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Getting that can prove to be a challenge though.

It can do, but as overload you can 'improve relations' to a value of +200, if you set one of your vassals rivals as your own rival you'll get the +50 'enemy of an enemy' modifier, and IIRC you also get a small boost from a military access treaty with a vassal. If those leave you short, gifts can add a further +25 to the relationship. A combination of these is usually, in my experience, enough to overcome negative modifiers due to religion and a recent war (and the recent war and conquest negative modifiers will slowly tick away in any event, so when you come to actually annex the vassal these should be fairly insignificant).

That is provided the AI has not racked up a huge amount of AE before Catknight arrived at the Kremlin of course!
 
Regarding multiple colonies, for every colony you have more than the number of colonists, the maintenance cost rises steeply. Russia is a big country to me or two more may be possible when you break through toward the Pacific, but it certainly won't be possible to carpet the far east.

I'm not suggesting for one minute CatKnight would overload himself with colonists. I worry that there's an event that will.
 
In Tsarist Russia, winter kill YOU! Hyef hyef hyeahf! Wait...

What are your plans towards the Ottomans? You might want to consider border friction or lack thereof when you annex/vasselize the border nations. And you might want to keep the Oirats as a long-term ally, a horde on your side would be useful.
 
In Tsarist Russia, AAR read YOU!
 
Congratulations to the weekly showcase win!
 
Well, Japan was short and... not particularly sweet, but at least you left them with a nice foothold in Korea. Oh right, they are currently losing a war against Korea. :)

Now Russia... Russia looks like fun! You've got a good ruler and a good heir in the wings, you've just won a major victory for border neatness... As long as you can tamp down on the overextension, you seem to be in great shape.
 
Playing Russia is going to be like shooting ducks in a barrel. Way too easy but if you try real hard you might be able to get into some trouble.:p
 
COMMENTS:
Sorry once more for running silent, especially during a Showcase week. I have an excuse though:

Last week...sucked. If you'll recall, I mentioned extreme cold here. On Monday the temperature fell to -11 deg. F while the wind chill hit -40 deg. F (by one of those random quirks, also -40 deg. C). This finished off my car, which somewhere between the extreme cold and several attempts to start it snapped or otherwise lost the timing chain of its engine. Ball game.

Scrambling for a new vehicle and a hard week at work pretty much did away with any ambition to rule Russia. We're back now!
*******

jdeska: Well, no Peasants War events, but plenty of angry peasants!

tnick0225: I'm very impressed with Elizaveta, as well as her daughter/sister/cousin/other. With the new patch, it looks like high stats will be the key to Westernizing quickly and efficiently.

Saintrl: AI Japan makes a comeback, but I was pretty incredulous.

Avindian: THANK YOU!

Chief Ragusa: Do I really need help with manpower from an advisor? No, but there really was no better choice. Plus, I value them more for the Admin/Dip/Military power and consider their special abilities an added bonus.

Yes, this turn consists of a lot of convert/flip culture/(smash rebels) fun. Next turn we'll look for some trouble.

Legolas: Good to know, thanks!

Seelmeister: Thanks! Yes, that was a fun little war. Hopefully Johan will keep me here for a long time.

GreatUberGeek: My ideas entering this turn are: Expansion-7, Defense-7, Religious-2, and Russian-5. As you'll see when we start up again, that Russian-5 is actually pretty important.

Nikolai: Yes, I'm a little worried about getting Kazan to +190, though as others note there are some possibilities.

Warlord Skorr: For example. Yes, I put a diplomat in Kazan to begin working on improving relations. I finally pulled him since it'll be awhile before I can even try to annex, but I was up to +98 relations. When and if I annex Ryazan however, I'll take a huge 50 point hit to relations.

Seelmeister: Unfortunately I can't do access treaties with my vassals since they already give me access by definition. I tried the enemy-of-my-enemy with Ryazan and it didn't work. Perhaps I'll have better luck when it's Kazan's turn.

Chief Ragusa: Perhaps... I did find a way I can keep exploring my way through Siberia. If there IS an event that gives me free colonies when I hit the Pacific, we could be in financial trouble.

