Children of the Sun - a Cuzco MEIOU AAR

[Malurous]

that Mamluk is HUGE

Indeed!

Very interesting how the world has turned out, worrying to see Scotland is still surviving, hopefully though they can be conquered quickly so as to save the world from their idiocy. Apart from that the main things which catch my eye are the large Netherlands and The Mamluks prospering whilst the Ottomans seem to be struggling, which is quite a surprise to me. Unfortunate too that a Swiss province seems to be under occupation by Austria (or is that Bavaria or someone else?), hopefully the doughty Swiss can hang in there.

Judging by my small sample size, the Ottomans seem capable of getting minor victories in wars against the Mamluks however. But nothing decisive one way or the other.

Scotland looks to be in trouble, frankly, their neighbors seem stronger than them.

That's Bavaria, I tried to imply as much in the text. I'll be following that war.

Oh and doughty... Had to check Merriam-Webster there. Pretty cool to learn an English word I didn't know, doesn't happen to me too often anymore.

Looks interesting. Geneva in Britain is not very surprising, especially considering you're not playing an earlier version.

Ah, thanks for reminding me. The last European game I played is from a later start so I didn't remember the 1356 anglois culture thingy. Good to have another reader with MEIOU experience to make sure these details are corrected.

Same goes for the French implosion after partial unification.

True also.

It is good to see Poland, Brandenburg, Bohemia and Austria expanding without biting down hard on each other.

Yeah, I like that too. In my opinion it's always a sign of an interesting region developing when you have a good bunch of medium to rather large sized nations emerging instead of blobs and minors.

You're correct that Spain is the main threat, head and shoulders above the rest really. In the long term I'd put the Netherlands second because they have very good numbers and money in addition to already having a foothold (shown in the next update). Portugal is something to worry about in the short term, but their severe lack of manpower should give me opportunities to bleed their armies dry. I'm hopeful that I'll be in a position to handle any nations that haven't started colonizing yet.

I just love bloodshed.
I do not bath in blood. Nor do I drink it.
I just started playing WAR.

EPIC EUROPE!

Haha! Nice that you like it.

Very interesting...
that is a strong looking spain, mallorca will have its hands full; Netherlands and Mamluks have blobbed quite well
Time for a boat..nay a ship?

Indeed! Construction will start immediately. It was nice to finally see Europe, and show it to you guys as well.

Most of Europe is in a bit of a royal mess Watch out for those pesky Dutch, they might make it to North/Central America in no time...

Yup. And they're already here, I'm spoiling that much of the next update.

Surprised the Tumird Empire didn't collapse into a million pieces. In later patches of HTTT they seemed have less collapsing. In DW though, they normally don't even make it out of the 1400s.

Interesting, I still haven't gone for DW - I have HTTT stuff to finish like this AAR so might as well wait for some nice discount.

All in all, I'd say there's been a good amount of consolidation and/or staying intact in most areas.

What the ..... Europe is in mess you gotta clean it up

I'll do my best, but gotta clean the backyard first!

[Athalcor]

Europe: Mayhem!!!
RotW: Quite consolidated. The three big letters F E Z scared me on the first glance.

Btw, how do Timurids come to existence in MEIOU? AFAIK, Timur united the Empire in 1370 so does he gain the provinces through an event or...?

[Nikolai II]

In my current game England got overrun completely by religious fanatics at least three times, forcing my Sweden/Kalmar Union to go rescue them. (Personal Union, one century and counting )

In my case they had gotten their entire army stuck in an owned inland French province and couldn't get it home to fight rebels.

Anyway, something like in your game would probably have happened if I had not put a stop to it.

[MacDunne]

Thanks for posting the screen shots. I think the word of the day is indeed "interesting". It should be to your benefit that there is no true dominant power in Europe. (although Spain does come close)

I was going to guess that your initial rivals were going to be Spain and Portugal with the thought that the Netherlands would be busy in the Far East. But with Great Britain yet to form and France appearing to be Europe's punching bag, I see that you let slip that the Dutch have decided to sail in and fill the void. Now the question is, have they come to trade or to bully you for a piece of your land?

I noticed that there are no screen shots of North or South America, so we are left in suspence on how many European fingers are in your American pie. Can't wait for the next update to find out (and to see how the Children of the Sun react to their first ships. Incan Navy anyone? I wonder if there are any decendants of the Hardy Seaman around to help out? )

As for Spain being in Greece, that is probably due to Aragon's past. When ever I play MEIOU on its earliest start date, Aragon seems to make a beeline for Athens (from their holdings in Sicily) and try to spread from there.

