i'm still somewhat new. Can you please elaborate more on your rebels management. In most of my games they eat up most of my man power and at some point I would have to stop everything I'm doing and completely focus on fighting rebels.
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In the early game the rebels are dealt with by raising autonomy, but AFTER province is cored (assuming it's part of new state), then I state the area where the province is which brings the autonomy floor to 50% and hit the increase autonomy button which reduces the unrest by 10 and brings autonomy back to 75%. Once this is done the province is made back territory.
There's difference in final autonomy level when pressing the increase autonomy button. If you press it on unstated province which 75% autonomy displayed (but actual autonomy might be lower due to not being stated - this is observable by the jump to e.g. 40% when you state the province and pay cost for full core) it will result in both displayed and actual autonomy becoming 100%. If you first state the province before raising autonomy there, displayed autonomy usually becomes 50% (it's state but not state core), because actual autonomy is lower than 50%, then if you increase autonomy it becomes 75% and if you unstate it after increasing autonomy it stays on 75% which is cap for unstated provinces.
After 1550 my army is usually large enough for rebels to be just a nuisance or I have already unlocked humanism which means no revolts at all.
There's difference in final autonomy level when pressing the increase autonomy button. If you press it on unstated province which 75% autonomy displayed (but actual autonomy might be lower due to not being stated - this is observable by the jump to e.g. 40% when you state the province and pay cost for full core) it will result in both displayed and actual autonomy becoming 100%. If you first state the province before raising autonomy there, displayed autonomy usually becomes 50% (it's state but not state core), because actual autonomy is lower than 50%, then if you increase autonomy it becomes 75% and if you unstate it after increasing autonomy it stays on 75% which is cap for unstated provinces.
After 1550 my army is usually large enough for rebels to be just a nuisance or I have already unlocked humanism which means no revolts at all.
You could add (or make it more explicit) that it also sometimes allows to take in 1 month mothballed forts.
Easy sub for a scrub (like me).
Enjoyed your three mountains campaign and am looking forward to more of this!
Enjoyed your three mountains campaign and am looking forward to more of this!
typo, four.
Maybe link my coalition guide here please also
I'll link yor thread here in my signature if you do it!
I concur
@SKOTy basically yo are doing here what I never had the stamina to go for. But, the tips in yellow etc were maybe inspired by my AAR?
anyways, subbed!
Updated 2nd post with some general information, will be updated further once I have some spare time.
Added that information to the post. Thank you for pointing this out!
Thank you for sub
Typo fixed, thank you for the catch.
Linked your coalition handling guide and also PU guide to the 2nd post which should summarize all the important things.
By the way you may change point 30 in coalition guide as improve relations and BROT have been merged.
I consider that repaying community all the things I've learned from people like you bbqftw, Path and others.
The tips - different colors help separate gameplay and important stuff, but there was some inspiration
Added that information to the post. Thank you for pointing this out!
Thank you for sub
typo, four.
Maybe link my coalition guide here please also
I'll link yor thread here in my signature if you do it!
Typo fixed, thank you for the catch.
Linked your coalition handling guide and also PU guide to the 2nd post which should summarize all the important things.
By the way you may change point 30 in coalition guide as improve relations and BROT have been merged.
@SKOTy basically yo are doing here what I never had the stamina to go for. But, the tips in yellow etc were maybe inspired by my AAR?
I consider that repaying community all the things I've learned from people like you bbqftw, Path and others.
The tips - different colors help separate gameplay and important stuff, but there was some inspiration
2. Bashing Mamluks (1456-1470)
2. Bashing Mamluks (1456-1470)
Disclaimer: I played this chapter after I've returned from a pub in slightly intoxicated state so the the results may have been better.
