Yeah, hence the remark that anything bought from them would need to be shipped in from Iran to the Red Sea. Turkey could ship from Southern Anatolia but Macedonia likes to shadow their ships to track where they're going. They'd likely notice it when it starts showing up in Egypt.
Legacy of The Tenth Crusade - A Divergences of Darkness Nation Quest [Finished]
- Thread starter Fission Battery
- Start date
- Alt. History
Yeah, hence the remark that anything bought from them would need to be shipped in from Iran to the Red Sea. Turkey could ship from Southern Anatolia but Macedonia likes to shadow their ships to track where they're going. They'd likely notice it when it starts showing up in Egypt.
Faction Map - 1916
I decided to whip this up to help make it clear which country is in what faction. Attacking one member of a faction does not automatically put you at war with the rest of the faction.
Bright Red is Comintern. There's a few other organizations related to it, like Comecon, which provide economic aid to members. Korea and Manchuria are both members, though technically not part the military alliance. They currently fighting an active war against the Japanese backed Qing in Northern Manchuria. Comintern is giving aid and volunteers, but distance makes it hesitant to get involved further. Korea and Japan are only technically not at war. For sake of convivence Japanese puppets are coloured in the same colour as Japan.
Maroon is Entente. It's much more informal given Italy is only aligned with Burgundy to have an ally to help take down the USR. Scandinavia and Burgundy are much closer to each other. As the map makes clear, they collectively own most of Africa, India, and Indonesia. I was tempted to leave Italy its own colour to show that its more independent.
Indigo is Christian League. Venice formally left it after its betrayal. Bohemia is coloured in too to show its commitment to backing Poland, even if it formally doesn't participate in any active fighting. They're somewhat friendly with the Entente on the whole, except for Aragon. Poland took its chunk of flesh from Scandinavia, so for the time being they're not hostile. There's essentially two halves to them: Poland and Macedonia. Poland has no intentions to fight the Comintern if it comes to that. I was tempted to leave it its own colour, for a similar reason as Italy above. Macedonia meanwhile has taken charge of the maintaining the colonies in the Middle East and Armenia. Their control over the interior of Syria and Assyria is limited.
Light Blue is Black Sea Pact. Turkey, Tatarstain, and Iran are still closely tied together, despite Turkey's communist revolution. They're ride or die for each other at this point.
Brown is Arab League. It's shown for completion sake since it was mentioned in the previous update.
Bright Red is Comintern. There's a few other organizations related to it, like Comecon, which provide economic aid to members. Korea and Manchuria are both members, though technically not part the military alliance. They currently fighting an active war against the Japanese backed Qing in Northern Manchuria. Comintern is giving aid and volunteers, but distance makes it hesitant to get involved further. Korea and Japan are only technically not at war. For sake of convivence Japanese puppets are coloured in the same colour as Japan.
Maroon is Entente. It's much more informal given Italy is only aligned with Burgundy to have an ally to help take down the USR. Scandinavia and Burgundy are much closer to each other. As the map makes clear, they collectively own most of Africa, India, and Indonesia. I was tempted to leave Italy its own colour to show that its more independent.
Indigo is Christian League. Venice formally left it after its betrayal. Bohemia is coloured in too to show its commitment to backing Poland, even if it formally doesn't participate in any active fighting. They're somewhat friendly with the Entente on the whole, except for Aragon. Poland took its chunk of flesh from Scandinavia, so for the time being they're not hostile. There's essentially two halves to them: Poland and Macedonia. Poland has no intentions to fight the Comintern if it comes to that. I was tempted to leave it its own colour, for a similar reason as Italy above. Macedonia meanwhile has taken charge of the maintaining the colonies in the Middle East and Armenia. Their control over the interior of Syria and Assyria is limited.
Light Blue is Black Sea Pact. Turkey, Tatarstain, and Iran are still closely tied together, despite Turkey's communist revolution. They're ride or die for each other at this point.
