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I love the Divergences mod.:) Looking forward to the continued civilizing efforts of Khmer!
 
Flexing our muscles rather early, aren’t we? Good! Wonderful start, showing your neighbors that the Empire strikes back, 600 years later, but it does!
 
Flexing our muscles rather early, aren’t we? Good! Wonderful start, showing your neighbors that the Empire strikes back, 600 years later, but it does!

Thanks for the support. The world in Divergences is pretty volatile, so i want to try and grab these lands while i can. I got my eyes set much further than indo-china after all :)

I love the Divergences mod.:) Looking forward to the continued civilizing efforts of Khmer!

Thanks. i think i've got a good chance, providing europe doesn't intervene
 
So 'conquest' CB only nets you 10 infamy in Divergences? That's handy! I'd be cautious of invading Dai Nam just yet - it would be just like the AI to make peace in the East to crush you...
 
So 'conquest' CB only nets you 10 infamy in Divergences? That's handy! I'd be cautious of invading Dai Nam just yet - it would be just like the AI to make peace in the East to crush you...

Yeah the Infamy seems to be halved across the board, there are a lot more nations to conquer though. I'll take a good look at Dai Nam when i start back into it, even if ming does join in, they won't have access due to the enemies in between. The war score for my Dai Nam territory is only about 11 so it should be a short war.
 
Very nice start. Hopefully we'll continue to see success in war. It'll be interesting to see the new civilizing system, as I haven't experimented with that myself yet.
 
Very nice start. Hopefully we'll continue to see success in war. It'll be interesting to see the new civilizing system, as I haven't experimented with that myself yet.

Still a bit confusing, there are other uncivs that are not feudal monarchies, so maybe its not the only step. Still its nice to have a gradual relaxing of the constraints as opposed to a complete shift when you hit that civilizing threshold.
 
3. The Race to the Bottom

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At the start of this session Dai Nam (apologies for calling it Dai Viet the whole time) makes peace with Taiping, giving up its chinese provinces and as a result the source of a big chunk of its population and literacy. Despite being much weakend i won't attack it, they are allied with Tungning, a powerful chinese state with another 20 odd divisions to send my way.

Taungu is also off the menu, its allied with Taiping and Shun, both of which could knock me about without too much trouble.

So that leaves our old enemy the Kingdom of Ayutthaya, the nation that would once challenge us as regional power broker.
Named after a legendary kingdom of India and founded as a kind of side effect of a cholera epidemic, Ayutthaya was viewed as the richest and most powerful nation in south east asia. It would eventually subjugate Khmer in our time line. But not here.

Its taken a long time to deal with the Thai revolts, but its about time to put them down once and for all. I build a new army 'the army of champa' and prepare for war.

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I declare war (its classed as a small state so only 5 infamy) and lure the Thai army into the jungles of Lopburi with a smaller force. The Thai forces are overzealous and exhausted from the war with Taungu. I send in my the other two armies and the Thais die in droves.

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The battle is decisive, General Pok Tong is promised a brand new elephant and its weight in opium.

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The Thai army is chased into Bangkok and massacred, the city is sacked.

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Meanwhile in the Himalayas we've heard some strange news. The belligerent Tibet attempted to bring both Nepal and Sikkim into its fold, but whoever managed their campaign needs to reconsider his career choices. Nepal and Sikkim both take a large province each leaving a rump Tibetan kingdom.

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The red outline shows Sikkim's original patrimony, with a population of 11,000. It now has a population of over 300,000.

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All traces of Thai independence has now ended, but this is no time to rest. Beyond our new borders lies the weak Sultanate of Pattani. First i deal some leniency to the subjugated Cham.

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And then its time once again for war.

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Pok Tong deals another crushing defeat, this time to the Sultans army.

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While Pattani is in termoil the famers at home show considerable initiative and set up their own bank. The king shuts it down, any economic advancement will be on his own terms.

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Just as i subjugate Pattani, the European Kingdom of Scandinavia declares war on Malacca. As the last big piece of the puzzle in the Malay peninsula, and a source of gold, i can't let them take it from me. Again the Khmer empire goes to war, this time in the hope of seizing Malacca before the europeans. To this end i throw the armies of Angkor out into the fog.

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Fortunately the Scandinavians were ill prepared for war, the Malaccan Army is busy laying waste to singapore. How embarrassing.

