The Triumph(?) of the Boers: Yet another AoI Story.

DJ Bonebraker

a.k.a Laura
Joined
Mar 10, 2004
Messages
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Location
Eorzea, Hydaelyn
Preamble:

History is filled with all sorts of "What-ifs", and one of the fun things about Civilization is that you can explore such possiblilites. In this case, one I'm going to explore is this: What if the Boer Republics managed to unite into an effective unit and expand and develop enough that they could successfully stave-off British aggression and carve out an independent nation on a continent ruled by colonial authorities...

The following tale is a chronicle of those events.

Game info:

Age of Imperialism 3.0 scenario, 26 civs full length version.
Difficulty: Ensign (Monarch)
Faction: Boer Republics, one of, if not THE most difficult factions to play in this particular version (They only start with 3 cities, 7 military units, and 0 workers)

Now for the game.... Note: This isn't going to be picture-heavy, so please bear with me ;)

Chapter 1: The Vision​

In the year was 1895 when the announcement spread through the cities of Pretoria, Bloemfontein and Pietersburg: The republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State had aggreed to join together as one nation, to be known as the Boer Federal Republic (Boer Federaal Republiek). Paul Krueger, the newly-elected president immediately called his advisers together to formulate a guiding strategy for the newly-unified nation.

They were all seated around a large table located inside the Presidential palace, discussing the best options for the success of the Republic.

Ms. Anna Veldhuiser, the domestic adviser, suggested that increasing the industrial capacity of all the cities, particularly Bloemfontein and Pietersburg, should be the top priority: The current production in those cities was deplorable, taking almost 20 weeks to train a single company of Boer Riflemen.

Jason Voorhees, the military adviser countered that "The best defense is a good offense, so all cities should start training Boer Light Cavalry and Boer Riflemen as soon as possible.

Tanya Kirkmann, the cultural adviser said, "If we establish the public library system in all our cities, all the people will flock to us!"

Dr. Victor Frankenstein, the science adviser, agreed with Tanya's suggestion on the grounds that "Building public libraries will get our research out of the crapper."

Finally, President Kruger turned to a tall, silent man sitting at the far corner of the table and said, "So, chief of staff Takayama, what do YOU think of these suggestions?"

Hikaro Takayama, the president's Chief of Staff and most trusted advisor stood and said, "There is wisdom in all their words, and we must consider them well, for the battle we fight is long and uphill the whole way.

What I suggest is you follow Ms. Veldhuiser's suggestion and build factories in Pietersburg and Bloemfontein.... In addition, we should establish the Gold Standard in Pretoria, since we can use all the production and revenue we can get!

Once we've got our production up, we should start training military units, but alternate military recruitment with construction of financial and educational buildings: After all, the best way to win a war is to field better units and be able to out-produce the other guy, and the only way we can do that is with a high rate of literacy and a solid economy."

With that, he sat back down.

Among the other things decided at that meeting was that as soon as the industry and military was built up enough, the Republic would need to expand in order to survive The two choicest targets were the colony of German Southwest Africa and the Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique, and plans were drawn up for both options.

Finally, Dr. Frankenstein was told to research any technology related to machine guns, since such weaponry would be needed when facing some of the more powerful colonial powers, such as Britain....

The president then went on a tour of the republic and gave speeches encouraging the people to work hard to improve their country so that they could "drive out the colonial oppressors once and for all."

While the people busied themselves about those tasks, the year 1895 passed without incident.

Early in 1896, however, the Germans and Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia. After 14 months of bitter stalemate on the German front, and a humiliating defeat on the Austrian front, which saw all but Warsaw and Triest conquered by the Russian Bear, The German alliance makes peace with Russia in mid-1897.



Several other nations, including Germany, come demanding gold from the Republic. We give in to all of them, except Germany, hoping to incite a war, but the Germans back down.... We won't forget any of this anytime soon.

By this time, the preparations are complete, and we send a courier to German SW Africa informing them that all their base are going to belong to us, and they have no chance to survive, so they should make their time. :p

Immediately after Kaiser Wilhelm receives the declaration via telegraph, 8 companies of Boer light cavalry and two batteries of horse artillery thunder into the plains outside the city of Windhoek, and fortify for the coming battle....

The horse artillery batteries fired, but didn't score any hits.... The impetuous cavalry general, eager to end this war before the Germans could ship any reinforcements in, ordered the units to charge anyways. Two whole companies were lost under the hail of bullets the German regular Shutzetruppe infantry poured into the charging Boer cavalry, but the remaining 6 companies made it through and slaughtered the 5 companies of German defenders to the last man.

As a result of the battle, the Austrians, bound by their alliance with Germany, declare war on us as well, but considering that they are now one of the few nations in the world who are actually worse-off than we are, the average citizen in the Boer Federal Republic couldn't give a rat's ass.

After a short rest to recover from injuries and re-arm, and after moving in two companies of veteran Boer Rifleman from the capitol to defend Windhoek from any German counter-attack, the horse artillery batteries and Boer light cavalry companies rode out to the hills surrounding Ludderitz, in preparation to attack and take the city.



In the meantime, a lone company of Shutzetruppe ambushed a group of unarmed civil engineers, and massacred them! President Kruger swore that the Germans would pay dearly for this outrage!

