If you ever want to do the "From Frankfurt to the Andes" achievement then you'll need to convert at least once.
It's a pretty fun bull rush, and also an amusing way to the the "It's all coming together" and "A Sun God" ones.
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It's a pretty fun bull rush, and also an amusing way to the the "It's all coming together" and "A Sun God" ones.
That part is going well quite nicely . The problem is the other part, specifically dismantling the HRE. I thought I was one chapter away, at most 2, from finishing the run. But I bit more than I could chew in the next update. I hope to post in next 24 hours. The title will be "War of The Swarms" .
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Chapter 25: War of the Swarms (1690-1700)
Chapter 25: War of the Swarms (1690-1700)
We left the last chapter at war with Persia, the largest of the Empires. After signing a separate peace with Bahmani, asking for reparations, the Shogun dealt with Persia And it was a harsh deal
All of Persia's western and central provinces were annexed to Oda ( who later distributed them among the Daimyos). The only remaining provinces were some outlying land near Delhi and Chagatai . The Shogun hoped that those powers would finish off the Persians , saving him from another war. But if not, 15 years was not a long time.
A few months later he took aim at a formerly large Empire, that of the Ottomans. And soon followed with another war on a potential Empire, that of Ayutthaya
Ayutthaya put a brave resistance, winning a few battles against Odan armies . But eventually succumbed to the irresistible power of the swarm .
Ayutthaya ended up releasing Khmer and Pegu as free nations. Oda did not care much for turning them into vassals. They were too large for that, and Oda's purpose in the war was more to downsize Ayutthaya than anything else. You see, the Shogun was now more focused on finishing off the remaining Empires and converting Japan to Christianity, and less so on the long term power of Oda. And he did finish another Empire soon with the complete annexation of Ottomans
All the Ottoman lands were distributed between various Daimyos. Next up would have been France, but there was another detour to prevent another Empire from rising. And that was Vijayanagar who had just declared war on the Mamluks. And so they faced the wrath of Oda for their temerity to aspire to Empire status.
Of course, taking on Vijayanagar did not prevent Oda from going after France the next month. And so it was another period of double wars. BUt the Indians put on some stiff resistance, defeating the vanguard of Oda armies at Raichur. An impatient Shogun, when presented with the news that the diplomatic corps had finally adopted the Imperialism casus belli [tech 23], asked his military to upgrade their technology earlier, so as to make the star fort obsolete and speed up the sieges.
Although that came a high cost in military power, few at that time thought this would be an issue for all-powerful Oda. Thanks to the new technology and the arrival of the swarm in the Deccan, Oda was able to force Vijayanagar to part with a good chunk of territory, enough to keep away from Empire status for a while
7
Oda took the land of the nation of Madurai, but instead of releasing Madurai in the peace, Oda released her later as a Daimyo - Madurai would have been too large to diplo-vassalize. As for France and her ally Cologne, it was quasi complete annexation :
From Cologne, Oda took a lot of land stretching from Gelre on the coast to the deep interior. That cost Oda a lot of aggressive expansion ( Cologne was in HRE and not a co-belligerent). But the Shogun at that point was thinking about dismantling the Holy Roman Empire. Cologne was an elector, and he wanted them small enough to turn into a vassal in a later war if needed. Oda had already acquired a bad reputation with the Catholics of Europe due to her annexation of Polish, Spanish and French lands . That made any alliance with the Catholic electors impossible. So if the electors would not ally Oda, Oda was going to force them. And a that point, aggressive expansion reputation did not matter to the Shogun . But apparently it mattered to Burgundy, who broke their alliance with Oda in anger.
As for France, that once proud Empire was completely annexed. Most of the provinces were distributed among the various Daimyos. But the core of France was released back as its own Daimyo .
As Oda readied her armies for the next war, the Shogun took the holy city of Jerusalem from the Mamluks by nicely asking for it, and threatening war if they refused
The Mamluks complied with the threat, handing over the holy site to Suez Holdings. Oda immediately started building a Basilica there , and later seized the province from the client state. The whole exercise , of course, was to eventually upgrade the Holy City to a magnificent level, so as to earn more missionaries to convert Japan . With all the Empire-killing going well, the Shogun thought that converting Japan was his hardest task. Little did he know what came ahead.
While he waited on Jersualem's Basilica to finish, he declared war on Poland, still allied to England.
An immediate effect of the declaration of war was the re-creation of the Colaition, spearheaded by several German minor princes.
The Shogun figured that the Germans were encouraged by Oda being at war with fairly medium to large size nations ( Poland and England) , and that most likely the coalition would dissipate at the end of the war. Soon after that, news came that Bohemia, a fairly large nation at the time, had declared war on Oldenburg.
This had significance for Oda, because Bohemia was close to reaching Empire status based on their size. But being a prince of the HRE, their rank was limited. However, if and when Oda dismantled the Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia would potentially become a de facto Empire. So the Shogun was keen on keeping them from reaching the requisite size [1000 Dev]. So he looked at options for war. But first he had to finish the current affair with Poland and England. So troops were ferried to England to help the beleaguered Celtic Daimyos.
The enemy capital - still called Domaine Francais even though the English took it back - was easily taken. But when troops finally met the English in battle at Pale in Ireland, Oda discovered that her armies were not invincible. The Shogun responded by blockading the English force on Ireland, occupying Britain and then signing a limited side peace
With England out, Poland capitulated. And ceased to exist
ODa partitioned the lands in Poland between Ducal Prussia and Nitra. But also kept several provinces bordering Bohemia, in order to allow expansion in that direction in the future, and to avoid extreme over-extension of the two Daimyos.
With ODa at peace, the Shogun's young son led a palace coup supported by adherents of the new Christian faith . The elder Yoshinobu was forced to abdicate in favor of the 23 year old who had better administrative skills, and was able to pass the "Sunday Schools" and "Act of Blasphemy" laws.
Although the father was a zealot himself [first trait - +1 missionary strength] , he had indulged the family of his wife Lady Aya Takeda in Settsu, and they have clung to the old Shinto ways, slowing down the conversion significantly . By forcing the old Shogun to abdicate, the missionaries also got rid of his wife and her family . And Settsu was converted to Orthodoxy soon after.
Some in the military hierarchy expressed their displeasure at this switch , as the older ruler had better military skills. But with Oda's battlefield successes of late, no one seemed to care about their concerns.
