- The October Revolution Part 1 - Fall of the Tsars

Brucha

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With my Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik story drawing painfully slow to an end its time to begin my great epic storyline...

I present to you the first of three stories convering the period from the fall of the Russian Empire, the Russian Civil War and ending with the Cold War in three parts:

Октябрьская революция - The October Revolution - Part 1 : Fall of the Tsars

Октябрьская революция - The October Revolution - Part 2 : The Russian Civil War

Октябрьская революция - The October Revolution - Part 3 : The Cold War

This first story is using El Justo's excellent AoI 1898 - 1919 Deluxe mod, with some changes which I will outline first below:

CHANGES TO AOI MOD

Spoiler :

Mt main goal of modding this wonderful scenario was to better reflect, historically, the Soviet Union during the period covered in this series of stories. In this, I have actually made it more difficult for myself, as the Russians are already having it tough in this scenario.

A new government and accompanying tech has been added: Bolshevism, that can be researched after the tech, The Great War. Bolshevism allows a government change to Bolshevism and the building of Red Guard units. The Red Guard were para-military, more political than true military, but the Red Guard fought the Civil War, and the Red Army did not come about until 1918. Most of the former Imperial Russian military units were either disbanded or formed into Red Guard and Red Army units. Thus, all units of the Tsarist government will upgrade to Red Guard units, which in turn will upgrade to Red Army Infantry or Cavalry as soon as the tech, Red Army, is researched.

Red Guard units are pretty crappy, 5.5.2 infantry units, but the Red Army units are on par with European WW1 Infantry.

That said, there are some misconceptions to the fall of the Tsars of Russian and the rise of the Soviets during the Great War.

The revolution began in March of 1917 in St Petersburg, but not by the Bolsheviks but tather by a populous uprising. In the revolt, Duma members (a sort of legislative body in the Russian Empire) took control of the government and formally announced the creation of the Russian Provisional Government. Finding no support from the Russian military, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated which left the Provisional Government in control.

At first, the Soviets stood by the new Provisional Government, on the condition of being allowed influence in the new government and control of various militias. A state of power struggle ensued within Russia, with the Provisional Government in control of state power and the Soviets holding the allegiance of the workers.

The power struggle soon came to blows and brought about the October Revolution in October 1917 when the Soviets, led by Lenin, overthrew the Provisional Government in Petrograd. Putting themselves into various governmental positions and ministries, the Bolsheviks signed a peace treaty with Germany in March 1918, ending Russia's involvement in the Great War.

Russia soon erupted in civil war between the Soviets and the pro-Provisional Government factions, which continued for several years.

The Bolshevism government is comperable to the others in most respects: corruption is Problematic, Worker Rates are, a Draft Limit of 3, no War Weariness and 4 Military Police.

lastly, I had to add some music files to the game. The music in the mod is great, and correct to the period, but I added several mp3's from my collection to the mix, including:

The Russian Imperial Hymn
bozhe-tsarya-khrani-3 (God Save the Tsar)
Tchaikovsky's Festival of Coronation
Several songs sung by the Red Army Choir


Map Changes:

I also modified the map somewhat, mainly by connecting all cities via roads, as even cities in Canada and Siberia, were connected by roads by the late 19th Century. I also modified rail lines to late 19th Century era conditions.



SCENARIO VICTORY CONDITIONS

Spoiler :
To quote El Justo himself:

the conditions for victory in AoI v3.0 are relatively simple. amass 4,000 VPs while playing either of the "FULL" versions and you win. well, you ask, how does one obtain the VPs?

VPs are obtained two (2) ways. the first and easiest way is to occupy the VP tiles and you'll recieve one (1) VP per turn for each VP that you occupy. typically speaking, the major and medium powers all start with two (2) VP locales. therefore, obtaining additional VP locales can be accomplished through conquest

the second way to obtain VPs is to ship the 'raw materials from the colonies' units back to any of your VP locales (thus making certain enemy VP locations more attractive in terms of your merchant fleet/TR routes from the colonies). Two (2) VPs are awarded for every 'raw material' unit that is safely sent back to a VP. also, 25 gold is awarded for each 'raw material' returned.

be advised however that if you are in a war w/ another colonial civ that you can capture their 'raw material' units! you'll notice that this is quite common in certain areas (Africa fro example) as the AI has the tendency to 'secure' the 'raw materials' units prior to shipping them back (despite the settings which allow for the 'raw material' units to load and ship out w/out the securing by any particular unit). so, knowing this, prepare accordinly to ship back all captured goods should you find yourself at war w/ a colonial civ.

another victory condition is terrain domination. the set figure on this one is 66%. iow, occupy at least 66% of the world's surface and you are victorious!

the last victory condition is popluation percentage; ie 66%. if you obtain this (usually in connection w/ the 66% terrain dominiation) then you are victorious!


Initial Strategies

Spoiler :
After studying other posts covering the AoI scenario, I realized several things:

The Russian Empire is vast and has alot of resources but is surrounded by powerful enemies. I first need to build up my economy and military right away.

