• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Chimu - the gutsy natives!- The struggle for survival continues

We have no navy, so we need to get one built pronto. Operating on the assumption that a Western power with a big navy will declare war on us, we should build a navy of maybe 20 big ships to try and stop them even landing troops. As we have no land borders, this should be enough to prevent a war from harming us much, and we may even benefit from it through war taxes.

I notice in June 1570 that we can pass the Recruiting Act, because of the technicality that we are "at war" - with Aztec. We do this because we really need the extra manpower, and the increase in stability cost is acceptable given that we've completed most of our Westernization now. Maximum manpower moves up to 22,296 - a couple of thousand more than Portugal!
17.png


It's July 1571, and I just tried to give Britain military access on an offchance, and this "unlikely" decision happened:
18.png

Will we be able to expand across lots of South America without be declared on once by Europeans? That would surely be some kind of record.

In January 1572, I go to try and ally with Castille for the lols, and couldn't because I noticed that they're in a personal union with Lithuania! No idea when that happened, but if they get inherited, Lithuania will be very big.

19.png

Febuary 1573 - LOL! We have 1 ship, a carrack. I'm guessing Portugal lost its fleet because it had dozens of ships when I last checked!!! :laugh: On the negative side, Britain now has 103 ships. Maybe they captured Portugal's ships.

Colonies now start to become self-sustaining. Arica in May 1574, Caracara and Caranga in July 1574, and Moxos in November 1576. Our manpower is now up to 24,572. France keep founding new colonies on the east coast of South America and we keep inciting the natives to kill them off. I don't want to face that manpower of theirs, which is now up to about 200k - the highest in the world. Nevertheless, we start the major ship building programme on the assumption that they will attack, taking out a loan to help with speed. We may possibly be able to beat them with a navy of 20 carracks or something, though our naval tech of 9 is horrible - theirs is 21.

By February 1581, as part of my usual all-dock policy, all of our coastal provinces now have docks. They have the win-win of increased production efficiency, and quicker naval unit repair.

This leader's much more like it. A half-decent leader for once, in April 1587. We went for the "military candidate" but he's a level 7 administrator too, which will allow us to do military Westernization:
20.png

One thing I've noticed is that Paradox seem to have gone to a lot of effort to create a lot of different New World infantry units, which have interesting descriptions. I'm not sure why they bothered, considering you almost immediately have to Westernize your military to stand a chance of survival anyway!

By April 1591, we've started our military Westernization; "action and reaction" has begun, with the inevitable revolts! We have a decent fleet of 25 big ships (over our force limits by a few ships, though not too many because we adopted the Grand Navy idea, replacing Colonial Ventures for now) and our army is good too; we're building some cavalry units to complement the infantry ones. Hopefully we can now put up a decent fight against the Europeans.
21.png


22.png

So much for that record. Castille have done the inevitable DoW first, in April 1594, but we are catching up fast in land and naval tech, we're at max stability, have a strong navy of 25 big ships, and "action and reaction" is ending in a few months. We had given Castille military access so they're now at -3 stability. :) They'll just have to learn who not to attack. Bring it on!!!

Around about the same time, we repay the loan we took out to get our fleet built up quickly. We're now in better financial shape. No sign of Castille's ships yet.
23.png


August 1594 brings us land tech 18 and the tercio infantry. We now have GUNS! Eat lead, enemies. No more "action and reaction" also means we have a zero revolt risk.
24.png

By the beginning of 1595, there's no sign of Castille, and our war capacity has gone up from 0% to 34%.

Ouch. Castille hits us in March 1595 with their entire navy, explaining why they were taking so long to arrive. So the AI isn't that dumb...
25.png


Inevitably we lose and 2 ships are captured. We get to rebuilding them immediately...
26.png


Castille quickly lands a size 19 unit, in June 1595, but it's down to 11k troops because of attrition. We should stand a chance here, on land.
27.png


It's on! We joined up both our units, and attacked. They didn't get any terrain advantage because of mountains, either.
28.png


November 1595 - we won the battle! They flee to Chanchan, we follow them and...
29.png

The first major military victory of the native Americans over the Europeans is won! May it be the first of many.

