You should go for it Mr. President. It is evident at a glance that there will be no use in serious fighting.
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Great tip. I still have the save file, but will need to backtrack to the beta to get it activated. I will do it once this (second) USA run is over.
That is very kind of you. But I like the comments here in the AAR. I'm sure many readers get good tips from this.
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That's a very interesting AAR - unusual idea. Too bad I am too late 
I have plenty of comments on it, but most is too late for your game.
Colonial AI has brilliantly deduced that you are going to release and play colonial nation for WC and it has completed expansion group giving you a finisher that allows to fabricate on provinces in the trade regions. Normally you fabricate on some relatively poor province of a medium-side nation (you don't need proximity) at the end of your coring range then take it by threatening a war. Core and repeat. It allows you to quickly get a foothold all over the Africa and Asia coast with virtually no fighting. Then you can attack targets you really want to conquer.
The likely reason you have encountered so bad rebel problems after switching to Outremer is that you were probably transferring them a lot of uncored provinces via subject interface. This seems ok while you are playing the mother nation, but as soon as colonial nation is released it will get separatism in all those provinces. To avoid that you should either transfer the desired provinces to them in the peace settlement or core them first and then use subject interface. Transferring uncored provinces in the subject interface is only for the cases where you can't sort out connectivity by other means.
There are few main reasons why your Outremer was doing so poorly. You've formed them before embracing renaissance and advancing your tech. They get their tech levels and number of ideas derived from yours, so optimally you don't want colonial nation to form before you got to 7-7-7 and filled up your first tech group. That's a lot of points saved and there is little gain in forming it few years earlier. Since you want to save their MP for tech and ideas you should be coring most of the land yourself and also converting religion and culture. Ideally you would try to core and convert (at least religion) high-dev provinces yourself before passing them to the colonial nation. This way they will at least have reasonably religious unity. In the good states, create state cores before transferring). I would also avoid giving them more than 20-25% OE - the main reason for giving them even that is to avoid formation of other colonial nations (btw, good trick is to start coring conquered land with 1 day offset along the direction you plan to expand your colonial nation and set message to pause when the province is cored). They shouldn't require much money from you, but if they get into debt, pay it off right away. If you hover over their budget in the subject interface you can see breakdown of their income and expenses.
For the mother nation I would recommend administrative as a second idea - 25% off the coring cost (and more importantly time) pays off fairly quickly. You will easily make back 800 ADM by coring Mesoamerica and South America. After finishing coring America (which I would expect around 1500) you can drop the group and replace it with expansion to get an extra colonist and make some more colonies.
I have some more thoughts on the early game, but I need to check to game to see if my ideas make sense
I have plenty of comments on it, but most is too late for your game.
This makes me feel bad for AI
Colonial AI has brilliantly deduced that you are going to release and play colonial nation for WC and it has completed expansion group giving you a finisher that allows to fabricate on provinces in the trade regions. Normally you fabricate on some relatively poor province of a medium-side nation (you don't need proximity) at the end of your coring range then take it by threatening a war. Core and repeat. It allows you to quickly get a foothold all over the Africa and Asia coast with virtually no fighting. Then you can attack targets you really want to conquer.The likely reason you have encountered so bad rebel problems after switching to Outremer is that you were probably transferring them a lot of uncored provinces via subject interface. This seems ok while you are playing the mother nation, but as soon as colonial nation is released it will get separatism in all those provinces. To avoid that you should either transfer the desired provinces to them in the peace settlement or core them first and then use subject interface. Transferring uncored provinces in the subject interface is only for the cases where you can't sort out connectivity by other means.
There are few main reasons why your Outremer was doing so poorly. You've formed them before embracing renaissance and advancing your tech. They get their tech levels and number of ideas derived from yours, so optimally you don't want colonial nation to form before you got to 7-7-7 and filled up your first tech group. That's a lot of points saved and there is little gain in forming it few years earlier. Since you want to save their MP for tech and ideas you should be coring most of the land yourself and also converting religion and culture. Ideally you would try to core and convert (at least religion) high-dev provinces yourself before passing them to the colonial nation. This way they will at least have reasonably religious unity. In the good states, create state cores before transferring). I would also avoid giving them more than 20-25% OE - the main reason for giving them even that is to avoid formation of other colonial nations (btw, good trick is to start coring conquered land with 1 day offset along the direction you plan to expand your colonial nation and set message to pause when the province is cored). They shouldn't require much money from you, but if they get into debt, pay it off right away. If you hover over their budget in the subject interface you can see breakdown of their income and expenses.
For the mother nation I would recommend administrative as a second idea - 25% off the coring cost (and more importantly time) pays off fairly quickly. You will easily make back 800 ADM by coring Mesoamerica and South America. After finishing coring America (which I would expect around 1500) you can drop the group and replace it with expansion to get an extra colonist and make some more colonies.
I have some more thoughts on the early game, but I need to check to game to see if my ideas make sense
The 1610s : plans postponed possibly permanently .
I ended last decade with a war in Europe on Portugal, and with troops positioned in Scotland. SPain was being sieged by the stronger Protestant League . Based on advice on the board, I decide to attack Spain during the league war while they are weak.
So I get military and port access from France, and move my troops there. Then I send the fleet to America where I recruit a fresh army. I wanted to strike a decisive blow. But before I even load the new troops on the ships, the League War ends abruptly:
(screenshot of end of league war, note my 2 stacks in Southern France that were ready for the invasion of spain , and invasion that never happens).
