Children of the Sun - a Cuzco MEIOU AAR

[Dewirix]

Portugal seemed quiet this update which can only be a good thing. At least Spain are embroiled in Italy. Hopefully that will keep them off your back for a while.

I wonder how things will look in 1600.

[Memento Mori]

If having a personal union, your Sapa Inca rules both the Incan Empire and Tenothitlan, why don't you just load as the Aztecs, so the game will be more entertaining?

THat can't be really considered cheating, as you would still play with the same ruler...

[Axe27]

I'm guessing colonization is a lot harder in MEIOU than it is in Vanilla. Usually, Central America would be Portuguese territory at this point in Vanilla.

[Boris ze Spider]

Eventually, the Spanish will arrive me thinks.

[Grunthex]

Just found and caught up on this whole AAR - great work, with a great mod. I can has more now?

[aldriq]

This feels like the calm before the storm... If Spain goes for South America things could get very interesting

[Dewirix]

From the Divine Wind manual:

INTEGRATE
Integrate is a new option available to leaders of a personal union. Instead of waiting for an inheritance - and all the risks of running out of kings before this happens - you can instead annex the junior member of the personal union. After 50 years have elapsed, if you have high relations over 190 and you are in an alliance with the junior member of the personal union, you can annex them. The AI uses the same logic as for diplomatic annexations of vassals when choosing whether it will accept or not.

[Malurous]

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

Drug wars in the sense that they have to be high on something to find some of those wars smart.

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.

Remember, PU juniors can't declare war. So Tenochtitlan won't be doing any expanding unless they are attacked.

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

True, and an orgy would explain how the plague spread so efficiently.

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

Indeed, they probably would have had the troops to stay intact if not for the fact that those troops were fighting a useless war. It's a blessing in disguise that I couldn't RM them as getting a PU with them only to watch them break would have sucked.

PU with Uxmal ...

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

Somewhat so. However, waiting seems easier now that I'm doing something else towards expanding (Trade research).

I try to PU with everyone, but I don't recall Uxmal having heir issues so that hasn't been an option so far.

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 ^^

No, this works for me as if I woke up at six I'd be dead tired whenever I had to work late in the evening.

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

I suppose they could just be fighting for drugs to use themselves in order to get more funny DoW ideas.

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...

Hehe, that must be the case... Very good to see you, like I said in the "Where do you plan to buy Divine Wind?" thread.

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'm very happy to hear that you like what you see, you should as this AAR quite probably wouldn't be here if not for your example.

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

And it's an honor and a pleasure for me too to have you here, friend.

Portugal seemed quiet this update which can only be a good thing. At least Spain are embroiled in Italy. Hopefully that will keep them off your back for a while.

I wonder how things will look in 1600.

Yeah, hopefully Portugal stays quiet. The game will get considerably harder if they eat Mesoamerica.

My only hope is that I'll have more provinces by that year than I do now.

If having a personal union, your Sapa Inca rules both the Incan Empire and Tenothitlan, why don't you just load as the Aztecs, so the game will be more entertaining?

THat can't be really considered cheating, as you would still play with the same ruler...

At least getting out of the union would be safe and easy as we can't reach each other. But I trust the Inca Empire game to be entertaining eventually.

I'm guessing colonization is a lot harder in MEIOU than it is in Vanilla. Usually, Central America would be Portuguese territory at this point in Vanilla.

Most importantly, colonists are more difficult to get.

Eventually, the Spanish will arrive me thinks.

They should, considering their strength and location.

Just found and caught up on this whole AAR - great work, with a great mod. I can has more now?

Now you can. Happy to hear that you like the AAR, and MEIOU is indeed excellent.

This feels like the calm before the storm... If Spain goes for South America things could get very interesting

True. No sight of them yet, but they should be on the way. I sure hope that I can get something going in Central America before they're all over America too.

From the Divine Wind manual:

Haha, yeah I noticed that in one of the Dev Diaries and couldn't help but think of this situation. I'd be able to integrate in the next chapter, but this isn't DW of course...


Speaking of the next chapter, it's coming up very soon. I'm not staying with the two updates per week policy for now as I was ill for two weeks and haven't really written anything. Posting updates but not writing new ones would be a recipe for an eventual hiatus, so I'm slowing down a bit until I can rebuild my backlog.

[Malurous]

Chapter Twenty-four
1502-1508

I realize that I forgot to post Pachacutec's history in the previous chapter. No harm done, I'm pretty sure you can guess the contents by now.

The castles that we lacked are finished in May 1503. If the Portuguese or other Europeans are able to land troops in our lands, having solid forts everywhere certainly gives me more time to find a weak spot to strike at.

Later in the month Tenochtitlan relations suffer a 100 point hit again. With over 8000 ducats in the treasury, the bribes we need to give to rectify this are a drop in the ocean.

Our first step in the new direction is taken in October.



Chimu becomes Quechuan in December, but Chimu fortunately stays accepted. I suppose this is due to the Chimu provinces being pretty rich.

In January 1504, I notice that Nawat (the southernmost Central American province) is Catholic and Portuguese. Damn.

The year is pretty busy rebel-wise, and that produces results in September.



At least Tupac Hualpa I did some culture stuff in addition to endlessly converting Bio Bio.



So, now that I have a high enough ADM score to westernize, should I avoid killing off this Sapa Inca despite not inheriting? The new suspiciously named heir makes this a non-issue:



Therefore, it's off to the front line for Tupac Yupanqui III! He's a very nice 6/4/2/2.

