Thanks, after fighting all those Catholic Frenchmen and Spaniards, I decided to occupy some "safe" territory...canonized said:
What good has come from that, you will see in future updates!
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What good has come from that, you will see in future updates!
All I can say is DEUS VULT!!! Congrats on taking Jerusalem! Maybe the next step is to get all the patriach cities back in papal care, eh?
Chapter 17: Castille, for Sake of Variety
After the successful reconquista of Jerusalem, the pope decided to retreat to the countryside for a while. But, France and Castille seem to holding a grudge...
Meanwhile, the newly acquired Muslim provinces lead to some religious turmoil. The pope issued an edict proclaiming tolerance. We don't want to convert (yet), so the missionary cost increase is no problem for us. Less stability costs are always welcome, though!
More roads are constructed in the Papal Empire. This will lead to higher tax income -- we don't need more manpower, and the manpower increase in only temporary, taxes are forever! Note that we are exploring as many provinces of the Incas as we can.
We are also colonising towards those Incans, to make it easier for our troops to eventually land there. What good (or, more precisely, bad) did come of that, a future update will show!
The edict of tolerance was flatly ignored... The pope furiously signed a second edict, which increased the overall stability of the land. This allowed us to move the slider to full naval.
A few thoughts on the sliders for this game.
Overall, slider settings applying to money are unimportant if you go for empire-building and colonising. You'll be swimming in money anyway. The effects of morale are negligible as well, as technology has a far higher impact. Also weigh the drawbacks of a lost stability point when choosing to move a slider. That can be pretty expensive!
Europe in 1546 had seem some relative time of papal inactivity, our reputation had fallen to 29. Time for some more action! We declare war on Castille, just because we don't want to attack France again. Of course, France will honour their alliance with Castille, so we'll fight both. Routine, by now.
Our faithful allies, the Venetians jump to help and the Papal Venetian Guard marches into battle.
First battles are fought as our troops spread out to occupy French and Castillian territory. France may be broken economically, but they still produce outstanding leaders and generals! de Vigny is a shock 6 commander. Luckily for us, Cremona is an equally competent Papal general.
Again we are able to annihilate entire armies due to numerical advantage.
Then, the Castillian king, Alfonso XIII, takes personal command of his armies. Lucky kings... the French and Castillians must have some special breeding program to ensure their steady supply of super-talented Uber-monarchs and generals!
Andalucia, our richest Spanish province is under attack! Can the papal troops defeat Castille? Will they be able to hold on to their previous claims and gather more of the spoils of war? Find out tomorrow, in our next update!
After the successful reconquista of Jerusalem, the pope decided to retreat to the countryside for a while. But, France and Castille seem to holding a grudge...
Meanwhile, the newly acquired Muslim provinces lead to some religious turmoil. The pope issued an edict proclaiming tolerance. We don't want to convert (yet), so the missionary cost increase is no problem for us. Less stability costs are always welcome, though!
More roads are constructed in the Papal Empire. This will lead to higher tax income -- we don't need more manpower, and the manpower increase in only temporary, taxes are forever! Note that we are exploring as many provinces of the Incas as we can.
We are also colonising towards those Incans, to make it easier for our troops to eventually land there. What good (or, more precisely, bad) did come of that, a future update will show!
The edict of tolerance was flatly ignored... The pope furiously signed a second edict, which increased the overall stability of the land. This allowed us to move the slider to full naval.
A few thoughts on the sliders for this game.
- Aristocracy vs Plutocracy is maxed out. This happened via a few events and I intend to keep it that way. Usually I go to plutocracy for the added production efficiency, but that won't be possible here.
- Centralisation vs Decentralisation is at near-max decentralisation. Higher centralisation is better for the various bonuses, but I can't afford to move the sliders in that direction. They keep getting put back towards decentralisation.
- Narrowmindedness vs Innovative: Max narrowmindedness for more colonists and missionaries. This one is a no-brainer.
