For God's Sake - A Castile AAR

[comagoosie]

not comagoosieburg

the war with lithuania was look kinda easy

as should be expected.

[stnylan]

Well, perhaps it is time to start to conquer Lithuania.

[Duke of Wellington]

Some great results in those wars. This is becoming a little like shopping for provinces I think. But I think you're empire is stretched thin in the middle, you need to take a lot more of France in order to be more aesthetically pleasing.

[Enewald]

Comagoosieburg shall be yours...

And again more proinces gained...

[robou]

Lots of provinces with no armies to stop you claiming them.. Lithuania is the perfect target

[asd21593]

You conquer too much!

Great AAR



asd

[PrawnStar]

Feedback time

Boss Hogg aka comagoosie Yes, comagoosieburg, but you manage a sneaky trick so don't feel too bad...

Lithuania wasn't too hard it just ate a lot of manpower (~75000) - I wiped out about 130 enemy regiments so there was a lot of fighting and of course I had quite a bit of winter attrition as well. Lithuania has been very badly knocked about, it'll take the AI quite a while to rebuild troop levels. As a general principle taking down a major involves smashing them senseless in the first big war and then hitting them over and over again as fast as possible. Stability management considerations preclude an optimal schedule for same religion countries but hopefully I'll demonstrate the idea more clearly when I get to Asia.

stnylan Agreed, it's Lithuania time, but I need them to DOW as I don't want the stab hit. It's also worth appreciating that three or four provinces is about as much as I can get in any one peace deal so I could still be fighting them in 1700 if I get the diplomacy wrong.

Duke of Wellington It's not terribly hard to win wars which is why my goals aren't defined in military terms. Cartographical changes in western europe are on the way.

Enewald Size matters, or so I'm told

robou Lithuania would be the perfect target if it wasn't Catholic, Burgundy on the other hand

asd21593 Thanks!

Update soonish, probably tonight. I've given up waiting for peace before ending the next update

[robou]

Burgundy on the other hand

sneaky devil

[PrawnStar]

@ Robou Thanks, that's the nicest thing anyone has said to me all day!

Update 32

The years of war continue…

05/02/1583 Charcas converts

06/02/1583 Conversion of Ruppin fails

05/06/1583 Conversion of Banat fails

05/06/1583 Peace with Poland for 50 ducats – I want to keep Poland alive as they may ally with other Catholic nations and offer a stab cost free route to war.

02/07/1583 Mecklenburg accepts annexation

Two Protestant OPMs, one annexed, one ignored. Both Mecklenburg and Poland could serve as diplomatic bait. However, Poland is entirely surrounded by my land, nothing is going to happen to it. Mecklenburg as coastal could get annexed and as a COT would add half a war worth of war score to another country – very inconvenient if France or Burgundy gained the territory. Mecklenburg can also be a real colony spammer – not good if it means the spread of Protestantism.

01/08/1583 Production 16

08/10/1583 Conversion of Macedonia fails

01/01/1584 Burgundy has no troops left, the slow process of taking enough cities to enforce a harsh peace continues. France still has forces in the field and scarily large fleets but provinces are starting to fall, I expect peace will be achieved within the next year.

01/01/1584 Also sees the 25th Anniversary of the BB wars, to celebrate I core on the former English possessions.

The Rise of Persia



Yes, that sandy coloured stuff on the Asian side of the Bosphorus is Persia

03/02/1584 Conversion of Hamburg fails

29/05/1584 Inca Empire declares WAR

03/06/1584 Peace with Burgundy



This is a 100 point peace deal from a 79% and rising war score. Brabant and Holland are both Catholic so that should be two conversions saved.

04/06/1584 Peace with France



This is a 98 point peace deal from a 60% and rising war score – with Burgundy defeated I could put a lot more troops in the field. All five provinces are Catholic, I continue to try and ‘persuade’ France to go Protestant.

The screenie also shows the Canadian coast and offshore isles – with the gains in the treaty the whole coast is now Castilian and Catholic. There are still a lot of colonies here but settlers continue to drift across the Atlantic. Colonists are sent as soon as they arrive but I’ve pretty much lost all track of any plans for a colonisation strategy.

06/06/1584 Salonica converts

01/08/1584 Land 16

07/08/1584 Makassar declares WAR on Castile

08/08/1584 Brunei joins Makassar at WAR with Castile

26/09/1584 Mecklenburg respawns in a new colony in Damaraland

28/09/1584 Castile declares WAR on Mecklenburg

If this happens don’t seize the colony that is the capital – because then you can’t end the war. I’ve encountered this in a previous game. Remember I’m playing 1.3 so this may not be true in NA or IN.

16/10/1584 Inca Empire accepts peace – disappointingly they’ve ran out of cash, I took 75 ducats and all their cores. Annexation next time.

03/11/1584 Mecklenburg accepts annexation, again.

09/12/1584 Mamluks declare WAR on Castile

10/12/1584 Kanem Bornu declares WAR on Castile in support of the Mamluks

War exhaustion is 5.95.

As always questions and comments are welcome. I'll do my best to answer or explain. I'm aware I might not be too clear as to what's happening, things get a bit frantic at times in BB wars - even when I've paused

[comagoosie]

Mecklenburg got annexed NO

26/09/1584 Mecklenburg respawns in a new colony in Damaraland

Yes!!

03/11/1584 Mecklenburg accepts annexation, again.

NOOOO!!!

