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Nice update, yeah the Kings are not that great with one or two exceptions of course:)
 
Some great lines in this last post:

(After nobles ally with Atjeh) "Atjeh was allied to Brunei, Makassar, and China. I decided not to use the CB." The better part of valor, right?

"I had fantasies of island hopping...but at naval tech 2 it just isn't practical." Sounds like the understatement of the year! I'm surprised your ships survived the voyage over to Australia in the first place.

Your tech costs seem really high, even with your low innovation. Do you have the isolation penalty? I'm wondering if your explorers might be better used to go around India and make contact with more nations there. In my Dai Viet game there was a long period when my list of known nations was just above or just below 20. Sometimes I even deliberately delayed an annexation until a new nation appeared somewhere first.

I've lost track of exactly which provinces you own. Can you give us a rough description of your current borders?
 
Chapter 8 - P'Rajai (1535 - 1546)

A Insecure Monarch

In organising his coup, P'Rajai had shown focus, intelligence and initiative, but he did not carry these qualities with him to the throne. As King, he proved both weak and indecisive, dominated by scheming courtiers and feuding advisors. The effectiveness of the government quickly declined. The army was dispatched to suppress the uprising in Mandalay, but the effort was so disorganised that no fewer than four punitive expeditions were required to restore order in the province.

Nevertheless, there were some positive developments during P'Rajai's early years. A new Australian province, Towoomba, was declared at P'Rajai's accession, and settlement of the southern colonies continued throughout his reign. This attracted the jealousy of nobles and merchants from the northern provinces, who in 1536 persuaded the King to authorise an 'internal colony' on virgin ground in Lampang province (1). This proved only a diversion to Ayutthaya's overseas expansion. A permanent settlement was founded in Ceram early in 1537, and the traders reached Mindoro soon after. The turbulent natives of that island destroyed the first trade post within a year, though it was quickly rebuilt. By now, however, it had been overtaken by events.

Trouble on the Wind

Despite more than ten years of peace since the end of the Second Chinese War, the attitude of the major neighbouring powers remained resolutely hostile. During P'Raji's reign, this hostility began to extend from the diplomatic to the economic sphere. For almost fifty years, Ayutthayan merchants had been welcome in the great entrepot of Shanghai, even in time of war. Now they found their position increasingly undercut by foreign traders and Chinese officials (2). The resulting reduction of trade led to a loss in tax income, which in turn increased the pressure on an administration that seemed unable to cope with the problem. The Court polarised into two factions, the 'Uplanders' who counseled a mercantilist policy, reduction of the expensive colonial program and greater investment in the army, and the 'Coasters' who insisted that Ayutthaya's future lay in expansion overseas. P'Rajai, trapped in the middle, vacillated.

In the summer of 1537, the Emperor of China abruptly declared war on his vassal of Manchu. Panic swept the Court of Ayutthaya. If even submission to the Dragon Throne brought no security, how long could the Kingdom survive? The Uplanders called for soldiers, the Coasters for ships, the Crown had money for neither. The next year brought stormclouds to the western horizon with the outbreak of war in India, pitting the Hindus of Orissa against the Delhi-led Muslim alliance. Both wars would peter out to little effect later in the year, but by then the divisions in Court had lead to a full-blown political crisis (3).

The Centre Fails

Infighting in Court paralysed what remained of the central administration. Uncontrolled from the capital, rival lords and factions began to divert royal forces and revenues to their own ends. The colony of Salabanka declared itself a province in 1539, the governor witholding revenues for 'necessary improvements' (4), while on the mainland Uplander generals used state funds to re-equip their troops (5). Abroad, the King of Pegu took advantage of the chaos to renounce his vassalage to Ayutthaya (6), though Ayutthayan diplomats managed to maintain the Kingdom's alliances with Cambodia and Arakan.

The next year brought no better news. In the south, a Muslim uprising in Perak destroyed the Buddhist shrines there and dashed hopes of progress toward religious unity (7). Court conflict devolved from words to daggers, with many openly forseeing the fall of the monarch to coup or rebellion. Finally, as the year closed, news came to Ayutthaya that the natives of Buru had risen and overrun the Ayutthayan settlement there.

P'Rajai's Expedition to the East

It was a trivial cause, but P'Rajai knew he could not afford another public failure. Early in 1541, he mustered a full 10,000 cavalry as an expeditionary force to retake the lost colony. Only a few days after the troops had sailed from Johor, a star was seen to fall from the dawn sky (8), promising fire and death in the east. P'Rajai's advisors declared that the sign predicted doom for the Kingdom's enemies, but few outside the Court were convinced.

Nevertheless, the expeditionary force arrived safely in Timor in June, and a few weeks later Buru was retaken without a fight, the barbarians melting away in the face of the massed forces of Ayutthaya. Victory achieved, the generals commanding the expeditionary force chose to strike for fresh glory. Declaring their intention to subdue the unruly natives of the southern Philippines, they turned their ships north. Mustering at Tindore late in the year, the force sailed for Mindoro. The invasion began on New Year's Day, 1542.

It was a disaster. Unable to make use of their mobility in the thick jungles of Mindoro, the Ayutthayan cavalry were quickly overwhelmed and driven back into the sea. As the fleet picked up the survivors, the natives celebrated with a massacre of the Ayutthayan trading post on the island.

Unable to defeat the Mindorans and fearing to return home without victory, the generals reorganised their forces and struck instead at the smaller island of Samar. This time the invasion was successful, and Samar was secured in June 1542. When they returned home at the end of the year, they brought fewer than half the men who had sailed with them, but the King hailed them as heroes and showered them with gold. Samar was colonised the same year.

Political Conflict

The expedition had put P'Rajai, despite himself, on the side of the Coasters, and they sought to capitalise on his enforced support. The end of the expedition had been marked by a brief economic boom (9), but this could not disguise the fact that Ayutthaya's merchants were slowly losing the northern trade war, which had now spread to the markets of Nippon. The King's new advisors did their best to reverse this trend, seeking to nurture trade at home and abroad (10), but Chinese influence continued to grow.

