Vijayanagar
Indian provinces: Mughals 141, Kutch 5 = in total 146/255 for THoT
Twelve provinces from Bahmanis and all six from Malwa last time, a big step forward in Central India.
The province scores of the big four:
Jaunpur 121%
Bengal 203% (plus 1 prov in Burma for 15%)
Bahmanis 192%
Vijayanagar 349%
Some changes since the last look at these numbers seven years before. Vijy increased by +5%. Not by gaining provinces, probably by development or lesser autonomy. Jaunpur is beyond the 100% mark again, courtesy of AI-Jharkhand with his stupid war in 1508. Bengal and Bahmanis lost 59% and 87% respectively.
My economy: Comfortably stable, as before.
If I compare my 6.5k ducats total debt to my total credit line of about 33k, it is about 20%. I can estimate this max credit quickly by multiplying my income (110 ducats) with 300.
For those, who like it, a little excurse about economy:
Forced bankruptcy is, if the monthly interest exceeds the monthly base income. Assuming the standard of 4% interest yearly for a 5-year loan, the total interest of a loan is 20% = 1/5 of the credit. The monthly interest is 1/(5 years * 12 months) = 1/60 of the total interest for the credit. So: max monthly interest * 5 * 60 = max credit.
Base income is all income displayed in the first six rows in the UI (tax to vassals). So for the correct number I have to subtract the 0.88 ducats war reps I get from Transox. From some event I got a temporary interest reduction of -0.25% yearly. So my interest is 3.75% instead of 4% and thus my true total credit line is: 34,633 ducats. Or as the game displays it: "You can have up to 55 loans" of the current size of 641 ducats.
My current 11 loans in relation to the max of 55 loans also gives the ratio of 20% for my momentary credit, figured out at the beginning. So for a quick estimation the "multiply by 300" is quite good, I think.
Expenses: My army is cannon heavy, as always. At this stage of the game it is constantly on full maintenance. Either I am at war, prepare for a war, do some rebel suppression or I am waiting for a rebel break out. Fleet is a hobby, I have even built a flagship. Forts, I have activated most of them, because I plan something. "Root out corruption" is quite big. It scales with the relative development of my empire, so it is groving with every expansion. I have never teched up in Dip, so I have to pay for +0.4 corr yearly "unbalanced research" and also for +0.47 corr yearly by OE atm.
Inflation: 20.55%, yes. This campaign I have the 'problem' of -65% core cost reduction. So it is way more attractive to upgrade territorial cores to full cores, if I have Adm points available. Result: No points to decrease inflation. But high inflation is not a problem, indeed it seems to be "just a number". Unlike high corruption, because of bad and really bad events.
Income: The numbers for tax and production look good. My only gold mine in Mewar is at 10 dev in production, fine too. Trade is some problem. I have good control in the four nodes Doab, Lahore, Deccan and Gujarat. But my home node is Doab, so a lot of my trade flows into the wrong direction. From Doab to either Lahore or Deccan and then to Gujarat.
Should I have 200 Dip points at hand, I can check, if a transfer of the trading port to the Gujarat node will increase the income significantly. But where to take Dip points from? I pay a lot for unjustified demands, too many dip relations and the integration of Kutch.
From a practical point of view, the reason why I consider my economy as comfortably stable is, that I have about 10 loans for many decades now. I increase my income by expansion and on the other side the loan size increases too. So I simply carry my loans forward, replacing old loans with newer ones of a bigger size. But I neither come closer to a bankruptcy, nor a credit-free situation.
Time to tackle Vijayanagar. A few days ago, I added a new ally: Ayutthaya (304 dev, 40/61 regs), even a bit bigger than Qara or Uzbek. I couldn't do so before, because Vijy and Ayutthaya hate each other. Moreover I wanted to keep the alliance with Vijy up to this moment, so I can set him as co-belligerent now, when I declare on Jharkhand.
Besides his vassal Venad, Vijy just brings in Hindu OPM Kolathunad (red, in Southwest India). The other idea of this war is of course to reset the truces of both Bengal and Bahmanis. So my first goals are to get these two out with white peaces.
Numbers: Mughals 90 (50/0/40) out of 99, Vijy 47/63, Venad 6/6, Kolathunad 9/10, Bengal 35/40, Bahmanis 22/36 and Jharkhand 9/10 regiments. I am on Tech 9, the major enemies are on Tech 8. So I enjoy +0.25 mil tactics and a more advanced infantry. That is a big war to come and it will be interesting, because Bengal and Bahmanis are in the war against each other, that started about a year ago.