And when diplomats told our young Shogun that the coalition had not dissipated after the end of the Poland war, he told them to look at the bright side. His father had faced the dilemma of how to dismantle the Holy Roman Emmpire. And the problem was that he had to control the capitals of all the electors simultaneously . And since one cannot declare war on an elector if already at war with the Emperor ( and vice versa) , doing that in one war was difficult . BUT, with almost all the electors in the coalition now, all Oda had to do was declare on the coalition, and in one fell swoop would be at war with both the Emperor ( currently Austria) and almost all the electors.
So the Shogun had the diplomats survey all the electors to see if there was a way for Oda to be at war with all the electros and the Emperor at the same time. All the electors save two were in the coalition. Those two were Cologne , who had a truce with Oda after the French war. And Lorraine, who was fighting alongside Bohemia against Oldenburg and therefore did not join the coalition . To get to Lorraine without involving the Emperor, Oda could declare on Bohemia, because Austria hated Bohemia and would not defend them. And to get to Cologne, Oda could declare on Liege who was allied to them . With that information in hand, the Shogun decided that his first war was going to be a glorious double war - a fitting finale to the long saga of the Oda Shogunate . And so ODa declared war on Bohemia first, with Lorraine the real target
And a month later, war was declared on Liege - and by extension the coalition and the Emperor. Annoyingly, during that one month wait , Muscovy joined the coalition .
Although Oda was at war with many nations, a look at the map, and her treasury of 10K ducats, and her force limit of over 900 regiments reassured the Shogun that only glory lay ahead.
But things started going awry very quickly. Armies that were in scattered locations after the previous wars became easy targets for the enemy stacks, and annihilation defeats in Gelre and Volgoda were harbingers of things to come
And a big part of the problem for Oda was the difficulty in keeping track of the sheer number of armies an battles [the CPU got choppy too - I played on speed 2 to make it smoother]
Just looking at the map gave analysists and commentators headaches. Figuring out friend from foe was often tricky , with so many coats of arms to identify and sort out. BUt as is wont to happen with such large wars, fighting eventually settled down into a few large "fronts".
THe first one was the Western front in France, where the coalition made her early push destroying an army at Gelre and another one at Bruges. ODa tried to stabilize the front with regrouping at Poitiers , and called on the Icon of St Michael to improve discipline. But the coalition swarm was invincible, and ODa could not prevent the fall of Paris and many other French cities, with Lille suffering the cruel fate of a sack.
On the Bohemian front, Oda enjoyed early successes with Berlin, Ruppin and Liegnitz falling to the siege armies. That was because Oda had a concentration of force there ( left over from the Polish war) and because Bohemia was occupied with Oldenburg.
And soon ODa began transferring troops from that front South, towards Hungary and Austria. There the ODan high command decided to deliver its strongest thrust, with the aim of effectively knocking out Hungary from the war by fully occupying it . To that end several mercenary companies were hired, draining the treasury in the process. [in screenshot 100% overextension increases mercenary cost by 50% . is that documented?]
The extra forces were able to push and take Pest, Fejer and Wien .
Another front was in North Russia, where the Oda swarm was able to occupy the lands of Muscovy, but was unable to destroy the larger Muscovite field army. And Odan troops had to be dispatched there to shore up the front against a counter attack from the coalition swarm coming through Finland.
And there was also an Asian theatre, where Ming and Manchu tied up several vassal and Odan armies in a cat and mouse game.
Finally there was a front in Greece, where Venice held many provinces. Here ODan and vassal forces that had recently conquered Hungary followed the enemy South towards Greece in an attempt to completely annihilate their forces, particularly the Hungarians who would not be able to recruit again
And so on many of these fronts Odan arms encountered success. However, as soon as they moved from one area to the other, the enemy swarm came back and threatened their gains. And things continued to be bad for Oda on the Western front in France, where repeated attempts to stop the coalition advance were unsuccessful . And eventually , the Odan forces there had to withdraw south of the Pyrenees and hope to hold that line
In that regard, Oda was getting a taste of her own medicine. Despite winning a battle here and there, the force of the swarm was just too much . And in France and Spain, Oda had too few vassals to create an effective swarm of her own .
In mid 1698, about halfway between war start and the end of the decade, Oda had a slight switch in strategy . Instead of concentrating on pushing through from Hungary towards Austria and South Germany, forces were sent back to North Germany with a twofold mission. First to secure the Pomeranian provinces recently taken from Poland and ensure that the coring process there continued un-interrupted ( to avoid the pain of unrest and increased mercenary cost due to over-extension ). Second, to secure the European side of the Skagerrak and thus cut off the enemy swarm in Scandinavia from Germany . This was feasible thanks to the dominance of the Oda fleet in the Baltic ( but not in the Mediterranean where the Venetian fleet roamed) .
IT was here that ODa scored one of the sweetest victories in a while, where the entire Wolgast army was chased to Rugen and destroyed.
And with Wolgast fully occupied, Oda had eliminated at least one of the enemy swarm members. But alas that could not be said of many others, as the diversion of troops to North German meant that the Russian front was starting to buckle, with the enemy taking Novgorod, Beloozero and threatening Smolensk.
Oda responded to threat of the swarm liberateing Muscovy by transferring troops from the Greece front to Russia. And after a victory at Vitebsk , things stabilized with the enemy withdrawing back to Finland.
But with the attention of the Odan high command focused on Eastern Europe, they did not realize that a 24K Odan army had wandered to the fort of Roussillon, instead of staying behind it . And they only learned of that fact with the news of its complete destruction
The loss of 24,000 men in Iberia was keenly felt as Oda was not in a situation to spare manpower for a new army ( or money for more mercenaries). And that meant that slowly but surely the enemy swarm advanced across the Pyrenees, eventually taking Barcelona and BUrgos, despite valiant attempts at stopping them on favorable terrain .
Meanwhile fighting flared again on the Central front in Austria where Oda was hard pressed to contain an enemy counter-offensive, trading victories at Ob der Enns and Unterkarten
And in North Russia things became a jumbled mess as a large Odan army of over 100K managed to defeat several smaller enemy stacks. Which resulted in the enemy sacattering *south" into the Russian plain, destroying any semblance of a true front.
And as for the Bohemian front, things had started to move again after Bohemia finished her war with Oldenburg in May 1599. With more troops to spare, the Bohemians had started a counteroffensive that Oda could not stop. And as the decade ended , the Bohemian army was besieging Prague again , with only 9 days till a possible recapture (42%) . And with Bohemian troops about to engage Odan troops in battle as well.
