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@Timmie0307 - thanks for the well-wishes :p
@FinnishFish - you are more observant than I was :rofl: I never even noticed them there because I was so absorbed in China
@Rockingluke - Defensive Asian Footsoldiers armed with muskets? Brilliant! :p
@TonyJoe - your wish is my command (at some point)
@blsteen - yeah, once the Italians introduced themselves I got worried about Europeans right quick!
 
Chapter Fourteen - Meeting the Italians

As some of the sharper-eyed readers have noticed, Italy has established a presence in India-Indochina. More specifically, they have taken Arakan, which borders on my province of Pegu. I failed to notice this fact due to my over-concentration on my interests in China, so the Italians decided to introduce themselves more formally...

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Of course, my first reaction is panic! :D However, the Italian forces in Arakan are extremely small (1k men), so I can crush them and take Arakan. My navy also sinks the few cogs they have in the area.

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I quickly petition for a white peace, as I know I'm in no shape to take on a western power. I now know that I will probably need to westernize, and as quickly as possible, if I am to face off against Italy. Of course, at this point I get "lucky" and inherit the throne of Deva Bengal - some crappy provinces not connected to my empire in any way that border on the other possessions of Italy! Great...did I mention that lovely inheritance also overextended me?

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The effects of the overextension are soon lost however, as my first round of Chinese conquests core. The second round of cores soon follow. As I still need to move further to Innovative on my sliders to westernize, I decide to spend the time waiting warring with my favorite buddies, the Manchu! I use the Reconquest CB I have on Jizhou to kick things off.

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Of course, it's never just the Manchu by themselves! However, they are the alliance leader, so I am most concerned with beating them down and forcing a peace. My pre-prepositioned armies quickly go on the offensive.

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My two armies operating along the coast have sufficient amounts of infantry and are relatively unthreatened by Manchu forces, so I feel I can risk some assaults. The army in Shenquing still has some mopping up to do, so they settle in for a siege. The coastal armies quickly show some results...

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...and move on to conquer more provinces! Japan as usual is fixated on Okinawa, which for the moment I am perfectly happy to ignore. Let them waste their time while I tear up the Chinese countryside.

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So, for all those provinces captured, I should surely gain quite a bit, right? Well, I settle instead for one lousy province. Fortunately, it is a lousy province that will cripple the Manchu and give me a massive boost - Jiangsu!

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Jiangsu (as you may know) is a nice fat CoT and a very valuable province. The loss of this sucker means the Manchu economy gets sent to the crapper, and I get a lovely new CoT with its attendant benefits. This does lower the value of the CoT that I built previously in Vijaya, but Vijaya's remains fairly valuable due to the many provinces I own nearby.

Soon after the peace is declared, I get the news that my Production Tech has reached Level 9 - it only took 290 years :p Now I set to building a couple of workshops...however, my peaceful life as a builder is soon interrupted by those pesky Italians again! Every time I see their name come up, I get panicky about my position.

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My defending force in Pegu takes a beating and is forced to run away, but there is obviously something else going on in Italy - they immediately offer a white peace. I'm no dummy - I take the offer right away!

My first round of workshops is soon done and I launch another set of ten workshop projects. I also decide to move my national focus to Jiangsu to take further advantage of the province - you can see here that it is fairly well off...

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Since I still have one more move to the right on my Innovative slider to wait for, I go back to the old drawing well and attack Manchu...

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They are in bad shape now and put up only a token resistance. They soon agree to cede a couple of provinces, putting me tantalizingly close to connection with my homelands.

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Of course, as seems to be the pattern, no sooner do I go back to peace than Italy decides to declare war again! Annoying, those Italians :) My army in Mongnai gets whupped, and my army in Pegu gets whupped even worse...

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I don't have anything that can stop the Italian forces, so I am forced to give up some land.

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Grrr, I'm getting tired of these arrogant Euros trashing my armies! I need to westernize and fast....

(here's that world map you wanted to see - Lithuania representing!)

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Hmmm, I figured the Italians would at least have some land on the Red Sea. I wonder why they, of all nations, would randomly decide to invade Indochina.
 
@dinofs - yeah, its a bit weird but maybe they had some possessions around there and lost them or something? Not too sure. Guess it's also possible they inherited something too.

@FinnishFish - I don't know what Karelian pies are, sounds a little kinky to be honest :p

@Rockingluke - I think the tech difference was about 18-20 levels or so. Westernizing is priority one (as you'll see in my next update being posted...now-ish)
 
Chapter Fifteen - Westernization or Bust

So, in order to start the Westernization process, I need one more slider move to Innovative, then I'll be on my way. In 1701, that slider moves happens. Unfortunately, it bumps my stability down at the same time so I'm forced to wait for that to come back up before I can click on that lovely Westernization decision. At this point, I've used my cultural tradition to hire on 3 Stability Advisors to help out with the massive stability problems I am anticipating over the next few decades.

