Great work in Korea, despite the initial set back. As others have said, the expansion bonus is only for more advanced tech groups, and is only by unlocked by completing the idea group - so it would be a long time to wait even if you did westernise.
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Offensive and offensive
You are way to behind in admin to go an admin idea. And taking two naval ideas in a row is a bad idea. Quality isn't as good as offensive in many ways
You are way to behind in admin to go an admin idea. And taking two naval ideas in a row is a bad idea. Quality isn't as good as offensive in many ways
Since Avindian is in a pretty bad techgroup and plans to westernize asap, it's better to cut admin tech beyond lvl5 anyways. Admin tech from lvl6 to levels which Japan could reach before Westerners arrive are pretty weak, and most importantly: being behind AND having a neighbour who's not makes stuff extremly cheap - lvl10 techs for <250 monarch points anyone?
Depends. High army tradition negates a good portion of offensive's benefits.
if you are either good with rolls or have so many military points you can throw them around like candy.
I think forced march tends to be a bit overrated by community, but it's the strongest tool in the set.
and I like the discipline bonus and forcelimit too (well quality has some good perks too, but somehow it mixes land and naval together which weakens a bit the group...)
btw Avindian another argument for why not go diplomacy idea group right now is, that you are actually naval power too and you will need good ships from high diplo tech...
Early Carracks w/ 10% combat multiplier / good naval tradition / good admirals do actually better than carracks w/o.
Forced march eats quite a lot monarch points and most importantly, it's useless against opponents having it as well.
For the discipline, quality has it as well, and forcelimit, the 10% multipliers are better than the 25%(?) more forcelimit offensive has.
I prefer using Quality over Offensive or Defensive when I play a navy-heavy nation. Since Japan is a series of islands, the choice for me would be quality.
You'll find out in either this coming update or the next one!
I will tell you all this much before the update; I did not choose expansion.
So you really like offensive, huh?
This is probably a good time to mention that I really don't know how to westernize in EUIV. From tooltips, it seems like it's quite similar to EUIII.
The ships and colonization range do argue in favor of boosting naval tech a bit.
Agreed, for a military idea.
So, I played a good bit yesterday; it's just a matter of organizing screenshots and deciding if I have one update or two. (MAYBE three, but probably not.) Before I leave for the archives this afternoon, I'm going to try to give you guys an update, so stay tuned!
(1) Get a land border with someone in the Western techgroup.
(2) Get eight techs behind (categories do not matter)
(3) Hit westernize in the technology tab (ruins your stability, gives extra revolt risk)
(4) up to 10 monarch points get deducted on each first day in a month
(5) requires 2000 to 5000 points in total (not sure how that's determined though).
((Grants the western units and techgroup upon start)).
Chapter 9: Is the AI in the pay of the Japanese shipbuilding industry?
Before we begin, I am horribly disappointed in everyone that did not get my brilliant pun in the last update’s title. Glory to 11? That is, XI, or Xi. It’s like you’re trying to tell me Latinized Chinese country names and Roman numerals don’t work as quality humor. I, sir (or madam, as the case may be), refuse to accept that.
So. The choice. (Possibly The Choice.) From the comments my readers made, I narrowed down the field, personally, to three possible choices, one in each category. Economic ideas, Expansion ideas, and Offensive ideas. (Some of your comments came after I’d already made the choice – I think my final three, now, would be Economic, Trade or Naval, and Quality.) Here’s the choice I actually made.
What was decisive, for me, began with the fact that I had a reasonable expectation of an admin surplus in the new future. I also had one for military, however. In any event, I quickly rejected the Diplomatic ideas. The ultimate clincher for the Economic ideas was this:
Why is that inflation so bad? I think, as this update continues, that will become clear.
I also relocated one of my merchants; here you can see my present merchant decisions.
