Extended Timeline AAR: The Confederate Empire

[Ianwubby]

Alright, well, this is my very first post on this forum, and, recently, I've been very addicted to Europa Universalis IV; I mean, it was already my second-most played Steam game within a week. I've also found the Extended Timeline mod by qweytr, which increases the playtime from 1444-1821 to 51-9999. A while after that, I figured that I should try to turn around the Confederate States of America's fate.
Yep, I'm going to be playing as CSA, starting on one of the extended timeline's bookmarks on July 1, 1861. Even though EU4 has already skyrocketed to be my second-most played game on Steam, I still don't consider myself an expert player in the least, nor will I for a long time, after seeing some epic things other people have done. Any tips or suggestions for my playthrough or the AAR itself are welcome!

I'll try to update this AAR every 2-3 days, circumstances permitting.​

Mods Used: Extended Timeline​

Table of Contents

Spoiler

Part 1: Civil Wars and Native Americans
Part 2: Central Americanizing
Part 3: The Slightly Terrifying War
Part 4: I Do Something Stupid
Part 5: Not Actually The Second Great Wait, But It Kinda Is Though
Part 6: Presented Without Picture
Part 7: It's About Time!

Also, Wars

Spoiler

American Civil War
12 April 1861 - 1865
USA vs CSA
Result: CSA gains independence from USA

Osage and Kiowa Wars
1866 and 1867
Osage vs CSA
and
Kiowa vs CSA
Result: Osage and Kiowa annexed by CSA

Honduran War
1871 - 22 July 1873
Honduras, El Salvador vs CSA
Result: Honduras annexed by CSA

Slightly Terrifying War
30 August 1880 - 5 October 1884
USA, Russia, Spain vs CSA
Result: USA cedes 3 provinces to CSA

First Arapahoan War
27 May 1888 - 3 July 1889
Arapaho, Assiniboine vs CSA
Result: Assiniboine annexed by CSA

Second Arapahoan War
1 November 1889 - June 1890
Arapaho vs CSA
Result: Arapaho annexed by CSA

Assiniboine War of Independence
13 January 1892 - 1896
Assiniboine Nationalists vs CSA
Result: Assiniboine gains independence from CSA

First Haitian War
1895 - 1897
Haiti vs CSA
Result: Haiti annexed by CSA

Salvadoran War
1899 - January 1, 1901
El Salvador vs CSA
Result: El Salvador annexed by CSA

Second Haitian War
14 May 1906 - 11 August 1908
Haiti, France, Portugal, Venezuela vs CSA, Costa Rica
Result: Honduras cedes 4 provinces to CSA

 

[Ianwubby]

Part 1: Civil Wars and Native Americans

One thing to note before I actually start this off: The starting date for this is 1861, which is after the normal game ends, so you need extended timeline in order to do this.
Now that that's over with...

This is what we'll be starting with! We start off at war with the US, and Mexico has us as a rival for some reason. Things aren't looking very good.
Anyway, we start out with Robert E. Lee as an OP army general, and I put him in charge of my largest army group. There are tons of small Union armies marching across Texas and Arkansas, so I conglomerate half of my 48k troops into one army and send them out in that direction.
Whether by bad luck or by intention, the Union armies are very difficult to catch. Always one province ahead of me. Argh. I've also spotted the Union's army led by Ulysses Grant in the northeast marching onto my territory. I should also point out that the US has over 70 thousand troops, as opposed to my 40 something thousand.

First battle and victory! I also noticed that my armies aren't as prettily grouped as I remembered them being.
Eventually I do group all of my armies together into one, and send them off to destroy some of the US's smaller armies in the west. After that's done, I march them all over to Grant's army where they've already taken control of several of my provinces. Unfortunately, I forgot to get any screenshots of this or any battles that followed. It was a close call, but I had the larger army, and I defeated them. In the end, I just marched around the CSA defeating the US's smaller armies and racking up the war score (possibly also taking over the US's capital) until I could sue for peace. Now, I could've just accepted a white peace, but I wanted them to feel the pain of losing, so I made them admit defeat.
Finally, something good happens that didn't in real life! Except for the continuation of slavery, I suppose.
There are some Native American tribes touching Arkansas in the north, and I go after them. The Osage is first.

