Achievement Suggestion: Sweet Potatoes

[NorthernFalcon]

First of all, the achievement:

Playing as Tonga, complete the mission "Tongan Supremacy", and have a merchant in Lima before 1532.

The Tu'i Tonga Empire is one of the lesser known empires in world history, which makes it perfect for EU4's audience. While modern historians know little about it, it is clear that it had widespread influence throughout the South Pacific. In 1777, after the empire had declined over multiple centuries, Captain Cook witnessed a tribute ceremony featuring people from Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. The Tu'i Tonga Empire is particularly known for the transoceanic trade it facilitated. Modern historians view the existence of sweet potatoes throughout Oceania (native to South America) as evidence that trade routes existed between South America and Tonga before the arrival of the Europeans (Francisco Pizarro, 1532).

EU4 already acknowledges the Tu'i Tonga Empire through the Tongan mission tree, given the missions "Tu'i Tonga Empire" and "Tongan Supremacy", and their unique goal of having 6 tributary states or 4 vassal states in order to complete the mission. It is an unusual playstyle and it would be cool to bring attention to it through an achievement.

I just tested this achievement earlier today and I was able to get it done by 1555 in a fairly casual playthrough with a number of unforced errors. A well-planned playthrough should be able to accomplish this. (If I had a second run at this, I'd beeline exploration ideas and conquer my way to Peru.)

However, I would like to propose a secondary, harder version of this achievement:

Playing as Tonga, own or have subjects own the entire Oceania region; have a subject in Australia; and have a merchant in Lima before it is discovered by any European nation.

Currently, there is only one achievement featuring Oceania, and that achievement involves migrating to the United States. As such, I would like to see more love for the Oceania region through this achievement. The creation of a very hard achievement like the second version would bring interest to this region.

 

[YellowPress]

Why do we need impossible achievements like this and why this specific date?

 

[NorthernFalcon]

The idea is that Tonga in South America is one of only two probable instances of pre-Columbian transoceanic contact of the Americas, along with the Vikings in L'Anse-aux-Meadows. 1532 is the date when the Europeans discovered the Andean cultures that the Tongans had contacted. So the basic idea is beating the Europeans to America, as happened historically.

I'm currently attempting a second run of this to see how difficult it is.

 

[NorthernFalcon]

I gave it another attempt and I was able to get the merchant to Lima in 1543, with the entire Oceania region under my control. (Three of the islands were still colonies.) That was not a perfect attempt by any means either, as I ended up miscalculating an invasion of New Zealand early on and losing all of my manpower on a 10-15 year long war; I ended up giving up a ton of dip points to reduce war exhaustion.

It is very doable to conquer and colonize the entire Oceania region by 1532, while having a merchant in Lima and a subject in Australia. However, based on that experience, I would suggest the final form of the achievement be:

Playing as Tonga, own or have subjects own the entire Oceania region; have a subject in Australia; and have a merchant in Lima before 1532.

To make it slightly easier, I would set the date as December 31, 1532; and I would count colonies as "owned provinces" if that is possible.

Edit: Finished the last colonial core in 1548.

 

[AirikrStrife]

We definitly want achievments for oceanian tags!

 

[zincpl]

Really cool, but I'd say 1550 seems a more reasonable end date based on your runs

 

[PyroMegaManZ]

I feel it would be beneficial to have a few different achievements to target different levels of challenge. I think the following could be good?

Sweet Potatoes: as a Polynesian nation, have a South American nation steering trade to you before 1532.
Polynesian Wayfinders: as a Polynesian nation, be the first to circumnavigate the world.
Tu'i Tonga: as Tonga, have your subjects own a total of 1000 development without any subjects having over 50% liberty desire.
Rongorongo: as a Polynesian nation, have your capital on Easter Island and embrace Printing Press by 1555.
Long White Cloud: as any nation, form Aotearoa.

This would hopefully facilitate challenges of varying difficulties that would be well tailored to the history of the Polynesian nations.