I make a quick trip to the ledger. Spain+England has many more troops than us, pluis better generals. Also, about 1/3 of my army was in Hormuz. And they have complete naval dominance. I scrap the plans for attacking Spain.
I decide I need to focus on either Europe or the Indian Ocean, and cannot keep my troops split like this. Since I am weaker than European militarily, I decide to keep my focus on India. I use the transports to bring all the troops from America and Europe back east ( I have to disband the merc infantry to make space on the Transports).
I now realize the possiblity of a WC is slipping away. I lower the game speed and start to pay more attention to battles , attrition etc.
I first attack Maldives using fabricated claims from a colonist in Diego Garcia. Maldives is annexed. This gives me fabrication range on Kochin. BUt before I go for them, I attack Gujarat allied to Bahmanis. THat is a rewarding war where I my increased attention to detail is rewarded with a few stackwipes and a decisive victory:
(screenshot of one of many stackwipes in a war against Bahmanis - after chickening out on fighting Spain, this was a bit of a confidence boost )
I first make a separate peace with Bahamnis, taking only one province ( to avoid paying diplo points). The province borders Vijayanagar to give a CB. I also break their alliance with Bengal to make the next war with them easier.
Then I annex the bulk of Gujarat:
Despite the land grab, no coalition forms because I took the trouble of allying Delhi and improving relations with bengal. Everyone else upset at this is too tiny to join.
Next I use the newly acquired land to DOW for HOly War on Vijay, allied to Kochin ( BTW, I could have used Threaten War on Kochin to get a province for Holy War CB, as parats suggested). It is an easy war due to tech advantage. FIrst Kochin gives malabar with a center of trade:
Then I am ready to take VIjayanagari land, as soon as the cores from Gujarat finish .
And this brings us to 1618 and the current game. I have a colonist landed near Pasai in Malaysia and they would be next target with Holy War CB.
If you are wondering why I stopped at 1618 and not 1620 is because in my assessment, I cannot do a WC at this rate. Yes, I feel I am moving relatively quickly in India now. But I am about 30 years late. I should have been at the point where I can run simultaneous wars in Europe and Asia . Not have to focus on one theatre only . ANd ideally should be able to manage over 100% over-extension once in a while.
ANd in eu4, once something is amiss, it quickly complicates everything else . For example, one of my dilemmas now is that I really want the -20% coring discount from admin efficiency . Yet I am unable to take it because I am using up AMP to core. THe solution would be to expand with vassals, but in Asia where I am working now they would all be protectorates. And I do not have ability to fight in Europe.
I have already started a second run , using Castile instead of France. It appears promising. But before I get into that, I want to list some of the reasons this run failed. Chime in if you have more. It will help me in the second attempt:
1) FOcusing on the native american tribes in the continental USA. This was fun for role-play, but it wasted time and ended up with a splintered empire that was not efficient in the distribution of states and not compact enough to help spread institutions. It really hurt me on the last one ( Printing Press takign over 50 years!).
2) Not converting the provinces to Catholic when I was still playing as France. At that point , I was still thinking I would convert the USA to Protestant, so why bother making provinces catholic ( and give them zeal in the process). But this caused Outremer's religious unity to plummet, causing corruption and money problems for them. A lot of Outremer's failures where my fault.
3) Releasing Outremer too late. Yes, France could feed them land quickly. But they wasted idea slots and time. I ended up cancelling both idea groups that Outremer started with. In a repeat run, I will release much sooner.
4) Bad piece of luck that England fell under Spain in a PU. This made expansion into the 2 trade nodes downstream from North America very difficult.
#3 , releasing Outremer too late, is probably the biggest mistake.
I hope to avoid these in my restart, and I hope you do not get tired of reading and continue to follow the AAR.
See you next time, as Castile on its way to form Los Estados Unidos.
[Edit: this chapter was posted before I saw alexti's excellent comments ]
I ended last decade with a war in Europe on Portugal, and with troops positioned in Scotland. SPain was being sieged by the stronger Protestant League . Based on advice on the board, I decide to attack Spain during the league war while they are weak.
So I get military and port access from France, and move my troops there. Then I send the fleet to America where I recruit a fresh army. I wanted to strike a decisive blow. But before I even load the new troops on the ships, the League War ends abruptly:
(screenshot of end of league war, note my 2 stacks in Southern France that were ready for the invasion of spain , and invasion that never happens).
I make a quick trip to the ledger. Spain+England has many more troops than us, pluis better generals. Also, about 1/3 of my army was in Hormuz. And they have complete naval dominance. I scrap the plans for attacking Spain.
I decide I need to focus on either Europe or the Indian Ocean, and cannot keep my troops split like this. Since I am weaker than European militarily, I decide to keep my focus on India. I use the transports to bring all the troops from America and Europe back east ( I have to disband the merc infantry to make space on the Transports).
I now realize the possiblity of a WC is slipping away. I lower the game speed and start to pay more attention to battles , attrition etc.
I first attack Maldives using fabricated claims from a colonist in Diego Garcia. Maldives is annexed. This gives me fabrication range on Kochin. BUt before I go for them, I attack Gujarat allied to Bahmanis. THat is a rewarding war where I my increased attention to detail is rewarded with a few stackwipes and a decisive victory:
(screenshot of one of many stackwipes in a war against Bahmanis - after chickening out on fighting Spain, this was a bit of a confidence boost )
I first make a separate peace with Bahamnis, taking only one province ( to avoid paying diplo points). The province borders Vijayanagar to give a CB. I also break their alliance with Bengal to make the next war with them easier.
