Shattered Royale: A Broken World AAR (1.30)

[firezatswill9]

Chapter 1: Golden Win(d)

Hello everyone, it's time for Kaabu to enter the west African THUNDERDOME! Will we emerge victorious, or will we fall victim to our neighbors? I sure as hell hope it's the former and not the latter!

Speaking of, here's the situation in the west, and it's looking a mite different from the regular 1444 start.

Well, there goes the neighborhood. Everyone decided they were gonna go off and make their own independent nation!

But hey, we're not friendless, at the very least!

Oh, yeah, I forgot, since I'm using the Balkanized World mod (although I almost didn't, out of spite for having manually released all nations in the world in a vanilla game), we got a random ruler, let's see what we got.

SWEET BABY JES- oh wait we're Sunni.

SWEET BABY MUHAMMAD! Now THAT'S one hell of a leader!

His son, however, does not live up to his father's heights. But he is above average, if only just, so he's OK for now. We need the prestige for our army morale.

Speaking of the army, we roll ourselves a general, as well as check out our king (who will NEVER see the field of battle, NEVER!)

I can't wait for it to be shown that I blew all my luck in the beginning, and then have to suffer horribly in the mid to late game.

But first, our first order of business is solidifying our control of the western continent. So let's start with the coast.

Oh, and the fact that Mali will be involved is a nice bonus.

Checking out our available mercs, and GAT-DAYUM! Dahomey is Da Home of da best mercs I've seen thus far!

This is just BEGGING for me to get horrible curses from RNJesus later down the line. But that's a problem for future Kaabu.

While the current war is a problem for PRESENT Mali.

You're not gonna get to the coast this time around! No colonial ambitions for you!

Wiped to the last.

Jolof did not learn from Mali's failures.

And they paid the price for it. This land is OUR LAND!

Oh boy, here I go killin' again!

Ouch. That sucks. But it was only mercs, nothing too serious.

Not gonna lie, the new merc system isn't that great. It's not as bad as I had originally envisioned it being, but it's got a serious case of "being clunky for the sake of being clunky" imo.

Mali, please bow out of the war. We don't want much, just 3 parcels of land, nothing you'd miss.

...Well, the land won't be missed. The GOLDMINES on the land, however...

We take our claims from Jolof, and vassalize them. They'll be useful for eating parts of the western interior. Plus, having an additional manpower pool to pull from doesn't hurt.

Kaabu looking mighty beefy!

Alas, Fulo decided that us not giving them any land from Jolof was a dire offense, punishable by breaking off all diplomatic ties.

Oh well, we got what we wanted, and then some!

But at least our fellow Sunni brethren, Songhai, accepts us for who we are!

The Italians are up to no good, as usual! Probably invented yet another type of pasta that's COMPLETELY different from all other types because it has a small fork mark on it.

Importing iron? Why, of course! Mil tech is by and far the most important tech in the game, and if we can get it faster than our neighbors, we'll be unstoppable!

We're also converting our lands we took from Mali and Jolof, as surprisingly few provinces in western Africa are actually Sunni. Most are fetishist.

Now, Fulo, it's time for you to pay for breaking off our relations! Thanks to the gold we got, we're able to field quite the large army!

Seriously, the gold in Mali is what determines who lives and who dies in this part of the continent. The other goldmines in the area are also important, but not as much as the ones we got from Mali, due to their high base dev (14 each, iirc). Plus, we're developing one of the converted goldmines so we can get feudalism. And we'll develop the other for the Renaissance. Basically, expect massive inflation in this run.

Clean start to the war.

Unfortunately, Jolof's army is not enough to hold back Yatenga and their interesting and slightly creepy looking flag. It's scaring the soldiers, it looks like a ghost in a long dress!

Scared to death, I guess. So who you gonna call?

That's right, the GHOSTBUSTERS!

Segu tries to sally a counterstrike, but we're too much for them to handle!

WAAAAY too much!

I ain't afraid of no ghost!

Oh, nice! A potential free flip to the proper religion, for the low cost of 4k manpower? HELL YEAH!

...But it didn't work. I can't complain after the insane luck I rolled not a dozen years ago.

Segu is full annexed, and our tendrils are spreading.