At Windhoek, while the cavalry and artillery were preparing their attack on Lüdderitz, 6 companies of Shutzetruppe, using British railways through Rhodesia, attacked. Despite being outnumbered three to one, the veteran sharpshooters in the Boer rifle companies managed to kill every last single attacker, despite taking moderate to heavy casualties themselves. One unit displayed such exemplary valor that Defense Minister Voorhees awarded them elite status! The Germans also left a pile of raw materials shipments in their now-abandoned base camp, and the rifleman quickly siezed them for the greater good of the Republic (unfortunately, this game is reverse capture the flag, so you have to get the raw materials to a victory point, which are only in important cities the colonial powers have :( ).

Two weeks later, after heavy artillery bombardment and repeated cavalry charges, the last defenders of Lüdderitz surrendered, but two more entire companies of light cavarly died in the attempt. Since more German reinforcements had arrived in the hills around Lüdderitz, and our goals had been achieved, President Krueger phoned up Kaiser Wilhelm and asked to negotiate a peace treaty.

The Kaiser was willing to negotiate, but would only sign a peace treaty if the Boer Republic would pay 400 units of gold in indemnities. After conferring with Chief of Staff Takayama and Domestic Minister Veldhuiser, it was determined that the treasury took in more than that in two weeks time, the President agreed to fork the money over, and the treaty was signed, ending our war with Germany. Once we made peace with Germany, Austria also made peace, bringing the first Boer War to an end.

The former German colony of German Southwest Africa was re-named and re-structured as the "Namibian Provisional State," at least until the infrastructure and local governments of Lüdderitz and Windhoek could be improved to the point that it could be admitted to the Republic as a full state.

New plans were drawn up to first build up the infrastructure of the newly "liberated" territories, which included building a road to bring quality timber into Windhoek, and allow us to build a sawmill there, as well as building up our military strength for the up-coming showdown with Portugal.

Thus the Year 1898 dawns with the Boer Republic almost doubled in size:

Spoiler :
 

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Very good so far! The expansion of the Republic is a small - but nonetheless momentous - victory. Now if your navy(unless you edited it so you could build better ships in some way) was worth a crap we'd be getting somewhere! :lol:

I wish you luck in tackling Portugal, a war on 2 fronts. If you can take them out, you could possibly consider a war with Britain, though I believe it'd be best at this stage to wipe out all the minor powers in Africa(Abyssinia, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Lowlands) before considering a war with either of the Big 2 - France and Britain.
 
Actually, I'm playing the 26 civilization version: Abyssinia and all the other 1 and 2-city civs aren't in this one....

As for Britan, well, let's just say that there's an "interesting" event involving them in the next Chapter (1898-1899ish) that may pan out in our favor. ;)


As for editing, the only thing I've edited at all is the terrain graphics: I absolutely hate Warpstorm's watercolor terrain, and have no idea why so many scenario designers and modders insist on using it.

Here are the current goals for the Republic:

Short-term:
1: Liberate Namibia from its colonial Oppressors (done)

2: Liberate Angola and Mozambique from their Portugese colonial Oppressors

Mid-range:

1: Take over the Belgian Congo and unite all the Dutch/Flemish-speaking people of Africa under one flag... If I can get a big enough navy built up by then, I may make a move to take over Amsterdam and/or Brussels, giving me the ability to "export" my raw materials to Europe (both cities have victory points)

2: Take over the REST of the German South-African Colonies (Tanzania) and possibly all the other German Colonies

3: Take out the Remaining Portugese and Spanish colonies in Africa.

Long-term:

1. Get France and Britain to go to war against each other, and snipe the British off whenever I can.

2. Unite all of Africa under the Boer flag, and unify all German, Dutch and Austrian territories (including the Russian-occupied ones) under the Boer Flag... We'll have our Anschluss and Holy Roman Empire, all right, but it'll be a BOER Holy Roman Empire :lol:
 
Chapter 2: Moving Forward

The Year 1898 brought us our biggest discovery yet:



We finally researched Maxim Machineguns, giving us a potent unit for defending our cities with. President Krueger orders Pretoria, the capitol, to start building Maxim Machineguns and training Machinegun battalions as soon as it finishes training the next batch of Boer light cavalry.

Albert Einstein reveals his theory of Relativity in Amsterdam, giving the Lowand Countries a scientific edge, and the US builds the Wright Brothers aircraft works in Philadelphia. Other than paying workers overtime to complete the sawmill in Windhoek and factories in Lüdderitz and Windhoek both, as well as training new companies of Horse Artillery, Boer Rifleman and Boer Light Cavalry, the rest of 1898 is fairly uneventful.

The first week of 1899 has the Foreign Minister, Mr. Slegmond, running into the presidents office with the following announcement:



The British, obviously not learning anything from the Germans and Austrians, decided to declare war on Russia! :lol:

Depending on how the Russo-British war is going, it may or may not change our plans on where to test our new soldiers. The president and his cabinet were all in aggreement on one thing at least: No war would be declared until we got at least three Maxim battalions trained and equipped, as well as more artillery... Analysis of the battles of Lüdderitz and Windhoek determined that friendly losses would have been greatly reduced and the cities taken much sooner if more artillery could have been brought to bear and soften the targets up before attacking.

