III. The Eagle from the North
Now that the war with Spain is over, I have to start fortyfing all those brand new provinces, which have around 8% of revolt risk, enough to trigger a disaster if I don't act quickly. So forts start sprouting all across Peru. I'm still thinking who could be an easy target to continue my expansion when this happens:
That's not very nice from the Mexicans
Aha! An insult! They just gave me a free casus belli and a year to prepare my army. Because the Mexicans have a formidable army: 121,000 men, while I barely have around 35,000. However, we have a year after all to correct this and get ready to face them. I start recruiting lots of troops. The Mexicans keep provoking me with another insult and a trade embargo. It seems as they are screaming "Declare war on me! Declare war on me!". I sign an alliance with the Peruvians. Mexico is allied with Argentina and I need support south. On december, 1827, our great leader Simón Bolívar dies and a new consul is elected:
He has good military skills. That will be useful against the Mexicans. Meanwhile, I have some rebel trouble near the border with Argentina, but my two armies there are able to control it. As I check my ledgers, I stumble across something interesting and worrying: everyone got's a casus belli against me. Quickly, I go to my overview and discover the reason:
The acquisition of all those Spanish provinces didn't come without a cost and here are the results: I'm way past my BB limit and it isn't lowering fast enough. I'll have to do something quickly about it and postpone my war with Mexico... wait, what?
It seems the Mexicans don't like the idea of being at peace for some more years and they take the matter into their hands. Portugal, who was guaranteeing me, joins my side, while Argentina sides with Mexico. The Brits cower and don't support, same thing for Peru.
On paper, we have a largest army than theirs, but the bulk of the Portugal forces is stuck in Brazil and I don't think they will bring all of it, while I have my army divided between the Northern Front in Panamá/Costa Rica and the Southern Front, in the border with Argentina.
That image reflects what I intend to do: blitzkrieg across Mexico's southern provinces before they can bring enough reinforcements to contain and try to get a couple of provinces. Chorotega easily falls to the assault of my troops and I move forward to Nicaragua. In the mean, I sign an alliance with the Netherlands. I leave Mosquito alone, English patriots will keep the Mexican army busy. From Nicaragua, I divide my army betwen Pipil and Honduras. My two cavalry armies are defeated in Honduras:
It's in Pipil where all my armies regroup and make a stand agains the upcoming Mexican army:
Two good news: I win at Pipil and after a quick attack against Argentina's border provinces, I manage to get a white peace with them, thus, around 20,000 troops will be shipped to California, which should be undefended.
However, as I advance to Guatemala, my two cavalry armies are wipped out and thousands and thousands of Mexican troops keep coming. If I don't do something quickly, all of my Central American armies will be long gone before I can even blink. How I would wish the US declared war on the Mexicans. But that won't happen, so I take the easy way out:
For 25 ducats, I prevented a bigger disaster. This war taught one thing: I'm not ready to face Mexico. I must get a bigger army and take the other South American nations before I go back against Mexico. I sign a formal alliance with Portugal, after the war we fought together. Now it's time to do something about my BB. I dismiss my three current advisors, and hire three very good diplomats,
á la PrawnStar:
Thanks to my best advisor, I get a superb event, exactly what I need right now:
Now I'm below the BB limit. Elections come and it's time to pick a new ruler. I choose the diplomat one of course but...
It could had been worse, at least, with all and his terrible stats, he has a better diplomat attribute than my previous ruler and I my BB limit is now in 20. But still, I have to bring it down before I got to war against someone else. My army keeps growing until I get to the limit: 104,000 troops. But still, Mexico has an army of 149,000 troops and I don't think the Portuguese and Dutch could be of great help. At least I have been guaranteed by Great Britain, so I'll wait until Mexico decides to attack again. Meanwhile, I must look for a new target.
Next chapter: IV. Arabian Wars
Until what year are you planning to play?