- Mercantilism vs Free Trade: This is somewhat to the right, to gain some spies. At this level, I gain 0.6 spies/year. Which is not much, but it helps.
- Offensive vs Defensive: I am undecided here. I like the defensive Siege bonus. This makes sieging easier and faster. But an added shock value at offensive is also nice. So this will stay middly for now, until I can make up my mind!
- Land vs Naval: Full naval for extra overseas income and colonists. This one is easy as well. As long as you are not playing Russia or some other land-locked country with no colonies, naval is the way to go.
- Quality vs Quantity: I usually go quality for the extra fire skill and morale. It's not as important yet, as the fire phase is still unimportant. I'll move it more towards quality come time.
- Serfdom vs Free Subjects: free subjects give you spy defense and extra morale. It increases the stability costs (which hurts), but full narrowmindedness lessens that impact.
Overall, slider settings applying to money are unimportant if you go for empire-building and colonising. You'll be swimming in money anyway. The effects of morale are negligible as well, as technology has a far higher impact. Also weigh the drawbacks of a lost stability point when choosing to move a slider. That can be pretty expensive!
Europe in 1546 had seem some relative time of papal inactivity, our reputation had fallen to 29. Time for some more action! We declare war on Castille, just because we don't want to attack France again. Of course, France will honour their alliance with Castille, so we'll fight both. Routine, by now.
Our faithful allies, the Venetians jump to help and the Papal Venetian Guard marches into battle.
First battles are fought as our troops spread out to occupy French and Castillian territory. France may be broken economically, but they still produce outstanding leaders and generals! de Vigny is a shock 6 commander. Luckily for us, Cremona is an equally competent Papal general.
Again we are able to annihilate entire armies due to numerical advantage.
Then, the Castillian king, Alfonso XIII, takes personal command of his armies. Lucky kings... the French and Castillians must have some special breeding program to ensure their steady supply of super-talented Uber-monarchs and generals!
Andalucia, our richest Spanish province is under attack! Can the papal troops defeat Castille? Will they be able to hold on to their previous claims and gather more of the spoils of war? Find out tomorrow, in our next update!
Unification of Italy? That won't happen, as the Papal States don't have the correct culture for that. I'd have turned down that event in any case, as I play the Papal States. None of this anachronistic Italy stuff...BBBD316 said:
Unification of the land borders is nearly there, I only need to take Nice from France.
Chapter 18: No Time to Lose? No Time Toulouse! -- Counter-Crusades
During the war, I realised the following: success rates for claiming a province are much higher if you are at war with the owner of the province! Success rates of 70+% are very possible then.
We use this new-found confidence to lay claims on Toulouse.
And we succeed! Easy as stealing a biscuit from a child... On we go to Armagnac. Ok, we succeed, but are discovered. This gives us a prestige hit (bad, but bearable) and an additional badboy point. Drat.
At least we got the cores. Expeditionary forces land in the first French African colony and claim it. Meanwhile, additional taxes are pouring in!
After claiming the colony, the army attacks the natives so that we need not bother with them in future. These African natives are far too aggressive to let them live. It takes a few attacks...
The Hedjaz don't seem to like this and they attack us! My first thought was "duh? They have two provinces and 6,000 men, tops? What for? Then I realised that they are still allied with the Mamluks... Well, two sieges are finished, the Hedjaz have 5,000 men under command of their king and the Mamluks are attacking again.
The problem is, we transferred our cavalry armies from the Middle East to France to finish the war against France quicker. Our remaining infantry armies will have to hold out till we can ship our main armies back. Corleone is given this task. We have complete confidence in his leadership in this war.
Let's see if the complete occupation of mainland France and Castille will be enough to extort favourable peace concessions!
France accepts our peace offer. Note that we attacked Catille, so they are the alliance leaders. We need to sign a peace deal with the French first, if we want to have a separate deal. No time Toulouse! We gain four provinces, including our two newly-claimed provinces of Armagnac and Toulouse.
