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An Indian country can't form the Mughal Empire, unless you've modified the decision.

Interesting AAR, by the way. :)
 
one mmight say the indian adventure led you the wrong way...
but you did get closer to iberia, those two ex-algerian provs means two steps closer to al andaluz
i know it's just an impression but it's the OE that seems sandwiched between mighty alliance of syria and astrakhan :cool:
 
12

Roadtrip to the west and other Chinese tales
1529-42

In march 1530 Astrakhan asks for help against Tver and Poland (Poland had warned them). I don't know why I bother sending some cavalry, the AI signs a white peace just a few months into the war :(

syr1530a.jpg

At least the OE loses Medina to Hedjaz through defection during this short war.

AI Astrakhan might not want to take advantage of Poland's weakness, but AI Austria is all up for it...

syr1530b.jpg

In the space of 3 years the Ausrians take a good share of Bohemian and Hungarian provinces from Poland.

syr1530c.jpg

In June 1531 I decide to ally Punjab, given that Khorasan doesn't want to renew our old alliance. Ideally I'd like to support a strong Muslim state in the area in controlling northern India, rather than having to go into India myself.

Three months later, after 21 years in the throne, al-Ashraf II's reign ends and a new king with admin 8 finally unlocks the last requisite for westernisation! The empire becomes Oriental :)

syr1531a.jpg

I love the contradiction of western influences turning the country eastern :D

With the massive stab hit I just sit tight and hope nothing much happens while I recover and the workshop-building program continues. In 1533 I move the slider back towards narrow-minded to make stability less costly, but of course the consequence is a stab hit... at least it scraps a couple of months, down to only 18 months per stability point.

Peace lasts only until 1535, however, when two calls to arms come in quick succession. In October Punjab is attacked by Ming (plus Korea and Tibet), followed in December by Astrakhan DoWing Tver again (they don't waste time waiting after truces these Astrakhanis). Various alliances and warnings bring me, the OE and Hedjaz on Astrakhan's side, England, Sweden, Polotsk and Sibir on Tver's side. Time for war taxes :eek:

syr1535a.jpg

My cavalry rushes to help Punjab (already at war against their neighbour Malwa). At first I evict the Chinese and hold the ground despite superior numbers.

syr1536a.jpg

By the time the infantry arrives I even manage to rout -not very aptly named- I Won's army.

syr1536b.jpg

However, Chinese reinforcements eventually arrive and I retreat to let attrition welcome them. No such luck, they storm the province and Punjab gives up immediately :(

syr1536c.jpg

That leaves me alone at war with Ming without much purpose to it. Sure enough Ming is not very willing to sign a white peace, preferring instead to send a few regiments to my coastal provinces in Persia and Arabia. Out of frustration, and mistakenly emboldened by previous victories, I send all my forces in Punjab against the Chinese forces sitting in Chandigarh. What can I say, don't do this at home, not with land tech 10 anyway :eek:

syr1537a.jpg

I retreat before losing all my regiments. At this point I withdraw my army and let Ming simmer in their own war exhaustion, while another call to arms at the end of 1537 gets me into a third war in defense of the Baluchi sultanate: Syria, Khorasan, Baluchistan and Yemen vs Madurai, Rajputana and Bundelkhland.

This war is a lot easier, weak Rajputana gets duly overwhelmed by Muslim armies while Madurai troops can't reach me :)

syr1538a.jpg

Although that advantage is also a downside - without access to Madurai and the other fragment of Rajputana I can only get a limited amount of war score. I settle for 2 provinces and secure the Indus valley. Sadly I can't get Kutch -the CoT- this time. Madurai is now the dominant power in India.

syr1539a.jpg

In the north Astrakhan has slowly but successfully dealt with Tver and Sibir (gaining 3 provinces in the way). Sweden and England end up signing white peace at the end of 1539.

As I withdraw my troops from Rajputana I notice that Ming has no troops in sight. For the sake of gaining some war score I can use to sign peace, I send some regiments to besiege Chandigarh again. Just as the province falls, staibilty +3 is reached and the final westernisation decision is passed in March 1541 :)

syr1541a.jpg

I hold the province for a year, winning a few battles until the same 5-shock general kicks me out again.

syr1542a.jpg

But with WE over 20 they are not going to keep this war going indefinitely, eventually offering a white peace in October 1542, at last! That's been 7 years of continuous, pointless war.

syr1542b.jpg

As I'm signing peace with Ming I reach land tech 11 and with it the first decent Muslim units.

syr1542c.jpg

Workshops are completed in all my provinces, I switch to temple-building to help with stability. Map spread and tech are massively boosted by being Latin, the previous neighbour bonus while being Eastern never amounted to much compared to this :eek:

syr1542d.jpg

Something tells me I'm going to need all this tech boost sooner rather than later... :eek:

syr1542e.jpg

Now that I've fully westernised, is it worth clinging to Apulia?


_________________

Syria in 1542

Provinces: 51
At peace.
Allied with Astrakhan, Punjab and Tripoli. CB on Iraq and Ming.
Stability: -1
BB: 0
Monarch: Padishah Tajd IV (8a/5m/4d)
Army: 54 (27/27/0)
Navy: 30 (2/0/16/12)
WE: 3.13

Neighbours

Mamluks: Allied with Algiers, Funj and Adal. PU with Algiers. CB on Syria. Warned by Syria.