And Fulo is also full annexed. Some (or all? I can't recall right now, Monday brain is keeping me foggy) is given to Fulo, since that's why we (forcefully) took them under our wing.

And it's a little late, but I figured I'd show the great powers list. Some of the usual suspects are still there, like Castile, the Mamluks, and England. But it's looking slightly more diverse, if I must say so myself! ROTW REPRESENT!

But that's all for now. I'm thinking I'm gonna try to update this AAR every Monday night (maybe more if I feel like it), just so I have at least some sort of schedule I can try to maintain!

Hope you enjoyed!

 

[MachopPower69]

Manly pink, eh? Will you flip cultures to form nations?

 

[HistoryDude]

You seem to have had a great start!

But will it last?

 

[Ebanu8]

I wonder if and when we'll come into conflict with Semien. I don't know about you guys, but I think we ought to have a proper course of action regarding the Jews. But it seems we're off to a good start.

 

[firezatswill9]

Manly pink, eh? Will you flip cultures to form nations?

Maybe, maybe not. It's gonna be hard to flip from this perfectly neon pink color.

You seem to have had a great start!

But will it last?

That's the million ducat question. I'm waiting for Murphy's Law to hit me like a 10 ton weight.

I wonder if and when we'll come into conflict with Semien. I don't know about you guys, but I think we ought to have a proper course of action regarding the Jews. But it seems we're off to a good start.

If we run into the Jewish kingdom, we will do whatever we can to assist our fellow Abrahamic African nation!

 

[Ebanu8]

If we run into the Jewish kingdom, we will do whatever we can to assist our fellow Abrahamic African nation!

Good to know. Best of luck

 

[firezatswill9]

Chapter 2: Consolidation and Exploration

Hello, and welcome back to Kaabu! We've got a manly pink color, and we're raring to go! So let's just get into it!

First, we have a reform available to us!

For our first reform, we choose the additional manpower. Sure, we're able to run mostly mercs so far, but soon we'll need to be using ACTUAL manpower in our armies. So we may as well get ready for the future, today.

Usually, I don't care at all about these events. But in a nation that has MULTIPLE gold mines? It's a godsend!

Mali's existence has been terminated. No colonial ambitions for you!

And what's this? We're a great power? Well, let's see how quickly we can climb this ladder.

Kong is vassalized, as the Ashanti have just eaten a big bite of their land. Reconquest CB is a great CB, plus it's free liberty desire removal!

Macina loses the lands we have claims on, and the lands that Jolof have claims on. We leave them with a couple of provinces, we don't need to completely consolidate west Africa JUST yet.

But, seeing how we have a FREE CB, we may as well use it. It would be a waste not to!

Oyo gets kicked in the teeth.

And Kong gets their revenge by eating Ashanti. See? We're very kind overlords!

Songhai is going to war? Why, of course we'll help you out! We're great allies, after all!

This is going to be simple. We'll definitely have the majority of the WS, so maybe we'll get our claims on Mossi!

Eh, this is fine. Nothing lost, nothing gained.

But now, after a relatively peaceful few years, we've spawned the Renaissance in Galam, yet another goldmine province. So we're making money hand over fist, for now. Once trade and coal comes into play, we might end up falling behind.

Jolof, you did good. But now it's time to put on your pink shirts.

Ah, yes, this event. I'm always up for a "free" colony popping up for us!

And I'm even happier to see free stability!

AND INFLATION REMOVAL?! Ok, this is a great event chain we've got going!

Protestants? IN 1474?!

Not that surprised. Sometimes it shows up this early in VANILLA EU4, so it honestly could have shown up in the 1460s with all the additional Catholic nations that were released when the world got balkanized.

Lost the DOW screen, but we're at war with Timbuktu. It's a very one-sided battle, to be sure.

Jenne gets encircled by us, keeping them safe for our later consumption.

And later, Timbuktu becomes our vassal, replacing Jolof, who we annexed earlier. The route to the north is now secure!

Nupe is diplovassalizeable. So we get to work on doing just that.

While we do that, let's get our first idea group: Exploration!

I think it's pretty par for the course to go colonizing when you play tall!

INFLATION-B-GONE! The hottest new product on shelves!

Nupe is now under our protection. And Benin has a lot of their cores.

So let's "persuade" them to give some land back.

