ORIGINAL: Keenan
Great endeavor - would be glad to see it completed.
I hope so - and I'm always glad if someone is in for historical or gameplay discussion [:)]
A few things that came to mind:
1. Westen Ukraine seems to consist purely of prior Austrian territories with no true Ukraine core areas being included. So a name like "Galicia" or "Outer Karparty" might be more suitable. Would help to avoid pissing off the Russians [8D]
Good idea! I'm not sure if Galicia will still be independent at the start of this scenario. Possibly the Russians would have incorporated it, so maybe whole Ukraine will start as an occupied country. Still thinking about the best solution though.
2. Seems a bit strange that France lost control of the most part of Northern Italy but holding on to Dalmatia nevertheless. Would have expected Italy to be "Kingdom of Naples" and Northern Italy remaining a French Minor. Will be interesting to read about that story.
France still has control over Northern Italy. Here is where I took my inspiration for the borders from:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... c_1810.png
Naples is the capital of Italy in this timeline, so basically it is a nation state that has evolved from from the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily plus the puppet state Kingdom of Italy.
That's a better view of how it looks in the upcoming scenario:
And here is a sneak preview of one decision event:
3. In a similar way, ceding control of the whole Confederation of the Rhine including south German French allies to Prussia and/or collapsing Austria (while keeping control of northern German coastal areas) will be quite a story to read as well.
4. For the South German Federation Vienna as a capital seems odd given Austria would basically hold only one third of the overall population of this federation and the collapse of the "k.u.k." monarchy weakening its position. But the history of this world (see also 3.)) will possibly explain, why Munich was not a reasonable alternative. Seems the Confederation also lost Southern Tyrolia to Italy.
Well, in this timeline, the puppet state "Confederation of the Rhine" was overthrown and the territories joined either the North German Confederation or the South German Confederation. However, the French kept control over Northern Germany since they still tried to exclude Britain via the continental system.
Maybe there was a conflict during the Italian unification wars when Austria (member of the South German Confederation) lost Southern Tyrolia. You're right, Munich could be more realistic. However, Vienna should be kept as least as an Alternate Capital due to gameplay reasons. Anyway, the occupation of the Rhineland and other areas with a German majority prevents Prussia and Austria from fighting each other like they did in the original timeline in 1866 even though there is a kind of rivalry between them.
5. Strategically the east European "Central Powers" would be in danger to be crushed between Russians, Ottomans, both German Confederations and Italy. So that could easily become quite a challenge for the French player to keep them afloat.
Yes, Poland probably won't survive if the French don't hurry up and link up. That will be part of the fun. [:)]
6. Russians and Ottomans in the same camp might create some problems for the Middle East region as well, given France will possibly not be a danger for the Russians for a long time. Be prepared to see the Russian Bear grasping for anything near and far in that region.
The Ottomans and Russians fought often against each other so they will be non-cooperative majors. The Ottoman Empire is under great pressure from the Balkans (North-West), Egypt (South), Persia (East) - see
Franco-Persian Alliance and Russia will enter the war later.
Honestly, I have not figured out yet exactly how to make things more difficult for Russia. Basically, I want to model a kind of revolutionary situation like in real world that mix with nationalist uprisings so that Russia will be busy for the first two years. Maybe someone comes up with ideas that are historically realistic?
Technically it looks like the only true Majors in this game should be France, Russia and UK (given the colonies/commonwealth did not crumble ahead of their time). But Steampunk technologies could have very well meddled with the balance of power of many of those countries. Who knows where Serbian born Nicolas Tesla would have ended up in this world and what might have become of a guy like him a Steampunk technology world [;)]
Well, the main industrial powers will obviously be France and Great Britain. In this scenario, Oil will be basically worthless while Mines are more important MPP-wise. Britain has advanced Airship technology and will be able to bomb down French industrial centers. Only later on, France will develop Anti-Air or Biplanes that can handle the situation. France will develop new land warfare technologies (Machine guns, flamethrowers, steam tanks later on) so they will be able to fight a two front war against either Italy, Spain or the North German Confederation.
I've decided to make Egypt a Major and Persia + the Balkan states as their minors so that France will not be able to supply them with its advanced technology and MPPs. This is also due to gameplay reasons so that the scenario will be challenging.
