Part 11: Colonial Conquests

Part 11: Colonial Conquests

With France ensuring the safety of our borders, we can turn out attention to more distant objectives without constantly worrying about our neighbor. Burgundy's relations with us have been fully restored as well, ever since bringing them back into the Catholic world.



As you start conquering new territory and sending missionaries to convert other provinces, your revolt risks will start to look something like this. You're going to have rebel armies appearing and trying to seize your provinces, so you need to properly protect them.


Our provinces in northwestern Africa have settled down after being in our possession for so long. Our expansion in this region has been so gradual that there aren't a large number of provinces with high revolt risks here. Since its right across the sea from Iberia where we have several strong armies stationed, we should be able to get by with having a single army stationed here centrally and set to hunt rebels.






The Middle East and Egypt is a different story. The provinces here take a long time to traverse, we own a large number of provinces, and they were all taken at nearly the same time. Rebel sentiments still run higher than average all across this region and will still take a few decades to die down. With that taken into consideration, along with the fact that we border a Persia that has grown to be moderately large, we spread our armies out here. One is stationed in Cairo, another on the border with Persia, and 2 more on the south and west coasts of Arabia. All are set to autohunt rebels, and the AI will automatically move whichever one is closest to any rebel stacks.



Our Caribbean islands were colonized directly by us, which means they share our culture. Their revolt risks are all zero without any extraordinary events taken into account. They don't need much oversight, but I still want some protection in the region for them should any threats appear. An army is staioned in Haiti, and a fleet is permanently parked in the harbor there with enough ships to transport the army to other nearby islands. Instead of building a new fleet solely for this purpose, I moved our old Carrack and Cog fleet here before building a new primary Caravel fleet in the Mediterranean.



Our government tech level increases and gives us access to another national idea, so I take National Trade Policy. This will both increase our trade income by 10% and increase the compete chance of our merchants by 5%.



Look at the difference before and after the new idea is implemented. About 17 additional monthly trade income is added. That's nearly as much extra monthly investment to tech as a 6 star tech researcher would contribute. The effect of this will only increase over time, as our trade income skyrockets.



Achieving trade tech 15 allows us to create Monopolies in CoTs. See how Spain's flag is in the Monopoly spot for the Andalucia CoT now? You create a monopoly by sending a 6th merchant to a CoT where you already have 5. Only one nation can maintain a monopoly in a single CoT.

The benefits of creating a monopoly are that you gain the additional income that having a 6th merchant there would normally provide, but you also now gain the income that WOULD be gathered by other merchants if there are empty seats in the CoT. If you have a monopoly in a CoT where every seat is filled, you would bring home 30% of that CoT's total trade value annually. If you have a monopoly in a CoT and there are no other merchants from other nations seated there, you would take home 100% of that CoT's value annually (modified by your trade efficiency). You can create empty seats in a CoT by manually (autosend will not do this) sending more merchants to a CoT that you already have a monopoly in. If your new merchant successfully competes against another nation's merchant when it gets there, an empty seat will be created.

The downside of a monopoly is that it makes your merchants there the primary target of any other nation coming there to compete. Anyone else trying to compete in that CoT MUST compete your monopoly out first. This means that any empty seats that you create there will remain empty until someone successfully competes your monopoly back down to 5 merchants. The only way you can hope to maintain a "super monopoly" like this is to have an obscenely high compete chance by stacking level 6 trade buildings. It also helps to attempt this in a CoT that is out of range of all of the tiny landlocked nations in Europe.



I order the construction of a University in Madrid. Having a University in our capital will allow us to enact a few good decisions if and when I have the opportunity to move our narrowminded slider towards innovative.



I queue up about 3 Fine Arts Academies as we get enough money to do so. We've had to settle for 3 star advisors so much lately that the extra yearly cultural tradition they grant is something I am desiring more and more. Fine Arts Academies and Universities should be built in provinces that don't derive a greater benefit from other types of manufactories. Hover over all of the manufactory types to see what I mean. A textile factory for example is more effective when built in a cloth or wool producing province. Since there are no manufactory types that are more effective in grain provinces, they make good locations for Academies and Universities.