And NOW it's time to clean up Macina.

A simple process.

Thanks to our exploring, we've found Portugal. And Portugal is big enough to be our rival? Sounds good to me! They may have a bigger navy, but they don't have the same SPIRIT and WILLPOWER that we do!

Songhai once again requests our aid. And we gave a resounding "eh, sure, why not, got nothing better to do" as a response.

Our heir! No! He was SLIGHTLY above average!

And our new heir is MORE SLIGHTLY above average.

I mean, it's hard to live up to a 6/6/5, but COME ON!

The reformation has arrived, but we really don't care. We're Sunni, and we're in Africa.

Oh damn! Songhai DELIVERED in this war! Nupe got ALL of their land back, and Kong got some land! This alliance was definitely worth it!

Songhai is the gift that keeps on giving. We get some provinces from Mossi as well!

Songhai is on the very short list of "AI nations I like" thanks to this war!

Well, seeing how we've got nothing better to do with it, we spend our excess mil points and get mil tech ahead of time! Innovativeness isn't worth much, but it might be useful down the line.

But now, it's time for our first massive expansion outside of Africa! The Brazilian migratory tribes have done us a favor and lined up all pretty for us to take out one after another!

And you know what? Let's engage in war on two continents!

We also advance to our next idea group, and we choose economic!

I MIGHT end up changing it for expansion, but that's something I'm considering. Getting CNs up and running faster would be ideal, but that's at the tradeoff of NOT having economic.

Natives have been assimilated.

Jenne has been assimilated.

More natives are about to be assimilated.

But not long after, tragedy struck.

NOOOOOO!!! OUR GOD KING HAS MOVED ON TO THE AFTERLIFE! HE WAS THE BEST OF US!

At least our Sultana regent is also very good, but I MISS GOD SULTAN MAN!

Let's finish off these little piss-ants.

Bing, bang, boom.

And let's get another reform. Less maintenance, more army!

And finally, we end in 1492, showing that KAABU is the greatest power in the world! We've proven we can pull ourselves together fairly well, but can the rest of the world follow suit? Maybe we'll find out!

But that will be next time! Our colonial escapades have started, but who knows where they'll take us?

Hope you enjoyed!

 

[HistoryDude]

A very good beginning

Perhaps you should switch nations? That way, Kaabu won’t rule everything.

 

[Ebanu8]

Seems we've got good luck this early on.

 

[firezatswill9]

A very good beginning

Perhaps you should switch nations? That way, Kaabu won’t rule everything.

Switching nations? I couldn't BARE to go without this magnificent pink color for a single second! We're limiting our growth, so we can't POSSIBLY rule everything. Our allies, however...

Seems we've got good luck this early on.

Good luck is something that I feel like I deserve, what with all the actual BAD luck I get elsewhere (not just in EU4, but in most other games), so I'm gonna take what I can get!

 

[firezatswill9]

Chapter 3: Colonialism

Hello everyone, welcome back to Kaabu! We're getting our colony on, so we can spread our culture far and wide! So let's just get back into it!

Like I had mentioned previously, I had considered if I wanted to swap eco for expansion, and I decided that more colonies at once will be more useful. We're gonna be dropping explo as soon as we have most of our colonial regions locked down, so we can grab an actually useful group.

Oyo is fed to Nupe, who is looking nice and large, like a happy vassal should be.

Mossi gets DOW'd and meets a similar fate. We'll secure our heartland soon enough!

And a newly-made OPM Kanem Bornu wants to be one of our vassals! Why, of course we jump at the opportunity!

And we reclaim Kanem's old Naruto book that Yao had stolen, saying that Kanem Bornu was a nerd for having it. Well, they didn't expect that "nerd" to go and get the teacher and force them to give it back!

I have no idea where this analogy is going, or where it even came from.

Our cores in Brazil have completed, and the first colonial nation in the world has spawned, Kaaburazil!

Now that I think on it, this is just an alt-flavored Mali game, colonial focus and all that. Eh, that's fine with me, I never play colonial nations, since I'm more eager to steal pre-made colonies by annexing the overlord. So this change of pace is welcome!

Speaking of colonialism, we spawned it. Honestly, this probably assures that we don't get EVEN MORE powerful, since we wouldn't be developing another gold mine to get it. So while it is definitely a lucky boost, it's neutered by the fact that we're losing out on bundles of cash.

