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Chapter 5: Consolidating our position in French territory

Ryukyu is still vulnerable after the exodus to France. This chapter will tell about how Ryukyu consolidated its precarious position in French territory.



Ryukyu has a quite vulnerable position in French territory. Time to consolidate our position!
We start the integration of Dauphiné, because they were a vassal useful only to get reconquest cb from, versus France. It will be done 1581.



During the Spanish succession war, France attacked Brittany and Spain couldn’t protect them. Brittany is now a vassal of France. I hope they integrate them soon… Brittany has +coring cost, so I’d rather feed them to a subject, like north africa region.



France has almost 60k troops. The next war versus them won’t be the same walk in the park like the last one, where all their troops were abroad :confused:



…But who cares! We got AUSTRIA at our side :D

I made Navarra (they got released from Spain, remember) and Scotland co-belligerent again.

This war will be a real challenge, in theory. I sent 1k troops on top of all Austria armies BEFORE the war started.

IMPORTANT TIP
: Armies of allies will NOT attach to you in their OWN territory, during a war where the ally joined in. Instead, attach your 1k to THEM. ONCE the ally army walks inside the territory of the war target (or in territory of any war participant), they *can* attach. But its flakey. Sometimes they will, sometimes they won’t. But they CAN, and that is what I’m going use to defeat France here. You can’t rely on AI to defeat France :rolleyes:



This is the result. I attacked a 20k stack of France with two 1k stacks with Austrians attached, in northern France. Easy win. French troops retreated to Berry. I followed the fleeing army to Berry and attacked it again with a couple 1k stacks with Austrian and Dauphiné troops. France reinforced that battle with their main army. To no avail, waaaay too late :rolleyes:

See that big Austrian stack in Franche-Comté? They are on way to reinforce this battle aswell. Guess what? The French actually held out long enough for that stack to join the battle. 100k+ troops versus French army. You can guess the result. The main army of France got ob-li-te-ra-ted in Berry, only months after the start of the war :cool:

Some folks might wonder "Why did the army flee to Berry and not more south"...

Because of my stray looting stacks.


IMPORTANT TIP: Looting 1k stacks are not only useful for looting and halting troop production. They are also useful to create a chance for a stackwipe after an army got routed.

If you are fighting French main army and win, they usually flee to the other side of the country, and can have regained all their manpower and morale before you can reach them again. This is what disheartens many folk, when trying to beat France. France always comes back in full, when you are still licking your wounds o_O

Well, looting stacks are useful to avoid this. When a big battle occurs, move ALL your looting stacks to a province that has many provinces around it. Make sure to include all the border provinces in the provinces around your looting stacks. Result? The provinces won't be considered 'safe' to retreat to and the fleeing army might only flee a few provinces away. If you are lucky, you can get stackwipe in the same month this way. Note that this doesn't always work, as it is hard to 'block' all possible retreating provinces. But it helps.



I started my micromanaging way of winning a war again, mainly with ally armies and loose 1k stacks stopping troop production and looting.

Austria went after the Brittany army that sieged my territory. Hey Austria! Wait for me! I want some prestige from that battle aswell :mad:



Result? Brittany army got routed to the north. I placed a 20k Austrian army in their flee path, and Brittany got ob-li-te-ra-ted in Orléannais. The Austrian army went for a tiny siege stack in Gascogne. I sent the army in Orléannais west and then south, towards the tiny French army in Poitou.

That’s how one defeats France with micromanaging. Their entire army destroyed within 6 months of war. 6 months :eek:

The ai would do lot worse. Lucky Ryukyu has a very good general overlooking the battlefield; directing the Austrian troops :D



2 years later Southeast France is occupied, and the remains of the battered French army was about to be…. You guessed it :rolleyes:



Meanwhile, I started some wars in Asia to keep my vassals busy. I still lack siege troops there, so the wars are all versus relative small targets. Still, a little progress there is better then no progress. The snowballing there has to wait a little bit.



In other news: Japan is starting to get provinces that flip to Catholicism by event. I hope a lot more will flip.



