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C'mon, CatKnight, get this show on the road already so that we can bury my embarrasing 'Maine Incident'! ;)

Haha, I think he may let it sit and simmer for another week ;) jk
 
McGrey: I think we need to stay away from the Republicans too. I think they're in Terra Incognita because they don't know enough about the world to realize it's not flat.

Seelmeister: North America is REALLY strange. I don't know if the Spaniards would really tolerate Canada's climate. It's nice to see Norway jumping in somewhere reasonable though: It's not far from where Vinland may have been.

eugene171: Anything beats being a vassal.

Saintrl: More or less. At least Britain and Spain are IN the Caribbean. There are a few spots colonized 'correctly' (The Brazilian coast, Curacao, Bermuda, etc.) but alot seems hit or miss. I wonder if that's because lucky nations are off and France isn't a colonial player.

AsdfeZxcas: Right! What can go wrong?

Darkath: I think you're right about Spain being formed from Aragon. Either way, I can kind of see it. Canada's pretty inhospitable (at least by Mediterranean standards.) I could easily see the Castillians telling the Catalans: 'You want autonomy? Fine! Here!'

Idhrendur: The whole region will take some doing, especially since Spain and Britain don't have enough provinces to form their own colonial state, so their holdings are still part of the crown.

Stuyvesant: Wait! Norway isn't in....

Lord English: Uhm...yeah, that.

Hiryuu: Great idea! Let's try it!

GreatUberGeek: Scary, huh?

Stuyvesant: Evict Norse from Maine. Right.

Wait...

Director: We're hitting them again! Harder? Let's see.

Orlov Kruskayev: Yes, the colonial state can mess up their overlord badly. If I was to play the DWI for the rest of the game, my strategy would be to wait until I'm about ready for my war of independence, then pick a fight with Florida and refuse to back down from Spain. Once Spain's kicked the Netherlands up and down the hemisphere and peaced out, DoW before Netherlands can recover.

tnick0225: If I had time, I have a decent plan that could turn the DWI into a superpower in 100 years. (Colonize, then start annexing 'primitive' nations)

Chief Ragusa: Unfortunately there is no 'Conquer Caraibas' mission I've found. Perhaps it's in Florida?

Stuyvesant: Actually I was planning on taking some time off...

tnick0225: A week. Two weeks. Something like that.

Oh, okay. On with the show!
 
CHAPTER XIV: DUTCH WEST INDIES
Part 3: What Can Go Wrong?
(1640-1645)


Long Term Success

It is 1640, and we have 2 1/2 years before we can schedule a rematch with Caraibas. Not ideal, but it does give us time to follow Darkath's advice and start forging claims. By July 1642 we'll have three: Jamaica, St. Martin and Martinique, leaving the three provinces in Hispaniola and Dominica unclaimed. For now at least.

Plan A was to buy 1 cavalry and 3 artillery, to bring our total army up to 15 units (10/2/3). After the second artillery however our budget began running negative. I could have cut army/navy maintenance, but that's not my first choice. Instead I disbanded the two cav as less important in an island hopping campaign, as well as the third artillery.

In June 1640 our governor dies, to be replaced by Pieter van...Damn, I have to learn how to write notes more clearly. Van Damn is another bureaucratic candidate, so no real loss there.

Indeed, we want bureaucratic governors because I have a clever plan. Fortunately the game is feeling helpful as, by the end of this turn, we get three separate Improve Government Tech events: +50 Admin, +0.5 inflation a pop.

Things speed up a bit in 1641 as Netherlands diploannexes Gelre. We core Antigua, but I hold off flipping their culture: Building up diplomacy points is part of my cunning plan.

What plan is this you ask? Well, it starts in March 1641 when we hit Admin-17. This lets us pick a new idea category: Expansion. Once we get enough dip points to throw at it, Expansion-1 gives us colonists. Plant a few colonists next to our 'primitive' neighbors, then send the army in to explain the advantages of Western tech.

In August 1641 our agent is caught forging a claim on Martinique. It doesn't stop him: It just encourages Caraibas to start forging a claim on Barbados, which we detect in December.

In January 1642, with 6 months before the truce ends, we start taking a careful look around: Caraibas has 9K men and 0 ships. Portugal 34K and 44 ships, Netherlands 47K and 84 ships. Further, it seems all 9K Caraiban soldiers are in Les Cayes on Hispaniola, leaving the islands bare.

What Can Go Wrong?

