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Brete is a map key that has been tested for Imperialism. (First reported by davidk on zetaboards.)
Great powers[]
Red, the only occupant of one island, has some gold, a fair amount of grain, and plenty of coal, iron, fruit, and timber, but not much for making fabric.
Blue (Zimm) shares a continent with five MNs, three of them bounding it.
Minor nations[]
Three of the minor nations (whom Red will obviously want to talk to) list their exports as merely (1) cotton, (2) wool: an unusually restricted combination, though it is better than nothing, which is the apparent export list of the MN that has a standard name of "Idolon".
"Normal" game report for red[]
Capital in the west has fruit, grain, and three fish. Port on a cotton tile on a cape south of it. First depot on a cattle ranch east of that, with four grain farms and fruit. Then the rail heads for the wool and collects a few minerals on the west side of the mountains. Some good tiles will have to wait till we can build depots on hills.
Rank stays fairly middling for the first 20 years or so, with the lead changing considerably. In the late 1830s, Patagon declares war on our neighbour Wodan but we are quick off the mark to join in and we get the lot!! By this time, half of the MNs have been colonized or conquered. Illustration is just after we started earning from the first port we built in Wodan:
Before invading Wodan, we had had to choose between two of our three allies because one had declared war on the other. We chose to go along with the attacker, Green (Ordune), reportedly with the "Excellent" military. As soon as our trio of SOTLs had got our first troops onto Wodan, they set off to see if they could repeat the process on the hapless victim of the latest war, Orange (Devron). Surprise, surprise, the next screenshot shows the first visible result, with the original attacker still not making the sort of headway an excellent military should have allowed. At the end of the turn on which we ordered this mission, we had become top nation in the council's estimation though still militarily bottom.
Breech-Loading Rifles become available in Spring 1841, earlier than previously recorded. By the time we can afford them, they may be a bit late for action against Orange, where we have seven provinces and will shortly have our original Sapper and a new Demolitionist (i.e. Combat engineer) ready to try the capital, along with the rest of our army, which is possibly bigger than that of Orange.
We don't even have Steel Plows or Compound Steam Engine yet.
Just to add spice to the game, Patagon has declared war on Haxaco, which adjoins three of our former orange provinces; both are briefly described as having "Good" military, but in industry Haxaco is "Excellent" while Patagon is only "Fair". Those estimates on the Diplomacy information page can be very much at variance with the charts: our industry was recently described as "Poor" while it was (as it still is) top of the chart, and the current chart shows Haxaco and Patagon virtually neck and neck at places #5 and #6.
Fall 1841, we send a lone Regular to check out what's in Devron City. He returns unscathed with the following report: 4 Militia, 13 Regulars, 5 Grenadiers, 4 Scouts, 1 Cuirassier, 3 Light Artillery, 16 (SIXTEEN) Artillery, 2 Generals: 48 units. That will be costing Devron about $16,000 per turn. The province produces nothing but food. So they will run out of money (and materials for new units) very soon if they haven't already. A couple of fire sales to strip the non-food assets, then what? The main message for us, however, is that our 39 units, of which the strongest would be the two demolitionists plus 5 Cuirassiers, 14 Light Artillery, and 10 Artillery, are not going to succeed in an attack. Right? So we should build forts in the two adjoining provinces and get on with making money and artillery while our allies, who have on the other side of the target a force of size similar to ours but possibly stronger where it counts, ponder whether to attack.
Moving into the mid-1840s, Devron is still trying to sell goods but losing a few to the blockaders from Ordune and us, and a couple of other GPs declare war on it. In 1845 the governors give us 29 votes and Ordune 28. We have captured all of Twelt, we have started on Dedge with no response from Patagon, who had a pact with it but evidently respect our stronger military position and maybe our alliance with Ordune), and we have declared war on the last un-pacted MN, Pram. Gradual build-up of our forces next to Devron City in case we feel like attacking when Dedge is settled. However, Zimm sends a huge fleet in from the north and lands an army distinctly stronger than Devron's and captures it.
