Children of the Sun - a Cuzco MEIOU AAR

[aldriq]

No surprise about the poor naval AI performance, but it's less usual the way they fragmented their regiments on land.

Be careful, those Granadinos might push the Spanish capital to the new world before you can evict them from the Americas

[Malurous]

Thanks everyone for the ACA votes for this AAR (and anything for that matter, good to see a bit more activity in the ACA thread this time around!), I'm very happy for your support! A few victories over Europeans sufficed in making me complacent in my warfare, so this awAARd should definitely be enough to make me complacent in my AAR writing. No, seriously, this is a very nice boost of enthusiasm and, considering the quality of many of the AARs in this forum, I gotta feel a little bit proud that this piece is recognized like this.

I might update tonight, but it's not a sure thing. Oh and, concerning my earlier warning, it turns out that the screenshots weren't even close to disappearing - as far as I know, my Photobucket account bandwidth usage never went past 99% of the limit this month!

Thank you for the overview. The rest of the world is almost as crazy as I hoped. Europe is fantastic!

You're welcome. Heh, that's a fun part in not taking part in European matters much - the continent tends to end up fantastic when you leave it alone.

You are one the meanest imperialists, full aristocracy? Mercantilism strong, offensive, theocracy, expansionist, offensive, far-from-free-subjects...
Europeans might soon start crusading against you!

I first thought "aren't they already", but then I realized that actually no, I've done all the DoWing! That makes me wonder, does anyone remember a situation in this game where someone has declared war on me? I can't think of one off the top of my head, I don't think it's happened.

Hey, we're on the free subjects side of center! And innovative to boot. Granted, apart from those we're running a pretty tight show.

How many 'Producer' bonuses do you have atm?

When I look at the MEIOU maps of the world, at the first glance it looks very messy but if you look more carefully you will see that it is actually quite consolidated.
IMHO it is because of the shape of the provinces...

Yeah, having more historical borders leads to a messy look given how land ownership worked in this period, especially in the HRE. I'm very interested to see how different parts of the world end up in the MEIOU map when it's closer to "finished" as far as their reworkings go.

I believe there are eight. A total of +19% PE and +15% TE are the most important effects apart from the force limits from maize.

The Spanish had you cornered, they were on the verge of success...and they send the bulk of their army away
This AI simply doesn't deserve a province in the Americas. Please make it so.

All in all not a bad war for you, though your own analysis is correct in that you had grown complacent

Hehe, I totally agree that they don't deserve one. That decision to go away when my armies were down and to leave vulnerable regiments hanging around to top it off was simply mind-boggling.

Hmm, all's well that ends well, right? They could have made it difficult for me or at the very least expensive, but "decided" not to. Still, no need to leave an opening like that - frankly, a big part of the reason why I didn't have quite enough men in the area was because I simply didn't bother to sail my transports from North America to the far south to pick up troops and then haul them to the north when I figured that what I had might be enough. If that decision was a picture, it would have a deserved place in a dictionary next to the word "complacent".

The Spanish let you off the hook, though I suspect they had rebel problems. Andalusia is such a huge part of what they can do that to lose it and fail to regain it is a real dampener on their activities. They weren't able to reinforce suggestingthey don't have much in the way of manpower reserves. That again is the lack of strength at home. Another round of wars with Spain and Portugal and you can look to expand once you have taken those provinces.

True. Seeing that many of their armies were low strength when the war started despite not seeing any action in a long time, it's safe to say that they simply don't have any spare manpower. In fact, from what I've seen by keeping a pretty close eye on them, I don't think they've had anything in their manpower pool for 20 years now.

It's of course possible that they had some single rebellion in the TI that their main armies went to tackle for some reason, but generally speaking their rebel problems appear to be over.

I've never played EU3, so can someone tell me which country (or countries) is (or are) piddling around in the Caucasus?

I guess others answered. In this case, there's some Ottoman and Roman presence and a couple of minors - I think they're some of what gigau said (I at least remember that Imeretia existed a while ago) with Qara Koyunlu in the very south.

It doesn't seem like the European powers will be much of a challenge for the Inca until Spain get rid off General Pablo Incompetentio.

Excellent update, liked seeing the status of the Inca Empire as well as one of the most messed up Europe's I've ever seen.

And congratulations on the AARland Choice AwAARd!

Thanks a lot! Hehe, got a laugh out of that general name.

MAny congratulations indeed for your AwAARd !

Thank you - hey, it wouldn't have been possible without you.

So... How about those mopping plans that i posted sometime ago ??

If you mean the ones required by your mental health, then I'm working on them.

Nonsense, Scotland never looks nice!

