PBEM 109: Bad food and Bad attitudes - A British AAR

[Mus]

Hey,

This is gonna be my British AAR for the "PBEM 109" 1792 Russian Guard Grand Campaign mod game. The patch is newly released and we decided to launch a game from 1792 to 1815, 23 years, highest glory, 15% march attrition, advanced economy. We also are using a mod made by Russian Guard that introduced historical generals at the appropriate times. The stock 1792 scenario was only intended to be played as long as the early Revolutionary period lasted and so doesnt include generals that rose to prominence outside that timeline.

I dont intend my AAR to be a creative writing piece as is popular. I will instead discuss my basic strategy as Great Britain as the game goes on, put up screenshots of anything particularly important, and discuss significant events as they occur.

Other perspectives from the same game...
France/Terje: tm.asp?m=2139859
Turkey/Maestro: tm.asp?m=2140026
Russia/Anthropoid: tm.asp?m=2139848
Prussia/aprezto: tm.asp?m=2139837
Spain/Ironwarrior: tm.asp?m=2140289
Austria/Matto: tm.asp?m=2140326

[Mus]

Turn 1.

Great Britain starts the 1792 scenario with the luxury of being at peace, so I intend to exploit that as much as possible by avoiding entanglements in this messy business on the continent as much as possible for as long as possible.

The main goal of my long term strategy is to increase Great Britains economic power while maintaining naval superiority so that my country remains immune to whoever comes out on top in the war on the mainland.

Turn 1 has a bunch of "setup" type activities.  I go through all my provinces and set my labor sliders to increase production in crucial commodities like wool and food and try to maximize production of wine, horses and luxuries in the few provinces Great Britain has suited for their production.  I start to move my merchants into position to increase my money flow and adjust my draft age and training time to maximize quality and size.  My diplomats are sent to the mainland to start improving relations with certain powers.

Given that all combat is instant in PBEM I reorganize my fleets, placing all my 1st/2nd rates and 3rd rates with a few frigates each in 4 fleets led by quality admirals with strengths of around 260 to 280. 

My 4th rates are split into 3 groups.  1 of about 180 strength will be used as a transport fleet, and 2 of about 80 strength will be used for blockade and scouting duty.  Great Britain starts this scenario with 5(!) quality admirals, so even though Great Britain doesnt yet have some of the upgrades in this scenario (naval guns and naval repair) that helps it achieve naval dominance in the later scenarios it should have a big advantage in the naval department until such time that I can purchose those upgrades.

In regards to upgrades, I have enough to get one of the upgrades I usually get for Great Britain, Colonial Warfare, so I purchase that immediately. My next move in this area will be to save up for Naval Repair and Naval Guns, in that order.

Britains land forces start very small in 1792 and understrength, so I place a depot to enable them to start receiving reinforcements.

Here is a picture of the diplomatic situation in Europe:





Prussia and Austria are attacking Revolutionary France. Great Britain has no interest in interfering on either side for the time being, but that chopping off heads nonsense is bad form. Also the disrespect of property rights in Revolutionary France is bad for business. Mostly Great Britain wants to prevent the large Dutch fleet from falling into the hands of any foreign power. Great Britain is capable of taking on any 2 major naval powers with a good chance of coming out on top. Some of the larger neutral fleets present something of a wild card though, and their presence on the battlefield against Great Britain could tilt the balance against us. Therefore, steps will be taken to prevent that from occuring.

[Mus]

Turn 2.

Nothing significant happens this turn, so Im not going to post any screenshots.  I send a bunch of trade deals to relatively secure minors (Tunisia, Denmark) and try to send a few to people who expressed interest in the public trade offers I made and the private negotiations (Spain and Turkey).  If they already have their trade settings set up properly, the trades will go through, if not I will resend next turn and the turn after.

Trade and Economy.

