Challenge game: (12)Fullfill the conditions of the "around the world in 80 years achievement

[PhoenixG]

You see Hejaz and Mamluks usually allies someone in Arabia. You could declare on Hejaz, vassalize Najd, take stuff from hejaz up to lebanon, release them and core around -> reached the mediteranian in one war.

hmm... never thought of that route

 

[Gratak]

hmm... never thought of that route

To be honest, I dont think it's faster than what already has been done. Your only advantage is tributaries (you can core same-continent near them as well). But moving your capital to Africa to repeat this in the western-south-saharan will be very expensive.

 

[alexti]

Question: is it legal to release a nation and play as them? I ask because Persia would be in a similar position as the Mamluks (already on the Indian ocean, but with easy access to European provinces) without necessarily having to deal with the starting ruler situation.

If it is allowed, I assume that there would be some restrictions, of course, such as "no disintegrating the overlord before releasing the vassal you'll actually play as".

If it isn't allowed...how terrible an idea would Qara Qoyunlu be? I honestly have zero familiarity with playing hordes in general and QQ in particular, they just seem well-placed geographically.

I don't think that Persia is a very promising start - the only thing it has on Timurids is pre-explored world. QQ or Timurids are potentially interesting - they are not constrained by MP generation and can easily get to ADM-5 and 3 exploration ideas well before 1453. The problem for hordes is the coring range and lack of fleet in Mediterranean. To annex Azores by 1455 you only have 10 years. Considering number of nations you will have to wade through a lot of time will be spent sieging. You will have to be in multiple wars all the time (because you need to harvest MP as well) and you will need to manage AE as well, so it's a tricky play. Asking for maps can help, in this matter Timurids are preferable to QQ since it will be easier to find friendly nations. Expert-level players might be able to pull it off though...

 

[SPAMbuca]

I couldn't resist and tried a run As Ottomans - 1 April 1469. Unlike Mamluks that require serious luck to make a fast run, Ottomans game is largely in the player's hands. I've made some dumb mistakes, reasonably good players should be able to get something around 1465-1466.

There are few important things - do not take "make Constantinople capital" decision early and don't loot merchant guild for DIP before ADM-5.

I took Constantinople (mission, just Constantinople and humiliate) - mostly to get conquer Levant mission and get some PP (here I think it's better to sit on OE for a while). Then I attacked Mamluks to take western-most Africa province and something coastal in Asia, by the time I won that war I had spy network set up in Tunis, so I've claimed and DoW Tunis to get Kabylia. I was fabricating on both Morocco and Tlemcen, by the time I was ready to claim only Morocco survived.

After finishing war with Tunis I've moved capital in Asia (to the province I took from Mamluks), which was almost 400ADM because I took Constantinople decision , no CB'd Madurai and sent army to India (by land), vassalized Madurai and used their core/claims to take couple of provinces from VIJ to make a corridor to Ceylon and then take the eastern-most province from Ceylon

Then back to Europe - took Tangiers from Morocco, fabricated on Portugal, DoW Portugal(+Castille+England). Finally I got ADM-5 and 3 exploration ideas so I could take Azores and send a colonist to Christmas island (here I made another mistake - I should have moved capital to Ceylon before doing that). When Azores cored I've send a colonist to Caribbean (after moving capital to Azores). For South America I got coastal tribe, but even without that the colony would have worked too.

If you had screenshots, I could count this.

edit: I'll check the new submissions tomorrow and update the first post if needed.

 

[knoddy]

So my latest attempt is looking good, my crappy Mameluke leader died like 1 year into the game and I got a random 5/5/4 with 60ish legitimacy from nowhere so looking good xd

Shame I have to work so I can't do it during the day xd

 

[SPAMbuca]

Question: is it legal to release a nation and play as them? I ask because Persia would be in a similar position as the Mamluks (already on the Indian ocean, but with easy access to European provinces) without necessarily having to deal with the starting ruler situation.

If it is allowed, I assume that there would be some restrictions, of course, such as "no disintegrating the overlord before releasing the vassal you'll actually play as".

If it isn't allowed...how terrible an idea would Qara Qoyunlu be? I honestly have zero familiarity with playing hordes in general and QQ in particular, they just seem well-placed geographically.

