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You should keep the balance of powers in Europe, avoiding davastating millitary conflicts. Try to increase number of solders in order to fight revolution.
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You're very welcome!
Yep, that's Paradox for you!
I will. Victoria 2 is way too hard on infamy, so gaining much land at this point is pretty much pointless unless you want constant war and WC. But yeah, I will try to be the big guy who keeps the kids allright.
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1854-1864
1854-1864
The ten years spanning 1854 to 1864 was a time dominated by war both for the Wendish Empire and her neighbors. The recent war had proven that the military of the Empire was not up to speed in technological development, but the Emperor decided that focus had to be on the further industrialization and economic buildup. Since the economy was booming, he instead ordered a further 60 divisions raised for the Wendish military and hope the gap didn’t get too wide.
In Europe at this time a big war was ongoing between the Byzantine empire, Bohemia-Moravia and France on one side, with the Greeks and Ukraine on the other, trying to defend the Greeks from being reincorporated into the Byzantine Empire. It would end in a white peace in 1855, as the many wars before it.
In 1857 France for the third time raised the question of Algerian independence from Andalusia. Again, Ireland and the Wendish Empire backed their Andalusian ally, and again France would back down.
The same year the Empire got an offer from Egypt to ally, something the Emperor gladly accepted, as it secured his southern borders if the Byzantines were to move against the Empire.
The year 1857 was also notable for the invention of better railway systems, and the Emperor ordered the entire treasury, consisting of over 2 million, to be spent on improving the infrastructure of the entire Empire.
The Second Bohemian War
Then came the year 1858, the year the Empire would move against its relatively small, but still strong enemy Bohemia-Moravia. This rival was very strong economically and had great potential for further growing its world leading industry. And she had to be stopped. The Emperor demanded that Venetia was given to the Empire, and the Bohemians refused. Thus, war was once more upon Central Europe.
The war was quickly showing to be very costly, as the technological gap in military technology was widening. But mainly due to the Empire’s great manpower reserves and large military size, the war slowly went in the Empire’s favor. By 1859 the Bohemians were decidedly on the defensive and as November came, the Wendish Empire was advancing on all fronts.
On November 26th, 1859 Bohemia-Moravia gave up and ceded both the originally demanded Venetia as well as Bohemian Sachsen. Peace was once again ruling Europe.
Further reform, a new war and the end of an era
By 1861 the demand for reform once again made the Wendish Empire a powder keg, and the ageing Emperor Pelka V, by now into his 70s, saw the need to give his people something to keep calm. He was not about to give them any voting rights or other political rights, but his previous reforms of the school system had been met with much approval and thus, he declared a school reform again, greatly improving the quality of the Imperial school system.
The year after, Louisiana, once an Imperial colony and dominion, now a faithful ally, called the Empire into their war against Mexico. Unfortunately, this also brought the Empire into war with their previous dominion Newfoundland, but the Emperor warily agreed to honor his alliance with Louisiana, while secretly informing his old subjects of Newfoundland that he would not take an active part of the war other than sending a few volunteers and some resources, publicly to the Louisianians blaming his ailing navy for the lack of support. The war would soon go badly for the Louisianians.
During this time, another crisis regarding Algeria surfaced as France once again demanded their independence from Andalusia. And Andalusia, wrongfully thinking the Wendish Empire was too occupied in America to help, this time gave in.
As the war in America descended into chaos and Andalusia gave in to her northern neighbor, change would soon sweep the Wendish Empire too. On December 16th, 1864 Emperor Pelka V breathed his last. His grandson, the 24 year-old Janislaw was now Emperor Janislaw III. As the new year dawned, he would do some big changes in the realm.
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Well, I'd say you've gotten the hang of Victoria 2 pretty easily! Was this your first game ever?
I'm glad to see some cleanup with Bohemia-Moravia since it looks like border gore is starting to go down. Who do the green provinces in southern Italy, Sardinia, Corsica, and southern France belong to? It's not Italy, is it?
