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!

 

[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!

 

[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!

 

[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!

 

[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!

 

[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!

 

[firezatswill9]

Chapter 7: The Keg Blows

Welcome back to Kaabu! We're a colonial powerhouse, and a regular powerhouse to boot! Europe is on the brink of war, and we're ready to watch and laugh!

First off, we added enough reform progress to get us to reform tier 3. I think it's fair that, after reforming, you get half of your points back to reinvest, getting you to the 3rd tier of your new government. Otherwise, if you flip into a theocracy or a republic, you'll likely never reach your final reform in time for it to be relevant.

So, here we are! Fairly typical choices for our reforms, but there's a reason they're the typical choices. They're just good, plain and simple.

RELIGIOUS LEAGUE WAR! OH HELL YEAH! LET'S SEE THE STATE OF EUROPE!

Oh sweet baby Jeebus. That's 90% of the entire continent. This. Is. AMAZING!

If I was there, I would be eating SO many nations, like oh my god I would DESTROY the balance of power in Europe.

Well, seeing how they're busy... Sweden, Norway wants their land back. You'll give it back, right? I thought so.

I flipped to Bohemia for a second to see the actual state of the war. Europe is going to be devastated for decades to come at this rate.

The sides are close to equal, but the Catholic side is at a disadvantage in the infantry front, for sure. But the again, they have Brandenburg, so they definitely have quality on their side.

We'll check in maybe once a year, see how this goes, since this is more interesting than what we're doing.

MORE DEFENSIVENESS?! No one, and I mean NO ONE is breaking in through the Moroccan passage. The siege ticks will be once per year at this rate!

Muisca is up for grabs, so we get grabbing!

Sicily is one of the few nations not engaged in total European war, but they can't escape its destructive clutches!

France also tried to sit out of the religious war, but their population won't allow it!

Speaking of, here's the map of Europe's religious divide. Reformed is SUPER strong this game, surprisingly enough. It's even in IBERIA, which is the biggest shock for me.

More ideas! We're starting to plug along with defensive ideas.

And now we are done with economic! -20% dev cost, thank you very much!

Portugal was given a LARGE bite out of Castile once the latter bowed out of the conflict. I'm sure this won't set up any more animosity between the two. Surely it can't, right?

Muisca is no more-isca!

Now, we look south to see a Lowlandite colony next to ours!

Now, I consider myself to be tolerant. But there are two things I utterly despise: Those that are intolerant of others cultures, and the Dutch!

OK, Austin Powers reference aside, we're trying to completely control our trade node, at least land-wise. That's the extent of our allowable expansion in Africa, our trade node and the rest of west Africa. After this, it's all about developing provinces.

The dutch and Kaabuians are fighting in Colombia. This is a rather sad display of "European might."

A sad display indeed.

Speaking of pathetic, Castile isn't a great power. Like they ever were one to begin with.

New year, let's look at Europe! Russia is really cleaning up the Eastern front, but central Europe is still undecided thus far.

The dutch, trying to invade? That's a laugh and a half.

We crushed them with no worries.

Another year passes, and we decide to check in with more details. The Protestant side is DEFINITELY gaining a massive upper hand, but it's also the AI, so who knows if they'll be able to capitalize on that, even with the Better AI mod active.

Meanwhile, while we wait for Holland to accept out peace terms, KaabUSA is born.

Update: Poland and most of Eastern Europe is out of the war, things might be winding down soon!

And Holland finally gives in and gives up their CN land! Good, and STAY OUT!

Hmmm, warscore is stuck at 21% in the protestant's favor. This could drag on for a bit.

Especially considering that there's only a few states left involved. Hell, the Catholics might be able to pull a win out at this rate.

But, while Bohemia is tied up, let's go take on ANOTHER Dutch minor. Because we want to kick them out of the Caribbean.

Just in time, too! Looks like the Protestants won, and the HRE is essentially saved due to that victory. The amount of Catholics in Europe is, well...

Let's just say it doesn't look good.

Our Sultan died, oh no!

But we got a good new ruler, and a good heir, too!

What's this? Mexikaabu has a claim? Quick, press it before it expires, they barely claim anything!

Kanem Bornu is also integrated, leaving us with just Kong remaining under us as a vassal.

And I think that's where we'll leave it for now. A religious war, some minor expansion, and a whole lot of internal clean up. So it's good timing with the European powder keg deciding to blow!

I think I'm gonna change my update days to Tuesday, as Mondays don't seem to be working out as of late. So better to change it now than keep running late for weeks or months on end!

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

 

[firezatswill9]

Chapter 8: Calming Down

Welcome back to Kaabu, we totally didn't forget to do last weeks update because of my work schedule getting shuffled around in a way that made me lose track of what day it was. Totally not. So no one bring it up, ok?

