• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Please note the next update isn't very good, I've really struggled with both the game and the writing.
Hey, don't lie to us like this!
Good progress I say. And since 130 years are a whole lot of time, 260-300 provinces in Asia should be yours by the time Holy War expires.
But regarding that..would it be cheesy to just declare war on everyone around 1645-1650, even if the enemies are no high priority targets, and drag the war out and take the land as infamy drops?
 
You've managed to run down your BB. You've got space to do something to Aragon or start on Sicily, if you can find CB for either. Corsica and Sardinia are going to be a pain to take. Oman should fallo nce you've reduced them to two provinces, colonised Majerteen and the coastal sea provinces have been revealed so you can sail to Zanzibar. Moving on you'll be able to annex Mutapa and its gold. How are the conversions going?

I'd hope that Milan and Bohemia go to war, too. Probably, will not happen unless as Papal Controller sometime you excommunicate one or both.
 
Very interesting reading, much more than what I have to read at work... but it doesn't help, does it?
Completely different than your previous French fail..attempt (although as being French I prefered the French AAR than the English one, but that's another story). I don't get all the CB existing in DW, but in your previous one the plane was something like drive the Ottomans out of Turkey and let them focus on Europe to afterwards take their "non right religion but yours provinces" for less BB, what will be the tactic here ?
In some of my games reformation led to very interesting opportuny in HRE and Scandinavia. Once it was possible to take for free three quarters of Scandinavia for free as a protestant Sweden in big religious turmoil only have its capital protestant and all the rest still catholi. Is it still working the same way in DW with Unam Sanctum NI?
 
I don't get all the CB existing in DW, but in your previous one the plane was something like drive the Ottomans out of Turkey and let them focus on Europe to afterwards take their "non right religion but yours provinces" for less BB, what will be the tactic here ?
The usual approach is to bash Heathens until 1650 while also crippling other colonizers (as he's done). (Holy War - 1BB/province)
After that The Cleansing of Heresy (2BB/province, beware of 8BB for annexation of OPMs though) or Imperialism CB (2BB/province) are used until Revolution and Counter Revolution (1BB/province) is available (against some countries).

As an alternative to colonizer-bashing early-game it might also be an interesting plan to vassalize Portugal and have them do some work, then diploannex.
 
Here's hoping that you discover something interesting in the adjacent TI areas. Because as it stands the relatively low amount of Holy War opportunities seems a bit worrying. Europe and the Horde region are looking smooth though.

As far as the house goes, I know that kind quite well as I grew up in one (well, our family moved into such a house when I was ten). It wasn't fun in the beginning, especially since we did pretty much all of the work ourselves, but the end result is something that there's no way we could have afforded otherwise. It's good that such opportunities exist, that way you don't necessarily have to be filthy rich in order to have a nice house.

As an alternative to colonizer-bashing early-game it might also be an interesting plan to vassalize Portugal and have them do some work, then diploannex.

It would still be more BB costly than doing the work yourself however. ;)
 
But a lot cheaper moneywise! Which probably is an issue with all the non-cores and colonies.

It won't be so much of an issue forever, however, whereas infamy never stops being an issue with PrawnStar's rules. He can simply colonize later, when he can afford it better.
 
It won't be so much of an issue forever, however, whereas infamy never stops being an issue with PrawnStar's rules. He can simply colonize later, when he can afford it better.
Indeed he can. That was merely an idea, a different approach.
If the colonizers are being crippled, as Prawn did, it won't be much of an issue anyway.
 


FEEDBACK


loki100 - Checking the loading screen Mali has consolidated all of West Africa, it'll be a long haul to take them out.

sprites - Not sure what the Ottomans are up to - the Ottoman AI has been a bit whack all game.

homy_dog34 - Maybe...

Rendap - I won't be sailing around Africa, I'm going to try and find the Cape overland :) There's a screenshot that shows why sailing to India might not be a good idea... Running out of Holy War targets is a possibilty although I should get access to Mali soon.

Avindian - Thanks.

morningSIDEr - I get a Boundary Dispute on TI next, there's no hiding LOL

PiriReis - That won't be too long...

dragonizer - Controlling war exhaustion is all about micromanagement; no easy way around that until Land 53.

Arakhor - I am above spelling (especially when I have a typo ;) )

Angry_Norway - Cheers.

blsteen - Tests/previous games have shown that if you constrain the big central / eastern European powers inside Europe they will consolidate stuff such as HRE OPMs that might otherwise survive.

