Episode One- Gettin' Friendly With the British and Our First War
Welcome to Portugal! We're a constitutional monarchy and a declining power surrounded by more declining powers. Fortunately relations between Spain and I are pretty good, so I don't have to worry about them stomping me flat while I go conquer things elsewhere. We've got two factories right now, a glass factory in Lisboa and a winery in... whichever state is the one north of it. I don't remember its name right now. Both are fully staffed (3 craftsmen POPs and 2 clerk POPs), but we sadly have to import the coal for the glass factory. At least it's plentiful on the world market (which means it's also cheap).
A map of our holdings in Africa. We've got a pretty decently sized jump-off point for colonization, when we have the techs for it. But for now, it can wait. We've got other things to get to.
Our budget, after I've adjusted it. Education is maxed out because it helps research techs faster, and taxes on all but our upper class (read: the one capitalist POP and our few aristocrat POPs in Louanda and Beneguela) set to around 48%, with upper class at around 34% to encourage them to build things once I get the machine parts for them to do so. We're still losing money, but once we start time, our exports should alleviate most of that.
Machine parts are the bottleneck good for industrialization: they're only produced in the UK, so there are very frequent shortages unless you build your own factory. Also, since the world market (where all international trade is done) prioritizes based on your country's prestige, it's practically impossible to get them unless you're the most respected country on earth. Fortunately, there are a few industrial techs that give you machine parts (Interchangable Parts and Mechanical Production, iirc), so it's not completely impossible to get things built.
The Portuguese military consists of a two-division army (roughly 20,000 midgets (the game was being funky and the unit sprites got squashed)) and a fairly sizable fleet (like six men-o-war and three clipper transports). We can't afford to do much military expansion right now, since we haven't got the manpower or funds yet, but we definitely will in the future.
Now that our overview is finished, we get our academia to work on the practical steam engine, which opens up a whole host of other industrial techs, including railroad!
Oh yeah, we own Timor. Almost forgot about it. It's not doing us much good right now, but it could be useful as a naval base if we decide to start colonizing the Pacific islands. Alternatively, we could use it as a bargaining chip in future deals with the Dutch or British. Speaking of which...
We offer some insignificant piece of India we hardly remembered we had to the British. We have no idea why they value the tiny province of Goa so much, but we don't ask.
They accept! The trade does some good for relations between us, but more for our bottom line.
Evidently the UK is willing to further our mutual relations, and they send over a diplomat. Meanwhile, we receive word that the Dutch and Belgians have mobilized their reserves (Belgium is trying to win its independence around this time period, so they start out in a war with each other. It usually ends in its historical borders). We don't pay it much attention, the British diplomat is much more important to us for now.
Once the UK representation leaves, we begin thinking of places to beat up. We eventually settle on the kingdom of Oman, who own the African coast to our north and have claims on the Kenyan coast and southern Somaliland. The fact that they have no military on the continent was certainly a factor, in addition to the decent price we could get for the opium they produce. The Portuguese army is put on the ships (after we raise the Defense budget a tad (I don't like going to war when my Manpower won't be increasing; it's crucial for reinforcing divisions and setting up new ones)) and sent over to Mozambique.
The official declaration of war is drafted, and we hesitate a moment. We currently have just 7 prestige, and such actions will not be viewed in a very positive light by the rest of the world. With negative prestige, other nations will certainly be unwilling to conduct deals with us, out of fear of being associated with such an embarrassed nation. But screw those guys. We go for it.
Or maybe they won't! The fact that the UK, currently the most powerful country on earth, would go out of her way to improve relations between us while we're in the red for prestige says a lot about the friendship between our countries.
Russia declared war on Georgia. It's scripted, so the poor little one-province nation bites it pretty much every time. Also, you can see that our army has commenced operations in the Omani province of Lindi with no sign of resistance.
The Portuguese army has successfully, ah, 'liberated' the first province of the war, and move on to take more.
The next two provinces are taken; still no sign of the Omani military. They're probably all in Oman proper, getting ready to defend their homeland.
Meanwhile, we receive word that the Mexicans have struck a peace with Texas, leaving the budding republic with a mere two separated provinces. King Fernando tells his advisors that he feels the “most peculiar sense of loss, as though we could have done something about them...” His advisors make a point of distracting him with good news from the war, before he cooks up a crackpot invasion of Mexico.
All of Oman's official holdings on continental Africa have been taken. The troops are loaded back onto the fleets and sent to take Zanzi-
It seems Oman isn't completely defenseless after all! A small, poorly maintained man-o-war sails up to the royal navy and makes a vain attempt at combat.