With our new defensive idea, our morale has jumped up by 15%, the same as France's Elan, if memory serves!

And after a pointlessly drawn out war with the Aztec, we now control even more of Mexico!

Unfortunately, Friesland is being much more annoying. We have max WS from the war goal, but right now we're at a standstill due to a lack of naval dominance in the English Channel. So that means it's time to build an actual navy!

Seriously, we're ON THE CUSP of being able to peace out WITHOUT making a bunch of heavy ships. But NOOOOOOO, we gotta build them NOW!

Freaking Dutch, obsessed with their "Indies", be them west or east.

Tariffs? No thanks, I'll take the points.

Honestly, ever since the obscene nerfs to tariffs YEARS ago, this event has become even more of a no brainer.

OK, fast forward a bit, and we got our heavy "fleet" ready. It'll get bigger in time, but for now we just need a few galleons to scare the Dutch into submission.

There we go. Peace at last!

And, of course, now we have new rivals! The Ottomans, after a very shaky start, are finally starting to consolidate Anatolia and the Greek portion of the Balkans. Which, for some reason, makes them an eligible rival.

Seeing how taking this tech 5 years ahead of time will cost us the same as if it were 1 year ahead of time, we take it for the innovativeness. We need a bit of innovativeness just in case we come across any coal producing provinces!

Norway continues to grow, slowly but surely.

New lands? Let's go get them! New Kaabu and Kaaustralia, here we come!

Our next defensive idea also unlocks our final national idea, giving us more accepted culture space, and an additional diplomat. Nice, if modest, bonuses, to be sure.

The Ottomans are looking like they usually do in 1444, more or less. But they're in trouble with a solidly powerful Mamluk neighbor breathing down their neck. But it's the Ottomans, they'll probably pull out a win.

New reform, we're getting our leader cost down. Mostly because that gives us additional loyalty from the Amirs.

Tobacco is all the rage, it's a good thing we're working on our production in the 13 Kaalonies!

And finally, Kong is integrated. We completely control west Africa, and we intend to keep it that way, even as we start butting in to foreign affairs.

And you know what? We'll see if we can get around the world in 80 days, just for kicks. What else can we do, seeing as we've explored all the seas in the world?

Now, Kongo is looking a bit... in the way here. We want to control the entirety of our trade node, and they're holding key provinces. But not for long!

And finally, FINALLY, we reach empire rank!

Our navy is doing work, and even growing!

Excellent minister? He can help us catch up with our reforms!

Kongo realized that they were wrong, and the coastal land they held was actually ours.

Oh, did the Ottomans lose? Or did their army shrink in such a way that it altered the calculations? Oh well, TIME TO HATE RUSSIA!

OK, I think I got a bugged mission here. It's telling me to build a temple or cathedral, but there's no province listed.

Well this sucks, this agenda will be stuck there until 1619, when it expires.

Our sultan died, and left us with his 27 year old son to lead us. And he has pretty good stats, too!

Huh, Pasai is looking strong. Maybe we can ally them, just for laughs.

Mamlucks look to be strong too, but they're in the midst of a war. But I think I like them enough to look past that.

No alliance for now, but we'll marry one of their daughters to secure the relation slot.

And now, we're too big for Poland to consider us a rival. Scared over there, Kasimir?

Oh no, the price of grain will fall! How will we- we're fine, we have so much income that this won't bother us in the slightest.

New heir, who dis? A keeper, that's for sure!

Kazembe, remember how Kongo held provinces that were rightfully ours? Well, it looks like you're doing the same with Ndongo. So I'd suggest handing it back to us, it IS ours, after all.

36 dev province (iirc, it could have been less) for no work, score!

Global trade spawns in Germany, so we'll probably have to boost a little to get this one. But that's fine, we're building for a "tall-ish" game, after all. So dev pushing is expected.

Our capital only costs 20 points to dev push, but I think we can get that lower. Let's see here....

With the proper edicts and set up, now it only costs us 17 points to dev push. It's no Dutch lowlands, but that's still pretty nice!

And that's where we'll leave it for today. Our pink color is definitely spreading farther and faster in the new world now, and our expansion in Africa is 99.9% done. Just a few islands from the Iberians and we'll be all set.

But that's it for now, I hope you enjoyed!

 

[firezatswill9]

Chapter 9: Clean Up and Colonial Spats

Hey, it's Kaabu. You know the drill, right? Let's just get on with it.

First, we're in Europe, doing a bit of parenting.

That's right Sweden, give it back. You can't bully your brother like that.

Speaking of bullying, Aztec, you bullied the entirety of your fellow native neighbors into being your servants! Well, it's time for us to free them!

And of course, we expect a token resistance to our liberation armies.

One peace deal done.

Free money? God IS good, indeed!

And now, we welcome Kaabufornia to our list of CNs! Everyone, give them a round of applause!

And now that they exist, let's get them a gift of Zuni land!

Another bonus to dev cost reduction. If we were in the Netherlands, deving provinces would probably cost us single digits worth of MP.

Zuni got zapped.

And we LIBERATED several of the Aztec's subjects. And they were so grateful that they decided to join Mexikaabu as a show of gratitude!

Ah, I was wondering if this would happen. Since I'm using a mod for balkanizing the world, the MoH was disabled. But there is an event to bring it back if one of the Chinese states get large enough. And it looks like Yan passed the threshold!

Mamluks are tied up in a punitive war against Naples. Depending on how this goes, we may have a new ally.

Ah, yes. Yet ANOTHER new CN, Kaaustralia. Lovely. But it looks like the Portuguese are stepping in on our territory. We can't be having that, not after what happened in North and South America!

Ah, Iqta tri-button effects. How I love the massive influx of cash you give me.

Which allows me to plow through these missions.

Ok, Mamluks, you're in. We can be friends.

OK, Cusco, we're gonna throw off your groove.

But that's ok, we don't need your groove. We just need your gold.

Tech 17, usually a vital technology in most campaigns. But here, not so much. We're not really expanding all that much, and when we do, it's for our subjects. So it's THEIR AE that matters most.

Eh, let's clean up more of Mexico. We've almost got it all consolidated.

And we finished Defensive ideas! Now we're SUPER fortress-y!

Annexed one nation.

And ate a lot of land of another. We'll get them next time!

But now it's time for the main event. Portugal, you've been our "rival" for a long time. So it's about time we come to blows! Let's do this, mano y mano!

Fine, you can bring in your allies, but it's not gonna do much!

Hot chocolate event? Neat. BUT WE GOTTA BEAT THE GREEN MENACE!

Excellent, absolutism will help us be more disciplined!

Oh no, a coalition of Native American tribes is forming. I'm so scared...

Ah, our northern defenses will take quite some time to crumble. But in the meanwhile, the bodies of our enemies will help fertilize the desert!

Over 1k Portuguese died in the month tick. Taudeni is positively deadly.

Oh, and not to mention our coastline is covered with naval batteries, giving us ample time to mount a repelling force for any attempted invasions by sea. Our heartland is secure!

And a look at how the war looks. Our enemies have less land, but what they do have is generally better than ours, due to the better trade node. But we'll still win, I'm sure.

I mean, while we're having some trouble in the new world, we're doing fairly well in this war. We can drag it out a bit, bleed their manpower dry, and then go on the offensive. Not quite the Russia strategy, but close enough. "General Desert" is just as unforgiving as "General Winter," after all!

But that's all for now. Next time, the Portuguese war continues!

Hope to see you then!

 

[firezatswill9]

Chapter 10: KICK THEM OUT!

Hello, welcome back to Kaabu. Last time, we started a colonial war with Portugal. Let's get back into the fray!

Equal rolls against colonial forces, but we have more morale and cannons!

We have more morale and cannons, why are we losing?!

Ouch, that doesn't make a lot of sense. But I guess we had some terrible rolls in between those shots.

But fine, we can try our might against the Portuguese! But man, was that fire phase ABYSMAL!

Ouch, this discipline difference and small cannon difference is making a BRUTAL difference.

Yikes. That was bad. Like, man, that was HORRIBLE. We're going to need to REALLY rework our army, this CANNOT stand.

But Poland, Poland can go bye-bye from this war. That's a lot of war enthusiasm gone, since they're big, but have no real way to get themselves down to Africa to ACTUALLY contribute.

Speaking of, look at the INSANE war enthusiasm these minor nations have. Like, REALLY?! Why is it that high? I don't get it!

Look, PORTUGAL has war enthusiasm that makes sense. We outnumber them, and we're building a better navy than they have!

I don't know if this is the mod or just vanilla EU4, but either way, it's stupid BS.

Speaking of stupid, Portugal keeps on sending their armies to the desert, and they're continuously trying to siege down Taudeni.

Just 16k is suffering 3.6% attrition. We're DRAINING their manpower with this one fort alone. Fortress Kaabu is pretty fun for this reason alone.

I mean, look at Portugal's manpower. They're under 3k in reserve, meaning that they're going to be unable to reinforce their losses from now!

Oh no! Our king died! But we got a new sultan, and he's pretty great. So we're not that sad.

Plus we got a boatload of cash from Mexikaabu, so that also helped ease the blow of the loss.

OK, ROUND 2, PORTUGUESE!

NOW we have equal discipline, and near equal morale, AND we have a cannon advantage!

Leader pips are weighed towards their side, though...

