Power By Production - A IN 3.2 AAR

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Power By Production​

While we wait for HttT, Victoria 2 and Christmas it seems like a good time to finally wrap up In Nominee and prove that you've truely mastered the game and are ready for new challenges.

In other words, it's time to do a World Conquest. But not just any WC! I want to maximize my finances in anyway possible and beat my own Hall of Fame record.

Many of the big country formations opens unique and beneficial decisions, so I will have to shop cultures around a bit. I plan to go POR->SPA->NED->ENG(->GBR)->SCA-> The world (almost)

That is a big mouthful and I can not promise to fully complete it, but the first centuries are so action-packed that I just have to share it with you! ( in fact they are so thrilling that I've never been able to do it on very hard...)

More strategic planning to come, but game-play AARs are written in images, so heres the first one.

No cheats
No gamebreaking exploits *

* AI silliness and land sales are not included

 

[Jolt]

@ the title.

 

[unmerged(74857)]

@ the title.

My AAR goal is epic in scope, so why not steal ideas from the best . (Production income will be sky high in the end.)

Sorry for putting this up and giving you so little to read. A hallmark of this AAR will be infrequent updates and abrupt gaming time dictated by diaper changes and general care for my sweet 1 month old daughter.
I intend to post as I play, so contributions are welcome.

 

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

Goal: To maximise income
Means: Take all the trade, production, tariffs and tax increasing decisions possible

There are 8 nation specific decisions of interest.

DAN/SCA: Vorneredskab, +10% tax,				(tech 30)
HOL/NED: Bank of Amsterdam, -5% inflation, +10% trade		(tech 24)
HOL/NED: Dutch East India Trade, +10% compete, +5% trade	(tech 20)
ENG/GBR: Merchant Navy, +5% tariff				(tech 30)
CAS/SPA: Gold Fleet, 5% tariff
VEN:     Stato da Mar, +10% trade				(tech 10)
POR:     Afonsine Ordinances. +10% production			(tech 4)
POR:     Remember the Navigator, +5% Trade			(tech 6)

The Venetian and the two Portugeese decisions are the only one that can not be taken after a nation formation, so I have to choose one of them as my starting nation. I like playing Portugal, so that's where I start.

It is a prerequisitie to the Sound Toll to have a scandinavian culture, so I will end as Scandinavia. I need danish culture for the Vorneredskab decision.

The nation formations in between are dictated by the tech tresholds of the decisions they open up. Because of that - and because of proximity - The plan is to go POR->SPA->NED->ENG->GBR->SCA

Some interesting economical decisions:

statutue of monopolies	:+3% trade, +3% production
East India Trade	:+5% trade, +10% compete
[U]dissolution_monastories[/U] :+6% tax
hire_privateers		:+10% tariff, +5% trade
convoy system		:+10% tariff
liqour act		:+3% tax
stock companies		:+2% trade, +3 compete
merchant shipping 	:+5% trade, -3% tax 
[U]court of wards and liv.[/U]	:+5% tax, +1 rr
agricultural_		:+4% production, +4% trade
importation_act		:+6% trade
mining act		:+5% tax, +6% prod.
[U]school establishment[/U]	;+4% production, -2% tax

And interesting religious decisions:

Spanish INquisition	:+3% missionary, heretics/heathens -1
Societas_jesy:		:+1% missionary
([U]Act of uniformity[/U]	:0.4 missionary, +1 rr)
heretico_comburnedo	:0.5 missionary
test_act		:0.5 missionary, heretic -1
church tax		:+8% tax, +1rr
[U]restraint_of_appeal	[/U]: -1 rr,, +1 prestige, +0.05BB, -0.5 diplomats

The underlined decisions are a bit tricky to get and I'm still indecisive if I'm going through the hassle. Dissolution of the Monasteries is only available if you have statute of restraints (and are not catholic). The latter is not really suited for world conquests, because of the detrimental -0.5 diplomats (and +0.05 BB). The question is if the -1rr, +1 prestige and 6% tax is enough to counterweight the penalties.

Court of wards and liveries requires Feudal Monarchy and centralization -3. I don't plan to stay Feudal Monarchy for too long, and the centralization slider will change from formation events only, so getting -3 will take some time. I might have to do some government swapping for that decisions alone.

