Reading how you play Skoty and comparing it to my play on feeling games you play EU similar to running departament in corporation. A lot of respect for you.
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I followed atwix suggestion and downloaded the files. I am now using this mod with Ars Pictorica. Everything work fine. It's great.
8. Indonesian adventure (1552 - 1561)
8. Indonesian adventure (1552 - 1561)
Hormuz was forced to drop alliance with Hadramut via great power action.
With no allies on its side addition of Hadramut to Ottoman territories is swiftly done.
Crimea gets integrated while the war with Morocco is still raging.
Kabylia if fed with some more of Moroccan land and it's slowly time to start process of diplo annexation.
Majapahit is attacked using unfinished colony in Sumatra as a staging area for invasion. One stack is enough to fend of whole Majapahit's armies as they recently started a war against Makassar which they're losing.
79 development is taken from Majapahit due to coring two provinces taken from Morocco which weren't given to and as they're Hindu nation none of the other nations in Indonesia does not care as rest of them is either Sunni or Animist.
In a quick war against bankrupt Portugal (or should I say Poor-tugal
) they lost all of their colonial holdings in Brazil, Cape Verde, 2 provinces in west Africa, Azores and one mainland province.
No possible rivals
Ming go eat someone please 
Natives in Brazil, inferior in numbers and tech, are attacked and everyone is made co-belligerent in order to take as much land as possible.
In the end three native tribes are annexed (for the fourth one there's no way how to core the province). Out of recently conquered two provinces just two will be cored and rest of them will be cored by our newly established colonial nation.
Trade situation: I've went through trial and error process
and I've tried to put a merchant into Seville trade node which in the end resulted in a mere 1.5 ducat as the penalty to trade power for collecting elsewhere than in home node. Similarly for a trade nodes leading into Constantinople it's much better to just steer instead of collecting there, which also applies a bonus to outgoing value from steered node (merchant steering trade increases steered value by 5% up to 11.3% when five different countries have merchant present in the node steering in the same direction).If you've watched the Rights of Man dev clash that's what Fido did, he had multiple merchants steering trade towards him and each of them increased the value by 5% (which might not seem to be a lot, but the effect rises exponentially).
Majapahit was forced by Makassar to release Sunda, which simplifies gobbling up of Java island. Unfortunately they're sitting at 81 development which would put us past 100% overextension, but there's no need to it yet so we'll just wait for other provinces to finish coring. At least this way we get to replenish some admin points which we''re quite short of.
Our armies are hunting for the mysterious seven cities, but so far they've found (soon to be) Ottoman gold mines
Europe is usual mess, Pomerania used to control whole eastern Prussia region but was beaten and forced to release Teutonic Order which then former Prussia. Netherlands have declared independence and retained it and Sweden is not overpowered.
Rome has finally been converted thanks to accepting Umbrian culture which removed -2% penalty from unaccepted culture.
While bunch of new land from Sunda has been already obtained another war has been already won for future coring cycle.
New colonial nation in Brazil has been established and Ottomans are only nation with colonial nations.
1 - Considering the evolution of Military tech, how do you (micro)manage to organize and create your armies?
2 - How many Infantary, Cavalry and Canons per army, considering that you have two armies (15k and 13k) in 1444, and in 1561 you have nine (five 26K, two 16k, one 10k and one 5K)?
3 - In what proportion do you divided those armies for the purpose of carpet siege?
4 - Do you consider changing the values (questions #2 & #3) with the improvements gained by Military tech and ideas?
(Sorry about the quiz! Maybe there should be exams concerning these matters)
2 - How many Infantary, Cavalry and Canons per army, considering that you have two armies (15k and 13k) in 1444, and in 1561 you have nine (five 26K, two 16k, one 10k and one 5K)?
3 - In what proportion do you divided those armies for the purpose of carpet siege?
4 - Do you consider changing the values (questions #2 & #3) with the improvements gained by Military tech and ideas?