This is before I reallocated my trade fleets, so Huangzhou isn’t as foolish as it appears. Given shierholzer’s advice, though, next time I play I’ll probably switch to collection in Huangzhou or some other node. I replace my diplo advisor with one for +5 rep. I reestablish an alliance with Manchu in 1590. I also send some of my fleet east to look for the New World from Guam. In September 1591 I learn that Korea has a new friend – Ming. Ming, however, is a joke at this stage, and has no real power. With that in view, I start forging a claim to Chungcheong. Manila is finished in October, and I continue farther along the Philippines. Guam is finished in November, which allows my fleet to repair (which discovered Wake Island before turning back). Wake presents a problem, however.
To use it as a base for further exploration, I need more colonial range. Still, I should get a diplo tech before too much longer. An event gives me enough cash to build a Constable in Kyoto in February; I’ve almost entirely ignored buildings at this point, apart from a couple of docks. I don’t need manpower, not at this stage, and I’m never sure which trade buildings to build. Not to mention how expensive fleets are to build. In March, Manchu does me a favor.
I’d still prefer to vassalize them, but Korea needs some whittling down first. Assuming, of course, I can beat them.
Now, that’s a loss (and if I had a leader, it would have been a win, but I forgot to move my conquistador). However, I did inflict a lot more casualties on them than they did on me. So that’s one good thing. On the other hand, though, this army is going to retreat all the way to Sakhalin, which takes me out of position, and if Korea were to blockade the strait between Deren and Sakhalin, I’d be in a world of trouble as far as sending my army over. In my foolishness, I included some of my transports with the exploration fleet, which has yet to return from Guam as it’s still under repair.
The moment my troops arrive in Sakhalin, I make my ruler a general. My army tradition is terrible (under 10), so he’s really my only hope for a halfway decent leader. Meanwhile, at sea…
These could be the result of really bad luck, but particularly in that second battle, I don’t think it’s just dice rolls. No, this is the consequence of falling behind in naval tech and/or Korea taking Quality or Naval Ideas, I think. When you lose ships at this rate, build cost really bites you in the ass. Even when you win.
So here’s the scenario on the ground in early 1593.
You can see the decision I made. My goal is to hit and wipe out the smaller stack before the larger one can get there, which would give me the advantage of the river in defense (in addition to better army tech). Mission accomplished with that.
Of course, it’s not all rosy.
So many ducats lost. Manchu helps out by hitting the big stack before I’m recovered enough to get there. I fall upon the running Korean army and wipe it out. So, Korea has no ground troops. In 1594, I get my first econ idea – a nice +10% to National Tax. I get diplo 7 in May of 1594, good enough to let me start colonizing Wake. At the end of 1594, the war with Korea is over.
Why give Manchu the Korean provinces? Anything that makes Korea smaller is good for me, and if I take them, I get the AE. The endgame here is still get Korea small enough to vassal. I might even sell them their old provinces back in that scenario, depending on how loyal Korea will be; I’d rather not have troops on the mainland at all, if I can avoid it. This would not be vassal feeding – it would be to make Korea tough enough to hold off a Chinese attack until I can arrive, or even strong enough to let me use mostly naval power in any such conflict.
I get some interesting discoveries a bit later.
Our first shot of Europe (not counting the world map)! No big surprises that I can see, apart from super Burgundy (which won’t last long). Some time passes, I get admin power from a couple of events and some prestige. About this time, I realize that with Tagalog finished (or whatever the name that province in the Philippines has), I now border Brunei. Time to fabricate a claim on Brunei, I think! (The country; Sabah, specifically.)
I almost spat out my beverage at this event. I had no idea it was even possible.
Brunei has military tech 10, one level behind me, but I’m close enough to mil tech 12 to wait, giving myself even more of an edge. I want to beat Brunei with as few troops as possible. Chungcheong cores in 1597, so I start converting it. I get mil tech 12 and Asian Arquebusiers, so in 1598, I declare war. The army does pretty well. The navy…
I keep forgetting how powerful light ships are in combat, especially when theirs are concentrated and mine are not. The Netherlands declare independence in May of 1598 (between the second and third battle up there), making Burgundy a little less powerful. I discover, sadly, that I can’t vassalize Brunei in a single war either. I’ll need to take one province, maybe two. I get some new ideas that may or may not help out with that.