Well enough of my ramblings -- look forward to your next update to see what comes next.

[Alan deLane]

A lot of what I wanted to comment has already been said (Genève in England, France, Spain in Southern Greece, ...). But here are my 5¢:

• Poland expanding into HRE by conquering Pommerania: I've seen that often.
• Hungary going into the steppes, then collapsing (probably due to BB and the overextension-modifier): I've seen that often too.
• Bohemia taking out the Palatinate: a classic in MEIOU.
• The Netherlands: I'm not surprised at all (they, together with the Swiss, France, and the Emperor, probably ate up Burgundy).
• Austria going into the Balkans is nothing new to me too: probably due to some alliances between Austria, Bosnia, Hum, etc.
• Lithuania being imploded didn't surprise me: they tend to get weaker and weaker after, say 1450/1500 A.D.
• The Ottomans being weak and the Mamelucks' expansion: no surprise, as it matches with my experiences (and the Mameluck more often than not expand very similarly in my games).
• The Timurids: now here's a surprise! In my latest games (newer build/version though), they formed Persia and soon imploded.

Yours,
AdL

P.S. Fez being the Northwest-African regional power is a classic too.
P.P.S. From that little climpse of Denmark and Norway, I guess that Scandinavia has developed into the usual mess.

[gabor]

Westernised you can cope with whatever invaders come your way, can't you? From these maps we can see there are very few as compact and coherent empires as yours to rival you.

[Basileus444]

I'm not too surprised by anything I see in the old world. Well, except for the big Tuscany and the scattered Roman Empire. How did they get provinces bordering the Caspian?

Spain and the Netherlands are both threatening, but fear Fez. I overran all of their north African possessions in my previous game, but left them with a sizeable subsaharan empire. Because they kept becoming DotF, I was at war with them every 5-10 years and all that time they kept throwing multiple 30K stacks at me...for two centuries. I had to keep 70 regiments in North Africa, even though I had a twenty tech lead, just to keep them off my back.

Typical Mamluks, but go Ethiopia! One thing I like about MEIOU is that I almost always see an Ethiopia that at least ranks as a medium rate power. Powerful Timurids this late in the game are also interesting. And India is pretty. Are any of the countries Hindu or is the entire peninsula Muslim now?

[Alan deLane]

[...] and the scattered Roman Empire. How did they get provinces bordering the Caspian? [...]

Maybe they got that land long before their downfall:

1. inheriting Georgia (which might have conquered Trebizond, as it tends in my games),
2. then not loosing them too early to the Ottomans/other-baddies and gaining cores. The TUR gets some nasty "sway-provinces-away-thingy" and thus eats up the Romans faster than you can say "Konstantinopolis" ...
3. So after the TUR lost a war to whom-ever, the Romans might have gotten independence and those squattered lands were the only cores left.

But it might all have been differently ... I'm just guessing what seems probable to me.

Yours,
AdL

(... and sorry for my crappy English)

P.S. Before I'll forget it:

• The Romans could also be a muslim state, and
• it would really interesting to see some screenies of the religious breakdown in Europe/Asia/india and the Americas.

AdL

[Dewirix]

Congratulations on westernising! I missed the vote, but I'd have gone for option A as well, so that makes it 16-0.

What is it with England and unlikely aggressors? In my AAR Britain unified the isles and then were mostly conquered by the Papal States and moved capital to North America.

That big Netherlands looks like it could be a rival for American hegemony. Spain could prove even more problematic if they war with Portugal again, especially if they end up taking a province which borders you.

Is the plan now to start colonising towards your Central American possessions? If so, looks like the Portuguese are in the way...

[blsteen]

A ship! A ship!
Of course you'll have to manage the Dutch (de Rutyer), the Spanish(Bazan), and the Portugese (Alberqurque), or even the English (Nelson) and the perhaps the French (Tourville). With a Tupac...something or other. Good luck.

[Malurous]

Europe: Mayhem!!!
RotW: Quite consolidated.

There's the short version.

The three big letters F E Z scared me on the first glance.

Hehe, if that scares you then be advised that, barring a collapse, there'll be a C H A G A T A I sighting of pretty much that letter size at some point.

Btw, how do Timurids come to existence in MEIOU? AFAIK, Timur united the Empire in 1370 so does he gain the provinces through an event or...?

