The Benin Crusade
I ended up deciding to take advantage of the CB and attack Dahomey. My reasoning was that since I¡¦m having trouble controlling inflation, that what I really needed to do was to add some nice rich Ivory provinces. Since the three alliance members are pagans, I won¡¦t really have to pay for the conquest in BB. It seems worthwhile to me.
On my first attempt Sahara converted to Catholicism, then I to a CTD on January 1. I grit my teeth and tried again.
On the second attempt, instead of having the Sahara converting, I got a heart over state. Well, that¡¦s tough cookies. Then, on January 1 I got a CTD *again*. O.K., something is wrong here. Let¡¦s try to do a little troubleshooting before I go report it on the bug forum. Just saying that I¡¦ve got a CTD on 1.07 on January 1st 1455 doesn¡¦t really help anyone. I load the game up again, and save it immediately. I get another CTD. End result: I¡¦m not playing on my usual computer, and I¡¦d accidentally installed one of the patches in the wrong folder. (Tears out hair). If I¡¦ve every seen a PEBKAC, this is one, and I¡¦m responsible. Very embarrassing. Well, at least I didn¡¦t report on the bug forum. That would have been even more embarrassing.
So, installing my mods correctly this time, I make my third (and finally successful) attempt.
The year is1454 gold inflation is still 0.26%. The Kingdom of Portugal, decides to take advantage of her CB, and gears for war. We increase our focus on troops and switch from investing in trade to land tech. In any case, my neighbor bonus is up to 5, and I really don¡¦t like to be much farther behind than that.
While no longer focusing heavily on colony development, I do push Havana up to city status. Since Cuba¡¦s climate is quite awful, I do plan to push Havana¡¦s population to 10,000.
I ship King Alphonse V to Africa so that I can take advantage of his siege capabilities.
By the end of the year, I raise my troop support level to 100% from 50%.
Then, on the 12th of January 1455, with three armies poised to attack the African kingdoms, King Alphonse gets a touch of megalomania (Megalomaniac monarch: cent realization +2, stability -1). The rational thing to do would be to call of the war till we¡¦ve dealt with our stability problem, and see if we can decentralize a tad. But, you try telling that to a monarch seized by megalomania, especially if he¡¦s leading tens of thousands of men.
So, on February 1, an emissary from Portugal declared war on Dahomey. Ashanti and Benin immediately honored their alliances. Portugal did not ask Castile to honor the Iberian Alliance.
Since Portugal only had three serious armies, we initially besieged Mossi, Begho and Leone (Alphonse V taking personal responsibility for the siege of Leone.) (Well, we did have a few thousand men off on native crushing expeditions on the coast of South America, who were then sent over for native crushing expeditions in Africa, but I wasn¡¦t really paying attention to them.)
The Africans ignored my sieges on Mossi and Leone, but repeatedly attacked my forces on Bengo. To counter those attacks, I repeatedly raised the odd thousand men and sent additional forces to augment the besiegers. The city finally fell on February 9, 1456.
But, despite that great victory, the merchants were unhappy at the disruption of their trade routes through the pagan kingdoms (Unhappy merchants led to a 600 point decline in my trade investment).
On March 13 Dahomey offered 120 gold for peace. Portugal refused.
On May 12, Benin besieged Zaria. The Moslem locals, already horrified that they were being ruled by Christians, rose up against the possibility of falling under the control of pagans, but were crushed by Benin¡¦s army on June 14th.
Leone fell to the king on July 30th.
On September 7, Benin captured and demanded Zaria for peace. Some people suggested that we accept, since we were gaining far more valuable provinces from her neighbors, but that suggestion was turned down in favor of trying to clear the southern pagan kingdoms out once and for all.
That decision seemed the right one when Mossi fell on September 9. Portugal annexed Ashanti, and didn¡¦t get any BB hit.
This is nice.
Bambuk revolted on December 1.
In 1457, honoring the Iberian alliance, I joined Castile¡¦s war on Burgundy, although I wasn¡¦t in a position to offer any assistance. (The AI should really look at the position of its allies when it calls for the aid.)
On March 28 enthusiasm for the Navy gave me an extra five warships in Fernando Po
Defeating Benin¡¦s armies in Zaria I went on to lay siege to Oye. I didn¡¦t try to liberate Zaria because I just didn¡¦t see the point ¡V rebels were going to do it for me.
On August 30th, I accepted Burgundy¡¦s offer of a white peace.
On September 11: Palonas fell, and I promptly annexed Dahome. Two pagan nations are down and I¡¦ve got one to go.
But, the natives were not yet ready for Portuguese rule. On October 1 both Begho and Palonas revolted.
On October 18, Portugal renewed her RM with England.
On December 12, a saint performed a miracle, lowering my revolt risk. I decided to take advantage of that to continue the war a bit longer and see if what I could grab from Benin.
Realizing that we were Christians, Benin tried to take advantage of our Christmas cheer to offer us a white peace on December 25. Portugal ignored the offer.
1458
When Oye fell, Benin offered 46 ducats for peace. But Portugal persevered in the war despite increasing discontent. Rebels seized Begho.
On August 7, Ivoria fell.
With the continued war, and more looting of trade caravans, merchant unhappiness led to a further -300 ducat loss in our trade investments on November 7.
On December 3rd, Portugal renewed her royal marriage with Bohemia.
In 1459, Portugal switched one tick towards quantity. I¡¦m not sure that was the right decision, since I¡¦m starting to gain more manpower through conquest, but this whole war has been draining my reserves and killed a large percentage of my pre-existing armies. Therefore, it¡¦s probably better to prepare myself for the next war.
On March 1: Timbuktu fell to rebels, greatly reducing my income. Unfortunately, with Portugal¡¦s manpower almost completely used up, I¡¦m not in a position to both take it back and bring the war against Benin to a successful conclusion.
On March 16 Zaria fell to our loyal rebels.
On April 1, the pagans in Leon and Palonas both rebelled.
Kata fell in May, and Benin now offered 73 ducats for peace
On May 28, Morocco became an Algerian vassal. I fear that we may start having serious problems with Algeria in a few more decades.
On May 30, the army from Kata besieged Nupa, the last part of Benin that wasn¡¦t occupied or besieged by Portugal. The war is now in it¡¦s terminal phase..
On June 1, the pagans in Leon revolted.
On August 1, the revolts reached a crises level: not only did the pagans in Mossei rebels, but the good Catholic and Iberian settlers in Guadalupe also rebelled against their royal governor.
I Notice that I had taken an automatic loan five years ago. #$@@. I really hate the default notification settings, and missed that one. In no position to pay back that kind of debt, I rolled it over for another five years.
Rebels seized The Azores on January 1, 1460. I¡¦m starting to pay for my no fortifications policy. If Benin doesn¡¦t soon surrender, I may be forced to accept a less than total victory.
On February 1, Acra fell to Portugal. Two provinces to go.
On March 1, Mosei rebelled again and rebels seized Cape Verde. Again, no fort means that WE can be very deadly.
On April 30: Nuppa fell to Portugal. One province to go.
On May 1: Kanno, an occupied province of Benin¡¦s and Bure revolted.
Finally, Benin¡¦s last province fell on May 13, and Benin was promptly annexed. I didn¡¦t raise war taxes because 1) my stability costs way more than the small increase in income is worth, 2) my income is deeply hampered by the number of provinces in rebel hands, and 3) I frankly can¡¦t afford an increase in RR right now.
Overall, I think that the Benin Crusade was a success: Portugal gained almost a dozen new provinces. Since they are pagan provinces they will all end up as good Iberian and Catholic ones. Despite this huge expansion, Portugal retains a tarnished reputation of 12.
On the down side, WE is 5, 10 in non-core provinces, which means that I¡¦m still getting a lot of revolts. My stability is 1 with a cost of 2243 to rebuild it. (One I¡¦ve broken the rebellions, I¡¦m going to start a policy of conversions to bring it back to something reasonable.)
Inflation now stands at 23.6% with gold inflation at 0.28%. I suspect that gold inflation will drop dramatically when I take back some of my richest provinces from the rebels who currently control them.
Conversion by the sword netted me a Catholic, but non-Iberian Leone. (Shouldn¡¦t pagans converted by the sword switch their culture, or at least the king have a choice about whether they¡¦ll be forcibly converted or not?) Begho revolted in June. I started moving my forces to crush rebellions and to take back the rebel-controlled provinces. I¡¦ll still have a year of problems with rebellions, but since I¡¦m not playing MP, things aren¡¦t likely to get too bad.
On September 19th, I got a Death and Taxes random event. Following through on my short term hurt, long term gain, I chose taxes: Palanas +2 Tax Value, and revolt. The rebels seized the city. So, I¡¦ve got one more rebel army and one more rebel-held city to deal with. ƒ¼ But, I¡¦ve also gotten a nice addition to the Tax Value of an ivory province, so it¡¦s worth it.
On October 1, Tangiers revolted. Well, I¡¦ve got an army sailing northwards to deal with the various island rebellions. It¡¦ll deal with Tangiers.
On January 1 1461: the pagans in Ivoria revolted.
I ended up deciding to take advantage of the CB and attack Dahomey. My reasoning was that since I¡¦m having trouble controlling inflation, that what I really needed to do was to add some nice rich Ivory provinces. Since the three alliance members are pagans, I won¡¦t really have to pay for the conquest in BB. It seems worthwhile to me.
On my first attempt Sahara converted to Catholicism, then I to a CTD on January 1. I grit my teeth and tried again.
On the second attempt, instead of having the Sahara converting, I got a heart over state. Well, that¡¦s tough cookies. Then, on January 1 I got a CTD *again*. O.K., something is wrong here. Let¡¦s try to do a little troubleshooting before I go report it on the bug forum. Just saying that I¡¦ve got a CTD on 1.07 on January 1st 1455 doesn¡¦t really help anyone. I load the game up again, and save it immediately. I get another CTD. End result: I¡¦m not playing on my usual computer, and I¡¦d accidentally installed one of the patches in the wrong folder. (Tears out hair). If I¡¦ve every seen a PEBKAC, this is one, and I¡¦m responsible. Very embarrassing. Well, at least I didn¡¦t report on the bug forum. That would have been even more embarrassing.
So, installing my mods correctly this time, I make my third (and finally successful) attempt.
The year is1454 gold inflation is still 0.26%. The Kingdom of Portugal, decides to take advantage of her CB, and gears for war. We increase our focus on troops and switch from investing in trade to land tech. In any case, my neighbor bonus is up to 5, and I really don¡¦t like to be much farther behind than that.
While no longer focusing heavily on colony development, I do push Havana up to city status. Since Cuba¡¦s climate is quite awful, I do plan to push Havana¡¦s population to 10,000.
I ship King Alphonse V to Africa so that I can take advantage of his siege capabilities.
By the end of the year, I raise my troop support level to 100% from 50%.
Then, on the 12th of January 1455, with three armies poised to attack the African kingdoms, King Alphonse gets a touch of megalomania (Megalomaniac monarch: cent realization +2, stability -1). The rational thing to do would be to call of the war till we¡¦ve dealt with our stability problem, and see if we can decentralize a tad. But, you try telling that to a monarch seized by megalomania, especially if he¡¦s leading tens of thousands of men.
So, on February 1, an emissary from Portugal declared war on Dahomey. Ashanti and Benin immediately honored their alliances. Portugal did not ask Castile to honor the Iberian Alliance.
Since Portugal only had three serious armies, we initially besieged Mossi, Begho and Leone (Alphonse V taking personal responsibility for the siege of Leone.) (Well, we did have a few thousand men off on native crushing expeditions on the coast of South America, who were then sent over for native crushing expeditions in Africa, but I wasn¡¦t really paying attention to them.)
The Africans ignored my sieges on Mossi and Leone, but repeatedly attacked my forces on Bengo. To counter those attacks, I repeatedly raised the odd thousand men and sent additional forces to augment the besiegers. The city finally fell on February 9, 1456.
But, despite that great victory, the merchants were unhappy at the disruption of their trade routes through the pagan kingdoms (Unhappy merchants led to a 600 point decline in my trade investment).
On March 13 Dahomey offered 120 gold for peace. Portugal refused.
On May 12, Benin besieged Zaria. The Moslem locals, already horrified that they were being ruled by Christians, rose up against the possibility of falling under the control of pagans, but were crushed by Benin¡¦s army on June 14th.
Leone fell to the king on July 30th.
On September 7, Benin captured and demanded Zaria for peace. Some people suggested that we accept, since we were gaining far more valuable provinces from her neighbors, but that suggestion was turned down in favor of trying to clear the southern pagan kingdoms out once and for all.
That decision seemed the right one when Mossi fell on September 9. Portugal annexed Ashanti, and didn¡¦t get any BB hit.
This is nice.Bambuk revolted on December 1.
In 1457, honoring the Iberian alliance, I joined Castile¡¦s war on Burgundy, although I wasn¡¦t in a position to offer any assistance. (The AI should really look at the position of its allies when it calls for the aid.)
On March 28 enthusiasm for the Navy gave me an extra five warships in Fernando Po
Defeating Benin¡¦s armies in Zaria I went on to lay siege to Oye. I didn¡¦t try to liberate Zaria because I just didn¡¦t see the point ¡V rebels were going to do it for me.
On August 30th, I accepted Burgundy¡¦s offer of a white peace.
On September 11: Palonas fell, and I promptly annexed Dahome. Two pagan nations are down and I¡¦ve got one to go.
But, the natives were not yet ready for Portuguese rule. On October 1 both Begho and Palonas revolted.
