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It's interesting how our approaches to corruption management have been different.
You have no loans, little inflation, tons of corruption, I have tons of loans, 50% inflation, zero corruption though. I wonder, does corruption affect coring times via increasing core costs...?
I honestly got no clue if corruption affects coring time. It surely affects coring COST.
I also don't know if corruption affects diplo annexation cost also.
Regarding different approaches for corruption: its funny that people start to theorycraft on dodging expansion block mechanics right after Paradox introduces them. I never really liked heavy loan strats for difficult starts but sometimes you just HAVE to. Several approaches might work.
Chapter 9: Mughals is a human player and should never be trusted
Last chapter we finished off Wu, and made them into OPM.
Ming only had one core left in Dali.
Time to feed Manchu now... Korea must fall
But first, the Mughals fill administrative ideas. we got yet another -5% tech discount now
The idea now is to NOT core if able, and tech up to admin tech 17 and beyond ASAP.
To be honest, I never liked the 'movement locked' change
It is too easy to outmanoeuver armies that are travelling FROM bad terrain.
And it lead to this. Don't look at me
Ahhh piety events. They can give free manpower. By all means, please do
Let the Dhimmi die. Not that we have a lot LEFT in the Mughals; most of India is converted to Sunni (except the religious centers for Hindu and Sikh).
Korea got overrun from all sides, and only have tiny army left.
Time for the final battle on their capital!
Their muskets made some casualties, but the Mughals just outnumbered them...
They got slaughtered
Another 'women in history' event fired, this time for Jahanzeb Banu Begum.
The Mughals got a female 4/3/3/4 general!
I do wonder what her 'siege' methods are..
Korea gave in, and ceded a lot of cores back to Manchu. And the Mughals took the strategic province of Yaran, to expand their coring range. We can now claim Japan from multiple directions, if we so desire.
Note that I ALWAYS take this province in any campaign, as it shares three sea zones with Japan and one with Korea. But with claim spamming nerfed, its use has been diminished..
First assignment for general Banu Begum.
Invade Brunei, under cover of the Ayutthayan fleet...
Our general went in search for the Brunei army, but it seems they vanished in thin air..
well, their loss
Sulu did NOT get overlooked.
We did get a little wet though
Oh well.. Sulu got annexed.
Brunei ceded all their finished colonies, their trading center, and some other stuff.
To the left, you can see what provinces I took from Pagarayung (or however it's spelled), to expand my coring range.
Conquering Asia with coring range of 160 needs some planning
The Mughals teched up to admin 11, and textile manufactories got unlocked.
Time to set up a BIG silk and cloth industry in India.
Silk gets 5.00 price eventually, so it's worth it! And 'trading in cloth' means -15% merc maintenance.
Important tip:ALWAYS build factories BEFORE workshops on provinces that yield 0.30+ return (aka close to 4 ducats a year extra income), and they will pay themselves back in 130 years.
Sujan Singh had always dreamed of establishing the Mughals as the MAIN cloth/Silk producer.
The economy, you fools! TRADE and MERCANTILISM, you fools!
Foreign traders were already waiting in line to have a peek at all the valuable goods the Mughals produce..
Foreign powers were trying to get their share of the cake, and Sujan ordered to set up an expedition to punish Sunda for their privateering...
Note that the 'trade protection' cb STILL allows to take provinces/vassalise/protectorate, unlike the other trade cb.. Those got nerfed in 1.16.
General Banu Begum studied the fleet patterns, and crossed the strait into Sunda.
She showed NO mercy to these filthy pirates
Sunda was baffled, and fled in panic
And for good reason... General Banu Begum gave NO quarter
After she stomped the Sunda army, she departed for a new destination with the cog fleet.
And Sunda? They became a protectorate of the Mughals, and *also* had to divert all their trade to the Mughals.
Sujan Singh wanted to have total control of the trade in India.
First goal: conquer all coastal provinces in Gulf of Aden.
Got to LOVE free manpower piety events. I took the mission to 'create an army for our nation', ordered troops to get our forcelimit to 75% forcelimit, and voila.
The Mughals now have 175k army
General Banu Begum didn't even BOTHER to disembark the cogs, when they passed the Maledives. They got stomped, and annexed.
MY Indian trade!
Got to hand it to the VERY HARD AI... They attack IMMEDIATLY if I'm careless.
Luckily general Banu Begum is on the way with reinforcements
She arrived, and took charge of the battle.
