Let's Sperg Let's Play Victoria: An Empire Under the Sun - With actual audience participation!

[Hermann the German]

Panslavic government. Brutal, swift. слава славянский.

Cut apart China. Those ingrates won't know what hit them, and it makes the next parts easier:

Ottomans are our enemy. It is still worth taking easy pickings from their decaying body.

Ally with the British. Avoid a Crimean War, make things easier in the short term.

 

[Neo-Holstien]

Russia, 1836

View attachment 2296119
Russia in 1836 is a deeply backwards country that still lucked out a great deal in the Congress of Vienna, recieveing the lion's share of Poland (that bulge-like zone, known as Congress Poland). We have few enemies at the moment except for the British, who are determined to keep our expanison in check as they have designs on India and China themselves. Relations right now with other countries are mild, but its clear that they consider Russia an Asiatic country with little actual relation to Europe.

The Council is looking to change that.

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I begin by performing my usual tactic of pushing taxes across all three classes to maximum. The population will start ot gain militancy (and thus revoltrisk) at 49% tax, so effectively I will never tax any of them beyond that level as no amount of money is worth the crazy revolts you'll get if you push things too far. Tariffs are pushed all the way to 100%, which nets the government piles of money in exchange for weakening the ability of our Capitalists to do business.

However, we are currently a backwards shithole mostly ruling over a tremendous population of uneducated serfs. The rich in this country are overwhelmingly Aristocrats, who essentially exist in this game to collect money and do nothing useful. We have a few Capitalist pops, but they are not relevant right now. With the money I've begun raising from the tremendous budget surplus I have pushed Education, Crime Fighting and Defense Spending to maximum. Education will increase thel iteracy of our population over time, something Russia desperately needs right now. Crime Fighting will stamp out criminal enterprises that lower our profits and raise revoltrisk, and Defense Spending will cause more of thep opulation to mobilize into soldiers and thus raise our Manpower, which you will notice is currently at zero (its those two soldiers standing next to each other in the top left of the map frame).

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Here are the relevant stats for our Voting Rights, Reforms and Population. Population will of course change significantly as we conquer, but otherwise will stay the same as nobody is going ot want to immigrate to Russia. We will get significant emigration, but that will mostly be minorities out of Russia which is what we want since that leaves us with more living space for Russians to colonize.

Voting Rights are right where I like them to be. In pieces, with the journos beaten and stomped on like the scum that they are, and with traffic-blocking protests illegal. Reforms are a little more grim as they openly reflect that our country is a shithole with no healthcare, no workhour limits, minimum wages, unemployment subsidies or, importantly, pensions. Penisons are a particular sticking point as a lack of them will eventually raise the militancy of your Soldier popualtion, since they know they're basically fucked when the army uses them up. Right now this is nothing to worry about as our population's Consciousness and Plurality are quite low. I will get into those later.

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We have a pitiful army, composed of only about 12 Infantry divisions with some attachments and about 9 Cavalry divisions, which are mostly useless except for the fact that they gain morale very quickly. They also get slaughtered in battle very quickly so I find their morale bonus to be dubious. They do however movel ike three times as fast as Infantry on a forced march, so I like to break them up and use them as patrols . We have two based in our capital in St Petersburg, two based in Congress Poland, two based in Crimea and two based in the east in Ufa on the off chance the Yakutians get uppity. The rest of our infantry I have assemble at Moscow so I can divide them up into more formidable units.

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While I'm at it I import enough arms and canned food to raise our Mobilization pool. Mobilization is essentially how you can avoid having to pay for having a large army, at the cost of needing a couple of months to mobilize your reserves when you hit the button. The catch is certain policies will limit how large your mobilization pool can be, on top of the fact that its limited by population anyway. Additionally, you can only increase the pool every couple of years, and it requires 40 Small Arms and 40 Canned Food to do so. Canned Food is fairly cheap, but Small Arms are one of the most important resources in the game since you need them to set up military units. Our economy takes a dip long enough for me to get the first increase off.

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Belgium comes into existence with its independence guarenteed by like every single European power that borders it. This relationship is why its incredibly hard to retake Belgium as the Netherlands, though its not impossible.

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France also goes to war with Aldjazair, a tiny Muslin sultanate rulling a portion of Northern Africa. In reality Aldjazair covered more territory, but its empire was weak and kind of liminal in its control so the game represents that by just making them something of a rump state. France almost always annexes this country.

With our strategic situation made clear and my effort underway to expand the army and stabilize the economy, the time has come for the Council to vote.