I'll just post the team's explanation as is:

"Although Timur formally split from Chagatai in 1370 he was effectively independant from when he was acknowledged as ruler of Samarkand in 1363. For simplicity sake, in MEIOU Timur and the Timurids are deemed to be independant from 1356.1.10 This will need to be improved if/when the start date of MEIOU is moved earlier than 1356"

In my current game England got overrun completely by religious fanatics at least three times, forcing my Sweden/Kalmar Union to go rescue them. (Personal Union, one century and counting )

In my case they had gotten their entire army stuck in an owned inland French province and couldn't get it home to fight rebels.

Anyway, something like in your game would probably have happened if I had not put a stop to it.

Yeah, England tends to be like that. They seem to trust their navy and forget that if hostile troops (enemy or rebel) somehow end up on the Isles, they're still supposed to do something about the matter.

Thanks for posting the screen shots. I think the word of the day is indeed "interesting". It should be to your benefit that there is no true dominant power in Europe. (although Spain does come close)

Yeah true. Though both Spain and Netherlands are dangerous. Thanks to having rich lands the latter have some serious numbers as well. Less than the Spanish however.

I was going to guess that your initial rivals were going to be Spain and Portugal with the thought that the Netherlands would be busy in the Far East. But with Great Britain yet to form and France appearing to be Europe's punching bag, I see that you let slip that the Dutch have decided to sail in and fill the void. Now the question is, have they come to trade or to bully you for a piece of your land?

We'll see. Spain and Portugal are indeed the initial rivals as the Netherlands, while in the Americas, aren't on my doorstep like the other two. "Great Britain is yet to form" could be called the understatement of the year, by the way.

I noticed that there are no screen shots of North or South America, so we are left in suspence on how many European fingers are in your American pie. Can't wait for the next update to find out (and to see how the Children of the Sun react to their first ships. Incan Navy anyone? I wonder if there are any decendants of the Hardy Seaman around to help out? )

Haha, where are the Hardy Seamen when you need them?

No spread of the Americas from the Muslim group, naturally.

As for Spain being in Greece, that is probably due to Aragon's past. When ever I play MEIOU on its earliest start date, Aragon seems to make a beeline for Athens (from their holdings in Sicily) and try to spread from there.

That's a probable explanation.

...

Yeah many classics, but some surprises too. Scandinavia is, for the most part, far from a mess actually.

And while it's the result of pretty standard behavior, I can't help but find Hungary's borders hilarious. It looks like a cartoon dog doing something that I don't want to know anything more about.

Westernised you can cope with whatever invaders come your way, can't you? From these maps we can see there are very few as compact and coherent empires as yours to rival you.

Fully modernized yes, but even with westernization I'll still be some ways off from being able to switch away from New World units...

Spain and the Netherlands look like the problems long term.

...

We'll see about Fez when I get to the Old World. I'll worry about the major early colonizers first.

I think Alan deLane's guess about the Romans' possessions is as good as any. Of course, it could just be a combination of defections as most lands are islands or provinces in places that seem pretty unstable otherwise.

As silly as it sounds, it didn't occur to me to check the Indian religious situation. I'll check and post about it at some point.

it would really interesting to see some screenies of the religious breakdown in Europe/Asia/india and the Americas.

Okay I'll grab some. Gotta admit, the map spread when coming from the New World is one situation where DW's zoom out distance would really come in handy!

Congratulations on westernising! I missed the vote, but I'd have gone for option A as well, so that makes it 16-0.

Cheers! Good to see that everyone's fine with this solution.

What is it with England and unlikely aggressors? In my AAR Britain unified the isles and then were mostly conquered by the Papal States and moved capital to North America.

See answer to Nikolai II. England seems to often get so preoccupied with any continental and/or colonial adventures that the Isles have pathetic defenses. Therefore it doesn't necessarily have to be a major - whoever manages to slip through to the Isles might get free roam there.

That big Netherlands looks like it could be a rival for American hegemony. Spain could prove even more problematic if they war with Portugal again, especially if they end up taking a province which borders you.

Oh Spain will be a problem, trust me. I had to start a second AAR to cope with this one's Spain. For the Netherlands it's a matter of timing, i.e. are they able to cause trouble for me before I'm too strong? Time will tell.

Is the plan now to start colonising towards your Central American possessions? If so, looks like the Portuguese are in the way...

Yeah, to both counts.

