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Neutrals are easily bought to hunt rebels - and if you attack them, you have an additional enemy. ;D
Asian Action
Khmer is an Isolated nation. Rarely does it partake in any major wars. It has 4 neighbours; Malaya, Tibet, Bengal and Tibet. Let me run you through situation in Asia and what has happened there in the last few decades.
Firstly let me tell you a bit about India. Ethiopia was on warmongering path of war, having recently annexed the island of Sri Lanka from the nation of Ceylon. He also signed a treaty with the other two nations in Africa fixing the borders where they were and creating alliances. Having nowhere else to expand, Ethiopia declared war on poor Gujarat. Gujarat was taken by surprise and, although his allies, Qin, the Mongol Khanate and Punjab tried to help, Ethiopia and its allies were too powerful to stop. Various parts of India were annexed by many different nations. From that point Gujarat was doomed.
Years after the former event, Gujarat had been annexed and had only 6-8 provinces left. The Khanate turned on its previous ally and then took 4 provinces from it. Unfortunately for him, the 3 African countries wanted India for themselves. After a short war the Africans accepted the Khanates offer to cede the provinces to the not very powerful Bengal.
That brings me to Bengal. Bengal, like Qin and Khmer, is under the protection and an ally of Croatia. There is not much other than that to say about Bengal as, due to its small size and power, it is not very influential.
Qin. Tibet. These two countries have seen a lot of war with each other in recent years. Qin as emerged victorious by taking seven provinces including its only link to the great ocean. Despite the Africans desire for Tibet's prosperity, the threat of Croatia and its allies persuaded them to allow Qin to take these few provinces. Tibet has also been at war with other people as well. The Mongol Khanate and Punjab, under its protection, wanted more lands and so decided to pick on Tibet. This time, however, the Africans decide to intervene and were joined by Persia as well. This overwhelming pressure meant the defeat of the Mongol Khanate. The Khanate, unlike Gujarat and others, decided to sue for peace early and only lost one province.
Finally, the last two. Japan and Malaya. Malaya has a powerful empire over almost all of Indonesia and, until recently, a part of South America. It fields the largest fleet in the whole world. With over 200 ships, almost double that of the next best fleet, Malaya remains secure from enemy invasion. Japan on the other hand has a comparatively small fleet, and few allies, is not as good as defending itself. This was proved when Malaya declared war on Japan and annexed Ryukyu and a couple of Indonesian islands. The next time, Japan decided to make a preemptive strike and bought itself several more months before Malaya was ready to attack Japanese mainland. After numerous Malayan victories Malaya forced Japan to restore 2 of the previous Daimyos to power. Malaya then turned on these 2 nations and began to take their lands.
Thanks for reading!
Rise to power
It had been a while since Mu'audib had visited the streets for Alexandria. His street thief career had forced him to flee to Cairo for years since the Alexandrian guards almost caught him few years back. But now once again he returned to Alexandria, this was because suddenly few months before ships full of Veteran soldiers from India had started to arrive in the Red Sea port of Cairo. There were rumors that the Doge was bringing the veterans from India back to Egypt for some rest while the new recruits were send to either Isla Sorna or Isla Nublar. These two islands were still a mystery for the common folk of Egypt and the world. Mu'audibd had a successful criminal career in Cairo, he had become one of the ring leaders of the Thieves Guild of Cairo but the growing military presence was getting on the nerves of Mu'audib. When he first arrived back to Alexandria he was surprised to see that the city had been changed to more glorious one than it had been before. Also there was a huge military camp just outside the city gates. The Caliph was surely planning something with these kinds of military encampments.
Mu'audib tried to get in contact with his former friends in Alexandria but he soon heard that most of them were either in jail or serving in the military. It would be difficult for him to start crime without being able to form a gang of thieves. The former Guild of Thieves in Alexandria had been disbanded and the building they had operated from was now used as an tax collector's office. And those who had been able to avoid getting caught were in hiding but Mu'audib was able to lure them out and tell him about his plan on resurrecting the Thieves Guild. There were new opportunities as with the Veterans who had come from India also rich Merchants from there had returned with their goods and Mu'audib was planning on moving to other crimes as well and not just petty pickpocketing. He gathered all his friends and the poor people willing to join the life of crime in order to survive and when the Caliph ordered the armies to move in the Sinai border the city was almost empty of guards. Only a small amount of guards were still present in the city but the thieves were far more numerous.