First surprise: Bengal joined, Bahmanis didn't. Trilateral (or threeway) wars are possible. If it comes to a battle, the first two arriving armies in a province fight. The third army waits and then fights with the winner. I had this sometimes with native uprisings in colonizable provinces, like in Africa, while chasing a weaker hostile stack.
I assume, probably Bengal was asked first, because of the tag order and joined. Then the possible trilateral war prevented Bahmanis from joining. I don't think, I could have anticipated that. But this way my two armies (20 and 25 regs) in the west, ready to run into Bahmanis to siege his capital, were misplaced and I have moved them east. Keeping an eye on the Bengali armies.
Jharkhand's army is eliminated and his capital with a level-1 fort Sonpur is under siege, at +14% progress. My fourth army is in Bengal for the siege of his level-3 fort in the capital Gauda (0%).
That again! Chagatai opens a coaltion! He came out of our truce in Oct.10, so it is exactly four possible members, with Timurids, Baluchistan, Guge and Chagatai.
Timurids and Baluchistan indeed join this coalition a few days later. So now I am sure, the current war enemies are somehow counted in favor of the coalition. But is this really a threat to me and my alliance network? I decide to do nothing about it for the moment.
I have trampled over both Bengali armies. The first stackwipe in Patna of 14.7k cost me 1.3k casualties, now I got a second stackwipe on 18.7k for a loss of 2k. Although I am just going for a white peace, I decided for the battles, because I want Shia Bahmanis to win against Sunni Bengal. So I invested about 3.3k manpower, not so much.
My sieges made some progress: Sonpur is on +35% with a wall breach and Gauda is on +14%. Vijy and his friends are moving up the west coast, soon they will ran into one of my forts.
White peace with Bengal, the new truce date is Sep.16. I didn't win the siege in Gauda, but the occupation of several unfortified provinces was enough to persuade Bengal to this agreement.
I got the fort in Sonpur on 28.May.11, so Jharkhand is done. Vijy is sieging my fort in Daulatabad (-28%). I try to catch him, moving more armies over to the west. But currently army movement is slowed down, because we are in the monsoon season. Provinces with severe monsoon get -50% movement speed, regardless if controlled or hostile.
On 1.Jun.11 I could attain the trading bonus in silk, fulfilling the third age objective for more splendors. On 3.Jun.11 Timurids left the coalition, which thereby collapsed. Again very quickly.
Unlucky. Well, not that I have lost the naval battle against Vijy's 9 heavies. But the ruler of Kutch died and some pretender rebels turned up. Accidentally in Porbandar, exactly in the province where I docked my fleet, to be safe from Vijy's. As I couldn't stop the occupation of the province, my fleet had to leave the port and I have to suffer the loss of 1 heavy and several sailors.
Vijy has given up the siege of Daulatabad and moved to the southwest, before I could accumulate enough troops for the 2:1 superiority. But now it seems both yellow (=Vijayanagari) armies move away to the south, leaving alone the armies of Venad and Kolathunad in the siege of Daman (-64%). I will also send a delegation of 12 regs to deal with the pretenders in Kutch.
15.Sep.11, battle of Daman and Vijy's friends have to note 15 dead regiments. The rebels are eliminated too and my vassal is not even trying to liberate his province. He is useless as usual. The two yellow armies seem to head east now for my double forts in Warangal and Khamammet. Beside these forces, the enemies have just 5k more, but probably they will order new units. I have also started to recruit 5 more infantry and my 25-stack is returning from Bengal along the east coast.
Now it is my time on the west coast. Vijy has some nasty fort defense modifiers for about +25% to +50% in every province, so everything takes its time. I have started the siege of the level-1 fort in the capital province of Vijayanagar (+14%). One yellow army (13.5k) has indeed moved to my fort in Warangal (-35%). The other (29.1k) turned north, but is now moving south again. For whatever reason Vijy splitted off some small stacks and I caught the first one in Golconda, west of Warangal. By the hand of the 25-stack, after finishing its return from Bengal. Two more small stacks are designated to be toasted very soon.
The yellow 2-stack in Andhra. As the UI says, Vijy gets conditional mil access by Bengal as his war ally. But Bengal is out for several months and I don't enjoy the right to move to Andhra. One of these asymmetries in the game, I don't understand. But this is just a side note, not very important here.
In the south I have started the siege of Malenadu (-14%) too, not with the full cannon bonus yet. Three of my armies are busy in the north east. I killed the two small stacks and Vijy decided to go north once more from Chanda with his bigger army (29.2k), while keeping the siege with the smaller army (13.9k). The moment the big army was locked in, I started to move form Golconda to Warangal, so I will get the hill terrain bonus from my fort in the upcoming battle.
11.Dec.11: Stackwipe on Vijy for a loss of just 1.4k.
Now I put the 30-stack to battle in Mahur, with the proven 25/0/25 setup. I just move 10k more into the province, to get the 2:1 superiority.
Eight days later this battle ends in another stackwipe, costing me 7.5k infantry. As a consolation for Vijy his manpower pool increases by about 10k, about 1/3 of the lost troops. So I have eliminated all 65k hostile forces in the north. Vijy and friends will rebuild some regiments, but I should be able to concentrate on sieges now.
Four months later. The enemies hold a lot of forts. Six level-2 and three level-1 forts. I got that of the province Vijayanagar on 1.Jan.12 already, but just today the fort of Malenadu in the west. All newly recruited enemy troops are moving north along the west coast again. I let them, as I don't have a good superiority in this area. Instead I will move forward south to the next fort in Seringapatam.
In the east I am busy with two sieges on Penukonda (+42%) and Udayagiri (+35%). 10 cannons for the full bonus and a 3 siege pip general everywhere, that's what I have hired all these people for.
30 regs stay at home to deal with upcoming rebels. I might call them back to this war as a reinforcement anytime, if needed.
I have cracked three more of the forts. Penukonda on 12.Jun.12, Udayagiri on 27.Jul.12 and today, just one day later, Seringapatam in the west. So I can move forward on both sides. Cannanore, Kolathunad's capital, has just a level-1 fort, thus I can reach the last two yellow forts in Dindigul (south) and Gingee (east) now.
The enemies are not doing anything substantial on my west coast, more moving here and there.
The war Bahmanis - Bengal is very exhausting for both sides. Currently Bahmanis holds one hostile fort and seems to have the upper hand somewhat. Could be, nothing much will come out of this war, fine for me.
Vijy and friends have marched from the west coast back to the northern yellow lands. Two of my armies are just watching them for the moment. In the south, I am sieging Dindigul (0%) and Gingee (+28%), as planned. Cannanore has surrendered. I could even sneak in with my fleet for this day to the Malabar Coast, to overcome the -2 siege malus. My ships will dock now quickly to avoid the naval battle with Vijy, of course.
Since I want to annex the nasty minor Kolathunad, next I will go for the elimination of his army in Adavani, the 9-stack in the north. As it seems, Vijy's army (24k) lets down his friends once more, running away northern.
Nation and armies of Kolathunad are removed from the map, the coring of Cannanore is in progress. The last two forts of Vijy are sieged down, three days ago Gingee, today Dindigul.
As I want the two provinces from Venad, I have to continue and siege the capital of Vijy's vassal too.
If Vijy's army would go and sit on one of my forts, I would let it. But as Vijy moves around, apparently headless, it is too tempting and easy to catch him somewhere. Like here again in Bijapur, where at the start of the battle it has been 41 vs 24 regs.
A few days later: For a change Vijy survives this battle, but has to stop his shattered retreat in the next province to the south, in Savanur. Here another yellow army finds its grave on 27.Jan.13.
After more than twelve years: The integration of Kutch is completed. In 1477, my 3PM ally Kutch helped me in wars and against rebels with 10 regs. Now, more than 35 years later the 5PM vassal has passed on just 3 infantry to me. And one of it is a Merc. Sigh.
I might have expressed my displeasure to play with vassals/subjects one time or the other already before. I won't forget, that Kutch became my vassal for free by diplomacy. But I am glad this chapter of babysitting should be over for this campaign. So many disadvantages.
In the very south I fight down the last flames of resistance by a freshly recruited 8-stack of Vijy. Occupation of some unfortified provinces and waiting for my siege in Venad (0%) is all, what is left.
About three months later the level-1 fort has fallen. In the separate peace deal with Vijayanagar I want all provinces on the west coast. Because there are no claims on the areas Kanara and Malabar in the mission tree, I have to pay a lot of Dip points in some moment anyway. So I do it now. Additionally I grab the inland province Seringapatam with a fort.
The AE-list contains the same four eligible members for a coalition as before: Baluchistan, Timurids, Chagatai and Guge.
A few days later, I agree to a white peace with Jharkhand. Therefore I can (ab)use him in five years again.
A lot of casualties in this war. My manpower regains by about 800 monthly and I have three "slacken standards" in reserve, for about 19.5k each. So I think, I can recover from this war better than Vijy.
What is next? Important truces ran out in Jul.15 with Jaunpur and in Sep.16 with Bengal.
Besides fighting some rebels, like the already erupted Telinganan separatists (15k) in Warangal, I could use the next two years, to pay a visit to my old friend Timurids.
More about it ... next time.