It's looking like Bohemia-Moravia will be a permanent Wendish enemy, so I'll be curious who they ally with. A great war pitting France or Byzantium against the Wends could be quite interesting.
I'm glad to see some cleanup with Bohemia-Moravia since it looks like border gore is starting to go down. Who do the green provinces in southern Italy, Sardinia, Corsica, and southern France belong to? It's not Italy, is it?
It's looking like Bohemia-Moravia will be a permanent Wendish enemy, so I'll be curious who they ally with. A great war pitting France or Byzantium against the Wends could be quite interesting.
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Far from it, I've played it a lot, but it's been a good while since I played it regularly (it's an old game by now after all) and I am not particularly good at the game I'd say.
Bohemia-Moravia is our eternal enemy at this point. BB is severe in this game though, so taking them out will be a long game. The green provinces is a funny story actually. It was the Papal States, which then fell to Italian revolutionaries countless times. At some point Italy formed, but with a couple provinces in the Balkans, and a couple scattered provinces in Italy.
They did ally with the Byzantines in the last war, but the Byzantines did not invade me and I just kept a couple armies at the southern border for scaring them off.
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There are some Bad Bad borders! Any idea, why France was son enamoured with an independent Algeria? Thank you for the update and your work with the ACAs. Good Luck with the new job.
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It's a shrewd strategy, buying the populace off with limited social reforms to forestall political reform. But I suspect that it can't work forever.
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That part of the mechanics is a black box to me… Amd thanks!
We will have to see, I’ve never got this far in Vicky2 with so few reforms. Consciousness tend to skyrocket whatever I do. This time it didn’t.
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Oh, I'm making an in-world comment; I have no idea if the strategy will actually work in the game, but it does sound like a certain kind of conservative thinking from the era.
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Indeed it does! Worked quite well for the Germans. For a while.
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Make Bohemia-Moravia Italian nation! They don't need their central european lands - rightful Wendish claims
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Agreed! But I will need to take all of Italy first due to stupid Vicky2 rules. Capital needs to fall last.Make Bohemia-Moravia Italian nation! They don't need their central european lands - rightful Wendish claims
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Yeah, but it is what it is.
Either I mod or I just live with it. So far, I've lived with it. - 1
1865-1875
1865-1875
The Polish National Revitalization
As 1865 dawned, the newly crowned Emperor Janislaw III proclaimed a momentous change in Imperial policy. The Wendish Empire was historically a realm founded on Polish language and culture. Only, as the renaissance dawned centuries before, an Emperor deeply steeped in Greek culture, the infamous Emperor Wojciech III, had promoted his Greek heritage to a point all successive Emperors, the entire aristocracy and realm had been thoroughly Hellenized, although the Greek speaking communities in the Empire at wide was few and far inbetween. In short, since the mid-1400s the Empire had been governed by Greek culture and language, but almost all subjects were of various other nationalities and languages. Of them the biggest by far was Polish themselves.
And on January 1st, 1865 this all changed. The new Emperor decreed that he ruled a realm that belonged to all, but first among them the Polish. Thus, Polish now being the biggest culture and also the rightfully dominant one, Greek was out. Polish was in, and now the primary culture. In school, all should learn Polish, in court all should speak Polish. Greek remained an accepted culture though, and also the lingua franca of international diplomacy.
Soon, further decrees came. Cities, roads, whole regions, were renamed to fit the Polish dominance that now was on the rise. It was no way that people in the Empire should not know that change was coming. It would not be long before the national economy would follow suit.
A changing world
A year after gaining the throne, the new Emperor tired of his ally’s war in America, which were going nowhere good. He sent out peace feelers to the combattants and managed to broker a white peace between the old Imperial colonies.
