Genoa - a Trade Centers Only scenario

O'Connor said:

Inspired by a Mecklenburg AAR I saw in the LibrAARy, I took on
The plan: When the Andalucian COT comes...
As soon as the Mameluks gain land access to their COT in Isfahan...
(I also consider taking the Nile province to get a red sea port - it could net me the Oman TPs, Isfahan, maps to Zanzibar)
As soon as I get a decent fleet/sufficient troops - Novgorod is now danish (but the danes are strong)...
As soon as the Poles annex Couland (but the poles are also strong)...
If Venice falls...
My nav/land slider is on all nav, so I keep hoping for explorers!
New Genoa(Iroquese)...
Benin? Tenochtitlan?
Martin

Click to expand...

So - did the plan become reality?

Not quite - I had to improvise;-)
The first thing that changed was that France started DOW-ing with regular intervals. This was in general easy to handle. The french had lots of revolts due to some long wars, so I just attacked from Flandres into Artois or a similar province controlled by rebels, grabbed the town and got a white peace. Every time

Then my allies England dragged me into a war with Sweden. I positioned a fleet of galleys in the Sund, and waited. Suddenly Novgorod reappeared from Danish rule, and was promptly conquered by the technologically backward Russians. So I used the state of war with Sweden to invade Moscowy through swedish Livonia. The first summer I grabbed Novgorod and besieged Muscowy, but after taking on some huge armies I had to give up the siege and wait for reenforcements. (a funny detail - Lithuania, allies of Sweden but not at war with me, kept the road through Pskov open for me by defeating a huge Russian army there...) In the end I had Novgorod. It took five revolts before I finally realised I still had tolerance for orthodox at zero - after I adjusted it things went better. But Novgorod was landlocked, and still is. One revolt finally crushed my army, so I had to by friendship and military access from the Danes to recover it.

Next - I finally got an explorer! He discovered Fernando Po, Curacao, Bermuda, Bahamas, Manhattan, Isle Royale, the Magellanes, and using these bases also discovered the Karroo province in South Africa. Ports were established everywhere.

Then Andalusia apperered, and greedy me grabbed it. (Here I have to admit to cheating again - I seriously underestimated the number of spanish cavalerists the first time - a real nuisance!) With Andalucia I also got a Shipyard, so my previous slow and cumbersome fleet construction program could be significantly increased.

In the mean time the Canaries grew to city status, so I had to start relaxing my COT-only policy to a COT+colonial cities only - I still hoped for some new COTs to appear.

The next stunt I really liked. I built up a huge force in Alexandria, combined with a fleet in the Mascareignes (under Andrea Doria!). I declared war on Egypt, swiftly occupied or covered all provinces west of Sinai, and sent my fleet to the Nile province. Here I picked up a huge army, shipped it to Ishfahan, where it was almost annihilated by an egyptian counterattack (so that's where the Mameluk tropps were hiding!). But they stood firm, and received massive reenforcements, and in the end I got Ishfahan and military access. This opened up for the next campaign, made possible by a new explorer.

This new explorer had discovered the sea route to India, Zanzibar, Malacca, Flores, and the sea route to, but not the COTs in China. He also realised that Bengal currently held both Ganges and Kutch! This was soon to change, as I took both in a lightning campaign.

As soon as the situation calmed down, and diplomatic relations allowed it, I also crushed Omans position as a leading trade nation. Their fleets were smashed, all their trading posts burnt and replazed by Genoese TPs, and Zanzibar was soon mine.

During one of these wars, the Lenape gave me an excuse to attack them (harassing some merchants) so Manhattan also fell. Here I had to ship troops from Tago and Andalucia, but luckily I had a port in the province next to Manhattan.

Again diplomatic relations forced me to stay calm. I used the time (and a third explorer) to establish TPs and colonies in all the Australian provinces, several in south America, all the west coast of North America (except Sacramento), all the Indonesian islands, all of India, the rest of South Africa. I discovered The trade centers of Cuzco, Nippon, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and at several instances I had at least 5 traders in every COT in the world! Trade tech reached 9, infrastructure 5, increased sight range at sea gave knowlegde of all coasts, and my armies still have a slight edge over all others.

My tolerance is equal for all religions, and I almost have them all within my realm -
Flandres is Kalvinist, Mecklenburg protestant, Novgorod orthodox, several muslim and catholic COTs - the onyl thing uniting them is the trade! I have not chosen to go protestant, but I might still.

And despite a trade tech of 9 - the next COT to be gererated was in english Sacramento! Grrr. Perhaps the game thought my 10 COTs (Genoa, Tago, Flandern, Mecklenburg, Novgorod, Alexandria, Ishfahan, Zanzibar, Ganges, Kutch) should do the trick...

And now.... Well - I just wait for the badboy rating to sink to a level were I can risk grabbing those two chinese COTs - then perhaps Sacramento, and Ivoria, then I get a problem. How should I go on? Of course the gold of the Aztecs and Incas is tempting, but I want London, Paris, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Venice, Courland. My number of traders is at the limit of 12 pr year, so there is no point in trying to start trying to get monopolies everywhere. Of course I could use some trade embargoes...

So I guess it's back to conquering all the world... If I bother...