SCENARIO: Age of Imperialism; 1895-1924, Deluxe Version

[Maimonides]

Playtest Report. Version 4.0. Russia.

Week 33, 1900. Victory in Korea!


-I take Pusan easily as it was only defended by 1 Japanese Infantry. The Vladivostok fleet bombarded the city & my Cossacks rode in. I make peace with Japan & collect 365 Gold (all they had) in war reparations.

-Our Horse Artillery Batteries are sent west to be upgraded.

-Vladivostok is set to building Maxim MG Battalions to garrison Korea's cities & VP trenches.

-Port Arthur is set to building Seam Transports. Due to Impassable Mountains, any further expansion in the east will require them.

-Now that hostilities are over, Raw Materials from Manchuria & Korea are sent towards Moscow.

-The war with Japan produced 2 elite Cossack units. They are renamed to Don Cossacks & Volga Cossacks.


Week 34, 1900. Ruling the waves!


-The Vladivostok fleet is combined with what's left of Port Arthur's fleet forming the newly-named Russian Imperial Pacific Fleet. The Pacific Fleet docks at Pusan. It consists of 1 Coastal Gunship, 6 cruisers (CA), 3 Preseviet Class BBs & 1 Borodino Class BB.


Week 37, 1900. Tension in the Caucuses!


-Remaining artillery & Cossacks in Korea are sent to T'bilisi to counter the growing Ottoman threat. I'm still not capable of fighting on two fronts.

-The Trans-Siberian Railway, under construction since 1895, is completed between Chita Oblast & Vladivostok. Our Civil Engineers continue laying track west towards Khampa while Japanese P.O.W. Workers complete the line between Vladivostok & Hamhung.


Week 41, 1900. Hey, brother, can ya spare a gas mask?


-The Pacific Fleet now includes 2 Stream Transports. We've got the navy to extend our rule in the east, but not the ground forces.

-Port Arthur is building Maxim MG Battalions to garrison Korea.

-St.Petersburg completes the Chemical Weapons Program & begins work on Classical Conditioning. Soon, we will be able to train dogs to drool at the ring of a bell & then gas the drooling morons! MWUHAHAHA!

-The shipyards in Odessa are putting together quite a Black Sea fleet which currently consists of 4 Coastal Gunships & 2 Borodino Class BBs.


Week 45, 1900. Zzzzzz.


Week 49, 1900. We're gonna need icebreakers.


-Arckhangel'sk completes all improvements & lays down a keel for a Borodino Class BB. Unlike Scandinavia, we've had no ships up there in the Arctic. This is the start of what will become the Russian Imperial Murmansk Fleet.


Week 1, 1901. Raw Materials. Mmmm. Yummy.


-All 3 cities in Korea produce Raw Materials! Look out, Vicky! Here I come!

-We now have plenty of artillery & Cossacks in T'bilisi to take on the Turks, but our infantry is still stuck garrisoning Korea waiting to be replaced by Maxim MG Battalions. We'll need the infantry for protection & to garrison gains in Anatolia so we wait...

-The British are "annoyed" with me. That's OK. Probably just a case of penis envy.


Week5, 1901. The great gun tease.


-Learned Mountain Guns II, but it didn't make any new artillery available for us. Working on Advanced Biology now to better understand the nits living in our beards.


Week 9, 1901. Rise of the intelligensia.


-St. Petersburg builds Classical Conditioning! Pavlov rings a bell. A dog drools. The whole world rejoices.

This gives us knowledge of Advanced Biology & Precious Metals & Stones. St. Petersburg begins work on Genetics. Our scientists begin learning Colonial Administration V.

-Our land forces continue to build in T'bilisi.

-Arckhangel'sk finishes it's 1st Borodino Class BB which sails for Romanov-on-Murman.

-Current VP Top 5: British Empire 574, Russia 541, USA & France 492, German Empire 428.


Still no bugs to report.

I'm having no trouble economically or scientifically-probably because I've prioritized building improvements & infrastructure.

 

[ChaosArbiter]

Hrmm ... after I finish the Austria-Hungary game, I'm not sure if I should go with Russia, China, or Japan. Russia's Mounted Infantry are freakin' beasts, but I'm thinking of going with China just so I don't get in the position where I'll be able to curbstomp everyone and his uncles, uncles' brothers, and uncles' brothers' former room-mates. Considering Japan because Japan is awesome like that (and you don't spend half your lifetime in a place without learning to like it at least a little).

 

[Maimonides]

re arab raiders - thanks for those comments. i was already aware of that stuff. while it's correct that lawrence helped incite the arabs to revolt, they still had indigenous forces there prior to ww1.

Yes, but they weren't organized into division-sized units & were loyal to their tribal leaders, not Ottoman Turkish officers. Also, it was weapons, explosives, camels, horses, air support & bribes provided by the British that rendered them useful in the war effort. Without that, & some tent diplomacy by Lawrence & others, they were fighting each other (blood feuds, grazing rights, access to wells) more than they were fighting anyone else.

and i would even say that arab raiders in the T E Lawrence sense would not be ottoman since that is who they attacked. no?

