Seventeen Wars in Twelve Year - update to KZA AAR

It has been some time since I updated by Królestwo Zachodnim Afganistanie AAR for Victoria II. Given how fearful of that nation's future I've been there was no lack of excuses to delay continuing it.

A Polish conquest of portions of central Asia in the mid-19th century created a patchwork kingdom in the region; The Kingdom of Western Afghanistan. It later expanded south to the ocean, colonized a small portion of Africa, and added Mongolia to its territories. Now the Chinese Empire was 'westernizing' and reclaiming regions it considered its territory. The KZA was in growing danger.

From 1894 to 1906 seventeen wars started. One of them was the dreaded Chinese attack on the KZA.

#1: The Great War - December 1894 to April 1896
Germany, Russia, Italy, and the United Kingdom go to war to free Romania from the Austro-Hungarian Empire after the Romanian Crisis. Facing off against the German alliance were Austria-Hungary, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Montenegro, and the Ottoman Empire. In the end Romania gains its independence.

#2: War of the West Moroccan Concession - October 1895 to January 1899
Spain attempts to annex West Morocco but Italy and Morocco manage to fight them off.

#3: Second Chinese Restoration of Order to Yunnan - 12 September 1896 to 15 March 1898
The Chinese Empire vs. Yunnan and Siam. This was the second attempt to annex Yunnan, and this time the Chinese are successful.

#4: Romanian Restoration of Order to Moldavia - 17 June 1898 to 23 August 1898
Romania in its new found freedom wants to annex Moldavia which has a number of Romanian nationals in it. With the help of the German empire they defeat an alliance of Serbia, Poland, and Moldavia and Romania grows in size.

#5:Romanian Liberation of Dobrudja - 20 January 1899 to 24 April 1900
Romania continues its attempts growth, but this time Germany does not come in to do the heavy lifting. Romania clashes with Wallachia, the Ottoman Empire, France, Austria-Hungary, and Switzerland. They quickly surrender and are forced to surrender Moldavia to Austira-Hungary.

#6: Danish Conquest of Ostlandet - 30 January 1899 to 31 May 1899
Denmark, Germany, and Norway vs. communist Sweden. Denmark annexes Ostlandet at the end of the conflict.

#7: German Liberation of Danish Schleswig-Holstein - 28 April 1901 to 8 May 1901
Germany, Belarus, Romania, and Norway vs. Denmark. The size of the German army crossing into Denmark convinces Denmark to surrender quickly before any massive loss of life.

#8: Ottoman Liberation of Thessalia - 12 December 1901 to 5 May 1902
The Ottoman Empire, France, Austria-Hungary, Wallachia, and Switzerland vs. communist Greece. Thessalia is annexed by the Turks.

#9: Italian Liberation of Austro-Hungarian Istria - 28 July 1902 to 31 December 1902
Russia, the UK, Italy, and Slovakia vs. Austria-Hungary and Germany. The war ends in a white peace, neither side gaining any territory.

#10: Second War of West Moroccan Concession - 15 November 1903 to 15 March 1904
Netherlands, Poland, and Luxemburg vs. Morocco. The Netherlands annex West Morocco at the end of this war.

#11: Norwegian Liberation of Nordnorge - 1 June 1904 to 1 February 1905
Norway and Germany vs. communist Sweden. Norway gains a large patch of territory after this war.

#12: War of the Nejdi Hail Concession - 25 July 1904 to 1 February 1905
France, Spain, Netherlands, and the UK vs. Nejd, Oman, and Abu Dhabi. The original plans to gain territory from Nejdi are abandoned and France instead annexes Oman.

#13: Ottoman Liberation of Lebanon - 1 August 1904 to 2 January 1907
Ottoman Empire, France, the UK, and Wallachia vs. Egypt and Russia. A long and bloody war with the eventual annexation of Lebanon by the Ottoman Empire.

#14: Second Ethiopian Liberation of Egyptian Eritrea - 10 October 1904+ into 1907
Ethiopia vs. Egypt and Russia (the United States joins on Egypt's side in 1906). Ethiopia's attempt to gain territory during the chaos of the Ottoman Liberation of Lebanon war did not work out well for Ethiopia.

#15: Chinese Liberation of Inner Mongolia - 27 February 1905 to 11 April 1906
The expected Chinese invasion of the KZA finally takes place. The Chinese Empire faces the Królestwo Zachodnim Afganistanie, Russia, and Poland. The KZA military uses its superior weapons and forts to hold the vast armies of China to a slow advancement. This gives time for Russian and Polish armies to arrive. China fails in its bid to conquer Inner Mongolia, but Poland falls to revolution.

