Children of the Sun - a Cuzco MEIOU AAR

[Malurous]

I hope you get Tenochtitlan but you ran out of lands to inherit. I tried playing as Tenochtitlan, I cried and raged at the same time.

Hehe. I'm not out of lands, there are still plenty for a quick troops buildup. If it was an OPM then I'd be in trouble.

This waiting game muct be becoming more and more frustrating. And the dumbness of the ruler of Tenochtitlan... hold on, isn't it the same man that was ruling the mighty Inca?

Shhh! I don't want everyone to notice!

More seriously, that did cross my mind. But if he can't reach the area, can he command the army?

Your waiting game continues. The ai has rendered what was the strongest meso-american state into powerlessness and that should be good for you to inherit.

It is indeed of suitable size now, no problem. I just have to hope that they don't lose more territory or there just isn't enough to get things done quickly.

So you're staying Inti. I'm not sure your staying Inti is the same as TSCs.

Gameplay-wise, of course not. It doesn't have anywhere near the effect. But as far as the spirit of the game/AAR goes, then sure it is in my opinion. Granted, as this is mostly a gameplay AAR it isn't as evident as in a narrative. Still, becoming something else than Inti in "Children of the Sun" would be totally out of place.

The Incas do seem to be aggrieved by something - lack of involvement in fighting.

This. Maybe I should get into another phony war with the Europeans - I didn't have any events then.

Try getting a PU with Tlaxcala.

Rest assured, I'm trying to get one with everyone who doesn't have a proper heir.

Well that's one epic fail for Tenochtitlan. It looks like all their capable military minds were busy causing trouble in the senior country.

Nicely concluded. Makes sense.

Although the new Mesoamerican borders look rather nice and sane. I bet it lasts about five minutes.

Yeah, I had to post that screenshot although it had no specific function. Looked too nice to leave out. Although you may be on to something - then again, that isn't exactly going out on a limb!

I feel your pain about the 'Ruler X shows weakness' events. I loaded up a game as Ethiopia, got hit with it twice in six months, and then killed the rebels, bluntly pointing out that I had been about to start a war with Adal when they distracted me. Finally, they were dead, I was overrunning Adal, everything was going great...and then the Mamluks jump me. The game ended shortly after that.

Heh, I had boatloads of those (the rebels distracting me so that I can't start the war they want me to start) in a vanilla Mamluk game back when HTTT was new.

Wanting border?
That is sick in its sadness.

[FinnishFish]

Now i think those endless war will stop for some time

[Chief Ragusa]

Acolhua has nowhere to expand except through Tenochtitlan. Tlaxcala looks big enough to split up. Mixtecatl would seem to be on the menu for Tlaxcala, which may be the catalyst for the latters implosion. Uxmal looks reasonably secure.

Portugal has been slow to colonise.

I would find it very amusing were you to gain a PU with all of the meso-American states, for then you'd manage to be at war with yourself, once the next war broke out. Wouldn't that count as ruler weakness? I'd then laugh rather hard were you to inherit all of meso-america at the same time.

Here's hoping the next update will include the leap home ... erm the inheritance of somebody.

[Zzzzz...]

Hehe. I'm not out of lands, there are still plenty for a quick troops buildup. If it was an OPM then I'd be in trouble.

Whoops! I mean, I hope you get Tenochtitlan BEFORE you ran out of lands to inherit. Just one word made the whole sentence different.

[blsteen]

New king, new heir
Still nothing on the inheritance. Hmmmm

[Boris ze Spider]

It should be soon. (We hope)

[Omen]

Grrrr. Damn those kings for dying and not inheriting! Hopefully the road to Westernization is smooth-ish. Not too smooth, as that would be boring.

[Dewirix]

I think Portugal are going to get a surprise if they start to colonise into South America. At the moment, it's a race against time between European consolidation of Central America and your chance of inheriting Tenochtitlan, but even if you lose that the game is still very much on.

Personally I'd like to see you inherit as it's been your settled policy for decades. The Incan diplomatic corps must be biting their fingers to the bone.

[morningSIDEr]

As everyone else has said, hopefully the inheritance can come about soon. The waiting must be proving hugely irksome for yourself. Hopefully your new ruler will have more luck in this regard.

[PrawnStar]

Still reading and enjoying - just not saying much as I'm feeling pretty ill and have a lot of work stress stuff going on.

[Malurous]

Now i think those endless war will stop for some time

A brave guess. We'll see what happens.

