Ireland's Teardrop

[Selvetrica]

ill keep reading

[safferli]

BootOnFace

Well, you'll be surprised...

Malurous

Yes, the BB burn is a problem. To be honest I hadn't realised that the BB limit was so low. I had completely forgotten that the king was a Diplo 3 imbecile, and the low Legitimacy isn't helping...

Qorten

Good to "see" you! It's not the AAR I was talking about (that's a Swiss AAR), but a different one to let me learn the ropes again. I hope it'll be entertaining nonetheless.

Innocent Beard

Oh dear, you'll have to look at the Munster colour for a bit longer, I fear... We'll soon see!

Avindian

Oh yes, seeing my BB limit was quite a shock! As I said, I really hadn't realised my BB was above the limit...

tamius23

I need to DoW without CB, because I need to get those countries annexed before they get guarantees and alliances all over the place. The AI likes to protect smaller countries.

Stability is rather cheap. It's just a couple of same culture, same religion provinces. Even with the pitiful income of Munster without trade I can easily get it back in a few months. I am rather backwards in tech, though. Luckily, at the early states that doesn't matter. Most (99%) of my tech income is from the neighbour bonus.

loki100, Qorten

Oh yes, it's a calculated risk. Well, not calculated, because it happened by accident... More on it tomorrow! Being small does have its advantages.

Selvetrica

Welcome! Good to have you on board.

[Arakhor]

Wow, not only an Ireland AAR, but also one that involves much declaring of war without CB and becoming a complete scumbag too!

[safferli]

Wow, not only an Ireland AAR, but also one that involves much declaring of war without CB and becoming a complete scumbag too!

It's the traditional Irish way. At least that's what my Irish travel book "101 Ways to Start a Fight" says!

[safferli]

So, going over the BB limit was a surprise, and I hadn't expected that. But, it turns out, the AI loves small countries, especially if they are poor! I've tried this out a number of times, and the AI does not go after Munster in this situation. I think it's because they have an innate "I must protect small countries" bias.

One good thing about being poor (quite apart from real life) is that things are cheaper the less money you have. Tapestries which otherwise cost an arm and a leg are a dime a dozen.

So we commission one!

As I said, the AI not only leaves you alone as badboy scum, it even actively tries to help you! This alliance offer we of course accept. We'll need any help we can get against the English in the near future, and Castille has a navy that can at least make the English First Sea Lord pause.

With all easy targets gobbled up, we now need to take more care in managing our country. We're still so poor we cannot afford big advisors. But we need to get to government tech 4 as fast as possibly, so a 1-star statesman is hired.

A 1-star diplomat is hired later, to get our BB score down. Having a Diplo-3 king is a major pain in the posterior.

Good news, England has decided not to attack us, but rather to offer us their protection! We are now in the Sphere of Influence of England. I still cannot decide whether this is a good thing or a bad...

There are bound to be people discontent with the rule of the king. Usually, not a problem. But we are desperately lying low to avoid any problems, and we also have cut military expenses to the absolute minimum which I usually never do. We have to pay for those two 1-star advisors, somehow!

This means that as rebels appear, our troops are at near-zero morale and also haven't reinforced at all. We up the maintenance for two months, and attack the rebels. Luckily, a soldier's memory is short!

The rebels flee to Meath, the last remaining English province. Hah! England decides it's time for a show of strength and lands regiment to crush the rebels. Oh dear, we do not want to fight them any time soon!

We're playing the mission overhaul mod. Some of the missions are a little unbalanced. This naval arms race mission is changed to be more easily manageable. But also, the mission rewards are now well out of whack. Well, nobody listens to my pleas for constraint on the user mod forums...

A lucky saint increases our stability. It was at +3, now it's at... eh... nevermind. Stupid saints, never where you need them.

Soon, we are back under the BB limit. It wasn't much over the limit in the first place and lying low did help. That's the first obstacle taken! Now, only a massive England with about 20x the amount of troops remains...