So the Shogun assembled his New Year's council and asked for ideas. His advisors gave him 3 choices.
First option was to continue the current course and try to win the wars and dismantle the HRE. The Shogun looked askance at that view, as Oda was barely winning if not actually losing. From the big picture, Oda had occupied Manchu, Ming, Muscovy and Hungary. But has lost all of France and was about to lose Spain . And would be hard pressed to hold on to Hungary. Not to mention having to deal with the Bohemian counter-attack.
The second option was to make peace with Bohemia while Oda was ahead.
If peace was concluded immediately, Oda could get some concessions: money to fund the war, reparations for several years, one province for Nitra and improvements to Kyoto (1,1,1) at the expense of Prague . But that deal had to be taken immediately. Waiting just a few days risked changing things dramatically, especially if Bohemia took back Prague. If Oda took this deal, there is a better chance that she would prevail against the Coalition . And while a victory would not dismantle the HRE ( Lorraine being allied to Bohemia and therefore would be at peace with Oda), it would be a chance to turn an elector or two into vassals.
Finally, there was the option whispered in low voices, for the Bushido code forbade talking about defeat. And that option was to concede to the coalition's demands:
Surprisingly, Oda would pay a very low price for her foolish declaration of war. Only three measly provinces that belong to her vassals. In exchange, the coalition would disband, and Oda would be able to continue her war with Bohemia ( and Lorraine) and crush them . And then in a few years, take aim at the Empire again.
So dear readers, should our Shogun swallow his pride and take the coalition deal, or does the honor of the Samurai forbid accepting defeat?
We left the last chapter at war with Persia, the largest of the Empires. After signing a separate peace with Bahmani, asking for reparations, the Shogun dealt with Persia And it was a harsh deal
All of Persia's western and central provinces were annexed to Oda ( who later distributed them among the Daimyos). The only remaining provinces were some outlying land near Delhi and Chagatai . The Shogun hoped that those powers would finish off the Persians , saving him from another war. But if not, 15 years was not a long time.
A few months later he took aim at a formerly large Empire, that of the Ottomans. And soon followed with another war on a potential Empire, that of Ayutthaya
Ayutthaya put a brave resistance, winning a few battles against Odan armies . But eventually succumbed to the irresistible power of the swarm .
Ayutthaya ended up releasing Khmer and Pegu as free nations. Oda did not care much for turning them into vassals. They were too large for that, and Oda's purpose in the war was more to downsize Ayutthaya than anything else. You see, the Shogun was now more focused on finishing off the remaining Empires and converting Japan to Christianity, and less so on the long term power of Oda. And he did finish another Empire soon with the complete annexation of Ottomans
All the Ottoman lands were distributed between various Daimyos. Next up would have been France, but there was another detour to prevent another Empire from rising. And that was Vijayanagar who had just declared war on the Mamluks. And so they faced the wrath of Oda for their temerity to aspire to Empire status.
Of course, taking on Vijayanagar did not prevent Oda from going after France the next month. And so it was another period of double wars. BUt the Indians put on some stiff resistance, defeating the vanguard of Oda armies at Raichur. An impatient Shogun, when presented with the news that the diplomatic corps had finally adopted the Imperialism casus belli [tech 23], asked his military to upgrade their technology earlier, so as to make the star fort obsolete and speed up the sieges.
Although that came a high cost in military power, few at that time thought this would be an issue for all-powerful Oda. Thanks to the new technology and the arrival of the swarm in the Deccan, Oda was able to force Vijayanagar to part with a good chunk of territory, enough to keep away from Empire status for a while
7
Oda took the land of the nation of Madurai, but instead of releasing Madurai in the peace, Oda released her later as a Daimyo - Madurai would have been too large to diplo-vassalize. As for France and her ally Cologne, it was quasi complete annexation :
From Cologne, Oda took a lot of land stretching from Gelre on the coast to the deep interior. That cost Oda a lot of aggressive expansion ( Cologne was in HRE and not a co-belligerent). But the Shogun at that point was thinking about dismantling the Holy Roman Empire. Cologne was an elector, and he wanted them small enough to turn into a vassal in a later war if needed. Oda had already acquired a bad reputation with the Catholics of Europe due to her annexation of Polish, Spanish and French lands . That made any alliance with the Catholic electors impossible. So if the electors would not ally Oda, Oda was going to force them. And a that point, aggressive expansion reputation did not matter to the Shogun . But apparently it mattered to Burgundy, who broke their alliance with Oda in anger.
As for France, that once proud Empire was completely annexed. Most of the provinces were distributed among the various Daimyos. But the core of France was released back as its own Daimyo .
As Oda readied her armies for the next war, the Shogun took the holy city of Jerusalem from the Mamluks by nicely asking for it, and threatening war if they refused
The Mamluks complied with the threat, handing over the holy site to Suez Holdings. Oda immediately started building a Basilica there , and later seized the province from the client state. The whole exercise , of course, was to eventually upgrade the Holy City to a magnificent level, so as to earn more missionaries to convert Japan . With all the Empire-killing going well, the Shogun thought that converting Japan was his hardest task. Little did he know what came ahead.
While he waited on Jersualem's Basilica to finish, he declared war on Poland, still allied to England.
An immediate effect of the declaration of war was the re-creation of the Colaition, spearheaded by several German minor princes.
The Shogun figured that the Germans were encouraged by Oda being at war with fairly medium to large size nations ( Poland and England) , and that most likely the coalition would dissipate at the end of the war. Soon after that, news came that Bohemia, a fairly large nation at the time, had declared war on Oldenburg.
This had significance for Oda, because Bohemia was close to reaching Empire status based on their size. But being a prince of the HRE, their rank was limited. However, if and when Oda dismantled the Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia would potentially become a de facto Empire. So the Shogun was keen on keeping them from reaching the requisite size [1000 Dev]. So he looked at options for war. But first he had to finish the current affair with Poland and England. So troops were ferried to England to help the beleaguered Celtic Daimyos.
The enemy capital - still called Domaine Francais even though the English took it back - was easily taken. But when troops finally met the English in battle at Pale in Ireland, Oda discovered that her armies were not invincible. The Shogun responded by blockading the English force on Ireland, occupying Britain and then signing a limited side peace
With England out, Poland capitulated. And ceased to exist
ODa partitioned the lands in Poland between Ducal Prussia and Nitra. But also kept several provinces bordering Bohemia, in order to allow expansion in that direction in the future, and to avoid extreme over-extension of the two Daimyos.