During May of 1899, Tsar Nicholas sends a messenger demanding we pay them 100 units of gold. President Krueger agrees, and even offers an additional 32 gold per turn to help the Russians in their war against Britain.

In June, the following headlines are on every newspaper in the Boer Republic:



Germany, and its ally, Austria, have decided to commit suicide it would seem.... On the other hand, some hawkish members of Parliament are suggesting that we use this opportunity to try and drag France and the low countries into war with Britain as well, while we hold our own and let the big powers wear themselves out, and then move in for the kill. The President, however, knows that even with three other countries against it, Britain is still more than capable of wiping us off the map with their colonial troops alone.

It would seem that World War I is getting an early start, and with somewhat shifted alliances, too! The cities of the Namibian Provisional State are nearing completion of their economic development, and have been contributing to the military build-up by training the occasional Boer Light Cavalry or Horse Artillery company in between building Financial Institutions, Public Library systems and the such.

The 19th century ends with this war, for the most part, in a bloody stalemate, although the Brits DO manage to take Tanga from the Germans.... Perhaps a short war with Britain MAY be in order after all.... Those Coal deposits next to Livingstone will definitely come in handy.

...And so chapter 2 comes to an end.
 

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One thing about AoI is that Europe has massive numbers of defenders due to the colonial powers shipping so many units from the colonies (with raw materials attached) to the homeland. They don't ship them back. So they sit there, in the capital. Fortified.

It's quite a challenge. If the initial plan doesn't pan out, there are always those victory point locations in South America.
 
Actually, I have two new alternate short-term plans:

Plan A: Continue with the plan to annex the nearby Portugese colonies.

Plan B: Since Britain is already at war with Germany, Austria and Russia, Sign a MPP with France and possibly the Lowlands, then declare war on Britain and take Livingstone, giving us a source of Coal and Stanley. Then we'll laugh when the Brits counter-attack and find themselves at war with almost all the rest of Europe and the other two major colonial powers in Africa, as well as a local production powerhouse (I'm cranking out at least 6 units every 4 turns) that has machineguns deployed in strategic cities.....

The South American Gambit DOES sound like a good idea, but I'd like to secure my position in Africa a LOT more before I even THINK about trying to take territory overseas... I need coal anyways to build any of the Gunboats, Torpedo Boats, etc that I can build (not to mention the fact that I have only one coastal city at this point).
 
The Portoguese are fairly easy to defeat as the Boers so they shouldn't be too much of a problem. Really the French and the British are the only one's you need to watch out for.

And building a navy isn't really worth it you don't get any ships of value. If you conquer Africa just build enough ships to keep control of Gibralter and the Suez canal so you can ship troops into Europe and the Middle East.
 
The Portoguese are fairly easy to defeat as the Boers so they shouldn't be too much of a problem. Really the French and the British are the only one's you need to watch out for.

And building a navy isn't really worth it you don't get any ships of value. If you conquer Africa just build enough ships to keep control of Gibralter and the Suez canal so you can ship troops into Europe and the Middle East.

That's the main plan: In pretty much ALL of my civ games, I use what I like to call the "Poor Man's Navy" strategy:

Due to the fact that ships in most Civ III mods are (a) ridiculously expensive and (b) not really that effective for anything except fighting other ships, I just build enough ships to guard my transport fleet against surprise attacks, and keep the ships nice and safe inside my cities until I need to transport troops somewhere....

One of my long-range goals IS to conquer the Ottoman Empire, but first, I gotta take advantage of the current gopolitical mess so I can expand the republic. ;)

Seriously though, the British are WAY over powered: They are currently fighting the second-largest empire (and one that in a matter of 10 turns or so pretty much liquidated Austria-Hungary!) and two other major powers, and winning! :eek:

If any HUMAN player manages to lose this scenario playing as Great Britain, they should seriously consider giving up playing Civ III altogether. :rolleyes:
 
Seriously though, the British are WAY over powered: They are currently fighting the second-largest empire (and one that in a matter of 10 turns or so pretty much liquidated Austria-Hungary!) and two other major powers, and winning! :eek:

If any HUMAN player manages to lose this scenario playing as Great Britain, they should seriously consider giving up playing Civ III altogether. :rolleyes:

You are right. In my AoI story, Britain's at war with pretty much every country in the game apart from the North/South American countries(because I rule all of those ;) ), yet they STILL somehow are pwning every other country. They're gobbling up China, have massacred Portugal, are taking over French West Africa and Indochina... there's no stopping them! They've got like a trillion units! (Like 500+ actually) Africa and South Asia are pretty much theirs in my game. Thankfully, I moved quick enough to keep them from conquering all of the Ottoman Empire... (they only got Libya and Mecca), but now they are poised to take Persia instead. They had TWENTY cavalry units ready to take Basra from the Ottomans. Dear god, overkill much? It's like that fleet of 30+ ships I sent to bomb China!

Anyway, good luck with the godmod- I mean, British. Them and their omnipotence...
 
Chapter 3: The Gamble

The Year is 1900, and the British Empire is at war with Germany, Austria and Russia, and they have managed to take the German East African city of Tanga, which was also the colonial capitol. Despite some earlier trepidation, President Krueger ends up siding with the Hawks in Parliment: This would be the best time to attack the British, and at least secure one of the two fronts they have against us (either British South Africa or Rhodesia), especially if they manage to take over all of German East Africa and join their Rhodesian colony with Kenya. Additionally, the British have demanded gold from us on several occasions.