That was a very quick and painless war. For me, I mean. I just sent in 12k soldiers, who wiped their boots on the Osage army and quickly took control of the province. Now the CSA has an awkward appendage in the north! Here's a closer view of the province I got:

I guess Pittsburg is fine.
The next obvious conquest is the Kiowas right next to Pittsburg. I already have the 'imperialism' casus belli on them, so I declare war on them. I expect another quick war.

Wow, that siege only took, like, 2 months! Normally they take around a year for me!
And now I own the province Kiowa.

NEXT TIME: We try to find somewhere to spread to that doesn't involve upsetting the two superpowers right next to me!

 

[Ianwubby]

Part 2: Central Americanizing

Alright, right back into the meat of things. In the last part, the Osage and Kiowas were, ah, "diplomatically" annexed. *cough notreally cough*. Well, either way, expansion must happen this time!
My original plan of action was to declare war on Haiti, because they were secluded and without allies or a good army, HOWEVER Mexico would help them out because Mexico was, uh, Defender of the Something Faith. Something like that. And Mexico had a monstrous army that I didn't want to meet. Besides, I wanted to keep good relations with Mexico.
So I looked a bit farther south. And lo and behold, there was Honduras, only El Salvador as an ally, and not a candidate of being aided by Mexico. So, to war!
I may have forgotten to get screenshots until I was well into the war, so I'll try to keep it quick. I built two more transport ships to increase my transports to 14, and sent the Northern Army and the Army of Alabama down to Honduras. There was a quick siege, and then a battle!

There were no survivors

First screenshot! The turnout of that battle was me winning. I quickly demolished Honduras's and El Salvador's armies, and I then finished up sieging all of their provinces.

Aah, sweet total annexation. I call it 'Confederate Honduras'.
Now for an update on the state of the CSA in 1874.

I've cored Pittsburg and Kiowa, and all of Honduras is being cored.
Another interesting thing is that Mexico and the United States went to war! Luckily I wasn't involved in it.

I think Mexico's winning.
Ending on sort of a low note, I got some Native American protectorates. Hopefully someday I'll be able to vassalize and annex them.

NEXT TIME: Something far more exciting than this time!

 

[Ianwubby]

Part 3: The Slightly Terrifying War

So, after doing boring things like defeating the Kiowas and Osage, the First Great Wait began! The exact start date of the First Great Wait is pinned somewhere in 1879.
During the First Great Wait, I prepare for... something. Something that involves grouping all of my soldiers together.

What is that something, you ask? Well, now you get to know.

It had to happen! War with the US was inevitable! Besides, the US was occupied in a war with Mexico, so I hoped they would be slightly weakened.

The first battle, and possibly the most important of the war. If I can beat them here, my army survives, and a large portion of their army is gone.

Well... I don't want to brag.

Well, when did that happen? I need to start remembering to put my trade ships into safekeeping during wars.

First siege goes to me!

Oh, come on Spain! You're across the freaking Atlantic Ocean! Luckily I think I won't have to worry about the US's OTHER ally, Russia. Russia would have to go north around Newfoundland or south around South America.
Once again, I slowly wipe out their army. The AI for the US seems to have a fatal flaw: it keeps splitting up the army into numerous small ones instead a big one that can take out my army no hay problema.

This is the map right at the end of the war.

And the peace deal that gets me 3 provinces!
Now a closer look at the provinces I got:

Baltimore, Colby, and Frederick. Another advantage that I gained: I now have their capital surrounded.
Total time of the Slightly Terrifying War: August 30, 1880 - October 5, 1884
Now for an update on the extent of the CSA and her allies near the end of 1884.