School establishment takes -3 narrowminded which is out of reach for this AAR. I will probably convert and colonise until the end.

Here goes a graphical display of the 5 step plan

1. Megalomanic Portugal
2. Vasalize Granada and annex Aragon
3. Annex Castile
4. Grap strategic provinces with english, dutch and danish cultures
5. Balkanize France

• Provinces of interest that I actively will pursue or vassalize
• Provinces that I might take if convenient

Portugal starts out with excellent relations with England, Castile and the Pope. I intend to keep it that way until I backstab them . The economy is decent, but nothing special for a 6 province minor. This will change soon enough.

Portugal start with a miserable army and an excellent navy. The navy upkeep is in fact larger than army upkeep - a thing that also will change soon.
To cover up for the lack of enrolled men, Portugal has the brilliant general Pereira and king João I isn't bad for a 5,5,5 king.

And now for the good thing about Portugal. Right from the start there are 7 interesting decisions to take!
The sliders aren't half bad. The worst is the mercantilistic-free trade slider that will have to go all the way to the other side. I want full plutocracy for the 5% trade effeciency and bonus to cloth prices. Free Subjects will help grain and salt prices, but I will have to be at -3 for The court of ward and leveries decisions as well as the danish Vorneredskab. Full narrowminded and naval is obvious. Quantity -4 gives price bonus to fur.

 

[TubercularOx]

I intend to watch this as I've always been fascinated in a thoroughly horrified way at tag hopping.

 

[Derdiedas]

I don't know which version you are playing but Dissolution of monasteries should require SiRoA OR not being a catholic....

 

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I intend to watch this as I've always been fascinated in a thoroughly horrified way at tag hopping.

Great, I plan to do a lot of those. The swap to Scandinavia will be very troublesome, and I am open to all kind of advices on how to do it elegantly. I am currently thinking of selling native animist lands to a vassalized Denmark in order to increase the number of Danish cultured provinces.

I don't know which version you are playing but Dissolution of monasteries should require SiRoA OR not being a catholic....

You must be thinking of the "Church Tax" decision. That one was changed in one of the resent 3.2 patches, but now that we have a finished 3.2 there shouldn't be any confusion. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I read from the triggers that I have to be protestant or reformed to see the decision, but need the "statute of restraints" to take it.

dissolution_of_the_monasteries = {
potential = {
not = { has_country_modifier = the_dissolution_of_the_monasteries }
or = {
religion = protestant
religion = reformed
}
}
allow = {
# Raises the king to be the legal authority in all religious matters
has_country_modifier = the_statue_in_restraint_of_appeals
adm = 7
}
effect = {
add_country_modifier = {
name = "the_dissolution_of_the_monasteries"
duration = -1
}
}

I think the "Church Tax" decisions models the taxation that was invoked in many countries after the reformation. "Dissolution of the Monasteries" seems to be modeled over the English confiscation of ecclesiastic property to the crown and as such the need for "the statue in restraints of appeals" seems a logical trigger.

 

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Chapter 2 - Step 2. Conquer Aragon

Before I unpause, I split my army into two forces - one of 1k infantry under João I and one of 2k infantry under Pereira. I split my navy in three. 3 cogs remain in lisboa. The other ships are ordered to set sails, and are organized in two units - one with 2 cogs and 10 carracks, another with 1 cog and 3 carracks. The construction of two units of cavalry is ordered.
I then guarentee Navarra and dow Granada. Portugal has a very high chance of getting "relations with Castile/England" missions that rewards a royal marriage with +1 stability. I plan to use that mission as often as possible. Here I got one straight away.

The armies are shipped to Granada. Pereira unloads in the capital province while João unloads in Gibraltar. These moves have to be well timed, but the AI is very predictable at this early stage of the game. The two 1k units from Granada and Castile fighting in Almeria will part at some point and both move to Granada. I will send one unit past them start the siege of Almeria. I really only need Gibraltar and Almeria, but all three is a plus. This is my first 3.2 game, but the new rules for battles doesn't seem to affect the outcomes at this stage. Ping ponging commences:

I keep the sieges going with the help from Castile and England. In the end the two new units of cavalry rushes in to the save the day and the lands of Granada is properly sieged.

