Vijayanagar: Part 07: 1531-1538: Wars of the Two Coalitions

Coalition happened. There are 37 countries over AE limit, and they're far too geographically dispersed to effectively truce juggle, so I need some serious plan.
I coul go West, but as soos as I conquer the first line of Sunni infidels, I'll get coalitioned even harder by everyone from Ottomans to Songhai.
Or I could go South-East - it will get worse at first, but eventually I'll reach the Pacific Ocean, and the only potential coalition members there will be the fish.
The fish have no guns, horses, or artillery, so the worst they can do is stink up the Ganges.

Of course the actual strategy will be more complicated and it will involve trying to get placate, threaten, truce juggle, or destroy various countries opportunistically.

And so I was doing some minor fights in East Asia. Mewar turned hostile and abandoned our alliance.

Coalition war triggered after all. Nogai, Aq Qoyunlu, Biapas, Brunei, Chagatai, Dawasir, Kedah, Malaca, Mong Pai, Mong Yang, Pasai, Shammar, Shewa, Siak, Sulu, Tibet.
Of my allies, Transoxiana and Lan Xang betrayed me. Afghanistan and Hormuz joined my side.

Balance of power wasn't too bad. 128k and 57 ships vs 128k and 77 ships. They never got even close to India. There was more ship sinking than any other action.

Then second coalition war triggered. Timurids, Aden, Ayutthaya, Cyprus, Dali, and Mamluks. Hormuz betrayed me, only Afghanistan stayed a loyal ally.
It was 115k and 41 ships vs 134k and 103 ships.

I don't think I ever had multiple coalition war at the same time.

There was a Muslim coup in Delhi, same as Bengal before. I think this is a bullshit event and shouldn't be in the game.

The first coalition war ended in 1538 with white peace, with 52k peasants dead on my side, and 123k and 42 ships on theirs.

The second coalition war ended just a few months later, with Timurids gaining one core 4dev province from Afghanistan. It cost us 75k and them 93k and 15 ships.

In the meantime I had a few tiny side wars, finally getting enough land to form Bharat, but I still need to core it and get extra stability.

List of haters shrunk from 37 to 22.

I now need to reestablish new alliances, and continue Plan East.

Meanwhile, Ming managed to end its crisis, passed third reform, almost recovered from that. There's one more problem on the horizon, as Oirats just passed 300dev, so they'll get Unguarded Nomadic Frontier. Shun is nowhere near being able to challenge them at 237dev to Ming's 784dev, but they managed to hold to Beijing.

I have 19/25 missions done, and I'll probably just form Bharat instead of finishing the rest, as they're asking for expansion into Arabia, East Africa and Malacca.

First Coalition War

OPM Nogai really overambitious here

I occupied minors to my East, and sunk a lot of ships but it felt fairly uneventful.

Now with simultaneous Second First Coalition War

I even ended up fighting the Mamluks in Afghanistan and lost a battle. There was a lot more fighting in territory of my vassal Assam.

Vijayanagar: Part 06: 1516-1531: The Shun Rebellion

My ruler got cruel for +2 unrest, his wife was a heretic for +2 unrest, and then there was overextension, and such - reason to pick fights with the government started piling up.
I couldn't resign, as my last two heirs failed their swimming lessons.

Ming got his by their crisis and fell of valid rivals list. Ashikaga attacked their tributary Ryukyu, and won.

Shun rebelled against Ming, but then got double-teamed by Ming and Oirats - they lost a lot of land, but they kept Beijing.

Hindu rebels flipped Delhi Hindu. I hoped they'd fall apart instead like Bengal, but it's still something.

I integrated my vassals, and got new allies - Hormuz, Ayutthaya, and Lan Xang. Ayutthaya and Lan Xang hated each other, but covering both would let me clean up Burma area without much opposition. It didn't quite work, and Ayutthaya broke our alliance after event about claims gave up -50 relations. Oh well.

Instead I allied Transoxiana - and without them, Central Asian Sunni coalition against me is really unlikely.