Late in 1543, the Sultan of Brunei drew China - which had seized another province from Manchu earlier in the year - into a war with Mataram. It was difficult to say which was more alarming, the Emperor's readiness to take up arms or the Sultan's eagerness to encourage him (11). Either way, the sailors and traders of Ayutthaya had ample chance to observe the might of the Chinese Navy, as the Raja of Mataram was forced to submit to the Dragon Throne early in 1546.

P'Rajai's adherance to the Coaster faction rendered the powerful Uplander lords hostile and his weakness left the ungoverned. Open revolt broke out in Kwai province in 1545 (12) and a virtual civil war between rival houses (13) wracked Phuket the next year. Despite the disorder, the Coasters influenced P'Rajai to declare Buru a province that summer.

It was his last act; a few days later he was stabbed in his bed by an assassin never discovered. In his place, the Coaster faction installed Keo Fa, a cousin of Ratsada who had survived P'Rajai's reign only through his total lack of distinction (14).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Notes
(1) New Land Cleared event.
(2) My merchants suddenly started to get competed out of the Shanghai CoT, faster than I could replace them.
(3) Political Crisis (-3 Stability).
(4) Tax Collector. I was building them in all the colonial provincies as soon as they reached city status.
(5) Reform of the Army (+250 Land).
(6) I'd just started bribing them with a view to diplo-annexation, when they went and broke vassalage. I didn't want to risk a war at negative stability while China was looking for someone to DOW.
(7) That's 0/3 on conversions. Perak does not want to change.
(8) The ever-popular Meteor Sighting.
(9) Exceptional Year, 1543.
(10), Monopoly Company, April 1544; +1 Free Trade (now Mercantilism 6) in June 1544.
(11) China declared war on its vassal twice in six years. I thought they were meant to be pacifists?
(12) Unprovoked Revolt.
(13) Nobles Feud.
(14) Adm Very Poor, Mil Poor, Dip Poor. Great.

On the death of P'Rajai, Ayutthaya held the following territory:

Mainland
Home Provinces: Bangkok, Phuket, Kwai
Southern Provinces: Perak, Malacca, Johor
Laotian Provinces: Sarakham, Mekong, Laos
Burmese Provinces: Lampang, Bago, Mandalay, Shan, Assam

Overseas Provinces
Indonesia: Jakarta, Palembang, Sunda, Bandung, Salabanka, Flores, Sumbawa, Timor, Buru, Tindore
Australia: Nandewar, Wollongong, Towoomba

Colonies
Jambi, Samar, Ceram, Wagga, Yarra, Murumbidgee, Macquarie

Trading Posts
Sarawak, Bandjamarsin, Selatan, Kalimantan, Manado, Sulawesi, Palawan, Mindoro, Luzon

Total: 27 Provinces, 7 Colonies, 9 Trading Posts

I have everything between Tibet (which owns Kachin), China (which owns Vietnam) and Cambodia in the North and East and Arakan and Pegu in the West. Overseas, I have claimed all the originally unsettled provinces of Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia except for Mindanao and the furthest Australian province, which remain undiscovered.

Monthly Income is 62, Inflation is zero and Tech Levels are still 2/2/2/3.

jwolf - That 30,000 for Land 3 was a false memory, it's actually only 17,000 (and the same for Naval 3). I have 32,000 out of 42,000 towards Trade 3. You are right about the isolation penalty - I only know 14 other countries. I thought of exploring past India too late to use Sharif.
Getting from Timor to Australia at Naval 2 is just barely possible if you give the explorer a second ship and take it one sea-zone at a time. I was lucky to map an Australian province on my first try (the explorer drowned on his next voyage). Once you have a mapped route and a port in Australia, it's not a problem.
 
You know your tech is lagging when you start having a lot of trouble beating the natives. And your tech will increase agonizingly slowly as long as you have the isolation penalty. But it could be worse -- in my Navaho game, after I finally got trade tech 2, the cost for level 3 was listed at over 130K!:eek: I would have attained that sometime after the year 3000 AD. That's what I call LONG RANGE planning.:)

One thing you might be able to do is to get into an alliance with someone like Tibet or an Indian nation. Then through diplomatic activity you are likely to get knowledge of a few more capitals in Central and South Asia.

As long as the Chinese are obsessed with Manchu or anyone else you are probably safe. But it must feel like walking on eggshells, hoping you don't catch their attention. Good luck!

Your writing style and presentation are very enjoyable. And you take all the rotten random events in stride, very professional. Where's the cursing and screaming?:D
 
Chapter 9 - Keo Fa (1546-1548) and Khun Worawongsa (1548)

Ayutthaya on the Accession of Keo Fa

Note lack of change from 1529, though the colonies are a bit more extensive.
Ayutthaya_1546.JPG


An Unmemorable Monarch

On being brought news of his accession, Keo Fa was heard to murmur 'but I am not the King'. It was to be a fitting summary of his reign, which was characterised not so much by evil or incompetence as by simple absence. In the whole of his time on the throne, there is not a single action that bears his stamp. He occasionally appeared in Court, but would take no decision and rarely spoke even to his most senior advisors. These same advisors confessed privately that Keo Fa's continued failure to look at - much less seal - his state papers made him ineffective even as a puppet.

Without central direction, the Kingdom simply - continued. The army, on P'Rajai's posthumous instructions, crushed the unrest in Phuket. Ayutthayan diplomats made no response to the attack by Delhi and Bengal on Orissa in the summer of 1546. Nor did they react when Orissa re-imposed its authority over Bengal six months later, or when Atjeh made peace with Mataram in the same month. How could they, when no instructions came from home?

By mid-1547, the paralysis of government had become so complete that Coaster nobles and merchant factions wee forced to contribute from their own purses just to keep a basic administration functioning (1). Only in the colonies, beyond the paralysed hand of the capital, was there progress, a permanent settlement beig established in Sulawesi in September 1547, and the traders reaching distant Viti Levu the next year.

Late in 1548 came Keo Fa's sole recorded personal act of his reign - his death. Even that is shrouded in vagueness. He had not been seen for some weeks, and some sources name him as a late victim of the plague that ravaged Lampang province that summer. Others state that he never left the palace. There is not even a record of his funeral.