Exactly my point. They shouldn't be Ottoman units. They should be British if anything.

Pick of a copy of Lawrence's Revolt in the Desert. I think you'll really enjoy it given your interest in the time period & it contains allot of info that would help w/ this scenario. I reread it a few months ago.

Another case in point, there should be a rail line connecting Damascus to Medina. Lawrence & the Arabs tried over & over again to disrupt this line because they couldn't take on the Turkish garrison at Medina. They couldn't even take some of the forts along the rail line. They ended up bypassing Medina altogether as they moved through Jordan & on to Damascus. Medina surrendered only months after being bypassed because of lack of supplies & communications.

Lawrence makes it quite clear that they were fighting Turks, not Arabs. There were Arabs who supported the Turks, but not in organized fighting units.

Whatever you do, this is a fantastic scenario. Thanks!

 

[ChaosArbiter]

Yes, but they weren't organized into division-sized units

From the discussion about Marines earlier, it seems that Divisions would be the full 6-HP units; Ottoman Raiders only have 3 HP.

Another case in point, there should be a rail line connecting Damascus to Medina.

The Ottomans have roughly 20 years to build it before Larry shows up. In fact, from Wikipedia:

During World War I, the Turks built a military railroad from the Hejaz line to Beersheba, inaugurating the station on October 30, 1915

More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hejaz_railway

 

[ChaosArbiter]

The Gotha G.IV Bomber Austria does actually have 0 Operational Range, for some reason.

 

[El Justo]

thanks for the comments all. i've been making notes and changes over the last few days.

@Maimonides
good points. thanks for the thoughtful remarks. perhaps a renaming of the Ottoman unit? i mean, maybe the symantics need attention? i write this b/c i think that the Ottomans should be able to build what essentially amounts to as their overseas mounted unit. in relation to the Brit, French, US, German etc etc lines, w/ each having an overseas mounted build.

another bug i recently found:
range omission error in the editor: italian SPAD VII

 

[El Justo]

i'm trying to keep a running 'master list' of all changes and fixes. for easier access, i inserted a link to it in my sig if you see something that is missing from it, please PM. thanks, everyone, for helping w/ it

 

[El Justo]

i also linked up on pg1/post1 the unit sound patch made by General 666. thanks for that btw

 

[ChaosArbiter]

Note to self: Do not play as Germany or Austria-Hungary, the MPP is a handicap. Seriously, Week 29 of 1912 I learn that the French built the Chasseur Alpin Academy and have built several WWI Infantry. On the 41-45 Interturn, the Germans declare on the French for stupid reasons. Week 45, I take Nantes, Limoges, and Lyons. Week 45-49 Interturn, Germany declares on Russia, again for stupid reasons. Week 49 I take Brest and Nancy, with Paris surrounded by ~100 guns, including 15 Siege Guns, three Corps units, and around 30 Regular Austrian WWI Infantry (my Veterans and Elites are being held back ...). I've taken no action against the Russians so far, and they haven't attacked me yet either ... although I suspect that is simply because they're trying to travel through Germany to get to me. I've also landed two Corps on Bonifacio, but when one of them got redlined (2-4 HP) against a defending French Infantry, I decided to fortify the other and wait for more guns.

Still, only a couple turns away from Landships II, with my first tanks and my glorious Austrian Sturmtruppen. I've got something like 8 Landesschutzen units, most Elites, who are garrisoning Wien.

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

Note to self: Do not play as Germany or Austria-Hungary, the MPP is a handicap. Seriously, Week 29 of 1912 I learn that the French built the Chasseur Alpin Academy and have built several WWI Infantry. On the 41-45 Interturn, the Germans declare on the French for stupid reasons. Week 45, I take Nantes, Limoges, and Lyons. Week 45-49 Interturn, Germany declares on Russia, again for stupid reasons. Week 49 I take Brest and Nancy, with Paris surrounded by ~100 guns, including 15 Siege Guns, three Corps units, and around 30 Regular Austrian WWI Infantry (my Veterans and Elites are being held back ...). I've taken no action against the Russians so far, and they haven't attacked me yet either ... although I suspect that is simply because they're trying to travel through Germany to get to me. I've also landed two Corps on Bonifacio, but when one of them got redlined (2-4 HP) against a defending French Infantry, I decided to fortify the other and wait for more guns.

Still, only a couple turns away from Landships II, with my first tanks and my glorious Austrian Sturmtruppen. I've got something like 8 Landesschutzen units, most Elites, who are garrisoning Wien.

Don't play as a faction most AoI veterans swear by? It's 1899 for me and while I've took a bit of a beating on the high seas at the hands of England, I've captured London, and 4 or 5 English cities in Africa in the span of 2 turns.

One up-side on the naval front is that I've removed all traces of the English fleet from the North Sea and Eastern North Atlantic.

 

[Theryman]

Just entered the third era as America. Own all of the America's except for five british cities, a French city, a Spanish city and a Scandinavian city. One turn away from taking the Spanish one, maybe five or six turns for the British ones.