So it was that after expenditures of gold were approved to speed up training on our third Maxim machine gun battalion as well as another two companies of Boer Light Cavalry, Chief of Staff Takayama was called upon to have his "contacts" conduct investigations of the closest cities in Rhodesia and British South Africa, namely Livingstone and Port Elizabeth. Livingstone, according to the reports, had five companies of British Colonial Infantry, and was well fortified. Port Elizabeth, on the other hand, had ony three companies of Colonial Infantry, and was lightly fortified. In addition, it was very close to Bloemfontein, and the Transvaal railroad could be used to easily ferry troops and artillery to the hills outside the city.

In addition, the President determined that Windhoek and Lüdderitz were sufficiently developed, and the Namibain Provisional State was admitted into the Republic as the state of Namibia.

Thus it was in February of 1900 that President Kruger called up Queen Victoria and informed her that she was now at war with the Boer Republic. No sooner had the declaration been made than 8 batteries of Horse Artillery, accompanied by nine companies of Boer Light Cavalry and two companies of Boer Riflemen pour out of Bloemfontein and into the hills outside Port Elizabeth. Due to the president wanting a swift strike to take Port Elizabeth before British Reinforcements could arrive, the faster light cavalry companies pushed on ahead and attacked the city without waiting for artillery support.

The first warning the British got that they were under attack was a massive cloud of dust rising over the hills, and the ground vibrating under the hoofbeats of 900 horses charging towards their city. The 300 colonial infantry who were in the city scrambled to whatever makeshift fortifications they could find and fired volleys into the rapidly closing ranks of Boer cavalry. The Boers, expert dragoons, barely paused their charge as they fired back from the saddle. After several hours of bitter house-to-house fighting, the last of the British troops were captured, killed or fled, and the Boers held the city! An additional company of Boer Rifleman was shipped from Bloemfontein to reinforce the somewhat wounded cavalry companies. All told, three entire companies of light cavalry perished in the battle to take the city, but the British lost the same number of troops as well, and we also captured 3 tons of raw materials, which were sent back to Pretoria for storage.

In Capetown, a young British war correspondent for the London Times, named Winston Churchill gave a moving speech in attempt to raise the morale of the British citizens and soldiers, since the town was the next likely target for Boer aggression, due to the nearby coal deposits. The line from his speech, which was printed in the Pretoria Chronicle stated, "We shall fight in Capetown, we shall fight in the hills and jungles of Rhodesia, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the woodlands, we shall defend our colony, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight in the trenches, we shall fight on the rooftops, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."

In response, President Kruger gave the following speech from the balcony of the Presidential Palace in Pretoria:

"My fellow countrymen, Many of you may have parents and grandparents who remember the hardships, toils and tragedies suffered by our people on the Long Trek, you all know the humiliations we've experienced in recent times with the British bully demanding what they pleased of us! Well now is the time we shall make them pay in full for past transgressions. NOW is the hour WE shall take back what is OURS! The British tyrants shall be driven out of South Africa forever!"

The Chronicle also interviewed some of the other members of the president's cabinet. Chief of Staff Takayama, when asked whether he thought the Republic would be victorious in the coming war against the British behemoth, replied by saying something about, "Sure, we could win this easy, if we had nuclear fraggin' weapons, giant death robots, a huge frickin' 'laser', or could hire Nikola Tesla to design us a gigantic freaking death ray! As it is now, I can only give the war a qualified 'maybe', as long as we play it smart and don't push our luck too much." None of the first part of his rant made any sense whatsoever, except the part about Nikola Tesla, although it was common knowledge that he hadn't designed any such thing as a "death ray" Some of the other ministers commented that they thought the stress of his job might be getting to the Chief of Staff. :lol: Defense Minister Voorhees was to busy posing with his new gas mask and revving up his chainsaw to answer any of the reporters' questions.

Later, during the week, a lone company of British Colonial Cavalry, the only reinforcements sent to the area, attacks Port Elizabeth and gets slaughtered by the regular Boer Rifle company stationed in the city. The Riflemen get promoted to veteran status for their valor in combat.

The following week, as most of the full-strength light cavalry companies, as well as the two Boer Rifle companies guarding the Horse Artillery batteries are sent to attack Capetown, Port Elizabeth riots as the people protest the Boer occupation forces. Chief of Staff Takayama hires some entertainers to calm the mob down.

In the meantime, the eight batteries of horse artillery get into place and begin shelling Capetown. The gunners, who were having an exceptionally good day, actually manage to damage several companies of British colonial infantry. The light cavalry charge the broken-up infantry formations, and the elite light cavalry company leading the charge gets promoted to Guard Cavalry, and the Boer Republic gets its first Corps! (army).



Three full-strength cavalry companies are assigned to the corps, which is then re-named the 1st Light Horse Corps, which is then ordered to attack the city, and they wipe out two more companies of colonial infantry, but we lose another light cavalry company to one of the remaining colonial infantry companies in the city. The remaining Boer units are forced to fall back and dig in until the artillery can lay down a second barrage. The British still hold Capetown, but barely.