Construction of new mosques is ordered in places where it would bring at least 0.1 ducats per month. Although this increase may look negligible it's not - although the building will pay for itself after 83 years (assuming no modifiers on building costs) two of them will allow you to field an extra regiment of infantry, ten of them is one more ducat each month into treasury and don't underestimate the power of early snowball
As for our next move - our armies are moving towards Serbia, we need some easy war to wage as manpower has been depleted in a previous war against Aq Qyonlu.
The key to a success is constant improvement of your empire via buildings, this is especially true once workshop + manufactory combo kicks in.
Sweet -10% AE from age bonus kicks in, which means we will take less AE from taking provinces in Serbia, and maybe we'll be able to fully annex them.
For majority of countries this will be the first choice of age of discovery bonus, no matter what, the only exceptions may be Portugal and other heavy colonizers.
The 'Adapt Provincial Government System' unique Ottoman decision is NOT taken - we're making over 10 ducats each month and increasing it via small margin is not worth it for extra one unrest for the whole campaign.
Serbia is attacked on the first day of September and we manage to start besieging their level 2 fort while it had no garrison inside due to being mothballed which results in the castle falling just in one siege tick.
Do I have to repeat that wars should be started on the 1st day of the month unless you just got -1 for acceptance of defensive call of wartarget's ally?
Bosnian stack is wandering our land due to no-fort play is caught and wiped.
Maintenance of 5 level 2 forts is higher than maintenance of 20 infantry stacks and guess what has higher value in an offensive war
Serbian stack was engaged in Bosnian mountains and wiped.
In Europe Austria gets inheritance and Burgundy is not even in a war!
I want this in my Austria campaign too! And I will make a bet that Crimean ruler (already quite old) will live past 1466 so I won't see Crimean succession event fire
Genoa has still truce with us which mean there are just three nations eligible of joining coalition against us, which means that full annex button is hit.
While not at war our armies are drilling as high professionalism provides invaluable siege ability. The goal is to reach reasonable levels of professionalism before hiring mercscum.
Ajam is lured in a war against QQ with promise of territory. Little they know that I have no intention of giving them any and are just in the war to serve as a distraction.
QQ's forts have been also mothballed but we weren't able to reach them in time while they still had 0 garrison, but at this low levels I am hitting the assault button if a breach appears.
The price for this event will repay itself in one tech and for dip in 2.5 ideas unlocked (which means that it will definitely repay itself in 25 years), the extra base tax is just added bonus but it's not something I really care of.
Wargoal is secured and both sides of the conflict have similar numbers of troops. However Ottoman armies are sticking together which discourages QQ from attacking so they're rather wandering Ajam's land - exactly as I've expected.
QQ is lagging one military tech behind us which (5 v 4) and attack stack almost twice as big as their in their mountainous capital - the outcome is clear as QQ's stack has been wiped.
Administrative tech 6 is unlocked which brings in price change event for new trade good - paper.
THIS is the best event you can get from influence idea group 5 year pulse events. Which means we can get 100% warscore deal from QQ instead of ~80%.
Rebels have risen in Serbia and began wandering and besieging Serbian culture land which also made their movements predictable as they could only move to Nish, Branicevo and Semendire. This way rebel stack which is numerical superior was forced to attack our 15k in forest and over a river crossing which resulted in their defeat.
The son with most stats combined was made an heir. The other options were 5/1/3 and some utter garbage. That's the advantage of Ottoman government as you can choose between utter garbage and just garbage instead of getting utter garbage straight away.
Kanunnames national idea is unlocked before making peace with QQ as it will save us some precious admin points. The other influence idea which provides 20% AE reduction is too far away so peace will be made once fort in Karabakh falls.
QQ is forced to cede every province claimed by the 'Safeguard eastern Anatolia mission' and also Musul and Arbil. Ajam gets nothing and breaks alliance within couple of months, but that was a plan for whole war against QQ.
Some provinces are kept to ourselves while some are fed to the vassals.
The 'Safeguard eastern Anatolia' mission is abandoned as only claims it provides are just on our vassals' land (maybe PDX should change this to check whether the land is owned by you or a vassal of you).