In February 1596, Lithuania dishonour their miltary alliance with Castille! Looks like their personal union is over, too. Muhahaha...
30.png


A month later, here the bastards come again, with 24 transports now. We move a unit in to greet them as they land.
31.png


Buuut... they land before we could get there. Damn. We join our 2 armies together again and march in. Even with a -4 terrain disadvantage, our brave troops win the fight! As they flee to Caracara, we follow.
32.png


And come August 1596, another major military victory!!! Looks like they're landing about 14k troops per time now, so we'll keep the 2 military units in adjoining provinces and merge them together each time we go for the Castillians, to try and avoid any attrition losses. Our manpower is holding up and is stable at around 20k (admittedly I'm using version 5.2 ZZFZ).
33.png


By September 1596, Castille are starting to talk peace, but want us to pay them. No way.
34.png


We're building up a little war exhaustion from attrition, but thanks to our religious and cultural uniformity, we have a long way to go before there's any revolt risk.
35.png


Ha! They give in and offer a white peace in July 1597, which we accept. But we won morally. :)
36.png

I'm going to hire a level 6 statesman now and start putting some serious research funding into government to get to level 22; we want another national idea, colonial ventures. We must spread to most of South America to really be able to compete with the might and manpower of nations like France.

September 1600 - I've remembered that we should now enact the remaining religious decisions, now that we can afford to raise stability cost a little, so we hire a temporary theologian to replace our master of the mint, then go back to a new level 6 master of the mint.
37.png


And in January 1601, another slider change is possible - we go to more centralization which puts us on -4. We also switch government type to an Administrative Republic.
38.png


Government level 22 is taking an excruciatingly long time to get to - we're looking at February 1510, another 8 years from now. Unfortunately this is just going to be a very boring wait until we can start colonial expansion. We need to keep our other national ideas in place, crucial as they are to our military defence.

In Febuary 1604, Holland have founded a colony in Rio de la Plata. We incite the natives to terminate it. We want to keep the southern half of South America colony-free if possible. More European colonies are springing up on the South American coast and it's getting harder to eject them with the natives, but we do our best.

We finally get government tech 22 in January 1610 and immediately adopt the Colonial Ventures national idea. Around this time, we also get another slider change, which we use to get back to full -5 centralization. By May 1611, our colonist colonizes Charcas successfully, and we immediately set it as our national focus. We want the colonies around it to become self-sustaining ASAP. Colonial maintenance is hurting us financially, though; we have to mint so much we're getting 0.1 inflation per year now. Government tech 25 and National Bank beckons, though it's a long way off. One rule I'm adopting is that we aren't going to reduce of the size of our military... it's only going to grow. Even if we're over our force limits, we can't afford to show any weakness.
39.png


We get a pleasant surprise in January 1614 - the currency revaluation event. Our inflation's up at 5.5, so I'll take it happily despite the -2 stability hit.
40.png


By June 1614, we've cored on 6(!) provinces in relatively quick succession; Arica, Huamanga, Moxos, Huanuco, Caracara, and Caranga. This should help us a lot financially.
41.png


January 1615, and we've now founded 4 colonies successfully, thanks to a "colonial company founded" event giving us a colony with 200 population in Atacama! Our national focus is hitting 3 of them. We can't stop the endless tide of colonists from Europe now, though, so they're creating a bunch of annoying colonies on the eastern coast:
42.png

Looks like Charcas will produce grain, and so will Chiquitos. Yuck yuck. However, we have coffee in Chichas and fish in Atacama.

We have roughly caught up in tech with Europe, though, being fully Westernized:
43.png


Can we go on to take the fight to the Europeans? That's for the next instalment. A major war with The Hansa looks likely as they want to encroach into our South America with a lot of colonies. France's manpower is through the roof at over 236k, so I still don't like our chances against them. We can't ally with anyone useful, so we're pretty much on our own, whereas going to war with France is pretty much going to war with Europe. Why did they have to be so successful this game? For once, I actually wish Burgandy had kicked their ass.
 
Last edited:
Glory to Chimu! Do you plan on staying pagan or converting when the event pops up?
 
Fantastic progress, I'm glad you continued this :) Well done indeed for beating Castille, a stunning victory. Perhaps you have overcome the hardest hurdle now that you are westernised?
 
Fantastic progress, I'm glad you continued this :) Well done indeed for beating Castille, a stunning victory. Perhaps you have overcome the hardest hurdle now that you are westernised?
Perhaps, although France is still very strong with a lot of allies and 10 times our manpower so you just have to hope they don't attack. They've also taken a couple of South American colonies off Castille in a war so getting them is going to be virtually impossible.
 