Spain expresses interest in my 2 money for 1 wool or 1 horse proposal.  I propose 10 units each from Spain if practicable, havent heard back yet.  One thing that is odd about Spain is their horse production is fairly high but very spread out so it doesnt always appear on the trade screen as one of the top 4 commodities which means you cant request it.  Might be a problem that can be looked into by WCS, but not a big one.

Turkey expresses interest in dedicating its entire stock of wool for export to Britain in exchange for 2 money each.  This would provide both countries with an extremely valuable long term trading partner.  Turkey can use this large influx of cash (Turkey will be able to export a large amount of wool every turn and keep its huge cotton stockpile for domestic textile production) to invest in badly needed courts and other developments and Britain can use Turkish wool to fuel its idle factory capacity and use the resulting textiles to greatly increase its military and economic development.

I continue to move my merchants into position in the baltic, the most secure and lucrative area for Britain to focus its merchants.  I can control access in and out if I wind up at war and it has a number of well developed ports from which I can make money.

I also decide to raise taxes briefly.  The morale hit will be made up by luxury consumption and this is only a temporary move.  Once I have built up a "cushion" of money in case of emergency I will lower my taxes back to 15% or even lower.  I set taxes to 20% for the time being.  My draft age and training time changes took effect this turn, giving me a draft size of 11,047 men per population drafted and a quality of 4.50 morale for my replacements.

I decide to build a Farm in York and start a Bank in Anglia. For the time being my labor supply is very low so that is all the developments I can afford to start.

Over the long term England will be turned into an economic powerhouse with fullscale development of Banks and Farms in the British Isles, but the labor needed to start more development wont be around for a few turns.

Diplomacy.

Austria and Prussia both send agreements to Great Britain, probably with the intention of luring Great Britain into financing their wars against France, but France at the moment is not a substantial threat to British interests.

Furthermore its not in British interests to immediately enter hostilities. I will wait a while longer and see how things play out. It behooves GB to play countries off each other, preventing any country from becoming powerful enough to threaten British interests. Plus at this point in the game a bunch of minor powers like Holland and Denmark possess large fleets and I need to keep my military assets free to pounce on these should there be an opening.

I dont want to let these fleets fall into the wrong hands.

Military.

The depots in Anglia and Hanover are slowly reinforcing my understrength military units.

France moves its fleet from the Med into the Atlantic. At this point France doesnt possess an army capable of landing in England and defeating the Home Army, so Im not overly concerned, but I will keep an eye.

The balancing of my 4 front line fleets continues. Detaching and reattaching ships to fleet "containers" sometimes takes more time than you would like and might proceed into turn 3, but the bulk of my redeployment has already taken place.

Aside from reports of minor frigate versus privateer actions no military action has taken place. No word has been received regarding military movements in the war on the continent between Prussia/Austria and France.

[Mus]

Turn 2.5

Had some discussions with Prussia regarding trade for a few horses and a bit of iron. Also firmed up up some of my trade proposals with Turkey and Spain.

Also had some correspondence with a couple powers about Russia attacking Poland. For some reason this development wasnt in the main events report and went unnoticed by many players, including me.

[Mus]

Turn 3

Trade and economy.

Sent a bunch more trade deals.  Need to be a little careful with my income until some more of my banks and farms are built but I send a bunch of agreed upon deals to Spain, Prussia and Turkey.  Hopefully everyone has their pbem settings correctly adjusted so I dont have to send them again.

I start development on several more levels of banks and farms throughout the British Isles.  This type of development will gobble up the bulk of my spare money, horses, labor and food for some time.  I will allow the numerical weakness of my army to be offset in numbers by my feudal levy forces for a few years, and will use them in imperial adventures against minors until they are of regular quality.  Later I will slowly replace these troops with higher quality produced units.

Im somewhat nervous about my lack of a substantial cash cushion as any war could interfere for a few turns with the operation of my merchants and the income from my merchants is what is keeping me in the black.