KEEP FIRING, LADS!

THEY'RE FLEEING! LET THEM DRY OUT IN THE DESERT!

We have victory!!

We're basically only engaging in combat if the fort's siege progress goes positive. We don't want to let it fall and have to counter-siege it. That would be BAD.

Seriously, they've GOT to be trying to build a body pile big enough that they can just WALK up to the walls.

I guess they were just dropping off some bodies for the body pile?

Yeah, this is one-sided in terms of reserves. We got this in the bag now.

ESPECIALLY WHEN 72k TROOPS ARE SPENDING 62 DAYS PER SIEGE TICK IN MAX ATTRITION LAND!

A large portion retreated from the siege shortly before the tick, but still. Even better AI mods can't fix the unfixable.

OK, time to try and relieve the siege! I'm not expecting much, but I have to try!

MORE MEN! SEND IN MORE MEN!

DAMMIT!

More losses! What are their ideas?! Why do they have SO MUCH morale?!

They must have gotten an event or two, there's nothing showing them having defensive ideas. This is nuts, Portugal is usually a pushover!

I mean, it's fine. We get what we want. We take their Mexican holding, some islands, and some land in the La Plata CN area. We'll hit them again for their other CNs later...

Let's look at those losses! The Portuguese side lost MORE men to attrition than they did to battles! That fort is paying for itself in SPADES!

And the peace deal in written terms.

HOLY CANNOLI! LOOK AT THIS PROVINCE DEV!

We're colonizing this ASAP! The natives dev pushed it FOURTY-FIVE TIMES! THAT'S AS MUCH AS FIVE 9'S!

Wasteland to some, but not to us!

Trade makes a up a majority of our income. Boosting it usually helps.

Speaking of income, we finally get the economic event. Stability, inflation down, cash money, and some inflation reduction is all great!

Next in our quest to conquer Central America, Aztec! You're back on the menu!

And we take all but 2 of their provinces, leaving them without vassals, and without any way to get some.

Now it's diplomacy time! Bengal is a big player in the east, so of course we want to rub elbows with them!

And now it's for the continuation of diplomacy! So Castile, hand over that island!

And Kaauba, go get that imitator Cuba!

Next, we ally with Tidore! They don't colonize anymore, so they're not AS useful as they used to be, but still. They're nice to have in the area as we start colonizing the east indies.

And of course, we want to help our buddy, Bengal. The fact that we can get money from them in exchange is completely irrelevant, I swear!

And we've colonized the abandoned Alaskan Megalopolis! Cloth isn't GREAT, but it's still a good trade good to have. Better than grain or fish, to be sure!

OK, diplomacy time is over. It's time to kick the Dutch out of North America! Like how it happened in history!

And we're also getting our bonus cash from our government. Iqta, gotta love it!

The Dutch are all but removed from the continent. The natives will deal with the rest.

Oh no, Portugal can't be our rival anymore? Why's that?!

Ah. I see. Well, we DID kinda ruin them in our last war. They're covered in rebels, and have no reserve troops to help with that. I wouldn't be surprised if they were hiring mercs to deal with that issue!

So, we need a new rival. Yan is good enough. No real desire to fight them, but we can still rival them for kicks and giggles!

Norway, we got more of your land back!

And our ally is ALSO bashing Iberians. Good for them!

Tidore is vassalized, finally.

More war in the Yucatan Peninsula. We'll get most of their land this time!

Like I said, MOST of their land. Next time, they're GONE!

And finally, it's time to kick the Dutch out of SOUTH America!

It's gonna be a bit of work, but we'll get them. We already have their CN fully occupied, it's only a matter of time now.

But that's gonna be next time, we've gone on for quite some time as it is!

Hope you enjoyed!

 

[firezatswill9]

Chapter 11: Relaxing

Hey, we're back at Kaabu. But we're relaxing, so keep things chill, OK? So let's continue with our mellow, ya dig?

Europe is slowly consolidating, aside from Anatolia, which is continuously being balkanized. It looks like Iberia is going to be divided 3 ways, too, once Castile and Aragon (inevitably) get eaten.

Normally, I'm all about the offense. But in Fortress Kaabu? DEFENSE DEFENSE DEFENSE!

Meanwhile, we've also been preparing to end this war. How, you ask?

We've sent our fleet of heavies to blockade the Dutch! And as a bonus, we're gonna sink THEIR heavies!

Two free heavies? That's pretty sweet!

Free admin? Cool beans.

Alright, time for tech 19 across the board! Time to upgrade our ships again!

OK, Aztec, you're done. Took WAY too many wars to do so, but we'll wipe you off the map!

Unfortunately, our CN Mexikaabu, is getting rebellious, so we're going to pay their debt off, and dev push their provinces a bit. We'll also build a bunch of forts in their land to keep them in perpetual debt. All while still getting that sweet, sweet gold from the fleets.