I got into another big war, against Baluchistan and Delhi, supported by a lot of minors. I a lot of land, now missing only one province to form Bharat - province unfortunately held by my ally Mewar.

After the war, coalition finally happened. With 1598dev and strong vassals and allies, maybe it's a bit late.

Coalition right now is:

• Central Asian Hordes: Nogai, Chagatai
• Arabia: Dawasir
• Africa: Shewa
• Indonesia: Brunei, Malacca
• South-East Asia: Mong Yang, Mong Pai, Mong Nai

With obviously more to come from all those regions. Mamluks are above the threshold, but they're busy in some minor war right now.

It's nothing new, but EU4 AE formula is bullshit, especially those gloabl Sunni coalitions. Shewa and Brunei definitely shouldn't be getting AE on me. Is it counting distance by tiles, including sea tiles as one?

Considering how aggressively I've been expanding, most of the participants are only half-heartedly in it.

I'm not worried at all - Ottomans don't know I exist, Ming doesn't care about fights between barbarians, and my real targets will get instant war declaration.

If they actually attack, they'll have serious trouble getting into India or winning on seas.

This was the war which was a step to far for my enemies

I have powerful allies in each direction so anyone fighting me will have hard time

Great Powers mode.

My borders are pretty much like modern India, except I have holes in my country

Aragon won't form Spain as Grenada survives as Morocco's OPM vassal

It's not the first time I'm seeing this problem (except generally Castile's fault)

Switching to Ming view, it's handling its crisis remarkably well for an AI

It just needs to end the rebels and crisis is over

It could literally do it by one button press - accept peasants' demands for autonomy, done.

AI is really passive about it, it will neither accept rebel demands nor fight rebels ASAP. So more rebels spawn before those are dealt with and so on.

Ming can still lose if it tries to pass third imperial reform while in the middle of the crisis.

Vijayanagar: Part 05: 1508-1516: Conquest of Bengal

Bengal sold me a shitty 3dev province for 200 gold. I got one of Assam's core from Kachar by just asking nicely. Bengal's capital Gauda defected to Assam due to Hindu rebels. It's not much, but I enjoy getting those easy wins.

I converted OPM next to Jaunpur from Sikh to Hindu for next age's objective, and took all the money from Jaunpur.

Then I got into a big war against Delhi, supported by non-cobeligerent Baluchistan and Bengal, to connect my vassals.

After that I removed two remaining OPMs.

During war with Delhi, I made sure to leave Bengal to Hindu rebels, losing big battle on purpose to transfer half-finished siege to them. A few years later it paid off - almost whole Bengal defected to newly recreated Kalinjar, which got attacked in first week of its existence. And good that I acted fast as it took Jaunpur about a month to guarantee them.

Sunnis really hate me, everyone from Mamluks to Brunei has -39 AE or worse. At least the Ottomans never heard of my existence. I'm not sure why none of them have balls to coalition me.

Age of Reformation just started, and just on time, as I'm a few months away from finishing religious ideas, and Deus Vulting their ass.

My ideas are:

• administrative - just first two for now
• religious - all the way
• next is trade - it's really great for countries without colonies and trade companies, at least until next patch rebalances it

I'm already a lot stronger than Ming - by my favourite metric of income 105 vs 80, and their about to hit Crisis of the Ming Dynasty in two years.

I'm really close to getting all of India, and coalition is yet to be seen.

Jaisamer, Dhundhar, Kumaon, Gorkha, Ladakh, and Assam are my vassals.

One idea is to let Sunnis chill a bit while I conquer Buddhists of South-East Asia, as nobody cares about those, but Ming would still protect them. If Ming explodes however, it's free real estate.

Muslims all hate me. However, Arabs, Africans, and Indonesians only somewhat so, Turks don't know who I am, Indians are truce-locked, half of Persians are Shia, so it's just mostly a Central Asian problem - and they're too busy fighting each other to create a coalition.

