Let's play some games with Leon, Luna, and Eddy

by Fireheart 1945

Victoria 2, Game 1 (part 4); Prusso-French War

Leon made sure he was comfortable as the game began. "Stinking sunburn," he muttered, twitching a little.

"Well, next time remember to use sun lotion," Ed advised.

"Thanks, but its a little late now."

"If you went out at night as opposed to during the daytime, you wouldn't get sunburned," Luna quipped. "The moon can't exactly burn people, can it?"

"Feh." Leon shrugged, not that the others could see it. "Let's just play."

"You brought it up," Eddy reminded him, but adding nothing further.

Leon waited as the other players logged in and the game started. He saw that he was still at war with Mexico from the previous session, though he was currently winning and taking land in Sonora. he intended to annex that state, partly to teach Mexico a lesson and partly to keep the US from declaring a restore order war on him. Mexico, he could beat. The United States, he could not.

Luna, as China, and Shining Armor, as Japan, were still at war with Britain. The war was reaching a stalemate, but Britain still had men to throw into the battle. Fluttershy, as Hawaii, was currently in danger of being annexed by the United States, although Luna, Leon and Shining were expending a lot of influence to save her from being kicked from the game. Leon had discovered that he'd been wrong on a previous occasion when he'd told her that she wouldn't be annexed if the US added her to its sphere. That had been a unpleasant wake up call for both of them.

"About to set the game in motion," Luna announced. "Three, two, one, go!"

"Ugh," Shining groaned. "Another British fleet. That will make things harder. No doubt they have more troops."

"At least they have to invade you by sea. They're sending units by way of Punjab into my western provinces, which have terrible life support."

"Blast it," Eddy muttered. "Prussia sent me their terms, which is to join their sphere, and I really can't refuse them, I'm already going toward the red from their occupation."

"So? At least they didn't eat you."

"No," Ed said dejectedly as he accepted the peace offer, "but... oh, there they go, they just became the North German Confederation."

"Which means France is next," Leon observed.

"Yeah," Eddy agreed.

"Who's England allied which?"

"Neither one. They're allied with Sweden, though. I can tell you that much."

"I see. So they won't be taking part in any European war that doesn't involve them."

"I don't see anything that gives the lie to that. Russia's friendly with France, but you know how that always turns out for the Ruskies."

"Yep," Leon said. Russia usually got whipped by Germany, largely because she was so far behind the times in military technology. Where Germany had, say, seventeen or eighteen military techs, Russia would have maybe eight, maybe ten, twelve if they were lucky. So while they could potentially outnumber the Germans, the Germans had better troops, morale, and all-round technology.

Leon kept having to face Mexican counteroffensives as he took Sonora one piece at a time. He had no idea where the enemy were getting their numbers; most of the mobilized units had been savaged already. "They don't quit, the Mexicans," he observed. "Given the Hispanic fire they spring from, that's not surprising."

"The Spanish gave old Nappy a bite in the arse in the Napoleonic Wars," Eddy agreed again. "So did we."

"Not going to save them from losing Sonora, though," Leon added. He clicked on a Mexican-held territory and checked to see if they were ready for peace. They were, with a very high amount of war exhaustion. He sent his terms on their way, and moments later, Sonora changed from green to cyan.

"Got it."

"Nice, though Chihuahua has gold," Luna observed.

"Yeah, but if I took that without Sonora, Texas would look... er, ugly."

"Why? It would... oh, I see your point," the Princess admitted. "That would look obscene indeed."

With Mexico settled, Leon considered attacking some other country, but decided against it. His units needed to recover, and his immediate territorial hunger was at bay, if not satisfied. He checked his economy briefly, noted that it was fine, then ordered an expansion to the naval base in Sonora that the Mexicans had originally built.

Luna and Shining had managed to beat the British a couple of times, though they'd worn out their own armies doing it. "Don't know how much more of this I can take," Shining said, sounding worried. "My war exhaustion is getting high."

"I'm up to fifty percent exhaustion," Luna said. "I'll be having problems soon if this war continues much longer."

"Might as well check to se what conditions they'll take."

Luna was quiet for a moment. "Oh, they'll take peace," she said, surprised. "They'll even accept being humiliated."