There is no rule against it, so it's allowed.

 

[Splax77]

http://imgur.com/a/P7B5x 1st February 1475. Could've been a bit faster if I was more attentive and optimized my timings a bit more, but beating 1473 would require luck with one of the +pop events which I was not lucky enough to get this time around. Still convinced Ottomans is the best due to the abundance of monarch points and lack of RNG needed to get a good time.

I took the same Sassari -> no CB Portugal (lucky me, both Castile and France dishonored) -> Madeira -> New World route as last time, rerolling until Aragon didn't ally Venice so I could actually ship troops over to Naples. This time I no-cb'd Tupinamba instead of getting a South American colony, though it wouldn't have made much of a difference in the end I don't think. I attacked AQ and moved my capital to his former capital, which is in Asia, with the objective being to walk over and no CB Pagarruyung and vassalize him to core next to him. I allied Baluchistan because you don't get black flagged when in allied territory, then got a long chain of military access to get where I needed. From Pasai you easily have the range to reach Cocos Island, though the 550 day colonist travel time is a bit absurd.

 

[Dominion]

View attachment 290505 View attachment 290506 View attachment 290509 View attachment 290510
To my best knowledge, Mamluks is the best choice.
Actually tech 5 is enough with some imagination
Here is my first try. 1 March 1473

IN YOUR FACE!

You probably don't care. I do. I needed to yell.

1. January, 1469

or 1469-1-1 or whatever, I'm hyped and exhausted and wasted way too much time, but I have to admit, that challenge was the most fun I have had in a long time.

Album


Mistakes I made which are improvable:

- Started golden Era AFTER unlocking expansion and investing all Dip points. At least 120 DP lost
- had to lower WE because Mamluks were uncooperative as hell. Minus 75 DP
- 0 events giving additional population
- Only took a single coastal province towards Asia with a base production of 2. 1 ship every 500 days. Transporting troops was fun

Aside from the last thing, which I really really REALLY should have mapped out, I am happy it went well.
Reason I missed it was because I never played that opening before.

Got the jump position a lot earlier at the cost of getting Mamlukean provinces a bit later.
Should've pushed through and taken more provinces from Mamluks, but I was really scared since they can't win on land, but definitely had more on water.

That's pretty much the only coincidence and place where I could've ruined the run and it was very early into the game. The rest is mapped.

Earliest point the leader is allowed to die is some time around 1460, depending on your path, which isn't really a risk.
My consort gave me +50 dip twice right at the start of the run, so he could've died even earlier and it wouldn't have mattered.
He actually died at some point, making room for a beautiful 3/1/2.
I was not aware Ottoman rulers could be that horrible, but it didn't matter.

Another thing that can - but usually doesn't - ruin the run is a horrible sequence of Estate pulses.
As a sidenote: I thought it was a 3 year pulse. Why do I get an event changing their influence in 1445? wtf?
This run they were kind to me. I ended with only 9 loans. Average was somewhere around 20 and I even went bankrupt twice.

Before I forget, here's a fun blooper from yesterday.

Yes, I yelled at the monitor. And some birds. A lot of time was spent in the garden after almost every fail.

Still haven't played Mamluks anywhere beyond 1460. I just can't. Every time I try it's as if Murphy had a field trip, everything that could go wrong, will go wrong.
Record so far and last time I played them was stopped after 4 stab hits in 10 years.

Sorry for the Wall of Text, it was a real piece of work to get this one mapped out and a very special THANK YOU @a7777777com for reminding me of moving my capital.

I really hope Mamluks aren't that much better than Ottos. I'd love to avoid doing it again, as much fun as it has been.



If you read all of this, thank you for your time, thanks to all of you for the challenge and I really hope I get it this time

 

[bbqftw]

Well this begs the question - can portugal even beat 1469?

 

[SPAMbuca]

Updated the first post again. If I made a mistake in the current top 3, please notify me.

Well this begs the question - can portugal even beat 1469?

I was gonna say, probably not, but maybe they can. The reason people can do this extremely fast is due to no cb wars. In theory, Portugal could no cb his way across Northern Africa too to reach Asia and choose whether he wants to reach Oceania from Rapanui or Cocos Island.


If a Portugal player manages to pull that off, his colonies grow faster than anyone else's.

