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

[SPAMbuca]

Hmm true. Does Mali/ the muslim nations in Western Africa have Feudalism?

 

[PhoenixG]

Nope, but it is growing in his capital, since he isn't tribal

 

[SPAMbuca]

Kilwa and Ajuuraan have feudalism. They are in the perfect position to both reach the New world and Oceania quick. Problem would be Europe. I suppose they could no cb something like Gazimukh and take it as a vassal?

edit: they don't see Gazimukh, but they do see AQ. If you're quick, perhaps it's possible to no cb vassalize them?

 

[PhoenixG]

You can always use a conquistador to scout

 

[Gratak]

Nope, but it is growing in his capital, since he isn't tribal

Way too slow. Takes forever.

 

[Hessian Mercenary]

Those times are insane

 

[Hessian Mercenary]

1 May 1470. Got really lucky at first with a 4-2-4 ruler in december 1444 but I forgot to set admin focus. Easily cost me 2 years for admin tech 5 And of course later no +pop event for my colonies. Mamluks might be a gamble for an early good ruler but if it works they seem better suited for the task than Ottos

 

[alexti]

Hard (or VH) is not required for this challenge, right? 1 August 1465 on normal difficulty.



Figuring I should try to exploit that I've decided to try on normal difficulty and that led to comical results. It seems that on normal AI likes to charge into the mountains and it doesn't bother to maintain forts. Nevertheless my first attempt has completely failed due to Ceylon disbanding (or selling?) their cogs, so their fleet became faster and wouldn't allow me to cross the straight. In a second (or more like 4th try) I have made sure to DoW them in 1446, before they had chance to do something stupid

The strategy is nearly bullet-proof. It should allow to consistently start colonizing Christmas Island in 1455 and Caribbeans in 1456. Then it's a matter of RNG.

At the start I demand core from AQ and DoW BYZ on Jan 1, 1445. Then prepare for alliance with QQ (conceding the core I have on their province - I am glad there is some use for this feature). The spare army marches to SW-most QQ province, so that it's in position when BYZ war ends. Spare diplomats spy on Mamluks and Tunis.

Take only Constantinople (and humiliate), but don't make it a capital (let's sit on OE). Immediately ally QQ, take mission on Mamluks, DoW Mamluks (QQ will join for land) and rush Damascus. I only want their NW and SW-most provinces and something for QQ, so the war ends quickly, no need to take any other forts. In the meantime start spying on Aragon.

The next step is noCB Ceylon (I've initially raised stability, but stayed at -1 after noCB to conserve ADM) and start marching small army there. As long as they have cogs in their fleet you can cross, they can't get there in time and AI doesn't anticipate. It's worth spending DIP to lower WE here, ADM-5 is going to be a bottleneck anyway. By the time Mamluk war is over you can fabricate on Tunis.

Plan A is to DoW them with the goal of taking 2 provinces on Barbary coast (when Beghazi cores there will be enough range) - one for Granada, another for ourselves, but no need to core it). By the time the war is over (and war vs Ceylon should be finished too by then) there is a need for peace - to sell one of these provinces to Granada, fabricate on them (spy network should be prepared ahead of time) and get rid of the extra province. Then move capital to Antakia (good thing we haven't made Constantinople capital), seize Kandy from Ceylon, start coring it and finally take Constantinople decision. Now Christmas islands will be in range (with Exploration-3). The next war is against Granada with the goal of vassalizing them and then seizing Gibraltar.

Plan A can fail if Tunis is allied to Granada (it seems rare, but it happened in my last run), so plan B is to fabricate on Naples, take Baleares from Aragon and then DoW Tunis (after the peace break) with the goal of taking Gibraltar from Granada. This is slower than plan A because you have to spend 3 years coring Baleares.

Gibraltar gives enough range to take Azores with exploration-3 and navigator. There are alternative options, but they require more ADM for coring.

It's important to engineer "improve prestige" mission to get 100 ADM. Without bad luck we're getting ADM-5 on 1 Jan 1453 and exploration-3 about 1 year later (we need 1250 for 3 ideas and explorer and we have 1000 DIP saved plus Merchant loot of 150). The final step is to complete "colonize some province" mission - it's easy to arrange it to be in Caribbeans.

I wonder what is the expected time to complete the colony. Christmas island took 10 years and 4 months and Dominica - 7 years and 4 months. I got events for both of them (+100 for Dominica and +50 for Christmas island). Though considering that colonists adds 25 per, it's more important to be lucky with the colonist rather than with the event. Don't forget production advisor after the colonization starts

 

[Dominion]

Sometimes I dare to think I'm at least decent at the game and then people like you show up.

Congrats! I kept moving my capital out of habit in my path. Stupid waste of Adm points, but I'm not sure if I have the energy for another attempt.

Out of curiousity, why do you fabricate on Tunis? Usually they ally Fezzan, which is allied to Mamluks. Setting them as co-belligerent gives you Bizerte which means you're in range of Grenada after the first war. Or is it the same path? I'm too tired to think it through atm, but the additional war could lose you a few months.