Castille then surrenders more provinces. Toledo is a gold province, so we want that for sure! I also asked for them to renounce their claims on the Canary Islands, as the Venetians hold them, but they are occupied by revolters. Deleting the Castillian claim on them will prevent the revolters from defecting back to the Castillians.
Our holdings continue to expand. Also note that Aragon has decided to attack the weak Franco-Castillian alliance. Bloody free-riders, again!
With the European theatre calm, we can transfer our armies back to the Holy Land to fight there. Corleone has tried his best to hold the positions and is engaged in an elaborate cat-and-mouse game of running, attacking, retreating and counter-attacking. So far, none of our armies were annihilated, but that's only a matter of time without reinforcements.
During the war, I realised the following: success rates for claiming a province are much higher if you are at war with the owner of the province! Success rates of 70+% are very possible then.
We use this new-found confidence to lay claims on Toulouse.
And we succeed! Easy as stealing a biscuit from a child... On we go to Armagnac. Ok, we succeed, but are discovered. This gives us a prestige hit (bad, but bearable) and an additional badboy point. Drat.
At least we got the cores. Expeditionary forces land in the first French African colony and claim it. Meanwhile, additional taxes are pouring in!
After claiming the colony, the army attacks the natives so that we need not bother with them in future. These African natives are far too aggressive to let them live. It takes a few attacks...
The Hedjaz don't seem to like this and they attack us! My first thought was "duh? They have two provinces and 6,000 men, tops? What for? Then I realised that they are still allied with the Mamluks... Well, two sieges are finished, the Hedjaz have 5,000 men under command of their king and the Mamluks are attacking again.
The problem is, we transferred our cavalry armies from the Middle East to France to finish the war against France quicker. Our remaining infantry armies will have to hold out till we can ship our main armies back. Corleone is given this task. We have complete confidence in his leadership in this war.
Let's see if the complete occupation of mainland France and Castille will be enough to extort favourable peace concessions!
France accepts our peace offer. Note that we attacked Catille, so they are the alliance leaders. We need to sign a peace deal with the French first, if we want to have a separate deal. No time Toulouse! We gain four provinces, including our two newly-claimed provinces of Armagnac and Toulouse.
Castille then surrenders more provinces. Toledo is a gold province, so we want that for sure! I also asked for them to renounce their claims on the Canary Islands, as the Venetians hold them, but they are occupied by revolters. Deleting the Castillian claim on them will prevent the revolters from defecting back to the Castillians.
Our holdings continue to expand. Also note that Aragon has decided to attack the weak Franco-Castillian alliance. Bloody free-riders, again!
With the European theatre calm, we can transfer our armies back to the Holy Land to fight there. Corleone has tried his best to hold the positions and is engaged in an elaborate cat-and-mouse game of running, attacking, retreating and counter-attacking. So far, none of our armies were annihilated, but that's only a matter of time without reinforcements.
Chapter 19: Fez joins the Counter-Crusade
Papal advisors don't seem to get the big picture. Our land tech is 5 higher than our naval tech, we are pouring max money into land tech, our land tech just increased by another level, yet they seem to insist that we have been to much navy-focussed. Have they been smoking too much frankincense? Well, the Pope tells them "we need to stop this deterioration" and we lose 5 army tradition. Silly advisors...
The good thing about having lots of provinces is this: every once in a while you actually get an advisor you would give your right arm for! We grab good ol' Honorius from his home island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean and ship him to Rome, where he belongs. Badboy burn, here we come!
Papal cartographers claim that Granada always was part of the Papal Empire. How right they are, another claim for us!
Our land technology reaches level 13 and we have hit the ahead-of-time penalty. As much as we would love to get to land technology 14 and the sweet Latin Caracolle Cavalry, we'll invest in production technology first. More money is always good.
Aragon has attacked Castille again, we'll need to move quickly if we still want to gain more provinces from Castille...