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Finally a break through, the fishing ports and borders of the Khmer Empire are open for business. With it comes a huge boost in my finances. Before long the army, the clerics and the bureaucracy are fully funded. I start building some Khmer cavalry to celebrate (lets say elephant cavalry)

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It also gives me the ability to enact the 'art of diplomacy' decision which is one step towards getting rid of those tiresome feudal lords. It also gives me a small boost in diplomacy point regain.

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As if there was any doubt, Malacca accepts the Empires demands and ceases to exist. All its gold now flows towards Angkor.

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The riches of the Malay peninsula may be great, but there are some new dangers. I now have a land border with 2 European great powers: Scandinavia and Burgundy.

Summary coming up.
 
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With the latest conquests the Khmer are now less numerous than the Thai's, luckily they are an accepted culture. Religion is also more diverse, the catholics came from the coast of Champa.

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1, The Khmer Empire is now bigger than at any point in history. It also sports a vertical name. The economy continued to grow throughout the last three wars, so i can begin consolidating and growing my military while my infamy dies down a bit.

2, Dai Nam's lost chinese provinces. They are now severely weakened, even if i take my territory back, i'd like to leave them there as a buffer state for a while.

3, Vijayanagar is now quite a bit larger, the blue territory around Ceylon belongs to the Dual Monarchy, a united kingdom of england and france.

4, The war in java ended with a white peace, sucks to be burgundy.

5, Bengal made war with Taungu and took a province off of them.

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1, The chinese civil war rages on, Taiping and Shun made a white peace with ming but Tungning repalced them. Ming expanded its war to overthrow Daxi and it looks like it may do it, that could be bad.

2, Mongolia conquers a bit of the Chagatai Khanate

3, The Japanese civil war ends with an almost completely independent Korea.

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With free trade we start getting news from further west.

1, The Durrani Empire attacked an indian minor and payed the price. It is now at war with Panjab.

2, The Mughals also attacked an indian minor.

3, A militant persia captured all of Iraq accept for Kuwait which went to arabia.

4, Arabia also attempts to annex Abu Dhabi

5, Chagatai found land to replace what it lost in the east. Azerbaijan conquers georgia.

6, The Ethiopian civil war is still going on
 
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I'm surprised that general Tong is still successful, given all that opium he was promised! :p

The new vertical name looks nice though, and my eyes have a bit of a rest with the blobbing of the other powers.
 
I'm surprised that general Tong is still successful, given all that opium he was promised! :p

The new vertical name looks nice though, and my eyes have a bit of a rest with the blobbing of the other powers.

A strong constitution and a somewhat decreased sense of self preservation is essential for any successful Khmer general.
 
This looks to be a great AAR, I really like Divergences and I enjoy reading Divergences AARs. Plus Khmer is great. I eagerly await the next update.
 
This looks to be a great AAR, I really like Divergences and I enjoy reading Divergences AARs. Plus Khmer is great. I eagerly await the next update.

Thanks, its great to get positive feedback. Its a fun nation to play so far, my immediate neighbors are much weaker than the ones just beyond them (india, china and the colonial europeans) so theres a nice difficulty curve.

If anyone has any questions about the Khmer empire or the rest of the game world, let me know.

I have an idea where i want to go next, but suggestions are also welcome.
 
Are you planning on taking weak countries overseas? Or waiting until you are civilized?

Nice update, you're in a good place so far.

Theres a lot of small nations in indonesia that could be good, easy targets. It would require a small navy though. I'm kind of considering making a contiguous empire until i civilize, easier to defend. In the mean time though i have to wait for my infamy to drop and both my unciv neighbors have strong allies that i want to be confident i can outgun before i attack.
 
Nice update, once Infamy cools, you're gonna go after Dai Nam and unite Indochina?

Dai Nam is probably the next target, i need to build up my forces a bit as they are allied with tungning. I may just take my own cores from dai nam though, and leave the rest as a buffer against china until i'm stronger. This is especially important as Taungu is allied with Taiping.
 
4. A Rude Awakening

General Pok Tong leads the imperial armies home in triumph. Thanks to him and his brave comrades, the glory of the Khmer Empire is world renowned. The atmosphere in Angkor is one of optimistic anticipation. Crowds already line the streets and swarm the temples waiting for the armies return. Surely this is a new and prosperous dawn for the Empire? The only possible way is up.