Not long after, the British horse artillery battery in the city attempts to bombard the attacking army, but fails to hit anything of importance. The British also take the city of Doala in Cameroon from the Germans at the beginning of March.

In April of 1900, following a massive artillery bombardment, in which the gunners, again, have an extremely good day and score many hits, the 1st Light Horse, along with an independent light cavalry company, slaughters the last two companies of British colonial infantry and another company of conscripted colonial sentries, and we take control of the city.



During the battle, Winston Churchill, the British war correspondent, is captured while helping British soldiers escape, and was sent to the P.O.W. camp in Pretoria. A week later he escaped and managed to make his way to the Portugese colony of Mozambique, making him a national hero to the British, and earning the grudging admiration of many Boers. (This is actually based on a true story that happened during the Second Boer War)

With the capture of Capetown, we also gained control of the British South Africa Co, which has its own police force and helps keep local officials in line (basically it's a free Forbidden Palace).

In May, the citizens of Capetown riot and protest against the occupying army, and once again, Chief of Staff Takayama hires some entertainers to keep the lousy ingrates happy.

At the same time, all available full-strength cavalry units (guarded by a newly recruited Boer Rifle company) are sent over to the hills outside Durban. Due to the liklihood of the city being garrisoned with a massive amount of troops, as well as the fact that the 1st Light Horse was still recuperating from the last major battle, our troops were ordered to not attack until the horse artillery could give the city a good round or two of shelling first.

The Germans also manage to capture the Canadian city of Quatag from the British... Looks like the unstoppable British military machine is starting to grind to a halt!

In June, the horse artillery batteries bombard the city, and have a typical day, meaning they can't hit the broadside of a barn. Due to the number of British troops in the city and the relative lack of our forces, we wait until the 1[/sup]st[/sup] Light Horse is back up to strength before attacking. One of the Boer Rifle companies assigned to Pretoria ambushes and slaughters a British conscripted colonial sentry company outside the city.

After another month of bombardment, and with the 1st Light Horse backing them up, our forces attack Durban. Even though three companies of light cavalry are lost in the battle, the city falls, leaving only Port Nolloth as the only British-held city in South Africa. Several more tons of raw materials are also captured in Durban and sent back to the capitol. A British colonial Cavalry unit was killed in a skirmish with a Boer rifle company outside of Windhoek... Looks like the British are finally trying to reinforce their position or counter-attack!

The Lowland Countries also send an emissary demanding we fork over 100 gold to them. We pay, since we've already got more than enough to worry about just fighting the British!

In August, there are riots in Capetown and Durban, and fishing boats out of Port Elizabeth report seeing a British transport convoy, consisting of two British heavy cruisers and a single transport, is heading towards the coast. We need to capture Port Nolloth and end this war ASAP!

To bring that about, the Horse Artillery are sent to bombard Port Nolloth, and to no one's surprise, only score two hits. After losing a regular Boer rifle company and having the 1st Light Horse take heavy casualties, one of our veteran Boer rifle companies defeats the last defenders, and Port Nolloth is ours! 50 years after the Long Trek, the British have finally been driven out of South Africa!

Two Boer rifle companies attack a single company of British Colonial Cavalry outside Windhoek. The colonial cavalry defeats one of the rifle companies, and the other defeats the cavalry, but only after sustaining heavy casualties. President Kruger attempts to negotiate a peace treaty with Queen Victoria, but she refuses to acknowledge our emissary.

In the middle of the month, two more companies of British colonial cavalry show up outside Windhoek, and slaughter the already decimated Boer rifle company outside Windhoek, and capture the raw materials they had been transporting. Unfortunately for them, we were able to ship our horse artillery to Windhoek. After the heavy artillery barrage decimated the British colonial cavalry, two recently-recruited rifle companies wiped the British colonial cavalry companies off the map, and we recovered our raw materials.

After that particularl skirmish, President Kruger called up Queen Victoria, and she was willing to negotiate this time. It was agreed that peace between the British Empire and the Boer Republic would be declared upon the Boer Republic's indemnity payment of 200 gold. Since the Republic made more money than that in a month, the treaty was signed, and the Second Boer War came to a close.

The former British South Africa was carved up: The city of Port Nolloth and its surrounding areas became part of the Orange Free State, the cities of Capetown and Port Elizabeth, and their territory were formed into the Cape of Good Hope Provisional State, and Durban was granted to the local Zulu as the semi-autonomous Republic of Swaziland. Swaziland, although for the most part independent, shared a common head of state with the Boer Republic and also participated in the Presidential elections.

So now the political organization in the Boer Republic was thus:

State of Transvaal with Pretoria (also the national capitol) as state capitol

Orange Free State with Bloemfontein as state capitol

State of Namibia with Windhoek as capitol

Republic of Swaziland, with Durban as its capitol

Cape of Good Hope Provisional State, with Capetown as Provisional Capitol.

Other than the French and Japanese getting caught red-handed in their attempts to start a spy network in our capitol, and President Kruger building Railroad terminals in all of our cities, the rest of 1900 passes uneventfully, and so this chapter in the history of the Boer Republic comes to a close.