Our infamy is still high from earlier wars, and since one of our tech investment advisors has just died, I replace him with a Diplomat. Diplomats will help speed up your expansion by cutting down the time between wars. A bonus to infamy decay is always good.



As we keep exploring new areas, we keep finding more foreign peoples in need of civilizing. The Colonial Conquest CB is automatically gained against low technology native nations in the Americas and Central Africa. This CB lets us conquer large areas of native land for very little infamy.



A new army is formed for conquering Central America. A conquistador is recruited and assigned to the army, and our new main fleet can transport him.




Level 18 Land Tech is a milestone. The earliest firearm wielding infantry troops become available, and our military tactics score increases. Military tactics reduces the number of casualties our troops suffer as long as we maintain the mixed arms bonus by combining cavalry with our infantry. The newly available infantry types are far superior to anything we could have had before. I upgrade our preferred infantry type to Maurician Infantry.



Our new flintlock armed troops land in Mayan territory and begin occupying territory.



Mayan armies appear nearby, but battles between nations with differences in technology this great can only end one way.



We don't even need to chase down a routed Mayan army and beat them in another province, they are simply destroyed outright.



This scene repeats itself a few times across the Yucatan, and then the Mayans are completely annexed. The Colonial Conquest CB lets us seize all of their provinces for a minimal infamy cost.



On the other side of the world, I use our newly cored ports in Arabia to send colonists to Taiwan. This will become a useful base of operations for us in the far east.



We gained access to this national idea when I selected National Trade Policy as our last new idea. The only reason I didn't enact it right away is that it also gives us a move towards mercantilism (away from free trade). I waited for our next slider move to become available, implemented the Importation Act decision, and then immediately moved the slider back to maximum Free Trade.



Emperor Antonio is informed that the poor Aztecs aren't Catholic. Isn't it terrible? Lets see what the requirements are for assisting them:



We'll be happy to help.



A colonial conquest is declared on the Aztecs, for their benefit.



Much like the Mayans, the Aztecs are unable to withstand gunfire and more modern military tactics. All of their provinces fall within a few months and then they are fully annexed. We accrue 4.8 infamy for annexing them completely, but the mission we had to save the Aztecs rewarded us with a reduction of 5 infamy, so we actually ended up improving our reputation by conquering them.



Mexico is a wealthy gold province with a CoT. This is good and bad. On one hand, we now have a CoT in the new world and with its central location between the Americas, it will likely become the most prosperous CoT in the world over the next few centuries of colonization. On the other hand, we're now in possession of a non-cored foreign CoT just like the situation with Alexandria earlier. We're going to have 50 years of -15% compete chance again.



All of the Caribbean islands now opt to trade through Mexico instead of Andalucia, since its closer. Mexico has tons of valuable coffee, tobacco, sugar, and cotton flowing through its markets. Missionaries are dispatched all across Central America and quickly begin converting to our state religion.



It takes a great deal of time to move through the jungles in this region, so I divide our invading army in half and set each new detachment to hunt rebels on opposite ends of the new territories.




Another army is created and then assigned along with our caravel fleet to be permanently stationed in Taiwan. Now we have the proper tools in place to expand in that region as well. A new main fleet of Galleons will be commissioned in our home provinces to replace the departing fleet.



With Taiwan becoming a full fledged city, we now own a province that qualifies us to enact the decision to form an Indian Trade Company. This is a powerful decision that gives many exceptional bonuses.



The extra gold provinces we acquired from the Aztecs also allows us to enact a decision to create Gold Fleets. More percentage increase to tariffs is a great modifier for a country like us.




Government Tech increases enough to allow yet another idea, and I choose Viceroys. Viceroys increase your tariffs by 33%. Look at the difference in monthly income before and after adoption of the new idea.



Emperor Antonio dies and his heir, Enrique V takes his place. The personal union with France will continue as normal under Enrique. I think Enrique may follow in his father's footsteps and begin his reign with a conquest of the Incas.