CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
By the start of 1615 the armies are ready again…
War with Bohemia - January 1615
Peace with Bohemia - March 1615
They lasted just over 2 months before folding without any major battles! Always check the diplomatic situation carefully. DOWing Wu will mean war with their allies, Hindustan, Manchu and Ming. To optimise the gains from that war I need to DOW all four countries together. Checking that situation should only bring in OPM Punjab and two province Korea, a Manchu vassal.So Holy War Wu to annex, Hindustan for my core reducing them to three provinces and setting up the annex, Manchu and Ming to be Holy Warred to just take more land. I’m still building up my navy for Japan. The plan with Brunei is to ignore the islands and just take mainland provinces until a shrinking economy impacts on their fleet.
The four DOWs go in at the start of May and I get a Boundary dispute on Timurid Ferghana.
Hindustan hands over my core in mid-June. Wu is annexed in October.
War in the Far East remains very straightforward (on land) so in April 1616 I can enforce a 100 point peace deal on Ming.
Shaanxi was a COT so 56 war score although I disbanded it straight away.
Peace with Manchu - October 1616
With BB up to 16.78 / 24.00 falling at 2.20 a year I’ve time to burn off some war exhaustion - currently 2.22.
April 1617 and Richard Anson starts his 11th term in charge!
Boundary dispute on Milanese Serbia - January 1618
Boundary dispute with Bohemia - May 1618
By September 1619 I’m geared up for my next set of wars; Kongo, Brunei and Mali.
Kongo first, the idea is simply to take their sole coastal province at 0.8BB. While it’s not ideal from a using the Holy War CB perspective it will give me a perfect place to build a new Embassy when Timbuktu cores next summer and prevent anyone else in Europe getting ideas.
Brunei is straightforward, grab some more land, ideally pushing towards Malacca as that’s probably their key province. Notice they’ve grabbed more of northern China.
Mali is just to get them into a separate war to Brunei.
At full maintenance I have an annual surplus of less than 20 ducats from a census tax of over 2000.
Mali offers an acceptable peace in March 1620.
The war against Kongo and latecomer ally Mutapa ends in July. Loango becomes English the same month Timbuktu cores and I pick up just over 1600 ducats as well.
Peace with Brunei - July 1620
Post War North East Asia
BB is 19.17 / 24.00 falling at 2.40 a year. With Ming pretty much a minor and steady gains easy against Brunei Japan has crept up the agenda for the next decade.
April 1621 and that man Anson just keeps on going!
Boundary dispute with Mali - June 1621
November 1622 - Trade 27
Two things to note here. Firstly with Trade 27 I can build the Level 6 Trade building - which gives +1% Trade Efficiency. Spamming these buildings drives trade income through the roof. You can also see the benefits of Post Offices (Level 5 trade building) raising trade incomes right across the empire. This province is Pegu in South East Asia and it’s affected by benefits from buildings in the British Isles.
Nomad rebels in Northern Ming - Summer 1624
I’m trying to push my colonists at building up in Brazil but these provinces are just too good a target to miss. This particular rebellion has turned 3BB of formerly Ming land into 0BB for three provinces. Nothing else is really happening although I’ve reached Gov’t 27 and started building a Glorious Monument in Northumberland (Unique building gives +1% cultural tradition).
By the start of 1625 B is 9.68 / 24.00 falling at 1.90 a year. My recent high BB has seen my number of Cardinals drop from a high of nine to only three now.
I’ve 25 years of Holy War left. Here’s view of all the provinces where Holy War is the most efficient CB:
‘Japan’ 39 provinces 39BB
Brunei 25 provinces (1 core) 24 BB
Ming 10 provinces (1 core and 6 others open to nomad invasion) 9BB
Manchu 9 provinces 9BB
Hindustan 3 provinces 3BB
Mali 3 provinces (1 core) 2BB
Delhi 1 province 2BB
Livonian Order 1 province 2BB
Punjab 1 province 2BB
Riga 1 province 2BB
Best estimate is that would take 94BB using Holy War and I’ll probably only have about 60BB to play with.
Thoughts?