To Explore the Secrets - A CK3 to HOI4 Multiplayer Megacampaign

[vaniver]

This is the AAR thread for part 2 of a megacampaign set in a procedurally generated world (see also part 1, which is sort of sparse). The game is 0900-1300 Pacific time on Sundays if you're interested in joining; send me a PM and I'll invite you to our discord.

Eight players are returning from CK3, and one new player (old to the group) is taking over the formerly AI nation of Syria. We used my quick-and-dirty conversion code instead of Idrendhur's more careful one; in particular, in keeping with EU4's aesthetic for development I convert CK3 castles to mil, churches to adm, and towns to dip, and so some of the capitals are comically unbalanced:

Milan's dev, one of the two highest

The political map in 1444​

The countries, in descending GP order:

On the eastern coast of Asia lies Burmese Taungu, played by Hellioning, their capital of Pagan with a port on the eastern ocean. With ideas focusing on naval quality and colonization, the Burmese are poised to rule distant lands across the oceans, if there turn out to be any.

Franconia, played by Mark, situated on the northwestern coast of Europe, is emperor of Christendom, and Frankish armies were once feared across the world and put Karlings on countless thrones. (In EU4, we've split them up into many cadet branches, with only a few keeping the prestigious Karling name.) Frankfurt glass is renowned across Christendom, and nearby copper mines that have put Karling faces on pence across the empire will soon produce cannons. With ideas focusing on land quality and production, the Frankish armies will once again be the terror of the world.

France, played by Yami, on the southern tip of Europe and across the strait from Yemen, is split in two by a mountain range and a political divide; the duke of Orleans rules the northern half of France with a free hand while pledging fealty to his kinsman the French king. With ideas focusing on land quantity and scholarship, the French might serve as a counterbalance to Franconia, or perhaps its partner in conquest.

Norway, played by King of Men, on the northern tip of Asia and across the wide Northern Gate from Milan, is a long and windy peninsula, whose control stretches all the way to Kiev in the heart of Asia. With ideas focusing on galleys and development, Norwegian sailors are poised to rule the Inner Sea.

Milan, played by Ranger, on the northeastern tip of Europe and across from Norway, is also split in half, with the powerful vassal of Switzerland in the west. With ideas focusing on naval quantity and production, robust Milanese industry will support their massive fleets.

Bavaria, played by mike, on the southwestern tip of Europe, has ideas focusing on light ships and trading. With only one end node (the Inner Sea), Bavarian trading fleets might dominate the old world.

Jin, played by Blayne, is connected by a narrow land bridge to Asia, and is across a strait from Egypt. With ideas focused on infantry and warfare, they perhaps seek to unite their continent; or at least settle some ancient scores with their richer eastern neighbor.

Egypt, played by Vaniver, is on the northern side of Arabia, shaped like an inverted L, the vertical piece the Pilgrim's Way that connects Mecca and Cairo, and then the Egyptian peninsula going east to the Southestern Gate (and the strait connection to Jin). The only source of gold in the old world, Egyptian dinars are known the world over--but Egypt itself is a relatively poor country, with two major cities and no other provinces above 7 development. With ideas focused on cavalry and conquest, the Sultan is likely to try to recreate the Empire of Arabia that his dynasty once held.

Syria, played by Tazzzo, is the southeastern coast of Arabia. Unplayed in CK3, it converted as quite poor (but has been buffed to be closer to the other players). With ideas focused on artillery and balance, it'll make for a stronger lategame power.

Yemen, a crusader kingdom that went back and forth between the Christians and the Muslims in CK3, is a mixture in EU4, with many small crusader states inside the Holy Roman Empire, but many of them are poised to drop their Christianity and convert to the local faith. Whether or not they can be brought to heel will be the first major challenge for the HRE (with the Shadow Kingdom event reworked to affect Yemen instead).

