It's been a while since my 16th century Ryukyu World Conquest So I've decided to fire up an AAR for once. I'll be playing the latest version of Meiou with all the hotfixes available at time of posting alongside the April 20th DW5.2 beta as the manliest of the Indian nations: Cochin
Goals are not set in stone yet. There will be no vast conquests, just the securing of India for the Hindus who are under threat from the mean old Muslims of the North. Westernisation is prohibited. The difficulty is set to Very hard, historical lucky nations and the spread of sea/land at 100 years.
Let's get right to it. Here is Cochin.
See it? Right there?
There we go; the Cornwall of India. Manliest country this side of the Bosphorus and outright badass of the Subcontinent. This fine nation will lead the people of India to greatness.
Meiou has a trait system for rulers, so even crappy rulers can have fantastic traits and that 9/8/8 can be a lazy hopeless arse. As it stands, my 8/7/6 ruler begins with a +50% tax bonus. Not that much help with my one province but it's certainly a boon.
The Hindus of the south are under looming threat of the merciless Muslim mass of Delhi to the north. I fire off an aliance offer to Vijayanagar up north for some protection. You would think that would be Cochin's prime concern as a poor Hindu power but...
It is time to unsheathe the sword of forgiveness and thrust the spears of mercy. Vijay and myself are caught at war with both Madurai and Bahmani with Mysore thrown in for good measure. Vijay can field a good 14k troops but so can Madurai, and Bahmani even more than that. Mysore is swiftly annexed while Vijay loses one province to Bahmani for peace. Now we focus on Madurai. With my free trade sliders and Merchant Adventures idea, I've sent my merchants off with what little gold I have to get some income to raise mercenary armies far above my support limit of one. It seems the cost for troops cannot become more inflated than 300% extra. That's handy. I leave the fighting to Vijay as Very Hard mode, coupled with Madurai having Military Drill means I have a 1.25 morale handicap against them on the field. With Vijay doing the heavy lifting though, things start to look good.
Between them Vijay and Bahmani sack Madurai for their treasury and peace out leaving me at war alone. Since I cannot raise anywhere near an army to hold my own against them, I'm a little concerned, however much to my surprise, Vijay is happy for a round 2.
This pattern goes on for years. Since I remain warleader and Vijay keeps rejoining and peacing out, I can keep Madurai at bay while (very) slowly taking land in my own name. In Meiou, almost all provinces have a level 2 fort at game start, so a 1k stack is highly unlikely to take a place any time soon. Vijay gets a conquest mission on my 2PM neighbour and calls me in. I take full advantage of being closer.
This means Vijay's mission is now to conquer me. They're a good mate though and cancel it within a few years. 7 inflation later I finally have Madurai firmly under heel.
Oh piss.
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