See here and find out ! :)
This is the link to the Para Hacer Grande a España de Nuevo – A Victoria 2 AAR thread for anyone who is interested:
By the way, how are you doing screen grabs? Fullscreen mode won’t let me use Snagit/Prnt scrn and I have to load up windowed-which sucks for gameplay/scrolling reasonz.
If you’re playing in Steam—a big ‘if’ for a game old as this probably—I’m pretty sure it has a dedicated screenshot hotkey.
I played with running it window’d to make it easier to take screenshots (using a free program called greenshot), but the UI and font proved too small for my ole eyes so I went back to full screen and when I hit it for a shot vic dumps me out of the game just as if I’d alt-tabbed it.
It’s cumbersome but works.
Pretty sure steams built in screenshot program would work, I didn’t use it because I couldn’t resize, crop and put in arrows and comments and stuff.
Edit: just in case you want to take a look at greenshot: https://getgreenshot.org/
Firstly, never really considered it hijacking the thread given how little activity this thread typically sees without an AAR to keep it ticking over. Could see how it might get confusing to have two or more running in the thread at the same time though. Glad to see another person take up doing a Victoria 2 AAR!
Secondly, Steam’s in-built screenshot tool works perfectly fine with Victoria 2 in full-screen. So that is probably the easiest option for many, then you just have to locate them for editing and stuff (Guide Here). Just remember that if you have the screenshot key bound to the default F12 key binding that you’ll also end up with Victoria 2 creating a screenshot of the world map as it stands at that date\time in regards to territorial ownership.
Thirdly, I do not fancy the chances of the Ottomans and Romania after the news of the Germans joining the fray on the side of the Austro-Hungarians. Holding out hope for some ingenious military miracle or something if the Germans do not have to split their resources across multiple war fronts.
October 1863
The Germans are coming. They’ve already got one professional army headed to capture one of our bordering provinces called Bihac and we doubt they’ll stop there. We can probably all agree the following message is never what you want to hear from your Germany embassy:
October 30th 1863
The Germans besides mobilizing also have another professional army coming in from the north towards one of the four regions making up the Transval territory Romania fancies. So far these are manageable, the question on everyone’s mind is how many more armies are they likely to send as we all recall Britain sending 3 full armies in our war with them, something similar seems likely here as the logistics are far easier for Germany given their geographic proximity to the front.
The diplomatic corps are also openly grumbling about how Serbia, ostensibly in our sphere of influence nonetheless elected to grant Gemany military access. Which struck them as rude and in the scheme of things a bit inexplicable that’s even a diplomatic option open to them?!
This now means our army in the northwest that had positioned itself to intercept the German army coming south is out of position as it now appears they’re heading east to help contest Transval and as a result have a straight path there they would not have had otherwise.
Our forces managed to catch the western German army and then proceeded to regret it as they lost badly and were forced to retreat. If this is indicative of our military prowess vis a vis the German army this is not going to go well at all.
December 1863
The Monarchy after seeing this initial engagement go so badly made the quick decision to sue for peace at status quo after confirming Germany would accept. Romania will simply have to get along w/o the Transval. The Ottoman army militarily needs to improve technologically before taking on the likes of the German army.
Not a week later we get the following demand from the French insisting we give up part of the holy lands:
The frankly odd part is the Russians are entangled here claiming they’re the protectors of the Holy Lands too?!
While this decision may trigger future conflict with either France and/or Russia, the monarchy will not be bullied and refuses the French demand.
The French immediately responded by escalating with the following demand:
Which boils down to a choice of war with France or war with Russia and the diplomatic corp lobbied hard for war with France as they’ve spent the last year working on improving Russian attitudes towards the empire and hate to see that effort wasted and the relations with France are already as bad as they can get. The military concurred for different reasons, they argued it would be harder for the French logistically than for Russia, and there’s the simple fact Russia sits literally at our doorstep and if mobilized would be in our empire in days.
And then nothing happened…
April 1864
So far the other shoe hasn’t dropped with the French, we’ve spent that time rebuilding the army, focusing research on improving artillery and building more factories for increased income.