And not a few days later, we get the Columbian exchange, which is OK. It was gonna happen eventually, but I don't recall if we have any livestock provinces or not.

Look, if it's not gold, dyes, spices, or coal, I don't really care about it.

Benin is looking mighty vulnerable. We best take them under our wing, before some EUROPEANS come by and try to swipe them up!

That's looking better, for sure. Kostal Kaabu.

Age ability time! Seeing how we don't need anything to protect against the silly reformation, and we're mostly secured in terms of wars, we take the institution spread modifier. Nothing spectacular, but still nice in its own right.

CASTILE?! I thought you were gonna be partitioned by the Iberians, North Africans, French, and anyone else looking for free clay!

Well, looks like we're gonna need to repel the Spanish sooner than I had originally expected!

However, we have time before we need to swipe that colony. We'll let the Spanish pay for it while we take care of Yao.

The triangle trade?

...Nothing to say here, folks. It's a money event, nothing more.

Kano is fed to Nupe, who has hit CRITICAL MASS! (as in, we're not feeding them any more land, to prevent a 30 year integration period)

Kanem Bornu gets their cores back, as well as several of their claims.

The Iberian wedding? Well, that means Aragon lives, but based off my view of Europe, they gotta be pretty tiny!

And lastly, here is a view of the world, circa 1511. We're making our way into the Caribbean in the west, while we also work our way down the African coast. I have a set endpoint in mind for our expansion, but that's not for quite a bit.

But that's all I have for this week. Unfortunately, I was kinda busy, and playing with ALL the nations released really does slow speed 5 down to a bit of a crawl, at least comparatively!

I'll see you in the next part!

 

[HistoryDude]

Kaabu is doing well.

Can't imagine that "Spain" is very large, what with the partition of the world.

Wonder if the partition will help or harm the Protestant Reformation?

 

[Ebanu8]

Now we've got Brazilian colonies. Wonder if we'll be going to Mexico next?

 

[firezatswill9]

Chapter 4: AND STAY OUT!

Welcome to Kaabu, an African paradise, laden with gold! Come and enjoy a nice drink on the shores of west Africa, or visit our sister location, Kaaburazil, for some nice hot chocolate and tea with some sugar!

But we WON'T TOLERATE anyone trying to steal things from us, ESPECIALLY LAND!

Alright, we don't take too kindly to Europeans trying to "settle" "our" land, so it's time to kick them to the curb!

HAH! The Spaniards are so dense that they try to invade Kaaburazil instead of the colonies we stole from them!

High rolls around, but we have a big advantage: we're NOT Castilian!

BLAST 'EM!

Bam, the Spain's gone!

Speaking of, here's what we can see of Europe. Portugal looks like they took a big bite out of Leon, and France is looking pretty busted up still.

More Castilian troops are taken out. This is too easy.

More troops coming to their doom.

This is basically how the war goes. They invade Rio Grande. We move to intercept. They take an invasion penalty. They get stackwiped. Rinse and repeat.

Our general was asked how he can sleep at night, knowing how many men he has killed.

And he responded with "I sleep like a baby, for I have killed no men. Only Spaniards!"

Also...

GODDAMN IT! ONE MORE KILL AND WE WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE x1000!!!

Well, RIP this war.

We're taking them to the cleaners, they're basically defenseless and ripe for being dogpiled.

But the dogpile never came!

Okay, NOW it's time to get economic ideas. Admin is still at a premium, but it won't be for terribly long. We're almost out of land to directly annex.

Okay, time for peace. We get some war reps, some cash today, and Arguin. That'll teach them for trying to take our land away from us!

Also, more Europe! Nitra is looking MASSIVE, Poland is also looking big, Muscovy is the same as normal, and the Balkans are still grossly Balkanized.

The interior of Western Africa is locked down, we just need to figure out how to get all these guys into our glorious pink color.

Yao shall be easy to add, so let's get them first.

Yao won't take any time to add. They barely have any men to defend themselves with.

While we war, the council still requires things of us, and we keep building up our nation!

Yao is no longer.

Next, we finish expansion ideas for the additional innovative point.

Huh, England is looking to ally themselves with us.

