximise capital for new investment - you can see this in the table above where my private capital is growing quickly despite the building programme.

Non-manufactured



Not too much to say there, letting a few stocks fall (mainly as the production centres are closed due to unrest), or to save capital for investment.

Population



Not much to say here either. Overall I am making some progress but the unrest is relatively random and ongoing. As you can see at its worst, it actually destroys a portion of my stockpiles.

Here’s the last screen with a bit more detail:



This shows the 3 worst of levels of unrest and their respective impacts.


Replacements



Still really processing the army upgrades post unification. I am gaining a net of 39 companies a turn compared to 7 pre-unification as well. But broadly I’m absorbing the upgrades and the combat losses without too much trouble.

Some more useful discoveries pop up.



I think I am gaining a glut of these as the extra research points from unification are pushing me over the edge on a number that were just meandering along.

I also gain access to the decree about partial mobilization. Well I don’t really need it now, but it would be handy in case of a major European war (this is related to the discovery about reserve formations)



This one improves the efficiency of my industry



And this is useful as it immediately improves contentment, it also gives access to a useful card that can be played to improve development and population levels



So building sewers increases my population (makes sense) and increases my prestige. So Vespesian still lives?

And I can improve the navy



Not sure if this has been discussed but in PoN you can upgrade naval units (unlike in the Paradox game system), but they need to be in the passive stance and on a shipyard (or naval base … not so sure of this?)

This one assists me in competition in foreign trade.

[loki100]

If I understand it properly each colonial structure in the province (missions, trade posts etc) provide supply for up to 3 combat elements (the equivalent of a colonial brigade) so you can get men on the ground to protect your investments before you have control.

Glad to see you are sticking with it! It has been a fascinating read so far (not to mention it provides me with oodles of useful information on what is to come). I to also almost enjoy the longish turn processing as with 2 young children I can flick back to the game in my rare moments of spare time (also explains the slow progress of my own game)

ah, thanks for that tip, as it is I got away with it, but I guess I could have lost an awful lot of investments.

Yes its wierd about PoN. What is to many the fundamental barrier - the turn processing - can be a bonus. I never play it as I would play any other computer strategy game (ie basically watching the screen), I set it up and if its a non-combat turn pay attention when it is over. I often annotate/edit files while it churns over. You can sort of do this with other AGE games but usually there are enough active moves and combat that you need to pay close attention during the turn processing phase.

[loki100]

So onto part 2. For those of you who like your strategy games laced with a bit of combat this post is, unusual. There is combat … quite a lot, as I battle the evil twin Garibaldi.

Civil War

I beat Garibaldi badly (no actually I beat him but with high losses) in the famed snowfields around Naples.



Unfortunately he escapes. Even worse he hurt Ferdinando, an insult that will reverberate down the years.

He’s also nipped out the trap and gone to Rome



Since I am now taking actual losses and its winter, I’ll leave him alone for a few turns while I deploy and reorganise.

An act of kindness he repays by attacking Rome. The man (or his evil twin) has no shame.



Fortunately he fails to take the city but the next turn he makes a breach.



Well that is going too far. So my redeployed army hits him hard and only 5000 of them escape.



He is still capable of fighting back though



But is slowly driven onto my forces (in offensive stances) that block his retreat



Where what was left collapsed and surrendered.


Colonial actions

I was a bit scatty at the taking of screenshots but with the new colonial decisions there is a delay between playing it and it being enacted. Anyway my initial focus is the horn of Africa and am trying to gain a decent foothold there.

I am not playing with ‘extended claims’ so colonial action outside my designated regions costs me Prestige. However, I have decided to also push into Yemen as the Opium and Coffee are valuable and strategically it gives me a strong position at the base of the Red Sea.



In turn by late June that gives a new rather fruity decision. I am going to own Africa before I own Milan (take that Bossi)



Army deployment

With the Garibaldi menace ended, its time for the army to move north. In effect, I align my 3 army corps along the Po. I have ordered more artillery to improve the combat power of the formations made up of units from the other Italian states.





And the fleet is gathered at Genoa to upgrade.



And prestige slowly improves



Hopefully this will pick up as I develop my colonial presence. In an odd way, my contest from now on is as much with the Ottomans as it is with the Austrians. I still can’t touch the latter so can only deploy to take advantage. On the other hand the Ottomans have real estate I want and can slowly take.

[loki100]

Good to see some order being restored to the peninsula in the wake of Garibaldi's shameful shenanigans.

Do the Ottomans have some means of contesting your seizure of their colonial possessions? Can they also play colonial actions or deploy units there to nullify your efforts, or do they perhaps have claims on the region that they can press if and when you take full control?

I'm wondering if you plan for a full-scale war with the Ottomans soon. Tensions are already quite evident, and Tirana beckons, just a short hop across the Adriatic... not to mention Libya. Indeed, you may have more to gain from a conflict with the Ottomans than the Hapsburgs, at least in acreage.

The Ottomans can indeed try to wrest control back from me by playing their colonial cards. My guess is they have far less than I do, or less capacity to use them (some of the more powerful ones require you to expand diplomats). Equally once Djibuti goes Italian (if I recall sometime in 1866), then they gain a CB on me for holding 'their' land.

So as we'll see, I start building up quite a powerful transport fleet over the next year or so. In part this is to ease sending units to E Africa and allow me to keep a small squadron in that region. But primarily I'm looking for the sealift to be able to shift at least 2 of my main forces from facing Austria to war with the Ottomans. I have potential 'cores' (well the PoN equivalent) not just on Libya but the Levant, Albania and around Adana (SW Turkey) so its scattered but it could make me the power in the East Med, esp if I then step out of my assigned theatre and go for Egypt.

Now, this does make me seriously wonder: as we all know you can tell an evil twin from the 'tache or goatee they sport, how do you tell an evil twin from the non-evil sort when all men had very manly facial fuzz in this era?