Bye Aztec!

Taxes? Who needs them, we have GOLD AND TRADE!

Meanwhile, Sweden and England are getting stomped by some medium powers.

Sardinia, GET OUT, we're tired of you just sitting around, doing nothing!

And now, the Dutch have lost all their colonies in the new world.

AND STAY OUT!

What's this? Our CN is ATTACKING natives? I thought I needed to push the them to do that!

Well, Estonia ate some of Finland, and Ireland is almost entirely consolidated.

New age ability? Admin Efficiency all the way!

More native wars? Make me proud, Mexikaabu!

Now, I missed the screenshot, but we've finished quantity ideas, so now we're getting EVEN MORE dev cost reduction! Which means...

Our lowest dev, max trade center level province, costs NINE points to develop. NINE!

Imagine if we owned the Netherlands. It'd probably cost a single point to dev push.

The Mamluks want us to join their war? Sure, why not. If they control the northern part of the Tripoli passage, we should be entirely safe from invasions from that direction!

Alliance, with Sulu? Why not?

Also, we're colonizing the east indies, because that's what you do when you play tall, right?

Speaking of tall play, KAASCADIA IS BORN!

Hmm, well, this is an interesting predicament. Tripoli exists still, but just barely. And the Mamluks' vassal, Mzab, owns most of their land. Good enough, I guess?

30 ducats? That's chump change!

OK, we're finishing our consolidation of Mexico!

COMPLETE!

Free Iqta money is best money.

Sulu is our vassal now. There was much rejoicing!

Our Sultan died, and and his heir is bad. Well, not GREAT. So we're gonna dump him real quick.

And of course, we need LESS AUTONOMY EVERYWHERE!

Unfortunately, despite having manufactories LITERALLY FUCKING EVERYWHERE, we don't spawn the institution. Oh well, we'll do this the old fashioned way.

Do costs 16 dev to push, and is between Bambuk$ and Bure, 2 gold mines that are at 38 dev, so it's an ideal candidate to dev push.

And with that, I think we'll stop for now. 170 years left until the end, but we're getting to the point where we're just gonna bother nations ALL the time.

Hope you enjoyed!

 

[firezatswill9]

Chapter 12: Portugal... Again.

Hello everyone, welcome back to Kaabu! We've seen some Portuguese colonies in Cascadia, and we can't be having that! So we're gonna go steal them before they finish!

Alright, let's get these Portuguese! They've been stinkin' up the world with their toxic island forts and other filth for too long!

Poland hasn't joined this time, and they can't even rival us anymore. Hah, wimps!

Oh, that's a lot of ships. Would be a shame if someone were to engage them with, say, a fleet of heavies.

OH NO THAT THING I JUST SAID HAPPENED!

Haha, sink those cowards!

A bunch of new ships, gotta love it! Portugal's navy is officially a non-threat!

Hey, we got a new heir! He's not great, we'll get rid of him after the war. But at least he's not the worst thing ever.

More ships sunk, and only some colonial ships lost.

Looks like Portugal is low on ships, out of manpower, and generally out of luck.

And they just keep on losing ships!

We finally get the last possible dev cost reduction modifier that we can get (without massively changing our setup), so now we get things even cheaper! I think, it's possible we already maxed out the cost reductions...

Huh, I have NO idea where Portugal got all that manpower from. I'd say they slackened recruitment standards, but I don't think the AI can use that button?

It's even more baffling when you see all these Portuguese suckers dying in the desert surrounding our fort!

Seriously, in 2 years, they managed to GAIN 13k manpower! Lucky nations are OFF in this run, so I have no idea what's going on. Events, maybe?

Speaking of events, our Sultan died, and left us with a regency for several years. So in the meanwhile, we're triggering C&C, since there's nothing else we'll be doing for a decade or so.

And now that the siege is at 14%, we move in, after watching this army drop like flies, going from 70k to 50k in just a year or two.

SHOOT THESE LIVING SKELETONS! THE BONE WAR STARTS NOW!

BLAST THEM BACK TO THE STONE AGE!

Smashed them hard.

Casualties. If our CNs weren't so dumb, we wouldn't be appearing to have taken more casualties in this war.

Now, for our penultimate reform, we gain additional governing capacity!

More fools coming to try and siege the desert.

C&C has triggered, and we take the sensible option.

No need to suffer any unnecessary revolts.

Looks like Castile is going to be annexed soon enough.

Peaced out the first Portuguese ally. Stupid war enthusiasm modifiers...

More battles? LET'S GO!

Really bad rolls for the first fire phase.

Oof, bad rolls for most of the combat phase, and roughly equivalent rolls for the latter phases.