Brown is Arab League. It's shown for completion sake since it was mentioned in the previous update.
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- Location
- I think somewhere. I might be nowhere though
[] The Economic Revolution
-[ ] Budget
--[ ] Military
---[ ] Maintain
--[ ] Agriculture
---[ ] Double
--[ ] Industry
---[ ] Increase
--[ ] Infrastructure
---[ ] Double
--[ ] Education
---[ ] Maintain
--[ ] Healthcare
---[] Maintain
-[ ] Priority
--[ ] 1 Agriculture
--[ ] 2 Infrastructure
--[ ] 3 Military
--[ ] 4 Industry
--[ ] 5 Education
--[ ] 6 Healthcare
-[ ] Foreign Policy
--[ ] 1 Arab League
--[ ] 2 ComIntern
--[ ] 3 Italy
--[ ] 4 Black Sea Pact
Okay, here is my plan. The primary goal followed by it is to use the front-end of our term to expand our net income as much as possible. The budget goes in to our term with -1 money, meaning we draw some money from private lenders. Now I'll go into more detail below.
The first thing is to start with the more general questions. I believe taking a bit of debt is necessary and paid off from the immediate growth caused by our investments so long as those investments are in areas that will provide immediate monetary net gains. While we could afford to go deeper in to debt and still be in the green by next budget, I do not feel it is very safe to approach debt haphazardly. This chapter implied to me it is possible that the events that happen during our term may accrue unexpected debts (or income) in the form of deals or other things that we cannot immediately plan on in the budget. Thus, I feel that it is necessary to leave room where we could theoretically borrow a bit more before we hit the "debt to foreign powers" or even outright default levels, since it will be necessary to act in non-budget expenses.
Now to the specifics, I'll start with addressing how I feel my plan best addresses our economy. Now, as you can see by the budget and priority sections both, I set the highest focus on infrastructure and agriculture. Why is this? Not only are they immensely popular to our base, but more importantly they hold promises of immediate gains. The income from taking control of the cotton plantations is necessary for securing better deals in the future, and the Aswan Dam mentioned by our minister will directly free up resources for the next budget by reducing the money spent on fuel - likely bought at exorbitant rates on its own. In addition, building the dam will make us less dependent on imports, thus reducing the risk of us being blockaded or facing jacked up prices in our future foreign policy decisions - decisions that, if I get my pan-Arab way, will likely upset many European colonial powers. Finally, with going to the Arab League first, we will be able to negotiate favored trading status with them to export our grain and cotton at a higher price than given on the normal market. Italy, the Black Sea Pact, and the ComIntern all will have little use for grain (at least until we can get more diplomatic leverage to cause a rush to gain control over the country itself) due to all having heartlands for wheat growth, while the cotton could go at a good enough price but would still be better sold to the Arabs. Due to the arid location, the Arab League isn't exactly a center for agriculture after all, and tying them to us as their main source of cotton and wheat gives us more diplomatic leverage over them in the future for the pan-Arab cause (along with the general leverage that addressing the pan-Arab cause first shows our priorities).
Moving on, the only other change in the budget I chose was an Increase in the industry budget. While I had initially had an increase in education, I reconsidered it. The chapter explicitly mentioned that we have a lot of jobless and homeless specialists in machinery whose institutional knowledge is languishing and disappearing due to our industry being dismantled. From a functional perspective, education, while an important foundation as was mentioned, will take over a decade to start showing benefits. Institutional knowledge, meaning the technical know-how and expertise from dealing with things on the job, ALSO takes at least a decade to show benefits. We have institutional knowledge already, but just need to get restore the relevant industries, while we would be starting from practically nothing on education. Thus, I saw fit to save education (and healthcare) increases for the next budget session in favor of saving our pre-existing institutional knowledge in industry. The proletariat and urban poor will also be quite important to the AENC's rise to absolute power in the future, so it is important to capture their loyalty now.
