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Alcohol in Class? Sounds like my kind of school.
 
1494-1501

Good work. Pop a beer and watch things unfold. It gets better soon enough, believe me. At some point we'll actually discuss colonies and a few of the dirty tricks I've been saving up. But first we have to get these Muslim superpowers off our backs.

eth_1496_mar_timuridwar.jpg


The high point of the war was invading and sieging southern Arabia. Note that this was before the Timurid armies actually showed up. Things got consistently worse from there.

So anyway, the Timurids stomp my armies flat in seconds. It's quite pathetic how swiftly morale is depleted, but it makes sense given the low land tech and awful slider settings. The morale NI isn't usually very good, but it might have at least kept me competitive. I'm not certain of the Timurid Land Tech value at the time (I should have checked the ledger), but they might have had better troops as well. I'd offer examples of how badly I was beaten, but it usually happened so fast it wasn't worth bothering.

The silver lining in all of this is that I was losing battles too quickly for the Timurid troops to inflict casualties. As long as my troops weren't boxed in (and the Timurids were more interested in starting sieges than chasing them down), they actually survived quite well. Manpower didn't even go down to 0 this time!

However, the Timurids were quite stretched thin, and I was able to make progress taking unfortified provinces (almost all belonging to Najd; the Timurids are sharp enough to fortify their provinces) and earning WS, which is crucial if we ever expect to get much of a deal out of the Timurids.

eth_1496_jul_king.jpg


The disaster is slightly mitigated by the end of a regency, but as usual we've got a king with great ADM and awful military skills. Fortunately, beating up Hedjaz has given us some prestige, which is dreadfully important for our sagging morale. We still lose, a lot.

eth_1497_apr_timuridpeace.jpg


Fortunately, Hedjaz is annexed, Najd gives in after a few sieges, and the Timurids know a good deal when they say it. We're broke again, but what else is new?

eth_1499_aug_convertmecca.jpg


We get back at them in the end though. Try not to think too hard about this one.

eth_1500_jan_timuridwar.jpg


The Timurids stick with their alliance with Najd, whose truce expires a few years earlier. Needless to say, we're soon at war again. This time it goes much better, as the Timurids seem to have pulled all their troops back in order to overrun Persia. Better them than us.

Yes, I refused that peace offer. It was risky, but Najd still had unprotected colonies. The Timurids beat me around for a while, but I managed to slip past them with small cavalry groups and swipe the Najd land.

eth_1500_mar_timuridpeace.jpg


Of course we still fail to make any PROGRESS. The Timurids can occasionally be repelled, but on their own land they may as well be invincible. Two provinces are stolen from Najd before the Timurids inexplicably OFFER peace. I guess they're still busy with Persia, but I can't see what's going on up there.

I realize that Swahili is ultimately the target of choice, and that we're never going to get anywhere without taking it over. In fact, it's probably better to risk a war with the Mamluks than to leave Swahili alone until they're able to fortify. So it's war with Ethiopia and its allies, the Mamluks and pagan Mutapa.

Recommendations thus far have been good. Obviously, it's best to buy off the Timurids and Mamluks where possible, until we're strong enough to actually take them on. The only way to do this reliably is to get rich enough to keep ahead of them in the tech game. The Mamluks will eventually fall behind, but the Timurids will take far greater effort (or luck) to tame. So, despite the risks, it's absolutely necessary that war be waged with Swahili as soon as possible.

Of course, as it turns out, the latest update to the simulator has a certain reaction to such acts of aggression.

eth_1500_oct_spies1.jpg

eth_1500_oct_spies2.jpg

eth_1500_nov_spies3.jpg


Fantastic. Good thing those two advisors stunk (not that the one they left in place is any good either). Your next assignment is to find out where all these Swahili ninjas are coming from.

Next Class - World Politics as Usual Mean We Actually Get to Administrate Something
 
An addendum to today's post, a part two if you will!

1501-1504

So anyway, the actual Swahili war.

eth_1501_jan_swahiliwar.jpg


I'm actually happy about losing for once.

And speaking of losing...

eth_1501_feb_mamluksiege.jpg


Not only do the Mamluks utterly trash the garrison I assumed was sufficient to hold Tabouk, they also assault the province and take it in just over a week. So much for fortifications being useful. They fail to make headway in Massawa, thankfully, and sneak attacks from cavalry into Nubia throw their west army into some measure of disarray.

Oh, no, we don't win, mind you. That's still not in the cards.

eth_1501_mar_swahiliwar.jpg


Fortunately, we do manage something in the south. Swahili is particularly vulnerable because their provinces are undefended and trapped between the sea and Permanent Terra Incognita. The result is that they can be progressively driven south by a single cavalry army, only pausing for short breaks. Sadly, since Swahili is a Sunni state, their provinces cannot be seized, but things move quickly all the same.

Note the boats down at Zanzibar. It turns out Swahili can't build boats, so a single infantry unit can disembark and take control of the semi-lucrative CoT there. I'm definitely not ending the war without it, despite it being off-culture and minimally populated.

eth_1501_sep_mamlukoffer.jpg


The Mamluks make an offer I must refuse. I didn't mint all that money for you guys! I've got cavalry to build! Incidentally, manpower is 0 again.

eth_1501_oct_spies4.jpg


I'm getting a little miffed by all this, but my BB is high so I sort of deserve it. The AI in the simulator is particularly nasty at targeting you with spies if your BB gets too high. We're only at about 23/44, but that's enough (combined with the religious difference) to make every single one of our neighbors point their spies right at us. If you want to stop spy attacks, don't be a warmonger. Of course, I prefer being alive to having 0 BB.

eth_1501_dec_spies5.jpg


Two can play at this game, AI. Of course, they keep infiltrating my spy ring, so it usually takes 2-3 spies to actually succeed, just raising my BB further. I seem to be getting a decent number of them though, so being a bit Mercantile isn't bad after all.

eth_1502_jun_retaliation.jpg


Declining the Mamluk offer, we lump as many armies as possible together to give them what for.

eth_1502_nov_mamluksiege2.jpg


And they give us what for right back, even beating their old assault record.

eth_1503_jun_swahilipeace.jpg


Unfortunately for the Mamluks, it turns out that, somehow, Swahili is the alliance leader in this war. And Swahili has been thoroughly humiliated. They don't offer us any gold provinces, but they do offer Zanzibar and five of the six provinces directly connected to us. That's as good a deal as we're going to get without turbo-annexation, and there's really no need for that right now. This isn't a World Conquest class, after all!

eth_1504_jul_poli.jpg


The situation in 1504. Things actually improve immensely from here, and I'll finally be able to get into some of the meat of this class. Mostly colonization strategies and sneaky things like that. Let's just say Ethiopia was chosen for a reason. It almost makes the modifications I made to them unfair. Okay, well, it does make them unfair, but who's in charge here?

That's right, the Timurids.
 
Wait you converted Mecca on of the Holiest Place in Islam where non-Muslims can't go or get to close to Christianity. Wow you must have some good missionaries.
 
applerunner said:
Wait you converted Mecca on of the Holiest Place in Islam where non-Muslims can't go or get to close to Christianity. Wow you must have some good missionaries.

Mecca is no harder to convert than any other Islamic province of its size (about 52% in this case). Yeah, it seems kind of weird to see a Protestant Rome or Orthodox Mecca, but there's nothing particularly unusual about it in simulator terms.

Besides, you should know by now that a little thing like "holiest of holy sites" has no meaning to a true conqueror. Or even to an administrator who just wants stability costs manageable. And Mecca is full of valuable spices!
 
It's still wierd just so you know.

And Timurids in charge? What about the Mameluks?
 
Amir Harqonnen abu Feyd-Rautha said:
I will have Mecca back for myself! He who controls the Spice controls the universe... and what Barakat did not tell you is we have control of someone who is very close, very close, to King Yôstôs! This person, this traitor, will be worth more to us than ten legions of Timurids!
Or something like that.
 
On to Zimbabwe!

Ahh. Zanzibar. The curse of an african Ethiopia. What I would have given to buy a boat from someone to take that silly island. Congrats on the walk through on Swahili. Interesting that they were the alliance leader. I dare say they probably won't be next time around. Onwards to those pagan Mutapa, their spy attacks must be punished. Precious gold they hold. Annex the cowards!
 
Quite the empire you are building. With the humiliation of Swahili, may I suggest a period of colonization (for as far as you're not attacked) to color all those gray provinces blue?
 
He has been doing some colonization, he now has two routes into the Mamluks (important, gets troops in without them being molested by tropical attrition and natives.) I would also suggest colonizing the province to the west of Mogadishu, troops like to walk through there on their way to Swahili. Again, less tropical attrition this way. Or rather, less micromanagement in getting them to walk around the uncolonized province.
 
Good work along the coast. Now a quick hop across the Indian Ocean to the Spice Islands...
 
Does Swahili own that island southeast of Yemen/Oman? Id suggest that you take it at some point.
 
that island is Soccotra, and he SHOULD seize it. While it isnt' strategically important, and it belongs to Yemen (or should at least), it's an orthodox island, which makes them fit right in with their fellow tequila drinking ethiopians!
 
Junkyard_Pope said:
that island is Soccotra, and he SHOULD seize it. While it isnt' strategically important, and it belongs to Yemen (or should at least), it's an orthodox island, which makes them fit right in with their fellow tequila drinking ethiopians!

Correction: It WAS Yemeni. Now it belongs to the Timurids. They've really made their presence in this part of the world known. Unfortunately, Persia looks to have been largely dismantled, so it will probably take intervention by Ming (which is probably creeping its way west, like it usually does) or a powerful Indian state to stop the Timurids. Goodness knows the Ottomans aren't going to manage it, although they are making an excellent nod towards history in their consistent wars with Austria.

The good news is that strong claims have been laid on Mauritius, Mahe, and Bourbon (the Bourbon that's an island, not the Bourbon that's in France), and those are better islands anyway. I'll go over that soon.

Of course, wouldn't it just be great if all those entangling alliances worked out against the Timurids and Mamluks? But of course, what are the chances of that happening, ladies and gentlemen?
 
Isn't the right Bourbon in north america? Looks to me like your colonists are off target :D
 
Alright now. Let's get cracking on some meaty, intriguing colonization strategy. But first, a milestone.

eth_1504_dec_land2.jpg


Hooray, we're slightly less pathetic. Land 3 will give us new units (both infantry and cavalry), after which point we can probably slack off on the defense spending.

But now to get into what we're all here for.

eth_1505_feb_capeinfo.jpg


This is Cape, a province on the southern tip of the African continent. It's far enough south that it isn't tropical (but see later on), has good weather, great taxes, a miniscule number of passive natives, and wine as its trade good, which is an excellent middle-of-the-road trade good particularly useful because it doubles the ducat output from Refinery manufactories. This is just one of the reasons we like Cape, however. I'll get to the other in a while. Cape is an excellent place for Europeans coming to the east to make port, which makes it all the more important to deny it (and the associated cluster of about six provinces with small numbers of natives) to them. Plus, it will help us get to South America if we're so inclined.

Always be on the lookout for exceptional provinces like this. I'll compare and contrast some more glaring examples of good/bad colony choices later when we get to the Spice Islands.

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Swahili makes a brutal final peace. This will be the last time they are alliance leader, although how they managed to be leader in the first two wars to begin with defies all explanation. The Mamluks are, and have always been, larger. Maybe it's because Swahili is richer? All that ivory and gold (which is now ours, thank you very much) vs. the crappy desert the Mamluks are sitting in. Anyway this peace picks up two provinces and leaves the Swahili totally surrounded.

Note that a quick white peace was signed with Mutapa before this war had gotten very far. This is important later.

eth_1506_mar_spies.jpg


Fantastic.

Now, about the Spice Islands. They're the obvious choice for us, as they're rich and tropical. Why is tropical a good thing? Because it seems we don't suffer the tropical penalty in our provinces. Now, I'm not sure why this is; I checked the simulator files and our capital, Gonder, is not noted for being tropical, but sure enough the province growth penalty for being tropical doesn't apply to us. This is grand news, and understandably heavily influences our decisions on where to colonize.

To get to the Spice Islands from the Horn of Africa, I recommend sailing east to Mahe, then east another two open sea zones to the southern tip of India, and from there follow the coast of Asia until you reach Brunei. Cutting across the Indian Ocean is not a good plan.

eth_1507_dec_timorinfo.jpg


This is Timor, an island in the southeastern Spice Islands not far from the northern coast of Australia. In general, it's better to colonize the eastern Spice Islands first, and leave the Philippines and Java for later. The main reason for this is native strength and aggression. Natives in the eastern Spice Islands are not terribly numerous and fairly docile (usually 2.0 to 5.0 aggression and 500-1500 natives). The ones on the larger landmasses are much greater in number (5000-7000) and much, much more aggressive (7.0 to 9.0). This all but requires you to kill the natives or post a permanent guard to deal with uprisings if you want to colonize the provinces, and the taxes and trade goods are fairly similar.

Most of Java is Spices, but so are Timor and Flores (Sumba is Coffee, if you were curious), and they're much easier to colonize AND defend. Eventually, of course, you want to grab all the uncolonized provinces you can, but early on when money is an issue it's better to build up the colonies that will definitely yield early profits. Unfortunately some of the best of these in the game (central eastern South America and the Caribbean) are a bit out of our reach, but we'll manage.

It takes Europeans over a year to reach the Spice Islands, so the 200 or so days listed here is very reasonable.

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Now then. I mentioned there was more reason than Cape itself to take Cape. Behold Roggeveld, the secret weapon of South Africa. Gold this free ought to be criminal.

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A useful fellow. He has a chance of a good event, and he'll stem the tide of prestige loss (we're around 70ish right now) which is crucial for the extra morale at this stage. All that extra prestige is never a bad thing anyway, either.

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This is what I'm talking about. Angry hordes of natives for a trade good that's barely any better than the Spices we can get everywhere else? I'll pass. For now.

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I managed to find someone who doesn't hate us, primarily because until just now they'd never heard of us before. The military access allows us to truck around the Spice Islands exploring without having to wait for one of our colonies.
 
But we're not done here! Certainly not. The truce with Mutapa is about to expire, and as they are (1) pagan and (2) now bordering us and (3) allied only with one-province wonder Swahili, they are ripe for an assault. Unfortunately since we lack Deus Vult we need what some would derisively call a "good reason."

eth_1508_feb_mutapawar.jpg


Wanting a gold mine that they have is good enough for me.

Mutapa is a small, isolated pocket of 6 or so provinces, mostly Ivory and Gold, that is totally undefended and very, very pagan. Most of the world doesn't even know who they are and even fewer care. Two cavalry armies can dance around the country avoiding most fights against their armies, as we only really need to fight them once (to claim the last province). This is good, because they have about 12,000 men, which is a lot more than we have down in this part of the world. Fortunately, they don't have cavalry.

eth_1509_jul_goodnews.jpg


And then we get the best news yet. Najd (and the Timurids!) get pulled into a war with Morocco and the Mamluks. This should keep them out of our hair for a long, long time.

eth_1509_jun_mutapaannex.jpg


Provinces can be directly seized from pagans, but when the pagan nation is very small (as Mutapa is) it makes more sense to take the entire thing in a single annexation. You get BB from either method, but it's worse for your WS when the enemy controls one of "your" provinces than when you simply don't control one of theirs. A rapid roundup of the country and this one's outta here.

eth_1510_dec_ledger.jpg


Here's a ledger from 1510. We're doing a good job at stamping out Islam, but things could be better. Shona and Bedouin Arabic are accepted cultures, but we risk losing the Arabs as we colonize more, and we'll never gain Swahili. Fortunately, we're apparently in their culture group, which is actually quite large:

Code:
african = {
	madagasque
	tuareg
	senegambian
	dyola
	nubian
	somali
	bantu
	swahili
	ethiopian
	kongolese
	shona
	mali
	yorumba
	aka
	ashanti
}

eth_1510_jan_sweetjustice.jpg


Morocco drops out of the succession war, but apparently the Mamluks aren't too happy about Najd having the throne. I love everything about their current situation.

eth_1510_mar_reli.jpg


The religious makeup of the new conquest. Note that Sofala and Kilwe are prioritized for conversion, because of their gold. Likewise, we'll want to convert Zimbabwe first and foremost. Gold in general gives the highest return on investment, so we want gold provinces to be the best they can be, even if some of the ways we can improve them don't directly influence their massive production early on.

eth_1510_sep_tidoreinfo.jpg


Here's Tidore. Along with its sister island Ternate, it's another good choice down in the Spice Islands. Look at those kindly, docile natives!

eth_1511_dec_taiwaninfo.jpg


One of the most delightful colonies in all of the simulator. Taiwan is useful for anyone, even if they have no designs on the Chinese mainland, for its high but reasonable native population (with a little luck, we can incorporate them) and incredibly valuable Chinaware. As far as I know, this is the only province within easy reach that produces this product, and its value is incredibly high. Strategically, it's also a potential reach to Siberia, although it's questionable whether it's worth a trip up there. I suppose we'll all find out soon, won't we?

eth_1511_feb_helenainfo.jpg


One final province to look at. St. Helena is in the Atlantic Ocean south of West Africa. It's a poor, unfriendly province, but it's uninhabited and makes an excellent port. It helps Europeans reach South Africa, but in our case, it helps us reach South America. I intend to send a navigational expedition across the Atlantic to see if certain useful colonial provinces are available, although I don't plan to make a serious effort at much.

Your assignment is to identify other areas we might want to check for valuable provinces. These can be colonies or pagan nations, and you should focus on valuable goods like spices, sugar, gold, metals, and chinaware. For now, don't worry about how to actually reach them, just analyze how easily they could be made into productive colonies with minimal intervention. Having to clean up constant native raids is a bad thing, for example, but time to colonize is less so. Remember, we're not rich, but we can easily afford colonists, it's just that we don't get many. A broad spread strategy may be useful for certain provinces, but we do want to build some of them up. For now, Roggeveld should be the major focus for its gold, and Cape for its high taxes. Mahe, Mauritius, and Bourbon are already cities, because I didn't have much else to do with all those colonists back when the Mamluks were beating down our door.

Also worth remembering is that we have a good 10 or so uncolonized provinces right next door to us, but they're all slaves. If you wish, you can analyze the wisdom of bothering with these right now, or why it would be better to save them (or not colonize them at all!).

Next Class - More Colony Fun
 
Never played EU3 but I reckon you should find some gold down in Peru / Chile.

The only way you will be able to stand up to the big empires like Mamlukes and Timurids is by carving out your own empire in southern Arabia and Africa, fortifying your provs, bettering your tech, etc etc.

Cheers
Velasco