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Engineer some sort of great war?
French revanschism + russian wants for poland or something? Perhaps the balkan nations will want complete independence and throw their german princelings from the thrown?
The possibilities are endless my friend :p
 
The Großdeutsche Lösung: The Austrian variation

11. The End of the Affair.

"One could never be sure with those pesky colonials". Those words were attributed -wrongly- to Lord Palmerston, when asked about the American Civil War. Forty years later, the old saying was still true. Chancellor Bismarck-Steiner, however, disagreed. To him, "if there is a war, one could be pretty sure who's going to lose it: the Southerners".

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And it was true. On January 25th, 1901, the Treaty of Georgia reduced the dying CSA to a single province around his capital, Richmond. Silly as it may seem, the CSA would not vanished until the final defeat at the Fourth American Civil War, which began and ended on March 12, 1906. So short, so simple. Now it was just a question of expelling the Mexican, British French and Texan invaders who defiled the sacred American ground, as the then Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt stated.

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Meanwhile China had been mercelessly crushed by the Russian Empire, something which angered the British Empire, which had now a continuous border with the Tsarist Empire from Burma to Persia. Then Queen Victoria died (1).

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In Germany the chancellor was bored to sobs. To do some kind of exercise, he arranged the German-Serbian Week of Friendship, which ended with the transfer of Macedonia to the Serbian rule (2). Then came the Argentinian Tragedy in Two Acts. With this name one could well think that it had to be a wonderful piece of acting, to be mentioned here. Well, no. It was a wonderful shitting for Argentina, who trashed Chile just to be vanquished by Peru two years later. Well, it could have been worse to defeat Peru and be beaten by Chile, of course...
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Then came the most expected moment by Chancellor Bismarck-Steiner: the attempted Unification of Italy. It began well. By December 1904 the Dual Empire declared war against Sardinia-Piedmot. Then everything went bollocks. Venetia, who was the most interested part in the affair, said "No, thank you" when she was told about her obligations as a Ally of the Empire. Thus Germany did all the fighting -not very much, one must recognize- and ended with a good chunk of Italian ground. After considering to devote it for the German grandparents and to save them the travel till Mallorca, in the last moment Bismarck-Steiner decided against it and sold the land for a good amount of money and some technology (3). To make it worse, France didn't bite the bait, so Paris avoided the traditional bashing and trashing, which caused a severe pain in the arse to the appalled German Chancellor. Never mind, at least the war was short enough (6 January - August 21, 1905) not to be too boring.

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Thus ended this tale, a few weeks after Norway became an independent nation.

(1) It is sometimes stated that, when the Bristish Prime Minister, the Marquess of Salisbury, was informed about this two developments he uttered a terrified "Oh bugger!". In fact, he just said "Bug". It is unknown if he stopped in the midst of the whole statement or was foretelling an informatic event.

(2) It is sometimes stated that, after signing the Treaty, chancellor Bismarck-Steiner said: "Now stuff it!". Regrettably, this rumour is absolutely true.

(3) I was so pissed off that I didn't bother to take a screenie of that silly moment.
 
Epilogue.

By 1907 Chancellor Bismarck Steiner had enough of ruling Germany -to his surprise and the consecutive victories of the Conservative party in the General Election (1). With him ended an age.

Western Europe had changed very much since the end of the Napoleonic War. Now Germany stretched from the North Sea to the Mediterranean and from Alsace to Poland, and was the master of not only the Balkans, but also of Africa. The United Kingdom was a still a power to be beckoned and France had began to plunge into oblivion while Spain had emerged as a great rival to Germany and Britain. Meanwhile, the endless bickering in the Italian Peninsula still avoided the unification of the country. Even the French were tired about them.

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The Balkans, to St. Petersburg changring, were Vienna's playground, even if the original attempt of creating an independent Poland and Ucraine and to expand Romania and Bulgaria had failed fro the time being. In the future were hidden the clouds of war the loomed over Serbia, the Ottoman Empire (which still controlled the Arab Peninsula and the Lybian coastline) and, perhaps, Russia, as the Romanian king, Carol I (born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen) did not refrain from claiming back Moldavia to his country. However, with the powerful Russian Empire included in the game, this was a risky game. Time would tell.

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Africa, clearly, belong to Germany. At least, most of it. The German dominions stretched from east to west, and from north to south, and was the dominant power in the center of the continent, with a point of tension with France, who controlled a single colonial post which avoided Germany reclamining the country to the north of Sokoto. The same happened to the east, where the Spaniards controlled the coast of Mauritania and were not keen on listening to France's demands. Lybia and Egypt, former Ottoman puppets were now on the German side, who had sold them many lands and had "goldened" the purse of many key politicians, generals and sultans there. In the south Portugal was happy with a small colonial Empire that gave good benefits at the end of the day, were it not for the British Dominion of South Africa and its diamonds, who looked at her neighbour with greedy eyes. And, keeping in mind the shameful end of the Republic of Orange and the reduction of the Transvaal to a puppet state, the future did not look quite charming for Lisbon...

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The Far East was the most complicated area of the planet. The Russian Empire had devored not only Persia, but also China and was now looming threateningly over the British Jewel of the Crown, which was still a mix of British protectorates and Indian "client" states. China had avoided to be crushed by Japan just to be "raped" by Russia. This could be explained due to Japan's defeat in the Spanish-Japanese war of 1880, when Tokio decided to conquer the Phillipines, just to be crushed and send backwards in time by a spiritied Spain, who had intered into a deep rivalry with the Dutch over Borneo (2).

