Children of the Sun - a Cuzco MEIOU AAR

[Ellesthyan]

What's unplausible about the Dutch colonizing Kola? IRL they actually sent an expedition to go around Russia to find India that way. It's imaginable that in an alternate history they would've decided on building a little colony while they're there. What's unplausible is that neither Sweden nor Russia took the time to take Kola first.

[FlorisDeVijfde]

So you're the last one standing. No pressure at all in being the sole defender of an entire continent

[gabor]

What's unplausible about the Dutch colonizing Kola? IRL they actually sent an expedition to go around Russia to find India that way. It's imaginable that in an alternate history they would've decided on building a little colony while they're there. What's unplausible is that neither Sweden nor Russia took the time to take Kola first.

One always learsn something. Frankly I thought it's a break-away omp Finland.

Now, the Americas look cleaner, but do they look clean enough?

[Boris ze Spider]

One always learsn something. Frankly I thought it's a break-away omp Finland.

Now, the Americas look cleaner, but do they look clean enough?

They look cleaner than most games i see.

[morningSIDEr]

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

Congratulations for that! Now then, the next challenge; to have the Inca Empire the only nation in all of Southern and Northern America.

[Dewirix]

The plan

Now that we're familiar with the circumstances, the plan is as follows:

1 - Make sure that Cuzco survives and thrives. This means becoming the unquestionable number one power in our South American region by grabbing what useful territory I can early on.

2 - Take all of the region. This includes expansion via war and diplomacy.

3 - Find ways to expand outside the region. Colonize adjacent provinces and/or enter Central America one way or another (adding the possibility to meet Europeans earlier).

4 - When Europeans are encountered, keep our lands safe. Then attempt to westernize as well as modernize our rotten government.

5 - ? ? ?

6 - Profit.

Well we're at step 5 now. I agree with morningSIDEr that you need to secure the Americas against these rapacious Europeans.

[Malurous]

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

Yeah I also think they are more logical, and somewhat prettier as well. It varies though...

Welcome to the thread!

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

It doesn't go well with the ruler/heir... But well, we're the only native Americans left to worry about such matters.

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?

Oh they're around, they're the ones that kill a child every time I get a new mission, remember? I guess they're an ordinary part of the society while these foreign ones (don't forget the Jesuit I had around at one point) give extras.

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?

Yes it is - and the no. 2 priority with Portugal (after the land connection) is taking the native American provinces that they conquered. I want to own all the provinces that were inhabited in the start of the game ASAP.

Let's see... You should know Spain and England, south along the coast of them it's Tuscany, Nice, Netherlands and England again. Normandy was there too but not anymore, Nice's colony was founded by them and seized.

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.

Well done, here we have the "delay" I've been talking about. Other than that I didn't wait until zero infamy (the war's going to last long enough for it to decrease anyway), I waited for certain colonies to turn into cities. Much like with the Spanish war, I didn't want to start until the border area with the country in question and the coasts were without vulnerable colonies. It proved necessary with the Spanish as they did a good job landing troops around with their naval superiority, so I wasn't going to neglect that part now.

Making sure that I grab and secure as much colonial land as possible instead of the Europeans doing it is absolutely vital in the long run, but it backfired here.

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?

Expansionism is probably the priority as far as sliders go. I've already married Mutapa where I am in the game. When it comes to "all the pagan states", well, Mutapa is the only one I know of.

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

That something I want to do but a bit awkward right now as it takes over a year for a colonist to reach those parts. I think I'll move to that only after I've done everything I can to prevent European colonization of South America - something that I'm in a better position to enforce.

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

Hehe!

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

I suppose you're quite a patriot?

What's unplausible about the Dutch colonizing Kola? IRL they actually sent an expedition to go around Russia to find India that way. It's imaginable that in an alternate history they would've decided on building a little colony while they're there. What's unplausible is that neither Sweden nor Russia took the time to take Kola first.

Hmm, you're right that the Dutch colonizing there isn't any worse than anyone else. But you're also correct that Sweden or Russia (Muscovy in this case) should be there, especially in this game. It's a bit silly that both of those countries are so strong but never took Kola. No colonists, I suppose...

Good to have you reading! And honored that my AAR was worthy of creating your post of this nine month period.

So you're the last one standing. No pressure at all in being the sole defender of an entire continent

Well, if you balance that with how it went in our time line then I think I'm alright as far as expectations go.

Now, the Americas look cleaner, but do they look clean enough?

The main problem in my opinion: not enough purplish.

They look cleaner than most games i see.

Absolutely, they're very neat. Pretty logically shaped countries/colonial holdings, at least if you ignore the Inca snakiness that results from colonizing the passages through Amazonia.

Congratulations for that! Now then, the next challenge; to have the Inca Empire the only nation in all of Southern and Northern America.

Thanks! That's a goal definitely. It looks slightly daunting right now, but well, I have 230 years to manage that.

Well we're at step 5 now. I agree with morningSIDEr that you need to secure the Americas against these rapacious Europeans.