On October 18, Portugal renewed her RM with England.
On December 12, a saint performed a miracle, lowering my revolt risk. I decided to take advantage of that to continue the war a bit longer and see if what I could grab from Benin.
Realizing that we were Christians, Benin tried to take advantage of our Christmas cheer to offer us a white peace on December 25. Portugal ignored the offer.
1458
When Oye fell, Benin offered 46 ducats for peace. But Portugal persevered in the war despite increasing discontent. Rebels seized Begho.
On August 7, Ivoria fell.
With the continued war, and more looting of trade caravans, merchant unhappiness led to a further -300 ducat loss in our trade investments on November 7.
On December 3rd, Portugal renewed her royal marriage with Bohemia.
In 1459, Portugal switched one tick towards quantity. I¡¦m not sure that was the right decision, since I¡¦m starting to gain more manpower through conquest, but this whole war has been draining my reserves and killed a large percentage of my pre-existing armies. Therefore, it¡¦s probably better to prepare myself for the next war.
On March 1: Timbuktu fell to rebels, greatly reducing my income. Unfortunately, with Portugal¡¦s manpower almost completely used up, I¡¦m not in a position to both take it back and bring the war against Benin to a successful conclusion.
On March 16 Zaria fell to our loyal rebels.
On April 1, the pagans in Leon and Palonas both rebelled.
Kata fell in May, and Benin now offered 73 ducats for peace
On May 28, Morocco became an Algerian vassal. I fear that we may start having serious problems with Algeria in a few more decades.
On May 30, the army from Kata besieged Nupa, the last part of Benin that wasn¡¦t occupied or besieged by Portugal. The war is now in it¡¦s terminal phase..
On June 1, the pagans in Leon revolted.
On August 1, the revolts reached a crises level: not only did the pagans in Mossei rebels, but the good Catholic and Iberian settlers in Guadalupe also rebelled against their royal governor.
I Notice that I had taken an automatic loan five years ago. #$@@. I really hate the default notification settings, and missed that one. In no position to pay back that kind of debt, I rolled it over for another five years.
Rebels seized The Azores on January 1, 1460. I¡¦m starting to pay for my no fortifications policy. If Benin doesn¡¦t soon surrender, I may be forced to accept a less than total victory.
On February 1, Acra fell to Portugal. Two provinces to go.
On March 1, Mosei rebelled again and rebels seized Cape Verde. Again, no fort means that WE can be very deadly.
On April 30: Nuppa fell to Portugal. One province to go.
On May 1: Kanno, an occupied province of Benin¡¦s and Bure revolted.
Finally, Benin¡¦s last province fell on May 13, and Benin was promptly annexed. I didn¡¦t raise war taxes because 1) my stability costs way more than the small increase in income is worth, 2) my income is deeply hampered by the number of provinces in rebel hands, and 3) I frankly can¡¦t afford an increase in RR right now.
Overall, I think that the Benin Crusade was a success: Portugal gained almost a dozen new provinces. Since they are pagan provinces they will all end up as good Iberian and Catholic ones. Despite this huge expansion, Portugal retains a tarnished reputation of 12.
On the down side, WE is 5, 10 in non-core provinces, which means that I¡¦m still getting a lot of revolts. My stability is 1 with a cost of 2243 to rebuild it. (One I¡¦ve broken the rebellions, I¡¦m going to start a policy of conversions to bring it back to something reasonable.)
Inflation now stands at 23.6% with gold inflation at 0.28%. I suspect that gold inflation will drop dramatically when I take back some of my richest provinces from the rebels who currently control them.
Conversion by the sword netted me a Catholic, but non-Iberian Leone. (Shouldn¡¦t pagans converted by the sword switch their culture, or at least the king have a choice about whether they¡¦ll be forcibly converted or not?) Begho revolted in June. I started moving my forces to crush rebellions and to take back the rebel-controlled provinces. I¡¦ll still have a year of problems with rebellions, but since I¡¦m not playing MP, things aren¡¦t likely to get too bad.
On September 19th, I got a Death and Taxes random event. Following through on my short term hurt, long term gain, I chose taxes: Palanas +2 Tax Value, and revolt. The rebels seized the city. So, I¡¦ve got one more rebel army and one more rebel-held city to deal with. ƒ¼ But, I¡¦ve also gotten a nice addition to the Tax Value of an ivory province, so it¡¦s worth it.
On October 1, Tangiers revolted. Well, I¡¦ve got an army sailing northwards to deal with the various island rebellions. It¡¦ll deal with Tangiers.
On January 1 1461: the pagans in Ivoria revolted.
