The Queen Mother's Diaries: A Ming AAR

1783-1806, Tianqi is often overlooked till he dies in mysterious circumstances

12 September 1783

[T - I mean I am the Emperor]

Yes but ... look I'm busy at the moment .. go Harry kill, kill, kill

[H – this is getting scary]



[H – rather fun though]

23 November 1783

[T - I want to be in charge]

Oh you are, just stop distracting me

kill kill, go on ...



[H – oh god help me, what has she been drinking?]

7 February 1784

Who? Oh they will never catch up with China



17 September 1784

[H – look calm down, there is nobody left for us to kill]





3 April 1785



Tianqi has stopped talking to me since I pointed where I'd like to bury him ... maybe I need a soothing cup of tea

[H – yep, you're scaring the devil out of me]

9 September 1785

[H – now lets finish off some more of the wars around here ... you need the peace and calm]


[1]

25 October 1785



Ah it is all so calm now Harry has run off to Prag. His final words were, 'she hates me but its a lot safer than hanging around here'

Hah, now China is all mine.

1 January 1786

Oh I do like a mass of soldiers parading around at the New Year party



8 September 1786

Tianqi was getting all sorts of independent ideas again. He went quiet when I offered to introduce him to his long lost cousins.



1 May 1788

Tianqi is maybe not quite the genius I expected. All he said when I suggested we absorbed the Manchus was 'Fu'


[2]

Now everyone is accusing me of being despotic



13 September 1788

Now Tianqi is complaining that my new Imperial peacock hutch is spoiling his views



16 May 1789

Finally Tianqi has accepted it is time to be more enlightened


[3]

1 September 1790



Its not true ... no not at all, and if it is true then the peacock started it ... yes

21 March 1798



Soon China will be covered by my peacock hutches

5 March 1806

Had a quiet day feeding the peacocks and trimming the peach trees.



Was very surprised to find Tianqi stuffed upside down in a grain barrel having been battered by a peach stone (which was still attached to a large branch)

[4]

[1] – about five posts back Korea started this war, I left them fully occupied till they would accept becoming a vassal as the peace terms
[2] – I hadn't realised what this implied as its set up for a Manchu take over of Ming. As a result I went back and did it again and modded the decision so I stayed Ming. I still ended losing the Celestial Empire (but keep the factions). Had I done this earlier (like 200 years ago) I could have emulated Knul's trick of going Republican and swapping Emperors about to ensure near complete control over the faction system.
[3] – I released a few single province minors as vassals to drive my infamy down before making this switch
[4] – yep next to nothing happened in those 10 years

Stuyvesant said:

Things are winding up nicely: Ming in utter dominance, the Queen Mother perhaps slowly mooring back on the sanity pier and Harry seems to have found a modus vivendi with Astarte. Oh, and you whipped the French some more, even though the war score math would suggest you ought to be the one handing over provinces or cash. Very nicely done, as we cruise into the final decades.

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Just one more game post, Shaowu proves rather durable and with the bureaucrats in power not much happens to be honest

Ashantai said:

I think that...being Emperor is the most dangerous job in the world! Well let's see how Shi Junior goes!

France gave you a 76 peace resolution...that's nuts! The AI never does that for me. It's always +10 from your score and that's it!

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Stuyvesant said:

Does seem like an extreme outlier (well, the past couple of peace resolutions in this game, not just this one instance). Perhaps Harry's persuasive powers are influencing the French response?

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I think off the last 3 wars with the French I've ended with about -18 warscore and took about 120 pts of provinces etc off them (and that was a bit lower than possible due to my infamy problems at one stage). I've never seen that before but then I've not seriously played EU since HTTTH came out so my last experience was with In Nomine. But then in each war, regardless of apparent success on the battlefield, France was in a complete mess.

1806-1822, Shaowu the survivor

25 December 1806

Shaowu is now the Emperor, unfortunately he has produced a Yongli, it maybe a good idea if he doesn't die too soon



31 March 1807

I think I will change my mind, like them all he is a complete barbarian when it comes to culture



2 October 1808



Yes, well if I had the option I would flee too

20 July 1809



Ummhh, ok, but don't forget about me

6 April 1815



Oh just maybe Shaowu isn't so bad after all ... I have decided not to invite him to view the peach trees on his next visit

7 September 1817



Oh, ever since Harold left it has all been so successful around here

20 October 1818



Indeed

[H – zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz]
[A – yes, have a sleep my dear, ignore the nasty woman]

4 May 1820



always an excellent idea

2 January 1821

Dear diary, trimmed the peacocks, checked on the peaches, brewed some tea ... this is just such a perfect diary entry



[H – err, no, I've got to try and sell the damn thing]

One last post to come, a state of the world at the end of the game report and some other comments, anyways:

And just to leave you with a taster for the QMs favourite party band:

[video=youtube;650rLkgqpfw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=650rLkgqpfw[/video]

especially written for her various holiday voyages

Comments and final position

Well this completes the History of Ming/Shi China in 70 short updates.