26k troops left, and those are all in Scotland and Tuscany. England is doing a BAD job invading Scotland. They siege one province a time, and stop it when Scotland is close to occupying one themselves. Then they battle, and all starts from scratch. Dumb Ai can’t be trusted to win wars :(
Spain did a lot better job at invading Scotland in the first French war…

Anyways, Austria thinks its safe to invade Tuscany now. Be my guest, Austria.



I was contemplating for a LONG time whether or not to do full annexation of Navarra. But I thought “the heck, Spain has militaristic ruler, they want my land NOW and Navarra isn’t going to make that lot worse. Besides, I need LAND in Europe, and ports! Spain be damned.”



Austria made the Tuscan army retreat to Sicily. I blocked that army off with one cog. Yep, one cog. Silly mechanism, those land corridors over water :rolleyes:

Austria could occupy Tuscany completely now and I would have fed Austria a load of Tuscany. Why? Tuscany was allied to Austria before the war. And now Austria was invading them because Austria wanted baguettes more then spaghetti. If I fed Austria some Tuscan provinces, they likely would never re-ally in future.



Ok, now that came as a surprise o_O

Spain is bold enough to *attack* me, knowing full well England and Austria would be called in. Gotta love militaristic rulers. I warned you before, don’t ever border a nation with a militaristic ruler… Here’s the result you get doing that, sooner or later. But since they declare over Navarra, maybe its my own fault they attack now. We’ll never know :rolleyes:

Right, time to think. French war is won. But still.. Spain might try to siege stuff in France. I can stall the war a bit longer with France, see what they do.

BRING IT ON SPAIN :mad:



The Spanish fleet got attacked by England. 14 Heavies versus 16 briqs. Blubblub Spain :cool:



Once again, Berry was where the first big battle was fought. I baited Spain to attack a relative tiny stack there, and reinforced it with all I (and Austria) got in the vicinity. Carlos himself is leading the battle for Spain :eek:

As you can see the battle was 30-33, but I led a 1k stack with 21k troops towards the battle, along with the Byzantium army. Almost 30k troops were on the way to reinforce that battle. Carlos would get a nasty surprise in a few days :p



Result? Spain got sent back to climb over the Pyrenees. Hey! Leave those baguettes in France :mad:



Same old. Micromanaging my way into Spain. I took position in the Pyrenees to defend the merc siege stacks in the French territory that Spain holds. But then I saw Spanish army was retreating towards Barcelona. Lets get ‘m boys :cool:



You are goin to regret this Spain. So much :mad:



Crimea got stomped by Lithuania. I’m keeping a close eye on Crimea. I got plans with them. More on that later.

EDIT: I forgot to make a screenshot of how the French war ended. I gave Austria a province in Tuscany in a seperate peace. I couldn't give them more then one province, since Tuscany was attacking the stray Austrian siege stacks after my block cog got sunk by Spain...

France gave me Labourd, Lyonnais, Auvergne and Avignon, war reparations and all their gold.

This gave me a direct land connection between ryukyu, Navarra and Austria. That will come in handy.





I never gave Spain a breather. I kept following and battering their main army. Meanwhile, its now (again) safe to siege NE Spain.

Look Southwest Spain. The ai can be really dumb. Half of the Spanish army split off the main army and went a province NE. I attacked them there, and the other half of the Spanish army didn’t budge. See that 13k I’m leading south? They reinforced the battle, and we outnumbered them enough now for a stackwipe. Ob-li-te-ra-ted :D

Meanwhile, a few stray 1k stacks looted entire Spain. MMM ducats :)



Time to tickle the remainder of the Spanish army. They didn’t even recover morale yet…



Spain once again fled, towards Pyrenees this time. To no avail. The remains of their army tried a desperate siege of Navarra, and I attacked them with 37k versus 7k. Of course, I made it so that the 21k in Pirineo arrives in Navara *also* on 1 august, along with the austrian army approaching from the north.

Micromanaging for the win :D




EEHHH. Right. ***sigh*** o_O

Quite a chapter huh. Ryukyu doing a war versus entire southwest Europe, and then Civil war on top.

