Children of the Sun - a Cuzco MEIOU AAR

[Malurous]

Hurray! It's back!

I was wondering if somebody could recommend a good tutorial-ish AAR for MEIOU. I downloaded it a while ago but haven't tried it yet. It seems like it's quite drastically different from standard EU 3.

Hmm, tough to say. There's the AAR listing but most of the recent ones are anything but gameplay AARs. The Naples one went pretty deep into the mechanics but that's with a game and mod version that's nearly as old as what I'm using for this AAR. The Sibir one is at least for DW and you can probably pick something up there even though it's not very long.

Don't be too intimidated by MEIOU though, even if none of the AARs really give what you're looking for. While it adds and changes a lot of stuff it's one of the more intuitive mods out there as far as learning to play it goes IMO if you have a good grasp of the vanilla game. I really hadn't played that much when I started this AAR and the game's gone just fine. Granted, reading the files helped in some situations.

Holy crap! This is a great day, for certain. Especially with the taste of things to come with that last exchange. Oh man!

Hehe, lovely reaction. Caught you by surprise, did I?

Brilliant, it's back!

Indeed it is. Welcome!

I luuuurve the Colonialism CB in cases like that. It sucks, however, when you only border 1-2 provinces...

Yeah. The long borders make the wars more difficult logistically (especially since I need to take into account that my North American lands are quite prone to rebellion) but certainly give me good gains with the CB.

It must have sucked that you're still playing an old version of MEIOU while all the cool kids play the new ones.

Heh, I have seven different installs of EU III when you count just different versions of vanilla and MEIOU, so I'm not exactly letting my AARs keep me behind. Of course the AARs have old versions, but that's unavoidable when you do AARs like I do. I.e. take your sweet time.

A good object lesson in why you shouldn't let academics decide your foreign policy. I suppose the University of Cuzco's international relations faculty are going ashore in the first wave...

Huh? I find the policy entirely sensible. Okay, apart from enemies we only have "nations that we leave alone as long as they behave" instead of friends or allies, I'll give you that, but what's wrong with that?

I sort of dropped out on commenting on this before it paused, so it's nice to see that natural disasters are still hitting you hard.

Even though it was in a very inconvenient province, I had to laugh when the first natural disaster I got after getting back to the game hit me for 90% of the inhabitants.

Revenge of the blood red god begins!!!

About time too!

It's back! Wonderful And welcome back.

Thanks!

Welcome back, friend. Kick those silly Spaniards off your continent!

Thank you, will do!

Once again it lives!
How long will it take to 'persuade' Spain and Portugal that it is time to leave the New World ?
It seems that your path to the world domination is straight and clear by now. Hopefully your entire population won't die because of volcanoes/diseases/floods/earthquakes/meteoritic rains/alien invasions (choose your extinction catastrophe immediately after this ad and gain ANOTHER random cataclysm for FREE. This offer is time-limited).

Hehe, I suppose it's good that the disasters are here to keep us honest.

I haven't counted how many wars it will take (and indeed some parts are still TI so I don't even have the accurate province count) but "some decades" should be the correct answer.

Glad to see this return! The Iberian powers should soon be removed from America and then the Time of Revenge (wholly justified 'revenge' which will truly usher in a period of enlightment to the benighted European hordes) begins!

I like your thinking.

Wow! Great to see an update, I have been hoping, but didn't want to nag you. Keep up the good work!

Thanks, good to have you and happy to drag you out of lurking.

Until a natural disaster kills 90% of the population in some province just as some Euro Thief is about to conquer it.

Welcome back

Thanks! Yes, that scenario did cross my mind.

Wow, glad to see you're back at it, Malurous. I can't wait how the thieves will be punished, though there is a real chance the Spanish will roll over and die before the Inca get their revenge. The English seem well on their way to extinction, too, but you can always take Iceland in that case.

Can't really know what happens with the Spanish - it wouldn't be the first time that the AI has someone on the ropes and just signs some insignificant peace deal.

We'll see about England, they've been in pretty much the same situation for a long time and so far there has been no sign of it changing. If Geneva decides to eat them they're toast, but that hasn't happened so far.

[Ferovejecs]

Huh? I find the policy entirely sensible. Okay, apart from enemies we only have "nations that we leave alone as long as they behave" instead of friends or allies, I'll give you that, but what's wrong with that?

Clearly Spain and Portugal are not worthy of ruling the Iberian peninsula. Perhaps there should be an Inti audition ("Inca Idol"?) for the minors, to show who has most knowledge about the important things in life (Inti religion, Inca culture, YHCs bravades), and then the Incas can help them enlighten the other Iberians. Perhaps the most fitting rulers currently don't have their own independence, but the Inca can fix that easily...

[FinnishFish]

Yeey! My favorite AAR is back!

[Chief Ragusa]

The Inca revenge started long age. Why else would Europe be such a mess, if not for the actions of YHC?