With ODa at peace, the Shogun's young son led a palace coup supported by adherents of the new Christian faith . The elder Yoshinobu was forced to abdicate in favor of the 23 year old who had better administrative skills, and was able to pass the "Sunday Schools" and "Act of Blasphemy" laws.
Although the father was a zealot himself [first trait - +1 missionary strength] , he had indulged the family of his wife Lady Aya Takeda in Settsu, and they have clung to the old Shinto ways, slowing down the conversion significantly . By forcing the old Shogun to abdicate, the missionaries also got rid of his wife and her family . And Settsu was converted to Orthodoxy soon after.
Some in the military hierarchy expressed their displeasure at this switch , as the older ruler had better military skills. But with Oda's battlefield successes of late, no one seemed to care about their concerns.
And when diplomats told our young Shogun that the coalition had not dissipated after the end of the Poland war, he told them to look at the bright side. His father had faced the dilemma of how to dismantle the Holy Roman Emmpire. And the problem was that he had to control the capitals of all the electors simultaneously . And since one cannot declare war on an elector if already at war with the Emperor ( and vice versa) , doing that in one war was difficult . BUT, with almost all the electors in the coalition now, all Oda had to do was declare on the coalition, and in one fell swoop would be at war with both the Emperor ( currently Austria) and almost all the electors.
So the Shogun had the diplomats survey all the electors to see if there was a way for Oda to be at war with all the electros and the Emperor at the same time. All the electors save two were in the coalition. Those two were Cologne , who had a truce with Oda after the French war. And Lorraine, who was fighting alongside Bohemia against Oldenburg and therefore did not join the coalition . To get to Lorraine without involving the Emperor, Oda could declare on Bohemia, because Austria hated Bohemia and would not defend them. And to get to Cologne, Oda could declare on Liege who was allied to them . With that information in hand, the Shogun decided that his first war was going to be a glorious double war - a fitting finale to the long saga of the Oda Shogunate . And so ODa declared war on Bohemia first, with Lorraine the real target
And a month later, war was declared on Liege - and by extension the coalition and the Emperor. Annoyingly, during that one month wait , Muscovy joined the coalition .
Although Oda was at war with many nations, a look at the map, and her treasury of 10K ducats, and her force limit of over 900 regiments reassured the Shogun that only glory lay ahead.
But things started going awry very quickly. Armies that were in scattered locations after the previous wars became easy targets for the enemy stacks, and annihilation defeats in Gelre and Volgoda were harbingers of things to come
And a big part of the problem for Oda was the difficulty in keeping track of the sheer number of armies an battles [the CPU got choppy too - I played on speed 2 to make it smoother]
Just looking at the map gave analysists and commentators headaches. Figuring out friend from foe was often tricky , with so many coats of arms to identify and sort out. BUt as is wont to happen with such large wars, fighting eventually settled down into a few large "fronts".
THe first one was the Western front in France, where the coalition made her early push destroying an army at Gelre and another one at Bruges. ODa tried to stabilize the front with regrouping at Poitiers , and called on the Icon of St Michael to improve discipline. But the coalition swarm was invincible, and ODa could not prevent the fall of Paris and many other French cities, with Lille suffering the cruel fate of a sack.
On the Bohemian front, Oda enjoyed early successes with Berlin, Ruppin and Liegnitz falling to the siege armies. That was because Oda had a concentration of force there ( left over from the Polish war) and because Bohemia was occupied with Oldenburg.
And soon ODa began transferring troops from that front South, towards Hungary and Austria. There the ODan high command decided to deliver its strongest thrust, with the aim of effectively knocking out Hungary from the war by fully occupying it . To that end several mercenary companies were hired, draining the treasury in the process. [in screenshot 100% overextension increases mercenary cost by 50% . is that documented?]
The extra forces were able to push and take Pest, Fejer and Wien .
Another front was in North Russia, where the Oda swarm was able to occupy the lands of Muscovy, but was unable to destroy the larger Muscovite field army. And Odan troops had to be dispatched there to shore up the front against a counter attack from the coalition swarm coming through Finland.
And there was also an Asian theatre, where Ming and Manchu tied up several vassal and Odan armies in a cat and mouse game.
Finally there was a front in Greece, where Venice held many provinces. Here ODan and vassal forces that had recently conquered Hungary followed the enemy South towards Greece in an attempt to completely annihilate their forces, particularly the Hungarians who would not be able to recruit again
And so on many of these fronts Odan arms encountered success. However, as soon as they moved from one area to the other, the enemy swarm came back and threatened their gains. And things continued to be bad for Oda on the Western front in France, where repeated attempts to stop the coalition advance were unsuccessful . And eventually , the Odan forces there had to withdraw south of the Pyrenees and hope to hold that line
In that regard, Oda was getting a taste of her own medicine. Despite winning a battle here and there, the force of the swarm was just too much . And in France and Spain, Oda had too few vassals to create an effective swarm of her own .
In mid 1698, about halfway between war start and the end of the decade, Oda had a slight switch in strategy . Instead of concentrating on pushing through from Hungary towards Austria and South Germany, forces were sent back to North Germany with a twofold mission. First to secure the Pomeranian provinces recently taken from Poland and ensure that the coring process there continued un-interrupted ( to avoid the pain of unrest and increased mercenary cost due to over-extension ). Second, to secure the European side of the Skagerrak and thus cut off the enemy swarm in Scandinavia from Germany . This was feasible thanks to the dominance of the Oda fleet in the Baltic ( but not in the Mediterranean where the Venetian fleet roamed) .
IT was here that ODa scored one of the sweetest victories in a while, where the entire Wolgast army was chased to Rugen and destroyed.
And with Wolgast fully occupied, Oda had eliminated at least one of the enemy swarm members. But alas that could not be said of many others, as the diversion of troops to North German meant that the Russian front was starting to buckle, with the enemy taking Novgorod, Beloozero and threatening Smolensk.
Oda responded to threat of the swarm liberateing Muscovy by transferring troops from the Greece front to Russia. And after a victory at Vitebsk , things stabilized with the enemy withdrawing back to Finland.