Nice to see the drag of the newly acquired territories on the well-oiled engine that was S-P. Unrest, strikes, Garibaldi the Menace to Society[sup]tm[/sup]... It sounds very realistic, moreso than the Italian unification in Vicky (the first, I've never played enough Vic II to know one way or another) where you're just left with a greatly expanded state with a bunch of happy people and generally a nice amount of industrial infrastructure.

Aye in vanilla V2 its painless. Unify, gain a lot of land and a new flag off you do. I've not played an Italian state in AHD but again I think there are no real drawbacks.

I think once we all see the good-twin Garibaldi it will be perfectly obvious what the difference is between them ...

It must be fun to have the whole range of game options to finally play with!

I'm wondering if the post unification situation in Italy is less a deliberate game mechanic and is more to do with the AI mismanagement of the nations you acquired?

Have you had any 1* colonial type leaders appear?

good question to which I have no answer. But the unrest is at the worst in the two provinces with some infrastructure and development (Parma and Tuscany) and those were, historically, where popular insurrection overthrew the local rulers and came close to proclaiming an Italian Republic. In turn it was that (not distaste for the sight of blood) that made Louis Napoleon suspend military operations against Austria. So it maybe hard coded.

No colonial leaders yet ... but I do end up with a rather entertaining solution to the Garibaldi problem.

Presumably you can only upgrade ships to a limited degree. Iron cladding existing warships makes sense, as does adding better guns (to a degree at any rate). I'm assuming that you can't keep upgrading them though, as it would be pretty silly to send your wooden warships to port to have them transform into armoured cruisers.

I was very happy to see the Greeks placing an order at your shipyards. One of the things that gets me about V2 and EU3 is that every country is dogmatically autarkic - If you can't build a particular unit, you can't get your hands on it full stop. Given that navies still sell older vessels on (see the Chinese and their ex-Soviet aircraft carrier), it's frustrating to be stuck with Men o War when in reality you'd just order up some cruisers from the Clyde.

There are a mass of small mechanics in PoN that are just pure genius. Sir Garnett's Chinese AAR shows how if you are the winning side in a war, world opinion becomes more suspicious about you.

I'm not sure there is a limit to ship upgrades. What happens is the image for the relevant unit in the force pool changes (now all my sailing ships also have little funnels). So I suspect a heavy warship (ship of the line) could well end up as a cruiser at the game end. It is slow but so very different to the standard Clauswitz model that it seems unintuitive. So maybe there comes a point where such incremental upgrades doesn't work.

[loki100]

So the evil Garibaldi is banished from the soil of Italy, most of the new Italians seem less than happy but I have lots of fun colonial things to do (who knows this might even distract them from being unhappy?)

So lets start with the standard stuff.


Manufactures





So here I am steadily adding more industry, overall production is slowly increasing as a result but also as I juggle between prioritising the growth of the capital stock (for new builds) and of current output. It will be some time before I reach a steady state and quite a while before I have the majority of my agricultural sites open.


Non Manufactures



This is broadly steady. I’m letting a couple of stockpiles run down a bit so as to generate capital for reinvestment.

The Population



Here I enact the final method of reducing militant feelings – send in the army. It pays off and I have since come to the view I should have done this earlier and more often.

Replacements and the army.



After all my earlier problems here, all of a sudden I have enough conscripts to produce all the replacements I need and expand the army. I’m starting to construct a small army for colonial style operations and will ship them to E Africa when my colonies expand [1].


And then the new developments.

Diplomacy

I won’t do many general reports on this any more as it is not that important. In part more of my diplomats are being spent on colonial actions but also as I keep to much the same pattern. I have identified a group of countries that I want as friends for various reasons and keep working on them.



You can split this group into three. The UK and France are effectively my protectors, but also I can build factories, farms and mines in their holdings thus giving me direct access to some goods. The bulk of the rest are there for trade (ie commercial agreements) but I’d like a defensive alliance with the Greeks (chance of war with the Ottomans).

The other big issue is that Austria and Prussia are still rather fond of each other.



Anyway, lets go to Africa.

I carry on plugging away with the bribes



(note that all these have a maximum gain in CP but some also have useful secondary gains such as in prestige points).

This shows the dispute between me and the Ottomans at Djibuti. I am now the de facto but not yet the de jure power there.



To further enhance this control I find I can now build a military outpost there. Since I also want to build a coffee farm nearby (so as to extract even more than just my trading posts), I also decide I need an exploitation and collection centre.



The net effect is that in this region at least, I am now quite important.


Domestic infrastructure.

But its not all about developing my empire in Africa, I’ll build some nice sewers in Italy as well. As you can see this has all sorts of benefits. In the longer term the two key ones are every time you play it, you gain 15 population points and a small boost in terms of prestige



Which rather neatly brings us too … prestige



So oddly things are settling down. Militancy is slowly dipping but as I find, the worst events in terms of unrest will continue to appear for the next couple of years. I think this is realistic, once people are really annoyed they rarely quickly revert to being passive. My new economy is coming together and my focus is as much on the Horn of Africa as the Po.

1 - of course I know now I could (& should) have sent some troops now as the colonial structures would have yielded a little bit of supply

[loki100]

Not a proper post but to bring in a possible explanation for the colonial dynamics between me and the Ottomans. This thread on the AGEOD forum is from a bit ahead of my current game date but indicates the Ottomans have a severe shortage of diplomats and will soon enough not have any.

Some of the more effective colonial cards cost you diplomats so I suspect once I have taken control there is little they can do to redeem the situation and it will become increasingly unlikely they can respond with a DoW either.

Again its probably a reflection on PoN's emphasis on realism ... in this case Turkey is doomed to spend the last 30 odd years of the 19th century being slowly eaten by rebels and the surrounding powers.

I intend to be at the feast

Well, if you ship enough of them off to die in the deserts of the Horn of Africa, I'm sure it'll take their minds of being unhappy. Dead people not being prone to exercising their mind and all that.

Overall, good steady progress. Too bad Djibuti only is worth one... erm... 'star point' (prestige?), but you've got a solid presence and the beginnings of a rather neat base to start [s]terrorizing[/s] spreading your benign, civilizing influence to the surrounding regions.

Yep, its what colonies are for ... at least its what the British empire used its colonies for.