With her back to the sea, her army made their stand!
Ethiopia is always the hardest nation in East Africa to conquer, due to them being so WIDE. Bit like Mali in West Africa. Kilwa and the thin East African coast is lot easier to invade...
They got routed. Their capital is being sieged. This fort is close to falling.
Yeah, we are WINNING
Kudos to Ethiopia for breaking my front line though.. That army would have been obliterated if not for the reinforcements.
The 'movement blocker' fort fell, and Banu Begum went into ATTACK modus now!
The war elephants had brought down the walls of Gonder, and now they obliterated the Ethiopians that got trapped in the occupied capital..
Ethiopia had enough. They agreed to the Mughal demands, and ceded their entire coastline.
A little cleanup war in China gave Ming one of its last cores back. Manchu got all the rest.
And on the other side of the globe, general Banu Begum started a VERY opportunistic war against Portugal
Portugal can't chose between allying Spain or Great Britain...
If they ally ONE, then the other breaks alliance. Somehow they ended up WITHOUT allies at this point, and the Mughals are (ab)using the opportunity!
We need a beachhead in Iberia!
But the Portuguese fleet blocked the strait. Oh well, let's siege up the forts around Morocco then
Kilwa and Mogadishu both gave in. They both became protectorates of the Mughals.
Sujan Singh asked them to divert ALL trade, and now the Mughals started to COLLECT trade in Zanzibar also!
Important tip:This new subject interaction enables a player to ask 100% (!) of all the trade of their protectorate subject. Consider it a permanent 100% 'transfer trade power' agreement.
That is silly OP in the right spots
This entire East Africa operation, combined with more textile manufactories, increased our monthly income from 200 to 230 ducats a month.
Not bad
That is a FATAL mistake Portugal.. They let me slip the strait, with 60k+ army.
I beat them by a DAY.
Yay me
The troops in East Africa are all walking to help out here.
In Africa, a big siege stack tricked the main Portuguese stack to attack them in mountains.
They got routed to Algarve, and our siege army in Portugal takes the opportunity to attack them!
We got no war elephants in Iberia, but nevertheless...
*STOMP*
Note that Portugal isn't a weak nation in this map. They own a BIG chunk of land around the Gold coast, and they colonized the Cape and the Spice Islands.
And they took quantity idea group
But they spread their troops thin, and the Mughals occupied their capital
In the end, they ceded Algarve and Alentejo as bridgehead in Iberia (those two provinces allow for a route to the forts protecting Madrid!), coring range province in Morocco, and all their colonies in the Spice Isles.
I got no coring range to ask for their holdings in Cape The Good Hope, unfortunately..
Then I got a popup telling me that Ayutthaya is invading Pagarruyung. SPAIN is allied to Pagarruyung.
I paused for a wee while, considering my options here.
Sujan Singh theorycrafted a DARING plan, after he saw 65k troops embarking in Iberia, to sail South. Spain has colonies near the Spice isles also, and they were likely actively protecting their ally there.
HMMMM you sail south huh...
Let me land troops near Paga also then.
And let me make peace with Portugal when our 'strait blocked' troops want to go across. No longer blocked to do so now, as Portugal war is over.
And then we declare on Pagarruyung when our troops crossed the strait, and Spain will protect them versus us ALSO.
Paga is in a coalition, but most of the nations IN it are fighting alongside Ayutthaya in the other war.
Hence, they are forbidden to join THIS war.
So, my ally and the coalition members do the fighting, while the Mughals place 1 stacks on all the provinces.
This was quite a micromanaging horror
"Hi Spain! Yeah it's me, the Mughals."
"Say what? How the heck did I get 87k troops in Alentejo all of a sudden?"
"Well, our army was black flagged, and waiting in YOUR province until you were movement locked to attack our baiting army. And then they lost black flag status in OUR province of Alentejo."
"Say what? I don't play by the rules?"
General Banu Begum took command, and began a slaughter... She had 50+k artillery entrenched, and waiting for them
"Let's dance, Spain!" she shouted.
She jumped off her horse, unsheathed her melee weapons, and... had some fun.
Note that a lot of my artillery is positioned on the FIRST row here, but NOT in the centre, where Spain can hit them. Artillery fiing from first row does double damage. Although I never checked if artillery can 'flank', and fire at stuff that isn't directly ahead of them..
Anyways, the artillery didn't take damage..
