The Nation of the Tagalogs: A Tondo Megacampaign AAR

[Black Watch]

Hello everyone! This is only my second attempt at writing an AAR, and hopefully to completion this time. I will be playing as the Tondo polity, which is part of the city of Manila today, in EU4's 1444 bookmark. I will be using converters to convert the save game in 1821 to Victoria 2, and then to Hearts of Iron 4 in 1936.

Settings
Difficulty: Normal
Lucky Nations: Off (I don't like Lucky Nations, and we might see a more ahistorical world this way, and this is as much an AAR about how the rest of the world turns out as it is about Tondo/the *Philippines)
Ironman Mode: Off, but I will try to keep savescumming to the minimum, and have never done it yet up to the current date I've played, even though I've made some nasty misclicks.

DLCs: All gameplay DLCs except for Origins

Some terminology that I will be using throughout this AAR
ATL: Alternate Timeline, which is what this campaign will be. I'm very fond of the alternate history genre and will be treating this game as such.
OTL: Our Timeline, the world we live in. I will be making occasional comparisons between the history and present of this timeline and our timeline.
Nusantara: The Malay term for the vast archipelago in Southeast Asia. However, OTL Indonesians usually use the term Nusantara to refer only to Indonesian territory. For clarification, i will be using Nusantara to refer to the entire territory of OTL Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore.
Malay Archipelago: An alternative English term for Nusantara that I'll use occasionally.
*Philippine Archipelago: This term will refer solely to the part of Nusantara that is the OTL Philippines. Suggestions for what the not-Philippine islands would be called in this timeline are welcome.

Part I: The Land of the Tagalogs, Tondo

First goal will be to unify the *Philippine archipelago (the asterisk represents the fact that it would not be called the Philippines in this alternate timeline). After that, I intend to complete Tondo's mission trees. These include: unification of the entirety of the great archipelago of Nusantara, conquest of Indochina, and unique to Tondo's missions, taking provinces in southern China.

This is the game's description of the state of the "Philippine" archipelago in 1444. The archipelago is divided into many prosperous but small city-states, chiefdoms, and thalassocracies. Historically the *Philippine archipelago never formed large empires like the Khmer in mainland Southeast Asia and the Majapahit in the southern part of Nusantara. The fact that no large empire historically emerged in the Philippines prior to Spanish contact may be due to the historically tiny population of the islands as well as their very fragmented geography (the OTL Philippines' massive population is a post-WWII phenomenon).

The Tagalog-speaking Tondo, or Tundun, polity is the largest of the *Philippine states in 1444, but is only first among equals in this fragmented political landscape. OTL historians use the term "polity" to describe Tondo, because it was not a kingdom, at least not in the European sense, nor was it a republic or other of the usual classifications. (OTL Tondo, located north of the Pasig River, has been absorbed by the massive megalopolis of Manila, and is now just a district in Manila, along with Maynila, its historical ally/rival to the south of the same river.)

The form of government/administrative structure native to the *Philippines is the "barangay". (Edit: The barangay today is the smallest administrative unit of the OTL Philippines, equivalent to a ward or district or village in other countries.) In precolonial times, these were well-organized independent villages of 50 to 100 families, and as they grew more prosperous and developed, several barangays could merge together into loose confederations, which the game calls grand barangays.

The Tondo Polity was ruled by a "Lakan" (paramount ruler), hence I will also be calling Tondo the Lakanate of Tondo.

East Asia contains the (currently) massive and powerful Empire of China, whose Mandate of Heaven is currently held by the Ming Dynasty. Tondo starts in 1444 as one of Ming's tributary states. As such they demand annual tribute from us, which is not ideal, but on the plus side there are some benefits to this tributary status.

There is also the Empire of Japan, an unusual structure where a (currently) weak Shogunate holds nominal sway over the whole Japanese archipelago, but in practice Japan is divided between many local warlords. We shall see if the Ashikaga Shogunate will be able to centralize Japan once again, or if it will fail and collapse.

Our first step of the campaign is to look for allies. We start out allied to Maynila, the city-state on the opposite side of the Pasig River from us. We currently have a mutually beneficial agreement, where as a tributary, Tondo receives the majority of Chinese trade goods available in the isles, and then Maynila resells them to the rest of the archipelago. We wanted to search for more allies, but only the Rajahnate of Butuan on the southern island of Mindanao was willing to ally with us.

I did not initially set any rivals, to see who would rival me first.