Agree that in the abstract Djibuti is relatively worthless. I hadn't realised the rule that colonial structures yielded some supply so what I wanted was to grab some land, develop it militarily - fort, naval base, depot - and deploy some mobile forces there. The naval base is key as at the moment my ships are really suffering on the journey and I am using french ports to recover in. I can then expand out.

What I want is a strong base, most of the coast etc, then I can deploy a decent army with proper logistics and take out of the Ethiopians (which is worth an awful lot of prestige)

Are you prepping for a war with Austria at some point? If PoN pushes them into a confrontation with Prussia, that would seem to be the time to push for the liberation of Milan, Venice, Trieste and Split. Is it possible to grab all of those in the same war?

Yes, I am still caught between keeping the bulk of the army on the Po and my schemes in the colonies and with the Ottomans. I've never fought a proper war with PoN but it has a warscore system similar to V2, but I am not sure how much I would need to take to gain that set. If the game was realistic, the price for Lombardy-Venetia-Udine should be relatively low (no one had much dispute that those were 'Italian'). Trieste (with its large Slav population) and Trientino (with its large German population) should be more costly. Austria could argue internationally that Italy had no more claim than they did.

The 'greater-Venice' stuff, ie what Italy got post-WW1, should be hard to snag as no one internationally accepted that logic till the desire to punish the Central Powers became the dominant theme at Versailles and the other post-war conferences. In the interest of keeping this short, I'll skip my usual rant about Woodrow Wilson and his idiocies.

So, hopefully I get the core 3 merely for occupying them, but I will need to inflict a lot of damage on Austria I think to get them to disgorge Trieste etc.

At the moment, Austria and Prussia persist in a solid love-in.

I am itching to get going and remove the burden of empire from the Ottomans. Every time I look over the map North Africa keeps grabbing my attention and is regularly the focus of a crazy plan for that turn. If this game teaches anything it is how to be patient :happy:

When you checked the unification events what date range does the peaceful unification event occur over?

Me too, its a gamble but I have to just decide that the Austro-Prussian war is not going to take place and then I can enact my plans for the Ottomans. As a wee spoiler alert - they are a lot tougher than they may appear to be.

Formally the default chain starts in 1865, I modded it back to 1864 and then lowered the % chance to happen (I got bored waiting). I had a well run S-P with the economy doing its thing and utterly unable to do anything else.

As in the next post, at least it has broken the log jam (a bit)

[loki100]

So 1866 dawns. Italy is in turmoil (but at least it exists) and the Italian government seems more interested in colonial ventures than in recovering the Po valley. Ah well.

So to the standard reports:

Manufactured goods and other events



As in the table, that more or less completes the rail-net in Italy (apart from Savoy). Ammunition is useful as it sells well and uses inputs that I have lots of, so its quite an effective choice.



I think I’ve missed April from that list, but in effect as I slowly control the dissent, and open new factories, my industry is steadily expanding. I’m doing very little small scale adjustments. Same goes for international trade too, I could possibly optimise things but all my stockpiles are pretty static and I’m meeting the bulk of the (non-luxury) needs of my population.

Non-manufactured



Unhappy persons report



Not too much change here, my goal, if I can is to concentrate on driving up contentment and hope the militancy drains away. I’ve also deployed the Carabinieri in the worst affected provinces (not sure if this helps but it seems sensible) and made use of the ‘army to suppress unrest’ option. Don’t like using this one too much (the NM hit) but it is quite powerful as you can see militancy dip from 8% to 5%.

Military Matters



Another with not too much going on. I’m content to do little in this respect for the moment and stockpile conscript companies for when I really need them.




And the events and changes

I only discovered this exists after a discussion with Powloon (its really handy having another AAR I can copy). It shows a lot more about progress in terms of prestige than the information I have used so far:



So I am #10 and only need 61,500 more prestige points (ie double the UK) to win. Well its unlikely, but I am going to emphasise prestige gaining options from now on.

And, as promised, Mr Baldi is back … angry and ‘hunting’



His explanation about his evil twin is not very plausible but the reinforcements are rather welcome.

And I am very active in the colonial game. Trying to secure my position around the south end of the Red Sea.



While Djibuti (green on the map as I can build a school there – am I not kind and generous) is my main focus, I’m also building up a presence in Aden and Yemen (other side of the Red Sea). This is outside my colonial zone so I actually lose prestige on this (according to the manual but I haven’t seen this in the actual tooltips), but it suits my emerging long term goal.

I think I can really nail down this region (Ethiopia is the medium term goal) and it gives me a useful extra front in case of war with the Ottomans (which is increasingly becoming my means to expand and gain prestige – or contract and be humiliated).



This is from a bit later, but shows my steadily growing influence in the region. In effect these two will push my CPs up to 30/35 and at that stage I can potentially move onto a full colony status.



This is the summary report. I’ve ignored Libya somewhat recently (only really have the cash and cards for one region at a time). The two numbers I’ve shown at the bottom are the cost of colonial upkeep (0 at the moment), my position in the colonial league table (11) and my regular prestige gain (0) as a result. As we’ll see over the next few years all these numbers will alter.

And of relevance for later, the lamentable state of the Ottoman empire is discussed. Not least, it is becoming clear there is a need for an international humitarian intervention to resolve some of the emerging problems in the Balkans.



And by the end of the period, Belgium has overtaken me again (actually I don’t really understand how this list is ordered or selected) and the Chinese seem to be insanely happy.



I am still #10 and have gained just under 400 prestige since February.



And it seems its not just the Ottomans who have problems with revolting citizens.

[loki100]

I suggest you use the troops every time they are available and anything else to hammer your people into shape.
The NM hit seems to have no effect as unless you are at war it just moves back to 100.
If you are really sad, i.e. like me, you can hover over the country flags to see how you are performing in the various different areas that contribute to prestige.

Hadn't realised about that last point but you are right. Very useful when gauging relative military power.