 

[a7777777com]

IN YOUR FACE!

You probably don't care. I do. I needed to yell.

1. January, 1469

Great job! Congrats.

Ottomans has a much better monarch, but I still think Mamluks is better if its old ruler dies with a new one above average.

In my current Mamluks game, he died in the first month and left a 526 ruler with 20 legitimacy. I've tried several times and it was super good luck. Although still not good as Ottomans, I was pretty satisfied with this.

When I finish this attempt, I will put up with details. Have to work so can't say when I can finish that.

Thank you for reminding me of golden Era, I could save about one-year with this.

 

[PhoenixG]

for people wonder why you don't get pop+ event when colonizing cocos island; it doesn't have in the first place.

 

[Dominion]

I forgot about the golden era in half of my runs. It's still not in my blood yet, too new of a mechanic.

Thank you for reminding me of golden Era, I could save about one-year with this.

Don't do this to me

for people wonder why you don't get pop+ event when colonizing cocos island; it doesn't have in the first place.

Colonial Migration and Expansion should still be able to pop.

I really think I got to the point where mapping can't be improved and it's down to perfect play and RNG settler growth. I know I tend to overshoot, but I'm quite confident this time, at least for Ottos.
But RNG is a beast in these short challenges.

Got 1473 twice today, both times just shy of the prior record before finally getting below 1470.
Even though I changed the path it "only" saved me a bit more than a year. The rest were jumps of "additional settlers arrive" towards the end.
20% chance triggered every three months in that timeframe, bringing it down to 15 months from 24. In the end I finished slightly below average, which is nice.

Or in numbers: I was 1 year faster than expected based on the average of a 19% chance. Perfect RNG could get that down by another 5 years.

Won't happen to any of us, but it's a huge window.

 

[PhoenixG]

Colonial Migration and Expansion should still be able to pop.

Colonial expansion shouldn't be able, since it's an island so it doesn't border any uncolonized province. Migration can, but you need a second colony. The cocos island need to be >500 pop while the second one need to be between 300-500 pop.

 

[Dominion]

Colonial expansion shouldn't be able, since it's an island so it doesn't border any uncolonized province. Migration can, but you need a second colony. The cocos island need to be >500 pop while the second one need to be between 300-500 pop.

Nice to keep in the back of your head. If any SA tribe migrates to the coast you save a colonist. In the optimal case (which I didn't get) it's close enough to NA so you don't need any in the west.

Since you always have 2 colonists you can either turn off your American colonist (which should be ~200 pop ahead of Christmas or Cocos) and put him into any random SA province.

Even after moving your capit you're still usually ~1 year behind in Oceania. That's better than the 10 years we started out with, but a big enough difference for this to possibly come into play.

Neat idea actually. Really neat.

 

[alexti]

I really think I got to the point where mapping can't be improved and it's down to perfect play and RNG settler growth. I know I tend to overshoot, but I'm quite confident this time, at least for Ottos.

I think I am going to beat it by a good margin I have a somewhat different strategy (different from the one I've posted yesterday) that I believe should work. Just need to find time to play to confirm it...

 

[knoddy]

so even with my perfect mamluk start, i still can only get early 1470s, Coring, colonizing and sieging just take too long when time is so precious.

even with my good heir early on, I was still not starting to explore the african coast until 1455, i declare on Jolof and Sunda around the same time, late 1450s vassalize both, sieze land from both after moving capital, core it. by the time cores are done, i can explore america and australia, which takes me through too late 1460s and if no tribes move up to the coast of Brazil its pretty much gg lol

edit - wanted so much for mamluks to work, might be time to concede and go ottoman

 

[SPAMbuca]

Would Kongo be an option? I figured there would be much less travel time considering their location.

 

[Dominion]

Kongo doesn't have Feudalism and you only get ~1000 unneeded mil points before you hit your dip cap so spawning it isn't possible.

 

[PhoenixG]

1 dec 1469. Last try for me.

After doing this, I don't think Mamluks will be faster. It's more about rushing admin 5 and getting exploration 3. And a bit where Arawak or Carab is.

Would Kongo be an option? I figured there would be much less travel time considering their location.

Actually all african countries are bad, since the start with tech 2, 50% tech penalty and need to explore a lot