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LeeC:
Part 4: Colonizations Galore!  1870-1882

Hallo again everyone!

This session is going to be focusing on Colonization (if the title didn't give it away).  This was a huge fad of old timey times and we are going to take full advantage of it! Colonization helps bring in raw materials for your industry to convert to products and war materials.  They also supply populations to add to your war machine by raising colonial troops to help fight in wars.  To colonize you must have the 3 required inventions (which randomly spawn after you research the techs) and the final tech usually doesn't unlock until the early 1870s.  Once it does its a large land grab.  You'll notice in the picture below I have a red circle on the left near the top.  That is your colony points which are required to claim territories.  The higher it is, the more claims you can make.  It is also important for when you and another nation (or nations) try to claim the same place.  You can then try to outbid them for the territory.  Usually you make a claim and if some one else does as well, you add another claim on top of it.  If they keep matching you point for point it can last a very long time and tie up your points which may be useful elsewhere.  Now how do you get points?  The circle on the right is your navy score.  Opening and upgrading military ports and having tons of warships affect your colony points.  The more you have, the more colony points you will have.  There are also some techs that help too.  During this playthrough I will be building war ships a plenty and opening/upgrading ports all over.  You can only build 1 port per region so you do have a limited amount of military ports you can build.



The Plan:
So this session we are going to build up our navy and when colonization unlocks we are going to go for Borneo and Africa.

We're going after these 2 regions in Borneo.  The lower region has oil (black spot) later and we will need that in late game.


As for Afrika, we are going to make a German "belt" connecting east and west Afrika and also head north to try and get close to our middle eastern territories.  Central Afrika has plenty of cotton (for textile industries) iron and coal (metal and war industries), fruit-grain-livestock (food and drink industry), and a high population to recruit troops from.


So lets get started!


We start with a proposition from the Royal Geography Society asking for us to send explorers up the Nile.  Sure why not.  Its a shot at prestige and prestige is everything in this game.


We may be the #1 great power in the world but our prestige is pretty shit (4th place!).  So we'll go in with the UK on this upcoming crisis.  If we can scare the opposition enough to avoid the war we can gain another 30 prestige.


Which after Germany and Spain join the UK, France gives up the crisis.

An interesting newspaper clipping to start off with in 1871.




While we wait for this invention to kick off colonization Ill take some time to go over my 2 army composition.
Below is an example of one of my Assault Divisions.

The Red Box= Cavalry which has reconnaissance and high maneuverability.  The maneuverability will help outflank enemy infantry in an even fight.  Recon helps with conquering territories faster.
The Yellow Box=Artillery.  with the right technologies these things can support your infantry giving them a huge attack bonus and damaging enemy infantry as well.
The Blue Box=Guards.  These elite troops are just upgraded versions of infantry in vanilla game, but in our DLC (Heart of Darkness) they have less defense capabilities than normal infantry but better attacking stats.  they are pretty much storm trooper regiments.
The Green Box=Engineers.  These troops help negate fortifications in a territory that provides bonuses to defenders.  If the army it is attached to find themselves in a defensive battle they provide a bonus.
The Purple Box=Infantry.  The standard troop type with a bonus to defense.  Excellent for holding territories.


My assault divisions have Guards to help attack enemy infantry.  My normal armies do without the guards as guards are expensive and can only be recruited from my north and south German populations (all other cultures cannot become guards). In late game guards and cavalry get replaced by more advanced units so they will get replaced eventually.

An example of my standard defensive army.


January 1st 1873 rolls by and we finally get our last invention to start colonization!




Here's a look at how many points I have and how much it costs to claim a territory.  The little houses symbol shows colonization and the number next to it is the amount of claims one has to that territory.




While we are messing with Borneo, the USA seems to have their own brand of imperialism...


Netherlands quit Borneo rather quickly.  Usually they put up a big fight.


It is still 1873.  Now that Borneo is taken care of, lets focus on Africa.  We branched out from our tiny spot we took from Sokoto and was able to colonize the shore.  Now we are going to spread out in all directions (red), build some military ports (yellow), and if we can, declare war on Sokoto for more territories and spread out from there too (purple).


About a year later we have branched out of Benin and are still spreading out.  We also took a tiny province in East Afrika (orange) and tried to simultaneously take Somalia but Italy keeps matching us bid for bid, tying up our colony points.  Spain is starting to colonize toward the south and we are coming to meet them (dark red).


Near the end of the year we also declare war on Sokoto!


We have too much infamy to risk an out and out conquest of it so we are demanding 2 regions instead.

A month goes by and we now have an interesting event!


Hope the circus has clowns.


Eventually Sokoto submits to our demands.


Time to spread out again.  Still tied up with Italy in the east and now getting caught up with Spain in the center.  Spreading out every other direction I can.


Another year goes by and we do expand.  Still caught up with Italy and Spain, but now France is trying to claim north of Sokoto (Blue) and France and Uk are duking it out for west of my territories (purple). Meanwhile we march eastward.