Then news about war started spreading in the city of Alexandria. The Caliph had joined the war against Persia together with Ethiopia and the armies had crossed the Sinai desert to Westphalian buffer state in the region. The war didn't really affect the business of Mu'audib who had become the crime lord of Alexandria. And when the war was over the Armies didn't return but instead they were left to guard the conquered lands. Then something unexpected happened, Mu'audib was contacted by an Envoy from the government giving them free hands to steal from Bavarian and Malayan merchants who had failed to pay the Trade License needed for African trade. Mu'audib was happy to do this as the foreign merchants were rich and soon Mu'audibs Thieves were rich.
Well I don't have the fancy Andalusian maps, but here's one just taken by loading up and screenshotting.
Points of interest:
Malaysia and minors all over southern Japan (Elcy forced the release of several minors that he is now annexing; I assume he gets more territory and less badboy this way than if he took the land in the traditional manner).
Croatian dominance of Italy
Novgorodian Germany
Restored Caliphal rule over the Sinai
Ethiopia did not eat Bengal, we just have almost the same color.
Tibet moves westwards, losing five provinces to Qin but gaining two with African help.
Some border changes in the New World
The Weight of Metal
2 g 17 CB, Alexandros read from his hastily-scratched notes, and began to painstakingly transcribe the information into his ciphered report. Two new guns delivered to Seventeenth Caucasian Borderers; but the words lay emptily in his mind, powerless, as though the cipher had robbed them of conviction. They did not speak of the cheers of the conscripts who had dragged the guns into their regimental compound, stripped to the waist in the harsh sun, smelling of gunpowder and oil and sweat even a hundred meters away where Alexander had stood with the civilians. The spiky marks of the code could not convey the power of five hundred men marching in snappy new uniforms, taking pride in thumping their heels down in a precise cadence, drumming out their discipline and courage. The Senators in distant New Byzantium would read his report, and think to themselves, "dull-eyed peasant conscripts", and take comfort in the thought of the horsetail banners and a hundred thousand warriors riding free across the steppes. They did not understand. They had not been there the day before, when the officers were executed for keeping dead men on the rolls of their regiment; had not heard the deep snarl of five hundred men growling their satisfaction at seeing justice done.
The signs were there for those with eyes to see, and Alexandros could make that clear enough to his masters: The crackdown on corruption, the delivery of new weapons and fresh supplies, the increased pace of drill and marching. All that was obvious, and no Komnenos would miss the implication: Russia was arming for war. But he could not make them feel the power of it, the crushing force of a settled realm awakening to the possibilities of gunpowder. They were right, in a sense: The conscripts really were dull-eyed peasants, not impressive if you spoke to them as individuals. Alexandros would match himself against any two of them, or any four, if he had a horse and a good bow, and they had muskets; or even in close combat, sabre and lance against bayonets. But the number of them! And worse, the way they were brutalised into acting like a single man, marching and shouting and firing in unison, like a waterwheel, mindlessly turning and breaking anything in its way. It was inhuman; but how could he convey that to the Senate?
Perhaps it did not matter, in the end. The Senate would base its decisions on a cold calculus of numbers and weight of metal. The romance of the free horseman might appear in the rhetoric of the Forum, but in the back rooms where decisions were made, they would count forges and mines, muskets and fodder. Wouldn't they? But even so, the point remained, that their calculation would be wrong: For they had not felt the earth shake to the trampling of a thousand iron-heeled boots; they had not seen cloddish peasants lifted by conscription and drill into a single great beast that moved like the fingers of a man's hand.
But, after all, perhaps it was better so; for when would the matter improve? The Russians sensed only dimly what was so clear in Alexandros's mind: They did not see that in their conscript infantry they had made a new thing under the sun, and that it would shatter kingdoms and thrones and sweep mere courage and skill before it, irresistible as the tide. And perhaps, if it was fought here, in its infancy, it need not be so: Perhaps the Russians could be forced to give up their experiment, to fight with the savage dash of their Cossacks as they had done before. Bad enough, for the Cossacks were numerous and fierce; but that was a warfare men could understand, and excel at; and there was glory in it. In the unison trampling of a thousand brow-beaten peasants there was no glory; only efficiency and death.
Alexandros bent again to his report. The next item was 11th Georgian Infantry moved to the Persian border; but the true message needed no cipher.
Russia arms for war.
2 g 17 CB, Alexandros read from his hastily-scratched notes, and began to painstakingly transcribe the information into his ciphered report. Two new guns delivered to Seventeenth Caucasian Borderers; but the words lay emptily in his mind, powerless, as though the cipher had robbed them of conviction. They did not speak of the cheers of the conscripts who had dragged the guns into their regimental compound, stripped to the waist in the harsh sun, smelling of gunpowder and oil and sweat even a hundred meters away where Alexander had stood with the civilians. The spiky marks of the code could not convey the power of five hundred men marching in snappy new uniforms, taking pride in thumping their heels down in a precise cadence, drumming out their discipline and courage. The Senators in distant New Byzantium would read his report, and think to themselves, "dull-eyed peasant conscripts", and take comfort in the thought of the horsetail banners and a hundred thousand warriors riding free across the steppes. They did not understand. They had not been there the day before, when the officers were executed for keeping dead men on the rolls of their regiment; had not heard the deep snarl of five hundred men growling their satisfaction at seeing justice done.
