You're certainly long overdue for a good king. Let's hope the natives don't kill him in the first battle! Congratulations on a good game and a great story.
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Chapter 12a - Naresuen (1590-fl1595)
A New Era?
Many predicted that the coronation of the King of the Morning would lead to a new era of peace and prosperity for Ayutthaya. Naresuen's early years did much to support this belief. Once in possession of the throne, his first act was to order the army, which had grown lax under Maha Thammaraja, brought under proper command and fully re-equipped (1). Once the mainland was secure, he turned his attention to the overseas provinces, where the ever-turbulent natives of Makassar thought to exploit the Kingdom's domestic turmoil with an opportunistic revolt. Zuwara, effortlessly transferring his loyalties, had retained command of the Expeditionary Army. Despite early set-backs, he led it to victory the following spring.
The Expedition of Timaru
Zuwara's success, and the peace now reigning in Indonesia, inspired Naresuen to plan the most ambitious expedition yet, not in numbers but in the the sheer breadth of its vision. In the summer of 1591, Zuwara and the Expeditionary Army embarked for the south, their destination the chilly, savage land of Timaru to the east of Australia. Never had an Ayutthayan army been sent so far from home.The journey south was long and dangerous, particularly the 'middle leg' between Ceram and Toowoomba. One of the ships was wrecked, and sickness broke out among the transported soldiers. Zuwara himself was on of those who succumbed, breathing his last in November 1591 and being buried at sea.
Despite the loss of their leader, the Expedition pressed on. Reinforced in Australia by locally-raised trooops, they landed in Timaru, twelve thousand strong, in May of 1592. The tattooed savages who faced them were no match for Ayutthayan steel, and the island was quickly pacified. Rather than return to Australia, the army bivouaced in the province, intending to embark for the unclaimed northern island as soon as a permanent base could be established.
Meanwhile, Wessera was continuing his exploration of the seas north of Australia and east of Indonesia. Under Naresuen's direction, he made several more bold voyages, including the first circumnavigation of New Guinea, but luck was not with him. No rich provinces rewarded his valour, only rock and reef and fever-ridden jungle. He died in the summer of 1594, still dreaming of the gold forever beyond the horizon (2). By then, of course, both his efforts and those of the Expeditionary Army had long since been overtaken by events.
Naresuen's Diplomacy
Despite his martial reputation, Naresuen sought to practice the arts of peace, seeking to reassure Ayutthaya's neighbours and trading partners of the Elephant Kingdom's peaceful intentions. His greatest stroke was his first, when in the spring of 1591, he persuaded the Portuguese to relax their unjust laws against Ayutthaya's merchants, to the benefit of both kingdoms. Closer to home, he sought to improve relations with neighbouring Buddhist states, giving his niece in marriage to the King of Tibet in 1591 and further pursuing peaceful relations with that kingdom in the years that followed. In contrast to his predecessor, Naresuen had enough serenity and self-confidence to ignore the provocations of the Pirate of Brunei (3) and to peacefully thwart an attempted land-grab by the ruler of Pegu the next year (4).
Futher abroad, the English suffered an Irish rebellion, under the exotically-named Hugh O'Neill, early in 1592; much to the bewilderment of Ayutthayan scholars, who had been told that Eire was an independent country. In May, the English ended their war with the Huron and were forced to endure a few days of peace before declaring war on the Shawnee. Thanks were given in Ayutthaya for the oceans that separated the two nations. Nevertheless, the warlike land appeared capable of some culture, reports reacing Ayutthaya of a dramatist of unequalled skill, named Shakasparra. Investigation revealed that the majority of his works were based on the myths of Europe or the histories of England's petty kings, and were thus unworthy of the attention of the Court of Ayutthaya.
On a more mundane note, Orissa and China finally came to terms early in 1593, the Maharaja paying a small indemnity to the Dragon Throne. This news was not well received in Ayutthaya, because the Emperor declared war before his armies were even returned from India.
The Sixth Chinese War
This unprovoked aggression took Naresuen by surprise (5). A few weeks earlier, he had embarked on permanent pacification of the turbulent province of Surabaja, and spending so much gold promoting 'obedience to the King and the true religion' had left the Kingdom's coffers dangerously depleted. Nevertheless, he acted swiftly. Emergency taxes were raised, and the King led his army north in person.
At first things went well. The Northern Army entered Lao Cai unopposed and laid siege to the citadel, while the Royal Army, under Naresuen's command, advanced on Sichuan Pendi. Abroad, the Sultan of Atjeh declared his allegiance to China - and sent a large army to besiege the much-battered walls of Riau - but Brunei held back, apparently deeming the Emperor's bribes insufficient. Ayutthayan diplomants made sensible overtures in favour of peace.
The Chinese were unimpressed (6). Having assembled a massive army in Hanoi, they struck south into the Mekong hills in April of 1593, driving away the scatter of green recruits who mustered to defend the province (7). Luangphrabang was besieged, and Chinese reinforcements continued to mass along the coast of IndoChina, In a further, ominous, development, there came sightings of Chinese fleets in Ayutthayan waters.
Failure and Success
The first sortie of the Chinese Navy came to an ignominious end. An Ayutthayan galley squadron, outnumbered ten to one, thwarted Chinese attempts to force the Straights of Sunda and drove them to seek refuge in Brunei (8). Despite this, the Emperor refused to think of peace. In July, he sent eight thousand men, supported by twenty mighty cannons, against the Northern Army in Lao Cai. In the battle that followed, Ayutthayan cavalry wrought fearful havoc on the Emperor's infantry, but their sacrifice saved the cannon. Its positions under heavy fire, the Northern Army was forced to lift the siege and withdraw to Yunnan (9).
This was not the only siege to fail that month. The main Chinese army, having stripped the countriside around Luangphrabang and suffering badly from disease, chose to withdraw from Mekong province without a fight. Sadly, the paths of the two retreating armies crossed in Yunnan, and the Northern Army was swiftly overwhelmed by weight of numbers. Retreat became rout, the broken army straggling back to Ayutthayan territory. News of this defeat spread swiftly through the land, causing many to publicly doubt the judgment of the King and even question his right to rule. Governors and royal officials were forced to acted against the defeatists; many rumour-mongers were summarily conscripted and dispatched to the fighting front (10).
Naresuen's confidence was rewarded in September, when the Chinese army attempted to drive him out of Sichuan Pendi. In a furious battle on the northern plains, Naresuen's royal cavalry destroyed more than twenty thousand Chinese, cannons and all. On the back of this victory, Naresuen wrote personally to the Emperor, proposing a 'peace of equals' (11). The Emperor was silent.
Failure and More Failure
The Emperor's reply became clear next month. A huge war fleet appeared in East Indonesian waters and disgorged more than twenty thousand Chinese marines onto Flores (12). The garrison there could not stand against the invaders, and the island was swiftly overrun. By good fortune, the Sultan of Atjeh, who had achieved nothing bar the inglorious deaths of several thousand of his soldiers outside Riau, had offered peace shortly before news came from Flores (13). Naresuen accepted his offer with relief.
Along the Chinese border, the war continued into 1594. The reconstitued Northern Army made a sweep through Yunnan and Tanh Noah, devastating the land and destroying several small parties of Chinese troops, while Nareuen continued the siege of Sichuan Pendi. The fortress was on the point of falling when a large Chinese army arrived to relieve it. Naresuen and his men fought valiantly and well, but Chinese firearms - and a continual flow of reinforcements - were too much for him. A reserve army sent to his aid was delayed by Chinese trickery, arriving only after the main battle was over and being defeated in its turn (14).
As spring turned to summer, things went from bad to worse. Naresuen was defeated in his attempt to return to Sichuan Pendi, while the Northern Army, forced to withdraw from Tanh Noah in the face of superior Chinese numbers, was overtaken in Laos and defeated in its turn. The Emperor still refused to consider any peace settlemen acceptable to Ayutthaya (15), instead sending more and more troops into the fray. The eastern front collapsed, and Chinese armies advanced to besiege the capitals of Laos and Mekong provinces. At home, the economy was tottering and there was a severe shortage of recruits (16). Overseas, Chinese marines landed in the Celebes and siezed the undefended territories of Sulawesi and Salabanka.
Finally, at the start of 1595, a humiliating offer of a truly massive indemnity persuaded the Emperor to stay his hand (17). The Imperial Legions withdrew, the Kingdom was left to rebuild its shattered armies and devastated borderlands.
Meanwhile, something truly unexpected was happening in Indochina...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Notes
(1) Land Tech 6 reached September 1590.
(2) Despite umpteen attempts I could not uncover the gold province.
(3) Diplomatic Insult (Brunei), July 1591. Brunei really wanted a war.
(4) Boundary Dispute with Pegu, June 1592. Resolved peacefully.
(5) Perfect timing by the AI. I was less than a year away from Land Tech 7, which would have given my forts cannon; and paying more than 400 ducats for a missionary in Surabaja (28% chance, ouch) had left me with less than 100 in the bank.
(6) Bribes up to 300 ducats were offered in the first six months of the war, with no takers
(7) In retrospect, attempting to raise troops in Mekong was not a good idea.
(8) I had one galley, he had eight warships, plus transports, at a higher starting morale. After several weeks, I won. Don't ask...
(9) I started with 11,000 men against 9,000. It was 8,000 against 2,000 when my troops broke.
(10) Uncooperative Philosopher, August 1593. Not in wartime! (Imprison, +1 Stability, -1 Innovative, now Innovative 4).
(11) This was probably my single worst decision of the game so far. I had a positive warscore, I had Sichuan Pendi under siege, there were no Chinese troops on my territory, I though China might go for white peace. Boy was I wrong...
(12) This was what I dreaded. I had no way to defend the islands if China went after them seriously.
(13) Major Chinese victory and his ally promptly offers white peace. Go figure...
(14) I was done by the <deleted> siege reinforcement bug. His reinforcements swung the battle (with the fort on -8), mine stood around the province until it was all over, and then got smashed by 20,000 victorious Chinese. That bug is my least favourite 'feature' of v1.05.
(15) China kept demanding Flores, plus a colony or two extra for its trouble. I'd have given it Laos or Makassar, but not a Thai-culture, Buddhist, 1-province island that couldn't revolt back.
(16) War Taxes plus 100% treasury gives you plenty of money, but I'd come to the end of my 20 manpower, stability was down and inflation was rising.
(17) In the end I threw my treasury at the problem. The peace cost me 775 ducats.
Machiavellian & jwolf - Thanks for the support. Unfortunately all Naresuen has done for me thus far is kid me that I could stand up to the Chinese (I don't think I'd have handled the war so badly if I hadn't beeen blinded by the prospect of actually taking a Chinese province).
A New Era?
Many predicted that the coronation of the King of the Morning would lead to a new era of peace and prosperity for Ayutthaya. Naresuen's early years did much to support this belief. Once in possession of the throne, his first act was to order the army, which had grown lax under Maha Thammaraja, brought under proper command and fully re-equipped (1). Once the mainland was secure, he turned his attention to the overseas provinces, where the ever-turbulent natives of Makassar thought to exploit the Kingdom's domestic turmoil with an opportunistic revolt. Zuwara, effortlessly transferring his loyalties, had retained command of the Expeditionary Army. Despite early set-backs, he led it to victory the following spring.
The Expedition of Timaru
Zuwara's success, and the peace now reigning in Indonesia, inspired Naresuen to plan the most ambitious expedition yet, not in numbers but in the the sheer breadth of its vision. In the summer of 1591, Zuwara and the Expeditionary Army embarked for the south, their destination the chilly, savage land of Timaru to the east of Australia. Never had an Ayutthayan army been sent so far from home.The journey south was long and dangerous, particularly the 'middle leg' between Ceram and Toowoomba. One of the ships was wrecked, and sickness broke out among the transported soldiers. Zuwara himself was on of those who succumbed, breathing his last in November 1591 and being buried at sea.
Despite the loss of their leader, the Expedition pressed on. Reinforced in Australia by locally-raised trooops, they landed in Timaru, twelve thousand strong, in May of 1592. The tattooed savages who faced them were no match for Ayutthayan steel, and the island was quickly pacified. Rather than return to Australia, the army bivouaced in the province, intending to embark for the unclaimed northern island as soon as a permanent base could be established.
Meanwhile, Wessera was continuing his exploration of the seas north of Australia and east of Indonesia. Under Naresuen's direction, he made several more bold voyages, including the first circumnavigation of New Guinea, but luck was not with him. No rich provinces rewarded his valour, only rock and reef and fever-ridden jungle. He died in the summer of 1594, still dreaming of the gold forever beyond the horizon (2). By then, of course, both his efforts and those of the Expeditionary Army had long since been overtaken by events.
