[U][SIZE=6]Chimu - the gutsy natives![/SIZE][SIZE=3]- The struggle for survival continues[/SIZE][/U] We have no navy, so we need to get one built pronto. Operating on the assumption that a Western power with a big navy will declare war on us, we should build a navy of maybe 20 big ships to try and stop them even landing troops. As we have no land borders, this should be enough to prevent a war from harming us much, and we may even benefit from it through war taxes. I notice in June 1570 that we can pass the Recruiting Act, because of the technicality that we are "at war" - with Aztec. We do this because we really need the extra manpower, and the increase in stability cost is acceptable given that we've completed [i]most[/i] of our Westernization now. Maximum manpower moves up to 22,296 - a couple of thousand more than Portugal! [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/17.png[/IMG] It's July 1571, and I just tried to give Britain military access on an offchance, and this "unlikely" decision happened: [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/18.png[/IMG] Will we be able to expand across lots of South America without be declared on once by Europeans? That would surely be some kind of record. In January 1572, I go to try and ally with Castille for the lols, and couldn't because I noticed that they're in a personal union with Lithuania! No idea when that happened, but if they get inherited, Lithuania will be very big. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/19.png[/IMG] Febuary 1573 - LOL! We have 1 ship, a carrack. I'm guessing Portugal lost its fleet because it had dozens of ships when I last checked!!! :laugh: On the negative side, Britain now has 103 ships. Maybe they captured Portugal's ships. Colonies now start to become self-sustaining. Arica in May 1574, Caracara and Caranga in July 1574, and Moxos in November 1576. Our manpower is now up to 24,572. France keep founding new colonies on the east coast of South America and we keep inciting the natives to kill them off. I don't want to face that manpower of theirs, which is now up to about 200k - the highest in the world. Nevertheless, we start the major ship building programme on the assumption that they will attack, taking out a loan to help with speed. We may possibly be able to beat them with a navy of 20 carracks or something, though our naval tech of 9 is horrible - theirs is 21. By February 1581, as part of my usual all-dock policy, all of our coastal provinces now have docks. They have the win-win of increased production efficiency, and quicker naval unit repair. This leader's much more like it. A half-decent leader for once, in April 1587. We went for the "military candidate" but he's a level 7 administrator too, which will allow us to do military Westernization: [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/20.png[/IMG] One thing I've noticed is that Paradox seem to have gone to a lot of effort to create a lot of different New World infantry units, which have interesting descriptions. I'm not sure why they bothered, considering you almost immediately have to Westernize your military to stand a chance of survival anyway! By April 1591, we've started our military Westernization; "action and reaction" has begun, with the inevitable revolts! We have a decent fleet of 25 big ships (over our force limits by a few ships, though not too many because we adopted the Grand Navy idea, replacing Colonial Ventures for now) and our army is good too; we're building some cavalry units to complement the infantry ones. Hopefully we can now put up a decent fight against the Europeans. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/21.png[/IMG] [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/22.png[/IMG] So much for that record. Castille have done the inevitable DoW first, in April 1594, but we are catching up fast in land and naval tech, we're at max stability, have a strong navy of 25 big ships, and "action and reaction" is ending in a few months. We had given Castille military access so they're now at -3 stability. :) They'll just have to learn who not to attack. Bring it on!!! Around about the same time, we repay the loan we took out to get our fleet built up quickly. We're now in better financial shape. No sign of Castille's ships yet. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/23.png[/IMG] August 1594 brings us land tech 18 and the tercio infantry. We now have GUNS! Eat lead, enemies. No more "action and reaction" also means we have a zero revolt risk. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/24.png[/IMG] By the beginning of 1595, there's no sign of Castille, and our war capacity has gone up from 0% to 34%. Ouch. Castille hits us in March 1595 with their entire navy, explaining why they were taking so long to arrive. So the AI isn't [i]that[/i] dumb... [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/25.png[/IMG] Inevitably we lose and 2 ships are captured. We get to rebuilding them immediately... [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/26.png[/IMG] Castille quickly lands a size 19 unit, in June 1595, but it's down to 11k troops because of attrition. We should stand a chance here, on land. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/27.png[/IMG] It's on! We joined up both our units, and attacked. They didn't get any terrain advantage because of mountains, either. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/28.png[/IMG] November 1595 - we won the battle! They flee to Chanchan, we follow them and... [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/29.png[/IMG] The first major military victory of the native Americans over the Europeans is won! May it be the first of many. In February 1596, Lithuania dishonour their miltary alliance with Castille! Looks like their personal union is over, too. Muhahaha... [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/30.png[/IMG] A month later, here the bastards come again, with 24 transports now. We move a unit in to greet them as they land. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/31.png[/IMG] Buuut... they land before we could get there. Damn. We join our 2 armies together again and march in. Even with a -4 terrain disadvantage, our brave troops win the fight! As they flee to Caracara, we follow. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/32.png[/IMG] And come August 1596, another major military victory!!! Looks like they're landing about 14k troops per time now, so we'll keep the 2 military units in adjoining provinces and merge them together each time we go for the Castillians, to try and avoid any attrition losses. Our manpower is holding up and is stable at around 20k (admittedly I'm using version 5.2 ZZFZ). [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/33.png[/IMG] By September 1596, Castille are starting to talk peace, but want us to pay them. No way. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/34.png[/IMG] We're building up a little war exhaustion from attrition, but thanks to our religious and cultural uniformity, we have a long way to go before there's any revolt risk. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/35.png[/IMG] Ha! They give in and offer a white peace in July 1597, which we accept. But we won morally. :) [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/36.png[/IMG] I'm going to hire a level 6 statesman now and start putting some serious research funding into government to get to level 22; we want another national idea, colonial ventures. We must spread to most of South America to really be able to compete with the might and manpower of nations like France. September 1600 - I've remembered that we should now enact the remaining religious decisions, now that we can afford to raise stability cost a little, so we hire a temporary theologian to replace our master of the mint, then go back to a new level 6 master of the mint. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/37.png[/IMG] And in January 1601, another slider change is possible - we go to more centralization which puts us on -4. We also switch government type to an Administrative Republic. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/38.png[/IMG] Government level 22 is taking an excruciatingly long time to get to - we're looking at February 1510, another 8 years from now. Unfortunately this is just going to be a very boring wait until we can start colonial expansion. We need to keep our other national ideas in place, crucial as they are to our military defence. In Febuary 1604, Holland have founded a colony in Rio de la Plata. We incite the natives to terminate it. We want to keep the southern half of South America colony-free if possible. More European colonies are springing up on the South American coast and it's getting harder to eject them with the natives, but we do our best. We finally get government tech 22 in January 1610 and immediately adopt the Colonial Ventures national idea. Around this time, we also get another slider change, which we use to get back to full -5 centralization. By May 1611, our colonist colonizes Charcas successfully, and we immediately set it as our national focus. We want the colonies around it to become self-sustaining ASAP. Colonial maintenance is hurting us financially, though; we have to mint so much we're getting 0.1 inflation per year now. Government tech 25 and National Bank beckons, though it's a long way off. One rule I'm adopting is that we aren't going to reduce of the size of our military... it's only going to grow. Even if we're over our force limits, we can't afford to show any weakness. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/39.png[/IMG] We get a pleasant surprise in January 1614 - the currency revaluation event. Our inflation's up at 5.5, so I'll take it happily despite the -2 stability hit. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/40.png[/IMG] By June 1614, we've cored on 6(!) provinces in relatively quick succession; Arica, Huamanga, Moxos, Huanuco, Caracara, and Caranga. This should help us a lot financially. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/41.png[/IMG] January 1615, and we've now founded 4 colonies successfully, thanks to a "colonial company founded" event giving us a colony with 200 population in Atacama! Our national focus is hitting 3 of them. We can't stop the endless tide of colonists from Europe now, though, so they're creating a bunch of annoying colonies on the eastern coast: [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/42.png[/IMG] Looks like Charcas will produce grain, and so will Chiquitos. Yuck yuck. However, we have coffee in Chichas and fish in Atacama. We have roughly caught up in tech with Europe, though, being fully Westernized: [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/43.png[/IMG] Can we go on to take the fight to the Europeans? That's for the next instalment. A major war with The Hansa looks likely as they want to encroach into our South America with a lot of colonies. France's manpower is through the roof at over 236k, so I still don't like our chances against them. We can't ally with [i]anyone[/i] useful, so we're pretty much on our own, whereas going to war with France is pretty much going to war with Europe. Why did they have to be so successful this game? For once, I actually wish Burgandy had kicked their ass.