Iroquois AAR

[Panopticon]

Hmm.. Do you get BB for burning colonies?
Otherwise I would burn everyone you can't get a land bridge to pretty soon and then take the 5 portugueese outer provinces so you lock them in. Ireland is not what you should worry about. Cripple the biggest threat first. Unlike in a war where you should go for the weakest first.

And you could have gotten Portugals WE up high if you have let them siege for a while more, attrition is the biggest thing for WE. And Portugal often have problem with manpower, you could perhaps have bled them dry without even fighting a battle.

And sure that Ireland didn't guaranteed Portugal? It just doesn't feel right.

[-MoRiDin-]

Problem with west coast provs, i can do nothing about pirates there!

i think i've not hurt portugal permanently enough recently!

[-MoRiDin-]

I move a strong stack Westward to clear out the small forces besieging Tensesse and Tamaora and then move on to retake Quapaw. Once there the army defeated a few small portugesse armies crossing in from Central America.




I lose a fight against the odd Irish Infantry and Art stack, oddly the army retreats to Bayougoula. Another stack is ordered foward to catche them.




My fleet is up north transporting a couple of infantry regiments into Greenland to siege vestbygden and Eirksfjord. I see a chance to clip the Scandinavian fleet.




Down south my stack catches the Irish in Chithiacha. The Army ping pongs with Atakata and is eventually destroyed.




Far more exciting was finding a large amount of the Scandinavian fleet. Three fleets 2/4/0/0, 8/8/0/0 and 0/0/0/18!

The transports where moving slowest and by chance I was able to arrange for my fleet to arrive after the warships had moved on!




12 out of 18 transports!!! WOOT!!! Scandinavia is no threat now!!

A couple of weeks later the surviving 4 transports expose themselves!! One has to love the AI!




In the south I had defeated the Irish and the Portugesse.



Small armies had been sent to sieze all the colonies while larger forces siege the Irish cities. Portugal has managed to put together some medium stacks but my armies avoid being defeated. I eventually manage to defeat the new portugesse stack. These guys don't learn!



At this point Portugal white peaces out of the war with the Ottomans.

Another couple of unprotected transports attempt to invade and are defeated! Scandinavia must be running out of transports!





As time passes I'm in a perfect position,




So do I continue to take Portugesse lands in the south or not?



They would accept this peace offer:




Which does give me all I want! 20 infamy though so I must wait until my infamy is down to 2.4 then I'll stay under the 1.25 limit. This peace connects all the siezed colonies and detaches portugals lands. It would be impossible to reinforce from outside!

The Irish refuse any sepperate peace but then off me this!



I can't take it of course, but I got excited that I could get Mobile in a sepperate peace but no... not even a white peace available!

Quapaw then compeltes and a fort is ordered!

I again get to clip the Scandinavian fleet and find her last transport!



The war stands like this:



I expect that Scandinavia would accept a CD peace but she will not a white one yet.

So I guess I need peace option suggestions, do I take the portugesse coastline and Mobile or take all of Irelands northern provenices? Vestbygden and Eirksfjord are large now, this would also remove Irelands cores and prevent her from colonising furhter?

I think the first option is best. Either way I weaken portugal more and Ireland has been humbled!

WE is low, I'm tempted to continue the war, mainly for the tax revenue of occupied provenice, it can help pay for my colonies.

[Chief Ragusa]

You've completed your war objectives. You give a pretty good reason to continue the war. There may some more colonies you could burn out or take. Naturally, take the connecting provinces in peace.

[Panopticon]

Since you are down to 0 WE you could just as well keep the war going untill you get a really low BB. Wait untill you are down to 0.1 before making peace, helps to keep the time above the BB limit down if you decide to go that way.

And is there anything left for Ireland to colonize? Looks like most of the coast is taken already so it won't help if you remove their core up there.

EDIT: By the way. Is Scandinavia a Swedish or a Danish one? If you can drag the war on for a bit more and kill more of their fleet you could move the war over to their side and take their capital if it was Denmark who formed it. Then you could cripple it badly.

EDIT 2: Anv by the way. You do know that for a siege it's enough that you have as many troops sieging as it is in the fort? You seem to have quite a lot of men in your siege stacks most of the time.

[-MoRiDin-]

I feel it, continued war, is a viable alternative to more minting. Inflation is up to 7% as it is, and I'm taking a 0.1% hit a year. That is with a master minter as well as well as national bank. I'm also a long way from gov lvl 31 and tax assessors!

