Children of the Sun - a Cuzco MEIOU AAR

[gabor]

Hmm... hmm... how long will it take the Incas to go on a holiday European tour?

[FlorisDeVijfde]

-6 stability, well that's peanuts in comparison to the new unit types you can get now. Portugal must be getting very concerned about their Meso-American possessions.

[Grunthex]

Congratulations on full Easternisation! (What, it's not Westernisation for the Inca, look at the map!)

I noticed you unlocked Admin Kingdom do you plan on switching now that you've just made a slider move, or hold out for Absolute?

[MannheimCouncil]

Yeah they did a good job, better than I could have hoped. We're not allied anymore however - I have no idea how that happened, a few months into that war there was just a message log entry that said "Our alliance with Naples has ended." or something to that effect.

There is an event for Catholic countries that are allied to non-Christians in which the pope demands they cancel their alliance with the heathens. I think the AI is rather likely to do that instead of taking the -100 relations hit with the pope (which admittedly smarts). If the Reformation has produced any good alliance candidates it might be better to seek them among the Lutheran or Reformed nations (Switzerland perhaps?).

[Malurous]

It appears as if the Gods were making up for that rotten westerniztion luck you recieved earlier in the game.

Hehe, could be! I suppose that EU III, let alone MEIOU, is long enough that it all evens out in the end.

Apart from natural disasters that is, I don't think there's enough time left for those to regress to mean.

2 months !!! Hell no im not gonna wait that long
and the game is verysimple i learned it throught after playing it about 1-2 week

I somehow feared that might be the case. Yeah, I've only spent two evenings on Vicky II and find the economy daunting for now. I have to put my mind into it but for that I need some time with it - most of my gaming time goes to the two AAR games, I've even had DW for ten days but haven't installed it!

and to get Gib you must build ships lot lot lot of ships...

Hah, with this tech difference I'd probably need a thousand! I think I'll rather wait for a time when I have ships that weren't obsolete a century and a half ago.

Again very nice work. The Swiss are cracking me up. You should definitely ally them at some point. Try to appeal to your shared mountain people experience.

Thanks! I'm not sure about allying them, everyone's DoWing them all the time! After they're out of badboy territory, I think I might give it a shot, why not. After all, I've had a good time following their adventures as well.

Can't wait to see what's next. An emergency intervention against the Netherlands? Helping out your Neapolitan allies against the Ottomans?

Like mentioned in the previous feedback post, Naples isn't my ally anymore for some reason. Netherlands is one nation that is on the agenda, but I haven't touched them yet in the game (I'm something like 15-20 years ahead of the AAR).

I should have seen that last bit of westernization coming. Yes, it would appear you were lucky with that Inca ruler hereafter known as "the Westernizer".

Yes, he's indeed a great one. Not everything about his reign will be as rosy as it looks so far however...

You've thrown a load of colonies across the breadth of South America to the English colonies- the English have, it would appear, learned the art of joined up colonial government.

Heh yeah, I suppose they ran out of space for discontinuous colonies so they had no choice but to fill the gaps! While I'd love to colonize stuff close to home (some provinces bordering the original Cuzco lands are still vacant, which I find a bit embarrassing), blocking the European colonizers at the coast is priority number one when it comes to my own colony placement.

I loved that info about Switzerland -dogpiled and still given lots of money.You've told us about your WE shrinking to 0, how's the infamy? How long to wait until Portugal gets it?

Infamy is 7.1 so it would be gone in under seven years, but for some reason I get more of it a few times along the way. There are delays regarding Portugal.

When do you plan to destroy that tiny Mesoamerican OPM? I assume that not in the nearest time with that -6 stab hit.

There's no OPM there - only three province Tlacopan with two adjacent provinces and a dying colony a bit north of them, separated by the dead province (natural disasters FTW).

Regarding being at -3 stab, yeah that hinders things: I don't end up fighting again before I'm at -2!

Very nice, I assume you're happy you're ready to handle anything that comes at you in the next few years.

Definitely. The only concern is that the Europeans will get better military tactics soon along with the other better modifiers from land tech, and I can't catch them at the same rate anymore now that neighbor bonuses are going down. But all things considered, I'm very happy with the situation, especially since I have the numbers to throw at any problems.

YES! It took long enough, but now you can stand up to all the westerners heave at you. At least on land. : )

Yep. I'm still not in steamrolling territory so I have to be careful - which is actually good as it's more interesting this way - but I certainly feel nice and secure in my own lands now.

That result from that Swiss war can only be explained that Swiss built DOOMfortresses in the Alps.

You may be onto something though I suspect that the Alps themselves are the fortress. We've seen in my region how devastating the mountains can be, and as the Swiss really don't have the troop numbers to be as successful as they are against those enemies, I guess they're using the mountains to throw out any invaders. Of course another strength that they have is the ridiculous amount of cash they've extorted from their neighbors.

Oh and thanks for the comment, welcome to the thread!

Hmm... hmm... how long will it take the Incas to go on a holiday European tour?

No idea but I'll say this much: I'm starting to be fully confident that it'll happen this century.