COME ON, HOLD OUT JUST A LITTLE MORE!

DAMMIT! That was a close one, too!

Oh well, we've been able to peace out all of Portugal's allies now. The end is in sight!

Manpower? Don't mind if I do!

OK Portugal, give it up!

We took a LOT of their islands in TC nodes. To fully cripple Europe, we need to limit their access to trade money.

Canada is vassalizeable? Eh, sure, why not?

Thanks to all our level 3 CoT's, we're GAINING naval tradition when we protect trade. Not a bad deal!

And I think I'll end us off with a look at how the Americas are progressing. Portugal has been cut off from the interior of N. America, and the only other CNs on the continent belong to either England or Castile. S. America will be taken over soon enough, but we still need easy WS against Portugal for the time being.

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

 

[firezatswill9]

Chapter 13: Chillin' and Intervenin'

Hey, it's Kaabu time. Not going to lie, it's gonna be a pretty relaxed 20 years, so let's crack open a relaxing beverage of choice and kick our feet up and relax.

C&C disaster is still rolling, but it's honestly super tame. We'll have max absolutism in no time at all.

Portugal apparently has the strength to bully their neighbors. Looks like we didn't break them hard enough. Next time, though, we can fix that.

Stability AND discipline? It's a shame that we're not going to be in any wars to use that MASSIVE buff!

We've finally, FINALLY finished our Louisianan CN, Kaabouisiana! Now, we can start eating the pesky native tribes and color the interior pink!

Speaking of coloring, Portugal realized that they buried so many of their soldiers in Tuat, that it is essentially theirs. Good thing we made sure to shore up the defenses of our northern border!

And finally, C&C is over! We gain more possible absolutism, granting us a total of 105 possible, while still giving our estates SOME privileges.

Mo' Money rollin' into the bank. Iqta + CNs = Mad profit.

Now, let's get to cleaning up the borders in our CNs!

One easy war.

Now let's get to feeding Kaabufornia and Kaabouisiana!

Looks like we CAN use our discipline boost!

Rough losses, Chicksaw.

Chicksaw was full annexed in a separate deal, and Yaqui is next.

Now, I've been keeping an eye on the cheapest our dev cost can go. 4 points per dev seems pretty low!

Japan wants access to our lands? Eh, why not?

Oh, look, a new heir! He's actually pretty decent, too. So we'll keep him!

And for our 6th idea group, we take offensive! Just seemed wrong to not do so.

Uh, California? I think you're on the wrong coast. I do appreciate the early Californian Flag being used, instead of the Californian Republic flag that is more common. Mostly because the early flag looks so dumb, it always gives me a chuckle.

Tidore is annexed, there wasn't anything they could do to help us as a vassal.

Next up, let's keep the Phillipines from falling entirely into English or Japanese hands!

Castile, your time is up. You barely have any land left, I don't see you getting out of this one.

Easy war is easy.

Huh, we were called into a war that we were considering joining via GP interaction. So of course we'll help our ally!

Speaking of GPs, we're still topping the charts CONSIDERABLY. Our CNs are giving us a majority of that power, but without them, we'd still be top 3, for sure.

Let's take this time to gage Korea's strength. It's a futile fight for Bengal, but we can still learn from it. No additional discipline, bad morale, honestly that's not much.

Well, seeing how it would take AGES to ship troops over, we've elected to send a naval force (our heavies), to keep the Chinese and Koreans from pulling a Sealion on Bengal. And to that extent, we need ship basing rights, and Japan has ports ALL OVER the area. So getting access to them all for JUST 2 ducats is a no brainer!

Now, it's not as useful as it usually would be, but I'd be remiss to NOT get tech 23 ASAP. The production modifier is already amazing, the AE boost is an added bonus at that rate.

Huh, I guess Korea and Yan weren't allies originally? Yan must have been their overlord or something. EoC is dumb, in terms of gameplay. Preventing Yan from unifying China. Honestly, it's tempting to forcibly get them to unify the mainland, or at least break up the bordergore.

China and Korea are doing a common strat from older versions of the game: doomstacking. Honestly, I kinda wish I was ACTUALLY fighting in this war. On land, that is. We're fighting the naval war just fine.

Really, this is the stuff that I miss. Mega stacks from random nations, and not just the Ottomans or Russia.

Even though there are some massively outnumbered battles, Bengal is winning the war via owning the wargoal. So this is going well for them, and I'm glad! The further Sunni spreads, the better!

Megastacks. In low supply areas. Ah, the good ol' days.

Thanks to our blockade of the Korean peninsula, they bow out pretty fast. Leaving just a couple of Chinese states to tackle!

This seems familiar, only we're not flying a Union Jack. Or peddling opium.

But we're still able to clean house.

