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I see you took my suggestion and wrecked Yemen.:p
 
Fortress Bahrain ... until the Ottoman fleet showed up. I think it is true to say the ruling Sheik of Yemen sacked the manager during injury time. I admit, when I first read about the Yemen packing up and moving to Bahrain that you were actually following the time honoured tradtion for ousted arab rulers and had fled to the UK.

I was hoping Morocco would show up .. just not as an enemy.

Good luck running Portugal.
 
I've got little experience of colonial nations too, so my advice would be to invade Morocco perhaps? With 1.6 land that is close enough to your capital isn't counted as distant overseas. If that stretches far enough to their gold province, then I reckon attacking Morocco could be very profitable.
 
Obviously you did well enough against Portugal to be offered the chance to ruin - um, RUN - the place. :)

Is Portugal still at war with Yemen? If so, time to carve off a slice. For the glory of Ye - um, PORTUGAL!
 
And everything was going so "well" with Yemen... And now I imagine Funj sitting there and loughing quietly.
 
It'll be interesting to see the results in the next interlude. For now, colonialism (because that never led to trouble!).
 
I've got little experience of colonial nations too, so my advice would be to invade Morocco perhaps? With 1.6 land that is close enough to your capital isn't counted as distant overseas. If that stretches far enough to their gold province, then I reckon attacking Morocco could be very profitable.

The main downside being of course the huge ADM costs. "Berber traditions" is such a pain in the ass.
 
Morocco owns all of north Africa at this point, they're not really on the table as far as vassalization goes.

For Portugal, trade is God. Priority #1 should be getting bases around Africa to facilitate stealing Indian trade. Closer to home, provinces in the Sevilla trade node are much more valuable. Spain is a monster by now, though, so the best option would be allying them and eating the ADM cost for coring the Moroccan Sevilla provinces. Maybe releasing Algiers and feeding them would work?
 
Ah well, I was hoping for some memorable rearguard action but the odds were always stacked heavily against you. As damning as those peace terms were, I'd be hoping for more were I the Ottomans. I'm glad the AI doesn't reject peace just for the hell of it!

Portugal looks a very interesting game, South America as you've noted already looks competitive, but the spice islands are less crowded with members of the imperial club. Will you point your ships east?
 
Portugal's colonial destiny is clear: you must beat the Russians to Australia!
 
It could be fun playing like this and changing when you are defeated or when you become too strong. (Great Britain controls everything in Europe except HRE, switch to HRE member)
 
Asdfezxcas: Oh yes, I did it to make you happy. :)

Athalcor: I know, and it worked just as well as last time.

Chief Ragusa: Yes, Morocco's a bit of a monster. I WISH the UK had come over to help, though the Ottos might be near unstoppable in this game.

juckil: As mentoned, there's the Berber penalty to coring. Also, Morocco's not the most profitable plan I could come up with.

Director: I wish I could, but my Otto buddies aren't going to let me.

McGrey: And Kilwa!

Idhrendur: Yes, bringing civilization to the unenlightened has never caused any trouble.

Inquernal: Thanks!

Strix97: Definite pain. I think a big reason for 'Berber Traditions' was to stop Spain/Portugal from rampaging through N. Africa pretty much at will.

juckil: Easier, but still won't work: I'd need well over 100% war score.

SirKaid: Hm, I wish I read your idea before I played the turn out. It seems much more doable than what I opted for - though I am trying to fill out Africa a bit.

Seelmeister: Yes, sir. Eastward ho!

Selzro: You know you're having a great game when your mandate becomes 'beat the Russians to Australia!'

Hiryuu: The Ottos probably won't let me do that either, though it's a great idea

Alrickattack: Oh it is. I very rarely get this late into a game because I've either been smashed or I'm too powerful for anyone to hurt. This has given me a little bit of everything: Superpowers, OPMs, and those in the middle.
 
CHAPTER XX: PORTUGAL
Part 1: Bullying
(1725-1730)


Sea of Green

Welcome to Portugal!

