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How Bismarck got his herring - A Victoria 2 LP (with PDM-divide by Zero mod)


1. How Bismarck got his herring: Introduction
2. If it worked for Frederick the Great, it will work for Frederick Wilhelm III.
3. Prussia, Hope of German Liberals.
4. Why you should not put your faith in the Turks
5. The Revolutions of 1848 or "Nothing of relevance happened today."
6. Long live the Confederation
7. My Name is Austria-Hungary, and this is Jackass!
8. Cruising for Crimea, slavers get theirs and A Fateful Appointment
9. Bismarck's first years
10. The congress before the storm
11. Austria resurgent.
12. Veronique
13. A battle of songs
14. Peace, progress and prosperity
15. A trip to the Adriatic
16. Britain victorious
17. The dream of 1848
18. The World vs Germany, Part I of IV: Declarations
19. The World vs Germany, Part II of IV: The Trenches
20. The World vs Germany, Part III of IV - Decisions
21. The World against Germany Part IV (of IV): Foreign shores
22. Reds in charge
23. The years of peace
24. To the Pole....oh got it is cold there.
25. Is that.....a German Minority being oppressed?
26. The Great War of 1902 - Opening moves
27. The Great War of 1902 - The Grand Slaughter
28. The Great War of 1902: An anticlimactic ending
29. Si vis pacem.....
30. Weltmacht Part I - Russia
31. Weltmacht II - France
32. Weltmacht Part III - On foreign shores
33. The Neverending war
34. Speaking of rebels....
35. Death to Fascists
36. Weltkrieg Part I - The East
37. Weltkrieg Part II - Invasion
38. Weltkrieg III - Mopping up
39. Germany, the great Liberator
40. The Irish Revenge
41. Slaying the Giant (Coalition)
42. Germaniae est imperare orbi universo - Part I: What happened until 1950
43. Germaniae est imperare orbi universo - Part II: The World in 1949
44. Germaniae est imperare orbi universo - Part III: Money and Power
45. Germaniae est imperare orbi universo - Part IV: The German Nation

How Bismarck got his herring: Introduction


The intro screen of the mod, showing the two main themes of Victoria II - the disunited German states to the left and to the right the British civilizing people. I am playing with the PDM-divide by Zero mod, which enhances Victoria II tremendously and offers about 50% more gameplay. It is the best mod there is for any Paradox games save for the HIP mod for CKII. I cannot recommend playing Victoria II without it as it is just way too simple.

Let's go on a quick world tour.

Europe after the congress of Vienna. Prussia still suffers from the handicap of being split in two, RUSSIA BIG, Austria is eyeing up the Balkans, France still smarts from Waterloo and Britain is in splendid isolation...again.

RUSSIA BIG, but QING EVEN BIGGER. Well, more populous than usual. Napoleon once said that the earth will shake once Chna wakes up. Maybe it will. Maybe it will become a friend and ally of Germany - after all we need somebody to sell those products too.

Southeast Asia, the property of the Netherlands and Spain. The exploitation of these lands is the only thing keeping the Netherlands relevant. (As an aside, if you really want to lose faith in humanity, just read the Dutch Colonial Archives.) The British were right bastards, but the Dutch are a very close second. When Spain is the most tolerant colonization force in the region, you know you've gone terribly wrong somewhere.

Speaking of the Grand Colonizers....

British India. The crown jewel of the Empire. Just read The Rise and Fall of Great Powers and you will discover an interesting fact. India's output from the 16th century and the 19th century is exactly the same. Where did all that surplus go? Extracted to Britain. Probably the greatest crime in all of History, maybe even matching and/or exceeding the Holocaust in comparison of all the deaths. The British extraction method was to ruin local industry, destroy the middle class and then have everything done by the British - except resource production, of course. For the consequences, look up the Indian famines.

(Sorry if this LP is getting a bit dark, but it is very hard to speak about this period in fun terms).


The Middle east, before we Europeans went and messed it up. The Ottomans are still the strongest power, with Egypt as a satellite state. Greece has just recently won independence after one of the worst and most brutal civil wars there was.