Turn and Again

On Keo Fa's death, the Coaster faction did not seek out another royal collateral. Instead they proclaimed one of their own, Khun Worawongsa (2), a former Governor of Jakarta who had acquired a popular following in the overseas provinces. On his elevation, he lost no time in rewarding his colonial supporters, opening the palace treasury to fund a great 'Royal Factory' (3) in his home province.

This was to be Khun Worawongsa's only royal decree. Such blatant favouritism towards the overseas provinces roused the Uplanders to action, and within days dissident officers of the home army staged a coup. The Royal Guard had been bribed, and the 'Javanese King' was hacked to pieces in his own private garden. The leader of the coup, an ambitious if unsuccessful former general, took the throne as King Maha Chakkrap'at (4).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Notes
(1) Gift to the State, 200 ducats, May 1547.
(2) Adm Average, Mil Average, Dip Poor. You know you've been on a bad run when someone like this looks good.
(3) I finally had enough cash saved up to build a Refinery in Jakarta.
(4) Adm Poor, Mil Very Poor, Dip Poor. Grrrr...

jwolf - <shakes head> I'm afraid i can't quite compete with the Navaho for long-term planning.
Allying with Delhi (I actually had positive relations with them at this point) was a good idea I didn't think of in time. They'd have probably DOWed Gujarat and let me see Kutch, which would have been a big help. What I really needed was for more foreigners to come and trade in Malacca, but the Europeans hadn't yet shown up.
Bad events are part of the game - the only things that make me really curse and scream are bugs or truly outrageous displays of Artificial Cheating (super-uber-rebels, for example).
 
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Wow you get a semi-decent leader and he gets offed and you get an incompetant in his place. With the growing power of the dragon throne, things don't look too good.
 
I've been playing Ayutthaya recently, and I must say that the isolation penalty can be a b$%&# sometimes. In fact, I had to release Pegu as a vassal in the 1490's just for tech costs (damn Arakan annexing poor Assam!). I handled it by trading maps with the Chagatai after they'd had dealings with Russia and the Ottomans. I'm now hovering around 25 nations known (and should be increasing as the Europeans are now settling India). Unfortunately, I've yet to get a random explorer, so I've got to live with what my few conquistadors have found me (Timor, Tindore, Buru, & S. India). You should be much better off after countries start defecting from China in the 1620's (I've already seen the reemergence of Manchuria, Taungu, Myanmar, and Nippon, with Korea fast approaching.)
 
"Adm Average, Mil Average, Dip Poor. You know you've been on a bad run when someone like this looks good."

Such is life in EU with most of the 3rd world countries! I feel your pain! I remember one rotten king I had in Dai Viet who was fortunate enough to have his ratings improved temporarily in a random event. That brought the admin rating up to yellow. Meanwhile Cambodia and Laos had super good monarchs for about 30 years.

PS -- Your latest king looks like a real winner.;) Time for an assassination?:D
 
Chapter 10 - Maha Chakkrap'at (1549-fl1552)

The Wild Elephant

Little good is written about the character or abilities of Maha Chakkrap'at. One commentator describes him as 'deficient in every virtue admirable in a ruler', another as combining the courtly skills of a peasant soldier with the military virtues of a Court eunuch. As an administrator, his tendency to focus obsessively his latest grandiose scheme was generally welcomed, but only because it kept him away from the day-to-day running of the Kingdom. Nevertheless, despite his vanity and ambition, the impracticality of his overarching designs and the frequent drunken rages that earned him his nickname of 'the Wild Elephant' (or, out of his hearing, the Drunken Elephant), the early part of his reign was marked by some surprising successes in the economic, colonial and diplomatic fields.

Feeding the Dragon

The first important events in Maha Chakkrap'at's reign occured not in Ayutthaya at all but in China. In the spring of 1549, the Dragon Emperor once again declared war on the Manchu. This time the Empire's victory was complete, and the last remnants of Manchurian independance dissappeared barely two months later.
Emboldened by victory, the Chinese immediately declared war on their other northern neighbour, the Chagatai Khanate. This action, however, was not popular with their Muslim maritime allies, who saw no profit in a war waged thousands of miles inland. While the Sultan of Brunei continued to toady to the Dragon Throne, the rulers of Atjeh and Makassar quietly loosed their ties to China and eventually formed their own alliance; an act that was to have fateful consequences later.
One ruler who did approve of the Emperor's actions was Maha Chakkrap'at. Early in 1550, hearing news of Chinese victories on the steppes of Xinjian, he impulsively declared the Emperor the greatest of all rulers and announced his intention to seek a Chinese wife. To the general surprise of the Court, the Emperor agreed, and the marriage was duly solemnised.
The Chagatai War lasted until the end of 1551, when the Khan finally surrendered the provinces of Qaidam Pendi and Xinjian. Maha Chakkrap'at ordered his court dramatist to create a spectacle on the theme of 'the Dragon subduing the barbarians'. This was eventually performed before the Chinese ambassador in the summer of 1552 and met with his approval. Relations with the Empire, though still far from friendly, were now better than they had been for years (1). By 1552, however, relations with China were no longer Ayutthaya's highest diplomatic priority.

Expansion Continued

Maha Chakkrap'at made no coherent effort to reduce or even influence the colonial program. Khun Worowongsa's 'Royal Factory of Jakarta' was completed without interference, and shortly afterwards the first permanent settlement was made in Luzon in the Philippines. This was to prove perhaps the most successful of all Ayutthaya's colonial endeavours, friendly natives helping to swell the settlement to a city of more than 6,000 inhabitants by mid-1552. Elsewhere in the archipelago, Ayutthayans did not prove so welcome - the trade post in Mindoro being repeatedly destroyed by barbarian raids.

