Part 14: 1860-1865 : The Time to Strike

Years of war have taken their toll on the economy of the nations involved.


New trained professionals from the university build up the oil drilling economy.


Trade with our colonies brings in tons of ore every year.


The world market for oil opens up. Din Hang is actually selling to us as it seems Wan is not terribly interested in it.


Not that we really need it, but there are new technologies that will ensure an even greater food supply.


We purchase some oil, refine it, and can then burn it to create electricity. This multiplies our labor capacity greatly.

Power plants create labor directly from fuel. Since it only costs two labor to refine the oil, the labor pool starts to shoot up as fast as you can burn the fuel.


The naval war drags on, and Mone is still holding its own against the three Great Powers.


We improve the fortifications along the Unaraco border. Almost all the border provinces in Visisik proper have forts.


Yakakkie continues to patrol close to our shores. They claim they are on the lookout for eastern movement from the Mone navy.


In 1862, Wan opens the land war with the invasion of Napallaanga.


Rather than defend its colony, Mone attempts a sneak attack on Pfessöttirg's holdings in Niatat.


Later in the year Mone attempts a second assault, which is unsucessful. Their navy is sent up to Wan to block them from sending supplies to their invasion force. But this has left their home ports vulnerable.


Mone has some troops positioned in Napallaanga City, but Wan continues to capture more territory of the small country.


Yakakkie sinks several of Mone's ships, including some that were coming to our ports. This only serves to heighten tensions between us.


Relations with their 'allies' have cooled considerably. Now is the time to strike.


We begin to surreptitiously scout Yakakkie's coastal provinces. They are fairly weak here, as they've moved much of their army to the north along the Evace border.


Our military must be expanded to keep up with Yakakkie's growth.


Mone is losing the naval battle, but they do retake part of Napallaanga.


In the outer reaches of the cold southern province of Aznar, we find a supply of domestic oil.


Wan begans to dismantle Mone's shipping now that much of the Monean navy has been destroyed. We need to act while Yakakkie's eyes are still turned toward this war.


Yakakkie has dared to control and corrupt the nations closest to Visisik. Their colonies on our continent were taken unlawfully. They have interfered with our shipping and continue to harass our home waters. Their so-called war against Mone is merely an excuse to expand their military control of the world. We can no longer tolerate Yakakkie's aggression.


War is declared. To our luck, Pfessöttirg abandons their former ally.


Yakakkie has more men under arms than we do, but we know that ours have better training.


Our first actions of the war are to send the navy to clear our shores of spying enemy fleets. No land units are to be committed yet. However, General Irühet, the newly-appointed military commander of North Visisik, takes it into his own hands to gather all available forces and make an attack on Sotovyy.


The defenders of Sotovyy gather together in their fort. They have a fair number of artillery and a lot of cavalry.


Irühet pushes his forces forward. Many of them are carrying decades-old equipment.


Our guns blast a hole in the fort's walls, and to the General's delight, the enemy repeatedly sends out several units of cavalry that are promptly blasted by our guns.


Eventually a few of their horsemen make it through the withering hail of fire, and force our combat engineers out of their tunnels.


The Yakakkie guns are eventually destroyed, but losses are heavy on our side, and the cavalry continue to approach our lines.


Although he is wounded, Irühet believes the field to be won, and orders the troops to press on. It is only the opposing footsoldiers that remain.


However, many of those that remain are native Kovans. They hold decades of anger against our troops, and savagely press the counterattack.


In the end, the General flees the field, and the Kovans destroy valuable Visisiki artillery.


Mone tries to embroil us in their war with the other Great Powers. We laugh at the offer.


We have sunk several Yakakkie Raiders, but several of their ships manage to slip past our patrols.


The naval beachheads are prepared. To confuse the enemy, we've made preliminary landings in both Faki and Evace City.

We have the choice of landing zones here. Any suggestions welcome.

If we land at...

A. Faki (left), we will be right next to the Yakakkie capital. In fact, because their main port is actually at the mouth of the river, taking Faki will utterly cripple the Yakakkie economy. About the only downside is that they'll have a larger force nearby to counterattack. But odds are they won't want to risk leaving their fortified city as long as our invasion force is of a decent size.

I don't know about the effect of Evace City on their shipping. Normally a country only has one 'shipping port' connected to the capital. Does anyone with experience with the game know if they can still conduct trade through an alternate port?

B. Evace City (right, where Port Avainne is), this could give us a little more of a buffer zone once we capture it -- not only can our ships repair at the port, but our reinforcements can probably arrive sooner than any Yakakkie counterattacks. There is a down side to the invasion in that the fort here will be slightly harder to attack.