Chapter 12: Making Money Without Resorting to Indulgences
No standing ovations for the brilliant victory over the French? Oh well... I'll need to find more difficult enemies for today's update...
As mentioned in the status update, our income is good, but not overwhelming. Lucky for us, our universities have improved our government technology for us: we have reached level 12, one of the most important techlevels, income-wise. We can now build constables!
For the cheap investment of 50 ducats (base costs), this wonderful building increases the direct tax income by 50%. I have the feeling that it is very worthwhile to mint money for these little fellows. A 50% increase in tax revenue also means a 50% increase in the yearly (inflation-free) census tax. Once you have constables in all your provinces, you'll get a noticeable increase in income, just try it out! It's well worth the 2% revolt risk, the only downside of the constable.
Now, more income. The constables will increase our yearly income, let's see if we can increase our monthly income as well. Trade is still out of the question, given our badboy rating. Gold! Our advisors tell us, the New World is full of gold! We set our Papal Eye on central America, containing the fabled Aztec gold mines...
So, we declare war on the Aztecs. First, some preparations. Use a conquistador to explore every single province you can reach -- this way the war will be easier, as you don't have to do this while actually attacking those pagans. Move a few armies into position. I used a large cavalry army to attack the Aztecs from the North, 2 small infantry armies to keep the gains (the routed Aztec armies will move everywhere and regain their territory). I also landed two smaller cavalry armies on the East coast. The AI tends to perform poorly against simultaneous two-front attacks. The EU3 AI is not too bad in that respect, as I noticed. Two conquistadors and 2 generals lead our troops, to be able to fight well and explore the remaining terra incognita.
The war is going well, we are driving the combined enemy armies south. Notice our fine general, Aldo Erizzo, his shock 6 rating killed literally thousands of enemies! Another gameplay tip:
Always chose "raise taxes even higher" in the Agricultural Revolution event. The manpower increase is only temporary and you can never have enough money! +2 base tax is a godsend, it will also increase your supportable amount of troops!
After some intense fighting, the war is over and we have occupied all of the provinces. Time to annex the pagans! Now, remember this: if the alliance partners you are fighting are more or less of equal power, the one you attacked will be alliance leader. You can't annex him, or that will count as a peace deal with the whole alliance! I made this mistake at first and had to reload an autosave. We annex the two other Indian tribes (as can be seen in the screenshot) and only
then the Aztecs.
Our new Central American holdings. Our first order is to build level one forts all over the newly acquired provinces. Rebels spawn so easily and you never know who will attack you. A level 1 fort is the most important province improvement you can build. Also note from the outliner that we are building constables like there is no tomorrow. My usual building queue in new provinces is a level one fort to be on the safe side, then a constable for the increase in taxes and only then a workshop. The Teutonic Order, our allies, arrived a little late on the the battlefield to get a share of the spoils. Tough for them, but I salute the AI that it actually manages overseas invasions to help an alliance partner!
With our overseas adventures continuing, we need to remedy a slight aesthetically unpleasing dent in our border: Sicily. They are our vassals and we thought that diploannexing the country would be the easiest. Unfortunately, given our continuously high badboy rating, this is impossible. We do have a little leeway in reputation, so we cancel the vassalisation of Sicily.
Immediately, every country decided it's a good idea to declare war on Sicily, given that the pope no longer protects the country. Gangbanging AI... well, we decide to join the crew! Sicily is Protestant, so we don't lose stability with the declaration of war.
Sicily is annexed in 1529. Our Italian borders look much nicer now. Take a look at France: the new country is Auvergne. It was force-released by the Mamluks in a peace deal. Bother, we had our eyes set to that particular province. And many other particular French provinces... Also see from the outliner that we are still building all those level one forts in central America and more constables!