Another well fought war yielding plenty of provinces. |Your actions in the Pacific have hitherto been minor. More action there is needed to grab European colonies and cities.

[damienreave]

Wow, what a read. Finally got around to making my way through this one. Flashbacks to Prawnstar's AAR! Except perhaps more impressive, considering the mod's difficulty.

Keep it up!

[no7892142]

Yay for shoutouts!
I'm happy to see this is back, and with such a nice update to start it off again.

[Malurous]

Clearly Spain and Portugal are not worthy of ruling the Iberian peninsula. Perhaps there should be an Inti audition ("Inca Idol"?) for the minors, to show who has most knowledge about the important things in life (Inti religion, Inca culture, YHCs bravades), and then the Incas can help them enlighten the other Iberians. Perhaps the most fitting rulers currently don't have their own independence, but the Inca can fix that easily...

Hehe, I like your thinking. We'll see if we add something like that in here, I've been planning for a more... direct approach.

Yeey! My favorite AAR is back!

It is!

The Inca revenge started long age. Why else would Europe be such a mess, if not for the actions of YHC?

Good point! You could say that now that Phase One is nearing completion, it's time to let the Sapa Inca in on the plan.

Another well fought war yielding plenty of provinces. |Your actions in the Pacific have hitherto been minor. More action there is needed to grab European colonies and cities.

Thanks. I've been eyeing the Pacific (I want some of it, haven't decided which parts yet), but unfortunately the colonial race in North America as well as securing South America has taken all of my colonists so far. At least as long as the Europeans stay out (it's actually Korea that's doing most of the colonizing ) I'm not sure what I'd be doing there before colonization is feasible.

Wow, what a read. Finally got around to making my way through this one. Flashbacks to Prawnstar's AAR! Except perhaps more impressive, considering the mod's difficulty.

Keep it up!

Wow, thanks a lot! But let's not get ahead of ourselves: while MEIOU is more challenging than vanilla in many areas, playing with New World nations or other very low tech group countries isn't one of them. They are much more resilient against the Europeans in this version (granted, I was fortunate that Portugal didn't attack me early on, it would have been much more difficult if they had).

Good to have you reading!

Yay for shoutouts!
I'm happy to see this is back, and with such a nice update to start it off again.

Thanks and welcome to the thread! It simply is true that the comeback would have come later if not for people like you giving "friendly reminders".

[FinnishFish]

It is!

...And i hope it stays like that.

[blsteen]

Welcome back (like you left totally) but nice to see that the Inca are going to go global.
And 9 provinces...that's my kinda of war!

[Axe27]

Resubbed I'm glad you're back.

[Malurous]

I just finished playing through the next chapter, I'm kind of busy tomorrow but should be able to find the time to post an update at some point. At least in the evening if I'm not too tired then.

Let's just say that the recent session wasn't exactly my most enjoyable EU III experience ever...

...And i hope it stays like that.

Me too, it should.

Welcome back (like you left totally) but nice to see that the Inca are going to go global.

Thanks! At least I'm back in the sense of back doing this AAR.

And 9 provinces...that's my kinda of war!

I think you'll approve of the next update...

Resubbed I'm glad you're back.

You actually went through the trouble to unsubscribe? Anyway, glad to have you back!

[randakar]

Let's just say that the recent session wasn't exactly my most enjoyable EU III experience ever...

Uhm, boring, or disastrously bad for the Inca Reich?

[Hawkiee]

I have a feeling that someone went over the infamity limit and got the troubles that followed with it ?

[Malurous]

Uhm, boring, or disastrously bad for the Inca Reich?

Closer to boring, but I think annoying would be more accurate. Unpause, advance one day, pause, sort through and react to half a dozen pop-ups, repeat for five months. That sorta thing.

I guess I should be happy that stuff is going on after all the sitting around I've done in this game. But the other extreme isn't that great either if the things that happen aren't that exciting - it manages to feel hectic and real slow at the same time.

I have a feeling that someone went over the infamity limit and got the troubles that followed with it ?

No, I try to avoid that and it isn't too difficult when you're taking provinces at one infamy per.

[Malurous]

Chapter Sixty-one
1670-1672

We get another natural disaster in September: a great storm in Guachichil. This one's a bit lame though, resulting in no immediate deaths.



Malouines (Falklands) starts producing fish in October, while Tecuexe gets the same resource a bit later. The next month, we spy Portuguese colonial activity in Paha Sapa in the north.



Kitkehahki also gets a Portuguese colonist a bit later. Those two will have to be seized in a future war. Especially since paha is Finnish for evil, so I don't see how a Sapa Inca played by an evil Finn can pass up that province.

I'm not really evil. But nonetheless, to the surprise of no-one, the aforementioned future war isn't very far in the future. War is declared in December as the truce runs out.



Mallorca joins in, Granada doesn't.

