Random Events:
The Federated Kingdoms declare war on Portugal, amidst a general wave of jingoism and patriotism (+1 Federate Culture). A general economic boom also takes place throughout the FK (+1 Economy).
Incan Empire of Peru redeclares war on Portugal as well, in solidarity with the FK; volunteers flow to join the army (+5 divisions). Meanwhile, the Industrial Revolution reaches the Empire fully, with government reforms and foreign specialists to speed it up (Middle Industrial Age to Incan Peru!).
A flourishing of state-backed liberalism takes place in Sweden, reinforcing the new Riksdag's prestige as well as that of the king (+1 Confidence).
A general rise of Muscovitan patriotism takes place (+1 Culture). Foreign specialists are used in large amounts, especially in the sphere of military (+1 Military Leadership).
Polish agriculture is beginning to recover (+1 Economy).
A Bourbon prince, Louis-Philippe, comes to power in Hungary, albeit as a constitutional monarchy (+1 Confidence).
More divisions are raised for the Siamese army (+5 divisions), and measures are taken to bring the training levels up to standards (+1 Army Training).
Corruption grows in the Italian government (-1 Civilian Leadership).
The new government system in Poland still isn't functioning the best it could; a buerocratic error hinders an important project (-1 project progress). The damage done to the eastern provinces by the abolition of serfdom causes a resurgence of the Autonomist movement (-1 Culture).
Continued military opportunism of the Portuguese king frightens the ruling elite and the masses alike (-1 Confidence).
Old grudges between Merina tribes are being remembered once more (-1 Culture).
The military defeats on numerous fronts damage Sultan Kalim's popularity (-1 Confidence).
Spotlight:
The Turkish War.
"The best-laid plans of mice and men..."
- Unknown [4].
During the winter of 1864, many plans were laid for the coming year. Ottomans, for example, planned to help destroy the Portuguese colonial empire and to make Turkey an even more potent player on the board of the Indian Ocean. Persians planned to destroy the Ottoman Empire, confident of their forces and of their allies alike. Dalnorossians planned to retake the Volga River. On conspirational quarters all over the Ottoman Empire, brigands and freedom fighters (though what is the difference, really?) were planning their moves as well, in many cases aware that something big was going to happen soon. Nobody knew quite what were Poland and Hungary planning; and none could guess what the unpredictable Muscovite Tsar intended to do now. For the record, the latter three didn't participate in the eventual Turkish War, that begun just as the Ottoman fleet with a large portion of the Ottoman Army set out southwards.
The first move was made by Persians, or more specifically Persian spies. Though the Turks have learned of their existance in their territory a while ago, they only found out that the Persians actually were as audacious as to actually plant saboteurs in Constantinople itself when it was too late to do anything about it. Several loud explosions have destroyed much of the High Porte and killed several family members. But the main target - Sultan Kalim - survived, although his hand had to be amputated [5]. So this attack served no purpose at all, apart from causing a brief period of panic in Constantinople and making Kalim and by extension the Ottoman population very, very mad at the Persians. The Sultan himself swore, perhaps rather rashly, to wipe out the the Safavids to the last man.
A day later, rebellions in Arabia (Wahhabite) and Iraq (Shiite) begun. Just like was planned, or almost so anyway - the Ottoman Guards managed to hold on to some ground, especially in Iraq where the rebels failed to take Baghdad, but that was compensated by the fact that they weren't really supposed to (or, at least, that it wasn't a vital part of the Grand Plan). And then, the Persians themselves entered the war. Mustafa struck straightforwardly towards Baghdad, to draw Ottoman attention there... and accidentally, overwhelmed the outnumbered garrison, in part thanks to the panic of its commander who quite reasonably deduced that its not very easy to sustain a siege in a city where most people hate you, and happen to have somehow acquired weapons. Ardashir, upon learning of this, ordered a few minor adjustments to the plan, guessing that the Turks will try to attack Mustafa while he's in Baghdad from the north and the south, and... when the Turks did, both of their groups were outflanked and crushed by Malik's northern offensive and Suleiman's southern one. Aizerbadjan, Eastern Armenia, Luristan, and ofcourse Iraq, were quickly overran by the Persians, who encountered only the minimal of resistance and a large degree of population support. And finally, the al-Hasa province in eastern Arabia, a region of much religious value for the Shiites, defected without a shot being fired (the Ottoman Guards being redeployed to defeat the Wahhabi rebels).