But with the attention of the Odan high command focused on Eastern Europe, they did not realize that a 24K Odan army had wandered to the fort of Roussillon, instead of staying behind it . And they only learned of that fact with the news of its complete destruction
The loss of 24,000 men in Iberia was keenly felt as Oda was not in a situation to spare manpower for a new army ( or money for more mercenaries). And that meant that slowly but surely the enemy swarm advanced across the Pyrenees, eventually taking Barcelona and BUrgos, despite valiant attempts at stopping them on favorable terrain .
Meanwhile fighting flared again on the Central front in Austria where Oda was hard pressed to contain an enemy counter-offensive, trading victories at Ob der Enns and Unterkarten
And in North Russia things became a jumbled mess as a large Odan army of over 100K managed to defeat several smaller enemy stacks. Which resulted in the enemy sacattering *south" into the Russian plain, destroying any semblance of a true front.
And as for the Bohemian front, things had started to move again after Bohemia finished her war with Oldenburg in May 1599. With more troops to spare, the Bohemians had started a counteroffensive that Oda could not stop. And as the decade ended , the Bohemian army was besieging Prague again , with only 9 days till a possible recapture (42%) . And with Bohemian troops about to engage Odan troops in battle as well.
So the Shogun assembled his New Year's council and asked for ideas. His advisors gave him 3 choices.
First option was to continue the current course and try to win the wars and dismantle the HRE. The Shogun looked askance at that view, as Oda was barely winning if not actually losing. From the big picture, Oda had occupied Manchu, Ming, Muscovy and Hungary. But has lost all of France and was about to lose Spain . And would be hard pressed to hold on to Hungary. Not to mention having to deal with the Bohemian counter-attack.
The second option was to make peace with Bohemia while Oda was ahead.
If peace was concluded immediately, Oda could get some concessions: money to fund the war, reparations for several years, one province for Nitra and improvements to Kyoto (1,1,1) at the expense of Prague . But that deal had to be taken immediately. Waiting just a few days risked changing things dramatically, especially if Bohemia took back Prague. If Oda took this deal, there is a better chance that she would prevail against the Coalition . And while a victory would not dismantle the HRE ( Lorraine being allied to Bohemia and therefore would be at peace with Oda), it would be a chance to turn an elector or two into vassals.
Finally, there was the option whispered in low voices, for the Bushido code forbade talking about defeat. And that option was to concede to the coalition's demands:
Surprisingly, Oda would pay a very low price for her foolish declaration of war. Only three measly provinces that belong to her vassals. In exchange, the coalition would disband, and Oda would be able to continue her war with Bohemia ( and Lorraine) and crush them . And then in a few years, take aim at the Empire again.
So dear readers, should our Shogun swallow his pride and take the coalition deal, or does the honor of the Samurai forbid accepting defeat?
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It's in the list at least https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Overextension
You made me check the date.
Given that you started the chapter with the notion that "Bohemia must be reduced in size before the empire is dismantled" it does seem self-evident that the "eyes on the prize" calls for any pointless concessions to be allowed with this in mind.
And the ability of the HRE (actually the coalition) to fight back is a good propaganda victory for home where some might have been arguing that "is there really any need to finish this anti-imperial crusade, aren't we strong enough already?"
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Harsh, seeing as this is presumably his mother's family...
Losing 3 daimyo provinces to get rid of the coalition is a very good deal.
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It's not a defeat, it's a strategic retreat to a more defensible position from which you can crush a nation that could become an empire.
What is a technical loss if the rewards can be even bigger?
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Probably a no-CB on Samoa is worth not having the hassle of having to kill New Spain and any other large Spanish colonies...
...Not that it matters now. I though only annexing a country transferred subjects. I didn't realize vassalizing did that too.
It's at least on the wiki, as @Nikolai II mentioned.
If the defeat peace with the coalition is still so light after you start a new session (AI may reevaluate), I think that is the best option. Then you can focus everything on Bohemia and crush them fully.
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Another suggestion (for you if you intend to keep doing slightly odd challenges) could be to make a "From Frankfurt to the Andes, and back again"
After having formed the Inca and gotten the in-game achievement, just keep going west to claim the Mandate of heaven and finally form some kind of Germany (either Germany or Erbkaisertum).
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.....while playing "Go West! (Life is peaceful there)" by the Pet Shop Boys on a constant loop.
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Thanks for confirming. I checked the Wiki on the mercenaries page and it did not mention it.
So all in agreement to peace with coalition. The option was available on restart and I did take it .
Made me look up the achievement and its background because the requirements made no sense. I'll keep it in mind for a future AAR ( if there is time before eu5 is upon us). I do have my next AAR planned and have actually played some test starts . Will announce it when I finish this one.
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Chapter 26: And Then There Were None ( 1700-1712)
Chapter 26: And Then There Were None Two ( 1700-1712)
The last chapter ended up with Oda in two wars: with Bohemia +Lorraine, and with Liege +the coalition ( essentially the Holy Roman Empire with some old bitter enemies like Muscovy, Ming and Manchu). Oda was struggling to hold on to her gains in Bohemia and Hungary, and after seeking advice , both internal and external , the Shogun decided to cut his losses, swallow his pride and ask for terms from the coalition.
Oda had to give up 3 provinces that belonged to vassals. The damage to Oda's power was negligible. That set up a truce till January 1707 , which gave Oda ample time to finish her war with Bohemia, reorganize and prepare for revenge. And it was a good thing that Oda got the respite from the coalaition because Bohemia did manage to take Prague and win a battle at Sternberg. In other words, if Oda had continued with both wars, she was going to lose.
Of course the Bohemian successes were short lived, because soon the entire might of the Oda vassal swarm descended on them . And the first of Bohemia's allies to be fully occupied was Ingolstadt who was forced to become a Daimyo.
At that point , Oda had two choices on how to deal with the coalition forming back after the truce: either lay low and let many members drop out of it with decay of aggressive expansion, or turn as many nations into vassals, as this will keep them out the coalition permanently. Obviously with the peace treaty with Ingolstadt, an HRE member who was no a co-belligerent, Oda had chosen the second course.
The next victim was Lorraine, an elector of the HRE and who was the main target of the war on Bohemia.
Lorraine was made into a vassal And in a show of ill-advised hubris, Oda forced them to convert to Orthodox. And I say ill-advised because the official religion of the HRE was Catholic ( having won the league war) and that meant Orthodox Lorraine was not an elector anymore. And Austria promptly appointed Salzburg to replace them . So instead of vassalizing one elector, a step on the way to dismantling the HRE, Oda vassalized a regular German minor. [I was thinking of the God Tier achievement still, hence the forced-conversion. after this I decided to leave that achievement for another run].
After that, it was Bohemia's turn. And Oda took maximum land. The land was then split between long time Daimyo Nitra, newly vassalized Daimyo Ingolstadt , and released nation Daimyos Brandenburg, Anhalt, Silesia and Lusatia
With that peace , Oda turned land that belonged to a former foe during the wars of the swarms into subservient vassals who would help in the next war. And of course , any threat that Bohemia would become an Empire after dismantling the HRE had disappeared.
At that point Oda was finally at peace and the Shogun gathered his diplomats to assess moves before the expiration of the truce with the coalition countries. And he directed his diplomats to look at every elector's alliances, and see if Oda can declare an indirect war on that elector via a 3rd party who was not in a truce with Oda ( there were several EUropean countries who were not part of the last coalition , either because they were in a war at the time or they had a truce with Oda) . After some searching, they settled on Portugal who was allied to the electro of Cologne. And thanks to having the Imperialism casus belli, war was promptly declared
An added bonus for Oda was Portugal's alliance with Ethiopia, one of the Empires on the "kill list". A few months into the war, Cologne was occupied. And thanks to its "thinning" in size in the previous chapter, it was under the limit for turning into a vassal. And this time the Shogun did not convert their religion to Orthodox, so they remained an elector.
The next nation to sign peace in the war was Mamluks, which got involved as the guarantor of Ethiopia. And truth be told, the Shogun was not aware of their involvement till he asked his advisors about the status of Ethiopia, only to discover that the Daimyo swarm had descended like locusts on the Nile valley
And while that war went on, Oda took care of long overdue business near home, by finally declaring on Ryu Kyu to annex the last province in the Japan region .
the purpose of annexing Ryukyu was to convert it later to Orthodoxy, so as to achieve a fully Kirishitan Japan. The war with Ryukyu would take some time because Oda had to assemble a new transport fleet ( all the transports were in the Atlantic fleet at that point). But eventually Okinawa became part of ODa in 1705
It was then time to conclude peace with Portugal.
Ethiopia was made into another Daimyo ( reluctantly - they refused it in separate peace) and Portugal made to return many cores to Morocco. At that point, the Shogun was happy with Oda's recovery after the coalition war. Although her aggressive expansion reputation had worsened a lot, her vassal swarm had grown in size, while the number of independent nations that could join a coalition had shrunk significantly. And so he continued the pattern of chipping away at potential coalition members via side wars with countries out of truces.
After surveying those countries again ( there we 6), Oda declared on Oldenburg as that brought in not just the Emperor ( Austria) and his 4 elector allies (Mainz, WUrzburg, Augsburg and Salzburg) , but also Liege who was a very large elector at that point, and would have required more than one war to annex or vassalize.
Compared to the last war against the HRE/Coalition, this was a much easier task. Still the enemy did not put up a fight and there were few defeats reminiscent of the "war of the swarms".
BUt once the swarm armies arrived, the tide of war shifted and Oda began taking fort after fort. The first enemy to make peace was Burgundy, who became Daimyo ( therefore correcting the mistake in the Chapter "The Two That Got Away").
And with Burgundy a Daimyo, the Shogun forced Liege to return cores to Burgundy alongside France and Switzerland. That put Liege under the size of becoming a vassal in the next war, although a truce was established till 1720 .
The elector of Wurzburg followed suit, becoming a vassal
Unfortunately , Mainz was too large to turn into vassal, and so they were made smaller by returning provinces
After that Austria was forced to give up much land , making a future war with the Emperor easier.
Finally , the electors of Augsburg and Salzburg were turned into vassals.
At that point, Oda controlled 4 of the seven electros. To dismantle the HRE , she needed to control the remaining 3 and also the IMperial capital.
And at that point in time, the truce with the coalition , which included the elector of Munster was set to expire soon. Oda used that time to finish off the Persian and Aztec Empires.
And then when truce expired with Munster and the rest of the coalition, war was declared immediately .
Munster was allied to Mainz, another elector . So this was a chance for Oda to get two of the remaining free electors ( the last one being Liege).
Meanwhile Aztec was vassalized after it was fully occupied, with Odan troops combining with the Meso-American Daimyos to accomplish the job .
Then it was Austria's turn to sign peace, losing even more land
This gave Oda enough war score to get Mainz vassalized followed by Munster a few month later
The decade was almost over. And the impatient Shogun had his diplomats sign a peace, any peace, with Persia's allies to wrap up that war
And so with a series of peace deals Persia became a vassal of Oda . That left the Holy Roman EMperor as the only man claiming the title of Emperor on earth .Meanwhile , Japan was almost completely converted to Orthodox ( the conversions slowed down because the SHogun lost the title of Defender of the Faith when he conceded defeat to the coalition, and forgot to reclaim it).
And normally we stop our narrative at this point. But we will continue as there is not a lot left to our long story. The impatient Shogun was not willing to wait for the truce with Liege to expire in 1720 and ordered his diplomats to break the truce and declare war regardless
That unconventional move coincided with the beginning of a new age, that of Revolutions, where rulers were expected to claim the title of Emperor.
And at that point, only one man could. And our shogun was ready to strip away that title after Wien fell on March 10, 1710 and Merz, capital of Lorraine fell on April 4.
BUt it turned out the ruler of Austria had pulled off the ultimate prank by having moved his capital to LOLland before the war. And so it was not until AUgust 18, 1710 that the HRE was officially dismantled
With the old dream of the shoguns now realized, Nobuyuki promptly concluded a white peace with Liege
And now with no other men claiming the title of Emperor, our Shogun Nobuyuki felt ready to proclaim himself the Emperor of Japan. but first we take a final look at the Oda Dominion
And that wide and glorious domain was sacrificed for the vanity of one man who ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne as the first Emperor of Japan
ANd Nobuyuki had one task remaining, which was to finish the conversion of Japan . And as he waited the few months needed till his missionaries finished work in Ryukyu, he got a taste of the difference between the power of the Shogunate and a regular government. For starters, the coalition promptly reappeared, as Japan did not have the protection of the Daimyo swarm anymore. Furthermore, the Odan force limit shrunk from over 900 regiments to a still large 266. But until many armies were disbanded, the budget was in atrocious shape.
And to stabilize Oda's diplomatic situation, the Shogun re-established alliances with strong former Daimyos like Prussia, Nitra and Bulgaria.
With things under control, the Shogun could savor the moment in February 1712 when the last Shinto province in Japan became Christian. Kirishitan Japan was achieved.