War and Reform

Maha Chakkrap'at's chief interest was Ayutthaya's army. Trade, to him, was a matter for the lower orders and he was happy to place it in the hands of the Guild, even at the consequent cost to the royal treasury (2). Instead he concentrated obsessively on training, exercising, re-organising and re-training his troops according to his own eccentric ideas.
Late in 1551, he got the chance to try out his theories in practice, when the ruler of Champa broke vassalage to the Elephant Throne. Summoning his allies, the Wild Elephant went to war.
The war did not begin well. A small Champan force, outnumbered more than ten to one, routed the Cambodians' initial invasion of Champa. Declaring that 'the ways of our grandfathers will no longer serve us', Maha Chakkrap'at immediately ordered a massive reform of the Ayutthayan army, completely reorganising the command structure, introducing new weapons and tactics and thousands of new troops, including a professional brigade of elephant cavalry. This reform not only threw the war effort into chaos, it also managed to be equally unpopular with the Uplander aristocracy, who resented losing their control of the army hierarchy and the Coaster merchants, who railed against the expense. The treasury sufferred, but the King would not be denied and the soldiers of Ayutthaya went forward in new order (3).
It might have been a disaster, but the Champans were too weak to take advantage. Massively outnumbered, they were defeated in the field early in 1552 and their capital fell before the end of the year. The upstart ruler of Champa was again forced to bow the knee and a heavy indemnity was extracted.

Nasser's Voyages

In the summer of 1549, yet another brave sea-captain came forward to offer his services to the Elephant Throne (4). This man, Nasser by name, came from the lands of India to the west, and his plan was not to follow his predecessors into the empty seas of the east but instead to sail west to the rich lands of his birth.
In the spring of 1550, he reached the unsettled coast of Palakimedi, the next year he sailed as far as the Comorin Cape. The south Indian coast was controlled only by local tribes and city-states, fierce but unorganised (5), much like the former Indonesia and the southern Philippines. So Nasser pressed on, to Ceylon in late 1551, Malabar in 1552, Kerala and the Lacquedives the next year. In 1554, he discovered Trivandrum and Madurai and sailed as far as the coast of distant Gujarat, only to perish in a storm in Akyab Bay on his return (6).
In all his voyages, across thousands of miles of open ocean and along league after league of untamed coast, he made contact with only one state worthy of the name, but it was a contact that was to change Ayutthaya for ever. In November of 1551, he sailed into the bay of Jaffna to find a strange-looking settlement, and a flag flying that none of his sailors or guides had ever even heard of. Strangely-dressed men of wierdly alien appearence came out to greet the ships. Through a chain of interpreters, they explained they came from neither India, nor Arabia nor even fabled Africa, but from an unknown land far away, called Anglia (7).

The English

These 'English' were a mystery to the scholars of Ayutthaya, as they were to the wise men of India and even China. Their strange appearance and outlandish dress were like nothing ever recorded in any civilised or uncivilised land. They had red skin, pale round eyes and hair that curled like the natives of Australia. Did they come from the far south? No, they said, their homeland lay far to the west, as far beyond Africa as Africa was beyond India. 'Looking at them, I could believe it,' Nasser's secretary wrote.
Their nation, they claimed, was just one of many in the distant continent of 'Europe'. Their king, they said, was allied to many other rulers - of unknown lands named Spain, France, Portugal, Navarra and Bohemia (8). And, impossibly, their king was at war with a people called the 'Creek' who lived in a still more distant land beyond yet another ocean. How big was the world? No-one, any more, dared guess.

Everything about them was strange. They were neither Muslims nor Hindus but followed the teachings of a savahta named 'Jesus', who they said had become a god. Was this another incarnation of the Buddha? A foreign preacher named 'Xavier' had passed through Ayutthaya in Khun Worawongsa's reign, en route to China and Nippon. He had taught the ways of his homeland, the worship of one 'Hayzos'. Was this the god of the English? Apparently not, for Xavier and his followers angrily denounced them as heretics (9). The matter remained unclear.

Whatever their origin, one thing became clear quickly. These were no mere barbarians, but men of learning and skill. Their tools and weapons matched even those of China, and their strangely-rigged ships were wondrously seaworthy and armed with many guns (10). And they had an almost physical hunger for Chinese porcelain and Ayutthayan tea and coffee and especially the spices of Indonesia. Jaffna quickly became the centre of a thriving new trade (11).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Notes
(1) Diplomatic Move with China. Relations had now risen from -200 to the dizzy heights of -89.
(2) Export Licenses, September 1551.
(3) Maha Chakkrap'at's Army Reforms. I had a choice of accepting +1 Land, +1 Offensive & 5000 cavalry at the price of -2 Stability and 100 ducats (which required a loan), or declining and taking +1 Stability, -1 Innovative and -500 Land Tech investment. Great choice, huh?
Eventually I decided I couldn't turn down the elephant cavalry :)
(4) Random Explorer No. 4. This time I did decide that looking for other countries (curse the isolation penalty) was more important than looking for colony sites.
(5) Of course, no-one had been colonising in southern India, and Nasser resolutely refused to find Madras, Mangalore or Yannam.
(6) Unfortunately, western India is just a little too far to sail safely at Naval Tech 2, especially with that open-sea voyage on the last leg of the journey home.
(7) This one lonely, ungarrisoned colony was the only European presence east of Africa - and yet they'd somehow managed to kill off the 5000+ natives, so it wasn't going to go away. There's probably a story behind this, but I never learned it.
(8) How's that for an alliance? I'm glad I'm on the other side of the world.
(9) The English were currently Protestant, not that anyone in Ayutthaya could tell the difference.
(10) Land 12/Naval 12 - no-one I'd met previously was past Naval 3.
(11) This is one of those EU sillies that you have to fudge in an AAR. When I made contact with England, I got to see Anglia, with its CoT. So my merchants went merrily off to trade in London despite (a) my not knowing a route to Persia, much less England and (b) my ships not having the range to sail west of Ceylon even if they had known where to go.

Machiavellian - The Chinese weren't getting any less worrying - by my count they were down to four neighbours (Me, Cambodia, Tibet & Chagatai), and they seemed to have a deep-seated need to declare war on someone every few years. At least their land tech wasn't going up quite so fast any more.