NEXT TIME: I do something stupid!

 

[Swami]

Nice start, what are the allies of the USA? Spain and Russia? Or also other countries. I think France could help you with Spain, but Sweden vs Russia isn't going to be succesfull I guess

 

[Ianwubby]

Thanks! Yeah, the US has Spain and Russia as allies. Spain wasn't too bad, I just marched my big army over to where they were at and wiped their armies out. And I like the mental image of a Sweden vs. Russia war.

 

[Ianwubby]

Part 4: I Do Something Stupid

So, after the whole war with the US, I think we can (hopefully) all agree on the next target(s):

All of those Native American nations! They're all under powered and just sitting there, waiting to be brought to JUSTICE!
As a quick side note, I changed the name of the province Austin to that of my hometown:

Well, time for the first war, which will be against the Arapaho. I think.

They'll be allied with the Assiniboine, but they're pretty far away. BUT, I might wanna take all of them instead of the Arapaho...
Anyway, first siege:

Oh my gosh, a NINETEEN-DAY SIEGE?!?. That's, like, amazing.
Anyways, here's a montage of all the battles and sieges of the war:

Well, that took a bit too long just for that. But, I got all the 100% warscore in the end. Now, finally, the peace treaty:

I'm sorry, Assiniboine. You shall always be remembered. And by that I mean you're being posted about on an online forum 126 years after the in-game date.
Now, at this point, I realize that the war exhaust isn't actually that high, and this is when I do something stupid:

I forgot to think about aggressive expansion.

Now, I'm bad at thinking about aggressive expansion, and I usually have a lot of it, but especially this time I had a big dumb. I also lost my access rights from the Sioux, so part of my army was trapped up in Confederate Assiniboine. However, I foolishly rushed into another war.

sigh

It was a short war, but now I think every nation within my vicinity is very, very mad at me.

I got the Arapaho's land, and here's a quick update of the CSA:

NEXT TIME: The Second Great Wait!

 

[Swami]

Well first thing I would get is a 'Better relations over time +30%' guy if I where you xD

 

[Ianwubby]

I think that whatever happened with the forum deleted the last three entire sections.
Uuuuuuuuuugh.
Whyyyyyyy.
It will probably be a while before I re-post parts 5-7.
Nnnnnng.

 

[Ianwubby]

Well, it's not letting me edit any of the previous posts by me, except for those last two. I have NO idea why, but whatever the reason, this keeps me from updating, say, the table of contents, and many other good things. Perhaps I'll just start a new thread and re-post all of this. It might be what I have to end up doing. If I do, I'll post the new link here.

 

[Ianwubby]

So, quick update: The most recent posts were intentionally not saved. The reason why? Who knows!
But the whole "not able to edit old posts" is a bug, and they're trying to fix it. Once it is fixed, I'll start updating this once again.

Until then, you get to reread the first four parts of this over and over again! Have fun!

 

[Ianwubby]

Another quick update: I can edit them now! However, I'm currently not at home, so I can't update it yet. Soon, though!

 

[Ianwubby]

A third, sad update: All of the images from parts 6 and 7 are missing from Imgur. I still have the screenshots from part 7 on my computer, and the screenshots from part 5 are still on Imgur, but part 6 will be forever lost. However, I will still re-post parts 5 and 7, and if anyone can miraculously somehow recover part 6... well, I don't see HOW you could. But if you do, I'll, uh, give you a cookie or something.

 

[Ianwubby]

Part 5: Not Actually the Second Great Wait, But It Kinda Is Though

First of all, this is the reboot of Part 5, because ever since Paradox graced the forums with an update or whatever, I've lost parts 5-7 of this AAR. I still have the images from (most) of them, though, so I can re-post them.

So, anyway, last time we got many nations mad at us with aggressive expansion and all. This friendliness map proves it:

​

Sigh. Anyway, I just got a quest to improve relations with Brazil, which is kinda weird, because it's way down in South America, but it's also kinda easy, because it's way down in South America, which means they didn't get hit with the hate-bomb of my consecutive wars.