Yes, a humanitarian catastrophe needs to be averted - at gun/cannon/mortar point, preferably. Garry and his hunter boys could have some fun in the mountains of Albania. Those poor, historically-Roman-therefore-rightfully-Italian-even-if-they-don't-speak-Italian-aren't-Catholic-don't-like-us-very-much Albanians need to come in the warm, comforting embrace of the Fatherland/Motherland (I admit to not knowing which gender the Italians prefer). Perhaps you could even build a school for them - but that's probably only for the savage uncivs, right? Oh well, the Carabinieri can surely educate the Albanians, if necessary...

Gari is off somewhere far warmer than Albania.

As to the rest, yes I do end spreading liberal interventionism in the Balkans and I'm sure everyone is so much the better for it too. But we will get there in good time (well 3 game years) and his mountain troops (plus the men in hats) start to earn their pay.

Good job with the colonial expansion in Africa and bringing the unruly mob to heal (almost)!

Now that you have declared a protectorate are you able to recruit native troops or do you need to wait until you get colonial status?

I read your post on the AGEOD game forums about Germany not forming (or likely to) and the other major powers not building units all makes me think the AI still needs some tweaking. Not that I expect the AI to perform as a human but preventing the massive build up of state funds to use them instead to purchase units and fund research might be a start.

I agree there is no rhyme or reason to the countries that appear on the F10 Score and Objective screen. It definately needs to be scrollable and include all counties or failing that the top 20 with sortable columns. I think I have said it before this game is definately a gem in the rough and with a little love it could be great.

Sorry to hear the game will be slowing down a bit as it is the first one I look out for when I have my morning coffee (not to mention it gives me very valuable insight into what I can expect).

Its just I desparately need to prioritise earning some money, and had the chance to grab some extra work this week and next, so that is rather eating into my PoN time. Actually I am sustaining that but most other related things are getting squeezed out.

I've since worked out some errors in that post. It is true that German unification has broken somewhere and that the AI hordes state cash (with some adverse consequences such as France's domestic unrest when they hard cards that could address the problem). What isn't true was my comment on the Turkish army (or maybe they can mobilise a lot on demand). All I'll say at this stage is there a lot of them running around the Balkans trying to interfere with my liberal foreign aid programmes.

[loki100]

So 1866 wanders to an end as Italy tries to recover from the shock of being (mostly) unified. By the end of the year, Italian foreign policy is largely focussed on colonial ventures in Africa and, consequentially, Turkey is coming to be seen as more of a barrier to our goals than Austria. As ever, dreams of a new Roman Empire infect the corridors of power.

But before then … we have an economy to run

Manufactured



I’ll skip the non-manufactured report as otherwise this up date will become rather long. Suffice to say not much changes as my stockpiles are static and my domestic needs are met.

There are people to cheer up



For some reason, despite the contentment has slipped back. I think this drop is the result of some provinces slipping back into civil unrest. I find this happens for the next couple of years where steady progress doesn’t prevent intermittent outbreaks in some particular provinces.

Again, I’ll skip the army report. Nothing really to say as I finish the upgrades from unification, and just let conscript companies pile up till I need them.

And events happen

A Latin monetary union happens



Well it’s a useful, if rather small step on the road to recreating the Roman Empire - just have to make sure no one ever invites the Germans to join.

Sewers are dug



These are actually incredibly useful, the prestige gain is nice and the steadily accumulation of development levels and population points really pays off over time.

Equally I decide to upgrade the coal mine in Tuscany. Now the worst of the trouble seems to be over, I could do with a boost of coal production.



Note how much is closed. Some of this is unrest but most is as I don’t need the output. Over the next couple of years the population gains from the sewers (& less from the telecommunications) will mean I need it all open to feed the population.

And Djibuti becomes Italy’s first real colony.



Go me.

I also take a chance on building a coffee plantation in Ethiopia – nothing but the best coffee for the citizens of Europe’s newest state.



This, plus the one I have in Brazil and what the trade posts are shipping goes a long way to keeping Italy in coffee from sort of domestic sources.

And although he doesn’t know it yet, Garibaldi is off to the colonies.


[1]

And to celebrate his arrival I decide it will be nice to build a road there, and set up a society of local dignatories so he can discuss the (mis) deeds of his evil twin with learned men.



Equally to celebrate his arrival, Italian ships start shelling the locals [2] on the other side of the Red Sea.



Note these are a bit double edged. They do increase CP and the demonstration even gives prestige but there is a big revolt risk attached.

Any way by December, there he is, hero of … well something, safely located in Italy’s only colony.



To make him welcome I decide to open a Dye Quarry, build a depot, a fort (so he is nice and safe) and a harbour (this is essential as my ships need somewhere to recover after transporting units to E Africa).


(do you really quarry dyes?)

Now that Gari is in the region its time to declare a Protectorate in Yemen. Once the port is ready at Djibuti I’ll leave a small naval squadron permanently there so he can shuttle back and forth according to need.



As mentioned this is outside my set colonial zone so I may lose prestige but the goods on offer in the region are very tempting (coffee and opium) and being able to control the exit to the Red Sea may be handy (if the French ever decide to build the Suez Canal).

By November another economic crisis starts in Russia.



This is, I think, the third and I can’t really see the impact. While it affects you, your inflation (ie costs to build) goes up 5%, once it is over it reduces to 0% again. The 5% isn’t exactly crippling and you can usually delay new builds till it is over.

Oh, and the French leave Rome



Of more use, Britain gives me a commercial agreement. This means I can build my own things in their territories – very handy to access hard to buy goods.

And, my prestige continues to improve, I am now #9 and I note the British join the Chinese in being utterly happy with life. Weird.



As a final report this is the Asset balance screen. Note the inflation (due to the Russians but it will go away), my economy is worth 22574 (compared to 1649 at the game start) and people would be happier if I could improve access to some goods. Well it is that list I hope to start addressing as I gain commercial agreements with colonial powers so I can build my own production in their territories.



[1] - Remember at this stage I hadn’t realised about colonial structures generating some supply so the supply wagons are to provide support till a depot can be built – in reality sending these was a very useful addition to the colonial force as we shall see.
[2] – Every time I played this card I was reminded of the battleship shelling the African coast that opens Conrad’s Heart of Darkness – if you haven’t read it the book is even more over the top than ‘Apocalypse Now’ (which is a pretty straight lift for the main scenes and underlying plot).