Fez declares war! Are they suicidal? A one-province minor, allied to a 5 province minor? Well, we just order our Tangiers regiment to march into Fez and lay siege to the province.
Fez might have thought that we are distracted by our war with the Mamluks (yes, that is still going on and well...). Well, surprise! We force a peace deal down the Mamluk's throat setting us one province closer to the muslim holy city of Mekka.
Take that Fez! Now we can concentrate on you! Silly them, we don't even need to shuffle armies around. We just use a second army from our Spanish holdings to attack Marrakesh. Fez falls quickly enough...
We make them our vassal, no need to bother.
This leaves Morocco in the war, but that is only a matter of time. We are experiencing some troubles with rebels in Honduras, though. They have proven remarkably resistant to our expelling efforts with two armies. And now we lost a province...
Papal advisors don't seem to get the big picture. Our land tech is 5 higher than our naval tech, we are pouring max money into land tech, our land tech just increased by another level, yet they seem to insist that we have been to much navy-focussed. Have they been smoking too much frankincense? Well, the Pope tells them "we need to stop this deterioration" and we lose 5 army tradition. Silly advisors...
The good thing about having lots of provinces is this: every once in a while you actually get an advisor you would give your right arm for! We grab good ol' Honorius from his home island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean and ship him to Rome, where he belongs. Badboy burn, here we come!
Papal cartographers claim that Granada always was part of the Papal Empire. How right they are, another claim for us!
Our land technology reaches level 13 and we have hit the ahead-of-time penalty. As much as we would love to get to land technology 14 and the sweet Latin Caracolle Cavalry, we'll invest in production technology first. More money is always good.
Aragon has attacked Castille again, we'll need to move quickly if we still want to gain more provinces from Castille...
Fez declares war! Are they suicidal? A one-province minor, allied to a 5 province minor? Well, we just order our Tangiers regiment to march into Fez and lay siege to the province.
Fez might have thought that we are distracted by our war with the Mamluks (yes, that is still going on and well...). Well, surprise! We force a peace deal down the Mamluk's throat setting us one province closer to the muslim holy city of Mekka.
Take that Fez! Now we can concentrate on you! Silly them, we don't even need to shuffle armies around. We just use a second army from our Spanish holdings to attack Marrakesh. Fez falls quickly enough...
We make them our vassal, no need to bother.
This leaves Morocco in the war, but that is only a matter of time. We are experiencing some troubles with rebels in Honduras, though. They have proven remarkably resistant to our expelling efforts with two armies. And now we lost a province...
Always good to see you cheering the Papal States on!chefportnen said:
Not to worry, these pathetic, underequipped rebels just had luck on their side -- oh, about 4 times by now. Well, luck can only get you so far... superior numbers will get you further!
"The Pope... Was he intent on World Conversion or merely on World Conquest?"
- Alternate timeline Stalin
- Alternate timeline Stalin
History will show that the pope was thrashing mad at that time. Just like a child, he grabbed everything that fancied him without a second thought.Lordban said:
His advisors needed to restrain him...
Chapter 20: Upstart Pagans
This update starts with a state funeral. General Also Erizzo has died on the battlefield in the African deserts. He has served us well in the numerous wars against France and Castille. Unfitting, that he should fall against such backwater enemies, players -- no, extras in this Great Game as the Morrocans are.
At least he didn't die in vain, we vassalise Morocco, as we don't know what else there is to do with all this war score we have accumulated.
A few loose ends now. The reformation is still spreading. A religious map of Europe in 1552:
Then some silly involvement with the Holy Roman Empire. As the Pope, we crown this dude. He should be dashed more grateful! Well, he is, after we chose the second option.
The madmen in the universities came up with the next brilliant idea. Three national ideas? Nay, my Pope, let us chose four! "Why not chose five, straight off?" asks Pope Pius III. The learned men look puzzled. "Five?", they ask, "Five? No your Holiness, that is impossible..." Patiently, Pius III answers "Very well, four it is and I shall chose to create viceroys."