The artillery got spread over the nearby forts, and the 2 bridgehead provinces began producing a TON of mercenaries in Iberia. Our artillery needs protection after all
Maybe that Spanish transport fleet will come back!
In Pagarruyung, it all went as planned. Ayutthaya and co kill all enemy armies, while they let ME do the sieging.
Silly Ai.
Well, it has to be said, the Ai isn't always fooled. They DID come back with their fleet, and landed troops near Sevilla
And the army of Naples arrived from the East. Or that 60k from the transports stack split. Who knows.
Uh oh... MORE mercenaries please!
I made a capital mistake here
I should have focussed on siegeing down the forts protecting the STRAIT, and not their capital and forts next to it..
Why? Cause my armies walking in from East Africa can't CROSS this strait until Granada and Ceuta fall!
The Spanish formed a doomstack. Algarve and Alentejo keep producing MORE mercenaries.
Still... this doesn't look good
I decided to retreat to the mountains of Sevilla, and awaited what Spain would do.
Well, they chased me around in plains, while Granada siege kept ticking. Catch me if you can
"CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!"
*stumbles into enemy*
Seems colonizers don't leave their homeland unprotected anymore all the time
"What have we got here...?! More heathens to snipe!"
General Banu Begum finished flaying the heathens alive..
But now the rest of the Spanish army was inbound
General Samad Sahabuddin saw the danger, and consolidated his troops.
We can't run forever, time to make our stand!
The Mughal army wasn't at full morale, and the Spanish demoralized the Mughal army quite fast!
General Samad Sahabuddin ordered the artillery from the Granada siege to help out, and begged mercenary companies to join the fight.
Right about then, it began to RAIN.. Nobody saw a thing anymore
Akbar Sharqi, son of Jodha and Sujan Singh, and general of the shock infantry, took the chance to regroup the regiments for a tactical retreat.
The artillery from Granada arrived right before the sun pierced the clouds again!
The view was clear, and both sides had a CLEAR shot at each other!
And then my jaw dropped open.. literally
During that 8-8 fire phase, ALL the units retreated! On both sides
...Well, almost all
The freshly arrived 10k Mughal artillery fired from the FRONT line now, and devastated the regiments that didn't retreat yet (artillery on the front line does double damage).
10k artillery engaged the remainder of the Spanish army..
This is crazy. I am WINNING this?
I can't believe this. Spain had a morale point and a half or so MORE then me..
Granted, THEY attacked.
Granted, there were some CRAZY good fire phases at the start of the fight.
But I fully expected defeat..
Allah smiled on the Mughals during this fight, that's for sure
The siege in Ceuta FINALLY finished. The troops on the other side can now help out in Iberia.
Before the last big fight, it was at 28%... Imagine my cursing spree when it didn't finish when the Spanish attacked me a couple months back
THIS really turned the war around.
Mughals had been desperately defending near Granada for a LONG while, and now they went on the offensive path!
Time to play our good old 'bait the enemy' game
The AI should really learn to take enemy stacks in nearby provinces into the equasion, when deciding to ATTACK a stack.
Even with a 0 fire roll...
... we slaughtered them.
The Mughals routed the Spanish main Spanish army once more..
General Akbar consolidated his troops, and rode for Madrid. The heathens were close to recapturing their capital!
Spain had enough. They accepted our patented 'annul alliance' peace deal.
We'll be back though, Spain. You just watch
Akbar Sharqi got a victory parade in Delhi, and his father presented him a magnificent sword.
"You have proven yourself worthy of the throne, Akbar. I decided it will be YOU who will carry our battle standard into the heart of Europa!"
The Mughals were exhausted after the fight with Portugal and Spain. All their manpower reserves were burned
But the nation was still at war.
Padishah Sujan Singh still had to his planned move.
For that, the war with WU had to end. The OPM WU went up in Ming.
And then... Sujan Singh did his move
A very DIRTY move.
Pagarruyung became a protectorate of the Mughals, and the peace deal CLEARLY said that 'this will drag Mughals into war with Ayutthaya'.
As planned. Ayutthaya has no real use as ally anymore.
So, let us call in the OTTOMANS, as we took control of the DEFENSIVE war versus Ayutthaya!
This must be one of the most hilarious situations I have EVER been in, in Europa Universalis 4.
My allies Ayutthaya and the Ottomans were desieging occupied rebel provinces in southern India.
Everything is quiet.
I make the peace, and now Ayutthaya was my ENEMY. I called in the Ottomans, because they are now the ATTACKER in my defensive war over my subject Pagarruyung.
