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Children of the Sun - a Cuzco MEIOU AAR

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Enewald said:
Next update better come soon.
Who cares about the amount of dead people, what matters is how many taxpayers you have left. :cool:
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I actually don't care about that either. I only care about how much money they bring in, the amount of payers doesn't matter. :D

Update should come in the weekend if I'm sober enough at some point :rolleyes: (birthday tomorrow -> "busy" weekend).

aldriq said:
Definitely ally your new vassal... if nothing else, they have a much cooler flag than you :D
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I'd take issue, but you're right. :D

Keinwyn said:
I love Chancay's CoA, bloody hilarious for some reason - I think its the eyes.
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Eyes, mouth, whatever, but wacky it is. ;)

Dewirix said:
Nice work with Chancay - vassalising hasn't affected your infamy score and I too love the monkey, as apparently did the Nazca.

I reckon there are about 30 provinces in South America not under the control of you or your vassals, so with your BB burn you could have the whole place wrapped up in about 70 years.

That will put you in the 1430s, which could mean a while waiting around for the Europeans to show up, unless you head to Central America first, but I think you'll need to westernise for that.
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Interesting link and good speculation. 30 provinces is very close, a quick count from the map gets me to 31 but I'm not sure exactly as I don't have the game running. However, I believe I can safely say that it's more than 70 years - I end up sitting at 0 BB at various points for various reasons (regency, truce etc.), not to mention that wars get more difficult in general soon.

I will have to wait, hopefully not for an eternity. That could mean updates of several decades at some point. I'm trying to enter Central America - the only tool I have without westernization is PU's and that has to do with luck. There's a lot of bribing, royal marrying and claiming thrones going on behind the scenes (everyone loves me, I'm sure :rofl:) whenever some Central American nation lacks an heir, however no-one's died without one yet... It's repetitive so I'm not mentioning it until something hopefully comes out of it. If not, there's no option but to wait.
 
I love AAR's set in unciv countries (that's all relative, though). The mod is really beautiful too.

Get big and get ready to face the Spaniards or whomever else ends up colonizing the Caribbean.
 
Happy birthday! :)
 
Enewald said:
Happy day-before-birthday!
:p
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:rofl: Thanks!

TonyJoe said:
I love AAR's set in unciv countries (that's all relative, though). The mod is really beautiful too.

Get big and get ready to face the Spaniards or whomever else ends up colonizing the Caribbean.
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That's the plan. :D Happy to have you following!

blsteen, Eber and Ashantai: Cheers! ;) The update isn't far away at all...
 
Chapter Five
1367-1370​

I get a very nice mission:

07_01.jpg


While not usually such a big deal (though useful), this mission becomes way more interesting for a nation that has an infamy limit of three. I'll have to see how I can utilize this best.

Chimu and Chibchaya settled their differences with a white peace at about the same time I vassalized Chancay. Aymara and Nazca are still fighting though, with Nazca holding two of Aymara's coastal provinces.

07_02.jpg


Like mentioned in the feedback, Nazca has the last gold province in our immediate vicinity. It's in their capital, though, so I have no option but to conquer the whole tribe. As infamy has gone down enough to annex three provinces in one and a half years or so, I'm looking to grab that gold.

Nazca's homelands are empty and they appear to be sieging Chiletico further south, so I have plenty of time to insult them before DoWing to avoid the stability hit. This is done in the beginning of 1368, so war can be declared in the beginning of February.

07_03.jpg


Nazca is guaranteed by Chimu, so I have a small force (8000 men) in Cuzco's northern parts to slow the major until we've taken care of Nazca. That, however, turns out to be unnecessary as the war exhausted tribe doesn't join in.

As Nazca's troops aren't anywhere close, I send siege armies to each of their provinces. 7000 men stand by in case enemy forces approach.

07_04.jpg


Everything seems to be going according to plan - now I can just siege, grab the provinces and head to Chibchaya for immediate infamy reduction and "free" provinces in this sense. Nothing can go wrong...

07_05.jpg


Oh.

* * *


07_06.jpg



* * *​

A four-regiment pretender force rises in Cochabamba. The northern troops start a long march towards the enemy as I'm hesitant to leave the sieges unprotected.