Again, I suck at finances. Had to take another unnecessary loan because I didn't pay attention to the little red flags. They're red, how much more warning do I need? Three viceroys are installed: The Vice-royalty of North America, the Vice-royalty of Central America (some minor rebel problems were squashed there) and the Vice-royalty of Iberia. Added tax income was hoped from the increase in governing efficiency. Also note from the above screenshot that France has established another colony in Africa, next to our own one. We'll take that colony in the next Papal-French war.
Added tax income was also expected from the former Aztec lands, as they were incorporated into the Papal Empire.
With all those administrative matters cared for, Pius III once again ordered his armies to march onto French soil. These stability hits of declaring war (-1 for sharing the same faith) are starting to hurt. I'm sure there are better ways of dealing with this situation, but I am greedy and not very patient. And a declaration of war is a declaration of war, is a declaration of war. Can't make many mistakes with that...
A quarter of our budget gets eaten up by our military maintenance. These armies'd better be worth their money! Venice, our faithful ally, naturally comes to our help.
Then, something unexpected happened. A stone stablet containing many pictures, but no words arrived at the Papal court. The wise men of the universities briefly stopped thinking about what the Pope had meant with his mentioning of Five national ideas and translated it. The Incas, a pagan tribe of heathens in south America declared war upon us!
Well, we did have a colony next to their territory, and it was unguarded. So, in some twisted way, the Inca ruler must have thought that there was some easy land up for grabs. It is an inconvenient time for us, as most of our generals are fighting in France. But we won't need much more than two armies and two competent generals for those pagans... or will we?
And where shall we take these armies from? Our north American forces are ordered to the Gulf of Mexico, to board transport ships waiting there to ferry the men south. Will they be enough? Will Great Britain use this moment of weakness and attack our north American colonies? What about the war in France? When will we know? The answer to all those questions is "find out in the next update". See you then!
This update starts with a state funeral. General Also Erizzo has died on the battlefield in the African deserts. He has served us well in the numerous wars against France and Castille. Unfitting, that he should fall against such backwater enemies, players -- no, extras in this Great Game as the Morrocans are.
At least he didn't die in vain, we vassalise Morocco, as we don't know what else there is to do with all this war score we have accumulated.
A few loose ends now. The reformation is still spreading. A religious map of Europe in 1552:
Then some silly involvement with the Holy Roman Empire. As the Pope, we crown this dude. He should be dashed more grateful! Well, he is, after we chose the second option.
The madmen in the universities came up with the next brilliant idea. Three national ideas? Nay, my Pope, let us chose four! "Why not chose five, straight off?" asks Pope Pius III. The learned men look puzzled. "Five?", they ask, "Five? No your Holiness, that is impossible..." Patiently, Pius III answers "Very well, four it is and I shall chose to create viceroys."
Again, I suck at finances. Had to take another unnecessary loan because I didn't pay attention to the little red flags. They're red, how much more warning do I need? Three viceroys are installed: The Vice-royalty of North America, the Vice-royalty of Central America (some minor rebel problems were squashed there) and the Vice-royalty of Iberia. Added tax income was hoped from the increase in governing efficiency. Also note from the above screenshot that France has established another colony in Africa, next to our own one. We'll take that colony in the next Papal-French war.
Added tax income was also expected from the former Aztec lands, as they were incorporated into the Papal Empire.
With all those administrative matters cared for, Pius III once again ordered his armies to march onto French soil. These stability hits of declaring war (-1 for sharing the same faith) are starting to hurt. I'm sure there are better ways of dealing with this situation, but I am greedy and not very patient. And a declaration of war is a declaration of war, is a declaration of war. Can't make many mistakes with that...
A quarter of our budget gets eaten up by our military maintenance. These armies'd better be worth their money! Venice, our faithful ally, naturally comes to our help.