Result?Well, this. Ottomans and Ayutthaya did NOT get black flagged, and all of a sudden they realize that they are each other' ENEMY now!
FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!
.... I really laughed so hard.
Ayutthaya learned a valuable lesson.
Mughals is a human player and should never be trusted.
"Say what? What am I doing in your war to protect your ally Pagarruyung?"
*muffled laughter*
"NOTHING! Nothing at all. Those are all condottieri, you see. That's still legal right?"
*Spain hangs up with a grunt*
"TEEHEEE, they really don't have a clue. Silly Spaniards."
If you have trouble following what just happened, click below.
this entire war situation can be hard to grasp, so a quick recap.
1. Ayutthaya declares on Pagarruyung, backed by several nations. Spain is ally of them, and join war as non-co-belligerent.
2. Mughals can NOT be called into that war, as 'call into offensive wars' got turned off for Ayutthaya.
3. Mughals declare their OWN war versus Pagarruyung, which led to a seperate war where Mughals took on Spain in Iberia, and forced them out of the SECOND Pagarruyung war.
4. Mughals make a protectorate of Pagarruyung, which drags Mughals into the FIRST war of Ayutthaya versus Pagarruyung.
5. Mughals takes control of that war as defensive warleader, as Ayutthaya is now flagged as 'attacker of Mughal subject Pagarruyung'.
6. Once Mughals take control of the war, they call in their ALLY Ottomans, as this is now a DEFENSIVE war of Ayutthaya that (was busy) attacking our subject.
7. Since we JOINED the first war as warleader on defensive side, SPAIN, the (former) ally of Pagarruyung , is fighting the war on the same defensive side as the Mughals.
8. So now the Mughals , Ottomans AND Spain are now on the defensive side in the 'Ayutthaya-Pagarruyung' war, with the Mughals as defensive warleader.
Are you still with me
Well.. Eh... Time to invade our former ally then I guess?
The Ottomans actually LOST the fight in India somehow. They come back now after being routed, and guess who they bump into
Ottomans fighting Ayutthaya in Afghanistan.
Sure, go ahead. Because...
....bit busy sieging here!
Yeah, REAL busy, Ottomans.. Sorry. Sure you can handle the fighting, right?
Sujan Singh had this weird hobby. Scientific experimentation!
Sujan had watched the European way of producing cotton, and he now ordered to shift the cotton production provinces to this new 'plantation' method.
The entire treasury got thrown into this project.
Meanwhile, the Ayutthaya leftover army was on the move, after their army in Pagarruyung got obliterated. They descended the Dali highlands, and threatened a few siege stacks ...
The army ran back north.
The Ayutthaya army didn't dare advance into their own occupied land..
Hmm, maybe that big Ottoman stack plays a role in that.
Or that big SPANISH stack.
..... yeah, Spain re-sent their army towards Pagarruyung, and landed somewhere around Bengal, as the island south of Bengal Bay is a Spanish colony.
"Hi Spain! Yeah, this is the Mughals. I read you loud and clear."
"Say what? You think something fishy is going on?"
(thinks quietly) "Yeah, you *did* say I smelled like FISH the other day.."
*GRIN*
"Err, rest assured Spain, I rented my ENTIRE army to Pagarruyung as condottieri! Nothing to be concerned about."
*Spain is still frowning at us*
"All legal, right? I felt SO sorry for attacking them and you! Had to do something back right..."
In other news:Scandinavia is allied to the Ottomans, Brandenburg AND Great Britain.
They are eating the HRE alive. Speaking of eating alive, Great Britain took another bite out of France.
Ayutthaya is dodging the Ottomans and the Spaniards.
And I siege everything down
Sujan Singh stayed FAR from the jungle of Ayutthaya. His health had diminished rapidly in the last years
He spent his time overseeing the industrialisation of the Mughals. First, he reformed the government. The old IQTA form of government was obsolete. It did give a LOAD of vassal income, but it actually wouldn't LOWER total income for the Mughals, due to all the new production.
The Mughals took the national decision to 'reform their government' into administrative monarchy.
The Mughals now have manufactories on almost all cloth and silk provinces, and plantations on most of the cotton provinces.
He tore down marketplaces, docks, and shipyards, to make room for these buildings.
"The ECONOMY, you fools!"
If you want to know MORE on how the Mughals maximize the economy with manufactories and workshops, click below.