-6 stability, well that's peanuts in comparison to the new unit types you can get now. Portugal must be getting very concerned about their Meso-American possessions.

Actually the troops don't improve immediately. But as I get more tech levels the difference will be big, so it was absolutely critical to get that decision done while I have the required ADM 7 ruler. If Tupac Hualpa II had died too early and there was no suitable replacement soon, I would have been in trouble eventually with New World units.

Congratulations on full Easternisation! (What, it's not Westernisation for the Inca, look at the map!)

I noticed you unlocked Admin Kingdom do you plan on switching now that you've just made a slider move, or hold out for Absolute?

Hehe, thanks!

I'm aiming for Absolute. As mentioned, as a pagan I have a hard time getting CBs, so Imperialism would be huge.

There is an event for Catholic countries that are allied to non-Christians in which the pope demands they cancel their alliance with the heathens. I think the AI is rather likely to do that instead of taking the -100 relations hit with the pope (which admittedly smarts). If the Reformation has produced any good alliance candidates it might be better to seek them among the Lutheran or Reformed nations (Switzerland perhaps?).

Ah, thanks for enlightening me. Never been in a situation like that before so I hadn't found out. Allying the Swiss right now would just get me into needless wars with everyone, which is counterproductive. Maybe later if they're interested.

Then again, I'm fine with disposable alliances for wars like the Spanish one.

[FinnishFish]

I've even had DW for ten days but haven't installed it!



Hah, with this tech difference I'd probably need a thousand! I think I'll rather wait for a time when I have ships that weren't obsolete a century and a half ago.

:O You b@$ta@rd you bought DW without telling us

and now im gonna say something rare when where talking about navies
Quality < Quatanty

[Fireaxe888]

Have you converted any Spanish provinces yet? I find the idea of conversion to paganism hilarious for some reason.

[Chief Ragusa]

I must say, I find the idea of your ruler still going on to what, lose his marbles, perplexing. At -3 Stab, you can't DoW. Can't see anyone DoWing the Incas. 7 years to no infamy only for more to be picked up along the way. The English, but no, they wouldn't, DoW the mighty Inca, would they?

New ruler with fresh ideas is quickly needed.

[Enewald]

Well played!
How about you rename Aparai as Äpäräi?

[Dewirix]

Great job finishing off both the Spanish connection and military westernisation - I'm very jealous that you managed to get it all done within the lifespan of a single ruler. I shudder to think what Incan society must be like after three decades of blistering technological change and a major war against one of the worlds major powers.

Once you get the Portuguese colonies it's doubtful if anyone will be able to stop you.

[Malurous]

:O You b@$ta@rd you bought DW without telling us

It's right there under the avatar. Besides, I mentioned it in the succession game thread, so if you have a problem with not seeing it in writing then you can only blame yourself for not following that AAR!

and now im gonna say something rare when where talking about navies
Quality < Quatanty

The Spanish have 150 ships. And I'm likely to end up against others too. I know from experience that with less of a tech difference, double isn't enough. So with a tech difference like this (and full land against the neutral or navally inclined Iberians) I'd need a main fleet of hundreds of ships if I wanted to be sure. So in fact, it isn't necessary to debate if that's smart - with no Press Gangs available (you can't get it in MEIOU if you have a heavy land slider) I can't even afford it!

Have you converted any Spanish provinces yet? I find the idea of conversion to paganism hilarious for some reason.

Not yet - the conversion chance is too far into negative to make it possible no matter what I do. But yeah, that's in the same vein as the Inca conquistadors pushing into Spanish territory that I found funny in some update.

I must say, I find the idea of your ruler still going on to what, lose his marbles, perplexing. At -3 Stab, you can't DoW. Can't see anyone DoWing the Incas. 7 years to no infamy only for more to be picked up along the way. The English, but no, they wouldn't, DoW the mighty Inca, would they?

New ruler with fresh ideas is quickly needed.

It's not so much the ruler that goes wrong, more that his death is pretty badly timed. Not that I can whine about it, seeing how long he lived to enable full westernization.

Yeah, the war at -2 is just a "placeholder" - and I'm indeed the one doing the DoWing. Oh and please don't tell that to the target, it's pretty rude to call it a placeholder when you attack someone.

Well played!
How about you rename Aparai as Äpäräi?

Thanks! I'll do that as soon as I see an AAR where someone renames the vanilla Indian province of Bastar into Bastard.

Great job finishing off both the Spanish connection and military westernisation - I'm very jealous that you managed to get it all done within the lifespan of a single ruler. I shudder to think what Incan society must be like after three decades of blistering technological change and a major war against one of the worlds major powers.

Once you get the Portuguese colonies it's doubtful if anyone will be able to stop you.

Cheers! Yeah I definitely agree that that was very lucky - however I'm also inclined to agree with Boris ze Spider that it just evened out the waiting for the PU and inheritance, and the westernization capable Sapa Inca didn't come immediately either.