As can be seen from the screenshot, Zimm's force contained 52 units, including a substantial number of the new generation, which was too much for Devron's 48 units (with only a handful of new-generation units). So our people in Ulloa can relax for a while, especially when their fort is built in a turn or two. They comprise 1 Militia, 1 Minuteman, 2 Regulars, 1 Grenadier, 1 Hussar, 3 Light Artillery, 1 Siege Artillery, 1 Artillery, and 1 General. The other province adjoining Devron already has its fort along with a greater force: 1 Militia, 2 Minutemen, 1 Hussar, 4 Carbine Cavalry, 4 Cuirassiers (most with 3 or more medals), 5 Field Artillery, 11 Light Artillery, 4 Siege Artillery, 7 Artillery, 1 Combat Engineer, 1 Sapper, and 3 Generals. Total movable units 51. Could we have taken Devron?
Our military strength is now second only to that of Zimm, and about 50% ahead of bottom-ranked Patagon, so we are comfortable and can get on with doing what we like doing: producing, transporting, using, and selling resources.
Eventually, however, there are bigger fish to fry after our military strength reaches #1. Ten of our Ships-of-the-Line establish a beachhead after we declare war on the current minnow in Winter 1849. Progress by Spring 1850 after four captures that were fairly easy:
They had more Siege Artillery than our Generals estimated!
Game locked up at end of turn at Fall 1850 as we had just ordered a second attack on Patagon City with greater force and with some of the surviving defenders still presumably a bit sick.
"Normal" game report for blue[]
Tried "Random Names" just for fun. We are "Brete2"; the other GPs are: light blue Nurdlirsk, orange Bulstin, green Fonzongi, yellow Whan, purple Ralda, red Hagyoki.
Capital in south produces 4 grain, 2 fruit, 2 fish, 1 timber. Railroad heads north-east then east for a depot between two grain farms. Not a huge amount of grain evident, but plenty of fruit and cattle, 2 each of cotton and wool (which is twice what red has), and a good number of hills and mountains for prospecting.
Usual population: 4 untrained, 2 trained, 1 expert. Order Indiaman, farmer, immigrant, four trained, one expert, and six buildings. Arrange trade consulates in three of the timber-and-two-minerals-producing MNs: west of green, Adrat Sudaf; E-N-E of yellow, Chosaba; and S-E of us, Akaius. The other MN names are Hunga, Kaukpi, Jayd, Rigneza, Lantesso, Soi Guang, Koopo, Sinu, Lazhaong, Ukut, Kilmatsy, Tafhua, and Poc. Province names are equally semi-random.
Offer nothing for sale but bid on wool, timber, and the metals. Manage to buy 2 wool (from Akaius and Jayd) and 2 timber (from Adrat Sudaf, who offered us 5) with wool offers from Kilmatsy and Ukut turned down. Koopo was the other timber offeror but presumably sold its 2 to Bulstin, first on the list. As is common, nobody's offering metals yet. Only two of our trade consulates produced offers; Chosaba, which didn't offer timber or wool to anyone, has two other GPs' consulates, so we will offer it 5% as an incentive for when it does offer either of those.
Summer 1815[]
Nobody else has started a railroad by Summer 1815. Maybe they all see the building of a second port as more valuable. Depends on your terrain distribution. Alternatively, we just can't see new developments in a province until we have a military or merchant presence nearby?
Red, purple, and yellow exported a lot last turn - 4 units each, I presume from the bar length. The others each exported one unit.
We set people to work on paper, fabric, furniture, clothing, and hardware. Five idle labor, but with more purchases likely this turn we should see that reduce. The other GPs seem to have done no training because all are at a level of "Labor" below us.
Bid on the same resources as before. Again no offering for sale: clothing and furniture prices are below $900.
Cash $5,244. Military "Good", Industry "Awesome"; everyone else is just "Good".
End of turn. Take all the offered wool (3 from Koopo, 1 each from Kaukpi and Tafhua) because there's still no metal offered and we are #2 on the list of each timber offeror. (Noting that the order of offering is not the same as the order of listing in the book; it can be impossible to work out which nations might still be waiting to offer you some of the currently-considered commodity.) Take all 3 timber offered by Adrat Sudaf then find that Akarius was going to offer some, as was Sinu. Maybe Akarius needs 5% so as to put us at #1 and give us more confidence. Anyway, the full slate of 8 merchant holds are full, which will be work for 12 labor units except to the extent that we produce paper or use lumber or fabric for something other than factory production. And we should order another Indiaman, because we can clearly buy more than 8 units sometimes and will soon want to sell units too.
