Cusco->Inca

[miguellima]

I've started a Cusco playthrough with the goal of forming the Inca and colonizing as much as possible in North and South America.

I'm just wondering if i should conquer first then coloniza or colonize first then conquer. Cusco starting position makes it hard to expand west. You border Wanka's capital on the west while on the east you have possibility to conquer more easily.

I'll focus on adm tech to get adm lvl 4 asap then choose exploration so if i conquer too much i'll have to wait longer to get adm 4. Should i vassalize Wanka and feed them and annex? I can also do the same to Calchaqui in the east since they ally Colla while i ally Pacajes and Charca.

I'll need adm 4 for exploration idea and i need to keep up in mil tech so dip should be the lowest tech i have right?


Any tips would be much appreciated.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Conquer first. Focus adm, use "take" missions to get some ADM back from coring, use vassals if the ADM burden is too high. Vassal a native or two in the south and subsidize them for 1 month so they use their colonist. Each native tribe vassal you get to make colonies is like having an extra colonist.

Use the money you get from being bigger to hire better adm advisor.

 

[miguellima]

How can the natives colonize? Don't they need idea group?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

How can the natives colonize? Don't they need idea group?

I'm assuming you have CoP which I shouldn't have, if you don't ignore that part.

But if you do then there's a 500 DIP idea in the native council government type that gives a colonist to natives. The AI will virtually never use it, because it thinks it needs 8 ducats/month or some such to make a colony, even if its bank is large enough to handle a colony easily.

If you give it a 10 ducat/month subsidy for 1 month, it'll be tricked into thinking it has sufficient income to colonize. You can then cancel subsidies, and it'll still finish because it has enough money stored (and a colony isn't that expensive if you cut maintenance to ~50% and rely on the %chance, so it really just needs enough money to afford the odd -50 ducats to avoid losing half the pop).

 

[Hakuromatsu]

I've started a Cusco playthrough with the goal of forming the Inca and colonizing as much as possible in North and South America.

I'm just wondering if i should conquer first then coloniza or colonize first then conquer. Cusco starting position makes it hard to expand west. You border Wanka's capital on the west while on the east you have possibility to conquer more easily.

I'll focus on adm tech to get adm lvl 4 asap then choose exploration so if i conquer too much i'll have to wait longer to get adm 4. Should i vassalize Wanka and feed them and annex? I can also do the same to Calchaqui in the east since they ally Colla while i ally Pacajes and Charca.

I'll need adm 4 for exploration idea and i need to keep up in mil tech so dip should be the lowest tech i have right?


Any tips would be much appreciated.

Conquer, conquer, conquer, but keep a very close eye on the DIP you're spending on peace deals. Your national focus should be a mix of ADM and DIP, since you want to blitz the first three Exploration ideas as soon as you hit ADM 4 for the extra colonial range -- that way you can reach Darien (the temperate province right below Panama) for your first colony -- which gets you very quick westernisation if AI Portugal/Castile colonizes Cuba, Haiti, or the Lesser Antilles, since Panama has a Caribbean port. You also want to blitz the next three Exploration ideas, since that will get you 3 colonists.

DIP 3 is optional -- you may want it for the range and colonial growth, and there's a chance holding back at DIP 2 won't affect your Westernisation. You need to be 17 levels behind the Europeans for Westernisation, and for me this happened when I was at 4/3/3 and they were at 9/9/9 (Portugal kept colonizing isolated islands ). Ideally, you'd hold back at MIL 2, but Cusco starts with a MIL 6 ruler and a MIL 6 heir, so you might as well just go for MIL 3 -- but on that note, make sure you lower autonomy in all the provinces you conquer immediately, since you'll have the MIL to burn on harsh treatment (and since Inca is a cultural union and pressing the formation button makes you very stable).

As you said, expanding NW is difficult, so focus SE first. I made Calchaqui and Pacajes vassals and ate the rest. You may also be able to justify a trade conflict with Chimu, which is an expensive war but can give you a shoe in the door to attack NW (Wanka's tricky depending on their alliances, but ultimately not important). I had the Andes wrapped up around 1475 since diplo-annexing vassals kept my army stocked.

 

[miguellima]

I'm actually on my 2nd play through. The first was to see the starting situation and i made some errors. On my second i have everything to the East and Wanka as a vassal against the rest. I won easily but the game is on hold because i was pondering if i should annex everything or vassal feed.

 

[Nikolaj-11]

Ah Cuzco...

I was doing so well conquering the south and vassalizing the north, colonizing along the coast as well, building a fleet.

The Portugal turns up, insta declares war and proceeds to whoop my sorry behind. *sadface*

 

[Hakuromatsu]

I'm actually on my 2nd play through. The first was to see the starting situation and i made some errors. On my second i have everything to the East and Wanka as a vassal against the rest. I won easily but the game is on hold because i was pondering if i should annex everything or vassal feed.

Well it's all about balancing your ADM and DIP to get the third Exploration idea as early as possible (if super early westernisation is your goal, which it should be unless you have RP or challenge reasons for holding back). And also depending on how your army size and manpower is faring.