21
Waiting at the roadside leads nowhere
1650-69
In the last update I left the stubborn Austrians simmering at 11% WS, unwilling to give up their 1% core in Messina. I can afford to wait sitting on the blockade, and I have BB to burn...
1650... 1651... 1652, Govt tech 25 and new idea, I take Battlefield Commisions for the army tradition boost... 1653... 1654, Land tech 25, I start building level 3 forts in Iberia; I also snatch a 3-star reputation advisor just before my previous one dies, so I remain stuck at 0.45 BB/year reduction, the infamy!
1655... the Austrian WE is capped at 18.68, no positive peace deal can be exacted... Ferrarese rebels pop up in Venezia (!) and Byzantine rebels appear in Corfu (why are there still Byzantine cores in 1655?!), so I let Austria lose her precious islands as my sad and only revenge...
1657... slider move to centralised... 1658... I give up: white peace with Austria - Ferrara-on-Venice and the Most Glorious Byzantine Empire of Corfu are now independent nations, I can safely take my ships elsewhere. And I have more important things to worry about now: protestant zealots have been causing mayhem in Granada and Castille, in fact they force-convert Granada and make Gibraltar and Toledo defect to the new protestant nation
It's a good job the Castillians eventually get MA through Aragon and stop the religious rebels in Madrid.
In any case, a Protestant Granada with Castillian cores seems to me an irresistible target for Castille, I renew my warning on them and hope I can get a free war and save some BB
Or maybe not, Castille doesn't move a finger for 2 years
In 1660, as some of my Iberian provinces become cores and Sweden DoWs Poland (dragging Castille in on Polish side) I DoW Granada myself, seeing that waiting in the 17th century brings no reward...
Everybody joins in on both sides, Portugal as alliance leader. Iraq is stripped of cores and conveniently vassalised. Rajputanans are also forced to renounce to the remaining cores they had on my lands. And Granada graciously gives away Gibraltar, Toledo and a couple of cores
The Castillians have brought a lot more troops from the other side of the Atlantic this time, nearly 70 regiments, which they rush to besiege Bragança, Beira and Lisboa.
As I push them out of Beira and Bragança they end up consolidating in Lisboa, where attrition makes my job easier to finish
The rest of the war effort goes into intercepting small Portuguese fleets and occupying Castillian Nigeria, the Canary Islands, Cape, St Helena... anything to scrap some extra WE without having to move troops to America. Nigerian provinces turn out to be tougher than I thought, between attrition and rebels.
In 1664 Austria DoWs, as tradition dictates, and signs white peace after just a year. No time wasting, blockading Italy is not fun any more. Aragon signs peace in 1666, I decide to take Aragon proper and Sierra Leone (which had defected back to them from Mali) and establish my first border with France. At this point war with France is very close, I may as well start getting ready. A year later the last Nigerian province falls and I reach 5% WS with Castille, time for peace
That gives me a 15% peace, which is sufficient for five good provinces now they have such low value. Certainly more than enough for my BB, which reaches 19
At least there are only eight provinces left to conquer in Iberia.
With Castille out of the war, Portugal is happy to sign peace renouncing to her remaining cores in Iberia and North Africa. Unfortunately the high BB scares even my ally Astrakhan, who breaks our 200 year old alliance
Nothing I can do for now. If you are wondering about my 3-dip caliph... he is alive and healthy, strong enough to embarass the court
Maybe I should think about a Republican Caliphate.
I hope Astrakhan comes back to the fold when my BB is down a bit. Sweden has annexed Tver and Novgorod, and Poland has been reduced to a wedge of land by Sweden, Hungary, Prussia and Austria.
_________________
Syria in 1669
Provinces: 134
At peace.
Allied with TE, Algiers, Adal, Najd, the Mamluks. CB on Granada, Najd and Iraq. Guaranteeing Mali. Warning Fez.
Vassals: Najd, Oman, Algiers, Adal, the Mamluks, TE, Iraq.
Stability: +2
BB: 18.34
Monarch: Caliph al-Kamil III (7a/6m/3d)
Army: 169 (61/108/0)
Navy: 151 (92/8/5/46)
WE: 0