Looking at the economy, I'd also say that we've got (in the quote clearly visible) number 6 done as well. In fact, that silly joke stopped being invisible in the original post since they changed the forum look.

I'll do my best in that. At least I'm confident that the South will be 100 % Inca by the end. I have another goal that could be added to that list, but I won't disclose it just yet.

[gigau]

I suppose you're quite a patriot?

I am very much a patriot... i even ended up selecting my avatar in reaction to the many anti-french statements i see on the forum.

The fact french gets destroyed in MEIOU is linked to a historical portrayal of France in 1356, but no way yet for France to reocer, at least for AI. I think patriotism has nothing to do in a game. And actually, it helps me : when one says "why did you do this to my country ?" even if historical, i just say "look at what i did to mine"


So, when will you go against Portugal, and connect the two parts of your nation ?

[Malurous]

I am very much a patriot... i even ended up selecting my avatar in reaction to the many anti-french statements i see on the forum.

I of course wasn't serious. I sincerely hope that it was as obvious as I meant it to be.

Well, you won't be getting any anti-French statements from me, that's for sure. My studies brought me to southern France, to the more rural areas pretty close to Toulouse, a couple of times (not short stays either) and I loved it, the places and especially the people. Apart from not really speaking the language, it was quite neat to be like everyone around me for a change instead of being noisy and somewhat exotic looking like I'm here.

The fact french gets destroyed in MEIOU is linked to a historical portrayal of France in 1356, but no way yet for France to reocer, at least for AI. I think patriotism has nothing to do in a game. And actually, it helps me : when one says "why did you do this to my country ?" even if historical, i just say "look at what i did to mine"

Haha, that must really help with all the "Balkan country x is too weak!" complaints.

So, when will you go against Portugal, and connect the two parts of your nation ?

I can't really answer as I haven't done that yet. But right now it's priority number two, and number one pretty much gets taken care of in the next chapter.

[gigau]

I of course wasn't serious. I sincerely hope that it was as obvious as I meant it to be.

Well, you won't be getting any anti-French statements from me, that's for sure. My studies brought me to southern France, to the more rural areas pretty close to Toulouse, a couple of times (not short stays either) and I loved it, the places and especially the people. Apart from not really speaking the language, it was quite neat to be like everyone around me for a change instead of being noisy and somewhat exotic looking like I'm here.

I didn't say you would. Toulouse, Montpellier,... are indeed great places. Nice also... leading to the issue of there being too many people there !

Haha, that must really help with all the "Balkan country x is too weak!" complaints.

Actually, i didn't have much problems from people in the Balkans. All our conversions have been civilised and instructive.

But it helped me with a korean guy... even if he ended up sulking.

I can't really answer as I haven't done that yet. But right now it's priority number two, and number one pretty much gets taken care of in the next chapter.

After reading this, i'm even more looking forward reading the next update

[Dewirix]

[FONT="Times New Roman"]The fact french gets destroyed in MEIOU is linked to a historical portrayal of France in 1356, but no way yet for France to reocer, at least for AI. I think patriotism has nothing to do in a game. And actually, it helps me : when one says "why did you do this to my country ?" even if historical, i just say "look at what i did to mine"

If anything, it's a useful illustration of how well the French monarchy did in the games time period. We really shouldn't be too surprised that the AI fails to replicate what is actually one of the most successful examples of nation-building. You only have to look at Italy and Germany in the EU3 timeframe to see what could happen when no central authority manages to pull a country together.

[blsteen]

If anything, it's a useful illustration of how well the French monarchy did in the games time period. We really shouldn't be too surprised that the AI fails to replicate what is actually one of the most successful examples of nation-building. You only have to look at Italy and Germany in the EU3 timeframe to see what could happen when no central authority manages to pull a country together.

Or Russia, Great Britian and oh yeah 13 colonies somewhere on the North American continent...note not 15 colonies either

[Dewirix]

Russia's another good example. Britain at least had the advantage of very obvious natural borders, and even then Scotland and England weren't united until the Stuarts, by which point France was fairly well-consolidated.

[Malurous]

Alright, more coming already as I don't want to get too far ahead, and the game is pretty fun right now so I'm playing it more than I probably should.

Actually, i didn't have much problems from people in the Balkans. All our conversions have been civilised and instructive.

But it helped me with a korean guy... even if he ended up sulking.

After reading this, i'm even more looking forward reading the next update

Well, not a long wait for the update this time around.

Ah good to hear, it was very often the Balkans in the main EU III board, especially when the game was new. There were people with some, uh, strong opinions that they didn't always voice that eloquently. And I don't remember any two people having the same opinion either! Maybe MEIOU Balkans are so damn fun to play that no-one goes into a nationalistic fury over them. Usually my favorite place to start, even though I've found out lately that South America is pretty cool too.

Dewirix & blsteen: Good points. In those times and especially earlier, you needed some quality minds to have the power, and preferably many in close succession. There simply weren't enough checks and balances to maintain a rising empire without that. In many ways, the countries that are powerful in 2011 just happened to have that in the right times. Of course, some were helped along by circumstances, and others had to survive in them. Naturally, of the modern day powers some rose to that position only after the EU III era.

