Children of the Sun - a Cuzco MEIOU AAR

[Athalcor]

The graphics of MEIOU...they are stunning!

[Dewirix]

I've got to say I appreciate your composite map of South America even more now that I've tried to do a similar thing myself. Seems like EU3 subtly resizes the top and bottom of the map as you scroll.

[LoneWolfEburg]

The graphics of MEIOU...they are stunning!

I agree! I am appropriating these graphics for my simple personal modmod immediately!

[Malurous]

Okay I'm back in business after a small delay (my power supply failed and I had to get a new one*, then couldn't compensate as I had a guest over the weekend) - update is ready and I should be able to post it in a couple of hours or so.

* Raaargh, there goes my Vicky II budget again...

Some feedback:

Good solid gains and now that you are the regional power, Yahuar Hacuac Chilche's job has just got alot easier I daresay; 'Yo yo, don't mess wit us or we'll mess wit you!' (as you can see, I am well versed in hiphop gangsta lingo).

Yeah I can tell. Believe me, the tribes of South America are starting to learn as well.

I've got to say I appreciate your composite map of South America even more now that I've tried to do a similar thing myself. Seems like EU3 subtly resizes the top and bottom of the map as you scroll.

Hehe yeah, and additionally something funny seems to happen to city and river placements - I can't really put my finger on it...

Athalcor and LoneWolfEburg: Indeed! The interface is just stunningly stylish.

Happy to have you in the thread!

[Malurous]

Chapter Three
1361-1365

Cuzco enjoys some peace and quiet for almost two years after the war against Chancay. The only events of note before early 1363 are a couple of rebellions in the newer lands. Even Central America is relatively quiet thanks to Tenochtitlan's regency.

Then, in the spring of 1363, I notice that for whatever reason Aymara's troop numbers are seriously down - I can't really explain why, but the large nation only has 12000 men.

Some of the local nobles come forward with a donation - I decide to use the money to investigate what the deal is with Aymara.



I only get one spy every five years, but so far I've been very unlucky as far as personal union opportunities go, so my only spy is unused. That spy is sent to Aymara.



Turns out that the tribe has two middling stacks, one in the eastern and one in the western part of their country (they are only connected in the south so it'll take time for the western army to participate), with no new units being recruited. This is my opportunity to grab the silver province on my border, Tupiza.



Aymara's vassal Mapuche follows them to the conflict, while Chimu outrageously dishonors our alliance. Seems that I have to do everything by myself here.

Even with the ally situation as it is, the numbers in the conflict favor me, not to mention numbers near the border.



However, the problem is that I need pretty much all of my men at the front, at least when Mapuche's troops have arrived, and the former Huanca and Chancay lands have proven to be quite disobedient. I attempt to rectify this by allying Nazca (the red country southwest of us and north of Aymara) as well as Chibchaya. I really don't trust allies for wars any longer, but hopefully they'll help with any rebellions - if they don't, I'll just have to hope that my forts hold longer against rebels than Aymara's hold against me.

The convenient border - I have two provinces bordering their only province that borders me - allows me to send overwhelming forces with minimal attrition. Still, the battle that takes place in June isn't as successful as you'd expect with such numbers.



Meanwhile, more bad news in the former Huanca lands: the fortification in Cajamarca is damaged. I suspect that the local patriots have sabotaged it. Or maybe Yahuar took part in some village dance and it got out of hand. That could happen for two reasons in those circumstances - he can be a bit rowdy sometimes, and the girls often get overly excited.



With the capital's surroundings done for now, national focus is moved to Chuquipaya to catch our eastern lands.



Back in the front, I again take advantage of the border shape. Thanks to proper attrition-free recovery as well as the defensive position, the second battle of Tupiza in early September is way more successful than the first.



The damaged Aymara stack (it took additional casualties from attrition) isn't content with staying in the adjacent province, their capital Tilcara, this time. Instead, the Aymara Tribal Council takes that army deeper into their territory while general Villac Umu Sillanki leads a fresh but smaller army into Tupiza. Manco Capac is victorious in December.



I consider following, but I'd be in trouble in Tilcara if the other stack came back and I had to fight an offensive battle in enemy territory against the whole army. Also, I have no intention of dropping the Tupiza siege at 50 % so I couldn't take all of my men.

So instead, I wait for another Aymara attempt in Tupiza, and get my wish in March 1364. The battle against their whole army is a resounding success.



This time Manco Capac follows. This is the best chance I'm ever going to get, as Mapuche's 7000 warriors are approaching and the combined forces would be too much to attack (defending wouldn't be a problem).