Funj: Allied with Yemen. CB on Hedjaz. Guaranteed by Swahili and Sokoto. Guranteeing Tripoli and Mali.

Algiers: Allied with Durrani, Mamluks and Sokoto. Leads PU with Mamluks. CB on Syria, Castille. Guaranteed by Fez. Guranteeing Oman, Hedjaz and Iraq.

Tripoli: Allied with Najd, Castille and Syria. CB on Syria. Guaranteed by Syria, Kanem Bornu, Adal, Funj, Swahili, Sokoto and Songhai.

OE: Allied with Bosnia, Serbia, Ryazan, Astrakhan and Shaybanid. CB on Austria, Syria. Guaranteeing Yemen, Oman, Hedjaz, Najd and Iraq.

Najd: Allied with Yemen, Tripoli, Khorasan. CB on Syria, Oman. Guaranteeing Iraq. Guaranteed by OE, Oman and Fez. Warned by Syria.

Iraq: No allies. CB on the OE, Syria. Guaranteed by OE, Yemen, Oman, Najd, Fez and Algiers. Warned by Syria.

Hedjaz: Allied with Astrakhan, Adal and Iraq. Leads PU with Adal. CB on OE, Syria, Adal and Yemen. Guaranteed by OE, Oman, Algiers and Fez. Warned by Syria.

Yemen: Allied with Najd, Funj and Baluchistan. CB on Hedjaz and Syria. Guaranteeing Iraq. Guaranteed by OE, Oman and Fez.

Astrakhan: Allied with OE, Syria. CB on OE, Poland, Austria, Ryazan, Sibir, Tver and Syria. Guaranteeing Ryazan, Sibir, Kazakh, Khiva, TE, Shaybanid and Chagatai.

Khorashan: Allied with TE, Najd and Durrani. Guaranteeing Chagatai, Baluchistan.

Durrani: Allied with Khiva, Khorasan, Algiers and TE. CB on Syria and Rajputana.

Khiva: Allied with Sibir, Durrani and Kazakh. CB on Syria, Shaybanid, Khorasan and TE. Guaranteeing Chagatai. Guaranteed by Astrakhan, Shaybanid and TE.

Rajputana: Allied with Madurai, Nepal and Travanacore. CB on Syria, Gujarat, Malwa, Punjab.

Punjab: Allied with Syria and Baluchistan. CB on Ming. Guaranteed by Syria. Guaranteeing Baluchistan. Warning Kashmir.
 
Duke of Wellington - In the end I get entangled in India whether I like it or not.

Enewald - ducats! you can never have too many :D

humancalculator - Not much risk of the Mughals forming now by the looks of it, don't worry.

Didaa - Not sure I'll be able to catch up with Austria or France on income.

Capibara - Now that I have started I'll have to get a few more Indian provinces :D

Sweboy - You are right, I'd need to mod it for Rajputana to form the Mughal Empire. Maybe I should form the Mughal Empire after all :rofl:

AKjeldsen - Thanks, and welcome! Westernisation sorted! :D

budseligsucks - Welcome! Update just posted.

Vladislav - Indeed, I realised when Sweboy pointed it out, you need to be the right culture/religion to form the Mughal Empire.

Kami - Getting to prestige 30 is proving difficult, as soon as I manage I'll proclaim the Caliphate.

gabor - Let's hope the OE keeps quiet while I continue with my business in India... At least the OE-Algiers alliance has broken.
 
By the time the infantry arrives I even manage to rout -not very aptly named- I Won's army.

:rofl: :rofl:

Okay, that has to be my favourite leader name I've ever seen.

Some nice work here - good job westernising, for one - now go get the rest of Arabia! (if you can, of course)
 
Congrats on reaching the final stage of westernization. Now it's time to show the Europeans who is the boss. And already at war with China? Take it easy there. They can be dangerous. Nice update!
 
18 months for a step up in stability isn't that long for such diverse big country (in MMP it'd take longer)
this time you definitely turned your back on the western Africa / Iberia; you got sidetracked!
Austria seems to be a monster!
 
13

On the fast road to modernity
1542-51

I opt to keep Apulia rather than sell it to Austria. I sit tight and wait for an Austrian DoW but it never arrives. Instead I receive a call to arms from my ally Punjab against their OPM neighbour Kashmir, which I'm happy to accept.

syr1544a.jpg

Punjab doesn't have much problem annexing Kashmir, and while they are at it, why not sort out some unfinished business with Rajputana as well?

syr1544b.jpg

It's an easy war where I finally get the CoT in Kutch and a -hopefully- stable border in India. I don't really want to expand beyond Kutch as it would be outside my main goals.

syr1546a.jpg

Punjab gets a province out of the war too, and I later sell them Bikamer. Punjab can have India, if they are up for it.

syr1546b.jpg

But as usual, trusting the AI to do anything is a recipe for disappointment - Punjab gets in a war against Khorasan (defending Baluchistan) and loses 3 provinces... it seems that all that work strengthening my new ally was a bit of a waste :(

syr1549a.jpg

Stability +3 is reached while things remain quiet. Neither the Ottomans, Astrakhan, Austria nor any warned countries start any war. In Europe the most active country is France, still expanding in northern Germany. England forms Great Britain in 1550. (Denmark is British, by the way, GB successfully defended it from Sweden in a war that year.)

syr1550a.jpg

Tripoli refuses to be vassalised, but with my 4-dip king I don't blame them. It'll have to be a task for the next padishah.