[Malurous]

Chapter Forty-five
1625-1628

We get naval tech 15 and, with it, Caravels and Armed Caravels in May. Naval tech progresses very nicely right now thanks to the combination of full investment and maximum neighbor bonus.

Later in the month, we find out that Satere will produce brazilwood. Good. Then in June, Maue gets sugar as its resource.

I decide to start building Citadels, a better fort type, in provinces that border my Iberian enemies.

Satere becomes a city in January 1626 and I start colonizing Moxos - it's actually one of the provinces bordering Cuzco's original lands.



I recruit a new Conquistador and start exploring the eastern part of South America.

We get naval tech 16 in March.

Oztoman converts in September, finally completing the mission we've had for six decades.



Funny how the mission province was the last Mesoamerican province to succeed.



Beautiful.

The next mission - create a proper fleet - will take a while. I keep it anyway, it will be done eventually after all.

Moxos starts producing maize in September, while our conquistador discovers a few provinces and more English border.



Kanamari's citizens strike gold for more bling-bling in December. That province just keeps improving: it has gone from maize to sugar to gold.

Now that we know England's lands in our region, it's time to take them. That's right, those eight provinces are all still colonies - all I have to do is seize them and get peace, no need to negotiate for gains here.

England has 36000 troops (19000 of which are in the colonies in question) and 13000 manpower, they have serious rebel trouble in their Irish provinces and their allies are landlocked so no help from there. And the enemy coalition has varying amounts of WE as well. This should be a walk in the park.



"Liberation War", sure!

I do some timing moves to get reinforcements in place without attrition, so my initial attack takes a while. In the meantime, I reach naval tech levels 17 (barque and carrack, January 1627) and 18 (March).

Finally on March 11th we attack the enemy in Parakana. It's over in six days.



I seize the province. Now I have the luxury of having two provinces from which to strike at the enemy.



Naval tech advances again in April (the third time in four months!), this time level 19 for flyte.

I send a colonist to culture and religion flip Parakana; it succeeds in May.

Also in May, we beat the main English army.



The province is again seized and I chase the army. Another English stack is waiting in the province where this one is retreating, but I trust I can handle them both.

We get trade tech 26 and production tech 22 in June.

Late in the month one enemy has had enough.



We culture flip Yanonami in July while we're triumphant against what's left of the English armies in the battle of Wayana in August.



It continues like this along the coast - the English armies flee in front of us and we seize colonies as we go. The only problems are English landings in Yanonami and Wayana some months apart: they retake the provinces for a couple of days before my backup troops take care of the small armies.

We reach naval tech 20 in September, while English road network decisions in Kali'na and Tapanahomi (two of the colonies) apparently finish for us to use in December.

Finally in January 1628 we reach Curantyne, which is the end of the line for the English.



After seizing the last province, it's time to make peace.



Well, that was a little bit simpler than finishing the Spanish conflict.

We learn government tech 27 (fine arts academy) in February while we continue to send colonists to flip the formerly English provinces.

Having become Quechuan, three provinces take up other Inca customs in March: Apalai switches grain to cacao, while the fishermen of Wayana and Yanonami start producing sugar instead.

Some more interesting "news from the colonies": some of my Colonial Spanish citizens come up with this wacky concept of Colombia.



You know guys, there's this tiny little Inca Empire thing in this timeline that kind of doesn't leave space for nations like that.

That doesn't stop them from starting a bunch of Colombian Nationalist revolts. They end badly for them.

We reach naval tech 21 in April - that's seven levels higher than exactly three years ago!



A lot of effects, nothing that I'm going to use right now. I have somewhat of a plan regarding the navy as far as technology goes...

Finally in June, a colonist succeeds in Tapanahomi. That's the last one, we have now successfully stolen eight Catholic English provinces and turned them into Inti Quechuan ones.

[Athalcor]

In 15th century Cristao Colombo discovered an entire new continent for Europe. The power-hungry Europeans quickly rushed for control of the New World. But the power hiding in the virgin lands should have remained undiscovered...

INCA: THE REVENGE OF THE BLOOD GOD - coming soon to your cinema.

[Enewald]

Rule Megaamerica!

[gigau]

Nice going, smacking England like that !

Now to the Iberians... or those tuscanian neighbours ?
I guess an option could be waiting cores and city levels for those Atlantic provinces, build a couple of large fleets and cut the trans-oceanic trade routes supply lines, for an easier conquest liberation of the rest of south and centra america, for a start ?


About the Colombian switch... true i never entered a human successful Inca in my calculations

[Omen]

Very nice war. New lands, that are yours in culture and religion and a humiliated European power. What's not to love?

Now to see what the naval plan is!

[4th Dimension]

In 15th century Cristao Colombo discovered an entire new continent for Europe. The power-hungry Europeans quickly rushed for control of the New World. But the power hiding in the virgin lands should have remained undiscovered...

INCA: THE REVENGE OF THE BLOOD GOD - coming soon to your cinema.

It's soo HEARTH RIPPING!