Africa. A blank space on the map save for those countries which had traded (mostly slaves) with Europe before.



South America, before the colonization of the indigenous people in the South. Brazil is big and competing with Argentina, Colombia and Peru-Bolivia for regional supremacy. Maybe one of them will even become a great power?


North America, dominated by the slave state of the USA, where currently the battle between abolitionists and slavocrats is being waged on the political level. Meanwhile, British Northern America is having thoughts of limited independence. Mexico has successfully colonized parts of the future USA territory and is currently embroiled in a war with its rebellious northern province of Texas.

But let us look at our own nation.

See the buttons on top? These are the main menu/screens.
Let us take a look at our production.

As you can see, our manufacturies are quite advanced, even if they cannot compete with Britain (yet).

Our budget. Here we can tax the lower, middle and upper class, plus adjust expenses and tariffs.
Of special importance is the debt scale, one has to be careful not to accrue too much debt.
In this century, failure to pay debts is a casus belli.

Calm down, Wolfgang

But the most important thing is technology. The 19th century saw the quickest advance in technology since the renaissance and it is only in this era that the Roman Empire is surpassed in all fields.

As you can see, technology has many fields. This is the Army screen, the one which makes all Prussians nod happily.

The Navy screen. We will largely ignore this one.

Commerce. Important for capitalism and administration.

Culture. More important than one might think due to its effects on research and education.

Industry. Glorious German Industry.

How does research work? Well, you select a project and then hope it completes in a fair amount of time.


(to be continued below)

[continued from above]


Politics. As you can see, we are an absolute monarchy and our Upper House reflects that. Reactionaries hate everything, Conservatives are the sensible people who will pass reforms if necessary and liberals are the firebrands.
There are several parties, each has its own policies. Our ruling party right now is the Zentrumspartei which is in favour of Protectionism and Laissez-faire, Moralism (no dirty non-protestants), limited citizenship (only Germans may vote) and Anti-Military (after all, war costs money).


The social and political laws. As you can see, the amount of possible changes are staggering.


The Movement screen. Here you can suppress movements and rebels. As we are at the start of the game, none are prevalent. But later on they will become commonplace. Rebels are in general way too prevalent and way too strong. We will see if this is the case for this mod as well.


We enacted our first decision, acknowledging the Rights of Man as the foundation of our society. This is of course largely just propaganda - after all, serfdom was already abolished in Prussia for over 20 years at this point.

Let us take a look at the other decisions:

Every decision has its requirement. For example, to build the Panama canal we would need to control the Land either via influence or direct rule.

More than anything, the decisions show the way for Prussia to become Unified Germany...

...and then a world power.


The release nations screens. Because we are the Prussians, we will probably not release a single nation in this game.


The Population screen. Here is how Victoria II is much more complex than any other Paradox game. You can see how the population is split up according to nationality, occupation, religion, political beliefs etc. Unlike in other Paradox games, where you can just roll over cultures and countries and assimilate them at will (the most hilarious thing there is is the change culture button in EUIV, where you just assimilate cultures with the push of one button). Here, assimilation is dependant on your social politics and laws (look back at the politics screen and find the Immigration options and culture beliefs etc.). It is very, very hard to assimilate large populations. For example, assimilating Italians will take hundreds of years, so if you get an Italian province as Germany you would be lucky if at end of the game your German minority is around 10% or so.

Now, even more complex is the Trade System.

These are all goods that are traded on the world market. Yes, this game simulates a global market. You will win at this game if you secure enough goods to feed your own population and give them what they need/want. If you do not, well, rebels will break your country in no time. You see the needs table at the bottom, the market activity (prices will fluctuate according to demand) and the national stockpiles. You can directly buy from the common market as a state and make some money by buying goods when there is an oversupply and sell them when there is a demand. However, in vanilla Vic2 this would break the global economy. Maybe the mod fixed it, but a far better option is to let the market work itself out and just keep a large national stockpile so that you cannot be blockaded and ruined within months. Blockades really wreck your economy. Britain can ruin Prussia within weeks if they blockade it and Prussia has no stockpile.