At stability +3 and every province with a workshop and a temple I find myself in the unusual situation of not having much to spend money on other than more regiments and ships. The monthly income reaches 100 ducats (Syria is now 4th richest nation). Inflation is down to 0.8% and I even ditch one of my old mint advisors to hire a 5-star government one.

syr1551a.jpg

Most importantly, the Latin neighbour bonus speeds up my tech levels across the board (although I still have quite a lot to catch up, the Ottomans and Austria are at Land tech 20). Government Tech 11 brings a new NI slot; any recommendations at this point? Grand Navy looks interesting as it would allow me to match the lagest enemy navies within the naval force limit. (My current naval limit is 46, the largest navy is Castille's with 61 vessels.)

syr1551b.jpg

And once I choose the idea I'll have to break the standstill and DoW someone in order to expand, even even if I have to risk losing Astrakhan as ally in the short term. There are several options.

On one hand in the North East it is my intention to push into Herat and Samarkand...

syr1551c.jpg

Khorasan and Durrani are the only available options (the rest are all guaranteed by Astrakhan). Durrani has the potential of bringing the Algerians in, but there is no guarantee that them -or anybody else- would honour their alliances :(

syr1551d.jpg

On the other hand in the South West it is high time I consolidated Arabia and Egypt under Syrian rule...

syr1551e.jpg

The options are 4, and they all have their pros and cons (the rest are all guaranteed by the OE).

syr1551f.jpg

Please, let me know your suggestions on both new NI and who to attack next.


_________________

Syria in 1551

Provinces: 53
At peace.
Allied with Astrakhan, Punjab and Tripoli. CB on Iraq.
Stability: 3
BB: 0
Monarch: Padishah Tajd IV (8a/5m/4d)
Army: 60 (30/30/0)
Navy: 44 (12/0/17/15)
WE: 0
 
Judas Maccabeus - Thanks and welcome! Arabia is definitely high on my list.

Duke of Wellington - I know, although at least the new Shaybanid cavalry and duel infantry are not as hopeless as the basic units were.

Capibara - Ming was a diversion, not one I wanted to take but I did learn something from it :D

chefportnen - Welcome! Good point, I followed your advice and kept the province. The Austrians have a core on it but so far they haven't attacked, although it is a matter of time.

gabor - Oops, I got sidetracked again :eek:o Temples helped with stability recovery.

Enewald - Maybe I should get MA through the Ottomans and attack Vienna :D
 
I'm not really familiar with the vanilla NI's because I play Magna Mundi a lot. I'd go with Grand Navy/Army only if you have the money and manpower to support the larger forces. I don't think you're terribly outnumbered militarily. Are you?
 
Military drill would probably help. Uh... maybe Church Attendance Duty to help you with stability, since you'll be losing a lot of it.
 
Military Drill will be a really big help if you end up going to war with Europeans or the OE, since the extra morale can make up for inferior troops. I wouldn't go for any naval ideas personally.
 
The only Naval Idea I have much time for is PressGangs - If you're going to take the war to the high seas half price ships are brilliant! Naval Force limits can easily be raised by grabbing some more coastal provinces.

I'd say go Arabia / Africa next - in time all those provinces will stack up a lot of extra manpower, hugely useful if you find yourself at war with countries using better unit types (i.e Ottomans, Spanish, Austrians).
 
aldriq said:
By the time the infantry arrives I even manage to rout -not very aptly named- I Won's army.

If I Won was a 6 shock/maneuver, I would have thought Paradox was playing with you.

On your NI choice: If you want to go the naval route, you could go Grand Navy as you proposed but only if you plan to have a mostly galley fleet. If you want bigger ships, then like PrawnStar said, go for Press Gangs. Cheap ships are great, especially when they’re big ships. :D And if you want to strangle the Europeans, you're going to need a big navy and these NI's.

I like big navies in IN so I’d go Grand Navy first and then Press Gangs because with Grand Navy I’d be able to fill up my naval pool with a ton of galleys. Then I’d go for the Press Gangs to keep up the hurt and bring in some bigger ships at a low cost. Then again I like big ships and a large navy for no particular reason, it probably has something to do with islands. :)

On who to attack: I’d stay away from attacking the Mamluks because Algiers would definitely run over you. You’re just lucky you don’t also border Brandenburg. ;)

I’d probably go ahead and attack Hedjaz. It’s a small alliance with a minor threat. If Adal comes in, you can begin a Horn of Africa empire which will lead nicely down the coast and you may be able to reach South Africa before the Europeans get there. If taking Horn of African provinces doesn't interest you, making Adal a vassal is always a prospect.