The alliance against you is a confederacy of corpses that have not yet stopped twitching.
-
We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
I'm slightly surprised at your manpower "problems" as I never had an issue with it. I guess that it is linked to doing quite so much all at once and that in reality it would only be a short-term blip anyway.
The diplomat shortage is a much more predictable and long-term problem. When I reached the same position in world conquest I fell back on recruiting conquistadors and explorers for all my leaders. This is a vital element of working around the shortage. Interestingly enough my diplomat shortage has always been focused around conquering Europe and I suspect that it is an issue around the number of states in Europe rather than the difficulty of conquering them. What's your opinion on diplomat shortage, do you see it as just a side effect of going into BB wars or is it related to the Geography. Going BB with Ming almost with day one showed diplomat shortage around the conquest of India (a bit) and the conquest of Europe (much worse). It seems to me that this is a number of small countries issue rather than anything else.
I presume the only substantial countries left to fight are your allies and Ming. Is there a lot left in southern Asia?
The diplomat shortage is a much more predictable and long-term problem. When I reached the same position in world conquest I fell back on recruiting conquistadors and explorers for all my leaders. This is a vital element of working around the shortage. Interestingly enough my diplomat shortage has always been focused around conquering Europe and I suspect that it is an issue around the number of states in Europe rather than the difficulty of conquering them. What's your opinion on diplomat shortage, do you see it as just a side effect of going into BB wars or is it related to the Geography. Going BB with Ming almost with day one showed diplomat shortage around the conquest of India (a bit) and the conquest of Europe (much worse). It seems to me that this is a number of small countries issue rather than anything else.
I presume the only substantial countries left to fight are your allies and Ming. Is there a lot left in southern Asia?
Oh man, I forgot how great this AAR is 
.
I just got caught up with the past 2-3 updates I totally missed. It's amazing how can you handle all those wars at the same timeo.
Also, do you think you're gonna make it in time?!
.I just got caught up with the past 2-3 updates I totally missed. It's amazing how can you handle all those wars at the same time
o.Also, do you think you're gonna make it in time?!
The reason why you didn't have the manpower shortage I think is that you have periods of peace built into your WC, to let WE die down, whereas I do not. Also, I suspect your battles will be, by and large, far easier because Chinese troops are equal to the troops they are fighting, and you should have uber-generals from fairly early on. So far fewer casualties. I didn't (and wouldn't have) had the manpower shortage in my Papal States WC for example. So I think you should be safe from it.
The diplomat problem is going to be very serious in the turbo-WC. Very, very serious. Europe in 1700 is extremely blobified, and yet I'm still having large shortages. Europe in 1500 or whatever early date you get to it? It's going to be so much worse. I assume in your earlier practice turbo-WCs you got to Europe later than you will in the real turbo-WC, so magnify any problems there you perceived.
I can see three solutions that will help:
First: fighting many small countries certainly is the cause of the diplomat problem. Against many medium sized countries, with a regular peace treaty you can reduce the target country to a few provinces (<5 usually), which leaves it in essentially the same situation as a turbo-annex, i.e. 2 more wars until complete annexation.
But in your turbo-WC, the diplomat situation might make this untenable. You might think about using turbo-annexation where a normal peace treaty would do. It might save you a few diplomats.
Second and more to the point, I think the key to reducing the diplomat shortage is going to be getting other nations to declare war on you. That is less complicated for Yemen, as it just goes to war for all time with everyone. Ming, on the other hand, is going to want periods of peace.
Then again, you should accrue WE slower than your opponents due to Defender of the Faith. And countries send out tons of "white peace" offers once they hit high WE.
In addition to high BB, a land border is crucial to getting nations to declare war on you. So you might consider, for example, annexing a small Italian state. Then let that states' neighbours declare war on you, along with all their allies. I completely understand that it's nice to cherry-pick Declarations of War, but again, you might not have the diplomats for that luxury.