At that point , Japan was not the only Empire on Earth. The Bulgarian ruler, now independent, had reclaimed the old title. And doubtless others would soon as well. But Oda - ahem Japan- was not interested in preventing that anymore. The ruler of Japan was simply content with his new title, new faith and his status as the strongest nation on Earth .
the End.
The last chapter ended up with Oda in two wars: with Bohemia +Lorraine, and with Liege +the coalition ( essentially the Holy Roman Empire with some old bitter enemies like Muscovy, Ming and Manchu). Oda was struggling to hold on to her gains in Bohemia and Hungary, and after seeking advice , both internal and external , the Shogun decided to cut his losses, swallow his pride and ask for terms from the coalition.
Oda had to give up 3 provinces that belonged to vassals. The damage to Oda's power was negligible. That set up a truce till January 1707 , which gave Oda ample time to finish her war with Bohemia, reorganize and prepare for revenge. And it was a good thing that Oda got the respite from the coalaition because Bohemia did manage to take Prague and win a battle at Sternberg. In other words, if Oda had continued with both wars, she was going to lose.
Of course the Bohemian successes were short lived, because soon the entire might of the Oda vassal swarm descended on them . And the first of Bohemia's allies to be fully occupied was Ingolstadt who was forced to become a Daimyo.
At that point , Oda had two choices on how to deal with the coalition forming back after the truce: either lay low and let many members drop out of it with decay of aggressive expansion, or turn as many nations into vassals, as this will keep them out the coalition permanently. Obviously with the peace treaty with Ingolstadt, an HRE member who was no a co-belligerent, Oda had chosen the second course.
The next victim was Lorraine, an elector of the HRE and who was the main target of the war on Bohemia.
Lorraine was made into a vassal And in a show of ill-advised hubris, Oda forced them to convert to Orthodox. And I say ill-advised because the official religion of the HRE was Catholic ( having won the league war) and that meant Orthodox Lorraine was not an elector anymore. And Austria promptly appointed Salzburg to replace them . So instead of vassalizing one elector, a step on the way to dismantling the HRE, Oda vassalized a regular German minor. [I was thinking of the God Tier achievement still, hence the forced-conversion. after this I decided to leave that achievement for another run].
After that, it was Bohemia's turn. And Oda took maximum land. The land was then split between long time Daimyo Nitra, newly vassalized Daimyo Ingolstadt , and released nation Daimyos Brandenburg, Anhalt, Silesia and Lusatia
With that peace , Oda turned land that belonged to a former foe during the wars of the swarms into subservient vassals who would help in the next war. And of course , any threat that Bohemia would become an Empire after dismantling the HRE had disappeared.
At that point Oda was finally at peace and the Shogun gathered his diplomats to assess moves before the expiration of the truce with the coalition countries. And he directed his diplomats to look at every elector's alliances, and see if Oda can declare an indirect war on that elector via a 3rd party who was not in a truce with Oda ( there were several EUropean countries who were not part of the last coalition , either because they were in a war at the time or they had a truce with Oda) . After some searching, they settled on Portugal who was allied to the electro of Cologne. And thanks to having the Imperialism casus belli, war was promptly declared
An added bonus for Oda was Portugal's alliance with Ethiopia, one of the Empires on the "kill list". A few months into the war, Cologne was occupied. And thanks to its "thinning" in size in the previous chapter, it was under the limit for turning into a vassal. And this time the Shogun did not convert their religion to Orthodox, so they remained an elector.
The next nation to sign peace in the war was Mamluks, which got involved as the guarantor of Ethiopia. And truth be told, the Shogun was not aware of their involvement till he asked his advisors about the status of Ethiopia, only to discover that the Daimyo swarm had descended like locusts on the Nile valley
And while that war went on, Oda took care of long overdue business near home, by finally declaring on Ryu Kyu to annex the last province in the Japan region .
the purpose of annexing Ryukyu was to convert it later to Orthodoxy, so as to achieve a fully Kirishitan Japan. The war with Ryukyu would take some time because Oda had to assemble a new transport fleet ( all the transports were in the Atlantic fleet at that point). But eventually Okinawa became part of ODa in 1705
It was then time to conclude peace with Portugal.
Ethiopia was made into another Daimyo ( reluctantly - they refused it in separate peace) and Portugal made to return many cores to Morocco. At that point, the Shogun was happy with Oda's recovery after the coalition war. Although her aggressive expansion reputation had worsened a lot, her vassal swarm had grown in size, while the number of independent nations that could join a coalition had shrunk significantly. And so he continued the pattern of chipping away at potential coalition members via side wars with countries out of truces.
After surveying those countries again ( there we 6), Oda declared on Oldenburg as that brought in not just the Emperor ( Austria) and his 4 elector allies (Mainz, WUrzburg, Augsburg and Salzburg) , but also Liege who was a very large elector at that point, and would have required more than one war to annex or vassalize.
Compared to the last war against the HRE/Coalition, this was a much easier task. Still the enemy did not put up a fight and there were few defeats reminiscent of the "war of the swarms".
BUt once the swarm armies arrived, the tide of war shifted and Oda began taking fort after fort. The first enemy to make peace was Burgundy, who became Daimyo ( therefore correcting the mistake in the Chapter "The Two That Got Away").
And with Burgundy a Daimyo, the Shogun forced Liege to return cores to Burgundy alongside France and Switzerland. That put Liege under the size of becoming a vassal in the next war, although a truce was established till 1720 .
The elector of Wurzburg followed suit, becoming a vassal
Unfortunately , Mainz was too large to turn into vassal, and so they were made smaller by returning provinces
After that Austria was forced to give up much land , making a future war with the Emperor easier.
Finally , the electors of Augsburg and Salzburg were turned into vassals.
At that point, Oda controlled 4 of the seven electros. To dismantle the HRE , she needed to control the remaining 3 and also the IMperial capital.
And at that point in time, the truce with the coalition , which included the elector of Munster was set to expire soon. Oda used that time to finish off the Persian and Aztec Empires.
And then when truce expired with Munster and the rest of the coalition, war was declared immediately .
Munster was allied to Mainz, another elector . So this was a chance for Oda to get two of the remaining free electors ( the last one being Liege).
Meanwhile Aztec was vassalized after it was fully occupied, with Odan troops combining with the Meso-American Daimyos to accomplish the job .
