[EU4->Vic2] The Bloody Art of Politics - A Prussian Vicky2 AAR

[Norgy]

An excellent, rare AAR.
I will follow this with interest, garbon. 

I like how you make popups seem like real history.

[Josquius]

So the converter is worth a damn these days?
Interesting.
I remember trying it years ago and it gave very skeleton modern nations. Not enough population or anything for amyone to industrialise.

Also how did you control yourself to stay small in eu? And stop everyone else from blobbing....
Particularly rare to see a sensibly sized France and surviving uk!

[garbon]

An excellent, rare AAR.
I will follow this with interest, garbon. 

I like how you make popups seem like real history.

Hey, thanks. Took me way too long with all the screenshots I had to try and find a narrative of sorts.

So the converter is worth a damn these days?
Interesting.
I remember trying it years ago and it gave very skeleton modern nations. Not enough population or anything for amyone to industrialise.

I would say that by now it is in a playable state. However, I would only use if you stick to the standard pop definitions and not the optional recalculating it does based on EU4 populations. From what I've seen the latter is terrible...whereas the former changes culture and religions for pops but I think (with exception of slaves and a few small rules to increase or decrease some of the pop types), it is fairly similar distribution of poptypes that you'd get out of standard Vic2 game.

Also, I know the creator encourages users to do a bit of modding themselves. My post about what I did on p'dox forum is now a link mentioned near the faq. I could have modded some province locations (as some borders are ugly) but decided not to go down that route. Did though bring in events from various other mods as well as some tweaks to make satisfied pops get angry about slavery (as I'm not sure if any state actually banned slavery during my EU4 game). There's a validator that helps check if you fuck anything up too much.

Also how did you control yourself to stay small in eu? And stop everyone else from blobbing....

Particularly rare to see a sensibly sized France and surviving uk!

So, I paid a lot of attention to AE. As soon as a lot of nations got angry, I put on the breaks for a while. Also, much of the time I was competing to be the Emperor so I didn't want to antagonize the german minors too much. Hadn't planned to pick up Holland but it was one of those weird occurrences where you just inherit the state (rather than intermediary step of get a PU) which is also how I got my holdings in South America. France was my ally most of the time, so I kept her distracted with my wars / as Emperor I tried to make a point of not letting too much gobbling happen in HRE - though clearly I failed mightily to prevent Swedish and Ottoman blobbing. I was though the one who forced Revolutionary Spain into a million pieces.

Technically I was much larger upon conversion as I'd had France under PU for a few decades but Vic2 doesn't have that as a defined relationship so France when independent when I converted.

[Norgy]

I'm looking forward to the next installment.

[Zanza]

Interesting AAR!

[Norgy]

MOAAR PLZ.

[garbon]

A Most Quiet Year

Prussia's renewed alliance with France, opened up many diplomatic opportunities for the Empire. Within months of the Franco-Prussian rapprochement, a flurry of foreign dignities arrived in Berlin to seek Prussian support.
First to visit was a South German diplomat on the behalf of the minor Prince of Ravensburg. Offering that his homeland would happily join Prussia in arms, it was clear from the outset of discussions that the diplomat had been sent to secure Prussian might against the city-state of Ulm, as it had significant claims on Ravensburger territories. Unimpressed by the offer of an alliance that could only serve to bring Prussia into a minor conflict of little value, though the Konservative government received the diplomat warmly, they set him home with nothing.



Interested in expanding its European reach, the Konservative government readily agreed to offers of alliances from a Neapolitan delegation and emissaries from Bulgaria. The former could boast only three provinces to its name but the alliance signalled Prussia's continued opposition to the Papacy. The Konservative Partei's official newspaper ran an editorial stressing the importance of self-government for local Italian peoples. Some in the capital wondered if the government was too quick to hold to its traditional dislike of the Pope as surely Tuscany was the greater threat to local Italian polities (though the counter argument held that it was Tuscany who had seen independence granted to the former Papal fiefs).





Though weaker militarily than Naples, Bulgaria was a sizable, land-rich state. Owing its initial independence to the Prussian government, Bulgaria was eager to gain a great power ally to protect it from the Ottomans. To its own part, the Prussian government was happy to extend its influence further into the Ottoman heartland.





The last new ally accepted was the state of Münster which agreed to become Prussia's ally as well as to fall under the Prussian sphere of influence.





Offers from Brittany, Urbino and Albania were granted a formal audience and a cursory dismissal. Meanwhile diplomats from Gazikumukh (a tiny state in the North Caucaus) and Vinland were given immediate rebuffs.

Little Brittany is a state in exile which was forced out of Brittany proper by the French government in the late 18th century. The minor South American state still lays claim to be the rightful protector and ruler of the Breton people of France.







Meanwhile having started to feel the heat of the French invasion, the Russian government began a diplomatic exchange with the United Kingdom. The Prussian diplomatic service gave the Russian ambassador a vehement lecture against that course of action but it was unclear to what extent it fell on receptive ears.



To guard against the machinations of rival powers, as well as encourage local economic development, Prussia began to invest in infrastructure projects within its sphered nations, starting with Lorraine and Bremen. Nobles with estates in Eastern Prussia & Poland began to question why the government wasn't interested in supporting infrastructure in their regions.







Out in the colonies, the Konservative government continued its exploitative stance. After all, the colonies had to offer something in return for continued protection from the Fatherland.



As an unforeseen consequence of efforts to pursue ideological thought that would support Prussian aims at home and abroad, polemicists began to spread tracts about individualism and the importance of true democracy. Though the pamphlets were quickly suppressed, the bottle had been uncorked.







Government agents reported an increase in agitation across the Prussian Empire. Particularly worrying was how what had been a tiny movement to outlaw slavery now stood nearly 75,000 people strong.



In August of 1843, mixed news reached the court regarding the revised status of the Great Powers. On the one hand, Prussia's implacable enemy, Scandinavia, was now judged to be so weak that it could no longer be considered one of the world's pre-eminent powers. The Konservative government reasoned that this could open up fertile lands for conquest as long as Scandinavia was prevented from establishing good relations with France.



However, it came at a time that Austria was on the rise and could now be counted among the truly powerful. The very same government that was most opposed to Prussia's self-proclaimed role as protector of the German peoples.





By October, French forces had broken through the Ottoman's Baltic holdings and had started to besiege Russian cities. The Crimean War, which for the last several years had seemed like it would result in total Russian hegemony, had taken a turn.





And in fact, one month later, the Russian Empire signed a white peace with France. Over 4 years of fighting had accomplished nothing except to weaken the Russians and the Ottomans. The Konservative government thanked its lucky stars that Russia had not tried to draw it into that ultimately futile conflict.



The railroad continued to expand in Western Prussia with the Berlin line extended through Brunswick to the Prussian border in Minden.



Liberals around Europe proclaimed that 1844 was to be the start of the Age of Liberalism. This message resonated not only among the powerless and downtrodden, but also among members of the elite who were appalled at how much global suffering the Great Powers sponsored (not to mention the continuing abhorrent practice of slavery). Several prominent Konservative supporters defected to the Liberal party.







By February 1844, Prussia was at war again. Curious as to whether or not Prussia would truly be willing to support French military adventures, France declared war on the UK with the aim of conquering Bretagne.



Not eager to repeat the mistakes of his father, the Emperor pushed the Konservative government to declare war on the side of France. With the United Kingdom only having Brabant as an ally versus the combined forces of France, Prussia, Provence and the Ottoman Empire, it was expected the war would be a quick one.

[Norgy]

I like this. A very different European history.

I've found it tantamount to conquer before the fortress levels are getting enormous tech-wise.

[garbon]

I'm glad to have France back on my side for however long that lasts. Spent considerable effort in EU4 to keep Catholic France happy.

[Norgy]

But can we really believe that Naples is "civilized"?  Even in alt-hist, that sounds strange.

[garbon]

Blood on the Field

Newspapers across Europe were filled to the brim with articles about the war that had broken out among three of the world's great powers.



Hoping to take advantage of the fact that French attention was focused on Brittany, Hungary declared yet another war against the Ottomans. This time war was declared with the aim of freeing their brethren in Western Transylvania.

Unfortunately, the French king was quite committed to his policy that no European state would be allowed to poach territory from the Sultan.



Eager to prove that the renewed Franco-Prussian alliance was more than just dried ink on paper, the Emperor Friedrich Karl personally lead a large army to besiege tiny Brabant.



Supporting his efforts on the campaign was a secondary army led by esteemed General von Roon - veteran of the wars against the Ottomans.



