Three Countries One Goal

[Director]

Don't let Stroph kid you. TO is a great name. Isn't he a left-handed wrench-passer for one of the pro teams? No not that sport the other one, the one with a ball.

Seatbelt fastened sir! Let 'er rip!

 

[Murmurandus]

...
Murmurandus - Thank you sir I don’t know if lovely has been used in my company since Mrs. Parker, my fifth grade teacher in an embarrassment at how to describe a miserable crayon painting that I gave her muttered “How lovely.”

Joe

Up to you to decide if it also can be applied here...

 

[unmerged(58610)]

You're about to invade Crimea. I think that would count as worse than whatever it is you don't do with a Sicilian when death is on the line.

As for the Incas: buy a couple of conquistadors, send them with your army and conquer.

You can either accept the sliders as theyare or decide what they should have moved and change the save-game-file. The ai shoud pay attention to the advisers its country has hired, when deciding which settings to change.

Siena? In the good old days of EU 2, Siena would have declared war on the Ottomans as well. It's progress . Should have left them part of Tuscany! I wonder whom they will drag Sicily into a war against.

 

[unmerged(24320)]

Storey: ...Okay here’s the first target. Cyprus controls Crete and I want it.

excellent, you got it ! ! all is good if you still own it in 20 years ! !

Storey: ...Japan on the other hand (no pun intend. See flea for joke) seems to know what they’re doing...Looks like they decided to finish off Pegu, cool.

i wonder what shoe they are gonna drop on ya for that bit of doing things right ? ?

magnificent updates ! !

 

[Gebhard Blucher]

You always have good AARs Storey. This is one of them.

 

[Storey]

Director - Good to hear from you. You’re going to need a seat belt for this next turn.

Murmurandus - Thank goodness that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Chief Ragusa - I have two options for Sicily as far as I can tell. One of them goes close to Crimea but the other option is even crazier. I’m hoping for a miracle before I return to Sicily. Unlike the other two countries right now it doesn’t have much choice on what it is going to have to do if it wants to head toward the goal.

Can’t buy Conquistadors because I don’t have QFTNW.

Siena is part of Tuscany. I failed to protect them so Tuscany had them for lunch. It's oky because I plan to have Tuscany for dinner.

GhostWriter - I’m happy and relieved to say that the other shoe didn’t drop. In fact I placed it up another country’s butt.


Gebhard Blucher - Thank you sir and hope you continue to enjoy it.

Joe

 

[Storey]

Japan 1573

An embarrassment of riches

At first glance I was reduced to muttering “Oh”. I don’t usually slip into such poetic vernacular unless I’m at a bar with friends and we’re on round four. In that situation I’m known to express myself with pithy, if slightly slurred, remarks some even of the two syllable variety but here I was simply stunned by what I saw. “Oh.”

I mean I’m at peace. I’ve got 58 ships. My army has 43 regiments and they’re almost at full strength. Sure my manpower pool in leaking like a running nose battling the flu but it won’t be long before it’s full again, manpower not my nose. I kept looking around wondering WTF was going on. I mean come on there has to be a catch to all this good fortune. I mean things were looking so good I thought the game was going to burst out into a snappy song. Then I noticed that I was at -3 stability and breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment there I thought I’d entered the twilight zone and those shows rarely had a happy ending. So let’s look around and kick the tires of this jalopy and see what there is to see.



I’ve still got my good old buddy Korea on good terms +178 to be precise. Aren’t you guys ashamed at suggesting that I DOW Korea and beat the crap out of them? Man you guys really have to do something with all that testosterone. Excuse me while I hug my best friend Korea.

Japan has been very busy while we’ve been away. Pegu was annexed and all my provinces have forts.

Yep every single province is now fortified. Got to hand it to the AI it does know what needs to be built and acts on it. One problem is I’ve checked my government sliders and I won’t get a chance to move one this turn. That’s a pain. Hmm my navy has the ability to carry ten regiments. I mention this because I think I build most if not all of those transports last turn.

