Chapter 16: Cleaning up Anatolia and the Far East
February 1680: We get a border friction CB on Maharasthra -- to be honest, I'm not super interested in expanding farther in India right now. I'd like to focus on the Far East.
March 1680: With tribal conquest, I can take out Saruhan, cementing my hold on Anatolia and giving me the last province for the Bosphorus Sound Toll. To war!
It's Saruhan, Tripoli, and the Mamluks (alliance leader).
April 1680: Alaska sure is popular, with people leaving Beloozero for Kenai.
May 1680: North Ufa wins the free constable sweepstakes. It's like Publisher's Clearinghouse, but without the big novelty check. Also, Saruhan is defeated, meaning he won't be able to make those huge armies for Sauron. Wait, I was thinking of something else.
August 1680: Another firing of the Colonial Ventures event, again I go with naval improvement.
October 1680: I'm not proud of this battle -- despite a
huge lead in tech, a force with no leader took as many casualties as the Mamluk army did. The Mamluks may be behind me in tech, but they're a far cry from the Far Eastern powers.
However, it does convince the Mamluks to sue for white peace, which I accept. Since I didn't use the reconquest CB, I can't take Mus for free infamy, so I'll have to wait. Probably a mistake, but it does make things more interesting down the road
November 1680: Candar must fall for conspiring to keep land from the Russian Republic! It is our birthright (or something).
I find out something interesting. The Mamluks honor, yet don't take the stab hit for breaking the truce. Does anybody know if this is WAD?
December 1680: A missionary in Zheteru gets sick -- he's been there a really long time, so I don't blame him. I send another missionary with 20 ducats to help him out.
February 1681: Candar is "liberated" from the burdens of independence. The Russian Republic is no mere bloodthirsty collection of warmongers -- its leaders must answer to the people of Russia! Fortunately, the people of Russia are also a bloodthirsty collection of warmongers.
March 1681: Two nine pip generals duke it out this time, and the events are much more pleasing to the people of Russia.
April 1681: Kamnuskoye cores.
May 1681: Swahili, alliance leader, offers white peace. I go to war with Swahili like a dozen times over the next hundred years, but our troops never meet and I don't touch their provinces. Eventually, you'd think they'd start dishonoring.
July 1681: Production 31 and the Grain Depot, one of the best buildings for a military power. It's like the old provincial decision, but without the increased RR. +25% to national manpower (possibly an increase to reinforce speed?) is something that's ridiculously cheap at 980 ducats. I build it in Thrace.
August 1681: Tauisk cores.
June 1682: Sind, on the other hand, de-cores. In my defense, a) Burgundy is a reasonable force to reckon with at this point and b) I forgot I had the core. Meanwhile, some nationalists in Yakesa are frustrated about the lack of autonomy. They soon have all the autonomy they can handle, with their spirits freed from their bodies.
August 1682: Brandenburg releases Hannover -- I'm surprised with how regularly Brandenburg gets beaten up, even as HRE. You'd think they'd either stop getting elections or they'd start winning. Bohemia is the one that delivers the blow here. A Bohemian HRE is about my worst fear right now, apart from some coalition of Western Europeans against me.
January 1683: Ferghana converts.
April 1683: The University of Archangelsk is completed -- God now asks us for a new fort in Bithynia, which I begin constructing. Burgundy asks me for Military Access -- I'm a spiteful jerk, so I say no
June 1683: My 4* diplomat dies, and all I can drum up is a 2* diplomat. It's better than nothing, I guess.
November 1683: Colonial Ventures fires again, more work on the navy. I briefly think about taking my core on Livland, but Riga is Burgundy's vassal, and the HRE would also be brought in, so I decide to bide my time.
January 1684: Deren cores.
April 1684: Border friction on Persia. That's enticing, but I have bigger fish to fry right now -- the infamy fish.
June 1684: I finally re-establish the Swiss alliance. Dadra also cores. Switzerland immediately asks me to help against Parma. This will repeat every five years for a
long time -- I never attack Parma and Parma never attacks me, because most of Parma's provinces are in Africa and North America, where my presence is minimal. Switzerland usually takes Parma right away in these wars, so there's not much to do.
July 1684: Border friction with Tibet leads immediately to war -- I want a bigger presence in East Asia, and only by expanding my borders there can I trigger more border friction CBs, maybe even a boundary dispute or two.