I've never seen such an event. Is it meant to happen for native American nations?
If you're a pagan and you border a christian nation, there's a chance an event will happen, giving the option to convert or to stay pagan. I think if you border as many different sects as you can, it increases your chances.
 
If you're a pagan and you border a christian nation, there's a chance an event will happen, giving the option to convert or to stay pagan. I think if you border as many different sects as you can, it increases your chances.
Hmm well it's tempting given that Catholicism is way superior, but it feels more fitting to Chimu to stay Animist. Probably be the only Animist nation by the end of the game.
 
Perhaps, although France is still very strong with a lot of allies and 10 times our manpower so you just have to hope they don't attack. They've also taken a couple of South American colonies off Castille in a war so getting them is going to be virtually impossible.

You need a lot of luck with certain nations, not all about skill :)

Hmm well it's tempting given that Catholicism is way superior, but it feels more fitting to Chimu to stay Animist. Probably be the only Animist nation by the end of the game.

Potentially a life or death decision - stay animist and potentially die to the crusaders, or sell out and convert but survive... Fascinating.
 
Well, if you want an idea of what it's like to be pagan, take a look at my aar where I tried to survive as a pagan Tectonic Order.

td;lr:
I got anexed by Pskov, among others.
 
Potentially a life or death decision - stay animist and potentially die to the crusaders, or sell out and convert but survive... Fascinating.
I'm not sure converting to Catholic would stop them attacking you, though. They always tend to attack you on a colonial conquest CB, and certain nations like Chimu just seem to be tagged as "colonial", so they will always have that CB on you.

Actually looking at AsdfeZxcas's AAR, maybe you're "colonial" if you're Animist.
 
I'm not sure converting to Catholic would stop them attacking you, though. They always tend to attack you on a colonial conquest CB, and certain nations like Chimu just seem to be tagged as "colonial", so they will always have that CB on you.
No, colonial conquest only works on pagans. If you convert, you might even be able to get some allies. In the end, the choice is yours, take a risk to make things interesting by staying pagan, or convert and be safe.
 
Please stay animist!

Good job. I think France can be beaten. They usually don't have a navy as strong as Britain or Castille. It will only depend on how much troops they gather first in their colony. Bring the war into their territories.
Rule the sea! You can beat such a France to collapse just by blockading all the coasts and stab hit. Can't you have a military access in Europe despite an alliance?
 
Last edited:
Please stay animist!

Good job. I think France can be beaten. They usually don't have a navy as strong as Britain or Castille. I will only depend on how much troops they gather first in their colony. Bring the war into their territories.
Rule the sea! You can beat such a France to collapse just by blockading all the coasts and stab hit. Can't you have a military access in Europe despite an alliance?
If we fight France in Europe we'll be annihilated. They have a manpower of 250k.
 
Well I don't say fight them in Europe, but on their territories. I mean their colonies. Destroy any troups they can gather there, siege the overseas provinces and sieze or burn to the ground their colony. Then blocade all France.
Well if they have transports, try not to sink them immediately but rather let them land troops, eventually by scorching one coastal province and before the province fall, gather your troops (you should match them and they won't transport their 200k at once) destroy, then repeat! Once the war exhaustion starts rising, blocade! You can reach 50% war score like that and skyrocket their war exhaustion. I'm pretty sure you can do lot of damage and make them abandon some South American territories worth few % warscore at maximum.

As for Europe. Most provinces won't be that much fortified. One or two well place assaults then immediate retreat to the boat can do the rest. Make sure you guarantee a military access to one or two of their neighbor for your blockadig ships to repair.
 
Chimu - the gutsy natives!- Animism vs. the world

Last time we were considering the fact that we would have to launch into some slow, painstaking colonization of South America in order to expand and increase our manpower. I'm not sure how much of a burden being Animist will be, as it gives a colonial conquest casus belli to all non-pagan nations on you which the AI seems keen on using. Anyway, with our borders secured and our navy strong it's time to concent...
44.png

So Britain wanna try their luck, eh? We'll send them and their puny allies packing. They only have 11 ships in their fleet currently so we should be able to stop them even landing. Bring. It. On.

By August 1619, there's no sign of Britain yet. Charcas becomes self-sustaining and we build a fort there. We're having to mint quite a lot again now - even with Charcas self-sustaining and war taxes, we're having to increase inflation by .17 each yeah to stay afloat, as we're putting full maintenance into our navy. In the meantime, we have managed to give military access to Sweden, Genoa, and France. Those guys will take a big stability loss if they wanna attack us, though of course they're so desperate to attack us that they usually don't seem to mi...
45.png

Yeah, now this could be a Game Over event. I'm waiting for their allies France, to weigh in.

