Paths of Civilization II: Paths of Industrialization

EY 1808

[X][Levy] 1 PW - Devote industry to continual production and support (-1 IC, +1 Armies, +1 PW from Royalists, +1 Temp Militancy)
[X][War] 1 PW - Refuse direct battle, use the Qeshyks to make them chase ghosts while you lick your wounds
[X][Research] Early Market Liberalization (0/25-40?) [Social]

Standardized Rifling (19/30) [Military]
Mass Battery Tactics (3/20) [Military]
Levee En Mass (3/20-30?) [Military]
Early Industrial Doctrine (3/25-35?) [Military]

That went poorly.

While there was a lot of blame going around, if there was one thing Poetyr was glad of it was that he had chosen not to find a place to stand and fight like so many of his people had demanded he do. Despite the best efforts of the Qeshyks to slow down and distract the enemy, vyn Hohozyn had been able to move multiple columns along the plains all at once, moving from village to village for forage while pouncing upon disorganized groups of the army trying to link back up. Only by continually falling back had they been able to salvage as much of the northern forces as they had, the Tortun and Wyrmyn choosing to turn around and consolidate gains further west. By the time that the army was back in shape to attempt another go, the Tortun had already dispatched an offer for a peace conference among the belligerents.

At the conference, it was pretty obvious what the Tortun Republic really wanted: time to recover, and they were willing to trade territory for it. Considering that they had territory to trade back to the original owners, and only the Sketch were up for another round of fighting, the Tortun basically got everything they actually wanted: recognition of their existence, most of the northern, Tortun speaking territories they had taken off the Kielmyr, and their puppet republic got bites out of your territory and the Kielmyr in exchange for the majority of both your territory back - with also any peasants who wished to leave with the withdrawal of troops being free to do so, and provisions for processes to be put in place to allow ethnic Wyrmyns to leave for the republic in the future. It was humiliating and aggravating and there were definite calls to just keep pushing, but it was obvious that the Kielmyr were going to take the deal before it got considerably worse for them and were going to going to talk the Sketch down from burning the shit out of ports they still needed to trade with, even if they were in someone else's hands. That would leave the People and the Styrmyr to the Tortun, and after the poor performance of the People the Styrmyr were more than willing to just take the white peace being offered.

With basically no one willing to keep fighting this out and a good half of their generals "missing in action" (Poetyr was pretty sure a number of them had in fact disappeared into the wilderness and might pop up in another court one day), there was no option and Poetyr took the deal while it was still only a minor loss rather than a catastrophic one. He had no idea when the next war would be, but he simultaneously knew it had to be soon but not too soon.

New Status
Humiliating Loss: +1 Militancy (Expires 1827 EY or paying the same unto the Tortun Republic)

As it was, Poetyr was ready to tear the heads off most of his commanders, even as his own people were ready to tear his head off. It was obvious that the People had let themselves slip in military matters and had gone to war assuming the old way of doing things was sufficient. The armies they had thought massive had turned out to be simultaneously too big to control properly in comparison to the Tortun, and yet also contained far fewer quality troops. The organizational structure was antiquated, and generally everything needed top to bottom reform. What that reform might be was still an issue though.

In terms of anger directed at the Patriarch rather than from him, the calls for a constitution had become near riotous, even among his supporters. There was to a certain degree a sense that he had "meddled" in deployments and affairs he was not truly qualified for, and there was the idea that perhaps a more explicit division of power and codification of expert positions might have prevented the disaster. Of course, everyone had a list of demands for change that they wanted to see implemented: from an expansion of the Crown Guilds to their abolishment; free publications to clamping down on the rabble rousing universities; free movement to the guarantee of a certain minimum number of peasants to work land; and on and on it went. There were an alarming number of stupid suggestions, but there was enough that it would probably be years to chew and fight over the rest.

In the good news category, the Hespranxer had accepted the deal the People had laid out, joining in on the peace process with their new constitutional monarch. All hail Rabould I of Hespranxer! While there were significant fears of tension with Ochruhr, Behryvar, and the Tortun Republic for a wide variety of reasons, the Hespranxer king definitely knew that the People had been involved in his ascension, and there were definitely olive branches being extended towards the People. Alas that they were not in the position to do anything about the Tortun, but they were already punch drunk and their Mahaxian colonies had... problems. The one in South Mahaxia had declared itself the Republic of Volitarn, broken away, and was apparently only holding together from external pressure. And the other...

It was rare that Poetyr could say that he regretted not signing the death warrant of a child, but he kind of did. The daughter of Hunrix XI had been spirited away, to serve as the figurehead of the Empire of New Hespranxia, Lisbyth I. While the northern territories were intact, the southern territories were suffering from invasion. Which of course brought up the Vortuga, who had been forced to declare their largest, most populous, and most productive colony to be in a state of revolt from the crown. The Redwood Dominion had decided that they were not going to white peace out with the Hespranxer colonies, and were in fact having too much fun killing everything in their path. Whether they went independent or eventually decided to return to Vortuga rule was essentially up to them at this point due to a notable inability for the Vortuga to actually project enough power across the sea without the Redwoods themselves offering support.

The king would probably have his head detached from his body within the decade if someone didn't pull a miracle out of a hat and turn around the catastrophic economic problems. From the sounds of it the Sketch (of course) had much Hespranxer and Tortun gold as well as Kus spices and north Mahaxian furs (or at least stocks in the companies that would be bringing in those things soon enough) to buy off any unproductive bits of the Vortuga in their time of need.

The People had good relations with the Sketch, but there was a definite worry that they might become a problem if they kept doing this.

You have up to 8 PW to determine you [Agenda] for this turn. Use the format
[][Agenda] Plan Name
-[][Agenda] Action X
-[][Agenda] Action Y