So with my stability lower than a snakes belly in a wagon rut I’ve got to bide my time until I climb all the way back to -2 stability so that I can declare war. Not being the type to sit around and do nothing I can send a warning to Atjeh. I don’t know for sure if they are going to be the next target yet but I’m leaning toward them.



Meanwhile this happened.

I was hoping that Perak would defect to me. Well it’s not as if they’re important to my plans.






My stability finally climbed out of the gutter and I can now DOW someone but first I have to finish rebuilding my manpower pool, it still needs a few thousand. The question is who to pick on this time. I start out looking at Atjeh as they are an obvious choice but I also look north.

They may look big but they have a few unfortified provinces. The thing that finally dissuades me was that they were allied with Orissa and I can only see a couple of their provinces so I don’t know how large they are so it’s back to Atjeh.


I went to all that trouble getting Deus Vult with Sicily because in the earlier patches you needed it but with 1.3 all I have to do it fabricate a claim for the same result! It did take me two tries and 200 ducats not to mention that when I failed the first time I lost 20 prestige points but finally I now have a CB on Atjeh.


November 1576 and Japan declares war on Atjeh. My boys did themselves proud and by July 1577 we grabbed everything that wasn’t nailed down.

Yea our reputation is a little scruffy around the edges but it hasn’t reached knee-knocking time so who cares?

 

[Storey]

If this were Russia I’d call then next year and a half the “times of troubles”.

I took Plutocracy gain one Decentralization gain 1 and loss -2 stability.



Which starts a nasty downward spiral because of -3 stability



I’ll only show you this one revolt but there were several over the next year or two. For some reason the rebels would instantly capture the fort in Kutei province.

And it happened more than once.





Then in February of 1578 this happens while I’m still at -3 stability.

I choose lose forty ducats gain serfdom one.



Followed by.

I chose the rebels. Like I couldn’t get enough rebels at this time?

I took Decentralization 2 and -2 stability. I’m already at -3 stability so who cares? At least I saved a few ducats.




And still in 1578

I selected Agree to their proposal. Gain 2 prestige, 1 stability, narrowminded gain 2 and Centralization gain 1. I would really like to be able to get the ability to convert my provinces especially since they are all going to be of a different religion than Japan so this narrowminded move helped but it isn’t going to be enough by itself.



Things started to calm down after 1578. However Korea kept busy bashing in the head of Manchu and yes Korea’s little (admittedly over weight) lap dog, Ming, helped by nipping Manchu’s ankles.

I’ve crawled back up to -1 stability and I’m starting to think about finishing Atjeh off. I actually had to pause and decide if I had enough time to pull it off when my brain kicked into gear and I realized that it was a done deal so I DOW the chumps.

Boy that was hard.

 

[Storey]

So I have a tarnished reputation. Am I suppose to give a rats ass about my rep? I’m about to walk out the door so it’s Japan’s AI that needs to worry about it.

Last look at my slider positions

It’s going to take at least two more moves toward narrowminded to get missionaries.

Not a bad turn even if I do say so myself. They should be able to hold on to what I’ve added to the Empire and if they do then I plan to try to move into India next turn. Oh and as far as discoveries go Japan definitely got the short end of the stick. They discovered all of two provinces this turn, both in India.

 

[Kanil]

Nobody in your techgroup is exploring, so you are going to get screwed on discoveries for some time.

As for you and Korea, I don't think your embargo allows you to hug them. Tsk, tsk.

Good to see that province revolt away from it's old owner, pity it goes to Malacca, who will now take two wars to annex...

Onward, to those wacky, innovative, war mongering Order people!

 

[Nil-The-Frogg]

Wow, that was a nice round indeed.

As to defections, provinces defect to nations having a core on them IIRC. If said nation doesn't exist at the time (inexistent nations can have cores too) then it is created in that rebelling province.

I suppose that the next OT turn will be about either annexing Muscovy or colonizing La Réunion in order to take a step toward the goal?

