Thank you very much, I'll do so. I think I have less than 100 provinces right now cause my top priority was to cut moscovy, but I'll have to focus on conquest now. Hoping the Ottomans will not attack me again as they did...
Jihad achievement
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Thank you very much, I'll do so. I think I have less than 100 provinces right now cause my top priority was to cut moscovy, but I'll have to focus on conquest now. Hoping the Ottomans will not attack me again as they did...
Ally the mameluks ASAP, claim a province on hedjaz, create as many soldiers that you can afford monthly (go over your limit), DOW hedjaz and vassalize (since usually Adal is not allied with Yemen, they don't get the acces). Then grab a few lands from Yemen or Oman before vassalizing them, so the mameluks don't turn domineering (if Oman ally QQ, act carefully). If you manage to get one or more vassals and keep your alliance with the mameluks, you should manage to unify the peninsula and prevent the mighty nations from attacking you easily. After this point, it's all about diplomacy and being opportunistic to grab lands !!
(Btw In my last attempts, I noticed that QQ was likely to revoke their guarantee on Haasa after a few years. So, you should always keep an eye on this, and have a claim on Haasa to be ready to take it before them, whenever they revoke the guarantee...)
Mamluk turning domineering just means that they want to vassalize you. It will change once you get bigger. A Mamluk alliance is good early game to ward off potential DoW but it's not absolutely required if you know how to manage alliances.
There is no need to take loans if you handle the alliances correctly. You probably should look for a start where Haasa is not allied/guaranteed by QQ. In which case they would be allied with someone in the Arabian peninsula. The alliances in the Arabian peninsula will be mostly random depending on the starts. Try to get another ally in the Arabian peninsula other than Yemen (not a must but will help a lot). Wait 1 to 2 years (fabricate claim on Yemen/Haasa) and wait for someone else to start a war involving Yemen. Wait till everyone is already weak (check ledger) from all the fighting before joining in. Annex Haasa and then try to vassalize Yemen next. That's how it usually goes for me, you just need to figure out the correct alliances to form so that you are guaranteed to win the first war.
I just finished this Achievement tonight. (Won in about 1775)
The beginning was quite challenging, I had to restart a few times. Everybody rivals you, and the Mamluks will switch to domineering pretty soon. You need to take advantage of wars between Yemen and the Hedjaz and to the like. When they are all vassalised, you can expand into Persia.
I never westernized. Max Army Tradition (Good Generals) and Prestige means you'll fight reasonably well, and eventually you'll have insane amounts of cash and manpower.
I never managed to cut Russia off from Siberia. It's still very possible to win if the Russians own Siberia, as I was focusing on keeping the western Europeans out of the Cape and Indonesia. A small mistake was leaving Madagascar for the time being: the Portuguese used it as a stepping stone to reach Asia. All they got after that was a part of the Philippines.
My Ideas were Diplo, Exploration, Expansion, Defensive, Admin, Religious, Aristocratic. The Holy War CB is very good against Russia.
Exept for extensive vassal-feeding, I only broke truces twice and never used any other cheesy strategies. This achievement is hard work, it's a race against time, but it's very possible to pull of.
The beginning was quite challenging, I had to restart a few times. Everybody rivals you, and the Mamluks will switch to domineering pretty soon. You need to take advantage of wars between Yemen and the Hedjaz and to the like. When they are all vassalised, you can expand into Persia.
I never westernized. Max Army Tradition (Good Generals) and Prestige means you'll fight reasonably well, and eventually you'll have insane amounts of cash and manpower.
I never managed to cut Russia off from Siberia. It's still very possible to win if the Russians own Siberia, as I was focusing on keeping the western Europeans out of the Cape and Indonesia. A small mistake was leaving Madagascar for the time being: the Portuguese used it as a stepping stone to reach Asia. All they got after that was a part of the Philippines.
My Ideas were Diplo, Exploration, Expansion, Defensive, Admin, Religious, Aristocratic. The Holy War CB is very good against Russia.
Exept for extensive vassal-feeding, I only broke truces twice and never used any other cheesy strategies. This achievement is hard work, it's a race against time, but it's very possible to pull of.
I need an advise. AQ, QQ and Timurids are in a coalition. Ottomans rivaled me, truce with Mamluks. I only took 2 Syrian cores, Ottomans have the rest. Persia is an OPM vassal. I can't take on Timurids yet.
I will start colonizing as soon as I unlock a conquistador.
So, I'm stuck. The only way to expand at the moment is by going down the African east coast and coring.
What are your suggestions? Am I too late? Because I've seen people claim Arabic peninsula way earlier.
I will start colonizing as soon as I unlock a conquistador.
So, I'm stuck. The only way to expand at the moment is by going down the African east coast and coring.
What are your suggestions? Am I too late? Because I've seen people claim Arabic peninsula way earlier.
Go down Africa, as you'd need these lands anyways. Why can't you take on the Timurids? With Tech and leaders, you should be able to beat them in your own lands. Maybe ally some horde to their north? You need to continue to push both south into Africa and into the north and east. As soon as you've grown Persia, things will get easier.
Timmies have 50k, and their hordes ally have another 20-30k troops. My manpower nearly depleted. My tech is 6, their is 5. I'm afraid if I get involved into major war, Ottos will DoW which will mean game over. I'll go down African route to get closer to their gold.
Taking Syrian provinces almost always guarantees a war with Ottomans. I've had a far more successful game letting them have Syria. Instead I cut them off at Judea - Al Karak - Al Jawf.
Buying them off is an option. I did it twice then finished westernizing during their 3rd attempt to destroy me. I can't express how sweet the months that followed were. I was able to take loans for around 300 ducats each at the time, so I had plenty to keep from going bankrupt. If it's going to put you close to bankruptcy to buy out though, it might not be worth the trouble unless you think you'll be ready to fight them next time around. Because if you don't have a path to westernize and don't want to fight with Muslim units, you'll most likely need to buy him out one more time at least.
A little offtop but how does it work? AI ALWAYS has -1000 malus for wanting more than gold.
The malus is -1000 but as you add money either you actually get over the 1000 or at some point it disappears ("everyone has a price" I guess). I've seen it 2K - 7K required, but it seems to be toward the lower end earlier in the game. I think I paid around 2500 the first time and around 4400 the second (at -20 war score). I'm not sure exactly what years those were but I finished a slow westernization process in 1606, so I don't think the first war could have been much later than yours.
Why does everyone seem to think that blocking Russia is such a big deal? There aren't that many provinces in Siberia, and if anything, a large Russia is great for you because it makes it laughably easy to punch out massive amounts of provinces at once, without even needing to get that much warscore.
It's about 15 provinces that you could colonize freely once you block off the Siberian coast. They matter later in the game when your colonists run out of places to colonize around 1700s (depending on how aggressive you colonize).
You can't vassal forever and there will be a point where you have to annex. That's when you don't want countries like Russia to be in a coalition against you. You can annex many provinces from Russia in one go, but that'll mean they will be in a coalition against you for a long long time. Of course, you can do DDRjake's coalition burner but why go through all the trouble if you can just plan it out early in the 1500s and seize that one colony and solve the Russian trouble once and for all.
Also, Ottomans can be crushed in the 1530s without westernizing. There is a small timeframe of opportunity in the 1530s when you get to military tech 11 and Ottomans are potentially still at military tech 9 because they are completing quantity ideas. Muslim get new units at tech 11 while Ottomans at 10. Bait Ottoman troops into either Dulkadir or Ramadan and beat them there repeteadly. Of course, that assumes you are at least big enough (75 forcelimit or more) at that point to field enough troops to beat the massive 100k Ottomans armies.
Colonizing is OE, AE and diplomat free. I don't think my run is over though because I let Russia grow. I'd rather Russia holds the land for me than the Iberians.