I'm insanely lucky - three quarters of Tilcara is either mountains or hills and only 13 % is terrain penalty free, and the troops manage to clash in that area.

The result is easy to guess.



Manco Capac follows to the next province, Salta, but sadly the battle is inconclusive. After some pondering I choose to chase further to Pucara. This could be catastrophic - I only have a small window from very late June to mid-July to wipe out the Aymara stack before the fresh Mapuche forces arrive. Fighting them offensively in this condition might be deadly.

However, I can pretty much end the war here if I'm successful, so I decide to do it.



Yes! Now I can start sieging Salta and Pucara. I still have to be careful and have Manco Capac babysit the sieges with his army (I get attrition but not enough to cause WE) as Mapuche tries to be clever and get behind the lines through uncolonized territory. I simply keep them out by moving my stack next to theirs and heading for their target provinces.



Nazca smells blood and declares war on Aymara in late September. The garrison in the Aymara capital finds the situation hopeless and surrenders soon after.

Tupiza finally falls in January 1365 and I decide to make peace for the province and 150 ducats. Even though I would have liked to weaken the Aymara more, I didn't want to go any further. For one, I couldn't take more than three provinces even if I waited for BB to go down completely, so it wouldn't be possible to get enough value to justify taking disconnected provinces. Also, I don't want to disturb their missionaries: I'll rather take provinces later when they've done the conversions for me.

Domestically, I decide to spend the money to immediately fix Cajamarca's fort (this is one of the possible province decisions to deal with the issue).



In a shocking development west of us, Chancay has won a war against Chimu! Chimu got dogpiled alone by Chibchaya, Quito and Chancay, so it seems that they bought Chancay out with a province and some ducats.



Does staying in our alliance sound so bad now, Chimu?!?

* * *

Here's a map of Cuzco after this update:



Tupiza in pink. Other than that, Chimu and Chibchaya & allies still beating each other senseless is hardly a bad thing for Cuzco.

[Enewald]

to Nazca!
Or Ayamarca!
Or anywhere!

[Athalcor]

Without the last screenshot I would be a little bit confused who is who...

[PrawnStar]

Looks like good progress - what sort of effect is this having on your economy?

So what does Nazca have that's worth taking?

[Ashantai]

Excellent work in the war! The silver provinces definitely pay off.

Are there tribal succession crises in MEIOU? Are you in the right government for that?

[Keinwyn]

Excellent opportunism, I approve And hot pink annotations... I approve of that too hehe.

[morningSIDEr]

Good stuff. Its always very gratifying when a gambles pays off in EU3, and I always love to see shameless opportunism too.

[blsteen]

Nice moves grabbing another province...poor Chimu thought they could go it alone
poor, poor Chimu

[Dewirix]

Other than that, Chimu and Chibchaya & allies still beating each other senseless is hardly a bad thing for Cuzco.

You want to watch out that Chibchaya doesn't emerge from the war with too much otherwise the decline of Chimu won't do you much good.

Having such a low BB limit does seriously impair your flexibility in situations like this.

[aldriq]

A good opportunity well taken Now just make sure you keep on Aymara, I'm sure they'll rebuild and come back for their province, maybe with allies.

[Malurous]

to Nazca!
Or Ayamarca!
Or anywhere!

Let's see. Nazca, check... Ayamarca, check... Anywhere, check. Yes, it seems that all of those are included in my future expansion plans.

All of that has to wait a bit for the BB cooldown.

Without the last screenshot I would be a little bit confused who is who...

I'll be sure to add more pink in future updates to make it clearer. I'm sure Keinwyn will appreciate that solution.

Looks like good progress - what sort of effect is this having on your economy?

Well, essentially getting the Large Tribe penalties (the mechanic is pretty much the equivalent of incapable ruler) set me back quite a bit, but that was of course necessary. Later, every gold/silver/diamond province improves me quite a bit but causes inflation, and other provinces mainly just hinder me before they core, as the revolt risk tax penalties are nasty in MEIOU.

I'll have to check actual numbers when I have the game open.

So what does Nazca have that's worth taking?

The last gold province in my vicinity.

Excellent work in the war! The silver provinces definitely pay off.

Are there tribal succession crises in MEIOU? Are you in the right government for that?

Not in the same way. For now, I only get a pretender. In general, I feel that being tribal is more tolerable.

Excellent opportunism, I approve And hot pink annotations... I approve of that too hehe.

Hehe, I not only find that the best color for noticing the annotation, but also a sexy choice. As for the opportunism the situation was puzzling. They have more troops now when they're smaller. But you gotta take what you get.