It was sorely outgunned and went under in less than a day. Meanwhile, our scientists tell us that they've finished work on the practical steam engine. They are given nice bonuses and promptly told to get back to work.
The troops are told to seize the tiny island of Zanzibar, and work begins on mechanical production, the machine parts from which should be a boon to industrialization back in Europe.
While they do that, a division of natives is organized in Port Amelia, to serve as a guard against partisans while the main army takes Oman's claim buildings and invades their mainland.
Partisans are the main reason why the blitzkrieg does not work in Victoria. As you liberate provinces from the enemy, there is a chance that the citizens of one you've taken will organize into a pseudo-militia group and try to take their homeland back. They can be
very annoying, especially when invading a larger country.
Zanzibar was liberated without much ado, and the army is sent to seize Oman's trading posts on the coast of Kenya and Somaliland.
The natives are deployed to Port Amelia just in time-- partisans have appeared at Lindi! They are immediately sent to crush the rabblerousers.
More of the bastards! Oh well, uncivilized natives vs. trained men, round one!
Hah! They are far outnumbered and outgunned, this should be a-
...well, this is embarrassing. I should have known better than to send them in
right away; it takes about a week for their morale to reach maximum after deployment. In this case it was too low, and everyone bolted at the first sound of gunfire. Oh well, they headed back to Port Amelia to collect themselves.
We spot some rebels just over the border. We're not sure what they could be upset about, since they've gotten into a battle with the Omani partisans. They are quickly crushed, at any rate.
All of Oman's African territory has been seized and their claim buildings now fly our flag. The army adopts an island hopping strategy and moves on to Soccotra, almost a stone's throw away from the Arabian peninsula. The island chain should be a nice position for a naval base, when we start colonizing.
Soon after, we find that the African division's morale has reached acceptable levels. They are reinforced, and we promote our first general, Nunes Vidigal, to lead them to Lindi.
It seems the rebels took a far greater toll on the Omani than we thought, and the Second Battle of Lindi ends in their complete slaughter within days.
Evidently they threw together another junker to try to stop our navy, we didn't even notice.
Soccotra has fallen, the troops get back on the ships to take on Oman proper.
Keshim, the southernmost coastal province in Oman has been taken, and the news brings the citizens of Dar es Salaam to the point of uprising.
Mexico violates their peace treaty with Texas, dragging the USA in. We were at first worried for the Texans, but then remembered just how big the US Army is. Also, in the background, one can see that we have taken our transports back to the coast of Mozambique so that the natives don't have to take attrition from marching through two provinces, and land just north of the partisans (there is a negative combat modifier for troops who are landing on an occupied coastal province, otherwise I would have sent them directly from the ships).
We defeat them, but it is a costly victory; Vidigal lost over 2600 men.
More partisans at Lindi, Vidigal shall crush them.
Yay, mechanical production is finished! With the machine parts this gives us, we can
hopefully industrialize a bit, assuming our capitalists back home aren't retarded.
We decide to give our scientists a break for now, and make our philosophers do something useful for once and explore the Power of Positive Thinking ™.
July 14, 1839: Royal family inexplicably develops a drinking habit en masse.
Meanwhile, great progress has been made in the war with Oman: all provinces south of their capital have been 'liberated.'
Also, the third battle of Lindi has commenced! I do not recall how long it took exactly, only that I was impressed by how long the Omani held out.
The last partisans are expelled from Africa, at the cost of some 2500 men.
Vidigal's men are taken up to Oman proper in order to bring the war to a speedier conclusion. We have been surprised by their lack of a defense in their mainland.
The African division is unloaded on the western tip of Oman, where it immediately begins operations.
It's not hard to see why they're offering us peace. It's less hard to see why we'd decline.
Bolivia declares their independence from Peru. Their primary export is a type of shirt with the face of a man they call “Che Guevara” painted on it. We have no idea why the gentleman is important, and decline their offers to sell us thousands of them.
The main army takes the Omani capital, Masqat, around the same time the African division takes the province of Kalha. Troop morale reaches an all-time high when the men learn that they've subdued an
entire country, even if it was just a puny uncivilized nation.
We offer the Omani government, now totally underground, peace: we take everything, and they can keep their capital city (we don't get any badboy from wars with uncivilized nations unless we outright annex them. A common tactic is to simply take all but their capital, then take the capital once the peace treaty expires). They decline, realizing what a mess their capital city is at this point.
…
The main army is put back on the ships to head home (or, well, Mozambique). We leave the African division in what was once Oman to put down any rebellions that might pop up from time to time.
Doesn't Oman look just lovely in green?
