Out of the Blue Hills: A KoreAAR

[dsb3232]

Intro:

This is my first AAR (inspired by the wonderful community here on the forums). I am a rookie EU player - this is probably my third or fourth game that I have played so far, so expect a few errors along the way!

The game setup will be as follows: Playing as Korea, starting in 1399 with all options set to normal and lucky nations set to random, difficulty set at normal. I am not using any mods.

My goals for this game are to establish Korea as a major regional power in Asia. I will not be westernizing unless it seems to fit with the tone of the game (eg. if a western power horns in on Asia, I may westernize. However, I will not be seizing a colony or OPM in Europe for the sole purpose of westernizing).

The planned format for this AAR is to be a fusion of narrative and gameplay. I plan on giving the events a touch of story to make them flow, then make some gameplay comments at the end of each update.

EDIT: Beginning in Chapter 10, the style changes to straight gameplay - reasons are in that post.

I hope you all enjoy it (whether it ends well or in tragedy!)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 - Rise of the Joseon Dynasty

Chapter 2 - Looking Outwards

Chapter 3 - I'm just sittin' here watching the wheels go round and round

Chapter 4 - What's the word for religious realpolitik again?

Chapter 5 - Fine, I guess I will have to make my own CBs

Chapter 6 - Minors Everywhere

Chapter 7 - Peaceful Intentions

Chapter 8 - Building a Nation

Chapter 9 - Expansion

Chapter 10 - I got 99 problems and they're all Ming regiments

Chapter 11 - A Short Victorious War (or two?)

Chapter 12 - Wu Tang Clan apparently is something to F@$# wit

Chapter 13 - Closing the Gap

Chapter 14 - Meeting the Italians

Chapter 15 - Westernization or Bust

Chapter 16 - Badboy Time

Chapter 17 - We're Still the Good Guys, Right?

Chapter 18 - Joining the Kingdoms

Chapter 19 - More Like Land of the Setting Sun

Chapter 20 - Start of the BadBoy Wars

Chapter 21 - Endgame

[dinofs]

Korea is one of my absolute favorite nations to play. Subscribed.

[dsb3232]

Chapter 1 - Rise of the Joseon dynasty

Jeongjong Joseon, ruler of Korea, sighed heavily as he read through the sheaf of papers his chamberlain had left for him to review. Report after report drove home the fact that the other powers and principalities which surrounded Korea considered it little more than an afterthought. Years of patronizing neglect from the Ming and Manchu kingdoms had left Jeongjong with a burning desire to make them sit up and take notice of Korea. His greatest wish was to move out of the shadow of the Chinese kingdoms - to erase the idea of Korea existing only as "Little China". To that end, Jeongjong had a bold and dangerous vision for his country - one that would place it in jeopardy time and again.

Jeongjong realized that he must build a foundation for his dreams by reorganizing his country and its people. Korea needed new ideas and new goals. Nothing of the old order would be sacred. It also needed accomplishments and victories in abundance to give its people the strength and courage to flower.

With an even deeper sigh, Jeongjong put his quill to the parchment and began to write out the orders that would set Korea on its new path.

October 14, 1399



The result of Jeongjong's first major policy change - the emergence of a new organizer for the fledgling Korean army.



The king also moved to curtail the spread of new Confucian ideologies - his dissatisfaction with the manner in which his nobles and even his commoners relied on the precepts of Confucianism to stymie his tax collectors infuriated him. This would be his first step to altering the old religious order in Korea.

The political situation continued to vex the king - the traditional powers of East Asia (Ming, Manchu, and Japan) arrogantly assumed that Korea would be a non-entity on the world stage. A flurry of diplomats arrived at the Korean court to deliver their high-handed "assurances" to Korea, placing guarantees on its independence. Jeongjong boiled inside - he realized that the Ming and Japan only truly desired an excuse to intervene in Korea! However, his state was yet too weak to give the other states their proper comeuppance.

The first priority for the new king was to give his people something to cling to - a victory to ensure their support for his reforms. Jeongjong looked longingly across the South Korean Sea to the shores of Japan - he longed to guarantee the security of Korea by occupying the lands of Japan. Unfortuneatly, the network of guarantees and cross-guarantees meant that any action taken against any one of Manchu or Japan would result in providing the other kingdoms with a cause for war! Korea was bound hand and foot - it could not move against Ming, Manchu, or Japan! Jeongjong felt his vision for a strong Korea wavering.

Meanwhile, the treasurer was put to the task of minting new monies for the king's use. These monies were transformed into new regiments of soldiers raised - new units of Asian Longbow infantry and East Asian Archer Cavalry grouped together to form a new Korean national army. The inflationary effects of this worried the treasury and the king, but there was no alternative for the moment.