Glad to see you did indeed emerge victorious over Spain, even if aided considerably by a horrendous AI performance. The world is looking pleasingly mixed up. I look forward to the time when it is all painted the Incan...bronzed red? Uhm...whatever colour Inca is!

Well, Scotland looks a lot like Scotland, so it just depends on how you view that. I'm afraid it won't be all painted in Incan... whatever, but I'll be sure to add a lot of that color, whatever it is, into the mix. The only thing I'm sure of regarding that color is that it isn't what Athalcor says it is.

I repeat it again - Inca is Ugly Purple.

AARland seriously needs a way for authors to ban commenters from their AAR threads without mod intervention.

And of course, congratulation to you, Malurous. Soon it will be half year that I started following this.

Thank you! Good to see that I haven't been able to chase you yet.

No surprise about the poor naval AI performance, but it's less usual the way they fragmented their regiments on land.

Be careful, those Granadinos might push the Spanish capital to the new world

Yeah that's how I see it too. Naval AI tends to be that poor, but that land performance actually left me scratching my head as I think the EU III land AI is normally definitely better than it's given credit for. That was probably the worst job I've seen it do in a long time - IIRC the base game without expansions did some funky things, so I'm not going to say that this was the worst ever.

I actually thought about forcing them to release stuff in Europe, but that consideration kept me from doing it. There's one interesting release possibility however that I'm thinking of taking in the next Spanish war. I figure that it'll be safer to do after I chew on them a bit more first.

[Chief Ragusa]

You're really helping the Spanish sort out their manpower problem by destroying their under strength stacks. How soon before you attack that minor state and remove the COT of Andalucia from them?

[FinnishFish]

i was evil i didin't vote anyone

And are you questioning my mental health... Because im always fine

[Malurous]

So, didn't have time to post an update yesterday after all. However, now I do.

You're really helping the Spanish sort out their manpower problem by destroying their under strength stacks. How soon before you attack that minor state and remove the COT of Andalucia from them?

There's no CoT in Andalucia. The Spanish CoTs were in Barcelona and Granada, the latter of which they lost when Granada declared independence. Not sure which minor state you mean.

I actually go out of my way to destroy those almost empty regiments. I'd prefer it if Spain got back to its feet - otherwise this might get a bit repetitive for a while. The only way they're going to do that is if they get a manpower pool to draw on again.

i was evil i didin't vote anyone

And are you questioning my mental health... Because im always fine

You naughty boy! Nah, it's just that you appeared to take it pretty badly that Spain still has land in South America. So I figured I should endeavor to correct that situation for you.

[Malurous]

Chapter Fifty-six
1657-1662

Late in February, Quivira grows into a city, allowing a colonist to be sent to Harahey to culture flip that gained province.

In April, Spain tries desperately to compensate for its losses as Galicia is diploannexed.

One more consequence of the war that I notice in the summer: Spain doesn't have the world's biggest navy anymore! In fact, we're not too far behind them for second place.



Aonikenk grows into a city in September, while Mallorca inherits Morea.



The "no Iberians in Greece" situation didn't last too long, did it? At least Mallorca is preferable to Spain, no question.

Hatun Canar gets a base tax increase via another Colonial policy event gone astray. Meanwhile, Kiikaapa grows into a city.

January 1658 brings interesting news: Fez becomes even more of an African power as they inherit Kongo!



Harahey grows into a city in February, allowing us to culture flip Kanza next. Naval tech 34 is reached in May.



An ordinary looking event - the colony of Chechehet on the South American coast starts producing maize - has an unexpected result.



After the Incas' legendary quest (ha!) to reach Major Grain Producer status for the +15 % modifier, maize had kind of fallen off the spotlight. But now we get over to the highest category. This is good to get as there hasn't been much room for army expansion since I lost the Feudal bonuses.

Pampa also gets the resource, while Galapagos starts producing coffee, Chadileuvu's sea zones provide fish, and Manekenk makes sure that cacao is cultivated all over Tierra del Fuego...

Atroari cores in November, while recent acquisition Kanza as well as Diduhet on the South American coast grow into cities in January 1659. Kanza's growth allows Chippewaa to be culture flipped.

Lenca is converted to Inti in April, while Chippewaa grows into a city in May. With that, all of the colonies we took from Spain have been turned into cities. It didn't take long as the colonies were quite far in their development when we acquired them.

Charrua is the next colony to finish in June, and August brings a Naval tech advance.



We start building a couple of Sloops (small ship), adding to our existing shipbuilding campaign where we're constructing some 17th Century Galleons like I planned earlier.