CesareB - Good to hear from you! I agree about the isolation penalty (I really should have released some vassals - say Assam, Myanmar & Taungu - but Chakkrap'at is an idiot and I'm too greedy). My current problems with diplomacy are (a) Chakkrap'at is an idiot, (b) almost everyone hates me (apart from my allies, Delhi & China are the only countries with whom I have better than -100 relations) & (c) I have no cash spare for bribes.
No random explorers as Ayutthaya sucks. That's one thing I've really been lucky in - and it's paid off. What's your Land/Naval DP setting?
Urm, what countries defecting from China? Burma and Laos are mine, so apart from Dai Viet, all I can look forward to is Korea and Manchu, which I can't see. (And Manchu, when it is reborn, will be reborn with China's tech, which is not a good omen).

jwolf - I think I've heard of that Vietnamese king - isn't he meant to have the worst stats in the game? I'm not quite on that level, but the eight kings since Boromo Trailokanat have had one above-average stat between them, and its possessor only lived a year! Believe me, I was praying for an 'Assassinate Monarch' option.
 
As much as I like the Free Company and the Bohemia RP, I can tell you I was very glad that you updated Merrick and gave me a traditional AAR to read.

This was an excellent update and I am glad to see that the bumbling wild elephant didn't bring the throne disaster.
 
England, Spain, France, Portugal, Navarra and Bohemia! Well, maybe that can contain the Austrians, but I'd still bet on the Great White Shark.

Sounds like you did the right thing with the military reforms. Your economy should be robust enough to pay back the loan without too much trouble.

Meanwhile - bribe China until the revolts hit them! :D And colonize, colonize, colonize... unless you're running out of real estate to plant colonies on. By all means, keep your army size up to the maximum support limit; that should help deter China from picking on you.

Nice update - I like the little bios of rulers.
 
Wonderful, you discovered England! Now it's time for The King and I -- you should get an event with the arrival of an English schoolteacher who will boost your innovation and lower serfdom.:):D

Too bad your latest explorer only lasted for one brief voyage. I guess you couldn't get military access from anyone?

The colonies in India are very rich. In my games I have found that the local nations don't seem to mind foreign incursion if all you do is grab a few colonies. Palakimedi in particular would be well worth settling.

As for the rotten kings, it seems the game is designed so that part of the challenge of a third world nation is to raise it to glory in spite of the crummy rulers. Some countries get a few bright spots but they are few and far between.

Once again, I salute you for excellent writing and a great AAR! Keep it up!
 
one thing i'm not to sure about (since i don't play many countries outside of europe): now that you know england, do you know of everyone england knows? if so it sounds like your isolation worries are over.

but, as i said, i have no idea if that's how it works. as always, great job and good luck in the future. i hope to one day see you finally give china what it deserves and establish the elephant throne as the central power of asia. :D
 
Hah! Radagast the bird tamer! Radagast the Simple! Radagast the fool!

I Qoute from LOTR

sorry radagast, but i just had to qoute that, your name bieng radagast and all
 
Chapter 10b - Maha Chakkrap'at (fl1553-fl1564)

Distant Thunder

The mysterious 'Anglia' (or 'England' as its natives referred to it in their own bizarre language) appeared to be an interesting place to live. Late in 1553, Ayutthayans in Jaffna reported that the 'King' of England had made peace with the Creek and instead declared war on their neighbours, the equally mysterious 'Cherokee'. Shortly thereafter news came that the King himself was dead, and his family, nobles and Court were engaged in a succession dispute. This was simple enough, but it also appeared that this dispute had somehow caused England to revolt against Northumberland. On hearing this, Maha Chakkrap'at ordered the banishment of several diplomats, scholars and interpreters who had informed him that Northumberland was a province of England instead of, as it now appeared, vice versa.

Shortly thereafter, it was reported that England was being governed by a eunuch called 'Mary', under the overlordship of the King of Spain (1). Nothing more was heard of the nation of Northumberland, so the rebellion was presumed successful. The chief domestic policy of the new ruler(s) of England (curiously, English residents in Jaffna reacted with anger to suggestions that they should now be called Spainish) was to change the State religion to a new version which was completely different from - and in fact opposed to - the old practice despite being (as far as Ayutthayan scholars could determine) exactly the same. The scholars decided unanimously that these developments were too distant and unimportant to be reported to the King.

Domestic Interlude

The King had other things on his mind at the time. In the spring of 1554, he eagerly offered men and money to an exiled cousin of the Sultan of Brunei, who promised to return the gift tenfold when he had attained his throne (2). Even before the prince's disappearance that summer, the King had lost interest, devoting himself to the internal administration of Ayutthaya, which he described as 'archaic'. Declaring 'let a dozen schools of thought contend' (3) the King solicited advice from officials, nobles and merchants alike and promised the major reforms would be instituted 'before New Year'.
New year, however, brought news of Gresham's currency reforms in England. Declaring that 'even the barbarians recognise the wisdom of my project', Maha Chakkrap'at send a special ambassador to England to bring him a full report. The report never arrived, the King never noticed.

The Thunder Draws Nearer

There was trouble in lands much closer than England. In the spring of 1553, the Sultan of Brunei, having twice captured the province of Surabaja only to be driven out by local peasant uprisings, had finally contented himself with extracting an indemnity from the Raja of Mataram. Peace however, did not return the province to tranquillity. The rebellious peasants remained in arms, and the Raja's enfeebled forces appeared helpless to suppress them. Late in 1554, an army of them crossed into Ayutthayan territory in Bandung province and laid siege to the capital.

Maha Chakkrap'at's response was immediate - a powerful expeditionary force was dispatched to Bandung immediately. The King may have been inspired in this by his Imperial role-model who, faced with a swarm of pirates besieging Nanjing, had also chosen to respond with strength. Sadly, the King's efforts met with less success than the Emperor's. In March 1555, his 'New Model Army' was badly beaten by the insurgents in Bandung and force to withdraw to Jakarta. Shortly afterwards the Muslims of Malacca, roused by reports that the Javan uprisings would result in Hindus being granted rights equal to Muslims, rose in revolt (4). The army had to be hastily returned home to deal with them. Only in the last month of the year was the New Model Army free to return to Java. Again it was defeated.