Athalcor - Milan in Greece I understand but the Finnish provinces are :wacko:

no7892142 - I won't get that many provinces with Holy War. I'll probably DOW a lot of Holy War targets in 1648/49 but only stuff I would be DOWing in the next couple of year any way.

Legolas - :)

Selenimar - I know what you mean!

Chief Ragusa - Oman still has naval supremacy in the Indian Ocean (at least against me), Hindustan has a lot of big ships. Mutapa will probably survive past 1650 as Colonial Conquest CB doesn't run out unlike Holy War. I don't plan on taking out any of the pagan primitives before then.

Floodturka - Hindustan has formed and has a big navy, I'm going overland.

El Awrence - I don't think I've lost any land yet don't expect I will lose any.

Zozo - Thanks, good to see you're enjoying my stuff. The idea was originally to let the Ottomans conquer all the minors in the Balkans but DW makes life very difficult for the Ottomans with endless Timurid and Horde invasions. There were some cheap provinces so I took them then Milan and Sicily went for the rest and the Ottomans are just not strong enough to hold back so many enemies. Unam Sanctum works much the same way as in IN but I didn't take it because it was a complete failure in my test game! There are opportunities but those provinces can still be picked up cheaply in the last decades of the game. no7892142 has the overall approach right - it's about using the cheapest CB you can find.

no7892142 - That's about right althought I disagree on allowing Portugal to colonise. Not only will it cost more BB to diploannex them there will be a lot of exploration and mapspread so I'll have a pretty frantic colonisation frenzy as discovery spreads. Other countries will also try colonising and a decade of spamming colonies all around the Atlantic will be a pain as I'll be pushing through the nomads at the same time. It might save money but that's not the limiting factor, BB is.

Malurous - I'm looking for more Holy War targets - my biggest concern is with Hindustan forming India is going to be a real slog. Agree with you on Portugal.

Been there on the rundown house thing myself - both as a kid when my parents did it and with this house - there was more than just gravel to buy :) Actually that house has sold in under two weeks - project houses are selling fast around here, the nice expensive ones sticking. Nevermind, the plan was always to think about a move next year - unless EU4 comes out and I don't have the time :blush:


 


CHAPTER TWENTY


Given the imminent war with the Timurids, Aragon’s lack of distraction and the clock ticking on Bohemia’s war with the Horde I decide on peace with the Ottomans.

2cdx15i.jpg


Days later the Timurids reappear 110,000 strong but woefully lagging in tech and already facing several enemies. As December ends Aragon attacks.

wsqtqr.jpg


There’s nothing I want from this war so I’ll try racing for Barcelona and see if that’s enough to end things. Mali declares war in January, hopefully another phoney war. Bohemia’s war with the Horde will end early summer once Kholm defects to me. I’m concerned about being dog piled so I force the Timurids to concede defeat. I’ve three 16,000 strong stacks in Eastern Europe, one in the Caucasus, one invading Croatia and one fighting Russian rebels while my three Western European armies are fighting Aragon. I’m wide open to a Bohemian attack.

Storming Barcelona works (along with trashing Croatia) and in April Aragon makes peace handing over a few ducats and cores. September 1523 eventually the last Omani fortress falls.

1251h1d.jpg


All four Muslim minors in shot are two provinces; with Holy War a 2BB annexation - the same price as an OPM. So don’t spend BB for the second from last province by taking it in the peace deal before annexation - get it for free as part of annexation. Mali accepts white peace days later so I‘m just at war with the Horde while Bohemia is fighting two coalitions of Imperial minors…

As I wait for my war exhaustion to burn away the Counter-Reformation fires.

ibl6p5.jpg


Taking it is a no-brainer +2.5% conversion chance is sweet.

December 1523 I DOW Bohemia to take my core Transylvania. They have several minor allies in the empire.

21cy0kp.jpg


Spring 1524 and I get a boundary dispute on Persia…

2ihnknn.jpg


But how exactly do I dispute the Boundary with people I don’t know?

Kiev and the biggest battle I fought so far - June 1524

2wqeb0x.jpg


I gain a core on Najd’s island of Bahrain soon after - alas screenshot failure was operator error. Opens up the useful prospect of taking Najd’s last two provinces for one BB.

Of the two 21,000 strong Bohemian stacks defeated at Kiev, one was overran straightaway while second fought again - with reinforcement from a third stack.

2mgqgwj.jpg


Yes that’s a fourth 21,000 stack liberating Kiev from my garrison! Concentration of force is key, try and smash individual stacks with overwhelming numbers and the best General you can find.

