I finally bought Cossacks and Mare Nostrum with the recent sale. For my first full game with these expansions, I decided to play Candar since 1. I like the color, 2. I love the flag, 3. they have some decent ideas (core creation costs in tradtions!), and 3. I can't find an AAR on them.
I'm playing with the Beyond Typus mod. Though I've usually played with it since I discovered it, I considered playing in vanilla for the AAR. Then I remembered that in the current version Turkish is in the same culture group as Bedouin and a different culture group from Azeri. I could make a mini-mod just to edit cultures, but if I did that I'd create a giant Turco-Persian group, which would be a huge buff to me. Beyond Typus's culture groups are mostly linguistically-based, so I'm trading the Egyptian and Iraqi for Azeri and Turkmen, which I think is more than fair. (Also, annoyingly, Anatolia is in Asia in BT, which means that I won't be able to create trade companies in most of Asia until I move my capital. Europe and Asia are cultural constructs, and there's good reason Paradox put Anatolia in Europe.)
I figured I'd write the AAR as I play because I once planned on doing a Leon AAR. You know why you never saw a Leon AAR from me? Because once I'm finished a campaign, I tend to either start a new campaign or stop doing anything EU4-related entirely when I suddenly remember that there's things in my real life that need doing. (Like Candar, I picked Leon because I liked its ideas, its flag, and its map color.
At this point, my goals are the following:
Note on earlier attempts:
I should disclose that I restarted multiple times before I figured out an initial strategy that worked. My first attempt I allied Ramazan, not noticing that they had a Mamluk core. Faced with a choice between war against my meatshield and serious trust hit with everybody, I decided that allying Ramazan was a mistake. And while some EU4 players might roll with their mistakes, I decided to cut my losses and start over.
When I restarted, I learned that it's a fluke that Karaman was friendly the first time; they usually rival Candar. Because when the Ottomans are at the door, the focus of your hatred should be another small nation on the opposite side of the Ottomans. And as it turned out, Karaman was almost useless. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that my allying them was the only thing that kept the Ottomans from eating them, and I like their flag.
After several restart scums to get a friendly Karaman, I got into a war with the Ottomans at equal tech and what started as a more than 3:2 numerical advantage. Karaman did not join, because they had a truce with the Ottomans but Mamluks, Trabzon, and Dulkadir did. And I quickly learned why people complain about fighting the Ottomans so much.
So this AAR will start with my third serious attempt. Now that I've got the first war over and done with I'm fairly confident that this is a campaign I will see through until the end, so I'll write the first couple posts today or tomorrow.
I'm playing with the Beyond Typus mod. Though I've usually played with it since I discovered it, I considered playing in vanilla for the AAR. Then I remembered that in the current version Turkish is in the same culture group as Bedouin and a different culture group from Azeri. I could make a mini-mod just to edit cultures, but if I did that I'd create a giant Turco-Persian group, which would be a huge buff to me. Beyond Typus's culture groups are mostly linguistically-based, so I'm trading the Egyptian and Iraqi for Azeri and Turkmen, which I think is more than fair. (Also, annoyingly, Anatolia is in Asia in BT, which means that I won't be able to create trade companies in most of Asia until I move my capital. Europe and Asia are cultural constructs, and there's good reason Paradox put Anatolia in Europe.)
I figured I'd write the AAR as I play because I once planned on doing a Leon AAR. You know why you never saw a Leon AAR from me? Because once I'm finished a campaign, I tend to either start a new campaign or stop doing anything EU4-related entirely when I suddenly remember that there's things in my real life that need doing. (Like Candar, I picked Leon because I liked its ideas, its flag, and its map color.
At this point, my goals are the following:
- Become a different sort of purple blob in what should be rightfully Ottoman land. Relegate the Ottomans to the dustbin of history in favor of a country with a much nicer flag and map color.
- Originate Global Trade and be eligible to originate Manufactories and Enlightenment. (The latter two aren't guaranteeable, so I'll screenshot the criteria for them before the tick so y'all can see I'm eligible whether I get them or not.)
- Follow in Ataturk's footsteps (or I guess foreshadow Ataturk's footsteps) by attempting to fulfill the six arrows of Kemalism.
- Make as many fourth-wall-breaking jokes as possible. (Yes, I'm probably the only person who will find them funny, but I'm going to do it anyways.) I will consider the game won (but still keep playing), if I can get the Russians to siege down Aleppo at any point in the game.
Note on earlier attempts:
I should disclose that I restarted multiple times before I figured out an initial strategy that worked. My first attempt I allied Ramazan, not noticing that they had a Mamluk core. Faced with a choice between war against my meatshield and serious trust hit with everybody, I decided that allying Ramazan was a mistake. And while some EU4 players might roll with their mistakes, I decided to cut my losses and start over.
When I restarted, I learned that it's a fluke that Karaman was friendly the first time; they usually rival Candar. Because when the Ottomans are at the door, the focus of your hatred should be another small nation on the opposite side of the Ottomans. And as it turned out, Karaman was almost useless. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that my allying them was the only thing that kept the Ottomans from eating them, and I like their flag.
After several restart scums to get a friendly Karaman, I got into a war with the Ottomans at equal tech and what started as a more than 3:2 numerical advantage. Karaman did not join, because they had a truce with the Ottomans but Mamluks, Trabzon, and Dulkadir did. And I quickly learned why people complain about fighting the Ottomans so much.
So this AAR will start with my third serious attempt. Now that I've got the first war over and done with I'm fairly confident that this is a campaign I will see through until the end, so I'll write the first couple posts today or tomorrow.