Naresuen's Diplomacy
Despite his martial reputation, Naresuen sought to practice the arts of peace, seeking to reassure Ayutthaya's neighbours and trading partners of the Elephant Kingdom's peaceful intentions. His greatest stroke was his first, when in the spring of 1591, he persuaded the Portuguese to relax their unjust laws against Ayutthaya's merchants, to the benefit of both kingdoms. Closer to home, he sought to improve relations with neighbouring Buddhist states, giving his niece in marriage to the King of Tibet in 1591 and further pursuing peaceful relations with that kingdom in the years that followed. In contrast to his predecessor, Naresuen had enough serenity and self-confidence to ignore the provocations of the Pirate of Brunei (3) and to peacefully thwart an attempted land-grab by the ruler of Pegu the next year (4).
Futher abroad, the English suffered an Irish rebellion, under the exotically-named Hugh O'Neill, early in 1592; much to the bewilderment of Ayutthayan scholars, who had been told that Eire was an independent country. In May, the English ended their war with the Huron and were forced to endure a few days of peace before declaring war on the Shawnee. Thanks were given in Ayutthaya for the oceans that separated the two nations. Nevertheless, the warlike land appeared capable of some culture, reports reacing Ayutthaya of a dramatist of unequalled skill, named Shakasparra. Investigation revealed that the majority of his works were based on the myths of Europe or the histories of England's petty kings, and were thus unworthy of the attention of the Court of Ayutthaya.
On a more mundane note, Orissa and China finally came to terms early in 1593, the Maharaja paying a small indemnity to the Dragon Throne. This news was not well received in Ayutthaya, because the Emperor declared war before his armies were even returned from India.
The Sixth Chinese War
This unprovoked aggression took Naresuen by surprise (5). A few weeks earlier, he had embarked on permanent pacification of the turbulent province of Surabaja, and spending so much gold promoting 'obedience to the King and the true religion' had left the Kingdom's coffers dangerously depleted. Nevertheless, he acted swiftly. Emergency taxes were raised, and the King led his army north in person.
At first things went well. The Northern Army entered Lao Cai unopposed and laid siege to the citadel, while the Royal Army, under Naresuen's command, advanced on Sichuan Pendi. Abroad, the Sultan of Atjeh declared his allegiance to China - and sent a large army to besiege the much-battered walls of Riau - but Brunei held back, apparently deeming the Emperor's bribes insufficient. Ayutthayan diplomants made sensible overtures in favour of peace.
The Chinese were unimpressed (6). Having assembled a massive army in Hanoi, they struck south into the Mekong hills in April of 1593, driving away the scatter of green recruits who mustered to defend the province (7). Luangphrabang was besieged, and Chinese reinforcements continued to mass along the coast of IndoChina, In a further, ominous, development, there came sightings of Chinese fleets in Ayutthayan waters.
Failure and Success
The first sortie of the Chinese Navy came to an ignominious end. An Ayutthayan galley squadron, outnumbered ten to one, thwarted Chinese attempts to force the Straights of Sunda and drove them to seek refuge in Brunei (8). Despite this, the Emperor refused to think of peace. In July, he sent eight thousand men, supported by twenty mighty cannons, against the Northern Army in Lao Cai. In the battle that followed, Ayutthayan cavalry wrought fearful havoc on the Emperor's infantry, but their sacrifice saved the cannon. Its positions under heavy fire, the Northern Army was forced to lift the siege and withdraw to Yunnan (9).
This was not the only siege to fail that month. The main Chinese army, having stripped the countriside around Luangphrabang and suffering badly from disease, chose to withdraw from Mekong province without a fight. Sadly, the paths of the two retreating armies crossed in Yunnan, and the Northern Army was swiftly overwhelmed by weight of numbers. Retreat became rout, the broken army straggling back to Ayutthayan territory. News of this defeat spread swiftly through the land, causing many to publicly doubt the judgment of the King and even question his right to rule. Governors and royal officials were forced to acted against the defeatists; many rumour-mongers were summarily conscripted and dispatched to the fighting front (10).
Naresuen's confidence was rewarded in September, when the Chinese army attempted to drive him out of Sichuan Pendi. In a furious battle on the northern plains, Naresuen's royal cavalry destroyed more than twenty thousand Chinese, cannons and all. On the back of this victory, Naresuen wrote personally to the Emperor, proposing a 'peace of equals' (11). The Emperor was silent.
Failure and More Failure
The Emperor's reply became clear next month. A huge war fleet appeared in East Indonesian waters and disgorged more than twenty thousand Chinese marines onto Flores (12). The garrison there could not stand against the invaders, and the island was swiftly overrun. By good fortune, the Sultan of Atjeh, who had achieved nothing bar the inglorious deaths of several thousand of his soldiers outside Riau, had offered peace shortly before news came from Flores (13). Naresuen accepted his offer with relief.
Along the Chinese border, the war continued into 1594. The reconstitued Northern Army made a sweep through Yunnan and Tanh Noah, devastating the land and destroying several small parties of Chinese troops, while Nareuen continued the siege of Sichuan Pendi. The fortress was on the point of falling when a large Chinese army arrived to relieve it. Naresuen and his men fought valiantly and well, but Chinese firearms - and a continual flow of reinforcements - were too much for him. A reserve army sent to his aid was delayed by Chinese trickery, arriving only after the main battle was over and being defeated in its turn (14).
As spring turned to summer, things went from bad to worse. Naresuen was defeated in his attempt to return to Sichuan Pendi, while the Northern Army, forced to withdraw from Tanh Noah in the face of superior Chinese numbers, was overtaken in Laos and defeated in its turn. The Emperor still refused to consider any peace settlemen acceptable to Ayutthaya (15), instead sending more and more troops into the fray. The eastern front collapsed, and Chinese armies advanced to besiege the capitals of Laos and Mekong provinces. At home, the economy was tottering and there was a severe shortage of recruits (16). Overseas, Chinese marines landed in the Celebes and siezed the undefended territories of Sulawesi and Salabanka.
Finally, at the start of 1595, a humiliating offer of a truly massive indemnity persuaded the Emperor to stay his hand (17). The Imperial Legions withdrew, the Kingdom was left to rebuild its shattered armies and devastated borderlands.
Meanwhile, something truly unexpected was happening in Indochina...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Notes
(1) Land Tech 6 reached September 1590.
(2) Despite umpteen attempts I could not uncover the gold province.
(3) Diplomatic Insult (Brunei), July 1591. Brunei really wanted a war.
(4) Boundary Dispute with Pegu, June 1592. Resolved peacefully.
(5) Perfect timing by the AI. I was less than a year away from Land Tech 7, which would have given my forts cannon; and paying more than 400 ducats for a missionary in Surabaja (28% chance, ouch) had left me with less than 100 in the bank.
(6) Bribes up to 300 ducats were offered in the first six months of the war, with no takers
(7) In retrospect, attempting to raise troops in Mekong was not a good idea.
(8) I had one galley, he had eight warships, plus transports, at a higher starting morale. After several weeks, I won. Don't ask...
(9) I started with 11,000 men against 9,000. It was 8,000 against 2,000 when my troops broke.
(10) Uncooperative Philosopher, August 1593. Not in wartime! (Imprison, +1 Stability, -1 Innovative, now Innovative 4).
(11) This was probably my single worst decision of the game so far. I had a positive warscore, I had Sichuan Pendi under siege, there were no Chinese troops on my territory, I though China might go for white peace. Boy was I wrong...
(12) This was what I dreaded. I had no way to defend the islands if China went after them seriously.
(13) Major Chinese victory and his ally promptly offers white peace. Go figure...
(14) I was done by the <deleted> siege reinforcement bug. His reinforcements swung the battle (with the fort on -8), mine stood around the province until it was all over, and then got smashed by 20,000 victorious Chinese. That bug is my least favourite 'feature' of v1.05.
(15) China kept demanding Flores, plus a colony or two extra for its trouble. I'd have given it Laos or Makassar, but not a Thai-culture, Buddhist, 1-province island that couldn't revolt back.
(16) War Taxes plus 100% treasury gives you plenty of money, but I'd come to the end of my 20 manpower, stability was down and inflation was rising.
(17) In the end I threw my treasury at the problem. The peace cost me 775 ducats.
Machiavellian & jwolf - Thanks for the support. Unfortunately all Naresuen has done for me thus far is kid me that I could stand up to the Chinese (I don't think I'd have handled the war so badly if I hadn't beeen blinded by the prospect of actually taking a Chinese province).
The Dragon emperor seems like nothing more than a big bully, continually picking on the peace loving people of Ayutthaya and taking their 'lunch money'.
775 ducats! That's more than just lunch money! Well, money is easier to replace than provinces or colonies, at least usually it is.
We've got to know what strange thing is happening now in Indochina! Don't leave us hanging like that!
About the reinforcement bug: I, too, play version 1.05, and I have noticed many times that armies sent to reinforce an ongoing battle may or may not actually join the battle. Sometimes this has hurt me, sometimes it has helped me (i.e. when the AI gets caught that way). But I haven't noticed a systematic pattern. Is there one?
We've got to know what strange thing is happening now in Indochina! Don't leave us hanging like that!
About the reinforcement bug: I, too, play version 1.05, and I have noticed many times that armies sent to reinforce an ongoing battle may or may not actually join the battle. Sometimes this has hurt me, sometimes it has helped me (i.e. when the AI gets caught that way). But I haven't noticed a systematic pattern. Is there one?
Chapter 12b - Naresuen (fl1595-fl1600)
A Nation Rises, A Nation Falls
While the armies clashed in Laos and Sichuan, smaller scale disturbances had been taking place in south-eastern Indochina. The Sultan of Brunei had long struggled to control the turbulent inhabitants of the Mekong Delta. Twice before, only Chinese assistance had upheld his rule in Saigon. Now the Dragon had other priorities, and the Sultan was thrown back on his own resources. It did not take long for his weakness to incite his subjects as much as his misrule infuriated them, and rebellion duly swept the province. The Sultan's soldiers could mount no effective resistance and soon Saigon was in rebel hands. Many awaited the day when the Sultan would formally abandon his claim to rule the province.
The rebels, however, had greater ambitions. Their leader was Howrah, a particularly vicious and sucessful bandit, who claimed descent from the former royal house of Champa. Trusting the cowardice of the Sultan to leave his lieutenants unchallenged in the Delta, he lead his band over the northern border, into the territory of the little kingdom of Annam. The army of Annam could not resist them, Da Lat was besieged, and the countriside given over to pillage and ruin. Eventually, Da Lat fell (betrayed, it was said, by traitors within the city), and Howrah entered the capital in triumph to massacre the Court of Annam and proclaim himself lord of the province.
What happened afterwards will never be entirely known - there were several factions involved and Howrah was by no means in control of the city - but it is obvious that a deal of some sort was struck. On the first day of 1595, Howrah emerged from the palace in Da Lat to formally consign Annam to history and merge its lands with the Delta into a reborn Champa. Moreover, the capital of the new nation would be in Da Lat rather than Saigon, and the bulk of his officials would be chosen from the Vietnamese of the former Annam. What Howrah's Khmer supporters, still loyally holding Saigon in his name, thought of this is not recorded (1).
The Service of the Buddha
Following the defeat (for it was nothing less) by China, Naresuen turned his attention to domestic affairs. In the summer of 1595, as soon as he had the resources available, he extended his 'reconstruction' program from Surabaja to Bali (2). The King's outspoken insistance on political and religious uniformity had awkward diplomatic consequences the next month, when he expressed his hopes for the eclipse of Islam to a charming stranger who turned out to be the new ambassador from Arakan (3).
Despite embarassment abroad, the King's domestic program went forward without interruption for more than a year. In September 1596, Indonesia appeared stable enough for the long-neglected territory of Jambi to finally be organised as a proper province. However, the stability quickly proved illusory when the Balinese rose in revolt a few weeks later. The Expeditionary Army, finally returned from Timaru (4), crushed the uprising in short order, but no sooner had they been withdrawn than the Hindus were in arms again. The island was finally restored to order early in 1597, but resentment still grumbled beneath the surface. The assassination of the Governor of Surabaja by a Hindu zealot, which rocked the Kingdom later that spring, showed the depth of the opposition to the King's policies (5).
Undeterred, Naresuen continued his modernisation program. Early in 1598, he visited the Sarakham foundries to witness the casting of Ayutthaya's first cannon (6), and to promise his soldiers equipment to match their Chinese rivals in quality. For the moment, however, the eyes were on other borders.