All of the value gained from improving trade good production will come from higher provincial Production value income and the larger Trade value in trade nodes.
Building a manufactory is the primary method to increase the amount of trade goods produced in a province.
Manufactories should be prioritized in provinces with high priced trade goods, and a return of +0.30 ducats a month. Workshops in all provinces that give return of 0.10 ducats a month, same for churches.
Increasing the amount of trade goods produced will also increase the total trade value of the province's trade node. It may be worth prioritizing building manufactories from provinces in trade nodes that the player is setup to harvest via trade.
European trade goods
Best European trade goods are cloth, copper (early to mid) and iron (mid to late). Due to price events cloth gets +40% price and iron gets +50% by endgame. Copper also has +50% price between military tech 7 and 18. It is wise prioritize building production buildings and manufactories on provinces producing iron, copper and cloth. Also avoid building them in provinces that produce wool, fish and grain. By late-game price of wool and fish will decline by 45% and 20% respectively.
Colonial and Asian trade goods
Silk, ivory, cocoa, dyes (early), sugar, cotton and tobacco (later) are the best trade goods and as they have price increasing events that boost their price further. Dyes start with relatively high price but will become worse around 1700 when the "Expansion of Bengali Dye Production" event fires.
All the events that lower/increase trade prices are in the link a bit further down in the chapter.
Sujan his secret plan came to fruition.
Ayutthaya went from ALLY to protectorate SUBJECT in one war
And then they had to give ALL their trade to the Mughals
In the last decades, the Mughals focussed on trade expansion and the economy.
They reformed their government to administrative monarchy.
They now have various 'trading in XXXX' bonuses, which your nation gets after you control 20% of all trade of a certain good.
Like 'trading in tea' for -10% advisor cost, cloth for -15% merc maintenance, and ivory for +1 diplomatic reputation.
If you mean the beautiful nature, yes indeed, it is gorgeous .
About trade goods, tropical wood can be beneficial if you have the money to spare. If you have CS than it will give you a -5% development cost and if you don't it gives a +5% production modifier, which I think would provide even more wealth in your economy.
Dyes is still good if I read the wiki well, it gives +25% and -25% after that event, which still makes it worth 4 ducats, which is still a lot.
I'm not sure if you have the diplomat time to spare, but remember that you can get great tech discounts by setting up spy networks in tech advanced countries. It can really accelerate the '30 point per tech' point for diplomatic especially
I'm not sure if you have the diplomat time to spare, but remember that you can get great tech discounts by setting up spy networks in tech advanced countries. It can really accelerate the '30 point per tech' point for diplomatic especially
Can it be any country? Do they have to be neighbours?
edit: Study Technology is no longer an action but a discount to technology cost gained from having a spy network in another country with more advanced technology. Size of spy network and how many techs they are ahead of you determines the size of the discount, with only the largest discount for each category used (so if you get 20% land tech discount from one country and 15% from another, your actual discount is 20%).
that... changes things. Gee, I might not have to wait then until corruption is gone, to tech up diplo.
BUT, does it stack with neighbour bonus? One way to try out I guess.
Can it be any country? Do they have to be neighbours?
edit: Study Technology is no longer an action but a discount to technology cost gained from having a spy network in another country with more advanced technology. Size of spy network and how many techs they are ahead of you determines the size of the discount, with only the largest discount for each category used (so if you get 20% land tech discount from one country and 15% from another, your actual discount is 20%).
that... changes things. Gee, I might not have to wait then until corruption is gone, to tech up diplo.
BUT, does it stack with neighbour bonus? One way to try out I guess.
Let's begin this chapter with a quick war against Brunei.
The war was over before it began
The Mughals did this, and left. We got more important stuff to start
.. like HOLY WARS
The Mughals are planning an invasion of entire Europe
Portugal, Spain and Russia are potential holy war targets in Europe now.
Russia will be the first, as their ally Austria won't protect them.
The AI is scripted to take MORE loans during wars or to hire mercs for rebels and whatnot, but this has the (good) consequence of them not willing to join defensive wars of allies...
This modifier 'won't join defensive wars due to debt' likely needs to be toned down.
Anyways, we ask our good old friends the Ottomans to join in, as they are eager to rip their rival Russia apart.
OKOK, let's unleash the hound
"Hi Buryatia! Yeah, I read you loud and clear, this is the Mughals."
"Say what? You want to help out against Russia? You will give free condottieri?"
"Errrr... SURE!"
....