Im only increasing my money stockpile by about 130 a turn and this will probably be reduced to about half of that if all my trades go through.

When I have about 2000 money I will be more at ease.  A war at that point wont be so worrisome as I wont be required to readjust my economy to stay in the black monetarily.

Diplomacy.

No further diplomatic messages from major powers this turn.  My diplomats in Holland move to Denmark to increase goodwill with that country.  Sweden DOWs Denmark which I really dont like.  I will try to get Denmark to become my protectorate.  Failing that within a couple turns I will DOW Denmark and ensure the destruction of the Danish Navy as control of it by another power is completely unacceptable for security reasons.

Military.

Reinforcements to my understrength armies are ongoing.  My naval redeployments are complete.  Word is received about some clashes between Russian and Polish forces.  No word of any engagements between France and Prussia/Austria.  Its possible both parties to that conflict have taken a wait and see attitude.

I prepare to move one of my Armies to Hanover in case Denmark becomes my protectorate or I have to begin operations against Denmark and/or Sweden.  As I said before all those ships can not be allowed to fall into somebody elses hands.  In the worst case the glory and naval experience I would get from engaging and destroying those ships is substantial.

One fleet is moved to be in a position to blockade the Swedish fleet at its anchorage should it remain there (in case of war with Sweden).

Two other fleets are moved to keep sight of the two Danish fleets in case they need to be intercepted and engaged.

A fourth fleet is moved to Anglia in preparation to move the Army mentioned above across to rendezvous with the Hanover Corps already in Hanover in case operations in Denmark prove necessary.

[Mus]

Note about turns.

Because the game names the files for the first turn of the game "turn zero" I have decided to change the way I refer to turns from here on out. This is to prevent confusion on my part because in our PBEM threads we often communicate in terms of game turn and we usually mean the file name, not the number of "moves" we have made.

So my next turn, technically my fourth, will also be called turn 3 and then from there it wont be an issue, unless a reader of various other PBEM 109 AARs tries to compare player thoughts on the same turn.  It shouldnt be too difficult to determine if they are counting from "turn zero" or calling the first turn turn one.  I personally wish the files would start at turn one so this wasnt necessary.

[Mus]

Official minutes of diplomatic negotiations between Great Britain and Sweden on Danish independence:

Sweden in dark hat. Britain in light hat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJfKgo5tD4o

[Joram]

Hey, the food over here isn't that bad!  [:D]

[Mus]

Turn 3.

Trade and economy.

Numerous trades go through.  Portugal, Spain, Prussia and Turkey all have trade deals with Great Britain that greatly benefit all parties.

I start development of banks and farms in several more provinces.  Only shy on the resources to start development in a couple provinces, will begin development next turn and then will have all provinces in a state of constant development from here on out.

Diplomacy.

The shit really hit the fan this turn.  The Swedish invasion of Denmark continued, pushing Denmark into a protectorate status with Great Britain.  I cant pretend to be surprised, in fact I intended that to happen.  Actually, I would have preferred that Sweden had told me about the invasion and allowed me to jointly declare, allowing us to destroy the Danish Navy and split up Danish territory. Barring that, getting Denmark as a protectorate and her Navy intact is the next best thing.  Her army isnt worth much but doesnt count toward my mob limit and I can deploy it elsewhere to get blooded eventually. 60,000 men that wont count against my mob limit is nothing to sneeze at.

There is a flurry of diplomatic talk between me and Sweden and Prussia.  Apparently those two parties had a secret mutual defense agreement and neither one of them intended to go to war with me.  Could be partially not understanding game dynamics on their part and could partially just be knowing but making the mistake anyway.

They might have calculated that I wouldnt be on an aggressive posture.

Fact is I will not allow the very large fleets of Denmark or Holland to be taken by potentially hostile powers without a fight.  They are both large enough and of good quality as to be capable of changing the balance of naval power in the wrong hands.  As the game hasnt gone on long enough for me to determine who my friends are, nor long enough for some of the other major naval powers to be whittled down to size, I cant allow it.

