Silly France thought they had it in the bag

[lucaluca]

Year 1750, I'm Portugal allied with Spain, 1st and 2nd incomes in the world but weak armies. Spain drags me in a war with Russia and Austria and a war against gb at the same time. We have naval dominance so I'm able to attack Russian armies in the colonies and retreat on boats, this allows me to white peace. But Spain owns all of Italy and some Balkans so they are losing badly. When Spain peace out, I don't notice that Spain was asked in the peace deal to remove all my ties with me.

France seizes the opportunity and attacks me with a colonial show superiority. They end up occupying most of my African colonies but the war goal ask for winning battles! I use a big army on a fleet to attack and destroy French seiging armies here and there.

Despite some losses, I am able to get a +9 war score that allows me to peace out but just giving 1k money.

Now I'm allied back with Spain and a huge Denmark.

Take that France! You don't mess with the trade empire of Portugal!

Hihihi

 

[LibertyComrade]

So...you lost the war and France is 1,000 ducats the richer for it. Probably worth the costs they spent on the war. But congratz on your moral victory

 

[lucaluca]

So...you lost the war and France is 1,000 ducats the richer for it. Probably worth the costs they spent on the war. But congratz on your moral victory

1000 for a 300 trade income per month is nothing... At some point in the war I was at -12 and the wanted 4000 plus give away a core and cancelling two protectorates and a a vassal for a whopping -63 peace value. Then with my hit and run attacks I turned the tides. They lost 1/4 of manpower in a useless colonial war I would not calling a success especially when Austria is creating the HRE on their doorsteps.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Screw Portugal. They were a major thorn in my side in my Songhai game. It's such a pain to beat them with sub-Saharan units and a vassal that gives them won battles. I managed to just barely kick them under 80% battles won. Thanks to assaulting garrisons just after AI leaves them I could keep them from occupying anything, and they never un-sieged their colonies so they ate WE just like I did from being blockaded. Eventually they stepped into scorched earth and got stackwiped, and even then they were too strong and I wound up giving them 85 ducats.

Later, when another major (I think it was Great Britain) sunk their fleet in a colonial battle, I declared war on them and assaulted their fort 1 garrison for ticking war score and took all their nearby colonies. Haha! Suck it Portugal.

Stealing AI territory with ridiculous nations using war score is fun .

 

[lucaluca]

Screw Portugal. They were a major thorn in my side in my Songhai game. It's such a pain to beat them with sub-Saharan units and a vassal that gives them won battles. I managed to just barely kick them under 80% battles won. Thanks to assaulting garrisons just after AI leaves them I could keep them from occupying anything, and they never un-sieged their colonies so they ate WE just like I did from being blockaded. Eventually they stepped into scorched earth and got stackwiped, and even then they were too strong and I wound up giving them 85 ducats.

Later, when another major (I think it was Great Britain) sunk their fleet in a colonial battle, I declared war on them and assaulted their fort 1 garrison for ticking war score and took all their nearby colonies. Haha! Suck it Portugal.

Stealing AI territory with ridiculous nations using war score is fun .

The mighty trade empire of Portugal > useless Songhai

 

[TheMeInTeam]

The mighty trade empire of Portugal > useless Songhai

If Portugal is a human, yes. Human picking Songhai in MP is suicide, unless you just want to be Ottoman protectorate for 200+ years and give them money or some nonsense that's not going to happen.

AI nations, however, can't fight. It's trivially easy to beat them in wars if you have room to move, though slow and painstaking.

 

[Saintrl]

If Portugal is a human, yes. Human picking Songhai in MP is suicide, unless you just want to be Ottoman protectorate for 200+ years and give them money or some nonsense that's not going to happen.

Technically you could westernize very early by going exploration first, colonizing up to Morocco, conquering some land, and then get a land border with Portuguese possessions in North Africa.

An early westernised Songhai or Mali is very powerful indeed.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Technically you could westernize very early by going exploration first, colonizing up to Morocco, conquering some land, and then get a land border with Portuguese possessions in North Africa.

An early westernised Songhai or Mali is very powerful indeed.

It's hard to imagine a human player with any nation near you being willing to allow that to happen, especially knowing how strong Songhai will get.

But realistically, you can't get exploration and make serious headway until ~1500ad, later with poor ADM leaders. Then, you need to westernize without being killed, which against thinking human beings is literally impossible unless they let you live on purpose.

Songhai's NI's are excellent (especially with the tradition, infantry combat from "go") and they can be great fun, but they're not really viable against people. You can stall out the AI without issue though. The combination of tradition/prestige/infantry combat and a token discipline finisher means that Songhai can hit really hard, but it takes FOREVER.

Even after you westernize, you're talking 50+ years to catch up in tech, and even more to catch up in ideas.

 

[Saintrl]

It's hard to imagine a human player with any nation near you being willing to allow that to happen, especially knowing how strong Songhai will get.

But realistically, you can't get exploration and make serious headway until ~1500ad, later with poor ADM leaders. Then, you need to westernize without being killed, which against thinking human beings is literally impossible unless they let you live on purpose.

Songhai's NI's are excellent (especially with the tradition, infantry combat from "go") and they can be great fun, but they're not really viable against people. You can stall out the AI without issue though. The combination of tradition/prestige/infantry combat and a token discipline finisher means that Songhai can hit really hard, but it takes FOREVER.

Even after you westernize, you're talking 50+ years to catch up in tech, and even more to catch up in ideas.

Although I'd imagine that you'd be able to take advantage of TI for protection giving yourself time to expand and catch up.