Progress Report 1301

  • With not many people around, I wasn't sure whether to start a new thread or add to the year 1300. Any moderator, feel free to move this!


    March 31, 1301:


    Population has grown rapidly, but mostly poor rather than the richer classes. Lots of merchant and gabled houses are under construction to try and prevent 'bottlenecks' to growth of the rich classes in the future.


    Newcastle was founded on Feb 21 and has nearly 500 poor people, a quarter of whom work in the timber yards. No gabled or merchant houses have been built, but the first fifteen or so wall sections have been placed.


    John Le Blund moved from Gotenburg, where he was Lord Mayor, to Brugge just before the local election. He hopes to build a second town wall in Brugge before moving on to Bergen in May.


    Most townspeople are satisfied or better, except for the rich of Bremen and the people of Bergen, who are unhappy about temporarily high fish prices caused by a lack of hemp. Lack of meat, leather, honey, irongoods and skins Hanse-wide is making the rich generally less satisfied than other classes, although the large number of brickyards means they may be pleased about many new works projects being established. The Hanse is overflowing with wine, cloth, pottery, fish, whale oil and wool. An accounting error led to the establishment of about seven more sheep farms than intended, including some not yet occupied in Newcastle :rolleyes:. There is also an accounting excess of sawmills, although this has not yet resulted in large excesses of timber.


    A second group of arbitrage ships was set up in Reval to complement those already in Bruges, and more money is now being collected than can be spent. There are rumours flying around the Hanse that the discovery of a new continent to the west may be imminent.


    CV: 41 million, of which 4 million is cash
    Hanse population: 53209, including:
    5566 rich (10.6%)
    9544 wealthy (18.2%)
    Ships: 354, for a total space of 9032 (255 average ship size)
    Production: 2583 barrels
    Happiness: 3.3 - 4.3 - 4.3

  • @ Starstruck:


    You were correct in opening a new thread; we like to keep things organized. BT will post once the new PC is running and I believe we have another new member soon join.


    In other news:


    March 31, 1301


    The size of the fleet has nearly doubled since year end. Unfortunately, the satisfaction fo the rich is only creeping up slowly; merely up 5 points this quarter. Of concerns is also the low number of rich within the Hanse, they make up 9.5%, not even a 1% increas over the last quarter.
    Satsifaction of wealthy (5.3) and poor (5.9) has come along nicley in the last quarter. Also, 2% more wealthy have established themselves.
    Thanks to construction of another 6 cattle ranches there is enough leather around to satsify all citizens, as well as the weapon smiths.


    The number of businesses has increased 40% while the output increased by 44%, meaning that the staffing issue has improved. The output per day/business has improved by 2.3 barrels.


    On April 12th the construction of the NPT Memel will be accepted. By the time it gets accepted ther should be 20 townguards protecting the new investment. Memel allows the production of fish, grain and honey.


    Fast forward forecast Helsinki as the next NPT with fish, honey and wool. A look in the crystal ball predicts a fleet of around 600 ships by the end of the year, 98% of which will be from impounding. (Have I ever mentioned that I am getting sick and tired of clicking on impounds and checking what will be forthcomming?)


    My population is only 37K and my CV, not including what's in the coffers of my HT, is only 34M. Pettycash hovers around 1M; too much of it clutters the display and is moved ;)

    Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new
    Wer niemals einen Fehler gemacht hat, hat noch nie etwas neues probiert Albert Einstein

  • June 30, 1301:


    Population growth was a bit slower this quarter, resulting in a slightly better looking rich/wealthy percentage. Newcastle has 1100 people, and a wall completely framed and about half built. Fast forwarding shows recognition day coming on the six month mark.


    A native american village was discovered in April, although no trade has been conducted with it. Perhaps it should, since excess shipping capacity has meant med convoys have carted back stocks of 7000 cloth and 11,000 pottery and wine. There are also large stockpiles of beer (6k), whale oil (4k), salt (3k) and wool (500) in the hub city of Goteburg. Arbitrage leads to the ridiculous situation of more cash than can be spent, with 20M cluttering up the display. There are plenty of spare trade-4 captains around to setup more arbitrage, but there doesn't seem any point.