Dai Viet and Wu both honor -- neither are in much of a position to do anything, though.
December 1684: Bavaria is beaten by Austria -- they lose a little more than prestige, but not much more. The only real blob left in Central Europe is Bohemia -- Austria's not a real threat, Brandenburg is HRE but hasn't added a huge amount of territory.
January 1685: Wu, alliance leader, offers white peace before any real action. Now Wu, if you didn't want war with Russia, you shouldn't have honored your alliance. Simple logic, really. Declined.
September 1685: Hovd and Saghalin Oula core. This is a good time to mention a strategy I started with Vicky 2 -- I name my armies after the regions they belong in. It doesn't quite have the historical flavor of PI's choices, but it does help me keep track of where armies are and where they belong. It also helps remind me where I need more troops when I get a boost to land forcelimits.
The war with Tibet is taking a very long time. Seems there are these big rocks in the way called the Himalayas. They're quite tricky to get over (or around)
October 1685: Colonial Ventures = naval investment. You know the drill by now.
November 1685: The fortress in Bithnyia is finished. Our new mission is the naval race with Great Britain again. Pass! Instead, we're to colonize Menade. That's better!
March 1686: Morocco warns us. I don't even border Morocco.
May 1686: I ask Ming for military access -- it turns out Wu is Tibet's overlord, so I need to smack Wu around for peace.
June 1686: Korea DOWs Wu. They're even farther from Wu than I am, so I don't know what they expect to accomplish.
November 1686: Finally, Wu coughs up the Tibetan provinces.
December 1686: Bursa converts.
January 1687: Border dispute with Korea you say? I have my eye on a COT that Korea holds, so I'll burn off a little infamy first.
February 1687: Azerbaijan cores (yay!) and so does Urumqui (yay?). Prussia becomes part of Russia, which ends a lot of confusion for some.
I get military access through Bavaria -- for a brief bit, I thought about war with Burgundy at this point, but decided against it. I also colonize Menade, which leads to another colony, according to God: Bone.
July 1687: Suntar Khayat cores. Speaking of cores, it's time to take mine from Core-e-a (you may groan, if you like. I did typing it
).
Bihar dishonors, Ming doesn't follow up their guarantee, so it's just Russia vs. Korea. Poor Korea.
August 1687: Some people abandon Dzungaria, in the Himalayas, for Menade, in the South Pacific. Now
that move makes sense.
October 1687: I guess Korea was still at war with Wu, because they white peaced with them and Tibet.
November 1687: Khorasan warns us.
January 1688: Hungary too.
April 1688: Peace with Korea -- I take my core and the COT in Chengde.
May 1688: Woukon pirates fires -- the result is that Korea hates me even more now. I'll live with that. Korea may not. Perhaps God wishes to retire to the South Pacific, since after I colonize Bone, Flores is next. Turkestan converts.
August 1688: Nepal warns me.
September 1688: Azerbaijan converts.
October 1688: Sakhalin converts. I also move toward Mercantilism and get a nearly worthless collector.
January 1689: I can change my units at this point -- I forgot to take a screenie of which tech I got
February 1689: Sayin Noyan cores. Sometime around this, GB DOWs the Mamluks. I don't remember why (trade dispute, maybe?) It didn't seem important until after the war started, and I decided to wait and see what GB took.
June 1689: Tshiyet Noyan cores.
July 1689: Apparently, God's had enough colonizing for a while, so now we're to build a University in Poltava.
November 1689: Those bastard limeys took my core! I'll not stand for this. WAAAAARRRR!
The tale of the tape:
I've got a whole bunch of vassals that honor too -- none of them are all that relevant. The vast majority of the forces are mine, with Switzerland a distant second, and everybody else way behind them.
December 1689: The Mamluks bolster a British ally, giving away three provinces to Algeria.
To see how the war turns out, you'll have to tune into to the next update
I've got that and the next State of the Republic slated for this weekend.
Request for feedback
How do you feel about the level of detail I've been providing? Is it too much? I'm specifically thinking about cores/conversions and some of the repeated events (Colonial Ventures, for one). Regarding cores/conversions, I could do one of two things:
1) Sum them up at the end of the update
or
2) Just mention really interesting ones from now on (Pentarchy provinces converting, COTs coring, etc.).
Which do you think? Or do you like things as they currently are?