What was the problem with all of this for the Persians? Well, it was too easy. As was, to be entirely honest, the Dalnorossian part. It was even easier, to be entirely honest - the Ottomans didn't put up much of a resistance, being surprised and outflanked, while the Tartars were undisciplinned and poorly-armed and thus easily crushed. The absence of an expected Muscovite attack on the Ottoman Empire (after all, the Muscovites DID blow up a fortress) forced the Dalnorossians to go with a much less ambitious version of their plan, so they just seized Volga, built some fortifications to the west of it, politely forced all the Muslims out of the occupied territory and after taht resorted to hit-and-run attacks.
The Wahhabite Arabs, meanwhile succesfully took over Hejjaz. The Turks didn't bother putting enough guards there neither.
After the Francophilic mercantile, intellectual and aristocratic elite of Egypt actually declared independence AND got away with it, any reasonable military commander could safely say that the Turks were planning something, that this all was a trap, a deception, an attempt to lure the anti-Turkish forces Just Where The Ottomans Want Them (yes, with the capital letters)! But truth was that most of the Ottoman army and fleet was away, invading a garrison-less Portuguese colony that surrendered without a shot being fired. Talk about overkill, and about its potentially-negative consequences.
Still scared by their success, the Persians watched by idly as the opportunity to end the war in one stroke was slowly fleeing their hands. They advanced slowly, carefully, cautiously - too cautiously. The only real progress made after the fall of Yerevan in early June was the seaborne invasion of the unprotected and revolting Oman, which embraced the Persians gladly. Only when, later in the year, the first Slavic and Georgian rebellions commenced, the Persians finally decided to press on.
But by then, Ottoman forces were being redeployed from elsewhere, most importantly - from Africa and from the Balkans (where they wiped the floor with the local Slavs for the lack of a centralized leadership and the presence of a fairly large Turkish garrison), to the fronts. A three-pronged invasion pushed the Arabs out of Hejjaz, the advance of the Egyptian rebel forces was stopped at Dongola, the Dalnorossian raids that grew ever more far-reaching and powerful were suddenly almost stopped, and the Persians suffered their first defeat at the war - at Kars. And though the subsequent Turkish eastwards offensive didn't gain much ground, the tide was definitely being turned now, especially as an ambitious young Turkish general, Alishir Kemal, proved his worth by leading an expedition across the Arabian desert to the very center of the Wahhabite rebellion, Riyadh - the Arabs reacted too late, and many of their leaders perished or were forced to flee into different direction, depraving the rebels of centralized command.
For all the plans of the anti-Turkish forces, for all their luck and early successes, for all their gains, they didn't coordinate their actions well enough, and were too cautious. A few mistakes was all it took to give the Ottoman Empire, which by all laws of logic should have otherwise be even more doomed than it came out to be, a fighting chance. But the Turks themselves weren't much better here - they lost several crucial territories due to practically throwing away a large army where it turned out to be almost useless. The decisive battles are yet to come, it seems...
NPC Diplo:
From: Riksdag
To: Swedish king
We MUST begin peace negotiations, with HRE and with Muscovy.
From: Italy
To: Holy Roman Empire
We request that you officially renounce all and any claims on the city of Venice and certain outlying territories (OOC: the Italians want something like the OTL pre-1914 border; if you haven't noticed, even with Venice they are missing a small amount of land from that). In exchange, we will pledge neutrality and withdraw from the rest of your territory.
From: Egyptian Rebels
To: France
We ask for your assistance against the vile Turkish tyrants!
OOC:
Btw, Harleqin, I keep forgetting to point that out... The rulers, like in the real Incan Empire, are the only ones called Incas; the people are called the Quechua or, as is increasingly more widespread, the Peruvians.
Also, Contempt, just realized that in your story, your king is said to be of the House Bernadotte... Do note that there was no French Revolution and stuff in this world. The Bernadottes are loyal French subjects and in fact a branch of them is in charge of the French "Terra Australis Company" (the one responsible for colonizing Nouvelle Gaulle and the lesser islands nearby).
BananaLee, no income tax in Siam right now. Not all the European nations have that yet, actually!
Finmaster, as I said before, you need to invest money into the project for it to advance...
Sorry about the spotlight - both about the delays, and the way it came out. Happens, I guess.
[1] The Becher Rifle is rather similar to OTL Dreyse Rifle, but is somewhat more advanced and thus could also be compared to the OTL Chassepot.
[2] The one in the North Sea, ofcourse.
[3] The poor fellow already did so much, MjM, can't you give him a name for all of his troubles or something?
[4] Polar bears smuggled Robert Burns' poems into the NES2 V world, but left them anonymous to confuse the penguins. Muwhahaha.
[5] A hand for a hand, Iggy, if you understand what I mean.
Will be interesting to see how my background will change.
. Please make war!
