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Episode 29: Endgame

So the last fifteen years of the game. Basically all resistance has been crushed and all that remains is to make China the true hegemon.

In this episode, I have cheated a bit: I gave myself extra diplomats so that I could sell all the provinces I wanted to vassals. It was either that or spend most of this episode in peace cleaning up borders. It's not that bad a cheat, as it can be argued that the restriction of selling only one province at a time is more an interface issue than a real gameplay limitation.

So after some peace to sell most of my European and Indian provinces, I simultaneously declare war on Bihar, Gondwana and the Holy Roman Empire. One province Gondwana is annexed the same year. Rajputana, coming to the aid of Gondwana, is forced to convert to Confucianism in 1807.

1807-09-24gainsbihar.png


Bihar is forces to give six provinces, their last except one in proper India. I also get three provinces from Madurai, Bihar's ally.

1808-09-10warineurope.png


Above you see how the wars in Europe in this episode play out. Most of the conquering is done by my vassals. Notice that in the South Granada and Saxe-Lauenburg lay siege to many HRE provinces, while in the north Chinese, Saxe-Lauenburgian and Bavarian forces have already assaulted many provinces. In 1808 I get the HRE to give me 10 provinces, all bordering the eastern border of Chinese Europe.

As my infamy is now 30, 8 over the limit, I release Gondwana (3 provinces), Sind (3 provinces) abd Gujarat (4 provinces). Infamy is lowered to 10.

In 1809 I declare war on France just as the truce ends. I send some troops to French South America to increase warscore, to my surprise Granada and Saxe-Lauenburg are also busy conquering in French South America. I love my vassals.

1809-08-17overviewforces.png


An illustration of the ludicrous dominant situation China finds itself now: the Grand Alliance can bear almost 800.000 troops and an armada that can take the fleets of the rest of the world three times over. Anyway, in 1811, as I slowly gain more warscore against France by taking colony by colony, I declare war on Austria. My little vassal hordes overrun the feeble Austrian defences. So in 1811 I take 6 provinces from France, leaving Paris as the only French European city.

1812-08-23gainsvsaustria.png


The next year I wrestle 10 provinces from Austria, isolating and surrounding its capital as well. I create Croatia (5 provinces), which cancels out the infamy gained from the Austrian war.

1813-03-29austria.png


This causes the Austrian king to retreat to its Turkish provinces, where it shares the territory with a tiny Ottoman empire and a bigger Venician holding. Notice how close the European and Asian Chinese territory are to each other: on the far right you can see Confucian Persia. in the upper left corner you can see Croatia, Bavaria and a couple of Chinese provinces.

In 1813 the last great round of wars is started, as I simultaneously declare war on the HRE, Japan, Madurai, Bihar and Rajputana.

1814-09-11gainsvsrajputana.png


A year later Rajputana is forced to surrender 6 provinces, also reducing its presense in its native continent to it capital, after Bihar, France and Austria. Bihar gets the honour of being the first to surrender its capital to me.

While the fighting proceeds, I additionaly declare war on little Khandesh, which is joined by Manipur. Very nice, as Manipur is a nation I want as a vassal but is governed by a republican dictatorship. In 1815 I annex Khandesh and make Manipur my vassal.


1816-02-20gainsvsjapan.png


The Japanese emperor is soon forced to give me 8 provinces, so that only the three capitals of the three Japanese factions are left on the Japanese main isles. The peace with the other Emperor is even harsher:


1816-03-29gainsvshre.png


I demand and receive 27 provinces from the Holy Roman Empire, effectively surrendering almost all of its territory west of Lithuania to me. This has the consquence, however, of raising my infamy to a staggering 55!

I immediately reform east Europe to combat this: I release Hungary (7 provinces), Poland (5 provinces) and Prussia (4 provinces). I also release Khandesh (1 province), which finally lowers infamy to 20, just under the limit. Trust me, do not go over the limit for more than a couple of days.

In 1817 I declare a small war on France, taking Paris from the once great empire and banish the French king to South America. I also break a truce, the first time in the game, with Madurai, so that I can annex it and re-release it (4 provinces) in a more democratic version. However, by breaking the truce my stability falls to -2 and with the 19 war exhaustion I now have for the last couple of years, massive revolts break out in Chinese mainland and North America. I ship a lot of the European forces to those theatres to combat the dozens of rebel armies.

In the meantime, I declare war on Austria, letting my European vassals do most of the work against the battles with the Austrian ally Lithuania. In 1819, Wien is surrendered to me ( plus twoAustrian Denmark provinces). The Austrian capital is reseated in the Austrian West African territory. I also make a white peace with Lithuania that year, ending the final war.

The rest of the game is mostly spend with fighting rebels, regaining stability and finalize the borders, so that I leave a strong and neat Chinese empire behind.

