Thanks to everyone who is following this for subscribing! Also Erebos, I'm curious to see how that game goes down compared to this one.
==CHAPTER II: THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE MORE INTERESTING I SWEAR==
So our conversion process begins, and our pagan missionaries go out first to the coreless provinces we took from the Teutons, mostly because they have the highest chances there. Time to get our Latvian brothers back to thinking the right way, the Pagan way. I also decrease our 38k man army to a smaller, more manageable, and cheaper 23k man one. At first I keep them in Kurland because that province seriously seems to hate us for some reason. They actually end up converting really early on, but they still feel like revolting all over the place. Eventually I just move the army to Minsk, because it's a lot easier to react to threats from the middle of the country, rather than the far north. Also notice how Holland is occupying Riga, they luckily don't do anything because if they did I would go nuts and do something really stupid like go to war with Holland. I love Riga too much to see it die.
Again, I forgot to take a screenshot of Kurland converting, but both of these provinces readily accept Paganism very early. Which is simply wonderful! Obviously the Latvians were practicing in secret and merely said they were catholic to please the Teutons. Take that Pope! Nobody likes you here in the Baltic, go back to trying to take over Urbino and keep out of our lives!
Now this really isn't anything important, but I decided to take this moment to say that I probably will not be focusing on much of a navy, not for a long time anyway. I have always been terrible with Navies, something always seems to go wrong when I build one. But at the same time, I know that Lithuania is going to have to get into the Colonial race too, so eventually I'll get one, a small one, just enough to get troops across the Atlantic or to the Pacific. Until then, if a faraway nation declares war on me, I'm just going to play it defensively.
Again, with the end of another year, and another large sum of money pumped into the treasury, I'm able to send another two Missionaries out to convert heathens. The conversion chance for these guys being significantly less, I'm not sure if that's because they're Orthodox, or if it's because I didn't take them in some war, but it's going to probably take a while for the rest of the provinces. I also want to show that the flag of Ryazan is an incredibly fabulous man doing the disco point.
In other news, I pass one of TWO WHOPPING options for Animist religious decisions. Divination decreases revolt risk, which I really need at the moment. Also it allows us to declare things as deities in our pantheon. Obviously Riga is a god, I mean the entire nation of Riga, not the people, but the nation itself is a god. I decree it. It is the god of OPMs. And the Flag of Ryazan is a god too, it is the god of fabulous.
Meanwhile, because nothing is happening in my country right now that is remotely interesting, I decide to check up on the rest of the world. Oh my god yes. Nizhny Novgorod formed. This is pretty much the first time I have ever seen this happen in one of my games. They better live, and single handedly take down the horde, or I will be disappointed.
Spain in 1363...
Trying to forget about the idea of Spain attempting to make war with everything on earth this early on, I send out two more missionaries. Despite the fact that the previous provinces still haven't converted. Maybe all four of them will convert at once in some big sort of Pagan baptization get together. Or whatever we do.
Ukraine, normally I would hate you, but these past couple of years have been so boring that I welcome the chance to wipe the floor with your silly nationalist ideas. It gives me SOMETHING to kill, so thanks, and prepare to die.
While my armies get in some much needed slaughter and bloodlust I do some administration-y things. Apparently some artisans are pissed off that I am taxing them too much, so my options are either slaughter them or abolish a tax. Because Free Subjects is amazing and Aristocracy pretty much sucks, I happily take the abolishing of a tax, which for some reason has no effect on my economy whatsoever. But hey, who's complaining? Certainly not the Artisans.
With the Ukranians finally dead, and another year having passed by, I use my last missionary to try and convert another province. The other four STILL haven't done anything in the way of becoming pagan. Come on you guys, you're Lithuanians! Do you really want to be shown up by those nationless Latvians? Convert faster!
Oh god the Teutonic Order is really going to down. Wait how did they even get that many troops there that doesn't make sense. They actually end up doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING with this war, and here I was hoping they would at the least annex Croatia or something.
And here begins a long cascading line of people warning me. I know how this works, I've played as non christian nations before. Esentially everyone thinks it is a good idea to warn me not to go to war with anything, and then suddenly these Warnings become everyone just outright declaring wars of aggression on me. Which can get infinitely hairy. But you should see how many Nations have warned me this chapter. Naples, Portugal, England, Denmark, EVEN MOROCCO. Yes Morocco got in on the everyone hates pagans bandwagon too. Out of pure fear of being taken down by the Morroccans, I increase my army size back to 30, and wait for the inevitable...
Which never comes.
Finally my little shaman missionaries start successfully doing things right. And we actually manage to convert a province. After three years, FINALLY, something happens, perhaps we actually can re-paganize Lithuania after all.
The Golden Horde also seems to hate me, they first embargoed me, but then started sending over Spies by the truckloads to cause an endless cycle of revolts. Apparently the Golden Horde favors the idea of Permanent Revolution, who would have thought that the Mongols were Trotskyists? I don't really feel like using my spies on them, considering their massive armies, but I make a note in my mind to absolutely crush them next time I get the chance.
I also start to get on the road to Westernization, which will without a doubt be a long, dangerous, and tedious path. With an actual army at my disposal I can now centralize without fear, and, what do you know, a huge revolt happens. 15 regiments may seem like a lot, but I got a decent general remember, AND more troops than them. So honestly, I am not worried about this at all. Turns out I'm right, they surrender very quickly.
Also this happens. MORE PAGANS YAY.
STYRIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
This must be the game filled with nations that never form. Nizhny Novgorod better kill the Golden Horde, and Styria better start blobbing instead of Austria. I swear. Thanks to divination, Styria is now the god of win, and Nizhny Novgorod is now the god of killing Mongolians.
[CONTINUED IN A DIFFERENT POST DUE TO IMAGE RESTRICTIONS]