Religiously, Tondo starts out in a curious situation. The nobility are Hindu, as the *Philippine archipelago represents the furthest reaches of the Southeast Asian Indosphere. But in practice, the common people of all two of our starting provinces still follow the traditional animist beliefs of the *Philippine people, while the island of Mindoro is Buddhist. Therefore we have 0% religious unity, which is far from ideal. We will seek to convert the population and syncretize the Hinduism and Buddhism we received from India with our traditional beliefs.

The Majapahit Empire, which once directly or through vassals ruled all of OTL Indonesia's part of Nusantara, and whose influence may have extended as far north as the OTL Philippines, is now in decline. Will they be able to recover?

Our next order of business after securing alliances is to grant privileges to our estates, so that they may aid our state better. In particular I'm interested in Tropical City Planning, which is unique to countries such as ours that live in this hot, humid, typhoon-prone, volcano-filled tropical environment.

Perfect. Someone has rivaled us, and it's exactly who I wanted. The Wangdom of Caboloan, a Sinicized state in the Pangasinan region (which according to a possibly apocryphal story may have been ruled by nobles from Ming China gone native) has chosen us as their rivals. They are weaker than us, and a perfect first target. They are a tributary of Ming, but so are we - so Ming will not protect them from us.

Even better, Pangasinan has no allies at all. We quickly fabricate claims on Pangasinan and declare war in 1447. No need to call our allies. This war won't take long.

Our Lakan leads our soldiers himself as our army engages the Pangasinense army, half our army's size.

Under our Lakan's glorious command, we have crushed the enemy forces.

Hopefully the first of many conquests. As a small nation, we desperately need more provinces early on to not be so vulnerable, so this was a stroke of luck for us.

By 1449, Pangasinan was considered a core province. The Pangasinan people are culturally similar to us Tagalogs, although Pangasinense is not mutually intelligible with Tagalog, despite coming from the same Austronesian language family. They will be treated as equal partners in the nation we are going to build (In-game the whole *Philippine archipelago is in the Filipino culture group, although the Extended Timeline mod breaks it up into subgroups.)

We have ambitions of uniting the whole archipelago, because only united can these islands hope to stave off foreign invaders. And then we will look further beyond...

We now have enough money to both support a military and start converting our population. 0% religious unity is bad.

First tech researched! We can now build Marketplaces in our trading centers. The Philippine trade node alone has six Centers of Trade - Pangasinan, Manila, Panay, Cebu, Butuan, and Sulu. We will develop all of these eventually.

We choose to support the Haridasa movement to make our missionaries stronger, as well as cheapen the cost of increasing stability, which seems important. Our stability isn't the best right now.

This is the religion overview of the *Philippine archipelago in 1453, a year that might in another timeline have some special significance (maybe not in this timeline?) Laguna and Pangasinan have already been converted. The whole archipelago is Animist except for the Rajahnate of Cebu, and the southern part of Palawan, which is Muslim thanks to the Sultanate of Brunei.

Now that our first rival has been defeated and we have grown stronger, our Austronesian neighbors across the South China Sea, the Kingdom of Champa, have rivaled us. Interesting, we needed another rival.

In December 1454, it appears Ming is demanding additional tribute on top of the regular annual tribute. This tributary arrangement is starting to grate on us... We will accept - for now.

Our next targets are the prosperous Rajahnate of Cebu in the central Visayas region, and the Muslim Sultanate of Sulu in the southernmost part, because they are only allied to each other. Maynila and Butuan are still my allies, and the semi-democratic Confederacy of Madya-as and the Sultanate of Maguindanao are allied to each other and to them, meaning I can't attack them for now. So we send our spies to start fabricating claims on Sulu and Cebu.

And that's it for Part 1! Future parts will not have as many screenshots for relatively unimportant things like techs researched or provinces converted. I just wanted to show the first instances of those in this campaign.

I have already played far beyond this point, so stay tuned for the next parts! Thank you!

 

[HistoryDude]

I always like megacampaigns. And this isn't a bad start.

 

[Black Watch]

I always like megacampaigns. And this isn't a bad start.

Thank you! I've played all the way up to 1750 already, so I should probably start working on updating this AAR. I haven't been forgetting to take screenshots, at least!

 

[Black Watch]

Part II: Another War, Two More Centers of Trade

Majapahit is attacking Makassar on the island of Sulawesi. The declining, once-powerful Majapahit might have some life in them yet.

Tondo starts out as an Eastern Plutocracy, a government type that gives us an extra merchant. We are now ready for our Tier 2 government reform.

Uniquely Southeast Asian is the Mandala System, which focuses more on somewhat autonomous vassals surrounding a central city-state, rather than direct control over large areas.