Spoiler: The Council

@TerribleIdeas™, @SalmonForSale, @Massa's Little Buckie, @Honka Honka Burning Love, @Mooger Meng, @Corn Flakes, @NerdShamer, @Polyboros2, @Zaryiu2, @Mary the Goldsmith, @RIPRhongoBongo, @Disc, @Milkis, @Peasant, @White Devil, @Radical Cadre, @SailingtheSaltySeas, @JongleJingle, @LullerDerbyRollin, @Gimmick Account, @Neo-Holstien, @Dagobert, @Leibowitz, @R00T, @Fuck Y'all, @Penne Dreadful, @Hermann the German, @hot hot leg, @Pocket Dragoon, @draggs, @Block Me, @Rebel Wilson

View attachment 2296222 Ruling Party

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The blue flower means Conservative, the yellow means Liberal, while the blue sword is Reactionary and the yellow sword is Anarcho-Liberal. ALs are more or less old-timey Libertarians, mixed with a bit of proto-randian Objectivism. If you like having zero control over anything in this fucking game, vote AL every time and watch your country get ripped to shreds. The population will also gain militancy based on how much the ruling party differentiates from their ideology. So Conservatives will be more fine with a Reactionary government than Liberals will, etc.

Political parties are nice and easy this time around. Only four of them currently exist. Economy and Trade are almost interchangable, with the exception that Economy will give bonuses to Capitalists allowing them to build factories easier. Right now, Interventionism, Laissez Faire and Free Trade are of no special benefit to us as the Capitalists are about as broke as the peasants and mostly non-existent as a class. If we vote in a party with any one of those economic poliicies, we will have no control over whether or not we can build factories, and nobody to actually build them. The State Capitalism of the Panslavics is essentially a planned economy, with the difference in this game bieng that it doesn't penalize Capitalists as strong as the actual Planned Economy type would. Under State capitalism, I would have the maximum control over the government's industry.

Religion is basically unimportant. I've put full on Atheist regimes in power over devout Muslim nations before and if the people actually revolt, its usually over literally anything else. Minority is somewhat important in that Full Citizenship allows you to promote peasants of any race or ethnicity to the more educated classes that would allow them to work in your factories (regular dipshit farmers and laborers cannot work in factories). Limited Citizenship allows minority pops to convert to accepted pops easier, while Residence means that they smelly foreigners should be happy we aren't just straight up killing them all. Russia has a very large Russian population, and also various minorities in the country are accepted citizens such as Ukranians, Byleorussians, etc, so we don't have to worry as much about Citizenship right now as we already have a very large labor base.

War Policy determines how much money we can spend on Defence Spending and Military Upkeep. Defence Spending raises your Manpower and Leadership while Military Upkeep determines the maximum size of your Divisions (up to 10,000 troops in each). Basically, if either of these get limited, our neighbors will walk all over us. Pro-Military and Jingoism do not limit our spending, and Jingoism actually makes it cheaper at the cost of damaging our relations with all neighboring ocuntries slowly over time.

Your Options Are:
The Slavophiles (Conservative)
The Westernizers (Liberal)
Panslavic (Reactionary)
Radicals (Anarcho-Liberal)

Remember to vote for us, not yourself. You may hate Fascism, Monarchy, and/or Communism etc in real life but here they could mean the difference between the life and death of our great nation!

View attachment 2296327 Where to Expand?

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Both the Pan-Slavics and Slavophile parties propose that we invade and dismantle the Ottoman Empire as soon as possible, to free our oppressed Orthodox brethren in the Balkans from muslim rule. moldavia, Wallachia and Serbia are Ottoman satellite and the Ottomans will be compelled to defend them if we declare war, so we can sidestep any European alliances the Ottomans might make in the unfolding Second Oriental Crisis.

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Council member JongleJingle has proposed a radical plan to reach Africa by crossing the entire Middle East, which would mean taking Iraq/Mesopotamia from the Ottomans instead of the Balkans, leaving our Orthodox brethren in bondage while we race for ap iece of the African pie. However, our border with the Ottomans in Caucasus is exstensive, and there is a significant population of Orthodox Armenians still under Ottoman rule that we could free in the process of seizing the Middle East. Persia is also an option for expansion but it will almost immediately bring us into conflcit with the British. Howver, taking Egypt will surely bring us into conflict with the British in Africa anyway, so why not take Persia on top of that?

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Central Asia is a harsh and savage land, filled with many small petty bickering Khanates. It is the historical route the Russia Empire took colonially, and I would also spend resources colonizing those empty portions in Siberia while I'm at it. This is the safest route and would require almost zero effort from our military to subjugate the Khanates and Afghanistan. However, aside from some opium, the gains would be pitiful.

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China is vast but uncivlized. Its armies would be no match for ours. I could quite easily carve off Mongolia and Manchuria in only a single war. This would, however, afford the Ottoman Empire time to win its war with Egypt and grow more powerful. Focusing on China will also make our forces concentrated in the Far East, where they will be quite useless if we are attacked by a European power.

Your Options Are:
The Slavophile Plan (Invade the Ottomans, seize the Balkans)
Polkovnik JongleJingle's Plan (Invade the Ottomans, seize Mesopotamia and Armenia, specify whether or not you want us to go after Persia too)
Subjugate Central Asia (Again specify whether or not you want to include Persia)
Cut China Down to Size (Take Mongolia and Manchuria)

View attachment 2296325 Who is Our Enemy?

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Prussia is smaller and weaker than us right now but that can change fast if they manage the feat of German Unification, which they surely will. Defeating Prussia means we could carve off more chunks of Poland's lucrative industrial territories. Additionally, achieveing an overwhelming victory on Prussia and turning them into a Satellite State would end the threat of German Unification once and for all, but it would make acquiring more of Poland essentially impossible.

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Austria is large and currently formidable but will weaken as time goes on. Ruthenia-Galicia is rightful Russian land as far as the Pan-Slavics are concerned, while Transylvania will have to be wrested from their grasp if we are to realize an independent Romanian client state. Slovenia and Croatia are Slavic, but are Catholic rather than Orthodox.

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If we are going to focus on taking Ottoman territory anyway, perhaps it would be pertinent to destroy as much of their empire as quickly as possible, damn whatever the Germans are up to.

Your Options Are:
Prussia
Austria
Ottoman Delenda Est

View attachment 2296323 Who is Our Friend?

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Given the way this game goes we will border the UK sooner or later. It may be a good idea to try and buddy up to them right now. The UK AI is programmed to clash with us over Persia howver.

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Its possible we could make German Unification work for us and buddy up with Prussia right now. Allying with Austria is a pointless waste of time as they will swiftly be overpowered by Prussia in a few years anyway. Germany would be a very powerful ally indeed, but would we be able to keep them interested?

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Or at the end of the day we could save the money we would spend making friends and not bother increasing relations with anyone.

Your Options Are:
The British Empire
Prussia
The Bear Stands Alone

Remember your View attachment 2296322 icon when you vote!
Only people listed in The Council spoiler can vote as of this post. If you were late, sorry, but know that you will be able to vote in the next round of course.

Voting will close at 10:00 PM Eastern US on Sunday Night.

I join the Panslavic faction as they hold my opinions on the Balkan question.
I Believe that in the early game we should pursue Ottoman Delenda Est in order to Secure the east Mediterranean.
I abstain from the third ballot

 

[NerdShamer]

Side with the Conservatives, invade the Ottoman Empire, buddy up to Prussia and use it as a buffer against the Brits.

 

[JongleJingle]

Panslavic means our economy will be fine, which is a must as of the current situation. We make friends with Prussia, which could mean a still fractured Germany in the future; if we can influence things there, a big enemy of ours and a massive pain to the side will be gone. As for the enemy question, no doubt the Ottomans MUST be purged. That land will be ours if we do this right.

I am also voting for the Balkan expansion plan; I realize my previous plan had holes the size of a Italian prostitute in them, and judging from the Boss's description of the situation, playing it safe right now would be our best bet. Lets leave the Schlieffen-esque ideas for when we really have the man power for it.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

I vote the following

Western, as Capitalism, Free Trade and Rights for everyone creates the strongest nation, and our Ultimate Goal should be to conquer the world, leave everyone alone..and build statues of Ron Paul in font of every School.

Then we bring the Slavic states back into the fold, Cutting the Ottomans off from Europe Allegiance will make them easier to Gobble when the time comes. Once we have our Slavic Brethern back and under our wings we can take the Middle east.

Finally that we Buddy up to Prussia as best we can while taking the Slavic States, having Germany not hate us will give us a slight barrier between us and the Eurozone, and we can take China before they get their shit together.

Edit : Listen, my Votes are going to show why exactly I am terrible at these sorts of games.

Double Edits : I know many of you know of this feature, however I am just reminding people you can click the Watch button and get notifications for new posts that will help you keep up with the thread.

 

[Zaryiu2]

For Party: Panslavic
Slightly different Slavophile Plan: War on Ottoman Empire when/if our armies can manage it and finding a way so the other great powers don't gang up on us while we do so
Expansion: For now Balkans and if possible parts of North China (I don't know how far but Laspak did wark going too far into China causes problems so this why i hesitate somewhat over there)
Friend: Prussia
Enemy: Ottoman Empire but i think we can also take some Austrian territory

 

[Hermann the German]

Friend: Depending on Enemy then Prussia or China

We don't want to be friends with China, they're in the fucking stone age. We want to become close friends with China's land instead.