Aragon predictably dows Navarra and I honour the guarantee even though their armies are of superior numbers and my forces are occupied in Granada. I don't intend to fight naval battles and keep my naval maintenance at a minimum. The AI doesn't notice that, and won't attack unless it has an advantage. That means I have naval supremacy and can siege The Balearos without risks with just a single unit of infantry. I also have military access through Castile, and can choose when and where to fight the battles.

A favourable peace treaty with Granada is settled. I had to wait for Castile to sign a white peace before ending it. We were not fighting it together, and they would have continued the war even though Granada had become my vassal in the mean time.

The battle with Aragon is a war of attrition. They need three attempts to storm Navarra which gives me time to loot the country site and attempt a lucky siege on Barcelona.

The siege eventually failed, but I could keep the (growing) Aragonese army preoccupied in the north of the country by repeatedly faking unit movement. As shown in the picture by faking movements into Barcelona and Aragon. Later I moved the trick up a few provinces to feint movement into Pireneo and Barcelona. Ultimately this bought me enough time to control half of the country before the real war started.

This is the first battle with Portuguese troops involved. The new battles seems more bloody, but early armies are still just throwing handsigns at each other throughout the fire phase. Cavalry still rule supreme. Especially with a superior general defending in rough terrain and the attacker having to cross a river. I have gradually increased my standing cavalry forces to 7k

Peace is signed and a new war is started on the following day by attacking Navarra. I love annexing vassals through peace treaties with their overlords. The BB value is the same as for a normal province. Aragon is left with only their capital Barcelona.

 

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The topic of how to treat the peasant scum of Portugal proper and surroundings has been debated. I was very reluctant to enforce serfdom in the last event, but the alternative was a basetax transfer from the Balaeros to Lisboa. For the sake of culture swapping, higher base taxes in Portuguese provinces aren't exactly a good thing. On the other hand I ended at serfdom -4 which is further into the negatives than I hoped for. It is much easier to bring this slider left than right and I need to be careful.

Portugal is very vulnerable with big brother Castile, and France on the borders. France has a core on Rousillon and when they start to consolidate I should consider selling it. I am desperate for some trustworthy alliances (that I later can break). At this point I'm allied with Castile and France. England kept sending me into wars with France, and I'm not really ready for that just now.

Having the game to pause at peace deals can sometimes help to find advisors when a country is annexed. Here I'm lucky and gets a 4 star master of the mint instead of the current 3 star.

Being allied to superpowers is beneficial if you can abuse them - or diverge their armies to prepare for a later backstab. France has already taken a keen interest in fighting the Byzantines and here I conclude a peacedeal to hand over two north-african provinces to Castile. These provinces are worthless in terms of income, and some are even tropical. Castile will station way too many troops there. At one point they only had 5k troops in Castile proper, the rest were over seas! With that beeing said, I'm not totally satisfied with these provinces. I would have preferred them to be further away, so as to prolong the reinforcement time.

In 1409 I reach government tech 4 and the first NI. I always choose military drill when I'm warmongering. It will be swapped at a later point, but I love it for now when I'm waiting between wars with minimal army maintenance. It also helps against the AI morale bonus on hard difficulties. England, Castile and France all chooses NI's that are not the first on their respective /common/countries/###.txt which is a bit unnerving. Have they changed the way AI nations pick NI's in the final 3.2? I hardly see anyone choosing the first idea in their file.

Too much peace is not good for you, and a weakened Brittany have some interesting allies. In hope to get my allies to follow me into the war, I use a precious spy to form a claim.

Castile honored the call, while France sadly bailed out (they are slugging it out against England at the moment.) It takes my full cavalry army (10k) to rout the forces in Nevers, but only after controlling Finistere and Armor. Castile expertly battles Scotland and Tyrone while I hold sieges with my infantry and later a few units of cavalry.

According to the 5-step plan, I vassalise all opponents except Aragon which is annexed for good. On a second thought, it would probably have been wise to take the belaeros in the first peace treaty, and remove the core in the second.