As for the other places, Abysinnians stole a city from the French, the Boers have taken one from the Germans and the British, the Filipino natives have taken the Spanish city SW of their capital. The French took cork which was taken by Germany which was taken by France which was taken by Russia which was taken by ME! The Russkies yoinked an Austrian city pretty early on, too. Persia is being eaten by Britain, and the Spanish and the British have taken an Italian city for each of themselves. The Portugese city in India was taken by the Ottomans, and there have been so many little shifts in Africa that I have no idea what is going on there!

I am LOVING it EJ!

 

[ChaosArbiter]

Don't play as a faction most AoI veterans swear by?

It's very irritating for me to be dragged into war after unchallenging war with civs I don't want to go to war with, but insist on attacking me simply because I'm forced into declaring war on them. The Russians? The last time I was forced into war with them, they kept sending units *through* Germany to attack my homeland. They wouldn't attack my Russian holdings, or attack south from Warsaw to Krakau, they would cut through south of Berlin and go for Prag.

I don't mind as much if I'm subjected to increasingly moronic MAs against me, but it's really annoying not being able to keep any deals going for the full turn amount because my "allies" are forcing me to break them - or worse, forcing me into *peace* when I'm 1-2 turns away from destroying a civ.

 

[Sima Qian]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the MPP is an intentional handicap if you are playing as Germany or Austria-Hungary, and an intentional bonus to the AI if you are playing against them. Deal with it.

@ChaosArbiter, in the words of someone related to a guy in your signature, the feeling is mutual from the German side:

"We are shackled to a corpse!" - Helmuth von Moltke the Younger

 

[oldboy]

could someone give please a hint =>

civ is closing down: a pop up window (from the os) comes up and says something like a failure occuried with civ...

at first i thaught that it had to do something with not having enough of ram, but i doubt this (had played v3 several times).

after ending the 100th turn several cities need to "build-managed" and one city gets peacefull. then the pop up shows up.
going back to the 99/98 turn or abondon the city doesn´t change anything.

 

[ChaosArbiter]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the MPP is an intentional handicap if you are playing as Germany or Austria-Hungary, and an intentional bonus to the AI if you are playing against them. Deal with it.

Oh, I fully agree; I'm simply reminding myself of it here so I won't forget that if I ever complain about it later, it's my own fault for disregarding my own advice.

Edit: Week 13 of 1913, the Austrian Sturmtruppen Akademie is completed. At this point, all of France (including Brussels) is under my control; I'm finishing preparations to attack Amsterdam, as despite being at war with them for about a decade, the Germans were never able to take it. It is the only remaining Lowlands city, so once it's gone I will have personally destroyed three nations (the Balkans, Italy, and the Lowlands). The first Austrian tanks are being produced as of press time. The average Austrian soldier is looking at a map and trying to figure out how far he is from home.

 

[El Justo]

@oldboy
are there lots of units on the map? is there an error message?

 

[oldboy]

@ El Justo

the amount of units is somewhere between 2 and 3k.

just a pop up from the os:


edit:
after declaring peace w russia, the games doesnt exit anymore. weird.

 

[El Justo]

not sure when exactly did it crash? i mean, at what point? right as a certain city was set to build something?

 

[oldboy]

still with russia at war:
the turn starts: several cities are building, the resistans in kaschove ends, pop up + exist.
[even with presetting of entertainers in kaschove, the game goes Zzzz]

with russia at peace:
the turn starts: several cities are building, the resistans in kaschove ends, and now futher more cities are building.


still not tested if after going with russia to peace, right on to declare war if then the game will still to go exit.

 

[ChaosArbiter]

Week 49 of 1913, the British finish the Royal Highlanders HQ; I'm still not seeing any WWI Infantry from them yet, though, and the only Industrial holding the French have is the Madeira Islands (the Americans took the Canary Islands from them some time ago, and the Portuguese still hold the Azores) after I *finally* took Bonifacio. I was forced into a war with Britain and snagged Gibraltar with Naval Infantry due to there being a ~10-unit stack of Spanish Colonial Infantry on the other tile and only two British Colonial Infantry, a Col. Cav, and a Sentry in Gibraltar, along with three Dreadnought BBs and a couple Transports.

The Russians seem to have collapsed ... I'm not sure if WW is causing them that much trouble or if they're just not building things, or if those units are getting killed off by the Germans/Japanese/Scandinavians, but they've never gotten more than ten WWI Infantry, and hover around a dozen Mounted Infantry. They've built a few Madsens, but most of their unit numbers are pretty static.

As far as I can tell, the Ottomans have been reduced to Irakleion and Baghdad after getting into a fight with the British, and for some reason they're polite with me.

EDIT: Oh, and somehow a French Transport (2 Def, and I think it was Regular, so 1 HP) managed to knock *TWO* HP off one of my 40-Attack Teggetthoff BBs. Later on, I saw a British Transport had somehow managed to make Elite. O.O The mind boggles.