As for RNG, yea, that one starts to get heavier the closer we're getting to 1460.

Range is about 10 years and that's not even counting in events.

Fastest colony I built was Trinidad in one of my earlier runs. Done after 4.

 

[alexti]

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

I am tempted... It is certainly going to be quite a different game

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

The bottleneck is really MP generation. There is nothing to conquer in Oceania, so it's a race for ADM-5 to start the colony as soon as possible. With Mamluks you are hoping for a new monarch with 5-6 in ADM and DIP with the old monarch dying at the right time, plus you get an extra stab-hit.

I forgot about the golden era in half of my runs

What DLC is it from? I guess I don't have that one.

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.

Strangely enough, +50 option appears in a random colony, not necessarily the one that has triggered the event, so while an island won't trigger this event, it might get +50 from it

 

[Dominion]

What DLC is it from? I guess I don't have that one.

Mandate of Heaven. Gives you (amongst things that are irrelevant for this challenge) -10% MP costs on everything.

You are consistently able to fire it shortly before teching up to adm5, giving you the settler increase from Exploration around the time you start colonizing.

 

[alexti]

Sometimes I dare to think I'm at least decent at the game and then people like you show up.

Congrats! I kept moving my capital out of habit in my path. Stupid waste of Adm points, but I'm not sure if I have the energy for another attempt.

Out of curiousity, why do you fabricate on Tunis? Usually they ally Fezzan, which is allied to Mamluks. Setting them as co-belligerent gives you Bizerte which means you're in range of Grenada after the first war. Or is it the same path? I'm too tired to think it through atm, but the additional war could lose you a few months.

As for RNG, yea, that one starts to get heavier the closer we're getting to 1460.

Range is about 10 years and that's not even counting in events.

Fastest colony I built was Trinidad in one of my earlier runs. Done after 4.

Thanks! I think those alliances have not formed yet when I attack Mamluks (late 1445) - I haven't seen that in any of my runs (or experiments). I guess it might be possible to delay attacking Mamluks, but then if those alliances won't form you are just wasting time. Regarding Bizerte, it's a different (but similar) option - you could take Bizerte and Annaba and sell Annaba to Granada (it has the right culture and it's in their range). This would require longer war to acquire necessary WS. But the biggest reason I prefer my plan is because it doesn't require particular alliances at the right time.

Mandate of Heaven. Gives you (amongst things that are irrelevant for this challenge) -10% MP costs on everything.

You are consistently able to fire it shortly before teching up to adm5, giving you the settler increase from Exploration around the time you start colonizing.

I guess this might allow to get ADM-5 and start colonizing one year earlier. Plus colonist growth bonus will reduce time by another few months on average.

 

[Splax77]

I don't think I can beat the crazy times you've all been getting, but I've got a good run going now that I'm hoping to finish pre-1470.

 

[a7777777com]

Hard (or VH) is not required for this challenge, right? 1 August 1465 on normal difficulty.

View attachment 291084 View attachment 291085 View attachment 291086 View attachment 291087

Figuring I should try to exploit that I've decided to try on normal difficulty and that led to comical results. It seems that on normal AI likes to charge into the mountains and it doesn't bother to maintain forts. Nevertheless my first attempt has completely failed due to Ceylon disbanding (or selling?) their cogs, so their fleet became faster and wouldn't allow me to cross the straight. In a second (or more like 4th try) I have made sure to DoW them in 1446, before they had chance to do something stupid

The strategy is nearly bullet-proof. It should allow to consistently start colonizing Christmas Island in 1455 and Caribbeans in 1456. Then it's a matter of RNG.

At the start I demand core from AQ and DoW BYZ on Jan 1, 1445. Then prepare for alliance with QQ (conceding the core I have on their province - I am glad there is some use for this feature). The spare army marches to SW-most QQ province, so that it's in position when BYZ war ends. Spare diplomats spy on Mamluks and Tunis.

Take only Constantinople (and humiliate), but don't make it a capital (let's sit on OE). Immediately ally QQ, take mission on Mamluks, DoW Mamluks (QQ will join for land) and rush Damascus. I only want their NW and SW-most provinces and something for QQ, so the war ends quickly, no need to take any other forts. In the meantime start spying on Aragon.

The next step is noCB Ceylon (I've initially raised stability, but stayed at -1 after noCB to conserve ADM) and start marching small army there. As long as they have cogs in their fleet you can cross, they can't get there in time and AI doesn't anticipate. It's worth spending DIP to lower WE here, ADM-5 is going to be a bottleneck anyway. By the time Mamluk war is over you can fabricate on Tunis.

