For God's Sake - A Castile AAR

Feedback time

comagoosie Interesting, how many land provinces are there?

aldriq Ming is worth 1500 - 1600 war score - a lot of wars unless I can create some very serious rebel problems.

Jambor Don't shout otherwise everyone will want one actually if people have requests fell free and I'll try and provide the info. The only problem I have is with screenies is I have to upload them as singles - bulk uploads always fail

Enewald I find it very soothing

robou I could place a colony in every province but I'm not sure how many will fall short of being fully developed at game end and I'm trying to have fully developed cities wherever possible. However, I certainly intend to get close to full colourisation.

Update 67

Update 67​

30/01/1680 Samarkand converts

01/02/1680 Production 34

05/05/1680 Tara converts

01/06/1680 Trade 34

25/06/1680 Lamu converts

21/09/1680 Conversion of Najd fails

01/10/1680 Naval 34

26/11/1680 Khiva converts

09/01/1681 Lithuania declares WAR on Castile

10/01/1681 Qasim Khanate declares WAR on Castile in support of Lithuania

01/02/1681 Land 34

10/02/1681 Thrace converts – all hail the power of the Level 5 fort

16/02/1681 Qasim Khanate accepts annexation

17/02/1681 Lithuania accepts annexation

So near to Christian unity…



01/05/1681 Checking the advisor pool I find a 12 year 2* Theologian so I swap out the 3* artist. – I now have 5 stars worth of Theologians, that’s +10% conversion chance.

03/05/1681 Multan converts

18/06/1681 Burtasia converts

01/09/1681 Land 35 – new Infantry! I take Bluecoat Infantry – they always seem the best mix of offensive and defensive values.

12/09/1681 Cairo converts – this is the last African settled province that needed to be converted. Africa is now Catholic. At this point I suddenly realised that changing troop type at the start of the month might not have been too clever if the conversion had failed. The 6k Garrison force wasn’t all that large compared with the potential revolt.

30/11/1681 Karshi converts

01/01/1682 Land 36

03/03/1682 Kabulistan converts

25/04/1682 Laristan converts

22/06/1682 Ajam converts

01/07/1682 Production 35

20/09/1682 Murgan converts

01/11/1682 The 1* Theologian dies, I replace with a 3* Artist as a gesture towards regaining +3 stab – that would take around 37 years of full investment!

02/12/1682 Ferghana converts

01/01/1683 Naval 35

04/01/1683 Brunei declares WAR on Castile

05/01/1683 Chagatai declares WAR on Castile in support of Brunei

14/02/1683 Conversion of Tula fails

08/04/1683 Orissa declares WAR on Castile

09/04/1683 Rajputana declares WAR on Castile in support of Orissa

Rajputana is currently badly losing a war against Vijayanagar. I need to be very careful I don’t provoke a total collapse of Rajputana.

04/05/1683 Kathiwar converts

14/06/1683 Conversion of Konya fails

01/07/1683 Trade 35

30/08/1683 Peace with Brunei. As alliance leader they hand over 4 provinces of their own and one from Chagatai. I continue to avoid having a land border with Ming in South East Asia.

South East Asia



22/09/1683 Mazandaran converts

27/09/1683 The Regency Council ends – Juana II A/D/M – 7/4/6

Yippee ki yay…

Feedback time

OK, apologies all around as the promised, and expected, updatefest hasn't happened. Basically I've been off work this week and instead of hardcore gaming I've taken my girlfriend out to lunch a couple of times - which has tended to end up getting home 10 hours later absolutely wasted

The strategy aspect of strategy gaming tends to suffer when I have a hangover - especially since the house next door is being renovated and there are workmen hammering from 8 in the morning - which is not a friendly time of day

comagoosie She's a Queen, she may have more balls than my last three kings but definitely a Queen!

Enewald Now that is definitely the right idea

robou I was veeery pleased to see admin 7 - there are still a lot of provinces to convert - I conquer quite quickly

aldriq Wait tax evasion you say - OK that is serious. I wouldn't normally want to declare war on fellow Catholics but tax evaders...