Enthusiasm for the war was widespread even in Prussia's overseas holdings. Colonial brigades in Prussian Canada drew up plans to invade Britain's Thirteen Colonies while General von Sachsen-Altenburg began marching to quickly capture British India.



The established Dutch settlers in Prussia's South American holdings showed markedly less interest in squabbling over distant lands. Stressing that all peoples under the Empire needed to be willing and able to support the Emperor, the local Konservative colonial governors began a repressive crackdown on dissenters.



French and Prussian armies made quick work of capturing the Low Countries during the course of March.



In April, Prussian armies had their first taste of blood. Von Roon caught up with a tiny detachment of Brabantine forces while in India, von Sachsen-Altenburg was caught unawares by a large British colonial force.

Both engagements had predictable outcomes, though few at court were aware of the defeat in the east as the Konservative government manage to stifle all news of the battle. Censorship of the press could, nonetheless, do nothing to prevent the reality that with von Sachsen-Altenburg's defeat all of Prussian India was now left open to the British.



In other Indian news, Australia moved to increase its holdings by declaring war on Gujarat.



The Emperor took part in his first major battle when he met with British forces who had lately been besieging Dunkirk. Outnumbering British forces nearly 2-1, the government was nevertheless happy to celebrate his inevitable victory.





Shortly after Dunkirk, the French decided to let Brabant off lightly and accepted their offer of a separate white peace. A rumour reached the  Prussian court that the French diplomatic corps was so quick to let Brabant bow out so as to prevent any future Prussian claims to the territories.



In the East, Hungary was making good strides against the Ottomans but they feared that with France no longer distracted by its northern front, their advance was going to come grinding to a halt.



Successfully arguing his case that the Prussia army was now free to march to other battlefields, the Neapolitan ambassador convinced the Konservative government to honor their alliance and support ambitions to acquire Puglia from the Pope. The first minister sniggered, after the ambassador had left the room, noting that with British domination of the sealanes, Prussia would be unable to commit any troops to the Neapolitan effort.



In the New World, the British army attempted to rout Prussian forces in Concord. Unfortunately for the British, General von Arentschildt's III. Korps were in nearby Burlington and marched with haste to relieve their comrades-in-arms.



Liberal tendencies were heard to be spreading around Prussia with more of the populace calling for secularization as well as other liberal causes. In Hamburg a particularly radical student association formed with its primary demand being that the government expand voting rights to all of the Prussian peoples. A ham-handed attempt by the Prussian government to get the university administrators to shut down the association only further inflamed radical opinion.



Uninterested in reform, the Konservative government noted worryingly for the first time that many of its ministers were now open to the notion of political reforms - particularly on the legal status of slavery.



Concerned about the balance of power in the Americas, Louisiana reached out to Prussia with an offer of an alliance. While it was unwilling to engage in France's war for Brittany, the Prussian government decided it would be a useful ally for any future adventures against Britain.



By late spring, Hungarian forces were on the retreat as France devoted significant resources to assist the Ottomans.



News filtered into court that Australia had been successful in its aims and was now master of a larger portion of India.





Britain won a pyrrhic victory when the several month long Concordian campaign reached its end with the Prussian army forced to retreat back to Canada. With massive casualties on both sides, the losing Prussian army surprisingly ended up double the size of the British colonial army.

With their remaining forces so weak, it was unlikely that Prussia would be able to make a clean sweep of the Thirteen Colonies as had once been hoped.



After defeats in India and Canada, at least the Konservative government could take some comfort in Britain being blackened in the eyes of the world when it refused to do anything about the terrible Irish Famine.

[Zanza]

The scenario with France and Prussia as best buddies is a fun alternative to reality.

[garbon]

I recently stumbled across unreleased content for this AAR and after checking that the saved game was still functioning (the benefits of a game receiving no further development), I'm dusting this off again after just a 5 year absence...

A French Affair

In July of 1884, a general election campaign began for control of the Prussian state. The Konservatives hoped that they could translate enthusiasm for the war into continued support for their policy aims. Meanwhile the Liberals hoped they could gain traction by pointing out how the military adventuring of the Konservative government was a distraction from desperately needed reforms.





Taking stock of the political movements that were inflaming the passions of the Prussian people, the government was dismayed to see that the abolitionist cause was now nearly a million members strong. For how much longer would it be wise to defend such a barbaric practice?



On the war front, the successful campaign to capture all of English Brittany was wrapping to a close. After a minor skirmish outside of Rennes, English forces were forced to retreat from the area.



