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Keenan -> RE: Preview: World War 1896 (Alternative History - Steampunk style) (1/24/2022 1:12:22 PM)
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Thanks a lot for all the insights into your ideas on this. So may ideas (see below), so little time.
quote:
ORIGINAL: bortutoth
France still has control over Northern Italy. Here is where I took my inspiration for the borders from: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Italy_c_1810.png
Naples is the capital of Italy in this timeline, so basically it is a nation state that has evolved from from the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily plus the puppet state Kingdom of Italy.
Still doesn`t sit well with me that losing control of the puppet state Kingdom of Italy, would not have meant that Dalmatia (which would not connected though a friendly nation to France anymore (and as for the sea connection...) would have been lost as well. But that`s well within your rights as a designer to think of a story that would help explaining this (Maybe the partial unification of Italy was something was something France still had a say in and the King of Naples might have promised good relations, economic payments and free access to Dalamtia in return for Frances blessing to unite.)
Anyways I like your idea of the different options how to deal best with Italian nationalism.
quote:
ORIGINAL: bortutoth
Well, in this timeline, the puppet state "Confederation of the Rhine" was overthrown and the territories joined either the North German Confederation or the South German Confederation. However, the French kept control over Northern Germany since they still tried to exclude Britain via the continental system.
From my personal angle, that a bit of a stretch as well. Either France is still the predominant continental power that still opposes the pompous British eye to eye, then it should have only given up on the Confederation of the Rhine (which included much closer allies than Austria or Prussia), if the process would have meant moving (crippled) Austria and Prussia much closer to them, being similar close allies. Or it wasn`t, and it should have had a hard time holding on to fully German speaking areas, especially if areas were being disconnected from the core of France.
But possibly somewhere there is some story to explain this development as well. [:)]
For example the South German Federation could indeed be dominated by the former allies of France (doesn`t mean Vienna can`t be an alternate capital) and initially could have served as kind of a bridge towards the East European french allies (given Bohemia can be included as kind of a French client state as well.). But with rising German nationalism this relationship and thereby this function did suffer over time as well. Or it didn`t and they remained French allies, focusing on their northern rival.
The north however could have revived the strategy of "the Great Elector" to jump ship with different allies all the time to get in bed with the next one who offered most). However the latter only works in prewar scenarios. Sell some land/agree to annex territory of minors to keep mobilization low and gain some convoy (?) income (like the USSR prewar subsidies to Germany in SC3 EaW).
quote:
ORIGINAL: bortutoth
Yes, Poland probably won't survive if the French don't hurry up and link up. That will be part of the fun. [:)]
I wholeheartedly agree.
quote:
ORIGINAL: bortutoth
The Ottomans and Russians fought often against each other so they will be non-cooperative majors. The Ottoman Empire is under great pressure from the Balkans (North-West), Egypt (South), Persia (East) - see Franco-Persian Alliance and Russia will enter the war later.
Honestly, I have not figured out yet exactly how to make things more difficult for Russia. Basically, I want to model a kind of revolutionary situation like in real world that mix with nationalist uprisings so that Russia will be busy for the first two years. Maybe someone comes up with ideas that are historically realistic? ;)
a) Technical solution - making it less efficient in that theater of war only: There could be penalties for Russian Units in the Middle East region. From light attrition ones (less severe but still annoying all year Russian winter or the French issues with plague in Egypt). Also Russians might have to pay (bribes) to unknown greedy Ottoman officials/clergymen whenever more than x units are within Ottoman territory.
b) Overall weakening the Russians unless invaded/at war. To a large extent Russian society was a mess in the 19th century, westernization solved some problems but also made the existing ones even less sustainable. So there could be some issues with early anarchists Anarchism in Russia maybe also some Steampunk induced bunch of Luddites as well. Orthodox church could meddle with unstable situations as well. All this could be used to cripple resources and thereby income during any prewar period. Later a war against a strong (or perceived evil) enemy does typically help to unite (as it does up to this day helping out ruthless politicians more often than not).
c) Diplomatic solution: Don`t allow them into the war in the initial stages and/or unless France has had some initial successes (see WW2 SC3 modelling for US and USSR).
Personally I would one of the first two options but the third one possibly requires less effort.
quote:
ORIGINAL: bortutoth
Well, the main industrial powers will obviously be France and Great Britain. In this scenario, Oil will be basically worthless while Mines are more important MPP-wise. Britain has advanced Airship technology and will be able to bomb down French industrial centers. Only later on, France will develop Anti-Air or Biplanes that can handle the situation. France will develop new land warfare technologies (Machine guns, flamethrowers, steam tanks later on) so they will be able to fight a two front war against either Italy, Spain or the North German Confederation.
I've decided to make Egypt a Major and Persia + the Balkan states as their minors so that France will not be able to supply them with its advanced technology and MPPs. This is also due to gameplay reasons so that the scenario will be challenging.
Don`t tell me more juicy ideas of yours or I will nag you about the progress all the time [;)]
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