Foreign Entanglements
During this middle period of his reign, Naresuen's diplomatic skills appear to have deserted him. Back in 1596, the hasty betrothal of his sister to the Sultan of Arakan had partly salved Ayutthaya's relations with that nation, but early in 1598 he blundered again. Over-confident in his self-imposed position as an authority on the Buddha's teachings, he allowed himself to be drawn into a dispute between rival monasteries in Tibet. His support encouraged the radical faction in their defiance of Tibet's King, much to the annoyance of a potential ally (7).
Fortunately, no major power sought to take advantage of Naresuen's difficulties. The Dragon Emperor was enjoying the fruits of victory; the Orissans were quiet, and Portugal, wracked by a terrible epidemic in 1596 and then distracted by wars with Navarra and Zimbabwe, seemed to have lost interest in Indonesia. England, busy with a series of profitable wars against the Shawnee, the Iroqouis and the Huron, was relaxed enough to abandon royal trade monopolies in 1598, much to the appreciation of Ayutthaya's merchants.
Later that year, however, Naresuen went too far. He permitted the Guild of Western Trade to rebuild the destroyed trade post in Palakimedi and to set up a new one in Cochin, which had been unclaimed since the end of the Chinese-Orissan war (8). The Orissans, of course, had not expelled the Chinese simply to see the province fall to a different set of foreigners. They declared war immediately, and the fledgling settlements were quickly destroyed.
Once and Again
Despite the ongoing war, 1599 saw Ayutthaya's diplomatic fortunes improve. The Emperor of China, in benevolent mood, offered a formal recognition of mutual access for the merchants of the two nations (9). Naresuen was happy to accept, seeing this as a softening of China's historic hostility to Ayutthaya. Shortly afterwards, the Sultan of Brunei, diplomatically isolated without the Chinese alliance, offered to come to terms with the Elephant Kingdom (10). The marriage of the King's daughter to the Sultan's son, later that summer, sealed the understanding. To avoid suspicion of partisanship, Naresuen gave a second daughter in marriage that month, to Howrah of Champa.
Late in 1599, the army was once again re-equipped with improved weapons from the Sarakham foundries (11). The Orissan war continued in name only, and early in 1600, Naresuen felt sufficiently confident of the Kingdom's postion to return his attention to domestic affairs. Most of his accumulated treasury reserves were duly expended on the continued reconstruction of Surabaja, which had collapsed in revolt and riot the previous spring (12).
The declaration of war from China arrived two months later (13).
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Notes
(1) I was vaguely aware during the Chinese war that Mekong Delta was rebel-controlled, and I was hoping Champa would re-emerge. I got a big grin when the 'New Nation' box popped up - and my jaw then hit the floor when I saw they had revolted from Annam. I've never seen a country obliterated by revolt before...
For the record, Champa now has two provinces, is Vietnamese/Hindu, and my isolation penalty hasn't gone down any.
What beats me is, if Champa could revolt in Da Lat, why didn't they do it when Da Lat revolted from Cambodia?
(2) Missionary in Bali. (27% chance - wish me luck)
(3) Scandal At Court, July 1595. (-50 relations with Arakan, Monarch's Diplomatic ability -3 for 12 months)
(4) And why I didn't order them to clear out the rest of New Zealand while they were there, I'll never know.
(5) Assassination of Noble, April 1597. (-1 Stability).
(6) Land Tech 7 reached, April 1598. Of course, I didn't build any cannon, since I couldn't afford them, but at least my forts now have them.
(7) I Supported Dissidents in Tibet, April 1598, rather than lose another stability point. Why did it have to be Tibet?
(8) I was bored, I had spare colonists, and I thought putting TPs in India might not get me DOWed immediately.
(9) Chaina offered a TA. I took it, partly for diplomatic reasons and partly to end some expensive squabbling in Shanghai & Guangzhou.
(10) Diplomatic Move with Brunei, March 1599. (+50 Relations).
(11) Land Tech 8 reached November 1599.
(12) No joy from the first missionary. Let's try another (still 28% chance).
(13) And if I didn't know the Chinese Revolts were coming up, I'd be seriously thinking about quitting. I've colonized just about as much as I can (three New Zealand and one Australian province to go), Orissa & Delhi won't let me into India, and 200+ years of unwinnable Chinese wars does not a fun game make. As it is, though <evil grin>.
GreenPhrog - Good to hear from you! Glad you like the AAR!
Machiavellian - Tell me about it.
jwolf - The siege reinforcement bug works like this. If country A is besieging a province held by B, and B sends an army to break the siege, reinforcements belonging to A will not join the battle if they arrive in the province after the battle has started. (If you look at the graphics, their numbers add to the wrong side in the little animated battle, though they don't actually fight for the enemy.) Reinforcements belonging to B join just fine. This bug usually costs me about one army per war. I think it's fixed in the latest 1.07.
A Nation Rises, A Nation Falls
While the armies clashed in Laos and Sichuan, smaller scale disturbances had been taking place in south-eastern Indochina. The Sultan of Brunei had long struggled to control the turbulent inhabitants of the Mekong Delta. Twice before, only Chinese assistance had upheld his rule in Saigon. Now the Dragon had other priorities, and the Sultan was thrown back on his own resources. It did not take long for his weakness to incite his subjects as much as his misrule infuriated them, and rebellion duly swept the province. The Sultan's soldiers could mount no effective resistance and soon Saigon was in rebel hands. Many awaited the day when the Sultan would formally abandon his claim to rule the province.
The rebels, however, had greater ambitions. Their leader was Howrah, a particularly vicious and sucessful bandit, who claimed descent from the former royal house of Champa. Trusting the cowardice of the Sultan to leave his lieutenants unchallenged in the Delta, he lead his band over the northern border, into the territory of the little kingdom of Annam. The army of Annam could not resist them, Da Lat was besieged, and the countriside given over to pillage and ruin. Eventually, Da Lat fell (betrayed, it was said, by traitors within the city), and Howrah entered the capital in triumph to massacre the Court of Annam and proclaim himself lord of the province.
What happened afterwards will never be entirely known - there were several factions involved and Howrah was by no means in control of the city - but it is obvious that a deal of some sort was struck. On the first day of 1595, Howrah emerged from the palace in Da Lat to formally consign Annam to history and merge its lands with the Delta into a reborn Champa. Moreover, the capital of the new nation would be in Da Lat rather than Saigon, and the bulk of his officials would be chosen from the Vietnamese of the former Annam. What Howrah's Khmer supporters, still loyally holding Saigon in his name, thought of this is not recorded (1).
The Service of the Buddha
Following the defeat (for it was nothing less) by China, Naresuen turned his attention to domestic affairs. In the summer of 1595, as soon as he had the resources available, he extended his 'reconstruction' program from Surabaja to Bali (2). The King's outspoken insistance on political and religious uniformity had awkward diplomatic consequences the next month, when he expressed his hopes for the eclipse of Islam to a charming stranger who turned out to be the new ambassador from Arakan (3).
Despite embarassment abroad, the King's domestic program went forward without interruption for more than a year. In September 1596, Indonesia appeared stable enough for the long-neglected territory of Jambi to finally be organised as a proper province. However, the stability quickly proved illusory when the Balinese rose in revolt a few weeks later. The Expeditionary Army, finally returned from Timaru (4), crushed the uprising in short order, but no sooner had they been withdrawn than the Hindus were in arms again. The island was finally restored to order early in 1597, but resentment still grumbled beneath the surface. The assassination of the Governor of Surabaja by a Hindu zealot, which rocked the Kingdom later that spring, showed the depth of the opposition to the King's policies (5).
Undeterred, Naresuen continued his modernisation program. Early in 1598, he visited the Sarakham foundries to witness the casting of Ayutthaya's first cannon (6), and to promise his soldiers equipment to match their Chinese rivals in quality. For the moment, however, the eyes were on other borders.
Foreign Entanglements
During this middle period of his reign, Naresuen's diplomatic skills appear to have deserted him. Back in 1596, the hasty betrothal of his sister to the Sultan of Arakan had partly salved Ayutthaya's relations with that nation, but early in 1598 he blundered again. Over-confident in his self-imposed position as an authority on the Buddha's teachings, he allowed himself to be drawn into a dispute between rival monasteries in Tibet. His support encouraged the radical faction in their defiance of Tibet's King, much to the annoyance of a potential ally (7).
Fortunately, no major power sought to take advantage of Naresuen's difficulties. The Dragon Emperor was enjoying the fruits of victory; the Orissans were quiet, and Portugal, wracked by a terrible epidemic in 1596 and then distracted by wars with Navarra and Zimbabwe, seemed to have lost interest in Indonesia. England, busy with a series of profitable wars against the Shawnee, the Iroqouis and the Huron, was relaxed enough to abandon royal trade monopolies in 1598, much to the appreciation of Ayutthaya's merchants.
Later that year, however, Naresuen went too far. He permitted the Guild of Western Trade to rebuild the destroyed trade post in Palakimedi and to set up a new one in Cochin, which had been unclaimed since the end of the Chinese-Orissan war (8). The Orissans, of course, had not expelled the Chinese simply to see the province fall to a different set of foreigners. They declared war immediately, and the fledgling settlements were quickly destroyed.
Once and Again
Despite the ongoing war, 1599 saw Ayutthaya's diplomatic fortunes improve. The Emperor of China, in benevolent mood, offered a formal recognition of mutual access for the merchants of the two nations (9). Naresuen was happy to accept, seeing this as a softening of China's historic hostility to Ayutthaya. Shortly afterwards, the Sultan of Brunei, diplomatically isolated without the Chinese alliance, offered to come to terms with the Elephant Kingdom (10). The marriage of the King's daughter to the Sultan's son, later that summer, sealed the understanding. To avoid suspicion of partisanship, Naresuen gave a second daughter in marriage that month, to Howrah of Champa.
Late in 1599, the army was once again re-equipped with improved weapons from the Sarakham foundries (11). The Orissan war continued in name only, and early in 1600, Naresuen felt sufficiently confident of the Kingdom's postion to return his attention to domestic affairs. Most of his accumulated treasury reserves were duly expended on the continued reconstruction of Surabaja, which had collapsed in revolt and riot the previous spring (12).
The declaration of war from China arrived two months later (13).
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Notes
(1) I was vaguely aware during the Chinese war that Mekong Delta was rebel-controlled, and I was hoping Champa would re-emerge. I got a big grin when the 'New Nation' box popped up - and my jaw then hit the floor when I saw they had revolted from Annam. I've never seen a country obliterated by revolt before...
For the record, Champa now has two provinces, is Vietnamese/Hindu, and my isolation penalty hasn't gone down any.
What beats me is, if Champa could revolt in Da Lat, why didn't they do it when Da Lat revolted from Cambodia?
(2) Missionary in Bali. (27% chance - wish me luck)
(3) Scandal At Court, July 1595. (-50 relations with Arakan, Monarch's Diplomatic ability -3 for 12 months)
(4) And why I didn't order them to clear out the rest of New Zealand while they were there, I'll never know.
(5) Assassination of Noble, April 1597. (-1 Stability).
(6) Land Tech 7 reached, April 1598. Of course, I didn't build any cannon, since I couldn't afford them, but at least my forts now have them.
(7) I Supported Dissidents in Tibet, April 1598, rather than lose another stability point. Why did it have to be Tibet?
(8) I was bored, I had spare colonists, and I thought putting TPs in India might not get me DOWed immediately.
(9) Chaina offered a TA. I took it, partly for diplomatic reasons and partly to end some expensive squabbling in Shanghai & Guangzhou.
(10) Diplomatic Move with Brunei, March 1599. (+50 Relations).
(11) Land Tech 8 reached November 1599.
(12) No joy from the first missionary. Let's try another (still 28% chance).
(13) And if I didn't know the Chinese Revolts were coming up, I'd be seriously thinking about quitting. I've colonized just about as much as I can (three New Zealand and one Australian province to go), Orissa & Delhi won't let me into India, and 200+ years of unwinnable Chinese wars does not a fun game make. As it is, though <evil grin>.
GreenPhrog - Good to hear from you! Glad you like the AAR!
Machiavellian - Tell me about it.
jwolf - The siege reinforcement bug works like this. If country A is besieging a province held by B, and B sends an army to break the siege, reinforcements belonging to A will not join the battle if they arrive in the province after the battle has started. (If you look at the graphics, their numbers add to the wrong side in the little animated battle, though they don't actually fight for the enemy.) Reinforcements belonging to B join just fine. This bug usually costs me about one army per war. I think it's fixed in the latest 1.07.
I am really surprised at how aggressive Orissa and others are about your colony attempts there. I've never had trouble with them before. Good luck with the Chinese, and as you said, you just need to hold for about 20 more years. Thanks for explaining the siege reinforcement bug. I'll have to pay more attention to this in the future.