 

[vaniver]

The political map in 1494, as seen by Egypt

The ledger in 1494​

We had a first session's truce, where you couldn't take anyone's conversion territory from them, and so the main story of this session was the consolidation of AI. (Other players have taken exploration ideas and have started colonizing; Egypt's only exposure to that is stolen maps, like of Syrian Sicily and Burmese islands further east.)

So this first session went basically as well as I hoped it could have for me. Egypt is in a bit of a strange position, as Arabia is the poorest continent in terms of dev, but two gold provinces can be substantial income (especially as I rapidly developed each up to 6 production). As well, my cities (Cairo and Mecca) were balanced instead of the manpower-heavy abominations of other realms because I built cities and temples in CK3 (which was one of the reasons I underperformed a bit militarily during that game). When it came time for Milan to offer Knowledge Sharing for Renaissance, Egypt had the second highest income (only behind Taungu, the #1 GP); at session end Egypt seems to be narrowly ahead (while only in a middling place when it comes to development).

Syria and I rapidly split the main bit of Arabia, and then I pushed west into Yemen after it had broken free from the Empire. (I had hoped to vassalize the once-Crusader-now-Sunni Karling duke of Sanaa, but he was a bit too large, and so I slowed myself down a bit by allying and guaranteeing him, breaking the alliance, and then realizing that I needed to break the guarantee. Oops.) The former capital and the (potential) canal province are now both under my control, and while the next bits that I border (Foix and Picardy) are French vassals, it's not that important that I push up to the strait.

Next session the truce ends, and one suspects the knives will come out. The Caribbean, the colonial zone to the west, is unlocked, and during the session the zone to the east will unlock (with America, on the other side of the world, unlocking in later weeks). The plan is for any players knocked out in the old world to restart as CNs--and with as many provinces available in the new world as the old world, and even more unlocking in Vicky, it seems likely that only about half of the players currently in the old world will stay there.

 

[Idhrendur]

I have an aesthetic attraction to strong strategies in one game leading to a suboptimal setup in the next. It never influenced converter design but I tended to be happy about it dropping out as a system behavior.

 

[vaniver]

The political map in 1548, as seen by Egypt

The ledger in 1548​

With no truces, this session saw some significant wars. I didn't pay much attention to colonial wars (and, indeed, can't even see most of the colonial territories), and so won't recount them here; my main impression is that Taungu lost several of them and has very little presence in the Caribbean.

We edited the Protestantism event to fire in 1510, as we had too few Catholic states for reform desire to accumulate normally, and all of the Catholics switched to some flavor of Protestant or Reformed; with no legal candidate for Emperor, the HRE disbanded. With no religious wars on the horizon, an uneasy peace rules over a shattered Christendom, but in the East, there's a clear rift between two blocs: Egypt and Taungu vs. Syria, Norway, and Jin.

There were three major wars (I think?) over the course of the session; the first a 3v2 declared by Jin where the 3 won, taking Asyut (one of my gold mines!) from Egypt and about eight provinces from Taungu. Jin later declared another war, thinking that perhaps there would be a separate 2v1 and 1v1 (where Egypt and Syria would fight separately), and (given that I hadn't been warned about this) it instead became a 2v2, with Taungu winning back three of the provinces it lost. Later, there was a limited 1v1 between Syria and Egypt; basically, Syria declared for just Mecca and Egypt, if it won, could take up to 27% warscore worth of provinces (the amount Mecca was worth), with the limits keeping both sets of allies out. This eventually ended in a near-white peace, with Egypt paying 225 dinars to end it (after both sides had depleted their cash reserves and manpower). Egypt's army tradition is pretty stellar, and I often was running 3 star generals (tho sadly I didn't have my current 5 siege general, who would have been quite useful in taking out Syrian mountain forts).