The changes have been huge. The tech speed has been ridiculous for a while; like I mentioned, I'm really struggling with these reports now as I have to say "tech x went up a level" twenty times in an update without sounding like a broken record! But that progress indeed has ended the vulnerable period that started when the Europeans came. Fortunately they never really took advantage of it.

[Malurous]

Chapter Forty-four
1622-1625

After the modernization, we're of course at stability -3. I haven't seen this many rebels in a while... Thankfully, they're of course not a threat at this point.

I may be investing in stability, but the neighborhood bonus is still at work. Trade tech 24 is reached in November, moving me to the next colonization category:



Very nice. Non-tropical colonies will actually grow now. Of course, I mostly colonize tropical provinces these days, but this will still have its uses. Not to mention the significant boost in colonist gain.

Additionally, trade tech 24 enables cotton producer bonuses.



Stab -2 makes things a bit easier in March 1623.

In the same month, Aparai grows into a city. Maue is the next target.



Sayri Tupac, the heir, dies in April. This is actually a bit scary as Tupac Hualpa II is so old.

Death seems to be in - my Cardinal dies weeks later and I replace him with another one. This was simply careless: I have missionaries in every province that has a positive chance, so having a yearly missionaries advisor isn't a very good call. Well, no matter, I endorse some culture and commission paintings, and get a new high level advisor.



I didn't know we had Sharia judges in these parts, but it seems that they're pretty damn good at keeping the ruffians in check. The effect is noticeable.

Okay, stability is still -2, but our military is in good form and, having teched enough to have growing colonies, I can think of a poor dying colony that would benefit from our gentle care.



Yopitzinco notices that an Inti nation is attacked and immediately decides that converting to that religion is a good idea.

I don't even bother to raise military upkeep, there's simply no need. The Tlacopan army is taken care of easily enough in two June battles:



It's just sieging now.

Aparai starts producing Maize in July, but this is replaced by sugar the next year.

We reach stability -1 and learn land tech 28 in September.

Meztitlan is the first province to fall, its ten inhabitants reluctantly becoming part of the Inca Empire in December. A hundred Incas are immediately sent to join them, thought it'll take more than a year.



I also send a colonist to Axocopan, the adjacent dead province. The long colonist times aren't such a big problem now that colonists aren't dying.

Stab zero is reached in January 1624, while Xilotepec is occupied the next month.

We get a new heir in April.



This is a very interesting situation. He's very, very bad so by basic EU III mechanics he's likely to have a long reign, but his name is Pachacutec so by Children of the Sun karma he's likely to die before assuming power. We'll see which effect is stronger.

Stability becomes positive in June, and doubly so in October.

Maue grows into a city, so we can start colonizing Satere, a nice province in the sense that we get a new way for our armies to march east.



And still in October, Tlacopan finally falls and peace is negotiated.



Meztitlan's colonist succeeds and flips that province to Quechua and Inti.

We get full stability in February 1625 - the modernization process is finished.

Also in February, trade tech 25 is discovered, while government tech progresses to level 26 in April.

And finally on the 8th, Axocopan comes back to life when our colonists arrive in that province. No holes in Mesoamerica anymore!



No rival Native Americans either. The Inca Empire is now officially the last one standing.

[jii]

I love how MEIOU worlds always turn out. Things seem so strangely ahistorical but somehow plausible.

[blsteen]

Well the Inca certainly are the last one standing.
Too bad about the heir but we'll see how strong the force is with this one

[Athalcor]

I love how MEIOU worlds always turn out. Things seem so strangely ahistorical but somehow plausible.

Yes, the Dutch colony in Kola is one of the most plausible thing I have ever seen.

Hmm cardinals and ulamas - do you happen to have your own religious leaders as well or do you have to import them because the former just sacrificed each other to Inti?

[MannheimCouncil]

That has to be satisfying. Finally all Native Americans united under one flag (don't know where they got the idea of flags from, but well).

Who are the newcomers on the South American coast? Britanny and Avignon? Or Naples?

[Chief Ragusa]

The unification of meso-america is now complete. I bsee you've still a way to go to reach the Atlantic Ocean. The death of your ruler would lead to a long regency and no wars started by the Inca. No doubt, you waited for 0 infamy before launching a war against Portugal and lost your long-standing ruler.

Will you start moving towards naval or do you have other slider priorities?

I see Mutapa is still there and growing. How about marriages with all the pagan states?

[Enewald]

How about colonizing northwards, to prevent Portugal expanding to the west coast?
Much furries there!

[Grunthex]

I love how MEIOU worlds always turn out. Things seem so strangely ahistorical but somehow plausible.

If there's one thing MEIOU has taught us, it's that the real-world French seriously defied expectations in uniting the country.

[gigau]

I love how MEIOU worlds always turn out. Things seem so strangely ahistorical but somehow plausible.

That's the plan...

Yes, the Dutch colony in Kola is one of the most plausible thing I have ever seen.

Not everything is perfect... but we're still working on it. The Kola one is tricky to work on though.

If there's one thing MEIOU has taught us, it's that the real-world French seriously defied expectations in uniting the country.

And to think that the main mod managing to destroying France is made by... a frenchman