On the diplomatic front we received news the two most powerful nations in the world are now in an alliance:
And we’re still being rebuffed by Russia, apparently they have long memories and recall in the past when we ended our alliance, yet we’ve improved relations as much as we can since then but they still refuse to ally with the empire (our diplomats tell us it’s their understanding the Russians simply don’t want to ally with more than one great power and currently have an alliance with the Netherlands).
- end of displatch
Yeah, did not expect direct confrontation with the German Empire’s armies would go too well for the Ottoman forces due to tech and other factors. So just as well the diplomatic corp managed to extract the nation from a potential humbling by the Germans.
Going to be an interesting next few years for the Ottoman Empire if the world keeps conspiring to try and drag them into conflicts with the other Great Powers.
Oh, you mean the actual thing that brought the Ottoman Empire down might be your undoing?
Good luck with that.
Haha, yeah I’ll admit I had my suspicions the choice of the Ottomans as the nation to play as was based on playing out the curse: may you live in interesting times, or in physics terminology a 100 year examination of political entropy at work.
June 1864
Near the end of the month we got an offer from Algeria for an alliance, and while it was considered an amusing idea by the monarch to poke the French in the eye by accepting, the military pointed out the entire army is on the other side of the country and the supply lines in the desert are underwhelming at best. The monarch chose a middle path, decline the alliance but keep the diplomatic corp busy working to pull Algeria into our sphere of influence.
November 1864
Well, it had been too quiet a year to last and it looks like we’ll not make it to the new year w/o war. The British have once again declared against a nation in the Ottoman sphere of influence, and whereas the last time it was decided to err on the side of caution and let them have Aden (the nation immediately to the east of Fadhli) the Monarchy has decided this time it will be war as it appears clear now that appeasement with the British only invites further invasion. The Ottoman diplomats have been instructed to accept the call to war and to also send a request to any of our other allies who will accept to join us. The army is under instructions to mobilize and move south.
The regional nations of Shewa and Nejd joined the war with us.
What has struck the diplomatic corp as odd is that Njed, a nowhere back water nation under the Ottoman sphere of influence located in the middle of the desert and ranked 102 in the world is somehow the lead in this war and not the Ottomans?!
End of year 1864
Domestic politics: The conservatives lost a bit of ground which was picked up by liberals, reactionaries and socialists.
And we close out the year at war with Britain and her allies, nothing on the ground has started yet, but the Royal navy is off the coast of Istanbul, and we’ve no navy to speak of to counter it. We assume beach landings will follow shortly in the new year.
- end of dispatch
Cutting down to size of the Ottoman Empire incoming? Guess we’ll just have to wait and see how the war with the United Kingdom and her allies\subjects goes first. However, I ain’t holding out the greatest of hope for the Empire’s chances of holding off the British Empire long-term.
That’s frequently one of the more frustrating things about playing as non-great powers in Victoria (EU too for that matter)—I know the Ottomans start the game as a great power, but they usually don’t stay that way for long. You’re often biding time until stronger countries decide to turn their attention to you and start carving you up.
I wish the Ottomans luck in the years to come.
Yes, it may not ultimately go well for them, but we’ll fight the good fight, after all if the Ottomans weren’t going to fight the Brits in our own backyard where were we going to make a stand?
The silly English have the entire world as their play ground and yet they insist on coming to the wide open spaces full of nothing but sand, I fondly recall once upon a time watching Lawrence of Arabia in 70MM.
March 1865
Russia granted the British military access, which we guess suggests the possibility they’ve decided to come at us by land rather than sea. An odd decision by Russia because leading up to this access they allowed they’ve been at odds diplomatically with the British and on quite good terms with the Ottomans?!
Later in the year the French do the same thing, at least in their case we get it, they hate us.
End of March 1865
The British are on scene in Njed.
April 1865
The Carlist Spain, under the sphere of influence of the British, have shown up in Njed as well.
End of April 1865
It’s been known for some time the French have designs on Algeria, to thwart those efforts the Ottoman diplomats had been working diligently to bring the part of Algeria not under French control into the Ottoman sphere, the French apparently are wise to this plan and have preempted us just at the point we were about to finish the job and have declared on them:
May 1865
Not surprisingly Denmark has sent an army down and is working to occupy our most northern border region, 2 Ottoman armies are will join together and engage them.