Then I annex the bulk of Gujarat:
Despite the land grab, no coalition forms because I took the trouble of allying Delhi and improving relations with bengal. Everyone else upset at this is too tiny to join.
Next I use the newly acquired land to DOW for HOly War on Vijay, allied to Kochin ( BTW, I could have used Threaten War on Kochin to get a province for Holy War CB, as parats suggested). It is an easy war due to tech advantage. FIrst Kochin gives malabar with a center of trade:
Then I am ready to take VIjayanagari land, as soon as the cores from Gujarat finish .
And this brings us to 1618 and the current game. I have a colonist landed near Pasai in Malaysia and they would be next target with Holy War CB.
If you are wondering why I stopped at 1618 and not 1620 is because in my assessment, I cannot do a WC at this rate. Yes, I feel I am moving relatively quickly in India now. But I am about 30 years late. I should have been at the point where I can run simultaneous wars in Europe and Asia . Not have to focus on one theatre only . ANd ideally should be able to manage over 100% over-extension once in a while.
ANd in eu4, once something is amiss, it quickly complicates everything else . For example, one of my dilemmas now is that I really want the -20% coring discount from admin efficiency . Yet I am unable to take it because I am using up AMP to core. THe solution would be to expand with vassals, but in Asia where I am working now they would all be protectorates. And I do not have ability to fight in Europe.
I have already started a second run , using Castile instead of France. It appears promising. But before I get into that, I want to list some of the reasons this run failed. Chime in if you have more. It will help me in the second attempt:
1) FOcusing on the native american tribes in the continental USA. This was fun for role-play, but it wasted time and ended up with a splintered empire that was not efficient in the distribution of states and not compact enough to help spread institutions. It really hurt me on the last one ( Printing Press takign over 50 years!).
2) Not converting the provinces to Catholic when I was still playing as France. At that point , I was still thinking I would convert the USA to Protestant, so why bother making provinces catholic ( and give them zeal in the process). But this caused Outremer's religious unity to plummet, causing corruption and money problems for them. A lot of Outremer's failures where my fault.
3) Releasing Outremer too late. Yes, France could feed them land quickly. But they wasted idea slots and time. I ended up cancelling both idea groups that Outremer started with. In a repeat run, I will release much sooner.
4) Bad piece of luck that England fell under Spain in a PU. This made expansion into the 2 trade nodes downstream from North America very difficult.
#3 , releasing Outremer too late, is probably the biggest mistake.
I hope to avoid these in my restart, and I hope you do not get tired of reading and continue to follow the AAR.
See you next time, as Castile on its way to form Los Estados Unidos.
[Edit: this chapter was posted before I saw alexti's excellent comments ]
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heh. If you lose hope, then restart I suppose.
well, alexti summed up what to do then before this chapter.
Hope you feel 'better' about your second try.
That's a very interesting AAR - unusual idea. Too bad I am too late
Welcome aboard.
No you are not too late, since I am starting over. Excellent comments. I was writing my last post of the first run as you wrote your post.
Yes, I see that now. Fabricate long distance. Then threaten war. Get one province. THen Holy War for the rest after just a 5 year truce.
I split the cores with them. It is a habit from when you normally vassal feed.
Yes. I agree. It would save lots of points.
Hopefully your second run will go much smoother with your new experience, I'll keep following .
.1444-1470: Un Nuevo Mundo
So I decided to abandon the 1st run and restart. And after lessons learned, I realize Castile has many advantages in our case:
screenshot shows Spanish Ideas ( from wiki) and starting rulers of Spain. The rulers are a bit of a problem, but not a deal breaker. They will delay colonization by a few years, but like I realized in the last attempt, record time to colonize without setting up the CN correctly is not good.
The ideas have 2 big ones: +1missionary and +2missionary strength These will ensure that Castile will convert every single province before giving it to the CN . Religious unity should be 100% on release of the USA . The extra colonist will also be handy in filling up the USA. The last idea will likely be too late to matter.
Opening move is to place National Focus on admin. Castile generates much less points than France and if you do not do that, the Renaissance starts to raise your tech cost before you get to admin 5 . Assign Enrique as general ( but he won't die of course). Grab level 2 advisors on diplo and admin . dissolve navy except barques. vassalize Navarre . Ally portugal as protection . I did not assign rivals as I did not intend to fight anyone.
Fairly standard start for Castile.
I get lucky with and eraly Iberian Wedding in 1452:
I chose the stability instead of Aragon. Just kidding! Of course I take Aragon . This removes a rival and will give a source of money later one when I release.
In 1455, I hit admin 5 ( so I did pay 5% extra because of Renaissance ) :
I had enough points to unlock colonist. Soon I will unlock explorers. To speed things up, I assign extra provinces to the burgher estate, and get 150 diplo points from them ( I rarely assign provinces over the minimum , but this time it was worth it ) .