The high ADM opens another fun pastime for me in addition to handling rebels: calculating optimal Land Enclosure placements!



Our Natural Scientist dies in February 1505. Seeing that there's no Trade Tech guy in MEIOU's advisors (?) I stay with the same type, getting another six-star.



Soon after, I get a pretty much inconsequential Gift to the State event. 300 additional ducats doesn't really change anything.

A frustrating event harms our Trade research in May 1506.



The other option, a stab hit, would have done more damage.

June sees the next one in the endless stream of Mesoamerican wars.



Acolhua is definitely in danger here as Tlacopan is considerably larger.

I notice that we have a full contingent of Mallorcan traders in Cuzco. Funny that such a thing has no effect in the game.

In February 1507 we get a freebie tech (in the sense that I haven't invested).



The next month, Acolhua is annexed:



Looking pretty enough with more continuous territory.

Guess what happens to our good-enough-to-westernize heir in May?



However, we're fortunate: the next heir is high ADM as well.



Oh and seems that the name was just a coincidence - YHC wouldn't just die if he was plotting to take the throne.

I have a very good run of high admin rulers and heirs going on. I sure hope this is a sign of things to come and not something to tease me with when I actually have a border with a western nation.

April 1508 sees Uxmal DoW Mixtecalt which is alone. There's a very real possibility of there being only three Central American tribes soon.

[Chief Ragusa]

Uxmal looks like it will grow a bit. Thre states? Don't the Portuguese count as a tribe?

It looked for a moment as though Tlacopan was about to pick on Tenochtitlan, but chose to finish off Acolhua, instead. Teno even got its own rebels, just like the senior country. Can't be much longer before the Inca inherits ...

Trade research? Have you thought about investing some of that cash of yours in speeding up progress?

[PrawnStar]

Don't knock the extra 300 ducats from that gift - in Vanilla at least once Westernisation kicked in (Iroquois and Maya games) I burned money like crazy building, colonising and running a big enough army (inc mercs) to stay alive.

[gabor]

This waiting's becoming unbearable. But I have a feeling that you just tease us now, as having played ahead, you know that Tupac, or whoever, has already put his buttocks on the throne of Tenochtitlan
And it's a well known fact that Mallorcan traders can sneak anywhere, trafficking what? drugs?

[Boris ze Spider]

I find it weird that there is no trade tech advisor too.

[Enewald]

Why weak?
You do not have neighbours, they do not care...

[Malurous]

Uxmal looks like it will grow a bit. Thre states? Don't the Portuguese count as a tribe?

Haha, not quite I'd say. Four nations, three tribes.

It looked for a moment as though Tlacopan was about to pick on Tenochtitlan, but chose to finish off Acolhua, instead. Teno even got its own rebels, just like the senior country. Can't be much longer before the Inca inherits ...

Hope so. Yeah, there are quite a few rebels in Mesoamerica as well. All of the countries have been moving all over the place, so there are few cores.

Tenochtitlan is quite a bit stronger militarily than Tlacopan, so I doubt there's a DoW. If there is, you just can't tell what will happen. After all, Tenochtitlan got wrecked by a weaker Tlaxcala earlier for no apparent reason.

Trade research? Have you thought about investing some of that cash of yours in speeding up progress?

If I'm close to level 15 with a high ADM Sapa Inca, possibly. Other than that, paying cash for tech is inefficient at the best of times and more so in my tech group - I can only shave a few years with my whole rather large treasury. I'm better off waiting to build things. For instance, roads aren't far away anymore and they're going to cost 4200 ducats (42 provinces x 100 ducats). And Trade 15 gives marketplaces in addition to the possibility to colonize. A lot of money will be required at that point.

Don't knock the extra 300 ducats from that gift - in Vanilla at least once Westernisation kicked in (Iroquois and Maya games) I burned money like crazy building, colonising and running a big enough army (inc mercs) to stay alive.

True of course. No reason to look a gift horse in the mouth just because I can't use the money at this point. I'm going to need units in other parts of the world when I get there, and MEIOU buildings are generally more expensive, so there won't be any spare cash then.

This waiting's becoming unbearable. But I have a feeling that you just tease us now, as having played ahead, you know that Tupac, or whoever, has already put his buttocks on the throne of Tenochtitlan
And it's a well known fact that Mallorcan traders can sneak anywhere, trafficking what? drugs?

Hehe, drugs seems to have become a recurring theme in these comments.

To tell the truth, I really haven't inherited anything yet. But like I said, I'm not much ahead anymore (though I plan to be again) so that's not much of a spoiler. I'm not going to say anything about this again however, it has to be a surprise when it comes.

I find it weird that there is no trade tech advisor too.

Indeed, especially as the other techs have several different advisor types. Oversight or as intended? Perhaps gigau can explain.

Why weak?
You do not have neighbours, they do not care...

Sorry but I struggle to see what you're referring to here.

[Dewirix]

It's annoying that you can trade with the Europeans, but can't get a border with them. Divine Wind will limit this by introducing trade range, but for now you've just got to put up with these high-tech interlopers.

What would you do if you inherited Tenochtitlan tomorrow? Are the Portuguese still happy to sit in their new colonies and wait for you?

[FinnishFish]

Nooo why did your heir do a barrel roll ;_;

[blsteen]

Roll out the barrel?
The waiting game continues0

[Enewald]

Is legitimacy not about how foreign courts view your rulers claim to the throne?

[tedescooo]

Nice AAR. I want to see the final showdown with the heathen europeans.