1922, September.
At war with Italy as they tried to torpedo one of our ships at anchor in peacetime. Italy happens to be allied to Russia at the moment, and Russia may well come in as well. Now them I can deal with. However I have no bases in the Med, nor do I want any, so for the time being this is a fish vs. fowl affair, as neither of us can get at the other.May take a prestige hit or two as there are unlikely to be any engagements unless they send forces to the North Sea.
Neither Italy nor Russia has any ships that look particularly dangerous regardless.
My two best BCs are in the yards for another 6 months being converted to oil firing, but all the rest of the fleet with the exception of about half the DDs have the latest fire control and increased elevation.
I have two more BBs on the stocks which will mount 18" guns, but construction is suspended for now only a couple of months in. I need those funds for other things!
1922, October. Austria has entered on our side. Since their relations with all the other Powers are good, if they offer an alliance I'll take it. Then I can get at the Italians...
1922, November. The Russians are in. The Austrians will have to look after themselves. I have better things to worry about now.
1923, February. It's all over, Russia and Italy conceded defeat after 5 months and no battles of note.
- 1923-2.1.png (389.6 KiB) Viewed 340 times
- 1923-2.2.png (241.73 KiB) Viewed 340 times
I don't want any of these places, Austria is welcome to any they care to demand.
A NOTE ON IMPERIALISM IN THE GAME.
RTW is all about prestige, and apart from events, the best way to get it is by defeating your enemies. The model for overseas possessions in the game uses the benefit of 20-20 hindsight to remind us that in the end--meaning in the post-WW2 perspective--they are a cost, not a benefit.
However this was not at all obvious to the imperial Powers until the independence movements after 1945, with the possible exception of India where there was significant agitation in the interwar period--but not enough to tip out the British until they arrived at 1945 exhausted and broke.
Playing German, there is no incentive whatever that I can see to try to expand the overseas empire as the Kaiser tried to do.
We know that undeveloped African swamps were of no earthly use to him--but the Kaiser wanted them anyway. It was a matter of...prestige! In RTW, though, Germany has no shortage of enemies on her doorstep, I can beat them to get prestige, and thus there is no rational reason in the game to incur FS and all the other penalties that come with a far-flung empire.
In my opinion, there should be more incentive for the player to take possessions before reparations, possibly by adding a prestige bonus for doing so, or a prestige penalty for passing them up. This should apply until around the mid-40s, or, for a more sophisticated approach, until the Japanese (or Chinese) defeat at least one European Power other than Russia. For this, starting in 1905 in a very small way ("It's only Russia, they can't beat a proper country"). and much more so in 1941-2, was one of the major inspirations for the later independence movements in Asia and elsewhere. It was a demonstration that non-Europeans could soundly thrash the European imperial powers, and subject peoples everywhere took it to heart, then did it. It certainly did not matter that the Japanese failed in the end; a couple of Major Victories in game terms should get this ball rolling.
In fact the game seems to encourage the exact opposite , whereby you lose prestige if you _don't_ grant independence in the 40s and 50s. This makes no sense--why on earth do you think Dien Bien Phu happened? The French were trying to maintain their...you-know-what (hint: begins with P...) And later, in much the same place, so did the USA.
Similarly, the British departure from India, the middle east mandates, and Egypt in particular cannot be described as anything but ignominious, and it hardly enhanced British prestige to pack up and leave these places, sometimes at the run.
Compare the 1911 Durbar with the chaos when they left India, then tell me the second was more prestigious. And the Suez Crisis! Humiliations galore! P--
So my suggestion here is that the game does not view imperialism through our 2025 (in two days) goggles, but instead using the viewpoint of the statesmen of the day--however alien that may be to modern sensibilities. Make them worth going after until it is no longer remotely possible to do so. And include the risk of losing them later, and prestige with them, as part of the price to be paid for imperialism. This would be much more reasonable.