Foreign Adventures

Nasser's reports of rich, unorganised territories along the Indian coast had not gone unnoticed by the merchant Guilds. Trading missions were dispatched west in 1555, and the beginning of 1556 saw the first Ayutthayan trading posts established in India, in Palakimedi and Trivandrum.
Alas, the merchants had not taken into account the likely response from the Hindu states. Within weeks of the traders' arrival, the Mararaja of Orissa declared war against 'Ayutthayan encroachment' and despite the Guilds' attempts to finance an expeditionary force (5), the fledgling settlements were quickly destroyed by the forces of Orissa's ally, the nation of Vijaynagar (6).

The New Model Army was otherwise occupied, being defeated again in Bandung in March. Only in August were the last insurgents destroyed or driven back into Surabaja, and by then the ashes of the Indian trade posts had already cooled. The Army sailed wast instead, to pacify the turbulent natives of Mindoro.

The Mindoro campaign opened in traditional fashion, with a heavy defeat for the New Model Army at the hands of the uncivilised tribesmen. According to official records, a full five thousand Ayutthayans perished in the jungles of Mindoro. However these same archives record a major population boom in Luzon province the same year (7), so it is possible the reduction of the army was due as much to desertion as defeat.
Somewhat unexpectedly, the rump of the army managed to pacify the province at the second attempt in the summer of of 1557, and despite many difficulties, a secure permanent settlement was established late in the next year, at the same time as a formal peace was made with Orissa..

Trade Booms

The ability of Ayutthaya to support ever-wider colonial expansion and military deployments was underwritten by a general improvement in trade in the 1550s. Ayutthayan merchants had steadily re-established their dominance of the markets of Shanghai and Kansai, and contact with the English not only opened new markets but also encouraged new developments in finance and trade practices (8). Maha Chakkrap'at, obsessed with his army, barely noticed, but the advance of the Merchant Guilds proved crucial to the events that followed.

In mid-1557, the Emperor of China, in move worthy of Maha Chakkrap'at himself, abruptly chose to grant trading rights - indeed an entire trading city, to the Europeans. Given the paucity of Europeans in the area, and their apparent lack of interest in sailing beyond India, it can only be concluded that this was an attempt to open China to the world (9), and to cut Ayutthaya out of its effective monopoly of the English trade. Such an interpretation is reinforced by the Emperor's decision to grant this concession not to the English but to a totally different European nation, Portugal. Portugal, the homeland of the the preacher Xavier, was said to be a great trading nation, but neither her ships nor her traders had been seen in Shanghai or Malacca.

Whatever the Emperor's intention, it was Ayutthaya that profited most. The Kingdom's merchants flooded the new trading centres, installing themselves as middlemen between the Chinese and the Europeans (10). It is a measure of Ayutthaya's newfound wealth and prestige that in 1558, the inhabitants of Surabaja chose to subordinate themselve to the Elephant Throne rather than return to the misgovernment of the Raja of Mataram. Late in the year, the recognition of the island of Ceram as a province in its own right rounded off what was known simply as the Great Year (11).

The Surabaja Affair

The transition of Surabaja to Ayutthayan rule did not go unnoticed in China. The Emperor claimed overlordship over the whole of Mataram, and insisted by letter that the people of Surabaja had no right to leave his vassalage. Maha Chakkrap'at, pleased with the expansion of his realm - which he had celebrated by extending tolerance to Hindus, as the Malaccans had feared - responded sharply, and denied any Chinese claim on Java. It is said that the decline in relations between the Elephant King and the Dragon Emperor dates from this event (12).

A Time of Waiting

The next few years followed a pattern - stability at home, economic expansion, turbulence beyond the borders. Makassar and Atjeh had declared war on Mataram during the Surabaja affair in 1558 and steadily pressed their advantage, invading Bali itself in 1560.
Meanwhile Ayutthaya's domestic economy continued to prosper (13), with the general approval of Maha Chakkrap'at, though the King showed more interest in the establishment of a permanent military infrastructure in Java (14). Ignoring widespread local opposition to his edicts (15), he re-equipped the army in 1561 (16), and reformed the navy two years later (17). So immersed in technicalities did he become that he was widely hailed abroad (18) as the 'Peaceful King', an epithet of which he remained unaware.

Peace was something sadly absent among Ayutthaya's neighbours and trading partners. The Sultan of Brunei, with Chinese support, declared war on Champa late in 1561, a few months before Atjeh announced the annexation of Mataram (19). Meanwhile, in Europe, England declared war on the Shawnee in 1559 and Portugal on Zimbabwe in 1561. Both wars ended early in 1563, at which point the English, now ruled by a new eunuch (or woman?) named Elizabeth (and not subject to the King of Spain), announced that they were changing their religion again, to a new and equally incomprehensible version of their previous belief (or perhaps the same one) (20). Not to be outdone, the Portuguese announced their allegiance to the King of Spain, in his wars with Siena, Bavaria, Cologne and a mysterious tribe called the 'Palatinate'. More pragmatically, the Chinese Empire, under the direction of Qi Jiguang, insituted major army reforms in the summer of 1563, perhaps in imitation of Maha Chakkrap'at.

Despite all this, Ayutthaya's trade continued to blossom. Peace brought the traders back to Palakimedi by 1562, and new posts were set up in Pondicherry, and in Madurai the next year, while commerce with the English (of whatever religion) grew apace.

The Storm Breaks

Perhaps it was this impression of Ayutthaya's strength that lead Maha Chakkrap'at to follow the course he did. He had been greatly offended by the Emperor's support of Brunei's attack on his vassal, Champa, back in 1561, though his advisors had, with difficulty, persuaded him to stay his hand. Now he saw a way to repay the insult.