Early on we sink a couple of Portuguese ships, nothing major. My approach on land is a bit more conservative than usually - the combination of an ADM 3 Sapa Inca, no proper peace time in ages and most importantly a lot of TI pushing means that I have a bit of WE. I don't mind accumulating some in order to get a war over with but I don't want it to get out of hand.

I still send an assault stack to quickly take out Yatasi in January 1671: Portugal has a small fleet in there so this allows me to sink it. One thing of note in the area is that local Portuguese troops are happily sieging Spanish land, leaving me to do as I please.



Aparai cores in February, while we start slowly taking northern provinces. There's also a pirate sighting at Mazatlan Bay on Mexico's Pacific coast; turns out that I forgot to send a patrol when Tecuexe was colonized. The South American fleet is dispatched to take care of the pirates and I start constructing a ship nearby that will be stationed in Tecuexe.

Cajamarca gets additional base tax via another colonial policy event in March. Meanwhile, our southern fleet gets active, landing troops to Cuba.



Land tech 38 in June gives us Coehorn Mortar, but they'll have to wait as I don't want to risk changing unit types during the war.

The beginning of the month is pretty busy as a whole. We grab the recently colonized Paha Sapa and sink a major enemy fleet that we force out of port in Cuba, while Spain and Portugal finally sign peace.



How kind of the Portuguese to conquer a province that we can take with the Colonialism CB! Chitimacha is the province east of Yatasi a couple of screenshots back.

And of course, Spain gets quite a bit weaker in Iberia, while Portugal gains Galicia.



Still, the peace means that I'll probably have to fight a battle at some point. But not with the army the Portuguese have on the Gulf coast apparently - it heads off somewhere to the east through Spanish land. Perhaps they expect to lose those holdings and are relocating already.

Colonial policy gives 1 base tax in Quibdo weeks later (the same event fires for Waayaahtanwa later on). Days after that, we get our second major Catholic Uprising event, which again produces fun pictures:





Gaah... We really aren't in a great position to slog through them all in the north as most of our men are in Portuguese territory or guarding the border. Hopefully I can clear them without problems, at least the stacks are small enough that sieges should prove futile.

To cap off the eventful month of June, Kitkehahki is seized, giving us the second colony addition of this conflict.

Sepinpicam grows into a city in July. It's a province in northern Mexico that's right between what I inherited and what I've taken from the Iberians, so I've had the colony for a long time but it was always a low priority due to being inland and far from any dangerous borders.

Portugal is soon left alone as Mallorca's white peace offer is accepted.



Meanwhile, Central America is clear of rebels.

Regarding the rebels, I must say that the relentless battle spam makes the gameplay quite unpleasant. I'm saving the game very often right now as this is something that I don't want to have to re-play. I also have to admit that my play is suffering a bit because of this - I'm getting annoyed so I want to get this war finished ASAP, even if it means some extra WE. Which in turn leads to some more rebels...

Xi'ui gains base tax in September, this time due to agricultural revolution. Then in October, South America is free of rebels.

Two happy things in November: the rebels are gone, and the Portuguese coastal area that we border is under Inca control.



Things are now much less hectic, and not a moment too soon. We're leisurely working in the north, where another province, Absoraka, is seized in February 1672. It starts producing tobacco pretty much immediately. I also had a spare colonist so Bah-kho-je (pink dot) is colonized in order to give us some depth in this region.



There's more Portuguese land in the TI west of Absoraka so this could take some time still. While waiting, we actually get two separate Portuguese regiments wandering into our territory. They are swiftly eliminated by our border patrols.

By mid-May we occupy all the border provinces that are visible, so TI pushing is all that is required for peace. Late in the month, Tecuexe grows into a city and another lonely Portuguese regiment meets its doom in the north.

Finally in June we reach Arapaho in the west and seize it. With that we're done, and peace is signed for all the provinces we border, revocation of all claims plus some cash.



Portugal is removed from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico (note also that the letters are getting pretty huge)...



...and the northern gains, especially when you count the seized colonies (marked with an X), are significant.



A total of sixteen provinces added.

Looking at the world map, I think our quest to block Portuguese colonization is complete! I believe they only have access to wasteland provinces now, but I need my conquistador (who's been trudging along in Portuguese territory since the previous war, another reason for the WE situation) to discover the last provinces before I can be absolutely sure.

[ViperhawkZ]

Chapter Sixty-one

The Inca empire is nearing my home in Sault [Ste. Marie, Ontario]!

Let Portugal try to expand into the wasteland of, uh, Saskatchewan.

[PrawnStar]

Excellent progress but a slightly disappointing attitude towards rebel bashing

Any idea how many provinces you need to colonise to seal the West Coast?

[caverdaz]

Been catching up with this since the thread got bumped - good effort all round

Spain next?

[Zzzzz...]

I can see that the Spanish 13 colonies are the next on the menu.

[randakar]

I can see that the Spanish 13 colonies are the next on the menu.

Yes, the caribbean definitely need some sapa inca love.
Isn't that a tad harder to take though, without the Colonialism casus belli?