Been a bit! But let's get back to this. After last session, I ummed and ahhed about whether to go back a step and complete more ideas while I still had the ideas bonus before starting on Songhai. But last night, I decided that, bollocks to it, if I was going to spend every time I thought about booting the game up trying to decide if I wanted to do it, I'd never play! And it might be wise to try and get finished before the next expansion comes out (and they potentially nerf the mercs or something...)
January 1677.
A quick refresher said we had about seven years before the next set of claims (on Malacca and Great Britain) ran out, so the plan was to continue the refractory period. Diplo points were going to be a premium for a while (though once done we would be using them less!) and we needed to raise the admin, too! Four years until Songhai was integrated (in theory); that would leave us a bit more time to ready for the next rounds of wars after that, then.
I burnt up some cash on more manufactories (remembering the nominal goal...! Gross income was about 400, though, so not doing too badly on that front).
Gibraltar went to the noble estate. The missionary went to Glostershire (as that seemed like the best unity to time ratio).
The colony of Wadjuk was nearly done, so I pulled the colonist and dispatched him to Jaqo Sepri near Nikandris, to help expand that before France's colony there got too uppity.
As this point, Necrolantis owned pretty much all of the far east and all of Oceania (apart from Malacca, who were likely to lose all their possessions there next war).
Looking over my vassal, I completely forgot I'd vassalised Holland...!
Military theory allowed us a nice military power boost. Not that I'd got anything to spend it on, though we were approaching the cap and the next tech was a while off... So, a bit of development, then.
December, and there was enough pennies in the bank to upgrade the light ship fleet.
Selagis sent us a gift (and tiny gift if 18 ducats, but hey, every little helps.)
In August, Ephronis declared war on British Poytrek. Nice! That might even mop them all up!
Shortly thereafter, the missionaries were sent off to Algarve.
In November, I started on three more plantations.
At the start of 1679, I could have afforded the next military tech this year, though it would have required some careful juggling of military power to avoid wasting any (976+10/month, target 991), so I figured, bollocks to it, and spent about 120 on various development upgrades instead to get it next year. So I boosted Mauritius and Ile Bourbon up a couple of levels each.
The colony mission completed, and this time, there was a choice of a mission to conquer one of Malacca's or Britain's provinces. I decided to opt for the latter.
September, and the last (and superfluous) splendour power could be bought, which gave a -50% to the cost changing rivals (that we only had a choice of two of anyway...!)
On 14th September, Paramount Priest Nikandros Sosiclid died, making Sopholes Zosimid (5/5/5) the new Paramount Priest. The merchant's son, Isocrates Philonid (
2/5/2 became the new heir. (Who became expansionist (+15 global settlers).)
Given that I would have been accruing diplo points at double rate, I would have had 344 (next idea is 360!)... So not worrying about it seems to have been the right choice..!
December, and the missionaries went to Lancashire.
January, and it was time for military tech 23! This meant that Xoloti went to Foreign Influenced Infantry (that's a crap name!) and American Swarm Cavalry to American Dragoon.
Whelp, there goes the Ottomans as a valid rival...! That leaves our only valid rival as Ming...!
April bought both a Castilian rebellion (effortlessly dispatched) and a rush of settlers.
After two raids in succession, I put some of my heavy ships to hunt the Tunis pirates.
Heh. Ephronis eliminated all the British Poytrek colonies, leaving only the three being currently colonised by GB itself.
On the 1st of May 1681, Songhai was finally absorbed into the Necrolantic empire. Its troops were re-organised and reinforced into another 24k stack.
That freed up a lot of diplomatic points! Integrating anyone else could wait a while (Morocco and Holland both still had some potential uses.) Next was to bank some more diplomatic point for a little while,, grab another idea (maybe two) and then get ready to start the next round of fighting - at least to ensure the claims we'd made didn't expire. So that made Malacca the next target (the first claim expired in three years). So the diplomat went to Malacca to create a spy network.
December 1681 and we could afford the next idea, which reduced aggressive expansion by 20%. Useful. The next ideas were not massively great (someone better versed in EUIV is now going to contradict me) - the next thing I was interested in was the finisher, with reduces unjustified demand cost by a whopping 50%!
Malacca is apparently a tributary of Ming, so that might be a problem. Nevermind. I dispatched my main heavy ship fleet to the far east, and started work of six more (the most I could afford, having naturally just noticed this after starting work on buildings...), which would hopefully be enough to keep the Ming navy occupied... Whether it would do any good, we would have to see. If not, we'd experiment and just gain some new claims (since aside from the one, we had a few more years before the next lot started to expire) and have some time to prepare.
Missionaries to Porto...
June 1682 (but a year to go...) and religious rebels rose up in Sibiridugu. Briefly.
I sent the newest stack over to the far east, for good measure. A couple of the colonies were nearly done, so the colonists were recalled and sent to Jaqo Sepri.
