Rey Del Munde.

misterbean · Dec 16, 2014

Rey Del Munde.

Prologue.

Welcome one and all to my new AAR, Rey Del Munde, during which we will follow the trials and tribulations of Castile and, hopefully, Spain.

This is a vanilla EU 4 game, with the Art Of War and patch 1.9.2.
It’s not an Ironman game, because you never know when some random technical issue might make it impossible to continue.
There will be no save skimming or cheats.

To finish off, I have no clear idea just how much I want to accomplish with Spain. Obviously, the main themes will be to colonize myself a global empire and to survive as France’s southern neighbour. Beyond those two things, I have no agenda. We’ll see how far we get.

And with all that out of the way, here we go.

Index.

15th and 16th Century

17th Century

18th and 19th Century.

blklizard · Dec 16, 2014

I will tag along. Will be interesting to see a colonial game.

volksmarschall · Dec 16, 2014

While I prefer to form Spain as Aragon, I greatly look forward to what you do with Castile, and then later, Spain. I want to see loads of gold and silver, inflation, Mediterranean naval wars, and eventual bankruptcy!

(No, not to you of course!)

Cheers!

metalinvader665 · Dec 16, 2014

Well, IRL Spain accomplished quite a bit in their heyday, so you have to at least equal them. I'll watch you do so so, good luck.

misterbean · Dec 16, 2014

blklizard said:
I will tag along. Will be interesting to see a colonial game.

I was hesitating because my usual colonial games consist of 150 years of peaceful building and expansion.

volksmarschall said:
While I prefer to form Spain as Aragon, I greatly look forward to what you do with Castile, and then later, Spain. I want to see loads of gold and silver, inflation, Mediterranean naval wars, and eventual bankruptcy! (No, not to you of course!)

Cheers!

Inflation is a given, naval wars probable, bankruptcy hopefully not.

TBH, I have never played Aragon, but I can see how it would be a pretty fun campaign.

metalinvader665 said:
Well, IRL Spain accomplished quite a bit in their heyday, so you have to at least equal them. I'll watch you do so so, good luck.

Welcome. One thing Spain did is all but impossible in-game: a peaceful way of becoming HRE as Spain.

volksmarschall · Dec 17, 2014

You might try Aragon sometime. I like them over Castile just for the added challenge (they aren't that all more difficult if you catch a lucky break or two, but the shifting alliances and coalitions on the Iberia add a certain flavor to the game). Plus, I prefer their navy and their holding of Southern Italy. Plus, it's fun to marriage into the Burgundian family and hope the cards fall in your favor!

But Castile will do just fine I'm sure! I imagine the choice of ideas as Castile is less costly than with Aragon, the struggle of determining as Aragon when to choose the colonial ideas, well knowing that you need them since you're playing to form Spain with them...

So are you going to also try to become emperor? I must say, that I can't wait to see since I'm still trying to accomplish that elusive task myself!

misterbean · Dec 17, 2014

volksmarschall said:
You might try Aragon sometime. I like them over Castile just for the added challenge (they aren't that all more difficult if you catch a lucky break or two, but the shifting alliances and coalitions on the Iberia add a certain flavor to the game). Plus, I prefer their navy and their holding of Southern Italy. Plus, it's fun to marriage into the Burgundian family and hope the cards fall in your favor!

But Castile will do just fine I'm sure! I imagine the choice of ideas as Castile is less costly than with Aragon, the struggle of determining as Aragon when to choose the colonial ideas, well knowing that you need them since you're playing to form Spain with them...

So are you going to also try to become emperor? I must say, that I can't wait to see since I'm still trying to accomplish that elusive task myself!

I was thinking along these lines:

Dear Madam Archduchess,

Kindly marry me and die childless, so I can inherit everything you own.
Alternately, allow me to point out my big blue friend over there who will take your Tirolean gold mine, while I ~~enslave~~ befriend your electors.

With kind regards,
Enrique XCII.

PS: If you do not know Roman numerals, that only confirms that you're on the wrong throne.

Or, in other words, I stopped trying somewhere around 1.5 :blush:

blklizard · Dec 17, 2014

misterbean said:
I was hesitating because my usual colonial games consist of 150 years of peaceful building and expansion.