Historically Great Britain went to war in such situations, I have to figure the pros knew what the heck they were doing and will emulate them in hopes of success.

Military.

Reinforcements to Denmark are sped along,  Depots are constructed from Hanover to the water off Zealand.

I win a large naval engagement, likely crushing the Swedish Navy.  The ship of the commanding admiral on my side goes down fighting, which means a net loss in naval experience, but I gain substantially in Glory.

I lose two small land engagements and win a third even smaller battle, all resulting from the moves the computer made with the Danish Army before I was in control of Denmark.

I would have preferred if I could take control of Denmark without bloodying Swedens nose, but he miscalculated (he should have negotiated with me regarding such an aggressive move, we could have split the spoils) so we both take unavoidable losses.

Hopefully the ceasefire proposed by both parties will go through and the war will end.  If not I will about 60,000 men in Denmark to start pushing him out.  All my units are under strenght so hopefully my reinforcements will begin to arrive in good numbers.

Screenshot of the battles that occured:




I consider this militarily a wash. I did a lot more damage to Swedens Navy, but lost a ship with a quality admiral (45 naval experience cost, but I started scenario with 5 quality admirals so will likely not replace) in exchange. Danish Army took pretty heavy casualties, but gained the Danish Navy (Danish Navy has about 20 3rd rates and more than a dozen frigates, plus 1 1st/2nd rate and a few 4th rates). Not bad. I did get a bunch of glory from it.

[Mus]

Turn 4.
 
Trade and Economy.
 
Finally finish starting developments in all provinces.  From here on out, except in cases of extreme emergency where a military unit needs to be built instead, I will be building farms and banks in every province with a sizeable amount of labor devoted to the development slider.  Pursuing a less energetic executed but similarly oriented economic strategy in my other game as Great Britain resulted in good results, so results from a more disciplined approach (and earlier attention payed to farm development in particular) should be fantastic.
 
A couple of wool trade routes with Turkey are broken from lack of supply.  I am going to propose to Turkey those routes be replaced with a couple cotton routes to ensure a balanced availability of product.  I think whats happening is the AI is evenly scooping into the two commodities to create textiles, resulting in occasional shortfalls.
 
All the same, my textile production is greatly enhanced over what it would be.  I think I am producing at least 5-6 textiles a turn more than I would with soley domestic wool/cotton.
 
Diplomacy.
 
Sweden accepted the ceasefire and our brief war comes to an end.  Hopefully the Swedish Navy isnt too banged up.  I would like them to be able to do something with it later in the game.
 
I hope to able to cede the two provinces in Norway to Sweden in order to allow them some expansion.  I would like to trade these for some money, but Sweden is very cash poor.  Maybe an agreement to pay X% of Swedens income over a longer period would fly.
 
Military.
 
I begin to distribute the Danish Navy into my 4 front line fleets, my reserve (transport) fleet, and 2 squadrons organized for the purposes of patrolling the North Sea and Baltic (and blockading if necessary).  The Danes had a very large number of Frigates and a good number of 3rd rates which allowed me to bump all my front line fleets up to 24-25 1st/2nd/3rd rates with 5-6 frigates each.  My patrol/blockade squadrons will consist of 3-4 3rd rates each with 3 frigates per squadron and the rest 4th rates.  My reserve (transport) fleet will have another half dozen or so Danish 3rd rates with the rest consisting of 4th rates at a total strength of around 24 ships with no frigates attached.
 