I started this for a couple of reasons. One, as with Knul and his earlier Yin, Yang and the ugly, I sort of wanted to answer for myself whether the frequent claims that DW had made Ming unplayable were true. I'd tried it a few times in EU2 when it was just an exercise in frustration as you could never escape the inbuilt weaknesses (ok and I'm a rubbish player). But if Paradox had managed to balance the potential strength with tools to inhibit the application of that strength then it sounded more interesting.

Related to this, I knew that 5.1 had nerfed Knul's main strategy of going Republic and then, with balanced sliders, you could pick your ruler and in reality the factions proved to be only a minor constraint. If I understand it properly, 5.2 will end the factions either in 1750 or if you fully westernised (I only went to 'eastern' as it really wasn't worth the pain for the final set of bonuses, as is perhaps clear I've been awash in cash since about 1650).

So I wanted to see what you could do with the constraint of the faction system. Equally I've not played EU3 since IN (I've started and played a number of 50-80 year games but not stuck with any) so this was a bit of relearning the mechanics. For which I am so grateful to Prawnstar, the amount I've learnt about manouvre, use of attrition etc from his AARs is immense.

In many ways the factions haven't been that big a constraint. Early on well scattered guarentees and warnings got me into a number of wars. By mid-game, a rather aggressive France was a regular source of wars and later my firm alliance with Sweden saw me brought into quite a few (and allowed me to do a lot of late game expansion in India). The problem was I almost never had a CB that really justified the gains I picked up, so my infamy went through the roof and equally had long periods at 0 (neither of course being optimal).

More generally, its been like playing a game with an unfair number of regencies and Personal Unions. I think on balance, Paradox have balanced Ming. It is very powerful, it is very hard to consistently apply that power. I'm sure someone more able than me would have made more of the very early wars (I often use those just to weaken an enemy and finish them off later), but on balance I got most of my goal (a Chinese Pacific). You also come to appreciate the historic constraint on Chinese expansion – put crudely why bother? To the west, deserts, mountains and steppes, to the South jungle and to the east, America. Its a long way to anything that might start to really contribute to your core holdings.

Anyways, final pictures:

East Asia



Apart from the French in E Siberia and the British in India, all that is of any value is mine (or one of my many vassals)

The Americas



Well I am the power in Mexico/Central America due to France's suicidal wars. As usual N America is a mess, Latin America is mostly Italian/Spanish

Statistics



Well I do have a lot of cash, but GB is not far behind (I guess as my trade income was rubbish). Bohemia pipped me for Presige.

Technology



Well apart from Trade (which didn't really matter as I had problems in placing merchants), I was in the 'pointless' techs for all the lines since about 1770.

Army



I'm just very glad I never had a second war with Bohemia. Even with my level 5 forts (and 1 unit forces waiting to scorch the earth) on our border that would have been scary. However, note the result of my artillery obsession (and having near limitless cash to buy it).

Navy



My protector in many of the wars with Europeans. Large enough to protect me from almost all attempts to land forces on my territory. In the end I think I would have even beaten GB at sea.

Some interesting diagrams.



My final budget etc



and the world



or the only bit that matters:



And that ends this. Thank you to everyone whos read it, commented and voted it for it in the ACAs (as well as made it Showcase of the Week). As ever such things are a huge motivation to stick with it (& to be honest, even the game play for this one needed some dedication to the task at stages).

Ashantai said:

Congratulations!

I have greatly enjoyed watching you play this, and the fun parts with the story make it great too! What happened to the QM in the end?

Do you have plans for another AAR?

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I'm glad you found it worked. I had a hard time at stages. Some updates fitted into the narrative device and all but wrote themselves. Others were a huge struggle and I started to wish I'd decided just to do a simple game play. In my mind, in the end she got what she'd really wanted at the start. A quiet life with her peaches and peacocks, no longer feeling she had to live up to (or down given who he is) her editor's demands.