What about NO Great Horde?
I really do not want to join pointless wars that would slow me down so the -1 dip rep and loss of DotF is eaten.
Avoid fighting pointless and exhausting wars - they're just slowing you down and there's almost always someone better to attack. Don't be afraid to decline defensive call to arms from someone who's being attacked by France, Commonwealth and Russia.
However be wary about 5 trust hit with ENTIRE world, 25 prestige hit and -1 dip rep for 5 years if you decline alliance. In case of declining DotF call to arms the penalty is just losing DotF (500 gold) and -1 dip rep for 5 years.
I've forgot to make a screen of full annexation of Karaman which was only allied to some random OPM in Persia.
Morocco won't protect Mamluks and with freshly unlocked land tech 6 we should be able to win this without any major issues.
Unfortunately Ethiopia won't join with just promise of land because they saw us screwing Ajam
With +33% siege ability from age of discovery bonus available only to Ottomans the siege of Aleppo is progressing fast. The siege is guarded by 2 stacks - our main fighting stack (17k in Raka) and smaller one with subject's armies attached as they've been set to be supportive.
Mamluks have not yet unlocked land tech 6 so they're easily sent packing.
Another pathetic attempt by the Mamluks. After routing their second stack another siege is initiated as for some time they should be licking their wounds.
Wargoal is secured so we're enjoying ticking warscore.
Fort in Damascus has fallen and we're enjoying first stackwipe in the war with Mamluks as they still haven't teched to 6.
Lack of tech 6 leads to decisive victories in a places where we should not be to win that easily - e.g. mountainous forts.
Qahirah, the Mamluk capital has fallen and the last battle fought there puts a nail into Mamluk's war enthusiasm coffin, peace is made shortly after.
Lesson from this war: Sometimes it's worth to wait year or two to unlock new military tech to stomp your enemy with a new military tech. The difference of one tech (especially in the early game), can sometimes mean a completely different outcome of a war.
Mamluks have lost 2 forts in the first war against them which will make subsequent wars easier due to lower number of forts we will have to siege in future. Jerusalem is taken for us for the extra missionary (we are going for one faith so securing these extra missionaries should be one of our priorities).
In the end this was a quite successful session as we've managed to stomp both QQ and the Mamluks, two of the biggest threats in the east. However our AE with Sunni world has risen so it's time to attack elsewhere, but more of this in future update
Disclaimer: I played this chapter after I've returned from a pub in slightly intoxicated state so the the results may have been better.
Construction of new mosques is ordered in places where it would bring at least 0.1 ducats per month. Although this increase may look negligible it's not - although the building will pay for itself after 83 years (assuming no modifiers on building costs) two of them will allow you to field an extra regiment of infantry, ten of them is one more ducat each month into treasury and don't underestimate the power of early snowball
As for our next move - our armies are moving towards Serbia, we need some easy war to wage as manpower has been depleted in a previous war against Aq Qyonlu.
The key to a success is constant improvement of your empire via buildings, this is especially true once workshop + manufactory combo kicks in.
Sweet -10% AE from age bonus kicks in, which means we will take less AE from taking provinces in Serbia, and maybe we'll be able to fully annex them.
For majority of countries this will be the first choice of age of discovery bonus, no matter what, the only exceptions may be Portugal and other heavy colonizers.
The 'Adapt Provincial Government System' unique Ottoman decision is NOT taken - we're making over 10 ducats each month and increasing it via small margin is not worth it for extra one unrest for the whole campaign.
Serbia is attacked on the first day of September and we manage to start besieging their level 2 fort while it had no garrison inside due to being mothballed which results in the castle falling just in one siege tick.
Do I have to repeat that wars should be started on the 1st day of the month unless you just got -1 for acceptance of defensive call of wartarget's ally?
Bosnian stack is wandering our land due to no-fort play is caught and wiped.