(Sorry about the quiz! Maybe there should be exams concerning these matters
)
No yellow lines in your latest chapter, so I guess students of WC can safely skip it
However I'm a little bit surprised to see that you haven't taken any action in the direction of Timuruds and then India lately.
Do you not consider that an important region (especially for boosting your economy) or were you just too busy on other continents ?
However I'm a little bit surprised to see that you haven't taken any action in the direction of Timuruds and then India lately.
Do you not consider that an important region (especially for boosting your economy) or were you just too busy on other continents ?
In the early game I usually make just one stack if I am playing small nation and then I am simply adding infantry till it reaches support limit of most of my provinces. Then I split it and proceed to create 2 12/2 stacks or something similar.
5k stack is exploring America using hunt for seven cities so I am omitting that.
These 26k stacks are my main battle stacks, one of the two 16k stacks has cannons detached and makes a complete stack and the last 16k is missing it's 10k cannons as I've hit military tech 13 during last session.
All stacks are 14/2/10 as I like using uniform stacks.
Usually, when it's safe I just detach cannons and let them siege while rest of the stack is sitting nearby.
In age of revolutions I am making 40k cannons siege stacks.
Pre mil tech 13 I am using max one or two siege stacks of 10 artillery which then I merge with my fighting stacks (and add artillery to the rest of stakcs) as artillery becomes viable on the battlefield. In the lategame as supply limit increases I end up merging two stacks together.
No yellow lines in your latest chapter, so I guess students of WC can safely skip it
Maybe I should have highlighted the part about trade and tell something about situational usefulness of exploration ideas. But this chapter was more about (I hope) my efficient gameplay.
I wanted to, but I've spread myself a bit too thin and Khorasan which is main obstacle on the road to India is allied with some of the major Indian powers. Plus my manpower was zero at the beginning of the chapter due to series of unfortunate professionalism events so I've decided to fight rather easy wars which allowed me to regain it, but also keep blobbing.
In the beginning of the next chapter the truce with Muscovy will be ending so I'll attack Khorasan and start blobbing towards India once Muscovy is defeated once again.
India is the place where the money is and I intend to hit it hard in upcoming chapters.
I do love stacking up merchants to steer trade - that RoM devclash was really the only one I was able to watch almost all of (and then I missed the finale).
I'm curious about your vassal strategies.
- Do you take vassals in peace deals or release them?
- How do you decide when its time to integrate vs feeding more land?
- Do you directly give land to vassals in peace deals, or take it yourself and hand it over?
Thanks,
Craig
- Do you take vassals in peace deals or release them?
- How do you decide when its time to integrate vs feeding more land?
- Do you directly give land to vassals in peace deals, or take it yourself and hand it over?
Thanks,
Craig
Your gameplay certainly looked efficient. But after reading your previous AAR's I already knew that you are able to do that
SKOTy said:
I'm looking forward to those chapters
I suppose (correct me if I'm wrong) you will put that conquered (Indian) land in TC's. I have 2 questions here which you can hopefully answer in those chapters.
1) Is it necessary to keep the Indian land separated from your main empire by using a vassal before you can put that land in a TC ? (The wiki is IMO not clear on this)
2) How will you use the additional merchants ?
I may have missed the point but didn't find the natives policy you choose for your colonial strategy. Which one is it? Thanks
Must be -100% uprising chance as there are no little stacks off babysitting colonies?
You inspired me to actually try a world conquest myself. I had quite a sucess, and I'm far the most powerful empire around. Still I can't keep up with your pace, and I really wonder how to speed up more. Unless I start to fight two wars at two fronts simultaniously. (Which would be theoretically possible based on my overall strength, but will lead to some nasty desasters as I can't check two theaters at once.)
I'm currently at around 3000 development in 1617 according to the game ranking. Will it be easier later on to grab large amounts of land?