Then, something unexpected happened. A stone stablet containing many pictures, but no words arrived at the Papal court. The wise men of the universities briefly stopped thinking about what the Pope had meant with his mentioning of Five national ideas and translated it. The Incas, a pagan tribe of heathens in south America declared war upon us!
Well, we did have a colony next to their territory, and it was unguarded. So, in some twisted way, the Inca ruler must have thought that there was some easy land up for grabs. It is an inconvenient time for us, as most of our generals are fighting in France. But we won't need much more than two armies and two competent generals for those pagans... or will we?
And where shall we take these armies from? Our north American forces are ordered to the Gulf of Mexico, to board transport ships waiting there to ferry the men south. Will they be enough? Will Great Britain use this moment of weakness and attack our north American colonies? What about the war in France? When will we know? The answer to all those questions is "find out in the next update". See you then!
Maintaining such a huge army won't do too good for your inflation and your effectiveness late-game. Good claims, however.
Chapter 21: The First War of the World
Not a true world war, but a war spanning two continents. The backstab of the Inca left us surprised, but not worried. Armies are on their way to the Andes. First, we get rid of that annoying one-province pagan, Chimu. They are allied to the Inca, but we don't have the badboy surplus needed to annex them.
As you can see, two armies are attacking the Inca from the north and driving the papans southwards. A third, small, army we took from our Brasilian holdings and they are liberating provinces in the south. All of the fighting is in the north. We have no difficulty winning the battles. It is a nuisance however. The Incan armies walk around and it takes some creative attacking and army movements to get them to retreat consistently southwards. Always pause after the battle and check in what direction the enemy is retreating. Move your faster cavalry armies into that province and you'll have the advantage of terrain when they arrive.
Then, the Hedjaz decided it's a good time to join the War of the World! Luckily, Venice is still on our side... Again, our armies in the Holy Land will have to hold out and play cat-and-mouse with the enemy. We need to finish the Papal-French war and the Incas before we can send any troops to the Middle Eastern theatre of war.
Fighting against the Incas continues. Our slower infantry army only moves to secure the borders, so that no Incan army can reclaim their lands in the north. The other two cavalry armies relentlessly attack the enemy, decimating their troops. We need to kill off those armies, otherwise we'll never be able to hold the lands occupied.
In the middle of the war, our techonology advances. We can recruit Latin Caracolle Cavalry! Sadly, we are in the middle of extended cavalry fights, so upgrading now would be suicide. We need to bide our time... the 50% morale bonus does come in handy, though.
The war is going well, we were able to keep a large army in Gaza and not transport them to France, as the war with France was a pushover. A peace settlement was agreed to by the Hedjaz: They agreed to hand over Asir, a province we have no use for. But, and this is the point, it reduces the Hedjaz to one province -- Mekka. With their next attack, we can annex them and claim Mekka for the Pope! Note that we are still at war with the Mamluks, the alliance leader. We have a special super-secret cunning plan concerning them. The next update will show!
A, by now, familiar sight: Let's see what we can extract form the French and the Castillians after we have occupied their home territories...
Castille agrees to hand over four provinces to our realm.
France agrees to a further three provinces pushing our badboy value dangerously high, over 35! Let's just hope that our pope doesn't die on us... his Diplomacy 8 skill is invaluable at this time...
The problem is, annexing the Incans now will set us over the badboy limit. We gain five badboy for annexing them without a claim on their capital. Only two, if we have a claim on their capital... spies are immediately sent to Cuzco, the capital of the Incas. We need that claim!
We fail, naturally...
By now, the Incan armies have been annihilated, so we can keep the country occupied for ages, if we are forced to. We may need to do so. At our current badboy burn rate, we need eight years of time till we can annex those Incans... five if we can successfully lay claim to their lands.
Time will tell.
Not a true world war, but a war spanning two continents. The backstab of the Inca left us surprised, but not worried. Armies are on their way to the Andes. First, we get rid of that annoying one-province pagan, Chimu. They are allied to the Inca, but we don't have the badboy surplus needed to annex them.
As you can see, two armies are attacking the Inca from the north and driving the papans southwards. A third, small, army we took from our Brasilian holdings and they are liberating provinces in the south. All of the fighting is in the north. We have no difficulty winning the battles. It is a nuisance however. The Incan armies walk around and it takes some creative attacking and army movements to get them to retreat consistently southwards. Always pause after the battle and check in what direction the enemy is retreating. Move your faster cavalry armies into that province and you'll have the advantage of terrain when they arrive.
Then, the Hedjaz decided it's a good time to join the War of the World! Luckily, Venice is still on our side... Again, our armies in the Holy Land will have to hold out and play cat-and-mouse with the enemy. We need to finish the Papal-French war and the Incas before we can send any troops to the Middle Eastern theatre of war.
Fighting against the Incas continues. Our slower infantry army only moves to secure the borders, so that no Incan army can reclaim their lands in the north. The other two cavalry armies relentlessly attack the enemy, decimating their troops. We need to kill off those armies, otherwise we'll never be able to hold the lands occupied.
In the middle of the war, our techonology advances. We can recruit Latin Caracolle Cavalry! Sadly, we are in the middle of extended cavalry fights, so upgrading now would be suicide. We need to bide our time... the 50% morale bonus does come in handy, though.
The war is going well, we were able to keep a large army in Gaza and not transport them to France, as the war with France was a pushover. A peace settlement was agreed to by the Hedjaz: They agreed to hand over Asir, a province we have no use for. But, and this is the point, it reduces the Hedjaz to one province -- Mekka. With their next attack, we can annex them and claim Mekka for the Pope! Note that we are still at war with the Mamluks, the alliance leader. We have a special super-secret cunning plan concerning them. The next update will show!
A, by now, familiar sight: Let's see what we can extract form the French and the Castillians after we have occupied their home territories...
Castille agrees to hand over four provinces to our realm.
France agrees to a further three provinces pushing our badboy value dangerously high, over 35! Let's just hope that our pope doesn't die on us... his Diplomacy 8 skill is invaluable at this time...
The problem is, annexing the Incans now will set us over the badboy limit. We gain five badboy for annexing them without a claim on their capital. Only two, if we have a claim on their capital... spies are immediately sent to Cuzco, the capital of the Incas. We need that claim!
We fail, naturally...
By now, the Incan armies have been annihilated, so we can keep the country occupied for ages, if we are forced to. We may need to do so. At our current badboy burn rate, we need eight years of time till we can annex those Incans... five if we can successfully lay claim to their lands.
Time will tell.
When time permits (and by that I mean when you're at peace and at a reasonably low BB level) you should proclaim the "Vatican Empire" or something like that. Seeing "The Papal State" is a direct contrast to your size, and besides, "Vatican Empire" just sounds a whole lot cooler.
Good idea. This aar has nearly caught up with the game, and I'll let the readers decide in which direction the Papal States/Empire will then progress. There are a number of interesting options! I guess another 2-3 updates and we're up to that point.chefportnen said:
Chapter 22: Vice-royalty of South America
Well, money is not a problem if the gain is the combined land and gold of the Incas, so we try again. Bound to succeed one time.
Discovered. Drat, that's another badboy point and a prestige hit. At least our land tradition has increased to 100% and we can hire another general. From the Erizzo family again comes a general blessed by God Himself!
Remember our super-secret cunning plan with the Mamluks? Well, this is it! We force them to release Najd as a sovereign state. This should weaken them so that they decide not to attack us any longer (haha, I wish). More importantly, perhaps we can sell that worthless Asir province to Najd to get nicer borders.
Well, the Najdians are remarkably stubborn. We had to literally dump the province into their lap and still they were reluctant to grab Asir.
Relative peace: we are still at war with the Incas, but that's only on paper (or stone, that is). They have no armies and we occupy all of their provinces just waiting for our badboy to drop to acceptable levels. What to do? Improve military training, of course! We upgrade our cavalry armies and now own the most fearsome cavalry troops in the world. We need to exploit this as long as we are still in the technological lead.
A yes, this was just a matter time. We create the new vice-royalty of South America and install a new governor. Orders are sent to the new governor to help himself to the treasury and build forts in every single province.
It's a pity you can't do this in the ledger as with the other province improvements. Also, if you don't have a core on the provinces, clicking to a new province will get you to the (useless) city view screen and not to the previously used screen, i.e. province improvements. There are still a number of UI improvements that can be made, but probably never will.
We were prepared for a period of peace and quit, when our upstart ally, Najd came whining for help. They had attacked Oman! Why is everyone so intent on declaring war all the time, just because they are in our alliance? Is it our influence? Never mind, we accept the call to arms. Oman is near to the province of Muscat. Gaining Muskat will trigger the East Indian Trade Route, which will give us extra prestige and trade income.
Trade income? you might ask. We don't trade, so what's that good for? Easy, the production income is set to the trade value of the good in the province. That's why market places pay off, even for non-traders. And an extra 20% of income? Anytime!
Chimu, a one-province pagan country surrounded by our lands and fine cavalry armies decides that we are occupied with that skirmish with the Oman tribe of nomads and declares war on us. Silly them. We just send our cavalry army in the south up north to meet the Chimu leader in battle.
It did cost us two nearly-finished forts, though. The Chimu armies were able to occupy two provinces until we arrived, setting the building of province improvements to zero.
We sign a white peace, as we don#t have the badboy leverage for that single province.
Well, money is not a problem if the gain is the combined land and gold of the Incas, so we try again. Bound to succeed one time.
Discovered. Drat, that's another badboy point and a prestige hit. At least our land tradition has increased to 100% and we can hire another general. From the Erizzo family again comes a general blessed by God Himself!
Remember our super-secret cunning plan with the Mamluks? Well, this is it! We force them to release Najd as a sovereign state. This should weaken them so that they decide not to attack us any longer (haha, I wish). More importantly, perhaps we can sell that worthless Asir province to Najd to get nicer borders.
Well, the Najdians are remarkably stubborn. We had to literally dump the province into their lap and still they were reluctant to grab Asir.
Relative peace: we are still at war with the Incas, but that's only on paper (or stone, that is). They have no armies and we occupy all of their provinces just waiting for our badboy to drop to acceptable levels. What to do? Improve military training, of course! We upgrade our cavalry armies and now own the most fearsome cavalry troops in the world. We need to exploit this as long as we are still in the technological lead.
A yes, this was just a matter time. We create the new vice-royalty of South America and install a new governor. Orders are sent to the new governor to help himself to the treasury and build forts in every single province.
It's a pity you can't do this in the ledger as with the other province improvements. Also, if you don't have a core on the provinces, clicking to a new province will get you to the (useless) city view screen and not to the previously used screen, i.e. province improvements. There are still a number of UI improvements that can be made, but probably never will.
We were prepared for a period of peace and quit, when our upstart ally, Najd came whining for help. They had attacked Oman! Why is everyone so intent on declaring war all the time, just because they are in our alliance? Is it our influence? Never mind, we accept the call to arms. Oman is near to the province of Muscat. Gaining Muskat will trigger the East Indian Trade Route, which will give us extra prestige and trade income.
Trade income? you might ask. We don't trade, so what's that good for? Easy, the production income is set to the trade value of the good in the province. That's why market places pay off, even for non-traders. And an extra 20% of income? Anytime!
Chimu, a one-province pagan country surrounded by our lands and fine cavalry armies decides that we are occupied with that skirmish with the Oman tribe of nomads and declares war on us. Silly them. We just send our cavalry army in the south up north to meet the Chimu leader in battle.
It did cost us two nearly-finished forts, though. The Chimu armies were able to occupy two provinces until we arrived, setting the building of province improvements to zero.
We sign a white peace, as we don#t have the badboy leverage for that single province.