#16: Austro-Hungarian Liberation of Venetia - 29 April 1905 to 8 February 1906
Austria-Hungary and the Netherlands vs. Italy. Italy is forced to surrender Venetia to the Habsburg empire.

#17: Conquest of Boliva - 2 April 1906+ into 1907
Brazil vs. Bolivia, Paraguay, and Chile. Bolivia is quickly conquered and Paraguay is knocked out of the war. Into 1907 skirmishes between Brazil and Chile continue.

This is a pretty bloody period of time. The next decade or decade-and-a-half will feature another clash between China and the KZA as well as two more Great Wars! I'll continue updates in the future.

Friday Flag - People's Republic of Sweden

Sweden suffered greatly during the Great War. A British blockade and Russian invasion devastated the country to such a point that the government collapsed towards the end of the conflict in April 1896.

By the end of 1896 Sweden was proclaimed a People's Republic. The German Empire did not like having a communist country so close to it so they supported an Danish conquest of Ostlandet in a war from 30 January 1899 to 31 May 1899. During those few months Germany and Norway helped Denmark annex a portion of Swedish territory.

Germany and Norway again invaded the People's Republic of Sweden on 1 June 1904 to add a stretch of Swedish territory to Norway. Having never recovered fully from the Great War much less the Danish Conquest of Ostlandet, the Swedes were forced to surrender on 3 July 1905 with the loss of additional territory. The territory gained by Norway included Nord-Noreg and Trøndelag.

Królestwo Zachodnim Afganistanie - AAR part 1

INTRODUCTION
I have a tendency when playing Victoria II to release odd nations from larger powers and play them. For example Australia from the UK, the Cherokee form the USA, Java from the Netherlands. This time I played Poland, releasing it from Russia.

Poland was difficult to play. It was surrounded by three great powers and had no access to the sea. My favorite part of the game, the colonization of Africa, would most likely be missed by my weak, land-locked nation.

I looked for areas to conquer. I had to look far. With military access granted by Russia I moved the entire army of Poland to conquer Khiva. My conquests of central Asia had begun. After a number of successful campaigns and expanding Polish Asia I decided to release my conquests as a new nation; The Kingdom of Western Afghanistan.

1807: Duchy of Warsaw is created thanks in part to the help of Polish on the side of France against the Russians and Austrians during the Napoleonic Wars.

1815: Congress of Vienna brings about an end to the Duchy of Waraw.

29 November 1830: Beginning of November Uprising in Poland. (Divergence Point for this universe is during this uprising)

1 January 1836: Poland is given independence from the Russian Empire.

1836 to 1868: Poland gets permission from the Russian Empire to send most of its army through Russia's territory. They begin to conquer areas of central Asia. Khiva was the first to fall to the Polish army whose leadership was filled with minor nobles attempting to gain influence and favor in the new Polish monarchy.

Afghanistan was conquered during a pair of wars. These wars were long and brutal. The Polish forces were cautious and used the terrain to their advantage and allowed their superior weaponry to decimate the Afghan forces. Rebels will occur on a regular basis for years.

Finally, with the collapse of central authority in the Chinese Empire a friendless and isolated Xinjiang was easily annexed.

17 May 1868: Królestwo Zachodnim Afganistanie is given independence from Poland. With the size of the colonial territory and the growing troubles in Europe it became more efficient to create this new nation in central Asia.

Królestwo Zachodnim Afganistanie at its birth
1868 to 1890: MORE WARS!

The military culture that gave birth to this new nation pushed it to expand towards the sea. Seven wars would be fouth over the next 22 years:
1) Conquest of Kalat - march to the sea
2) Conquest of Makran - coastal territory on the Arabian Sea annexed
3) Sneak attack by Persia - The low number of KZA troops recovering form fighting two wars and charged with defending a large area of land are attacked by the vastly larger Persian army. Defensive fighting in the mountainous terrain and superior weaponry allow for eventual white peace with Persia.
4) War with Oman to annex Mogadishu
5) War with Ethiopia to conquer the southern half of that country
6) Conquest of Mongolia with the aid of the Russian and Ottoman Empires.
7) Aiding Russian Empire in its war with the Ottoman Empire - victory for Russians as they seize some Ottoman territory along the Black Sea


1890: With Mongolia added to its territory the KZA is a major player in Asian politics. It ignores Europe as it strengthens ties with Japan and Guangxi in order to keep expected Chinese agression in check. It is expected that within the next five years China will westernize and with its huge poplulation it will be a powerful rival of the KZA.

