Day 3 : The Lübeck of the Tropics
During the night of the 2nd to the 3rd day, the Savior had sent his army toward Panama. Panama had something the Dominican Republic was missing : food. Also, the Dominican Republic had something Panama was missing : the US protection or at least silence.
But something bought Panama one day of freedom ...
Nicaragua had landed an army of 6 militias and various support units right in South USA !
The Savior sent a plan to the USA, who looked confused about what to do.
Predictably, they did not listen to the plan, but won without losses nonetheless because Nicaragua stayed put.
Which means Nicaragua was presumably defenseless, just like Cuba. Consequently, the commandos were rerouted, as were the now TWO Dominican battleships !
There was indeed no defense, until some armors were met in Managua :
The commandos could probably defeat the light armors, but it was better to wait for them to come in the hilly area next to the city (where Commando have a large bonus), especially since an AT gun was coming as well...
And indeed, they came :
... and they were defeated. Regretfully, there was no image taken of the final defeat of the Nicaraguan army, but Managua was in Dominican hands by the end of the day, and it would represent exactly 100% of the oil production of the Dominican Republic until at least day 8.
As for Panama, it would be seized during the night by the sizeable Dominican militia. Much to the Savior surprise, there was not one combat, and the country was seized without a shoot. Apparently, the Panamean army was sailing somewhere when the Dominican landed.
Now you must wonder how the Dominican Republic could afford such an army. No, the Republic was not sitting on Aztec gold. Of course not, the Aztec were in Mexico, not in Santo Dominguo ! There was some gold that were spent between day 1 and day 2 to accelerate the research of militia before the night, so new research could be started (fairly pointless, since most of the time only one thing could be researched at the same time). Some 500 gold were received watching videos, but that's all that ever happened with gold until the end of the story
No, what made the Dominican Republic filthy rich was TRADING !
You see, the Americans, in addition to battleships, had sent economists to the Dominican Republic. Economists from Chicago. They explained the Savior what a spread was. The Savior understood that if there is a large spread between the sell price and the buy price on the market, that if for instance if the sell price is at 1.5 and the buy price is above 10, then there are some people who will accept to sell at 2 or let's say 3, and other who will buy at 8.
Consequently, the Savior proposed to also save the market by offering the best bid for people looking to sell, and the best bid for people wanting to buy. Consequently (day 2 below) :
And with this, the Dominican Republic became filthy rich. OK, maybe not filthy rich, but way richer than it should. Here is an extract of my "executed orders" book :
Sadly, it misses a lot of the sales at 8 or 10 or above, because the executed orders book has a limit in number of rows (or maybe time). Nonetheless, the Republic bought a LOT at 2 or at worse 3, some of which it would later resell at 8 or more, while the rest was used.
Suffice to say that using this trade the Dominican managed to fund its industrial growth without issue while building its two battleships :
The growth, as you can see, would be around two things : steel (because a navy was expensive in steel ; in any case most of the cities plus the Dominican hinterland was steel anyway) and men, because for a country like the Dominican Republic, manpower could run dry very, very quickly. Oil and food would be added to the list when Managua and Panama would join the Most Christian Republic.
Spoiler
The "order book" trick works very well in a "all countries are controlled my players" maps because players rarely place orders, but keep looking at the market for resources. It is something I had noticed when I won as Latvia, and that I really wanted to exploit. When inactive players start to be controlled by AI, the efficiency drops FAST, because putting orders on the market cost 10% of the trade value, and the AI actively try to "bridge the spread", leaving you "holding the bag" if you still have orders active - it was my case but fortunately I only lost a few thousands as the orders I had outstanding were mostly "buy" order (at a very low value).It ain't as fun as building tanks and maneuvering divisions, but I believe it is absolutely necessary for OCM (One City Minors) to have a chance to build-up early on and punch significantly above their weight. Of course, any country can do that.
Also @freezy your signs are inverted in the execution book, négative should be positive and the other way around
