[U][SIZE=6]Chimu - the gutsy natives![/SIZE][SIZE=3]- Consolidation and colonialism[/SIZE][/U] The nation of Chimu is still struggling to hold together. Less than 50% of its territories are cored, and many still speak of breaking away into some "Old Europe" state, or dream of the day when the mighty Chimu forces will be defeated by aggressive Europeans. Much work is to be done in building the nation into a patriotic block with a strong economy, not to mention converting certain Christian provinces to Animism. It's clear that the conquest of the territories the Europeans illegitimately seized off the natives in the north-east of the continent is some way off yet. In March 1673, the Falklands becomes self-sustaining and we build a fort there. We are probably going to want to go up to a level 2 or level 3 fort, as it tends to get invaded so much in wars... we want it to be able to hold out a while. Checking the map, we notice that we can expand our Sphere of Inflience to all the M's - Morocco, Mali, and Maya - which we do. With the help of one of our colonists, Choco becomes self-sustaining in August 1673, and we build a fort there too. That's probably another one we're going to want to build a fort 2 or 3 in, and when it cores, possibly a March, to help defend against Castille... if we haven't driven Castille back by then. In September 1673, Picunmapu cores. Guayaquil becomes self-sustaining in October 1674, as does Cartagena in November 1675. In May 1675, we decide to move our national focus to Antioquia to help some of our northern colonies grow quicker. Time for some military progress, then, and in December 1675, we reach land tech 27 which enables Gallop Cavalry, which we switch to. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/159.png[/IMG] Over the next few months, colonies become self-sustaining, helping us a lot financially (our colonial maintenance, which was really straining the finances, is lowered enormously). Bogota becomes self-sustaining in February 1676, Chiancon in July 1676, Cauca in February 1677, and Quito in December 1677. We can now turn a bit of a yearly profit again without increasing inflation, so we get to building things like fort 2, fort 3, constable, things that increase manpower like training fields, docks, drydocks, etc. Lots of investment is needed in province development, as can be imagined for a nation most of whose history has just been staying alive! In February 1679, we realized that we had 5 colonists available, so we're going to send them all to Catamarca and get that colony kickstarted and fill in one of the gaps in our territory. The first one arrives successfully. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/160.png[/IMG] Come September 1679, Britain randomly declare war on us. We're ready to kick some ass, if they really want the punishment. This time round, we're not really desperate to end these kinds of wars because we're no longer so desperate to nab European colonies before they become self-sustaining - we've already done that. So we're in for the long haul, and we aint interested in giving concessions of defeat no more. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/161.png[/IMG] In June 1680, we had been doing quite well against Britain... but still, Castille decided to DoW as well. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/162.png[/IMG] [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/163.png[/IMG] Maybe Castille wants some of this. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/164.png[/IMG] Funny how they always seem to declare in clusters. It's not like a truce had just ended, or anything. September 1680 - Things are going well so far, both on land and navally. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/165.png[/IMG] By February 1681, we've occupied a bunch of Sardinia-Piedmont's territory and, lo and behold, they sue for a white peace. However, my hunch is that, now that they're talking peace, they'll give us some tribute, in the form of ducats - and they do. Maybe this warring is just the Europeans' way of giving us gifts. :) [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/166.png[/IMG] In January 1682, the arrival of land tech 28 lets us switch to the Highlanders Infantry, which we do immediately. We then core on Chaco Boreal in March 1682. Our fleet is still struggling to have resounding victories over that of the British and other nations with large fleets, so we decide it needs to be even stronger, and get to building 7 wargalleons. In May 1682, we get a slider change and switch to more qualtiy but, yeowch, this is pretty bad timing to be losing 16k manpower. We're building a bunch of buildings to give us more manpower, in order to try and offset the loss of manpower we're getting by switching away from quantity. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/167.png[/IMG] January 1683, and we core on Pehuenmapu. We also get an offer of white peace from Castille, but again, my hunch is that they'll be willing to pay some tribute. Looks like I'm right... [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/168.png[/IMG] By February 1683, we're really starting to get a good number of cores now - we core on Pampas, then in March, on Parana, then in July, on Salinas Grande. I've also been reading up on what determines one's land force limits, and it seems that one of the few variables we can actually control is plain old tax income. Presumably, the more of our territories we core on, the higher our tax income from those territories, and the higher our land force limits will go. As we're really struggling with land force limits right now (naval ones are alright, though), that should help a lot. In August 1683, Britain had started attacking our allies, the Maya, so we land an army to teach them a lesson. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/169.png[/IMG] Britain accept a white peace at last in November 1683, but they had a couple of colonies seized from them by the Mayans so basically, the war was a major Fail for the British. Meanwhile, those wargalleons have been built and added to our main fleet, which now numbers 77 ships. We continue our all-dock policy, and use our current magistrates to build docks in all provinces that don't have them. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/170.png[/IMG] We get to government tech 28 in May 1684, allowing Republican Dictatorship, but before we switch to it, I wanna wait for a leader with better administration to be elected under our current Administrative Republic. October 1684 sees Catamarca becomes self-sustaining and we build a fort there. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/171.png[/IMG] Boy, are we getting a lot of these "colonial company founded" events - this is the third one, founded in November 1684, and it's for Maynas! This might as well mark the start of our north-west area colonization campaign. The natives of these provinces are some of the friendliest around, so there shouldn't be any problems with native uprisings. We begin sending colonists to these provinces. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/172.png[/IMG] OK, this guy's better - the bureaucrat candidate. Now we can switch to Republican Dictatorship with him at the helm. We're close to losing the overextension penalty, too, as we're nearly at 50% core territories. We now get the imperialism CB on all nations. We also, of course, lose all slider restrictions with this awesome form of government. In June 1687, we core on Banda Oriental, and lose the overextension penalty! [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/173.png[/IMG] It's January 1689 and, you guessed it... well, Castille had been annexing the Maya and Aztec for a while, so I saw this one coming. Still, you'd think they might have learned their lesson by now that attacking us is futile. Time for a full-blooded assault on everything Castille holds dear. Our manpower is significantly higher than theirs now, but interestingly, they still have more troops. Either they are above their land force limits, or they have a stupidly high land force limit given their manpower. [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/174.png[/IMG] Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr... they just need to be extirpated from our lands. They just need to be. And luckily, that's definitely part of the expansion roadmap. Wearily, our armies march into Sardinia-Piedmont territory yet again. By February 1689, we've successfully founded colonies in all the inland provinces we had "ringfenced off" from the Europeans. We can leave those colonies now to "simmer" and grow over time. Before we know it, they will be fully-fledged Chimu territory! [IMG]http://game-point.net/misc/eu3/chimu/take2/175.png[/IMG] So, we can now pretty much concentrate on full-blooded war with the Europeans, and hopefully pulling ahead of them in tech too. That's it for this instalment!