I keep my Diplo 9 Prince at the next election at the start of January 1525. The war with the Bohemians is difficult, march and countermarch on the Eastern front while I try to engineer advantageous battles. By late September I’ve enough war score to stab hit at +37 but they still have ~160,000 troops and 100% war capacity. I stab hit again at the start of November. Given the opportunity I will stab hit them all the way down to -3 even though this has started at +3.

As 1526 starts I finally discover Persia. Bohemia offer white peace which I reject and I stab hit them down to -1 after I hit them in December as well. By early May war score is +49 although Bohemia will only accept a +15 peace deal. Transylvania is 4 war score but frankly having hit them this hard I’d like a lot more. BB is down to 2.81 / 24.00 so I need to do some clever thinking, good job I have a cup of tea.

Two province Iraq is vulnerable to a ‘Holy War’ CB and my local stack isn’t busy. However the real gem is my core in Switzerland, the Swiss are at war with Imperial Bohemia and losing. Opportunity knocks…

I’m at war with:

  1. The Golden Horde
  2. Kazan
  3. Iraq and Khorasan
  4. Bohemia, Mazovia, Prussia, France, Brandenburg, Meissen, Pommerania, Aquiliea, Ansbach, Augsburg and Salzburg
  5. Switzerland, Burgundy, Novgorod, Hansa, Bremen, Brunswick, Cologne, Lorraine, Mecklenburg, The Palatinate and Trier

Calls for a map in Diplomatic mode doesn’t it.

357hxqc.jpg


Oops.

Iraq is annexed at the start of August to end at least of the wars. By October I can stab hit Bohemia again at 24 war score peace deal when I’m at +62. Still haven’t really hurt Bohemia even with that war score. The endless attacks and increasing rebellions do cost me; in the autumn a rebel uprising destroys a 900+ settlement in Kazan. It only took 33 days to fall far faster than my remaining rebel control units can respond to. I lost a 200+ settlement in Astrakhan in a similar manner. I force Burgundy, Lorraine, Trier, the Palatinate and Novgorod from the Swiss war towards the end of the year. I’m going to have to settle for a substandard peace against Bohemia. Outnumbered in the East I’m losing the siege race so war score is likely to start declining.

Peace with Bohemia - January

2dl2pt5.jpg


Far from perfect and 4BB for Kiev hurts but I’m running low on BB and Holy War targets are drying up. At least I pushed them to 12+ war exhaustion and -2 stab.

War with Najd - 1527

t69yrn.jpg


All their allies give this a miss so hopefully a quick march, assault, peace deal affair. I want to relocate Najd to Bahrain as an OPM - on which I have a core! The plan comes together in around six weeks.

Sundgau falls in April and I’m able to make peace for my core - even if I can’t screenshot it properly!

2cwopt.jpg


Here’s something I haven’t shown in a while - the wars against the Nomads.

3d74n.jpg


Two provinces very close to completing and four more that need to be started. After that I’ve better uses for the colonists for the next few decades. Nogai is peaced out soon after this screenshot was taken.

Anatolia and the Budget

2ni2tkm.jpg


That’s a mess isn’t it.

July 1527 and BB is 7.25 / 24.00 falling at 2.2 a year.


 
Better use for colonists? Timmies perhaps? Connect your African holdings with Asia Minor and push east.

The Baltics look messy, hopefully Bohemia will clean them up for you.
 
Better use for colonists? Timmies perhaps? Connect your African holdings with Asia Minor and push east.

The Baltics look messy, hopefully Bohemia will clean them up for you.

The colonists will be needed for the Timmies - I don't think that they reach that far towards India but I would definitely like them to take Anatolia. Afer that I just need to seize the provinces before Milan expands out of that foothold opposite Constantinople. I've several genuine colonisation targts open in Africa but they can wait.
 


FEEDBACK

Been there on the rundown house thing myself - both as a kid when my parents did it and with this house - there was more than just gravel to buy :) Actually that house has sold in under two weeks - project houses are selling fast around here, the nice expensive ones sticking. Nevermind, the plan was always to think about a move next year - unless EU4 comes out and I don't have the time :blush:



Is EU4 actually announced? I hadn't noticed anything but then I am not that quick to spot their announcements. I don't think they would have it sooner that end 2014, let alone 2013, if they haven't even said they are working on it yet.
 
Sadly no - I'm just hoping.
 
Nice work on the Golden Horde. I'm guessing you want a line from Astrakhan straight up and consider the Horde a minor problem after that.

Can't wait to see your war with the Timurids. What are your objectives? Settle east to India as quick as you can or seal off advances by other Western powers first? Or both, if you have enough colonists?