(Buryatia rides into Persia, killing their rebels... Silly Ai )
It seems they only rent 25k army.. Is this the max limit for a condottieri stack or so? Feedback appreciated.
Russia arrives in force
I constantly scoop the map, and adapt to their troop movements.
Their army gets baited, on the holy fishing province of Astrakhan..
This was in 1.17.0. AI no longer has tendency to use too much cavalry/artillery in a stack, late game.
But who cares...
HOLD THE LINE!
General Banu Begum dispersed the heathens
And in comes another stack! They got movement locked to reinforce the previous fight, and can't stop...
Our army got consolidated...
COME GET SOME!
They got wiped.
And in comes ANOTHER 65k stack.
Got to love very hard difficulty
Time for a tactical retreat south
Our attack dog is still assembling and travelling towards Russia.. From the west.
Can't you help out HERE?
Grmpf.
The troops that invaded Brunei are travelling towards Russia.
I'll feel lot safer if 80+k Mughal troops are close to each other
I kept scooping the map, and eyed the advancement of the Ottomans from the west.
Ottomans have close to 200k troops advancing into Russia
COME GET SOME RUSSIA!
HOLD THE LINE!
...and HEEERE come the Ottomans
*STOMP*
....Ottomans want BLOOD also... Russia can't escape anymore!
...OH. Oops
Ottomans were in line to kill that... 1k stack.
Russia is movement locked into OUR army
They REALLY should get rid of this whole movement locked thing.
Well, let's just say that we are WINNING the war
Our new attack dog is going for that 46k stack.
By the way, the GFX overhaul mod adds weather effects. Scroll back a bit, and watch how the Lower Don province slowly gets more and more SNOW.
It is why I love this mod. Weather effects in terrain mapmode. Combined with the 'improved graphics' mod, this gives some lovely scenery.
This really makes invading Russia during winter 'visible'.
Yep, we are slaughtering them.. Baited the Teuton condottieri there
27% warscore from battles! Somehow I think I will reach the limit of 'warscore by battles' quickly here..
Holy war is superiority war, which means easy warscore by winning battles.
Still need to siege forts to ask for some provinces though
See Lower Don? Turned VERY snowy in real time, in the last month..
In other news:speaking of snow... When I saw this popup, I was like 'another succession war in Europe.. Wait... What?"
Westernized event converted native American tribes doing a succession war. Sure, why not.
Bad month to do so though, with all that snow
Scandinavia is allied to Ottomans, and also a rival of Russia. The AI jumps Russia, as we weakened them enough to justify this action.
DOGPILE!
The snow vanished again.. Time to advance!
How to get 50% warscore in 12 months, with few forts occupied..
Time to open another front.. Our vassal Manchu needs those cores back!
Russia did ONE last attempt to repel the invaders. They tried to snipe my siege stack on Ryazan..
Our attack dog helped repelling them though.
Now we got to travel into those snowy woods
At least the rivers are frozen
Time to make peace with Russia.
The Mughals teched up to administrative tech 17 FIRST though, to unlock administrative efficiency level 1.
I snaked my way to Scandinavia and Kiev. Scandinavia got buttered up beforehand, and they accepted alliance right after this, because the distance modifier was now ZERO.
And right after, I handed ALL the land to Persia.. All but Kiev though, to keep holy war on them.
I got a long term plan here, to invade Europe. Got to be patient for that though!
This is the result. The first war 'real' war against Russia was easy as pie, thanks to our quantity Ottoman lapdog!
Time to plan out the next war.
The Mughals started offloading all their troops in the Iberian bridgehead provinces.
And we took military tech 23, for new infantry units. The plan here is to take military tech 24 AHEAD OF TME, and to stomp Europe with the tactics bonus it gives.
If a +3 discipline advisor pops up, I'll hire him ASAP also.
Oh, and time for a free stability event. because has it has been WAY too long
Those Portuguese in Lisboa won't know what hit 'm
"Hi Iberia! Yeah it's me, the Mughals. Time for round TWO!"
*STOMP*
Time for speed two now, and waiting WHERE the Spanish will pop up on the map.
I can't stress enough how IMPORTANT this is. Micromanaging makes you win wars...
Hmm. No Spanish army in sight
Turns out they all crossed the strait of Gibraltar, because I didn't start to SIEGE their land yet.
If so, they go for enemy forts... in the Ottomans.
Sure, go ahead
The MOMENT I started a siege in Spain itself, they started backtracking..