I explore the west african coast. Cape Verde is in range. I send my colonist there, but this turns out to unnecessary. In 1461 I unlock 3rd exploration idea for the extra colonial range and I can reach the South American coast, where there are 2 native tribes on the coast , Arawak and Tupinamba:
Arawak is right at the edge of my range. In my France run they were inland, so this is a lucky break here. I send my colonist next to them, and fabricate. Then DOW and annex:
Essequibo becomes our first city in the New World. As as soon as it cores, I will have range into caribbean.
In fact, when it finishes I am able to reach Miami with a Navigator, so I start my first colony in the continental US, without any hops in the caribbean:
I also explore Mexico with a conquistador and start spying on the Itza and Chiu.
This brings us to 1470:
A few notes on building the future USA :
- I think I will avoid annexing the tribes in the American northeast. They will spread the empire too thin ( makes institution spread worse). I may grab them when Scotland or Norway gets there.
- I want to make sure the capital is closer to Mexico. Cuts down on state maintenance costs. And also puts it in caribbean node
-Make sure I core and convert all provinces before giving them to the CN .
-Delay forming the CN till 7/7/7 tech and entire first idea group filled per alexti suggestion.
Again will need to be careful to avoid forming Mexico or Colombia or Caribbean nation by mistake. So no more than 4 cores in each before transferring to USA. Castile may end up sitting on some over-extension in Mexico area until future USA forms.
So I decided to abandon the 1st run and restart. And after lessons learned, I realize Castile has many advantages in our case:
screenshot shows Spanish Ideas ( from wiki) and starting rulers of Spain. The rulers are a bit of a problem, but not a deal breaker. They will delay colonization by a few years, but like I realized in the last attempt, record time to colonize without setting up the CN correctly is not good.
The ideas have 2 big ones: +1missionary and +2missionary strength These will ensure that Castile will convert every single province before giving it to the CN . Religious unity should be 100% on release of the USA . The extra colonist will also be handy in filling up the USA. The last idea will likely be too late to matter.
Opening move is to place National Focus on admin. Castile generates much less points than France and if you do not do that, the Renaissance starts to raise your tech cost before you get to admin 5 . Assign Enrique as general ( but he won't die of course). Grab level 2 advisors on diplo and admin . dissolve navy except barques. vassalize Navarre . Ally portugal as protection . I did not assign rivals as I did not intend to fight anyone.
Fairly standard start for Castile.
I get lucky with and eraly Iberian Wedding in 1452:
I chose the stability instead of Aragon. Just kidding!
Of course I take Aragon . This removes a rival and will give a source of money later one when I release. In 1455, I hit admin 5 ( so I did pay 5% extra because of Renaissance ) :
I had enough points to unlock colonist. Soon I will unlock explorers. To speed things up, I assign extra provinces to the burgher estate, and get 150 diplo points from them ( I rarely assign provinces over the minimum , but this time it was worth it ) .
I explore the west african coast. Cape Verde is in range. I send my colonist there, but this turns out to unnecessary. In 1461 I unlock 3rd exploration idea for the extra colonial range and I can reach the South American coast, where there are 2 native tribes on the coast , Arawak and Tupinamba:
Arawak is right at the edge of my range. In my France run they were inland, so this is a lucky break here. I send my colonist next to them, and fabricate. Then DOW and annex:
Essequibo becomes our first city in the New World. As as soon as it cores, I will have range into caribbean.
In fact, when it finishes I am able to reach Miami with a Navigator, so I start my first colony in the continental US, without any hops in the caribbean:
I also explore Mexico with a conquistador and start spying on the Itza and Chiu.
This brings us to 1470:
A few notes on building the future USA :
- I think I will avoid annexing the tribes in the American northeast. They will spread the empire too thin ( makes institution spread worse). I may grab them when Scotland or Norway gets there.
- I want to make sure the capital is closer to Mexico. Cuts down on state maintenance costs. And also puts it in caribbean node
-Make sure I core and convert all provinces before giving them to the CN .
-Delay forming the CN till 7/7/7 tech and entire first idea group filled per alexti suggestion.
Again will need to be careful to avoid forming Mexico or Colombia or Caribbean nation by mistake. So no more than 4 cores in each before transferring to USA. Castile may end up sitting on some over-extension in Mexico area until future USA forms.
The 1470s: Catholics in the jungle
I left the last decade with 2 budding colonies at Miyami and Havana. Finishing either one would get us coring range ( and therefore annexation range) to Mexico mainland.
In 1471 "tragedy" hits the Trastamara family:
Prince Enrique died commanding troops in the swamps of the Everglades. Rumor says he was swallowed by an alligator.
This is mixed news. His daughter Isabel is a lot more capable (4/2/3). But with an infant heiress and a 66 year old monarch, we are at risk of a long regency . So I promptly declare war on the Itza, using the claim on Ecab. Even though I cannot annex any of their land since it is not corable, until the colony at havana finishes ( currently at 491 settlers - Havana has overcome Miami due to presence of a Colonist there).
screenshot of DOW on Itza.
It is a super-easy war that I get to 100% immediately.
Meanwhile, the brave people of Flandes try to shake the Burgundian yoke:
As always, I am busy fighting mighty american natives and cannot help ( this is Tom D rolling his eyes)
Although AI France seems sympathetic to their cause:
In 1576, Havana colony finishes and now we can annex Itza land:
This was about time. The call for peace has triggered while I waited for the colonies to finish. I take 4 provinces. I start to core the 3 coastal ones. THe middle one at Peten I start to convert with one of the missionaries. This is something I neglected to do in the France run to disastrous consequences for Outremer.