Our Queen Malyag from our royal marriage with the Rajahnate of Butuan has some military prowess, it seems. More monarch points are always appreciated.

At the beginning of 1458, Tondo declared war on Cebu and Sulu. Which, coincidentally, are both Centers of Trade. Our ships and troops had been put in position beforehand. Madyas, Maynila and Butuan were both called into the war as well.

After we destroyed the Cebuano navy blocking strait crossings, Madyas troops crossed the Tanon Strait between the islands of Buglas (known as Negros in OTL) and Cebu, and Tondonese troops attacked the islands of Cebu and Bohol (represented as one province in-game) from the east.

While the city of Cebu was being besieged, something interesting happened. Political refugees arrived from Ming China, seeking asylum in our lands. By accepting them, we could make use of their skills to develop Tondo, but this could also displease Ming if they found out we were harboring them. Nevertheless, we chose to do the right thing and give they refuge here.

By the end of 1458, Cebu was occupied. However, Sulu has to be finished off as well. The combined navies of Tondo, Madyas, Butuan, and Maynila all engaged the Sulu navy together. We won, although in practice it was our side that lost a ship!

The army, led by Lakan Lontok Tondo himself, now begins to land on the Sulu island chain.

The Sulu army has been eradicated, and we are now besieging their stronghold. It's time for Tondo to pick its first idea group. We decided to go with Administrative Ideas, to help administer the realm more efficiently and use mercenaries more effectively.

Victory in our second war. Our Lakan made sure to annex both Cebu and Sulu in one fell swoop.

Now something interesting happened. As soon as Cebu and Sulu were annexed, both Butuan and Madyas broke their alliances with Tondo and rivaled us. This is a good thing - saves us the trouble of having to break alliance with them ourselves. Now we can go conquer them guilt-free.

We have rivaled them back, which gives us a bonus in spy network construction, and started preparing to fabricate claims.

Our neighbor Maynila asks us for money in exchange for favors. We accept.

A volcano erupts on the island of Cebu, causing extreme devastation. Sigh, this is the problem with living in the Ring of Fire.

As of 1461, Ming is now demanding administrative monarch points as our tribute to them.

Fortunately Production in Sulu improves, which makes up somewhat for the devastation caused by the volcanic eruption in Cebu earlier.

The claim is ready. These islands shall be united.

We have turned the islands of Visayas into a state, in preparation for our campaign against Madyas, who owns two provinces - the islands of Panay and Buglas.

Good timing. We want to reach Military Technology 5 before starting this war.

This post has reached 20 images so I'll stop here for now. I'll try and post another update tomorrow. Stay tuned!

 

[HistoryDude]

When the AI makes decisions that benefit you... it is a nice day.

Tondo will soon rule, although Majapahit looks like it might have some life in it yet.

Will the Ming be a future enemy?

 

[Culann]

Will the Ming be a future enemy?

Ming aggression I think is a given.

 

[Black Watch]

When the AI makes decisions that benefit you... it is a nice day.

Tondo will soon rule, although Majapahit looks like it might have some life in it yet.

Will the Ming be a future enemy?

Part of Tondo's mission tree actually involves befriending Majapahit, as they were once our friends before they fell into decline. However, the entire archipelago of Nusantara must eventually be brought under one rule...

Ming aggression I think is a given.

You'll see in coming parts that I, not wanting to risk a Force Tributary war from Ming, remained a loyal tributary for quite some time. The tribute they demand increases by quite a lot as your country gets bigger. But this is just me biding my time and waiting for the right time to declare independence...

Part III will be posted shortly!

 

[Black Watch]

Part III: The Conquest of the Center

Some news from other parts of the world (the relatively small part of the world Tondo is aware of in the 1400s, mostly just East, Southeast, and South Asia). The Joseon Kingdom of Korea has chosen to rival the Ashikaga Shogunate of Japan. How will this play out?

Also of note in the *Philippine archipelago is the two-province Sultanate of Maguindanao on the southern island of Mindanao. Oddly enough they have a friendly disposition towards Tondo yet their relationship value is negative.

Sure enough, despite the -10 relationship value, Maguindanao offers us an alliance.

We are now ready to claim the territory of our erstwhile ally Butuan...

...Whom we still have a royal marriage with, and where our queen is from. Oh, and they've also rivaled us and broken our alliance...but that doesn't mean we can't still celebrate our family ties before Tondo conquers them, right?

Tondo has managed to secure an alliance with Banjar on the island of Borneo. This marks our first alliance with any country outside of the *Philippine archipelago.

Also note that Tondo has assigned a diplomat to curry favors from Maguindanao, so that they are willing to join us for war when the time comes.

Lakan Lontok finally feels that Tondo has enough money to hire our first advisor. The sooner, the better, but small countries have difficulty affording even one advisor, let alone the full three.

Ming changes the annual tribute they demand from Tondo yet again, this time to Ducats - a noticeably higher amount of Ducats this time. Sigh.

We have accumulated enough administrative development to choose Tondo's first ever national idea. As you remember, we picked the Administrative idea group earlier. (Side note: I never used mercenaries before, but since Administrative has three ideas focusing on mercs, I'll start using them in this campaign.)

Also note that Tondo uses Luzon's indigenous national ideas, shared with Pangasinan and Maynila. I think they're not too bad actually. Our starting Traditions are +1 yearly navy tradition and 10% goods produced modifier, which I really like.

We chose to hire an Administrative advisor first, because Admin points are always in short supply. For our very first advisor, we hired the Hindu Filipino, Alon Bima, to reduce unrest in our newly annexed territories. If I remember correctly, I had also given more crownland to the Brahmins in exchange for +1 admin every month - which is why you can see that I have the Low Crownland penalty in the upper left of this screenshot.

Sadly, in March 1467, while we were preparing for our next conquests, our great Lakan, Lontok Tondo, passed away. Our Queen Malyag, from our royal marriage with Butuan, will lead the country.

Our heir, Alon Tondo, has the same total stats as our Queen Malyag, but Malyag has a more balanced spread of stats. Since we have 100 Legitimacy, I choose to extend the regency for 5 years.

Also note that we now have an Administrative advisor and a cheap Diplomatic advisor, thanks to an event.

Our burdensome tributary missions to Ming China do have some positive aspects. They have led to even more Chinese traders appearing in the port of Binalatongan, which is one of the *Philippine archipelago's centers of trade and was the former capital of the Huangdom of Pangasinan, which we have merged with our nation.

We are happy to welcome these Chinese immigrants (Historically the Philippine archipelago has received lots of Chinese traders and immigrants for centuries, as in OTL). However, the Ming government might not take kindly to Tondo welcoming these immigrants, as some may be wanted back in China, or are in the *Philippines to smuggle goods.

Nevertheless, in one of Tondo's first signs of growing independence from Ming, we choose to welcome these traders, just as we welcome the Ming political refugees earlier. They will aid in the development of our country.

The Tondoan government spent some military power to improve the province of *Laguna. (This province had no single pre-colonial name that I could find in my research, and the actual OTL province of Laguna only covers a small part of this EU4 province.) Among other things this will give the crown some more crownland and help remove our low crownland penalty.

It's time. We've spent years preparing. I declare Madyas as a co-belligerent because Butuan and Madyas have no other allies except for each other anyway. This will make it cheaper to claim and core their territory. Our Queen Malyag will have to declare war on her homeland, Butuan. She calls in Maguindanao and Maynila on favors, but not Banjar, we do not need their help yet.

In December 1468, Tondo declared war on both the Rajahnate of Butuan and the Confederacy of Madya-as (an alternate spelling of Madyas sometimes in use). Notice that we have prepositioned an army next to Butuan, in the wild (at present) lands of Caraga, as well as prepositioning our navy in the central Visayan Sea to lay a blockade on both Panay and Buglas.

By February 1470, both Butuan and the island of Buglas (half of Madyas's territory) were under our occupation. However, Sulu chose this time to rise up against our occupation. Tondo's army was diverted to crush the Sulu separatists, and then return to finish the current war off.

Victory! In September of 1470, Tondo fully annexed both Butuan and Madyas in one war.

And just like clockwork, same as before, with Madyas and Butuan conquered, both Maguinanao and Maynila simultaneously break their alliances with Tondo. Guess who I'm going after next.

It makes sense that they would rival me, since there are no other nations left in the *Philippine islands. It is also to be noted that Maguindanao formed a trade league, which Maynila joined.

Also note that the formidable Sultanate of Brunei controls the southern part of the island of Palawan, which is rightly part of the *Philippine archipelago. Tondo must unify the entire archipelago before seeking to take Brunei on.

We can now complete one of the missions in the *Philippine mission tree. As opposed to the unique Tondoan missions, these are missions to unify the *Philippine Islands, and all nations in the *Philippines get them. To fulfill this mission one must conquer both Cebu and Madya-as.