If I take all tha BB I'm tempted to get back to 3 diplomats, but my economy simply wont take it. What do i need to increase more, my production or trade income?

Sweden formed Scandinavia, so there is no chance to strike and cut off the capital from land. Also she still has enough fleet, if she concentrates to wipe me out.

My siege stacks are largish, 1/2/1 this is mostly so they have no problems with 1k or 2 k enemy stacks and so they finish a lvl1 or 2 fort without problems easily.

If I go for the rest of central america I may break them down smaller, but if I still don't have enough to cover all protugal's provenices then I can't stop the occasional unit being built.

Portugal has some colonies I can't get too on the west coast. TI sepperates us and I can't get a boat over to the west coast yet. Ireland still has 3 cities in South America and some cololines behind them. Also there are some kicking about in the Carrabean.

My only concern with pushing forward a lot, is how much it weakens my forces at home, or disperses my navy in the carrabean. I don't want someone else (Burgundy, GB, Spain) to join in or atleast I want to be able to defend if they do.

[PrawnStar]

Take no land from Ireland here and work on Portuguese territory. Take something on the Pacific coast - the sooner you get a core there the better. After that more of the stuff in the SE USA.

Ireland is clearly beatable - in a one on one war you could probably land over there...

[-MoRiDin-]

My colonist situation is a problem. A big problem!

I can't send colonists to provenices where there is no full connection. I need to send colonists to convert the religeon and culture over to mine.

I think the best way to do it is set col maintance to max until the problem provs are ready to complete, then set it to 0 growth and send colonists as they are ready to each in line. Sigh... I didn't think about that enough.

I could skip taking Mobile in the SE USA and take a pacific prov. BUT I can't get any ships there and so it will permantely have and get more pirates! However, your are right Prawnstar I need one over there! If only I had the BB limit to do a 6 prov grab 24 infamy) I could simply run the risk of the bad events for a year or three?

[sprites]

the Pacific just has a stripe of land , not that wealthy too
I would not bother with it before getting Mexico and its gold mines ...

huh , and you need to send a colonist at 899 max , or the colony will keep its culture

[-MoRiDin-]

huh , and you need to send a colonist at 899 max , or the colony will keep its culture

You are a star! This would have messed me up a lot!! Thanks!

[-MoRiDin-]

Small battles continue in Central America as Portugal build them, and as provenices fall. it is rather annoying of course as this means less cash for the peace!



I also get a chance at some of Portugal's warships as sieges complete:





That should help the warscore which is up to 58% now. They were getting stubborn so I sent a stab hit offer!

Beleive it or not but I almost lost this battle, my morale held by a mere whisker.
Scandinavia offered me a white peace:



I probably should have taken it, as I doubt I can get the warscore up to a level where I can get some cash! There WE is so high, but coming down now sadly. I wish some european power like Burgundy was bright enough to take advantage.

If they offer another white peace i'll take it.
just when I'm about to take a huge infamy hit I'm forced to change leader, again I go with diplomatic and I get this chump:



And shortly afterwards my top researchers figure out how great it would be to have another government policy!! Another Ni is available but which will it be?



I also get my first missionary, which I've sent to convert the Catholics in Kespek. Irish is not an accepted culture so that needs to go first.

So I think it is probably time for peace, I'm not sure what i'm gaining by continuing the war, sure I'm supporting 10 colonies but the enemies WE is coming down as they have so few troops to worry about. I could take all of Ireland's territory and then try to Land on her shores. A 100% warscore should let me split Ireland up and take all her cash.

But it's a long shot and she has about 10-12k in ireland and I could only land 8k in one go. Not to mention her fleet!

I'm still very worried about how badly my ships get beat in battle. I have to have massively more numbers than the enemy to win!

This brings me to the next Ni, what should it be? I could take the one that gives me an extra 0.5 missionaries a year. That would heplp in the long run, or I could simply take humanist tolerance and so deal with Catholics like that?

I feel more strongly that I should do something Naval. One of three spring to mind, with Press gangs for cheaper ships and maintance, the double forcelimit NI, or the +1 morale for navies!

I'm at my force limits and although they will grow with any more costal provenices I think I have no further cores coming for a long while!

So suggestions ahoy please!