Good stuff. Its always very gratifying when a gambles pays off in EU3, and I always love to see shameless opportunism too.

Sure, it was a situation that definitely made me happy - after all, that was a matter of days or I might have had to just run. But as it is, I could make the war quick and neat.

Nice moves grabbing another province...poor Chimu thought they could go it alone
poor, poor Chimu

Yeah, alone - which I am - is definitely not the way to be in these parts.

You want to watch out that Chibchaya doesn't emerge from the war with too much otherwise the decline of Chimu won't do you much good.

Having such a low BB limit does seriously impair your flexibility in situations like this.

True, all points. It's really not any one country getting too big that I'm concerned about - it's the alliances. After all, if one country gets too big they get the same penalties that I (and Aymara) have.

A good opportunity well taken Now just make sure you keep on Aymara, I'm sure they'll rebuild and come back for their province, maybe with allies.

Allies is the key word here - things start getting way more difficult in a couple of updates.

Update early (by my standards) tomorrow!

[Malurous]

Chapter Four
1365-1367

My infamy is around 2 after the Aymara war, so I cannot possibly go for any large scale land grab. I decide to bide my time by doing my mission. We start a war of subjugation against Chancay in February 1366.



Surprise surprise, I'm alone once again. This time it's quite logical really: Nazca is still fighting Aymara and Chibchaya is still tangling with Chimu. At least Chibchaya doesn't join Chancay either - they were allied as well.

In a case of suicidal behavior, the Chancay Tribal Council leads their warriors to fight in our territory against a larger force led by Manco Capac (I really don't remember the AI marching into a province with a superior army when there's an adjacent undefended province?). Maybe they know what will happen to them judging by our previous war and just want to get it over with.



They get their wish less than a month later - late April - when the Cuzco army follows them back to Chancay territory. We already had a sieging force in the province, so for the second battle in a row we have the defensive position.



In mid-June, we start our first siege on Ayamarca territory when we slip a small force to undefended Manubo. Only two days later, Manco Capac has gathered enough forces to lift Ayamarca's siege of our capital. Early in the war we didn't have the troop numbers to both keep Ayamarca in check and start sieges in Chancay in a timely manner, so I had to choose the lesser evil and let Ayamarca in. Now, our army does the job but it isn't exactly pretty.



Fortunately for us, Ayamarca's warriors flee towards the province of Vilcabamba, which has forgiving terrain for the attacker. Otherwise I would have had to think of something else and possibly abandon sieges in Ayamarca territory.



We started sieging Pisac earlier, so when we reach and start sieging Sharanawa in July, all of Ayamarca is under siege. The enemy alliance is under siege and without troops.



A volcano erupts in Nazca territory and the natural disaster also affects Chuquipaya. Unless I'm mistaken, 25 % of the population is lost. Could be fifteen. I sound like a caring ruler, don't I?



After routing some new Ayamarca recruits, Manubo is the first province to fall in February 1367. The rest of Ayamarca is done by August. However, I can't peace them out as Chancay's forts still stand and Ayamarca is the alliance leader.



While waiting, a slider move becomes available. I go centralized, reaching 2 decentralized.

The Chancay capital Pachacamac falls in October, and I have sufficient war score to vassalize, completing the mission.



A day later, Ayamarca is forced to give us 151 ducats and end their alliance with Chimu.

While the peace deals give us no additional territory, I managed to gain a tax-paying vassal and some cash at a time when taking infamy wasn't possible, so I have to be happy with that. I'll go for provinces when my infamy is down again (say, next update? ).



As a bonus, I could now have an ally that doesn't abandon me every time I end up in a war if I choose to ally Chancay.

As an aside, I've been really lucky with the rebels in these latest wars. Particularly in the war against Aymara a rebellion would have been really problematic, but it seems that the patriots are choosing to revolt during peace so far.

[Enewald]

Next update better come soon.
Who cares about the amount of dead people, what matters is how many taxpayers you have left.

[aldriq]

Definitely ally your new vassal... if nothing else, they have a much cooler flag than you

[Keinwyn]

I love Chancay's CoA, bloody hilarious for some reason - I think its the eyes.

[Dewirix]

Nice work with Chancay - vassalising hasn't affected your infamy score and I too love the monkey, as apparently did the Nazca.

I reckon there are about 30 provinces in South America not under the control of you or your vassals, so with your BB burn you could have the whole place wrapped up in about 70 years.

That will put you in the 1430s, which could mean a while waiting around for the Europeans to show up, unless you head to Central America first, but I think you'll need to westernise for that.