Given that these major wars likely would decide the fate of Arabia, both Egypt and Syria started their golden ages; given that we also both had economic ideas (I believe?) this meant massive development that brought both countries far up the ranks. (Arabia is still, I believe, the least-developed continent, but given that it has 2 players to the 3 of Asia and the 4 of Europe, that it's close represents a significant power disparity.) Egypt is no longer the richest country--Syria now holds that title, with the 4/month from Asyut enough to make the difference--but Egypt and Syria combined have an income that's roughly the same as that of all European powers put together, and a third higher than all of the Asian powers put together.

In the Age of Reformation, however, Syria has unlocked Spanish Tercios, which is -30% shock damage received; against cavalry-heavy Egypt, this probably means the next fight will not be nearly as even. [I also discovered, which I perhaps should have seen coming, that a cav-heavy army is sometimes heavily disadvantaged against a same-tech infantry-heavy army, because the infantry have upgraded whereas the cavalry have not. As Syria-Norway-Jin declared all three of the wars, they managed to make the most of that initiative.]

 

[Tazzzo]

Syria here- I'll have you know that the first war vs you was preemptive self-defense. As you did tell me you wanted my land at the end of the 1st session.

 

[vaniver]

The political map in 1589, as seen by Egypt

The ledger in 1589​

[The ledger is a bit inaccurate, as there's an unexplained crash related to colonial nations, and so I temporarily disabled their formation, so American CNs haven't broken off yet.]

The Chesapeake Bay trade zone opened up this session (in 1570), and the eastern coast is now a patchwork of colors. More American nodes will open, about one per session. (The interior is reserved for colonization in Vicky, like the interior of Africa.)

The unbalanced alliances were evened up at the start of this session, with Franconia allying Egypt. In the first major war of the session, declared by Egypt on Syria around 1560, started with a massive battle narrowly won by the Egyptian side (thanks mostly to crack Franconian troops and partly to stellar Egyptian generals), and generally involved a fair bit of luck on our part, including (most memorably) the siege on a mountain fort finishing just before a massive army arrived to begin a battle. (At the beginning of the war, I think I was about 60% sure that we would win.)

Uqayr, a coastal stretch of desert not yet developed beyond 1-1-1, was given to Franconia to serve as a forward base. Around 20 years later, Jin declared a reconquest war on Taungu, and with fewer Franconian troops in Arabia, more prepared Syrians, and the entry of the Milanese on the other side, the war was quickly decided in favor of Jin and friends.

The border between Egypt and Syria, after moving back and forth, now stands at a pretty favorable line for Egypt. The increased importance of trade has started to move our incomes further apart, and Egypt's manpower is the largest by a significant margin, while Egypt's GP rank is steadily slipping due to its lack of colonies. But miltech 16 is on the horizon, and with it more powerful cannons; the more cautious amirs do not expect Egypt to get lucky again.

 

[vaniver]

The political map in 1632, as seen by Egypt

The ledger in 1632​

As predicted, there was another massive war; this time, Syria (backed by Norway, Jin, and Milan) declared a reconquest war on Egypt (backed by Franconia and Taungu). Sadly I didn't take enough screenshots to remember a blow-by-blow; Frankish troops were on both fronts, leading to some success against Jin and Norway, and steady losses in Egypt. With Yumen sieged down on the other side of the strait, Egyptian troops could retreat into conquered Jin; however, what once looked like "splitting the enemy in two while joining our forces" turned into "being penned in", as Milanese troops in the north and Syrian troops in the south pushed us back towards Jin's capital.

There were two battles where we got lucky with timing, the Rescue at Linze:

And then the Miracle at Zhenfan:

The battle ended before the first 33k stack arrived, which was then stackwiped before the second stack arrived, and then the second stack managed to flee.

Despite some successes, the war ultimately didn't go Egypt's way:

With the Age of Absolutism, Egypt declared a war after the end of the truce, which again involved some early successes but was marred by the stackwiping of Taungu's army and the destruction of two thirds of the Egyptian army, and now it looks unlikely to go well.