Well, I don't see why not. We're going to be competing for the new world, but I doubt they'd do something silly like wage a war against us over colonies!

Speaking of alliances, Songhai's alliance gets dropped. They've outlived their usefulness, and they weren't building their nation all that well. So we'll take over their country and make it better for them!

New heir, who dis?

Ajuuraan wants an alliance, too? Sure, why not? It looks like Ethiopia ate Siemen, so the hopes of a Jewish horn of Africa is not to be in this run.

Timbuktu has joined our nation in full, and we now have complete control over the northern passage to north Africa.

Oh no, the poor of Bambuk$ need help! And of COURSE we'll help them. It's a gold province, of course!

Our truce with Songhai is over, so now it's time to take ownership of their land.

Yup, that's looking better, for sure.

Our borders are looking pretty neat, aside from Kong being there. And we're steadily expanding into the Caribbean and Argentina, but we will be coming into conflict with Portugal soon, there's no doubt about that. But that's for another time.

I hope you've enjoyed, I'll see you in the next one!

 

[HistoryDude]

Nice to see the Spaniards kicked out of Africa!

Also, nice to see that Byzantium survived, but that Nitra is huge!

 

[firezatswill9]

Chapter 5: Colonial Nations, Exploration, and GOLD!

Hey, welcome back to Kaabu! Sorry it's two days late, I was feeling a bit under the weather and couldn't bring myself to write. But now I'm better, so let's just get right into it!

Now that we can see more of Europe, we have some additional rivals available. So of course, as practically everyone else in the entirety of history, we decide that we now hate Poland for some reason.

I mean, uhh...

HOW DARE THEY HAVE A SIMILAR PINK COLOR TO OURS!!

Our conquistador in South America has heard tale of a youthful fountain? Of course we'll pay for his expedition!

Woah, Castile! I see you're working on colonizing the Caribbean. Unfortunately, we're not about to let that happen. Because we also hate you, too!

France is giving us a loan? Sure, we'll take it. Not like I'm gonna pay it back, they'll have to sail down here and force us to pay it back!

Kaaburazil took notes during our previous war with the Iberians, and is fully able to defend themselves without our assistance. Ah, it makes an overlord proud to see their little ones standing on their own two feet!

SO DAMN PROUD! THAT'S MY BOY/GIRL (IDK which, nations are interchangeably referred to as both male and female with no real consistency)

Speaking of proud, I'm proud of our decision to hunt down this fountain! It's a fair bit inland, but I'm sure we'll be able to snag it if we hurry!

This war is honestly not that interesting. The occasional stack lands in the Caribbean and Brazil, but that's it. They're easily dispatched, and Castile isn't using their naval advantage in the slightest.

I mean, not REALLY complaining, but at the same time, it seems weird, even by the AI's standards.

Oh well, we'll hunt down Castile's tiny stacks as best we can. Fortunately for us, the Bermuda Triangle did NOT swallow our ships whole.

Economic ideas are SLOWLY being filled out, which is giving us more of our national ideas. Religious unity is a wasted slot, seeing how we're Sunni and can use the propagate religion setting in the trade menu to freely convert lands in the trade nodes that we dominate.

Our colonial ambitions are really kicking off. We just finished making Colonial Kaauba, and now we also have Kaargentina!

Portugal is looking to completely control North Africa. Well, it's a good thing we've fortified the passageway to the north!

How fortified do you ask? Well, we have a fort AND ramparts, on a 3 dev SALT province, with the defensive edict. Once we get a few more ideas, and a bit further down the tech tree, Taudeni will go from a 50 day seige tick hell to an absolute DEMOLISHER of manpower. We might have enough bodies piled up to fertilize the desert!

Speaking of bodies, Castile is looking rather tapped out, all things considered. We've been wiping them out in small amounts, but it looks like they've not been able to rebuild their armies fast enough. They must be a bit strap for cash since they have a lot more competition in the penninsula.

Anyways, time to destroy these Iberians before they break past the barrier holding them in place!

DIE FASTER, YOU PROTO-SPANIARDS!

Rough battle, but that's what you get when you roll pretty bad. But the difference is that we have manpower to spare, and cash is plentiful. Castile seems to be having some issues on both of those fronts.

