1488: I day one declared on Tibet, got money from Manchu, and went straight to India, specifically, southern India as the only 2 major Hindu powers hate each other and no one likes Shia countries. It gets even better as Indian countries can't see you at start. If they don't know about your country, they can't join a coalition, thus I had 0 problems expanding really fast in India. However, you do want to try to pick off some of the northern countries once you're Hindu since that's where the manpower is in India.
Went Adm focus from the start and got a 4 Adm king after my 3 Adm starter king died 10 years in. I expanded only through vassals and put every point I could into ideas to reform ASAP in 1488 and became Hindu 4 years later. Since you start Buddhist, I reloaded the start until I got a theologian and took a province from Uzbok to get 5% missionary strength to carry over into my new religion. Every percent counts, especially for religions with few missionaries. If you're Hindu before reforming, you become Muslim tech for some reason instead of Indian so you couldn't become a protectorate. At this point, the only possessions you can't see that I didn't start with were Sibir and Kazakh as opm vassals.
1508: Expanded in eastern India and I sold some base tax 1 provinces to Sibir/Kazakh to get my Buddhist province count down so I could convert. I'm still at dip tech 3 here. I think I was at dip tech 3 until the 1570s as I spent pretty much all my dip on annexations and exploration ideas.
1527: After I integrated my vassals (you will lose them), I became a protectorate. My overlord was Tyrone, who was eaten by Munster, who was eaten by England. The protectorate is not just to avoid coalitions from fast conquest, it's so you can fabricate claims on everything for the -85% coring cost (3 Adm per BT) I was able to reach by 1550. I still did use vassals when I could since some countries are just nicely sized and dealing with rebels is a pain. Exploration ideas were not just for the protectorate. I tried to colonize all the expensive BT provinces in Asia so I would not have to core them later on.
1598: The coalition that would've been against me. I had just beaten the Timurid Ottoman alliance (since they were also fighting Russia), taking a few provinces for a Persian vassal but mostly to force them to dissolve their partnership. I forced Ming to release Shun and Xi though I should've forced Zhou and Xi. Shun is powerful. I did it so I could avoid truce times due to alliances and so I could use more than one diplomat to forge claims. I know most people would go for Ming right away, but why integrate it at 15 dip per bt when you could annex at 3 adm per?
1607: As Hindu, you don't really have a chance for lots of missionaries, but you can get one from owning Rome. I originally attacked the Papal State back in the mid 1500s. I annexed and released it, so the government was Hindu and the land still Catholic. I also forgot you can't sell provinces as a protectorate and had to cancel vassalization. Of course, you can't do that as a protectorate either so I gave it up in a peace deal. Finally, I decided just to cut a swath through the Mamluks to the Mediterranean so I could actually core it. When I got back there in the early 1600s, the province had been forced converted to Hinduism by rebels. Funnily enough, later when I annexed them, they reappeared from a theocracy in the HRE like they normally do, but they were still Hindu.
1622: Right here is when it all comes together and it kicks into overdrive. I had just spent the Adm for the -10 years of nationalism. -Nationalism is amazing for direct coring because of how it scales. I had -15 years overall, but that doesn't mean that it still starts out at 15 RR and drops twice as fast, it's applied as if 15 years had already gone by so you only get 7.5 RR. I only had to deal with half the RR from nationalism and once places were converted, they were pretty much at a manageable RR level. After taking that idea, I had no more Adm ideas I wanted to get for the rest of the game. Thus every Adm point was only put into coring, stab, and occasionally tech. I also recently finished diplomatic ideas, lowering the cost of lowering WE to 50 dip. This set of ideas, NIs, religion, and being a protectorate allowed me to go into 'truce are just pieces of paper' mode. Stab cost was only 50 Adm even without an advisor and Dip was spent on lowering WE from truce breaks and the occasional vassal.
For the rest of the game, there were only 2 truce timers that reached completion on countries that I did not white peace out. Oman who was at that point a 2pm and didn't matter and the Ottomans when they were an 2pm and Kilwa was the Sunni DotF, who was allied with England, my overlord. That's it. I lived at -2 stab from 1622 until the 1730s, when I raised it to 0 for a while since I had so new people to attack (HRE) and needed some legitimacy for vassal integration, then back to -2 in the 1760s until 1810. I went from here to 100% cored WC (except for buggy Caribbean opm France) in 190 years. And that's with slowing down to be sure to fabricate on stuff after 1770 (when I had the best admin efficiency) since I had a 6 year regency and then a skill 1 Adm king.
1664: After having finished off the giant Timurids (who became the Mughals shortly after the previous pic) and Japan, as well as integrating vassals and eating more Shun. I also moved my capital to Imereti on the Black Sea to shorten diplomat travel times.
1676: I finished off Shun and Aceh/Makassar as well as vassalizing what was left of the Mamluks. My first attacks into European countries. There was the strange triangle alliance of Ottos/Algeria/Netherlands (and the Netherlands was the biggest I've ever seen it by far) and to the north, the Russian/French alliance. I initially did quick wars to break alliances with the western Euros and cut off Ottos/Russia's different continent holdings. Then I started to rotate wars between them (as truces didn't matter), coring one while I was fighting the other and creating several vassals.