Another year goes by and we finally outbid Italy for Somalia.  Its a stalemate with France and Spain still but we start to close the gap with Spain in the east.


A closer look at the bidding war.


During 1877 another historical event happens in China.


If they are not careful, this revolt can give a Casus Belli to the top 8 world powers to annex bits of China!


We could potentially take some of China but that would take away some colony points to manage the new property.  Back in Africa my Colony Points are stretched to the limit.  I have to pull out my colonials that are trying to out maneuver the french (red X) and re-allocate them to deal with the Spanish (red circles).  This will give that northern region to France but the ones I'm fighting Spain over are more valuable.  Meanwhile Spain tries to out flank and grab territories towards its east.


After another year of biding I was able to get 1 of the 2 regions Spain was challenging me for.  Now with an increase of colony points from finishing that claim and building a large navy and ports I start to grab what I can in the east and head north.  I am thinking at some point of taking the last of Egypt from the Egyptians (blue) but that will have to wait until my infamy goes down.  Still biding with Spain for the last one in the center.


It'll take until late 1881 until I finally wrestle that region from Spain and close up the gaps!


I also grabbed a few Pacific island chains while I waited this one out.  That was tough and required a lot of focus.


Lets see how China did after that Boxer Rebellion.

Looks like Russia busted down the door and took up residence.

Well we were able to hit each of our goals!  Just to show you the difference in the world:
Before (1870):


Now (1882)


I hope you all enjoyed this installment.  Thank you for reading.

LeeC:
Part 5: Walk like an Egyptian.  1882-1885

Today's episode is only going to be 3 years time span.  I took screenshots of up to 1890 but just too many things happened that I've decided to split them up into 2 parts.  I even had to delete some for this time span (penal colonies, Russia burning down The Summer Palace, and newspaper clippings and war correspondences from around the world, etc).  I hope you all enjoy these 3 years!  :-D

Where we are so far:
So far we made first superpower status by having an awesome military score and great industry.



We also gobbled up a huge chunk of Africa with a few annexation wars thrown in.  I also started building African armies, and increasing Africa's literacy.  Need to close those gaps by finishing off Sokoto and putting Egypt out of their misery.


Germany was able to colonize most of Borneo to get some sweet sweet oil in the 1880s when it gets discovered.


Germany has a ton of scripted events if you can meet the requirements.  Other than expansionism we also want to pass these reforms through decisions.  They will help us with prestige and in this game prestige is everything.


So there are our goals for the 1880s.  Close up the gaps in Africa, get decisions, and gain as much prestige as we can!  Let us begin!

1882:
Hardly a month goes by before a new decision shows up out of no-where!


Archeology in the Valley of the Kings? Lets do it!


Speaking of Egypt, its been awhile since we talked to them.  Lets invite ourselves over for a visit.




Sorry, not today Beni.

Leading the charge in the south with his Egyptian Colonial Army is the Venerable General Jurgen von Richthofen (why does Richthofen sound familiar?).


Meanwhile in the north the Suez Colonial Security Force crashes into Cairo, Commanded by General Erich Krohn


The Suez Navy blockades Alexandria waiting for the under-equipped Egyptian Navy to come out!  The war lasts a few short months before Egypt surrenders!




Near the end of the year I finish my research on Steel Steamers, unlocking a new Naval Decision.




In the Navy!


1883:
We open the new year with some performing arts development for the German people.


We also make the news about our war with Egypt, several months after the war ended.  Also some interesting snippets.


No rest for us, lets start a Cassus Belli for the rest of Sokoto!


Some more news:


Just a snippet but back then this was a huge deal.  people were talking about it for months and for many in the pacific the sun was plotted out for a time.  Totally worth looking up.  For posterity sake lets see a before and after of this island:




Back to more German concerns...




The war lasts several months.  Not because the Sokotans gave me trouble, but because I couldn't find their last province.  Its hard to tell what area you've conquered when your color is grey and so is the enemy.  Eventually I find the blank space but not before the new year.

1884:


We got a pretty nice looking German Africa.


In no time at all we change our education system thanks to the Krupp Decision.




It's going to be awhile until the next decision but what am I suppose to do in the meantime?


You know...Ethiopia seems pretty big for itself...


Splendid!  I hope they put up a fight.


Unfortunately they peaked early and I steam rolled them in less than a month.




Ah, everything coming up Germany...

...Shit




Ah well.

By the end of 1884 I have unlocked another decision.




That's it for this episode but stay tuned next time for another war.  Here is a teaser for you history buffs...


Thank you for reading!
 8-)

de_la_Nae:
Still following, thanks for the update!

Masterpiece:
Great read, as always.

KingOfIreland:
Nice!

This is infinitely better than my attempt at a pacific Japanese empire.

I started by annexing the entirety of Korea and took over half of China before Russia started beating the shit out of me in wars of containment, after which those dastardly British took half of Japan.

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