Anyway, on to Diplomacy.

More complexity. States can be your satellites, dominions (colony satellite), allies or in your sphere of influence. You can do this with every nation in the world. Except for the Great Powers, who cannot be satellites of anybody else. There are always eight great powers. Your country rank is determined by your combined Industrial, military and prestige score.

The world in the 1830s was a dangerous place. Let's look at all the wars going on:


Six wars and the game has not even started yet.



This is us. We are country #5. BOO. PRUSSIA #1 IN OUR HEARTS.
We have 15 countries in our sphere of influence.

The major spheres of influence in Europe:

(Although much of that is Grey, that just means these countries are not in a sphere of influence. There is no super Swedish-Italian sphere).

And finally, the Military screen.

We have a strong Army and a weak Navy. Hilariously (but true to historical numbers) our Navy is weaker than that of the single city-state of Bremen.


Our nation.
The most important thing is once again the field to the right.


We quickly allied with the states in our sphere. For example, here is Bremen.

Our territorial ambitions will be vast.
In the North...


PERFIDIOUS DENMARK has crushed a German rebellion and is suppressing the German majority in Schleswig-Holstein. (Pop quiz: What was the major extent of Danish power in Germnay? Answer: Hamburg-Altona. Yep, most of what we now see as having always been German was actually ruled by Denmark for a loooong time. That is because the Danish Royal family is actually a German family and had vast holdings both in Northern Germany and Denmark. So here you see the relic of medieval politics).

(BTW, you can see the population for each province and the main goods produced there in the screens, as well as the nationality and political leanings. Grey is German, blue conservative, yellow liberal, dark blue reactionary).


Hannover. In a personal union with PERFIDIOUS ALBION. House "Windsor", eh?



At this point, Prussia and Austria have battled with and for Control over Saxony for almost 200 years. How the mighty have fallen - Saxony which at one point held the throne of Poland is now a middling state that has become the dominant battlefield of diplomatic influence.

Belgium (protected by Britain, of course) is oppressing a substantial German Minority in Luxemburg.



And of course, Alsace Lorraine, stolen by the French from the HRE.


GRRRRRRRRRRR.......

Then, there are the three Southern German states of Baden....

Württemberg....

and Bayern.


These will all need to be ripped out of the claws of Austria and integrated into Prussia.

And finally, our national focus. There you can focus (har har) on something within one region. The options are staggering:


The introduction is over. Sorry that it was a bit long, but it was necessary for VicII is easily the most complex Paradox game there is. Definitely the game for people with slight OCD like me.

Now, the game can start. Will Bismarck get his herring? Tune in next time.


[End of this part]

I see they took the approach of adding a crapload of tribal states to Africa and Asia? Presumably to cut down on colonization races once people hit the necessary techs to do so.

Although Prussia? Booo! Unite Germany as Bremen! You know you want to.... or should I just start calling you Colonel Sanders?

Damn...game hasn't started and already I have a headache. Should be fun watching this unfold though. So do you plan on building a grand fleet eventually to rival the British or are you going the more historical route of focusing on the Army?

This game is seriously addicting. I might have to get it. Will be watching with interest.

I will be agitating for GLORIOUS FULLCOMMUNIST Prussia.

Steve wrote:IAlthough Prussia? Booo! Unite Germany as Bremen! You know you want to.... or should I just start calling you Colonel Sanders?

Well, I do like fried chicken....but uniting Germany as Bremen cannot work as you need to become a Great Power to do so...and you cannot attack the other nations in your overlords sphere of influence, which for Bremen is everybody surrounding it. So...no way to become a Great Power, no Germany.

Borgholio wrote:So do you plan on building a grand fleet eventually to rival the British or are you going the more historical route of focusing on the Army?

Eventually we will have to buld one, but not for the next decades. Better to spend the money on things that actually make money or defend those making money.