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Meanwhile, Australia and Canada had won their status as dominions of the Empire, with New Zealand close to achieve it.

America was also a conflicting area, with Russia, Canada, United States, Britain and France having a saying about Alaska, and with Washington looked with glee in their eyes to the minute Texan Republic and the Northern States of Mexico... And keeping in mind the British presence in Central America, this could be a repetition of the war of 1812 but a bit amplified.

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Central America, now at peace, shows itself also as conflictive land in the future. The British and French colonial present in Mexico doesn't look promising for the Mexican rulers, while the decadent United States of Centroamerica, still plagued with rebellions, seem an easy prey for economic colonialism of any foreign power.

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Finally, South America, where Brazil and Peru stand as the two big powers of the region and Argentina as the big failure of the century, having being crushed by Peru and failed to colonize the southern corner of the continent. Only the future will tell about how the Brazil-Peru rivalry will end.

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The Dual AustroGerman Empire is the biggest Empire right now, with the United Kingdom and Spain close at her tail. Spain (3918) is the most prestigious country in the world, followed by Germany (3489), the United Kingdom (2667), Portugal (1404), Mexico (1387), the USA (1172) and France (1062). Britain is still the most powerful military power (421) of the world, with Russia (277), USA (228) and Germany (126) behind. Germany is the greater industrial nations (1365), followed with Russia (1267), the United Kingdom (858), the USA (733) and Hungary (326).

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Right now, the Dual Empire is the biggest power in the world.

The question is... for how long?

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(1) No cheating involved, I swear it.

(2) I'm amazed about how closely the British Empire in the Far East resembles the OTL...
 
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Here we come to the end of this AAR. I must admit that I'm not quite satisfied with the style of this, which closely resembles the previous one and it still lacks a narrative style and not this boring repetition of statements and acts. This, along with the feeling of "what's next", has helped to give it an ending. Well, this an the idea for the next one, what the heck... :p

You know me, I can't stand iddle without thinking... Even the flight of a dove gives me new ideas...

So, don't worry, cause I'll be back soon. Thank you for your support and wonderful comments. I'm sorry not to be able to follow them.
 
I've been following this since the beginning, but never posted.
So it's time to do, and congratulate!

I've seen your complaints about the style, but don't worry: it improves steadily and - I have to admit - this AAR was easily readable and enjoyable, with the right mix of text and screenies. Sometimes more narrative AARs tend to be more difficult to follow, but this is my humble view of course.
 
This has been a very good AAR, and one that I followed closely. I'm sad to see it coming to an end, but respect you all the more for giving it up when the time was right.

I personally am fond of this style - it's easier to follow if you miss an update and it doesn't require any time going back to look through posts one might have already read for clarification on characters and such.

I'm glad to hear there will be more coming, I look forward to it!
 
Dear brethern,

I'm very proud to tell you all that this AAR has been showncased. IIRC, it's the second time that one of my awards is distingushed in such a way, so you can imagine how happy I am, specially in this case, as tihs AAR was a very small one, I'm afraid.

Well, this is it.


Finally, something completely unrelated with this AAR or the award. I'm thinking about another Vicky AAR, but I dunno, really, what to do, so, here comes my humble question:

What kind of AAR would lo like to see (history book, comic story, explaining the game decisions and its consecuences) and with which country?
 
Finally, something completely unrelated with this AAR or the award. I'm thinking about another Vicky AAR, but I dunno, really, what to do, so, here comes my humble question:

What kind of AAR would lo like to see (history book, comic story, explaining the game decisions and its consecuences) and with which country?

A newspaper type AAR would be pretty awesome. I believe Newfoundland can be released, that might be a fun nation for an AAR. Quebec might be a good one, too. I don't know how masochistic you are, but Liberia would be a good challenge and a great read.
 
Finish the book of deeds. Or Finnish it.

I'm afraid not. I would like to, but I don't have the energies to do it.

A newspaper type AAR would be pretty awesome. I believe Newfoundland can be released, that might be a fun nation for an AAR. Quebec might be a good one, too. I don't know how masochistic you are, but Liberia would be a good challenge and a great read.

I'm not so masochistic, I'm afraid...
 
I read this through after seeing it showcased. Very good Kurty. :)

How do you make so many AARs? :p
 
I read this through after seeing it showcased. Very good Kurty. :)

How do you make so many AARs? :p

A lot of imagination has to do with it.

Unlike thee, he does not finish them. :(

With the exception of the CK AAR "lo Llibre del Feyts" -that I'm afraid will remain as it is-, I've finished most of the rest, beginning with the Vicky AARs. Plus, from the ten HOI AARs I have on my count, one was abandoned due to problems and conversion to a new thing, another one is waiting to be retaken -I don't think I'll do it-, two are still running and the rest are finished. So you are wrong here, old chap. When you try to write one and know the effort and frustrations behind writting, you can teach me what to do.
 
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Kurt_Steiner: ...Venetia, who was the most interested part in the affair, said "No, thank you"

:rolleyes:


Kurt, congratulations on the showcase ! ! :)

kudos, excellent AAR ! ! :cool: