Kara Koyunlu's dash for Greatness - an EU2 SG

[unmerged(84806)]

Even if there weren't any wars, it seems nevertheless that you were pretty occupied. South Africa looks very good now! It shouldn't take long before we get all those provinces expanded to cities. I didn't know that having a conquistador in a unoccupied province increased the chances for a successful settlement - is it a big increase? Also, I don't like that cyan blob known as Zimbabwe we got there. If we get a CB against them, I think we should attack them as soon as possible, as they will be BB free, right?

The events you got seemed like they were balanced out, but I must say you got some bad luck with the Citites demand old Rights crap. So I reckon you used most of the turn investing in Stability?

I guess the old alliance expired, and Uzbek wasn't invited into the new one. Who are they allied to now? Perhaps we could attack them and forcevassalize? Strange that Yemen refused to be our vassal, by the way.

Since Dell usually plays in the weekends, you could take your turn now if you want to, Dark Scipio.

 

[Brian Roastbeef]

I invested in Stability early on, and late in the turn after the Political Fragmentation event. In between I went full trade. We made level 5, then I turned to Infra, but didn't get far there before I had to go back to Stab.

Conquistadors give a decent bump, like 10-15% actually, and about the same percentage less in cost.

Yemen refused twice. I even brought the armies to full maintenance for a month since some people think that helps. No luck. Also this was after an event that added 3 points of diplomatic skill.

Zimbabwe would be a good target once we have those other three provinces built into cities. Get some walls up, recruit some dudes and it should go quickly. I didn't really even think of it until now, but the best part is that we've cut Portugal off from them completely, so they're all ours when our BB is down enough and we've found a CB. A land grabber's bonus.

 

[unmerged(63809)]

You guys really gobbled up alot of Africa there. Is your fleet large enough to protect your colonies if you end up at war with a European nation? It would be a damn shame to see a bunch of those colonies and trading posts destroyed in a single war.

 

[unmerged(71226)]

Nice game. Safavid Empire is now just like Ancient Persia reborn.

 

[unmerged(84806)]

Brian: The good thing about Zimbabwe is that they're pagan (I think), so we don't need for our BB to cool down. Of course, we need to wait for a CB, though, so we don't get the -2 stability hit. I also agree that we should wait until we have forts in those neighbouring provinces.

As for Yemen, maybe we need a land border with them so they will accept? However I don't think that is a requirement though.

National_Cause: That's an important issue. We still have some ships around the Persian Gulf, but I don't think it's big enough to face European navies. We should consider if we're going to buy a new shipyard, for example in Basrah. Fortunately, once we have upgraded the TPs into colonies, we're much safer as they can't burn them away.

Elm0: Thanks, nice to have you along. The Empire looks indeed good now, but you should expect it to grow even bigger.

 

[Dark Scipio]

I think only european nations can annex pagans for free.

I think land border is only needed for a diploannex.

 

[Dell19]

I think only european nations can annex pagans for free.

I think land border is only needed for a diploannex.

The provinces are free though I believe in peace deals.

 

[Dark Scipio]

The provinces are free though I believe in peace deals.

I think not even this.

 

[Brian Roastbeef]

Yeah, it doesn't count for us, because we aren't European. Provinces too, 2 each, and 4 more if we attack without a CB - Austria would almost certainly come after us.

Also, a question I forgot to answer before, Uzbeks are allied to their vassals, the Mughal Empire. I didn't bother to invite them in since we would never be able to get them diplo-vassalized. Screw 'em.

 

[unmerged(84806)]

Ah ok, then it is of course best to wait attacking Zimbabwe. Will we be able to annex Zimbabwe right away if we control all their provinces? According to the FAQ, we will get only one BB per province in that case, and that is tolerable. Their capital is producing gold, and thus the income is very high - I would really want to get my hands on that.

The Mughals are Sunni, right? If we feel like it, we could attack them and the Uzbeks, forceconvert the Mughals and vassalize the Uzbeks.

Dark Scipio, do you think you could play before the weekend, or do you want to wait until Sunday?

 

[Emperor_krk]

Just felt the need to tell you that it's a nice job you guys are doing in this AAR. I have been silently following it since the very beginning, and what I like about it especially is the way you strictly obey the rule of playing and writing in turns - in some AARs (like Military Campaigns vol. 2, in which I have taken part) there were problems with organisation of the writAARs, often killing the AAR halfway (sometimes not even as much as a half ) through.

Your Safavid Empire looks great - you're going to achieve quite a lot with it, with it being so religiously uniform and rich .

 

[Dark Scipio]

I will see if I find the time, but it looks not good until the weekend.

 

[Brian Roastbeef]

Thanks, Emperor_krk. When Olav came up with the idea to do this, I was hesitant about finding the time to join in myself, partially because of the very same reason. Usually once somebody has a scheduling conflict these things tend to get all FUBAR. I feared most of the guys would fall away and this would die. Instead we're in well in the 17th century, with no major policy disagreements or in-game problems caused by it.

We've always had four or more people strongly dedicated to this at one time and while a couple have had to leave because of more important stuff coming up on their schedule, we've also picked up a new player in Dark Scipio. We haven't even really had any major delays in gameplay. We've kept a pretty steady roster, loose enough for people to work around their schedule, but organized enough to keep things in their proper turns.

Anyway, I'm happy with how it has turned out as well, and am quite glad to know that we've had people following this. You know we do have openings for people to come and play a turn (or several rounds, if desired) if you want to join in. Just let us know that you want to have a go and Olav will work you into the roster whenever you're ready.

 

[unmerged(83854)]

Same thing as Emperor_krk, I'm following it and loving it since the beginning. I also think you are all very good players - I doubt I'd be able to achieve such a success.

 

[unmerged(84806)]

Yeah, thanks for the comments, Emperor_krk! It's nice to get some feedback on how you (both the players and the readers) feel about the organisation of this game. I feel it has gone very smooth, perhaps most due to that we have usually been 4 players - I'm glad you feel so too, Brian.

It was indeed a shame about the Military Campaigns vol. 2. I followed it silently; it was based on a great concept, I must say.

If you like to, you're very much welcomed to play a turn or more Emperor_krk. And that goes to all the rest of you too.

No rush, Dark Scipio. My plan is to play one round each week, so it doesn't matter if you play on Sunday.

Edit: Crosspost with Don Matito. Glad that you like it. I think you have proved in your own AAR that you are a very good player, so by all means, feel free to join in!

Good to see that people are interested - maybe there will be another SG when this is finished?

 

[unmerged(63809)]

If there is another SG you guys do after this I'd like to join from the start if I have the time. Hopefully I'll finish my AAR by then. A slight possibility I'll be in a MP game in mid March as well. I'll have to wait and see. But this looks like alot of fun.

 

[Dark Scipio]

1639-1649​

Our Alliance expired and I made a new one.

Austria lost a war with Spain (Crete and Corfu to Spain).

We got a random stab hit and lost tech 2x1000 investements.

Portugal got an Ormuz-revolt event.

New Monopoly in Thrace.

1641 we got another stab hit and 2 revolts.

1642 Yemen became our Vassals.
This time no stab hit, but CB and -50 relations with the Uzbeks. I decided not to go at war to let our BB cool down.
Natives attacked Damara, troops were sent to deal with this.

A new Monarch: Abbas II., just great.

But shortly after that we got another historical Crisis event (-2 stab, +5 Revoltrisk), we could buy out of this if we pay 500 gold.

1643 saw the death of a leader and the follwoing reformation of the army (+1000 land investment). Lobito reached city status.
Tax collectors were installed (also in Natal). Tunesia annexed Tripoli.

1644 saw a regualtion of the medical profession. Late the year Isfahan gained +1 Manpower.

Jan. 1645 saw us back at +3 stab, November got us a stab hit again. But meanwhile we began a conversion of Thrace.

1646 began with constructions of a city wall at Lobito. We gained another Conquistador.

1647 began with an insult and on top the Mameluks claimed to be the defenders of the shiite faith!

To not let this happen again i hired a famous diplomat (-250 gold, +1 Diploskill, +10 Mamluks/Austria.

1649:

BB: 17,2/51

http://www.savefile.com/files/1353604

 

[Dell19]

Same thing as Emperor_krk, I'm following it and loving it since the beginning. I also think you are all very good players - I doubt I'd be able to achieve such a success.

Generally my turns have been pretty easy. With the Safavids it seems to be best to take a quite cautious attitude to taking over other nations. My main act of aggression was against the Ottomans who were already falling apart. I do quite like this kind of AAR as often in SP games I end up getting bored half way through when my original objectives are met.

 

[unmerged(84806)]

National_Cause: Great to hear that! I guess a new SG will start perhaps in March some time, depending on how fast we will finish this one and if the interest is big enough.

Dark Scipio: Seems like you had a quite peaceful turn, only interrupted by a few nasty events. Good to know that Austria isn't invincible. As they lost two Islands, their navy can't be very powerful, and that's good news. Or the Spanish Armada is insanely huge, which also is a possibility. Strange, but a bit cool too, that the Mamluks are the Defender of the Shiite faith. Wonder if they will put it to use - I hope so actually, since I don't want the 1000 ducats to be wasted instead of using them on conversions.

The expansion in Africa seems to progress very well. The Portugese hasn't caused any problems for us yet?

Dell19: I have the same problems in my SP games myself - running out of goals and objectives. So I think we should have as many goals as possible in this game. Some of the goals that were stated in the start has been met, of course, like getting rid of the Ottomans. Should we add some more goals? I have some we could use in the back of my head, if it should be necessary.

 

[Brian Roastbeef]

Good peaceful turn, like we needed, Scipio. I'm sorry about the crappy luck in some random events. I don't think there's anything I hate more than "Poor Government Policies." But I guess after the dozens of Exceptional Years that we've had it has to catch up sooner or later.

Spain close to us is not good news, in my opinion. They're notoriously strong in AGCEEP 1.54. Yoda has even mentioned that they're working on fixing that in 1.55. If they end up at war with us we'll need to be able to defend our coasts and colonies. We had a huge troop support limit when I checked during my turn, and were fulfilling less than half of it. Maybe we should accept the added monthly cost and build our standing army a little just in case. A strong army is the best way to guarantee peace. (Yes, I'm a Reagan Republican... ) We're rich enough to afford it.

Scipio, what was that status of the Ormuz revolt at the end of your turn? Any luck that they might declare independence, or did the bastards get everything under control?

As far as late game objectives, I don't know. What are your ideas, Olav? To me it doesn't seem so much as if we're out of objectives, so much as that we have too much BB to really do too much at the moment. We could set out to eliminate Sunni Islam as much as possible through force-conversion. That might be an interesting challenge. It'll take 1 BB per declaration, but we'll avoid the really big hits that come with taking land. We'll need to keep working at a strong navy, though.

BTW, what does Defender of the Faith do for a Shiite country? We have CB on half of the world as it is as well as a morale bonus. I've always been of the opinion that DoF is little more than a good way to waste 1,000 ducats, but it seems particularly useless in this case. Hopefully their morale bonus at least adds on to their Shiite morale bonus.