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."
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.
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.
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.
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
}
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.
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.
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!
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?
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