As to more AARs. Yep. I've been playing a V2 game as an ultra-reactionary Spain (no political reforms but the sort of social ones that fitted with Vatican theology from the 1870s), it is, as you can imagine explosive. A CK one were I picked a start date and an empire on the point of monumental implosion. I still want to do an AAR written as a biography based on Rise of Prussia. I find James Keith (one of the best Prussian generals in the war) fascinating, a Jacobite who escaped after the failure of the 45, served the Russians, left for Prussia as they promised him promotion and more money and fought his last war on the same side as the butcher of Culloden. AGEOD's upcoming game on the Roman Civil Wars - Alea Jacta Est - has the most beautiful map and 'counters' I have ever since in a computer game. All good projects (I have a huge list of ideas).

But a return to Crusader Kings rather won out

... and many thanks for the Fan of the Week - very much appreciated

Malurous said:

Congrats on finishing! It was an entertaining ride. As receiving ACA votes in all categories probably showed you, this AAR has everything.

I like the artillery numbers, you had the widely spread staying power boost most can only dream of affording.

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I think getting votes in all 4 categories in the same round must be unique. My old CK AAR managed that, but spread over different rounds and the History Book vote was a bit of an in-joke by MorningSider.

It was amazing how good it was to have so many guns available. Also as I never fully westernised, they more than compensated for the slight lack of quality against Western units (though after I'd conquered so many French provinces, I was able to raise them in any case)

Stuyvesant said:

Very nicely done. You certainly turned Ming into a global powerhouse, Faction restrictions notwithstanding. I was hoping for one final, cataclysmic confrontation between Ming and Bohemia (and Harry and Astarte), but I guess that, chronologically speaking, Harry and Asty get their beef on when Harry ends up in Venezuela. Perhaps lack of success in flogging the Queen Mother's diaries forces him to relocate from Prag?

Anyway, thanks for the interesting game and entertaining AAR. And congratulations on finishing the whole thing. That final screenshot made me realize I've yet to finish a whole EU3 campaign...

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it was very much one of those games I wouldn't have finished (ie taken to 1821) but for the AAR. There was a degree of tension even to the end at another war with Bohemia, but at the worst I might have lost some of my Central Asian gains.

I somehow fear his attempt to shore up Hell's economy by entering book publishing may have not proved the money spinner Harry had originally hoped for.

Avindian said:

Superb AAR!

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More than happy to oblige.

Ashantai said:

I will say I agree with you that on some occasions the story part became a bit...repetitive. Those were the updates where I could tell you were struggling to find something new to say. Most of the time you had no problems though.

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Aye, its a problem when you set on a very definite structure (dates, short entries etc) and then realise you've run through the main lines rather early on. Often all I had to do was to decide which of them was claiming credit for one of the events and then it was a case of allocating everything else around that central point.

But I do find the issue of finding and keeping a narrative voice in AARs both fascinating and difficult. Its definitely the hardest part of anything other than the simplest of gameplay reporting - in that sense my current Pride of Nations AAR is easy to write. Just try to explain what is going on in the game, no need to make it make sense in any other terms. But in turn its why I so enjoy reading wonderfully rendered History Book and Narrative AARs just to see how others solve the problem.

Arilou said:

That only leaves HOI3 no?

Harry as Germany, Astarte as USSR?

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Stuyvesant said:

That could work, as Harry has yet to reclaim (Rurikovich) Russia from Astarte, but I fear that the lack of character interaction (there's only so many cabinet members you can feed to the alligator/bunny/kitten) and interesting plagues (tac bombing just ain't the same) would make it hard to personalize Harry and Astarte's grudge match.

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Arilou said:

While there is a dearth of plagues, there is always (atomic) hellfire

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Malurous said:

It's plagues and the like you're after? Something tells me Harry & Co. should enter the happy but disastrous world of MEIOU.

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well plagues are indeed a key part of their disputes, fall out with each other so one or the other (or both) then takes revenge on a segment of humanity kept them going for 400 years of Rurikovich Russia. I'm not sure how I'll use them again. In one sense (& this links back to my comments above) they provide me with a superb 'narrative voice' (and alternative story line to thread around the gameplay), but I think they are better in the more personalised games. I was trying to slot them into Mount & Blade but I am utterly inept at those games where you have to control your character directly (though I did finally work out how to stop the horse besides just riding straight into a wall/tree).

On the other I personally fear there has been a sort of diminishing returns across their 3 incarnations (I won't count the occassional abusive letter they exchanged in the war of 1812). So I'll let them rest a while till a tale occurs to me where they can come back. One advantage of them being immortal is that I have no problem with spectacularly muddied timelines.