Finally, in 1703....

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While I'm waiting for stability to recover, I half-heartedly attack the Japanese, who once again have managed to diplo-annex some territory on my border. I steal Henan from them and split their possession in two.

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When my Government tech allows, I take the new idea of Church Attendance Duty to lower my stability recovery times. By 1711, I am ready to ruin my stability once again by Westernizing, so why not? I'm now in the Oriental group (which I guess I wasn't before? :) lol)

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As per my new pattern, I declare war on Wu while waiting for stability to recover. I have the Reconquest CB available, so why not? Japan and the Mongols jump in as well.

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I wipe a fairly large Japanese force in Henan while my troops rampage through the Wu lands.

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Then Brunei declares war on me as well....sigh. But wait, they actually have a plan this time:

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Brunei manages to take Moulmein away from me. I scramble to reinforce and send a couple of armies down that way.

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Whoops, so much for Brunei's armies :) I white peace them as I'm more interested in what's going on further north. I make peace with Japan and Wu (lost the screenshots) and seize Dali, Liangshan, and Shequing from the Wu.

In 1717, I've recovered enough stability to do the Westernization dance again! Woohoo.

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For about another decade, I simply research and stomp out revolts - my tech rates are through the roof thanks to my new tech group providing me with a +100 neighbour bonus. Finally, in 1731, I'm ready to finish up this ugly process:

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I modernize my military (sorry Rockingluke and FinnishFish!). Soon it will be time to show my Asian brothers my fancy new toys...
 
Could we have some ledger shots? Like Income and army sizes. You got quite a lot of innovation from westernising. That must have put a pretty big dent into your missionary production.
 
Excellent. :D You're practically unstoppable now.
 
@dinofs - yeah, I think I'm a fair juggernaut now too :)
@FinnishFish - I meant finishing up the Westernization process, not the AAR! Thanks for the compliment though!
@Rockingluke - because you asked so nicely, I went back and loaded an old save game from around this time (I'm actually done playing this Korea game) just to get you some ledger shots :)

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Wow, there are way more Hindus than I thought there would be.
 
Chapter Sixteen - Badboy Time

Well, now that I've accomplished the majority of my goals and have westernized and modernized my armies, I believe it is time to go on the offensive in a big way. As you might remember, my main goal at the start of this game was to establish Korea as a regional power (check). The only real remaining goals that I am interested in are completing the Korean hegemony over China, and taking Japan down (something I've wanted to do from the beginning of the game but never got around to). To those ends...

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Time to start some wars :) Tibet and Japan jump in as well. The Manchu are overrun almost immediately - my infantry storm their cities in no time.

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I also slaughter the Japanese forces in the mainland, although as usual they conquer Okinawa (guess they can't get it through their heads that Okinawa is really not that strategically important!). I attack and seize Handan, the only Japanese province left on the mainland. Suddenly, I get this notice:

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Of all the nerve! Japan invades my homeland. I peace out the Manchu and grab as much as I can - their provinces are worth too much war score to annex them right now. Soon though :)

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The Japanese expeditionary forces meet an ugly end :( Sorry guys.

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Having failed to learn their lesson, the Japanese send another invasion force! Dummies.

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In the course of all this, Brunei decides to attack as well. This is more annoying than anything, but it must of course be dealt with brutally :). I quickly take Ratchanburi and move down to Ligore, where my smaller army meets a gigantic Brunei army:

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In the meantime, I have smashed yet another Japanese invasion force sent to the Korean peninsula - I've had enough of that. I amass my fleet and my transports, and land on the shores of Japan. There is no kamikaze to save them this time.

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My armies begin to rampage down the Malayan peninsula at the same time as my invasion force siege the Japanese provinces. Both Brunei and Japan are on their heels. This screenshot shows the crushing of the remainder of the Japanese fleet - I missed the first battle that defeated their big ships.

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I gain enough war score to grab six provinces from Brunei - I can't take Malacca because it is worth too much. Still, a nice grab for an unplanned war!

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Japan is in a very bad way as well - no defenses left, and provinces falling to me left and right.

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They have no choice but to cede me a foothold on Japan - Nagato, Harima, and Izumo. This is the first nail in their coffin. As you can see from the screenshot, at this point I have abandoned my worries about the Badboy limit - I'm over 70 already and climbing

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With the game time remaining and my remaining goals (solidify my control of China and conquer all of Japan), I have no time to worry about avoiding BB. Time for the Korean horde to roll...
 
What about all those awful events you get from having high BB?