Well, here is my second ever AAR. The name reflects the President's goal, and that is, among other things, to turn Tropico into a military powerhouse capable of withstanding the attack of anyone or anything.

There will be lots of pictures (that's right, Sev! ), so my apologies to those of you with dial-ups.

As always, I welcome any and all comments, advice on the game, RP, etc.

To start off, I'll post a picture of what the island looked like in 1950, 4 years before this AAR begins.

1956

The two years went rather well, primarily due to wise immigration policies enacted by Presidente and executed by our skilled beurocrats. The policies involved offering skilled workers incentives to come to Tropico. For the most part it worked well, however due to the opening of a clinic, there turned out to not be enough skilled men to fully staff the MP unit, which is only at 1/3 of its full manpower. Hopefully the construction of a school, when it is finished, should fix this, because in courting foreign skilled workers, the immigration office seems to be neglecting its duties regarding the control of emigration from the island, and sooner of later other countries may lure our own workers away. When it starts happening, El Presidente will be forced to cancel the program and focus the immigration office's resources on keeping our own workers from leaving.

There has also been some talk of discontent among the military, caused primarily by its quick growth. The new soldiers, both recruits and officers, have it tough until they learn the ropes and because there are so many of them now they represent a sizable threat. However, they lack the skills to fight the old soldiers loyal to El Presidente, and would lose even if they tried to rebel. Hopefully, they will get over these initial hardships and become just as skilled and loyal as the rest of our warriors.

1957 - THE MEETING OF FACTION HEADS

In a large luxurious room at the palace, Kurt presided over the meeting of delegates of the largest factions on the island.

The first to speak was Linda Martin, leader of the Environmentalist faction. "Presidente," she said, "the environment on our island is fairly good, but you could take steps to make it better. Now that we export bananas, please, close down those ugly mines - they are a terrible eyesore for everyone."

"Out of the question, Linda," said Kurt. "The bananas alone will never cover our expenses. Eyesore or not, we need the gold revenues."

Discouraged, the environmentalist sat down, allowing the next leader to speak.

"El Presidente is a scholarly man and we all respect that, but more and more of our supporters ask themselves why would a scholarly man not permit us more freedom? Presidente, you run this country like an army, how can we live like this?"

Kurt smirked: "no, Elisa, our citizens have just enough freedom to do anything that is good for the country. Ones who wish freedom to weaken our nation, ones who wish we had fewer soldiers to protect us are traitors, who deserve no freedom at all."

"But, Presidente..."

"No buts, Senora Elisa Quintana," Kurt said sternly. "We are not here to have philosophical discussions, we're here to develop a policy for the future. Now, have you anything else to say?"

"Yes, Presidente. In your wisdom, you have built a high school to educate our people, but there are few students. While you could put people into it at gunpoint," Kurt caught her sneaky criticism, but said nothing, "I think you may want to initiate a literacy program. Let our skilled teachers offer quick courses to every citizen willing to take them."

"Very good idea, Elisa, thank you. I will talk to our treasury to see if we can afford it."

Kurt moved his eyes to a 50-something lady in a blue business suit: "Mrs. Diana Guiterrez, representing all the businessmen and women of Tropico. What have you to say?"

"Presidente, we realize that our island is rather small, undeveloped and can't have a lot of industry at this point, but now that we have a school, we would be able to train skilled factory workers. It is a shame to see us exporting gold when we could be exporting much more expensive jewelry. I strongly urge you to consider building a jewelry factory. Not only will it provide us with money, but all male factory workers could act as your military reserves, becoming soldiers when necessary. Of course, I would also sing the greatest praises to your policies in the United States."

"I like it," kurt nodded. "The project is going to be expensive, but it should pay for itself fairly quickly. I will have the treasury look into it."

"Thank you, Presidente," Diana bowed.

"This is an outrage, Presidente," cried Valencia Hartmann, representative of the communists. "Not only does she want you to spend precious resources on constructing a factory for the capitalist leaches, while the people live in shacks, but she also wants you to kiss the biggest capitalist ass around - that of the Yanquees!"

"Quiet!" Kurt looked upset. "This is not a marketplace, Mrs. Hartmann, if you have a suggestion to make, please do so in an orderly and respectful fashion, or I will have you removed from the room."

"Sorry, Presidente," she said. "All I'm saying is that our people need decent houses. Our communist borthers from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics have been nice enough to provide us with economical housing blueprints, yet not one house has been built. We should put up tenements as quickly as possible, and to pay for it, we can build more mines and exploit the other gold deposit."

"And what do we do when the mines run out, which they quickly will if we exploit the deposits so actively? Housing is important, yes, but first we must be financially and militarily strong. Perhaps in future years." He took a bottle of water and turned to the next delegate.

"Now, Mrs. Encarnacion, you probably want a church, am I right?"

"I would also like for you to stop salivating over every woman you see and not go on those disgusting trips to the casino - don't deny it, rumors are abundant, and it's not me you have to fear, it's God's omniscient eye. I suppose that may be too much to ask from a soldier like yourself, but you could at least give us a church where we could pray Him to forgive you and other sinners."

Kurt sighed, relaxing for a moment; he really hated talking about religion and funding in the same sentence. Their arguments were always so convincing, but at the same time giving in too much would make the Church the real rulers, and God knows they are unfit to govern this nation, else He would not have allowed Kurt to become Presidente.