Defeated Prussian brigades regrouped with new offensives planned in Boston and Madagascar.





Unfortunately, summer also brought news that Prussia's ally and former great power, Russia fell to the charms of Great Britain. Diplomats were dispatched with haste to the court of the Russian Tsar to make sure that the Prussian-Russian alliance would remain unperturbed.



The government arranged to finance speeches in support of the war by several well-respected politicians.



In October, the Liberals exploited a bout of cholera that had hit several regions of Prussia. They were quick to note that if the government were not so busy financing the war efforts of France that they might have focus and funds to improve the conditions of the lower classes.



Hearing rumors that a secret liberal society had formed with the express purpose of undermining the war effort, and thus embarrassing the current government, the Konservatives began a repressive crackdown.



By November, Hungarian dreams of expansion had been crushed. Unwilling to see territories returned to Mohammadean hands, France ended the war with a return to the status quo.





Pegu appealed to the world's great powers in hopes of resolving a dispute with Manipur. When no one but Mexico was interested in getting involved, Pegu was forced to submit to the Manipur.


Having succeeded in improving Prussia's railroad technology, the government increased its funding to military academies to encourage the development.





While Prussian Deccan was falling to British forces, Prussian troops had the upperhand in France.



Meanwhile, as part of its election promises the government vowed to look into how state contracts are handed out.



Unfortunately the cholera epidemic continued unabated. A local preacher in Bayreuth noted the plague is the fault of the godless liberals.





In Scandinavia, the liberal government passed a programme of compulsory education.



On Christmas day in 1844, Britain sued for peace and formally handed over Bretagne and the Loire Valley to France.



The arrival of peace coincided with the conclusion of the Prussian election and unsurprisingly the Konservatives once again achieved 100% of the vote.  In the jubilation, few noticed how the  Liberals had overtaken the Reactionaries as the 2nd most powerful party in the upper house.



Tiny Saxe-Lauenburg offered an alliance and the Emperor accepted leaving Hamburg as the only North German minor without ties to Prussia. And that state was weak with problems of its own.






State of Prussian affairs at the start of 1845

[The Brain]

Prussian, But Not Blue.

[garbon]

A Railroad to where...?

January of 1845 saw Austria lose its great power status yet again.



In February, the court received news that the Knights transversed the globe to begin besieging Prussian Sonora. Guaranteeing Neapolitan freedom was becoming increasingly tedious.



The people of Prussian Sonora decried the failure of the Prussian government to protect them, which in turn triggered a surge of reactionary feeling among aristocrats in mainland Prussia.



The Papacy made a minor attempt to bring the war to Holland but was beaten back by the superior military and navy of the Empire.







Portugal caused quite the stir when it made a claim to have discovered an 8th planet, but the considered opinion across Europe was that it was solely Portuguese propaganda.



Prussian internal politics took a reactionary turn after the government crushed a series of attempts by Chartists to organise for expanded voter franchise.





The ensuing crackdown led to the government censoring a new daily paper, the Prussian Herald, which debuted with an expose of how the Prussian landed class was increasingly more reactionary than the Prussian people!





On the diplomatic front, 1845 brought some successes and some struggles. Relations with Saxony improved, making it one step closer to falling into the Prussian sphere of influence.



A diplomatic row broke out over Lorraine, where the Prussian government nervously watched clumsy French attempts to garner influence. After the recent conquest of Bretagne, Berlin was convinced France was sizing up its next meal. 



Once again, Prussian diplomats first attempted to discredit the French ambassador but when that proved to have only marginal effect, Lorraine was then ordered to expel the French embassy.





The Prussian embassy in Paris had to work overtime to make sure that the French government understood Prussia's zealous defense of its sphere of influence made no lasting damage to their common friendship.



A revolution in Hamburg triggered by pan-German nationalists brought that recalcitrant North German state into the Prussian sphere.







Unfortunately, that revolutionary feeling also spread to Bavaria where a disturbing level of nationalist feeling is detected by the local governor.







Unrest also spread in the colonies, though that colonial ill-will, in particular, is thought to have been triggered by a careless remark by the Emperor.



Keen to show their value to the Prussian state, local administrators from South America came to court with tales of their successful industrialization efforts and hopes of additional imperial munificence. The representatives were deeply disappointed when the Emperor, as rumored, said, "Iguape? I rule over Iguape? Never heard of such a place."