As June rolls in, we lose the revolt risk penalty as our regency council has DIP 7. This also means that, ironically, we have 4.6 infamy limit (lowered by legitimacy at 85 - the tribal sacking events come in handy raising this) now when nothing can be done with it.

07_07.jpg


Arequipa is the first province to fall in November. Meanwhile, Aymara has retaken one of the previously Nazca held provinces.

07_08.jpg


I guess I should have just shut up about being lucky with rebellions during wars - the following day, we get 6000 Huancan nationalists in Cajamarca and, frankly, there's nothing I can do about them until the pretender is killed or Nazca is finished.

The capital Nazca falls in December, so I'm only waiting for Pica.

07_09.jpg


The pretender dies in February 1369, so the army that took care of that heads to Pica to assault. The other larger army as well as Nazca's and Arequipa's siege forces are heading north to take care of the nationalists. When the siege forces reach Cajamarca in late April I decide to attack, rather than wait for the army.

07_10.jpg


...

Smart move. "You Won" my something. However, the rebels leave towards Ayamarca territory so that's their headache now.

The assault force reaches Pica in June and the fort falls on the 20th. I can't annex yet as Nazca still holds Caterpe, but they reach zero men in November fighting Aymara so I don't think they'll have that province for long...

07_11.jpg


I'm actually in no hurry even though my infamy reaches zero, as there's nothing I can do with the regency going on.

Then, with Aymara retaking Caterpe in December, I soon get the news I've been waiting for:

07_12.jpg


Nazca is annexed on January 2nd, 1370, giving me an additional three provinces, one producing gold.

07_13.jpg


Cuzco is more aesthetically pleasing with the coastline, that's for sure.
 
Warning! If stats don't make you tick, skip this post. :p

Ok, a quick look at my expansion's effects on my economy, both to answer PrawnStar's earlier question and because I haven't really touched it in the updates. Other than state the surprising fact that gold is good. :D I went through the save games I had left up until this point in the game and checked the numbers, and will now present them in the format that's not only a viable means of presenting numerical information, but also the best way to impress and get any girl you've ever dreamed of: spreadsheet!

Why now? Well, I have now grabbed all of the gold/silver/diamond provinces in my vicinity, so I can show the full effect. :)

07_14.jpg

a) Some months into the game, with stab 3 reached to be on even terms with the others.
b) After adding Huanca (one gold, two ordinary provinces) and having Vilcashuaman turn into a diamond province.
c) After conquering Ica from Chancay and Tupiza from Aymara (both silver or equivalent).
d) After conquering Nazca (one gold, two ordinary). It's two years into the future from where we're at, but no provinces have been gained.

As you can see, tax increase has been nonexistent - the conquered provinces give me zero tax so the gains here are due to province decisions. The reason for the bigger increase between 1356 and 1361 is probably improving Cuzco, though I'm surprised that it can combat the tribe penalty triggered. That is, however, clearly visible in the annual gains as census taxes went way down.

Production and tax are negligible. The increase in production is due to efficiency rising from 1 % to 3 % (not sure why), the trade decrease to getting thrown out of Chimu's CoT.

Inflation is something that's difficult in my situation for two reasons: there's obviously the dependency on gold, but decentralization also increases inflation in MEIOU (much like centralization decreases it in vanilla). I haven't minted at all, yet there I am at 1.9 16 years in. Still, I'm not worried - I expect to have plenty of time to take it down as this game should involve some waiting around.

And last, the full effect of grabbing all the gold, silver and diamonds I could is very, very clearly visible here. :) With each such province giving me about 5 gold income per month, adding five has led to gold income going from less than half of my monthly income to a whopping three quarters of a total income that's almost three times as much as in the beginning.

Finally, a look at all of my yearly income categories (in increasing order):
Trade 0.6, Tolls 1.7, Production 4.3, Vassals 6.3, Harbor Fees 60.0, Census Taxes 54.7, Taxation 55.2 and finally... Gold 360.4, or two thirds of total income. :eek:
 
There's no question that when your tech is poor, gold provinces are supreme :cool:

A map showing trade goods (or at least where all the gold/gems are!) in South America would be nice, given your relentless focus on it :p
 
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Happy birthday!

