The mind boggles
An excellent AAR. Is there anything you would have done differently?
An excellent AAR. Is there anything you would have done differently?
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1794-1820
Kongo world power, here we come...
As I promised at the end of my last report, the Iberians are set to get wrecked in this session. After putting my troops in position, I acquired an embargo CB and declared war on Portugal. Portugal tried to put up a fight, but I had them beat in manpower, morale, and even land tech. Before long I owned every Portugese province aside from the ones on the panninsula, and Tangiers. I was able to get the remaining African colonies and all but three Brazillian cities in the peace negotiation.
Next up was Spain. I was a little worried about Spain, because although I had at last reached CRT-parity with them on land, I was terribly behind on the seas. This was not a huge issue with Portugal, but Spain has more troops, and thwe war would probably last longer, so I needed some help. I noticed that Bulgaria was at the head of the alliance with England, so I bribed them up to join. Just when I was set to join, that alliance broke up, and England created a new one with their vassals, Portugal. Not to be deterred, I spent a small fortune bribing England, and joined their alliance. Then I acquired a CB and declared war. England honored the call. Portugal did not, but England quickly sucked them back into the alliance where they joined the war.
I was not prepared for how successful this war would be. The English naval power completely dominated the Spanish, which completely eliminated any threat I faced on all the major fronts. In addition to overrunning Spanish Argentina, I was able to capture Cartagena and Guantanamo by siege, which I had never before done. After capturing North Africa, I could see no reason not to jump across into Europe and continue the war. Granada was still Suuni, so it was a particularly inviting target.
After England and I captured a few provinces, the warscore reached 99%, and I made a deal for Granada, Cartagena, Guantanamo, a few provinces in Suraname, and the two former Moroccan provinces. The only remaining Spanish holdings were a few TPs in the South American interior, the potential La Plata revolter provinces in South America, and the Falklands, Tierra def Fuego, and Talahassee. The Falklands and Tierra def Fuego had been taken by the English before I could get there, and Wellington himself had pulled rank on me to steal the seige of Talahassee.
At this point I had an alliance with Portugal and a truce with Spain, so I was at a bit of a loss for where to turn next. I was considering France (although they had just sold a few of their provicnes to the USA) when France decided to save me the trouble and declare war on me. I'm not sure why they did this, but I wasn't complaining. Seeing that Bas St. Laurent in Canada was undefendable, I released Quebec as a vassal. I then proceeded to capture Isle Royale and France's last posessions in Africa. France had lots of troops on hand that could have mopped the floor with me, but England's sea power kept them safely under wraps. After England scored an impressive series of wins on the continent, France offered me my conquests in a peace (along with giving Bretagne to the English) and I gladly accepted.
After doing some final conversion attempts, I prepared myself for one last charge against the Spanish. After acquiring CB and declaring war, England honored the call and Portugal declined. This time, I wasn't going to let Portugal off so easily, so they got a DoW themselves six months later. England (who I had bribed back to +200) cancelled their vassalization and honored the call again. Perfect!
The Portugal war was easy. I grabbed the three remaining Brazillian colonies and Tangiers, and after a detachment of my spanish attack seized Algarve, they were willing to give me all their colonial territory (excpet Guangdong, I guess). Stick a fork in Portugal; they're done.
I had over 60,000 troops at the ready in Granada at the start of the war, with another 40,000 waiting to cross the water. England did its own damage from the north, and Spain was soon out of manpower and out of luck. I captured every remaining Spanish province outside the panninsula (except for Talahassee, which England once again pulled rank on.) I captured Toledo, at last giving me maps for the sea route to the west coast of America, and before long England and I had a 99% war score. Spain had clammed up (fallen asleep?) and was no longer making peace offers, but eventually I managed to get them to accept giving me all my non-penninsular gains, plus Gibraltar. Shortly after that I released La Plata, which was three poor wrong-religion, wrong-culture provinces that I no longer had any strategic need for.
