Children of the Sun - a Cuzco MEIOU AAR

[FinnishFish]

Now Inca can discover Asia and bully on china

[Legolas]

I've been following this AAR for a while and I think it's brilliant! Also makes me want to play MEIOU now.

[FlorisDeVijfde]

One faithful day in Lisbon:
Minister of internal affairs: "Some guys with feathery heads are seiging us."
Minister of war: "Ah, I was expecting a special delivery."

Good luck with your invasion. Maybe it's an idea to establish a permanent base in Europe!

[Enewald]

Force them Inti!
How about military access from some Europea state close to Portugal?
You could stack units in Europe before the next war comes and have it easier. Or have you played far-far ahead?

[Malurous]

...

Okay, in a game like that you can just stop worrying about the provinces. You have such a rich base that you don't even need to build a good economy to have very strong tech, an adequate one will do. And like I said, if you're in such a good position tech-wise, the drag from poor provinces is hardly a problem. Making sure that you don't grow too quickly for the rate at which you can convert provinces, build improvements in them etc. is probably more important than that for the tech side of things.

Of course having a lot of provinces makes the stability recovery problem worse, but it's the religion situation and the overextension that cause that problem. Once those are sorted out, it'll be a lot better. Still worse than for a small nation naturally, but nothing that should cause too much trouble.

Culture is harder to engineer, as it should be if you want to retain any semblance of plausibility in your game world. But like noted, a situation like the one in this game is an exception and normally you'll have more wrong culture provinces.

Incan Conquistadors. I like it.

EDIT: Don't forget to stab hit them all to hell too. That also helps.

Don't we all! Yeah, just like the Spanish war, I'll definitely be trigger happy if they still refuse offers when sufficient warscore for stab hits is reached.

Turn them into a tribal democracy

Haha, I would if I could!

Sounds fun...

Cheers and welcome!

Now Inca can discover Asia and bully on china

Hmm, an interesting idea! Ming could prove a nice opponent as, judging by their tech levels, I suspect that they have managed to westernize somehow.

I've been following this AAR for a while and I think it's brilliant! Also makes me want to play MEIOU now.

Thanks a lot and good to have you reading! MEIOU is heartily recommended.

One faithful day in Lisbon:
Minister of internal affairs: "Some guys with feathery heads are seiging us."
Minister of war: "Ah, I was expecting a special delivery."

Good luck with your invasion. Maybe it's an idea to establish a permanent base in Europe!

Hehe, well what can I do, they aren't offering any decent options other than home delivery! Thanks, I don't expect to get a base in Europe before I'm actually going for that continent full steam. I'd have to expand my armies a lot to keep European holdings secure and that's something my economy can't support just yet. It would be a classic case of overextending, really. And I'm not sure I can spare the infamy either.

Besides, it would make wars much more of a hassle as I'd have to relentlessly alternate the view between the Americas and Europe and keep a check on everything - going between the north and south is troublesome enough when both theaters have something important going on. So I suppose the minimum requirement for going to Europe would be closing down the South American and Mesoamerican theaters for good.

Force them Inti!

Haha, now that's something I'd definitely do if it was possible!

How about military access from some Europea state close to Portugal?
You could stack units in Europe before the next war comes and have it easier. Or have you played far-far ahead?

Like stated in the previous round of feedback, I don't want to do that. It would of course be the easiest way, but abusive at the same time. When I attack Europe, I want to do it with style.

EDIT: Oh and I'm not far-far ahead, ten years or so.

[Chief Ragusa]

Ming might not have westernized. They have got a lot of high tax base provinces. Left to their own devices with the right buildings and not too much time with -3 stab, they could tech quite quickly - dominating trading centres. An explorer and a fleet to find the Ming, please. Sounds fun.

Back to Portugal. If Prawnstar's Golden Horde experience is anything to go by, the Portuguese will have quite a large force in the Great Lakes empire, leaving a small garrison force at home.