Then in 1479, I start the second war, again fearing a regency:
(second Castilian war of conquest in Mexico - this time against Xiu . Inset shows the brave Flemish people succumbing to Burgundy )
And this brings us to 1480 and the end of this chapter as Castile's starting ruler dies , leaving an incompetent regency council until his grand daughter Isabel takes charge in 8 years. I am now glad I declared war when I did .
I am about to take the 6th idea in Exploration , for the extra colonist. I have 2 colonies going in Florida now, and he will start the third soon. That brings us to a total of 4 provinces, one shy of the 5 needed for the colonial nation.
And this brings up the issue of timing that last colony . alexti recommended I wait on forming the CN till I have tech 7/7/7 and completed first idea group and gotten Renaissance embraced. I am at 4.8% of renaissance , so halfway to being able to adopt it. I will be able to tech up quickly on admin and military, but will likely lag behind on diplo.
If I delay formation a lot, I will not be able to continue expanding in Mexico. Because I cannot core more than 4 provinces there, otherwise Spanish Mexico ( New Spain) forms. My plan for the current Xiu war is to sit on the over-extension while I convert the heathens in the jungle to good catholics. Once the CN forms, I am ready to feed it Havana and then Ecab and then the others . I plan on coring all the provinces and converting them before handing them to the CN. And I am open to name suggestions for the CN. Los Estados Unidos is clumsy. I am leaning towards just Florida .
I left the last decade with 2 budding colonies at Miyami and Havana. Finishing either one would get us coring range ( and therefore annexation range) to Mexico mainland.
In 1471 "tragedy" hits the Trastamara family:
Prince Enrique died commanding troops in the swamps of the Everglades. Rumor says he was swallowed by an alligator.
This is mixed news. His daughter Isabel is a lot more capable (4/2/3). But with an infant heiress and a 66 year old monarch, we are at risk of a long regency . So I promptly declare war on the Itza, using the claim on Ecab. Even though I cannot annex any of their land since it is not corable, until the colony at havana finishes ( currently at 491 settlers - Havana has overcome Miami due to presence of a Colonist there).
screenshot of DOW on Itza.
It is a super-easy war that I get to 100% immediately.
Meanwhile, the brave people of Flandes try to shake the Burgundian yoke:
As always, I am busy fighting mighty american natives and cannot help ( this is Tom D
rolling his eyes)Although AI France seems sympathetic to their cause:
In 1576, Havana colony finishes and now we can annex Itza land:
This was about time. The call for peace has triggered while I waited for the colonies to finish. I take 4 provinces. I start to core the 3 coastal ones. THe middle one at Peten I start to convert with one of the missionaries. This is something I neglected to do in the France run to disastrous consequences for Outremer.
Then in 1479, I start the second war, again fearing a regency:
(second Castilian war of conquest in Mexico - this time against Xiu . Inset shows the brave Flemish people succumbing to Burgundy )
And this brings us to 1480 and the end of this chapter as Castile's starting ruler dies , leaving an incompetent regency council until his grand daughter Isabel takes charge in 8 years. I am now glad I declared war when I did .
I am about to take the 6th idea in Exploration , for the extra colonist. I have 2 colonies going in Florida now, and he will start the third soon. That brings us to a total of 4 provinces, one shy of the 5 needed for the colonial nation.
And this brings up the issue of timing that last colony . alexti recommended I wait on forming the CN till I have tech 7/7/7 and completed first idea group and gotten Renaissance embraced. I am at 4.8% of renaissance , so halfway to being able to adopt it. I will be able to tech up quickly on admin and military, but will likely lag behind on diplo.
If I delay formation a lot, I will not be able to continue expanding in Mexico. Because I cannot core more than 4 provinces there, otherwise Spanish Mexico ( New Spain) forms. My plan for the current Xiu war is to sit on the over-extension while I convert the heathens in the jungle to good catholics. Once the CN forms, I am ready to feed it Havana and then Ecab and then the others . I plan on coring all the provinces and converting them before handing them to the CN. And I am open to name suggestions for the CN. Los Estados Unidos is clumsy. I am leaning towards just Florida .
What I don't get is why you didn't disinherit Enrique and if you got another heir abdicated your monarch? That could've saved you a lot of lost points. Also, you have a queen-consort so no regency council I thought?
Prince Enrique died commanding troops in the swamps of the Everglades. Rumor says he was swallowed by an alligator.
This is mixed news. His daughter Isabel is a lot more capable (4/2/3). But with an infant heiress and a 66 year old monarch, we are at risk of a long regency .
Meanwhile, the brave people of Flandes try to shake the Burgundian yoke:
As always, I am busy fighting mighty american natives and cannot help ( this is Tom D
Flanders and Independence is just too good to not make a joke of it
. They'll have to live a little longer under Burgundian rule for now .EDIT: as for the name, I think Los Estados Unidos is perfect. Florida is just a small part of it, and this is a USA run. That's my suggestion at least
.
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I am sorry to hear you have abandoned your first run. I think WC was still doable . What difficulty was it on? In general the early game doesn't matter that much.
Thinking about the start of such campaign, the key provinces to colonize are on the line Myami-Havana-Jamaica-Magdalena-Cauca because they will allow you to transfer Central and South America to your colonial nation. Starting Magdalena early is particularly important because you also need Cauca before you can get into Andean region and the Andean region is awkwardly narrow, so managing coring and transfers is a bit tricky due to connectivity. Good thing is that this path allows you to conquer Muisca and then get the gold provinces rather sooner than later. Central and South America are the first priorities because you don't want the colonial nation to use its state allocation on some micro-states in North America.