1821-01-02ENDOFGAME.png




Next: The world in 1821
 
The world in 1821

The campaign has come to and end, leaving a world vastly different than the one we know. In this post I will show how far-reaching the Central Republic's power is in 1821. Let's start with yearly income.

1821nationalstatistics.png


That China has the highest yearly income by far is nothing new. However, before the Revolutionary War there were significant other powers. This no longer holds: the next power, Lithuania, only occopies the sixth position, its economy smaller than 4 Chinese vassals! Eight of the top twelve powers are vassals of China, meaning that the Central Republic controls a massive part of the global economy.

1821incomeoverview.png


As you can see, my vassals provide me with a substantial part of my income. Also not how low trade income is after eighty years without Eunuchs. Really, it's a wonder I have any trade left! Well, having a trade efficiency 30% higher than most nations helps a lot.


1821technology.png


However, the low trade income means that Chinese technology has stagnated a bit. While leader in Land and Government technology for many decades, all other techologies are a bit behind.


1821armies.png


Military, China is untouchable. Not only does it have an army larger than the HRE, Lithuania and France combined, six of our vassals are in the top twelve largest armies, providing about 250.000 troops to the Chine cause. The other 33 vassals China has only make the inbalance worse.


1821navies.png


Naval superiority is even more onesided, with the Grand Alliance occupying the first four spots. The seas belong to China.


So economically and military, the world is dominated by China and its vassals. But how does the world look like? Let's take a look at South America.


1821southamerica.png


The revolutionary zeal has engulfed this continent, causing most of the colonies throwing off the shackles of the monarchs of the Old World and establish republics. France and Great Britain, once global powers, are reduced to petty wars with each other that last for decades without any real gain. Note "Venetian Colombia" and especially "Imperial Great Britain". I have a suspicion an Imperial carthographer was a bit drunk....

North America is still completely owned by China. In Asia, things are a bit more interesting:


1821asiapolitical.png


With the majority of my 39 vassals in Asia, it gets difficult to see what the extent of the Chinese empire is. So I show you China's Asian vassals:


1821asia.png


As you can see, about half of Asia defers to Nanjing. India and Japan are firmly under control of the Central Republic. But not only on the political field does China dominate in Asia:

1821religionsinasia.png


Say what you will about Bihar, but it did spread Confucianism like wildfire. In fact, Confucianism has become the largest religion worldwide:

Code:
Religion	#provinces
--------------------------
confucianism	516
catholic	451
sunni		164
shinto		53
buddhism	37
orthodox	33
hinduism	33
animism		18
shamanism	18
reformed	18
shiite		15

(Thanks to the EU3 Statistics Generator)

During the Revolutionary War, about a 180 provinces converted to Confucianism, making it the largest religion in the world. In contrast, the expansion of the HRE eastward has reduced the Islamic religion quite a bit. Protestantism has died out in the flames of Confucian zeal.

But the most impressive gains have been made in Europe.

1821europe.png


With Spain, France, Britain and Germany all divided into two, Europe is now dominated by Chinese vassals. Before the Revolutionary War, Chinese European influence was limited to Britain, half of Iberia and a small part of Italy (see Intermezzo: on the brink of the Revolutionary War

Also, Confucianism dominates as well in Europe;

1821religionsineurope.png


While the population of new Eastern allies is still firmly catholic, West Europe is predominantly Confucian. Note that the Revolutionary War has sparked a great migration of sorts for Catholicism: the normally Islamic steppes have become Catholic.



As you can see, China has transformed the world in its own image, forever ensuring a place in the sun for the Central Republic!



Next: Epilogue
 
A fantastic AAR -- can't wait for your next one!
 
Chinese Europe looks quite nice now. You obviously had a better cartographer than the one who made Imperial Great Britain in South America. :p
That was an epic AAR! Too bad it is over. :( Are you planning on starting a new one at some point because I'll definitely want to read it? :)
 
That's possibly the neatest end-game Europe I've ever seen.

It's also nice to see a "Roman" Empire forced out of its core territory and be exiled to the east. A pleasing symmetry.

Nice job, all told.
 
Very impressive! Europe borders remind me of European Union (+ Switzerland and Croatia, -Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Scandinavian and Baltic States). Your AAR shows one thing that lack in EU3, the ability to change quickly the borders of a place without *cheating*. I wonder if you could achieve world domination with Victoria 2, but you are already so far than you haven't any opponent, except if your vassals rebels (and to do that, you should have a colossus job since there is no converter to Victoria II). So, I guess this is over. It was enjoying and a little scrary, seeing China like that. At least, it was democratic (with a temporary dictature...).
 
Sad to see it end. But I look forward to the future of your AAR's
A fantastic AAR -- can't wait for your next one!
Thank you Aliasing and Avindian, glad to have provided some entertainment to you.

