Trying my luck as Brazil again, and playing specifically to
increase my industrial output. This puts me in Great Power status by
the 1850s, and bouncing up and down the top-eight ever after.
I start colonizing Nigeria, with an eye on the coal deposits
it has in one province, since Brazil is chronically coal-poor. But
there's a shortage of lumber in the early game, so I have to set up
and wait a while. In the meantime the Ottomans claim two provinces,
and the Russians one. I don't get it either.
Time passes. I claim all the other provinces, but since I
messed up on having the necessary four building types (ironically, I
should have built a coaling station) I couldn't claim the colony.
Well, I got to looking at it and, you know, the Ottomans, the
Russians ... they left their colonies extremely undefended. If I were
to declare a Colonial War, grab the colonies, and sue for peace .. .
mmm ... might just get away with it. Quietly I started building up my
military and sent a few units to Nigeria, as well as to my other
African colonies, Ifni and Yehuti.
And lo and behold ... Russia was caught in a war, fighting the
United Kingdom, France, Prussia, and not really doing that well. What
better time to grab their province? I move to declare Colonial War,
and get told that will involve me in the Great War, a concept which
the manual and VickiWiki seem to think is so obvious as to need no
explanation.
Whatever that was, though, I wanted nothing to do with it, so
I picked on the Ottomans. After declaring Colonial War, losing 50
points of prestige, I was notified I was now in a Great War, against
the Ottomas, the Russians, the British ... pretty much everyone, come
to think of it. I think technically I was at war with Poland (which
had one free province, adjacent to Krakow, stil a free city).
Happily, as my involvement was a Colonial War, my Home Provinces
were not at risk, so the British and French threat from Guyana wasn't
there. Unhappily, the British had settled Cameroon, and had a free
detachment which would cut through mine like butter.
Still, speed might still win the day, so I sent my Nigerian
forces to claim the Ottoman and Russian outposts, and quickly Claimed
the colony as soon as I could, good for some number of prestige points.
And then I ... waited. The Ottomans and Russians wouldn't talk
peace. Countries that had absolutely no interest in this whatsoever
would, but I wasn't all that worried about the Polish threat anyway.
Worse, the United Kingdom wouldn't talk peace, though France accepted
a White Peace after a few years of neither of us doing a thing to one
another.
Finally, the British moved their troops from Cameroon, and
marched northwest, entering Nigeria ... and ... they didn't take the
province with the coal ... or the one next to it ... they kept going
northwest and ... marched off into the Sahara desert, somewhere.
I really love the British.
Anyway, finally, the Ottomans offered a peace, to the status
quo ante bellum. I didn't want to give up my colony, but if I had to,
that was better than risking the British stripping all my African
possessions, which they could as soon as they really wanted. It'd
cost me 50 prestige points too ... but, ah well. I certainly was in
no position to force them to the peace table.
The Ottoman peace treaty immediately brought me to peace with
the Russians, the British, and everybody else. Only ... I didn't have
to return the provinces I'd conquered; I still had full possession of
the whole of Nigeria. And despite the loss of prestige at the start
and end of the war, I finished the thing about 32 prestige points ahead
of where I started.
It's all so loopy it feels like it should have happened in
real life.
--
Joseph Nebus
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