Gavin Menzies was right?? An (A)historical Ming AAR

[3772014]

Mode: Ironman, Hard AI, AI bonuses

Alright, although I've been playing paradox games for perhaps thousands of hours, this is my first AAR, as well as my first ironman game with ming, so bear with me. It's mostly going to be me trying to be as ahistorical as possible. Let's see if we can revive the eunuchs and recreate the glories of Zheng He's fleet? I didn't play ming in eu3, finding the factions system too restrictive and boring (balancing factions involved years of policy movement...yawn). If I had to play in Asia, I played manchu because they could at least expand while waiting for westernization. In other words, you'd end up with a bigger overall empire by playing them instead.

So, let's begin. I start off by using diplo power to put the eunuchs in power, because otherwise I pay double for advisors, which ming sorely needs for gaining monarch power. I then put traders in hangzhou and canton, which combined with beijing give me about 15 monthly trade income! My combined income could support 3 level 3 advisors, but sadly, I only have one. Oh well. This will provide money for my plans of exploration. The 75% bonus to tech that the eunuchs give me also put Ming's tech between Muslim and Ottoman, which isn't so shabby, especially compared with previous EU games.

The first idea I pick is exploration. Ming has no use for more diplo tech, since its naval power is unchallenged in asia. That and cheaper ideas facilitate getting diplomatic ideas. In a few years the emperor and his heir dies in a war with manchu (thankfully) and I get an okay ruler (2 4 2) with an excellent (5 5 4) heir in charge! Unfortunately, my good advisors die and I'm left with a skill 2 and 2 skill 1 advisors. My treasury grows ever larger as a result. By making friends in india and the middle east, I slowly explore into africa, retracing zheng he's historic journey.



The exploration goes well and I'm greeted with a nice surprise-Orissa, the largest indian power, has lost its king and heir. Due to the royal marriage earlier to improve relations for fleet access, Ming is now in control of roughly 1/3 of India! Definitely not historical.



About 10 years after I got exploration, ming has explored all of europe, thanks to an alliance with portugal (war subsidies + gift + military access + killing their rebels, sieging back their land got us quite friendly).



We even have a colony in africa! Witness ming cavalry protecting its colony against the natives of ..Arguin?? Hopefully, we'll be in the new world before portugal/spain :laugh:



Alright, hope my AAR's been interesting so far! I will update every 2-3 days if there's enough interest.

 

[CatKnight]

Now that's an impressive start!

 

[Arentak]

It would never have occurred to me to go that far that fast.

 

[unmerged(194775)]

I shall most definitely be following this.

 

[Vladislav]

I had fun doing something similar in EU3, starting a game when Ming has Zheng He the explorer and rushing to conquer the Native Americans. Looking forward to see how this works out in EU4.

 

[unmerged(271387)]

I will follow this.
I want to see how unhistorical you can get.Maybe after 1750 let a superstate in the Americas from your colonial lands revolt?

 

[3772014]

Looks like I will have to take more screenshots from now on-people are actually reading this!

By using Portuguese azores and after coring Arguin in africa as a base for future operations, it is now possible to land and colonize south america, so let's begin the next chapter:



And as a result, I beat the portuguese to the new world! I wonder how long I can keep this colonial supremacy up? It takes ming 2 years to send a colonist to this continent :glare:



As a result of massive exploration my naval tradition shot up to 80%! It doesn't offer any bonuses I really need, though. Still, it's interesting to see my treasury expanding to the #1 place, considering this is played with AI bonuses:



It's probably just due to having bad/cheap advisors...After some years of slow colonial creeping, I gain a show supremacy CB on the Aztecs. Maybe I could use some of their gold? 4000 is not a bad sum!



You might wonder what is going on in Asia. Well, after PUing Orissa, ming forced a personal union on pegu, which has expanded nicely into thailand. Missions also resulted in the vassalization of ryukyu and manchu, with korea targeted for slow piecemeal absorption. The reason I don't diplo annex them immediately is because ming has a 50% forcelimit debuff that would make me go way over my limit and make these allies a lot weaker. I also ally japan. Who knows? Maybe another personal union will happen :laugh:



In 1541, a new eunuch advisor appears-a skill 3 diplo advisor-something not seen since the start of the game! Maybe ming's bad luck with advisors is over? The eunuchs impose a 50% penalty on tax income, but the current income is still more than efficient to cover expenses. However, a glaring problem arises-why are ming's colonies only producing 2 in tariffs??