 

[Zaryiu2]

We don't want to be friends with China, they're in the fucking stone age. We want to become close friends with China's land instead.

Short term plan to stop Britain from getting even stronger, the idea is focusing on fighting the Ottoman then we can attack china

 

[White Devil]

I'm voting for Westernization as this will be the most beneficial to our country in the long run.

I think we should take the Ottomans and free our brethren. Suffer not the Muslim to live, we can take care of barbaric China in the future as they'll remain uncultured savages for quite a long time yet.

As a result of this, Ottomans should also be our enemies.

As for our friends? We should buddy up with Prussia and see where that takes us.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

We don't want to be friends with China, they're in the fucking stone age. We want to become close friends with China's land instead.

also...DON'T TRUST CHINA IZ AZZHOLE

 

[Zaryiu2]

also...DON'T TRUST CHINA IZ AZZHOLE

We will take the Chinamen land but first we need to keep the perfidious Brits as far as possible from our south as long as possible., China is not necessarily a friend but a temporary solution while we improve our internal situation and deal with Kebab

 

[Fuck Y'all]

currently, I would go attack Kebab for that sweet Iraq; go reactionary and ally with G*rmans Prussians, since in case of war with UK they will be your shield

 

[White Devil]

For long term goals... I think without us to influence communism in China, we could focus on exterminating a larger world threat : Islam.

Without Russian communism as a beacon, China will probably remain a divided hell hole of different regions controlled by various warlords as well as the weak and pathetic State government. We can start with the Ottomans to gain the Balkans which is rightfully ours, but long term, we might want to consider reducing Muslim numbers to 0 where we find them. This may hold off the British turning their attention to us until we decide when we want to take and cleanse Persia in a superior Russian image.

 

[Rebel Wilson]

Ruling Party: Panslavic. You gotta manage our railroads and Factories yourself lmao. Remember to upgrade those resource operations where possible!

Where to Expand: Slavophile Plan with Colonization of Central Asia in preparation to invade the Khanates. We must defeat the Ottomans in a war that will allow us to satellite them so we may one day reclaim Tsargrad free of western intervention. If a Khanate drops below -50 prestige DOW and take them.

Who is our enemy: The T*rk

Who is our Friend: For now, Britain. But not longer than a decade of improving relations.

We must fire the Tsar of all Slavs event as fast as possible:

Spoiler

gone!

 

[L50LasPak]

Friendly reminder that everyone has a day and a half before casting your vote, so there's time to discuss various plans if you want to. Although you can always edit your post if you change your mind, though I will politely ask that you don't do that after voting closes so shit doesn't get confusing.

Westernization, as Capitalism, Free Trade and Rights for everyone creates the strongest nation, and our Ultimate Goal should be to conquer the world, leave everyone alone..and build statues of Ron Paul in font of every School.

I'm voting for Westernization as this will be the most beneficial to our country in the long run.

This only occured to me later, but the Westernizers are just a party. There is no direct "westernization" mechanic in this game like in later Paradox games, though there are various paths some uncivilized countries can take to become civilized. Bear this in mind.

Enemy: Right now i would say in Europe Prussia to extend our longevity long term or Britain in Asia by blocking them getting into China

I believe I said that, you're supposed to pick one or the other.

 

[Zaryiu2]

You guys do realize going too fast against the Ottoman was a reason the Crimean War happened, right?

Friendly reminder that everyone has a day and a half before casting your vote, so there's time to discuss various plans if you want to. Although you can always edit your post if you change your mind, though I will politely ask that you don't do that after voting closes so shit doesn't get confusing.



This only occured to me later, but the Westernizers are just a party. There is no direct "westernization" mechanic in this game like in later Paradox games, though there are various paths some uncivilized countries can take to become civilized. Bear this in mind.


I believe I said that, you're supposed to pick one or the other.

Duly noted, post was edited

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

You guys do realize going too fast against the Ottoman was a reason the Crimean War happened, right?

Yeah but we will do better than Putin Did

 

[Zaryiu2]

Yeah but we will do better than Putin Did

i meant this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_War

 

[Rebel Wilson]

You guys do realize going too fast against the Ottoman was a reason the Crimean War happened, right?

Duly noted, post was edited

Yes but this game is almost 20 years old and is very, very limited in what it can model.

For example you can completely prevent the Crimean war and the western intervention from happening by

Spoiler

Removed because exploits don't make a fun game

 

[L50LasPak]

I will also inform the thread that by all rights @Rebel Wilson knows more about the game than I do if they worked on the Victoria Improvement Project.

I played VIP back in the day, but it was already a little antiquated by the time I got into the game.