Chinese Europe looks quite nice now. You obviously had a better cartographer than the one who made Imperial Great Britain in South America. :p
That was an epic AAR! Too bad it is over. :( Are you planning on starting a new one at some point because I'll definitely want to read it? :)
It has indeed grown quite epic, I hadn't anticipated that when I started! I just wanted to see if I could something interesting with the factions...and it turned into a "repaint the European map" game!

I do indeed have a next AAR planned. Both the campaign and the presentation will be quite different from normal.

This AAR was awesome! Can't wait for the next one, and I usually don't follow gameplay AARs!
Thank you Mayorqw. It's high praise indeed if the AAR is enjoyable for those who do not normally read gameplay-focused AARS!

That's possibly the neatest end-game Europe I've ever seen.

It's also nice to see a "Roman" Empire forced out of its core territory and be exiled to the east. A pleasing symmetry.

Nice job, all told.
Not only the HRE: Great Britain, France, Austria and Japan do no longer hold their original territory (or at the most very little). Indeed, their names are now empty claims.

That map is a prime example of what makes EU3 so fun to play.

Very impressive! Europe borders remind me of European Union (+ Switzerland and Croatia, -Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Scandinavian and Baltic States). Your AAR shows one thing that lack in EU3, the ability to change quickly the borders of a place without *cheating*. I wonder if you could achieve world domination with Victoria 2, but you are already so far than you haven't any opponent, except if your vassals rebels (and to do that, you should have a colossus job since there is no converter to Victoria II). So, I guess this is over. It was enjoying and a little scrary, seeing China like that. At least, it was democratic (with a temporary dictature...).
Well the whole selling business isn't that historically realistic and I doubt many people use it to the extent shown in this AAR, so it's not that big of a flaw. I would love to have the peace negotiation screen for selling provinces, though.

Continuing this campaign would have no real purpose, would be really boring to play and even more boring to read about. Even if there was a EU3-Vic2 converter, what challenge would there be?

(Unless I would continue as one of the vassals...)
 
Oh, I can't wait to read the next one, as this was quite awesome and entertaining!
What new, revolutionary ways will Knul use to tell us his next story...? :rolleyes:

It was really great AAR :) The way you play and write is impressive :)
Looking forward to see your next 'story' ;)

Extremely impressive, and I can't wait to read your next AAR.

*applauds* Bravo! A nice finishing post for an excellent AAR!

I had decided to wait till epilogue to congratulate, but changed my mind... Congratulations, a very nice AAR and game play...

I enjoyed each and every bit of this AAR. Thank you!

Dear JackTheJumper, Lagren, Boris ze Spider, KPJ, Il Loco and Facit, thank you for your kind words. Your encouragement and of all the other posters have enticed me to do another AAR. I invite all my dear readers to this new and exciting AAR!

Double Domination: Germany versus Japan
 
Oh, nice, I'm eager to see the faction system in action.

BTW, I've never understood the reasoning behind the horribly ahistorical temples faction.

Religious Daoism was never that powerful. It probably paled in comparison to Buddhism. And I don't think they ever had any problems with the Buddhists - the two religions actually got along quite well. A problem here is that the religious system in EU3 is based along western lines, where there are sharp divisions between Christians, Muslims, and Jews. You can't be both a Christian and a Muslim. In China, things were much more syncretistic. And this was basically possible because pretty much none of the religions put a heavy emphasis on God or Gods, which seems bizarre to westerners, where God is so essential that religion and God almost seem synonymous.

Confucianism is probably the least "religious" of the religions here. The most religionish element in it was probably ancestor worship, which stems from Confucian teachings of respecting ones family, but which was practiced by pretty much all Chinese, and could be argued to just be a non-superstitious practice of respect. When Jesuit missionaries first came from China, they actually allowed Christian converts to continue Confucianism and it's associate practices, including ancestor worship; so there were even Confucian Christians, and Abrahamic religions are about as exclusive as they come. However, the pope later contradicted the Jesuits. There was basically no mandatory separatism from Buddhism here. A lot of Buddhists in China had Confucian ideas and vice versa.

Several religious Daoist sects did emerge (even though, classically, Daoism is mostly a philosophy just like Confucianism), but these were never hugely dominate ideas. I suppose the explanation that the temple sect consists of "Daoists trying to oppress Buddhists" comes from when a Chinese emperor, who happened to be a religious Daoist, banned Buddhism during 9th century. But that only lasted eight years. It was mostly an attempt to solidify imperial power, expand the tax base (Buddhist monasteries were untaxed and had acquired huge tracts of land), and purge foreign influences, not the product of any long standing enmity between the two religions. Anyway, you could easily be a Buddhist Confucian Daoist. There was even a belief among some people that Buddha was the same person as the found of Daoism, Laozi, because there was so much similarity between Buddhist and Daoist teachings, and the traditional story was that Laozi had left China to travel west after he had written down the Tao Te Chung.