I like the stats section very much as followers of my AAR could probably have guessed.

I can see now why you paid so much attention to taking the gold and silver provinces. This must give you a marked advantage over your neighbours. Too bad that the regency puts everything on hold.

Do you have an heir around or is this the end of the dynasty?
 
Odd that gold grants so much income, who would even use an metal as money? :p
Metals and stones that shine are not worth anything. Grain and livestock for large armies are what matter. :cool:
 
Rabid said:
There's no question that when your tech is poor, gold provinces are supreme :cool:

A map showing trade goods (or at least where all the gold/gems are!) in South America would be nice, given your relentless focus on it :p
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I'll make sure to get one when I have the game open and add it.

Glad to have you in the thread! :)

Dewirix said:
Happy birthday!
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Thanks! :)

I like the stats section very much as followers of my AAR could probably have guessed.

I can see now why you paid so much attention to taking the gold and silver provinces. This must give you a marked advantage over your neighbours.Too bad that the regency puts everything on hold.
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Yes, I have quite an advantage, more so than my size suggests (if you take into account the tribal size penalties I get).

Good that the stats were well received - I can sometimes get carried away with such stuff. :p

Too bad that the regency puts everything on hold.

Do you have an heir around or is this the end of the dynasty?
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Yeah I do have an heir. A crappy one at that, I don't remember exactly but no stat higher than 4, I mentioned them in some update. But the regency ends up being more of a problem than you'd expect: the AI seems to use those years to get their act together. I'm a bit torn on that - it makes things more difficult but also more interesting. :)

Enewald said:
Odd that gold grants so much income, who would even use an metal as money? :p
Metals and stones that shine are not worth anything. Grain and livestock for large armies are what matter. :cool:
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Yup, I'm wondering myself why I went for all those shiny thing provinces when my neighbors had all that corn ripe for the taking. :rolleyes: :rofl:
 
Subscribed. :) Interesting AAR!

MEIOU has piqued my interest. I might just give it a shot myself. :D
 
So when does the little prince becomes king?

Malurous said:
Yup, I'm wondering myself why I went for all those shiny thing provinces when my neighbors had all that corn ripe for the taking. :rolleyes: :rofl:
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Enewald has a point, though, in that gold shouldn't be so valuable for Native Americans until the Europeans show up.
 
PrawnStar said:
Are you an accountant? :p

Other than that good work and the Regency Council was a marvellous comic touch :D
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No, I'm attempting to be funny. Not sure which one's more ridiculous in this context. :p The idea was actually from a Finnish comedy show where this guy with a serious beancounter look was trying to explain to his girlfriend, using Excel spreadsheets and diagrams, why she should stay with him instead of leaving with the sleazy looking glam rock dude. It didn't really work out, but I choose to believe that the case they showed was the exception that proves the rule. :D

Glad you liked the regency part!

aldriq said:
So when does the little prince becomes king?
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A couple of years, exact time is in the next update.

Enewald has a point, though, in that gold shouldn't be so valuable for Native Americans until the Europeans show up.
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I laughed at that effect back in vanilla IN when I played the Aztecs once, so yeah I completely agree. However, that's the way the game works...

Kolonel, Gabor and Axe27: Welcome to the show! :D MEIOU indeed takes it to another level while staying more similar to vanilla than, say, MM. I really enjoy it, and yeah it's beautiful. :)

Update later today at 90 % certainty.

EDIT: Whoa, the quotes look weird in the new forum! :eek:
 
Just read the whole thing.

I like that you're playing MEIOU, like me! :D I really do think the mod is the best one out there, MM is nice but tries to do to much.
The nation choice is great too, something different from the usual stuff. Once you attain rulership over South America i suppose you'll take on Tenochitlan? That could be interesting with their bonus. After that it's the Europeans of course, so the challenge will keep coming :).

Only downside is a personal point, i like a lot of narrative from the POV of the nation, kings and all that. A bit of RP'ing, well a lot actually. But i still like where this is going, so keep it up!

PS
I like the new fora, except that ALL fora are now blue.
 
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