Yemen run. East to Indonesia or south to Mutapa?

[mackwolfe]

Playing Yemen for "Protect the secret" on hard.
Took exploration as 1st idea , and now have option of island hopping to East Africa or to Indonesia .
Which would you recommend?

I am Sunni . Shafi'i school ( extra merchant). Kilwa is eating Madagascar , so I am leaning towards going East instead of South.

 

[PhoenixG]

East Africa, since it's closer, lock down the trade there and you can create TC. After that go for Indonesia to push the trade back to zanzibar.

 

[Sfan]

I would get South Africa first for the same reason. Secure Zanzibar and the goldmines. The only difference is that I would suggest to move your capital there, so that you can TC in Asia. Once you have Zanzibar you can colonize Indonesia without having to conquer India. If you don't have Zanzibar, you need to go through Malacca-Bengal-Ceylon-Aden to make money out of Indonesia, that's a lot harder. Malacca-Zanzibar is so much easier. I'd conquer south and colonize east altogether, and i a few decades you will have your massive trade empire.

 

[AirikrStrife]

I'm doing the same achievment, but focusing on indonesia (though I have vassalized Kilwa and are feeding them madagascar. The importance for me to colonize indonesia is that coffe can spawn in the indonesian colonies. While there are three coffe provinces in west africa, I have had the uck that a powerful malihas kept the portugese and spanish away from those provinces, as well as I did a war against portugal to take ile bourbon from them.

 

[Robert de Bruce]

I think going South is the better option. Taking Cap completely will delay Europeans in Indonesia for a long time, most likely they will arrive through Pacific then. And most important thing is you reach Americas to get a colonial nation to get early access to Colonialism. I guess, Australia could provide the same, I'm unsure what can be done faster. But Australia first doesn't delay any european power.

 

[PhoenixG]

I think going South is the better option. Taking Cap completely will delay Europeans in Indonesia for a long time, most likely they will arrive through Pacific then. And most important thing is you reach Americas to get a colonial nation to get early access to Colonialism. I guess, Australia could provide the same, I'm unsure what can be done faster. But Australia first doesn't delay any european power.

colonizing Australia doesn't give you colonialism.

 

[Robert de Bruce]

I don't mean it can spawn in your country, but I thought it would spread after colonialism spawned, since you have a colonial nation. I did not test it yet. Am I wrong?

 

[PhoenixG]

I don't mean it can spawn in your country, but I thought it would spread after colonialism spawned, since you have a colonial nation. I did not test it yet. Am I wrong?

It won't spread. It explicitly says new world colonies.

 

[Robert de Bruce]

Now I found it in the Wiki, thank you.

 

[atwix]

what if colonizer goes for west african inland coffee? imh, you need to conquer ehtiopia, funj and such, colonize corridor to west africa and kill west africa on the freaking double, as its biggest danger early on to lose achievement...

indonesia can WAIT.

right?

 

[AirikrStrife]

what if colonizer goes for west african inland coffee? imh, you need to conquer ehtiopia, funj and such, colonize corridor to west africa and kill west africa on the freaking double, as its biggest danger early on to lose achievement...

indonesia can WAIT.

right?

So yes that is a serious concern, but it's actually ok to let them take the provinces, the achievment is not disabled, you just have to conquer them later on.

 

[atwix]

So yes that is a serious concern, but it's actually ok to let them take the provinces, the achievment is not disabled, you just have to conquer them later on.

i thought the achievement was to prevent them to own it, not to conquer all before 1700...

Am I wrong then

 

[mackwolfe]

thanks for all the advice. I got the achievement, and it was rather straightforward. I went South as most suggested, and eventually moved the Capital to Kilwa. I stopped playing in 1620, and put it on speed 5 and baby sat the game till 1700.

Few takeaways from the run:
- there is a known bug in the current patch that sometimes prevents you from getting merchants from Trade companies. It is not a problem because yemen gets 2 extra merchants ( from Shafi'i school and NIs).
-the first 3 institutions were very difficult to get (all obtained via adjacency from Medina to the north). So absolutely cannot afford to take a military idea till much later, otherwise you will fall behind in mil tech.
-Exploration+Expansion as first 2 ideas worked very well in closing off the Cape and South Africa completely. In addition, I colonized all Indian ocean islands and St Helena, making it impossible for Euros to colonize in it until much later . The first European I saw in the East was Portugal in Tasmania in 1685. By then it was over.
-the final threat to the run would be the Ottomans ( whose capital is in Europe) taking one of the coffee provinces in Ethiopia or Yemen proper. In this patch they do not steamroll like before, so this was not a big deal. I managed to remain their ally throughout. One thing that helped is that I stopped expanding in 1620, and so I was below them in rival level and they did not break the alliance with me.

Last screenshot of the game in 1700. Ottos had just called me into a war against Makuria:

One thing I noticed is that you do not need to fully core your capital when you move. Saved me about 150 ADM at the time.

 

[PedroVargas]

i thought the achievement was to prevent them to own it, not to conquer all before 1700...

Am I wrong then

You are AirikrStrife is right, as long as by 1700 you have the provinces, it's fine. Spain founded two coffee provinces in Indonesia in my run and I had to conquer them - achievement still fired. It's a bit disappointing but a LOT less stressfull that the achievement works that way.

Also I believe it's ok if a CN of a European nation owns the province as those don't count as "European". Spain's Colombia had two coffe provinces and the achievement was still colored as active (only the "is 1700" greyed out). However I didn't want to risk the run and gor them anyway but I have a strong feeling that currently CN's don't prevent you from getting the achievement.

 

[ShahanShah]

Aren't there coffe provinces in West Africa as well?

 

[AirikrStrife]

You are AirikrStrife is right, as long as by 1700 you have the provinces, it's fine. Spain founded two coffee provinces in Indonesia in my run and I had to conquer them - achievement still fired. It's a bit disappointing but a LOT less stressfull that the achievement works that way.

Also I believe it's ok if a CN of a European nation owns the province as those don't count as "European". Spain's Colombia had two coffe provinces and the achievement was still colored as active (only the "is 1700" greyed out). However I didn't want to risk the run and gor them anyway but I have a strong feeling that currently CN's don't prevent you from getting the achievement.

The achievment is only to prevent coffe provinces in the old world. Doesn't matter if they appear in the americas