One province and a handful of ducats. The expected AI peacedeal. If we had troops nearby, we MAY have been able to get them to push for more, but honestly, I'm not sure how MUCH more they would go for.

And finally, Portugal is getting in on the Castile-bashing. Looks like they're going to take their South African holdings!

But that's all for now. 1680, so we have about 140 years left, and we're already starting to meddle. We just need a couple things to cement our status as the supreme global power. Like a sort of... hegemon, or the like.

Hope you enjoyed!

 

[firezatswill9]

Chapter 14: We're Back! A Kaabu's Story

Hello everyone, happy new year and welcome back! After a bit longer of a break than I intended, we're back to our African escapades!

First things first, let's drop some dead weight.

Exploration ideas have long since been irrelevant. We only kept them for the colonist and additional settlers, but now we have absolutely no use for them. So we're dropping them like lead weights.

Instead, we're taking trade ideas!

We don't REALLY need the merchants, but the policies are really where it's at. So we'll be looking to fill those right away.

But my, would you look at the time? Portugal is looking like it wants to be smacked around!

This is so massively one sided. The only thing they have a numerical advantage in is galleys. But galleys are worthless, so 0 times 17 is still 0.

TIME TO MAKE SOME POOR BASTARDS DROWN FOR THEIR COUNTRY!

... I have no idea how literally NONE of those cogs sank.

More points, yes! Better spies? Sure, why not!

OK, NOW we'll have some fools sink to the depths of the ocean!

WE GOT ONE, BOYS!

Oh great, now it's the Scots' turn!

TWO SHIPS SUNK! HELL YEAH!

While we play with the Portuguese navy, we also look to the Philippines and see an opportunity. So we jump right on it!

Portugal, you have NO ESCAPING THIS BATTLE!

Oh FOR FUCKS SAKE! How are they not, you know, SINKING?!

Better, but still not as good as it could be.

Meanwhile, at the First National Bank of Iqta...

OK, here's our peacedeal. The new world gets cut up a bit more, and we take 2 provinces in Africa. We'll keep the Cape for ourselves, to lock down the node. But the other one, we have plans for.

Our CNs don't know how to win wars without dying en masse

Tondo is now fully incorporated into our TC.

And now, with our other province in Africa, we set up a client state! We now have the Kingdom of North Africa under our protection!

Let's keep cleaning up the new world. Lotta small nations are disappearing all over, what's one more to the list?

And here's how the world looks now. Our pink is all over the place, the sun never sets on our empire!

But that's all for now. Short, I know, but I want to ease back into this. And I have some interesting things in the next part, so look forward to that!

 

[firezatswill9]

Chapter 15: Consolidation and Setups

Hey, it's Kaabu time! We're still the best power in the world, but let's see if we can't make our position even better!

It looks like Ayutthaya is in trouble. We're going to intervene in this and DEFINITELY do some saving. Yeah, saving.

Delhi is the big fish in the war, but all fish look tiny compared to a whale.

First up, we annex Yue. Totally not planned, but we were in the neighborhood so we decided to. For sure.

Delhi gets a white peace, we don't have any reason to war with them!

And now it's just Ava and Mong Kawng, but we might just let this war fizzle. Ava isn't who we wanted, and Ayutthaya is gone!

Yeah, we let the war fizzle out.

Enlightenment? Well, it's something to aim for while developing our homelands!

And now, it's time to do what that entire war was about: making a Chinese vassal state!

If we had a land connection to our capital, we would have made a client state, but since we don't, we have to release a vassal. Oh well.

First, we made them loyal. Next, we made them sunni. Then we made them loyal again. Easy enough to develop their lands a little bit!

And full disclosure, I tag switched to them for just a single day, to fill out their dhimmi privileges, so that way I can convert their provinces through more than the trade interaction. I don't see this as a bad thing to do, as all it does it give me more of a headache in the long run. Because as we all know, tolerance >>>>>> conversion.

Final reform time! The other reforms are pretty lame, since they swap government type, so we go for the additional absolutism! May as well, can't have a high enough cap on it.

OK, Portugal, it's time we REALLY bloody your nose. Hell, we'll probably break an arm or two!

That's right, we're going on the OFFENSIVE in Africa!

Free cores? I LITERALLY can't complain!

WE GOT TO GET THIS FORT, MEN!

MOUNTAINS BE DAMNED, SEND IN THE REINFORCEMENTS!

WE GOT THIS!

A little painful, but we have manpower in SPADES!

Heir falls ill? We can't afford to spend money, just pray for him!

We got the 25% chance this time!

WE GOTTA REINFORCE! WE WILL WIN AFRICA!

KICK THEM OUT! NO PORTUGUESE IN THE NORTH!

We may lose this battle, but the next one is going to go our way for sure!