Then it was Austria's turn to sign peace, losing even more land
This gave Oda enough war score to get Mainz vassalized followed by Munster a few month later
The decade was almost over. And the impatient Shogun had his diplomats sign a peace, any peace, with Persia's allies to wrap up that war
And so with a series of peace deals Persia became a vassal of Oda . That left the Holy Roman EMperor as the only man claiming the title of Emperor on earth .Meanwhile , Japan was almost completely converted to Orthodox ( the conversions slowed down because the SHogun lost the title of Defender of the Faith when he conceded defeat to the coalition, and forgot to reclaim it).
And normally we stop our narrative at this point. But we will continue as there is not a lot left to our long story. The impatient Shogun was not willing to wait for the truce with Liege to expire in 1720 and ordered his diplomats to break the truce and declare war regardless
That unconventional move coincided with the beginning of a new age, that of Revolutions, where rulers were expected to claim the title of Emperor.
And at that point, only one man could. And our shogun was ready to strip away that title after Wien fell on March 10, 1710 and Merz, capital of Lorraine fell on April 4.
BUt it turned out the ruler of Austria had pulled off the ultimate prank by having moved his capital to LOLland before the war. And so it was not until AUgust 18, 1710 that the HRE was officially dismantled
With the old dream of the shoguns now realized, Nobuyuki promptly concluded a white peace with Liege
And now with no other men claiming the title of Emperor, our Shogun Nobuyuki felt ready to proclaim himself the Emperor of Japan. but first we take a final look at the Oda Dominion
And that wide and glorious domain was sacrificed for the vanity of one man who ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne as the first Emperor of Japan
ANd Nobuyuki had one task remaining, which was to finish the conversion of Japan . And as he waited the few months needed till his missionaries finished work in Ryukyu, he got a taste of the difference between the power of the Shogunate and a regular government. For starters, the coalition promptly reappeared, as Japan did not have the protection of the Daimyo swarm anymore. Furthermore, the Odan force limit shrunk from over 900 regiments to a still large 266. But until many armies were disbanded, the budget was in atrocious shape.
And to stabilize Oda's diplomatic situation, the Shogun re-established alliances with strong former Daimyos like Prussia, Nitra and Bulgaria.
With things under control, the Shogun could savor the moment in February 1712 when the last Shinto province in Japan became Christian. Kirishitan Japan was achieved.
At that point , Japan was not the only Empire on Earth. The Bulgarian ruler, now independent, had reclaimed the old title. And doubtless others would soon as well. But Oda - ahem Japan- was not interested in preventing that anymore. The ruler of Japan was simply content with his new title, new faith and his status as the strongest nation on Earth .
the End.
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No! You were supposed to destroy the empires, not become one! You were supposed to bring balance to the world!And now with no other men claiming the title of Emperor, our Shogun Nobuyuki felt ready to proclaim himself the Emperor of Japan. but first we take a final look at the Oda Dominion
And that wide and glorious domain was sacrificed for the vanity of one man who ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne as the first Emperor of Japan
I for one am loving this barrage of excellent, creative AARs. Excited to see what’s next.
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Indeed - there was already a God-Emperor of Japan
I mean, else this one would have been "only two men could", and I was ready to post something along the lines of "since the Emperor of Japan is not a man, but a god".
..but on the other hand, that belief might be somewhat more tied to Shinto. Although Czars and the like got their power and position from god, they weren't actually of divine blood.
Anyway, thank you very much for your hard work in guiding Japan into.. a weirdly octopus-like shape? (Really matches those old propaganda pictures of Imperial Russia).
I just posted the announcement for the next AAR.
Atwix Legacy with Denmark: A Multicultural European Union
Atwix Legacy with Denmark: A Multicultural European Union For people in developed countries, "Denmark" is a mythical place that is known to have good political and economic institutions: it is stable, democratic, peaceful, prosperous,[and]...
I think you will like it .
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Well obviously an Orthodox christian will not think an Emperor is God nor descended from God . So I do not know how my Japan viewed the Emperor who technically as not the Shogun ( the title in the game, by the way, remained Shogun).
The run turned out to be a world-conquest "lite" . The tentacles of Oda necessarily spread towards the other Empires. I promise my next run will have better maps.
A few notes about this run.
First of all, thanks to all those who commented or pressed the like button. Feedback from readers keeps the writer motivated. (also feel free to tell what you dislike : too many screenshots? chapters too short? too long?).
Second, about the initial question I posed way back after unifying Japan on whether to annex all Daimyos on the island first, or leave them independent for bonuses. In hindsight, it is obvious you should annex them fully before becoming Shogun . The bonuses from Daimyos on prestige and such were not a factor in the run. But as the number of Daimyos grew, the Seppukus became a good source of Mana . So certainly you want the Daimyos fighting each other.
Third, advice for any one contemplating a shogun run.
* do it. It is very different from regular games and fun.
* it is the easiest way to do a world conquest achievement. Unless you want a one-tag.
* the swarm became a real power in the later game. Early to mid game, the player has to direct the armies . So early game fight and build an economic base like usual .
* take influence ideas. The increased income from vassals made a big difference. Lower liberty desire means you can Seppuku a lot more often.
* you still have to pay attention to AE. Ideally I should have finished off the Asians before moving on to Muslims and Europe. Don't make my mistake of moving too fast .
First of all, thanks to all those who commented or pressed the like button. Feedback from readers keeps the writer motivated. (also feel free to tell what you dislike : too many screenshots? chapters too short? too long?).
Second, about the initial question I posed way back after unifying Japan on whether to annex all Daimyos on the island first, or leave them independent for bonuses. In hindsight, it is obvious you should annex them fully before becoming Shogun . The bonuses from Daimyos on prestige and such were not a factor in the run. But as the number of Daimyos grew, the Seppukus became a good source of Mana . So certainly you want the Daimyos fighting each other.
Third, advice for any one contemplating a shogun run.
* do it. It is very different from regular games and fun.
* it is the easiest way to do a world conquest achievement. Unless you want a one-tag.
* the swarm became a real power in the later game. Early to mid game, the player has to direct the armies . So early game fight and build an economic base like usual .
* take influence ideas. The increased income from vassals made a big difference. Lower liberty desire means you can Seppuku a lot more often.
* you still have to pay attention to AE. Ideally I should have finished off the Asians before moving on to Muslims and Europe. Don't make my mistake of moving too fast .
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The AI knew what it was doing here.
Well done on another successful challenge run! These are always fun.