XYZ - An Reverse Alphabetical WC AAR

[damienreave]

What sort of craziness does the title mean? Quite simple. I'll be playing an AAR that tries to bring these three nations with names starting at the end of the alphabet to a collective world conquest. I'll be playing on the latest patch of HTTT, naturally.

Xia​

Strengths:
Amazing sliders for Westernization. If I had a western neighbor, I'd be able to westernize in 1430, possibly even sooner with lucky events.
Bordering lots of minors in south east asia for easy expansion.
Rich provinces.
High starting relations with Ming.

Weaknesses:
Because I have to get released from Ming, that makes me a vassal of Ming.
I start with no troops, and only 1k manpower.
Terrible sliders for trade.
If I ever want to go anywhere, I need to fight Ming and win, and they are much, much bigger than me.
No latin tech countries for thousands of miles in any direction.
Landlocked.

Yemen​

Strengths:
No immediate threats for neighbors.
Only about eighty years before I can westernize.
Relatively close latin tech neighbors.

Weaknesses:
My provinces, and all provinces nearby, are dirt poor.
The Mamluks guarantee everyone in sight, making expansion difficult.

Zapotec​

Strengths:
Extremely secure position after I defeat my immediate neighbors.
Two provinces with gold to the north that I can take from the Aztecs.

Weaknesses:
Just about everything else.

 

[no7892142]

Interesting concept.
I shall follow this AAR.

 

[soulking]

Good luck at trying to westernise those three countries.

 

[damienreave]

The very first thing I do is change each nations sliders towards centralization.

Then I start off controlling Zapotec. Testing has shown that Maya declares war on Zapotec within days of the game beginning most of the time, and Zapotec often loses, at least under the AI's control. If I can vassalize Maya and annex the Aztecs, from there I can pretty much ignore Zapotec, stopping by once every decade to move a slider, until it becomes more useful in the mid 16th century.

As usual, the Mayans declare war on me. Fortunately, I fare better than the AI.

I accidentally take an extra province here, because I apparently cannot count to nine. Later, I'll sell it back to the Mayans for free, to bring me back down to nine.

From there, I march all my armies back west, and attack the Aztecs. They only have two regiments and quickly fall.

That leaves Zapotec with a huge income and no immediate threats. I also have exactly nine provinces, so no succession crises.

No. That is the exact opposite of what we need. I cancel the mission.

Now that Zapotec is secure, I'll go check in on my other two nations.

 

[dinofs]

An interesting concept. I shall certainly follow.

 

[soulking]

wait, so are you playing them on the same save file or on different ones?

 

[unmerged(190922)]

I'm intrigued.

Subscribed

 

[Darth Moose]

That leaves Zapotec with a huge income and no immediate threats. I also have exactly nine provinces, so no succession crises.

You're playing HTTT, latest beta patch, right? All them Amerindian nations are tribal democracies IIRC, so they will never get a succession crisis, ever, regardless of size.

 

[damienreave]

wait, so are you playing them on the same save file or on different ones?

One save file. I'm allowing myself to switch between nations at will, but I can still only control one nation at a time, obviously.

You're playing HTTT, latest beta patch, right? All them Amerindian nations are tribal democracies IIRC, so they will never get a succession crisis, ever, regardless of size.

I see. I did not know that.

Let's say then that I only conquered a part of Maya so that the AI isn't overwhelmed with revolts. . Without the ability to build forts, large amounts of conquered territory would overwhelm the AI anyway.

Thanks to all those who support my crazy ideas!

 

[Vladislav]

You're playing HTTT, latest beta patch, right? All them Amerindian nations are tribal democracies IIRC, so they will never get a succession crisis, ever, regardless of size.

This.

So, conquer away!

 

[Malurous]

Interesting choice of nations, and different from other multi-nation AARs in that you decide when you change. That's actually an intriguing twist whenever you end up in situations where you'd like to be in two places at once.

Do you limit the frequency of the changes or would you swap nations every day in such a situation?

I'll follow.

 

[sylverCode]

World conquests are fun.

Subscribed. ^^

 

[damienreave]

While the AI builds up troops in Xia, I decide to expand Yemen a bit.

Najd is diplomatically isolated, probably due to them attacking Al Hasa. I quickly build up an army, nearly bankrupting the country, and storm in.

By November 1401, the entire country is under siege, and I've disbanded the mercenaries.

Several of the sieges go on for nearly three years, but by 1404, I annex the country wholesale, more than doubling my size.

However, even with my new conquests, I still have only a single province of base value 3. Every other province is base value 1 or 2.

I switch back over to Xia. I need to wait until 1405 to cancel the vassalization, but after that, I can start trying to improve my situation.

A border dispute gives me the excuse I need.

Soon, I'm at war with half of Asia. Luckily, its the weak half.

Ming and I still have relations of 100 after the break, and a flurry of diplomatic action raises that further. Ming honors her alliance with me, although doesn't help much, due to several massive rebellions.

By 1406, I've vassalized Tibet, Lan Na and Lan Xang. That means I went from vassal to having three vassals in a year... a remarkable improvement. But I still have a long way to go before I can safely engage Ming.

 

[damienreave]

With the situation peaceful for the moment, I stop by Zapotec to finish the conquest of Maya.

That goes pretty quick, and I stop back to check on the other two nations, only to see Xia is involved in a war.

I take control and finish the war rather quickly, earning myself my first new provinces and access to the sea (in fifty years).

Yemen in the mean time has declared war on Hejaz, Adal and Swahili, so I go over and start fighting that war.

Hejaz is knocked out quickly for a white peace, while Adal gives up it's treasury and a single province.

That single province gives us the all important casus belli. I can finally stop paying 4 infamy per province now.

I send a few units down south to attack Swahili, and find their territory completely unguarded. I've taken most of their nation when I finally see this.

12,000 men? That's twice the size of my entire army! An emergency peace treaty still lets me walk away with their whole treasury though.

The 300 some ducats will be enormously helpful in my next war, against the evil orthodox menace.

I build up my army a bit more with my windfall of cash and hit Ethiopia hard.

I hate to leave the AI in charge of such a perilous situation. I have enormous amounts of rebellious provinces and scant few troops to guard them. But Xia needs my attention too...

 

[Rabid]

It's fun to see you jumping between these perilously-positioned countries, this is certainly an exciting an innovative AAR

 

[quaazi]

Awesome stuff. I have a feeling you'll soon be down to only one country, but still, great concept indeed.

 

[soulking]

One save file. I'm allowing myself to switch between nations at will, but I can still only control one nation at a time, obviously.

Ah, I see then. Well, good luck on your crazy idea!

 

[dinofs]

Nice progress with Xia and Yemen. They should last for quite a while.

Zapotec I'm less sure about. I don't know if they'll be able to survive the Europeans.

 

[Malurous]

Now that you went over nine provinces with Zapotec, you'd better notice quickly when they get a TSC.

With Yemen, you're going to need to get a few more of those cash peace deals. After all, you'll definitely want to build forts in your new provinces soon or the AI can't keep the country together.

It's getting interesting with two countries now that look like they need babysitting.

 

[unmerged(190922)]

Heh, nicely done, its damn interesting allready

Though "Orthodox menace" as a description for Ethiopa doesn't exactly ring true :rofl: