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I'm ok with the reload. For your second NI: Land of Opportunity. This often overlooked idea makes colonies so much cheaper that you can run quite a few more colonies than normal, especially if you get colonial growth advisors. I used it as GB to make my colonies grow 100/year, along with narrowminded and other bonuses.
 
Feedback​

Overall consensus seems to say the reload is okay so far -- keep 'em coming.

Fenrir 1576 -- I've never edited saves before. I tried a couple of the editors, but none of them seem to work for me. What did you have in mind?

foriavik -- Thanks for the encouragement!

BootOnFace -- I thought about taking a colonial idea, but I'm not sure they apply to the Horde "colonies."

Boris ze Spider -- That makes four votes for go ahead and reload with one vote to also modify either the event or the save log -- if someone with greater expertise wants to steer me in the right direction, I wouldn't object :)

Update on the way!
 
load as burgondy ->cancel mission ->save -> load as mother russia. No travelling back in time required and it makes sense that burgundy cancels its mission - no human player would be interested in projecting power that far from its homelands.
 
Chapter 4: All hail the double eagle of the Russian Republic!

September 1451 -- Our first core we don't start the game with!

chapter4september1451.jpg


February 1452 -- The provinces of the Russian minor formerly known as Tver (Tver, Rzhev, Yaroslavl) core.

August 1452 -- Naval tech 5.

February 1453 -- Brandenburg inherits Hungary. That could be trouble...

June 1453 -- My first lost core. No big deal, I'll get the core back when I form Russia anyway.

chapter4june1453.jpg


January 1454 -- Minsk converts.

May 1454 -- So does Viborg. Only the Ukrainian provinces are non-Orthodox now!

August 1454 -- New ruler! I go administrative, get a 6/3/8. Yuck, I can't take such a low military setting...

August 1455 -- Trade 6.

October 1455 -- Slider time! Move towards quality, lose 10000 manpower. Meh. Like I'd even miss it.

July 1458 -- New election! I try my luck with a new ruler -- now I'm even worse, 3/3/5. If only I could hire an assassin.

December 1459 -- Serf exploitation bonus: +5% production efficiency for three months. Yes, please! Since this update is boring, I declare war on Ukraine with no CB :D

chapter4december1459.jpg


Our contestants:

chapter4december14592.jpg


January 1460 -- Denmark, like always, doesn't answer the call. I really wonder why I keep allying with them. You'd think I'd learn.

March 1460 -- Like a bunch of cowards, the Ukrainian army is hiding in Poland. I ask Poland nicely: "Mind if I turn one of your provinces into a battlefield?" Poland says, "Sure, just clean up when you're done."

May 1460 -- The Ukrainian army is gone.

chapter4may1460.jpg


August 1460 -- Smolensk cores -- only a couple to form Russia!

September 1460 -- Ruthenia falls, and so does Ukraine. Victory!

chapter4september1460.jpg


chapter4september14602.jpg


I'm still at war though, since Pommerania was alliance leader (instead of Austria?) :wacko:

October 1460 -- Poland realizes that my cavalry left some presents when I was there last, so they warn me.

December 1460 -- A western army falls before me! Yes, it's just Pommerania, and yes, I have Moldavian troops with me. Nonetheless, this victory shall be remembered for all time!

chapter4december1460.jpg


February 1461 -- Apparently terrified by my new dominance over the West, Burgundy DoWs with no CB.

As always, they bring a bunch of friends.

chapter4february14612.jpg


September 1461 -- Poland joins the perceived dogpile. She brings along Croatia and Finland.

December 1461 -- Not such a dogpile now, eh, Poland?

chapter4december1461.jpg


January 1462 -- Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir core. Only one more province to core!

June 1462 -- Poland loses more soldiers in an attempt to take my land.

chapter4june1461.jpg


July 1462 -- Poland white peaces out. To celebrate, we elect a new leader -- 8/9/6. That's more like it! Yevgeniy Barashev, I am taking out a sizeable life insurance policy.

January 1463 -- Hansa declares war on Denmark, triggering my guarantee. I would like to end that embargo...

chapter4january1463.jpg


March 1463 -- It turns out, Hansa already had. Having no real interest in the war (and since I'm now alliance leader), it's time to give peace a chance. It just so happens to also be lucrative for me.

chapter4march1463.jpg


April 1463 -- Portugal warns me for some reason. Portugal hasn't really colonized yet, and Castille has eaten most of her. I'm not terribly threatened.