One funny thing I noted, though - if you want to do a world conquest, you don't need any military ideas. I have already five - Influence, Religion, Exploration, Administration and Diplomacy. No need for military ideas if you have a huge manpower pool and enough money to field almost 200 000 soldiers.
I'm currently at around 3000 development in 1617 according to the game ranking. Will it be easier later on to grab large amounts of land?
One funny thing I noted, though - if you want to do a world conquest, you don't need any military ideas. I have already five - Influence, Religion, Exploration, Administration and Diplomacy. No need for military ideas if you have a huge manpower pool and enough money to field almost 200 000 soldiers.
I don't believe SKOTy has been fighting simultanious wars yet. But I also believe he's fighting very efficiently. Things I have noticed (and which will improve my own game) are :
1) Start wars on the first day of the month. (big chance that the enemy isn't ready for war then, so maximum damage can be delivered)
2) Maximize the chance for stackwipes. (no chasing of retracting enemy troops)
3) Optimize sieges as much as possible (Use maximum artillery, use the best siege general available, (not clear from the AAR, but I can imagine that SKOTy is doing it) blockade coastal forts, before the siege starts).
4) Use Assaults and Artillery Barrages when reasonably possible.
5) Look for weak or temporarily weakened (for example the first war against Aragon in this AAR) opponents, so that wars are short.
6) Try to find allies even if you can win the war alone (for example Ethiopia in his wars against the Mamluks).
Things which aren't clear from this AAR, but I can imagine SKOTy is using them :
1) Once the war is practically over, but not finished yet, move troops which aren't required anymore already to the next war scene.
2) Use transports if that will reduce movement periods of your troops. (this one has been mentioned by SKOTy).
I guess that planning ahead (already preparing for your next war, while you are still busy with your current war) is one of the requirements for being efficient and personally I feel I can still improve a lot on that.
Premu said:
Due to higher admin efficiency you can grab larger amounts of land in peace deals later in the game.
But likely you have to fight simultanious wars then. Using auto-pause for troop actions (another one of SKOTy's tips) can reduce the chance for disasters to happen.
And at that moment you will be so strong that the occasional "disaster" isn't such a problem anymore.
That were some of my conclusions by reading/studying this AAR.
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I usually release them as if you force vassalzie someone they keep their AE towards you and sometimes it's like 200 AE which will prevent any attempts of diplo-annexation. If you annex and release a country as vassal all the aggressive expansion they had magically disappears.
I usually start annexation when I am nearing dip points cap and no technology/idea can be unlocked to get rid of the excess dip points. I am usually trying to feed same culture group land to the vassal before starting annexation (e.g. in case of Kabylia whole north Africa as it's their culture group).
In the early game while I have the debuff for dip rep after previous vassal annexation active as the progress is minimal.
I take it for myself (this is valid especially in the late game when vassals have much lower admin efficiency due to absolutism and thus I can take much more land) and grant it to vassals via vassal interaction so their liberty desire is lowered unless I am in the middle of some war chain.
Nope, you just need to have capital on other continent, there can be land connection between TC land and your capital.
Most of them will be steering (e.g. without merchant in Horn of Africa (or how it's called) this node is flowing towards Zanzibar and merchant is there to send it into Alexandria) in order to prolong the trade chain and stack the steering bonus.
Some of them might be collecting in heavily monopolized trade nodes.
Coexistence - it allows me to simply don't care about natives. In some other starts where colonial growth is much more important (e.g. Aztecs, NA tribes) I would have chosen the +20 growth.
Exactly.
Once you stack absolutism it will become ridiculous. Especially after admin/dip tech level 23 so the WC should be possible with current level of your development.
Exactly. Although I prefer to pick offensive for the 20% siege ability but you as you mentioned there's no need for military ideas as these ideas you've mentioned will allow you blob faster and ultimately throw more bodies at your enemies.
Yup yup, I just leave stack or two there so they'll take care of rebels that will pop up and move to next target.
This is handy for Mediterranean and for transfers form e.g. Horn of Africa into India. Saves quite a lot of time, especially after movement speed nerf in current patch.