Also, the peace... I filled in colonies by colonising Arkansaw. This was an attempt to be able to send colonists further in land but I can't. It means I do not need Mobile for my nation to be hooked up.

So either I go as planed and take the portugesse coast + Mobile (from Ireland) to completely enclose Portugal.

Or I take the coastal provinces and one on the west coast, connected to my colonies. This would allow me to start the clock on a pacific core. but I will not be able to get ships round there to defeat pirates! Even if a bunch of fsat frigates tried it, the chances of defeating all the pirates the AI have left all the way over there is too much!

On the other hand though, Inca is still in existence! I could try continue my war, take the Irish colonies north of Inca and then invade them? They I can snatch like the Europeans can me?

[Panopticon]

You can't snatch the Inca unfortunately but they are easy for you. Just a couple of thousand men would probably do. A good thing you could do though is to start a war and take their money. They probably have tons of gold which you could have a better need for. I would also suggest actually that you guarantee them. Then if someone wants a piece of them they have to fight you too. You want that land and if it takes 50 years before you are ready to take it you can make sure nobody else gets it before that. Also if you get a defensive war you have a bit lower BB for taking provinces which is always nice.

And about money and NI.. Build your economy first. You have a big enough fleet and army to keep the enemy away so make sure your economy gets the better part now. That's what I would do at least.

EDIT: And what you could wait for is for your BB to drop some more. That shortens the time you got a high BB after the peace deal.

[-MoRiDin-]

You can't snatch the Inca unfortunately but they are easy for you. Just a couple of thousand men would probably do. A good thing you could do though is to start a war and take their money. They probably have tons of gold which you could have a better need for. I would also suggest actually that you guarantee them. Then if someone wants a piece of them they have to fight you too. You want that land and if it takes 50 years before you are ready to take it you can make sure nobody else gets it before that. Also if you get a defensive war you have a bit lower BB for taking provinces which is always nice.

And about money and NI.. Build your economy first. You have a big enough fleet and army to keep the enemy away so make sure your economy gets the better part now. That's what I would do at least.

EDIT: And what you could wait for is for your BB to drop some more. That shortens the time you got a high BB after the peace deal.

So what I'm thinking now is that I will wait until I can get to the Inca, dow them take thier money then guarentee them but leave there land?

Also so for the NI what would you suggest? shred commercial practices? I already have the national bank?

[PrawnStar]

The point of the Pacific coastal province is a core for colonisation (and the road to the Far East) - don't worry too much about Pirates over there as Portugal may well sort that out for you anyway. Even sealing the coast is only a minor thing as you'll still have a border in Mexico. Personally I'd probably take the inland provinces!

[Chief Ragusa]

Go above your naval force limits, it should be affordable.

Hire a colonial governor. With so many foreign colonies to flip, you don't want colonial maintenance. Grow by National Focus. Land of Opportunities also helps grow your colonies.

A refocus of your country objectives. The land frontier opens the route to Mexico and its trade centre.

If keeping your country one contiguous bloc is your aim, taking Boethuk;'s Irish neighbour and two provinces to connect up Florida are required -Yamagee and Chiaha. You could then take a west coast province.Peace with Ireland first- take all their colonies. Then carry on a war with Portugal reducing the BB. You could try selling the Irish colonies to the Incas for as much as you can get and then attack them.
Those west coast pirates, can you sail round them? If you can, send some cogs with some fast frigates under a newly hired admiral and sail around those pirates, take the Portuguese colonies and begin Iroquois California.

[Panopticon]

So what I'm thinking now is that I will wait until I can get to the Inca, dow them take thier money then guarentee them but leave there land?

Guarantee them straight away. They are yours and if you wait untill you can get there somebody else might have taken them already. Otherwise it was right. Either you should be at war against them or you should guarantee them.

Since your economy is struggling as it is I wouldn't advice you to go over the force limit. And a colonial governor will force you to remove one of the other advisors which are much more needed.

And Prawnstar is of course right. Sealing the coast isn't much point now since you got a border down south anyway that they can reinforce.
Perhaps it's just better to take the province that would connect your north and south parts now together with that pacific province. After that just take the best one. Isn't one of those bordering your new colonies a gold producing one? 12 BB could perhaps be enough in this war?
Can you stab hit Ireland? That will give them some extra problems at least.

[sprites]

What is your naval tech compared to the western powers? if they are quite ahead you will have hard times

In the current state , press gangs is always more useful than grand navy!