The Khmer army is only some 15 divisions in size. Paying off the pensions of feudal lords and their own tendency to skim a bit off the top has proved a massive strain on the Empires finances. Fortunantly with the new lands and the implementation of free trade, there is now room for some expansion. Current technology is limited, flintlock muskets are still not widely available. The army is thus primarily irregulars fighting with the traditional weapons and dress of the Khmer people, with a spattering of antiquated matchlock muskets. As an interim measure to improve the army without new technology, the king commissions a number of new elephant brigades to support the standing army.

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Infamy is high, but it'll come down with time. 5 or 10 is all thats needed to annex a new country. Khmer is placed world wide just between Taiping and mongolia at 58th. As an uncivilized nation we are limited to 56th despite our high prestige and modest military.

Khmer has always been closer to india than to china, in terms of art, religion and politics. So it makes sense to bring the light of Angkor to india first, strip them of their islamic tyrants and unite them with their brothers. And in return the Empire will have more manpower than it can ever need and a bottomless tax base.
The key to india however is Taungu.

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Its army isn't much to worry about but it has powerful friends: Taiping the second largest chinese state which has more brigades than bare counting, Shun (quite large but blocked from participating due to ming) and Tibet. Tibet has lost the mandate of heaven somewhat but it still has an army of roughly equal size to Taungu.
These allies make attacking it a bit of a fools errand at the moment. But there is still plenty of time to plot while the army grows and infamy drops.

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Here is a quick look at the budget, all taxes are at max which is only 10% effective tax. Tarrifs are at 0% so there is a bit of....

hmmm actually we'll leave the budget for now, something rather more pressing has just come up...

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I was afraid this might happen, we now have a land border with the Scandinavian port of Singapore and obviously proximity is reason enough for europeans to make war.

The number 4 great power is nothing to be sneazed at, it is a cultural union of norway, sweden and denmark (capital copenhagen). With lands in germany, Livonia, scotland, india and africa not to mention south east asia. It suffers from a low population at home, but it makes up for it with colonial manpower and a very high literacy.

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Its 33 divisions are probably much more advanced than mine, its navy currently isn't too large, which may mean a lack of force projection. Thats all i can hope for for the moment. Scandinavia was in a major war with poland and bohemia earlier in the game over east prussia, looks like they didn't win it.

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General Ang Chan and the Imperial army was left behind in Malaysia to squash any hint of Malay impertinence. His army was immediately redirected to the un-garrisoned port of singapore. Before long elephants trampled the cities markets and squashed the Scandinavian governor like a melon. Ang Chan took the initiative and crossed into the nearby Scandinavian island of Tangjungpinang to take it by surprise.

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There is currently no way to tell when or where the Scandinvian army will land, the armies of Champa and Angkor are immediately halted, their triumphal return to the capital is canceled. Pok Tongs eldest son Pok Tong II is promoted to general and put in charge of the Army of Angkor. A deliberate and pragmatic leader, Pok Tong II makes a nice contrast to his fathers unflinching heroism and brashness.

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Unfortunately, Pok Tong dies of dysentery in the jungles of Sukhothai the day after his sons promotion.

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A nation already panicked and apprehensive about the prospect of invasion, is now in morning for its national hero. Moral couldn't be lower...

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well i guess maybe it could be. Sure enough the Burgundians also have a port in Malaysia, that i border. Not to be outdone by Scandinavia, Burgundy declares war.

Ang Chan springs into action, and marches his armies from the trampled wastes of singapore to the Burgundian port of Penang.

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The king is in no mood for poetry.

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Here you can see Burgundy is even more formidable than Scandinavia, although it also has a similarly small fleet.

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You can also see the progress of the two wars i'm in, capturing those 2 ports did little for my warscore.

One year after the occupation of singapore the scandinavian response arrives.

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Its a fleet of 4 war ships...and no transports. The fleet moves around to the gulf of siam and waits.

The people are fearful, the military is static and the great plans of the Khmer Empire are put on hold, all for the greed of some distant European potentates. This will not do, the King orders an unprecedented rally outside Angkor Wat. A large expectant crowd gathers. The king appears on top of the elephant that was to be a gift to the late Pok Tong. He raises his arms to the sky and proclaims "TO HELL WITH THIS NOISE". The people are confused at first, but rejoice anyway. The Imperial army is withdrawn from malaysia (after securing the burgundian port) and begin the long march to the interior. A new plan is struck, and the eyes of Khmer look north.

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to be continued...
 
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