Fall 1815[]
No idle workers after we send the new recruit into training. So we order another immigrant because we can feed him and there will probably be work, or he may become a miner or second engineer soon. We rethink the lumber situation and pull out the furniture makers so we can save up for 2nd Indiaman. No hurry to sell furniture, as it's still below $900. Making paper, 2 fabric, clothing, hardware with 2 idle.
Cash $4,146. Military "Good", Industry "Awesome"; everyone else is just "Good".
Status: our Council Projection bar is 30% longer than anyone else's! Reflects our #1 slots in Interior Strength, Industry, and Labor, and equal place in several other fields. Merchant marine top equal with 4 others; Nurdlirsk and Bulstin must have built traders, not an efficient use of resources if you are about to expand further soon; they are 5/6 equal on "World Exports", where green is a bit above them and red, purple, and yellow are still top equal.
Offer hardware: price $1,001. Ukut and Soi Guang each offered 1 unit of wool but we were bottom of each of the lists behind red and green. Chosaba offers 11 timber! Purchase (of the maximum 7) recommended (with no apparent consideration of later offers that might also gain us diplomacy points - but when we examine other potential offers we see that there is no guarantee of anything else because nobody's offering coal and we are 2nd and 3rd in the preferences for the iron offerors). Do it. Turns out Sinu was going to offer us some timber - but no consulate so no gain except 5% (= $5 per unit); no offers of iron. Sold hardware for $1,071 to A.S., making an overall profit for the first time and pushing our credit limit up to $287. Akaius prefers green, so we really must offer it 5%.
Winter 1816[]
Start first depot (2 grain farms and 3 plains; sadly neither of the hills produces). Order 2nd Indiaman, leaving 0 lumber and 8 labor units idle. Sole untrained immigrant is useless until trained, so train him; but next paper will be for 2nd engineer to build a port to bring in more processable resource or to build the next depot and help with the rail link for it: timber and wool not far away. Then very soon we will need more lumber and steel to expand the lumber mill.
Offer Akaius and Adrat Sudaf 5%. Nobody prefers us.
Furniture is at $907, not enough to tempt us until we are really short of funds.
Cash $2,226 and the same "Good" and "Awesome" for us alone. Status: on Council Projection we're still 30% ahead of yellow, but red, orange, and purple are a bit above yellow while green and light blue are close to us. Interior Strength has the same order but more spread out: yellow is about 20% of us and green and light blue are about 50%. No diffs in Diplomacy or Military, and no change in Merchant Marine. Little change anywhere else, but in exports we have at least got a bar instead of none.
Sold hardware to Chosaba, Bought 1 iron from Akaius. No other offers; there were only 2 wool and 3 timber on offer and no coal. They do fluctuate! Profit $787; Credit Limit $360.
Spring 1816[]
Order Engineer, switch to producing lumber. 8 of 14 labor units idle.
Clothing price back up to $900, Furniture $970. Offer one of the latter in case we don't sell next turn, when we will want more cash to start a depot or port. Fruit is the next food requirement: with loads of grain our population can go to 9, then one fruit would take us to 11 and one meat would then take us to 13 without sickness or dipping into the costly canned food. Of course we need things for those people to do; no point having them sitting around just eating. There will be more to do: our next depot will initially produce 4 timber, 1 wool, 1 fruit, 1 grain, and the 3rd one will produce wool and cotton as well as fruit and grain and maybe a metal or two.
Check what percentages our three trade partners are getting elsewhere; result: put A.S. and Chosaba up to 10% temporarily. Three is exactly the average number of TCs per GP, so we won't add anyone else yet.
Status: little change except that green is now clear 2nd and yellow has climbed up to 6th equal. We are undisputed leader in Merchant Marine; let's hope it pays off.
It paid off: sell both items and buy 3 wool (all the offered wool), 2 timber (8 total offer), 2 coal (of 7), 3 iron (of 8).
Summer 1816 and a bit beyond[]
No idle labor, i.e. all 7 trained workers productive. New engineer moves to site of next depot so that its rail link will be in as soon as the other engineer builds it.
