• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

tamius23

Indefatigable Psychotic
40 Badges
Feb 12, 2011
2.652
14
  • Cities in Motion 2
  • Victoria 2: A House Divided
  • Sword of the Stars
  • Europa Universalis IV: Res Publica
  • Heir to the Throne
  • Europa Universalis IV: Wealth of Nations
  • Europa Universalis IV: Conquest of Paradise
  • Divine Wind
  • Europa Universalis III Complete
  • Crusader Kings II: Sword of Islam
  • Deus Vult
  • Crusader Kings II: Sons of Abraham
  • Crusader Kings II: Rajas of India
  • Crusader Kings II: The Old Gods
  • Crusader Kings II: Legacy of Rome
  • Crusader Kings II
  • Cities in Motion
  • Crusader Kings II: Horse Lords
  • Europa Universalis 4: Emperor
  • Cities: Skylines - After Dark
  • Crusader Kings II: Conclave
  • Cities: Skylines - Snowfall
  • Cities: Skylines - Mass Transit
  • Crusader Kings Complete
  • Crusader Kings II: Jade Dragon
  • Cities: Skylines - Parklife
  • Imperator: Rome
  • Prison Architect
  • Crusader Kings II: Way of Life
  • Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword
  • Europa Universalis IV: El Dorado
  • Crusader Kings II: Holy Knight (pre-order)
  • 500k Club
  • Victoria 2
  • Europa Universalis III Complete
  • Europa Universalis III Complete
  • Europa Universalis IV: Art of War
  • Europa Universalis IV
  • Cities: Skylines
  • Europa Universalis IV: Call to arms event

Hello.

I've read quite a few AARs, including some by very skilled players, so I thought it was time for a story written about a rubbish country played by a rubbish player. I got Europa only about two weeks ago, and since then I have played two games.

It turns out that I'm awful at the game. I've played the Taira shogunate into Japan and Burgundy. Both ended in overextension and bankruptcy, and in the case of Japan, naval invasion by a massively superior enemy.

So I thought, perhaps it would be interesting to see a story in which there is no huge success, instead, hopeless defeat, and doom? Even I don't know what'll happen yet. I haven't started.

As far as I can see, this is the first ever Pegu AAR. I'm honoured.

So, here are the settings under which I will be playing my game:



You can see that it's on Normal difficulty. This is because as Burgundy I found it very easy to expand on Easy but then I made a stupid decision: change religion then declare war on everyone. Woops. But enough of previous games.

You can also see that I use a Mac, I'm writing this in TextEdit, and I'm listening to the songs from Eurovision 2011.

Pegu



Pegu starts off with some… scary neighbours. Taungu is five provinces and Ayutthaya six. Pegu is merely three. Arakan and Lan-Na are potential candidates for being consumed by my Most Glorious Peguish Army.

screenshot20110611at153k.png

By tamius at 2011-06-11

My mission is to somehow take Ligore. Ayutthaya is a bit stronger than me from what I can see. If a nearby country attacks, I'll make an opportunistic declaration of war. If nobody else is interested in Ayutthaya I'll send a spy over, I get 0.8 per year.
screenshot20110611at153.png

By tamius at 2011-06-11


The budget. Wow, I make money! That doesn't normally happen!

screenshot20110611at153.png

By tamius at 2011-06-11
You may have noticed me asking in "quick questions/quick answers" thread why Burgundy was bankrupt. *hides*

Well, with sliders I haven't a lot of experience. I know I have one "slider move" available. Since I don't know what most of these do, I shall move my slider toward "innovative", allowing me to westernise sooner.
screenshot20110611at153.png

By tamius at 2011-06-11

Oh, I got a bad side effect. Never mind, I hope. This reduces my money a bit :(


First acts:
Nobody loves Pegu. Japan probably don't even know who they are.

This uses up all three of my diplomats. And even after marrying off to the King of Taungu, I'm not in line for a personal union or even a Peguish noble on the Taunguan throne. Sad. At least Tibet loves me.


The Known World in 1399

So concludes the First Chapter of this story of Pegu.

Have I made a horrible mistake yet? Can you even see the pictures?! I hope someone posts in here soon.

-tamius23

*I took this title from the current Burmese national anthem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaba_Ma_Kyei
 
Last edited:
Interesting notion; if you didn't know this, you can take screenshots from within the game by using F11 instead of taking a screen shot of your whole desktop. I for one will follow along with interest, as I do most EU AARs!
 