August 1463 -- I invade and destroy most of Pommerania, but I still can't get so much as a concession of defeat. I white peace.

February 1464 -- Provinces from Ryazan defect to Murom. This has potential, since Murom is independent and Ryazan is a vassal of the Horde. One of them happens to be Tula, which I've got a mission for. I think I declare war on them at some point, all I know is that I'm at war with them.

April 1464 -- Switzerland white peaces out. I guess they were one of Burgundy's pals?

May 1464 -- Distraught by the loss of whatever assistance the Swiss were providing, Burgundy also peaces out. It could also be the fact that I had almost killed their invasion force. One of the two.

May 1466 -- Mogilyov cores. That's nice, but not the core I'm waiting for.

July 1466 -- England warns me. :eek:

December 1466 -- Last move towards quality for the foreseeable future, I take a stab hit (which stinks -- it takes 18 months to recover one stab point).

July 1467 -- A little province named Moskva cores. Huzzah!

... Still no Russia decision. Why?

September 1467 -- I decide to check out the requirements. It turns out my war with Murom is keeping me from forming Russia. As usual, the Horde is occupying most of the country anyway, so I'll white peace out. Also, production 7.

October 1467 -- RUSSIA!!!!

chapter4october1467.jpg


I also make St. Petersburg the capital. It's a really sweet Russian decision. You gain 3 stability, 5 base tax in the St. Petersburg province (formerly known as Neva), and more base manpower for the province. It also becomes Orthodox, but that doesn't matter as much. Check out the new flag!

[IMGhttp://img228.imageshack.us/img228/1909/chapter4october14672.jpg[/IMG]

There is one downside here -- I'm now over the centralization limit for merchant republic. If I can, I'll switch to Noble Republic at government 10 -- I checked the Wiki and couldn't see if I was eligible to do so or not. If I'm not, it's Admin republic at 15.

November 1467 -- With great power comes many new Reconquest CBs.

March 1468 -- Polotsk is diplo-annexed. All their territories are core anyway.

February 1470 -- For the time in a while, one of my advisors dies. I hire another 6 star diplomat.

July 1470 -- Defender of the Faith! I wrestled this from might Ethiopia. Interesting note -- I can't use Holy War as a CB on the Horde.

October 1472 -- Government 6 and Embassy building. The embassy is a new unique building (one per empire) that gives you .40 diplomats a year and a little bit of infamy burn. Costs 500+ ducats and 5 magistrates, so it'll take a while before I can build it.

December 1472 -- Denmark gives me those old puppy dog eyes and I ally again. At this point, Denmark has provided roughly zero support, but hey, maybe this time will be different?

January 1473 -- The only positive about this is that Western Arms Trade kicks back in. I need all the help I can get pre-Westernization.

February 1473 -- I apparently declare war on Murom. All I have is a screenshot of me destroying their army. :rolleyes:

chapter4february1473.jpg


I also take a look at Westernize again -- it turns out I've got all the requirements but the innovative. I know where I'll be moving next.

November 1473 -- Murom falls, giving me more sweet territory that I have cores on.

chapter4november1473.jpg


January 1474 -- Denmark declares war on somebody and I join. I will be doing almost nothing in this war.

July 1474 -- As our first all-Russian election, we re-elect our good friend Barashev. (Actually, I lied -- the first one was in 1470 but I forgot to note when). :D

September 1474 -- New mission (and by new, I mean I forgot to note it before) -- reclaim Kharkov for 10 prestige. It would appear that the Horde has it. Interesting.

October 1474 -- Without my active participation, Denmark ends up losing to Pommerania and cedes three territories. The crowd goes mild.

December 1474 -- Monetary Reform event. I have to take the inflation hit, which stinks, but it just takes too long to regain stability.

July 1475 -- Ryazan has a local fortification expert -- I miss the free fort :( Now it's just 50% more defensiveness until the end of the game.

Zaporozhie becomes a vassal of the Horde.

August 1475 -- Naval tech 6. Yawn.