Closer to home, in 1867, the Byzantines had started another war on Greece and their allies Ukraine, to reannex Greece into the Imperial fold. While allied to France and Bohemia-Moravia, who was weakened themselves, the Byzantines were already weakened by their recent bankruptcy. It did not go well for them. Soon, Ukrainian forces were swarming their lands. But the war was costly for both sides, and Greece barely held on. Thus, in mid-1868, a white peace was signed between the contestants, again.
Seeking to remain at peace, and not without friends, the Emperor started on a PR campaign on the international scene. One after another, new allies were gained for the Wendish Empire. In 1868, Egypt offered an alliance, and thus the Middle East was secured in case of war with the Byzantines, however unlikely it may have seemed.
In 1869, Andalusia, who had broken their alliance with the Empire years prior, was again a signed-on ally. The same year, Louisiana approached to renew their alliance, after having been let lose following the war just years prior. Hesistantly, the Emperor agreed.
The year after, the Kingdom of America agreed to an alliance too, but this was broken the year after as the Democratic Party once again successfully couped the tiny nation, installing a puppet king of their own. Three years after Sardinia and the Persian nation of Daylam offered alliances as well. Even Bengal wanted a part of the alliance with the top dog of the world, joining in 1874
But perhaps the biggest change during these years, was the rise of Communism as an idea, originating in Friesland, and the start of the many rebellions that would rise, and be squashed, the next few years. The first was the Jacobin rebellion of 1871, which would take almost a year to successfully beat. This would be followed by another Jacobin rebellion in 1875, but that rebellion was squashed rather quickly. Still, the Emperor ordered in 1873 a massive buildup of the national army, which would soon increase almost 80% in size.
The economy of the Empire continued to grow at breakneck pace all through these changes, though. Already by mid-1869, the Imperial industrial score was over double that of Bohemia-Moravia, which only a short time before was the leading industrial country by far. Over the next years, the speed of industrialization would only increase. By 1875, it would be about four times the size of Bohemia-Moravia’s – or any competitor in the world:
Of course, the composition of the populace changed too, with laborers in the factories now numbering over one quarter of the total population in the Wendish Empire. And while the Empire was still an absolute monarchy with a 100% Conservative government and parliament, handpicked by the Emperor himself, the ideology of the people were changing. Thankfully for the Emperor, however, the vast majority of the country was looking at him as a Father of the Nation, and consciousness around politics were generally quite low.
In other news, the Imperial expeditions to find the source of the Nile finally found success in 1871, when Pelka Jabanitzky returned from his second expedition with the glorious news. Wendish prestige soared.
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Few nitpicks:
Idk if it's your doing or converter's, but "Kaliningrad" is russian name in polish we called it "Królewiec".
"Jabanitzky" maybe the americanized version of polish surname "Jabanicki" although I've never heard surname like that, cause it doesn' t come from job, animal or other name. The "-cki, -ski" ending is often the sign of noble origins or of people fabricating one.
P.S.: Is "Heavenly Kingdom" result of Taipei rebellion or is it have different origins here?
Idk if it's your doing or converter's, but "Kaliningrad" is russian name in polish we called it "Królewiec".
"Jabanitzky" maybe the americanized version of polish surname "Jabanicki" although I've never heard surname like that, cause it doesn' t come from job, animal or other name. The "-cki, -ski" ending is often the sign of noble origins or of people fabricating one.
P.S.: Is "Heavenly Kingdom" result of Taipei rebellion or is it have different origins here?
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The events are game related, not me. It popped up after I modded the primary culture to Polish.
The Jabanitzky is my imagination of a name from an Empire spanning from Germany through Poland, to Russian lands, with Hungary and Scandinavia also being a part of it. It's a melting pot, so I thought something like that name would fit.
The Heavenly Kingdom I THINK was there from the conversion already. China was divided in EU4 already.
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Greek spoken in Wendish Empire reminds of Latin in churches after most no longer spoke the language. Thank you for updating
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I was curious how the new Emperor would adapt to changing times but honestly promoting the Polish language over Greek seems like a decision that should have been made a long time ago. It should help his stock with nationalists, hopefully.
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