Moving on, Military was put at maintain because we quite frankly can't afford to do anything substantial with them, nor can we expect to be using the military on a large scale yet. Thus, I put this on a higher priority in the hopes that we can use what was stated to be a pre-existing good foundation to found a small but well-disciplined army that can best make use of what we do have to good effect. We can likely also slip in some foreign military advisers should that come up in our deals, which would help with our efforts in making an army founded on modern doctrine. It being higher priority will also allow the AENC to sway the military to their cause specifically for any future plans we may have in overthrowing Marcato once his usefulness has run its course.
Education and healthcare is, as I said, something we simply can afford to neither cut nor increase right now so they're just placed on maintain. I aim to potentially Increase them in the next budget should my plans come to fruition in expanding our options.
Finally, as for Foreign Policy as it pertains to non-economic interests. I believe meeting with the Arab League is important in both reasserting our position as a keypiece of the pan-Arab cause, having been stated to being a rising star before becoming a colony, and as a leader among all of them. The sooner we assert this unique position, the stronger our diplomatic weight is. The ComIntern is second for both appeasing the Left wing (with the right and center appeased by the Arab League) and because the ComIntern's potential for military and economic aid is quite vast. I do believe we should be careful on accepting too much overtly, but that is a conversation for when that chapter comes. Italy comes next because we still need to do that whole "getting better deals NOT JUST IN TRADE ALONE by selling influence to competing powers" so as to make sure we aren't able to be pushed in the sphere of any one European power, Macedonia, Italy, or any other one. This is important due to our currently tenuous position, and going too hostile too early is incredibly dangerous. Finally, the Black Sea Pact is the last year because they have the least to offer us until we can better build ourselves up and wedge ourselves away from the influence of foreign powers. They can be helpful, but only of a minimal level due to their relatively limited grasp compared to the ComIntern, which is in a similar position but with greater power and reach.
-[ ] Budget
--[ ] Military
---[ ] Maintain
--[ ] Agriculture
---[ ] Double
--[ ] Industry
---[ ] Increase
--[ ] Infrastructure
---[ ] Double
--[ ] Education
---[ ] Maintain
--[ ] Healthcare
---[] Maintain
-[ ] Priority
--[ ] 1 Agriculture
--[ ] 2 Infrastructure
--[ ] 3 Military
--[ ] 4 Industry
--[ ] 5 Education
--[ ] 6 Healthcare
-[ ] Foreign Policy
--[ ] 1 Arab League
--[ ] 2 ComIntern
--[ ] 3 Italy
--[ ] 4 Black Sea Pact
Okay, here is my plan. The primary goal followed by it is to use the front-end of our term to expand our net income as much as possible. The budget goes in to our term with -1 money, meaning we draw some money from private lenders. Now I'll go into more detail below.
The first thing is to start with the more general questions. I believe taking a bit of debt is necessary and paid off from the immediate growth caused by our investments so long as those investments are in areas that will provide immediate monetary net gains. While we could afford to go deeper in to debt and still be in the green by next budget, I do not feel it is very safe to approach debt haphazardly. This chapter implied to me it is possible that the events that happen during our term may accrue unexpected debts (or income) in the form of deals or other things that we cannot immediately plan on in the budget. Thus, I feel that it is necessary to leave room where we could theoretically borrow a bit more before we hit the "debt to foreign powers" or even outright default levels, since it will be necessary to act in non-budget expenses.