The good news is that France didn't join Portugal's war against us. The bad news is that they declared on us independently...
46.png

France and Portugal are now at -3 stability. Morons.

It's now April 1620, and all's quiet on the Western front. No doubt the AIs are loading their troops and are coming. I'll have to use the same tactics as with Cast...
47.png

The Europeans really like a good colonial pile-in. Not looking good. Our leader's up for election, and we pick the military candidate. His military credentials leave a lot to be desired.
48.png


By May 1620, another slider change is available - we switch to maximum Quantity to max out our manpower, in desperation. In August 1620, Holland are the first to turn up with their fleet, which we spot and intercept.
49.png


50.png

Dutch ass kicked in Septmber 1620. We also take out a solitary British big ship that was lurking in the area. We're keeping all captured ships, despite the maintenance cost. Ships go into dock for quick repair. Next?

Shortly after in December 1620, we spot a small French fleet and seize the opportunity to chase it and take it out.
51.png

... and we capture a small ship. We're way over our force limits now but damnit, we're keeping all these ships and throwing everything we have at the enemy. The small ship goes into dock to repair, to join the main fleet later.

June 1621 - As predicted, France roll up an undefeatable fleet. Time to withdraw our ships and move our land troops into place to greet them. Meanwhile, we've accepted a white peace from Milan (unfortunately, not the leader of any of the 4 wars against us).
52.png

The French are landing in Atacama, one of our colonies. Alas, the natives there will probably be killed. We have land tech 21, Les Francais have land tech 23. Corsica, too, offer a white peace, which we accept.

In July 1621, the Chichas and Chiquitos colonies become self-sustaining. The French seize Atacama, and their fleet pulls away. We max out our land maintenance, and march our entire army to take them on. We'll probably get a nasty terrain disadvantage, but we can't just let them hold on to our colony. In the nick of time, I realize that they've started marching to Arica now, so we wait there. They will hopefully get a -4 terrain disadvantage because it's hilly territory.

53.png

They do indeed have a -4 terrain disadvantage. Fight, fight, fight!!! But, we lose the battle anyway on morale grounds. Sigh. They are now following us to where we fled, Puno, but we'll have a couple of months to recover.

By November 1621, they catch us and we again engage the French, and get trashed on morale grounds. I did max up that land maintenance, didn't I...? Yes. I should've use scorched earth tactics. We lose the battle to France on morale again, and they follow us to where we flee - Arica. Again, we'll have a couple of months to recover and their unit is down to about 16k. They seem unstoppable, though. Britain offer a white peace, which we accept. 3 wars left.
54.png


Shortly after in December 1621, too late I notice a Galician fleet pull up and land troops in Copiapo. Unsurprisingly, the natives get involved and killed. Great, no natives to boost my colony size when it becomes self-sustaining. I rush my fleet to attack theirs anyway. We win that battle, and capture a small ship.
55.png


Yet again in January 1622, France beat us on morale grounds, but our army lives to fight another day. They are now down to 10k troops. They go to Atacama to recover, but we beat them there and seize the colony back. Our manpower is dwindling a bit now; down to 23k from 28k max. On the 23rd March, they arrive, and 10k of their troops face 27k of ours.
56.png

Now THIS is looking more promising... I've also just realized we don't have Military Drill as a national idea anymore, which might have something to do with our bad morale. In desperation, I replace Superior Seamanship with Military Drill, losing 3 stability. Doesn't look like we'll be taking France on much in the sea for now, anyway.

57.png

Oh hell yes! First good news of the war, and the French unit is finally defeated! Now we wait for the inevitable next one... and the next... and the next... and the next...

War exhaustion is now up to 3.22, but "National Defense" is keeping our revolt risk at zero. We send out a splinter unit to recapture Copiapo from Galicia, which succeeds. We've reclaimed our 2 colonies.

In May 1622, we offer a white peace to Holland, which they accept. We're whittling down the wars.
58.png

Just after in July 1622, land tech 22 allows us the Latin Caracole Cavalry. We upgrade immediately. We're just 1 land tech behind France now. One or two other minor allies of France and Portugal are starting to make peace offers where we have to pay them, which we decline. We also discover that Copiapo is to have fish as its trade good, just like Atacama.