Chapter 12c - Naresuen (fl1600-1605)
The Seventh Chinese War
In contrast with the dramatic struggle of half a decade earlier, the war of 1600 was almost an anticlimax. Two Ayutthayan armies were in position on the border, and they duly struck north along the now-traditional invasion routes into Yunnan and Sichuan Pendi, overwhelming small Chinese detachments on the way. Naresuen himself, with the royal army, was in the capital, and his departure was delayed by the need to resolve a long-running squabble among the Court factions as to who would have jurisdiction over the palace in his absence (1).
The next month, with Naresuen still en route for the battlefield, the Emperor revealed his new strategy. Instead of concentrating around Hanoi in the conventional manner, Chinese armies struck west out of Indochina into Laos and Mekong provinces. Meanwhile a reserve army advanced from the interior to confront the Ayutthayan cavalry in Sichuan Pendi. In the Forbidden Palace, the Emperor laughed at talk of peace.
He would have done better to heed it, for his plan came apart rapidly in the weeks that followed. On the grim fields of Sichuan Pendi - fields which had long since acquired a bloody name among the soldiers of China (2) - his army was cut to pieces by a force half its own strength. Meanwhile, far to the south-east, even the fire of a hundred cannon could not daunt the heroic defenders of Laos, who valiantly drove back a Chinese assault. Faced with this double defeat, the Emperor quietly let it be known that he was prepared to be reasonable. Naresuen, who had not yet sighted a Chinese banner, reluctantly decided that Ayutthaya could not stand a long war against the Dragon. He authorised payment of the indemnity, and there the matter rested (3).
Peace and Reconstruction
Less than three months after the war, the Sarakham foundries finally made true the wishes of Ayutthayan troops since Genreal Tifni's wars a lifetime earlier. In formal ceremony on the Great Parade Ground, the soldiers of the Royal Army laid down their halberds, and instead were issued with arquebuses on the Chinese model (4). These weapons were put to use shortly afterward, dispersing yet another Hindu uprising on Bali. The same month, news came from Nippon of a great battle, perhaps the greatest ever fought, at Sekigahara. The victorious general announced the unification of the warring provinces under his control. If this could be achieved, the island nation might once again become a factor in international affairs.
In the years that followed, Naresuen chose to concentrate again on diplomacy. He managed to secure a formal peace from Orissa at the end of 1600, but his greatest desire was for allies who would stand with Ayutthaya aginst the menace of China. Tibet, the only other Buddhist nation of any size, was the obvious choice, and a stream of caravans bore flowery proposals and generous gifts towards Lhasa. The initial omens were not favourable - indeed the sighting of a great comet early in 1601 was declared by the astronomers to betoken certain failure (5) - but Naresuen declared that any such sign must certainly apply to his enemies and continued regardless. He was rewarded later in the year when the three Buddhist Kingdoms - Ayutthaya, Tibet and Cambodia - came together in a pact of mutual assistance and brotherhood. The sceptics were obscurely comforted in the autumn, when yet another anti-Buddhist revolt convulsed Bali (6) and the King of Cambodia (which country had lost its own Hindu territories to revolt) publicly reproved Ayutthayan soldiers for 'excessive severity' (7).
By 1602, Naresuen felt secure enough to relax the restrictions on public movement and speech that had been introduced during the Sixth Chinese War (8). He even bent his neck to thank the King of Cambodia for his 'brotherly advice', a gesture that pleased that short-sighted monarch excessively (9). From abroad, news came that the self-proclaimed Shogun of Nippon was taking ruthless measures to secure his rule, humbling his former rivals and stripping them of their lands (10). The vigour of this new regime - and its unabashed militarism - disturbed even the Dragon Throne itself. In an unprecedented move, the Emperor sent an ambassador to the Elephant Throne, offering a peaceful resolution of the nations' differences (11). The dispatch of Naresuen's youngest daughter to the Forbidden City sealed the accord, and Ayutthayan breathed easier than they had done for years.
The Second Southern Expedition
In 1602, his alliance secured, Naresuen had felt confident enough to dispatch the re-equipped Expeditionary Army back to the Far Islands of the south-east. In contrast to the epic of Timaru in the previous decade, this campaign was conducted quickly and withut unforseen incident. Ayutthayan musketry rapidly dispersed the savages, and the Expeditionary Army was back in Surabaja by mid-1604. Even before their return, Ayutthayan settlers had already gone forth to tame the cold and unpromising lands (12).
Australia & the Far Islands, 1605
Into the Void
Advancing years did not dim Naresuen's devotion to the Buddha and his teachings. Early in 1604, he once again commanded a public effort to 'bring the pure water of enlightenment to the parched lands of Bali' (13). While the King's piety no doubt brought him proper reward in the next life, it could also provoke trouble in this one. His later years saw the spread of the dissident 'Great Renunciation' sect. Its devotees renounced (as well as coffee, meat and congress with the opposite sex) all earthly rank and authorities, which caused endless earthly problems when they refused to obey their superiors or pay their taxes (14).
By then, the King was already ailing. He stood at the head of his troops for the last time in the spring of 1605 and breathed his last two months later.
Naresuen, the sometime 'King of the Morning' was buried with due honour, but also with a feeling of disappointment, of promise squandered (15). He had fought well, but without victory; he had sought to serve the Buddhist faith but had not delivered the peace and unity his supporters so desired. In short, he had not lived up to the expectations of his coronation, but then perhaps no-one could have. It is perhaps significant that his greatest achievements came in the field of diplomacy, where no-one had forseen any great advance.
He left Ayutthaya greater than he found it (16), and more secure, though not untroubled. His son, who was crowned King as Ekat'otsarat, brought no great reputation to the throne (17), but perhaps that might be a good omen, in a way.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Notes
(1) End of a Great Feud, April 1600. Nice event, except when it pops during a major war that started when you had 90 ducats in the bank.
(2) If it wasn't for those plains - and the cavalry advantage - I'd have been in so much trouble, so many times.
(3) I'd learnt my lesson by now. I had +5% warscore, the Chinese accepted 150 ducats. I'm getting bored of wars where all I can hope for is to limit my loss.
(4) Land Tech 9 reached, September 1600. Now I was on the same CRT as China, I let Land Tech be and went for Trade 4 (Infra 4 would be preferable, but it cost twice as much). Note the timing of the AI's last attack, drat it!
(5) Meteor Sighted, January 1601. Where would we be without meteors?
(6) Missionary in Bali duly failed.
(7) Diplomatic Insult from Cambodia, October 1601.
(8) +1 Innovative, January 1602 (now Innovative 5). Should have been January 1600, but I forgot <slaps self>.
(9) Diplomatic Move with Cambodia, November 1602 (+25 relations).
(10) Nippon's AI reduced all the Daimyos and banned women from kabuki. I guess it means business.
(11) Diplomatic Move with China, October 1603 (+50 relations). I thought a Royal Marriage was worth a try and they went for it. Of course, in 15 years time I'll be regretting that RM, but right now...
(12) Unfortunately, one province of New Zealand is still TI and I'm out of explorers.
(13) I'm a glutton for punishment. Another missionary in Bali, still 27% chance.
(14) Wave of Obsurantism (+3RR), August 1604.
(15) I had hoped for a lot more from Naresuen than two lost wars and a batch of failed conversions.
(16) Now 39 Provinces, 8 Colonies, 3 TP. Monthly Income 113, Inflation 5%, Tech 9/2/3/3
China, of course, has finally reached Land Tech 14, so we will not be fighting on equal terms any time soon. At least I'll be able to shoot the hordes of rebels who will soon be wandering into my Northern provinces.
(17) Adm Average, Mil Poor, Dip Poor. Could be worse.
jwolf - I've basically screwed myself with BB. All those annexations have ruined my reputation and pushed my BB well above everyone else's in the region (except maybe China, and China's a whole nother ball game). Result - I'm top of everyone's hit list, and Ayutthaya's manpower problems mean my army isn't big enough to scare them off.
Today's hint - when playing a non-major on Very Hard, never force-annex a co-religionist, no matter how tempting it appears at the time.
GreenPhrog - Enjoy your trip!
The Seventh Chinese War
In contrast with the dramatic struggle of half a decade earlier, the war of 1600 was almost an anticlimax. Two Ayutthayan armies were in position on the border, and they duly struck north along the now-traditional invasion routes into Yunnan and Sichuan Pendi, overwhelming small Chinese detachments on the way. Naresuen himself, with the royal army, was in the capital, and his departure was delayed by the need to resolve a long-running squabble among the Court factions as to who would have jurisdiction over the palace in his absence (1).
The next month, with Naresuen still en route for the battlefield, the Emperor revealed his new strategy. Instead of concentrating around Hanoi in the conventional manner, Chinese armies struck west out of Indochina into Laos and Mekong provinces. Meanwhile a reserve army advanced from the interior to confront the Ayutthayan cavalry in Sichuan Pendi. In the Forbidden Palace, the Emperor laughed at talk of peace.
He would have done better to heed it, for his plan came apart rapidly in the weeks that followed. On the grim fields of Sichuan Pendi - fields which had long since acquired a bloody name among the soldiers of China (2) - his army was cut to pieces by a force half its own strength. Meanwhile, far to the south-east, even the fire of a hundred cannon could not daunt the heroic defenders of Laos, who valiantly drove back a Chinese assault. Faced with this double defeat, the Emperor quietly let it be known that he was prepared to be reasonable. Naresuen, who had not yet sighted a Chinese banner, reluctantly decided that Ayutthaya could not stand a long war against the Dragon. He authorised payment of the indemnity, and there the matter rested (3).
Peace and Reconstruction
Less than three months after the war, the Sarakham foundries finally made true the wishes of Ayutthayan troops since Genreal Tifni's wars a lifetime earlier. In formal ceremony on the Great Parade Ground, the soldiers of the Royal Army laid down their halberds, and instead were issued with arquebuses on the Chinese model (4). These weapons were put to use shortly afterward, dispersing yet another Hindu uprising on Bali. The same month, news came from Nippon of a great battle, perhaps the greatest ever fought, at Sekigahara. The victorious general announced the unification of the warring provinces under his control. If this could be achieved, the island nation might once again become a factor in international affairs.
In the years that followed, Naresuen chose to concentrate again on diplomacy. He managed to secure a formal peace from Orissa at the end of 1600, but his greatest desire was for allies who would stand with Ayutthaya aginst the menace of China. Tibet, the only other Buddhist nation of any size, was the obvious choice, and a stream of caravans bore flowery proposals and generous gifts towards Lhasa. The initial omens were not favourable - indeed the sighting of a great comet early in 1601 was declared by the astronomers to betoken certain failure (5) - but Naresuen declared that any such sign must certainly apply to his enemies and continued regardless. He was rewarded later in the year when the three Buddhist Kingdoms - Ayutthaya, Tibet and Cambodia - came together in a pact of mutual assistance and brotherhood. The sceptics were obscurely comforted in the autumn, when yet another anti-Buddhist revolt convulsed Bali (6) and the King of Cambodia (which country had lost its own Hindu territories to revolt) publicly reproved Ayutthayan soldiers for 'excessive severity' (7).
By 1602, Naresuen felt secure enough to relax the restrictions on public movement and speech that had been introduced during the Sixth Chinese War (8). He even bent his neck to thank the King of Cambodia for his 'brotherly advice', a gesture that pleased that short-sighted monarch excessively (9). From abroad, news came that the self-proclaimed Shogun of Nippon was taking ruthless measures to secure his rule, humbling his former rivals and stripping them of their lands (10). The vigour of this new regime - and its unabashed militarism - disturbed even the Dragon Throne itself. In an unprecedented move, the Emperor sent an ambassador to the Elephant Throne, offering a peaceful resolution of the nations' differences (11). The dispatch of Naresuen's youngest daughter to the Forbidden City sealed the accord, and Ayutthayan breathed easier than they had done for years.
The Second Southern Expedition
In 1602, his alliance secured, Naresuen had felt confident enough to dispatch the re-equipped Expeditionary Army back to the Far Islands of the south-east. In contrast to the epic of Timaru in the previous decade, this campaign was conducted quickly and withut unforseen incident. Ayutthayan musketry rapidly dispersed the savages, and the Expeditionary Army was back in Surabaja by mid-1604. Even before their return, Ayutthayan settlers had already gone forth to tame the cold and unpromising lands (12).