Now to the specifics, I'll start with addressing how I feel my plan best addresses our economy. Now, as you can see by the budget and priority sections both, I set the highest focus on infrastructure and agriculture. Why is this? Not only are they immensely popular to our base, but more importantly they hold promises of immediate gains. The income from taking control of the cotton plantations is necessary for securing better deals in the future, and the Aswan Dam mentioned by our minister will directly free up resources for the next budget by reducing the money spent on fuel - likely bought at exorbitant rates on its own. In addition, building the dam will make us less dependent on imports, thus reducing the risk of us being blockaded or facing jacked up prices in our future foreign policy decisions - decisions that, if I get my pan-Arab way, will likely upset many European colonial powers. Finally, with going to the Arab League first, we will be able to negotiate favored trading status with them to export our grain and cotton at a higher price than given on the normal market. Italy, the Black Sea Pact, and the ComIntern all will have little use for grain (at least until we can get more diplomatic leverage to cause a rush to gain control over the country itself) due to all having heartlands for wheat growth, while the cotton could go at a good enough price but would still be better sold to the Arabs. Due to the arid location, the Arab League isn't exactly a center for agriculture after all, and tying them to us as their main source of cotton and wheat gives us more diplomatic leverage over them in the future for the pan-Arab cause (along with the general leverage that addressing the pan-Arab cause first shows our priorities).
Moving on, the only other change in the budget I chose was an Increase in the industry budget. While I had initially had an increase in education, I reconsidered it. The chapter explicitly mentioned that we have a lot of jobless and homeless specialists in machinery whose institutional knowledge is languishing and disappearing due to our industry being dismantled. From a functional perspective, education, while an important foundation as was mentioned, will take over a decade to start showing benefits. Institutional knowledge, meaning the technical know-how and expertise from dealing with things on the job, ALSO takes at least a decade to show benefits. We have institutional knowledge already, but just need to get restore the relevant industries, while we would be starting from practically nothing on education. Thus, I saw fit to save education (and healthcare) increases for the next budget session in favor of saving our pre-existing institutional knowledge in industry. The proletariat and urban poor will also be quite important to the AENC's rise to absolute power in the future, so it is important to capture their loyalty now.
Moving on, Military was put at maintain because we quite frankly can't afford to do anything substantial with them, nor can we expect to be using the military on a large scale yet. Thus, I put this on a higher priority in the hopes that we can use what was stated to be a pre-existing good foundation to found a small but well-disciplined army that can best make use of what we do have to good effect. We can likely also slip in some foreign military advisers should that come up in our deals, which would help with our efforts in making an army founded on modern doctrine. It being higher priority will also allow the AENC to sway the military to their cause specifically for any future plans we may have in overthrowing Marcato once his usefulness has run its course.
Education and healthcare is, as I said, something we simply can afford to neither cut nor increase right now so they're just placed on maintain. I aim to potentially Increase them in the next budget should my plans come to fruition in expanding our options.
Finally, as for Foreign Policy as it pertains to non-economic interests. I believe meeting with the Arab League is important in both reasserting our position as a keypiece of the pan-Arab cause, having been stated to being a rising star before becoming a colony, and as a leader among all of them. The sooner we assert this unique position, the stronger our diplomatic weight is. The ComIntern is second for both appeasing the Left wing (with the right and center appeased by the Arab League) and because the ComIntern's potential for military and economic aid is quite vast. I do believe we should be careful on accepting too much overtly, but that is a conversation for when that chapter comes. Italy comes next because we still need to do that whole "getting better deals NOT JUST IN TRADE ALONE by selling influence to competing powers" so as to make sure we aren't able to be pushed in the sphere of any one European power, Macedonia, Italy, or any other one. This is important due to our currently tenuous position, and going too hostile too early is incredibly dangerous. Finally, the Black Sea Pact is the last year because they have the least to offer us until we can better build ourselves up and wedge ourselves away from the influence of foreign powers. They can be helpful, but only of a minimal level due to their relatively limited grasp compared to the ComIntern, which is in a similar position but with greater power and reach.
[X] The Economic Revolution
Astra Myst
Do you want a wish?