This is what the Map of the Boer Republic looks like after the second Boer War (Warning: Big Pic):

Spoiler :
 

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El Justo himself said that if you can drive the British out of South Africa, you're a winner... ;)

Now that you have a safe southern border, you can now push north unhindered! The safe haven Churchill escaped to will not last much longer! Mozambique and Angola will be excellent additions to the Republic.
 
El Justo himself said that if you can drive the British out of South Africa, you're a winner... ;)

Now that you have a safe southern border, you can now push north unhindered! The safe haven Churchill escaped to will not last much longer! Mozambique and Angola will be excellent additions to the Republic.

That's the plan ;) First I have to re-build my armies. Although I have a feeling that Churchill is up in what's left of German East Africa, covering the war up there right now ;)

All I can say, though, is that I probably wouldn't have pulled this off so quickly if it weren't for the following events lining up:

1st: I was nearing readiness for the next phase of the liberation of Africa

2nd: Britain gets tangled up with not only Russia, but the Austro-German alliance as well!

3rd: During our second battle, one of our elite units actually pops an army (This mod don't have leaders, but rather directly creates an army unit when an elite unit gets promoted).... That 1st Light Horse corps is essentially what won us the battles of Capetown, Durban and Port Nolloth.

Now we're in REALLY good shape for when we go after Portugal! I may, if at all possible, take over Guinea-Bissau as well as Mozambique and Angola, but we'll see.... After the Portugese colonies, I'll take what's left of German East Africa, then either (a) Take the Belgian Congo or (b) go after the British again and try to liberate Rhodesia (Zambia), the British held-German East Africa (Tanzania) and Kenya.

Anyways, I forgot to report last update that the British also took Papaua in New Guinea from the Germans..

Oh, here's "Chief of Staff" Takayama's Post-war anylysis:

"This war was conducted much better than the previous one against the German colonial tyrants in Namibia: We started out with the same number of Light Cavalry units, and we only suffered about half the casualties we did during the first war while taking twice as many cities, and from one of the global superpowers, too!

Here's the reasons I think we did so well this time:

First of all, we used our "diplomatic" network to its full advantage. If we didn't have the reports my agents sent back from Livingstone and Port Elizabeth, we likely would have foolishly attacked the heavily-defended Livingstone instead of the lightly held Port Elizabeth. It is recommended that we reserve more money in the budget for intelligence operations.

Secondly, We had 4 times as many Horse artillery batteries in this war than we did in the last war. Despite the fact that the artillery commanders were so lousy at their jobs that they should have been fired (there is no excuse for a 240-gun barrage only scoring two hits!), the fact that they DID occasionally do enough damage to significantly weaken the enemy also helped to reduce casualties.

Finally, the exemplary valor of the Elite Boer Guard Cavalry and their establishment of the 1st Light Horse is what allowed us to sweep aside enemy opposition with relative ease.... We must see if there is any way to get additional Corps units fielded.

Oh, and an addendum: The Government surveyors who drew up the newest maps made a mistake: The one forested township that in the latest map is shown as being part of the Orange Free State is, in fact, part of Swaziland! I made sure the surveyors were strongly reprimanded, and have them drawing up new maps as I speak."

;)
 
Chapter 4: The Buildup

During the first week of 1901, President Paul Kruger takes a short trip to Cape Town, where he gives a speech at the keel-laying ceremony for the Boer Republic's first ship. He sates, "Cape Town will soon become a key naval base for the nation."

Shortly thereafter, the British hordes manage to capture the rest of German Guinea and Cameroon, as well as the German East African city of Dar Es Salaam, along with re-capturing the Canadian city of Quaqtag. The Germans, hoping to hold onto what is left of German East Africa, make peace with Great Britain. This foolish war was a complete disaster for Germany, although it helped distract the British long enough for us to pull off our fait accompli in South Africa.... The Germans lost 2/3 of their remaining African possessions as well as all their Pacific Island territories in this war. The only losses the British suffered was the loss of British South Africa to a bold strike by the Boer Republic.

Since Germany was no longer at war with Britain, Austria-Hungary (although it should be more properly called Austria-Poland, since Russia took all of the Hungarian territories from Austria early on), also makes peace. We also catch the damn Chinese trying to plant a spy in our capitol!

In February, noting much happens, other than training of new recruits and building railroad terminals in several cities. In early March, however, France AND Japan BOTH are caught trying to infiltrate the government with their spies.... AGAIN! It would seem that some folks just don't learn! :rolleyes:

On the international front, Britain actually captures Sakhalin Island from Russia! The British are becoming too powerful...

In early April, the Boer Republic launches its first ship, a coastal defense gunboat christened as the SBB Cape Town (SBB = Skip van die Boer Bundesrepubliek = Boer Federal Republic Ship), which is then sent on tour of the West African coast.



In Late June, after the French are caught trying to plant yet ANOTHER spy, Pretoria establishes a national Railroad Corporation, which coincides with the fact that we finally extend the Transvaal Railway from Bloemfontein to the South African Railroad line in Port Elizabeth, linking all our cities, except Windhoek and Lüdderitz by rail.

Dr. Frankenstein, our Minister of Science, informs us that we've researched Industrialization I... Now we can build a military academy, which will increase the likelihood of getting Corps units in future battles, as well as an intelligence agency, which would allow us to get caught planting spies of our own. :lol: The most important thing this new technology allows us to do, however is train elite Commando units, which will give us an edge in future wars.