Why wait to siege Spain? To give the Ottomans a chance to ENGAGE their rival in Africa.. Spain would have stayed in Iberia if I had set foot on their soil I bet.
The 50k stack engaged me/got baited in Sevilla, and got routed. The stack got shift consolidated, and the troops are regaining morale/men in my owned provinces.
Lisboa fell, Sevilla almost, and one of the forts protecting Madrid is being sieged.
So far, so good
The Asian invasion force now munched up Buryatia. Our Telinga infantry troops quickly stomped them.
I made no screenie of it, but in the end, they ceded load of land to Manchu.
This time, I didn't make the mistake of leaving the strait open.
Granada got besieged, and that 82k stack did NOT dare to engage.
...the Papal State? Yeah, they were ally of Portugal, and they got called in after I made Portugal co-belligerent.
They all tried to go towards Ottoman land now.. Be my guest
I assigned the forts in the Papal States to be sieged by the Ottomans (in the province window of the forts), and the AI promptly obliged. Another proof this is worth doing now.. Your ally AI nations LISTEN to siege commands in province window, folks. They listen promptly.
Iberia was COMPLETELY unprotected now, as all Iberian troops were in North Africa now..
The AI saw that too, and Great Britain declares also.
DOGPILE!
Important tip:I'll say it again: USE the siege command button on enemy forts. Set allies to siege it down. They will listen PROMPTLY now.
Well, that is that.
And guess what? Great Britain naval invaded with a 70+k stack in CEUTA.
They actually protect the strait for me now
The Pope ceded ROMA to the Mughals
It generated a TON of AE with all catholics, as the Pope wasn't a co-belligerent...
But I didn't care. This is worth it.
The Mughals now have yet ANOTHER missionary and +0.5 prestige bonus, and a beachhead in Italy! This gave holy war cb on the Pope, and Tuscany.
Note that I didn't lift a finger to force this, the Ottomans did it all FOR me.
Guess what? Spain NAVAL INVADED Ming. And this triggered THIS.
Popularization of Silk Fabrics
Trigger:
Capital:
In the continent Europe
Diplomatic technology is at least 18
Any of the following:
Thatta:
our country has a share of at least 10 percent in the trade node
Goa:
our country has a share of at least 10 percent in the trade node
Comorin Cape:
our country has a share of at least 10 percent in the trade node
Ganges Delta:
our country has a share of at least 10 percent in the trade node
Guangzhou Bay:
our country has a share of at least 10 percent in the trade node
Hangzhou:
our country has a share of at least 10 percent in the trade node
Does not have the global flag "popular_silk_happened"
Yeah that's right, Spain actually HELPS me here. Because they occupy Ming, they got the 10% trade power needed to fire this event.
Silk is worth FIVE ducats now. And guess who has a ton of Silk manufactories? That's right...
And then it happened for chinaware also...
European Traders in China
Trigger:
Capital:
In the continent Europe
Any of the following:
Guangzhou Bay:
our country has a share of at least 10 percent in the trade node
Hangzhou:
our country has a share of at least 10 percent in the trade node
Does not have the global flag "europeans_in_china_happened"
Base mean time to happen of 1 months
Option "This will increase the demand for Chinaware.":
Adds the "European Traders in China" modifier, changing the price of Chinaware by 0.5% for the rest of the campaign
Modifies treasury by 0.25 years worth of income
Changes prestige by 20
Chinaware is worth 4,50 ducats now!
And guess who is integrating MING now, 8x% finished?
Yep, the Mughals.
Important tip: if you want these events to fire, Invade the coast of Ming (or whoever) in Guangzhou Bay or Hangzhou. If you then make a trade company there, you will get a ton of trade ducats..
See all that Chinaware and Silk on the coast of Ming? Go for it! Best area for trade company, if you conquered your way into a trade company in spice islands.
Steer trade from Ming coast to Malacca to Zanzibar, and from there to Europe.
Granted, Portugal is TRYING to advance into the Ottomans.
....TRYING.
3840x2400 resolution, NVIDIA DSR resolution of 1920x1200 times TWO(rendered at 3840x2400, then downscaled again to 1920x200), combined with 'improved graphics' and GFX mod.
Sorry for the little ad.
But playing Eu4 like this makes it gorgeous. Got to adapt the settings.txt file to guiscale at 2.0, instead of 1.0 though.
I makes UI bit blurry, but at least its readable then at 4k resolution or bigger.