This good fortune won't last forever.

Vijayanagar: Part 04: 1489-1508: Empire of Vijayanagar

Peasant War started ticking, fortunately these days game provides enough toys to get some extra manpower to deal with it. Then I had Brahmins trying to take over, but that's even easier to deal with.

I didn't have any easy targets near me, but my vassal Ghorka had a few neighbours.

Mewar broke my tranquility by calling me into their war against Delhi, for my exact claim against Delhi.
I sieged down nearly whole Delhi, but Mewar decided to take zero land, and peaced them out for just some cash. Bastards!

My diplomacy kept advancing, with previous vassals getting integrated, and Kumaon and Jaisalmer taking their place.

Finally I ran out of easy targets, so I got into a fight with Bengal with non-cobeligerent Delhi. Then with my key allies Mewar and Jaunpur in the war, I could clean up central India.

Unfortunately due to the way wars worked, with coring blocked by other wars, once it was over I had to go 178% OE. As soon as I peaced out Janpur broke our alliance, and Muslims deep into Central Asia were threatening to coalition me. Even Mamluks were over -40, and I barely started my conquests.

I got myself emperor title after that, but then my country went in flames. Everyone rebelled, my ruler died fighting some rebels getting me to -2 stability, Peasant War and Internal Conflicts kept ticking up, and I barely stopped that. Fortunately tranquillity finally returned.

I had to burn a lot of mana to dev push my new capital for Colonialism, but it's going to be a while until it spreads far enough to adopt. It was also really bad timing, as I was too low on all mana I could use to deal with my country's issues.

While my country was burning, the diplomats were busy abroad. With bribes and nice words the coalition was at least postposed. But it will happen for sure. I got myself new vassals - Assam, Ladakh, and Dhundhar.

Unfortunately my long time ally Pegu got conquered by overachieving OPM Prome. I guess it watched DDRJake and wanted to give it a go too.

I'm at 17/25 missions done. There will be more missions after I form Bharat.

Ming recovered mandate after first reform, but lost a bit of land in process, with some minors in South China becoming their tributaries.

I'd say I'm now stronger than Ming even at their full power, and they'll inevitably get into another crisis real soon now.

Meanwhile in Europe, it looks like Castile tried to get independent of Aragon, and lost that war.

It's a very impressive chain of vassals and allies going all the way from Assam to borders of Persia

It's separated from my realm my narrow band of hostile Muslim blobs - Baluchistan, Delhi, Jaunpur, and Bengal.

Jaisamer is also a disconnected vassal, but Hindu Mewar is friendly so it's fine.

I don't think I'll be able to keep Afghanistan as an ally long term, it's entangled on enemy side of the alliance chains.

I'll have to fight them soon, and I'll get coalition from Mamluks to Brunei at some point.

The Yellow Triangle is bigger every time.

Vijayanagar: Part 03: 1474-1489: End of Tamil Insurgency

Diplomatic meddling my Malwa and Mewar prevented any easy wars. I used that break in expansion to get second admin idea for for -25% core creation cost, so it wasn't too bad.

I got the age ability to fabricate claims next to claims, and managed to snake them way into an OPM to distract Mewar without triggering anything major. It cost me 20 favors so I milked that for 4 wars in which Mewar would otherwise interfere, in addition to actually killing that OPM. I still had to fight Malwa.

I finally got rid of Tamil insurgency events, unlocking main part of my mission chain. There's a way to do this in 1444, but it's the first time I'm playing the new mission tree, so I had no idea. Oh well. That's 13/25 missions done.

Bengal at some point flipped Hindu, managed to crush what was left of Orissa, but then went Muslim again by a coup. Damn infidel oppressors need to be thrown back into the dessert.

Bengal then allied their fellow sultanate Malwa. So it's me and Mewar vs the infidels. After the war Mewar collapsed, and Hindu Garha popped up in most of their remaining land.