This probably goes without saying but: In Declarations of War, keep an eye on alliances. Lets say you want to declare war on England, but England is only allied with Portugal. Then you look at Portugal, and it is allied with both Castille and England. So declare on Portugal so you get into a war with 3 countries, rather than declaring on England, where you only get into war with 2 other countries, declare on Portugal so you can get all three. (Obviously, you will want to do this mostly with smaller countries. This is just an example.)
Third: Ok this is impractical probably. But I wonder at getting other countries to do your dirty annexing of minor 1-province nations for you? Pursue an alliance with hmm... perhaps Burgundy? Or maybe Lithuania? Do it early, before you run into the diplomat shortages. (This period of time may or may not exist, depending on how early you discover Burgundy and how fast you are conquering.) Then let your ally do the annexation of all the 1 province minors in Germany and Italy. Then, after Europe is subdued, simply turbo-annex your ally. This has the added benefit that it might help you control your borders a little better, and so be better able to orchestrate those periods of peace.
You know what the best candidate for this might be, now that I think about it? None other than France. Her ports will enable you to reach the new world from the west, yet she has land borders with a 1-province "corridor" to central Germany and Italy, the two most diplomatic-intensive areas.
And getting an alliance, even past the BB threshold, seems possible. At least, I got a ton of offers from Genoa for an alliance even after I turbo-annexed Castille.
Then again, going east across to Alaska, establishing a colony there, then going south along the coast is going to be far easier for Ming. That's probably the new world route you want to take.
Yep. Ming controls deep into north India and much of SE Asia. So it's pretty much just Ming and my allies, once I nip across the Channel and the Baltic Sea, and finish the many huge turbo-annexes I have going.
The turbo-annex of Lithuania will give me a land border with Ming btw. And Mecklenburg has colonies that border Manchu to the north.
...
One other thing: They left colonial advisors the same as in 1.2 didn't they? How are you going to get early explorers? Ugh! That'll slow things.
kanitatlan said:
The diplomat problem is going to be very serious in the turbo-WC. Very, very serious. Europe in 1700 is extremely blobified, and yet I'm still having large shortages. Europe in 1500 or whatever early date you get to it? It's going to be so much worse. I assume in your earlier practice turbo-WCs you got to Europe later than you will in the real turbo-WC, so magnify any problems there you perceived.
I can see three solutions that will help:
First: fighting many small countries certainly is the cause of the diplomat problem. Against many medium sized countries, with a regular peace treaty you can reduce the target country to a few provinces (<5 usually), which leaves it in essentially the same situation as a turbo-annex, i.e. 2 more wars until complete annexation.
But in your turbo-WC, the diplomat situation might make this untenable. You might think about using turbo-annexation where a normal peace treaty would do. It might save you a few diplomats.
Second and more to the point, I think the key to reducing the diplomat shortage is going to be getting other nations to declare war on you. That is less complicated for Yemen, as it just goes to war for all time with everyone. Ming, on the other hand, is going to want periods of peace.
Then again, you should accrue WE slower than your opponents due to Defender of the Faith. And countries send out tons of "white peace" offers once they hit high WE.
In addition to high BB, a land border is crucial to getting nations to declare war on you. So you might consider, for example, annexing a small Italian state. Then let that states' neighbours declare war on you, along with all their allies. I completely understand that it's nice to cherry-pick Declarations of War, but again, you might not have the diplomats for that luxury.
This probably goes without saying but: In Declarations of War, keep an eye on alliances. Lets say you want to declare war on England, but England is only allied with Portugal. Then you look at Portugal, and it is allied with both Castille and England. So declare on Portugal so you get into a war with 3 countries, rather than declaring on England, where you only get into war with 2 other countries, declare on Portugal so you can get all three. (Obviously, you will want to do this mostly with smaller countries. This is just an example.)