Australia & the Far Islands, 1605
Into the Void
Advancing years did not dim Naresuen's devotion to the Buddha and his teachings. Early in 1604, he once again commanded a public effort to 'bring the pure water of enlightenment to the parched lands of Bali' (13). While the King's piety no doubt brought him proper reward in the next life, it could also provoke trouble in this one. His later years saw the spread of the dissident 'Great Renunciation' sect. Its devotees renounced (as well as coffee, meat and congress with the opposite sex) all earthly rank and authorities, which caused endless earthly problems when they refused to obey their superiors or pay their taxes (14).
By then, the King was already ailing. He stood at the head of his troops for the last time in the spring of 1605 and breathed his last two months later.
Naresuen, the sometime 'King of the Morning' was buried with due honour, but also with a feeling of disappointment, of promise squandered (15). He had fought well, but without victory; he had sought to serve the Buddhist faith but had not delivered the peace and unity his supporters so desired. In short, he had not lived up to the expectations of his coronation, but then perhaps no-one could have. It is perhaps significant that his greatest achievements came in the field of diplomacy, where no-one had forseen any great advance.
He left Ayutthaya greater than he found it (16), and more secure, though not untroubled. His son, who was crowned King as Ekat'otsarat, brought no great reputation to the throne (17), but perhaps that might be a good omen, in a way.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Notes
(1) End of a Great Feud, April 1600. Nice event, except when it pops during a major war that started when you had 90 ducats in the bank.
(2) If it wasn't for those plains - and the cavalry advantage - I'd have been in so much trouble, so many times.
(3) I'd learnt my lesson by now. I had +5% warscore, the Chinese accepted 150 ducats. I'm getting bored of wars where all I can hope for is to limit my loss.
(4) Land Tech 9 reached, September 1600. Now I was on the same CRT as China, I let Land Tech be and went for Trade 4 (Infra 4 would be preferable, but it cost twice as much). Note the timing of the AI's last attack, drat it!
(5) Meteor Sighted, January 1601. Where would we be without meteors?
(6) Missionary in Bali duly failed.
(7) Diplomatic Insult from Cambodia, October 1601.
(8) +1 Innovative, January 1602 (now Innovative 5). Should have been January 1600, but I forgot <slaps self>.
(9) Diplomatic Move with Cambodia, November 1602 (+25 relations).
(10) Nippon's AI reduced all the Daimyos and banned women from kabuki. I guess it means business.
(11) Diplomatic Move with China, October 1603 (+50 relations). I thought a Royal Marriage was worth a try and they went for it. Of course, in 15 years time I'll be regretting that RM, but right now...
(12) Unfortunately, one province of New Zealand is still TI and I'm out of explorers.
(13) I'm a glutton for punishment. Another missionary in Bali, still 27% chance.
(14) Wave of Obsurantism (+3RR), August 1604.
(15) I had hoped for a lot more from Naresuen than two lost wars and a batch of failed conversions.
(16) Now 39 Provinces, 8 Colonies, 3 TP. Monthly Income 113, Inflation 5%, Tech 9/2/3/3
China, of course, has finally reached Land Tech 14, so we will not be fighting on equal terms any time soon. At least I'll be able to shoot the hordes of rebels who will soon be wandering into my Northern provinces.
(17) Adm Average, Mil Poor, Dip Poor. Could be worse.
jwolf - I've basically screwed myself with BB. All those annexations have ruined my reputation and pushed my BB well above everyone else's in the region (except maybe China, and China's a whole nother ball game). Result - I'm top of everyone's hit list, and Ayutthaya's manpower problems mean my army isn't big enough to scare them off.
Today's hint - when playing a non-major on Very Hard, never force-annex a co-religionist, no matter how tempting it appears at the time.
GreenPhrog - Enjoy your trip!
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Just thouth I would log in from Tailand- and saySaw-wa-dii (Spelling is wrong) Keep up the great AAR!
Chapter 13 - Ekat'otsarat (1605-fl1612)
Peace and Progress?
The reign of Ekat'otsarat began well. At his coronation, he declared his intention to devote himself to 'the advance of the nation and the prosperity of its people'. His first decree was that the far southern settlement of MacQuarie - the last in Australia under colonial law - should be raised to the rank of a full province (1), and its administrative and revenue services placed on a formal footing. In token of the nation's achievement in bringing civilisation to the great southern continent, Ekat'otsarat declared that the Australian provinces - colonies no longer - should be known collectively as 'New Ayutthaya'.
The next year, it was the turn of Sulawesi in the central Celebes to be raised to provincial status, and the King declared his hope that he would soon see civilised rule fully established in that land as well. The year 1606 also brought a quiet satisfaction to administrators on the mainland, when the latest census revealed that followers of the Buddha finally outnumbered those of the Prophet in the borderlands of Perak (2). Despite yet another uprising in Bali, where the unenlightened inhabitants still clung to their old superstitions (3), the poets and sages of Ekat'otsarat's Court looked forward to a day when the teachings of the Buddha and the laws of the King would reign supreme over all the lands beyond the sea.
Drums on the Border
Closer to home, on the neglected western border, trouble was brewing unanticipated. The Hindu alliance of Orissa and Vijayanagar had declared war on the Muslims of Arakan shortly after Ekat'otsarat's succession, and though the Sultan quickly bought off their greedy lackeys of Vijayanagar, the Orissans would not be denied. Tarakan fell in 1606, and a year later the Sultan, reduced to exile in the northern mountains, agreed to surrender the province of Chin in order to return to his capital. For the first time, the great powers of Orissa and Ayutthaya shared a true common border (4). Ekat'otsarat sent the Maharaja a message of brotherly greetings and a hope for future trade and cooperation. The Maharaja replied with a declaration of war.
Mountains of the Dead - the Orissan War
Ekat'otsarat moved quickly to defend his nation. Summoning his allies, he ordered his main armies to muster in Assam and Mandalay, while his forward cavalry struck at once into the borderlands of Chin. It was a bold stroke, but it turned out poorly. The cavalry were successful at first, but they were hampered by swampy terrain and shortage of forage, and more and more Orissans came out of India to oppose them. By October 1607, the cavalry was forced to retreat, with the Orissans in hot pursuit. The Maharaja's horsemen broke into the territories of Assam and Mandalay before the defences could be mustered (5), and both provinces were besieged.
Ayutthayan armies from the east arrived a month later. The first advanced into Mandalay, engaging the Orissan cavalry before the walls of the city. General Marapat's soldiers had the advantage of numbers, but the fire of their arquebuses did not deter the charge of the Orissan horsemen and the victory was bloodily won. Rather than challenge the more numerous Orissan forces in Assam, the victorious general chose to bypass them and advance once more into Chin. This plan broke down shortly afterwards, when the inhabitants of that province took advantage of the breakdown of Orissan authority to rise in revolt. Rather than waste his strength against potential allies, Marapat instead lifted the siege and returned to Mandalay.
In the spring and early summer of 1608, the Orissan had to battle through successive waves of rebel forces to reach Assam. To general disappointment in Ayutthaya, they were successful, and were able to reinforce the army in Assam, which had been suffering badly from desertion and shortage of supplies. Meanwhile, an Orissa raiding force landed unexpectedly from the sea and struck deep into Ayutthayan territory, aiming for the great royal foundries of Sarakham. Sadly for the Orissans, they found the city of Vientiane occupied by the Ayutthayan cavalry, reforming after the defeats in Chin and Assam (6). The battle was short and sharp, and no Orissans survived. Meanwhile, the Ayutthayan armies in the west had also been reinforced. In July 1608, Marapat lead the greatest force in Ayutthaya's history to date, thirty-six thousand men in two armies, into Assam to do battle with the Orissans.
He had been told the besieging force numbered fifteen thousand cavalry. That would have been challenge enough, but soon after battle was first joined he learned that another Orissan host, twenty-five thousand strong, had come to the aid of their fellows (7). For two months the soldiers battled across the barren mountains and jungle-choked valleys of Assam. Organisation was an early casualty, for no army could hold together as a single formation in that terrible terrain. Regiments and squadrons groped forward into the pathless lands, ridge by ridge, stream by stream. Some met the enemy, clashed blindly, won or lost, lived or died, and the survivors drew together to face the next day. Others met, quieter, grimmer fates. Hunger and disease were their enemies as much as the Hindus - hundreds of men might die fighting for a nameless village and its miserable stocks of rice, or just for a sheltered valley that promised a dry campground (8). The Orissans suffered as cruelly, but they had the numbers, and still more reinforcements came up to them out of Chin. By September, Marapat had to concede defeat. Fewer than fifteen thousand men eventually followed him back to Mandalay.
The losses in Assam, equal to a year's levy from the whole nation, broke Ekat'otsarat's spirit to continue the war. In the new year, 1608, he offered an indemnity to end the fighting (9), and the Maharaja accepted. Perhaps the tales of Assam had quenched even his bloody spirit.
Peace and Reconstruction
Ekat'otsarat's first decree after the return of peace was to have the defences of Assam rebuilt and the roads and storehuses improved (10). His second was to grant the Merchant Guilds, whose taxes were funding the project, increased legal standing and formal representation at Court (11). The nobles protested, but the King would have none of it. 'For generations now,' he told them, 'it has been our purse, not your swords, that has maintained our borders. I have had enough of warriors.' The military aristocracy had to content themselves with reddening their swords putting down another Hindu uprising in Bali, which had once again rejected enlightenment (12). They continued to mutter among themselves, though, and this led to unrest in the provinces. The unexplained assassination of one of the King's financial advisors (13), who had journeyed to the military zone of Mandalay to oversee the building work there, underlined their feelings. The Merchant Guilds, on the other hand, were greatly bouyed by royal support, and it is probably no coincidence that the years following Ekat'otsarat's decree saw a significant rise in trade revenues (14).
Colonial Expansion
The years of war had not been idle ones in the far south-east. Late in 1606, a bold explorer, Messaud by name, had set sail from New Ayutthaya, and successfully mapped the east coast of the Far Islands. Meanwhile, the governors of New Ayutthaya, in accordance with their civilising mission, had raised a small army of their own and sent it into the unsettled borderlands of Manunda. The natives were defeated by July of 1607, and duly hunted down and destroyed in the months that followed (15). Late in 1607, the province was declared safe for civilisation, and pioneers were despatched to raise a permanent settlement, finally succeeding in March 1609.
Meanwhile, in the distant Far Islands, a second great navigator had come forward to serve the Elephant Throne. His native name was unpronouncable, so he named himself Tuggurt, after the hero of old. Late in 1609, the two mariners conveyed the victorious New Ayutthayan Army to the Far Islands, where it marched against the still-unsubdued savages of the eastern hills. The province was declared pacified before the end of the year, and the army disbanded, but successive expeditions were to vanish in the clouded forests in the years that followed. A permanent settlement could not be established until 1614, and rumours of cannibals still lurking in the hills have persisted until almost the present day (16).
With New Ayutthaya and the Far Islands secured, there were few worlds left to conquer in the south. Messaud sailed on, far into the eastern seas, but found no land (17). Eventually, his backers refused to fund further expeditions and he decided to try his luck at the other end of the Kingdom. By mid-1611, he was in Pegu, preparing to sail west. Tuggurt was more fortunate. He chose to follow Wessera's course north, crossing and recrossing the unpromising seas north of New Guinea. He swore that so great an area could not be devoid of resources, and finally his persistance paid off. In April 1611, he moored at the mouth of an unnamed river in north-western New Guinea to sent a watering party ashore, and an unrecorded sailor spotted bright specks amid the river sand. Hostile savages barred their path upriver, but word of gold came quickly to Ayutthaya (18).
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Notes
(1) It was well over 700 population - I'd forgotten about it.
(2) Conversion of Heretics Event, March 1606
(3) It looks like Events are the only way I'm going to get conversions, as yet another missionary falls flat. Hmm, at 1 per 185 years, it'll take... <runs out of fingers>
(4) No prizes for guessing what happens now...
(5) The Orissan AI likes all-cavalry armies. Good for movement, not so good for mountains - I hoped.
(6) This one totally caught me by surprise - 'They're fighting where?' I built a new galley to cover that sea zone south of Kwai, but it wasn't ready in time to matter.
(7) I still thought I was getting somewhere, when I saw another 30,000 Orissans coming south through Santal. My glorious Tibetan allies, BTW, massed 20,000 men in Nepal and then just sat there, looking down on the undefended plains of Koch...
(8) 36,000 men vs 40,000+, in a support-4 mountain province with a minimum fort. I was taking 20+% attrition, he was taking 30+%.
(9) I should have beaten Orissa - they're not that big (about a dozen provinces) and only Land Tech 12. But I was out of manpower, the fort in Assam was failing and I was terrified of China coming down on me while my armies were tied up in Santal & Chin. Peace cost me 150 ducats. One of these days, I'll actually win a war...