In early 1400, a small fishing fleet landed on the shores of Okinawa, only to be butchered to the last man. The Korean people erupted in anger - this was an insult that could not stand! Jeongjong realized that this sentiment could provide him with the victory he needed so badly.



The newly reorganized Korean army boarded their transports and made for Okinawa, quickly subduing the small Okinawan force and settling in to siege the capital. The heathen fools showed great resolve, but their end was fated.



Finally, Korea had a victory to remember.

GAMEPLAY COMMENTS:

I had to dramatically scale back my plans for Korea :P I had initially plotted an early war with Japan to take them out of the equation and to gain much-needed breathing room. However, Japan's naval superiority and the guarantee situation made it totally impossible to move against them. It seems like everyone is guaranteeing everyone! I'm trying to show some flexibility by utterly abandoning everything that I had planned

This is also the first time I've played as an Asian nation and the tech times are truly horrendous! I knew they were crippling, but it's still a shock the first time you open that tab.

So - new short term plan is to stay out of the way of Japan, Ming and even Manchu until I can amass some kind of power base. Hopefully Okinawa can be a stepping stone for me to find some expansion room for Korea.

Thanks for reading!

[dsb3232]

Korea is one of my absolute favorite nations to play. Subscribed.

Wow, there's a quick reply! In before I could even post my first chapter

Thanks for the early encouragement dinofs!

[Bazti]

Asia, is an area I rarely play in, so will be fun to follow your progress

[sprites]

Korea is one of the hardest nations in the surroundings ...
you can jump on indonesia when they are fighting each other so you don't fight them all at the same time ^^

[dinofs]

Sorry for messing up the order of your AAR.

Anyways, I was expecting an early war with Manchu from your first paragraphs. I know from experience (having played both) that they're fairly evenly matched if you can get them one on one.

[dsb3232]

@Bazti - I've never played an Asian nation, so it's a new experience for me!

@sprites - thanks for the tip you never know where Korea might go...

@dinofs - no problem on the order thing I had thought about warring with Manchu or Japan, but all three of Ming, Japan, and Manchu have cross-guaranteed each other out the wazoo I don't want to fight them all (right now)

[mayorqw]

You could try taking the southeast asian nations for their great tax and manpower IFRC.

[Rizulica]

I would feel completed if you were exiled to Romania.

[mayorqw]

I would feel completed if you were exiled to Romania.

I think he would not fare as well. And come on! The Kazakhs have had enough of zis trans continental reconquista!

[Kapt Torbjorn]

Korea is definitely one of the funnest countries to play in East Asia, good luck!

[blsteen]

Korea is definitely one of the funnest countries to play in East Asia, good luck!

Indeed

[dsb3232]

@mayorqw: well, southeast asia is one of the favorite vacation spots of the King, so we'll see
@Rizulica - lol, just went to peek at your AAR, but haven't had time to look through it all yet. Don't want to be a disappointment, but right now I can't see myself heading to Romania
@Kapt Torbjorn - thanks for stopping by to say hi!
@blsteen - thank for reading - seems like there is a lot of good will for Korea in the forums here!

I'm hopeful that I might get my second update out today too

[dsb3232]

Chapter Two - Looking Outwards

With the conquest and annexation of Okinawa, the Korean court was increasingly supportive of the reforms of Jeongjong. Although reluctant to encourage further Confucian ideals, the king was forced to convert the populace of Okinawa to Confucianism, both as a sop to the more fervent Confucian nobles and as a means of ensuring that the newest members of Korea would not rise up against their new king.



The political situation in the remainder of East Asia continued to flummox any Korean expansion - besides a brief war between Ming and Manchu China, the situation was largely stable. The Ming-Manchu war ended in a useless white peace. Despite his best efforts, Jeongjong remained unable to find an opening that would allow him to spread Korea's natural borders.

With no real ability to engage in further foreign adventures, the king focused his efforts on overseeing the work of the treasurer, promoting a promising minor noble to the post of Master of the Mint. The newcomer quickly proved his worth, as his management began to alleviate the budding Korean inflation problem.



A few more years of stability allowed the king to refill his coffers to a certain degree. Land reforms were enacted in the provinces of Chungcheong and Gyeonsang, irritating the local nobility but increasing the tax income and production capabilities in the provinces. Within a few years, Jeongjong was able to enact further governmental reforms to reduce the direct power of the nobility - a new expansion of the bureaucracy was undertaken, with the effect of allowing for more direct decision-making in all of the provinces of Korea in the future. A minor increase in the dissatisfaction of the nobles was a side effect of the bureaucratic expansion, but the king judged it to be worth the risk.