Reinforcement to my depleted land forces continues.&nbsp; Over the next few turns I will be reorganizing the battered Danish Corps (<50% strength between two engagements with Sweden and some March Attrition)&nbsp;along with the Hanover Corps and the British Army (both around 70% strength)&nbsp;I sent across as reinforcements during the issue with Sweden.&nbsp; A small but elite Home Army will be left in England at all times.&nbsp; My foreign contingents will eventually&nbsp;be sent abroad to gain experience and seize control of specific strategic targets.&nbsp; In the meantime I will rest and refit and keep&nbsp;an eye on Holland.
&nbsp;
No screenshots this turn.&nbsp; When things start really kicking into high gear I will include screenshots of&nbsp;important&nbsp;events, but the first few turns of any game generally&nbsp;everyone is&nbsp;setting up and feeling out the&nbsp;situation.&nbsp;

[Mus]

Turn 4.5

Ive sent out some mid turn communications to Turkey and Sweden.

To Sweden I offer the 2 provinces in Norway in exchange for a royal marriage, an alliance and some trade concessions. Hopefully I can patch up relations with them after this recent unpleasantness over Denmark. His economy gets a good shot in the arm from trade and the two new provinces. We both get security with our neighbors.

A country as small as Sweden shouldnt really expect to be able to take over an entire minor country thats almost as big as Sweden without any of its neighbors objecting, particularly given the size of the Danish Navy.

Hopefully these concessions will be enough for Sweden.

To Turkey I propose we shift some of our trade in wool into trade in cotton to minimize the chances of trade routes collapsing through lack of supply on his end.  The AI dips into the raw materials to produce textiles without reference to trade routes established, so the wool he wants to export to me isnt necessarily "safe" from the AI. Im hoping by balancing my trade with him evenly between wool and cotton there will be enough of each left over after the AI scoops out raw materials for textiles roughly half and half for my trade routes to remain open.

[lenin]

For my tuppence worth,

You can't let the Swedish get the Danish fleet, as they will always be an uncertain ally. They are constantly subject to French or Russian pressure, and with their small army can't face both (or any) of them off. You can't protect them from overland invasion either. Far better to ally or neutralise the Danish fleet, and treat the Swedes as a valued friend - favourable trades, subsidies, don't care where else they go, protect their merchants in your (rich) waters, It's nothing personal etc.

Make friends with Russia too. Their army is initially large but weak. It will eventually be large and stronger. They will only surrender initially if they choose to, and that will mean they fight better in a year or two. Try to persaude them not to attack Sweden, at least until they help France.

Do whatever you need to do to keep the German peoples onside. They will get mashed up, but will remember who paid to rebuild their armies and who didn't take advantage of their weakness.

Find a supply point in the med!

[Mus]

Yeah I already didnt let the Swedes get the Danish fleet.  There was just no way I was going to do that.  I will kick loose the Norwegian provinces though in order to keep the peace. I plan to try and prevent the Dutch fleet from ending up under foreign control as well. Either destroying it or ending up with the keys.

Sweden and Prussia are aligned fairly early in the game.  I want to keep both parties on my good side.

Im curious to see if there are any Glory penalties for ceding the provinces. Will find out next turn.

[Mus]

Turn 5.

Trade and Economy.

Development continues.  I reestablish some broken trade agreements with the Turks.  They dont go for my balanced wool/cotton idea, but maybe will see the wisdom if we keep having trade routes fall through on their end (believe that may be a NM hit everytime that happens for them?).

Diplomacy.

Send a treaty to Sweden.  Enforced alliance for 3 years, royal marriage, I cede the 2 Norwegian provinces to Sweden. 

I dont want to box Sweden in and my trades have been far more successful in this game (players are much more reasonable and receptive to mutually beneficial trade where both parties are receiving something they subjectively value more than what they are trading away) so dont need them for resource purposes.

Most of the reason why I took Denmark on as a protectorate in the first place is because I didnt want Sweden having the Danish Navy.  Will see how ceding parts of a protectorate works (I dont think it should be allowed by the game, but whatever).  I expect to take a Glory hit for doing so, if not I will be pleasantly surprised.  Regardless Im not real keen on being near the top of the pack this early in the game.