(10) Given Orissa's record, I decided upgrading the forts in Assam and Mandalay was probably worth it. More army support!
(11) Bourgeosie Request Privileges, February 1609. I went with 'Grant': -1 Aristocracy (now Aristocracy 5)
(12) And I am now 0/7 on missionaries
(13) Assassination of Noble, February 1611.
(14) Trade Tech 4 reached, January 1612. Also +1 Innovative (now Innovative 6). Work on Infrastructure 4 (which costs 38,000 <shudder>) can be put off no longer - inflation is starting to get worrying.
(15) Observation - infantry with firearms defeats natives really well, but isn't much good at killing them. I felt rather bad about hitting the 'attack natives' button six times running, but the colonist success chance (with natives) was around 35% and I didn't have the colonists or the cash to waste.
(16) I failed with four consecutive colonists at 65%. Having lost 4 surplus colonists in the explorers events, and stupidly sending two to TPs in Borneo to create space, I ran out by 1613 (I was only gaining 0.6/year due to DP settings).
(17) I was looking for Tahiti in the wrong sea zone <duh!>.
(18) At long last!
pkdickian & GreenPhrog - Thanks for the support!
Peace and Progress?
The reign of Ekat'otsarat began well. At his coronation, he declared his intention to devote himself to 'the advance of the nation and the prosperity of its people'. His first decree was that the far southern settlement of MacQuarie - the last in Australia under colonial law - should be raised to the rank of a full province (1), and its administrative and revenue services placed on a formal footing. In token of the nation's achievement in bringing civilisation to the great southern continent, Ekat'otsarat declared that the Australian provinces - colonies no longer - should be known collectively as 'New Ayutthaya'.
The next year, it was the turn of Sulawesi in the central Celebes to be raised to provincial status, and the King declared his hope that he would soon see civilised rule fully established in that land as well. The year 1606 also brought a quiet satisfaction to administrators on the mainland, when the latest census revealed that followers of the Buddha finally outnumbered those of the Prophet in the borderlands of Perak (2). Despite yet another uprising in Bali, where the unenlightened inhabitants still clung to their old superstitions (3), the poets and sages of Ekat'otsarat's Court looked forward to a day when the teachings of the Buddha and the laws of the King would reign supreme over all the lands beyond the sea.
Drums on the Border
Closer to home, on the neglected western border, trouble was brewing unanticipated. The Hindu alliance of Orissa and Vijayanagar had declared war on the Muslims of Arakan shortly after Ekat'otsarat's succession, and though the Sultan quickly bought off their greedy lackeys of Vijayanagar, the Orissans would not be denied. Tarakan fell in 1606, and a year later the Sultan, reduced to exile in the northern mountains, agreed to surrender the province of Chin in order to return to his capital. For the first time, the great powers of Orissa and Ayutthaya shared a true common border (4). Ekat'otsarat sent the Maharaja a message of brotherly greetings and a hope for future trade and cooperation. The Maharaja replied with a declaration of war.
Mountains of the Dead - the Orissan War
Ekat'otsarat moved quickly to defend his nation. Summoning his allies, he ordered his main armies to muster in Assam and Mandalay, while his forward cavalry struck at once into the borderlands of Chin. It was a bold stroke, but it turned out poorly. The cavalry were successful at first, but they were hampered by swampy terrain and shortage of forage, and more and more Orissans came out of India to oppose them. By October 1607, the cavalry was forced to retreat, with the Orissans in hot pursuit. The Maharaja's horsemen broke into the territories of Assam and Mandalay before the defences could be mustered (5), and both provinces were besieged.
Ayutthayan armies from the east arrived a month later. The first advanced into Mandalay, engaging the Orissan cavalry before the walls of the city. General Marapat's soldiers had the advantage of numbers, but the fire of their arquebuses did not deter the charge of the Orissan horsemen and the victory was bloodily won. Rather than challenge the more numerous Orissan forces in Assam, the victorious general chose to bypass them and advance once more into Chin. This plan broke down shortly afterwards, when the inhabitants of that province took advantage of the breakdown of Orissan authority to rise in revolt. Rather than waste his strength against potential allies, Marapat instead lifted the siege and returned to Mandalay.
In the spring and early summer of 1608, the Orissan had to battle through successive waves of rebel forces to reach Assam. To general disappointment in Ayutthaya, they were successful, and were able to reinforce the army in Assam, which had been suffering badly from desertion and shortage of supplies. Meanwhile, an Orissa raiding force landed unexpectedly from the sea and struck deep into Ayutthayan territory, aiming for the great royal foundries of Sarakham. Sadly for the Orissans, they found the city of Vientiane occupied by the Ayutthayan cavalry, reforming after the defeats in Chin and Assam (6). The battle was short and sharp, and no Orissans survived. Meanwhile, the Ayutthayan armies in the west had also been reinforced. In July 1608, Marapat lead the greatest force in Ayutthaya's history to date, thirty-six thousand men in two armies, into Assam to do battle with the Orissans.
He had been told the besieging force numbered fifteen thousand cavalry. That would have been challenge enough, but soon after battle was first joined he learned that another Orissan host, twenty-five thousand strong, had come to the aid of their fellows (7). For two months the soldiers battled across the barren mountains and jungle-choked valleys of Assam. Organisation was an early casualty, for no army could hold together as a single formation in that terrible terrain. Regiments and squadrons groped forward into the pathless lands, ridge by ridge, stream by stream. Some met the enemy, clashed blindly, won or lost, lived or died, and the survivors drew together to face the next day. Others met, quieter, grimmer fates. Hunger and disease were their enemies as much as the Hindus - hundreds of men might die fighting for a nameless village and its miserable stocks of rice, or just for a sheltered valley that promised a dry campground (8). The Orissans suffered as cruelly, but they had the numbers, and still more reinforcements came up to them out of Chin. By September, Marapat had to concede defeat. Fewer than fifteen thousand men eventually followed him back to Mandalay.
The losses in Assam, equal to a year's levy from the whole nation, broke Ekat'otsarat's spirit to continue the war. In the new year, 1608, he offered an indemnity to end the fighting (9), and the Maharaja accepted. Perhaps the tales of Assam had quenched even his bloody spirit.
Peace and Reconstruction
Ekat'otsarat's first decree after the return of peace was to have the defences of Assam rebuilt and the roads and storehuses improved (10). His second was to grant the Merchant Guilds, whose taxes were funding the project, increased legal standing and formal representation at Court (11). The nobles protested, but the King would have none of it. 'For generations now,' he told them, 'it has been our purse, not your swords, that has maintained our borders. I have had enough of warriors.' The military aristocracy had to content themselves with reddening their swords putting down another Hindu uprising in Bali, which had once again rejected enlightenment (12). They continued to mutter among themselves, though, and this led to unrest in the provinces. The unexplained assassination of one of the King's financial advisors (13), who had journeyed to the military zone of Mandalay to oversee the building work there, underlined their feelings. The Merchant Guilds, on the other hand, were greatly bouyed by royal support, and it is probably no coincidence that the years following Ekat'otsarat's decree saw a significant rise in trade revenues (14).
Colonial Expansion
The years of war had not been idle ones in the far south-east. Late in 1606, a bold explorer, Messaud by name, had set sail from New Ayutthaya, and successfully mapped the east coast of the Far Islands. Meanwhile, the governors of New Ayutthaya, in accordance with their civilising mission, had raised a small army of their own and sent it into the unsettled borderlands of Manunda. The natives were defeated by July of 1607, and duly hunted down and destroyed in the months that followed (15). Late in 1607, the province was declared safe for civilisation, and pioneers were despatched to raise a permanent settlement, finally succeeding in March 1609.
Meanwhile, in the distant Far Islands, a second great navigator had come forward to serve the Elephant Throne. His native name was unpronouncable, so he named himself Tuggurt, after the hero of old. Late in 1609, the two mariners conveyed the victorious New Ayutthayan Army to the Far Islands, where it marched against the still-unsubdued savages of the eastern hills. The province was declared pacified before the end of the year, and the army disbanded, but successive expeditions were to vanish in the clouded forests in the years that followed. A permanent settlement could not be established until 1614, and rumours of cannibals still lurking in the hills have persisted until almost the present day (16).
With New Ayutthaya and the Far Islands secured, there were few worlds left to conquer in the south. Messaud sailed on, far into the eastern seas, but found no land (17). Eventually, his backers refused to fund further expeditions and he decided to try his luck at the other end of the Kingdom. By mid-1611, he was in Pegu, preparing to sail west. Tuggurt was more fortunate. He chose to follow Wessera's course north, crossing and recrossing the unpromising seas north of New Guinea. He swore that so great an area could not be devoid of resources, and finally his persistance paid off. In April 1611, he moored at the mouth of an unnamed river in north-western New Guinea to sent a watering party ashore, and an unrecorded sailor spotted bright specks amid the river sand. Hostile savages barred their path upriver, but word of gold came quickly to Ayutthaya (18).
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Notes
(1) It was well over 700 population - I'd forgotten about it.
(2) Conversion of Heretics Event, March 1606
(3) It looks like Events are the only way I'm going to get conversions, as yet another missionary falls flat. Hmm, at 1 per 185 years, it'll take... <runs out of fingers>
(4) No prizes for guessing what happens now...
(5) The Orissan AI likes all-cavalry armies. Good for movement, not so good for mountains - I hoped.
(6) This one totally caught me by surprise - 'They're fighting where?' I built a new galley to cover that sea zone south of Kwai, but it wasn't ready in time to matter.
(7) I still thought I was getting somewhere, when I saw another 30,000 Orissans coming south through Santal. My glorious Tibetan allies, BTW, massed 20,000 men in Nepal and then just sat there, looking down on the undefended plains of Koch...
(8) 36,000 men vs 40,000+, in a support-4 mountain province with a minimum fort. I was taking 20+% attrition, he was taking 30+%.
(9) I should have beaten Orissa - they're not that big (about a dozen provinces) and only Land Tech 12. But I was out of manpower, the fort in Assam was failing and I was terrified of China coming down on me while my armies were tied up in Santal & Chin. Peace cost me 150 ducats. One of these days, I'll actually win a war...
(10) Given Orissa's record, I decided upgrading the forts in Assam and Mandalay was probably worth it. More army support!
(11) Bourgeosie Request Privileges, February 1609. I went with 'Grant': -1 Aristocracy (now Aristocracy 5)
(12) And I am now 0/7 on missionaries
(13) Assassination of Noble, February 1611.
(14) Trade Tech 4 reached, January 1612. Also +1 Innovative (now Innovative 6). Work on Infrastructure 4 (which costs 38,000 <shudder>) can be put off no longer - inflation is starting to get worrying.
(15) Observation - infantry with firearms defeats natives really well, but isn't much good at killing them. I felt rather bad about hitting the 'attack natives' button six times running, but the colonist success chance (with natives) was around 35% and I didn't have the colonists or the cash to waste.
(16) I failed with four consecutive colonists at 65%. Having lost 4 surplus colonists in the explorers events, and stupidly sending two to TPs in Borneo to create space, I ran out by 1613 (I was only gaining 0.6/year due to DP settings).
(17) I was looking for Tahiti in the wrong sea zone <duh!>.
(18) At long last!
pkdickian & GreenPhrog - Thanks for the support!
"One of these days, I'll actually win a war."
You're doing well. Money can be replaced. And China will disintegrate soon (but watch out for huge bands of vagabonds raiding your border provinces).
Fighting in Burma is just fantastically difficult with the terrain. If you can get level 3 forts in those provinces you hardly even need to bother defending them.
You have my sympathies regarding lack of success with missionaries. Unless you have an excellent monarch, or provinces with your culture, you have to be really lucky to get conversions. Repeated and costly failures of missionaries are one of the worst frustrations in the game, IMHO of course.
Gold fever has struck the Thais, I see.
You're doing well. Money can be replaced. And China will disintegrate soon (but watch out for huge bands of vagabonds raiding your border provinces).
Fighting in Burma is just fantastically difficult with the terrain. If you can get level 3 forts in those provinces you hardly even need to bother defending them.
You have my sympathies regarding lack of success with missionaries. Unless you have an excellent monarch, or provinces with your culture, you have to be really lucky to get conversions. Repeated and costly failures of missionaries are one of the worst frustrations in the game, IMHO of course.
Gold fever has struck the Thais, I see.
Gold! Gold! Now perhaps the Elephant Thrones war machine can advance and repay all its past slights. New Ayutthaya seems to have a lot of independant control.
