I have been a member for a few years now, I do not post much but I do love reading all the AAR's on the site. I have played many hours of the total war games, specifically Rome, MT:2 and ETW. I have always wanted to write my own AAR for you all, accept that I haven't written much since high school and the fact that I am thirty now probably makes me nervous of all the spelling mistakes I could make or grammar errors. But I am going to brave it now and I hope you all will appreciate it. I cannot give exact times between my posts because I do have a very busy schedule between work and home life.
I will be playing a Great Britain campaign because it is a faction I know very well and to be honest I have never finished a whole campaign with them. so, I will do my best to entertain you and I think I will enjoy this a lot more once I dive into it more. also, any corrections or critique is always welcome.
Thanks!
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It is the midsummer of 1700 and the British cabinet is sitting down for to prepare their presentation on the plans for the British empire moving forward in the new century. Pippin Brenton, the current Prime Minister starts the talks off asking the cabinet. “I want all of you to give me the one top priority for each of your respective departments as you please for all of us to review.”
The treasury minister speaks first about the massive upkeep costs for our military that we are currently maintaining across the empire, the need to build up our trade, and infrastructure for more income flow. Following this the army minister pipes up and argues that these upkeep costs are necessary! Navy begins rambling on about the need for ships being built for trade protection. Justice minister then starts on costs of local militia for policing the public order in the colonies. Mr. Brenton asked for everyone’s attention and then brings an idea forward that he had. “I have a list here I would like you all to give me some thoughts on. Here is the list.”
- Disbanding the entire British military temporarily
- Regular payments to the six nations for protection of our colonies from French
- Reorganize our navy to properly protect the trade routes and build a modern trade fleet
- Fund the civil war in India between Mughals/Marathas to maintain unrest
- Focus on infrastructure upgrades throughout the empire to fill out coffers
This idea seemed to appease most of the ministers except for the army administer of course, his only fear was preparation to invasion in the colonies.
The minister for the Americas, Christopher Beaufort, said “I can draw up a bill to mobilize militia from the colonies if needed”.With this it seemed adequate for all. Pippin brought all this forward to King William lll the next morning for approval. William never had much care for cabinet duties or politics for that matter and never really blinked an eye before signing his approval for these bills, now all things were in motion to begin moving Britain forward into the 17th Century.
Deals were made with the Six Nations to maintain security around out colonies.
As well as a very lucrative plan to assist our trade partner, The Mughal Empire. We offered our assistance financially to help fund their war against the Maratha rebels and their uprising. This should help keep some level of unrest on the continent for Britain to become the balance in this unrest in the future.
“Let’s take a quick look at British standing around the world currently” Pippin said. “We began to recruit trade fleets in all ports around the British Isles, also disbanded all troops to assist in manning out navy, we will rely heavily on our navy for defense from any foreign invaders.” The Navy minister reported.
Christopher’s turn to report the Americas standing. “We have no military presence in our colonies now. for the most part it is all farms and plantations that will raise fighting men if needed if our native allies cannot keep the peace.”
Christopher also mentioned that he was working with out naval board about the Caribbean. “Our colonies in the Caribbean will be a base of operation for our navy to keep the pirates at bay and keep some production of sugar to pump into our trade agreements.” He did so hate the pirates and their lack for any kind of discipline.
The entire cabinet was very happy with how the books looked now, the British government had a good cash flow coming in, we had protection for our colonies, and a plan moving forward to build the navy to be powerful force on the high seas.
Things are looking very good for the British empire in this new century. there are some definite risks not having any military presence, but what is reward without any risk? we will see in the years to come.