A few sieges later, and I attain victory.
I could have taken a second province, but didn’t realize (at the time) that I’d need to. I also got a free explorer and carrack at this point (the last one died in battle). I think some more exploring is in order, given our victory, don’t you?
And that’s what you’ll get in the next update, which I plan to post the middle of this week!
Especially in the second battle, you're enemy is inland sea + galleys. Galleys are ridiciolously powerful in inland seas (that's why RL France had a significant amount of galleys till the dawn of steam ships).
These could be the result of really bad luck, but particularly in that second battle, I don’t think it’s just dice rolls. No, this is the consequence of falling behind in naval tech and/or Korea taking Quality or Naval Ideas, I think. When you lose ships at this rate, build cost really bites you in the ass. Even when you win.
Brunei is annoyingly hard to vassalise. You need to take three provinces before it's vassalisable (it took me three wars in my Japan game).
As for the inflation... if you think it's bad for Uesugi, try playing Takeda. Gold-mine OPMs are fun at the start. Then you see the finance overview.
As for the inflation... if you think it's bad for Uesugi, try playing Takeda. Gold-mine OPMs are fun at the start. Then you see the finance overview.
An empire without Austria...
I don't see that very often
You also need to have no overextension
And don't the units only come when westernization finishes?
I don't see that very often
You also need to have no overextension
And don't the units only come when westernization finishes?
Exzellent AAR! I subskribe!
Having previously followed Death and his antics I am once again happy to read this (and learn a lot, as I am much more nooob than you (hence the extra 'o')). It even prompted me to my first two tries this week-end. First trying to improve the fate of the Krim Tatars (inspired by today's Russian Imperialistic moves), failing miserably, and then joining the other side by playing Muscovy (ongoing).
I suspect Japan/The Far East is going to get an expansion at some point, giving us much more regionalized graphics and events...
Without entertaining and educating AARs such as yours a lot of people would not play Paradox games, I am sure! Just don't stop explaining the mechanics/problems as you encounter them, especially when trying to expand.
Having previously followed Death and his antics I am once again happy to read this (and learn a lot, as I am much more nooob than you (hence the extra 'o')). It even prompted me to my first two tries this week-end. First trying to improve the fate of the Krim Tatars (inspired by today's Russian Imperialistic moves), failing miserably, and then joining the other side by playing Muscovy (ongoing).
I suspect Japan/The Far East is going to get an expansion at some point, giving us much more regionalized graphics and events...
Without entertaining and educating AARs such as yours a lot of people would not play Paradox games, I am sure! Just don't stop explaining the mechanics/problems as you encounter them, especially when trying to expand.
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Great update. Japan is not having things all her own way - not choosing a military or diplo tech was a good idea, there is clearly some catching up to be done. Korea may have made the defeat costly for you (a further blow to inflation?) but the lands you have taken from them will hopefully ease your economic pains.
Slow but steady expansion. It'll be good when you can reach Wake Island. Also, remind me which advisers you have. I'm playing a Russia game right now, and I just remembered that advisors are a good source of extra monarch points.
Definitely true. Reading AARs like these way back in early EU3-times are what got me to buy CK2 and Victoria, and pre-order EU4.
I don't own Conquest of Paradise, so I'm anxious to see what kind of New World it creates in your game
Also, that is some seriously high inflation! Ah well, with the right advisor and the National Bank idea you'll be able to get that down to 0... in a century or two
You navy took quite a beating in this update. In the end though it doesn't matter, since it's the armies that win the wars.
That Europe looks interesting. The main colonizers look intact though so you'll have competition for the New World.
That Europe looks interesting. The main colonizers look intact though so you'll have competition for the New World.