This mission gives Tondo 5% army morale and 10% navy morale for 20 years. Conquering Luzon, the northern island, and conquering Mindanao, the southern island, both give the same effect (which can stack).

Ironically Tondo ended up finishing the Conquer Visayas mission before the Conquer Luzon mission despite being located on Luzon, because of the existence of our frenemy Maynila. We will soon rectify this, however.

Part IV coming soon. Next up: War with Maynila and Maguindanao.

 

[HistoryDude]

Soon, Tondo will rule all of the Philippines. And then invasions into foreign lands can begin - starting with Borneo.

 

[Black Watch]

Soon, Tondo will rule all of the Philippines. And then invasions into foreign lands can begin - starting with Borneo.

Hey, you predicted my plan.

Part IV coming up.

 

[Black Watch]

Part IV: Alliances with Khmer and Majapahit

One of Tondo's missions involves renewing our historical friendship with Majapahit, once the hegemon of insular Southeast Asia. Tondo sends a diplomat to begin befriending them once again.

We also turn East Mindanao into a state. West Mindanao will be turned into a state as well once Maguindanao is annexed. (Sulu is part of the state of Palawan, not West Mindanao).

Adaptability is probably one of the most important ideas in the Administrative Idea group, for saving on Admin points.

Somewhat surprisingly we are able to find another ally further afield, in mainland Southeast Asia. Tondo was able to secure an alliance with the Khmer. Like the Majapahit, the Khmer were once the hegemon of peninsular Southeast Asia just as the Majapahit dominated insular Southeast Asia. Both the Khmer and Majapahit Empires have fallen into decline. In the case of the Khmer, they are menaced from the east by the Austronesian polity of Champa, while from the north their Laotian vassals have declared independence as the Kingdom of Lan Xang, and to the northeast the Vietnamese of Dai Viet are a distant but growing threat. But by far the major threat to them at this time, however, is the Thai Kingdom of Ayutthaya. The Thai, who migrated into OTL Thailand from somewhere in southern China, were once the vassals of the Khmer Empire, but now the tables have turned. The first Thai kingdom, Sukhothai, was threatening enough, but the second Thai kingdom, Ayutthaya, was even more powerful, and first vassalized and then annexed Sukhothai, before turning its sights on the rump Khmer state.

In fact, in 1431, just 13 years before the start of EU4's campaign, Thai forces had brutally sacked the former Khmer capital of Angkor, one of the largest and most magnificent cities in the world at the time. The Khmer Empire had already been in decline even before the sack, (with Khmer kings taking their royal names in native Cambodian instead of in Sanskrit as they had previously done) but that was the final nail in the coffin. OTL historians mark the Sack of Angkor as the beginning of the Khmer Dark Ages.

Interestingly, Maguindanao is significantly weaker than Tondo in both army and navy strength, while Maynila, despite being a one-province minor, actually has a slightly stronger army.

Queen Malyag Butuan's extended regency period has now ended, and Alon I takes the throne as the new Lakan of Tondo.

Hindu nations are able to select a new deity from the Hindu pantheon each time a new ruler ascends to power, giving Hindu states flexibility and strong bonuses. Alon I chooses Vishnu as his personal deity, since Tondo is still in the process of converting the populations of the islands.

We have now built up our relationship with Majapahit to the point that we are ready to fulfill this mission on Tondo's mission tree.

Although decentralized "Mandala System" rule has usually been the norm throughout Southeast Asia, we are going to aim for a more centralized bureaucracy, something new to these islands. Tondo has grand ambitions to create a large, unified, centralized state, rather than the small scattered maritime communities that have characterized society on the *Philippine islands thus far.

We have received an opportunity to increase our country's stability. With how common negative events are, positive events are certainly welcome.

Alon I has married Sasaban, a lady from a noble family in Cebu, rather than marrying a foreign princess from our royal marriages with Banjar or Khmer. This marriage will go a long way towards unifying the Tagalogs of Tondo and the Cebuanos of recently annexed Cebu. The royal couple have had a child born in 1473, whom they have named Dula.

Our efforts to befriend Majapahit have paid off. They are willing to ally with us. You can also see in the screenshot that Majapahit has indeed recovered from its decline. They have taken the port city of Makassar from, well, Makassar, and have annexed their rival kingdom on the western half of Java, Sunda.

Madyas rebels rise up on the island of Panay, and our Skill 2 Diplomatic Advisor passes away.

We have not yet started fabricating claims on Maynila and Maguindanao, but by a stroke of luck we have produced, um, "very legitimate documents", showing that we have a claim on Lanao province. Yeah, that's it.