For the colonization, the reliable opening is to re-roll for navigator (at that point it's cheap since most of your advisors would be level 1) and colonize Guadeloupe from The Canarias (it extends your range most, but some other nearby provinces would likely work too). From Guadeloupe you will have the range for everything you need in the early game. Migrating tribes might be quicker if they happen to be in the right place, but unless they are in a province that connects sea zones I would rather get them later, when they connect the sea zones - you need quite a number of provinces to give Brazil to your colonial nation.
In the Creek area there are number of cotton farmlands - it's good to make them colonial's nation heartland and sink your spare MP into development. This is also a way to improve religious unity of the colonial nation. I like colonizing Chatot to conquer them (and then let colonial nation form out of them - hopefully they will choose one of the farmland provinces as a capital).
Other than provinces needed for connectivity and important trade provinces it's better to focus colonization on the Eastern America region - in that region your colonial nation will automatically get full cores, while in other region you only get territorial cores automatically.
Regarding transferring provinces to a subject - it's always better to promote the province into the state and reduce autonomy first. The population will be upset at you, but since you are not going to rule them any longer, so what?
Amongst the starting nations there are couple of other candidates - Aragon (just take Canarias from Castille) and Ottomans (they will require taking something else before being able to demand Canarias, but they have power to do that). Aragon has slightly better ruler than France (and France should also conquer Canarias instead of 2 hops you did in the original campaign). With Ottomans you have a much better ruler, a large choice of possible religions and all kind of other goodies
Thinking about the start of such campaign, the key provinces to colonize are on the line Myami-Havana-Jamaica-Magdalena-Cauca because they will allow you to transfer Central and South America to your colonial nation. Starting Magdalena early is particularly important because you also need Cauca before you can get into Andean region and the Andean region is awkwardly narrow, so managing coring and transfers is a bit tricky due to connectivity. Good thing is that this path allows you to conquer Muisca and then get the gold provinces rather sooner than later. Central and South America are the first priorities because you don't want the colonial nation to use its state allocation on some micro-states in North America.
For the colonization, the reliable opening is to re-roll for navigator (at that point it's cheap since most of your advisors would be level 1) and colonize Guadeloupe from The Canarias (it extends your range most, but some other nearby provinces would likely work too). From Guadeloupe you will have the range for everything you need in the early game. Migrating tribes might be quicker if they happen to be in the right place, but unless they are in a province that connects sea zones I would rather get them later, when they connect the sea zones - you need quite a number of provinces to give Brazil to your colonial nation.
In the Creek area there are number of cotton farmlands - it's good to make them colonial's nation heartland and sink your spare MP into development. This is also a way to improve religious unity of the colonial nation. I like colonizing Chatot to conquer them (and then let colonial nation form out of them - hopefully they will choose one of the farmland provinces as a capital).
Other than provinces needed for connectivity and important trade provinces it's better to focus colonization on the Eastern America region - in that region your colonial nation will automatically get full cores, while in other region you only get territorial cores automatically.
Regarding transferring provinces to a subject - it's always better to promote the province into the state and reduce autonomy first. The population will be upset at you, but since you are not going to rule them any longer, so what?
Amongst the starting nations there are couple of other candidates - Aragon (just take Canarias from Castille) and Ottomans (they will require taking something else before being able to demand Canarias, but they have power to do that). Aragon has slightly better ruler than France (and France should also conquer Canarias instead of 2 hops you did in the original campaign). With Ottomans you have a much better ruler, a large choice of possible religions and all kind of other goodies
I actually tried the disinherit thing in my test runs before starting the France try. The -50 prestige affected morale a lot and I lost battles in the civil war ( granted, I was playing on speed 5, so probably could have done better if I slowed down the game). Also makes it impossible to claim the 100 admin for 50 prestige. By discovering the new world you can easily achieve the mission.
I just checked the Ironman box when I start a game. I guess normal difficulty.
Probably doable to a player who has done WC multiple times. It was beyond my skills at that point ( I've done WC once, Ottomans 1.14 and it was not a one tag).
Agree. I figured that from the previous run. I actually marked the exact line you mention in maroon on the last map in the previous chapter .
I did not realize you can get Guadeloupe from Canarias with navigator. In any case, I got lucky with the natives ( true, they were not on the sea tile boundaries, but by the time I am getting to Brazil, I think I will be managing the USA or CN directly).
Great suggestion. Chatot was one of my early colonies in the France run to get to the Creek. I am avoiding so far in this run to keep my capital in Caribbean node. Certainly it is a good area to go after and conquer : close to capital ( or can become capital) and as you mention rich.
I did not realize that about core differences. Thank you for the tip.
DId not think of that tip . Great idea. Have to see if Castile has spare state slots right now.
The two big questions of timing is when to form the CN and when to release it and take charge of it. In my France try, I formed the CN too soon as you point out, and I think I released too late.