January 1476 -- Time to do something I've wanted to for quite some time now, but only just realized I could do. I declare war on Ryazan, using the Reconquest CB! Those jerks always dishonored my alliances.

chapter4january1476.jpg


Oh yeah, they bring along a friend :D

Honestly, I was ready to DoW the Horde a long time ago, but it seems they're immune to most CBs and I really hate stab hits. The only way around it was to DoW a vassal, who just so happened to have a Russian core.

That's it for this update. Tune in next time (beginning of next week) for the first war against the Golden Horde!
 
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load as burgondy ->cancel mission ->save -> load as mother russia. No travelling back in time required and it makes sense that burgundy cancels its mission - no human player would be interested in projecting power that far from its homelands.

Sad king billy -- That's what I was thinking of, also, if it's not too gamey, selling their province in Scandinavia to Finland, to keep them from getting the mission again. I do want to reload the earlier save though, since the damage Burgundy does is more cumulative with war exhaustion then anything.
 
Do whatever you have to.

But...Russia! :D
 
Feedback​

Ashantai & Eber -- Thanks for your votes!

I checked with the contest moderator and got a thumbs up, so I'm going to cancel the mission and sell the province to Sweden or Finland, whoever has it as a core. I'll play some more tonight and have an update in the next day or two.

This AAR will go on! :cool:
 
Feedback​

Boris -- It was a pretty exciting moment, no question.

I'm up to 1550 in the game now and still going strong. Since I've got a back log now -- roughly three updates plus two "States of the Republic," I'm going to give you one more update tonight and the 1500 state of the "Republic."

Please don't get too used to this :D This was an unusually free weekend, and I'm making the most of it.

Update in 3... 2... 1... now!
 
Chapter 5: Hordes, hordes everywhere! Featuring Burgundy and the German Minors [wouldn't that be an interesting band name?]

January 1476 -- I use a spy to infiltrate the Horde Administration. It turns out I picked a great time to attack, since there are virtually no troops anywhere near me (and the ones that are around are busy with the Jalayrids).

The problem with fighting Hordes is that occasionally it isn't very thrilling. Once you've killed their armies and captured enough provinces, you can start "seeding" them with colonists, and then it's just a matter of waiting.

September 1477 -- Trade tech 7. See what I mean? A Russian merchant in Ile-de-France goes bankrupt. Living in Paris, I can see why.

March 1478 -- My first move towards innovative. I get a new thinker (Philosopher, I think), but my court is full at that time.

July 1478 -- Barashev is reelected unanimously.

July 1479 -- I have a confession to make. It took me an obscenely long time to figure out how to capture provinces from a Horde. Normally, it doesn't take four years for one province to defect, but Kharkov is the first of many I'll strip from the Horde.

chapter5july1479.jpg


October 1480 -- A leading shipwright apparently thinks our naval research is full of nonsense. Given that the alternative is a stab hit, I agree wholeheartedly and lose some ducats in Naval research. Pity.

December 1480 -- I hire a three star statesman. Since I've been using magistrates for buildings (the production track is awesome), my cultural tradition isn't terribly impressive, so I pretty much take what I can get.

September 1481 -- Voronezh defects. IRL, a good friend went there on a study abroad trip, it's apparently not terribly interesting, according to him. I myself went to St. Petersburg in 2004 -- it was a blast!

July 1482 -- Election time! Barashev still has a pulse, so another rousing victory for his camp.

April 1483 -- Sadly, nobody lives forever. Semyon Kasimovskiy (5/8/8) is the latest Jackpot winner in the "Knyaz for Life" competition.

July 1484 -- Pensa defects. I decide the Golden Horde has had enough, and decide to peace them out for the time being, since my manpower is just about spent. I need some time to retool.

chapter5november1491.jpg


An interesting side note: If you pay a horde tribute, they won't attack you when the truce is up, but if they pay you, they're all over you as soon as the five years is up.

I celebrate peace with the Horde by quickly attacking one of the last Russian minors, Smolensk:

chapter5july14842.jpg


September 1485 -- Smolensk is gone from the map.

chapter5september1485.jpg


September 1486 -- Our first appearance from the second horde, the Nogai.

chapter5september1486.jpg


They took some of the northern provinces from the Golden Horde, bordered me, and thus attacked. Standard operating procedure for a Horde.

February 1487 -- Podolia cores.

July 1487 -- Polesia converts to Orthodoxy.

August 1487 -- Land Tech 8.