KZA and its neighbors in 1890

Future expansion in Asia looks less and less likely. Withe the growing power of China, British influence in India, and ever-increaseing spheres of influence of the Great Powers future expansion may be limited to the Middle-East. Possible future conqusts that would make the most sense in that scenarios are Yemen and Oman, that would allow the entire Kingdom to be better untied geographically.

Access to the coastal areas of the far east would be nice, but very difficult to acquire. Revolution in Manchuria which destorys its existing alliances might provide an opportunity for invasion. An alliance with Japan to take more territory from China could provide some high-value territory as well. It would be nice to have expansions into China be contiguous with my existing territory, but the oceans will make any separte coastal area easily accessible via a navy I'll have to get around to re-building.

Friday Flag - Królestwo Zachodnim Afganistanie

After recently finishing an online college class I took some time off and played Victoria II. One of my favorite things to do is to pick a major power and then release a smaller nation from them. This time around I released Poland from Russia. Surrounded by three great powers and having diminishing hopes of getting access to the sea and then being able to colonize Africa I took my entire army, got military access from Russia, and then conquered Khiva. Afghanistan followed a few years later, and upon seeing that the Chinese Empire fell to revolution I added Xingjiang to my growing territories.

I now controlled so much territory my colonial power score was in the red - I don't know if that has any affect on the game or not. When I was looking at ways to lower my infamy rating I noticed that one of the options for releasable nations was 'The Kingdom of Western Afghanistan.' That territory included all of my central Asian territory and would become civilized when formed. Not sure where else to take the game, I released the Kingdom and began playing as it - a country released from land released from another. 17 May 1868 is independence day in Królestwo Zachodnim Afganistanie, and they have been expanding since then, including a toe-hold on Africa.

Not liking the default flag Victoria II gave my new land I designed my own. It includes influences form the Polish, Afghani, and Khivan flags.

Do you play Victoria II? If so what sort of strange nations have you seen emerge from the game?

Kingdom of Alaska

I was going to post a couple of things this weekend but something came up. That something was a computer game called Victoria II. I installed it Friday night and spent most of the weekend playing around with it to learn tactics. First I tried it as the Zulu and after conquering the Orange Free State and nearly completing my conquest of the Transvaal the UK declared war on me. I abandoned that game.

My second attempt was playing as The Kingdom of Alaska. In order to play that nation I had to start as Russia, I released all of the 15 nations they could release. I released The Kingdom of Alaska last and opted to play it. Needless to say it was a somewhat boring game. I started with a population of less than two thousand and never got much above 5 thousand. Thus I had no military. It did give me a chance to learn how the technology developments worked even if I could not exploit them. I also had fun watching the AI nations fight with each other. Here is a brief report of the state of the world in 1936:

Over the century of game time I more than tripled my land area ---- however it was all just more tundra. Despite various plagues over the years decimating me I ended up having a higher population (thanks to the territorial additions). I started with 6,390 people (of who 1,590 were able bodied men) and ended with 22,270 people (5,560 able bodied men).

I also managed to hold an overall ranking among nations of 17th place at the end. At one point I was as high as 11th, that allowed me to colonize the rest of the tundra around me.

Since that experimental game I've tried a few other nation:
*New England: going with my theme of breaking a small nation off a great power to start. Put this one on pause after reaching Great Power status and accidentally getting into a war with France.
*Afghanistan: conquered two additional nations and took Zanzibar from Oman. Promptly lost Zanzibar to Portugal (and let me tell you those guys lost a lot of troops invading coastal Afghanistan and fighting my allies and myself before they won). Lots of rebel uprisings and government changes - Modernization looks impossible.
*Russia: Started by focusing on North America. Conquered Haiti as a staging ground to invade Mexico. Got numerous territories in southern Mexico and the Panama canal zone. When African colonization opened up I got over half the available territory! This game is on pause as I consider invading the USA!
*Zulu (second attempt): another underdog game. I conquered the Orange Free State and Transvaal having to free one of my starting territories to reduce infamy. Took Zanzibar from Oman. Just modernized --- after all of the rest of Africa has been colonized. Now seeking weak, friendless nations to conquer. (I'm having some weird bug in this game where my entire military completely vanishes despite full funding. Weird.)

That's a lot of game time - but it is a new game for me so I have a lot to explore. Still, I'll have to cut back on it a bit the next few weeks. I have a lot of projects I want to get done this summer.

In any case Victoria II overall seems like a great game. Looks like it has great re-play value. Well worth the money it cost.