Right now I am certain I want to conquer Aztecs and friends as Castile and feed the CN. I am not sure I want to wait till I conquer Andean areas before I release the CN, although I think I should. THe benefit of taking charge of the CN early on is that I get to pick their second idea group for them . And I can quickly start expanding to Africa and Europe if they are independent. I intend to destroy Castile when I release it , so it would be easy for US to conquer back all the way to Seville. A bankrupt Castile would probably have a rebellious Aragon ( especially if it releases Galicia and Leon first
)After the pain Spain caused me in the France-USA run , I have no qualms about utterly destroying them when I release
.The 1480's: To form or not to form, that is the question.
I left the last decade in a regency and with an ongoing war against Xiu and Kiche . The war is easy, but the peace is not. You see, I already had 3 cores in Mexico colonial region. So I really cannot take a lot of land and core it now. So I decide to only take two provinces, and come up with the following scheme for the future transfer to the CN:
(screenshot of Areas in the Mexico region and the tentative plan to transfer them to the CN once it is formed . The idea is to transfer them as full cored states with low autonomy , while avoiding the formation of Mexico ). This is more complicated than it should have been due to me taking land in the first war without paying attention to Areas.
In 1486, Queen Isabel ascends to the throne. Her heir ( a cousin?) is 11 years younger and has awesome stats. RNGesus is smiling on me :
(American holdings of Castile at the ascension of Queen ISabel 4/4/3 in 1485. East Yucatan is a full state with decreased autonomy to about 30-40%. I am running one colony over the limit).
A year later , Castile gets a CTA from Austria who is attacked by Ottomans:
I decline it to avoid wasting money in Europe. Also, during war you cannot transfer provinces to a subject, and who knows when a war like this would finish. BUt this means I am down to alliance with Portugal and having Aragon and Naples as vassals to dissuade France from launching an attack. France is my rival, and I already foresee her becoming the main obstacle in Europe .
I then embrace the Renaissance, but I have to take 2 loans for that:
It is worth the money, because I want the institution to start spreading to the New World , so that it is present in the CN provinces when it forms. I do not know if the CN institutions are inherited from parent nation, or go by the provinces. Better play it safe and have the institutions in the provinces before formation.
Once Renaissance is embraced I upgrade my tech to admin 7 and unlock the second idea group. I take Administrative like alexti suggested, as I will be coring a lot in Mexico and Andes. The WIki, on the other hand, suggests Expansion which is what I did with the France run. The coring speed is more valuable than the extra colonist, especially that Castile will have another one soon from the 3rd National Idea:
(screenshot of Renaissance spread in the new world, with insets showing my current ideas and tech)
And the big question now is whether I should start that 5th colony in Florida to trigger the CN formation. By waiting a bit longer until I have diplo 7 ( and maybe even admin and military 8), the CN will start that much farther ahead. But the longer I delay, the longer I have to wait to core and invade Mexico .
Since I can attack and annex Muisca's 3 provinces once Magdalena finishes, I intend to do that first. With 4 provinces only, I will not trigger colonial Colombia formation. So I can do that safely without needing to form my USA CN first. After that, I need the CN to expand in Mexico.
I left the last decade in a regency and with an ongoing war against Xiu and Kiche . The war is easy, but the peace is not. You see, I already had 3 cores in Mexico colonial region. So I really cannot take a lot of land and core it now. So I decide to only take two provinces, and come up with the following scheme for the future transfer to the CN:
(screenshot of Areas in the Mexico region and the tentative plan to transfer them to the CN once it is formed . The idea is to transfer them as full cored states with low autonomy , while avoiding the formation of Mexico ). This is more complicated than it should have been due to me taking land in the first war without paying attention to Areas.
In 1486, Queen Isabel ascends to the throne. Her heir ( a cousin?) is 11 years younger and has awesome stats. RNGesus is smiling on me :
(American holdings of Castile at the ascension of Queen ISabel 4/4/3 in 1485. East Yucatan is a full state with decreased autonomy to about 30-40%. I am running one colony over the limit).
A year later , Castile gets a CTA from Austria who is attacked by Ottomans:
I decline it to avoid wasting money in Europe. Also, during war you cannot transfer provinces to a subject, and who knows when a war like this would finish. BUt this means I am down to alliance with Portugal and having Aragon and Naples as vassals to dissuade France from launching an attack. France is my rival, and I already foresee her becoming the main obstacle in Europe .
I then embrace the Renaissance, but I have to take 2 loans for that:
It is worth the money, because I want the institution to start spreading to the New World , so that it is present in the CN provinces when it forms. I do not know if the CN institutions are inherited from parent nation, or go by the provinces. Better play it safe and have the institutions in the provinces before formation.
Once Renaissance is embraced I upgrade my tech to admin 7 and unlock the second idea group. I take Administrative like alexti suggested, as I will be coring a lot in Mexico and Andes. The WIki, on the other hand, suggests Expansion which is what I did with the France run. The coring speed is more valuable than the extra colonist, especially that Castile will have another one soon from the 3rd National Idea:
(screenshot of Renaissance spread in the new world, with insets showing my current ideas and tech)
And the big question now is whether I should start that 5th colony in Florida to trigger the CN formation. By waiting a bit longer until I have diplo 7 ( and maybe even admin and military 8), the CN will start that much farther ahead. But the longer I delay, the longer I have to wait to core and invade Mexico .
Since I can attack and annex Muisca's 3 provinces once Magdalena finishes, I intend to do that first. With 4 provinces only, I will not trigger colonial Colombia formation. So I can do that safely without needing to form my USA CN first. After that, I need the CN to expand in Mexico.