ArchimedesBird: I'm taking your advice and trying to minimize border friction with the Ottos. The Oirats... well, I'm not expecting to start a war with them, but as an ally I imagine they'd fold pretty quickly in a 'real' war.

AsdfeZxcas: :laugh:

McGrey: Thanks!

Hiryuu: I hope so as well. My borders are better than they were, but could use a bit more smoothing in other places. Like Europe.

Akuseru: As I mentioned the Japanese AI does recover. IIRC the Koreans had one huge stack and I left Japan with two medium ones. The Japanese AI must have forgotten to send the second army to 'rescue' the first.

Stuyvesant: Indeed! One turn to let things calm down, then we'll see who else we can stomp practice Russian diplomacy on.

Storey: It would be much harder if I had Crimea to contend with!

*************

Oh, and if you haven't already, be sure to vote for the AARland Choice Awards! Each recent game has its own thread, as well as a generic 'other games' category available through that link. EU IV's is here!
 
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CHAPTER X: RUSSIA
Part 2: Overextension!
(1595-1600)

First Things First

It is 1595, and we have an overextension of 86%. A significant number of our provinces are wrong culture, and we can't do anything about that yet because those same provinces are Sunni.

Fortunately, we do have a few options: We've started flipping the culture in those five provinces we can 'help'. Our two missionaries are busy, and we're trying to core about half of former Kazakh territory. The latter won't finish until December 1600 and I want our overextension under control before we think of any more adventures.

We fire two of our generals: Gagarin for his fixation on orbiting the Earth, and Beketov because he's costing me a military power. For similar reasons let's cancel our MA through Poland. It's costing us a diplomatic power per month, and if we want to move troops through Poland it's not like we really need their permission.

While looking through my ideas, I noticed we have Russian-5. This lets me automatically discover provinces bordering my colonies, so we'll be able to drive for the Pacific after all. It'll have to be a long, narrow 'corridor' oddly enough, but it can be done.

Instantly upon starting the game we complete the mission to protect our brethren in Bryansk. That's very odd: Bryansk is still Orthodox, Lithuania is still Catholic, and we've done nothing to interfere. It's like when my wife thanks me for helping her with something, and I don't have the faintest clue what she's talking about. At that point this event fires.

Event said:
Thanks, Dear!

Your wife has complimented you for doing something that you don't remember helping with. You can say:

A) What did I do? (-20% morale as she reminds you that you're getting older and worries about your memory.)
B) You're welcome! (+5 prestige)

Perhaps the AI cancelled its missionary as the save 'reacted' to the new patch. I'm not complaining. Our next mission is to improve relations with the Golden Horde from -71 to +50. Let's cancel our rivalry with them, then send a diplomat to improve relations. We might still take out the Horde later, but I'm starting to like the idea of a weak buffer state between us and the Ottomans.

It's February 1595 when the revolts begin. Before this session ends there will be sixteen, all of them somewhat easily dealt with. The Sibirans in particular don't want to join the mighty Russian Empire. They'll learn after the first 100,000 deaths or so.

Things run smoothly for the next year: A merchant house thanks us for their patronage to the tune fo 43.68 gold, while we begin engaging in the Western Arms trade (-1 prestige, -5% tech cost.)

Speaking of westernization, with the latest patch I'm not sure how that's going to work. We can't even try yet due to overextension, and probably still need to be 8 tech levels behind (the popup no longer tells me), but now to Westernize we need to accumulate 2400 power. Up to 10 points is drawn from each of Admin/Dip/Military per month until that requirement is met. Does that mean several years of not gaining ANY points? That's really going to slow us down and hurt our ability to react to situations.

Along with western arms, another idea comes to us from Europe:

159503Bible_zpsffe1b41a.jpg


We're Russians! We're not going to take orders from some old guy with a pointy hat! In fact, let's go one step further and take Religious Ideas-3 (Church Attendance Duties, -25% stab cost). The stab bonus is nice, but the real goal is Religious-4, which gives us +3% missionary conversion to speed things along.

Apparently people don't appreciate being told to go to church. The Siberians want to revolt, and with our stability borderline (+1) and the occasional rebellion in full swing we opt for compromise: (National Tax -5%, Stability Cost +10% for 6 months)

That doesn't stop the biggest rebellion of this turn: Kypshak suffers from two allied revolts within days of each other, forcing us to go over and talk to them.

159607KypshakRevolt_zps3663dc38.jpg


In September 1596 Kola, our sole Protestant province, converts and we immediately begin introducing them to the joys of Russian cooking, Russian manners, and Russian winters. They claim to know about the last part but one can never be sure.

Unfortunately our czarina, though beautiful, intelligent and successful, is still a grrl and the boy aristocrats don't want to play. We can't afford any more questions regarding her legitimacy and tell the boys to get stuffed.

159611PoliticalCrisis_zps78f2b5ac.jpg



Patience Pays Off

1597 turns out to be a great year. By January all provinces that we can convert culture in (barring Kola) have done so. We also finish placating the Golden Horde and take on a new mission to take care of our Overextension problem. Our colony in Tomsk suffers some damage from natives, but not enough to significantly slow it down. Further, we only have one revolt, which leads me to the mistaken belief that the situation is under control. Not quite.

1598 sees both of our colonies become self sustaining. We send one colonist goes to Aldan, which uncovers several provinces. I meant to send the other to Yakut to further push east, but I pressed the wrong button, so we're trying to colonize Irkutsk along the Oirat border instead. Well, we (or the Russian AI) would have to go there eventually anyway.

We also hit Military Tech-15 (Maurician Infantry), which lets us convert our Eastern Hussars (cavalry) into Reformed Eastern Hussars. I wasn't crazy about taking a tech with the goal of eventually Westernizing, but short of a barrage of 'harsh measures' I really didn't have much to spend military power on.

Unfortunately there's nothing we can do about the poor quality copper that comes out of our mines, nor the poor quality iron in 1599. Overall they increase the costs of all units by 5%. Unfortunate, but not a huge deal. We have more than enough units.

In November 1598 we get a sort of 'ogre's choice.' We can either lose a stability or 10% army morale. Given the rebels that took 1597 off are back in force, we can't afford the army morale hit. We spend Admin to raise our stability to +1, then let it drop back to 0 by event.

159811GrowthofCities_zps510bf7b6.jpg


The serfs respond to our generosity with THREE revolts over two months. Again, easily settled, but annoying.

Along comes August 1599, and after a long talk with our diplomats regarding improved relations and a gift, Ryazan finally agrees to join the Russian fold. It'll take to June 1614 for that to complete. While we're busy there, Kola suffers from benign neglect even though we just finished converting their culture to Russian.

159910BenignNeglect_zps717b036b.jpg


Hmm.


Other News

Japan finally won its war with Korea, but only took the one province we'd forged a claim on. Currently the Ming are wrecking their way through Manchuria.

There's a new HR Emperor! Rudolf V finally passed away to be replaced by an Austrian. When I glanced over to see how he was doing, the Ottos and Morocco(!) were battering Bohemia and Venice. I don't think either actually gained territory, but a province defected from Bohemia to Saxony.

Spain's seized the 'French' Mediterranean coast from Savoy. Burgundy's exploded, and France is covered with petty fiefdoms as if the year was 1400, not 1600.

The new patch woke up the exploration AI. Last turn the Netherlands set up a colony on the Moroccan border in what we would call the Western Sahara region. This turn Spain founded one colony in North America, the Netherlands showed up in the Caribbean, and Brittany settled both the Caribbean and Newfoundland, Canada. The big winner (or big loser, depending on how much you like the new changes), has to be Portugal:

159912Caraibas_zps5b77631d.jpg


Caraibas has an 18% desire for independence, which from the patch log doesn't seem to be bad. Let's see how long it takes to rise.

So Johan, what will we do next?


Johan's Dice

Reign: 10 years
Roll Needed: 3+
Roll: 6
Continue: Yes

Nice.
 
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At least colonization seems to finally be happening.

Had no idea that Westernization had that sort of an effect on MPs though...that would hurt pretty badly, and probably make it fairly long process. At least you're able to push Russia further West, and well hopefully the rebels die down a bit.