"Maybe," he said, "I'll look into it, but I don't promise anything." Julia Encarnacion just frowned. She expected nothing else from a sinner like Presidente."

"Ana, Ana Cairo, my friend, what do the military supporters think?"

"Oh, Presidente, we love you," the middle-aged woman, the wife of one of Kurt's soldiers and his old friend sais. "We have a large and effecitve army for our size and we see that you are commited to defending us well, treating our soldiers with the respect they deserve. If I may comment freely, Presidente, I think that having the soldiers reside side by side with the general population is a security threat. They are easily accessible for enemy spies and propagandists, who might want to implant treasonous thoughts into their heads. You should build a secure Army Base."

"You know, Ana, I was thinking of that myself, but I'm afraid we can't afford such an undertaking just yet. Rest assured, though, at the first possible occasion, it will be done."

1959 - The People Demand Elections

The most disrespectful opponents our el Presidente have successfully brainwashed more than 2/3 of the population to demand elections and vote against the current leader. Confident of their victory, they sent the man most hateful of el Presidente to demand immediate elections. This miner threw the petition before him and challenged el Presidente to decline it. Kurt did. The disrespectful miner shall be our dungeon's first customer. Tried and convicted for treason by a tribunal consisting mainly of Kurt's friends, he was sentenced to 15 years in high-security prison, but with provisions for early release in just three years if his behavior improves significantly.

Unfortunately, the people have been so blinded that there was a great public backlash. While noone dares openly challenge el Presidente, spies report increasing instances of private conversations critical of the government among the people.

1964

The construction is falling hopelessly behind schedule; to help fix the problem another construction office has been set up, and to better staff it wages have been raised for all unskilled workers by 50%.

With the jewelry fetching hefty prices overseas, the nation's treasury overflows. The educated positions have all been occupied, including a full staff of priests for the church.

The only limiting factor in the island's growth now is the ability of our people to put up the necessari infrastructure. The funds are there, as is the education capacity.

1967

The last three years saw quite a few developments on the island of Tropico. The nation's first college and first newspaper - both with just a touch of military spin - have opened their doors. A power plant is in the works, primarily in order to upgrade the factory's primitive equipment and improve the quality of its product.

The situation in the gold mines is troubling el Presidente. The richest deposits have been exhausted and now the miners work on only average-quality gold veins. While the mines still produce ample output and together with the factory and excess bananas flood the treasury, this event underlined the sad fact, that gold is, unfortunately, limited and will run out sooner or later. In light of this, el Presidente and his advisors have studied the situation and decided to further develop Tropico's second largest export - bananas. The new construction plan includes tripling the number of banana plantations, covering all land on the island best suitable for banana palms. The move is expected to create jobs, fueling immigration, and make the country's economy more sustainable. Unfortunately, it may anger the Capitalists, who will see it as a step backwards from the present industry-dominated economy.

The people are expected to ask for an election soon. Nobody really expects the request to be granted, but some do hold a faint hope.

Hey, Severous, nice to have you back.  

Sure, I'll post gold deposits next, lest I forget, of course. It's a couple of nicely sized deposits that should last me a long while. One of the good things about playing small islands is that there's bound to be a gold deposit relatively nearby.

If production drops (it didn't seem to, yet) I'll put in an extra mine, at the same time I'll probably add more mines YET to the second deposit so that I can eventually run two jewelry factories. Assuming, of course, that my banana farms don't take over the entire island!


Oh, no-no-no-no! The land in front of the palace is reserved for a gorgeous garden with fountains for El Presidente's viewing pleasure, as well as being a gorgeous place in which to hopefully slaughter the attacking enemies. At least for the time being. I find that I often run out of room with later infrastructure, so I might just have to sacrifice it for radio and TV and the like. Still, I hope to put some beautifications there - I'd hate to see the palace in the middle of a slum.



I've seen it in T1 as well. Only, of course, the escorting fellow was a policeman in T1 instead of my MP. I thought the game removed arrested people from their jobs automatically, but never checked. At any rate, it's too late for me to do anything with that miner, since he's back on the streets by now.

I've pretty much given up on that game as well, since I got about zero interest with this AAR until you came, but I'm thinking about reviving it now. It'd be nice to have at least one of my AARs actually come to some sort of a conclusive end, rather than die off in the middle of the story.

Why bananas? Well, partially because I wanted to see what it'd be like to have bananas as a primary export. The difficulty is only "mostly easy" so it should work with no problems. The other reason is that there's no suitable ground for coffee, somehow, and I hate tobacco and sugar because their conditions tend to shift and leave your previously well-placed farms on the deep red land.  

I'll probably place a second factory eventually, but it'll be either another jewelry or a fish cannery, since those don't seem to require too much room for raw materials.

Privateer

I see the road passing through some of the better remaining gold squares.  

Im undecided in T2 if roads act like buildings and prevent mining/extraction of materials from under a road sq.  What do you think in T1/T2?  

Please don't give up on this story. I have found it intriguing, and I would like to see how it ends. Will the USSR invade? Will the USA invade? Will Tropico prosper and defend itself against all invaders?

I found this AAR searching for information on army bases, of which I don't guess you got around to building one yet.  But I enjoyed it very much.  What is this about MP's, just choosing the Dungeon option for the fort, or something else?  And is there some way of encouraging people to go to school other than firing them?

Kind of a dumb question, but what is an AAR?