 

[unmerged(58610)]

I guess not having QFTNW would crimp plans to buy Conquistadors. It is a pretty much essential NI, if your tech group is a stay at home one. It would be just like the ai to select it, when it no longer needs it.

You need at least one country able to adopt the missionary position, though the TO did ignore the spiritual needs of pagan Samogitia whilst they had the province. I am puzzled why you haven't finished Brunei off. That's an impressive army and navy Japan has. Who knows what strength your armed forces will be, next time? Time for union with Korea?

I thought you forced Tuscany to disgorge Siena? Not that it matters, since I surmise that both will become part of Sicily next time - if the ai hasn't already digested them. The scarier option is to try to turbo-annex the Ottoman Empire and hope no-one in the west attacks you whilst you have thrown everything at the Ottomans.

I have a hunch that the Teutonic Order will have been fighting for most of the time you've been away. i'm going to buck the trend and suggest they've done rather well driving a wedge of captured provinces to the Hungarian border and a few in the north off Novgorod.

 

[stnylan]

Very busy indeed. Still, it keeps you entertained I suppose. And besides, what is playing Japan without a few revolts?

 

[unmerged(9046)]

So far the revolts are not too bad, overall. I remember the earlier version of EU2 (been a while since I played Japan in the game) and the revolts were crazy at times!

 

[J. Passepartout]

Attack our good friends the Koreans? Appalling, good choice there Storey.

 

[Duke of Wellington]

Wow, there sure was a catch with all those goodies. I've never seen such a chain of events as that. Very nasty.

 

[unmerged(76311)]

Do you think that the bad stability had any cause in all the revolts ?

Also, Malacca is your vassal right ?
No biggie then that the province went to them !

 

[Murmurandus]

Rough ride with Japan. However no dramatic consequences (at least not for Japan, Atjeh though... ).

 

[Storey]

Kanil - Hey lay off Korea, nobody’s perfect. Oh the TO does kick up it’s heels the next turn.

Nil-The-Frog - That was my plan but I hit a bump in the road and I lost control of my car and ended up in a ditch. In other words things didn’t go according to plan.

Chief Ragusa - You might be amused to know that Sicily becomes allies with Ragusa during the TO turn. Tell the truth I’m not concerned with Brunei or Malacca. If they for whatever reason leave my alliance then I’ll think about annexing them but I don’t mind if they stay independent.
If Korea stays away from me that’s good enough. I still don’t want to get dragged into a war on the mainland. The Ming are HUGE! I’m hoping they don’t get the goal province. It’s your turn to be prophetic as you’ll see in the next turn someone else also is.

Stnylan - I’m tired of revolts but at least it isn’t the insanity of EU2 revolts.

Stroph1 - I agree. I have to admit that I don’t miss the scripted revolt events when playing China or Japan.

J. Passepartout - Even a clock is right twice a day and on good days I manage it three of four times.

Duke of Wellington - It took me by surprise. They keep coming and coming. I even did something I don’t normally do and that is put money into investing into stability. In EU2 I never did that but in EU3 you have to at times.

Excel - My guess is that being at -3 stability was a factor. I haven’t played the game long enough to be sure but it was a hell of a coincidence if it wasn’t. Malacca is my vassal and as I wrote above I'm not concerned at this time about them. They can stay my vassal the rest of the game as far as I’m concerned.

Murmurandus - I think Japan’s turn indicated that the next phase has started. All the countries are going to have to start to make their move in the next couple of turns or it might be too little too late. Let’s see if the Teutonic Order make their move.

Next post on Tuesday Pacific standard time

Joe

 

[unmerged(58610)]

Naturally the Sicilians show excellence diplomatic sense. Ragusa is the country I shall play one day, hopefully, soon.

Malacca and Brunei are your vassals and allies, as Japan? How are relations with Siam? I assume that's the green country north east of what was formerly known as Pegu and not Dai Viet.

IN EU 2, the Teutonic Order had a lemming-like fixation on taking the Caucasus. If it has carried that across to EU 3, at least they're going in the right direction.

It would be very amusing if the Ming did have the goal province.