​

Now, I'll say it now: there's not a lot of exciting action in this part. There is a lot of waiting around for stuff to happen, so don't be too expectant.
However, I DID see that Spain is almost completely occupied by Morocco and... is that Italy? Italy of all places? Well, okey-dokey then.

​

And then I discovered something slightly disheartening: The US has declared war on the Sioux, which were GOING to be my bridge to get up to Assiniboine and the other native nations. However, the US will mow over them like no-one's business.

Well, the outcome of the Spain vs. Italy war was this:

Really, Italy? That was the best you can do? ONE province on the east coast? And Morocco didn't get ANYTHING! Well, maybe they're just smarter than me at handling their aggressive expansion.

Nooo, not rebels...
Well, it's fine. It'll be easy to handle them.

Kill the Texas rebels, dot dot dot...
And then...
Oh no.

Nonono. Not in the isolated island.
Can I hire troops?

Nope. Can I core a province...?

Too far away!!!
Aaargh!
Can I get military access from the rapidly-dying Sioux?

Most certainly not. Especially now that USA has annexed them.

Oh, and the Cheyenne.
Well, I'll just have to hope for some miracle to get rid of the rebels. Other than that, there's naught I can do but wait.
Rather than end on that dull note, here's a screenshot I got of an alligator (or crocodile) in Louisiana.

NEXT TIME: I lost the screenshots!

 

[GoshDaMule]

Shame about the lost chapters. I will be following.

 

[Ianwubby]

Part 6: Presented Without Picture

Sad though it may be, it is true; Imgur did not save the screenshots from part 6. That means while I'm re-writing this part, I don't even have any pictures to fire up my memory again, and I'll just have to try to remember what happened. It also means that you have to deal with a part with no pictures!

So, to begin the trip of recollecting the events of part 6, I'll look at what happened in part 5... Oh, yeah, the Assiniboine Nationalists. That's what happened last!

Well, given that there's no real way for me to stop them (that I know of), I decided to just leave them alone. There's nothing to be done about them. Given that, I turn my focus to new horizons: The Caribbean!

Or more specifically, the one nation in the Caribbean that won't be aided in a war by some other superpower and/or multiple smaller nations: Haiti! Haiti also has a small navy, so I won't have to worry too much about them taking out my ships while my troops are unloading, and their army will easily be dealt with.

Now, I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but when I went to take over Honduras, it was actually Haiti that was the original candidate of war. However, Mexico happened to be, uh, maybe the Defender of the Catholic Faith? One of those, and because of that, Mexico would've helped out Haiti the first time through. Not this time, though!

So, I send 12k troops down to Haiti, and then declare war in 1895. It, of course, takes an annoyingly long time for the troops to disembark, but they make it safely. I actually end up sending another group of 12 thousand troops just because it took forever to siege Haiti's provinces for some reason. I take out their army easily, and I focus mainly on the southern province at first.

But wait, there's more! So, The largest nation in the Carribean, Isla Juana, I think, Actually also declares war on Haiti, so I split up my 24 thousand troops to cover both of Haiti's provinces so that Isla Juana can't take any land.

Also, in the midst of the war, the Assiniboine nationalists enforce their demands and regain independence. sigh.

I finish up the sieging, and I take all of Haiti in 1897. To be honest, it's only two provinces, but it's still land, and it also makes it easier to reach the rest of Hispaniola so I don't have to have troops dangerously move directly from ships to the enemy's land.

Also, somewhere around this time, we pass March 5, 1898, which might not seem to be an overly important date, but it is. On March 5, 1898, Misao Okawa is born in Japan, and she is the oldest person still alive to this day, at the age of 117.

(It has recently been brought to my attention that Misao Okawa passed away last Wednesday, on April 1, 2015, at the age of 117 years and 27 days)

At this point, I'm realizing how close it is to the 20th century in-game. Also to the 1900's, because the 20th century and the 1900's are NOT the same. The 20th century is 1901-2000, but the 1900's is 1900-1999. Given how close we are to 1901, I have to extend this part right up until then.

But how?

Oh wait, I just saw something! I saw El Salvador down in Central America south of Confederate Honduras. Or more specifically, I saw that nobody would help them in a war. They're also only one province, so this should be a quick war.

Do-do-doo, send twenty-four thousand troops into Honduras... Oh no, don't mind us, El Salvador, just... routine. Aaaand... DECLARE WAR! War started in 1899, all is good... March over their army, siege them up, and I'm ready to demand annexation in 1900. Now, I wait for 1901. More specifically, December 31, 1900. I'll send the demand on December 31 so they're annexed on January 1.

And then, it's finished, and it's also the 20th century! And... I have a surprise...

I have one picture left. The one that I didn't delete from my screenshot library, because it was special. The picture of the world on the turn of the 20th century. Enjoy.

​

 

[GoshDaMule]

Sadly Misao Okawa died on Wednesday.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/04/01/oldest-person-dies/70759634/

 

[Ianwubby]

Oh, wow, I was unaware of that. Well, at least she had a nice and (very) long life.
So, uh, scratch out the 'March 5', 'Misao Okawa', 'Japan', and 'age of 117' parts up there and replace them with 'July 4', 'Gertrude Weaver', 'United States', and 'age of 116'.

 

[Ianwubby]

Sorry for the lack of updates thus far, there hasn't been a good time to do it yet. Sometime today, hopefully.

 

[Ianwubby]

Part 7: It's About Time!

So, to start things off, I sincerely do apologize for the large amount of time that has passed between part 6 and now. That's why the title of this is "It's About Time!".

Anyways, time to boot up part 7.

​

Getting right off to a good start, we have what I questioned on the origional part 7: There are sixteen thousand Venezuelan troops in Confederate Haiti. Why? Who knows! How? Also who knows! But they're exiled, so I guess that's fine.

​

Immediately, I go to declare war on Big Haiti, which somehow took all of Isla Juana's land, even though I annexed Haiti before they could ever do so. Therefore, a glitch happened! I do realize that this is a bad idea, given that it's Venezuela, the one with troops in Haiti, and FRANCE, the great blobber that are Haiti's allies. But, this time I actually have an ally! Costa Rica!...

Granted, that's not really that much. But, it's still something.

​

Anyways, there's the roster at the beginning of the war. CSA and Costa Rica versus Haiti, France, and Venezuela.

​

Immediately I send in the 36-odd-thousand troops I had in Haiti into the rest of Hispaniola. The Venezuelan troops aren't really an issue, given that they're just walking back and forth in Confederate Haiti while exiled.

​

Well, here comes France. Time to lose all of my troops! Oh, Costa Rica, please come to my aid...

​

Alright, first siege over! All is going good.

​

Okay, so NOT all is going good. My army I had in Maryland went on the attack, and failed on the attack, and was reduced to a meager five thousand.

​

That's an example of how things with France were not being good!

​

An update to the roster: Now Portugal has decided to join in on Haiti's side! Oh, what do there European powers have against me? Well, at least it's not Britain or Spain or someone.

​

There goes France's great "March Across Florida", in which they siege all of southern Florida!

​

Even though you don't actually see it, there is a huge battle taking place in Florida right now, with Confederate and Costa Rican troops versus French troops, the "Battle of Ais".

Also, you'll notice that I have all of Hispaniola sieged and part of Cuba sieged!

​

Now I'm just clearing up the rest of France's occupations and sending my army up to the remainder of their army in North Carolina.

​

Well, I call that a successful war! AND one against France at that!

​

And there's the screenshot showing the end of the war! Aah, sweet land~

​

And there's the continuation of my conquest of the Caribbean! We have all of Confederate Hispaniola, and the beginnings of Confederate Cuba.