Chapter the Second
Hello, I'm back already with my second chapter of Kaba Ma Kyei You may recall that I said Arakan was a good target for expansion. However, news has reached the court of King Razadarit that …er

…it appears that Taungu saw the opportunity as well. That isn't so good. I think Taungu'd eat Arakan first. But as I hope you can see from the little elephant in the corner…



Ayutthaya, on the very second day of the game, declared war upon nearby Khmer. This is important to Pegu. Should Khmer destroy Ayutthaya it leaves the opportunity open for Pegu to reconquer Ligore. I've already made my mind up that I won't attack Ayutthaya yet, as they have a 3k stack next to me, and who knows how much more. I'll wait until they win or lose.

Oh.

This changes everything.

screenshot20110611at181.png


Khmer have offered an alliance! This means something!

screenshot20110611at181.png


Right. This means I may get a call to arms. It appears, though, that Khmer don't want to bring me into the war. Yet. Please remember, this is only November 1399.


Here's the Ayutthaya-Khmer war. Ayutthaya's 3,000 men outnumber Khmer's 2,000,
but Khmer have their king as a general while Ayutthaya don't have one. It's important to note that Champa, out of shot and out of sight, are also involved on the Ayutthayan side. I don't know how big their army is.

The Ayutthayan and Khmer soldiers appear to be heading for a battle near Rayong. This will probably decide the outcome of the war.

On the 7th November Shan offered me an alliance. I took it.

OK. Here's the situation come the 20th of December, 1399. It appears that Ayutthaya is winning the battle, as they got to Rayong first, and Khmer attacked them. Champa's army hasn't shown up yet. As you can see, Khmer has offered me a call to arms. If I dishonour it, my prestige will go down. If I honour it, I could gain Ligore, but I could also end up getting smashed by Ayutthaya.

Also note Arakan got annexed by Taungu.

Should I honour the call to arms?

current view count=32
 
Yes, yes you should.
Nice AAR!
 
Interesting notion; if you didn't know this, you can take screenshots from within the game by using F11 instead of taking a screen shot of your whole desktop. I for one will follow along with interest, as I do most EU AARs!

it isn't tied to macs , it takes the whole screen too if i press F11 ...
 


Chapter the Third

This is not so much a chapter as a… taster. Or a warning? Who knows?

CHAMPA HAS AN ARMY



Does anybody want to revise their opinions? The war would be: 3,100 Khmer/Pegu, and 4,600 Ayutthaya/Champa. And the Cambodians already lost a battle, and a province to Champa. Also remember I could send them a declaration of war under the "Alliance" Casus Belli. Or even the "Conquest" CB for Ligore.

current view count=60
 
Last edited:
It's possible, isn't it?
 
I am interesting in following a Pegu AAR (seeing as I'm doing Ryukyu myself), but you really do need to do something about screenshots. They're almost 3 megs each and it's hard to see what's going on with your desktop as most of the picture. I don't know macs but can't you do an alt-printscreen then paste them into your favourite photo editing program? (something like paint.net is free).

I would recommend annexing Ayutthaya as soon as possible because the name is really annoying to type! With a decent 3+ shock general and military drill you should win on a defensive battle in the province of Moulmein, as it has the river. Once you've won a single battle just chase the armies until they die and you've won.
 
Chapter the Fourth

Hello! Kaba Ma Kyei Continues With:

Lan Na joining in the war on the side of Khmer. Good news. But not for Ayutthaya.

screenshot20110611at210.png


screenshot20110611at210.png


This doesn't stop Pegu from declaring war on… a vastly superior enemy. Gulp. As
you can see both my allies (Tibet and Shan) rejected my calls to arms. It appears I'll have to do this myself. I'm not optimistic of my chances.



So the Imperial Pegu Army has crossed over to Ratchaburi and two units are being constructed. For the Glory of Pegu!

I'm watching my update size, as I've a lot of pictures in them and I know the load times can be slow.

With regard to the pictures: Macs don't have a printscreen button, and I don't have any picture editing programs. If someone can come up with a decent solution, please tell me.
current view count: 99


edit: I think I have a solution in mind for the pictures. Expect something different soon.
 
Already I'm on to:

Chapter the Fifth

The foolish Ayutthayans have not built a fort in Ratchaburi. The soldiers of Pegu continue their attack and move into Rayong. However, an Ayutthayan army of exactly the same size decides to do the same. On the assumption that I think I will be victorious, defending in a forest with a leader against no leader, I wait for the Ayutthayan army to come to me. They do. Battle!

screenshot20110611at212.png


The Ayutthayans were lucky, but in the end Pegu has prevailed! Glory!
screenshot20110611at212.png


The two new units are completed. The cavalry are heading to reinforce my soldiers in Rayong while the infantry are heading down the Malay peninsula, hoping that those provinces are undefended too.

