Chapter Forty Four
Declaring war on Korea gives me the extra point of BB I need before accepting the ‘Great Man’ event.
That’s a nice set of enemies, particularly if I can get some troops past Japan’s fleet. BB of
0.73 / 15.00 won’t last more than four months so an additional war is a sensible precaution.
War with Ceylon
I might as well get remove that OPM and run down the BB while I’m fighting the Korean alliance. BB is
1.73 / 15.00.
By mid-April Korea is reay to make peace for cores and 225 ducats. Although I could annex the OPM (which has a French core) I won’t. The plan is to guarantee Korea and hope either Ming or Japan annexes. Alternatively Korea may succumb to diplomatic vassalisation in which case I’ll wait until they are annexed.
Peace with Ceylon – May 1658
BB of
1.35 / 15.00 jumps to
4.85 / 15.00; far from ideal but annexations are needed.
I’m also deep into a serious colonial push, I’m now running 32 colonies and that number is likely to keep rising for another decade.
Peace with Ming – January 1659
Six provinces, 4 are cores so this deal is only 2BB.
This is the reason why I tried to avoid taking cores before 1650.
I’ve saved 4BB after 1650 instead of 2BB before 1650.
BB is
5.32 / 15.00.
Peace with Madurai – July 1659
The seizure of the Southernmost of the Home Islands should save me a couple of points worth of DOWs. The Japanese AI normally focuses on trying to drive the invader out. BB is now
9.17 / 15.00.
I left Madurai with a second province on the Malay Peninsula as I’m hoping it will act as a DOW magnet. I’m going to guarantee Madurai.
By late 1661 Venice is in trouble. The war with Denmark is a stalemate (yes the same war from when the Ottomans overran most of Scandinavia – I’ve save/reloaded three times to try and persuade the AI to make peace) and a recent Ottoman attack is pushing into northern Italy. September 1661 sees the Golden Horde dogpile Venice triggering a French warning.
BB at this point is
4.02 / 15.00.
By August 1662 my offensive has ran out of steam. Attrition and assaults have left my forces very short of men and vulnerable to the still large armies that the Horde can raise. I’ve had two stacks of 10 and 20 regiments destroyed in the last few days. It’s time for peace.
Peace with the Golden Horde – August 1662
Alania is a core so the cost was 6BB taking me to
8.11 / 15.00.
April 1663 sees me replace the 3* colonial growth advisor with a 39 year 1* diplomat; every little helps. It’s only a little; he dies in the summer of 1664 so I re-employ the colonial growth guy :rofl:
The summer of 1664 sees Denmark and Venice white peace out. Denmark is finally at peace, as far as I can tell they’ve been at war since September 1630.
A new Diplomat – September 1664
This is very welcome, even a 2* diplomat is an extra province every 10 years.
By September 1665 BB has fallen to
0.90 / 15.00, I can’t really wait any longer…