Actually, I can't take the stab hit

Jambor Now now, they're Swedish, watch out or they'll torment you with self assembly furniture.

Capibara Only nation on earth, sounds pretty reasonable to me - and guess what - that won't be the end of the AAR!

OK, due to the whole quality time/drinking thing I haven't played more than another month ahead - I aim to update over the weekend.

Update 68

Update 68​

01/11/1683 Gov’t 35

18/11/1683 Badiyat Ash Sham converts

02/01/1684 Castile declares WAR on Persia

09/02/1684 Conversion of Bursa fails

18/02/1684 Peace with Persia, they cede Bithynia and some cores to be left an OPM

01/03/1684 Gov’t 36

01/07/1684 Production 36

02/07/1684 Bakkar converts

26/07/1684 Ratchaburi converts

01/10/1684 Castile declares WAR on Vijayanagar

02/10/1684 Bali declares WAR on Castile in support of Vijayanagar

11/10/1684 Altai converts

01/11/1684 Trade 36

20/11/1684 Luristan converts

28/12/1684 Bali accepts annexation

05/01/1685 Vijayanagar and Rajputana sign a White Peace – this is very good as it stops Vijayanagar getting any bigger at least for now.

19/02/1685 Shirvan converts

01/03/1685 Naval 36

19/06/1685 Tula converts

The war in India is fairly confused but hostile forces are being destroyed in large numbers.

The Indian Theatre



10/07/1685 Peace with Rajputana

Burma



A little explanation is probably needed here. I’ve taken Rajput territories in Burma because that builds me a stronger position to take bits of Orissa. The fothcoming peace deals with Orissa and Vijayanagar will hopefully improve the overall position here. I want to get to a position where I have a land connection across India and then take the Ming bordering provinces off Rajputana and Orissa leaving them both as OPMs all at the same time.

Red marks the provinces gained in the peace deal, blue provinces I want to gain in this set of wars.

24/07/1685 Rayong converts

18/09/1685 Ryazan converts

No more Orthodox*



* There are still two unsettled provinces that have Orthodox as their base religion – they’re Tropical so I’ve been waiting for a high Admin monarch…

14/10/1685 Peace with Orissa

Burma, Part II



07/11/1685 Conversion of Banjarmasin fails

17/11/1685 Peace with Vijayanagar

Northern India



The circled unit shows a conquistador – the first one in a decade – due to the colonist shortage I’ve been very sparing in exploring efforts. This guy is going to see the world, mainly by teleportation.

20/02/1686 Simbirsk converts

01/03/1686 Production 37

07/05/1686 Koda converts

22/06/1686 Najd converts

17/09/1686 Alania converts

18/11/1686 The Queen dies, after generations without a high Admin monarch, my high Admin Queen lasts 7½ years

Feedback time

robou I think you'll find there are no bad monarchs in official Castilian histories, just a few who are differently talented...

Lord Strange Yip we've lost the Queen, definitely had her when we left the palace, remember all the bowing and scraping and stuff, but... Oh hang on we did take a short cut past that fancy new shoe shop

comagoosie Cheers! Conversions are pretty successfully but I've never built this many high level forts in a game.

aldriq Republic With my stab costs there is no way I'm doing anything like that. There is no chance of regaining +3 from +2 - the cost is 1.2 million. The target is rising faster than the amount invested although I could try investing (~ 37 years) or spamming Fine Art Academies if I was really bothered.

Voting isn't Catholic so we'll have none of that!

unddu I really don't see how I could convert the world to Protestant under 1.3 - I don't think that there are enough missionaries when you take the inevitable failures in to account. I will be hugely impressed when you do that in IN although the way missionaries appear to work makes it seem easier?

Have you read Nebuchnezzar's Ottoman EU2 World Conversion AAR? - that really is incredible gaming.