Mataram, annexed by Atjeh two years earlier, had technically been an Imperial vassal, though the Emperor had shown no interest in its demise. Maha Chakkrap'at saw occupied Bali as an opportunity to assert his authority over part of the Emperor's sphere of influence, just as the Emperor had impinged on his in Champa. On New Year's Day 1564, Maha Chakkrap'at summoned his generals. Styling himself protector of the Indonensian Hindus, he issued a declaration of war on Atjeh and its ally, Makassar (21).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Notes
(1) Unfortunately for the scholars, Ayutthaya has contacted England at one of its most 'interesting' historical periods. Mary is now Queen and the state religion is now Catholic.
(2) Supported Dissidents in Brunei, May 1554.
(3) +1 Innovativeness (now Innovative 3).
(4) Heretics event, Malacca, March 1555
(5) Gift to State, 200 ducats, April 1556
(6) The Orissan DOW gave me contact with Vijaynagar, so the TPs weren't a total loss.
(7) New Land Cleared in Luzon, April 1557 (+2,000 population, +1 Tax, +1 Manpower).
(8) After a mere 79 years of research, I reached Trade 3! :) All research now went to Land Tech - I was getting tired of losing to natives & rebels.
(9) Ok, the event is called ' The Closing of China'. Given the lack of European competition, however...
(10) No-one seem very interested in the new Guangzhou CoT, so I quickly secured a monopoly. Plus, of course, the event gave me contact with Portugal and knowledge of Tago :D
(11) Exceptional Year in 1558
(12) What actually happened was that I had to raise Hindu tolerence for Surabaja (I'd have given it back to Mataram if I could, but that wasn't an option). This meant I had to reduce Konfucian tolerance to zero. Relations with China quickly followed it down.
(13) Internal Trade Ordinance in kwai, May 1559 (+1 Tax).
(14) Establish Cantonments in Jakarta, Jan 1560 (+1 Manpower).
(15) Non-Enforcement of Ordinances, May 1561. -1 Centralisation, now Centralisation 2.
(16) Reached Land Tech 3, October 1561.
(17) Reform of the Navy, January 1563 (+250 Naval Investment).
(18) Great Reputation, April 1562
(19) Gnash! Leave the one-province minors alone, can't you!
(20) England was Protestant again.
(21) I knew this was a bad idea, particularly as Atjeh and Makassar both had 30,000-strong armies sitting in their capitals. I delayed as long as I could, hoping Bali would revolt. In the end, however, I just couldn't pass up the chance to squelch two of my biggest trading rivals without China getting involved.

Machiavellian - Thank-you :) All compliments gratefully received. As for the Wild Elephant - he's done OK so far, but give him time...

Director - The loan wasn't a major problem - it was the stability hit and the slider shift to Land I could really do without.
As for bribing China - have you seen what it costs? The colonial effort still has some way to go, though.

jwolf - The King and I? Nice idea, but a bit out of the time period - maybe it'll be in Victoria?
The explorer managed three or four voyages to India, actually (he lasted five years out of twelve). Apart from England (didn't think of asking), the only ports I knew of in India belonged to Orissa (-190 relations). As for colonising India, all the coastal provinces have the natives (big, scary) intact, and a troop convoy there would take serious attrition. I did try TPs, though.

Radagast - Sadly, I don't know everyone England knows - or rather I know of them (I can read England's diplomacy screen) but I don't have diplomatic contact. As far as diplomatic contact goes, I know China, Nippon, Cambodia, Champa, Brunei, Makassar, Atjeh, Pegu, Arakan, Tibet, Chagatai, Orissa, Vijaynagar, Bengal, Delhi, England & Portugal = 17 total.
 
Ah, excellent post...very good again.

As for England...when Mary dies, you can throw her sister in the Thames, and then they'll look around and decide to make you the King. :D But seriously...I've heard of Maya becoming Holy Roman Emperor, so you better discover as many German statelets as you can, fast :p
 
It's always a pleasure to read one of your updates of the Elephant Kingdom.

Don't be too discouraged by the natives along the Indian coast. If you are patient, occasionally an Indian army walks through and defeats them, or a European nation does the job. Watch carefully and you can snatch the prize, although I admit this would be more appropriate to a Vulture than an Elelphant.

Congratulations on the faster pace of your research!;)

I hope you can handle Atjeh and Makassar...
 
radagast the fool... hmph..:mad:

i prefer to think of him as radagast the near-immortal wizard/hippie :p

anyway, back to topic, i don't know what to say other than great job, keep posting, keep me entertained! :D
 
Chapter 10c - Maha Chakkrap'at (fl1564-fl1566)

The Six Years' War

Opening Moves

Maha Chakkrap'at denounced his opponents as 'mice against the Elephant' and 'little dogs who will learn to beg'. For once, there was substance to his bombast. The combined strength of Atjeh and Makassar did not approach the money or manpower available to the Elephant Throne. Despite their lack of resources however, both nations fielded substantial armies (1) and the Sultan of Atjeh, a consummate pirate like all his forebears, also boasted a significant fleet. Furthermore, the outlying Ayutthayan settlements close to their strongholds were small and poorly defended (2).

They're only two provinces, how hard can it be?
Atjan_War_1_1564.JPG


In the early months of the war, the Makassans in particular took full advantage. While an Ayutthayan expeditionary force of twelve thousand picked cavalry sailed east from Johor, the Makassan army successively overran Sulawesi and Salabanka before turning north into the wilds of Manado. There their progress was checked, not by Ayutthayan arms but by the fierce and turbulent natives of the region. The tribesmen drove the Makassans back to Sulawesi, but there was little Ayutthayan satisfaction in this, for the trading post in Manado was destroyed in the fighting. Makassan ambitions did not stop there. In July 1564, as the Ayutthayan expeditionary force was reprovisioning in Flores (3), news came that a small Makassan force had landed in Borneo and burned the trading post in Kalimantan.

Back in the eastern theatre, things were also not going to plan. The occupation of the Jambi colony by Atjan forces early in the year had been anticipated. The landing of a substantial Atjan force on the Ayutthayan mainland in Perak province most definitely had not. The invaders marched south toward Malacca, where the main Ayutthayan army was waiting. To the delight of the King, the Ayutthayan war elephants trampled the Atjan infantry into the dust, none escaping back to their ships; but the enterprise and aggression shown by the Muslims was disturbing.

The Makassan Campaign

By the second half of 1564, the expeditionary army was finally ready to move. In September, they reached Kalimantan and destroyed the Makassans there, and the following month they landed in Makassar itself, defeated the small field force there and laid siege to the citadel. Meanwhile, colonists from Bangkok restored the Ayutthayan presence in Kalimantan with the establishment of a permanent settlement. Attempts were also made to return to Manado, but the savage inhabitants of the region fiercely resisted all outside incursion.