I'd say I spend about 15% of my playtime in the early game with game paused and just examining the game (e.g. by studying army ledger, alliance patterns) and looking for a target and planning ahead in which order I shall consume other countries.
Honestly I think that without auto pause when troops arrive or e.g. siege completed it's not possible to fight simultaneous wars efficiently.
9. Big bad bully (1563 - 1578)
9. Big bad bully (1563 - 1578)
The chapter begins with attack on Muscovy immediately after truce ends as forces which attacked Georgia moved preemptively to the attack position. The war itself should be easy as Muscovy lacks military technology and also lack quantity as it has been repeatedly beaten.
The progress in war continues usual scheme - focus on forts in a compact formation and prey on isolated enemy forces.
Fort in Smolensk has already fallen and Moscow is about to fall.
As last chapter ended up with Georgia fully occupied but not yet annexed as coring Georgia together with provinces taken from Sunda would put us past 100% overextension. But once overextension dropped to zero the 'full annex' button was hit,
Fifteen provinces exchanged owners, most of them even twice as initially they were ceded by Muscovy to us and after that they were fed to Novgorod which was then put at 99% overextension.
The peace deal was carefully tailored so the Novgorod would sit exactly 99% overextension and after granting them provinces and so we don't push 100% overextension ourselves.
The provinces were taken by ourselves as our -25% warscore cost against different religion wouldn't apply if the occupation would be transferred to Novgorod. That's why it's better to take provinces by yourself and then feed as the warscore discounts from admin efficiency and diplomatic ideas are not applying if the occupation is transferred to your ally (as for the warscore cost calculation the game is using their reductions to province warscore). Not to mention the reduction to vassal liberty desire.
Additionally only 99 development which is equal to 99% overextension was granted to Novgorod as the game does not allow you to feed your vassal past 100% OE using vassal interaction, but it also does not allow you to put you vassal to 100% OE this way (which is by the way completely harmless as the OE events start > 100% OE).
Free stability? Why not
And extra 10% discipline so we're sitting at 120% during war against enemy alliance which actually have some numbers? Why not
Both our vassals Kabylia and Novgorod started being annexed due to excess dip points we're having and it's better to spend it on vassal integration than on e.g. development
Austria just got a personal union over Great Britain, which is actually loyal and sitting 20% liberty desire. France decided to contest it.
Another coalition has formed and weakest link has been identified and attacked - three province Majapahit leading the coalition can be easily forced to accept white peace.
Admin tech 14 is finally unlocked and administrative idea group is finally unlocked.
Khorasan is forced to cede a corridor towards Persian gulf and for now we'll take a break from wars in order to obtain 800 admin points and unlock first two ideas in the administrative idea group.
Did I just wrote that 800 admin points are needed? Now it's more like 400
On the picture is our newly established colonies in Caribbean.
First circumnavigation was completed by glorious Ottoman navy in 1574 while armies are preparing for a strike against Castile which is allied with Portugal.
Castile cedes 5 provinces due to AE constraints (Austria would be able to join coalition in case we'd take more land) and Portugal is forced to eat usual annul treaties and concede colonial region peace deal.
Conceding colonial region does not incur unjustified demands so it means that it costs zero dip even when done in separate peace.
Reduced coring cost does also affect coring speed so now with 45% reduction coring times have dropped to 19.8 months (36*0.55).
Majapahit is about to be fully annexed during simultaneous war against Morocco which is about to be forced to give some provinces to Kabylia.
As truce with the rest of coalition where Majapahit was also ended some nations are recreating it. I guess they never learn
Mamluks are probably the weakest nation in the coalition we have a CB on which does not bring extra friends in (e.g. Navarra would bring in France as it's guaranteed by France) so they're chosen as target to be declared on in order to prevent other nations from joining.