[loki100]

Pride of Nations remains a mystery to me - I've put a lot of time into getting it figured out but it still eludes me. All the same, it makes for great AARs.

Good old Djibouti. A fine colony!

re: the economic crisis in Russia - is that a random event?

It is complex, but then so is Victoria. The first 3-4 years are the worst as you take actions and see no (or no discernable) feedback, which with the game length is rather daunting. After a while you find you have slipped into this engrossing alternative universe, where the damn game invades your brain at all sorts of times.

I'm not sure about the crisis. Yes they are random (I think where I am in game - end 1870 - I've seen 4), not really sure of the triggers but they seem to have no real impact. It doesn't really seem to disrupt either your own or the world economy.

I actually read Heart of Darkness recently and it is a great little story (sorry, I'm not much of a 'literature' man, not given to great insights and all that). I can see the parallels between that PON action and the scene from the book - except that here, it has some appreciable effect.

Congratulations on your first colony. Quite a nice place it's turning into, and a very convenient place to keep Gary the Untrustworthy out of the way. I hope you can soon bring your assertive brand of foreign development assistance to Yemen as well - is Yemen fully independent, or is it in the Ottoman sphere of influence? And how long can you keep meddling in the Ottomans' backyard (re: Djibuti) before they take offense?

Heart of Darkness is, even by Conrads' standards, wierd, but such a good rendering of the lunacy of European colonialism in this era (which of course in game I am gleefully reconstructing). In the next post, we'll see the start of me bringing Yemen and Oman into the realm.

Again as in the next post, the Ottomans have a CB on me as a result. Really bad form if you ask me (I have one on them too for Libya and a few other bits and pieces).

Strikes and riots are suprisingly rapidly (for this game) decreased by MP forces. I strongly advise construction of a couple for your more recalcitrant states. (There's a thread about contentment in the PoN forum).

They are deployed in the worst affected provinces, I think by the end of 1867 it was pretty much under control but it took the best part of 3 years to do so.

Congrats on the colony! I can't wait for my own first colony, though I imagine that I might have to wait a bit, seeing as I'm playing as Japan...

I know, I kept on opening different mapviews so I could appreciate my first born from a variety of perspectives. Brave with Japan, S-P is an exercise in patience for quite a while but then I guess you really have the chance to stir up the East later on once you have modernised etc

Djibouti is looking busy I imagine the Ethiopians and Ottomans are both looking nervously at all the activity across the border especially when Garry the terminator shows up

You mentioned that you were stockpiling conscripts. One thing I noticed recently was that the greater the number of conscript companies you have the less conscripts per turn you receive due to the fact that the number of 'reformed' conscripts increases. I'm not sure what reformed means in reality but in the game these do not add to your stockpile. Basically I I think it is a game mechanism to prevent over stockpiling of conscripts. It is probably better to spend the conscripts as replacements or units.

I sort of imagine Djibuti like a modern day Gulf state (ok without the oil money and the skyscrapers and the dubious idea of holding the World Cup there), with all this building work going on.

Ah, hadn't seen that, in truth 'stockpiling' means trying to keep the reserve sort of level as I keep on top of the replacement cycle and build a few new units.

[loki100]

So 1867 commences with Carabinieri trying to end the ongoing dissent. Italy will learn to love the House of Savoy … one way or another. In the meantime, the House of Savoy itself seems far more interested in the new possibilities in East Africa.

But first, the reports …

Manufactured Goods and main developments

I’m going to stop showing the ‘businessmen have bought x’ messages, it happens most turns and varies from the really useful (gold and gems) to relatively useless (rice), but on balance really helps to supplement the luxury goods. My commercial goal over the next few years is to start establishing my own mines etc in other countries so as to gain some control over this flow.



What I’ve done on the right hand side is to add the indicator of how much private capital I was consuming each turn. This is a good proxy for the level of economic activity, and in effect as unrest eases, and the population expands, I am slowly bringing stuff back into production [1]. Equally, earlier I was prioritising generating capital for investment, I’m now reasonably content I have built all the currently valuable factories and so on.

Non-Manufactured



Military



Not too much to mention, the basic replacement cycle is keeping my conscript reserve sort of static but I can still slowly build up with an eye to my new colonial presence. Also more transport units may just prove to be rather useful if I need to transport the main army to fight with Turkey.

Happiness



Compared to the end of 1866, this shows a steady improvement since I took 3 relevant measures and deployed a number of Carabinieri units. On balance all that effort does seem to have paid off. Just one province now in near revolt.

Inventions

Colonial self-government fires. All this does is to increase the consumption of my people in my colonies. Well if we ignore Garibaldi, at the moment there are 5 Italians living in Djibuti, so I doubt this will make much difference. However, exploring more of Africa seems to please the upper classes at home.



Of perhaps more use is Mendelian genetics. The main effect here is to increase the population growth of my dominant ethnic group (ie everyone but the French in the North West)

With which the working classes celebrate by becoming more militant



I think the way to read this is that for every point of militancy, you lose more contentment. Which makes bringing militancy under control even more important.

Remember that in the PoN research model you have much less control than in Victoria. You can invest in ones you really want but the rest are inevitable and some are good and some are bad. So your society will evolve along the lines of the nineteenth century (socialism, demands for extension of the franchise etc) regardless of what you choose to do.


Events

Well the Ottomans make very belligerent noises at me. How dare they have a Casus Belli on me … I mean, me, the peace monger of the Mediterranean. The Italian general staff is ordered to make suitable plans in case of a crisis.



Typically, despite being all on his own, Garibaldi manages to pick a fight with someone. Who someone is remains a mystery.



Or am I at war with Ethiopia?

In an attempt to find out, I set up a telegraph network



And expand to the east of the Red Sea, taking control of Aden and expanding into Sanaa



And then seek to expand my control to the north of Djibuti (this is currently Turkish owned).