- Location
- Milky Way Galaxy
[X] A Nation Taking Its First Breath: 2
[X] Budget
-[X] Agriculture
--[X] Double
-[X] Industry
--[X] Increase
-[X] Infrastructure
--[X] Double
-[X] Health
--[X] Maintain
-[X] Education
--[X] Increase
-[X] Military
--[X] Maintain
[X] Priorities
-[X] 1 Agriculture
-[X] 2 Infrastructure
-[X] 3 Industry
-[X] 4 Education
-[X] 5 Military
-[X] 6 Health
[X] Foreign Policy
--[X] 1 Black Sea Pact
--[X] 2 Comintern
--[X] 3 Arab League
--[X] 4 Italy
[X] Budget
-[X] Agriculture
--[X] Double
-[X] Industry
--[X] Increase
-[X] Infrastructure
--[X] Double
-[X] Health
--[X] Maintain
-[X] Education
--[X] Increase
-[X] Military
--[X] Maintain
[X] Priorities
-[X] 1 Agriculture
-[X] 2 Infrastructure
-[X] 3 Industry
-[X] 4 Education
-[X] 5 Military
-[X] 6 Health
[X] Foreign Policy
--[X] 1 Black Sea Pact
--[X] 2 Comintern
--[X] 3 Arab League
--[X] 4 Italy
- Location
- France
- Pronouns
- She/They
[X] You get the land if you eat the political education
-[X] Budget
--[X] Agriculture
---[X] Double
--[X] Industry
---[X] Increase
--[X] Infrastructure
---[X] Increase
--[X] Health
---[X] Maintain
--[X] Education
---[X] Double
--[X] Military
---[X] Maintain
-[X] Priorities
--[X] 1 Agriculture
--[X] 2 Education
--[X] 3 Infrastructure
--[X] 4 Industry
--[X] 5 Military
--[X] 6 Health
-[X] Foreign Policy
---[X] 1 Comintern
---[X] 2 Arab League
---[X] 3 Black Sea Pact
---[X] 4 Italy
We really really need literacy.
-[X] Budget
--[X] Agriculture
---[X] Double
--[X] Industry
---[X] Increase
--[X] Infrastructure
---[X] Increase
--[X] Health
---[X] Maintain
--[X] Education
---[X] Double
--[X] Military
---[X] Maintain
-[X] Priorities
--[X] 1 Agriculture
--[X] 2 Education
--[X] 3 Infrastructure
--[X] 4 Industry
--[X] 5 Military
--[X] 6 Health
-[X] Foreign Policy
---[X] 1 Comintern
---[X] 2 Arab League
---[X] 3 Black Sea Pact
---[X] 4 Italy
We really really need literacy.
always_confused
Perpetually unwanted
- Location
- SEA
[X] You get the land if you eat the political education
Rolen von Keng
Sleeping Green Bear
- Location
- The Wilderness
[X] The Economic Revolution
- Location
- New York
@Fission Battery How big will the proposed Aswan Dam be and will we have to pay additional costs in following turns until it is complete if we start building it this turn or is it a one-time cost? Is it the size of the Aswan Low Dam built between 1899-1902 OTL (the largest masonry dam in the world at the time and it turned to be still too small for development needs), something smaller, or it is even bigger?
What are the special projects that are available in each ministry if we doubled that ministry's funding? You already revealed that buying the cotton plantations off the Macedonians was a special project under agriculture and I guess the Aswan Dam is a special project under infrastructure.
What are the special projects that are available in each ministry if we doubled that ministry's funding? You already revealed that buying the cotton plantations off the Macedonians was a special project under agriculture and I guess the Aswan Dam is a special project under infrastructure.
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The Aswan Dam is the Low one, though built with hydroelectric generation in mind from the word go, so maybe a bit larger.
You don't need to double a budget to gain access to Special Projects, but they will eat up a significant portion of a ministry's budget if Increase is chosen. I wasn't sure how much I wanted to reveal about budgets ahead of time, but essentially each ministry has a few areas to focus on and prioritize, in addition to some special projects being available. 1 Budget allows a Ministry to spend it on either 1 Major and 1 Minor or 3 Minor focuses. Special Projects also count as 1 Major.