Well, you will be playing Spain so there's plenty of things going on. The Spanish inquisition and exploiting the natives Americans to name a few.

misterbean · Dec 17, 2014

blklizard said:
Well, you will be playing Spain so there's plenty of things going on. The Spanish inquisition and exploiting the natives Americans to name a few.

Welcome, and you're right. There should be plenty of things to do.

thedirtygerman · Dec 17, 2014

Really liked your France AAR so I'll be tagging along and I'll try to make my lurking known now and then.

Sink the French Navy, rout the English Armies and run from Glory... Or something among those lines.

misterbean · Dec 17, 2014

thedirtygerman said:
Really liked your France AAR so I'll be tagging along and I'll try to make my lurking known now and then.

Sink the French Navy, rout the English Armies and run from Glory... Or something among those lines.

Welcome. I hope you'll enjoy this one as well. The French navy and the English army? Those might be possible. The other way around might be a bit more difficult. In either case, Glory will be had!

Tyalas · Dec 17, 2014

As a newbie in this forum and especially in AARs I look forward to your AAR and hope to maybe learn a few diplomatic tricks from you, as I know that playing as Castille can get complicated.

misterbean · Dec 18, 2014

Tyalas said:
As a newbie in this forum and especially in AARs I look forward to your AAR and hope to maybe learn a few diplomatic tricks from you, as I know that playing as Castille can get complicated.

Welcome to the forum. Hope you enjoy the AAR and whatever happens during it, remember: if I end up a OPM, then you should probably NOT follow my example.

misterbean · Dec 18, 2014

Chapter 1: The Portugese Problem.

I start this game off by rivaling England, Aragon and Morocco. Our mission: improve prestige. Shouldn’t be too hard. I also build 7 regiments to bring me up to my Force Limit.

Navarra aks for an alliance, but I decline. The reason is the following: Aragon tends to try subjugating Navarra early on. If we go to war, and they lose, that would cost them prestige and most of their army. That, in turn, might make it hard for them to hang on to Naples. Given the very real possibility that it will all be mine anyway, once the Iberian Wedding fires, it is in my best interest to keep Aragon as strong as possible. The possibility of some Italian Adventures is too good to pass up.

On the other hand, I’m not an idiot. Alliances and courtly dalliances are the bread and butter of the game. Given the chance, securing our northern border by joining an alliance with the most powerful army in Europe seems like a good choice.

I switch my National Focus to Administration because my current king is crap (1-1-2). His heir will be even worse (0-0-0). I want to get Exploration Ideas as fast as I can.

Portugal offers an alliance, but I refuse. It bugs me that they always get the closest colonies before I do. I’m sorry, Portugal, but you will have to go.

Four days later, Portugal makes a very silly decision. A week later, France calls me into the HYW. I quickly take care of the Portugese army, and begin carpet sieging their continental holdings. Unfortunately, unlike my test games, this time Portugal offers France a peace deal (war reparations and ending their alliances with England and Aragon) before I can get anything done. I had hoped to get at least one or two provinces out of it.
Oh, well. At least their Manpower pool is empty now. And they have no allies.

By 1448, Aragon still has made no move against Navarra. I take a gamble. Alliance, marriage, a gift and 3 years of Improved Opinion. By 1451, they will become my vassal.

May, 1448. I support the Florentine School.

Sweden wins their Independence War. While this may seem inconsequential to Castile, it does mean that Scotland becomes their ally. This, in turn, will make it harder for England to conquer the rugged Scots.

I have waited longer than usual, but there seems to be no threat of English landings in Castile, and I get bored. Granada has no allies, so the risk is minimal.

Tlemcen is at war with Morocco, Mzab and Tunis, in two seperate wars. This could change the balance of power in the region. Nothing will come of it, however.
A random event gives me a claim on Alicante.

By march, 1451, Granada is finally fully occupied. Time to die.

Now that I have the opportunity, I spend a ton of money building 5 extra Light ships and 5 cogs.

By December of that year, England surrenders to France and loses Caux, Normandie and Cascogne.

While I wait for the truce with Portugal to end, France goes to war against her former ally Provence. Provence has already lost Anjou to Brittany. They are very weak and France doesn’t call me in.