Another goody from the war.

I was starting to think in terms of Badboy and preparation for a dow on Castile when this happened and I decided (or perhaps "it was decided") to end the session

 

[nsahn]

In order to do a, "culture shift," do you need a plurality of the provinces of the desired culture or a plurality of total base tax of provinces of the desired culture? I was thinking that your best bet would be to release your old provinces as vassals to achieve the right cultural balance.

Clever moves with your military. One of my favorites was fighting major naval battles outside home provinces and then rotating a few ships into port at the end of the month to heal (this doesn't work so well anymore since naval battles have been made more damaging).

 

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In order to do a, "culture shift," do you need a plurality of the provinces of the desired culture or a plurality of total base tax of provinces of the desired culture? I was thinking that your best bet would be to release your old provinces as vassals to achieve the right cultural balance.

I definitely need to get rid of my old provinces in some way. In my test game I herded Castilian so as to not have any coastal provinces, and then released them. This time around I have another clever plan. The rules are quite simple. You need a culture to make up 12% of your cored basetax to get the culture accepted. In order to do the cultural shift you just need to have most provinces of that culture.

Clever moves with your military. One of my favorites was fighting major naval battles outside home provinces and then rotating a few ships into port at the end of the month to heal (this doesn't work so well anymore since naval battles have been made more damaging).

I will definitely use that as well, but running AI in bankruptcy by leaving them with an unsustainable fleet is just too rewarding to pass. The update log says that they have removed the inflation penalty from bankruptcy, but I don't see how that will help them out of the bankruptcy cycle. They don't die from inflation, they die from lack of ducats. Time will tell.

 

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Castile is still busy conquering poor provinces in North Africa. Even though I've played lots of Portugal games, I've never seen them going at it with such enthusiasm.

A perfect chance for a good war while having a regency.

All according to the 5-step plan. The battles were unexceptional. Holland fielded a 8/2/0 army in swampy terrain that didn't budge until I brought the full 10k cavalry army up. ( At which point they cleverly left me to attrition - well played! )

The French king was invited to Filipe I's coronation ceremony. Filipe, always looking to cause mischief, spiked the kings drink and made him sign a treaty of alliance. The French king returned home with a slight headache and no remembrance of the intrigue. Filipe was aware that the treaty would never be honored, but he joyfully showed the document to the English and Castilian ambassador just for glare. He was blunt like that, but he got things done.

There were quite a surplus of diplomats in the advisor pool, so I took a chance and briefly swapped the 4 star diplomat for a 2 star collector to invoke the Afonsine Ordinance (production +10%) and The Liquor Act (tax +3%, stab +4%). I ended up with the 3 star diplomat and was quite content.

I wanted to test the alliance with France and started a war with a distant muslim nation. The new 7 ADM monarch allows me to run wartaxes and still have some room for occasional attrition, so I plan to be at war as much as possible.

The Swedes seems to have misinterpreted my intentions in Scandinavia. They wanted an alliance, I wanted a war.

I caught the majority of their army in Fyn and proceeded to siege provinces and run over small Swedish armies. The attrition from fighting in Scandinavia can be killing, and I tried to never have more than 2k units in unoccupied provinces.

Fyn was one of my war goals and I decided to capture it a bit prematurely. I really have some serious problems running over these infantry stacks compared to previous patches. In 4 attempts, my 10k cavalry army was unable to rout them.

I got creative and lured them over to occupied Jutland. They started to storm the fortress and my cavalry army rushed in. The changes to the battle mechanics seems to have taken the edge of cavalry attacks. It's going to be interesting to follow the changes all through the game.

I took possession of their two colonies, the danish cultured provinces and VesterGotland (prereq for Scandinavia).

I have no idea if this will work. The colonies were expediently sold to Denmark in hope that they will send out colonists to change the culture before they reach province status.

Yumm.. a tasty snack

 

[Herbert West]

Have you, by any chance, read OHGamers VIP0.2 showcase AAR with Prussia?

 

[Jolt]

Nicely done so far.

 

[Nodscouterr]

This might be interesting!

 

[unmerged(141824)]

I love this aar already.. Brilliant

 

[Kartos]

nice job. you did it very well.

subscribed!