"Good. Russia's long gone in the mean time. Let's just end this, before we both become rebellion central."

A message came up, stating that the British Empire had accepted being humiliated by China. "Best I could do," Luna said, obviously not feeling satisfied. "I wish I'd been able to take something, but my navy is non-existent and the only other way to get at them was being guarded by British armies. Defeating them was difficult. I suppose I'll have to dedicate my attention to military technology for the time being."

"Better than getting wrecked," Leon observed.

"Oh, certainly. But I'd prefer to be making more money."

"Survival before profit."

"True, true."

"Hey," Eddy said, cutting into the conversation. "France just declared war on Germany."

"Wait, what?" Leon said in surprise. "It's usually Germany, or rather the NGF, declaring war on France."

"Not this time. France says they want the Ruhr or something."

"Um, okaaaaaayyy. France acting weird, then." After a moment, he added, "Gonna get stomped.

"Oh yeah," Eddy agreed without hesitation. "Of course, it sort of depend on who the Germans kick first, them or Russia."

"Russia joined?"

"Yep. We both know what's going to happen to them, though."

"England?"

"Still neutral to them both."

Leon watched as provinces began to flip from one color to the other. Russia's face was getting beat in, just as everyone had predicted.

"Hmm, Russia in trouble, eh?" Shining hummed, sounding thoughtful. "Might be a good time to hit 'em."

"Please be careful, and don't call me in right away," Luna advised. "I still have a ridiculous amount of war exhaustion."

"Alright. Hopefully, I don't get caught with the casus belli."

"How have things gone since we last met?" Leon asked.

"Are you referring to the game," Luna asked, "or Equestria?"

"Equestria."

"Ah. Well, we had a breakthrough finding the Changeling hive. We've mustered our forces and are ready for the fight ahead." Luna sounded quiet, much more so than usual.

"That means we'll have Guards fighting," Shining explained. "And... likely... well... we're facing our first war in a very long time."

"Oh." Now Leon understood why the Princess had sounded so unhappy. "Which means dying... on both sides."

"Yes. Of course, we'll try negotiating first. We'd like to settle this peacefully, without bloodshed."

"Couldn't you ask other nations for aid?"

"We are. But some kingdoms think ponies are too... 'soft' is the word they use when they want to be a little more polite. 'Weak' is more common."

"Can you beat the enemy?"

"I think we can. Celestia drafted a large army, so its not just the Guard, and we've imported a lot of modern weaponry. But we have no idea if the Changelings haven't engaged in trafficking weapons, and none of us know their Queen well enough to know exactly what she'll do."

"Is it a war of conquest? To annex the Changelings?"

"No, no, no. It's more of a... well, more of a cut down to size motive. Remove the Queen if she insists on fighting, put someone less warlike in her place, and try to keep an eye on them from now on. If we tried annexing them... we have no experience in dealing with what you call guerilla warfare or urban rebellion."

"And you'd have a hard time keeping your soldiers from... mistreating the Changeling populace, is that right?"

The ponies were silent for a moment. "Think you might have broken them, mate," Ed murmured.

"That would be unfortunate," Leon replied. "I'd have Equestrian police teleporting into my room and dragging me away to suffer whatever punishment they have for people who-"

"Oh, stop your yammering," Luna interrupted. "That's not going to happen. You just touched a nerve, that's all. And your charge has more than a little truth behind it. Many ponies haven't forgiven the Changelings for their invasion. A couple letters... er... called for a 'war to the knife,' which I've interpreted as a call for extermination of the whole Changeling race."

"...I see... I think."

"Luckily, those were the only two letters I've gotten that espouse that view. Most urge a peaceful solution, though the writers tend to be resigned to the use of force if it proves necessary."

"Why haven't I heard of this?" Fluttershy asked.

"We only just released the news a day ago. You know what happens; news in Canterlot can take a few days to reach Ponyville, and in any case, you've been busy helping your animal friends, or so Twilight has written in her letters."

"Hmm. Hopefully the enterprise goes well," Eddy said.

"Is there anything else that's happened?"

"Oh, yes indeed," Luna said, sounding relieved to change the subject. "We received a big petition, signed by thousands of parents, for more of the national budget to be devoted to increased quality of education, and to build bigger schools that could house more students."