Acolhua has nowhere to expand except through Tenochtitlan. Tlaxcala looks big enough to split up. Mixtecatl would seem to be on the menu for Tlaxcala, which may be the catalyst for the latters implosion. Uxmal looks reasonably secure.

Good analysis. These guesses are as good as any, really, but of course Mesoamerica is "a little bit" unpredictable.

Portugal has been slow to colonise.

True. No colonies in this part, just native conquests.

I would find it very amusing were you to gain a PU with all of the meso-American states, for then you'd manage to be at war with yourself, once the next war broke out. Wouldn't that count as ruler weakness? I'd then laugh rather hard were you to inherit all of meso-america at the same time.

I like the last bit. But of course, as PU juniors can't DoW I couldn't end up in such a situation.

Here's hoping the next update will include the leap home ... erm the inheritance of somebody.

Cheers.

Whoops! I mean, I hope you get Tenochtitlan BEFORE you ran out of lands to inherit. Just one word made the whole sentence different.

Okay, I see. That would indeed be the anticlimax of the year.

New king, new heir
Still nothing on the inheritance. Hmmmm

It should be soon. (We hope)

Yeah, I like to think that it's bound to happen soon enough seeing that I kill those Sapa Incas off at such a steady pace. It's getting frustrating, but I'm not gonna give up. I got the PU eventually after some difficulty, so I guess the same applies to inheriting.

Grrrr. Damn those kings for dying and not inheriting! Hopefully the road to Westernization is smooth-ish. Not too smooth, as that would be boring.

I agree, smooth-ish would be optimal.

I think Portugal are going to get a surprise if they start to colonise into South America. At the moment, it's a race against time between European consolidation of Central America and your chance of inheriting Tenochtitlan, but even if you lose that the game is still very much on.

True. The fact that I still have a chance no matter what is a big thing - I wouldn't like it if it was just a fight against the random number generator. The only fear is that it takes so long to get anything going that I'm too far behind in tech and there are too many European nations in America already by that time. Portugal alone doesn't really scare me at this point.

Personally I'd like to see you inherit as it's been your settled policy for decades. The Incan diplomatic corps must be biting their fingers to the bone.

And I like to think that it would be deserved as well - I've really done everything in my power to force PUs/inheritance.

As everyone else has said, hopefully the inheritance can come about soon. The waiting must be proving hugely irksome for yourself. Hopefully your new ruler will have more luck in this regard.

Most of the time Mesoamerica is fortunately interesting enough to follow. But of course I'd like to get into the action myself.

Still reading and enjoying - just not saying much as I'm feeling pretty ill and have a lot of work stress stuff going on.

We're in the same boat then. I haven't been 100 % for weeks now, and I'm feeling worse now that I had a busy start to the week. Having to do stressful stuff makes it way harder. Get well soon and good to hear that you're still enjoying the read.

[FinnishFish]

A brave guess. We'll see what happens.)

It's not a guess . and why you were awake at 1 am :O

[Chief Ragusa]

O to inherit with a state that can actually do something in mesoamerica with an Inca with decent stats.

Meanwhile keep improving those techs.

[Malurous]

It's not a guess . and why you were awake at 1 am :O

Okay, if it's not a guess then what is it?

I tend to be. My work schedule, while very irregular, usually supports a go to sleep late, wake up late way of life as I rarely need to do anything early but the work days sometimes stretch late to the night. So it's good to have the kind of sleep pattern where I can stay sharp late in the evening if need be. As opposed to being sharp in the morning instead, which I'm not.

O to inherit with a state that can actually do something in mesoamerica with an Inca with decent stats.

Hear, hear.

Meanwhile keep improving those techs.

Will do! After all, technological progress is the backup way out of South America if the inheritance just won't come, or if the Europeans eat Mesoamerica.

[Malurous]

Chapter Twenty-three
1496-1502

There's a con to the new slider positions: we now have a missionary deficit, albeit a small one.



This will have to be corrected when I expand outside South America. There's no real hurry, however, as there's nothing to use the missionaries on right now.

Another -50 relations hit with Tenochtitlan occurs in April. At least the bribes are smaller now that Tenochtitlan lost all that territory.

We have rotten PU luck again in the next couple of years. I spot a vulnerable Acolhua - old ruler, no heir - but I can't get a royal marriage despite about a dozen tries at mostly Maybe (some Unlikely in the end as relations drop with the rejections). In the end, the ruler dies without an heir and a local noble rises to the throne as they just wouldn't budge on the marriage front.