It's December 1622, and Norway, part of the French war alliance, offer a white peace, which we accept. No sign of invaders for a few months now. Maybe France is starting to have problems with that -3 stability? Magdeburg, part of the Portugese war alliance, offer a white peace in January 1623, which we accept. France are also offering peace, but the arrogant bastards want us to pay them so we decline. They wanna lose more troops, we're happy to oblige. Shortly after, Norway, part of the French war alliance, offer a white peace, which we accept - ditto for Cornwall. In February 1623, it's Galicia's turn to offer us a white peace, which we accept... and shortly after, Wales. Now it's just France against us in one war, and just Portugal in the other.

And in May 1623, we are heralded this:
59.png

Apparently, France didn't feel like losing any more troops, for now! We accept their white peace offer...
60.png

... and Portugal's. Looks like being able to defend yourself as a pagan doesn't deter them from warring with you... but it does make you able to defend yourself. So the wars are over, for now. It's going to be annoying building colonies on the coast, because it makes it easy for the enemy to swing their troops in and kill off the natives there, as well as seize the colony. I guess all we can do is try to get those coastal colonies self-sustaining and with a fort built as quickly as possible. Land and naval maintenance is immediately lowered right down so we don't go bankrupt. Inflation's back up to 4.6.

By August 1623, naval tech 22 has come along, allowing us to build galleons, but I doubt we'll have much money spare to build them any time soon. We also successfully colonize Picunmapu and assign a "colony babysitter" ship to sit in its dock, increasing the chances of native accomodation events. The natives there are pretty aggressive.
61.png


Not much time passes before, in September 1625:
62.png

Ah well, we're getting used to this now. We raise war taxes and naval maintenance. Hopefully we can manage to beat their fleet before they land, as it's smaller than ours. I'm gonna get building drydocks where all my docks are, to increase our naval force limits. Money is tighter than a clam and inflation is rising, but at least we have no loans.

Sweden DoW on us in February 1626. Down to -3 stability for them. So, 2 wars now! Their fleet is tough and we might not be able to beat it. How exciting...

Although by November 1626:
63.png

... we accept Austria's white peace without any battles having been fought. Why did they bother declaring war?

In April 1627, repeated colonists being sent to the colony of Picunmapu pay off as the colony becomes self-sustaining, integrating the 2000 natives and getting a 3000 population. It produces gold, by the way... a common good in western South America, it would seem. A fort is built immediately. With Sweden being stubborn and still at war, we decide to go on the offensive and seize their South American colony in Banda Oriental. This may or may not be a good idea as it's a nice target for any would-be attackers.
64.png

As it's still a colony, we flip it to our religion and culture by sending a colonist.

May 1627 - Our old leader dies, and I go for the military candidate. He's great at administration and diplomacy. Go figure.
65.png


66.png

Uh oh... Sweden mean business in capturing their colony back. They pull up their whole fleet and start to land troops in December 1627. Let's try and "concede defeat".
67.png

It worked! We "lost" by capturing their colony. Haha. I now think a war with the Hansa is shortly on the cards. We need to cut through their colonies and join up Banda Oriental (which produces grain, sadly) with the rest of our territory. Hanseatic South America is still made up of 4 colonies, as well as a few full provinces. We decide that some heavy minting, building of more soldiers, and a blitzkrieg attack of Hanseatic South America is needed, so we get to work on that immediately. Inflation may reach 8% to 10%, but we really need to seize South America as soon as possible to boost our power against the Europeans. Capturing self-sustaining Hanseatic provinces will also mean the first work for our Animist missionaries, who must have been getting bored for over 200 years. Well, they would have if we had any. Being at max innovation, we have zero missionaries and that could take some time to change. I guess we know where the next slider changes are going.

But of course, before we can do this, the endless tide of European bastards DoWing on us continues in June 1628. Holland and France both DoW, in 2 separate wars. I decide to delay the blitzkrieg on The Hansa; we need to devote all our resources to surviving these two wars. As I feared, Banda Oriental is a sitting duck and we will probably have to cede that to Holland or France (neither of whom we can match in naval combat). However we should be able to hold on to the rest of our territory, as we have before.
68.png


69.png

I get the feeling that this is going to become a familiar sight, and that this game will be one long struggle to the end - certainly if we stay as pagans, whom Europeans love to hate. We're still a couple of government levels off our next national idea, which has got to be National Bank to try and get inflation down. I think we can hold off the French and the Dutch, and then attack Hanseatic South America and hopefully make some big territorial gains. But that's for the next instalment.
 
Last edited: