In the interest of furthering discussion: a post analyzing our EIC actions. First, a recap.
Current Operations:
Complete dominance over Stirland government contracts.
Complete dominance over supplying goods and services in Karag Nar.
Moderate dominance of intra-Stirland trade.
Moderate dominance over Stirlandian wool products.
Moderate dominance on the Aver.
Moderate presence in interstate trade in Stirland, the Moot, and Talabecland.
Minor presence in interstate trade in Averland and Wissenland.
Minor presence in Nuln and Altdorf.
Major Product: Gerber-Kiesinger Repeating Rifle Factory in Blutdorf
Minor Product: Crossbow Factory in Blutdorf
The 'Stirland Repeater' has finally entered production, and Stirland's army will be phasing out the handgun in favour of an elite core armed with repeaters and the bulk of the ranged forces armed with crossbows. The Mk 2 boasts a smoother firing mechanism and a reduced chance of powder magazine detonation.
Key Partners:
King Byrnnoth Grundadrakk: Partnered with for the Skull River-Aver Reach canal project.
Elector Count Roswita Van Hal: Trusts the EIC to not take too much advantage of whatever economic control she sells to the EIC.
Grand Masterr Ruprecht Wulfhart of Ulrikadrin: Happy to maintain a trade link to the Empire.
Francesco Caravello of the Undumgi: Completely aligned with the EIC.
Leader: Governor Wilhelmina Hochschild (de facto: Dame Weber is for most purposes a silent partner and supports Wilhelmina's actions, giving her an effective majority).
Funding: Seed money provided by founding shareholders; currently reinvesting profits.
Headquarters: Wurtbad; townhouse on the same street as the Stirland Watch.
Recruitment: Recruits heavily from independent traders.
Shareholders: Dame Mathilde Weber (36%), Wilhelmina Hochschild (20%), Barony of Blutdorf (16%), County of Franzen (14%), County of Wolfsbach (14%)
Bone-Deep Truths:
Patriots: The EIC knows that the Empire's long-term financial well-being is utterly vital for the EIC.
Core Corporate Policies:
Don't Skin The Sheep: The EIC will always choose indefinite small profits over single windfalls.
Grudge-Averse: The EIC will never deliberately break a deal made with Dwarves, and will take any Dwarven complaints very seriously.
Riparian: The Dwarves are about to completely redraw the map. Be prepared.
Secondary Corporate Beliefs:
Tall, not Wide: The EIC prefers to dominate small areas than have small presences over large areas.
Insider Trading: The EIC likes to make profit from being the first to know important information.
Friends In High Places: The EIC likes to cultivate relationships with Elector Counts and other local rulers.
Eyes on Barak Varr: Though careful to cooperate rather than compete with Barak Varr, the eyes of the EIC have turned south.
Secrecy: A network of cipher disks have been adopted, ensuring that all important communications are unreadable to unfriendly eyes.
Information being collected and supplied to Mathilde:
Military movements of Stirland, and the events of the campaigns it undertakes.
Unexpected events and changes in the mood among the Undumgi.
Rumour Mill (Currently: Stirland, Talabecland, the Moot, Barak Varr.)
This is the EIC section from the Organizations threadmark, and usefully summarizes the EIC's assets, strategic position, and goals. It also summarizes what our current information web is funneling our way.
Rudiger von Bechafen, aka The Hochlander
Armament: Hochland Long Rifle, Woodsman's Axe
Linguist
Marksman
Straightforward
Stunted Magic: Is capable of casting Petty and Lesser spells.
Witch Hunter contacts
This is the gentleman we have hired to help out. Not a
lot of interest here; "straightforward" and "linguist" seem most relevant.
Current Focus of the EIC: Expansion along the Aver
EIC Handler: The Hochlander
[ ] EIC: Completely and over management of the EIC intelligence apparatus to the Hochlander. Will remove this section from future turns and regain the half-turn invested in it.
[ ] EIC: Found an auditors division, to make sure the ledgers are in order.
[ ] EIC: Insert agents into a particular province, cult, company, or institution to start gathering their secrets. (specify who)
[ ] EIC: Reach out to Julia to find out if she's interested in being poached or passing on information.
[ ] EIC: Reach out to Roswita, and have the EIC start passing on tips about any tax evasion or other naughtiness by the EIC's rivals.
[ ] EIC: Start building a paramilitary river navy to ensure the coming trade explosion doesn't lead to a similar explosion in riverine banditry.
[ ] EIC: Sell some of the Grand Urbaz Bank coins to collectors and museums on King Belegar's behalf.
[ ] EIC: Integrate the Gong Farmers and the Niter Factory into the EIC, and expand production.
[ ] EIC: Have the EIC keep tabs on mercenaries so that they can be more easily hired if needed.
Here are the actions available to us, with the one we took this turn struck through. I'm going to go through these one at a time, evaluating their usefulness.
- Completely [h]and over management of the EIC intelligence apparatus to the Hochlander. Will remove this section from future turns and regain the half-turn invested in it.
Might as well start big. This does exactly what it says on the tin: management of the EIC intelligence apparatus would be given to the Hochlander. He makes the decisions about how to steer the intel program, we get a half-AP back. The upside is obvious, so I'll just list the downsides: handing over a significant power base to someone we don't really know and haven't worked with for very long, plus losing control and getting frustrated when the EIC doesn't act in accordance with our priorities. There's also the possibility that we wouldn't get CCed on the intel reports anymore (I remember Boney saying something like that back in October, during the vote to turn the EIC into an intel org in the first place). But, well, maybe we're happy suffering through those for a half-AP back.
- Found an auditors division, to make sure the ledgers are in order.
This is pure vegetables: anti-embezzling. We already created an internal investigation division three years ago (T25 Results part 2 if you're interested) to focus on misconduct that threatens the Empire, so I don't see value in doing this action too. It's just money, and the EIC strong values of Don't Skin the Sheep and Grudge-Averse seem likely to help deal with the worst possible fallout from embezzling.
- Insert agents into a particular province, cult, company, or institution to start gathering their secrets. (specify who)
Here's a juicy action. We've got the handlers, we've got the cipher disks, let's start doing some goddamn
spy shit. The main issue I have with this one is, well, analysis paralysis over who we'd target; Marienburg is an obvious candidate, but it's
so obvious that they'd be targeted for espionage by forces within the Empire that they are doubtlessly on high alert and I can't see us getting much of value that the Empire isn't already getting with their own spies. Other options I can see are
@Briefvoice's suggestion of the Border Princes (to keep an eye out for pirates and banditry) or that cult of the hunter-god in Talabecland, but really I'm not sure what the best way to apply this admittedly potent tool is.
- Reach out to Julia to find out if she's interested in being poached or passing on information.
I don't see a lot of value in this. It's a legacy option from when we had a much worse relationship with Roswita. I honestly don't
want to compromise Roswita's intel network by poaching Julia or by making her a double agent. It just seems really potentially damaging for zero meaningful gain.
- Reach out to Roswita, and have the EIC start passing on tips about any tax evasion or other naughtiness by the EIC's rivals.
Not only do I not think this is a good idea, I think this is an
actively bad idea, and will campaign vociferously against it. This is pure crony capitalism: it's about getting the EIC's economic rivals in trouble with the law, with the obvious effect of increasing the EIC's local power. It is the weaponization of anti-corruption law to make sure it's enforced against one's enemies, and not even the
interesting kind of anti-corruption that Warhammer has (we're obviously
already letting the authorities know if people are in bed with vampires or Chaos; we're Bone-Deep Patriots).
- Sell some of the Grand Urbaz Bank coins to collectors and museums on King Belegar's behalf.
hey everyone, arguing about the coins for the last few months was a lot of fun, want to do more?
- Integrate the Gong Farmers and the Niter Factory into the EIC, and expand production.
I think this is a good idea to do. Increasing the amount of high-quality niter in the world, and thus the amount of high-quality gunpowder, can only help the forces of Order. On the more Mathilde-relevant side of things, this organization is an awkward appendix on our list of assets: we don't manage it, we don't collect the money, it just keeps chugging along in the background. Better to fold it into the EIC so the EIC can actively leverage it to the advantage of its gunpowder supply chain.
My only concern about this is, well, the fact that we aren't really supposed to have it in the first place. We embezzled it from Stirland, back during the handover to Roswita. So... the Hochlander might notice, and forward a report to the Bursar, and then we have some awkward questions to answer. I don't
think it would be a big deal even if that
did happen -- it was when we were a Journeywoman, and we can honestly argue that while we never paid tithe on it, we also haven't actually
collected most of that money. Worst case scenario I can imagine is we have to pay back taxes plus a penalty, plus the Bursar frowns at us, but given the thread's headpat addiction that represents a
serious downside. Would want to check with Boney about how Mathilde handles this before incorporating it into a turnplan.
- Have the EIC keep tabs on mercenaries so that they can be more easily hired if needed.
Irrelevant at this point. We hired two (2) mercenaries: the best ones. We do not require more.
In conclusion, unless new options appear next turn, I think we should integrate the gong farmers and niter factory if Boney confirms that Mathilde can do so in a way unlikely to land her in too much hot water (I suspect the answer is "bring the back proceeds to the Grey College herself with an apology for tardiness on paying tithe"), and start embedding agents otherwise. As a thread, we should brainstorm espionage targets that make sense given where the EIC currently
has penetration and what our goals are.