"Nice. What's come of it?" Eddy asked.

"Not much, yet. My sister and I, as well as our ministers, are discussing it. Personally, I'm for it, even though it might mean that we'll have to shuffle the national budget a bit, or more than a bit."

"Ugh."

"Exactly. Also, a classroom in one of Canterlot's primary schools were here today on a field trip."

"History related?" Leon asked.

"Yes. At the end of it, they got to see me and my sister. It was a, er, nice experience," the Princess finished, sounding embarrassed.

"Uh, are you sure that's all that happened?" Leon inquired.

"Nope," Shining said, sounding amused. "she's conveniently forgotten that a young colt came up and hugged her around her neck so tightly that he almost choked her, and then she got mobbed by them all embracing her." He laughed. "They actually swept her off her hooves and onto her side, that was how intense it was."

"Shining! I thought I told you not to tell anyone!"

"I didn't know you meant them!"

"I said anyone," Luna insisted, though the slight rise in anger had leveled off. "Although I suppose it had to come out sooner or later."

Leon checked his economy, which had gone down a little. He checked his list of factories for the problem, and sure enough, a new one had been built independently by capitalist investors, who apparently hadn't decided to check whether the market was ripe for an influx of luxury clothing. He would have deleted it, but his current party in power didn't allow that. He rolled his eyes.

In real life, even a corruption-ridden democracy is better than having someone like Stalin or Kin Jong Un in charge, he reminded himself. In Victoria 2, democracy could be hard for the player to utilize effectively, and an absolutist government could be easier to manage, although more progressive rebels plagued monarchies in the mind to late game.

Having beaten both the Confederates and the Mexicans, Leon decided that his position was decent enough. The only place that really had any chance of a revolt was Louisiana, which was natural, considering that Dixie culture wasn't an accepted culture. Mexican culture was accepted by Texas, which meant that the Mexican population wasn't as likely to rebel.

"Huh," Eddy said in amusement. "The big blue blob is actually winning."

"What, France?"

"Yeah."

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know. I can't see over there, and sometimes the outcomes in the game are really weird."

"I hear you on that. I'm assuming that means Russia is getting their teeth kicked in."

"Well, kind of, let me see... hmm, they've lost some provinces to German occupation, but they've taken some as well, so I can't really say for sure if their army is getting the crap kicked out of it. I'd assume so, seeing as it's 1871 and they've only got seven military techs, but results speak louder than statistics."

"Did Germany call you in?"

"No. They didn't bother trying to ally me, seeing as they have cores on my land and I'm a little ticked off about that."

In the meantime, Leon saw that Japan had declared war on Oman. "What's that all about?"

"Oil, or future oil," Shining answered.

'Do ponies use oil for fuel?"

"Well, not for engines, not much, not yet. We haven't really caught up to you guys yet in every day technology. And, without any offense meant, we don't have to hurry, not when magic can serve quite well."

"But you guys have computers," Leon objected. "Modern technology. Otherwise, you couldn't play this game."

"Well, I didn't say we weren't upgrading whatsoever."

Shining's war with Oman didn't last long. The little Arab county, still un-westernized, was no match for the most military-minded nation of the East. In a few minutes, Oman changed from a blue-gray to pink.

Leon began to search for targets of aggression for himself. Haiti had recently had a revolution, which meant that it was no longer in the US' sphere of influence. There were no other unsphered targets in Latin or South America... well, except Uruguay and Paraguay, but both of the countries had revolutions so often that it was more trouble than it was worth to try sphering them, and they were too far away to get too quickly. With his mind made up, he began to justify a war of conquest on Haiti.

"Still hanging in there, Fluttershy?"

"Oh yes," the yellow pegasus replied contentedly. "I didn't get annexed, and I'm now protected by Shining, so I shouldn't have any more problems."

"Hopefully it stays that way. How are you able to stay afloat?"

"Well, I've had some immigrants come in unexpectedly, and I have just enough people for one factory. Its making about thirty seven pounds every day."

"You able to colonize at all?"

"Nope, the USA took everything nearby before I could start."

"Ah. Only thing I can colonize is Borneo," Leon said. "And, if I take Haiti, maybe a sliver of Africa as well. Pity, I'd like to go with more, but colonial range and all that."