Well, since my king has no legitimacy, it was bound to happen sooner or later.

Guess we’ll redirect forces to deal with the problem. Well, Austria forces, to be exact.

I kinda quit for the day there on the 19th. Spain attacking and then civil war… Grmpf.
 
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A new day, a new hope. In the spirit of “what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger” I started dealing with this civil war o_O

2 1k stacks with Austria attached stomped Gasocgne rebels, and then awaited Provence Rebels in the provinces that they would (likely) spawn in. They are at 90%. Use the rebel faction option, folks. You can make rebels attack your armies in mountains. Rebels can be predicted now watching this window, and can be dealt with easier ever since they revamped rebel mechanic.

Whoever says rebels are impossible now: with a good ally you can kill any rebels. Or trick your enemies into attacking the rebels on your turf.



Spain just got noble rebels, and Spain attacks them. The first occupations in NE spain completed. Austria forces are splitting up and sieging more and more. This war is won :cool:



Ever wondered why I do this catholic-Ryukyu-into-Europe? Pu mechanic.

England heir became king without an heir. I’m their biggest tax base RM partner now, and *IF* this 49 year old new king dies without (ehh…) “creating” an heir I qualify to spread my dynasty (the von Habsburg one) into England. Or god knows, we can get succession war sooner or later over them without a dynasty spread and just RM done. Another option would be to claim throne of England right after a von Habsburg takes the throne (before he makes new heir), and to start Force Pu war on England with the help of Austria.

Exciting huh? :)

We’ll see what happens.



Another country I was watching was Venice. They were heirless, and all of sudden I see a von Habsburg heir in a nation where the Montero dynasty is still ruling.

Austria likely got the “marriage policies pay off” event. This event installs an heir of a dynasty as new heir for an heirless monarchy. The country that spreads its dynasty with this event has to have 4+ royal marriages, and one of those royal marriage partners has to be heirless.

Yes, this event *can* trigger, even in AI nations, as you can see.

Oh, and Hansa is a monarchy too, with a Habsburg on the throne.



Back to the front, and to this civil war.

In a civil war, you can get sporadic events that award you legitimacy for a price (usually ducats or admin points), or plunge your nation even deeper into chaos. I always took the legitimacy option.

If you accumulate 90 legitimacy, the civil war will end.



Provencal rebels spawned, and got killed in Lyonnais. You can see me leading 41k Austrian troops towards my Provence capital, to kill more rebels :eek:

Meanwhile, the AI does a good job at carpet sieging Spain.



Austria is going for the remains of the Spanish army. Attaboy. I’m gonna help them out and reinforce ‘m from the south.



Spain got routed, and fled to La Mancha. I followed them, and good old Carlos got his army ob-li-te-ra-ted :mad:



Navarran nationalists spawned in Spanish occupied territory. Buggy rebels! And I awaited them in Navarra. 15k *brave* Navarrans rolled down the mountain slopes :rolleyes:
Time now to attack the navarran nationalists in Labourd.

At least I got my legitimacy to 40 so far with events! *sigh*



Peasants spawned in Spanish occupied territory (I really hope they will fix these buggy rebels in 1.10). I awaited them again in Navarra. 38k *stupid* peasants rolled down the mountain slopes :rolleyes:



Spain and Portugal fully occupied. That’s what you get for attacking a RYU, Carlos.



I took ALL French culture land Spain had in a peace deal. I made claim on Nepal, sold the province next to Nepal to Pegu, and I ended up with exactly 100% overextension.

I was briefly toying with the idea of taking Aragon province and releasing them, but decided against it.



In the end, events gave me 90+ legitimacy and the civil war ended. YAY!

I saw the Pope was old, and spent all my papal influence on a chance to become Papal controller. Why not. I had 20-30% chance now in the end (forgot exact amount), after spending some more gained influence I got by a “influencal preacher” event.



All of this left me with 8 war exhaustion. I need a breather. Austria too, because I want them to get the “diet of wien” event now.

I sent all my mercenaries to Asia. I need more siege troops there.