    Patrician John Le Blund is about to be elected Lord Mayor of Danzig. I hope he's not allergic to bee stings, given the number of apiaries near the city. His first child was also born, although careless notetaking means that no-one can remember its birthday. Better ask the mother about his/her gender also.


    To date, growth is much as planned, with no serious problems. Walls are framed in Brugge and Bergen. Meat, leather and iron goods are scarcer than I would like, and so some towns go without. This also means there are less weapons around than would be ideal. Ladoga is the only recognised city remaining under 5000 population, and the sixth construction crew coming at that mark has been handy elsewhere. Happiness levels generally oscillate around happy or better, and there will be enough reserve meat/leather/IG to get everyone very happy for the new year. I'm aiming to get around 95,000 population for December with constant rich/wealthy growth, and will optimise my year-end finish from there.


    CV: 80M, of which 59M is "real" and 21M is cash.


    The stats below include Newcastle even though, technically, it's not recognised yet.
    Hanse population: 69001, including:
    8039 rich (11.7%)
    13286 wealthy (19.3%)
    Ships: 522, for a total space of 13975 (268 average ship size)
    Production: 3530 barrels
    Happiness: 5.3 - 5.9 - 5.7

  • December, 1301.


    Newcastle was recognised in August. Construction of Ripen has begun, with about 1300 residents and a half-completed wall. Aldermann John Le Blund has more than 900 ships, and many more businesses than there are workers.


    The hub city of Goteburg has ample supplies of all goods, with the possible exception of hemp (2-300), pig iron (1-200) and iron goods (3-4k). As well as private industries, this is due in no short measure to the magical appearance of timber, grain, beer, fish and other goods after the granting of many loans. All shipyards are busy, and twelve large convoys are distributing goods adequately. Nearly all shipyards are capable of building 700 size hulks.


    1301 saw a lessening of frequency in pirate battles, but an increase in the rate ships were requisitioned from debtors has seen John's fleet grow at a decent rate. Less tangible assets include the frameworking of new walls in London, Brugge, Bergen and Danzig, as well as incomplete frameworking in other cities.


    There seem to be some eddies in the space-time continuum in December (Everyone gets deja vu when New Year comes around), with John still fiddling around with his actions for the year's end. Final contest values are:


    Rich 26.5%
    Wealthy 37.8%
    Happiness 6
    Production 3050

  • This rerun is still going a lot better. At the end of March I almost doubled my fleet size to 265 ships up from 134 at the year end. Also, 52 more businesses are producing and, at the moment I have the rather high production rate of 9.04 barrels/day per business. It can only go down from here :(
    The structure improved slightly to 11.8%/24.3% with satisfaction of 5.0/5.4/5.5. While these are not great values, they are still 5 months ahead of the original run and achieving my goals seems to look better by the months.
    Since I wanted to know what happens down stream, I ffwd to the end of the year. A siege happens again in October. Last time it was in Bremen and it did cost me 3 sheepfarms. This time it's Bergen so I guess the 2nd wall should be completed by then. My aim is to have at lest 10 towns behing the 2nd wall at the end of the year. I will leave Edinburgh and Gothenburg for last, even though they are the only hemp producers.
    I have a first for me: since October no pirates have emerged. I managed to catch a pirate from a revenge mission (he plundered the bait ship and was declared a notorious pirate the next day, the stand-by hunter took care of the pirate right away) and completed one am mission. However, all subsequent efforts ended in failure. The pirates plunder my bait ships but then dissapear and never show up again in spite of extensive searches and complete coverage of all waters. I guess I have to resort to my least favourite activity and destroy pirate nests. It will take me at least a months to outfit ad crew the necessary vessels. That means I will not be able to found a NPT until end of May/mid June since the fleet will take a hammering in the attack and has to be repaired prior to taking the next mission, if and when available.

    Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new
    Wer niemals einen Fehler gemacht hat, hat noch nie etwas neues probiert Albert Einstein