If it worked for Frederick the Great, it will work for Frederick Wilhelm III.


We started encouraging aristocrats to become capitalists. Factories will be the future, not land.


One of the coolest things in the game - newspapers. They are generated from what happens in the game. I will not comment those, but would advise all of you to read all of them.


Meh. I was hoping for an industrialist or a diplomat, but at least this one keeps pop militancy down...


Good news. Our population is increasing. More and more children are born every year.

Meanwhile, we carried out an insult campaign for about four months against Austria.

Schluchtenscheißer works great.


Finally we had enough bad blood to start plotting against them.


.....
Yeah, I got nothing.
(I think the game is trying to emulate the popularity of amber here, but the text is just hilarious. But I am not complaining, free money is free money after all)


The First Carlist war in Spain has started and Bavaria considers Prussia her true friend. Righto.

We however prefer far bigger friends.

Like the French, who will be the perfect allies to provide diplomatic cover for our war against Austria.


Hmmm...I wonder who the candidate will be....

A Russian princess. Good. After all, we need their good will as well.


"Methinks the Lord protests too much." No censorship.


Our casus belli is finished. Hooray.


Meanwhile in North America, Santa Anna has managed to get himself captured. The fool.


We finished researching railroads.


This led to a tour of our monarch around the nation (though the tracks are limited to Berlin though). Much propaganda about one train ride and silence about all the coach rides, please.


The way technology works is that you have to make secondary inventions to actually use most of the technology. These discoveries happen by chance (chance determined by the tech level). Here we discovered how to actually use the theoretical railroad knowledge. Soon Prussia will be teeming with new tracks being laid down.

A higher level in industry brings benefits.


This seems to be a good time as everybody is kinda occupied.


"It is hereby declared that Bohemia is and always has been an integral part of the nation of Prussia. Now turn it over".


Our northern allies were called in (not the French though, I don't want to turn over war leadership to them)

Austria too called her allies in...

Two thirds of our army had the directive to attack Austria's south German allies before they could fully mobilize. If they were allowed to do so we would almost certainly lose the war. Thus, we deliberately left our Border with Austria unguarded, except for the last third of our Army which had the task of delaying the Austrian steamroller.

Our strategy was successful.

Soon we started occupying the capital of Württemberg, while the standing army of Baden was smashed.


In response, Austria started mobilizing her people:


(to be continued)

(continued from above)



With us managing to occupy Saxony due to our quick strike (like Friedrich) we added another wargoal. The Saxons would - if we would have our way - become our puppets.

Meanwhile, in the east, we had success ambushing and destroying smaller Austrian armies.

We were a bit heartless in achieving that - bleeding our soldier populations by accepting 4% attrition due to concentrating large forces, losses the Austrians were unwilling to suffer themselves. Thus, we managed to pick off siege armies.

When one of our own armies was caught, we quickly retreated.
This strategy had the effect of Austria wasting most of their strength on ineffectual sieges, whereas our siege forces were busy in Baden, Württemberg and Saxony.
Speaking of Saxony, a mere 140 days after the start of the campaign we held all their territory and they agreed to become our puppets.



More Austrian siege armies were getting picked off by the new troops released from the Saxon front.

Baden and Württemberg accepted our offers of white peace.

We were not interested in anything more, all we wanted was them out of the war.


The price of explosives has risen...couldn't have anything to do with all that war going on, could it?

Meanwhile, in Oppeln, the Austrians tried to attack our large moving force.

All they managed to get was a very bloody nose.


A combined Northern Allies/Prussian Army meanwhile removed the western Austrian force from Prussia, even though we took far more casualties (mostly due to the inferior troops of our allies).


The troops released from Baden and Würtemberg penetrated deep into unguarded Bavaria (whose armies were besieging our fortresses in the Rhine regions) and forced Bavaria to drop out of the war as well.

And what where the Guardians of the balance of power doing right now?


Starting the Opium War against China, thus being unable to intercede in the European wars.


The Italian subject states tried to send a relief force into Prussia, we crushed them easily.