This is my vassal situation in Asia. They didn’t get fed a lot the last decades. That will hopefully change soon…



Huh. It really happened :eek:

Ryukyu controls the new pope. That’s some nice bonuses.



I put army maintenance at 0 to create a nice ducat pool. Austria is kind enough to deal with my rebels, even at peace. First Spain did it, now Austria. Oh Austria, you’re such a good buddy! We make a nice team huh :cool:



Nice event. Just what I needed! Think I had about 3-4 war exhaustion left now, after the event.



Yay, Austria got the “diet of Wien” event. Since noone dared to attack Austria in a league war, and since 30 years passed since leagues formed, Austria qualifies to proclaim Catholicism as dominant HRE religion. All heretical electors lost elector status next month, and Austria can assign new catholic electors only. But I was too big to join HRE, so Austria assigned elector status to other nations.



Austria assigned three new electors, for a total of 6. Only Milan is really big.



I started integrating Byzantium. After that, I will have Holy war cb on Ottomans :eek:



I teched up to admin tech 12, and changed my government form to administrative monarchy, mainly for the montly -0.05 autonomy in provinces. That may not look like much, but in the end it gives you LOAD more manpower gain and tax income in all provinces after some decades…

See the rebel faction window? All rebels are losing their progress. Ryukyu grows more and more stable!

I finished consolidating my position in France. Yay! Mission complete :cool:



England took the “presence in India” Mission, and is going for an OPM in SW India. I hope they succeed! Problem is that England has no coring range into India, so in the end they took nothing. Must be a bug... Why can they take the mission if they don't have coring range into India :rolleyes:



Champa has proven to be a crap vassal so far :(

Since they are HINDU, they have to constantly harsh treat fed provinces, since they are all Buddhist. Result is they didn’t tech up military. Champa has military tech 6, and neighbours have tech 10. Time to get rid of ‘m.



Here’s what I’ve been saving ducats for. The embassy building. Its effect has been changed a couple of patches ago, and now it gives +1 diplomats and +1 diplo relation. That is worth spending my entire ducat pool on :confused:



My heir tragically died. Well, good riddance :rolleyes:

He had weak claim, and I had little urge to tank my legitimacy down again, after spending so much ducats to gain legitimacy in the last civil war…

If my monarch dies now, Austria would get me as PU subject, and Milan would contest it in a succession war. EEEEK! I got to go to war as soon as possible!! Then I will get a new Habsburg noble on my throne if my king dies heirless during the war. But declare war on who?



Lithuania full annexed Kurland. They went protestant faith the day after, and the day after THAT they set me as Rival. Grmpf. In fact, fine!

Why you wonder?



Because of Crimea…

Lithuania, Poland, Golden Horde, Astrakhan and Kazan all had cores/claims of Crimea. If I make them my vassal in a war (they have NO allies and noone is defender of sunni faith yet), I get reconquest/conquest cb on all those nations. And Muscovy will like me If I set Lithuania as rival. Told you that one province I took from Crimea in the first Ottoman war would come in handy sooner or later. The black sea region is a real cesspool to dive into, but in the long run you *have* to for a WC. Better sooner then later.

I think I’ll go for it now, and make Crimea a vassal while they are weak, and create a direct land line from Austria to Crimea to Georgia. If i give Austria the port Moldavia holds, they can core Georgia. If, after that, Austria diplo vassalises Georgia , we got a very atypical Austria into Black sea then… And Austria will join me in wars even there, since it won’t be ‘distant war’. We’ll see.


Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
 
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Nice work! How many relations were you running throughout the 1500s? It seems like integrating your Asian vassals can be a little delicate. You have to be careful with your Asian wars while they're ongoing (blockade on Okinawa = all progress lost) and then they dump a bunch of off-religion provinces into your lap when they're done.

Is Crimea reformed? If not they should give you the Tribal Conquest/Feud CB on all their neighbors, right?
 
Do you just use to mechanic that doesn't let you build troops when there is an enemy on the province, or do you mean something like the AI actually cancel building the troop when you do that?