Having seen that his conquests are for the time being safe, a great feast is held. King Turlough III O'Brien dies, accidentally drowning himself in a cask of whiskey. His son, the whiskey distiller Conchobhar III O'Brien who just happened to find his father in one of his casks succeeds him. His Diplomatic rating would have spared us all the troubles in the first place, but his father hadn't thought of that. Or just plain didn't want to give up the throne.

Next on Ireland's Teardrop: Can Conchobhar unite Ireland? Can he even defend his lands against the red menace to the East?

[Uladh88]

rather short

[Arakhor]

I think the greatest hurdle for an Irish game is just pronouncing the names. I played Munster -> Ireland in Crusader Kings and nearly sprained my tongue trying to comprehend the names of my brood!

[loki100]

I think the greatest hurdle for an Irish game is just pronouncing the names. I played Munster -> Ireland in Crusader Kings and nearly sprained my tongue trying to comprehend the names of my brood!

you mean a language that can throw up words as beautiful (& non-phonetic) as: Beinn a'Bheithir is hard to pronounce?

Anyway good to see you have turned your back on infamy and being a bad boy ... never knew that if you were small the AI went 'oh isn't he cute' when you disgraced the neighbourhood as opposed to stomping all over you

[Qorten]

You manage to put some humor into what would normally be a rather dull update. An excellent and important quality! Drink on!...No, wait,...I mean, write on!

[sprites]

Do your book have instructions on how to start fights with the englishmen?

[blablablubbe]

It's with dirtpoor countries like thsi the de-centralization slider comes in handy, i usually move that slider in the hope of getting the +2 base tax event. And i if i don't... well there's always reloading.

[Sweboy]

This looks interesting. Count me in.

[safferli]

Ulahd88

Yes, sorry Not much happened, as I had to lay low. I do my updates in ~10 pictures. Sometimes, that's a lot that happens, sometimes it's just one battle! I'll try to keep my updates interesting, or do two days in a row if too much time passed in-game without anything happening.

Arakhor

Indeed! I've tried to read some Irish medieval history, and just the pronunciation guides are impossible for me to follow!

loki100

Yes, I also hadn't known of the "oh isn't he cute" factor (lovely wording of yours). I think a large part might have been that Ireland is on a far-away island, so not many countries are interested in it. England was my main fear, but they're probably too occupied on the continent.

Qorten

Thanks Yes, I try to spice things up with some humour, and I hope that people like my sense of humour. Hm, it seems no-one got the reference of that cask, I'll come back to that reference later then. Next king!

sprites

Hehe, I believe the book is 70% fighting the English, 29% fighting each other, and 1% fighting yourself. Also, it seemed no-one got this reference as well. It's Monty Python!

blablablubbe

I've read about this move recently on the main forums. But I think it's a bad idea. It's only a 33% chance to get the +2 base tax. And +2 tax isn't going to help a lot here. On the other hand, it's a wasted slider move towards Free Trade, which is where all the money will come from once the BB burns off. Personally, I think you're better off not moving to Decentralisation. You're wasting a slider move, plus it's an additional later slider move until you get to Centralisation. The FreeTrade move got us a 3-star advisor that sells for ~16-18 ducats. More than enough to compensate for the +2 base tax.

Also, we're expanding three provinces, so that +2 base tax isn't "worth" as much in research as if I had opted to stay a OPM.

Sweboy

Thanks, and nice to have you as well

[blsteen]

Well, well, burning the BB and watching for the Redcoats...

[Monzon]

So far so good.

Subscribed.

[Ashantai]

Nice start! I'll be watching.

[CivandEUIII]

I'll be following this, Can't wait to see how this turns out.

[safferli]

blsteen

Yes, not much you can do right now. Reckless expansion, then a long time of licking the BB wounds and hoping that England is occupied elsewhere.

Monzon

Thanks for the encouraging words, and nice to have as a reader as well!

Ashantai

Thanks! This update is still a bit slow, but in 1-2 updates it should speed up noticeably!