President Kruger has Pretoria begin immediate construction of the Military Academy, and Defense Minister Voorhees has many of the other cities begin training Boer Commandos.

In August, the British take Nicolajevsk and Magadan from Russia! Looks like the Russian Bear is getting devoured by the British Lion....



Construction of the Military Academy in Pretoria is completed in September, at the same time that Cape Town launches our first Protected Cruiser, the SBB Pretoria. The SBB Pretoria is sent on a goodwill tour of the east coast of South America. The other Major powers in the world will hopefully take note.

To cap of a great month, Windhoek is linked to the rail network, and the civil engineers are told to extend the railroad line down to Lüdderitz
Week 37, build military academy in Pretoria. Launch first Protected Cruiser, the SBB Pretoria. Link Windhoek to the rail network. Now Ludderitz is the only city needing to be linked by rail.

In mid-October, The British and Lowland Countries declare war on France!



This could be interesting.... Defense Minister Voorhees suggest that with the Brits trying to take French West Africa, maybe we should shift our objective from the Portugese colonies and into liberating Rhodesia and the former German East African cities from Britain. President Kruger says he'll consider that option.

Doctor Frankenstein, the Minister of Science, reports that our research into advanced mining techniques is complete. Ms. Veldhuiser, the Domestic Minister has all cities that are near copper, coal or tin deposits and aren't currently building something else, start building copper mining companies, tin mines and coal mines. The coal mine in Cape Town will greatly increase that cities productivity, when its complete.

The training of the first Commando company is completed in mid-December. In some good news on the international front, Russia manages to recapture Nicolajevsk from Britain.

Thus the year 1901 and this chapter come to a close.
 

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Britain is doing the same thing from my story I see... take one of their major colonial bases, and they make it up by conquering someone else's lands...(I took Canada and all their American possessions, over time they took over most of China, parts of French West Africa, Mozambique, Cameroon, Namibia, Abyssinia, and some of French Indochina! In essence, my objective to weaken Britain proved fruitless, though at least the USA did grow stronger.)

Overall, strike Britain again... though you are nowhere near a major power, you should start a 'Cold War' like scenario by weakening them where possible. Annexing Rhodesia would be a good first move. After that, blitzing to eliminate Portugal would be smart as well. You must aim to become reactionary, by taking new cities for each one the British take. It's even better if said cities are taken from the Sharks themselves.
 
Britain is doing the same thing from my story I see... take one of their major colonial bases, and they make it up by conquering someone else's lands...(I took Canada and all their American possessions, over time they took over most of China, parts of French West Africa, Mozambique, Cameroon, Namibia, Abyssinia, and some of French Indochina! In essence, my objective to weaken Britain proved fruitless, though at least the USA did grow stronger.)

Overall, strike Britain again... though you are nowhere near a major power, you should start a 'Cold War' like scenario by weakening them where possible. Annexing Rhodesia would be a good first move. After that, blitzing to eliminate Portugal would be smart as well. You must aim to become reactionary, by taking new cities for each one the British take. It's even better if said cities are taken from the Sharks themselves.

Exactly! Rhodesia IS the next target (although not in the next chapter... I'm still building up a bit more before I launch my attack), especially since it will prevent the Portugese colonies from directly reinforcing each other, especially if I can also snag the British-occupied cities of Tanga and Dar Es Salaam.

Once that war is over, and any losst troops replaced, I'll hit Mozambique, since it will be the most isolated position, and it DOESN'T have 10 companies of Portugese Colonial infantry stationed along the border they share with us (unlike Angola)... Methinks the Portugese may suspect that they're on our hit list. :evil:

...Speaking of which, I'm surprised that nobody has gotten any of the "jokes" with some of the adviser's names (I'd have thought the comment about Defense minister Voorhees trying out his new gas mask and revving up his chainsaw would be a dead give-away)... I figure having a President named Kruger and a defense minister named Voorhees would be appropriate considering my foreign policy during this game. :lol:

Normally, I avoid war unless I'm attacked, but in this crazy mod, I just can't afford that option!
 
Chapter 5: Preparations

The year 1902 begins with more troop buildups in the Boer Republic, while the crazy wars between Britain and Russia as well as between Britain and France and France and the Lowland Countries continues.

In March, Pretoria and Pietersburg both establish copper mining companies to take advantage of the copper deposits between the two cites.

One month later, Russia re-captures Magadan, evicting the British from Siberia. Looks like the British may have bitten off more than they can chew....

In April, Defense Minister Voorhees catches an Italian spy attempting to infiltrate the government. It is hoped that after sending photos of how said spy was executed (it involved a machete and an axe), the Italian government would think twice about sending any more spies.

Dr. Frankenstein completes his "research" into 20th Century Medicine (on a related note, there had been an increase in the number of grave robberies recently), which allows us to build Battlefield Medicine:



President Kruger agrees with Ms. Veldhuiser's suggestion, and starts construction of the Battlefield Medicine training facilities in Pretoria, once we train another Maxim Machine gun battalion in the city.