We have recruited a female Military Advisor, Titaua Satria, to aid us in troop reinforcement as well as general military affairs.

Mount Kanlaon, the highest peak on the island of Buglas (OTL Negros) has erupted in a devastating cataclysm. Great, just what we needed. There will be a LOT more of these volcanic eruptions throughout this campaign. I won't even screenshot the next ones anymore.

Some interesting news from abroad: the Jurchen nation of Jianzhou has agreed to share their maps of Manchuria with Ming China, which entails a transfer of prestige from China to Jianzhou. Ming and Jianzhou seem to be on very good terms and couldn't possibly end up being enemies at some point in the future.

We have unlocked enough national ideas in the Administrative group to unlock our first National Idea from our indigenous Luzon group! As mentioned earlier, the "Barangay State" was the primary form of sociopolitical organization on the Philippine islands prior to Spanish colonization, and the smallest administrative unit in the OTL Philippines is called the barangay in homage to this fact. (The smallest administrative unit in the OTL Philippines was formerly called a barrio.)

Wet rice cultivation, fishing, and maritime trade were and are the cornerstones of life and economic activity in these islands. The Barangay State reflects this fact. Practically, this Luzon idea gives much cheaper naval maintenance and sailor maintenance, perfect for a thalassocracy such as ours.

And this is Part IV. Looks like the coming war with Maynila and Maguindanao is still a ways away. I remember now that I waited a while to let separatism and unrest in the recently conquered territories subside, before conquering any new ones.

Part 5 will probably be a bit longer, in order to cover the coming war in full.

 

[Culann]

Imperial Manila time is short!

 

[cheif bearpaw]

Shame that volcanos keep blowing up. It's a real annoying event to get.

Good stuff so far. I've never really played in the Indonesia area so I'm excited to see what this holds.

 

[Black Watch]

Imperial Manila time is short!

This sounds a lot like something OTL Visayans love to say about Manilenos (and Tagalogs in general).

Shame that volcanos keep blowing up. It's a real annoying event to get.

Good stuff so far. I've never really played in the Indonesia area so I'm excited to see what this holds.

I'm glad you like it! Yeah, those volcanic eruptions really set you back. 75 devastation takes decades to recover from, to say nothing of the permanent -2 production. I got around 20 of them during this whole campaign. It's the true Malayo-Polynesian experience.

Part V coming up soon!

 

[Black Watch]

Part V: The Unification of the not-Philippines

The people of Tondo have started telling stories about Alon I's father, Lontok, who began Tondo's regional expansion. In order to seize upon this opportunity, the government spends some money for the creation of a national epic about him.

The government has spent large amounts of political power recently on developing the capital. I'm aiming to reach 30 development to at least achieve one of the Age of Discovery era goals and earn some Splendor.

Sadly, in 1481, Lakan Alon passed away relatively early. His son Dula is only 7, so Sasaban will be ruling as Queen Regent for now.

News from abroad: the Ashikaga Shogunate continues to centralize Japan under its rule, as well as making tributaries out of the Ainu who live on the northern island of Hokkaido. It seems the Ashikaga have managed to reverse their decline as well.

Most infuriatingly, the first of many... Palembang on the island of Sumatra has become a Pirate Republic, and they have taken a liking to raiding Tondo's coasts for loot and sailors. There will be many, many more of these raids...

Around 1481 as well, Tondo sent its troops to pacify the islands of Leyte and Samar. Unfortunate, but the Visayan natives living there have to be attacked in order to be eligible for the Conquer Visayas mission to be fulfilled. (I used to colonize these provinces the regular way, with colonists, but Leviathan added this method of gaining the uncolonized provinces in the Philippine islands.)

Tondo now formally annexes Samar and Leyte into its territory, bringing it one step closer to unifying the archipelago. The resources found on the islands are Spices and Gems, which should be profitable for us.

We've finally developed Tondo to 30 development. We can at least achieve one of the Age of Discovery goals - I don't think the others are attainable before the Age of Discovery ends. (In hindsight I could have humiliated a rival, but I prefer to conquer them instead.)

As Tondo grows larger, China grows greedier. They now demand 3 Admin points for the year of 1482.

IRL Maguindanao converted to Islam and became a Sultanate, but it seems here they are sticking to their traditional Animist roots.

Also, a traveling minstrel recently crossed into our borders, increasing our stability. Stability-increasing events are always welcome.