Germany and Austria-Hungary are the biggest threat and possess the only locked alliance in the game. I must build up a strong defense on my European borders to combat this.

The best locations for expansion will be in Scandinavia and towards Japan. The Japanese are quite powerful, and I will have to re-fight the Russo-Japanese War within the first 5 years or so in the game.



STORY STYLE

Spoiler :
I will be deviating from my usual story style - it will be grapgic intensive with lots of period material and themes. It won't be written as a plain telling of my turn actions, but more like a text book or such. One big change will be the telling of military engagements, complete with period battle maps and the like. I am forming all units into a military structure as well. The base units represent divisions with appropriate unit designation: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc, Infantry Division. Divisions will form corps and then armies.


As I mentioned above, my last game is still winding down and I must complete it before I can really jump into this series, but I should have a first post up within the week. I assume that my first posts will be somewhat mundane with lots of Empire and city management before any hostilities break out.
 
I have been waiting FOREVER for this thread to start
 
Sounds awesome. :goodjob:

Can't wait for the Russo-Japanese War, and the Winter War.
 
Alright, after along wait, I have begun this series of stories. In the next couple of days, I will have my first post up. I have run through over two years in the game with little to report - most the action is quite mudane. Russia is finanically bankrupt at the start with little or no internal infrastructure and only a trio of workers. So its quite dry and boring to read, while I restructure the Empire to a more viable military weapon. I have set out along a path of reform within the Russian Empire to encourage capitalism (yea I know, how evil!) to be able to support a larger military.

The biggest thing I have noticed while I have playtested the scenario is that war weariness is HUGE for Russia. Even with victories, Russia can only sustain a war she declares for no more than a year at best. After that, literally most of my cities begin to riot. My intial plan is an invasion of Korea, to refight the Russo-Japanese war, but alot earlier than it happened historically. From the lessons I learned in playtesting, I must capture all of Korea in less than a year to prevent the massive riots. Why would it take so long? Because units in this mod have a much higher HP than in Civ3 - you must have artillery to reduce units before you attack else you can attack one unit and lose 5 units in the process.

Most of my conquests will be in the Pacific theatre, although Scandinavia will be a possibility. I need to make sure that I keep in step with France and Britain's victory points from overseas colonies. I am not even going to try to compete with the Brits in naval in Europe - I can crush the Japanese fleet and build up a very strong Russian fleet in the Pacific but the Eropean theater is unfortunately given to the Brits naval-wise.

This is going to be very tough to win - early on in playtesting, I am hit with cash demands, and even British invasion of eastern Russia.
 
This story looks good. Can't wait.
 
Ok, I have begun the Bolshevik struggle, finally. I am working on posting my first report, and I must say that alot of strange things have happened in the game that never occured in play-testing. As a teaser, I began my preparations to fight the Russo-Japanese War and the invasion of Korea - and then Scandinavia declared war on me!

Give me until tomorrow and I'll have a report up online.....
 
We,, I went back to post the first replay and examine my save and discovered that my save is corrupted so I had to re-start - of course. however, finally, I have my first post completed and will follow this one right away.
 
Pоссийская Империя (Rossiyskaya Imperiya - or Russian Empire) might be the second largest nation geographically (right after the much despised Brits) at the start of 1895 but, internally, it bears the burden of many problems. Economically weak with terrible communication problems, the Russian position is further made difficult by the fact that many neighbors eye Russian territory right off the bat for easy conquest. Militarily, the Empire has but 3 Infantry and 4 Cavalry Divisions to defend the entire length of the lands. For a navy, there is a tiny fleet in the Black Sea and Baltic Sea, with the only significant fleet located near Vladivostok in the far east.

Note: As mentioned above, I am naming all my military units and are considered to be of divisional size.

Economic and industrial regions are confined to all but the west near Russia, with such areas as Vladivostok to the far east being the major exception. In addition, Russia suffers from major War Weariness which makes going to war a difficult task with suffering wide-spread rioting in the cities.

Thus, I set out to embark on a complete overhaul of the Russian economy and industry. The plan is to upgrade all cities to include all major improvements, including Financial Institutions, Stock Markets, Rail Corps, Factories, and Law Enforcement Systems.

My initial plan is to hopefully avoid war for the first several years as I build up the Russian economy and military, with the goal of invading and conquering Korea from the Japanese. This will be the opening of a general expansion into the Pacific and maybe even mainland China.

Week 1, 1895

Empire Map as of 1895-1896 - The pic is noramlly 2749 x 1134 in size but its uploading as a smaller form, hmm, you can't see details - any help there to post it so that it can be zoomed in on?


The map above is the entire Russian Empire as of the start of 1895. For clarification, my northern Siberian and Chinese/Middle Eastern borders are blocked by impassible mountains except for a single gap along the black Sea near the city of T'bilisi. This is to prevent the AI from flooding across the empire in droves to fight each other.