[-MoRiDin-]

Sadly i can't stab hit Ireland!

I was thinking of an immediate peace but I notice Inca is at war with GB. I transfer some troops idling in occupied Portuegesse Central America and land them in Ireland's provs in the north of South america.

They pass through on their way to 'help' the Incans.

I select the National trade Policy (?) for an extra 10% trade efficency, my economy needs some work! I also enact the pass importation act for even more trade income!

While on the way Scandinavia offer a White Peace again and I accept!



However i keep up pressure on the others, burning colonies in the panama area, jamacia and the Andes! I hunt down any transports especially!



Like fish in a barrell!

Arriving in the Incan border I annouce my 'helpful' intentions!



This war is easy, my 2/3 stack eats the Incans who are now in a truce with gb! My intention was to take the centre of trade and vassalise the rest.

So I seize Lima and start a fort there. Then this happens:



Portugal then offer me te world:



So I decide to finally make my peace! Though i do not know what causes overextension and had no clue peace would make it worse!



I take 5 port provs, the coastal ones + a pacific one, a lot of cash, releaesd a nation in India and anulled the spainish and Irish treaties. (which the ai immediately remade!! grrr) I immediately start building workshops, they need finishing off! I wish i'd seen the last couple of updates, then i could have taken a few more useful provs, rather than the costal ones!

Here's the new south colonies in red!





The colonies in red above need colonist to convert rel and culture! and have no border with a city!! gulp.

My solution is to grow them full plt till one is at 890 then wait for a colonist to arrive and complete it. Rince and repeat!

Ah I almost missed these evens:



Kentucky + muskogee. Kentucky never revolts, Muskogee does seemingly every other month!



Yahoooooooo below infamy limit now!

I get my second missionary which I send to Beothuk!

Finally I finish off the Inca'sand I can't vassalise it requires 112% so I go for this:



Plenty of money and Lima is free! next month I guarreentee them! Oh sweet irony!

I have some cores finish and find my force limits are much increased!



I concentrate on building ships, some transports so i can move 12 regiments at once.. I'm thinking of an invasion of Ireland! The a few light ships to zoom around the Cape Horn to get to my pacifc provs!

During this time i'm making steady progress on my colonies. I also put lots of effort into trade and can set my minting to a level where i'm working off 0.07 inflation a year. I had got up to 7.5.

I am tryong to decide what to do about Mohawk. It is now the largest CoT in the world and so attracts alot of attention. With high BB it is difficult to keep the monopoly but I am. I'm considering spliting the cot and so reduce Mowhawk's attractiveness. What do you think? If I can keep both empty and my own monopoly then surely i wont lose anything? (except the starting 500 ducats)

I already have a monopoly in Lima.

I'm also thinking of converting to a Administrative Republic, this offers more magistrates and another 10% trade (or is it tax) modifer? I could also centralise some more then!

by 1668 my overextension should pass, as the Old Spainish provs should core by then! I had no idea grabbing so many provs at once would cause me such problems!

Portugesse SE USA is over run with rebels, peasents sadly, but it is fun to see!

[-MoRiDin-]

What is your naval tech compared to the western powers? if they are quite ahead you will have hard times

In the current state , press gangs is always more useful than grand navy!

I'll check this out, but it shouldn't be more than 1 or 2 levels.

[Panopticon]

It's very good you couldn't vassalize Inca. If they are your vassals they can't give you their treasury every five years.. And taking rich Lima could perhaps actually have been a bad move. The amount of money you can take from a country in each peace depends on the income of the country, not the actual size of the treasury. So now you can "only" take 1450 from them in each war, if they had kept Lima you could have taken more so you need more wars now to bleed them dry. Nice though that you took a province, now you can DoW them every five years without problem. Lets just hope that GB or someone doesn't attack Lima in force.

And if you want a really easy war against them the next time you could let them siege Lima while you run around taking all their provinces, winning the war in a few months without a single battle..

EDIT: And I would definately go for admin republic. What do you have now? Noble republic? Admin is much much better. Better statistics and election every 4 years (instead of 8 if you have noble republic).
And workshops should always be the number one priority, they give you huge amounts of money for nearly nothing invested. They will pay back in just a few years, never wait with building them.
Perhaps building a new coastal CoT? They give you more colonists and colonists is something you should try to maximize.