Shall we share our best strategies for Ming?
- If colonizing, Mexico and California are the most useful, since their trade can be redirected to Asia. Peru's useful simply for the tariffs, and Colombia and Argentina are useful for establishing <5 colonial provinces in an area that will likely border Europeans, so you can westernize, and then settle the 5th afterward. Mexico should be your powerhouse colony, of course. A good trick to colonize is, after going Exploration, get over to America as quickly as possible and, using whatever CB you have (hopefully, you can rush through the Exploration group), annex the Aztecs and Inca. Immediately after conquering either, release them as vassals, build up your relations, and integrate them later, producing their respective colonial nations (handily, they'll spend their time converting their provinces in the meantime). Being able to release the countries as vassals rather than protectorates gives Chinese-tech colonizers a leg up in the race. The only problem is that, when you release your colonial nations, they'll be Chinese tech, so they'll have to westernize on their own. Oh well.
- Back in Asia, trade is somewhat obnoxious, since all your trade is going outward, other than the trade from the New World. Colonizing the Pacific Islands doesn't give you much benefit, other than a location for naval bases (and the force limit boost from that). Siberia's a good target for colonization. The provinces are part of your trade nodes, and, as an added bonus, you can cut off the Russians. I'm toying with the idea of moving my capital to the Yumen trade zone, to best manipulate East Asian trade. Even after WoN comes out and you can designate a trade capital, it might be useful to do so, if you have enough traders, setting your capital in Yumen, and your Trade Capital in Bengal, so you can control both the overland and oceanic trade routes. But thats for another day.
- Expansion should be through Central Asia. While South East Asia is rich, its somewhat tedious with its relatively small countries and rich provinces that prevent you from vassalizing major powers, and its quite likely that you'll westernize before integrating everything there, so that you're stuck with either outright invasion, protectorates, or just waiting until those nations westernize themselves. Not a problem with the Steppe Hordes and, again, your main concern will likely be Russia (at least, once you're powerful enough to not worry about the hordes themselves). Expansion against the hordes might be tricky in the early going, but once you've got cannon, you should have no trouble fielding impressive armies; manpower and cash are never a concern, so you can max out the size of your artillery for each given army and murder any opposing armies fairly well.
- My preferred faction is the Eunuchs, because they free up more traders, diplomatic relations, and, most importantly, give you a tech boost. Trying to play the game with 0 diplomatic relations is torture, especially if you want to be expansionist. I really don't see much to commend the Bureaucrats or Temple factions. You shouldn't be hurting for manpower as Ming, so the Temple faction isn't all that much use, and if you're expanding through vassalization, their core creation bonus isn't very useful. Meanwhile, the Bureaucrats give you cheaper buildings and better tax (but you're not hurting for money most of the time anyway), and better religious unity and stability (but there's enough events in the Celestial Empire to give you stability that I find myself only boosting stability in emergencies). So, Eunuchs it is.
Thats what I've got for the moment. Any other good ideas?
- If colonizing, Mexico and California are the most useful, since their trade can be redirected to Asia. Peru's useful simply for the tariffs, and Colombia and Argentina are useful for establishing <5 colonial provinces in an area that will likely border Europeans, so you can westernize, and then settle the 5th afterward. Mexico should be your powerhouse colony, of course. A good trick to colonize is, after going Exploration, get over to America as quickly as possible and, using whatever CB you have (hopefully, you can rush through the Exploration group), annex the Aztecs and Inca. Immediately after conquering either, release them as vassals, build up your relations, and integrate them later, producing their respective colonial nations (handily, they'll spend their time converting their provinces in the meantime). Being able to release the countries as vassals rather than protectorates gives Chinese-tech colonizers a leg up in the race. The only problem is that, when you release your colonial nations, they'll be Chinese tech, so they'll have to westernize on their own. Oh well.
- Back in Asia, trade is somewhat obnoxious, since all your trade is going outward, other than the trade from the New World. Colonizing the Pacific Islands doesn't give you much benefit, other than a location for naval bases (and the force limit boost from that). Siberia's a good target for colonization. The provinces are part of your trade nodes, and, as an added bonus, you can cut off the Russians. I'm toying with the idea of moving my capital to the Yumen trade zone, to best manipulate East Asian trade. Even after WoN comes out and you can designate a trade capital, it might be useful to do so, if you have enough traders, setting your capital in Yumen, and your Trade Capital in Bengal, so you can control both the overland and oceanic trade routes. But thats for another day.
- Expansion should be through Central Asia. While South East Asia is rich, its somewhat tedious with its relatively small countries and rich provinces that prevent you from vassalizing major powers, and its quite likely that you'll westernize before integrating everything there, so that you're stuck with either outright invasion, protectorates, or just waiting until those nations westernize themselves. Not a problem with the Steppe Hordes and, again, your main concern will likely be Russia (at least, once you're powerful enough to not worry about the hordes themselves). Expansion against the hordes might be tricky in the early going, but once you've got cannon, you should have no trouble fielding impressive armies; manpower and cash are never a concern, so you can max out the size of your artillery for each given army and murder any opposing armies fairly well.
- My preferred faction is the Eunuchs, because they free up more traders, diplomatic relations, and, most importantly, give you a tech boost. Trying to play the game with 0 diplomatic relations is torture, especially if you want to be expansionist. I really don't see much to commend the Bureaucrats or Temple factions. You shouldn't be hurting for manpower as Ming, so the Temple faction isn't all that much use, and if you're expanding through vassalization, their core creation bonus isn't very useful. Meanwhile, the Bureaucrats give you cheaper buildings and better tax (but you're not hurting for money most of the time anyway), and better religious unity and stability (but there's enough events in the Celestial Empire to give you stability that I find myself only boosting stability in emergencies). So, Eunuchs it is.
Thats what I've got for the moment. Any other good ideas?
