CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE: Final Preparations
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(April 1726-April 1739)
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(April 1726-April 1739)
We have a small amount of inflation I think because of an event, so I pop our Mission as a remedy. I also activate the 2 others below it, giving a large sum of cash, Prestige, and other benefits.

Almost as if the game knows our plans with France, we get a massive +10% Discipline for the next 6 years because our Commandant Advisor is so talented.
For each type of Advisor (Philosopher, Artist, Reformer, etc.) you can get a once-per-game event which gives a bonus in their specific field. You get the bonus either way, the 2 choices in the event just let you choose between Prestige or Stability (or admin points if your Stability is maxed out).

(Brittany may be a colonizing imperialist, but at least women have a place in our court).
Some of the other Advisor bonuses have fired already this campaign, but we’re lucky that the Commandant one has waited until now. France should be quaking in their boots!
Our next Age Ability is picked up: a +3 to sieging forts. The max for everyone is normally +5, but now we’re at +8 (assuming we have enough artillery for the full bonus).
Another Idea is taken which gives a relation-slot. Later, the next one is grabbed (+2 Diplomatic Reputation) And Spain returns Sale to Morrocco once we ask nicely.

Our forces are nearly ready. Everybody is being shipped back to Britain for the coming conflict.
Unfortunately, Spain then calls us into a war against Pasai. I can’t refuse, not now. I may need Spain as a distraction against French might.

The war goes fine. In fact, here’s a screenshot of how well our armies do with that extra Discipline.

Here you can see us sieging a level 8 fort. Our extra artillery helps immensely. The province falls after only 227 days, and that’s without a Spy Network against Pasai! If you’re ever sieging a fort, make sure you have enough cannons for a full bonus, rearrange your armies if you have to. The extra micro is worth it.

As that happens, we complete Influence Ideas. The final 2 slots plus the finisher are shown below:

We also get some new Policies. I take the one giving extra Favors growth so we can fleece Spain and Vijayanagar quicker.

This war is an easy, albeit annoying, distraction. That extra Discipline comes and goes in the blink of an eye. We weren’t able to bring it to bear against our big blue nemesis.
We grab an Age Ability which lets us activate the Forced March ability on our armies for free.
Forced March is an army toggle, letting that army move faster at the cost of 1 mil point per province travelled. Armies with the toggle activated also don’t recover Morale. This Age Ability just removes the mil point cost.

Here’s some surprising news from Europe. The Ottomans has lost 1 province to a Czech-Italian alliance.
France is still on the warpath, even daring to attack the Pope himself (relocated to Germany ever since Savoy took Rome).

Spain takes 3 provinces in their war. We get nothing despite our hard work. The monument in Pegu would’ve been a fine addition to our collection. I make sure to mark some provinces, so Spain knows we want land over here. Since they weren’t marked before, they didn’t care.


Surat is returned to Gujarat. Tangiers is returned to Morrocco.
After taking another Policy for cheaper subject integrations, I annex Kong and Jenne.
We catch up on diplo tech and again take the next admin tech far ahead-of-time. The bonuses were good, plus we got Innovativeness.

Russia now shares a border with Bohemia, so the Czech-Italian bloc again finds itself under attack. Can they pull off another miracle?
Despite the delays in Asia, we’re nearly ready to attack France. At least the war experience we’ve gained has increased our lagging Army Tradition, giving us a new generation of much better generals.

We’re at around half our land forcelimit already, with the economy and manpower for more if we wish. France still has us beat in terms of quality, but not by much. And if we have enough numbers, it won’t matter. Crucially, France is now low on manpower. Their constant wars of aggression have taken a toll.


With some diplomatic power finally free, I move our main trade node to the English Channel. It’s time to compete with France there more directly. At first our income goes down, even with our merchants given time to readjust, but once I assign our navy to protect trade, we get an extra 210 ducats. That’s 210 ducats that aren’t in French hands.

France is now down to 4th place in total income. The gap between 1st place (us) and everyone else continues to grow.

We’re able to take another Mission now because our home trade node is the highest valued node in the world (the North Sea was not, the English Channel is). This boosts our income even more.

Ceuta (Spain) and Baroda (Vijayanagar) are returned.

We finally declare war on France. Spain won’t join immediately because we have no more favors. We’ll call them in later.
Our fleet doomstack obliterates some French lights in the first engagement of the war.

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