 

[unmerged(74857)]

Have you, by any chance, read OHGamers VIP0.2 showcase AAR with Prussia?

It is a catchy title isn't it? (for those who don't get the reference, check out this AAR)

Nicely done so far.

This might be interesting!

I love this aar already.. Brilliant

nice job. you did it very well.

subscribed!

Good to have you all on board. I am posting as I play, and can't promise that it is going to be smooth sailing all the way ... but for now, things are looking good.

 

[sprites]

well i don't have victoria so i don't read those AAR's often
hmm ... that may be a good idea to weaken france , if they will station troops in turkey/egypt ...
unfortunately our relations are terrible and thay kind of war would be hard to get ^^

 

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I am constantly renegotiating the alliance with France, and they keep breaking it. At least it makes me feel safe during peacetime. Oh, and king Filipe learned a new french phrase. I hope he uses as often as possible.

With the French in check, it was time to start the first war against Castile. They are clearly afraid of the numerical naval supremacy of our alliance, and didn't even try to make landings. The resulting French warning was upsetting, but I fed them a new alliance shortly after. :wacko:

Taking down a lucky Castile is easy I vassalised Granada because they make a good vassal without me having to convert provinces, but also because the Castilian AI is hell-bent on taking them out. In a normal war, Castile will send all their armies into Granada and siege away, while I snipe and siege in the north. This time around, they didn't even put up a fight.

I accepted both. This is starting to look really interesting

Here is another way to punish the AI. The English repeatedly sent a 1 cog transport fleet to The Belaeros followed by a fleet of 31 carracks. Sadly for them, they never got the logistics quite right, and the cog was at least 2 days out of synchronization with the battle fleet. It just takes 1 day to set sails from Almeria, and another to get back again, so I hid my entire fleet 13/0/0/8 in the port only to pop out and overrun their transports. With 21 ships I could even overrun them when they had 2 cogs.

This wasn't the best timing, and I was considering to delay the dow on Castile until after the slider move, but chose to go ahead anyway when I saw how few armies Castile fielded in Iberia. With my discussion of peasants I happened to look at the Peasant war events and then I remembered why I normally get out of Feudal Monarchy as fast as possible. Changing goverment to despotic monarchy seemed to me as the easiest way out. It is important to get away from the middle position on the trade slider. At this point with a bit of badboy and a low trade tech level, I couldn't even hold a merchant Lisbon.

	trigger = {
		num_of_cities = 5
		NOT = { has_country_flag = peasant_war }
		government = feudal_monarchy
		NOT = { serfdom_freesubjects = -2 }
		centralization_decentralization = 2
	}

I was hoping to conquer the insanely rich province of Antwerpen bordering the already conquered Zeeland, but I never got a single unit to the battle. Instead I had to make do with this nifty vassal that hopefully will do some heavy lifting in future wars. The "Northen Army" was busy riding down danish nationalists. In the end, the battle in Skåne would prove the biggest battle of the war.

Here the immediate goal was to cut off Toledo from the Castilian coastal possessions. After the peace I briefly reloaded as Castile to see that their navy limit had gone all the way down to 3! They are doomed.

With only the war against the English left, it's time to see how Scotland is doing. In fact they are doing pretty good, so it was time for another clever scheme.

I was able to land a 10k force in vassalised Munster and started to siege Ireland. The last small independent English fleet was sniped and the battle fleet lured to the Baltic where it was kept busy by continuously moving in and out of Riga (on patrol with military access).

The remaining cogs were sent out to trap the English armies in the Western Islands while in the meantime provide landing opportunities for the invasion force in Ireland. The English AI chose to put a 3 carrack fleet against my 8 cogs! That is a clear miscalculation at this early stage.

Alas, all my clever schemes fail when the French declares war on England. The English navy quickly splits up and I must withdraw my navies giving England the full use of their army again. Notice the French landing! That is not something you see often.

I accidentally took a loan during the war and was hurting for cash. At the same time I was losing, both at lands and seas and so I decided to pull out. England has the mission to vassalize Scotland, and will probably give me another chance to pull this tactic off. I just hope France won't meddle next time around.