Things are uneventful in the Republic until June, when the SBB Pretoria completes its goodwill tour of South America by making a port visit to Rio De Janeiro, after which it begins the long trip back to Africa. Additionally, in June, due to the completion of the tin mine in Port Elizabeth, and the copper mining company in Cape Town, the Cape of Good Hope Provisional State is admitted into the republic as a full state, which is now known as Commonwealth of the Cape of Good Hope.

In Pretoria, Chief of Staff Takayama catches a Japanese spy trying to steal our troop deployment plans. The former Japanese spy's head is sent to Emperor Mastsuhito Meiji in an ornately carved rosewood box (the rosewood coming from the forests outside of Windhoek and the carving done by Zulu craftsmen in Swaziland).

At the End of June, Russia re-takes Sakhalin Island, driving the British invaders from Russia for good (hopefully).

The SBB Pretoria docks in Lüdderitz at the beginning of August, after successfully completing the South American goodwill tour. Masses of Boer Republic citizens, including a number of Zulu who traveled all the way from Swaziland, turned out in the streets of Lüdderitz in a cheering throng to welcome the ship back home.

Once again, things are uneventful in the Boer Republic, aside from continuing the massive military buildup in preparation for invading either Portugese-held Mozambique or British Rhodesia and British-held German East Africa. In October, ANOTHER Chinese spy is caught in his attempt to infiltrate our government by none other than President Kruger himself. The film of the spy's execution that was sent back to the Dowager Empress of China would be enough to give anybody nightmares...

On the International front, Russia captures Kabul from Britain.... It would seem that they're trying to get an 80-year head start on history, in hopes that they can take Afghanistan this time. :lol: France manages to capture BRUSSELS from the Lowland countries. Belgian government officials seek asylum in Amsterdam, and the two countries officially merge into one.... Looks like the war might not be going so well for the British and Lowlanders, after all.

November 7, 1902 marks a momentous occasion in the history of the Boer Republic: The extension of the Namibian Railways line from Windhoek to Lüdderitz is finally complete, linking all of our cities by rail.

The British also take Ft. Lamy, in French Equatorial Africa from France in November. In December, they capture Djibouti in Somaliland from France, as well as Ft. Dauphin and Diego Suares in Madagascar.... French East Africa appears to be getting dismantled by the British war machine. France, however, will be receiving some unexpected help soon:



The Battlefield Medicine training facilities are completed in Pretoria... Now all of our military units will have trained field medics with them, allowing wounded troops to be healed in enemy territory. In addition, our latest report from War Minister Voorhees shows the following:



In addition to the seven Maxim Machine Gun Battalions, 17 Boer Rifle companies, 10 Boer Commando companies, 15 Boer Light Cavalry companies, and 11 Horse Artillery Batteries, we also have three Boer City Guards (pre-placed, immobile unbuildable units assigned as a kind of "home guard" unit for the minor factions), 1 Corps of Light Cavalry (the 1st Light Horse), 1 Coastal Defense Gunboat (SBB Cape Town) and 1 Protected Cruiser (SBB Pretoria).

At the beginning of 1903, Queen Victoria will be getting another phone call from President Kruger....
 

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As I'm listening to music from the newest Command and Conquer game, Red Alert 3, I must say that I'm looking forward to another Anglo-Boer War. The music certainly sets the mood. :)

I wish you luck. May you deal the imperialist swine another blow(this coming from the guy who led the USA to conquer 1/3 of the world...)!
 
Excellent story! I can't wait for more updates.
 
As I'm listening to music from the newest Command and Conquer game, Red Alert 3, I must say that I'm looking forward to another Anglo-Boer War. The music certainly sets the mood. :)

Actually, that's one thing about this mod I love: It uses period music (i.e. Rule Britannia and Die Walkyrie) to really set the mood.... Yeah, while it may be that "Britannia rules the waves" as the song goes, their rule of Africa is soon going to be rather shaky, if I have anything to do with it (I MAY consider annexing the British-held cities on Madagascar now).

I wish you luck. May you deal the imperialist swine another blow(this coming from the guy who led the USA to conquer 1/3 of the world...)!

...And performed such an accomplishment in less time than it too me to gain control of the southernmost tip of a single continent.... Yes, the major powers will soon fear my 1% of the world's land area and mighty 2% of the global population! :lol:

Which brings me to this point: I wish El Justo would have included some ALTERNATIVE means of gaining Victory Points.... I've just won two wars against major powers, and I still have ZERO points!

...OR have some kind of "Home Rule" space-race type victory for the minor civs, otherwise I don't realistically see how anyone could win as a minor civ in this game.... At least the Age of Discovery conquest gave the Native American civs a decent shot at a cultural victory as a way to win....
 
Don't think too highly of that accomplishment of mine... in reality, the USA is the strongest country in AoI. How does that work out? While Britain is large and dominates overall, the USA has local superiority, no enemies nearby, the largest industrial base besides Russia, and an excellent unit line. Add how weak the minor civs are, and the USA can easily take over NA and SA...

That said, I still dread fighting the British in Africa... Britain's main weakness is how they can be overpowered locally if you play your cards right... but since Cecil Rhodes' dream of a British African Empire going from Cape Town to Cairo has become a reality, they can rally almost all their African parts against me. If I ever wage war on Britain again, I'll be sure to get the other colonial powers against them so I can have an opening.

On a side note, you've been following my Pax Americana story last I checked, so you know how gigantic Britain has grown.
 
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