Interesting to here whats going on with Burgundy and France though, be interested in seeing a map of that especially since Burgundy blew up. Wonder if they were forced to release nations in a war? Possibly a Spanish Burgundian War? Interesting happenings though!

And loved the wifey event :) made me laugh though, because usually its the exact opposite, instead of a compliment I'm getting chewed out for something I don't remember!!! LOL...such are the joys of marriage though.

Great update as always and look forward to the next!
 
Westernization is a real challenge in EU4... lots and lots and lots os revolts and bad events. If you have a lot of OverExtension to be added, it will be a real pain in the ass...
 
Those revolts might not be hard to put down but playing whackamole can be distracting, especially in this kind of game. Glad you've got another decade with the Bear, I'm sure you'll be able to do some damage.

At this point though Portugal, Spain or Britain would be a godsend, the New World is so bereft of murderous white men you could seize both continents given a few good dice rolls!
 
Glad you're there for another turn.

Also, are you taking steps to avoid the Time of Troubles event? Or did it fire before you took over?
 
Overextension can be a killer. You want to do without generals, but the populace just revolts. Reducing the size of the army or not paying maintenance runs into the same problem.

Of course, Russia does not need to ask Poland for military access.

Amassing the points needed to westernize is clearly a factor too be taken into account, plus the need to cut the overextension down to nil. Easily 50 years, unless there are buildings that significantly reduce the time with boosts to the three categories. You'd be unlikely to stay in Russia for all that time. So far you've only rolled a 6 to stay. Unless your die is weighted, you'll not make it. Still it will be fun trying.

So before you can annex Ryazan, you'll have to try to increase your relations with your neighbours by at least 50 points. Poor Crimea languishing under the heels of the Horde and ottomans. They cry out for liberation. Crimean mothers shout out "Shaka, bring home our sons!". Okay Shaka's not Russian - but he could be. An Empress needs a husband.

There are so many interesting things for Russia to do. Good luck.
 
Is it worth making the long-term commitment to Westernization, considering that you'll likely not be around to reap the benefits? Anyway, to quote Stalin (the quintessential Russian dictator. Even though he was Georgian): "Quantity has a quality of its own". Who needs those fancypants Western techs when you can just overwhelm your foes with endless hordes of peasant soldiers?

Time for some gentle colonizing and lots of stomping. Rebel stomping. Foreigner stomping. Footstomping when you get another raft of negative-stab events. ;)

Now, that would simply be my boring, scaredy cat play style. I know you're made of sterner stuff, so I look forward to finding out what you'll do.
 
COMMENTS: Hm, updating AARs is easy when on vacation! Now I just have to get someone to pay me to do this!
*******

tnick0225: Well, I didn't mention the other event because it has such a low MTTH I thought we all knew it. It's the 'Comet' of married life.

Event said:
What Have You Done?

Your spouse has accused you of doing something wrong. Unfortunately, you have no idea what they're talking about. When asked what you did, you say:

A) I don't remember. (-1 Stability)
B) Nothing. (-1 Stability)
C) I ate the last piece of cake, then called your mom a troll. (-1 Stability)(Triggers 'Sleeping on Couch' event)

As for France, here you go:
160001France_zps29df4df0.jpg


Hiryuu: It is impossible to begin westernization while Overextended. Which is probably a good thing.

Jape: Oh definitely. The Brits haven't even started colonizing. They (or Spain, Portugal, Neth., even Brittany) could blanket the North American eastern seaboard pretty easily.

Saintrl: I'm pushing eastward at roughly one province per five years. I'm certainly going to try to reach the Pacific, but it's going to be hard to make it before we leave.

Idhrendur: I have no idea if it already happened or not. The only real step I'm taking to avoid trouble is keeping my stability moderate.

Chief Ragusa: Best case scenario (all the stars align), one can Westernize in 6.5 years. I imagine with your power pool either draining and/or not being refreshed, it would be 6.5 really ugly years though. I'm hoping to start annexing Kazan before the -50 malus for completing Ryazan takes effect.

ArchimedesBird: Hm, the way France is right now, I might be able to oblige. We'll just need a lot of transports.

Stuyvesant: Very true. I'll be keeping my eye on Westernizing, but won't stop expanding/annoying my neighbors just to make it happen.