Timurids conquered Sistan who started the independence league. They also annexed their one loyal vassal Fars. It was going so well, then they fell apart to rebels, and a new even bigger Sistan got reborn. Also Fars. Then Afghanistan took over half of New Sistan.

Central India is mostly fine, so I diplovassalized Gorkha, and maybe I'll expand there next. It's not connected to my mainland other than my territory of my ally Jaunpur, but how long this alliance will last is anyone's guess.

This slow push North is really increasing my power. My income increased from 50 to 76 in this short time, more than anyone else in the world. Ming is suffering consequences of first imperial reform, so maybe they'll just fall apart without my help.

Mewar, Orissa, and what was left of Gujarat are all gone.

There was a brief Timurid resurgence, but that's over now.

Mamluks are big, and Ottomans are getting into fights as far as Khorasan, so I might need another intervention or to.

So far I've been trying my best to avoid fighting Delhi or my allies (Mewar, Jaunpur, Afghanistan, Pegu).

Great Powers map. Aragon having PU over Castile is the only unusual thing here.

Vijayanagar: Part 02: 1461-1474: Fall of Orissa

I had a quick war against the Bahmanis. After that I got event to move capital to Bidar, which it renamed Kalyana, but then unrenamed on next monthly tick. Wat?
I renamed it back to Kalyana. The citizens must be really confused by all that. I thought it would at least give me a free core, but no such luck.

Anyway, free capital moves are actually great for multiple dev pushes, and it's just a better province with silk and grassland instead of grain and drylands.

What was not fun was that it moved my trade capital to wrong node. I didn't notice this for a few years until I noticed baffling "You have no income from trade" while switching tabs about my country.
It's not even supposed to be possible to transfer trade past my trade capital, it should automatically free those merchants or switch them to collecting so I'd notice that. Oh well. 500 ducats or so down the drain.

I also finally got Golconda gem mine - I could have taken in first war, but I didn't notice this crazy rich province.

I got into a war with Orissa with Jaunpur's help. Orissa had 4 annoying vassals and far too many allies. It was too many forts for me to handle, and Jaunpur ended up bailing out halfway, so I just grabbed 4 of the forts in minor peace deal.

Weirdly last of Orissa's vassals got annexed by Patna, and Orissa and Patna got allied. Is this another weird event? It's not something I'd have normally noticed even playing near India. Maybe it happens every time, who knows.

Malwa tried to block my moves, spamming guarantees like they're Britain in HoI4, but they got distracted in Baglana-Bahmanis war, so I grabbed all of Patna. Maybe dishonoring guarantees should cancel all other guarantees and prevent a country from making more for 5 years? Just an idea.

There was another clusterfun in Gujarat area, so I tried to expand there and diplovassalize some minors, but Mewar sniped a few provinces in front of me, and they don't want to become my vassals due to distance. Mewar is allied with both me and Bahmanis, and well as 5 minors, so we'll see how this is going to go. I might distract them with some OPM war, then fight Bahmanis.

Taking administrative as my first ideas, not much surprise there.

All this slow expansion doesn't look like much on the map, but the country is also building up with temples and barracks, rebels calm down, control over trade gets stronger, and Golconda gem mine is mining some serious gems. With income of 50 gold/month I'm far ahead of anyone else except Ming's 80.

Meanwhile elsewhere, Aragon got a PU over extremely disloyal Castile. I really wish them luck. Saxony is the HRE. I don't think I'll really deal with Europe this campaign, so I'll just grab the popcorn and watch once the map uncovers.

India looks deceptively similar to before

Situation in Central India changed very rapidly last decade. Chanda and Andhra are my vassals, Orissa and Bahmanis fell apart, Mewar and Malwa are trying to play politics. Gujayar area is a total mess.

Vijayanagar: Part 01: 1444-1461: Fall of the Timurids

I want an easy relaxing game. So Vijayanagar, do all missions, conquer Greater India, form Bharat, make sure any nearby blobs like Timurids, Ming (and possibly Ottomans, Mamluks, or Russia if they get close) are properly wrecked - either by me, or by circumstances.