I also decide to start setting up my own Opium fields so as to improve the supply of luxury goods. Naturally this then calls for the need to deploy elements of the army so as to protect my new gains



Despite this focus on the Red Sea, I also start to pay some attention again to North Africa were I have let my expansion rather stall. Note that the Ottomans have lost effective control of most of Libya.



So I am still #9, but have made a bit of progress towards my (unreachable) goal having acquired 11% of the score I need. I just do not think I will win this game with a Prestige Victory somehow.



[1] – I assume you have all read Luxemburg’s Accumulation of Capital and understand the difference between primitive and secondary accumulation.

[loki100]

Wub wah what? You have me properly flabbergasted here, so while I try to figure out what the hell you're talking about, let me just pre-emptively get aggressively aggrieved, like so: "Sirrah, my uni years are far behind me and even back then, I would never lower myself to studying such an arcane 'science' as economy! Harrumph!"

Taking a cue from the FARC (but then from the state side of things)? Plant some 'medicinal' plants for income, then use your armed [s]thugs[/s] forces to protect your botanical hobbies?

lets put it this way, I doubt Red Rosa would make it onto the syllabus of the Chicago School of Economics.

As to my Opium activities, it does rather seem that way, build the plantations, then they need protecting, its all a wee bit dubious.

Fantastic colonial progress. Glad to see you renewing an interest closer to home, in Libya, as well.

What combination of colonial decisions did you use to take control of Sanaa? I find myself time and time again drawn to war to quickly seize control of colonial areas, yet you seem to have taken Sanaa quite peacefully (peacefully by the standards of colonialism, I suppose).

I'm really not sure, it does seem a little bit random when the option to first protectorate then full colony pops up. But there I have made a lot of use of merchants, then a trading post, then the bribe chief cards. I spent a while trying to work out quite what pays off and its not obvious as in other places I have higher CP but can't make any more progress (I wonder if the presence of another power is important?). But yes, up to a point I build quite a nice Empire in the region more or less peacefully. I think I will need to take Libya by war, and of course there is going to be the challenge of finishing off Ethiopia.

Wow I'm very impressed you are really picking up the pace. Soon the Red Sea will be an Italian lake which will be very valuable when/if the Suez Canal opens. I imagine a few coastal guns in Dijibuti could ruin a great powers day (providing 1.03b works and you can transport them!)

I'm also interested in how you took control of Sanaa did this occur because you reached a minimum CP threshold? This is not something that happens with Italy Lite (S-P) where the maximum Colonial Penetration is 35 so I am assuming the extra colonial options allow you to gain control.

I wouldn't rule out (not saying it is likely) being able to obtain a prestige win bearing in mind you've still got 50 years of game time (and probably real time) to go. A lot can happen especially considering how much you've accomplished since unifying Italy. As a suggestion if you haven't already done so I would build out all your shipyards even though they only produce small amounts of prestige (and are loss making) that equates to lot of prestige over the remaining 1200 turns.

As for Dangerous Gary I think whenever your relations with a tribal nation are negative there is a chance (or certainty not sure which) that a battle can occur.

Anyway a fascinating read as always and I hope you sort out the problems with your save game. I have decided against updating my game to 1.03b for the time being until I am convinced that the update is stable.

As above, should have added the military options (esp the establish garrison one) seem to make a huge difference in pushing your CP up above the threshold. I think you can lay the ground pre-unification but need the post-unification cards to really make a difference.

I fear the French AI won't play the Suez card, but its still a decent little region to hold. Some useful goods and quite strategic in the event of war.

And I would really like to move those fort and naval guns I have built to fill out my new fortifications, the naval guns will go a long way to effectively sealing off the Red Sea.

You glutton! Having already devoured Garibaldi (evil twin brother Garibaldi anyway) you now plan to feast upon Turkey?!

A fascinating AAR for what appears to be a fascinating, if rather complex, game. I'm not surprised Austria never dared rise to your constant baiting considering you have the terrifying men-in-hats at your disposal and you have proven the might of your navy by some stupendously brave shelling of locals. Plus with the ever vigilant Garibaldi defending Italy, ready to defeat anyone, and also seemingly no one considering his recent battle in Djibuti, Italy seems safe from attack.

Well yes, I some stage I wish to abast the Turkey.

I don't think there are many locals where my navy has been shelling -- probably just a few bemused and rather irate camels.

I feel very ambigious about this game. It is much more realistic in some critical ways than Victoria. A combination of the diplomacy system, the constrained spheres of influence and the war score version makes war relatively rare and very hard to really extract big gains. So in that sense it is much closer to the mindset of the Nineteenth century - but there are times you have the urge just to go on a rampage ...

Don't forget he also devoured the Bourbons, yum!

yep, I'm going to dunk Garibaldi in the Red Sea ...

[loki100]

So to the second half of 1867. Increasingly the idea of leaving Milan to the Austrians becomes the unspoken policy of the leadership, as the lure of colonial ventures and the half glimpsed glimmer of a new Roman Empire starts to seduce those in charge.

Of course, first we have an economy to run.

Manufactured.



As before I’ve put the indicator of how much capital is involved in production on the right hand side. The leap at the end is due to the final luxury goods factory coming on line.

State cash is being run down partly due to investment in research (I’m pushing an education tech that will in turn give me a lot more research) and partly as I’m trying to keep taxes low (for the happiness impact).

Manufactured goods are being run down as all the colonial activity (below) is using them up. Its no worry as there is so much available on the international market I can buy what I need when I need it.

Non-Manufactured.



Less to say here, if I have a goal it is in keeping the stocks more or less level. Again the decline in Wood is no real concern, if it continues I can either create a new timber cutting facility or buy as much as I need on the world market.

Every turn in the report you get quite a detailed economic report. This contains all the individual transactions (bought and sold internationally) and a useful set of overviews. This is from late 1867, but shows why I am confident that if I need to I can always buy more than I am at the moment.



As you can see, I am buying 480 worth and selling 732 internationally. In turn, I am selling 160 goods to the domestic market worth 417 (so my total sales are 1150). In addition, these domestic sales in turn are taxed (various types, levels and impact) yielding the taxes that in turn form my state funds. This gives you some idea how the financial model in PoN works.

