Diplomacy Summary?

[Anthropoid]

Is there a column in any of those Regional Atlas panes which tells you: Presence/Absence of existing Agreements between player nation and others?

Related to this: Free Flow of Labor agreement: if I want to take any advantage of it, who should I get this agreement with versus who should I NOT get this agreement with? Does proximity of the two nations matter (e.g., sharing a border or if not that then total distance between the two nations?).

I've got Romania's economy into a pretty decent spot: self-sufficient on everything but rubber and Great Britain are happy to sell me as much of that as I need. Decent relations all around, except Bulgaria which is cold (the must sense my eventual intentions to annex!)

I've got slightly better GDP/c than all four of my immediate neighbors (Russia, Austria-Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria).

I also went to some efforts to get good relations with a few 2nd order nations (nations on the other side of nations which I might eventually be at odds with), including: Spain, Argentina, Iran, Switzerland, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. I've got almost all diplomatic agreements except Alliance with several of those (not all but several), so I could pretty easily make Iran, Argentina and Spain allies, probably even Norway and Switzerland, but I've held off on doing that. In past versions of this game, I recall allies being more trouble than they are worth, plus none of these are really in any position to help me in my first couple of wars, more like long-LONG term friends hopefully. Partly this set was just opportunistic, not ideal . . . So anyway . . . Several of those 'friendly' nations have GDP/c that dwarf mine and I probably foolishly had kept Free Flow of Labor agreements with those until I just not fixed that: now only with Spain and Iran. So I will what this does over the next year or so, but my main quandry: my demographics are stuck in a rut.

Pop has been stuck at 7.58 to 7.62 million for the entire 5 years so far (1914 start and presently 1919). In the course of getting my basic production capacity ironed out my approval and GDP/c have fluctuated a lot over those years, but I've pretty consistently been at 3% or less unemployment and I cannot really get rid of any more of my facilities or turn anything else "off." Taxes at 54% overall (heavier burden on Corporate and High Income) spending is at 5.94 million with "recommended" levels on the ones that matter (Health, Education, Infrastructure, Law, Family Subsidy) and basically ZERO on all the rest of social spending areas. Budget balance hovering just above zero so my treasury is slowly growing, and I periodically make deals with various nations selling consumer goods or industrial goods or agricultural goods, so Treasury is stabilized.

Productivity is:
1 Agricultural
3 Timber
5 /16 Oil-Gas Field
4 Coal mines
1 Ore mine
25/26 Coal Power Plants
4 Goods Consumer
9 Good Industrial
1 Goods Military

(and I got rid of all the "mid" and "micro" production centers and the various alternative energy generation . . . Given Romanian oil and gas reserves I PROBABLY should switch to petrol power long term, but not sure that should be a priority)

I seem to recall that the best way to generate CB in this game is to build an Intelligence Bureau and then harass someone, and also to send them ridiculous/insulting trade deals repeatedly?

i guess I should probably start antagonizing Bulgarian pretty soon. They are still unallied and I have a military that is probably twice their size with much better artillery . . .

The main thing is: I cannot get my pop to grow and with Romania's limited resources I am at a sort of growth ceiling in terms of tech/productivity/money.

Any suggestions?

[Anthropoid]

Well that is interesting: I sent "Cancel Free Flow of Labor" diplomatic requests to several of the above noted nations with which I had them and pretty much every single one of them REFUSED. So I guess If I want to get out of my agreements I have to break relations with them entirely . . . Wow man, that is . . . kinda unrealistic.

[Rosalis]

Once upon a time it might actually mathered. For SRU George admitted all these treaties do is "improve relations". Wether that is when cloosing the deal or over time thats for you to find out. I find the first one to be clooser to the whole truth.

Relations are kinda tricky to explain with so many options tho. Like you said allies are worthless most of the time and only prevent further expansion while taking territory from your conquests. Colonies on the other hand.. if you know the mechanics you can print money shown in my aar. I cant advise on fake scenarios trying to represent history tho. Im 2020 player sometimes cw. Everything is too limited and scripted in the old scenarios. If i only have to think about the ammount of techs i have to research, i fall asleep. Especially knowing ai will fall far behind me. Speedy infantry thats all you need in those historical scenarios. OP special forces will also do, but gotta be carefull since you cant retreat them from artillery as fast. IF ai even get access to MG. Just watch your supply and infantry is all you need. 7 AA and your good to go challenge the biggest superpowers.

[Anthropoid]

Once upon a time it might actually mathered. For SRU George admitted all these treaties do is "improve relations". Wether that is when cloosing the deal or over time thats for you to find out. I find the first one to be clooser to the whole truth.

Relations are kinda tricky to explain with so many options tho. Like you said allies are worthless most of the time and only prevent further expansion while taking territory from your conquests. Colonies on the other hand.. if you know the mechanics you can print money shown in my aar. I cant advise on fake scenarios trying to represent history tho. Im 2020 player sometimes cw. Everything is too limited and scripted in the old scenarios. If i only have to think about the ammount of techs i have to research, i fall asleep. Especially knowing ai will fall far behind me. Speedy infantry thats all you need in those historical scenarios. OP special forces will also do, but gotta be carefull since you cant retreat them from artillery as fast. IF ai even get access to MG. Just watch your supply and infantry is all you need. 7 AA and your good to go challenge the biggest superpowers.

Okay thanks Rosalis!

Yeah, I had kind of gathered based on old threads I've read that they did some "fixes" on the pre-WWII economy that kinda flattens everything. The idea of starting as early as possible with a weak nation and growing it was appealing but now that I see how long I'll be sitting with quite minimal growth I'm not so sure.

So my other interests are to play the Cold War campaign (probably as Soviets, though I'm not sure to what avail, maybe see if I can conquer the world I guess). Other interest would be to play Ukraine 2020, and I have actually done that before in the original SRU2020.

If I were to fire up a Soviet CW campaign, and suggestions on settings or tips?