Aweikoma starts producing maize soon after, and Kaminaljuyu is converted in January 1660.

Also in January, Switzerland is finally under the infamy limit. We'll see if that encourages them to go on a rampage again.

Missionary chances in the provinces we took in the latest Portuguese war still aren't good, but I send some anyway as conversion is now possible.

Naval tech 36 (merchantman) is reached in March. This leads to us being tied for world leader in this tech category!



We build some Merchantmen, though I'm happy with 17th Century Galleons as the bulk of my new transport fleet - they're slower but sturdier.

Copan converts in April. Nice as it's a good province. The next month our Grand Marshal dies and is replaced. I hate to use army tradition for this, but what can you do - my legitimacy is still only 56 so I have to keep someone working on it.



Quirigua is the next province to convert in July, while Ranqülche on the South American coast starts producing fish in September, and Maxacali gets sugar in November.

Xucuru grows into a city in January 1661. With the census tax, my treasury jumps over 7000 ducats - with most of the navy expansion done and cash like that, I figure that the worst is over as far as my recent money problems go. I feel safe to take loads of building improvement province decisions.

Tupiniki starts producing brazilwood in February. Then over the next couple of months, the sheriff promotions in my CoTs finish. That leads to ridiculous income - my census tax jumps from under 2000 ducats to over 2400 when all four are done.

Wai Wai cores in July, and Maxacali grows into a city in September. The next month, just under 2000 people die of the plague in Tucume.

In a pretty funny but also rather epic development, Brittany conquers Rome.



The Papal State also has holdings in western Germany, so Brittany was allowed to take the isolated capital in a peace deal.

We get naval tech 37 in December.



The next level gives twodeckers but it is 14 years ahead of time - time to change research paths.

I start building decent numbers of both of the new ship types.

Later in the month, Gallegos starts producing fish.

Cadiz, the random Norwegian province in Iberia, continues to be a strange one. Somehow, the Netherlands have a core on it - according to province history, it just became a core of both Netherlands and Holland on March 22, 1513 for no apparent reason - and launch a war of Reconquest in February 1662. Spain protects Norway in this one. Which is nice since our truce ends later in the month and I declare war immediately.



The one warscore there is just because I forgot to take the screenshot immediately. DotF Genoa was the only one who could have joined the war, and even they didn't. Spain is all alone.

[Athalcor]

Let's build a glorious armada of laCapitana_galleons! Ships with names like these should rule the seas!

[gabor]

The end of Spain is near. I wonder what release you mentioned earlier. And will you have enough warscore to demand provinces and force-release? As you see I'm musing over the peace terms here as there's no doubt who'll turn out victorious.

[Avindian]

A really impressive AAR -- the award was certainly well deserved! I normally don't read AARs with extensive modding, but I've gotten into MEIOU stuff just enough that I wish they had a version for DW In any case, subscribed! Keep up the good work!

[Zzzzz...]

A really impressive AAR -- the award was certainly well deserved! I normally don't read AARs with extensive modding, but I've gotten into MEIOU stuff just enough that I wish they had a version for DW In any case, subscribed! Keep up the good work!

They already have. Check out their subforum.

[Chief Ragusa]

That would be 4 province Norway- aka the minor state. I think HTTP and its derivatives have a thing against Andalucia having a CoT or the sole one. It used to be so easy to neuter Spain - take the CoT and watch them squirm.

Hopefully, you have sufficient forces to avoid embarrassing defeats in SE USA and can explore that Spanish enclave fully. Wargoal must be to remove them from South America.

Portugal looks like they have the edge on reaching the west coast ahead of the Incas.

[Malurous]

Let's build a glorious armada of laCapitana_galleons! Ships with names like these should rule the seas!

Oh dear, I can't anymore. I went from the required naval tech 34 to 37 for wargalleons in three years there... I'm looking to build plenty of wargalleons though, I get the sense that they're good.

The end of Spain is near. I wonder what release you mentioned earlier. And will you have enough warscore to demand provinces and force-release? As you see I'm musing over the peace terms here as there's no doubt who'll turn out victorious.

Hehe. Normally getting enough warscore would be just a matter of time, but as I have to push into TI and have an ADM 3 ruler WE is unavoidable. It remains to be seen if I can get enough warscore for both before having to pull out for that reason - if not, something tells me that this isn't the last war we're fighting with these guys.

A really impressive AAR -- the award was certainly well deserved! I normally don't read AARs with extensive modding, but I've gotten into MEIOU stuff just enough that I wish they had a version for DW In any case, subscribed! Keep up the good work!

Thanks a lot, good to have you along for the ride! And, well, as Zzzzz... said, there's some good news for you.

