[U][SIZE=6]Chimu - the gutsy natives![/SIZE][SIZE=3](take two)[/SIZE][/U] First time round, I tried expanding north as Chimu, and the result was disastrous. I even tried again in a later game where I kept coastal CoT's in my territory so I could actually colonize all the way up to the Aztec, and Castille just declared war and fully annexed us. That seems like a recipe for disaster. So the only tactic really left that might work is to rely on southern expansion, at least for the first half of the game. I'll try that in take two, which I'm doing because I now have a sadistic desire to overcome the massive penalties imposed on Chimu! I'll be focusing research on land tech instead of government tech, because I think that's the more important one to go for to get to land tech 3 by the time the Westerners arrive - we can have fort 1's built everywhere. Government tech 10, allowing the switch out from tribal government to Noble Republic, will come very quickly once Westernization is started. I pick up from an early savegame from take 1 - what I call "Chimu survival" which is where we grab a few territories from the Inca in the first few months of the game, then "cede" one of them which fools the AI into thinking they've somehow won the war when in fact we gained territories, including importantly the gold-producing Tarma. After a few years, we obviously attack Inca again and take a bunch more of their territory. We're going to try to cheat as little as possible this time, so we're keeping to 9 provinces to avoid the incapable ruler penalty. As we're planning on colonizing one extra province to expand the "surface area" for Western powers to colonize next-door to us, we want to leave ourselves with 8 provinces and the Inca with 4. I think we can just about handle the inflation caused by 3 of Inca's 4 gold mines, so we take 3 of them and leave Inca with the 1 gold mine province that is their capital. In a later war, we then get them to drop their cores on all but the 4 provinces we want them to have so we stay at 9: [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/1.png[/IMG] Note that the regional CoT has popped up in Chanchan, so for now we have 0.1 colonists per year. Shortly after, we give Huanuco to the Inca. All of Inca's cores are removed except the 3 provinces they now own, and Cajamarca. Later, we'll give them Cajamarca just before we create our colony, to stick within the 9 province limit. Also, another war and vassalization of the Inca is on the cards. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/2.png[/IMG] A little later... it's 1418 and we have now indeed vassalized the Inca. We're just about keeping inflation stable with our 6-star master of the mint countering about 0.11 inflation from reliance on gold mines (with minting at zero), and we're set to get to land tech 1 in 1456. It's a steady march from now for the next 150 years or so, to centralization -2, and innovative -3. I'm going to do centralization first, and then innovative. I notice that in Europe, Castille has taken quite a beating by Aragon and been forced to release Galicia as a sovereign state. Ironically, we probably want Castille to actually do well and attack the French as we're expanding south; the French are likely to come into contact with us and may have a very high manpower! Still, I'm sure Castille will get their territory back on a reconquest CB pretty quickly: [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/3.png[/IMG] I also finally remember to take the religious decision "Religious Sacrifices" (I always forget this!), lowering stability cost and increasing yearly cultural tradition. We avoid the other religious decisions though, because they increase stability cost and we'll want that as low as possible for Westernization and switching to a Noble Republic (though, we should probably take these decisions immediately [i]after[/i] we've carried all that out): [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/4.png[/IMG] In July 1428, we get a "Bourgeoisie Request Privileges" event - exactly the kind of thing we need to move towards plutocracy for free! Our tribal government type doesn't want us to go beyond -1 aristocracy but we start out at -5, giving a nasty increased revolt risk. We don't have time to move this slider obviously, being focused on centralization and innovation, so these events are great. By July 1438, the CoT had already stagnated and moved inland, and now it has stagnated and moved back to Chanchan again. We currently have 0.7 colonists, so we're going to get a colonist this time round. In April 1441, we get a colonist, give Cajamarca to the Inca, and colonize Chuquiabo. This gives us more "surface area" to get Western colonies next to us, and still allows them to colonize Arica, which for some reason seems to be one they colonize quite often, when I check back to what happened in some of my other games (this prediction turned out to be amazingly accurate, as we'll see later). Not sure why the AI likes Arica so much. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/5.png[/IMG] Eeeeeeeeexcellent. Another event in August 1442 gives us the win-win of free money and free movement towards plutocracy again: [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/6.png[/IMG] We now only get a +2 increased revolt risk because of the aristocracy policy restriction. We discover in May 1443 that Chuquiabo is to give us coffee. Not bad! A couple of events, including a "Sale of Titles" event in August 1444, gives us yet more free plutocracy gains - seriously lucky. We now have no policy restriction revolt risk because of too much aristocracy (the slider is at -1 aristocracy); it will only come from too much centralization, which is unavoidable given that we're doing Westernization. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/6a.png[/IMG] By April 1452, we're coring on some provinces, and our colony in Chuquiabo is now self-sustaining. That's the only expansion we'll be doing until the Westerners arrive. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/7.png[/IMG] At the start of November 1456 - we get to land tech 1! [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/8.png[/IMG] Only took 57 years... by New World standards, that's pretty quick... and by June 1477, we're at land tech 2. Current estimate is that it'll probably take another 45 years until land tech 3, unless we get a lucky land tech event. However, that should get closer as we get more innovative - we're now at centralization -2 and it's time to start on the innovative slider moves. only 8 to go until Westernization is possible. :) I'd give a more detailed description of the next ~50 years of game time, but it can be summed up with "do nothing except innovative slider changes, commissioning the odd painting, and hiring the odd adviser." Come January 1514, land tech 3 arrives... let the fort building begin! If we multiplied our abysmal manpower (4,418) by ten, we'd still be far too weak to hold out against France, which has now conquered most of Burgandy. Oh well... We've started to discover some terra incognita, and by July 1534 - now that we can see Castille - we can try to give them military access... and surprisingly they accept! Will this stop them DoWing on us? Well, it's worth a try, anyway. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/9.png[/IMG] So we're finally getting close to the slider levels we need to Westernize; just 1 innovative to go. We've gone pretty quickly, but this took me by surprise! [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/10.png[/IMG] Arghh, Britain have actually founded a colony in Arica about 9 years too early for me to Westernize! This 1549 colony is way earlier than I've seen the AI found a colony in Arica before. Britain must have some cored provinces on the eastern side of South America. I knew the AI liked Arica, but man... At least it's not Castille. They do accept military access, but it's still unnerving having them on the doorstep. The sooner we can get Westernized now, the better. Finally, in Feb 1558, we're able to move to innovative -3. I do have to kill off my current leader from the console because I need one with admin of 7 or higher - we've had 4 in a row with admin lower than 7. Pretty unlucky. Now we get one with admin 8, it's time to Westernize. Britain don't want to play ball. This is happening a lot: [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/11.png[/IMG] Come on Britain... you know you want military access. We keep persisting in giving them military access, but over time they will stop accepting it. Makes it a lot easier for them to declare war on us. A bit of luck in January 1559 - a 7-year-old regent now rules Britain. They can't DoW on us for 8 years, still probably not long enough but better than nothing. By November 1561, we're now fully Westernized in tech, but it will be a few decades before we can get the centralization to do military modernization! We Westernized tech quite quickly, over the course of about 4 years. One of the few things Chimu have going for them is that the whole territory is the same Animist religion, and the same culture group. This keeps stability cost pretty low, even without temples. Also, all of our provinces are cored as we haven't yet annexed the Inca. We no longer need (or want) a Western neighbour, and I have an idea... [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/12.png[/IMG] Woohoo for the natives! We incited them a few times and after a few lucky successes, they have eradicated the British colony on our doorstep. Britain may still DoW on us (they've cancelled military access now and won't accept it again), but at least they won't be able to mass troops on the border. We might even be able to stop them landing if we quickly build a bunch of carracks at naval tech 3. By April 1563, we've reached government tech 10 and stability +2. The baptism of fire continues as we reform the government and escape the terrible clutches of Tribal Democracy! A very respectable Noble Republic awaits us. No more incapable leader penalties means that we now annex the Inca ASAP, and colonize, colonize, colonize. We want a manpower of 40k to match the British manpower, ideally. Getting 20k would be an achievement. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/13.png[/IMG] July 1564 comes around, and we've now incorporated the Inca and founded 4 colonies in Arica, Caracara, Caranga, and Moxos. Here's the current situation: [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/14.png[/IMG] We are losing about 80 ducats a year because of colonial maintenance, even on low military maintenance, so I don't know what we're gonna do about that. Maybe I'll need to go back and found fewer colonies. Once we've gotten back to stability +3 and a level 6 master of the mint, though, we can probably mint enough money to break even, and not increase inflation by much. 10 years of this and the colonies will become self-sustaining, easing the financial burden a lot. Building a fleet is out right now, though. It's far too expensive and I'm spending all my my money on forts, constables, docks, etc. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/15.png[/IMG] Maya call us to war in May 1570 as they've DoW'd against Aztec. We might as well accept the call, to earn a bit more cash with war taxes. Meanwhile, we've managed to get rid of France's colony from Banda Oriental by inciting the natives a few times, so hopefully their interest in South America is reduced. A couple of the former Incan provinces have a revolt risk above zero because they weren't cored by us (we gained a core on one of their provinces when we diplo-annexed them because we had a mission to annex them, and I think we had another core because of a boundary dispute event). [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/16.png[/IMG] We're struggling financially but that's hardly unexpected; it should be easier once our 4 colonies become self-sustaining and we can get round to building a fleet of carracks. The colonies' goods are coffee, copper, gold, and naval supplies, which is a nice range. We still have about 20 years to go until we can get to full centralization, and military Westernization, but we've done about as well as can be expected given our starting position. Will we survive til the end of the game? Maybe, but one thing's for sure: this definitely seems like a much better strategy than expanding north. If we had gone north, Castille would probably have annexed us by now. That's it for this instalment!