"Just be glad you have a chance," Luna reminded him. "I'm probably not going to be able to colonize. Conquer, definitely, but not colonize. My research is dreadfully slow."

'That's what happens when 80% of your people are agrarian peasants who don't have time to learn how to read," Leon said.

"Oh, is that how it is in real life?"

"Yep."

"And... do they really have a one child only policy?"

"Yep again. It's not illegal to have more than one kid, but the government fines you for every kid you have after your first one. They tend to mind that policy more in the big cities, though. They relax it in the countryside; farmers need children to help work their farms, after all."

"Hmm, if I'd known that... well, how did they become a cornerstone of culture here in the Eastern world if that's true?"

"That culture tends to be concentrated in the cities, I think, and much of it has faded since... well, since Mao and the communists took over. They tried to kill off 'old culture' in the so-called 'Cultural Revolution,'" he snorted. "Cultural apocalypse is more like it."

"Please don't remind me," Luna said, making a discontented noise. "I've read a bit about it, and the little I know sickens me."

Leon loaded an army onto his transport fleet in preparation to take over Haiti. "Yeah. Well, luckily the communist party doesn't have the power it used to. In fact, if anything, its fading. Anyway, I think its high time that Haiti stopped giving people sphere trouble." With that, he declared war on Haiti and began his invasion.

Haiti had no defense. In a very short time, it was part of the world-domineering Texan empire.

"Well, that was easy," Leon said out loud.

"It was country constantly having revolutions," Luna noted. "What did you expect?"

"Yeah, but at least the US wasn't able to increase their relations fast enough to intervene."

"Well, there's that."

Leon watched as France and Germany continued to beat on each other. Of course, he could see practically nothing of what was going on, but the changes in city ownership could be tracked easily enough.

The NGF was definitely losing. He didn't know how or why; Germany (well, currently the North German Confederation) had a massive military focus that France rarely, if ever, rivaled, and that Russia never did. Nonetheless, the truth was there to see. For once, France was beating the German forces. He checked the warscore in the diplomacy tab. The NGF was losing, with 50 warscore in favor of the French. Russia has added a war goal of their own, demanding Ostprussen and Schlessen from them. And, given how much the war was in their favor, the two powerful allies would likely get what they wanted. The NGF had no allies that had joined the war with it, so no salvation would come from an friendly power on their own side.

It wasn't the only war currently being waged. Chile, having ripped its cores away from Bolivia and Peru in a previous war, had gone on the offensive against the latter, which had been joined by Bolivia again. However, Bolivia had been severely reduced; it was down to a single state, and when Leon checked, he saw that it had no brigades standing, even though it had mobilized. Not only that, but it had been completely occupied by Chile, which was now turning its attention to Peru and beating the stuffing out of it. In the Middle East, The Ottoman Empire was once more at war with Egypt; it had taken all its cores away from the uncivilized state, but now it was fighting to make the unstable sultanate a puppet. And Britain was busy annexing Orissa in India, which had thrown off their rule via a revolution.

These wars were abruptly joined by one featuring Japan and China vs. Russia. "What the...?"

"Hmm?"

"You guys just went to war with Russia."

"Well, they're already engaged in a life and death struggle with Germany," Shining reasoned, "so why not? It's not like they need their eastern provinces. As far as I've heard, there's nothing there but furs and wood."

"Maybe, but if its that worthless, why go after it?"

"Might as well. I don't have many other expansion choices."

"You could attack Spain."

"Yeah, I could," the white stallion said, in a voice that said he hadn't seriously considered it. "I got distracted by the big green blob to the north."

"Understandable, given how strong they are."

"Not so strong any more. They've got maybe eighty-eight brigades to stretch between us and the Germans, and not much of a navy; not enough to take seriously, anyway."

"Their only major ally is Austria- no, that's not true any more," Luna said. "They must have called them in, and Austria refused. They do have Bavaria and Siam, but they aren't powerful enough to worry about. In fact, I'll try to puppet Siam."

"Aren't they in the British sphere?"

"Yes, but they didn't join them. A pity for them."