In half of year Mamluks' capital has been occupied together with OPMs Mushasha and Navarra which drove up the warscore to 24% which is enough for a reasonable peace deal as Hungary was left ignored occupying our land in the north which is driving the warscore down.
Other option for dismantling the coalition would be attacking an ally of coalition member, marking the coalition member as co-belligerent when declaring war as that would call in all coalition member, but you can negotiate a separate peace with them. I did not do this as I had my armies spread across the world and I was seeking a quick way how deal with the coalition.
For 17k troops we now have truce with the coalition for about 6.5 years and for the next time I might use the trick mentioned above to dismantle the coalition completely if it forms again. For now quick beating of coalition every ~6-7 years is not problematic unless some heavy weight like Austria or Muscovy joins but I am very careful about these.
Beating a coalition from time to time instead of carefully watching AE and truce cycles is allowing me to play much more aggressive then I would have played in case I watched my AE (I am still watching it so no other European nations apart from Hungary can join it).
Morocco should be last war from annexation and Kabylia is fed once again with that horrible land with increased coring cost.
New ruler with 5/4/2 stats which is incredibly good for a world conquest game takes the throne which marks it as ideal time to end this chapter
Nice progress
Sounds complicated, especially determining how much land you can feed to Novgorod.
For example you need to determine first how much OE Novgorod already has (before granting the provinces). Do you check all his provinces if they are already cored, or is there an easier way to determine the initial OE of Novgorod ?
Hmm, a period without warring. Wasn't it possible to start another war and grant the newly conquered provinces to a (eventually newly created) vassal ?
Sounds complicated, especially determining how much land you can feed to Novgorod.
For example you need to determine first how much OE Novgorod already has (before granting the provinces). Do you check all his provinces if they are already cored, or is there an easier way to determine the initial OE of Novgorod ?
Hmm, a period without warring. Wasn't it possible to start another war and grant the newly conquered provinces to a (eventually newly created) vassal ?
The easiest way is to hover on a province and check revolt risk. Every point of revolt risk caused by overextension is equal to 20% OE. So 100% is 5 revolt risk. Harder way how to this would be using diplomatic mode and manually finding uncored/cored provinces.
By this I knew that Novgorod has 0% OE as I didn't saw any revolt risk caused by overextension so I just clicked in peace deal land worth 99% OE at Novgorod's borders as there was no admin efficiency coming into play.
However there's no easy way (I am not aware of any) how to check country's admin efficiency so later in the game calculating this becomes trickier.
That +400 admin points event was a blessing which allowed me to wage a new war almost instantly, for now 2nd idea in admin group has already been unlocked so there's no stopping the Ottoman train.
But yes, I need a new vassal.
10. Attack here, attack there (1578 - 1598)
10. Attack here, attack there (1578 - 1598)
As Ethiopia is not really caring about out conquests of Muslim and Orthodox countries the aggressive expansion we had with them dropped to 10 so there was no reason to keep attacking them as no truce was needed for coalition management. However as age of reformation will be ending in 30 years it's time to make use of the -25% warscore cost against different religions.
An event which allowed me to chose an heir popped and 4/2/2 heir was the strongest option so it's time for some disinheritance. The prestige lost will be quickly reclaimed from peace deal with Ethiopia and from natural drift towards 100 due to all +prestige modifiers we have.
Generally I am disinheriting everything which is not at least 4/3/2 (Ottoman government makes disinheriting heirs even better) when I a have enough prestige so I don't end up with too much negative prestige and young enough ruler or consort so I don't end up with regency.
Half of he prestige lost by disinheriting suboptimal heir has already been regained.
Vinegar was called in as decoy in conquest of Sind, the goal is to slowly approach India.
Sind is reduced to a two province minor and cedes Thatta, province needed for 'Unify Islam' decision which increases conversion strength and this will be handy in achieving one faith.
Peace deal was signed just few days before 1581 ended which also means one aggressive expansion decay tick which allows me stop worrying about multiple Indian nations like Delhi which are sitting at 51 or 52 AE after the peace deal as it will drop in 4 days bellow 50.