About a year and a half after the war had started, on:


we had removed all the Austrian forces from our territory and were now pushing into Bohemia. A very daring Korps had even penetrated as far as Viennna....

and was currently besieging the Austrian capital.


The remnants of the once proud Northern Austrian Army were caught near Prague and had to surrender en masse.


The news meanhwile were only talking about the Kowloon incident and the Opium war.

This suited us well, for a few weeks later...

Vienna fell. The war was as good as finished.

And then:

The frumpy Queen was crowned, severing the bond between Hannover and Great Britain.

Hannover was no longer a satellite of the Empire. We promptly started influencing them.


Meanwhile, in South America, the Central American Republic had collapsed, vomiting forth the nations of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Salvador.


An heir was born. As always, easily influenced people fawned over the Royal Baby and became reactionary.


We invented clean coal.


Finally, after we had taken all the wargoals and were penetrating deep into Slowakia and Central Austria, the Austrian Emperor sued for peace.


Our beautiful new borders, now boasting the best beer in all the lands. And this increased our population and industry by about 25%.

Prussia was well underway on the road to greatness.



Comments:
- Although it is not really explicitly said, I spent about 2 hours chasing down every single Austrian siege Army. I don't understand why the enemy AI is unable to properly concentrate its troops. I was planning on calling in the french but then, once I realised how poor the AI is, I just said "screw it, I can do this". This is kinda disappointing but hopefully the other AIs are better than the Austrian ones - or than the Allied ones, because my allied nations just threw away army after army for no reason at all.
- I am not sure what could be done to fix the poor AI in this game. Victoria II came out before CKII and EUIV and the AI there is much better, so I'll probably just have to bear it. I would still have won the war in any case, since I could have just called in the French.


(End of this update)

Well looks like Austria will no longer be a problem now.

...so Bing Translate says 'Schluchtenscheißer' is 'canyon fuck'? What.

Wrong translate. Schluchtenscheißer means "he who shits into canyons". Meaning Austrians don't have a toilet (cause they are uncivilized) so they shit in canyons. Now guess where they build their mountain villages....in canyons.

Don't call an Austrian that unless you enjoy getting a beatdown.

I don't think I am going to enjoy this LP as much as the last one...

LaCroix wrote:I don't think I am going to enjoy this LP as much as the last one...

You mean when Thanas creates Großdeutschland by absorbing Austria?

Prussia, Hope of German Liberals.


We started building Forts in Bohemia and Moravia to ensure this territory remained rightful Prussian territory.


With the conquest of Bohemia and Moravia we were now considered a large nation. PRUSSIA BIG.


Surprisingly, the newspapers largely ignored us, focusing instead on events in the UK and elsewhere.


As a reward for the loyalty shown to us by our populace, we decided to relax the censorship. We now officially allowed non-state news.


With the new taxes rolling in we paid off the war debt (calm down, Wolfgang) and increased funding,

...specifically the education and administration funding.


We also started bribing people increasing our influence in Schleswig-Holstein.


However, the Austrians were interested of doing the same thing and discredited us.


Hannover however was more receptive to our advances.


As always, German media blew a wad over anything related to a British Queen.


Oh goody, another crisis not involving us.

Basically, this is something that has its roots in the middle ages and was now erupting.



This of course meant the news were filled with it.
The Canadian revolt was of course completely ignored, for why bother with the British Army jackbooting on them?




The crisis ended rather quickly once the French intervened and threw their weight around.


Meanwhile, due to our technological inventions our economy was going strong.

Railroads were being built everywhere.

No Prussian man or child ever wanted for a job. Hooray.
Speaking of Children working:

JUST ANOTHER CASE OF THE STATE INTERFERING IN THE INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS OF PEOPLE. IF MY SON WANTS TO DIG COAL AT FIVE, HE SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO SO.

The effects of the reform.

You wonder why we are so passive? Well, because due to the infamy of our totally justified expansion, of course.

If you go over 25, you are in deep crap as every Great power will declare war on you.