Third: Ok this is impractical probably. But I wonder at getting other countries to do your dirty annexing of minor 1-province nations for you? Pursue an alliance with hmm... perhaps Burgundy? Or maybe Lithuania? Do it early, before you run into the diplomat shortages. (This period of time may or may not exist, depending on how early you discover Burgundy and how fast you are conquering.) Then let your ally do the annexation of all the 1 province minors in Germany and Italy. Then, after Europe is subdued, simply turbo-annex your ally. This has the added benefit that it might help you control your borders a little better, and so be better able to orchestrate those periods of peace.
You know what the best candidate for this might be, now that I think about it? None other than France. Her ports will enable you to reach the new world from the west, yet she has land borders with a 1-province "corridor" to central Germany and Italy, the two most diplomatic-intensive areas.
And getting an alliance, even past the BB threshold, seems possible. At least, I got a ton of offers from Genoa for an alliance even after I turbo-annexed Castille.
Then again, going east across to Alaska, establishing a colony there, then going south along the coast is going to be far easier for Ming. That's probably the new world route you want to take.
Kanitatlan said:
Yep. Ming controls deep into north India and much of SE Asia. So it's pretty much just Ming and my allies, once I nip across the Channel and the Baltic Sea, and finish the many huge turbo-annexes I have going.
The turbo-annex of Lithuania will give me a land border with Ming btw. And Mecklenburg has colonies that border Manchu to the north.
...
One other thing: They left colonial advisors the same as in 1.2 didn't they? How are you going to get early explorers? Ugh! That'll slow things.
I loved the little detail about the spy mission. But equally strange things have happened I guess. I mean, Christians arming Muslims to fight athiests and all that.
1702: Final Update
So I put the game on the fastest setting and just let it run, waiting for the last Aragonese province to fall. And on the 30th of November, just 21 days after the last update, it did just that! (With a little spy help.) And so Aragon broke, finally!
Now let's take a look at the final state of the Yemeni Empire.
If we include beseiged/occupied provinces, the Yemeni Empire encompasses almost all of the Middle East; North, East, and South Africa; the Balkans; much of Eastern Europe; essentially all of Western Europe, except for Britain; the Americas, except for a bit of the NE USA and of course, Yemen's good friends, the Incas; Indonesia; Australia; and a tidbit in the NE corner of Asia, kamchatka and the like (gotten from those annoyingly intrepid Aragonese.)
I can't really work up the desire to play any more, now that the game consists mainly of mopping up. I am absolutely and utterly convinced that a WC is possible within the timelimit, what with more than 90 years still remaining.
On the 16th of December, 1694, the diplo-annex of the Ottoman Empire heralded the beginning of the BB wars. Yemen had 192 provinces.
Now, 8 years later, the final province count after the collapse of Aragon is 356.
...
Thanks to all the well-wishers and readers! Hope you enjoyed some non-Latin minor world domination!
So I put the game on the fastest setting and just let it run, waiting for the last Aragonese province to fall. And on the 30th of November, just 21 days after the last update, it did just that! (With a little spy help.) And so Aragon broke, finally!
Now let's take a look at the final state of the Yemeni Empire.
If we include beseiged/occupied provinces, the Yemeni Empire encompasses almost all of the Middle East; North, East, and South Africa; the Balkans; much of Eastern Europe; essentially all of Western Europe, except for Britain; the Americas, except for a bit of the NE USA and of course, Yemen's good friends, the Incas; Indonesia; Australia; and a tidbit in the NE corner of Asia, kamchatka and the like (gotten from those annoyingly intrepid Aragonese.)
I can't really work up the desire to play any more, now that the game consists mainly of mopping up. I am absolutely and utterly convinced that a WC is possible within the timelimit, what with more than 90 years still remaining.
On the 16th of December, 1694, the diplo-annex of the Ottoman Empire heralded the beginning of the BB wars. Yemen had 192 provinces.
Now, 8 years later, the final province count after the collapse of Aragon is 356.
...
Thanks to all the well-wishers and readers! Hope you enjoyed some non-Latin minor world domination!