The signs were there for those with eyes to see, and Alexandros could make that clear enough to his masters: The crackdown on corruption, the delivery of new weapons and fresh supplies, the increased pace of drill and marching. All that was obvious, and no Komnenos would miss the implication: Russia was arming for war. But he could not make them feel the power of it, the crushing force of a settled realm awakening to the possibilities of gunpowder. They were right, in a sense: The conscripts really were dull-eyed peasants, not impressive if you spoke to them as individuals. Alexandros would match himself against any two of them, or any four, if he had a horse and a good bow, and they had muskets; or even in close combat, sabre and lance against bayonets. But the number of them! And worse, the way they were brutalised into acting like a single man, marching and shouting and firing in unison, like a waterwheel, mindlessly turning and breaking anything in its way. It was inhuman; but how could he convey that to the Senate?
Perhaps it did not matter, in the end. The Senate would base its decisions on a cold calculus of numbers and weight of metal. The romance of the free horseman might appear in the rhetoric of the Forum, but in the back rooms where decisions were made, they would count forges and mines, muskets and fodder. Wouldn't they? But even so, the point remained, that their calculation would be wrong: For they had not felt the earth shake to the trampling of a thousand iron-heeled boots; they had not seen cloddish peasants lifted by conscription and drill into a single great beast that moved like the fingers of a man's hand.
But, after all, perhaps it was better so; for when would the matter improve? The Russians sensed only dimly what was so clear in Alexandros's mind: They did not see that in their conscript infantry they had made a new thing under the sun, and that it would shatter kingdoms and thrones and sweep mere courage and skill before it, irresistible as the tide. And perhaps, if it was fought here, in its infancy, it need not be so: Perhaps the Russians could be forced to give up their experiment, to fight with the savage dash of their Cossacks as they had done before. Bad enough, for the Cossacks were numerous and fierce; but that was a warfare men could understand, and excel at; and there was glory in it. In the unison trampling of a thousand brow-beaten peasants there was no glory; only efficiency and death.
Alexandros bent again to his report. The next item was 11th Georgian Infantry moved to the Persian border; but the true message needed no cipher.
Russia arms for war.
Nonono, we were on the peaceful path of war. Or was it the warmongering path of peace? All I know is that India has been very peaceful ever since the last war.
Its been a while since I posted these:
Land forcelimits:
Novgorod
Bavaria 337
Novgorod 336
Croatia 284
Catalunya 213
England 190
Persia 165
Mongol Khanate 140
Ethiopia 134
Kongo 131
Qin 96
Malaya 88
Tripoli 86
USA 64
Tibet 58
Japan 52
Khmer 48
Punjab 48
Bengal 26
Naval forcelimits:
Malaya 365
England 272
USA 230
Catalunya 155
Ethiopia 114
Japan 84
Tripoli 76
Kongo 61
Bavaria 54
Qin 49
Khmer 45
Croatia 42
Mongol Khanate 32
Bengal 30
Persia 25
Novgorod 23
Punjab 9
Tibet 1
Land forcelimits:
Novgorod
Bavaria 337
Novgorod 336
Croatia 284
Catalunya 213
England 190
Persia 165
Mongol Khanate 140
Ethiopia 134
Kongo 131
Qin 96
Malaya 88
Tripoli 86
USA 64
Tibet 58
Japan 52
Khmer 48
Punjab 48
Bengal 26
Naval forcelimits:
Malaya 365
England 272
USA 230
Catalunya 155
Ethiopia 114
Japan 84
Tripoli 76
Kongo 61
Bavaria 54
Qin 49
Khmer 45
Croatia 42
Mongol Khanate 32
Bengal 30
Persia 25
Novgorod 23
Punjab 9
Tibet 1
Heart Of Darkness:
Eat to Live:
Eat to Live:
While the eater cult would remain restricted to the Mwene himself and to the Kongolese warrior class, quickly becoming eclipsed by the Averronians in terms of religious influence on the mass of people dwelling within Kongo, it would remain a vital engine of the empire. To understand the durability of the cannibal cult in Kongo, one must understand the advantages it gave to a growing imperial power.