Chapter 13b - Ekat'otsarat (fl1612-1620)
Tuggurt's Gold
The discovery of the Wewak goldfields caused some consternation in the Court of Ayutthaya. Obviously, so valuable a resource should be exploited to the benefit of the Elephant Throne, but the region was so hostile, and so remote, that there was considerable dissention as to the proper course of action. Tuggurt's financial supporters in the Guild of Indonesian Trade suggested that the region fell within their purview; they offered both to provide the workers and to protect them using guards hired with their own resources. Their claims were immediately challenged by The Guild of Philippine Trade, who had more recent experience opening up unsettled districts; the viceroy of New Ayutthaya, from whose lands Tuggurt had sailed; and Tuggurt himself, who proposed to resolve the dispute by setting up a new Guild of Wewak to take charge of the goldfields. Back in the capital, Court officials worried about the prospect of so rich a revenue stream passing into the hands of any but the King.
Eventually, the courtiers won, the Guilds' offers were rejected and and the Expeditionary Army was mobilised to secure the province and establish Ayutthayan rule. The matter remained of the long, arduous sea-voyage to Wewak from the nearest established settlement in Tindore. Rejecting Tuggurt's offers of assistance, General Samanarat chose to follow a plan suggested by one of the King's advisors, of first establishing a settlement on the uninhabited Sorong penninsula and using it as a base from which to sail to the goldfields. A landing was made on Sorong in March of 1612, and the region rapidly pacified, but therafter progress slowed. The hostile jungles and unhealthy climate of Sorong - and perhaps more sinister forces - defeated every attempt to establish a permanent settlement there, let alone a fleet base. By mid-1614, Samanarat was ready to admit defeat (1).
At this point he wase approached again by Tuggurt, who had just returned from a long voyage to the northern seas, where he had reached the fabled lands of the Koreans and the Manchu. Swallowing his pride, the general agreed to accept Tuggurt's assistance, and so the explorer came to lead the Royal Fleet east from Tindore. Ships were wrecked and men died, but the Tuggurt's skills kept the fleet together, and the bulk of the army survived to reach the coast of Wewak. General Samanarat led his men ashore in October 1614, and they, doubtless grateful to be alive, slaughtered the local savages in a single merciless campaign. Returning to the landing site, they found they had to fend for themselves, for not even Tuggurt could find a safe anchorage on that desolate shore and the fleet had sailed for Tindore (2).
The fleet did not return until the middle of the next year, when Tuggurt brought out workers and artisans to build the first permanent settlement. Slightly under half of the Expeditionary Army eventually returned to Tindore, though it must be said that many of those who did came back rich men. Samanarat himself refused to speak to his 'rescuer', or to set foot upon Tuggurt's flagship. Stricken by a disease known as 'Wewak fever', he refused his offered promotion, resigned from the army and retired to his estates, never to serve in the field again.
The Guild of Overseas Gold, with King Ekat'otsarat as its Permanent Senior Member, was officially chartered in 1616. Tuggurt, as Acting Senior Member, retained his connections with the goldfields. In the years that followed, he divided his time between encouraging further settlement and expansion of the mining effort, and ploughing the funds accrued back into a series of ambitious voyages to the North and East. He reached as far as Hokkaido and the tundra of Nakhodka (3), but never again did any of his finds attract more than academic interest.
Messaud in India
While Tuggurt was covering himself in gold and honours in the far seas of the East, his fellow explorer was engaged in a less glamourous but no less significant endeavour. Year by year, voyage by voyage, Messaud slogged away to the West, endeavouring to uncover the mysterious west coast of India. His progress was unspectacular but steady. In 1612 he mapped the growing boundaries of Chinese influence in the south-west, where the Dragon's servants had rebuilt the settlement of Cochin and extended their outposts to Kerala and Trivandrum. The next year he mapped the vacant lands of Bombay; in 1616 he reached the northernmost Chinese outpost at Goa and finally, a few months before his death at sea in 1618, he reached the great trade port of Kutch (4), whose maps and charts had alway been kept secret by the greedy Sultans of Delhi. He never dined with the King, nor was a gilded stupa raised in his memory, but the Thai Quarter of the vast port of Kutch is still known as 'Messaud's Landing.'
The Quiet Years
At home, the years following the gold-strike at Wewak were placid ones. Not a single major domestic event is recorded in half a decade, and even foreign affairs touched the Kingdom only lightly. There was a minor scandal in 1612, when the Atjan ambassador was inadvertantly served pork at a royal banquet (5), but that was more than outweighed by the great State Visit the following year, when Howrah of Champa came to Ayutthaya in great magnificence and behaved towards Ekat'otsarat with proper courtesy and indeed deference (6). The only event that approached significance came in August 1614, when the Guilds presented a formal petition to the Throne, complaining about the increase of foreign shipping in Ayutthayan waters. The King was disinclined to act on their requests, declaring his fullest confidence in their ability to face such challenges without his assistance (7).
Meanwhile, to general relief in Ayutthaya and elsewhere, the Shogun of Nippon chose to expend his ferocity on his realm's Christians, a policy with whch the Elephant Throne was in full agreement. Further abroad, the Portuguese conducted another series of wars against various tribes in Europe, Africa and America, to no obvious benefit, and the English were actually humbled by the Iroqouis in 1614, causing many Ayutthayan smiles at the inability of Europeans to master overseas expansion. Forced to endure a full six months of peace before they were again in a postion to make war (8), the English reluctantly began to invest in fortifying their American colonies.
All in all, the region seemed more stable than it had been for decades. This made what followed all the more unexpected.
The Manchu Restoration
For some time, there had been rumblings coming from the north of China, concerning the inhabitants of the former Manchu lands, their numbers, ferocity and restlessness under the Dragon's foot. Still, the Imperial government appeared secure, and no-one anticipated the events of May 1615, when the Emperor appeared in public on the wall of the Forbidden City to announce that 'to avoid further perturbing the harmony of the Middle Kingdom', he was granting the Manchus self-government under their own leader! (9)
Just in case anyone thought this an admission of weakness, it was swiftly followed by an Imperial Rescript to all neighbouring countries, declaring that the Emperor had in no way remitted his claims to overlordship of the world, and tribute and service was expected of more than just the Manchus (10). Weakness was assumed anyway, but it appeared the Emperor had been correct. Those few local uprisings which did occur were swiftly snuffed out by the Imperial Legions, and the stability of the Empire restored within a very few years (11).
Final Moves
Ekat'otsarat was distracted during this time by a dispute with his provincial governors, who claimed that the rights and privileges granted to New Ayutthaya should be extended to every province inthe Kingdom. The governors had widespread support among the nobility and the general population of Old Ayutthaya, who resented the increasing prominence of the colonies, and Ekat'otsarat was eventually persuaded to back down (12). The Hindus of Surabaja, naturally, took their increased autonomy as an excuse for anti-Buddhist rioting and the disorder was suppressed only with difficulty (13).
Abroad, the Sultan of Arakan unexpectedly declared war on Pegu in May 1617. Ekat'otsarat, not wishing to see his vassal destroyed, considered intervention, but eventually decided Arakan was too weak to represent a serious threat (14).
Such a policy of leaving well enough alone would have served him well in other areas of diplomacy. Early in 1618, his secret negotiations with the 'under-king' of the Manchus were discovered by Chinese agents, causing a massive scandal and withdrawal of the Chinese ambassador (15). War threatened briefly and the King hastily renewed his ties with Tibet and Cambodia, not to mention ostentatiously supporting a rebel prince in Atjeh (16) so as to show that he had turned his attention from the North. But the Emperor had problems of his own - or perhaps he thought the King had learned his lesson - and the storm passed. Further contact with the Manchus was conducted unofficially, via Manchurian merchants resident in Malacca (17).
The last act of Ekat'otsarat's reign was the first fruits of Messaud's voyages. A group of Indian and Muslim artisans and shipwrights, unhappy with their treatment by the Sultan of Delhi, chose to sail east in search of greener pastures. The governor of Riau province permitted them to settle in Sumatra, and the new designs and techniques they brought helped to revitalise the tradition-bound shipbuilding practises of Ayutthaya (18).
The King did not live to see this, he was already in the grip of his final illness. He died at the end of 1619 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Songtham, a studious youth, unversed in the ways of war or diplomacy (19). Songtham took the title of Int'araja II, and with it the task of guiding Ayutthaya through the years that followed.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Notes
(1) Colonisation chance on Sorong was about 40% even without natives, and I was running out of colonists.
(2) Naval Attrition is a bitch, particularly when you can't built transports.
(3) I was trying to map some Korean and Manchurian provinces - I was expecting both nations to pop up again shortly.
(4) Another CoT to trade in! I know now 6 in total, though, bizarrely, Kutch is much more expensive to send merchants to than, say, Mascate.
The annoying bit is that, though Jodhpur and Hyderabad apparently exist, they don't have coastlines! Isolation penalty, how I love thee...
(5) Scandal at Court, February 1612. (-25 Relations with Atjeh).
(6) Diplomatic Move, May 1613. (+75 Relations with Champa).
(7) Foreign Trade Competition Rises, August 1614. I went with Deny New Tariffs (-1 Mercantilism, now Mercantilism 5) - I wanted more colonists!
(8) England is pulling a classic AI self-destruct. They DOW American natives every chance they get, fail to prosecute the wars properly (they've gained one whole province since they took out the Lenape back in the 1580s), and as a result are at perpetual -3 stability. The six months' delay was to let stability rise enough for another DOW.
(9) China went with 'We Are Too Weak' in the Manchu Rebellion event and released Manchu as a vassal.
(10) Diplomatic Insult from China, Jun 1615. I seriously thought I might get a chance to use the CB, but...
(11) I was left glaring at the screen going 'That was meant to be one of the great Chinese Revolt Events?!' China got +5RR from the event, which at -2 Stability gave an RR of 2 or 3 in every province. I counted three whole revolts in the two-and-a-half years China took to get back to +2 Stability, at which point the RR in all provinces was zero.
(12) Cities Demand Old Rights, Jun 1616. I went with 'Grant' (-1 Centralisation, now Centralisation 1). Centralisation isn't worth much in 1.05, and -3 Stability hurts.
(13) Heretics event, March 1617. Revolt in Surabaja.
(14) Arakan has been guaranteed by China. Neither side has an army - I'm hoping this war will be another no-combat fizzle.
(15) Scandal At Court, January 1618. (-100 Relations with China, Monarch Dip Skill -4 for 12 months).
(16) Support Dissidents in Atjeh, December 1618.
(17) Manchu sent a merchant to Malacca! I know another country!
(18) Unexpected Invention, Septemvber 1619. Naval Manufactory in Riau. I may yet reach Naval Tech 3!
(19) Adm Good, Mil Very Poor, Dip Poor. I forsee more conversion attempts.
jwolf - I'm still waiting for China to blow up (I thought it started in 1615, but no such luck). China has upwards of 200,000 soldiers, so the big revolt (when it comes) is going to be bloody - and if I want to gain provinces, I have to do it before the government starts to fall every other month. I think everything's going to depend on how many provinces Dai Viet revolts with - if it does. If the Vietnamese can pick up Hanoi and Lao Cai, I ought to be able to get Yunnan while China's distracted - rebel-held forts are much easier to assault. The risk will be an accidental turboannex of unwanted Confucian provinces.
My new ambition is to take out the Chinese holdings in India, preferably before they turn into Han Chinese cities. Not sure how I'm gonna do that without a turboannex....
27% success with missionaries isn't too bad - it's when you have a good monarch and the success chance is still <20% that things really suck. 0/7 at those odds is just unlucky - though I agree that the 'Whammo! 400 ducats down the drain!' result palls quickly.
Machiavellian - Give me a weak China or an Orissa without infinite cavalry. It's not the money that's the problem, it's the manpower. 21,000 men just don't go very far in a land war in Asia.
Regarding New Ayutthaya - I was at Centralisation 2, and Indonesia to Australia is several months (and an attrition hit) by Naval Tech 2 boat. I reckon they'd end up running their own show down there. Fortunately EU2 doesn't model independence movements
Tuggurt's Gold
The discovery of the Wewak goldfields caused some consternation in the Court of Ayutthaya. Obviously, so valuable a resource should be exploited to the benefit of the Elephant Throne, but the region was so hostile, and so remote, that there was considerable dissention as to the proper course of action. Tuggurt's financial supporters in the Guild of Indonesian Trade suggested that the region fell within their purview; they offered both to provide the workers and to protect them using guards hired with their own resources. Their claims were immediately challenged by The Guild of Philippine Trade, who had more recent experience opening up unsettled districts; the viceroy of New Ayutthaya, from whose lands Tuggurt had sailed; and Tuggurt himself, who proposed to resolve the dispute by setting up a new Guild of Wewak to take charge of the goldfields. Back in the capital, Court officials worried about the prospect of so rich a revenue stream passing into the hands of any but the King.