Austria has jumped out very far in Glory and ought to remain there for some time.  Austria has a ton of political targets in territory it already controls, so if Austria doesnt get greatly cut down to size in wars they get big glory every turn just for holding their territory.





In my correspondence with Sweden I encouraged him to try to grab the Baltic bordering provinces of Poland while the gettings good. Dont know if he will go for that or not. Its honest advice. Were I Sweden I would have done that as soon as everyone else surrounding Poland declared war on her, instead of declaring on Denmark and pushing Denmark into my arms.

Military.

Redeployment of Danish ships into my fleets and squadrons continues. This should be the last turn of redeployment.

I hear of large scale privateer activity interferring with my trade routes in the Med and send two fleets that have already finished their redeploments. The rest will remain in or near home waters for the time being until their redeployments are complete. One fleet is actually in Anglia repairing and refitting. I cant wait until I have the Naval Repair upgrade that Great Britain normally starts with. That would allow me a really good chance of repairing while under way. I should have it within 6 months to a year, sooner if I get in any more naval battles.

British and protectorate forces on the continent continue receiving reinforcements. At this rate it should be 4-5 more turns before they are at full strength.

[Mus]

Turn 6. 

We had a super fast turn around between T5 and T6.  About 4 hours.  Nothing basically needed to be done on my end.

My military redeployments were completed this turn.  I micromanaged my merchants a little bit to try to avoid competition.

My two fleets deployed to the Med were moved further in in search of privateers that have been interferring with some of my trade routes.

Other than that I pretty much let it ride.  In 3-4 more turns my first farm and banking developments will start to be completed.

[Mus]

Turn 7.

Sweden accepts the Trondheim accord. Hopefully that will prevent any future pointless conflict between Great Britain and Sweden.

My two fleets in the Med begin to hunt privateers. My other fleets and squadrons start to move out to their stations having completed all their redeployments.

Im starting to build up a pretty healthy cushion of money.

Only other thing of note is Austria captures Polands capital and thus bags all of Poland. I expect Austria to hand out territory like candy in exchange for lengthy enforced peace or alliance agreements with its neighbors. Otherwise the waste will kill them before their neighbors can.

[Mus]

Turn 8.

Trade and Economy.

Everything going on as before. Will finish many developments in a couple turns and start new ones.

Got new trade deals with Sweden for 12 units of iron and 12 units of timber at a price of 2 money per commodity. Will still be bringing in lots of money because of my extremely large merchant fleet. Im actually over the limit on the amount of merchant ships I have because of Danish contributions.

Diplomacy.

As expected Austria purchases secure flanks with land.

You can see the Trondheim accord clauses at the very bottom. There havent been many treaty proposals in this game thus far.





I expect to lose the diplomatic game with France over Holland. If it starts to look hopeless I will preempt France with a surprise attack against the Dutch Navy.

Military.

Anti-piracy operations continue in the Med. I am building and deploying Corps containers to where they will most be needed to organize my forces properly.

I hope to soon begin building Artillery and other specialized units soon. In 1792 England doesnt have the upgrade "Colonial Regiments" which gives you a load of free infantry every spring. I used that in the other game ("Another PBEM") to provide me with a "free" if lower quality army that I gradually built up into a regular quality force by sending them on expeditionary pursuits in the first couple years of the game.

This time around I plan to forgo that upgrade and instead focus on building a high quality force from the start. A couple rifle divisions, a horse artillery, a couple heavy artillery (normal if I cant afford to save up the iron), some more cavalry, and either light or normal infantry will round out my army.

I havent decided if the light infantry upgrade is worth the points yet without detailed battle. I havent fought many land battles in my other PBEM games.

I also havent decided if I want to purchase a Guard infantry. England didnt start this scenario with one, and my observations in the past have led me to wonder about their utility in quick combat...