November 1487 -- The Jalayrids make the Golden Horde release Ryazan as a vassal. Excellent! :D

May 1489 -- First territory defects from Nogai. It's Perm!

chapter5may1489.jpg


August 1489 -- The Horde attacks. Must be five years already.

chapter5august1489.jpg


Poland decides now is a good time to warn me. I couldn't care less.

November 1489 -- I want to focus on the Horde -- they have some of my core provinces still, so I peace out with Nogai.

chapter5november1489.jpg


December 1489 -- Quick check for westernization. I need a better admin leader, an advanced western neighbor, and another point or two towards innovative.

January 1490 -- Voronezh converts to Orthodoxy. This will be the last province to do so, mostly because I'll run out of missionaries thanks to going Innovative.

September 1491 -- Moldavia gets a CB on me (border friction). Shockingly, they'll never do anything with it.

November 1491 -- Golden Horde buys some freedom. Again, low on manpower, high on war exhaustion.

chapter5november1491.jpg


May 1493 -- Commence the crapping of pants. :eek:

chapter5may1493.jpg


Wait, why are they attacking me? What's their CB?

chapter5may14932.jpg


It seems to be a mission to Conquer Karellia. Apparently, Burgundy got into Scandinavia somehow and triggered this mission. Great. This will be fun.

June 1493 -- Generously, Saxe-Lauenburg white peaces with me. Apparently, I was at war with them. You can even see their flag in the earlier screenshots. I have no idea how or why I got involved, so I'll blame Denmark.

chapter5june1493.jpg


March 1495 -- I guess I missed another election at some point. Anyways, I elect a new guy, Semyon Koltsov-Mosalski, 7/8/8. He's a keeper.

December 1495 -- Government 9 and my second national idea. I'm losing big to Burgundy at this point -- I pretty much scorch and run, scorch and run -- so I take military drill. It's a bit of a panic move, but in the end I think I made the right decision.

Also, my first surrender to a Horde. :(

chapter5december14952.jpg


I had no choice. My manpower is just about gone, and even if I win a battle against Burgundy their tech and units are decimating mine. The last thing I needed was another front.

Another digression: if you're in a pinch and you're too big to vassalize, hordes will always accept tribute right away, even before you've fought. It makes sense, since there's only three possible good outcomes for a Horde against a civilized nation: 1) Concede Defeat, 2) Get tribute, 3) Vassalize. Since three is usually out of the question for a player, you can usually get away with buying them off for a few years. Just realize you'll never get a CB on them, unless you're subtle, so you'll take a stab hit when you change your mind.

January 1496 -- Production tech 9.

February 1496 -- Trade tech 8.

March 1496 -- Political crisis. I take the three infamy, since I'm in mortal fear of stab hits right now.

July 1496 -- After another incredibly bloody battle, which I barely win, Burgundy finally accepts peace.

chapter5july1496.jpg


On their way home, they are jumped by an extremely large band of time travelers from 2011, who beat the army's heads in with sharp, pointy rocks. The soldiers completely forget why they even came to Russia in the first place. Some more strategic rock clubbery convinces Burgundy to sell their Scandinavian province to Finland for no money. The culprits are never caught. :D

Sometime between now and February, the truce is up and Golden Horde comes after me again. Perhaps the same time travelers got me too, as I don't have a screen shot. :wacko:
February 1497 -- Benign Neglect. I always take the 100 ducats. Has anybody ever taken the other option? I don't even remember what it does.

October 1498 -- Naval 8.

May 1499 -- Kazan defects.

And it's time for another state of the republic! What will the future hold for Russia? If you decide to ask a time traveler, check and make sure they don't have any rocks.
 
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State of the Republic: 1500

First, the Russian Republic and her neighbors --

sotr1500russiamap.jpg


Some interesting notes -- Denmark has basically become Norway, while the Hansa is now actually Denmark. Bohemia looks smaller than Austria, but Austria's having all kinds of rebel problems for some reason. As you can tell, I've got most of the Horde occupied.

The advisers of the Republic --

sotr1500court.jpg


I'm really limited in my choice of advisers, because I spend most of my magistrates building stuff. Honestly, I'd like to see a bigger cap, maybe 10 for magistrates, because you don't normally get much cultural tradition (or at least I don't) otherwise.