A ship! A ship!
Of course you'll have to manage the Dutch (de Rutyer), the Spanish(Bazan), and the Portugese (Alberqurque), or even the English (Nelson) and the perhaps the French (Tourville). With a Tupac...something or other. Good luck.

Tupac something should be fine, just hopefully not Pachacutec or I suspect my navy would sink before there was even any battle. Thanks!

[Alan deLane]

[...] I can't help but find Hungary's borders hilarious. It looks like a cartoon dog doing something that I don't want to know anything more about. [...]

Now I see it too:

[blsteen]

Tupac something it is!
pachacutec's can stay with the army...good luck with that

[Malurous]

Now I see it too:

Haha good to see I'm not alone, I was afraid that my Rorschach-ish reaction was a sign of a twisted mind.

Tupac something it is!
pachacutec's can stay with the army...good luck with that

They never live old enough to reach the army!

[Malurous]

The YHCmobile

I've been trying to act all normal on these forums the last couple of days, but now I feel that I have no choice but to let you guys in on a little secret. I have to tell someone, as I'm sure you'll understand when you read further, and as the followers of this AAR you're the natural choice as you already know something about the problem at hand.

At the same time, I can shed at least a little bit of light on the question that's surely been on everyone's minds: What really happened to Yahuar Hacuac Chilche? Note that if you're a sensitive person you should skip this update: I'm now starting to think that YHC is playing mind games - or worse - with me in my "civilian" life.

I mean, it has seemed obvious all along that when he "died" he didn't really die. He just went somewhere else to work on some important plan. I don't know if it's of sinister nature or not but one thing is pretty much certain: it's damn sure to be something big.

I have always suspected that he, like Manco Capac, has a life span that dwarfs that of ordinary humans. That led me to believe that, since history doesn't tell about any grand feat by him, he's still somewhere out there either planning his move or waiting for when humanity is ready for him to take action. Or enjoying bling-bling and loose women.

Until now there has been no information on his plans or whereabouts, but that has now changed by pure chance. Or at least that's what they want me to believe it was. A few days ago I was walking to the grocery store when, just half a mile away from my apartment, I saw his car.

Afraid that parking his car so close to my home might have been a threat to me - perhaps he didn't like that I was writing about him in public - I made a run for the safety of my home. However, I quickly snapped a picture before anyone noticed (I hope). I transfered it from my phone to the computer tonight so I can share this with you:



I expected him to be driving some customized American pimp ride so I was shocked to say the least when I saw this. While reasonably new, that's a standard family Volkswagen.

The registration number surprised me as well. I was expecting YHC-1 or, better yet, YHC-69 (his years of service to boot), but it's just some ordinary three digit number with no specific meaning that I can think of.

I went home and thought about it, and I found an obvious explanation: he still has a reason to lay low. He clearly has something to hide. If that isn't proof that he's planning something, then what is?

Not much later, I built up my courage, told myself that it was probably just a coincidence, and went out as I was supposed to go meet my girlfriend. Curious about YHC's dealings, I decided to choose the route that went by his vehicle.

The car was gone.

It was becoming apparent that the car was a poorly veiled threat. I've been hiding in my apartment since then, the Paradox forum my only link to the outside world. But now I'm out of food and supplies so I have no option but to go out there. I'll try to scrape something together from the garbage bins, using the night as cover. If you don't hear from me in a couple of days, be vigilant. You've read about him in the AAR - you may be next.

[Boris ze Spider]

Run awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

[MacDunne]

Run awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

But to where???

[Alan deLane]

Could it be that the Inca's religion is a long lost branche of Buddhism? Do they reincarnate in the immaterial too? And several years into the future? And even on a different "plane"?

... maybe the next discussion between the philosopher and the hight priest will reveal more.

Yours,
AdL

[MannheimCouncil]

I almost fear to state the obvious: Yahuar Hacuac Chilche has gone on to become one of the feared Andean mummies, an undead bent on protecting his native soil. He is lurking nearby making sure you keep the Inca safe from any threat. You'd better not lose out to some European hoodlums like Spain ^^

[blsteen]

Far be it from me to disturb your TINFOIL HAT WEARING.
You know too much! And really, if he's a Incan mummy dude, I'd think that
low key would be the way to go, with some air fresheners. And a parka for your neck of the woods (or mine for that matter).
Is your girlfriend hot?
I'm sure there are some P'doxers who will help ease her time of struggle
after you're gone...TO THE STORE TO BUY HER SOME FOOD MAN!