Eventually, the courtiers won, the Guilds' offers were rejected and and the Expeditionary Army was mobilised to secure the province and establish Ayutthayan rule. The matter remained of the long, arduous sea-voyage to Wewak from the nearest established settlement in Tindore. Rejecting Tuggurt's offers of assistance, General Samanarat chose to follow a plan suggested by one of the King's advisors, of first establishing a settlement on the uninhabited Sorong penninsula and using it as a base from which to sail to the goldfields. A landing was made on Sorong in March of 1612, and the region rapidly pacified, but therafter progress slowed. The hostile jungles and unhealthy climate of Sorong - and perhaps more sinister forces - defeated every attempt to establish a permanent settlement there, let alone a fleet base. By mid-1614, Samanarat was ready to admit defeat (1).
At this point he wase approached again by Tuggurt, who had just returned from a long voyage to the northern seas, where he had reached the fabled lands of the Koreans and the Manchu. Swallowing his pride, the general agreed to accept Tuggurt's assistance, and so the explorer came to lead the Royal Fleet east from Tindore. Ships were wrecked and men died, but the Tuggurt's skills kept the fleet together, and the bulk of the army survived to reach the coast of Wewak. General Samanarat led his men ashore in October 1614, and they, doubtless grateful to be alive, slaughtered the local savages in a single merciless campaign. Returning to the landing site, they found they had to fend for themselves, for not even Tuggurt could find a safe anchorage on that desolate shore and the fleet had sailed for Tindore (2).
The fleet did not return until the middle of the next year, when Tuggurt brought out workers and artisans to build the first permanent settlement. Slightly under half of the Expeditionary Army eventually returned to Tindore, though it must be said that many of those who did came back rich men. Samanarat himself refused to speak to his 'rescuer', or to set foot upon Tuggurt's flagship. Stricken by a disease known as 'Wewak fever', he refused his offered promotion, resigned from the army and retired to his estates, never to serve in the field again.
The Guild of Overseas Gold, with King Ekat'otsarat as its Permanent Senior Member, was officially chartered in 1616. Tuggurt, as Acting Senior Member, retained his connections with the goldfields. In the years that followed, he divided his time between encouraging further settlement and expansion of the mining effort, and ploughing the funds accrued back into a series of ambitious voyages to the North and East. He reached as far as Hokkaido and the tundra of Nakhodka (3), but never again did any of his finds attract more than academic interest.
Messaud in India
While Tuggurt was covering himself in gold and honours in the far seas of the East, his fellow explorer was engaged in a less glamourous but no less significant endeavour. Year by year, voyage by voyage, Messaud slogged away to the West, endeavouring to uncover the mysterious west coast of India. His progress was unspectacular but steady. In 1612 he mapped the growing boundaries of Chinese influence in the south-west, where the Dragon's servants had rebuilt the settlement of Cochin and extended their outposts to Kerala and Trivandrum. The next year he mapped the vacant lands of Bombay; in 1616 he reached the northernmost Chinese outpost at Goa and finally, a few months before his death at sea in 1618, he reached the great trade port of Kutch (4), whose maps and charts had alway been kept secret by the greedy Sultans of Delhi. He never dined with the King, nor was a gilded stupa raised in his memory, but the Thai Quarter of the vast port of Kutch is still known as 'Messaud's Landing.'
The Quiet Years
At home, the years following the gold-strike at Wewak were placid ones. Not a single major domestic event is recorded in half a decade, and even foreign affairs touched the Kingdom only lightly. There was a minor scandal in 1612, when the Atjan ambassador was inadvertantly served pork at a royal banquet (5), but that was more than outweighed by the great State Visit the following year, when Howrah of Champa came to Ayutthaya in great magnificence and behaved towards Ekat'otsarat with proper courtesy and indeed deference (6). The only event that approached significance came in August 1614, when the Guilds presented a formal petition to the Throne, complaining about the increase of foreign shipping in Ayutthayan waters. The King was disinclined to act on their requests, declaring his fullest confidence in their ability to face such challenges without his assistance (7).
Meanwhile, to general relief in Ayutthaya and elsewhere, the Shogun of Nippon chose to expend his ferocity on his realm's Christians, a policy with whch the Elephant Throne was in full agreement. Further abroad, the Portuguese conducted another series of wars against various tribes in Europe, Africa and America, to no obvious benefit, and the English were actually humbled by the Iroqouis in 1614, causing many Ayutthayan smiles at the inability of Europeans to master overseas expansion. Forced to endure a full six months of peace before they were again in a postion to make war (8), the English reluctantly began to invest in fortifying their American colonies.
All in all, the region seemed more stable than it had been for decades. This made what followed all the more unexpected.
The Manchu Restoration
For some time, there had been rumblings coming from the north of China, concerning the inhabitants of the former Manchu lands, their numbers, ferocity and restlessness under the Dragon's foot. Still, the Imperial government appeared secure, and no-one anticipated the events of May 1615, when the Emperor appeared in public on the wall of the Forbidden City to announce that 'to avoid further perturbing the harmony of the Middle Kingdom', he was granting the Manchus self-government under their own leader! (9)
Just in case anyone thought this an admission of weakness, it was swiftly followed by an Imperial Rescript to all neighbouring countries, declaring that the Emperor had in no way remitted his claims to overlordship of the world, and tribute and service was expected of more than just the Manchus (10). Weakness was assumed anyway, but it appeared the Emperor had been correct. Those few local uprisings which did occur were swiftly snuffed out by the Imperial Legions, and the stability of the Empire restored within a very few years (11).
Final Moves
Ekat'otsarat was distracted during this time by a dispute with his provincial governors, who claimed that the rights and privileges granted to New Ayutthaya should be extended to every province inthe Kingdom. The governors had widespread support among the nobility and the general population of Old Ayutthaya, who resented the increasing prominence of the colonies, and Ekat'otsarat was eventually persuaded to back down (12). The Hindus of Surabaja, naturally, took their increased autonomy as an excuse for anti-Buddhist rioting and the disorder was suppressed only with difficulty (13).
Abroad, the Sultan of Arakan unexpectedly declared war on Pegu in May 1617. Ekat'otsarat, not wishing to see his vassal destroyed, considered intervention, but eventually decided Arakan was too weak to represent a serious threat (14).
Such a policy of leaving well enough alone would have served him well in other areas of diplomacy. Early in 1618, his secret negotiations with the 'under-king' of the Manchus were discovered by Chinese agents, causing a massive scandal and withdrawal of the Chinese ambassador (15). War threatened briefly and the King hastily renewed his ties with Tibet and Cambodia, not to mention ostentatiously supporting a rebel prince in Atjeh (16) so as to show that he had turned his attention from the North. But the Emperor had problems of his own - or perhaps he thought the King had learned his lesson - and the storm passed. Further contact with the Manchus was conducted unofficially, via Manchurian merchants resident in Malacca (17).
The last act of Ekat'otsarat's reign was the first fruits of Messaud's voyages. A group of Indian and Muslim artisans and shipwrights, unhappy with their treatment by the Sultan of Delhi, chose to sail east in search of greener pastures. The governor of Riau province permitted them to settle in Sumatra, and the new designs and techniques they brought helped to revitalise the tradition-bound shipbuilding practises of Ayutthaya (18).
The King did not live to see this, he was already in the grip of his final illness. He died at the end of 1619 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Songtham, a studious youth, unversed in the ways of war or diplomacy (19). Songtham took the title of Int'araja II, and with it the task of guiding Ayutthaya through the years that followed.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Notes
(1) Colonisation chance on Sorong was about 40% even without natives, and I was running out of colonists.
(2) Naval Attrition is a bitch, particularly when you can't built transports.
(3) I was trying to map some Korean and Manchurian provinces - I was expecting both nations to pop up again shortly.
(4) Another CoT to trade in! I know now 6 in total, though, bizarrely, Kutch is much more expensive to send merchants to than, say, Mascate.
The annoying bit is that, though Jodhpur and Hyderabad apparently exist, they don't have coastlines! Isolation penalty, how I love thee...
(5) Scandal at Court, February 1612. (-25 Relations with Atjeh).
(6) Diplomatic Move, May 1613. (+75 Relations with Champa).
(7) Foreign Trade Competition Rises, August 1614. I went with Deny New Tariffs (-1 Mercantilism, now Mercantilism 5) - I wanted more colonists!
(8) England is pulling a classic AI self-destruct. They DOW American natives every chance they get, fail to prosecute the wars properly (they've gained one whole province since they took out the Lenape back in the 1580s), and as a result are at perpetual -3 stability. The six months' delay was to let stability rise enough for another DOW.
(9) China went with 'We Are Too Weak' in the Manchu Rebellion event and released Manchu as a vassal.
(10) Diplomatic Insult from China, Jun 1615. I seriously thought I might get a chance to use the CB, but...
(11) I was left glaring at the screen going 'That was meant to be one of the great Chinese Revolt Events?!' China got +5RR from the event, which at -2 Stability gave an RR of 2 or 3 in every province. I counted three whole revolts in the two-and-a-half years China took to get back to +2 Stability, at which point the RR in all provinces was zero.
(12) Cities Demand Old Rights, Jun 1616. I went with 'Grant' (-1 Centralisation, now Centralisation 1). Centralisation isn't worth much in 1.05, and -3 Stability hurts.
(13) Heretics event, March 1617. Revolt in Surabaja.
(14) Arakan has been guaranteed by China. Neither side has an army - I'm hoping this war will be another no-combat fizzle.
(15) Scandal At Court, January 1618. (-100 Relations with China, Monarch Dip Skill -4 for 12 months).
(16) Support Dissidents in Atjeh, December 1618.
(17) Manchu sent a merchant to Malacca! I know another country!
(18) Unexpected Invention, Septemvber 1619. Naval Manufactory in Riau
. I may yet reach Naval Tech 3!(19) Adm Good, Mil Very Poor, Dip Poor. I forsee more conversion attempts.
jwolf - I'm still waiting for China to blow up (I thought it started in 1615, but no such luck). China has upwards of 200,000 soldiers, so the big revolt (when it comes) is going to be bloody - and if I want to gain provinces, I have to do it before the government starts to fall every other month. I think everything's going to depend on how many provinces Dai Viet revolts with - if it does. If the Vietnamese can pick up Hanoi and Lao Cai, I ought to be able to get Yunnan while China's distracted - rebel-held forts are much easier to assault. The risk will be an accidental turboannex of unwanted Confucian provinces.
My new ambition is to take out the Chinese holdings in India, preferably before they turn into Han Chinese cities. Not sure how I'm gonna do that without a turboannex....
27% success with missionaries isn't too bad - it's when you have a good monarch and the success chance is still <20% that things really suck. 0/7 at those odds is just unlucky - though I agree that the 'Whammo! 400 ducats down the drain!' result palls quickly.
Machiavellian - Give me a weak China or an Orissa without infinite cavalry. It's not the money that's the problem, it's the manpower. 21,000 men just don't go very far in a land war in Asia.
Regarding New Ayutthaya - I was at Centralisation 2, and Indonesia to Australia is several months (and an attrition hit) by Naval Tech 2 boat. I reckon they'd end up running their own show down there. Fortunately EU2 doesn't model independence movements
The Chinese revolts start in 1615, really get going in the 1620s, and then go full-bore in the 1640s, peaking in 1644. If China picks all the historical choices, RR will be around 30 by then, courtesy of the RR stacking bug. Make sure to have lots of border contact and you should inherit a nice chunk of rebelling provinces.
I've been reading this AAR for a long time! It's great, keep up the good work and hopefully you'll be able to win a war eventually!
i've been away for a while, but i caught up on all the action going on over in SE asia. as always, great job merrick. with china about to be humbled in the next few years, it sounds like there will be little in your way of dominance in eastern asia. make sure to pay them back for all the indemnities in the past.
It does take a while for the Chinese revolts to hit full steam, as the others said. But my experience was that only with the first big one do you have a chance to get anything. After that, their government falls too often. You don't have time to siege a province, and rebel held provinces don't last long enough to defect by the time of the next government collapse.
At least the Chinese won't be the perennial threat they were for so long before.
It's funny when getting Naval tech 3 is a huge advancement -- in the 1600s!
I liked the description of "Wewak Fever" and how it affected your citizens.
At least the Chinese won't be the perennial threat they were for so long before.
It's funny when getting Naval tech 3 is a huge advancement -- in the 1600s!
I liked the description of "Wewak Fever" and how it affected your citizens.