Texas was getting quite powerful in the industrial field, Leon thought to himself as he checked the economy again. With California, New Mexico, Arizona, Sonora, Haiti and Brunei under his control, his existing factories had enough material to at least make more money than they were losing. His army was powerful as well, with over 120,000 men in 40 brigades in Texas proper, and 40 more brigades elsewhere in what otherwise would have been the southwestern United States. He had three more in Brunei and three more in Haiti, for a total of eighty-six in total, with four more brigades on the way, which, when they were complete, would bring the total up to ninety. He also had a small navy, split into two fleets of twenty steamer transports each. Not particularly strong compared to other great powers, but more than enough to maintain a hold on the existing empire and to conquer any small or uncivilized nations out there. Unfortunately, the colonization race in Africa was well under way, and he doubted that he would be able to join in on that any time soon.

Leon was pleased that he'd gotten this far in the game, but he wished he had been able to expand more into the western United States. Unfortunately, the strength of the USA was too great for him to take on in a war without taking bigger risks than he was comfortable taking. He had already taken a big bite out of Mexico, which had a strong dislike for him now.

Yeah, negative 200 relations, and presumably a lot of revanchism. Yeah, they'll want their stuff back, not that they'll get it.

Mexico was even weaker than he was now when it came to a military. They had only a handful of ships, and their army was down to thirty-five brigades. It was in the US's sphere, however, so attacking them was out of the question. That was a pity, but even so, Mexico was unlikely to do something stupid anytime soon.

What Mexico would have done was soon rendered irrelevant. They promptly fell into bankruptcy, and Britain took the opportunity to declare war on them within a few days of the fact. The USA joined, not wanting it's sphere messed with, while Britain was joined by Sweden and Austria, which it had allied with.

"Whoa, big war in North America," Leon muttered.

"You going to join the bash?" Eddy asked.

"Maybe, if the US starts losing. Until then, I'm just going to sit here."

"Fair enough. Oooooh, France just made Germany quit, and their terms weren't soft."

Leon checked out the terms. The North German Confederation had lost, badly; Russia had gained the territory she'd wanted, which included all pieces of German-held Poland. France had seized the province she'd wanted, and had enforced a humiliation on them as well. "Ooh," he said when he went to see for himself what the territorial changes had looked like. "Yeah, they got the bad end of the stick."

"Ow," Luna said when she looked as well. "That could have gone better for the Germans."

"Yeah, well, what the end of that war means that the Russians can concentrate what they have left against us."

"True, but they still don't have enough to stop us."

Luna's assessment was absolutely correct. Having spent their manpower fighting the NGF, Russia could not halt the Chinese and Japanese armies that were ripping through her. At best, she could only slow them down, and not very much at that.

"Kind of ironic," Eddy noted, "they gained stuff in the west, but they're gonna lose big time in the east."

"It's probably a good trade off, though," Luna said. "None of these Siberian states are likely to have any industry, and those in Germany probably will."

Leon kept a close eye on the war being waged on the American continent. Britain was gaining ground in Mexico, but they were losing land in Canada to the United States. He wasn't sure what course he should take; Britain was going to crush Mexico, but If they lost Canada, and the US added casus bellis on land there, they would gain warscore and starting winning big time. He didn't want the US getting even more powerful by seizing Canada. The US generally won wars against the British, given how the latter was spread out over the globe and how the US could concentrate their resources on one continent.

Hmm. I might not get a chance like this again. Might as well. I can try white peace-ing out of the war if it starts to go south. He began to justify a war to claim a state; specifically, he wanted Nevada-Utah. It wouldn't be much, but his current infamy level wouldn't let him take much in any case.

In other world news, Chile had won the war in South America; Bolivia was now a puppet, and Peru had lost a state. Chile wasn't, and probably wouldn't be, as powerful as Brazil, but it had more than enough to beat up Peru and Bolivia, the latter of which would be tied to Chile's wishes from now on. Columba had declared war on Venezuela and was busy beating them down while Britain was distracted fighting the United States. Brazil was fighting to annex Uruguay, and Ethiopia and Egypt were busy killing each other. Seeing as Egypt was getting crushed by the Ottomans, that was a war the Ethiopians were winning, and winning handily.