Already doing better.

Next wave of men, incoming!

CRUSH THEM AS THEY FLEE! NO SURVIVORS!

Easy, the previous battle's losses are irrelevant.

More bodies for the body pile!

A little ping pong, but there's no escaping now!

Wow, the southeast Africans are trying to kick the Portuguese out of their neighborhood. Good for them!

Scots, in Africa? GET OUT OF HERE, KILT-BOYS!

Go back to your haggis, bagpipe bastards!

Oh, Portugal...

You did this to yourself.

I'd say I'm sorry, but you need to learn.

Huh. Never knew events giving cores could fire for client states, but now I know!

Portugal is willing to lose it all for their African holdings.

At this rate, a stiff breeze will be able to knock over Portugal.

Hell, SOFALA is sieging IBERIA! SOFALA!!!

And the dogpile is real. Absolutely real. RIP Portugal.

NEVER-ENDING!

Bye, Scotland!

And cool, Ireland formed! Can't say I've seen that happen without my intervention! Must be because England didn't start holding Pale.

SINK THEIR SHIPS!

Considering we have no leader, we're doing alright.

Hey, sinking 5 for the cost of 3 is A-OK with me!

The partition of Portugal, circa 1707, colorized.

I'd love it for Portugal to have no navy, but I'm not holding my breath.

Slowly whittling them down.

OK, here we go! Colonial lands, and both North and South Africa!

Written version of the peace deal.

And we've now finished offensive ideas. Discipline time!

And some time during that war, Bengal rivaled us. Well, we don't like you either, BUB!

6.5k for an institution? Chump change.

Man, we're losing rivals left and right!

And here we are! We fed North Africa to our client state, we have a foothold in China, and we have 110 years left to go! How much trouble can we get into in that time? Let's find out... NEXT TIME, ON KAABU BALL Z!!!!

 

[firezatswill9]

Chapter 16: Big Trouble in Shattered China

Hi, Kaabu here. I bet you're wondering what we're going to do today. Well, if you look at the title, it contains a secret tool that we'll use later. But for now, let's read some events!

Thanks to being enlightened as a nation, we get a lot of events that will increase our province's production rates, and give us some nice boosts! It's good to be smart, who'd've thunk it?

Unfortunately, Korea and Pasai are too puny for us to rival. But to be fair, it's a shocker that they were even eligible in the first place!

Loyal subjects? Good event, since we're trying to free up the slot currently held by Canada.

And with the annexation of Canada comes the formation of Kaabanada. It's a bit of a lateral move, but it frees up one of our relation slots!

Now, we've been keeping an eye on the situation in China for a while, and Min just lost a war and their alliances. So it's time to pounce on them!

They actually have some decent combat modifiers. But they're no match for us!

They're also prone to running away to Siberia, so we don't have too many battles in this war. Just a lot of sieging.

More dev for the dev gods!

Now, it's time we take a MASSIVE chunk out of Min. We're going to be coalitioned, but I don't care, to be honest. If we were to send our entire army over, we'll be able to stomp these Confucians without any problems.

But, just to be on the safe side, we take up a new alliance with Nitra, the biggest, most consolidated power in Europe. Well, the biggest one we have no competition with at least!

Portugal has finally fallen from grace. About time, too!

Oh, what's this? Even Valencia is getting in on the coalition! We might need to deal with them at this rate....

Bengal, despite their impressive expansion in Indochina and southern China proper, have started to consider more... Radical ideas. Better hope they don't spread!

Huh, never seen this event before. But I'll take it, anything positive is always nice!

Our current setup, feat. our new Sultan. He's not great at diplomacy, but he'll do nicely.

Time for Portugal to get beat up by an African nation again, huh? Let me get my popcorn!

And this is the world, very pink and beautiful. But, there's something new after this decade...

We've finally hit 1k income monthly, meaning we can be the economic hegemon. But, I don't know if it's that good, ESPECIALLY considering our subjects will also get the -100 relations penalty. It might be better to go for the naval hegemon, and use the -20% LD in subjects to counterbalance the -100 relations hit. Plus, the additional backrow damage is always welcome! Economic hegemon only gets us more money, which we are drowning in ATM. And military hegemon is attainable, but largely not worth it IMO, at least for this run. So we might be building a super heavy navy in the next part. But for now, this has been Kaabu, signing off!

 

[firezatswill9]

Long story short, the save is gone. Got corrupted and is literally unplayable now. So unfortunately this is where this AAR ends. A shame it happened so close to the end, and that I wasted all that time testing out things to recover it, but that's how things go.

I hope that this was enjoyable for those who stuck with it, I'm probably going to revisit the shattered world in the future. But for now, I'm waiting for the new patch to drop and see if it fixes anything important.