Well, it looks like colonizing so far from your "home base" has its problems after all, besides colonist travel time. In fact, a 90% penalty on overseas tax and tariffs is in place! No wonder all that sugar, coffee, tobacco, and gold aren't improving things by much.



In 1543, through careful optimization and zero spending on construction, ming's administrative technology has caught up with the rest of the world! The next level is 8 years ahead of time, in fact...



In the same year, the great ruler dies, leaving behind a hopelessly mediocre successor with 3 2 3 stats. That's an entire 6 less than the previous! This successor also has an even worse successor after. He must go-so a war with the oirats begins. The oirats look big at first, but an army to army comparison reveals a huge disparity in power:



The effects of my colonization is most obvious if you compare the before and after maps:





Looks like I will have to watch out for the russians coming from the west! Can't allow them access to the riches of eastern siberia and alaska, after all.

 

[Vladislav]

Nice! The benefit of colonies isn't in tariffs, but in securing your hold on different trade zones, since there isn't a penalty on the trade value that colonies contribute to their zone. It would probably make the most sense for you to colonize the western coasts of the Americas so you could direct trade back to the Chinese nodes, but there's something about the idea of China colonizing Brazil that I love.

 

[Nikolai]

Quite the feat, colonizing Brazil as Ming.

 

[unmerged(271387)]

You should colonise the west coast of America as well

 

[Subcomandante]

The idea with colonizing the Carib is to build their production up (plantations) and then sell (trade) it either in Chesapeake or Europe. So Ming could take the eastern coast of North America and collect trade there. Think about taking slave provinces to get a further production bonus. Genocide and slavery, is Ming man enough?

 

[Merrick Chance']

Man colonization is crazy if Ming can get to Brazil that quickly. Good going though!

 

[3772014]

Sorry for the slow update this time. School just started and I've been running around trying to get the right courses+just too tired sometimes.
Since the last update, 100 years have passed. What started out as an ahistorical route turned into an all out conquest game. Let me show you what I mean:



The dark orange in india, the pink, green, and red nearby are all my vassals/PUs. You might be wondering why the colour change for ming? Well..read on.

Let's begin where we left off. Exploration of the new world was in progress and ming encounters some resistance from the Iroquois, who are brave but doomed.



An alliance with the Timurids was created to counter the increasing power of russia. Unfortunately, spain came and I was never called into the war. Timurids blew up soon after.



The coalition against ming became greater and greater, but luckily, france is trapped in europe, since it would have to sail for months before it could reach asia.



See something strange? That's an orissan (sp?) musketeer near kyoto. Japanese musketeers are also trying to siege orissan territory...in japan.



The critical 1644 date has passed, and ming can finally enact the form chinese nation decision...which strangely turns it into manchu. I've heard of this in eu3 before, but this is the first time I've done it. Strangely enough my ruler's house name doesn't change-neither do any of my relations or ideas. Heck, my accepted cultures are still han and cantonese...not manchu. But all my units now have different unit sprites. You'd think that the decision would actually form the "chinese empire" as seen in victoria 2 for continuity-regardless of whether ming or manchu enacts the decision (although different ideas/accepted cultures would make sense). But for now I'm manchu, making this possibly the most anticlimatic nation forming event I've ever seen..



Still, the decision is nevertheless extremely powerful. It instantly removed the inward perfection modifier, allowing me to finally play as a normal country, free of the mandate of heaven but with the factions still intact???



As you can see, now with the eunuchs in power, I pay 0 for 3 advisors, and my income has shot through the roof. I'm pretty sure paradox didn't mean this to happen.



Technology is also ridiculously cheap now, as with the eunuch faction chinese research becomes 15% cheaper than european technology.



I'm really wondering what to do next...With the factions system having become an outright benefit without any drawbacks, my game has suddenly become extremely easy, although still slow. This is because every major power in the world is in a coalition against me now-effectively making every war (even against japan or the natives) a global world war, where all I can gain are 3-4 provinces max, due to the strength of the coalition against me. Looks like paradox needs to fix the form chinese nation event to not only remove the mandate of heaven but also the factions. Paradox should also make coalitions region or distance related, because it makes no sense for someone like france and portugal to come to the aid of japan in a war imo.

 

[Minarchist]

Well, you did say that you wanted an ahistorical game

 

[dodedo]

your best bet is to break truces

 

[3772014]

Haha yeah I think I'll do it. Now that there's no mandate of heaven I'm not too worried about having -3 stab. I just need to get offensive first so I can support a bigger army to whack rebels.