Admin was getting towards the cap, so when our minister gave us an admin boost, that went straight to development.
Nikodemis gave a small gift of 28 ducats in September, just to keep on our good side...
July 1683 (a little under a year to go) and we got a surprise boost of manpower (about our cap) due to holy warriors. Neat.
November, more religious rebels appeared in Morocco. The Necrolantic general who put them down even improved his skills from the experience. Double neat!
Well. There didn't seem to be much more point dragging it out (since we had other wars to fight) so it was time to try dealing with Malacca...
Yep. That brought in Ming. Let us see if we could deal with that... Well, the good news was that 45k to 24k we resoundingly beat the main Ayutthaya (Malacca's ally). Whether we could put that off against Ming if it marched troops in...?
Maybe...? If we hold position...? This is gonna be slow, but I realised that f I want to take the colonies off Malacca, I don't have much option.
Good job I brought all my heavy ships! Now Ming doesn't have any after that little fracas. (About a 162 to 14, then 26 as my other fleet came to help..!)
Actually, given that and my naval capability and my sailor count not being too bad), I decided to build a ton more heavy ships. Twenty in Africa, to be the new fleet, and four more (to bring the local total to 30) in the far east. Maybe if nothing else, I could blockade Ming a bit or something...?
To speed things along, I ordered a breach at the siege of Bengkulu.
Missionaries to Lincolnshire...
Pahahahaha! The tiny naval forces of Morocco and Holland just arrived, not 3K between them. It's the thought that counts, chaps, it's the thought that counts. Selagis, meanwhile, was struggling to take that once province, so I ordered up some mercs to help them.
I had 48k on stand-by in Chaiya, holding back the Ming. Whether they could hold for long enough... Was the problem.
Okay, no. Stepped back a bit, and ran my army down to what I now realised was the capital. Let them siege my lands a bit, split them up, slow them down. Maybe if I could break the capital, I could get enough warscore to force a peace. Probably couldn't get a lot out of it, but maybe take those damn colonies.
Um, eh, no, game. No, you cannot cross the straights when my entire fracking fleet is in the area. That should be blocking the straights. Nevermind that you somehow magically without ships managed to bypass my fort. So, um, no. No, I am not having you do that.
Got one stack stack wiped, but I then stackwiped the Ming stack.
I am also moving stuff into position, because I only have less than a year before I need to start in on Britain or lose another claim...!
Come February 1686, the war against Malacca was now in a reasonable state, so that if I got towards a mess, I could peace out with a reasonable amount of gubbins. I'd keep at it for just a little longer, though - but it was time to *sigh* open the second front against Britain. Hopefully though, this would go smoother...! (Britain, aha, did not have any allies...)
Um... Does Britain HAVE any troops...? At this rate, the war in Britain will be over before the war in Malacca. Seriously, 46% for the war against Britain and only 30% against Ming/Malacca...!
Eh... We are about 2 warscore off being able to white peace Ming out... Just a little bit more...!
Woo! With a bit of careful pausing to get between battles, I can whitepeace Ming out! Done! Blimey, we lost more troops than they did. That was expensive. Mind you, by the damn time I'm done with this war, Malacca will be gone. Pity it's three months before the diplomat gets back...! Still, it's easy sailing from here. In fact, since Malacca is basically occupied, we'll pull the spy out and that means we have chance to peace people out more easily.
Bloody FINALLY. I can now totally annex Malacca (the little bleeders had snuck a colony I hadn’t spotted in Jaqo Sepri, which is probably why I couldn't force them to 100% warscore by occupation. Niota any more. 75% overextension, so Britain will just have to be held for a while now. In the meantime, spy to Siak, I think, the next target. (THEY, at least, should be easy...!)
Well, I say that, but Britain made no attempt to fight us and basically just rolled up politely.
As we wait, we have enough cash and force limit for a new 24k army. That one can go into Europe, I think. Given how hard that was, I think Ming can go well on the back burner now, so the troops left (four 24k stacks - I replaced the one wiped out mid-war) should be enough to hold the line. For now.
Dangit, score-wise, they seem to be only a step behind me and (because I lose 25% for easy), they are getting more points than me! That's tedious!
Mm. Telesphoria hit 50% liberty desire: apparently, being behind on diplomatic tech - with the ideas and conquests and all - is worth a 5%, so we'll burn 25 Admin and drop their tariffs down, which takes them below the threat level.
Quick look - We can get Britain down to basically Ireland (yes, and steal all their colonies - again!), so I'll hold the spy network there for the moment, just so we can grab some more claims when we're done.
27th of March 1689, and all the coring for Malacca is done! NOW we can peace out Britain and move on to stomp Siak...! I fabricated two claims on Ireland, and then pulled the spy.
With the conquer the Whiteskins mission done, it was apropos to take the reduce overextension mission next!