Mixtecalt pays Uxmal for peace in late 1498 without losing provinces in the war.



Uxmal is still fighting Tlaxcala and Acolhua.

Tupac Yupanqui has come of age in 1499 and this allows me to introduce the heir. The +1 % yearly legitimacy is really useful now as my legitimacy is low.

We're approaching a new century. A century that I expect to lead the Inca Empire to greatness! New Year's Day should show us what the new century is all about. So, what takes place in our lands on January 1st, 1500?



...

Same old, same old. That's over 12000 deaths - a respectable enough new year's celebration.

Acolhua and Uxmal sign white peace in April. Technically, Acolhua seized a province from Uxmal, but that was a Tlaxcala province before the war so Uxmal didn't really lose anything here.

July sees another -100 relations with Tenochtitlan. Bribes, bribes, bribes, bribes, lovely bribes...

Days later, interesting news arrive from Europe.



Seems that Spain has formed. That means that the other probable early arrival is a strong one.

On the other hand, we hear in March 1501 that another prospective power isn't doing great at all.



Of course, this was easy to guess with the bankruptcy cycle. It can be concluded from future wars that there are now all kinds of free minors on the British Isles. Can't wait to see them eventually...

June 1st is a sad day.



Now, I don't care much about Tlacopan declaring independence from Acolhua and taking most of its provinces (that's a TPM Acolhua and a new six-province Tlacopan), but this frees Tenochtitlan to become Defender of Faith. So, seems that they got bored of not being vulnerable in under ten years.

Acolhua's southeastern province is the one I mentioned that they took from Uxmal/Tlaxcala.

We get Land Tech 8 in May 1502.



I can't change the unit type now as I need a quiet time rebel-wise. But I can start building Castles (level 2 fort, pretty much) in the former Mapuche provinces as they lacked them.



Uxmal and Tlaxcala finally sign peace in July. The latter is annexed, more than doubling the former in size.



Yes, you read (and saw) right. Annexed. The pendulum sure swings fast in Mesoamerica. It's only about ten years ago that Tlaxcala became the largest tribe in the neighborhood when they beat Tenochtitlan, and now they are no more.

Like I said recently, Mesoamerica is sort of unpredictable.

In September, I get the silent moment I've been looking for and am able to switch to Native American Mountain Warriors.



That's one pip up in both shocks and both morales. Nice.

Research is steered towards Trade. As I now have the necessities in other fields (a couple of Ideas, workshops, some better units) I don't expect that to change until I'm advanced enough in the trade category to explore.

[Enewald]

Medieval Mexican drug-wars?
Scary. No one is spared.

[Chief Ragusa]

Wasn't expecting Tlaxcala to disappear. Tenochtitlan looks as though it is about to take action against Tlacopan. Unless tha ai messes up this campaign, Teno should grow again.

That was one heck of a New Year's Eve orgy!

Shame about Acolhua. Stubborness or rather pride before a fall.

PU with Uxmal ...

The endless wait til you inherit or score a PU, must be driving you round the bend.

[FinnishFish]

Okay, if it's not a guess then what is it?

I tend to be. My work schedule, while very irregular, usually supports a go to sleep late, wake up late way of life as I rarely need to do anything early but the work days sometimes stretch late to the night. So it's good to have the kind of sleep pattern where I can stay sharp late in the evening if need be. As opposed to being sharp in the morning instead, which I'm not.

It's called a... lie
And you should get better sleep pattern i usually go to sleep at 22:30 because i always wake up at 6:00 so im gonna get my good night sleeps ^^

[blsteen]

Medieval Mexican drug-wars?
Scary. No one is spared.

Drugs...who would they sell the drugs to? Oh the Portugese. Gotcha.
Cause its not like they can get to the putative "overlords" in Southern American

[antracer]

So far I have gotten to page 8... I can't get over the strong sense of Deja Vu. Nice to see the familiar postings and posters again...

I'm impressed with both the play and the MOD so far, both have been quite good. I need more time so I can continue reading...!

I asked Santa for to add another day to the week, like AARterday or something... He said he probably won't be able to do it though. Something about a huge backlog of items he has to make and deliver to South America due to the sudden rise in volcanic activity...

It's been a long time since I could get back here. I consider it both an honor and a pleasure that your AAR is the place I have landed in... Looking forward to "Finnish"-ing and catching up soon...

T