Nicely done!
And while I agree that mopping up for ninety years doesn't sound terribly fun, what of the inevitable civil war? It could happen! C'mon. Don't deny yourself the chance to slaughter untold millions more.
And while I agree that mopping up for ninety years doesn't sound terribly fun, what of the inevitable civil war? It could happen! C'mon. Don't deny yourself the chance to slaughter untold millions more.
prawnstar said:
I'm not sure. I've tooled around a bit in 1.3 as France and Ming, and it really is not clear.
I see small but wealthy European minors fielding armies of something like 8,000 men. Would an early game Ethiopia, for example, field as much?
And would a country like France or England or Burgundy (especially Burgundy) call up far, far more troops in 1.3?
There would for sure be more troops to face. Thus Yemen would have to field more troops. And with the freeminting change, this means far, far more inflation. So the expansion would be somewhat slower due to those factors.
But If I did it again, I would start the BB wars much, much earlier, which would speed things up considerably. And I would also pay much more attention to my borders, so as to avoid having to fight too many nations at once.
Another thing I would do differently is the order in which I fought wars, and my willingness to adventure over in SE Asia. I would go after Brunei/Malacca/Atjeh early on, and simply get a vassal border with Ming. Ming never touched any of my SE Asia vassals, despite the fact that she had a direct border with them and they were puny.
Going after the Mamluks, especially how I did it, with a bunch of wars and hence a bunch of stab hits, was a mistake. SE Asia would have yielded ever so much more money, and thus sped everything up quite a bit.
One last thing: more manufactories earlier on. They provide a great return for their cost (remember they give monthly tech bonuses, not yearly!). And minting to build them was the optimal thing to do (even factoring in inflation, I worked it out) but I still didn't do it until way late this game.
Ok, one more last thing: Embargoes. I would have embargoed the hell out of my large European opponents, say in the mid-game. They were making so much money off my CoTs late game. And since I don't trade, my TE isn't all that big of a deal.
The things I really exploited the hell out of, especially stealing tons of European colonies and capturing a quite fearsome navy, are not changed in 1.3, as far as I can tell. And for facing down even large AI armies, it's really not a matter of _if_ the army can be defeated but _when_ the army can be defeated. The AI just isn't that good at handling troops. More troops doesn't mean lost wars, it just means longer wars. (Well, assuming their best general doesn't have too much more shock than mine.)
And remember: I had 90 years left. I think even 40 years left would have been sufficient time to wrap up the WC essentially, with maybe a few small countries being left. I was expanding damn fast and there was no real military opposition left. Ming had super-low land tech and my cavalry/uber-generals would have steamrolled them.
So yes, knowing what I know now and if I got lucky (i.e., no bad DoWs, no giant blobification (as in no Burgundy-sized behemoths), the 2 great men again), then I think it would be possible to do the same WC in 1.3. But it would certainly be a fair bit harder.
If you were to drop difficulty down to normal? Then it would be relatively easy in 1.3 I think. That +50% tax bonus is huge.
Well played and well analysed. The only quibble I have with your 1.3 analysis is that the AI likes huge fleets - fighting France or Castile can mean facing 200 ships in 1550, and I'm not sure how your colony-snatching tactics would have held up to that. Also did you ever have a problem with the AI sending spies to wreck your stability?
Excellent AAR. It's gonna be missed. I learned much from your analyrical posts and gaming style. Give another AAR a go soon, a-ok?! Maybe a handicap AAR?!
merrick said:
There was once that I remember when the AI sent spies to sow discontent, but they failed.
Do the AI actually use their fleets well in 1.3? 200 ships sitting in Andalucia doesn't make a bit of difference compared to the 75 ships sitting in Andalucia I faced last game, as far as colonies go.
basharious said:
Going to wait for Napoleon's ambition at the end of August before I play anymore. Though nothing I've seen so far really seems all that impressive of an addition.