Succession Game.

Looks like my turn will come just about when things get interesting with Castille. Not sure how they will take Ferdinand's rejection of Isabella....

I think our general strategy is sound - concentrating on the Mediterranean will give us lots of opportunities. I think priorities should be:

Italy (diploannexing?)
Castille (with the help of France/Portugal?)
North Africa (I think we get a series of events relating to Morocco and Tunisia)
France (to link with Italy eventually, once Castille is out of the way)
Eastern Med

We do need to deal with Castille quickly, before all the New World gold and Hapsburg inheritances make them into a monster. France and/or Portugal are surely the best allies in this. It would be great if we could take the Eastern coast of Iberia for ourselves, and then vassilise, but perhaps that's too optimistic.

When Castille forms Spain, they will have cores in Aragon and then you will have trouble in the neigbourhood for the rest of the game.

Samorim said:

When Castille forms Spain, they will have cores in Aragon and then you will have trouble in the neigbourhood for the rest of the game.

Click to expand...

Can they form Spain without us? Wicked Castillians!

AllmyJames said:

Can they form Spain without us? Wicked Castillians!

Click to expand...

Yeah, they can. We can, though, beat them so hard that they won't be able to get on their feet, let alone colonizing.

Got the save going, will post about it later.

How does one post the save, when I tried to upload the file it said

"invalid file"

BananaSplit said:

Archive both files with winzip or winrar then just upload the zip file.

EDIT: Here is my views on the DP sliders, I figure if we each say which one we want and why and then just see who is in the majority. I think that some discussions will be over quickly, (like Centrilisation) others might take longer, (like our military policy).

Anyhoo heres what I think; I have underlined my preferred option and discussed my vies underneath.

Plutocracy/Aristocracy
I like this for the diplo bonus, so as its high now lets leave it and see if we want to change it later in the game.

Decentrilisation/Centrilisation
Centrilisation is the best without a doubt...

Narrowminded/Innovative
Basically as we are mainly monoreligious and noncolonial Innovative seams to make sense at first however we may end up with North Africa and/or some orthodox provinces, Also a 50% difference in stability cost from one extreme to the other is nothing to laugh at. Also The 30% income bonus from +3 stab along with the removal of 30% income negatives from wrong religions in Africa should make up for narrowminded's 15% tech penalty, in my opinion

Free Trade/Mercantilism
I don't really care

Defensive/Offensive
I don't really care

Naval/Land
Max Land I think as we are trying to avoid the sea so it would be fluffy, it will also help our army a lot.

Quantity/Quality
Free Subjects/Serfdom
With infantry for 3 gold that have +0.5 moral (about 6 or 7 tech levels!) and a free fire skill for their leader we should fare ok in most conflicts. Also the 50% Stab cost is a biggie (giving -75% with narrowminded and -25% with innovativeness) Admittedly this will lower our production efficiency but I think the income gain from high stability should easily counteract this.

Click to expand...

...almost completely on the other side of the fence. XD

Plutocracy/Aristocracy
Here...well, I gave a look, and it could be better, yes.

Decentrilisation/Centrilisation
Centrilization, centralization, centralization.

Narrowminded/Innovative
Here, Banana's thought could be true; but still, we do not need colonists, and the "Heretic Uprising" event, and the such, happen only on veeery low innovativeness. I'll say: let's look at Europe, more than Africa. An Aragon/Riviera/Italy empire would be...nice. And same cultured, too; and we control Hercules' Pillars, now, which is all we need to block the Mediterranean from every intrusion.

Free Trade/Mercantilism
...meh. 5, and let's get over with it.

Defensive/Offensive
Offensive. +0.20 morale truely is something. Shock +1, too.

Naval/Land
...the whole point of the SG, really. XD
However, +0.5 morale is a veeeery good thing.

Quantity/Quality
Of course! +0.25 morale = a clusterf...load of morale. Plus +1 fire. Which adds to...

Free Subjects/Serfdom
...still +0.25 morale. All in all, on a military standpoint, we have +1 fire, +1 shock, and +1.20 morale; +20% Production Efficency; +25% Census Taxes; and -25% Tech costs.
...the bad news, of course, are the +75% stabiliy cost.

Good work on the last update Tobit! As soon as you can post the save, I'll get cracking.

As for the sliders...

Plutocracy/Aristocracy
I think I agree with Bananasplit and WeissRaben, since we start so far towards aristocracy, we should just make the most of it. Also, if our imperial ambitions go well, we're going to have a lot of neighbours, and probably need the diplo bonus.

Decentrilisation/Centrilisation
I agree. Centralisation is (nearly) always better.

Narrowminded/Innovative
I'm slightly inclined towards innovative, for the tech bonus, and free refineries are VERY nice!
Having said that, I'm open to suggestions in this game. Perhaps the missionaries for narrowminded would be better, after all, and stability bonus is always helpful. I'm willing to listen to opinions.

Free Trade/Mercantilism
Again, I'm fairly ambivalent. Too much Mercantilism results in no merchants, too much free trade makes them very expensive. I say stick to 5.

Defensive/Offensive
Slight preference towards offensive, because of the fighting bonuses. Very nice. Then again, defensive might be useful (at least in the beginning) in fending off the attacks of our neighbours.

Naval/Land
Max land does seem to be the purpose of the AAR, so I support that. It'll make our armies excellent also. Might have to be wary that we don't end up with lots of island provinces and no navy though!

Quantity/Quality

Mostly undecided on this. Depends on our current manpower levels. We might, at least in the beginning, need quantity, to make up for Castille's richer provinces.

Free Subjects/Serfdom

I usually favour Free Subjects, for the production bonus and the morale. Very nice, but as you guys have pointed out, morale will already be high from the land slider. I think serfdom is only preferable if we have a lot of potentially rebellious non-culture/non-religion provinces, perhaps in Africa

Here it is, it is in a file within a zipped file.

Plutocracy/Aristocracy
Already at 10 Aristocracy so I don't think we should try to turn around.

Decentrilisation/Centrilisation
I agree. Centralisation is (nearly) always better.

Narrowminded/Innovative
I'm slightly inclined towards innovative, for the tech bonus, and free refineries are VERY nice!
Having said that, I'm open to suggestions in this game. Perhaps the missionaries for narrowminded would be better, after all, and stability bonus is always helpful. I'm willing to listen to opinions.

Free Trade/Mercantilism
Already there basically.

Defensive/Offensive
Shock will help alot, I am not sure though which one is best.

Naval/Land
goes without saying.

Quantity/Quality
Quality, our soldiers need to be really good. The price increase will be counter balanced by cheap cavalry from Aristocracy, and cheap infantry from Serfdom.

Free Subjects/Serfdom
Stability, cheap infantry. That is what we need. We are also at 8 Serfdom I think. So turning all the way around will be difficult.

Hey who has the save?