I'll probably stay Hindu, as India is almost all Hindu, it's a nearly top tier religion, and nearby alternatives like Confucians, Sikhs, various Buddhists and Pagans are all godawful. Muslims are about the same tier as Hindus, so that's a reasonable flip, but if I wanted to do that, I might just as well start as an Indian Muslim.

My religion tier list for the Old World is:

• S: Orthodox and Coptic
• A: Hindu, all Muslims
• B: Catholics, Protestants, Norse, Shinto
• C: Reformed, all Buddhists, Tengri
• D: Anglican, Jewish, Zoroastrian, Sikh, various Pagans (do nothing generic religions)
• F: Confucian (as I found during my Korean game, way worse than that)

Exact position of these could be argued up or down a tier of course.

There are some difficulties I can see:

• I'll need to dev push maybe as much as 3 times, there aren't any great places to dev push.
• I risk some nasty coalitions from Brunei to Morrocco once I start expanding into Muslim-occupied India, as AE in EU4 is broken. Fortunately India has so many culture groups this will dampen AE

India gets into instant clusterfun mode every time, and it's anybody's guess who's going to be top powers. This time it was Vijayanagar, Jaunpur, and Sirhind (which then reformed Delhi)

So the usual start. Deleting all forts, hiring level 1 advisors, building to force limit, milking all estates. I gave my heir swimming lessons, which ended up quite poorly.

I rivalled Gujarat, Bahmanis, and Bengal. Then I sent alliance offers to Malwa, Orissa, and Pegu, in addition to my existing alliance with Andhra.

Sirhind started with the first war in the world on 22 November 1444, attacking Delhi by event, before official wars can start. Delhi didn't last one year. Then Sirhind formed Delhi. It's as if nothing really happened.

Unfortunately my Indian estates can't give me any generals, and with my army tradition it felt like a waste to even roll one, so I got my ruler into an awful 0/1/3/0.

The war was annoying as Bahmanis had far too many forts, and I had no cannons, and no siege generals. Orissa and Malwa helped me, but then after disagreement as to division of spoils of war they broke our alliance. So I allied Mewar and Jaunpur in their place.

I had a mission to deal with autonomy of Tamil provinces, so I mass reduced autonomy everywhere. Unfortunately that's still far from enough.

Bengal lost a war to my ally Mewar defending some OPM, lost half its territory, and so I eclipsed my first rival. Well, Orissa it is then.

Another mission I had was to get war reparations from 3 countries, and reward was development cost discount in my capital, so I really needed that before Renaissance dev push. I got into a minor war against Mysore and friends just for that.

After that I dev pushed my capital to 38 to get Renaissance, cleaned up South India, in process Andhra ended up as my vassal.

Fun and Balance gives Timurids 8 diplo slots instead of vanilla's 4, so they could pick any 3 allies. Najd, Dawasir, and Biapas wouldn't be my first choices.

I think their vassals could have decent chance to win even unsupported, but they weren't willing to pull the trigger.

Vassals of the Timurids really needed a push, so I told them I'd support their independence, and they pulled the trigger. On paper it's a 57k vs 35k war, but there's just this one awkward issue that it's really inconvenient for me to get there. What was very convenient was just sending my boats to blockade Timurids.

Then once I crushed all my rebels, I landed my entire army, and got 60% war participation. I got nothing out of it except some petty cash, and not even any favors - probably because the country which triggered (Sistan) wasn't the one I supported (Afghanistan). Oh well, Timurids lost 4/5 of its vassals and 9 provinces.

I transferred all my occupations to encourage some greed. It paid off.

All that got me from not even being a great power into being 2nd on the list.
So far only 3 missions are done. 4 more would be done, but I can't click the button as they're in wrong order.

Jaffa and Andhra are my vassals, Chanda is my likely future vassal.

Afghanistan, Mewar, Jaunpur, and Pegu are my allies.

For now no coalitions are forming, but that won't last much longer.