I'm sure this will amaze you, but I preferred 1.11.4 Ming to post-CS Ming
Why? Because diplo-vassalization wasn't broken back then and I could actually vassalize Hsenwi and then Pegu. I'd cut distance to Pegu by vassalizing Hsenwi, get a defensive alliance attitude instead of neutral, get royal marriage, done without siccing my army on them. Then I could, after diplo-annexing Hsenwi (if using diplo focus, burn the extra points) while running +2 rep advisor and diplo focus (the +2 rep has to be +1 or +2, with a +3 admin advisor and maybe a +1 Grand Captain to cut costs, alternatively, focus Admin with a +2/3 admin and a +3 diplo) diplo-annex Pegu roughly in time for my first Idea, Exploration with Tech 3 Diplo (160 colony range) to jump straight to the Andamans, then Mahe, northern Madagascar, fabricate a claim on the locals' nearest the middle of the southernmost seazone your province touches (idiotic game range calculations...), attack them for it, core it (make sure you're reasonably sure it can be reached with 240 colony range from Mahe though), then jump south to Cape or close by, take Cape and then colonize as far north as you cal (likely just south of Kongo), then it's 2-3 more colonies (Whydat, perhaps, and then Gold Coast or wherever that natural harbour is, though perhaps AFTER popping one down near Portugal--Castile attacked me in my newest Ironman, ugh... Portugal's never done that...)
In reality Ming tried to expand but was beaten back every time as they could not afford the cost of the army in the game you make positive income while having a powerful army, that seldom happened in real life.
The Ming Army had serious training and morale problems. They were, however, far more of a horde than the Europeans could even comprehend at this time and if the general could encourage his men and rally morale they overrun everything in their way like a human tsunami.
Discipline and morale was so bad that Tumu was, by EU4 terms, a 20 stack of Oirat under Esen Taishi (yes, THAT guy) beating a 500-stack of Ming peasants.
The professional army however managed to hold Beijin well enough under the control of the Generals faction, after overthrowing the Eunuchs that had caused the disaster at Tumu.
I read somewhere (forgot where; so not credible!), that a lot of people in china did shenanigans like 'donating' (of course they kept it de facto) their land to court-eunuchs or temples, which were tax-exempt.
An autonomy floor seems perfect as an abstraction to me.
...That sounds awfully like the US of A to me, "donation" tax breaks and tax shelters...
The Ming also closed their borders, banned long range trade missions, suffered hyperinflation in the 1440's and beyond, levied oppressive taxes on the peasants that drove many of them to become Wokou, worsening the strain on their already selective trade and tribute, stagnated technologically and ideologically due to the reactionary and elitist Confucian bureaucracy and the emphasis on ancestor worship and traditional Chinese philosophy, failed to expand or make practical use of any of the technological innovations their predecessors had made, wasted massive amounts of money and lives on an impractical defense that in the end was overcome by bribery, and stifled social mobility at any chance they could. They were centralized, yes, but far from efficient (or competent, primarily in their latter days), and though the dynasty collapsing is not a reflection of their rule, it was a culmination of all their failings combined with a series of disastrous wars, and most historians will also be quick to point out those many failings in the midst of their triumphs as well.
Sounds like Murica... cept the long range trade thing, let's see...
Xenophobia (build a fence against Mexico!), neglecting domestic manufacturing and hard material productivity, suffering a continued economic slump, levying taxes on only people least able to afford it and driving many into the prison system, worsening the strain on the already grossly selectively enforced legal system (rich kid kills 4 people with his car, gets let off cause "affluenza"), stagnating ideologically due to the reactionary and elitist fundamentalist and plutocratic movements colluding with emphasis on religion and traditional "family values", failing to expand or make practical use of many of their own innovations to cut costs (the military hardware designing is obscenely expensive. I swear I could design a better general purpose vehicle than that cancelled GCV program from 2009 to 2014 and which cost around 1 billion. I only need a computer, a box of paper, data on different materials and the current range of commercially avaialble engines, and a single year to work on learning automotives such as gearboxes and such before assembling the design in the last month--and waiting for them to build it to undergo trials), is stifling social mobility by creating an aristocracy by cutting estate taxes over the past decades. They are nominally decentralized, yes, but far, far from efficient, or competent for the most part if you look at most of Congress as anything outside a massed deployment of bribe-taking machines, and though their decline in prestige and in lead over the rest of the world is not a reflection of their ideals, it is a culmination of all their failings combined with a series of disastrous wars, and most other nations are more than quick to point out these many failings (especially the failing of never correcting their mistakes, starting with Bush Sr., Mr. "I'm not an apologize for America type of guy") in the midst of their triumphs as well.
Yeah, but once you do reform you get ridiculously good bonuses. It balances out.
Agreed, playing my Oirat Ironman with Admin Ideas, Claim and the horde ideas meant -75% coring cost before administrative efficiency. Now if I played with non-Ironman player bonuses... I don't even have to take Administrative Ideas, really, especailyl since you abolish the coring cost to equal base tax for colonies with -25, -25 and -50...
Oirats start with a 5 shock 4 maneuver general right? also all the non mountain areas give 25% shock bonus with the patch that fixed it.
a 20 Oirat Troop stack should be able to rout a 30 unit stack of ming units at 1444.
Historically, they routed a 500 unit Ming stack, though the latter was split up over several provinces and commanded by a -5/-5/-5/-5 Eunuch, before the shattered retreat mechanics we have now to evade enemy one-province pursuit wipes.