More Iberians? They'll die just like all the rest!

No sweat.

Oh, the Poles want to get in on the fun? Well, maybe if they brought some of their famed cavalry, they would have fared better. But alas, they did not.

Oh, wow! World reveal happened early, and it is QUITE a jigsaw puzzle in 2 areas.

Europe, first of all, is looking DISGUSTING as usual. Hopefully the league war can clean up some of these splotches. Speaking of, how's the religious situation looking?

So, it looks an AWFUL lot like it did in 1.29, what with conversion being broken for the AI. But it does look like the league war will be a proper scrap, at least!

The other interesting area is Asia! Ming is basically dead, and we have 3 major factions vying for the Dragon Throne; Yan, Ning, and Dali (although Dali is in control of some horrible land, so they look bigger than they actually are.)

And in India, Malwa and Mysore are big, which I didn't think would be the case. I honestly thought that Jaunpur and Bengal would have formed a Sunni hugbox and gobbled up the fractured Hindu states, but looks like I was dead wrong!

Well, Castile, it was fun and all, but I stole your colonies, so now you just need to give up the completed ones, and we'll let you be for now. As fun as it's been, killing your men in individual small stacks DOES get a bit old.

I'm sure we'll see you later.

Portugal is declaring on Venad? Ok, at least that means they're not going after Kaaburazil. While I'm sure we'd win that in a landslide, the naval situation and ferrying armies around the new world would be rather annoying.

Looks like we smacked Castile a bit TOO hard, and now they've got a bit of a peasant problem on their hands. Succinctly put, Castile's dead.

Well, with Castile out of the race, it's time to get yet MORE colonial nations! Pacajes, you got gold? Sounds like a perfect place to set up the colonial nation of Kaaberu!

We've officially become the replacement Spaniards. Coming in with superior guns, armor, and tactics, and blasting these natives to kingdom come!

This is making me feel a little bad. I like Pajaces flag, I think it's a simple, but cool flag, and here we are destroying them.

Sorry! If it's any consolation, I think your flag is really nice!

So sorry about this!

Well, I knew it was gonna happen soon, but Castile is no longer strong enough to be our rival. Oh well, we'll find a new rival! With blackjack, and hookers!

Printing press has been made in Europe. So you know what that means?

MORE GOLD! (It's time to develop another gold producing province to a very high level, despite the fact that we already have a bit of an inflation issue.)

Well, we got all the gold, that's for sure!

You know what? We're rivaling Russia! Why? Because they have a bigger army and will likely be rival-able for longer than the Mamluks will.

Songhai, time to go bye-bye!

Songhai? No, Songbye.

Kaaberu has formed! Now we just need Kaalombia, and South America will be completed!

Ah, yes, the treasure fleets. This is the life, money for nothing!

OOOOOH! League time! Let's watch and see how this develops!

Right now, the Catholics aren't doing too hot, but there's a lot of chances for the balance to change.

OK, so now we're too strong for the Iberians. Hah, what a joke, those colonizers.

Seeing how we're getting things prepared for Kaalombia, I think we should get to work on Mexico. The Aztec have managed to, SOMEHOW, subjugate almost every single nation in Mexico (but they're still not doing their reforms, a quick tag swap revealed.) And thanks to them having so many subjects, NONE of them are loyal, meaning we're gonna be fighting a bunch of individual armies that refuse to help each other!

OB-LIT-ER-ATED!

And lastly, I'm gonna leave with this shot of the world. Our pink color has started to spread quite fast, hopefully we'll be able to be the sole owner of the new world. But that's for another time. This has already gone on longer than I intended.

I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you in the next part!

 

[HistoryDude]

Kaabu has become the new Europeans! Fear them!

That Europe is a mess...

Castile's dead...

Also, that Sicily!

 

[Ebanu8]

Seems the world's getting messier by the minute.

 

[firezatswill9]

Chapter 6: Building the Fort

Hello, welcome back to Kaabu, the nation that's absolutely LOUSY with gold. We have gold coming out of our ears, that's how much gold we have! And we're gonna get even MORE once we own Mexico! So go on and stake your claim!

We here in Kaabu love our subjects. We love them so much that they want to be a part of us forever. So who are we to decline their offer?