As for beating me to WC you started 54 years earlier IN also offers better opportunities to manipulate the diplomatic system but if I turboannexed you'd have no chance

If dear ReadAARs you haven't looked at unddu's Meck WC AAR give it a go if you like WC gameplay details - and you probably do if you've made it this far in my AAR It's a good read (apart from me spamming with questions o )

Enewald True Love lasts forever, don't you ever watch date movies?

Update 69

Update 69​

Meet the new Queen, cute Admin score!

Isabel III A/D/M 7/4/6



Notice the map – just two Shia provinces left.

01/03/1687 Trade 37

08/03/1687 Argyn converts

29/03/1687 Conversion of Satsuma fails

20/04/1687 Dagestan converts

01/05/1687 Castile declares WAR on Japan

02/05/1687 Ming declares WAR on Castile in support of Japan

09/06/1687 Bursa converts

01/12/1687 Udong converts

23/01/1688 Ayutthaya converts

Nine months in and Japan is entirely on the defensive. Some 30 regiments and 30 ships were destroyed in the first three months; only a few replacements have been assembled. Sieges are slowly progressing as there is plenty of time before Ming is likely want to make peace so no need to take chances.

Ming’s border armies also died in the first three months – about 90 regiments. Scattered reinforcements have also been destroyed while a second campaign is now starting to take shape in the North East – there are another 50 Ming regiments here. Ming troops die fast against Castilian firepower. HOI players would probably freak at how I’m doing this – no continuous lines or encirclements just a straight (ish) march to the big cities and a series of head on firefights!

This is so manpower inefficient I should probably be banned from even thinking of reading threads by Kanitatlan.

01/02/1688 Land 37

A 10 year 1* Theologian has been dropped in the advisor pool so I swap out the artist I was filling the last slot with – I now have 5 stars of missionary boost.

10/02/1688 Anatolia converts

Northern China March 1688



Despite this there are still large numbers of Ming regiments milling about, although not to any great effect. My armies are becoming increasingly ragged as attrition, assaults and endless small battles wear them down.

01/05/1688 Conversion of Indus fails

04/05/1688 Indian Trade Company fires – I have no idea what is needed for this event so this is entirely by chance – trade is not my strongpoint.

Maritime power



The naval battle is the main Ming fleet – down from 95 galleys a few days ago – I’ve lost 8 ships far, I’ll keep this going until the entire fleet is destroyed.

26/06/1688 Khawarzam converts

Peace with Japan - 19/08/1688



This is a 99 point deal with a 41% war score – but it was all downhill for Japan, no army, no navy, no capital, no COT when they signed.

Peace with Ming - 25/09/1688



98 points worth of provinces with 41% war score, although Ming’s armies are in a real mess. I concentrate on smashing enemy units not taking provinces. Beat the army, beat the enemy. The NA war capacity screen is a bit lame, if you can’t work out that you are winning then you’re probably losing

War exhaustion is 0.77, BB is 890.93. I have a feeling I’m going to end up with a very disappointing BB score – well as long as it isn’t less than 1000

02/12/1688 Conversion of Kutch fails

19/12/1688 Pattani converts

01/01/1689 Naval 37

07/03/1689 Chandigarh converts

01/04/1689 Castile declares WAR on Persia

01/04/1689 Castile declares WAR on Ryukyu

02/04/1689 Ming declares WAR on Castile in support of Ryukyu

A long enough gap between wars to let Ming build a lot of infantry I can promptly smash up (and waste their manpower pool a bit more) without letting their war exhaustion drop much. War taxes are basically a disaster for the AI – unless you play on Very Hard with the AI tax bonus it’s quite easy to force an AI country into a position where it doesn’t get any census tax because of WE driven RR.

25/04/1689 Atak converts

Persia accepts annexation - 22/05/1689



02/07/1689 Gazni converts

19/08/1689 Peace with Ming

New Borders in China



Fast wasn't it, 98 points off Ming in less than 5 months

BB 903.34, War exhaustion is 0.31