Chapter 44: Smackdown against Spain
Weeeeeeeeeeee're back! Illness, surgery, crying babies, and last minute basketball tickets can only slow Spain down from their holy mission, not stop them.
We'll kick off with some planning - we need to prepare to take down France. This isn't so simple: their tech advantage may make this harder than previous wars. I have Land 16, they have 20, so my cavalry is in for rough days ahead.
February 1, 1556: Land 17. I'm still moving troops around at this point, and preparing a scorch-ring and instant blockade around France.
March 8: The Mamluks lose again, ceding Sharizhor to OE (their former allies).
March 25: OE warns us. This could be really really problematic - I do not have the armies necessary to take down both France and OE, nor the money to raise that large an army. The key, then, is make sure OE doesn't lead the war - no province in the area other than Alexandria will give significant war score, so OE can make huge gains and I can still peace out with the warleader and screw them.
May 27: The troops are in place...and before I can declare war, we get enough rebels to justify holding off a bit. Here's the situation in France - they have 3 doomstacks (Armor, Vendee, Ile de France (not shown, but inferred):
And here is the situation around the OE - I have 1 rebel control stack trying to clear out rebels in Egypt and Georgia.
June 17: Baden warns us that if we declare war on anyone...they'll join our empire! (that's obviously what they mean, right?)
August 1: My 12K cav stack gets crushed by rebels in Hamburg. I need Latin Caracolle cavalry badly.
October 6: Slider move...finally! We go more centralized (to 1 step centralized), and get a large revolt in Hamburg (giving them about 19K rebels there) and Cuzco (3 rebels, easily crushed). We get ourselves another general to help put down rebels - 2 fire, 3 shock, 1 maneuver, 2 siege. I get OK generals with 50-60 tradition.
December 27: I get my first Colonial Company goes Bankrupt event - lose 200 people in a random colony, or lose 50 ducats. As a rule of thumb, unless you expand more than 80 population/year in the colony or have 2 colonists you don't mind sending to replace them, lose the 50 ducats. I chose the 50 ducats. It happens again 6 months later...grrr...
April 20, 1557: I was ALMOST ready to declare war on Ahmednagar to kick off the war with France, OE, and Baden...and they declare war on me! Bastards! I guess I'll have to run around assaulting and beating them up. I would DoW someone else to start the war, but war in the Middle East will bring in more people I don't want, and war in Europe will give me more enemies there than I want. So, we put that off.
June 1: Provence declares independence from France. They have no army, but are at war with France, who has no army in Auvergne (the only province they have left in the area). This should be...exciting.
August 27: A short and bloody war should end with Ahmednagar ceding Raichur Doab. If you wonder why I'm settling for small amounts - I have 18K troops in the area and no way to build my high-tech troops in the area yet due to a lack of cores. I essentially run around assaulting enough so I can demand something quickly - whittling their power down. Once they're weak, I'll dismember them...
...but the peace offer fails! Ahmednagar managed to assault something back on the day after I sent the offer, lowering the war score. Bastards!
September 29: I assault something else, and take Raichur Doab for real. This gives me a land border with Mysore.
October 1: Government 16. I can now build Universities, because Italy didn't have enough.
November 14: The rebels are pacified, the armies are in place...we're ready to
RUMBLE!!!! War with Mysore, bringing in Bihar, Orissa, Oudh, Rajputana, OE, France, and Baden. Orissa leads (muhahahahahaha!).
December 1: Since someone called a crusade on OE (no one's close enough for me to Crusade), I get the Crusade bonuses: +10% tax, +.1 morale, +50% manpower, +1 prestige. The manpower bonus is amusing given my natural cap of 161K.
December 10: First mistake of the war: my scorching army doesn't get out of Valenciennes fast enough, but does get the scorch off.
January 5, 1558: France has taken Valenciennes, and Champagne falls to assault. Both provinces were scorched - they're taking big losses.
February 28: Smackdown in Blois. I caught one doomstack in Limousin, and forced it to flee to Blois. I sent a second cav doomstack in to help go for the kill in Blois - and the last French doomstack showed up. 2 French doomstacks against 2 Spanish cavalry doomstacks - but I had the better general, killed their king, and was fighting on defense. Both sides have to retreat and lick their wounds, but I'll be ready first. I think Spain is now the #1 cause of death for French kings.
March 22: The Parisian Doomstack dies in Vermandois, a victim of scorching and too many assaults.
May 23: Another doomstack dies in Caux - the war is now pretty much over except for the assaults. In India, Mysore's provinces are falling to assault as they are running out of armies. In the Middle East, my rebel control stack got trapped and annihilated, and the OE is assaulting their way to Judea.
June 12: Ibrim falls to rebels - my first province to fall to rebels in decades.
September 1: Land 18. We can get Tercio, Maurician, and Free Shooter infantry as soon as the war is over.
September 14: Baden is annexed, after falling to the Vassal Swarm.
October 10: Austria declares war, bringing in Poland, Lithuania, and Prussia. Oh @#%@#$^%! Austria, Poland, and Lithuania have cav-heavy armies and aren't strung out like my current batch of enemies. This could seriously suck. Austria immediately sends 2 cav-heavy doomstacks to siege Krain and Verona before I can build something and scorch them.
December 27: Colonial company founded - and I actually got a colony in Monacan! We celebrate by taking Normandie, Anjou, Blois, and Maine from France, splitting them in 4 and relieving them of 3 manufactories (1 Weapons in Normandie, IIRC, and 2 Textile Manufactories). This will help France by making new Manufactories cheaper for them. Yeah.
I love the new map of France.
I forgot to take a screenshot here, but OE has assaulted their way down to Gaza, and taken Imereti in Georgia. They are seriously going to be pissed when I force Orissa to peace out.
January 19, 1559: Venice declares war, bringing in Hesse. I still can't take Venice, because their CoT still gets too much trade from provinces that aren't mine.
March 24: I get 95% war score on Mysore, so I decide to try something new here: peace out against Mysore and Orissa simultaneously, to get more of Mysore. I ask for 3 of Mysore's provinces from Mysore, and 2 from Orissa - and get them both! Woot! OE screams in agony as they lose 7 occupied provinces. Muhahahah!
In other news:
Karankawa, Al Karak, Lisboa, Hawran, Lothringen, and Mantua convert.
Puno, Arequipa, Nazca, Huamanca, Cuzco, Tumbes, Huanuco, Lima, Huancavelica, Tarma, Chanchan, Cajamarca (i.e. Inca), Reykjavik, Leinster, Munster, Connaught, Tortuga, and Les Cayes core.
Wasuju's culture assimilates.
Nicaragua, Lincoln, Dominica, and Swampy Cree get fort upgrades to level 2 from the Fortification Upgrade event. If anyone ever invades Swampy Cree, Nicaragua, and Dominica, I'm sure that'll help.
Reformed minorities flocked to Transkei and Oeiras.
Alpercatas became self-sufficient.
The Reformation spread to Bourgogne.
World map will come after the next update.
