[U][SIZE=6]Chimu - the gutsy natives![/SIZE][SIZE=3]- Aggressive expansion (continued...)[/SIZE][/U] After 2 years without indicent, we're able to white peace out of this war in October 1639. We're now keeping our military and naval maintenance at maximum even in peacetime which, while expensive, may discourage the AI from attacking us so readily. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/101.png[/IMG] Now that Pehuenmapu has become self-sustaining by November 1639, we can finally send a colonist to Pampas to flip it to our religion and culture... [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/102.png[/IMG] ... and we do. We've also joined 3 galleons onto the main fleet, having realized that our naval force limits have gone up a lot for some reason. Feb 1640 - Another slider change is possible. As our inflation is now up to 9.0, we decide to put the narrowminded movement on hold and go towards free subjects instead. Inflation reduction is just what we need! (OK, I did have to try a few times to get this one...) [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/103.png[/IMG] June 1640... and the colonist to Pampas worked! Yay! Next up, do the same thing with Parana, now that Pampas is self-sustaining. And a few months later, colonization of Parana is successful. Animist faith, Incan culture. Nice. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/104.png[/IMG] August 1640 rolls along, and we get to land tech 23, allowing Charge Infantry, which we switch to. We now move all tech focus to government, trying to get to the next government tech - 25 - allowing us our next national idea, which will be National Bank. Then in December 1641, an interesting development; The Hansa have changed their capital to Sierra Leone. Still not South America, though. Later, a "dramatic currency revaluation" event in February 1642 allows us to lose a further 2 points of inflation. We happily take it; a bargain for a -2 stability hit. Inflation's now down to 4.5. By May 1642 I notice that Sweden has founded colonies in Cauca, Quito, and Guayaquil. Yep, the natives are incited to get rid of them. We don't want a northern land border with anyone until as late as possible. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/105.png[/IMG] In June 1642, we establish a colony in Jujuy, a province which is next to our national focus, so it should grow more quickly. Then in March 1643, Zapotec and Aztec, which had been annexed, declare independence from Naples. That might keep the Westerners busy with someone else for a while... [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/106.png[/IMG] June 1643 - Portugal have just founded a colony in, shall we say, an irritating location. I can't incite the natives to get rid of it because some damn Norweigan troops are still standing there from when we were warring with them. We'll just have to declare war with Portugal at some point and seize it. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/107.png[/IMG] In November 1644, it transpires that copper will be produced in Jujuy. Not bad! [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/108.png[/IMG] It's January 1645, and Byzantium just couuuuuldn't resist declaring on us. They don't have any nearby provinces so hopefully this will just be an opportunity to make some money from war taxes. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/109.png[/IMG] Ah. Well, I was looking for a way to take out that pesky Portugese colony anyway. In March 1645, we seize that Huillimapu colony from the Portugese and send a colonist to flip it to our religion and culture. Shortly after, we discover that fish are to be produced as its trade good. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/110.png[/IMG] In February 1647, we get to a white peace with Portugal. Now here's the thing: mucho colonization has been going on from The Hansa and Genoa in areas we want to take, so a war with The Hansa right now would make sense; we need to capture or probably burn their colonies (we're close to 50% non-core provinces right now and capturing them would lead to overextension). We declare a war of aggression on them. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/111.png[/IMG] We do burn The Hansa's colonies and occupy their South American provinces in September 1647, but are having trouble getting them to make any concessions. We can't really blockade their African ports (their capital has been moved to Africa) for long, as we take lots of attrition. It does help that Mali have given us military access, so we can duck into one of their ports to repair and then re-blockade The Hansa again for a few months. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/112.png[/IMG] By April 1649, we've gotten to government level 25 and another national idea. It's gonna be National Bank. We're now able to turn a (very) small annual profit without increasing inflation. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/113.png[/IMG] In April 1650, another slider change towards narrowminded is made. The Hansa just won't accept a peace deal, still. My ships have been hovering around their European provinces, Holstein having given me military access for my ships to repair at, and I notice that only 1000 troops are defending Bremen. We only have 4 transports ready to transport our troops, but we ship them over there and start to seige (the 1000 are taken out easily). The Hansa do later send along about 4000 troops to try and stop the seige, but they fail and we occupy Bremen. This brings the war score up to about 9%. A few months later in September 1650, The Hansa are finally talking peace, and we can evict them from South America! The province we aren't taking is a colony, which we seize just before they accept the peace deal. It sure didn't hurt that we sailed over to Europe and occupied Bremen. :) We get the overextension penalty now (less than half our provinces are cores!), but we can live with that for the sake of taking this territory. In 10 years, more provinces should start to core and we'll lose overextension at some point... keeping a leader around with high administration ability would be a good idea, though. We also took these provinces soon enough that The Hansa hadn't cored on them, either. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/114.png[/IMG] July 1652 - Aha, now this was the other reason I wanted to take those territories off The Hansa at high infamy. The Chimu have learned well the art of colonization from the Europeans, and still 2 further colonies have been founded in Patagonia Occidental and Chaco Austral, bringing us up to 4 again. You need the infamy, as well as 4 colonies and a leader with 6 admin or more, to get Colonial Expansion. This will speed up the growth of our colonies even more; very useful considering how dependent we are on colonialization. The Colonial Expansion decision is implemented immediately. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/115.png[/IMG] So at this point, we're in a relatively stable position. It feels like the Europeans don't seem to be attacking us with so much gusto now. We can afford to have a large military and navy, and keep them on full maintenance. We're still dragging a lot of colonies and non-cored provinces along, though, so it will be a real weight off the nation's shoulders when some of them start to core... but in terms of plain old "territory controlled by Chimu", it aint bad: [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/116.png[/IMG] We're also still Animist (hence everyone having the Colonialism CB against us) - the only Animist nation still standing except for Zapotec, Aztec, and Maya. I suspect they will get absorbed by Castille or someone soon. We haven't actually had a single "convert to Christianity" event, anyway, despite borders with Reformed and Catholic nations. Looking at the colonial mapmode, I notice that there are several European colonies that haven't yet become self-sustaining - most notably a couple from Holland up north, which are close to going over 1000, as well as one from Sardinia-Piedmont, and several from Genoa. Our next priority is to burn these as quickly as possible (do we look enough like bloodthirsty pagan savages yet...? :laugh:) and replace them (as well as all remaining uncolonized South American territory) with our own colonies to ensure that the Animist/Inca culture is spread as far as possible throughout the South America we want to dominate, keeping revolt risk and stability cost nice and low. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/117.png[/IMG] To what degree of success we manage this will be revealed in the next instalment.