Siak was the next target, as with a stack for each of its provinces, this hopefully shouldn't take too long...!
Then we could have a rest, before we looked at Portugal, the claims on which expired in 1698, so loads of time!
Given how NASTY it was fighting Ming, I decided to - for the first time ever! - build my own fort in Kedah, which meant there would be a line of two forts along the peninsula. That would significantly slow down any future Ming land attacks! This required sinking a few development into it, to get it to 20 to unlock a slot, but paranoia seemed like the best policy!
The claim in Siak expired in 1692, which meant I had a couple of years - maybe try and get claims on all four provinces (and keep the diplomatic cost down!)
Time to get the missionary down to Sevilla...
then two of my generals died at the same time. After the game gave me several reloads of crap, I said "fine, play, then we'll do this the save-editing way, because I'm not having crap and I’m not spending all my time reloading, sunshine." So we did a little bit of extra random addition (within the proscribed limits) and carried on.
And then, to prove my point, we had a reloading session until Paramount Priest Sopholes got something that wasn't crap (expansionist again).
Another pair of colonists to Jaqo Sepri...
January 1690 brought Admin 24, and more states (which we would likely be using very quickly once Britain finished coring).
By November, the coring was done. The new mission was to colonise Dororin in Jaqo Sepri (where a colonise was but eighteen days from reaching...)
Missionaries to Hampshire...
I decided - since I'd nearly forgotten - not to bother dropping the autonomy in the new ex-British provinces. I was already at maximum absolutism, and I figured I would need the troops soon enough.
May, and the annexed subject malus was gone. I didn't want to start diplo-annexing anyone else, since diplo points were... Rather scarce at the moment.
August, and while I was waiting for the spy to fabricate one more claim on Siak, Demetris took its turn to offer us a gift.
And then I realised I had, like 3000 gold I could be spending on buildings... This time, I remembered to check counting houses, and build ten new ones (for between +0.78-+0.98 ducats per, which is quite a lot!) Then an eleventh one thereafter (after which the gain dropped from 0.78 to 0.58).
Careful Tunis - you only have three coastal provinces. Keep annoying me with raids and you won't have any shortly...
January, and the last claim was fabricated. Since I could go negative with diplomatic points, and there was only a single province with no claim in Siak I went ahead and got the next diplomatic idea (+2 diplomatic reputation). The sharply reduced the liberty desire of my minions!
Right, then: to Siak!
...
When I'd remembered to recall a diplomat from my subject relations improvements...
NOW to Siak!
By June, the almost embarrassingly short campaign was over - the diplomat barely had time to get back from the declaration of war before the peace offer.
That finally put the entire area, sans the mainland, in the trade company regions under Necrolantic control.
As I had no desire to tangle with Ming any time soon, this meant I could place a cap on this part of the world. A pair of 24k stacks could be left on guard, but now I could start looking elsewhere.
The unfortunate part of starting in Africa was denying myself all the trade company regions I could have had there. So... This basically left India. Bahmanis was NOT a tributary of Ming (which almost everything smaller was) but they were, unfortunately, allied to the Ottomans. So that area too, would probably have to wait a little, until I'd dealt with the last or Portugal and hacked a bit more out of Castile. And those wars could wait - I had another six years before I need to sweat about those, and another break to really get my diplomatic points up, maybe get those ideas done and start getting the techs again to play catch up a bit.
That said, the Maldives was an OPM with no allies, and a single stack could take it, so perhaps that should be a target in the meantime...
And we're into the "it's getting close to quitting time, so spam the bad events!" Frack off.
Colonisation mission done. The new mission was a choice between making the Ottomans like us (to rival Ming0 or a conquer the whiteskins for Portugal (in a province I was planning to pass to Morocco). So... I opted for the former. Even a small boost of the 25 Diplomatic from the quest would help at this time, and it wasn't like I felt I really needed the spy network in the Maldives once the claim would be done, so...
February 1693 brought military tech 24. The possibility to upgrade the forts to level 8 (probably do that with the two in the far east) and some other sundry bonuses.
July, and missionaries to Marches... (The problem is, I keep getting territory faster than my one missionary can convert...! Still, next idea group will be Humanist, which would help with that.)
'Nother colonist to Jaqo Sepri...
By the 18th of October, we were ready to capture the Maldives.
March, and it was done.
With the Ottoman mission nearly done, I figured I would take the opportunity to mop up the last two free OPMs in the Mammuskin/Poytrek region in the same way.
Ottoman friend mission done, and the diplomat back (so I could start next time fabricating on both nations); the new mission was to claim Murcia from Castile. Well, it might be a year or two, but that was next on the hit list!
We could now afford one and getting towards two more armies, as well!
But that will have to wait for next time!
Re: My Little Pony XCVII: Cheerilee's Lonely Hearts Club
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