Truce with Muscovy is over which means just one thing - usual Muscovy bashing
Trading in cotton happens to us which speeds up colony growth a bit while Muscovy is about to cede 100% warscore worth of land once more.
Novgorod is not having any unrest caused by overxtension which means that that they're sitting at 0% OE so land will be taken in a way that will allow feeding of 99 development to Novgorod.
About 120 development exchanges owners and most of it is fed to Novgorod afterwards.
Hormuz is attacked and their only ally Mamluks is forced to eat usual annul treaties peace deal.
At this moment I've also realized that annexing both Kabylia and Novgorod at the same time may have been a mistake as life with one diplomat can be pretty hard as he's nonstop busy forging claims or traveling back from countries we attack. However I needed some reasonable dip point sink which would actually cause my dip points to drop down.
New vassal Oman appears in land previously owned by Hormuz as our admin points are getting a bit low. This will also secure us reconquest CB on Oman so no claim will be needed for future war.
Gazikumukh is guaranteed by Muscovy which brings them in, but only after provinces taken from them finished coring (remember that you can not core provinces of a nation you're at war with). Muscovy is not an issue in this war and it will in end shorten our truce timer with them
Being able to convert subjects' provinces helps a lot - although Novgorod has missionary strength idea and took religious you can clearly see that our 6 missionaries are helping.
Dagestan is taken which means one less province needed for the 'Unify Islam' decision.
With army sitting at forcelimit (nearly 300 regiments) our expenses are getting quite high, but there's one trick in the box...
Instead of loaning in order to finally embrace printing press we debase currency.
As there's a button which immediately removes all corruption gained by debasing.
Small coalition of three countries spawn which is the weakest coalition formed so far.
The other option was a consort with decent stats, but the points are taken as with Ottoman government the longest time a consort can rule is 5 years.
Creation of colonial nation in the Caribbean is awarded by a trade efficiency bonus which comes handy in hoarding money.
Mushasha and Kaffa are already fully occupied and the other war you can see is war where Vinegar dragged us, but we're not doing anything in order to help Vinegar.
Administrative idea group has been finally fully filled which means that 'Vassal Integration Act' policy can be enacted.
Annexation progress of both Kabylia and Novgorod jumps by a lot and first one is about to be completed in 1594 and according to my estimate annexation of Novgorod will be completed in 1601 (due to -3 dip rep after annexing a vassal) which means that policy won't have to be active for more than the minimal period of ten years.
After Venice's capital has fallen (previous screenshot) the warscore has climbed high enough to allow annexation of both Kaffa and Mushasha.
We're getting big
Ajuraan is next to be attacked so we can work our way towards southeast African gold mines.
Trading in gems happens to us which will finally give us some form of inflation reduction as how much I hate inflation (OCD reasons) I also have paying it down as admin points are better spent elsewhere.
Annexation of Kabylia provided us with a state cores and some of the states they owned are pretty juicy. Tunis is worth 44 development and Algeria staggering 59!
Morocco is gone which also means one more city (is it Ifni?) is secured for the 'Unify Islam' decision.
As Muscovy was forced out of war with Gazikumukh pretty quickly in a peace deal which cost about 20% warscore the resulting truce ended even earlier than the original 15 years long.
And guess what happens when truce with Muscovy is up
For the 2nd time in my EU4 career I saw en event giving you a core in a province owned by a nation you're at war with. However I was too quick on clicking accept on that event that I've forgot to make a screenshot
All provinces apart the one we've magically obtained a core were fed to newly created vassal Perm, which will be used for feeding rest of the land taken from Muscovy. The land was not given to Novgorod as they're close to be annexed so it means that there might be uncored land by the time annexation completes and this will also delay the annexation so it won't be completed before mandatory 10 years of active policy are over.
Do you have a general preferred option when it comes to loan vs debasement (tricks like the one above notwithstanding)?