CivandEUIII

Hello and welcome to the AAR! Nice to have you. An interesting forum nick you have...

[safferli]

Chapter 4: Steadily, carefully, and slowly


Another more boring update, I'm afraid. We're still consolidating our country.

More unhappiness among the artisans allows us to move the country to a more free society, with the benefits for technological advancement in mind. We're missing our on a possibly -2 Inflation from a slider move towards Free Subjects, but we also gain a free slider move this way. It's a price I'm more than willing to pay.

Plus, we need our slider moves to move more towards Free Trade. With BB steadily declining, profitable trade is coming nearer and nearer. As soon as we start trading, we can support a larger army, and mercenaries. We only hope that England doesn't attack us before we reach that milestone!

Then this happens: we no longer enjoy the protection of England's sphere. On the one hand, this is a good sign: we're getting too powerful for England to maintain us in their sphere. On the other hand, this means that we're beginning to look like targets for attack, and not like targets for pity and protection... And we're still much too weak to take on England, even with allies.

Due to empty coffers and a dismal state of our nation, our advisor is doing 95% of our research for us. We finally reach Government tech 4, which allows us to build churches and pick our first National Idea.

What do we pick? Church Attendance Duty, of course. Why? Most will already know why, and those that do not will know in a few seconds!

We full-mint to gain enough money to build a church in Munster.

Oh, this is nice: We're no longer in the English sphere of influence, but they decide to guarantee our independence! That will hopefully keep them off our backs for a few more years. It's good to be small, and poor!

As soon as the church is finished, we scrape together the needed ducats to enact the Guilded Iconography decision. Ireland might be about as far away from the traditional iconography centres as you can get, but we're not going to pass on this opportunity! Most of our income still comes from selling off advisors, and the culture boost from Guilded Iconography will help us in this regard.

Now this was the reason we chose CAD as our first NI, as it's a prerequisite for Guilded Iconography. Ireland is so poor, you also need to build a church to even see the decision. Don't get scared if you don't see the decision, and check if you have a church in your country first!

A welcome change from the usual sour English diplomats arrives at the court. A Castillian, richly dressed in pompous fashion. He's asking for our help in their war against Morocco.

With the Castillian navy able to defend the high seas, we're pretty much safe from any attacks. We gladly accept the call to alliance and join the war on Castille's side. What do we get out of this trouble? First, a war, so war taxes and increased income. Second, our troops still are at 0% maintenance. This war is going to be a textbook case of the "Player's Guide to Alliance Warfare": We do nothing. Third, we gain valuable trust with the Castillians. We desperately need to keep this alliance at any cost. The more we grant them their wishes, the more willing the Castillians will be to fight the English with us. Fourth, a nice bonus: it seems we are now crusading! Extra cash without lifting a finger... it's like owning a bank! God for Conchobhar, Ireland, and St Patrick!

Our statesman advisor was fired after reaching the Government tech 4 milestone, and replace with a scientist. We're still too poor to support more then two 1-star advisors (one diplomat, and one for teching). With the extra money from the war taxes and crusading patriotic men and women of Ireland coming in, we soon reach Production tech 4, and can build Constables. This is an important step, as the improved taxation mechanisms will allow us to consolidate our finances and finally support more, and more competent, advisors!

After the months of minting to build constables everywhere, we switch our NI from Church Attendance Duty to Patron of the Arts. CAD has outlived its usefulness. We have Guilded Iconography, and Stability is cheap to regain. But PotA allows us to field more, and even better advisors. The selling of which is still a considerable chunk of our income.

Munster is finally getting into shape. Infrastructure and war taxes net quite a bit of income. Still a pittance compared to England's income, but certainly better than before. It might be time to see what England is doing, over the Irish Sea, and if the time is ripe to ambush them... Next time, that is!

[CivandEUIII]

interesting (a bit).
Especially England is acting rather oddly. The Irish must be scaring them!