Hello, the idea behind this AAR, is for it to be an outlet for me to discuss the game and talk about mostly big picture concepts, so there will not be much flavor or any graphics(sorry
). I have already played to 1852, but will give a summary of what has happened thus far.
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Sweden is a relatively small country with no starting industry, but an 80% literacy rate. The main goal of this game, is to forge a large worldwide colonial empire similar to the Dutch, to support lucrative industry in the Swedish homeland. I used the first few years worth of national focuses to increase the clergy of my states to 2%, so my already high literacy gets better as the game goes on, then I switched focuses to craftsman and clerks.
I also planted the seeds of industry, with a steel mill, cement factory, glass factory and liquor distillery in Stockholm. Bronze factory and bronze artillery factory in Norrland. Paper mills, printing houses, lumber mills, furniture factory and canned food factory in the south of Sweden. The paper industries will be useful once I can build stock exchanges. (Also these industries correlate to local resources.)
Very early on I created an army to send to Africa, three regular infantry brigades and two artillery brigades. To carry this army to Africa I commisioned a fleet of five clipper transports and a few frigates for escort.
First I justify a war against an independent west African country to establish a base for my fleet, then as time went on, I justify against another African country further south and eventually daisy chain my way around Africa to the east coast. When the time comes these colonies will provide the logistics needed to acquire lucrative Asian colonies. As a bonus I got access to Tropical wood(a decent amount) from one of my West African colonies, allowing the construction of a luxury furniture factory in my home province already containing a furniture factory.
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This is the gist of what I did from 1836 to ~1846.
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In 1847, as usual in VICKY, I faced a pretty large liberal uprising in Sweden. There was a little back and forth, but with the help of Norway I was able to subdue the rebellion with the 24k troops of my Home Guard Army, and maintain the status quo. Politically, I have been trying to keep my population conservative, mostly to avoid laissez faire policies so early in the game, when my industry is still relatively fragile and vulnerable to external factors.
I recently unlocked the ability to build iron artillery factories and commissioned one in Norrland, which has a local source of iron ore, and I also established an explosives factories to make my new artillery factory more efficient.
I also unlocked steamer shipyards and built one in stockholm(for the steel), these steamers will be crucial to my long term strategy of building ironclad warships, to one day challenge Great Britain for colonies in south east Asia and elsewhere. I will have to stay ahead of the tech curve to try and eek out an edge over the massive Royal Navy.
<--------side notes-------->
I aim for at least as many artillery brigades as line brigades in my armies for maximum firepower per manpower.
In the future, when my mobilization abilities improve, I will set aside some of my standing army capacity to create "reserve" armies of 3-5 artillery brigades(no infantry) with leaders. That way when I do mobilize, I can put the conscript infantry into these armies and have a pretty powerful, artillery heavy force.
The downside to this strategy of course, is that it limits the usefulness of my non-mobilized standing army and creates a lag period until my country is fully mobilized.
-------
That's it for now, you're all caught up, I will write up another update as I play further.
). I have already played to 1852, but will give a summary of what has happened thus far.-----
Sweden is a relatively small country with no starting industry, but an 80% literacy rate. The main goal of this game, is to forge a large worldwide colonial empire similar to the Dutch, to support lucrative industry in the Swedish homeland. I used the first few years worth of national focuses to increase the clergy of my states to 2%, so my already high literacy gets better as the game goes on, then I switched focuses to craftsman and clerks.
I also planted the seeds of industry, with a steel mill, cement factory, glass factory and liquor distillery in Stockholm. Bronze factory and bronze artillery factory in Norrland. Paper mills, printing houses, lumber mills, furniture factory and canned food factory in the south of Sweden. The paper industries will be useful once I can build stock exchanges. (Also these industries correlate to local resources.)
Very early on I created an army to send to Africa, three regular infantry brigades and two artillery brigades. To carry this army to Africa I commisioned a fleet of five clipper transports and a few frigates for escort.
First I justify a war against an independent west African country to establish a base for my fleet, then as time went on, I justify against another African country further south and eventually daisy chain my way around Africa to the east coast. When the time comes these colonies will provide the logistics needed to acquire lucrative Asian colonies. As a bonus I got access to Tropical wood(a decent amount) from one of my West African colonies, allowing the construction of a luxury furniture factory in my home province already containing a furniture factory.
-----
This is the gist of what I did from 1836 to ~1846.
-----
In 1847, as usual in VICKY, I faced a pretty large liberal uprising in Sweden. There was a little back and forth, but with the help of Norway I was able to subdue the rebellion with the 24k troops of my Home Guard Army, and maintain the status quo. Politically, I have been trying to keep my population conservative, mostly to avoid laissez faire policies so early in the game, when my industry is still relatively fragile and vulnerable to external factors.
I recently unlocked the ability to build iron artillery factories and commissioned one in Norrland, which has a local source of iron ore, and I also established an explosives factories to make my new artillery factory more efficient.
I also unlocked steamer shipyards and built one in stockholm(for the steel), these steamers will be crucial to my long term strategy of building ironclad warships, to one day challenge Great Britain for colonies in south east Asia and elsewhere. I will have to stay ahead of the tech curve to try and eek out an edge over the massive Royal Navy.
<--------side notes-------->
I aim for at least as many artillery brigades as line brigades in my armies for maximum firepower per manpower.
In the future, when my mobilization abilities improve, I will set aside some of my standing army capacity to create "reserve" armies of 3-5 artillery brigades(no infantry) with leaders. That way when I do mobilize, I can put the conscript infantry into these armies and have a pretty powerful, artillery heavy force.
The downside to this strategy of course, is that it limits the usefulness of my non-mobilized standing army and creates a lag period until my country is fully mobilized.
-------
That's it for now, you're all caught up, I will write up another update as I play further.