Maintenance of 5 level 2 forts is higher than maintenance of 20 infantry stacks and guess what has higher value in an offensive war
Serbian stack was engaged in Bosnian mountains and wiped.
In Europe Austria gets inheritance and Burgundy is not even in a war!
I want this in my Austria campaign too! And I will make a bet that Crimean ruler (already quite old) will live past 1466 so I won't see Crimean succession event fire
Genoa has still truce with us which mean there are just three nations eligible of joining coalition against us, which means that full annex button is hit.
While not at war our armies are drilling as high professionalism provides invaluable siege ability. The goal is to reach reasonable levels of professionalism before hiring mercscum.
Ajam is lured in a war against QQ with promise of territory. Little they know that I have no intention of giving them any and are just in the war to serve as a distraction.
QQ's forts have been also mothballed but we weren't able to reach them in time while they still had 0 garrison, but at this low levels I am hitting the assault button if a breach appears.
The price for this event will repay itself in one tech and for dip in 2.5 ideas unlocked (which means that it will definitely repay itself in 25 years), the extra base tax is just added bonus but it's not something I really care of.
Wargoal is secured and both sides of the conflict have similar numbers of troops. However Ottoman armies are sticking together which discourages QQ from attacking so they're rather wandering Ajam's land - exactly as I've expected.
QQ is lagging one military tech behind us which (5 v 4) and attack stack almost twice as big as their in their mountainous capital - the outcome is clear as QQ's stack has been wiped.
Administrative tech 6 is unlocked which brings in price change event for new trade good - paper.
THIS is the best event you can get from influence idea group 5 year pulse events. Which means we can get 100% warscore deal from QQ instead of ~80%.
Rebels have risen in Serbia and began wandering and besieging Serbian culture land which also made their movements predictable as they could only move to Nish, Branicevo and Semendire. This way rebel stack which is numerical superior was forced to attack our 15k in forest and over a river crossing which resulted in their defeat.
The son with most stats combined was made an heir. The other options were 5/1/3 and some utter garbage. That's the advantage of Ottoman government as you can choose between utter garbage and just garbage instead of getting utter garbage straight away.
Kanunnames national idea is unlocked before making peace with QQ as it will save us some precious admin points. The other influence idea which provides 20% AE reduction is too far away so peace will be made once fort in Karabakh falls.
QQ is forced to cede every province claimed by the 'Safeguard eastern Anatolia mission' and also Musul and Arbil. Ajam gets nothing and breaks alliance within couple of months, but that was a plan for whole war against QQ.
Some provinces are kept to ourselves while some are fed to the vassals.
The 'Safeguard eastern Anatolia' mission is abandoned as only claims it provides are just on our vassals' land (maybe PDX should change this to check whether the land is owned by you or a vassal of you).
What about NO Great Horde?
I really do not want to join pointless wars that would slow me down so the -1 dip rep and loss of DotF is eaten.
Avoid fighting pointless and exhausting wars - they're just slowing you down and there's almost always someone better to attack. Don't be afraid to decline defensive call to arms from someone who's being attacked by France, Commonwealth and Russia.
However be wary about 5 trust hit with ENTIRE world, 25 prestige hit and -1 dip rep for 5 years if you decline alliance. In case of declining DotF call to arms the penalty is just losing DotF (500 gold) and -1 dip rep for 5 years.
I've forgot to make a screen of full annexation of Karaman which was only allied to some random OPM in Persia.
Morocco won't protect Mamluks and with freshly unlocked land tech 6 we should be able to win this without any major issues.
Unfortunately Ethiopia won't join with just promise of land because they saw us screwing Ajam
With +33% siege ability from age of discovery bonus available only to Ottomans the siege of Aleppo is progressing fast. The siege is guarded by 2 stacks - our main fighting stack (17k in Raka) and smaller one with subject's armies attached as they've been set to be supportive.
Mamluks have not yet unlocked land tech 6 so they're easily sent packing.
Another pathetic attempt by the Mamluks. After routing their second stack another siege is initiated as for some time they should be licking their wounds.
Wargoal is secured so we're enjoying ticking warscore.
Fort in Damascus has fallen and we're enjoying first stackwipe in the war with Mamluks as they still haven't teched to 6.
Lack of tech 6 leads to decisive victories in a places where we should not be to win that easily - e.g. mountainous forts.
Qahirah, the Mamluk capital has fallen and the last battle fought there puts a nail into Mamluk's war enthusiasm coffin, peace is made shortly after.
Lesson from this war: Sometimes it's worth to wait year or two to unlock new military tech to stomp your enemy with a new military tech. The difference of one tech (especially in the early game), can sometimes mean a completely different outcome of a war.
Mamluks have lost 2 forts in the first war against them which will make subsequent wars easier due to lower number of forts we will have to siege in future. Jerusalem is taken for us for the extra missionary (we are going for one faith so securing these extra missionaries should be one of our priorities).
In the end this was a quite successful session as we've managed to stomp both QQ and the Mamluks, two of the biggest threats in the east. However our AE with Sunni world has risen so it's time to attack elsewhere, but more of this in future update
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you could add decline means trsut loss with the entire world, nd prestige also (right?) which might hurt... Shouldn't click decline just like that
you could add decline means trsut loss with the entire world, nd prestige also (right?) which might hurt... Shouldn't click decline just like that
That's true, I will correct it, I was somehow stuck with declining defensive call from DotF where only penalty is losing 500 gold and -1 dip rep.
Thank you for proof reading my text, although I am trying as hard to read it at least twice before posting there's always something eluding.
I was asked in a private message about development milestones (how much development and when I should have), copying my answer also here as it might interest also other people.
As for milestones, I generally don't like them as you can core entire world in 1700 - 1820 period (for example in my Norwegian wood I've cored 20k development in these years without making a sweat).
Generally I aim to having kingdom rank in 1500 (assuming I am playing Ryukyu or such similar bad start), empire rank at 1550-1560 so if you're having about 2k in 1600 and 7k in 1700 I'd say you're doing OK (in terms of blobbing).
However it's not that simple as there's difference between 7k territorial cores without buildings while being dirt poor and 1k state cores, 4k trade company land and 2k territorial cores when you're ridiculously rich. So the determining factor is how your economy looks like, if you can sustain max mercscum without going into deficit and you're able to spend gold on buildings you're great.
Therefore you should aim for at least 50 ducats profit each month in 1600 and at least 250 in 1700. Of course with full maintenance.
It looks like you're aware of every AAR ever written. Every single one.
As for milestones, I generally don't like them as you can core entire world in 1700 - 1820 period (for example in my Norwegian wood I've cored 20k development in these years without making a sweat).
Generally I aim to having kingdom rank in 1500 (assuming I am playing Ryukyu or such similar bad start), empire rank at 1550-1560 so if you're having about 2k in 1600 and 7k in 1700 I'd say you're doing OK (in terms of blobbing).
However it's not that simple as there's difference between 7k territorial cores without buildings while being dirt poor and 1k state cores, 4k trade company land and 2k territorial cores when you're ridiculously rich. So the determining factor is how your economy looks like, if you can sustain max mercscum without going into deficit and you're able to spend gold on buildings you're great.
Therefore you should aim for at least 50 ducats profit each month in 1600 and at least 250 in 1700. Of course with full maintenance.
It looks like you're aware of every AAR ever written. Every single one.
I've missed plenty, believe me. If nothing else because I was mostly absent from the forums for five years or so. But when I am around I do like to follow as many as I can. Of course, this means I don't play the games nearly as much as a I might.
Merry Christmas to everyone of you
Religious, as they are near mandatory for one faith. The CB is also nice as imperialism is still 200 years away.
I will try to write 3rd chapter today.
Religious, as they are near mandatory for one faith. The CB is also nice as imperialism is still 200 years away.
I will try to write 3rd chapter today.
3. Mediterranean hegemony (1471 - 1492)
3. Mediterranean hegemony (1471 - 1492)
Hello,
this will be slightly longer chapter as for gameplay as I've already explained some principles I am also using in this chapter so it will be more gameplay and less explaining.
After the first with Mamluks we ended up with 8k manpower deficit. To counter this regiments were consolidated and missing ones were replaced by mercenary scum as we can afford it.
By consolidating regiments you squash your regiments to make as many as much max strength ones as you can.
Let's say you have ten regiments of 650 troops each and you consolidate them, the result will be 6 max strength regiments, one regiment with 500 soldiers and three regiments disbanded. This can be useful if you have manpower issues.
There's option to NOT disband the regiments which would end up with zero strength achieved by shift-K shortcut. This is useful when you have manpower (or they're mercs) to reinforce but you need as many fighting shape regiments as soon as possible.
With brutal overflow of admin points and next admin tech 8 years away there's no point in unlocking it this early. The excess admin points are spent on stating best states instead.
I don't like paying for full cores as they should be obtained by annexing vassals, but with unlocked Kanunnames national ideas (+20% core creation cost reduction) it's not that painful and it's still better than development of provinces as it provides much more value than development of provinces for the cost paid.
Our smaller vassal Hisn Kayfa gets annexed as I had no bigger plans with them as their 15% RCC comes too late in comparison with Ramazan (which have it as tradition).
Opportunistic wars for the win
Bosnia gets full annexed.
I had a bit of dilemma what to do with mil points as unlocking tech 7 looked tempting, but given the fact we're not going to fight any difficult wars soon where we would need military tech advantage I've decided to develop some of the provinces for extra base manpower instead of rolling generals (they provide a bit of professionalism, but with events and armies drilling it's not that difficult to get it high enough) as at the moment we're lacking manpower more than army professionalism.
This event fires at the first Crimean ruler's death if the year is less than 1476, so it was just in time. Unfortunately it makes Crimea our march which means we will have to eat a stab hit in the future for revocation of march, but who wouldn't take free land.
Land adjacent to Crimea is immediately marked as vital interest.
This is how you get vassals to make claims for you.
Opportunistic wars for the win Two of Aragon's allies won't honor the defensive call so it's time to project our influence further into the Mediterranean.
Naples have fallen into personal union with France
You call that invasion?!?
Wait, you get 31 army tradition when you get stackwiped?
Renaissance is embraced in the Ottomans, which brings in artillery and 2nd idea group slot.
Certain technology levels have events associated when a first country unlocks them. E.g. admin and military technology levels 7 which both increase price of gems and copper. Especially the first event is nice as it Istanbul now produces gems which are worth 5 ducats and have +15% local tax modifier for each province which produces them. With this Istanbul alone is worth more than 5 ducats each month.
Usual peace deal with not co-belligerent allies of wartarget. Money, reparations and annul of alliances.
This is how my usual deal with war target's allies looks like. But in certain conditions it's worth taking land even from someone which is not co-belligerent. E.g. some bridgehead province which allows claim fabrication on another enemy or annexation of someone in trade league while you don't want to engage trade league itself, prime example is Riga which is allied most of the to Livonian order, when basically no-one from Lubeck trade league gives a damn about annexation of not co-belligerent Riga.
Aragon is reduced to a two province minor in Sicily due to aggressive expansion constraints.
Poland is being ravaged by Hungary + Austria, looks like another easy opportunistic war for the win
With artillery arriving to the sieges, 3 siege pip general and Ottoman age bonus the sieges are going ridiculously fast.
Crimea gets it's three cores back and is fed with the rest of Lithuanian land. We keep Moldavia for ourselves which gets fully annexed (removes Poland's 10 regiment stack from the game) and most importantly we have now land connection with Crimea.
Unholy alliance has been signed
Actually alliance with France was signed just to provide us meat shield once favors will be obtained.
QQ is attacked which brings in 3 of their allies, but nothing that we couldn't handle.
With 4 missionaries conversions we're still obtaining new provinces to convert faster than we're actually converting them. Unfortunately with CoC changes you can't get +3 missionary strength from attacking heretics and heathens so 7,5% conversion strength is maximum we can get
WIPE
Maneuvering game for the win - as soon as QQs stack in Erivan becomes movement locked Shirvani stack in Melikates gets attacked and the battle ends up with mandatory stackwipe.
All but three provinces (Tabriz, Maragheh and Ilam) are fed to Ramazan. With stack of then artillery and incredible siege general it was a fast and easy war to fight.
Mamluks are next to be beaten. Ethiopia is called in to serve as a meatshield while our artillery stacks takes care of the forts.
Fort is Tabriz wasn't demolished immediately after war as it was the likeliest place for QQ rebels to rise and it's very easy to crush rebels besieging mountainous fort.
What's even easier is to watch some random army from a country you gave military access to stumble into your rebels and kill them for you
I seriously laughed my ass off
Most of the casualties are Ethiopian which fulfilled their role as meatshield well. In the end they get nothing and we get 100% peace deal which finishes the 'Conquer Levant' mission and also removes Cyprus as Mamluk's vassal.
The year 1490 is here and free ticket to northern Italy also
Most of the Venetian trade league actually don't like Venice so it looks like another opportune war for the win
While we're already at war with both of Albania's allies it's ideal time to reclaim our core from them as it would expire in fours years.
Venice is forced to give up it's holding's Aegean and eastern Mediterranean sea.
Also look how rich we are as we're building five manufactories
After 50 years of the game our professionalism already sits at 40% thanks to occasional drilling and events. Could be ~10% higher if I've spend excess mil points on rolling generals instead of development and artillery breaches.
As for armies currently I am running three stacks of 14 infantry + 2 cavalry and one siege stack of 10 artillery.
Hope you've enjoyed this chapter
Hello,
this will be slightly longer chapter as for gameplay as I've already explained some principles I am also using in this chapter so it will be more gameplay and less explaining.
After the first with Mamluks we ended up with 8k manpower deficit. To counter this regiments were consolidated and missing ones were replaced by mercenary scum as we can afford it.
By consolidating regiments you squash your regiments to make as many as much max strength ones as you can.
Let's say you have ten regiments of 650 troops each and you consolidate them, the result will be 6 max strength regiments, one regiment with 500 soldiers and three regiments disbanded. This can be useful if you have manpower issues.
There's option to NOT disband the regiments which would end up with zero strength achieved by shift-K shortcut. This is useful when you have manpower (or they're mercs) to reinforce but you need as many fighting shape regiments as soon as possible.
With brutal overflow of admin points and next admin tech 8 years away there's no point in unlocking it this early. The excess admin points are spent on stating best states instead.
I don't like paying for full cores as they should be obtained by annexing vassals, but with unlocked Kanunnames national ideas (+20% core creation cost reduction) it's not that painful and it's still better than development of provinces as it provides much more value than development of provinces for the cost paid.
Our smaller vassal Hisn Kayfa gets annexed as I had no bigger plans with them as their 15% RCC comes too late in comparison with Ramazan (which have it as tradition).
Opportunistic wars for the win
Bosnia gets full annexed.
I had a bit of dilemma what to do with mil points as unlocking tech 7 looked tempting, but given the fact we're not going to fight any difficult wars soon where we would need military tech advantage I've decided to develop some of the provinces for extra base manpower instead of rolling generals (they provide a bit of professionalism, but with events and armies drilling it's not that difficult to get it high enough) as at the moment we're lacking manpower more than army professionalism.
This event fires at the first Crimean ruler's death if the year is less than 1476, so it was just in time. Unfortunately it makes Crimea our march which means we will have to eat a stab hit in the future for revocation of march, but who wouldn't take free land.