As befitting an archipelagic nation, Tondo finally has a large enough naval forcelimit to choose a naval doctrine. Galley Warfare is very good in Maritime Southeast Asia because almost all the sea zones are either inland seas or coastal. However I wanted to try going for Merchant Navy to see if I can emphasize Protecting Trade and earning ducats and Naval Tradition on the side.

We get a good opportunity to add 1 more development to Tondo, I chose to use our soldiers as workforce to improve the capital.

It's nearly time. We have fabricated a claim on the city-state of Maynila. Tondo, on the north bank of the Pasig River, and Maynila, on the south bank of the same river, will soon be united. (IRL, the present-day megalopolis of Manila covers both historical Tondo *and* historical Maynila, and the urbanized area has already expanded *far* beyond the 15th-century borders of both.)

In 1488, Dula comes of age and takes the throne as Lakan Dula I. We're ready for war. Also note that our son, also named Dula, is a 5/5/5 ruler. How you can tell that a newborn baby is a 5/5/5 ruler is beyond me, but I'm not complaining.

Upon ascending to the throne, Dula I chooses Shakti as his personal deity. Those Discipline and Siege Ability bonuses will come in handy soon.

I like these interesting events Hindu rulers get. Lakan Dula I has chosen to withdraw into contemplation for five years, which will give us some debuffs, but could result in nice benefits at the end of that period.

We've started to equip our troops with more and more of these newfangled "firearm" things, in addition to the traditional bows and arrows.

The time has come. Manila and Tondo will be merged into one unbroken metropolis. Maguindanao will be declared a co-belligerent, as Maynila and Maguindanao have no allies save for each other. None of Tondo's allies are willing to help, but that's fine. Their help will not be needed here.

In the year 1489, Tondo declared war on Maynila and Maguindanao to unify the *Philippine archipelago once and for all.

Here you can clearly see that the 5% Discipline bonus from Shakti is really giving us an edge over Maynila's forces.

While Manila was being besieged by Tondoan forces, a second Tondoan army took Lanao. The Maguindanao army tried to invade the island of Buglas, but got waylaid by the native tribes of Zamboanga along the way, delaying them and inflicting some casualties on our enemies.

After a siege that lasted almost a year, the city of Manila, the most important center of trade in the *Philippine archipelago, finally fell to our forces.

A large naval battle takes place between the Tondoan and Maynilan navies in the Visayan Sea.

With Maynila subdued, the only enemy left is Maguindanao. The Tondoan army, personally led by Dula I, engages their army, again with Shakti's Discipline bonus.

Maguindanao is now being besieged, Ming China demands 3 admin points yet again as tribute for the year of 1491, and our coasts get raided by Palembang yet again...that is getting tiresome.

Victory! Once again we will demand full annexation of both Maynila and Maguindanao. Notice that the sizable Maguindanaoan navy sailed out of port to engage us once we captured Maguindanao, but I'm going to annex Maguindanao so that navy will magically disappear in the middle of battling my navy.

I like this Glorious Victory. Soon Tondo will set its sights further afield.

Stay tuned for Part VI!

 

[cheif bearpaw]

I'm glad that Dula is still willling to lead the army even while deep in contemplation. Maybe it helps him think.

 

[HistoryDude]

The Philippines are united, and Majapahit will stand with them!

Invasion of Borneo and the base of those pirates next?

 

[Black Watch]

I'm glad that Dula is still willling to lead the army even while deep in contemplation. Maybe it helps him think.

Haha I just noticed that after you pointed it out. Guess he's just that good.

But seriously though if the "Withdrawn in Contemplation" event also prevented your ruler from being used as a general for five years, that would be add another debuff to the list of debuffs.

The Philippines are united, and Majapahit will stand with them!

Invasion of Borneo and the base of those pirates next?

Correct on the invasion of Borneo. The pirates are based out of Palembang, which is in southern Sumatra, where we cannot core any provinces yet. I seriously wondered whether Palembang was raiding every nation in Southeast Asia or whether they just had a special dislike for me for some reason... I hope it's not one of those things where the AIs go out of their way to specifically target the player nation?

Part VI coming soon.

 

[Black Watch]

Part VI: The Conquests of Luzon and Mindanao

All other countries with capitals in our home archipelago have been conquered. However, there still remains land populated by pre-state tribal nations to be annexed, and part of the western island of Palawan is held by the Sultanate of Brunei. They will have to be the next target for sure.

The Mamluks have chosen this time to declare a Golden Era for their country. But will it be enough for them to defeat the power of the rising Ottomans?

A Chinese advisor came to our court looking for a job as our military advisor. We accepted, and he became a naturalized citizen of Tondo. This event is an opportunity to get a Skill 3 advisor cheaply.