I begin to restructure the entire empire, switching all cities to produce economic and gold-producing improvements. The entire Russian regular army, consisting of 3 Infantry divisions and 4 Cavalry Divisions, is sent to the Korean border. My Workers - all 3 of them, are put to work building Roads to increase my money. I on holding off in building up my military until my economy is better off. By 1897 or so, I should be able to begin building up military units on a large scale, both land and naval forces.



Week 5, 1895





Count Sergei Yulyevich Witte - Russian Minister of Finance, 1892-1903


Though I could probably use the Game lux for my own population, but I could also use extra money...so its trade with the Low Countries for now.

Week 13, 1895
I gather my largest fleet, the East Asiatic Fleet, at Vladivostok for the war with Japan I am slowly preparing for. My inital fleet consists of 7 Armoured Cruisers and 3 Coastal Gunships. Right now, the fleet is no where near a match for the better Japanese fleet, but that will soon change...

Week 17,21 1895
I complete two Wonders over the next two turns:





The Naval Academy was chosen to be built in Vladivostok because my plans of conquest will be in the Pacific, which will ultimately lead to clashes with the British and their powerful navies. It also auto generates naval infantry which, though not as tough as my regular infantry, certainly help out.

The Gold Standard really only gives me interest for my treasurey, but anything that helps my economy out is a good thing...

Week 33, 1895





As soon as my trade with the Low Countries reaches it expiration, I peacefully end it and make a trade with the Germans - the reason for this is two-fold: firsrt, I get over double what the Dutch were paying me and second, Germany won't attack me as long as I am trading with them. Or at least that's the plan anyways...

Germany also completes her first Wonder that same turn:



Week 45, 1895







Those sneaky little bastards...first the brits make a cash demand of me, then the French, all in the same turn! I pay it for now, but I will not be forgetting this, no not at all...

Week 49, 1895
I now have more Workers, so I can spare some to completing the Trans-Siberian Railroad, from Chita Oblast to Petropavlosk. However, it will take along time to complete it, but I desperately need the rail line to make it easier to protect the far eastern portions of the Empire.

Week 1, 1896
Begin building a rail line from Saint Petersburg to Romanov-on-murman. Again, this is defensive in purpose and will take a while to complete, but not nearly as long as the Trans-Siberian Railway...

I also complete another Wonder this turn:



Week 33, 1896
I complete the Alexander III battleship, the first of my 1st generation pre-dreadnought battleships called the Petropavolosk Class BB, at Vladivostok. This is the first of a massive build-up of my Eastern Asiatic Fleet to come...

Week 45, 1897
I complete the Admiral Ushakov, the first of my 2nd generation pre-dreadnought battleships called the Perseviet Class BB, at Vladivostok.

By now my income is quite good and can rush build at least 3 improvements each turn that are less than 10 turns until completion. I am getting over a 1,000 gpt after expenses now. I am also slowing building up my military and navy in the far east. I have finished off the year 1897 and have entered 1898 by now, and am well on my way to building up my military_ so far I have built 14 cavalry and 7 infantry divisions, as well as 22 batteries of horse artillery 9the only artillery available to me right now). I have also built 7 pre-dreadnought battleships for my East Asiatic Fleet. If all goes well, my forces will be ready for the invasion of Korea by the end of the year...
 
Very nice story I am going to try this AoI mod, been playing civ 4 lately but I bought civ 3 again, its time for a change of pace, plus El Justo tells me version 4 is just around the corner. I am interested in Russia too, I have been playing them in my WWI mod for civ 4. They are hard to get going in the right direction, but man when they do it really is like an unstoppable steam roller.
 
I'm looking forward to the Russo-Japanese war going in the opposite direction! :D

I wish you luck on successfully managing such a massive position, as well!
 
Thanks all for the praise and interest! I must say that this mod has renewed my love of Civ3 (if that needed to be done). I will be adding much more "flavor" to the story - like the newspaper articles - so as to spice things up. Half the fun was writing the articles themselves to fit things that happened in the game!
 
well, I struggled through more turns and fought the Russo-Japanese War! However, posting for this story will be slower than my other stories, as the work for images takes a while, as you will as see soon.

One problem in this story is that I have never played AOI past the turn of the century (ie. 1900). I have no idea what to expect from the game! Even though I am playing Regent level, I think it will be a very tough win for sure.

The next post should be up in the next few days.
 
I am trying to play AoI but the units on the map seem so small, am I not using the proper screen resolution or something, can some one please tell me which settings to use. I do remember when I played this game 4 years ago it was not hard to see my units. By the way this story looks good. Thanks for any help cannot seem to get help for this in any other thread, and since you are playing the same mod I figured I would ask you guys.
 
I am trying to play AoI but the units on the map seem so small, am I not using the proper screen resolution or something, can some one please tell me which settings to use. I do remember when I played this game 4 years ago it was not hard to see my units. By the way this story looks good. Thanks for any help cannot seem to get help for this in any other thread, and since you are playing the same mod I figured I would ask you guys.

Off the top of my head, try CTRL Z to zoom in - beyond that I am unsure :confused:
 
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