The net sales (1150) become private capital (I believe) that is then consumed in turn in production or can be stockpiled to allow the construction of new agricultural sites, industry or other structures.




Happiness



Not a huge amount to say there. It looks like the worst is over (I have the lowest level of unrest in 3 provinces).


Replacements



Events

In the horn of Africa, I start constructing a basic military infrastructure. A second port, this time on the Yemeni side, should ease switching troops back and forth. Of course a port, needs a fort, and a depot just makes it all so neat. And a bit later, just so the fort doesn’t feel lonely, a special garrison is raised.



Should add there is a second advantage to the fort. PoN has a mechanism sort of similar to that in Wars In America where forts have an automatic garrison when besieged. Its not that strong, but certainly good enough to see off tribal rebels. However Hoedeida and Djibuti are the cornerstones of my Empire so I want to be able to make them very hard to take. I’d also like to redeploy some fort and coastal artillery too (there is a bug about this that is being sorted out).

At Djibuti, I am building up the main naval base. Adding a new level roughly every 120 days.

Elsewhere I carry on making use of the bribery/treaty options. These are great for driving CP up to 35%.

And can add a worthless bit of sand to the south of Djibuti as my next Protectorate.



Of more value, Awsa joins my slowly growing colony.



I must confess, as in the response comments, I am a little less than sure just what the triggers are that shift a province from influenced to owned. In any case, I build a military outpost and then deploy one of my new colonial brigades to make it plain this is now an integral part of Italy.

A school is then built over in Aden.



At much the same time, somebody rebels, giving Garibaldi the chance to do the thing he does so well – get into a fight.



Which then means I can build another Opium field, after all one has to make the most of these things.



I’ve also marked up the various goods that exist across Yemen/Aden. So pretty useful, and both very selleable both domestically and internationally.

And then Gari has to go and protect the school, it seems the putative kids have been listening to too much Alice Cooper. Well we’ll soon put a stop to that.



In the meantime I have great fun shelling North Africa but decide it also needs that personal touch. The official bribers are despatched.



And this gives an overview of the Colonial situation. Note I am now paying colonial maintenance charges of £2 per turn, but then the regular shipments from my tradeposts more than covers that.



Should note, I could intervene quite significantly in Tunisia (I can even, for some reason, build a military outpost there). If I understand it correctly though, challenging another power in a colony can worsen relations and set off a crisis. I have no desire to annoy France at the moment.

I am also building up CP in Massawa (the Ottoman port to the north of Djibuti) and in Somalia.

And prestige. Well I am doing well, and I guess it must be largely down to the colonial actions (remember that every time I shell a camel or two I gain prestige). Number #7 in the world and 12% of the way to my target. All I really need is for the UK to have a catastrophic loss of prestige.



I am, and this is now official, bigger better and … whatever, than those whimps in Prussia. Take that Bismarck.

[loki100]

Congratulations on overtaking Prussia.

in this time line, Prussian is a basket case who will never ever pass the Euro entry test

Again, excellent work! Yemen has been seized quite entirely for the glory of Italy.

As to the switching of ownership of provinces, I noticed recently in my Spain GC that, after conquering Morocco, MCing their entire state, and declaring a protectorate, I could seize MC of the two southern provinces of the Moroccan colonial state with a pair of colonial brigades despite not being at war with Tuareg. This leads me to believe that it is either the protectorate status of the provinces in question or their (I think) tribal status which allows me to switch MC without war. I'm leaning toward toward the former, as another province of the Moroccan colonial region was under french administration and MC, though it has switched to my control some time after the declaration of protectorate (I wish I could say exactly when), though it still holds a French military outpost which the manual tells me will eventually disappear as their CP is in the process of doing. You may be experiencing something similar in your game with respect to the Horn of Africa and Yemen.

Something you may soon have trouble with, and that I have also had trouble with myself, is the extremely unproductive nature of colonial sites, not including trade post shipments. As I'm not sure if and when major road construction becomes an option, building railroads in one's colonies may be a good idea in resource heavy regions you plan to develop. I'm trying this out myself in Marrakesh, Morocco, though I've got quite a bit of time until I can see if it is worth the cost.

I think you are right that you seem to gain a sort of incremental control over related provinces once a regional capital becomes a colony. Equally, I agree, I think if you have really valuable goods, or need to improve supply through put, then you need to invest in railways. Just its quite expensive and detracts from industrial development at home - which of course nicely mirrors the reality of the economics of European colonialism.

Good to see your burgeoning Empire continuing to expand, with many a well placed bribe and a well placed shell helping said expansion considerably. What a surprise though that there is trouble at the school in Aden, it is almost as if Garibaldi being nearby is proving a bad influence on the school kids.

Yep, old Gari-B is quite the bad influence on the young. Why else do you think he's running around Yemen and Eriteria as opposed to sipping espresso in Rome?

Put them to work in the opium fields and see how much they like their "School's Out Forever!" then! Harrumph!

Quite the coffee/opium imperium you're putting together there. If there was a mission 'Become the world's largest producer of narcotics', would you win that one yet?

Finally, I'm not sure how the dynamic of alternately shelling the camels and then bribing the survivors is increasing your colonial grip on an area, but I'll accept it as a game abstraction.

Hopefully you can resurrect or otherwise Frankenstein your save back into action, so that we won't be deprived too long of the Adventures of Mad Garry in Araby[sup]tm[/sup]. Yes, it's purely selfish reasons, but... Oh well, there's no 'but'. Purely selfish reasons.

If I think about it, I have all sorts of qualms about what I am doing in this game. Not only building an evil colonial empire, but doing so in order to supply stimulants to the rest of Europe.

I do try the alternative - shell the locals and bribe the camels, that really does work.

With Gary the terminator at the helm there looks like nothing will stop you other than a bugged save game! Just would like to add that I for one hope you manage to get it working sooner rather than later.

