15. This is going to be (very) hard
So it looks like I am back, in the meantime I've started some experiments with very hard difficulty on latest patch (1.25 England) as I could roflstomp the World with anyone (I've completed one relaxed WC with Byzantium in the meantime) and during experiments with very hard I've accidentally overwritten my save game for this AAR (who would thing that I will use name Ottoscum for a save game twice).
The pace of AAR will be a bit slower than usual as I am still solving stuff around mortgage and marriage and playing EU4 on very hard is not very relaxing thing to do after solving these kind of issues in real life.
On very hard AI gets these bonuses, basically the AI is compensated for its incompetence with a huge number of various bonuses.
+50% Manpower recovery speed
+50% National manpower modifier
+50% Land force limit modifier
+50% Naval force limit modifier
−33% Regiment cost
−33% Ship cost
0.05 Yearly inflation reduction
−2 National unrest
−0.05 Monthly war exhaustion
−25% Core-creation cost
−25% Idea cost
−1 Interest per annum
+50% Improve relations
−20% Development cost
−25% Construction cost
−33% Aggressive expansion impact
I've ended previously in 1654, now it's 1650, and we're sitting at 5974 development without subjects, compared to 6713 in the game on normal difficulty.
As for expansion path it has been India all the way which is more or less whole gobbled up, the only two tags in India other than me are Andhra (vassal of mine) and Jaunpur (one war away from being gone).
Europe has been mostly untouched as I was focusing on getting to to India as fast as possible to get rolling in cash.
The ideas picked are: Influence, Religious, Administrative, Offensive, Humanist
C&C disaster has been resolved with +20 maximum absolutism till the end of the game and absolutism is sitting at 100.
The border with Ming has already been established and the mandate is ticking down...
Countries sorted by income.
Having higher income than countries no. 2, 3 and 4 combined is a good sign, especially on very hard where AI develops like crazy and has discount on building construction.
On very hard the AI truly develops like crazy, Cebu has improved 54 times (!!!). The good thing is, that cost for coring a province caps at 30 development.
In terms of army quality we're topping it with exception of army morale and tradition, which definitely helps against boosted AI (for example when I fought war for north Africa in 1630 Tunis alone fielded about 80k troops).
That are some scary armies that AI have - the plan is to continue to eat RotW for additional ~50 years and then start dealing with Europe with at least one million on the field.
As usual, mercscum is core of our army and with all of India belonging to trade companies we have economy to sustain it.
At this moment there's no way how we could break wooden wall of Great Britain, luckily for us even with boosted numbers the AI is still incompetent when it comes to correctly handling sailors.
Any my favourite screen
Generally speaking I do enjoy playing on very hard as on normal difficulty I've been almost always in unrivaled position by about 1500. Now I still feel threatened by European powers which has been efficient at consolidating land (notice how much nigger European blobs are), which is the thing I like on very hard most - the AI is much more competent at blobbing.
However it's still about getting the ball rolling as after first set of wars and first war with Mamluks I've again found myself in almost unrivaled position and just kept going on.
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