[robou]

slowly chewing away the low countries... pity you can't attack Burgundy quicker, those are nice provinces... but hellishly high war score

[Duke of Wellington]

I like to see Mecklenburg annexed a second time, especially when it's in South Africa.

[Pilus Prior]

Great progress. I wonder what is the size of Castilian Navy? What is your financial situation, how much is army, colony and missionary upkeep costing you?

[Enewald]

Comagoosieburg has been annexed!

Hail Castille!

Persia... better to start searching for Alexander...

[stnylan]

Pesky Mecklenburgers!

No particular troubles this update.

[PrawnStar]

Feedback time

comagoosie

robou There are ways of attacking a country without having to wait five years assuming I have to DOW, is this foreshadowing?

Duke of Wellington At least I knew the place they ran away to - in a previous game I had an annexed country respawn in Terra Incognita - I was very confused when I started seeing evidence of their continued existence! It's also a neat trick for pushing up my annexation count

Pilus Prior Hello and thanks for commenting. Can I ask you to be patient? Stats etc at the end of the next update, which should be tomorrow morning (12 hours or so).

Enewald I knew that you would appreciate Mecklenburg's fate

Persia, you see why I don't want a border until I'm ready!

stnylan

Pesky Mecklenburgers!

Not any more

This update was relatively straight forward, neither France or Burgundy have built up enough forces to slow me down - Burgundy is close to speedbump status. However, I started at war I stayed at war and I finished at war, war exhaustion and associated revolt risk grows.

[PrawnStar]

Update 33

The years of war continue…

03/02/1585 Cajamarca converts

10/02/1585 Conversion of Volhynia fails

04/03/1585 Brunei offers White Peace – Accepted

Naval battles occur the length of the Mediterranean; Mamluk fleets are taking significant losses. The advantage of holding all the islands is really helping as my fleets are always in home waters.

I’m not Nelson!



Naval superiority is achieved, however my claims to being poor at naval warfare are proven – I have a 10 tech level advantage and forgot to use an admiral.

11/06/1585 Kanem Bornu accepts White Peace

A big victory against the Mamluks will take long time, they have only deployed one army (19 regiments), presumably the rest of their forces are slowly heading towards Tunisia, the only common border.

01/08/1585 Naval 16

06/08/1585 Naxos declares WAR on Castile

I know, you’re thinking so what!

06/08/1585 Burgundy declares WAR in support of Naxos

07/08/1585 Poland declares WAR in support of Naxos

Good! Actually, I had a moment of panic, I thought Naxos was still allied to Persia – they were released by the Ottomans in a Peace deal with Persia.

Working the Game Engine



I take advantage of the +1 stab boost to move an extra point to Free Trade, it’s worth 0.2 colonists a year. You can see my slider settings and the current colonies. Since the BB wars started my attempts to develop interior Brazil have ended, I’ve been busy building up the colonies I’ve seized. I’ve been a bit paranoid about this since the game where the Mamluks seized Diego Garcia off me!

28/09/1585 Venice declares WAR on Castile

29/09/1585 Crimea declares WAR on Castile in support of Venice

04/10/1585 Conversion of Anhalt fails

10/10/1585 Chiquitos converts

10/12/1585 Naxos accepts annexation

05/02/1586 Lubeck converts

01/04/1586 The 6* Theologian dies, I replace him with the 3* Theologian he replaced a decade earlier.

18/04/1586 Poland offers White Peace – accepted. The diplomatic imperative to keep Poland alive hasn’t changed.

27/05/1586 Crimea accepts peace – 50 ducats and their last two cores. As they border Persia I do not want to annex them.

10/06/1586 Bessarabia converts

01/09/1586 Trade 16

Peace with Burgundy - 28/09/1586



98 Point peace and both provinces are still Catholic, more missionaries saved.

09/10/1586 Hamburg converts

Peace with Venice - 13/10/1586



Another 98 point peace, Venice is now a two province minor, but Azow borders Persia so for now they’ll stay intact.

Peace with the Mamluks - 06/01/1587



34 point peace after 49% score – I have destroyed over 75 regiments.

Peace!

06/01/1587 Stats

BadBoy 262.78
War Exhaustion 6.72
Inflation 4.1%
Manpower 196k of 200k max
Reinforcement need 25,042
Census Tax 1612.26
Monthly income 706.6


Annual expenditure

Army maintenance (depending on casualties in the month) is around 70 ducats

Naval maintenance is around 8 ducats

Colonists cost about 130 ducats a year

Missionaries cost around 500 ducats a year

I don’t build province improvements – with very limited exceptions such as Courthouses in negative religious tolerance provinces or larger fortresses in provinces with low conversion chances.

The one thing that proves expensive is naval rebuilding – I’ve had to rebuild fleets on several occasions.

I actually have enough money – ahead of time across all techs and having National Bank I can happily mint if I need cash. I’ve also raised a lot of money from the Inca, 6050 ducats.

Force composition

[stnylan]

Peace is good Even, or perhaps especially, when it is temporary.

[PrawnStar]

Update 34

Religious update

Castile 30th May 1453:

13 Catholic provinces

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Castile 1st January 1566:

6 Sunni provinces
3 Shamanist provinces
1 Reformed province
6 Protestant provinces
4 Orthodox provinces
8 Animist provinces

234 Catholic provinces

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Castile 6th January 1587:

7 Sunni provinces
1 Reformed province
10 Protestant provinces
7 Orthodox provinces
15 Animist provinces

332 Catholic provinces

Reformation and Counter-Reformation

[Enewald]

Lithuania has converted this time something...

Peace, but for a year or two?