1699: Due to cutting off other continent holdings and the first level of Admin Efficiency, I was able to grab a whole lot real fast. I also created a bunch of vassals from Russia/Ottos eastern European areas to try to push closer to the HRE since I only had 120 years left. I started to attack down Africa's east coast. Ethiopia was actually a great vassal opportunity, large with lots of provinces but mostly low BT so not worth the fabrication time. However, I was overflowing with Adm since the wars with Russia and Ottos would take a while and I had a good Adm king, so I ended coring it with only a few fabrications.
1709: I made some attacks to isolate then chain wars with Poland and Lithuania to release as vassals since they both had Aristocratic. I kept attacking the Ottos and for Russia, I specifically made it a point to core their large but cheap provinces even though they weren't claims just to condense the area where my armies would have to fight and to shorten wars.
1713: This is why being a protectorate is so awesome. Also, more condensing Russia by returning provinces.
1724: Still fighting Russia/Ottos. Fought Spain, Portugal, Austria and Denmark one time through cascading alliances, but only beat up Denmark then white peaced. Got my first New World holdings when I had to annex then release Norway, who was in South America. I released them because I found out they and Denmark both take Aristocratic. I annexed Scotland to get my first CN, New Scotland, in the eastern US. As an amusing protectorate benefit, England would kill any rebels that popped up there.
1728: This screenshot is why you go Hindu. Hinduism takes it from -75% to -85% cost, 66% more conquering for the same Adm. Also, I had just bought the new level of Admin Efficiency (50%). This was the only time I took it ahead of time (only 2 years, but still), due to needing to finish off Denmark without another war and having an amazing Adm king. He was born skill 5 but went to 6 after about 20 years of rule with Hindu events. You can get a +2 Adm buff, but I think it's limited to Vishnu, the +missionary strength god, and I only got that one once. Regardless, my kings probably averaged about .75 Adm skill higher because I was Hindu. The -10% stab cost, -1 RR, and -6% tech cost permanent decisions make it even better.
1729: Religious map. Portuguese and French Siberia because I focused more on settling high BT provinces in Indonesia and Australia, even though the latter can become a CN. Hindu has great benefits, but conversion isn't one of them. When you get enough provinces that you really need to convert, you wouldn't be using Vishnu. It's good enough before Admin Efficiency, though.
1732: Ottomans now a 2pm. War to finally annex Russia. First war with HRE states brings in half the HRE. Bohemia is Emperor. England fighting rebels for me in Scotland again.
1740: Russia gone. Chunks of HRE eaten. Tuscany released because of Italian minor NIs and +50% coring cost policy (thanks, AI). Took some Portugal/Spain holdings in North Africa because they were allied to Austria. At this point in the game, I had planned on rush annexing Portugal and Netherlands since they had lots of overseas provinces, so I didn't target them for a while, but eventually had to change strategies.
1748: Plowing my way through the HRE. Bavaria is a vassal. I felt confident enough to take on the French/Dutch alliance at the same time.
1754: Tragedy strikes as my greatest king dies at the senselessly young age of 74. He is replaced by a 58 year old and a just born Adm skill 1 heir. I could just see the regency coming. From now on I was slower and more deliberate and didn't grab anything over 3 BT without a claim unless it was an overseas island or when I ate England at the end.
1764: Fought Spain/Portugal, starting to eat them and took Siberia. Also took French Siberia in the current war. Because I had beaten up all the majors, England was now Catholic DotF, but thankfully they started fighting with France, so a declaration on France and England lost it. I started attacking other religions and stacked more wars as I sensed I was nearing a regency which actually happened earlier in 1764 than the pic. I used the 6 years to fabricate more claims and build a giant navy (500+ heavies), so it wasn't that bad. Also, a downside to being a protectorate is that anything you don't have a claim on will be occupied by your overlord if they are also in a war versus your target, even if they are separate wars, and that's why France is covered in red. I finally annexed the Ottomans opm (they lost Thessaly to rebels earlier) and Bohemia lost the emperor title to Austria so now I could finally conquer them.
1773: War began again in 1770. Ate more of Spain proper and Portuguese overseas territories. Turned Bohemia, Savoy, and Mantua into Vassals. Bohemia and Mantua have +coring cost NIs and Savoy was just convenient. Rev. France appeared in 1767 and I converted the last Siberian province to Hindu in 1770. Note: I only started attacking the HRE and Western Europe 40 years earlier and had a regency.
1791: Ate more of Africa. Had a failed attempt at annex/releasing Kilwa since I didn't get which modifiers cleared correct so I had to redo it. When I annexed part of Creek, I got to the last little pocket of uncolonized land and finished it. Rev. France turned back into France. Made Aragon a vassal.
1798: Finishing off Portugal and Spain was a pain because I forgot to take into account preventing their CNs from sieging anything and stupid Bermuda hiding in the Atlantic. Also finished the Netherlands in this war. Siena, Kilwa and Kongo made into vassals, Morocco released as one after the war. Finally lost protectorate status after 271 years by attacking England. I tried to full annex France but this is the first time I ran into the bug where it wouldn't let me, so I took their CN's land and everything but Ile-de-France and 2 Caribbean provinces.
1807: England finished. I was still trying to figure out a way around the bug to annex France and settled on making it an opm to annex right at the very end. Only North American countries were left free. They were all annexed at the same time a couple years later.
1721: Ending screen with ideas.
which means a waste of diplo relation).