You likely need the "bigger XXX" mod collection too to make diplomacy window as big as this on resolutions this high.
Time for the aforementioned war against Kiev.
Important tip:if you have load of protectorates, and IF you are fighting outside home continent, and IF you don't want to call allies in, then declare COLONIAL war. Its an option you can vink ON in declare war screen.
It calls ALL your protectorates in. In theory, I could have protectorated entire Asia and Africa, and then colonial war Europe, with a protectorate swarm like the revoked HRE.
Trust me, that has potential
Especially if your provinces have rebels on them. The protectorates will actively go for 'm then!
Yeah, invasion of Europe allright
Padishah Akbar Shaqri said goodbye to his favourite wife, as it is time to invade Europe for REAL.
Sujan Singh had died in bed, of old age.
Akbar had sworn to fulfill his father's wish..
His father had made him heir after the first succesful Iberia invasion, and now Akbar will carry the Mughal standard into the heart of Europa!
Starting with PRAGUE, and the Emperor of the HRE, Bohemia!
Spain got sieged up, and Spain is at with Great Britain. And Great Britain BORDERS the HRE.
Can you guess what comes next?
CHOO CHOO! Army arrived in Prague, due to military access rules.
Akbar planted his standard in Prague province, and shouted "YOUR MOVE!"
And in the North east, the Livonian order gets stomped.
And Bohemia?
DOGPILE!
Dogpile or not, they GUNNED for me
Very hard difficulty really made my adrenaline/dopamine levels go through the roof, as this is HARD. VERY hard.
I must say, looking back, that starting this invasion of Europe is one of the hardest things I ever did in Eu4 (the chapters to come included, as I'm bit behind in writing).
And not the micromanaging alone, but also the PLANNING. If you don't study alliance patterns, and play opportunistic (joining a dogpile for example), then it would be flat near impossible.
But we will try anyways.
HOLD THE LINE!
*GULP*
...hold the line... Please?
Akbar stood his ground, but the Mughals were close to LOSING that fight
My gamble was not going well... My front line was on the BRINK of collapsing.
But then something happened that I had HOPED for
BAVARIA and BRANDENBURG smell HRE Emperor blood, and are speed running to reinforce OUR fight against the HRE emperor!!
Without THEM being at war with HRE emperor, I *NEVER* would have risked this..
Akbar cried out, when the Bohemians were routed.. He started a siege on their capital after shift consolidating his troops, and sent the battered troops to the nextdoor provnce.. To loot.
Nothing like some pillaging and looting while recovering strength
The other participants in the OTHER war kept duking it out on their capital.
But MUGHALS started the siege... And watched in amusement
Livonian order received our patented 'annul alliance' peace deal. Time to take the battle to Kiev now..
Easy enough, as Kiev is involved in the OTHER war versus the HRE emperor also.. Brandenburg is killing them FOR us
Bohemia had enough. The HRE emperor accepted peace after their capital fell.
Akbar returned home, as Europa failed our first test...
The Mughals WON.
Time to make peace.
But FIRST, the Mughals teched up their diplo tech.
We have sent a diplomat to Scandinavia, to make a spy network. If you have diplo tech 9, having a spy network in a nation that is more advanced in tech, will give a BIG reduction in tech cost.
It can go up to 30%!And it stacks with neigbour reduction to tech cost, and with everything else.
Result? The Mughals teched up from dip tech 5 to diplo tech 11 for... 500 diplo points.
Why dip tech 11?Because that gave us enough coring range to ask for the CAPE provinces. JUUUUST about enough coring range to the Portugese port, south of Kilwa.
And then Spain... they gave THEIR share of colonies and provinces.
You can see here what my intent is..
Holy war on France, thanks to bordering their cape colony. Holy war on Great Britain, after taking Trinidad colony next to their CN.
And holy war on Teutonic Order and Lithuania.
Akbar made time for some well earned quality time at home.
But general Bane Bogum was restless..
She convinced Padishah Akbar Shaqri this wasn't the time to sit idle..
There is opportunity for ...
Akbar Shaqri agreed, and he unsheathed the sword he got from his father..
And the Mughals USE that momentum immediately. Our attack dog is eager to join the fight against the space marines of BRANDENBURG.
Our income went from 200 to 291 in a few decades..
I have no idea what you see in these "improved"graphics. To me it looks like a pile of pixelgarbage in white-green-brown.
Especially against the bright snow i cant see anything.