The siege of Makassar, hampered by the inability of the Ayutthan Navy to maintain a consistant blockade of the port, lasted more than a year. The Expeditionary Army, however, was always in control, easily beating off attempts to break the siege by small groups of ill-organised Makassan recruits. A satisfactory explanation has never been found for why the main Makassan army remained inactive in Sulawesi (4).

Makassar finally fell in December 1565. By then, however, it was a very different war.

War by Land and Sea

The first unexpected development was a local uprising in Bali in the autumn of 1564, which quickly seized the province and drove out the Atjan garrison. Taking refuge in their ships, the Atjans fled out into the Straights of Lombok, where they encountered the Ayutthan fleet returning from Makassar to Flores. Fighting with the fury of desperation, the Muslims were victorious in the battle that followed (5), and escaped towards the east.

Shortly afterwards, all Ayutthaya was rocked by news of another, larger, Atjan landing in Perak province. As much of the Court fled into the hinterland, the Atjan invaders, 13,000 strong, again turned south towards Malacca. The battle that followed was later hailed as 'a triumph worth of Tifni himself'. The Atjans were destroyed to a man, but lack of ships to transport an army to Sumatra prevented the Ayutthayans from following up their victory (6).

In the eastern theatre, 1565 was a year of raid and skirmish. At sea, the Ayutthayan patrols slowly acquired an ascendancy over the Atjans, but could not prevent a small Atjan army from conducting yet another raid against the mainland, this time in Phuket province. Again the raiders were destroyed, but a final victory seemed as far off as ever - and beyond the immediate conflict, even darker clouds were gathering.

Enemies Gather

The first blow to Ayutthaya's diplomatic position was self-inflicted. At the New Year's celebration in 1565, Maha Chakkrap'at refused to acknowledge the Cambodian ambassador, claiming angrily that the Cambodians had sent no troops to aid in repelling the Atjan invasions. As diplomatically as possible, the Cambodians replied that their aid had not been requested. Diplomats on both sides did their best to patch up the alliances, but relations had suffered greatly (7).

Shortly thereafter, word came from India that the great City of Victory, bastion of the Hindus, had fallen to its enemies and its rulers had been forced to cut their losses and retreat south. Given Vijaynagar's alliance with Orissa, this news was welcomed in the Court of Ayutthaya, and many toasts were drunk to the City's mysterious conquerors (8).

A few months later, much more worrying news came from the Celebes. It appeared that Portuguese traders were attempting to use the distraction of the Makassan war to insinuate themselves into the disputed territory of Manado. Merchants and diplomats returning from Europe nervously reported that the Portuguese had declared four new wars in little over a year - Munster and Courland (Jan 1564), Flanders (Jun 1564), Mecklenburg (Jan 1565) & the Netherlands (Apr 1565) - and both King and Court were understandably worried at the prospect of having them as neighbours. Fortunately, the natives of Manado maintained their opposition to outside influence and continued to massacre Thais and Europeans alike with equal enthusiasm (9).

The situation in Manado was only one of ways in which the war hampered Ayutthaya's prosperity. As it ground towards its third year, with no end in sight and Atjan pirates still vigorously contesting the sea-lanes around Ayutthaya, trade declined even as costs increased and extra taxes had to be levied on the general population (10). The great Merchant Guilds, initially strong supporters of the reduction of their rivals, were now equally vocal in their opposition (11). Maha Chakkrap'at, of course, ignored them, and the war went on.

The Hammer Falls

In December 1565, the fortress of Makassar finally fell. The King immediately announced its annexation, and surviving Makassar ships and soldiers were hastily impressed into Ayutthayan service (12). Had Maha Chakkrap'at realised the effect this announcement would have on international opinion, his celebrations might have been somewhat more restrained.

Shortly after the fall of Makassar, the Atjans showed that they were not out of the war by landing yet another army in Ayutthaya. Perhaps it was this that encouraged the Maharaja of Orissa and his allies in Vijaynagar to declare war on Ayutthaya a few days later. Maha Chakkrap'at responded to this declaration as he had to the previous one - by ignoring it.

Early 1566 brought news of further Atjan defeats on both land and sea, and the Court began to tentatively entertain the hope that the war could be quickly brought to a victorious end. The missive that arrived in mid-February swiftly put an end to those dreams.

It was a declaration of war from China.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Notes
(1) About 30,000 men each (typical AI).
(2) This was deliberate - I wanted those armies to run around the colonies taking attrition losses, rather than just fort up in the capitals.
(3) Maha Chakkrap'at did not plan well for this war - I was dithering so much over whether to use the CB that I didn't get around to putting my troops in position.
(4) Classic AI stupidity. Despite attrition, the Makassan army still had about 15,000 men - who just sat there and watched me siege the capital.
(5) Low-tech naval combat is one of the game's big sillies - I had 5 warships and 4 transports against 1 warship and 5 transports, with equal morale, and lost after a combat lasting more than a month. Later, I would repeatedly defeat multi-ship Atjan fleets with single galleys. Of course, no ships were ever sunk or captured in these exchanges - presumably they just shook their fists at each other until someone got tired.
(6) The fleet was recovering morale - very slowly - in Flores.
(7) Scandal at Court, -100 relations with Cambodia.
(8) Vijaynagar wasn't at war with anyone or anything. I wish some of the historical events had slightly more stringent triggers.
(9) Portugal & I were alternating sending traders to fail in Manado. The natives ate about six in 1564-66.
(10) I was wartaxing like mad to replace attrition losses and build up the fleet.
(11) Unhappiness among the Merchants, Nov 1565, -200 Trade Investment.
(12) I acquired 13,000 soldiers (which I couldn't afford to maintain), 1 warship and 4 transports (always welcome, as I don't have the technology to build them myself).

Thank-you for the support, everyone :)
jwolf - Unfortunately, in the current political situation, settlements in India run into this slight problem... Having Orissa (say) occupy one of my colonies and then refuse to make peace is not something I really want to face.
 
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