Firstly it gave fear. Every man knew "to fight the eaters is to be eaten". Far better to negotiate than to see your tribe consumed in the campfires of the eaters, and the tribe's children sold into slavery. Though once negotiation failed, it did mean that enemies fought the eaters twice as hard.
Secondly it gave cohesion. The eaters who served in the Kongolese army were united in knowing themselves the elites of the food chain, linked to their comrades by the mystical bonds of eating the flesh of their enemies together, as well as the flesh of their own fallen or retired comrades. Further, the army was much more than the gaggle of individuals that Central African armies had consisted of before the First Eater had come, more, even, than a band of brothers - it was one soul filling many bodies. Because each man was simply an incarnation of this great soul, each man also believed that his life mattered much less than the health of the army as a whole. And because the ritual of eating dead comrades was so important, it also meant that the eaters were of unparalleled determination to retrieve their comrades - indeed the greatest stories of the period - such as the "Ghat Cycle" of the 16th Century poets - often concern enemies who manage to eat a comrade, and thus take on the strength of an eater as well as a portion of the wisdom of the "army soul". Unlike in European armies, where cohesion was brought to the soldiery by terror and mindless repetition, in the army of the eaters, drilling, marching, ritual dances and cannibal stews all wove together making an army where discipline was a means of expressing religious devotion.
Thirdly, it greased the wheels of assimilation, even as it provided a solid basis for a pan-Kongolese identity. No other society in the world adopted cannibalism to such an extent as did the Kongolese. Even Kongolese who had never tasted human flesh knew that this was what the First Eater had given to them to make them special. Yet it also increased the identification of the army with an all-empire identity. When an eater ate a friend or an enemy, he became a member of their tribe, father to their children, husband to their wives son to their parents. While the eater armies would take a gruesome toll on the military and civilian populations while they were conquering them, it also meant that after that toll, the eater armies rarely looted or raped their new subjects, and more often made arrangements to look after the welfare of their new family members. And it made the army the first place for people of alien cultures to get ahead in the empire, as once that ate of the flesh of the army, they were no longer an alien, but rather part of the army-soul.
Fourthly, it encouraged the moral rectitude and good health of the eaters. In the beliefs of the cannibal cult, impure flesh could not be eaten. Meaning that a sick man, or man of deviant morality, would not be allowed to add his soul to the army soul once he died. Also, the portion of the army-soul that filled a man would be lost if he could not be eaten, so a man who failed to keep himself healthy, or who committed immoral deeds, would have failed his duty to the army-soul. As a result, the eaters were the biggest health-nuts since the Spartans of Europe, and almost as puritanical.
Fifthly, the eater cult, in the incarnation of the First Eater, was a driver of imperial expansion. As the story goes, the entire reason for the Kongolese government's enthusiasm for following Tripoli and Ethiopia on their African adventures was because it would get the First Eater as far from Africa as possible.
fasquardon
I am pleased to see more steady expansion for Russia at the expense of second strongest military power. Why do you have some many vassals Rundstedt ?
Screenshots:
Map
Fighting in Persia (I lost this battle and Persia took the opportunity to push back somewhat)
Punjab's troops lack Persia's advantages over me (Military Drill and the Shia morale bonus together made a fairly wide gap) and are behind tech, so I basically let this theatre run itself while concentrating on Arabia. Which went fine, as you can see.
Income. As predicted, USA takes the number one spot.
Ranked by army size.
Ranked by manpower.
Ranked by total navy
Ranked by big ships (very similar).
Map
Fighting in Persia (I lost this battle and Persia took the opportunity to push back somewhat)
Punjab's troops lack Persia's advantages over me (Military Drill and the Shia morale bonus together made a fairly wide gap) and are behind tech, so I basically let this theatre run itself while concentrating on Arabia. Which went fine, as you can see.
Income. As predicted, USA takes the number one spot.
Ranked by army size.
Ranked by manpower.
Ranked by total navy
Ranked by big ships (very similar).
As Golle said, for my Sphere of Influence. Every nation in your SoI gives you 0.05 magistrates a year. Vassals are impossible to be "stolen" by other nations, so they make for a perfect SoI.
In DW magistrates are very important, so I'm constantly trying to improve my magistrate gain.
(And Yay!, a fan for Russia. I don't think I've had any so far.)
I actually stated that some time ago
. How come Spain is so low, is that a result of war from continued war ? Also how did dano managed to top in income with such small population ?
I'm a fan as long as you don't meddle on this side of the Atlantic
Trade while everyone else stacks up on infamy or looses prestige, along with the occasional embargo. The same way I made good income the last great game as Indonesia.
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I actually stated that some time ago
1. Mostly the war, yes 2. Trade.
I silently supports you
its fun to watch that after all its still germany vs russia
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