The diplomatic corp also just noticed that Greece is among the nations on the British side of this war, which is odd since they were previously in the Ottoman sphere of influence and are still on friendly terms with the empire?! Clearly the ball was dropped and it was missed that the British diplomats snuck in and sphere’d the Greeks and they’ll now have to work to remove the British and require them. What a diplomatic disaster that is!
June 1865
With lots of balls in the air now wasn’t really the best time for a rebellion, so of course we’ve got one. Tempers must be on edge from the summer heat. This will have to be quickly put down so the army can stay focused on Britain and her allies coming at us from multiple directions.
July 1865
Germany pulls Danubian Confedaration under their sphere of influence, does this become greater Germany in the future?
- end of displatch
That’s about right for Victoria II, the militancy and civil unrest does not manifest into open rebellion until the most inopportune time. Rebels always do have an uncanny ability to know when to run amok, whether for human or AI controlled nations.
At least the Ottomans shall not go do without a fight, go out swinging if nothing else.
July 1865
While we spend time putting down a rebellion it’s come to our attention the Germans and Russians have gotten into a war:
The Russians started the war with the design of annexing a border region belonging to the Danubian Confederation and the Germans answered the call to join the war.
We’re on lousy terms with the Germans and the Russians won’t ally with us currently so we have no stake in this war and are fine if they bleed each other dry.
September 1865
The army has finished quelling the rebellion and now turns its attention to the Spanish and British occupying parts of Njed. The troubling part still with this war is diplomatic, what has to happen for the British to decide this isn’t worth it?
Italy and Belgium decide to have a go at Germany-Danubian Confederation while they’re preoccupied with Russia:
October 1865
Engaged the Spanish army and defeated it in Njed, in pursuit to the coast to finish them off and remove the British force there:
Meanwhile additional forces of both Spain and Britain have landed near or in Fadhlii that was the annexation goal of this war to begin with, 2 armies of the Ottoman empire are moving to engage. Two observations by our generals:
- Britain and her allies have more forces than the empire and we’re strangely not in control of peace terms so it somehow feels like this is not going to end well.
- The Ottoman generals would very much like to understand why our armies in our own backyard suffer immense attrition, whereas the British and Spanish armies half a world away from their homes suffer none at all?!
November 1865
The army has met with success and defeated the Spanish army in Fadhlii, and are now stationed there awaiting the next move of the British army in the neighboring region that has so far not moved. Our other army from the north is moving into place to occupy the British Aden and force their hand. The Njed invasion has mostly been repulsed and the regions are in the process of being retaken, there is still a 15,000 man army further south to contend with.
And in the northern most part of the empire the Swedish army that had previously been defeated and had retreated across the border is back invading our northern most region, and unfortunately all the armies of the empire are in the south dealing with the British and Spanish forces:
January 1866
The diplomatic corp reports the Germans have elected to widen the war with Russia and added the additional demand of annexing Lithuania, it would appear the war between the two Great Powers shows no signs of slowing down:
Update on Fadhlii: Our war continues into the new year with Spain and Britain, the Ottomans are holding their own, retaking the regions of Njed and occupying the region the British want along with the British region they already own.
Is war with Britain winnable? They won’t accept peace at present, and there are 304 days left before the British time limit for annexing Fadhlii expires, surely they won’t spend the rest of 1866 trying to take it, or will they?
- end of dispatch
Without more info, I’d speculate this is mostly stockpile and techs. Britain probably has more tech than you, probably especially in things like Chemistry. I suspect they have a higher province force limit than you.
The description of war breaking out made me think of this:
This might be a factor I suspect as well. And techs as you mentioned although I bee lined for chemistry so I’ve had that for awhile.
Mostly just belly aching over the fact it seems no matter what the AIs tech is the supply lines their armies would need to march around in the desert thousands of miles from home would be immense.
I can lose 10,000 men crossing two desert regions trying to chase them down and both the Spanish and British armies have merrily camped out in the desert for going on a year w/ zero attrition.
Love that mock newspaper clip, that’s hilarious. Frankly it is easy some times to lose track of stuff as time clicks by. There are 6 or 8 wars going on right now. Every GP is working to sphere or un-sphere everything on the map. So all those arrows on the map is how I feel trying to keep track of all the notifications that pop up non stop.