Socotra: Part 05: 1489-1497: Ibadi Conquest of Mecca

Things have been going really smoothly. The gold is piling up, most battles are one sided stackwipes, and minor countries are lining up to join the great Socotran Kingdom.

I didn't get any mana, sieging, or religious conversion bonuses yet, so there's been some issues with these. In retrospect, picking Ibadi was probably not worth it, at least not early game. The biggest hurdle so far was the mod disabling dev pushing for institutions and limiting institution spread, so Renaissance is still barely past Cyprus.

Anyway, it's time to stop dillydallying and challenge the Mamluks. As minor side quests I converted Hormuz and Medina to Ibadi, and they'll likely join as vassals in the future.

And from the Mamluks I took all my vassals' cores, some coastline, and Mecca. I can't even use Mecca, as I'd need to convert it first, and it has -5% Religious Center, -2% Sunni, and -1.3% development modifiers to conversion. I can maybe just barely overcome this, but even then it would take agas and I have so much other clay to convert. Even with two missionaries (second from Defender of the Faith), and my merchants doing extra conversions (only of Fetishists, not Sunnis), I barely get 65% religious unity. Again, going Sunni would simply be easier.

It didn't even cost that much AE. I have -46.3% AE right now, -10% from Hanbali Muslim school, -10% from age ability, -20% from Espionage ideas, and -6.3% from current prestige. I don't have a build to stack it, and soon the age ability will end. There's a monument in Ayutthaya that gives -10% more, but fighting there would be really awkward.

I finally got over 200 gold per month, Ming is second with 80.

I got my first colonist too, and with that free explorer from estates. For now I sent him to colonize some high dev islands near Madagascar, but soon I'll settle Cape.

Renaissance finally reached Cairo from their Cyprus former vassal, so maybe I can figure out some way to get it, like by conquering Cairo. This game is definitely more intense this without possibility of dev pushing institutions. Once I get access to Europe, next institutions shouldn't be too bad.

Mamluk War took a while, but it wasn't particularly hard. My infantry bonus is worth a bit less now that artillery joined the armies, but it's still quite strong.

I thought I'd conquer Mamluks to become the Mamluks and steal their mission tree, but that's 5 more wars at full warscore. Fun fact - massive warscore discounts are coming my way real soon. It would still be easier if Ottomans helped from the other side.