I don't think this achievement requires a perfect strategy or perfect play. My run has been far from perfect, yet from what I've read I'm in better shape than most, and I do feel that I'm easily on track to get the achievement. It's probably more fun this way since dealing with adversity is where strategy games become entertaining (at least for me).
Sitting at 33 provinces @ 1500
Persia, Iraq and Hedjaz (all are Sunni) are my vassals. Mams and Ottomans are my allies. I have colonized in towards the Pacific - own Sunda - and about to conquer ryukyu - the goal is block Siberia from the East if possible. Also trying to block Funji from forming. I have also pushed into East africa.
Persia, Iraq and Hedjaz (all are Sunni) are my vassals. Mams and Ottomans are my allies. I have colonized in towards the Pacific - own Sunda - and about to conquer ryukyu - the goal is block Siberia from the East if possible. Also trying to block Funji from forming. I have also pushed into East africa.
Going good. Kill the Timurids, feed Persia. Betray the Mamluks. Instead of Siberia, focus on the Cape. You don't want Portugal or Spain in the Indian Ocean too early. Russia has vassals like Kazan inside, and is easily beatable when you have a show superiority CB. If possible, do both, but never stop expanding overland.
Another option on the Russia/Siberia side is to annex Russia ASAP, then kick them out as a Sunni vassal. They will colonize Siberia for you while you work the African coast. Eventually they run into the Philippines.
Edit --
Leaving Funj to spawn means that the ottomans (or first Mamluks) will protectorate them.
So once you can beat down the protector once, you can insta attack them again via Funj. A 2 war annex becomes a speed game rather than a stab hit.
Edit --
Leaving Funj to spawn means that the ottomans (or first Mamluks) will protectorate them.
So once you can beat down the protector once, you can insta attack them again via Funj. A 2 war annex becomes a speed game rather than a stab hit.
15 provinces aren't going to matter. In my Ayutthaya campaign, I held SEA, China, Japan, Korea, some of Indonesia (the parts you can see from the start, I don't have explorers), and maybe 1/3 of India, and that was enough to get me the 400 provinces achievement. I seriously doubt that you'll even need to touch Siberia to get 500.
Yeah, but that's exactly why you want Russia to eat up all the Hordes. You let them take over all that land, and then you vassalize them and force Russia to release them all. Since Russia is so big, you can probably do it all in one go, too.
Also, Russia being in a coalition against you isn't necessarily a problem. I've found the best strategy to expand quickly is to pick one area as your main focus, preferably somewhere that's culturally, religiously, and/or geographically isolated, like India, and just hammer down on that area, going to war and annexing as much land as you can every 5 years as truces end. Everyone in that region will form a coalition against you, but once they do, it probably won't spread any further due to coalition mechanics. Just keep working on them until they're all gone, because they can't be in a coalition against you if they don't exist. Then, pick another area, and start working on that as well.
Aside from your main focus, of course you'll also be expanding in other areas, but you just need to make sure that you don't provoke coalitions in those areas. For example, you might pick India (the Hindu parts) as your main focus, and grind them down, while also expanding in China and Japan through core returns. In the same way, you could have Russia be in a coalition against you, and simply let them be in it on their own while you grind them to dust in war after war, and as long as nobody else joins the coalition (and why would they? Nobody cares about Russia), it's not a problem. You might start annoying the other European powers once you start forcing your way into Russia proper, but that just means you fight Russia last.
Anyways, here's my Najd campaign so far:
Only 1536, but I think I'm on track to getting the achievement. I've got 79 provinces so far, plus 19 extra held by vassals, so that's 92 provinces of growth from the 6 I started with, for an average growth rate of exactly 1 province per year. I'll need to pick the pace up a bit to make it in time, but now that I'm comfortably powerful I should be able to really start growing fast, especially once I hit China.
You can take all of Africa as well for easy and cheap coring provinces. Make sure to get the cape of Africa and everything along the east coast of Africa before Iberians show up. Rush up the west side as well. Take all western and southern Indian ocean islands asap too.