Providence again intervened in the destiny of Korea when a chinaware merchant en route to Okinawa was blown far off course, losing his rigging and sails in the process. The merchant made a fortunate landfall just inside Cam Ranh Bay and made his repairs without delay. On his return to Chungcheong, the merchant provided his brother-in-law with his observations about the Khmer and Champa kingdoms. Fortunately for the king, the brother-in-law was a senior member of the newly-reinforced bureaucracy who could pass along the news about Khmer and Champa to the court. When the observations were provided to the king, he retired immediately with a selection of his senior advisors to contemplate his next move. The temptation of finding relatively weak kingdoms that were free of the odious guarantees of the Ming or Japanese was too great - the king swiftly decided to act on the opportunity.

A rapid building program was instituted to provide the transport capacity that would be needed and further regiments were raised and consolidated to form an expeditionary force. General U Yi, the victor of the battle for Okinawa, was recalled to lead the expeditionary force. The king had ordered his diplomats to find legitimate grounds for mounting an assault on either Khmer or Champa, but the diplomats were barren of ideas. Even knowing that the stability of his realm and its legitimacy in the eyes of its neighbours could be at risk, Jeongjong decided to declare war on Khmer without justification. Korea could not ignore this opportunity, even if it was not part of the king's original plans.

The declaration of war was delivered to the Khmer king as the Korean invasion fleet bobbed up and down in Cam Ranh Bay. The furious and betrayed king railed at the diplomat for over an hour as General U Yi landed his infantry on the shores of Prey Nokor. Finally, the Khmer king leapt from his throne, drew his sabre, and sliced open the belly of the Korean diplomat. While the Khmer king has vented his spleen (and the spleen of the Korean diplomat), he had failed to stop the landing of the Korean army. Just after the landings were completed, a combined Khmer and Champa naval force descended on the ships of the invasion force and defeated them completely - only a few transports escaped to return to Okinawa. General U Yi now knew that total victory was the only hope to preserve himself and his men.

Prey Nokor was unfortified and was quickly seized by the Koreans. From that staging area, the force moved to secure the similarly undefended provinces of Siem Reap and Khorat. The exhilarating sense of speed and invincibility was checked when the Korean army was forced to fight its only major battle against the Khmer forces in the capital province of Udong. The losses were sobering, but non-fatal and a siege was settled upon. To conserve his limited manpower, General U Yi refused to assault the fortress, even though it could have freed a portion of his army to confront the Champa forces that had liberated Siem Reap and Prey Nokor. After a long siege, the Khmer king was forced to surrender the fortress.



The capitulation of the Khmer king allowed General Yi the freedom to attack the Champa forces that had infiltrated the former Khmer lands and push them back into Panduranga. Leaving a portion of his infantry to siege the fortress there, the remainder of the army moved to invest the city of Vijaya, having swept aside the remaining Champa forces first.



After two and a half years of warfare, General U Yi presented the kings of Champa and Khmer with their only remaining option:





News of the total victory of the expeditionary force sped to the ears of King Jeongjong, who declared a week of celebrations in honour of the victorious troops. National pride was at an all-time high, although the financial costs of the expedition had once again put inflation foremost in the minds of the court administrators. For the moment however, the king was content to bask in the fruit of his vision.

Gameplay comments:

I got caught up in the war and forgot to take many screenshots - whoops!

The actual battles to destroy the main armies of Khmer and Champa were not as annoying as chasing the ping-ponging remainders and fighting the other small forces that would seize back the unfortified lands, but I persevered and finally got them under control. I'm a little concerned at the distance to the home country, but this was really the only spot where expansion seemed feasible without trying to fight all the major powers at once. I'll have to see where this leads from here - really, I need these provinces to core to bring up my revenue - right now I have to mint and inflation is hovering around 6.5%. Not terrible, but I'd like to see it at 0%

[ShrineGuard]

Really interesting AAR so far!

I've personally never played Korea, and have only dabbled in Asia, but you're really got in interest piqued. I think I'm going to go off and start a Korea game right now.

[dinofs]

Why does everybody invade southeast Asia?

[dsb3232]

@ShrineGuard - thanks! and I hope you enjoy your Korea game too Just don't get distracted from your Holland game

@dinofs - if it makes you feel any better, I wanted to invade Japan but I was too chicken

[sprites]

high infamy , maybe it is worth it?

[TonyJoe]

Great job. Playing in the Far East is very fun so I'll be watching.

A general gameplay question for the forum: I haven't played in a while but I seem to remember that you could only annex OPM's. How is it that you can annex a four province nation?