For the most part the war starts pretty damn predictable. One carrack blockades each of the three Hispaniola provinces, just in case, while we keep our flytes busy shuttling armies back and forth. By November 1642 we have three sieges (St. Martin, Jamaica, Martinique) going. It's so routine I didn't even bother taking pictures.

Then, in January 1643, Netherlands decided to make our lives interesting and got into a war, on Great Britain's side, against Austria, Ansbach, France and Utrecht. None pose the least threat to me, but they do distract Netherlands when the inevitable threat comes.

Yep: In February St. Martin falls, and Portugal tells us to back off.

I believe the Internet term is "LOL."

164302Portugal_zps709f13ad.jpg


This does worry our plantation owners: They don't want Admiral van Eden getting ALL the glory.

164302Aristocrats_zpse24e7caf.jpg


Netherlands may be distracted (they are!), but Portugal isn't eager to cross the Atlantic to come get me either. They fight no battles, but I see no Portuguese ships so I'm perfectly happy to keep going. In May Jamaica falls, followed by Martinique in October, then Dominica in November. By the end of 1643 we occupy everything outside of Hispaniola.

What can go wrong?


Ouch.

So, let's review the situation in January 1644:

164401Haiti_zps21a54174.jpg


They have 9K under a pretty good general in Les Cayes. We only have 8 flytes, so we're going to send in General Ubergeek, then bring in Daendels as quickly as possible to reinforce.

Remember in our last war the Hispaniolan army was able to get anywhere on the island before I could land, leading to the potential of an amphibious assault. Well, I risk it in January:

164401Barahonas_zpsb22646dd.jpg


Right. Ubergeek retreats successfully, so I still plan on landing Daendels. He's scheduled to enter Barahonas on March 27, when on March 26 Ubergeek gets pinned down and completely destroyed.

Well. That went well.

I spend the summer of 1644 rebuilding up to 8K under Daendels. He's a better commander, and his army is only smaller by 1K. With a little luck he can hold his own. I REALLY don't want to have to buy four more flytes.

In September the two armies collide. I didn't take any pictures out of sheer disgust. Daendels lost 4K men to Caraibas' 3K, and if he hadn't hurt their morale badly enough to slow them down he may have lost his army entirely.

Fine! Four more regiments, four more flytes. Looking back on what happened earlier this turn, this probably kills our budget but I can disband some after the war.

Meanwhile, the Dutch/Portuguese war isn't going badly (+6%), but we're not seeing any of the decisive victories that drove Portugal to their knees last time. The Dutch/British/Austrian/French/other war seems to be running pretty hot, with several major battles to keep the Netherlands busy.

Will we win our war? Will everyone white peace out? (Probably) Stay tuned to find out! Unfortunately we won't be here.


Johan's Dice

Reign: 15 years
Roll Needed: 4+
Roll: 3
Continue: No

For Johan commands us to go elsewhere! We'll find out where in a day or two. Hopefully not Florida or Maine!
 
How sad that you leave the DWI behind at this point. But it would be interesting to see the other side of the coin, e. g. a colonial motherland. Lets see, what Johan has for you.
 
Aw shucks, that didn't go to well and it ended (or rather, didn't end) rather anticlimactically. Still plenty of opportunity to take down the Portuguese, with skill, patience, and a sprinkling of luck. Not sure that the DWI AI will muster all that. Ah well, hopefully your next excursion will put you back in a place where you can control your destiny a bit more directly.
 
That war was heading down a bad dark road! I imagine the AI will lose it now, unless the Netherlands can somehow come to the rescue.

But anyway I can't wait to find out who the next country will be. Hopefully somewhere a bit more promising as well.
 
There may be no conquer caribas mission, but that's not going to stop you, right? A little matter of the die being unkind. You had a plan and now it's on to another country. A primitive country perhaps, one with plenty of republicans in it.
 
General UberGeek! :D I always knew I was destined for semi-important things...
What if you got the Netherlands next? :p
 
See! Nothing went wrong, because you're out of there!
 
McGrey: Johan has significant pain in mind for me, unfortunately.

Darkath: No. I needed 400 Dip Power to take Expansion-1 to get my colonist, and with our governor having Dip 1 that was going to take awhile.

Saintrl: Gee, thanks

Stuyvesant: No. Now I'm expecting Netherlands/DWI to white peace out. Still, at least they got Antigua in the last war.

tnick0225: As I said, I expect the war will stabilize now and end in a white peace. Caraibas has no navy to invade with, and DWI probably doesn't have the wherewithall to continue building all those flytes and men and chance going into debt for the hope of taking Hispaniola.

olopi: Johan's in a bad mood..

Chief Ragusa: No! Anything but Republicans!

GreatUberGeek: That would be awesome (getting the Netherlands). Unfortunately, Johan is opting for less ideal circumstances.

AsdfeZxcas: But I wasn't done yet!

Nononir: Johan has far meaner things in mind than Caraibas.
 
INTERLUDE X: Halftime!


Hello everyone.

Before we find out where our next adventure is going to be, I thought this would be a good chance to sit back, have something to drink (preferably strong), and see what kind of world we're creating. We're a little more than half way done with the game.


Leaderboard

First, a few goodies from our ledger:

164500WorldIncome_zps666f8d45.jpg


Nothing in the top half of this list should be a surprise: As we go forward you'll usually see the Ottomans, Russia and Spain topping this list. They are our big winners. The Mughals benefitted from our leadership, and Great Britain rounds out the top five.

Down the list we have a few minor surprises: Kilwa, who's been lucky enough to have been left alone all game, and Persia who's really an also ran crushed between the Ottos and Mughals.

164500WorldTech_zps6045e378.jpg


Technology doesn't tell us as much as you might think. All European, mostly Germanic and Italian minors. Probably those who stayed out of trouble enough to be able to funnel their monarch power into tech. I have to admit Sweden and the Teutons are surprises considering how much trouble they've had.

164500WorldScore_zps896d885d.jpg


It all comes together in score which, while I don't think is a good indicator of current strength, is at least much more reliable than past versions of EU measuring performance over the course of the game.

Ottos/Spain/Russia - no surprise. Portugal and Britain benefit from their colonies, Austria from a few HRE elections, and Burgundy almost succeeded in eating France. The only real surprise on here is Venice: They just don't seem to have done much this game.

164500WorldArmies_zpsc4da705f.jpg


Note here I focused on force limit rather than current strength, since manpower and even regiments can be recovered with relative ease.

Russia/Ottos/Spain. The Mughals and Britain also put in strong performances, while Austria benefitted from chewing up a good chunk of the Empire. Mali has the potential to field the 13th largest army in the world - Wow.

164500WorldNavies_zpsb9bf8825.jpg


Lastly, our navy list is topped by Spain and the Ottos - no Russia alas for obvious reasons. Netherlands and Britain take up the challenge though.

What's a little more surprising here is how far below force limits so many countries are: Spain at less than half, Morocco at 2 of 82, the Papacy and Norway at 4 of 40 and 39 respectively. C'mon guys!

------------------------

Cat's World Tour

First, North America:

164500NorthAmerica_zpsba721453.jpg


No significant change in 15 years, except notice that Brittany's reappeared. Spain diploannexed Brittany awhile back and this was one of their colonies. Now it's their capital. They aren't at war, so Spain either lost to the rebels or (more probably) didn't care.

No land border means the Iroquouis and Shawnee are safe unless Florida or Spain continues expanding.

Central America:

164500CentralAmerica_zps40d1b29a.jpg


One could be forgiven for finding this a little confusing, as Britain, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands have colonized the entire Caribbean.

The Aztecs stand strong: All four European powers know about them, none care to do anything about it. Of course the DWI and Caraibas are at war.

South America:

164500SouthAmerica_zps56272d28.jpg


Not much going on here really, with Portugal and Spain slowly exploring. Once more, both know about the Inca (and the Straits of Magellan for that matter), but none care to do anything about it.

Incidentally, it doesn't look like anyone's circumnavigated the globe.

Let's cross the Atlantic and see Southern Africa:

164500SouthAfrica_zpsf2f53115.jpg


Portugal executed a quite respectable campaign to get around the Horn, including bases at St. Helena and Reunion. Portugal fought a war with Kongo and gained some land, but for now they're still independent. Kilwa, as I've said, has done well simply by being left alone.

164500NorthAfrica_zpsf98db7bb.jpg


No real surprises here after our runs in Mali and Morocco. Portugal and Mali have a troubled history after the former took away their holdings near Oyo, and Mali/Kanem Bornu have had CBs on each other pretty much since we left them 200 years ago.

Perhaps the only thing worth noting is Funj's survival - as a protectorate of Yemen.

On to the Middle East!

164500MiddleEast_zps4b623ac6.jpg


Yemen is no joke in this game. Nor are the Ottomans, who've we discussed extensively above and have holdings in Europe and the Crimea as well.