Progress steady for the next few years, pulling away in most of the status areas, with 24 labor units by Summer 1819. We have three depots working and a 4th plus a port being built. Found several iron tiles and one coal. Expand textile mill to size 4
Winter 1820: We found 2nd coalfield last turn. Orange has built some military, shooting its military strength up to 30% higher than the rest of us. Order a Miner and another immigrant.
Spring 1820, 4th depot done: hardwood, fruit, cattle, and 2 grain on plains; we could have built a port to get one fish but money was a bit tight (e.g. right now we have no money to start mining or railroad or train the newbie) and we won't have a meat problem for years yet if ever. Start offering 1 horse; price still at $300 and we produce one per turn.
Fall 1820, find third coalfield, next to another one, so we will shoot a railroad into that valley ASAP.
Winter 1821, Green has increased its merchant capacity to 16, leaving three of us in #2 equal place. With our growing resource haul we really aren't desperate for another merchant yet, though there is the occasional quarter when we would like to buy a little more of what is offered.
Spring 1821, finish the gold mine - so that covers the military budget for now! Streamlined Hulls available, so our next merchant will be the cheaper faster Clipper.
Summer 1821: Developer. No way we want to spend $5,000 on an embassy yet. Feed Grasses available; that can wait too. Orange has built more military and green has joined the race: food for thought.
Fall 1821 sees the first alliance between Great Powers: light blue and purple, neither one looking like a contender for top honours. Adrat Sudaf has now improved its relationship with us to level 7, i.e. halfway from neutral to love; no other GP has achieved that level with any MN.
Winter 1822, port in N-N-W done: 4 fish, 2 timber, 1 fruit, so we can seriously grow if we have enough for immigrants to do. And our first iron mine is operating. Two timber and two iron will occupy two trained workers. Order a Cuirassier, so as not to risk being bottom on the military ladder.
Spring 1822, double-coal depot is in place but producing only grain at present. Expand clothing factory to 2. We now produce 8 timber, so switch bid from timber to cotton in case that helps our fabric production (where we produce only 3 cotton or wool and have noticed a decline in wool offers). Buy Cotton Gin and sell first horse (@ $276).
Summer 1822, expand lumber mill to 8 but still manage to reach another productivity plateau with 28 labor units employed. Light blue offers alliance: decline. Sell another horse @ 276.
Fall 1822: first coal mine. Cut horse production to pull both units in, because we are on fine (economical!) margins with the food.
Winter 1823, red and yellow form alliance. Mills and factories reach another plateau with 32 labor units working. We've been shunted to #4 in military strength.
Spring 1823: Square-Set Timbering available. Cottonfield has been upgraded. We are now #5 in military strength: time for action?
Summer 1823: Trusted adviser tells us that Hagyoki's navy is over twice the size of ours: yes, well, one coracle or equivalent would achieve that, arithmetically; big deal. Our fourth Trade Consulate opens: in Kilmatsy, a producer of cotton and wool who has no other trade consulates. Those products have not been offered as much as we would like.
Fall 1823: a fruit + grain + (soon) iron depot is done.
Winter 1824: coal + iron depot done. Akarius has improved our relationship, up to level 7. Sell another horse.
Spring 1824: iron mine. Order Cuirassier (among other less military people). Iron Rail Bridge available.
Summer 1824: order Hussar. Active labor in mills and factories reaches 36.We are #1 in Labor. Military strength officially #5 but virtually 3rd equal. Orange seems to have built a Trader to get ahead of us in Merchant Marine: pretty inefficient!
Fall 1824: order Light Artillery. Our best MN now has attitude 8 (light green). Military strength now a clear #3; no hope of being #1 for the council vote, but our diplomatic supremacy is satisfying.
Winter 1825: iron mine. Mills and factories now have 38 labor units (and we're building a freight car).
First Council vote[]
Green is #1 on the table but gets only 11 votes while we get 12. Definitely deserves a statue.
Spring 1825: expand steel mill to size 8; 8 idle labor as a consequence, but we have 34 labor units working.
- (probably to be continued, and there are very detailed records on paper that anyone can ask to be added; maybe someone else can start up a game and report his or her progress by way of comparison!)