Plan A is to DoW them with the goal of taking 2 provinces on Barbary coast (when Beghazi cores there will be enough range) - one for Granada, another for ourselves, but no need to core it). By the time the war is over (and war vs Ceylon should be finished too by then) there is a need for peace - to sell one of these provinces to Granada, fabricate on them (spy network should be prepared ahead of time) and get rid of the extra province. Then move capital to Antakia (good thing we haven't made Constantinople capital), seize Kandy from Ceylon, start coring it and finally take Constantinople decision. Now Christmas islands will be in range (with Exploration-3). The next war is against Granada with the goal of vassalizing them and then seizing Gibraltar.

Plan A can fail if Tunis is allied to Granada (it seems rare, but it happened in my last run), so plan B is to fabricate on Naples, take Baleares from Aragon and then DoW Tunis (after the peace break) with the goal of taking Gibraltar from Granada. This is slower than plan A because you have to spend 3 years coring Baleares.

Gibraltar gives enough range to take Azores with exploration-3 and navigator. There are alternative options, but they require more ADM for coring.

It's important to engineer "improve prestige" mission to get 100 ADM. Without bad luck we're getting ADM-5 on 1 Jan 1453 and exploration-3 about 1 year later (we need 1250 for 3 ideas and explorer and we have 1000 DIP saved plus Merchant loot of 150). The final step is to complete "colonize some province" mission - it's easy to arrange it to be in Caribbeans.

I wonder what is the expected time to complete the colony. Christmas island took 10 years and 4 months and Dominica - 7 years and 4 months. I got events for both of them (+100 for Dominica and +50 for Christmas island). Though considering that colonists adds 25 per, it's more important to be lucky with the colonist rather than with the event. Don't forget production advisor after the colonization starts

Very imperessive achievement！

Move capital back to Europe and seize land form vassal Granada, that is a great idea to avoid making cores in Mediterranean coast.

I guess your fastest route to America is attack Mamluks-- attack Tunis-- attack Granada-- core Granada province-- attack Portugal-- core Azores
That would take about 9 year I guess. Also that is the time you get adm 5.

While Mamluks can get enough colonial range to America faster(than 9 years), and also able to vassal Malaya nations(which is closer to Oceania)
With my 525 monarch, I will try Mamluks this weekend.(Still not change my mind)

And tips: get 200 points from your estates before tech 5(who cares about disaster )
Show strength to your rivals to get monarch points

 

[alexti]

I guess your fastest route to America is attack Mamluks-- attack Tunis-- attack Granada-- core Granada province-- attack Portugal-- core Azores

Yeah, but there is not enough range to take Azores without Exploration 3, so that's the earliest you can take it is after ADM-5

Show strength to your rivals to get monarch points

That is an excellent point! Somehow I failed to take advantage of it. I wonder what is the right choice of rivals for that. I was choosing them to quickly gain PP and minimize DIP cost, but there's more to have via show strength. I am seeing a sea of loans now...

 

[Dominion]

Guys, weird question: Why are we even taking Constantinople?

We could just SS for 100 MP instead. Combined with a well timed GE you get +20 settler growth about 1 month before your first colony lands.

EDIT: Nvm, the Levant mission wouldn't appear without it.
Still... there might be something to do there.

 

[alexti]

Guys, weird question: Why are we even taking Constantinople?

We could just SS for 100 MP instead. Combined with a well timed GE you get +20 settler growth about 1 month before your first colony lands.

EDIT: Nvm, the Levant mission wouldn't appear without it.
Still... there might be something to do there.

I was doing it mostly for Levant mission. But it also helps to generate level-3 advisors. Does anyone know what exactly determines the level of advisors from the estates ?

 

[a7777777com]

Yeah, but there is not enough range to take Azores without Exploration 3, so that's the earliest you can take it is after ADM 5

I have a better option: the southernmost province of Morocco can be cored before tech 5 and its colonial range is enough for America.

Guys, weird question: Why are we even taking Constantinople?

We could just SS for 100 MP instead. Combined with a well timed GE you get +20 settler growth about 1 month before your first colony lands.

EDIT: Nvm, the Levant mission wouldn't appear without it.
Still... there might be something to do there.

It is more about the golden Era. If we take Constantinople, we get two objectives: 30 developments and humiliate rival. Maybe it is better to show strength to other rivals.

 

[alexti]

I have a better option: the southernmost province of Morocco can be cored before tech 5 and its colonial range is enough for America.

It's only enough with Exploration-3 (and only to South America). I think that fundamental problem is that nothing outside of the old world can be colonized before ADM-5 and with the tropical+isolated penalty Oceania is the limiting factor. Unless there is some way to get to ADM-5 sooner than Azores acquisition.

 

[a7777777com]

It's only enough with Exploration-3 (and only to South America).

With Exploration-3 and advisor +20%, it is 272 range and enough for North America.

I think that fundamental problem is that nothing outside of the old world can be colonized before ADM-5 and with the tropical+isolated penalty Oceania is the limiting factor. Unless there is some way to get to ADM-5 sooner than Azores acquisition.

Basically, it is decided by the latest time of three goals:
Get adm-5
Get Exploration-3
Get colonial range for New world ready