[morningSIDEr]

Always impressive considering how far you have come in so short a time, invasion of Europe now very feasible. Good work having dealt with the Portuguese so easily thus far, now for the knock out blow.

[Malurous]

Alright, hopefully everyone had a nice Easter, now let's get back to business and start mauling some Catholics!

Ming might not have westernized. They have got a lot of high tax base provinces. Left to their own devices with the right buildings and not too much time with -3 stab, they could tech quite quickly - dominating trading centres. An explorer and a fleet to find the Ming, please. Sounds fun.

I do intend to do that at some point, I agree that it sounds fun and was a great idea by FinnishFish.

Okay I'm going to leave the possibility open as I really have no idea, but it just doesn't make any sense without them westernizing. Sure, they have rich lands and haven't expanded that much so they should be efficient, but even so they shouldn't be among the world leaders when they're researching at 80 % speed, especially since they seem to be running a decent inflation. They shouldn't be just a few levels behind, say, the Netherlands as they're damn rich too. And they shouldn't be head and shoulders above all other non-Western countries as there are others with rich lands in the east.

Back to Portugal. If Prawnstar's Golden Horde experience is anything to go by, the Portuguese will have quite a large force in the Great Lakes empire, leaving a small garrison force at home.

Different game version, a mod on top, and a different situation. I can't tell about the Great Lakes region as I don't know all of it and can't see even what I do know right now, but before it's been lightly defended and they've had relatively strong forces in Europe. But I really can't say right now.

Always impressive considering how far you have come in so short a time, invasion of Europe now very feasible. Good work having dealt with the Portuguese so easily thus far, now for the knock out blow.

Cheers! One knock out blow coming up.

[Malurous]

Chapter Fifty-two
1645-1647

So, while waiting for some more sieges to finish in Portugal's North American lands, I'm looking to hurt Portugal some more to force them to make peace. To this end, I invade Cuba in November.



The army spreads around the island, and I ship a few more regiments there to help with the occupation attempt. A blockade is also started to make sure Portugal's local fleet doesn't get out.

We win the siege of Akokisa, another Portuguese province in North America, and also grab their colony of Chiricahua. There are Portuguese provinces between my lands and this colony, so I'll have to come up with some connection to it.

Tumaco grows back into a city in December after their accident. That makes Guachichil the obvious first priority: I can't send colonists to recently seized Zacatlan unless I get a land connection, and Guachichil is the only way to do it right now. I'm in a hurry - Zacatlan is pretty big so its natural growth will prevent me from culture flipping it with a colonist if I take too long.



The aforementioned Chiricahua is also barely visible in the top of that shot, just north of Portuguese Tepehuan.

Portugal tries to send a regiment to Cuba on a lone transport, but that's obviously in vain. I let it land to get battle warscore for defeating the "army", then sink the ship.

My small exploring army arrives in Mescallero in the north, and I seize the colony. The army keeps exploring.

Our farmers really manage to impress me as Aonikenk gets a new resource. I find it a pretty heroic achievement to be able to start large scale commercial cacao cultivation in Tierra del Fuego.

The Portuguese ships try to flee Cuba in January 1646. It's a disaster for them.



Gotta love the WE damage you can cause with naval battles.

Also, I've pretty much eliminated Portuguese naval presence in the regions relevant to this war, while they have practically no transport capacity at all. And in fact, I even have a slightly bigger war fleet than them now if you ignore galleys.

Another interesting thing - Spain's navy is going down, big time.



Not sure what that's all about, but Spain is looking A LOT more manageable than just some years back.

Exploration continues in February as we reach Jicarilla and grab the colony. We now have three continous colonies behind the Portuguese lands. Meanwhile, Mescallero, the previous province I took, starts producing lumber.

We get government tech 32 and production tech 26 in March. We also win another siege, Pankawa.

