Episode 27: The revolution keeps spreading
As my infamy in 1775 is about 14, I need to rest for a few years before I can go spread the joy of constitutional government around. So I spend the years sending missionaries, giving converted provinces to my vassals and seeing my Land Tech increase. In 1777 I shake up things by repeatedly encouraging the Eunuchs and with the friendly help of two events I manage to get them into power.
I send my merchants to boost my dropping trade income (infamy doesn't help with foreign trade), only for the Templars to get back into power a couple of months later.
Then in 1780, Menglin III dies, after 47 years of ruling. The father of the revolution will be missed, especially his high MIL score. His successor is a ADM 9 MIL 4 DIP 3 leader, which makes me very unhappy. Very.
So as is now my custom, when I feel unhappy I make the Emperor unhappy. I declare war on the Holy Roman Empire. With a Land Tech level 55 versus the HRE's 45, my excellent generals and my Espirit de Corps, almost all battles are easily won by me, with many battles seeing Imperial losses of 30.000 troops. One battle is particulary worthy of mentioning: the battle of Westfalen:
As you can see, the HRE's 135.000 troops lost to my 74.000, losing 82.000 troops versus 5.000 on my side. I think this is my largest EU3 battle ever. With victories like this, the war is quickly one and I gain another 14 provinces:
With infamy back at 14, it's waiting time once again. In the meantime, I switch to Bureaucratic control so that I can build and Embassy in Sudeten. Okay, it's a bit late, but even I make mistakes. Quite a lot, in fact.
In 1784 elections take place and of course I select a military candidate. Luckily, I get this guy:
With a bit of luck, I can keep this guy for the rest of the game. For now, Shixian has only to worry about the HRE, whom we invade yet again. Well, "worry" is maybe not the right word, "take pity on" is perhaps the better phrase. The war proceeds conform protocol and after a year I have another 18 former Imperial provinces:
In 1789 two new nations see the light of day: first there is a revolter from Great Britain:
I literally laughed out loud when I saw this. The Americas are ridiculously deviating from history in this game!
The other nation is a new European vassal of China: Saxe-Lauenburg.
With the release of Saxe-Lauenburg I lose 14 infamy, bring my infamy down to a more comfortable 7.6 in total. With such low infamy it would be a shame not to attack someone, so I declare war on France in March 1790. They are joined by several smaller nations, including Venice. In June I have control over all of mainland France and gain 10 French provinces and Venice's Treviso.
So with that last little conquest, the map of Europe looks like this:
Stats
Code:
change during decade change since 1399
1780 1790 absolute relative absolute relative
No. of provinces 289 295 6 2% 241 446%
Yearly income 11.570 12.452 882 8% 11.614 1386%
Yearly income/province 40,0 42,2 2,2 5% 26,7 172%
Inflation 0,6 0,7 0,1 N/A 0,7 N/A
Manpower (x1.000) 576 577 1 0% 492 579%
Army Size 390 390 0 0% 351 900%
Navy size 227 227 0 0% 178 363%
Code:
change during decade change since 1399
1770 1780 absolute relative absolute relative
No. of provinces 289 289 0 0% 235 435%
Yearly income 11.493 11.570 77 1% 10.732 1281%
Yearly income/province 39,8 40,0 0,3 1% 24,5 158%
Inflation 0,5 0,6 0,1 N/A 0,6 N/A
Manpower (x1.000) 577 576 -1 0% 491 578%
Army Size 390 390 0 0% 351 900%
Navy size 227 227 0 0% 178 363%
Despite all the political changes, the stats remain quite constant. Army, navy and manpower pool are constant, as is inflation. The number of provinces gained fluctuates quite a lot during the decades as a conquer a dozen or so and then give many of them away to vassals. While the income per province remains at a low 40-something, research is fast, although regaining stability is quite slow. It takes about a year per point, while in most of my games at this point in the game I can easily get one stability per 6 months or even faster.
Next: World domination