It's unclear what becomes a nation's capital. It doesn't have to be the first colonized province (and often it is not). I think the capital is the province that is at the center of mass of the formed nation (for some definition of center of mass).England will suck your trade away when making Chesapeake trading capital. Same for caribbean. But you can conquer them to get rid of it
That said, the very first province you colonized for Outremer will be your default capital when getting independence, so it will be Cheasapeake at first right? I'd just collect everywhere and see what you can squeeze, and use trade fleet in caribbean to push trade north, combined with stomping england.
I also think it's better to collect in Chesapeake - you will get a lot of trade power from your developed farmlands and multiple CoT/harbors/estuaries and there are fewer competitors (whom you can probably embargo).
It makes sense that paying off inflation right away is not optimal. The cost of delaying paying out inflation is the percentage of your expenses. The benefit of using ADM for something else is whatever land you acquire with it. In the beginning you are small and your expenses are small, so the cost of inflation is very small. As you grow larger, the cost of delaying also grows (because your expenses grow). But the benefit of delaying stays large constant (ignoring here that it has a jump due to coring discounts etc). So at some moment benefit becomes equal to the cost and after that point it's better to reduce inflation first.
Right now I am certain I want to conquer Aztecs and friends as Castile and feed the CN. I am not sure I want to wait till I conquer Andean areas before I release the CN, although I think I should. THe benefit of taking charge of the CN early on is that I get to pick their second idea group for them . And I can quickly start expanding to Africa and Europe if they are independent. I intend to destroy Castile when I release it , so it would be easy for US to conquer back all the way to Seville. A bankrupt Castile would probably have a rebellious Aragon ( especially if it releases Galicia and Leon first
The optimal release time is probably around 1518. You definitely want to get Colonialism well-spread in the colonial nation before releasing. Releasing it at the time ADM 10 is available is important because you can immediately form USA and get rid of the religious unity issues. If you are coring most of the land yourself your colonial nation should have good ADM tech since they won't have much use for their ADM points. I think you are overvaluing importance of picking the 2nd idea group. AI will pick something useless and it will probably cost ~1000 MP, but by feeding them for longer you can effectively transfer much more value than that to them.
Another thing to keep in mind is that most provinces in South America is split between 2 colonial regions, so if you quickly get access to the Pacific in Central America you will be able to fabricate on Andean nations and take some land (via combination of threats and wars), so you can prepare another 4 provinces there early.
Few other random thoughts. You've mentioned being concerned about being attacked by European majors after the independence. I don't think you need to worry - just build a strong fleet and all their colonies will be yours. Those are easy wars. Declare for some colonial land, occupy it and then blockade their homeland. Then just wait until they are willing to concede.
Regarding Castille's NI - I am not sure they are as good as they look on paper - extra missionary strength is not that important when you are converting pagans. I guess you could then hire natural scientist instead of an inquisitor, but it's only a small boost to your colonization. Extra colonist is also less significant then it might appear. How many colonization cycles do you expect to make? Colonization is quite slow early on, so perhaps an extra colonist will give you 3-4 extra colonies. Considering that Americas are around 1K development that's a very small difference. Saying that, French NI are even less useful, but they are a stronger nation with better rulers.
This is an interesting issue.
The problem with getting power in both Chesapeake and Caribbean is the European power transmitted upstream. Caribbean is harder to control fully because it goes to both Bordeaux and Seville. But English channel also has lots of development ( e.g Holland in addition to London).
Now, the bulk of trade *value* in Americas will be in the Caribbean. This gets fed from Mexico and Andes regions, and can also get some from Ivory Coast. Collecting in caribbean with a merchant, however, is very inefficient becaue you get hit with -75% efficiency malus . If, and only if, you have secure control of CHesapeake ( say better than 70%), then steering from Caribbean would work.
To make a long story short, if you have good control of Chesapeake ( >70%) , best setup is to collect in Chesapeake and steer from Caribbean. You get bulk of both nodes.
If you do not have good control of Chesapeake, better off collecting via capital in Caribbean and merchant in Chesapeake, rather than reverse.
In this run, there is a possibility I will not control Chesapeake fully, because I may not develop all the coastal provinces there with colonists, and instead use colonists elsewhere. Hence why I wanted to have my capital in Caribbean.
In my case, I have just formed the CN with capital at Mayaimi ( I think capital is random as long as it is not an isolated province). I have played till 1500 and will post tomorrow.
I am now at 1500. I think you are right that France being stronger makes for a better start. I have a loan and weaker military compared to the France start ( plus less secure in Europe).
I do think the extra colonist for Castile is helpful. e.g right now he got me the link to Muisca while I got the CN formed. The extra colonist could mean I will be able to guide USA to Brazil and Africa by 1518.
Probably biggest value in starting as Castile is being able to sabotage Castile on releasing USA , making the invasion of Seville node that much easier .
Actually, AI will always pick plutocratic if the mother country was on its second idea group when the CN was created ( this is scripted and not an AI decision since the CN just came into existence). It is always Expansion 1st, then PLutocratic .
In my France run, I formed the CN too soon , and only had 1st idea ( and not all of it at that). That was an awful mistake and thank you for pointing it out.
Plutocratic is actually good for the USA and I do not intend to scrap it. I would have picked quantity for my second one, but Plutocratic gives balanced benefits across the board, including a nice 10% institution spread finisher, which is helpful for someone in the Americas.