Land adjacent to Crimea is immediately marked as vital interest.
This is how you get vassals to make claims for you.
Opportunistic wars for the win
Two of Aragon's allies won't honor the defensive call so it's time to project our influence further into the Mediterranean.Naples have fallen into personal union with France
You call that invasion?!?
Wait, you get 31 army tradition when you get stackwiped?
Renaissance is embraced in the Ottomans, which brings in artillery and 2nd idea group slot.
Certain technology levels have events associated when a first country unlocks them. E.g. admin and military technology levels 7 which both increase price of gems and copper. Especially the first event is nice as it Istanbul now produces gems which are worth 5 ducats and have +15% local tax modifier for each province which produces them. With this Istanbul alone is worth more than 5 ducats each month.
Usual peace deal with not co-belligerent allies of wartarget. Money, reparations and annul of alliances.
This is how my usual deal with war target's allies looks like. But in certain conditions it's worth taking land even from someone which is not co-belligerent. E.g. some bridgehead province which allows claim fabrication on another enemy or annexation of someone in trade league while you don't want to engage trade league itself, prime example is Riga which is allied most of the to Livonian order, when basically no-one from Lubeck trade league gives a damn about annexation of not co-belligerent Riga.
Aragon is reduced to a two province minor in Sicily due to aggressive expansion constraints.
Poland is being ravaged by Hungary + Austria, looks like another easy opportunistic war for the win
With artillery arriving to the sieges, 3 siege pip general and Ottoman age bonus the sieges are going ridiculously fast.
Crimea gets it's three cores back and is fed with the rest of Lithuanian land. We keep Moldavia for ourselves which gets fully annexed (removes Poland's 10 regiment stack from the game) and most importantly we have now land connection with Crimea.
Unholy alliance has been signed
Actually alliance with France was signed just to provide us meat shield once favors will be obtained.
QQ is attacked which brings in 3 of their allies, but nothing that we couldn't handle.
With 4 missionaries conversions we're still obtaining new provinces to convert faster than we're actually converting them. Unfortunately with CoC changes you can't get +3 missionary strength from attacking heretics and heathens so 7,5% conversion strength is maximum we can get
WIPE
Maneuvering game for the win - as soon as QQs stack in Erivan becomes movement locked Shirvani stack in Melikates gets attacked and the battle ends up with mandatory stackwipe.
All but three provinces (Tabriz, Maragheh and Ilam) are fed to Ramazan. With stack of then artillery and incredible siege general it was a fast and easy war to fight.
Mamluks are next to be beaten. Ethiopia is called in to serve as a meatshield while our artillery stacks takes care of the forts.
Fort is Tabriz wasn't demolished immediately after war as it was the likeliest place for QQ rebels to rise and it's very easy to crush rebels besieging mountainous fort.
What's even easier is to watch some random army from a country you gave military access to stumble into your rebels and kill them for you
I seriously laughed my ass off
Most of the casualties are Ethiopian which fulfilled their role as meatshield well. In the end they get nothing and we get 100% peace deal which finishes the 'Conquer Levant' mission and also removes Cyprus as Mamluk's vassal.
The year 1490 is here and free ticket to northern Italy also
Most of the Venetian trade league actually don't like Venice so it looks like another opportune war for the win
While we're already at war with both of Albania's allies it's ideal time to reclaim our core from them as it would expire in fours years.
Venice is forced to give up it's holding's Aegean and eastern Mediterranean sea.
Also look how rich we are as we're building five manufactories
After 50 years of the game our professionalism already sits at 40% thanks to occasional drilling and events. Could be ~10% higher if I've spend excess mil points on rolling generals instead of development and artillery breaches.
As for armies currently I am running three stacks of 14 infantry + 2 cavalry and one siege stack of 10 artillery.
Hope you've enjoyed this chapter
It looks like that you are at war nearly all the time. I started myself Ottomans campaign after reading your AAR but I reached 1470 and I am even not close to your conquests.