One thing I was puzzled by was your huge stock of coffee. So far I am seeing massive demand for this resource and and currently have over a hundred orders to buy from me with every other nation also similarly oversubscribed. Has there been a great crash in demand for this item?

I'm not sure about coffee. Apart from up to say 1853-4 I've not noticed any problems with securing stocks and I have my own plantation in Brazil as well as the output from Ethiopia et al. But then the only shortages in this game (at this stage) is around the luxuries, everything else is available though demand is rising as the European population expands.

I do hope you are able to bring this back to life. I realize I have been seriously remiss in my attendance here but this thing called 'real life' rose up and swallowed my free time...

I will resist making Djibouti jokes save to nominate Garibaldi as 'Sheikh Djibouti'. Poor man - he gets no love here at all, does he.

Congratulations on your expanding colonial empire - I have no doubt the prestige is richly earned.

From earlier I noted,
I don't understand this at all - can you clear it up for me?

no, poor Gari is just not getting the love and respect that should be shown to a hero of the Risorgimento ... funny though and it does rather seem appropriate given his various activities in this particular game.

The last was a very opaque reference. PoN has a lot of potentially brilliant, not quite properly implemented mechanisms (IMO). One is the economic crisis. So it starts in a country (this one in Russia) and I think is meant to simulate the minor fluctuations in the economic cycle, so you should see some unemployment and dislocation. All that actually seems to happen is you get +5% inflation for a fixed period and a number of messages about 'unhappy businessmen', then it goes and inflation is set back to 0% (I'm not even sure this sequence sees a permanent hike in costs but I assume it does). So its not really having any real impact.

I do think the PoN economy does contain the tools to reflect the big economic cycle. The ways that efficiency of supply intersect with population demand sets up crises of both under and over-production and can lead to you having large unemployment (=unrest, esp as the 'socialism' techs fire & possibly emigration). Equally as it doesn't use the Vicky 'world economy' abstraction (actually I think this is one reason for the turn loading times) but a 1-1 model, then it shows the dislocation of war so much better. Its not just blockades etc, its that your trading partners are focussed on something else or your trade routes are disrupted. A big multipower war has the means to reduce the international economy to year zero as everyone scrabbles around trying to find new sources and markets.

Thanks for the info on 1.03c. Makes sense to wait.

I have no idea how you manage to juggle so many games I have difficulty keeping my single PON game straight in my head!

well the PBEM is easy, if it is white, shoot it.

But I found the AJE AAR rather confusing as in my Rome game I am swatting Populists on sight, and in that I suddenly found I was playing them - which was indeed rather confusing.

[loki100]

So, the good news is I can carry on with the original sequence. The bad news is I ended up making a huge (in-game) mistake. Sigh. Well that confession can wait a little while.

Anyway by early 1868, Italy seemed to have settled down post-unification and it was time to enter the world of the European Great Powers. And that meant, expansion. The continued Austro-Prussian love affair helped focus attention on a more diplomatically isolated target.



But first there was a need to prepare all the groundwork.

Manufactured Goods



Main issues here is I am burning through my Manufactured Goods stock (colonial actions cost a lot as does building up the army) but other most stocks are robust. There is plenty available internationally so I’m not too worried but I think I need to find the capital to create another domestic plant fairly soon.

The indicator of economic activity is on the right hand side and is increasing as unrest falls away and I bring a number of agricultural plants back into use.

Non-manufactured



Most stocks either stable or slowly recovering. Wood was becoming a bit short so I opted, as with Manufactured Goods, to buy a lot more on the open market.

Happiness



I’m afraid I forgot to take the screenshots for the end of June, but in effect it is coming under control. I think by the end only 1 province was experiencing any unrest.

Military Developments



Again, I must have forgotten to take the end of June screenshots but basically my stock of conscript companies remained steady. As you can probably work out from the pattern of builds, I am mainly gearing up for operations in poor terrain rather than a European war.

With hindsight, the warship squadron was a mistake but I wasn’t sure how powerful the Ottoman navy really was. I’ve done a bit of digging in the game files and what I’ve worked out is that ‘units’ upgrade to a certain point in the technological chain and then become obsolete and you need to build new base ‘units’ for your fleet. I think I’ll hit that tech about 1873-5 (presume its related not just to steam but the shift to proper ironclads for the fleet).

Events

Although the Italian empire was being born in East Africa, the lure of North Africa and rebuilding a key part of the Roman Empire remained. Thus more camels were shelled and locals bribed. This process was repeated on a regular basis, sometimes the locals were shelled and the camels bribed. Thus was the ground prepared for the return of the legions.



More peacefully, control was asserted in East Africa by building new military outposts and roads



And sending lots of new garrison troops
…
And building a few more forts
…
Oh and some telephones



Although forts spawn their own garrison if under siege the advantage to having some actual units is they are a bit more flexible. They can be shuffled around in case of need and it sometimes helps to be able to deploy them defensively outside the fort (in particular when hunting down rebels).

On the east side of the Red Sea all sorts of exciting things happen.

So by the end of February Aden is ready to be a proper colony


And can have a colonial society too. Soon after a new school is added in Sanaa … oh and some more Opium fields.

In celebration, a firework display gets rather out of hand



However, I don’t ignore the rest of the world. Somalia is being developed as another potential colony.



And then someone finds gold in Scotland [1]



And Italy is first on the scene … my very own gold mine [2]

I then decide I’d rather like my very own tea



Less sensibly, I also fancy my very own rice [3]



Now as Italy spreads goodwill across the globe, all of its diplomats and officials are ordered to be nice to people. So Gari-the-terminator manages to pick a fight.



Equally mysteriously some body turns up who wants to fight for him [4]



[1] true, also there is a real stushie at the moment about whether or not to re-open the mines.
[2] The real benefit of all those Commercial Agreements I have built up so painstakingly.
[3] I forgot that a structure in a country where you have poor relations is at risk of being nationalised. Which happens at a later stage. Siam is now marked down for inclusion into the new Roman Empire.
[4] I guess in some way this is connected with making Aden a colony in that I inherit part of their army. Damn useful stuff and the cavalry in particular has a very high detect value.