Do you like the new picture format? I've zoomed in on the screen and reduced the quality, so they shouldn't be as huge any more.

current view count: 119
 


Chapter Six of Kaba Ma Kyei

Pegu is still at war with Ayutthaya. Bad. Ayutthaya is winning. Bad. Khmer made peace with Ayutthaya Horrible.

Lan Xang got brought into the war, but I was able to pay them off with a white peace immediately.

screenshot20110611at221.png

Champan soldiers aren't interested in Pegu, luckily. They've retreated back to Champa with no way of returning to the war. They won't make peace. So I shall leave them well alone.

War news: With regard to the battle of Rayong, I didn't pursue the army to Siem Reap due to the big Champa/Ayutthaya force in Udong. So I let them regroup.

The main force retreated from the army in Udong when they made peace with Khmer but bad stuff happened to the exploratory stack down the Malay Peninsula...

screenshot20110611at221.png


Gah! Ayutthaya had more soldiers down there! This could get worse and worse…

Those advanced up to Tenasserim and I threw two regiments at them, which lost. The Malay force got all the way down to Pattani, then I ordered it back up to regroup and try and defeat the force in Tenasserim.

Ayutthayan alliance has in total 10,000 soldiers, Pegu 3,000. Oh dear. I can see eight Ayutthayan regiments and I only have four, with another being trained. This war is a disaster.




What did I do wrong (I don't really know)?

current view count: 149

I don't think I am allowed any more pictures on this page. More comments! Even if they're borderline spam! I might be able to make a "feedback" post if you do!

I'm a little ashamed that this turned into a triple-post. Nobody minds?


 
Longer updates is probably a better idea.

It's fairly easy to win wars early-game in Indochina, even if you've got inferior troop numbers. You just have to manoeuvre your troops carefully to grab all their undefended provinces, then peace out. Most countries have only their capital fortified - if your troops aren't as numerous as theirs, you can just go round and take the rest of their country over (play slowly for optimal manoeuvring), avoiding their army.

Make sure you know the location of their armies and the strength of each, if they have more than one. Also make sure you are aware which provinces have forts and which don't (there's a tooltip if you hover over the province on the main map, or you could get the beta which has a Fort Level mapmode).

Arguably a harder challenge is bashing the rebels afterwards.
 
not Chapter Seven

Longer by request!

But first, the feedback.

bengrimm:I know how you feel. I have a little experience from Victoria 2, and I have only played big countries so far, so I haven't been annexed yet, but I think that may change in this AAR.

tofkas and gela1212: There are three problems with my pictures:

1)The pictures are too big, and take too long to load.
2)I can't see EU3 as the quality is too bad.
3)The pictures are too small physically.

I have used sneaky Mac tricks to zoom in on the screen, and then I have made the pictures smaller using ImageShack (ImagesHack?). This has made the file size a bit smaller, but I don't really know how to improve on what I have. I don't have any picture editing programs on my Mac so I can't use those, does anyone know where to find one? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

It could be worse. I could be on a Windows :p


Sihulm:Well, the next update is almost ready. I'm still playing it out though.

I'm not winning the war yet and I don't really know why. I have three of their six provinces occupied by Glorious Armies and they have only one of my three occupied. I only lost… a couple of battles. The warscore is at -6% and they are not willing to take any sort of peace deal whatsoever. They're so stubborn.

The only forts in the region are in Ayutthaya, their capital, and Pegu, mine.

Oh, and I can't get the beta. I tried downloading the files in the hope they might have worked, but when I undid the files with Zipeg I found it contains a .exe file, which doesn't run on Macs.

You're a bit optimistic? Typically a war of mine is:

Fight inferior enemy
Annex them for lots of infamy
Rebels pop up
Stupid decision by me (change religion) or stability loss event
Run out of money
Rebels destroy army which can't be paid
Bankruptcy
Death

:(


It seems writing the feedback is more fun than playing the actual game. I need more comments to respond to and to fill up the page, I'm not allowed any more pics on this one.

Chapter Seven is being written.
current view count: 223.
 
Your images are PNG files. That's what causing the enormous file size. Use an image editor to change the file type to jpg or something and you'll see enormous improvement size. Also, you could save on some image real-estate if you crop out the desktop stuff. Of course, if you entered full-screen there'd be no desktop. Don't know if macs are advanced enough to do that though.



I'm kidding about mac lack of sophistication. Mostly.
 
I don't have any image editing software.

edit: I can re-save images in Preview to JPEGs. Expect some improvement soon, I'll also zoom in on the screen.