Leon watched as China and Japan - Luna and Shining - beat on Russia. China was doing most of the work, having greater strength than Japan at least quantity-wise. Russian armies would come in every so often, but it was clear that the Russians had a long way to go before they recovered from the war with the NGF; their armies came with their numbers drastically depleted, to the point where the Chinese, having the least number of military techs, had no trouble with them at all.

"This is easier than I thought it would be," the Lunar Princess remarked.

"Yeah," Shining replied. "This is almost too easy, and would be if Russia had a back-up plan or any allies to speak of."

"Indeed. Well, we know how far to trust the Austrians. After all, wasn't it one of their politicians who once said, 'We shall astonish the world at our ingratitude?'"

"It was," Leon confirmed. "The Russians had helped the Austrian monarchy in their time of need, but the Austrian Emperor didn't return the favor. I think they refused to help the Russian in the Crimean War against the French and British."

"Wow professor," Eddy said mockingly, "anything else you might want to tell us?"

"Oh, there would be plenty," Leon replied as his war justification finished. "But I have a war with the United States on my hands." He immediately declared war. and ordered his armies to invade Nevada-Utah.

"Whoa, are you sure that's a good idea?" Shining asked.

"Well, considering they're fighting their third war with Britain in their history, I think it makes sense."

"I guess. We're almost finished with Russia; we're at 64% warscore, so they'll be giving up pretty soon. I'll join your war if you call me in."

Leon did so, and Shining joined moments later.

"Hopefully, I can get my armies over there before the US has time to give you too much grief," the Guard stallion said.

"I'm not so sure I can do much, as my fleet is pathetic," Luna commented. "I might be able to land a couple stacks of twenty-one thousand at a time, but my full strength won't be getting into that fight any time soon."

The war started off well. The initial invasion was opposed only by twenty one-thousand soldiers; this force was set upon by two forces of thirty-thousand and sent retreating into the next state. A follow-up attack destroyed the enemy stack, and after that, most of Nevada- Utah was gobbled up with ease.

The three-way conflict was having an effect. Although Canada was being eaten by the US, Mexico was being swallowed by Britain, with most of its territory having been occupied. Leon offered the British military access, which they accepted. Furthermore, when Leon checked the war between the US and Britain, he saw that the US had been blockaded, and most of its navy had been wrecked. The British would be able to send more troops without being hindered.

Meanwhile, Russia was forced to make peace. Shining had taken the eastern-most pieces of Siberia, while Luna had taken Tomsk and another state just to her north, as well as enforcing humiliation on the Russians. Brazil had eaten Uruguay, removing it from the map entirely, and Columbia had left Venezuela with one tiny piece of land in northern South America. Egypt had lost both her wars and looked badly moth-eaten. The world was a very different place in 1874 than it had in 1836.

"Oh, bother," Luna said suddenly. "It's time to raise the moon. Sorry, but royal duties call. I have cut this session where it is."

"Oh man," Leon drawled. "I was just starting to have fun."

He would have bet Luna smiled before she continued, "Sadly, all good things must come to an end. Or at least that's what they say. Cheer up; we'll see each other again soon."

"I guess, but its still a let down to leave off here," Eddy mumbled.

""I'll be able to play Minecraft tomorrow," Fluttershy said. Leon practically jumped; he'd forgotten she was present, since she was silent most of the time. "And I'll be free to play Offworld Trading Company in a couple days."

"Thanks, Flutters."

"A good night to all of you, and may you all have the sweetest of dreams," Luna said as she saved the game. "Farewell, and as I said, we'll see each other again soon."

Leon got off the game, stretched, and went over to the bed to read. It had been an interesting session, to say the least. He was looking forward to another one.

Comments

[mint20]

YAY! A Vicky II session!

[Fireheart 1945]

6222966 One of my favorite national strategy games. Crusader Kings 2 is even better, but involves being backstabbed a lot and doing backstabbing.

[batran]

I think the term should be "Franco-Prussian war" you know, the one in 1870

[Fireheart 1945]

6226390 Yeah, but the name thing was deliberate; there are key differences from the historical model.

1. France declared war on Germany in a war of aggression, with the intent to take a German state.
2. France kicked the stuffing out of Germany, as opposed to what really happened historically.
3. Russia joined in the kicking; nobody helped France irl.