I know what you mean, I typically don't follow AARs with mods that I don't like (or games for that matter). As most of the stuff that I follow is gameplay at heart, it really has to be exceptionally good to "compensate" for being about a version that I don't enjoy playing. Of course with non-gameplay it doesn't matter that much.

They already have. Check out their subforum.

Thanks for pointing that out. Can't blame anyone for not noticing though, it's been out, what, a day and a half now?

That would be 4 province Norway- aka the minor state. I think HTTP and its derivatives have a thing against Andalucia having a CoT or the sole one. It used to be so easy to neuter Spain - take the CoT and watch them squirm.

True. Hmm, I think they've done plenty of squirming even with their CoT however...

I have no quarrel with the Norwegians. They can stay where they are as far as I'm concerned unless they provoke me somehow.

Hopefully, you have sufficient forces to avoid embarrassing defeats in SE USA and can explore that Spanish enclave fully. Wargoal must be to remove them from South America.

Oh there will be defeats but I hope there won't be any that can be categorized as embarrassing. I trust I have enough troops in the area to win this time, but I have no intention of gathering enough men in any one province (even for just the battle) to beat some of those Spanish stacks. I'd rather lose a couple of battles than suffer the WE consequences of parading around with an 80k stack when I have an ADM 3 ruler... But this time I won't have to rely on artificial stupidity as I'm going to bring enough troops to cover any damaged armies.

You're correct on the wargoal, however that region won't be fully explored at this time. Again for WE reasons: I have to have a decent size army to move around there, the going is slow and the NE corner is pretty far away.

Portugal looks like they have the edge on reaching the west coast ahead of the Incas.

Depends on which way they go but yes, they should be able to colonize quite a bit still before I can get far enough to contain them. I'll just block them at whatever point I can and my army will have to do the rest. I don't think there's a big problem unless they can hang around long enough to get a Pacific core, and I really don't see that happening.

[ViperhawkZ]

What does your current heir look like?

[FinnishFish]

Nom nom nom on those Iberians

[MannheimCouncil]

Looks like an interesting world the Europeans live in. I can't wait to see what the Swiss do next. Good look with biting chunks out of the Spanish colonies.

[Enewald]

How is Korea doing that?

[Avindian]

They already have. Check out their subforum.

Thanks for the news! I'm downloading it now!

[FlorisDeVijfde]

Spain is falling apart, both at home and against you. You surely are taking all opportunities you can get against them now. After the wake-up call in the last war I hope you'll have more troops at the front now. In any case, this will be entertaining

[Malurous]

What does your current heir look like?

Bad. I mean, he's actually pretty good in the other categories, but another ADM 3 guy.

Nom nom nom on those Iberians

I'll continue to do that, they're delicious.

Looks like an interesting world the Europeans live in. I can't wait to see what the Swiss do next. Good look with biting chunks out of the Spanish colonies.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to any Swiss activities as well. They were ridiculously aggressive before running way over the infamy limit, but have been silent since apart from extorting money from nations who declared punitive wars on them. It'll be interesting to see if they go back to their warlike ways now that they're under the limit again.

How is Korea doing that?

What do you mean? I don't see a significant change in Korea in a while. If you mean just being a regional power, colonizing and having a big navy and all, then I suppose it's because no Chinese nation has really stepped up.

Spain is falling apart, both at home and against you. You surely are taking all opportunities you can get against them now. After the wake-up call in the last war I hope you'll have more troops at the front now. In any case, this will be entertaining

Yeah, I'm better prepared this time around. I'll actually try to help them out a bit - this time I'll go out of my way to eliminate those huge stacks as hopefully that will allow them to have a manpower pool again. Yes, I want to crush them eventually, but I still think that getting them out of their spiral would be good for the game.

[morningSIDEr]

Also in January, Switzerland is finally under the infamy limit. We'll see if that encourages them to go on a rampage again.

Switzerland stop their all-conquering rampage?! Never!

A rather amaizeing update (yup, I'm using that 'joke' again). Good to see you are still putting the boot into Spain, they shall fall soon!

Oh, stop blaming your country everywhere, it is already a cliché. I repeat it again - Inca is Ugly Purple.
Btw, thx for voting for my AAR in the ACAs.

And of course, congratulation to you, Malurous. Soon it will be half year that I started following this.

I thought you'd have learned by now that I am as unoriginal and boring in my replies as I am in my AAR writing, hence the constant attacks on Scotland! Ugly purple...hmm, possibly. The vote for your excellent AAR was very deserved!

Oh and my congratulatons to Malurous too on winning the award, hugely deserved.