We accumulated enough Splendor to choose our first Age of Discovery bonus, and probably the only one we'll get before the age ends. I wasn't sure what to pick so I decided to get Improved War Taxes, since I have been levying war taxes.

Dai Viet, the nation of the Vietnamese, is an interesting candidate for us to ally. Historically I'm not aware of much interaction between Dai Viet and the precolonial Philippine states, despite their proximity to each other. To rectify this, Tondoan diplomats have been sent to improve relations with the Vietnamese.

Also note that Tondoan forces have been split into three armies and sent to occupy the three northern provinces of the archipelago.

Ming is now demanding 4 admin points for the year of 1492...

After conquering the two other countries on the island of Luzon (Pangasinan and Maynila), we can now complete the mission "Conquer the North". This immediately cedes four provinces to us - Ilocos (home to the Ilocano ethnolinguistic group), the mountains of Ifugao, the Cagayan River valley, and Bikol, home of the Bikolano ethnolinguistic group. The resources found in these regions are spices, coffee, and gems, which are pretty good.

Our Administrative advisor has not been idle either. I chose to get military benefits instead, because the conquest of Brunei is coming up.

Tondo has decreed its first state edict. I've rarely used these before and wanted to try them out. I was hoping that the Advancement Effort would help Renaissance appear faster in Tondo - but in hindsight I should have developed Tondo until the institution actually appeared here first, and then put the edict in.

Lakandula's meditation and contemplation for five years has paid off. His Diplomatic skill has increased by 2.

We also complete the mission "Conquer the South", giving us the whole of the southern island of Mindanao. We gain the Zamboanga Peninsula, the Caraga province, and the area of Tagloc (which is mostly undeveloped at this time, but in the OTL Philippines of 2021 has become home to the metropolis of Davao, the second largest metropolitan area in the Philippines outside of the Manila megalopolis.)

The resources here are Tea, Tropical Wood, and Coffee, not bad.

In preparation for war with Brunei, Tondo allies Kutai, located on the same island. We will probably have to wait for separatism to decrease on the *Philippine archipelago first, though.

Tondo has unlocked its second indigenous national idea, part of the Luzon idea set. "Conquest of Paradise" increases attrition for enemies in our lands, which could be useful for a defensive playstyle later on - once we have more territory that we can afford to lose, and have actually built more forts. It doesn't seem too useful at the moment when we have no forts save for our capital fort and don't have enough land to fight a fighting withdrawal.

We've been discovered at last. Ming China has learned about the people from their nation we were welcoming into Tondo, and, calling those people criminals, has demanded that we clear them out.

We told the Ming, very politely, that we would be letting some of these so-called criminals settle in our lands.

Our stability has been at -1 for some time. Although costly in admin points the government chose to boost stability.

We have grown to the extent that Ming is now demanding 5 Military points for 1496.

Another adventurer of Jianghuai culture has arrived on our shores, probably seeking a change from the stultifying culture in Ming China.

I don't know what we did, but more mercenary companies have become available to us. Is this event from getting Administrative ideas?

As part of our continuing effort to create a proper bureaucracy and administration we are working on creating a working Civil Service.

Interesting. There is high demand in China for exotic goods from our tropical islands. And unlike before, the Ming authorities are turning a blind eye to these smuggling activities, at least for now.

We've finally reached Mil tech 7 and can build artillery pieces for the first time. Though since Artillery is so expensive to build and maintain Tondo will not actually be building any for some time.

Our Grand Barangay has reached the fourth tier of government reforms. We choose Meritocratic Recruitment, giving the Merchant Guilds even more influence than the outsized influence they already have, and making advisors cheaper.

More news from abroad! The Ashikaga Shogunate continues to annex more daimyos, as well as rivaling Korea. Meanwhile, the Timurid Empire to the distant west has audaciously rivaled Ming.

Speaking of which, here are the Great Powers in the year 1502. Our overlord Ming is dominant in Asia - for now. However, apparently the other Great Powers are the mysterious lands of "Castile", "Poland", "France", "Austria", and "England". These seem like interesting people; I wonder if we'll be meeting them someday?

Heck, we only know about these "Ottomans" because we (just barely) know about the Mamluks (check the minimap in the screenshot to see what parts of the world Tondo is aware of in 1502), and they don't seem to like these "Ottomans"!

And that's a good place to end Part VI. Coming up in Part VII: War with Brunei and first expansion into Borneo!

 

[Culann]

Visayans! Err umm Filipinos to Borneo!