I almost have enough naval experience points to purchase my next upgrade, Naval Repairs. Wont be long now. This will provide me with much more "staying power" in naval affairs. I wont have to bring badly damaged fleets into port for repairs. This will make possible future blockading operations against France much easier.

[Mus]

Between Turn 8 and Turn 9.

I think Austria really stepped in it taking all of Poland in one swoop like that.

Diplomatic correspondence is flying back and forth. All of Europe is alarmed at potential Austrian Hegemony in Central Europe. Even the powers being bribed by Austria, Prussia and Russia, with lands in exchange for lengthy enforced peaces, alliances, royal marriages, etc etc are showing concern.

Will reveal more as conversations on the matter continue.

[Mus]

8.5 continued.

Have had some further diplomatic negotions this turn with France about Holland and the Dutch navy. As I have stated in previous posts, these large neutral fleets in the wrong hands hold the potential that 2 or more naval powers could gang up on Great Britain. Thats basically the only existential threat to GB in the entire game, so therefore I will go to war to prevent it from happening.

I had hoped that France would be reasonable in the light of a potentially aggressive powerbloc rising in central and eastern Europe, but may have to look elsewhere for partners.

I intend to try to maintain my neutrality as long as possible as far as things on the Continent go while building up my trade and economic relationships with potential future allies.

My only wars will continue to be defensive in nature, geared towards maintaining naval superiority.

Edit:

A bunch of PMs shooting back and forth. Negotiations continue between me and France. Also other players relate to me their concern about Austria.

I have noticed a pattern that Austria, being large and orange colored, shouldnt start waving its arms and jumping up and down early in the game. Everyone notices and everyone freaks out.

I will apply that evidence to the way I play Austria in my other PBEM game, the 1792 stock game, and will stay real low key for the first year or two.

[:D]

Anyways, back to this game. Me and France seem to be making progress. Hopefully we can come to an arrangement. I guess the worst thing that could happen at this point is Im forced to sneak attack the Dutch fleet, resulting in a war with France in which I dogpile France with Prussia and Austria.

That would make Austria even more difficult to deal with, but perhaps an even more alarming threat? Could even be a wash.

Best case is France sees the light and agrees to my proposal regarding Holland.

[Mus]

Turn 9.

Trade and Economy.

Half of my trades to Sweden for Iron and Timber go through. The other half fail. Sweden gave me the greenlight to ask for 8 luxuries last turn, so I send that turn.

I adjust some sliders to max production, moving labor out of development on those provinces that are scheduled to finish their improvements next turn no matter what amount of development labor is allocated. Most of this reallocated labor goes into boosting Iron production to assist in my goal of developing Heavy Artillery and Rifle units for my army.

Im able to build 5-6 more iron domestically this turn. Once my developments complete next turn I will reduce this production back to "normal" values and reallocate that labor back to completing the new developments I will start.

Diplomacy.

I send a treay to France containing the agreed upon clauses. Our agreement also involves verbal agreements outside the scope of the game regarding the fate of the Dutch navy and the mutually agreed upon spheres of influence.

In-game clauses are reciprocal 3 years enforced peace clauses and 3 years of refusing alliance with Austria.

Austria by increasing her size to such a great extent has become the boogeyman of Europe. Not a very strategic move, IMO.

I also sign an agreed upon 1 year enforced peace with Prussia. The presence of 90,000 British troops on the Continent was making him nervous.

Military.

I move some fleets into position to hunt for the Dutch fleets. The agreement with France is a mutual DOW once our enforced peace is in effect to ensure that neither party will end up with protector status. I will destroy the Dutch navy and allow France to take control of Holland.

Reinforcement of my understrength army is nearly complete.

Anti-piracy operations in the Med continue, but without any success. Most privateers have been cleared at this point. Only a few privateers are left anywhere in the world.

Miscellaneous.

Next turn I will do a comprehensive report of the situation in Great Britain and Europe with several screenshots. Will plan on continuing this practice every 10 turns or so.