Introduction:
Now that I've gotten somewhat used to the changes 1.12 brought with it, I'm looking forward to a longer campaign, and this time one that shows me some of the new stuff from the Common Sense expansion.
I didn't really feel like playing in Europe again, and while I originally I had planned to do a Tibet campaign next to get both the new Theocracy and the new Buddhist mechanics, I decided to save that for another time.
After looking around for a bit I decided on Ceylon. They're Buddhist, the achievment provides a nice mid-term goal, and they're in a good position for a trade (and possible colonization) heavy campaign. They're also facing a pretty tough start. Viyajanagar (from now on being called "V-J") not only blocks the only direct route of expansion I have at the start, they also have a vassal on my little island. And while they're not the most stable of nations they still start off big.
My plans and goals for this campaign:
The first steps will be to unite my little island, and then get a foothold in mainland India. While it may be tempting to just no-CB some weak nation a little further away I don't really like doing that, plus I don't want to split up my realm like that.
That means I'll have to get a jump on V-J sooner rather than later. And for that I either need an alliance with their early rivals, Bengal and Orissa, or attack them on my own when they get caught up in another war.
There are a couple other small nations on the south and southwest coast of India, but with how freely V-J hands out warnings it will probably be just as hard to take those.
I'll try to get vassals of each culture group and feed them a lot, while working my way northwards.
Since I'm starting as the only Buddhist nation in all of India, and plan on conquering and converting all of it, I'll need ways to make both these things easier. Religion will be a strong pick for that, but Administrative ideas would be very strong as well for the cheaper core creation. The diplomatic ideas have a similar competition, between Exploration and Influence (colonization vs cheaper annexation cost). Military will most likely be an early-ish Aristocratic pickup again.
I haven't decided on anything yet, but as of now it looks like I'll grab admin ideas first and only get the first 2 ideas from it, then Exploration, and depending on my point situation Aristocratic/Religious as the next two. Influence would also be nice at some point, but I'm not in too much hurry to annex any vassals I will pick up.
As I already said, one of my goals for this campaign will be to get the "Buddhists Strike Back" achievment, which will require all of India to be Buddhist, and me directly owning all of it (no nation forming either).
Depending on how long that takes me something like the "Jihad" achievment might be my next goal, so going up to 500 Buddhist provinces. Last time I set my goals too low, so I'm rather going for something bigger this time.
I think that's it, next post will be the first chapter of the actual campaign. Feel free to comment or ask any questions.
Now that I've gotten somewhat used to the changes 1.12 brought with it, I'm looking forward to a longer campaign, and this time one that shows me some of the new stuff from the Common Sense expansion.
I didn't really feel like playing in Europe again, and while I originally I had planned to do a Tibet campaign next to get both the new Theocracy and the new Buddhist mechanics, I decided to save that for another time.
After looking around for a bit I decided on Ceylon. They're Buddhist, the achievment provides a nice mid-term goal, and they're in a good position for a trade (and possible colonization) heavy campaign. They're also facing a pretty tough start. Viyajanagar (from now on being called "V-J") not only blocks the only direct route of expansion I have at the start, they also have a vassal on my little island. And while they're not the most stable of nations they still start off big.
My plans and goals for this campaign:
The first steps will be to unite my little island, and then get a foothold in mainland India. While it may be tempting to just no-CB some weak nation a little further away I don't really like doing that, plus I don't want to split up my realm like that.
That means I'll have to get a jump on V-J sooner rather than later. And for that I either need an alliance with their early rivals, Bengal and Orissa, or attack them on my own when they get caught up in another war.
There are a couple other small nations on the south and southwest coast of India, but with how freely V-J hands out warnings it will probably be just as hard to take those.
I'll try to get vassals of each culture group and feed them a lot, while working my way northwards.
Since I'm starting as the only Buddhist nation in all of India, and plan on conquering and converting all of it, I'll need ways to make both these things easier. Religion will be a strong pick for that, but Administrative ideas would be very strong as well for the cheaper core creation. The diplomatic ideas have a similar competition, between Exploration and Influence (colonization vs cheaper annexation cost). Military will most likely be an early-ish Aristocratic pickup again.
I haven't decided on anything yet, but as of now it looks like I'll grab admin ideas first and only get the first 2 ideas from it, then Exploration, and depending on my point situation Aristocratic/Religious as the next two. Influence would also be nice at some point, but I'm not in too much hurry to annex any vassals I will pick up.
As I already said, one of my goals for this campaign will be to get the "Buddhists Strike Back" achievment, which will require all of India to be Buddhist, and me directly owning all of it (no nation forming either).
Depending on how long that takes me something like the "Jihad" achievment might be my next goal, so going up to 500 Buddhist provinces. Last time I set my goals too low, so I'm rather going for something bigger this time.
I think that's it, next post will be the first chapter of the actual campaign. Feel free to comment or ask any questions.