At that point, with seven years to play, I had basically reached all my goals. I had wanted to diploannex Algeria, but they were longtime vassals of the Ottomans, so it was never possible. I reched infra four around this time, so I spent the next five years minting coin and promiting legal counsels (and tax collectors in the wrong-religion provinces where I hadn't) throughout my massive empire. I felt a little silly making long-term investments with 7 years to play, but I didn't have much else to do. With about two years left I got an event-based CB on the USA (who had recently purchased Talahassee), which I used, but I wasn't able to finish the war and grab the former French territories in time.
Here's some final shots of Africa, North America, Europe, and Asia.
Kongo world power, here we come...
As I promised at the end of my last report, the Iberians are set to get wrecked in this session. After putting my troops in position, I acquired an embargo CB and declared war on Portugal. Portugal tried to put up a fight, but I had them beat in manpower, morale, and even land tech. Before long I owned every Portugese province aside from the ones on the panninsula, and Tangiers. I was able to get the remaining African colonies and all but three Brazillian cities in the peace negotiation.
Next up was Spain. I was a little worried about Spain, because although I had at last reached CRT-parity with them on land, I was terribly behind on the seas. This was not a huge issue with Portugal, but Spain has more troops, and thwe war would probably last longer, so I needed some help. I noticed that Bulgaria was at the head of the alliance with England, so I bribed them up to join. Just when I was set to join, that alliance broke up, and England created a new one with their vassals, Portugal. Not to be deterred, I spent a small fortune bribing England, and joined their alliance. Then I acquired a CB and declared war. England honored the call. Portugal did not, but England quickly sucked them back into the alliance where they joined the war.
I was not prepared for how successful this war would be. The English naval power completely dominated the Spanish, which completely eliminated any threat I faced on all the major fronts. In addition to overrunning Spanish Argentina, I was able to capture Cartagena and Guantanamo by siege, which I had never before done. After capturing North Africa, I could see no reason not to jump across into Europe and continue the war. Granada was still Suuni, so it was a particularly inviting target.
After England and I captured a few provinces, the warscore reached 99%, and I made a deal for Granada, Cartagena, Guantanamo, a few provinces in Suraname, and the two former Moroccan provinces. The only remaining Spanish holdings were a few TPs in the South American interior, the potential La Plata revolter provinces in South America, and the Falklands, Tierra def Fuego, and Talahassee. The Falklands and Tierra def Fuego had been taken by the English before I could get there, and Wellington himself had pulled rank on me to steal the seige of Talahassee.
At this point I had an alliance with Portugal and a truce with Spain, so I was at a bit of a loss for where to turn next. I was considering France (although they had just sold a few of their provicnes to the USA) when France decided to save me the trouble and declare war on me. I'm not sure why they did this, but I wasn't complaining. Seeing that Bas St. Laurent in Canada was undefendable, I released Quebec as a vassal. I then proceeded to capture Isle Royale and France's last posessions in Africa. France had lots of troops on hand that could have mopped the floor with me, but England's sea power kept them safely under wraps. After England scored an impressive series of wins on the continent, France offered me my conquests in a peace (along with giving Bretagne to the English) and I gladly accepted.
After doing some final conversion attempts, I prepared myself for one last charge against the Spanish. After acquiring CB and declaring war, England honored the call and Portugal declined. This time, I wasn't going to let Portugal off so easily, so they got a DoW themselves six months later. England (who I had bribed back to +200) cancelled their vassalization and honored the call again. Perfect!
The Portugal war was easy. I grabbed the three remaining Brazillian colonies and Tangiers, and after a detachment of my spanish attack seized Algarve, they were willing to give me all their colonial territory (excpet Guangdong, I guess). Stick a fork in Portugal; they're done.
I had over 60,000 troops at the ready in Granada at the start of the war, with another 40,000 waiting to cross the water. England did its own damage from the north, and Spain was soon out of manpower and out of luck. I captured every remaining Spanish province outside the panninsula (except for Talahassee, which England once again pulled rank on.) I captured Toledo, at last giving me maps for the sea route to the west coast of America, and before long England and I had a 99% war score. Spain had clammed up (fallen asleep?) and was no longer making peace offers, but eventually I managed to get them to accept giving me all my non-penninsular gains, plus Gibraltar. Shortly after that I released La Plata, which was three poor wrong-religion, wrong-culture provinces that I no longer had any strategic need for.