We have officially claimed the fountain of youth. Unfortunately, transporting the water is impossible, due to highly scientific reasons, I'm sure.

A quick look at Europe shows that the religious war is definitely gonna kick off soon. Protestant sympathizers outnumber Catholic sympathizers by a wide margin.

We peace out Aztec for a lot of their gold mines. And we make sure we leave them with a single province left, we don't need to have the entirety of Mexico as our vassals!

Unfortunately, our colonialism has soured our relations with England, so they no longer wish to ally us. Oh well, easy come, easy go.

Of course! It wasn't our colonial ambitions, it's that we accidentally insulted the English King's Mother! An honest mistake, really. How were we supposed to know that we were meeting with her, and not the king's prized steer?

Nupe is now a part of Kaabu, and our borders are slowly looking prettier. Plus, we can now colonize part of the desert route to North Africa, making sure our borders are safe from an invasion force walking in from the north!

Cusco, being annoying, but not worthy of fighting just yet, gives up one of their gold mines after seeing what we did to their previous neighbor. Smart move, Cusco. Let's see how smart you can keep playing it.

Our cores in Mexico are finished, giving us ANOTHER CN. Gotta love it, I feel like Mexikaabu is gonna be a real profitable venture!

And our colonial ventures in Colombia are doing well, with a free upgrade to a level 2 CoT in Cartagena.

But next, we... Ally Norway?! Why?!

Eh, forget that Norway nonsense, it's time to get Kaalombia up and running!

But alas, our Sultan will not live to see Kaalombia rise. BUT, our new Sultan and heir are looking mighty fine!

Holy moly! This is going to be a war that engulfs the ENTIRETY of Europe! This is something you hardly EVER see! Shame we can't get involved, but it's going to be fun to watch!

And finally, we've managed to reach our last reform, giving us the option to switch to a republic, a theology, a monarch, or a horde.

After much debate, I decided to be boring and go with monarchy.

Yup, time to stop being tribal!

...Really? I put in ALL that effort to reform, and I don't even get ANY refund on my spent points?! I swear to god PDX, this is making me regret reforming, because I've LITERALLY just gotten worse, after putting in 1/3 of the game's worth of buildup.

I'm going to ask you guys here, since this is a non-ironman game. Can I add in points to up my reform level to at least the 3rd tier? Or should I suffer through this (quite honestly) boneheaded decision? This seriously seems like an unnecessary nerf to nations that already come with pretty large penalties in general.

Anyways, remember Norway? Well, they were reduced to a bunch of small islands, so we decided to take them under our wing. Now we have a European vassal! We can use them to beat up colonizers and have them stop stealing our trade money!

And first things first: gain a foothold on the British Isles. No naval invasions for me, thank you very much!

Uh-oh, Portugal's going for OUR RIGHTFUL LAND! So we gotta beat them to the punch!

Good thing we have some armies in the area for JUUUST such an occasion!

Crackerjack timing, Kaalombia is up and running! Now they can help lock down northern South America!

Small side nation gets eaten, nothing to see here.

And we've completely blocked Portugal from getting any of Cusco. Now we just need to make sure they can't get any after we bow out of the war.

I think stealing the coastline and landlocking them will prevent any Portuguese meddling!

And we also get our 4th idea, and we go for defensive! Mostly because the attrition modifier will really help solidify our status as "fortress Kaabu."

The northern passages are fortified and in 3 dev desert provinces, so anyone invading from there will die in droves. And our coastline is like what you see in the AI's coastline: filled with SO MANY naval batteries. We just need to add a smattering of forts, and we will be all but impenetrable!

And with our plan for dealing with external problems decided upon, we turn to our internal problems, and start helping the poor.

But that's all for now. Next time, maybe we'll see the 30 years war kick off. Or maybe the AI will break and not declare and all that buildup will have been for naught. Either way, we're looking to soon enter the world stage as a grade-A pest! So that'll be really fun!

Hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you in the next part!

 

[InvisibleBison]

I'm going to ask you guys here, since this is a non-ironman game. Can I add in points to up my reform level to at least the 3rd tier? Or should I suffer through this (quite honestly) boneheaded decision? This seriously seems like an unnecessary nerf to nations that already come with pretty large penalties in general.

This seems like a perfectly reasonable idea to me.