As you can see, Oman lost her war pretty quickly, then the Ottos/Persia avenged us pretty handily. Qara Qoyunlu is an Ottoman Protectorate.

Let's see how our favorite ex-Horde is doing:

164500CentralAsia_zps77ee97b6.jpg


The Mughals continue to dominate: Their allies include the Ottos, Yemen, Chagatai (I suppose easier than conquering them), and Jaunpur. They're at war with Assam, who's made some significant gains in the last 50 years or so including kicking Orissa out of what used to be our Bengal.

Other than that, Delhi is STILL alove, and Orissa continues to grow within India. Speaking of which:

164500India_zps78ac296b.jpg


India's minor powers are out of the game (except for Ahmednagar.) Now that Marathas is free again, it's them, Carnatic and Orissa. Portugal conquered Ceylon and the southern coast as well as that bit on the Mughal border, but strangely they've been distracted lately.

On to Indochina:

164500Indochina_zpsc37eda1a.jpg


Well. Portugal's here as well. (south of Ayutthaya) Isn't that the bee's knees?

Now that Ayutthaya's conquest spree has petered itself out things are pretty calm in what will be Indonesia. They're still under a PU with Orissa, which could be somewhat frightening if they ever actually merge.

The Ming have woken up a little. They're currently finishing off Zhou, who will probably fall within the year. Also, recall Shan and Dai Viet actually had a border briefly which served to pen Ayutthaya in. Ming (or rebels) must have done something about that.

Moving up the coast...

164500EastAsia_zpsed70d746.jpg


The Ming haven't recovered in the north, and with the Oirats under Russian protection they aren't going to. Korea is Ming's ally, just to make sure Japan doesn't try anything too cute.

I know you're curious about Europe though, so let's head in that direction.

164500Russia_zps8483f573.jpg


Nothing to see here, moving on...

164500Europe_zps5c58ebed.jpg


Wow, where to begin.

Sweden is still toast, though gaining that province in Ingria is a nice touch. Norway and Denmark are currently fighting over, of all things, the Shetladnd Islands.

Munster, who does have a province on the Dutch border, has their capital in Iceland which I find amusing. Britain is strong, while Spain and the Ottomans are simply crazy.

During our run with the DWI, Hungary forceannexed Ukraine which should answer for any ambitions Poland had about holding Moldavia. A Spanish/Lithuanian union is scary, as their unifying would put the three strongest world powers (them, Russia, Ottos) on each other's border.

Notice our Teuton buddies are holding on as an added bonus.

For the rest, we need to zoom in a bit.

164500CentralEurope_zps5cda6d1b.jpg


'France' never recovered after Burgundy exploded, though the Burgundians held their core territory together fairly well. Armagnac and Orleans are still alive. Normandy's 95% of the way to being integrated into Spain.

Our old haunt Savoy is doing fair, though as you can see they're currently losing a war against all sorts of people and Switzerland's back on the board.

Moving into 'Germany', we see that Austria made some vast gains as emperor, a position now held by the Palatinate. Bohemia's still a major player: No surprise, but Mainz and Hansa are also doing very well.

In 'Italy', Tuscany humbled the Papacy early in our run as Hungary, but certainly didn't break them. Probably the only thing preventing a thorough reconquest is the Emperor's displeasure. You can also see my confusion at Venice having a high score.


Where to?

Unfortunately, this question will be answered next time. Johan and the RNG have decided this is a good time to troll me with painful nations, and I need to decide how much pain I really want to be in.
 
A PU or a vassal nation ought to be ruled out, unless you want to fight an independence war. I suspect you did try a number of re-rolls. I noted the disappearance of Bosnia with a tinge of sadness. I suppose taking the pain is part of the AAR , if not being much fun.
 
Papal States and form the Kingdom of God!
 
The Pope has some nice beachfront property. If these Papal States were existing in the here and now, I'd recommend a chain of resorts. Spiritual tourism and all that.

Spain... Spain is monstrous. It seems they have focused their attention on Europe, rather than the new world, but they're doing very well for it. Any idea why there's that Catalan colony, instead of a proper Spanish one, in Canada?

Ottomans look like a country you wouldn't want to have as a neighbor. Same for Spain, of course, and Russia... Ming, probably, Mughals, certainly...

I'm trying to guess where Johan commanded you to go, but there are simply too many options. Ragusa, perhaps, nicely sandwiched between pumped-up Hungary and Oversize Turkey? With an ongoing war, to boot? Still doesn't sound sufficiently painful, gauging by your reluctance to post the reveal.