At that point, with seven years to play, I had basically reached all my goals. I had wanted to diploannex Algeria, but they were longtime vassals of the Ottomans, so it was never possible. I reched infra four around this time, so I spent the next five years minting coin and promiting legal counsels (and tax collectors in the wrong-religion provinces where I hadn't) throughout my massive empire. I felt a little silly making long-term investments with 7 years to play, but I didn't have much else to do. With about two years left I got an event-based CB on the USA (who had recently purchased Talahassee), which I used, but I wasn't able to finish the war and grab the former French territories in time.
Here's some final shots of Africa, North America, Europe, and Asia.
Some final thoughts:
There's no doubt that I had some lucky breaks in this game. The most notable among them were:
- The Ashanti capture of Ivoria, which allowed me to begin "breaking the isolation" much earlier. This allowed me to get decent tech development from the late 1400s on (by losing the isolation penalty). Also, it's hard to say whether I would have had the persistence and the forsight to exchange maps all the way through Asia if I had had to balance that with fighting wars and making treaties in the late 1500s and early 1600s. That map-trading was what eventually allowed me to map-trade out to the Americas. Remember that I never had a chance at an explorer in this game, and stealing maps from Tago was out of the question until it was pointless anyway.
- The very quick conversion to Suuni, which made many of my gains possible. Nubia and Zimbabwe have an equal chance of drawing that event, yet they remained their original religion to the end. Besides the obvious tech and stability bonuses, being Suuni allowed me to ally with and eventually annex two African states, and it allowed me to culture-flip several former Benin and former Aztec provinces, both of which were crucial gains.
In retrospect, given the number of gains I had in the Americas, being catholic may have been even better. But beggars can't be choosers.
- The relative weakness of Spain. Spain never conquered the Inca or Aztec, and had only fortified two American colonies when I began to assert myself on that continent. If they had been stronger, it's unlikely I could have overcome them. Remember that I had to deal with the same long supply line as they did, but with fewer, weaker ships.
Do I have any regrets? Yes, I do.
- not being even more agressive trying to exchange maps with Morocco. I guess I didn't really believe it would work until it did. I should have been asking them with every single diplomat, I guess. If I had gotten those maps twenty years earlier, I could have probably gotten maps across the Atlantic far earlier as well, in addition to getting 20 more years without the isolation penalty.
- claiming sole defender of the faith. I knew I'd reget it, I did it, and I regretted it. I never got a useful CB out of it. It also slows your tech research, which I didn't realize when I claimed it. Those 1000 ducats would have saved me some early game minting.
But as far as the broad movements of my empire - no, no regrets there. I think I picked the right fights and the right enemies for the most part. If I had had another hundred years, I would have taken the Southern USA, then I would have taken out Iberia, and I would have taken out any pagan state at the first opportunity.
The biggest question mark I have regards my DP settings. At the beginning of the game, Kongo is aristocratic decentralized mercantile land serfdom, with 5's in innovativeness and offensive, and a 3 in quality. I chose to boost centralization and innovativeness first, then drop serfdom, and finally raise offensive and quality to 9. While this gave me a very good setup for my situation, it did keep me from getting any colonists, which kept me from colonizing the coast. Even at the end of the game, the coastal provinces running south of the Kongo core were only level 7 colonies. I got some colonists by event, but those were mostly used to convert colonies that I captured or to put colonies that had large populations over the top to colonial city status.
So, I do think about whether it would have been better to leave innovativeness lower, and in stead to lower mercantilism with my slider shifts. The downside of this, obviously, would be slower technology. It was only in the last 25 years that I actually caught any Europeans in land tech, and that allowed me to make major gains toward the end, completing my conquest of South and Central America. So, it's definitely an open question. If I had been Catholic in stead of Suuni, I would have been more likely to go this route, since it only would have taken a few slider shifts to give me a positive flow of colonists.