So it was way better for us to be a bit isolationist and focus on some things.

Things like holding a national conference to boost research.

Research into Positivism. BE POSITIVE.
And then we started research into the logical consequence of Positivism.

A PRUSSIAN IS POSITIVE AND IDEALISTIC.


We also created a lavish exhibition of superior Prussian culture.


The first railroad went into commercial existence, stretching from Berlin to Prittwalk.

Meanwhile, our capitalists made good money on the international debt market.

God, I hope the Ottoman Empire never defaults.

Speaking of defaults...

Hooray, an ineffectual king to follow another ineffectual king. The Hohenzollerns definitely peaked with Frederick the Great.

Speaking of ineffectual....

The Austrians decided to help the Ottomans and started another crisis.

After the French blockaded their ports, they sued for peace.

And as a consequence of the lost war, the Ottoman Empire fell from grace and was replaced by mighty...Belgium.


"Respect of Yardies gained" and "Skirting Evil". Quality German reporting never fails to make me chuckle.


Meanwhile, we decided to exploit give our minorities a chance to participate by raising some additional brigades from our Czech minority.



Nothing much happened in the following months.


Meh.

Integrating Moravia by sending settlers and forcing the local populace to assimilate. Sure.

I wonder why the locals get so outraged. After all, we only consider them second-rate citizens. It is not as if we are actively suppressing their language and culture....oh wait.

Of course, it could always be worse.

We could after all act like the British (remember the last newspaper where they engineered the casus belli?)


Nevertheless, much easier to sleep now with our new massive forts keeping our citizens safe in Bohemia.


[to be continued below]

[continued from above]

Our relaxation of rules for the press and advancements in philosophy had a price.

LIBERALS EVERYWHERE.


They soon proved they were dangerous by forming a rebel movement. 700k? That is larger than our armed forces. Better not do anything hasty....

Like declaring war on Denmark, even though we had a perfectly acceptable reasons to do so. Better to eat the loss and deal with the irate Wolfgang.

Other smaller German nations were not that prudent and had rebellions erupt.


The rebels however considered us a model of liberalism and the best hope for a unified Germany.

Free territory, inhabited by patriots who love our country and are willing to fight and die for it. Nothing better.

Finally, we ended up on the frontpage of our own country's newspaper of record again.


We finished researching idealism....

...and started researching medicine.


Hannover was added to our sphere of influence.


State education was introduced, definitely never going to be used for filling the heads of our citizens with propaganda.


The most abused song in all of history was introduced.


Better not give the liberals more books to read. They might revolt.

We will not censor the paper. That would cause a liberal revolt.

Instead, to appease the liberals, we decided to remove censorship all together.
FREE PRESS FOR A FREE NATION.


Yay, more philosophy.


The Opium war was finally over. Britain triumphed and forced the Nation of China to sign a very bad treaty.

..which barely got a mention in our newspaper.

This treaty got them Hong Kong and should be considered one of the worst crimes in the History of Mankind.
"Hi, we would like you to keep your population addicted and buy our drugs. Also, give tea."
In historical terms, nearly a third of China was addicted to opium. Just imagine that - you are forced to purchase drugs under the threat of arms.


At least the British did sort out the trouble with Belgium in the Treaty of London.

Luxemburg was now a seperate nation, but a satellite of the dutch. Of course, we started increasing our influence there.


Educated Poles? The horror. They shall stay ignorant unless they learn how to speak German and become productive German citizens.
[Note that I am roleplaying a Prussian here before everybody gets their panties in a twist.]


See what German intelligence can achieve?

Under pressure by the liberals, on:

we enacted a law that would forever change our nation.

For the first time in Prussian history, we allowed some parts of our people to vote.

We were no longer an absolute monarchy.

Elections were called.


I will now explain how elections usually work.
There are national issues that affect the whole nation:

We usually support the conservative parties.

Here we support letting all people have their faith.
"Ein jeder soll nach seiner Flacon selig werde", said Frederick the Great and he even said that if the Sultan would send him muslims he would welcome them and built mosques for them.
We shall always continue this religious tolerance.