I get Miltary Tech 4 (morale, tactics and, above all, armories) by March 1453, and Administrative Tech 4 by january 1454. Exploration Ideas, here we come!

In the spring of 1455, our truce with Portugal (who still has no allies) is up, and I go to war. Ostensibly over my (forged) claim on Algarve, the real objectives of the war are Madeira and the Azores. The Portugese navy is about as strong as the Castilian navy, so it might take some careful maneuvering.

The Battle Of Lisboa all but determines the outcome of the war. I lose just under 2000 men. Portugal loses double that number.

More interesting is the Portugese trade fleet, that gets ambushed in the straits of Gibraltar. By this time, carpet siege of their continental holdings are under way. Soon I will be able to send my troops oversea.
The rest of the war is quite uneventful. The Portugese navy runs from my Armada and I have no problem landing troops in the Azores and Madeira.

Its done. Porto, Madeira and the Azores are mine, along with Algarve.

I had not counted on this little snag, however. Porto costs too much to core, and The Azores are even out of my coring range, which seems strange. So be it, then. I am certainly not going to give them back.

In other news, Provence gets annexed by France.

I have saved up a ton of money and start building armories all over Castile.

In december of that same year, France calls me in to help against Brittany and Milan. I send half my army to take out Milan.

December, 1459. Porto has been cored, but The Azores remain out of range, even with Madeira cored. It doesn’t make sense. Has this latest patch changed something that I am missing?

In April of 1460, Milan bribes France to get out of the war with 119 ducats.

This random event gives me a choice between papal influence and money. Since money is no problem right now, I go for the influence.

I spend some of it to improve my chances in the Holy See, but I have to admit that this new system with Cardinals is not making much sense right now. I may have to experiment with it a bit.

Now this is a nice event. I don’t need the Legitimacy, but 2 Mercantilism is very hard to come by. It will improve my Provincial Trade Power by quite a bit.

By spring of 1461, Brittany ceases to exist. Curiously enough, Burgundy has not made a single move against France yet. Maybe my alliance with France is serving to keep them docile.

I will end this chapter here, but I will be back soon with more war as we tackle Morocco. See you then!

volksmarschall · Dec 18, 2014

As Spain you're just not allowed to have a central bank and build up actual industries with all the money you will soon be getting. Just import all those luxury goods!

Oh, and it looks like England's War of the Roses is going to end with a Yorkist victory, or at least it sort of looks this way from your last screen...

misterbean · Dec 18, 2014

volksmarschall said:
As Spain you're just not allowed to have a central bank and build up actual industries with all the money you will soon be getting. Just import all those luxury goods!

Oh, and it looks like England's War of the Roses is going to end with a Yorkist victory, or at least it sort of looks this way from your last screen...

I think that would be the Lollards instead, since the game should pause for the war of the Roses. Easy enough to check.

As for a Central Bank, I don't have one. I just intend to use the one in Lisboa instead

blklizard · Dec 18, 2014

I'm going to assume that you will renew wars with Portugal until they are completely annexed. Is there a chance that France would be at war with Aragon before the Iberian Wedding?

misterbean · Dec 18, 2014

blklizard said:
I'm going to assume that you will renew wars with Portugal until they are completely annexed. Is there a chance that France would be at war with Aragon before the Iberian Wedding?

I hope not. They usually keep out of each other's way well enough. I would hate to having to choose between France as an ally or having all of Spain.
Yes, my plan is to end the existence of Portugal eventually.

As for the English rebellion mentioned previously, it's definitely not the War Of The Roses. I just checked.

Idhrendur · Dec 19, 2014

Not a bad start. And seeing as all my France games (except the latest) involve Castille interfering with my HRE wars, it's nice to see you allied with France.

misterbean · Dec 19, 2014

Idhrendur said:
Not a bad start. And seeing as all my France games (except the latest) involve Castille interfering with my HRE wars, it's nice to see you allied with France.

Welcome to my new AAR. Hope you'll enjoy it. As for France, I honestly doubt that the alliance will stand the test of time. All I can do is keep relations up and don't give them (too many) reasons to hate me.

All else fails, I just threaten to send Sheldon Cooper down their throats.

ps: sorry about that last reference. The Big Bang Theory is actually the very first sitcom I enjoy. So deal with it. :laugh:

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