There's no doubt that I had some lucky breaks in this game. The most notable among them were:
- The Ashanti capture of Ivoria, which allowed me to begin "breaking the isolation" much earlier. This allowed me to get decent tech development from the late 1400s on (by losing the isolation penalty). Also, it's hard to say whether I would have had the persistence and the forsight to exchange maps all the way through Asia if I had had to balance that with fighting wars and making treaties in the late 1500s and early 1600s. That map-trading was what eventually allowed me to map-trade out to the Americas. Remember that I never had a chance at an explorer in this game, and stealing maps from Tago was out of the question until it was pointless anyway.
- The very quick conversion to Suuni, which made many of my gains possible. Nubia and Zimbabwe have an equal chance of drawing that event, yet they remained their original religion to the end. Besides the obvious tech and stability bonuses, being Suuni allowed me to ally with and eventually annex two African states, and it allowed me to culture-flip several former Benin and former Aztec provinces, both of which were crucial gains.
In retrospect, given the number of gains I had in the Americas, being catholic may have been even better. But beggars can't be choosers.
- The relative weakness of Spain. Spain never conquered the Inca or Aztec, and had only fortified two American colonies when I began to assert myself on that continent. If they had been stronger, it's unlikely I could have overcome them. Remember that I had to deal with the same long supply line as they did, but with fewer, weaker ships.
Do I have any regrets? Yes, I do.
- not being even more agressive trying to exchange maps with Morocco. I guess I didn't really believe it would work until it did. I should have been asking them with every single diplomat, I guess. If I had gotten those maps twenty years earlier, I could have probably gotten maps across the Atlantic far earlier as well, in addition to getting 20 more years without the isolation penalty.
- claiming sole defender of the faith. I knew I'd reget it, I did it, and I regretted it. I never got a useful CB out of it. It also slows your tech research, which I didn't realize when I claimed it. Those 1000 ducats would have saved me some early game minting.
But as far as the broad movements of my empire - no, no regrets there. I think I picked the right fights and the right enemies for the most part. If I had had another hundred years, I would have taken the Southern USA, then I would have taken out Iberia, and I would have taken out any pagan state at the first opportunity.
The biggest question mark I have regards my DP settings. At the beginning of the game, Kongo is aristocratic decentralized mercantile land serfdom, with 5's in innovativeness and offensive, and a 3 in quality. I chose to boost centralization and innovativeness first, then drop serfdom, and finally raise offensive and quality to 9. While this gave me a very good setup for my situation, it did keep me from getting any colonists, which kept me from colonizing the coast. Even at the end of the game, the coastal provinces running south of the Kongo core were only level 7 colonies. I got some colonists by event, but those were mostly used to convert colonies that I captured or to put colonies that had large populations over the top to colonial city status.
So, I do think about whether it would have been better to leave innovativeness lower, and in stead to lower mercantilism with my slider shifts. The downside of this, obviously, would be slower technology. It was only in the last 25 years that I actually caught any Europeans in land tech, and that allowed me to make major gains toward the end, completing my conquest of South and Central America. So, it's definitely an open question. If I had been Catholic in stead of Suuni, I would have been more likely to go this route, since it only would have taken a few slider shifts to give me a positive flow of colonists.
Thanks Stroph, and all the others who complimented me.Originally posted by Stroph1
Nicely done!
CLAP CLAP CLAP
juszuf7 - the problem with merchants in this game was that most of the world was way ahead of me in trade tech, so I had a hard time holding merchants in any CoT with heavy competition. I had a monopoly in all four CoTs that I owned (although Zacatecas was often a struggle, even with a TA with the USA), and I kept five merchants in Zanzibar and in England's colonial CoT. Besides that I just used merchants as a tool to get CBs. Usually Spain would ban me after all six of my merchants failed :wacko:
Very impressive, doktarr! I enjoyed the Kongo's expansion and your final thoughts on the game.
Thanks a lot for writing it
Thanks a lot for writing it
Bravo! Bravo!
Not only for the great AAR, but also for the will to play it to the end! It's hard to finish one AAR these days
You should go after... Hmm... I don't think there's a country more isolated than Kongo...
Not only for the great AAR, but also for the will to play it to the end! It's hard to finish one AAR these days
You should go after... Hmm... I don't think there's a country more isolated than Kongo...