My economy --

sotr1500economy.jpg


Nothing too shocking here. I've got some loans at this point -- the PC decided, while I was playing Burgundy briefly (to fix the mission), that I wanted to be Defender of the Faith and to hell with my carefully hoarded surplus. For a Merchant Republic, I'm not all that trade heavy -- I just don't focus on the whole Trade League bit very much. Even after reading naggy's excellent Hansa AAR, I'm still kind of muddled about it. I end up going Administrative Republic later on, so it's kind of moot. The trade stations are nice. I'm going production heavy in buildings -- this will show up clearly later on.

My army --

sotr1500army.jpg


I've been trying to work towards a more balanced army. For tactics, I need no more than 60% cavalry, so that's what I'm aiming for. Check out that war exhaustion!

Sliders and National Ideas --

sotr1500sliders.jpg


Land, Innovative, and Quality get the most attention in the future. Once I Westernize, I'll start getting more ideas, which will help a lot.

My mission and decisions:

sotr1500mission.jpg


I can never quite pull this mission off -- it's got some very nice benefits, but without multiple Masters of Mint, which are now off limits, or tax assessors (unless I've missed them somewhere), it's just too hard to burn off inflation very quickly. It's not crippling inflation -- never gets into double digits -- but it is slightly irritating.

Just a move or two from Westernization, which I've got a much better plan for this time!

Nations sorted by economy --

sotr1500nationaleconomi.jpg


That's little old me at the top! :D No huge surprises for the rest of the list (Aachen is irritating with all that money -- it can't do a whole lot, so it just spams spies). Switzerland has done surprisingly well for itself in this game -- in every previous game I've played of EU the Swiss get eaten by Milan, Austria, France, or Burgundy.

Nations sorted by total army --

sotr1500nationalarmies.jpg


Slowly moving up the list. Bohemia has usually been Emperor. Burgundy is essentially the new France, minus Paris and some of the Atlantic provinces. There's Switzerland again! :eek:

Pies! --

sotr1500pies.jpg


Take a long hard look at the religion pie -- it'll never be that nice again. At this point, I think my only non-cores are the provinces of former Ukraine -- I've been sticking to cores at this point. Iron, fur, and grain. Those are my biggest goods -- even in 1550 I've only got two gold provinces, and since I won't be visiting Africa or the New World, I doubt I'll get too many more (Georgia has one I've had my eye on).

Finally, the world! --

eu3maprus1500121.jpg


Still no real colonization of the New World yet -- Africa's relatively untouched. I notice Ming has been creeping West -- apart from a Japan game in HttT and briefly in my second EU 3 game ever (Muscovy!), I've never crossed paths with them. Should be interesting in DW.

And that's the world of 1500. Next update will be mid-week. I hope to have the 10 updates required for the contest by mid-March.
 
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Well I just meant you could go in and edit it so that the province belonged to someone more, realistic as the case would be, but what you did is so much easier, lol.

Yeah, I'm not one for editing much :) It did end up causing some problems with my economy, though, as AI Russia ran through my budget in almost three days :eek:
 
Very impressive progress! :)
 
Great job! Castile is doing a really good job too it seems, has a good chunk of North Africa.
 
Feedback​

Ashantai -- Thanks!

loki100 -- Welcome aboard! I've been fortunate in my leaders thus far.

Eber -- Castille gets even worse -- they're starting to eat up chunks of the Ottomans, which could put a damper on my plans to control the Black Sea.

A couple of thoughts/comments of my own.

1) I'm worried about overextension at this point. I looked in the Wiki and can't find a hard and fast ruling about when I might hit it, but I understand more centralization (for military modernization) just makes it worse. I don't want to sit and wait until I core, and I'd eventually like to move towards taking the Straits.

2) I think it would be interesting, in a chaotic sort of way, to play a Revolutionary Republic when I'm that far along -- is it just a matter of taking the NI or is there more to it?
 
Some additional food for thought -- once I've totally modernized my army, I'm thinking about where to go next. I'll be bordering Ming surprisingly soon, and we've got roughly comparable armies and manpower reserves, although with my huge tech advantage I'm confident I can handle myself. In the short term, I'm looking at finishing off the Nogai and trying to get some territory around the Black Sea, but big picture wise, should I go East to the Pacific or start to move West and take on the Europeans? (As any good historian of Russia will tell you, Russians are Eurasians, not Europeans :D )