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December
Culture

The standings are now at the stable point. The temporary occupation gain is over for the O.E. and Russia. Austria has not fallen quite as far as expected, but it has dropped in position.

Russia now has a solid lead that will be difficult for any nation to overcome. This will result in an added monthly boost in glory for the newly formed Russian Empire. Until it acquired lands in the Austrian surrender Russia was in a "nation" status.

Spain has taken another jump forward in its capture of Lisbon.

December
Political Report

Spain has sought to take Portugal for a very long time-it has finally succeeded. However, its acquisition of Portugal will never be safe util it has come to terms with Great Britain-that is not likely.

France will soon have Parma under its control. There is nothing that Spain can do to stop this-nor Prussia either. Assuming France is victorious in the next war with Spain, control of Parma will allow it to take even more provinces.

December
Moral

Austria continues to make rapid increases. Russia is slightly falling. Russia has an apparent problem in producing an adequate amount of goods for consumption. France is making decent progress-actually better than Great Britain at the moment.

December
Strength Comparisons

The Ottoman forces continue rapid recovery of strength. The pace of increase will slow soon as most units are reaching he current cap of 85% readiness. The Sultan see's no reason to exceed the85% level until there is threat of war. This will save on monthly military cost and slow down the workings of the induction masters who are cleaning out the empires stock of manpower.

December
New Border

The northern border of the Empire has had some major changes. In a military sense, it has improved considerably. The great fortress in Krajina is now under Ottoman control. Along with that is the added ability to garrison 8 divisions at that one point. There is a good road going directly from Krajina to th Adriatic at Carniola. The same road is connected to Serbia. This will be of benefit to the Empire later on. Importantly also is the fact that such a system is now denied to our possible enemies.

There are some rather negative effects of gaining those 6 new provinces. As there were only 2 excess court developments the empire is now experiencing 8% waste. This seems to have affected food production and wool more than the other items. It is critical that manpower growth is maintained. This means that an even more disproportionate amount of labor needs to be dedicated to agriculture.

The new provinces are all suffering from unrest. This will likely continue for 9 months. During that period the normal production will be drastically reduced. Those places are barely able to cover their own food requirements. The end result of this is that the new provinces are actually a significant drain on Ottoman resources.

It is being considered at this time to create a protectorate-perhaps two. It was planned to make Montenegro a protectorate. However, that province is producing exactly what would be saved by reducing waste by 2%. It does not make any sense to release it. The new provinces can be released also. There is some doubt as to how well that would work while they are in unrest.

In July 2 more provinces will attain the magical number of level 5 courts. This will reduce waste to 4%. In September the unrest will end in the new provinces. As it will be another year before a further 2 court level 5 provinces will be completed there may be 2 protectorates formed at that time-if it has not been done already. The total number of provinces amount to 49.

Cotton and wool production has been affected in such a bad way that stocks will be exhausted in about 7 months. Reducing taxes would help alleviate this problem, but the funds are needed.

December
Production Report

This report covers November-before the waste began. There was more than adequate production in all areas. The spice and luxury shows a balance of production minus trades. Currently 30 spice and 15 luxury units are being traded to France. Beginning with the new 8% waste, production will be affected. Both those items will suffer falling stockpiles for at least 9 months. Current stocks are adequate to cover such a shortfall.

January, 1808
Glory Standings

The Ottoman Empire continues to widen the gap with Great Britain. Spain continues to increase its lead. Sweden is enjoying a high level due to its acquisitions in Denmark.

The court in Ezerum is part of the program to eliminate waste. This was started long ago, but there is still another 6 months to go-just for that one province to reach level 5.

January
New Map of Europe

The borders of the O.E. and Russia have expanded-at the expense of Austria.

January
Economic Report

As there are current problems with production due to waste some relief was offered in the way of lower taxes. The tax rate was dropped from 30% to 29%. Selim 06 the Merciful has bestowed this gift to his people. This has resulted in a drop of revenue of 28- a hefty loss for one point.

The number of replacements in the system is around 98,000-this should be adequate.

January
National Comparisons

Austria's manpower is down to 32-that is even lower than what I had expected. It will be hard pressed just to get its army back up to strength-let alone build new units. Its treasury is also dropping-even with subsidies from Spain.

January
Developments

New projects are springing up everywhere-sort of. The treasury needs to be strengthened. It is planned to limit new projects to 2 per month for the time being. This will allow for a healthy increase in gold reserves.

The emphasis will be on courts and barracks for some time to come.

January
Italy

Italy will be a prime area of concern with a possible war with Spain. There are two large threat forces in Italy; the Prussian in Rome and Spaniards in Venice. Both those forces are about 50% of a full army, but still could be dangerous.

The Ottoman force that will likely be involved in Italy is the 1st Army commanded by the Sultan himself. The second Army will have some other little tasks to attend to.

January
1st Ottoman Army

The first Army is nearly complete in its reorganization. There is one more artillery regiment to be added. It is currently at 85% readiness-this will be increased as the situation warrants.

January
Military Training

The Army was upgraded with square firepower. Hopefully this will neutralize Spanish superiority in cavalry.

February, 1808
Glory Standings

All positions are stable for the time being. It will take a surrender or multiple battles to shift the current situation.

A sorely needed barracks was just completed. Quarterly increase has fallen from a high of 90 per quarter during the last war down to 77 per quarter-that is inadequate for the Empires defenses.

February
Ottoman Glory Increase

The monthly increase is impressive-second only to Spain's at this time. It should be increased just a little more.

February
DoW on Spain

After many discussions it has been decided that the threat posed by Spain cannot be tolerated any longer. A DoW was issued this month-in March the Army marches.

February
Strategic Map

It is a bit crowded in northern Italy. However, as the Spanish and Prussian forces there are quite small there may not be much fighting-other than siege actions.

The Ottoman 2nd Army is already dis-embarking in Tunisia-ready to advance.

February
Prussian Army

Prussia has maintained a presence in Italy for some time. The intentions of the Prussian King is not quite clear. The force is too small to be of any great threat, but large enough to be sorely missed if destroyed. It is possible that it is intended to have both the Spanish force in Venice and the Prussian Army engage one of the Otto Armies. I don't think that would work.

February
Venice Garrison

Spain has maintained a fairly large force as a garrison in Venice. It seems like the Spanish King did not believe the Ottoman Empire would go to war so soon. As it is, that large Spanish force is in great peril of being lost.