January-June 1874, discovering Africa and other events
This was a relatively quiet 6 months. The war in Libya was ended by February as the remaining rebels were herded into a trap. Other than that, my interests were expanding the army (1 want 2 infantry corps in each of the 3 main armies), upgrading industrial plants and some low grade colonial activities.
I also did some modding. I gave myself the capacity to build explorers and to start the Suez Canal. I think the lack of explorers is due to a missing line in the event file for the alternative Italian unification mechanism, in theory only France can build Suez but not only are they not interested, they seem to have lost the option at some stage since I last checked.
Standard Reports
Industry
Manufactures
I’ve added back the information on Private Capital use in production as it does provide a good overview of my total domestic economic activity. As you can see, overall PC is staying high as I actually cannot spend it (on new/upgraded sites) as I am having real problems in sourcing enough manufactured goods. At times I have shut down a lot of my industrial sites that use manufactured goods in an attempt to preserve the stockpiles.
However, by the summer, the situation has become rather serious. The coal shorteage is a worry too, but at least that is still generally available.
Non-Manufactures
Less to note here. I’m running down some stocks (fish, cows and wine as examples) and keeping the others roughly static. Opium fluctuates a lot as I still receive a considerable amount from my trading posts and this varies from turn to turn.
Replacements
I’m still filling in gaps in my main combat armies. As is clear, my reserve manpower is now quite substantial and its hard to make much use of it. The lack of manufactured goods prevents much new build but in truth I don’t want to build the army up much more than it is now. Between the four main armies (one is Garibaldi’s) I have about 9000 combat power, and to that is a number of colonial and garrison forces.
I’m not buying any ship replacements till the ironclad/coal powered ships unlock. I have the tech but the counters are still for 1850-70 paddle power etc.
Population
Again not much to note there. Satisfaction slowly improves, militancy is low. For some reason in those turns, the total population was either static or fell a little but the working population (final columns) increased a bit.
Events
As in the introduction this was a mostly quiet six months as the remaining rebels in Libya wear quickly destroyed. Of more note, someone stole my rubber trees.
I think the Americans lost colonial control and in the chaos my plantation disappeared. This is the second such theft of Italian property in that region (remember my rice paddies were stolen as well) and, at some, stage I think I need to take full revenge.
More immigrants are sent to Dubai
For the moment, Dubai is my primary target for this option. Hopefully that will enable me to actually gain the benefits of all my investment in those gems.
Africa
This isn’t clear but it is the only area of inland Africa I have discovered. I can’t make Kenya into a colony as too many provinces are unknown and thus, on average, my CP is too low to make any progress. Now I have colonial explorers, I’ll start trying to explore the hinterland and see if that area joins up to my coastal provinces.
I now have 3 explorers but can only have 2 ‘active’ at any one time. As I find, this proves to be very hit and miss and relatively expensive. I originally sent the units to Libya (to explore the Sahara which is one of my colonial targets if I find it), Somalia (to explore the Ethiopian Highlands) and Dubai. The latter I realised was a bit of a waste so I moved it down to Kenya to expand my grip on that wider region.
I keep the navy alert by sinking some pirates
Science
This has resulted from an earlier discovery. At the moment, I am not really short of state funds so see no gain to accepting higher inflation.
The usual mix of a useful military tech (again it means my army is more robust when moving – particularly useful in difficult terrain), one that improves the rate at which my crews gain experience and two more industrial techs (in effect again both give me yet another second generation industrial plant).
Prestige
That is France knocked back to number #5 (ok only by a few hundred points), Russia is the next target (2300 ahead). I think I have to send a nice thank you letter to the Austrians as I reckon those 3 crises gave me about 2500-3000 prestige points.
As you can see, my gradual industrial build up is also leading to a steady growth in the structures prestige (up 8 on the number at the end of 1873).
Next Steps
The next report, I am back to fussing about supply of key materials, in particular coal and manufactures, with a degree of care and attention I’ve not shown since the 1850s. Beyond that, I carry on developing my colonial penetration in Ethiopia (I found a number of the provinces on the west side I hadn’t really pushed into) in the hope of acquiring a peaceful assimilation.
But I’ll leave you with the big event of the period.
That costs 500 Private Capital (& 35 manufactured goods) and will take 200 turns before its ready. So at 24 turns per year, I’ll have a nice shiny canal sometime in 1883. When it is finished, I’ll gain a nice prestige boost (75 PP) as well as shortening my travel time between Italy and East Africa.