Limited citizenship, meaning everybody is a citizen but only Germans get to vote. The most logical choice for those times.

And then there are local issues, which affect only one province.

We will usually be in favor of Interventionism.

Geez. Let's not be dicks, right?

This game should be called "Dictatorship simulator". Yes, it will allow you to be a fascist POS.
We will use legislation. Safest option of all of them.

Yeah, Prussia is no place for pacifism. GUN GUNS GUNS.

Nobody shall be above the law. RETRIAL.

Then the game will calculate results according to the method of voting.

We have a first-past-the-post system so if anybody wins, he will win big.

Hooray.

Yes, everybody will respect him.


More idealism.

And finally we got medicine.

The french invaded and annexed even more territory of Algeria.



We refuse to take sides. The fighting just has to stop. Politics are no reason to resort to mob violence.

Other nations too were experiencing turmoil.



More liberals decided they were better off in our accommodating nation.


MY ANASTHESIA IS A LARGE WOODEN HAMMER TO THE SKULL. SOLVES ALL PROBLEMS. NONE OF THIS NANCY AETHER STUFF.

In the USA, something momentous happened:

A moment of silence please. The Prussian state opposes all slavery.

He got the honour place in our news. Much deserved.

Elsewhere, things were getting resolved. The clergy stepped in.


Though in other areas this proved to be impossible and the army had to shoot the worst mobs.



Thank god for our medical inventions.


REMOVE BAGUETTE. 1815 BEST YEAR OF LIFE.
This French aggression destroyed our alliance with them, however we refused to be provoked any further by them. Let them flex their muscles, we have better things to do.


Like taking a walk in our new attraction in Berlin...

...and integrating Frankfurt.


We furthered our philosophical knowledge.

..embraced the new state ideology...

...and started researching economical technology.

Everything looked to be going swimmingly...


The Austrians and Ottomans had entered into an alliance. Now, the Armies of the Cross and the Crescent were marching together to smash us.

[end of this update]

SMASH THEM.

I'll admit most of the time I play the USA in this game (I'm trying out this mod for myself right now). Why?

Because then I get to GRIND THE SOUTH BENEATH MY JACKBOOTS, MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I see a German held Bosporus in the near future...

Is there a way for the south to win the civil war in that mod? Or is it like insanely impossible?

Hey Thanas.... does your version of PDM actually grant you casus bellis when people default on debt and the like? I've been playing a game and it never gives me the appropriate CB. It's really damn annoying.

And I know about the "Pacifist Government can't use some CBs", but I'm pretty sure it refused to give me the CB even when I didn't have a Pacifist government (why they made the American Whigs Pacifist, I'm not sure).

Purple wrote:Is there a way for the south to win the civil war in that mod? Or is it like insanely impossible?

No, not unless controlled by a human and only then by exploiting the shitty battle AI.

Steve wrote:Hey Thanas.... does your version of PDM actually grant you casus bellis when people default on debt and the like? I've been playing a game and it never gives me the appropriate CB. It's really damn annoying.

Yes, it does. You want to download the Divide by Zero modmod, it fixes a lot of problems with PDM.

Thanas wrote:No, not unless controlled by a human and only then by exploiting the shitty battle AI.

But like if I was playing the game I could pull it off without too much difficulty?

Purple wrote:But like if I was playing the game I could pull it off without too much difficulty?

a) Why would you want to?
b) No, it is quite hard. Expect a lot of saves. and reloads aka exploiting the AI.

Thanas wrote:a) Why would you want to?

It sounds like a challenge. And besides, if I do win I can than proceed to try and return slavery to the world in a grand crusade or something. And that's just nifty.

BTW. Can you like instate slavery in your country in this game and have like black african slaves building railroads in Europe and stuff?

b) No, it is quite hard. Expect a lot of saves. and reloads aka exploiting the AI.

I see. I can live with that. I always fund it silly that people think reloading is somehow cheating.