We have a huge sandbox to play in this time, so let's take a look around:

172501Setup_zps2fc215e5.jpg


Our ruler is Carlos Rurikovich, which for some reason I find hilarious. He's a very young man of questionable worth except in the administrative field. His heir (kid? baby brother?) is a bit more solid, but Jose is only six. Carolos will do.

We have plenty of nations that hate us, and we've declared the UK, Morocco and Mali rivals. Interesting choice. Recall that we're at war with Yemen, the Mughals and Oman, but that should end as soon as I hit unpause.

The Ottomans are a very useful ally, as Spain hates us. They trust us also, which is an odd pairing, but it appears they're jealous of our overseas empire and would like us to give them major chunks of it.

Let's look at said empire and our opportunities:

172501Portugal1_zps5b32df61.jpg


A: We are not fighting Spain. Morocco's somewhat tempting, but there's no way we can vassalize them (that would be well over 100%) and it's just not worth the trouble.

B: Any further gains we make here only support our colonies, and they don't like us. There is a typo on the diplomacy screen: It claimed all of my colonies had 3750% liberty desire. 37.5% is closer to the mark. Remember they can't start rebelling or asking for help until they hit 50%.

All of my colonists are in those provinces north of Portuguese Mexico. We'll be moving them shortly.

C: Ditto. We're not fighting Spain, and even if we did fight Norway (in modern Uruguay), that would just go to Brazil.

D: Kongo is a protectorate. We could maul Mali, but again not gain much in the process. Oyo is actually on an almost even tech level with us. We'd win through sheer numbers, but meh.

E: Nothing to see here, except this is where our colonists are going. I want to link up 'South Africa' with the Kilwa border and our holdings near Kongo. This will prevent foreign powers from messing with 'our' continent.

172501Portugal2_zpsc1c70442.jpg


F: As mentioned, the war with Yemen will end very soon. I know I won't get anything out of it: I only have +1 warscore with Yemen, so they won't give me anything. I can't peace out with the Mughals separately, and I'm sure the Ottos won't bother rewarding me. Still, my plan is to use my armies already stationed here and begin working my way through India. If we last long enough, I'll do pretty much what the British East India Company did in our world.

G: I have that small spot south of Ayutthaya. I have an explorer: He'll be based somewhere around there and work on clearing out terra incognita in the Pacific. I do have a clear searoute to the Americas, but it never hurts to clear that away.

Okay, so we're clear on the plan? Let's go.


Opening Moves

172501YemenPeace_zps018f8ffe.jpg


Right. Where were we?

Alright: Move our colonists. I'm not sure why our diplomats are trying to make Savoy and Netherlands happy, but I send one to Russia to improve relations instead. The Ruskies don't like me either, but maybe I can begin changing that.

We have eight merchants which I shuffle around, then shuffle an impressive trade fleet around into squads to watch over them.

The Brazilians mention their governor's term is up, but they'd like to keep him. I roll a die and assign them a bureaucratic candidate instead, which annoys them. (+1% Liberty Desire I think) I don't care. Figure out how to play football/soccer in your home country and maybe I'll let you pick your own governors.

Our first target on our conquest spree is OPM Ahmadengajar uhm...Ahmedajar... uhm.. Ahmedengajahara...uhm..

172503Ahmedengar_zpsc880a788.jpg


Right. Those guys.

First we have to fight off a Gujarati rebellion that shows up right on top of our Indian army. No problem. Within the first week we crush their fleet and army with negligible losses, and the war is over within a month.

It actually takes five months to annex them however, as the travel time to ship diplomats from Portugal to .. that place .. are ridiculous. This gives Madurian nationalists time to rise up in the southern tip of the country.

We load up 17K soldiers to discuss the matter with them, but the resulting amphibious assault goes very badly. Over two battles we lose 14,000 men and retreat to Ceylon to heal.

Meanwhile, the Brazilians complain tariffs are too high. I tell them we're charging them a fee for their lame performance against Germany in the semi-finals. They don't like it and liberty desire goes up another 10%.

In 1726 Ahmed... uhm.. Indian rebels rise up in North Konkan, which we just conquered. Fortunately half of our army is still stationed there, so an easy win. We also cancel our guarantee of Marathas, as that's next on our conquest spree through India.

By now our colonists are beginning to complain of native uprisings. Decoulan Bay on the Kilwa border in particular is hard hit, and has to restart several times. How our colonist keeps getting away unscathed is a little suspicious, but we have bigger fish to fry...

The Madurian rebels move into Russian owned Cormandel, which lets our army move back in during the summer. I'm thinking I can handle this and still conquer Marathas, so begin to declare war..

..except we have a truce with them. Five years from revoking our guarantee. That's just great.


Fun in Indonesia

Fine. I'll kill someone else. Majapahit in Indonesia looks like an easy conquest that'll help us increase our power in that region. At first I load up the Madurian army, but the rebels use that as an opportunity to move back into our province. We can't leave them there unchallenged, so back the army goes. The Russians happily give us military access to land in Cormandel: We do so, and in a particularly nasty battle where we lose 9K to their 7.5K, we eradicate the rebels.

Our relations with the Russians are...not bad. They're letting us use the Phillipines as a naval base, which allows my explorer to cut some deep swaths in terra incognita. I've now uncovered most of what we'd consider Micronesia and am headed for Hawaii. No particular plans for it really, just cleaning up the map.

My colonists are still busy dying in Africa. By the end of this turn I'll have restarted the three African colonies a total of 5 or 6 times. You'll like my solution, though it lacks originality.

In August 1727 our army lands next to Majapahit. We stop to take advantage of Military-26 (Blue Coat Infantry, Uhlan Cavalry) and declare war in November.

172711Majapahit_zpsb3d6fae3.jpg


Great idea, except since our army isn't in Portuguese territory, it instantly black flags. I send my combat fleet (22 two-deckers) to blockade their capital as transports move them back to our holding south of Ayutthaya, then back to Majapahit.

In March 1728 we finally engage their army: 17K on 12K and destroy them with negligible losses. By April we've completely covered their country.

This annoys the Russians, who cancel our sea access. No big problem, as I've realized we hold some islands just south of the Phillipines. Our explorer moves there, only to be intercepted by fifteen Majapahit trade ships. We destroy fourteen and take zero losses.

Their capital falls in October, leading to their fleet leaving port to fight our blockaders. It's a foregone conclusion with another 11 ships lost. They surrender in May 1529. We can't annex them: That would take 105% warscore, but we can add them as a protectorate.


Revenge

It's almost time to go back and crush Marathas, but first we have a little more business to take care of. Our army sails to South Africa to deal with the natives who have been killing all my colonists.

Oyo finds out about this, declares us a rival and revokes our MA treaty. Fine. You're next, guys.

I want revenge. In fact, I want it so badly I delay my end of turn until May 1730 while my army rampages along the East African coast killing the natives who plagued our colonies.

While looking around, I notice my Ottoman buddies are fighting Russia. In fact, they started it. I'd love to have a ring side seat to that war.

Nah, I have my own plans. One more group of natives to kill, teach Oyo a lesson in obedience, then back to India to throw my weight around some more. What do you think Johan?


Johan's Dice

Reign: 5 years
Needed: 2+
Roll: 1
Continue?: No


Oh...Oh dear.

Well...uhm...okay. Then where to?

172912Hungaryagain_zpsf4d5ea6e.jpg


Again? Can we stay longer than 5 years this time?
 
Wow, that was a surprisingly short turn. Too bad you couldn't do more. Now back to Hungary! The first time you'll visit a nation a second time. Hungary appears to be in a depressing situation, being surrounded on all sides by major nations: The Ottos to the south and east, the Austrians (are they still a republic?) to the west, and Spain to the north and on the other side of the Adriatic. Maybe you can expand into Poland and Bohemia? Maybe Venice or some Italian minors?
 
I guess Johan doesn't approve of the Native killings. Either that or his favorite team was Brazil.