And yeah, Crimea is a great vassal due to Tribal Feud. You can just feed all hordes to him.
 
Do you just use to mechanic that doesn't let you build troops when there is an enemy on the province, or do you mean something like the AI actually cancel building the troop when you do that?

And yeah, Crimea is a great vassal due to Tribal Feud. You can just feed all hordes to him.

If you park a 1k stack on a province, all troop fabrication gets cancelled. Combined with popup of when armies arrive at destination, moving them one province at a time, makes for great looting/stopping army production.

Crimea is still a Khanate.
 
Nice work! How many relations were you running throughout the 1500s? It seems like integrating your Asian vassals can be a little delicate. You have to be careful with your Asian wars while they're ongoing (blockade on Okinawa = all progress lost) and then they dump a bunch of off-religion provinces into your lap when they're done.

Is Crimea reformed? If not they should give you the Tribal Conquest/Feud CB on all their neighbors, right?

Huh. A blockade of the province you base integration from erases all progress on integrating a vassal? Are you sure?
 
Somehow you didnt mention how the 2nd french war ended. I see you took some land but expected some comment about it :)

oops. Forgot about that. I'll add it in. I was kinda busy.

EDIT: I forgot to make a screenshot of how the French war ended. I gave Austria a province in Tuscany in a seperate peace.

France gave me Labourd, Lyonnais, Auvergne and Avignon, war reparations and all their gold.

It gave me land connection to Navarra and Austria.
 
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oops. Forgot about that. I'll add it in. I was kinda busy.

EDIT: I forgot to make a screenshot of how the French war ended. I gave Austria a province in Tuscany in a seperate peace.

France gave me Labourd, Lyonnais, Auvergne and Avignon, war reparations and all their gold.

It gave me land connection to Navarra and Austria.

Careful with that. Last thing you need is for Austria to get a liking to your provinces.
 
Yep. It triggers an immediate "vassal refuses integration" message and bounces your diplomat back home. Ming did that to me one time and it really stuck with me.

well, thats good to know. Hmm. I'll study the Alliance patterns now and see if some coastal nation might be able to block it.

Maybe I should keep Champa as a vassal... For now. I'm gonna be at 0 diplo power soon if i integrate both at once. Should have thought the integration of champa over better...
 
well, thats good to know. Hmm. I'll study the Alliance patterns now and see if some coastal nation might be able to block it.

Maybe I should keep Champa as a vassal... For now. I'm gonna be at 0 diplo power soon if i integrate both at once. Should have thought the integration of champa over better...
With Ming exploded you should have some flexibility there. The one country that's sneaky-scary when you're still at one province is Brunei. Since they don't border your vassals they'll go straight for the naval invasion of Okinawa. Now I would think the main thing is holding off on Indonesia.

When I finally got a run into Europe (colonizing Beafada and beating Trarza out of Jolof for my capital) I integrated a vassal early to try and clear the decks for a royal marriage. Got it done after the Ming debacle, but all the off-religion stuff is a real pain in the neck. Kind of makes me think that the way to go in Asia is to feed everything to two mega-vassals. If you take big enough chunks of stuff at a clip they'll pick up accepted cultures decently well. That strategy might be less viable in 1.10 with the liberty desire mechanics.

Also out in 1.10 is the westward trip to Europe. Primitive societies are losing shipbuilding capabilities and presumably losing fleet access grants along with it.
 
Also out in 1.10 is the westward trip to Europe. Primitive societies are losing shipbuilding capabilities and presumably losing fleet access grants along with it.

Patch 1.10: Primitives is no longer based on religion, but rather all countries with a tech group penalty of 100% or slower are considered primitives.

I don't get it. A penalty of 100% on the base 100% means only nations with 200% tech cost are primitives? :confused:

If they nerf Ryukyu by not being able to create ships, it would be the end of the three mountaisn achievement...
 
I don't get it. A penalty of 100% on the base 100% means only nations with 200% tech cost are primitives? :confused:

If they nerf Ryukyu by not being able to create ships, it would be the end of the three mountaisn achievement...

Only new world nations will have poor enough tech to be considered "primitives"