So Infrastructure covers stuff like rails, ports, electricity, and irrigation, and includes Aswan Dam as a special project. Might have other stuff as special projects too. If it's funded with 1 Budget that means that can be spread around to three things to improve things mildly across the board, or focused on a single thing with the rest spent mildly improving another area. Double is 2 Budget spent, meaning a larger combination of options available, like 1 Major and 4 Minors, 2 Majors and 2 Minors, 6 Minors, or 3 Majors.
Though I suppose 6 Minors would require six fields to invest in, so that's more hypothetical, maybe if you wanted to leave some money leftover.
- Location
- I think somewhere. I might be nowhere though
How much are you presupposing each item has in budget already before we increase or decrease them? Education, Industry and Healthcare look like 1 budget from the sounds of it, but Military might be 2 without increases or decreases for example due to explicitly not having been gutted. Is that information we will get later, or are we just to assume everything is 1 budget without increases or decreases, or what?
I'm assuming nothing is at 0 budget since they still have things we can decrease and thus must at least be running at a bare bones minimum.
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If you don't increase a ministry's budget then you still decide what it can focus on. Think of it as 1 Minor if Maintain is picked.
- Location
- I think somewhere. I might be nowhere though
Gotcha gotcha. So we just assume that every budget is exactly the same without increasing it even if it has previously been given more than others or been slashed?
Yep, pretty much, assume the budget for each ministry is about the same. Some were slashed previously, which was mentioned during the post, so some sectors of the country are in worst states than others of course, but going into this administration they're the same.
- Location
- I think somewhere. I might be nowhere though
Gotcha. Sorry for the continuous stream of questions. I just thought that BoredStudent brought up an interesting line of discussion in reference to how the budget mechanics function in the long term.
Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
[X] The Economic Revolution
Vote closed
- Location
- I think somewhere. I might be nowhere though
Huh, guess I forgot to vote for my own plan.
- Location
- France
- Pronouns
- She/They
I have no idea how we're supposed to build infrastructure or industry without educating our population. And the "maintain" level gets us the current illiteracy. I don't have high hopes right now.
I'll admit that I'm a little disappointed so few people voted, especially compared to the amount of discussion before hand. I reminded people about the deadline, so I have no idea where a majority of the players went. I feel a bit bad for them since this vote kind of decides the course of the next four to five years. I'd extend it a day but that'd also be a bit unfair to the people who did vote. What else can I do if people don't want to vote even after being pinged about it? That's kind of up to them, even if it's a little unfortunate.
Also, you guys are preparing to fight a war of independence against the ruling power and a rogue crusader state without boosting your military funding. I genuinely didn't see that coming. I don't want to tell you guys what to do, but you might want to consider getting allies and taking any possible opportunities to invest in the military if the opportunities present themselves.
Maintain will help a bit, though nothing too radical will be on the table. The Islamists may have a solution though to build more schools and train more teachers without it coming out of the government's budget.
Also, you guys are preparing to fight a war of independence against the ruling power and a rogue crusader state without boosting your military funding. I genuinely didn't see that coming. I don't want to tell you guys what to do, but you might want to consider getting allies and taking any possible opportunities to invest in the military if the opportunities present themselves.
Maintain will help a bit, though nothing too radical will be on the table. The Islamists may have a solution though to build more schools and train more teachers without it coming out of the government's budget.
- Location
- France
- Pronouns
- She/They
That sounds worse than illiteracy honestly.
I want to add that the winning vote is completely valid and I have nothing against. I am excited to see it play out. This isn't me as the GM saying you guys fucked up or anything like that. Egypt isn't doomed. I felt the need to clarify that in case it came across that way. There will be opportunities to shore up the military. It's all about weighing decisions when the time comes. I don't want anyone thinking things went poorly or something like that.
It's one possible option that may present itself once education is reached. There will be others too.
It's one possible option that may present itself once education is reached. There will be others too.
- Location
- New York
Sorry for not voting. My mind was busy elsewhere.
I am aware the first annual budget in Suzerain actually sets the budget for the whole term and thus the whole game, but it seems that some people were under the impression that the budget choices here were just for the first year and we would set another budget for next year.
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