I hate to lose my Lord Proprietor, but it's time to invest in conversions. With the addition of a six-star Theologian, my national focus provinces now have a conversion chance of over 20 %, and I'm getting my first missionary in a while very soon.



I decide to hire a conquistador in April. He will start looking for an alternative way to reach Chiricahua, Mescallero and Jicarilla.



I explore some more provinces and win some more sieges over the next few months, and in June Portugal is finally willing to negotiate. And it seems that they're willing to give a good return as well. That means that I'll want to add some North American provinces - and that in turn means that there's still some waiting as we haven't occupied some potential additions yet.

I bide my time by invading Hispaniola in July.



This naval operation allows Portugal to slip a regiment to Cuba without losing a transport as I don't notice the ship in time due to not paying attention. Of course, all this leads to is battle warscore for me as Portugal can't really do anything with one transport.

Xucuru starts producing maize, while our conquistador arrives in Tarahumano.



Turns out that Portugal is sending a colonist there. It arrives in February 1647, which means that there won't be peace before that because we won't allow them to have that colony.

I win the siege of Jatibonicu in Cuba - the first time I occupy a province outside mainland America!

A colonist is sent to Sepinpicam, the lone vacant province between my Mesoamerican lands and Portugal's northern holdings. This is done mainly to border more Portuguese provinces so that I can get them with the Colonialism discount.

HRE Savoy is in trouble in August as Genoa forces them to release Viennois and Monferrato. They still win an election soon after, but their power is questionable. While looking at Europe, I notice that Spain appears to have settled down for the most part.

More sieges are won in North America and in Cuba, and we get an important tech in September.



I won't change until I'm at peace and with a lower WE, but this will enable the Imperialism CB.

Portugal's last transport drops off a regiment in North America in October. The army is slaughtered and the ship sunk - that should be the end of these invasions.

It's all quiet until February 1647: just sieges finishing and nothing special going on. Then the Portuguese colonist arrives in Tarahumano so, after seizing that colony, I'm ready for peace.



That 1658 ducats was their whole treasury. More importantly, we now have the land connection, with only one Portuguese province left in Mesoamerica (it was spared because it's really bad and would have been full price)...



...and we now control almost all of Mexico and even add a tiny part of the United States area.



Notably, the Central American additions mean that we now own all American provinces that were cities at game start.

Together with the considerable length of South America's Atlantic coast that we added earlier in the war by seizing colonies, our gains from this conflict are major.

[Enewald]

Nice!
How about expanding into La Plata?
Is Texas worth conquering? Venezuela surely is.

[ViperhawkZ]

Brunei seems to be doing well...

[Omen]

Wow, that looks great. I wonder what kind of stories are circulating about the super power in South America? Portuguese soldiers bringing back tales of fighting in the jungles, and of fleets appearing to shatter their ships . . .

[FlorisDeVijfde]

The reconquista is complete, the Incan Empire is one and California is open to you unthreatened. I can imagine the results of this war are the start of a period of exponential growth. Well done!

[Athalcor]

Let's Tawantinsuyu reach from Alaska to Patagonia! Paint the world with...ehm, ugly purple?

[FinnishFish]

Yes finaly there's no more ugly Iberians in our beautiful counti....

Wait a sec...

Is that...

<<

>>

>_<

FFFFUUUUUU !!! U Spain ;_;

[Zzzzz...]

Very nice! Keep on colonising those coastlines.

[blsteen]

Nice moves in taking territory from the portuguese, although they do seem to have a large north american empire

[morningSIDEr]

Good stuff. Considerable gains from Portugal, you'll soon have South America to yourself. More land then awaits!

[Boris ze Spider]

I assume you seized that colony.

[Fornjotr]

Again, nice progress, keep up the good work. Korea seems to be doing quite well, could be a power house in East Asia, depending on tech levels...

PS: Post 1k to the thread

PPS: This AAR is really doing havoc to my post count, I might get to 50 before the end of this decade