Make the Maldives Great Again: A Maldives AAR #2 (Europa Universalis IV)

Hello again Steem folk!

Today we continue our EU4 Maldives campaign. For the previous post, check here: https://steemit.com/gaming/@p5ych0path/make-the-maldives-great-again-a-maldives-aar-1-europa-universalis-iv

I won't waste time with explanations going forward, so here we go.

The Highlights:

In the last chapter, we had established the Maldives on the Indian and East African mainlands as well as created the colonial nation of Maldivia in Australia. We've grown quite a bit from the tiny chain of islands we once were, so let's get moving.

We quickly begin an invasion of what remains of Sofala's lands.

Seeing the war will end soon, we declare another war on Mutapa as well.

We win both wars very easily and gain a large swath of land in East Africa, establishing our dominance there.

On the Indian mainland, we look to the small nation of Jaisalmer. They see us as great potential overlords and so we offer them an opportunity to become our vassal. They accept immediately.

In addition, we send colonists to the modern-day Indonesian islands in order to establish our presence there. The Spice Islands are said to hold massive wealth for those who claim them.

We go to war with Mewar, dragging Delhi and its vassals in for the ride. We call Vijayanagar and Golkonda to help with Delhi's massive, but technologically behind, army as they owe us favors.

As the war is turned to our favor and comes to a close, we declare war on Baluchistan in an attempt to prevent Delhi from joining due to being in another war with us already. 

We are victorious in both wars and take several key provinces, especially Thatta, which is a great coastal trade center. We also take the province of Cholistan and give it to Jaisalmer to reward them for their valiant efforts in battle.

With Sofala the last thing holding us from full control of East Africa, we declare yet another war.

Our advanced technology and large army cause the war to end quickly. We fully annex what's left of Sofala, thus securing East Africa from Castille (the precursor to Spain) who've begun a colony in the area.

While fighting in Africa, Vijayanagar has called us to war with Delhi and Bengal. We accept, not wanting to lose our powerful ally.

Drained of manpower and in dire need to stop rebels, we make peace with Delhi/Bengal, taking Hadoti in the process. Vijy fights on alone, but we can do nothing more for we face internal strife.

After a period of economic and military recovery, we decide to wage war against Brunei so that we might establish a dominant presence in the Spice Islands.

The war is long and bloody, but we come out victorious, taking much of Brunie's land as well as the island of Sulu.

After centuries of despotism, we decide it's time to improve our government and, to do so, we become an Absolute Monarchy. Personally this is the government I always go with when my nation is a monarchy. The -1 unrest is great for lategame rebels, the discipline increase is great for lategame fighting, and the autonomy reduction is great for conquesting, which we'll be doing quite a bit of henceforth.

We've also begun the process of diplomatically annexing Jaisalmer as they will be more useful integrated into the empire rather than as a vassal.

We go to war with Baluchistan, our sights set West. Their army is no match for ours.

The war is over and we've gained an immense amount of land as our prize. In addition, we've forced Baluchistan to release Persia and Khorosan, the latter of which I've never seen in game and thought, eh, why not.

After integrating Jaisalmer, we declare war on Mewar to the East, who brings in Delhi and Tirhut.

We make peace with Delhi, take a few provinces and forcing them to release Kashmir. We take Nagaur from Mewar and force vassalize them. They're not pleased with us, but they will realize we've done this for their own good in the future. 

We wage holy wars against the heretics in Afghanistan and Baluchistan.

We win easily, fully annexing Baluchistan and forcing Afghanistan to become our vassal.

And so we end this episode of our glorious campaign. We've managed to greatly expand our borders on the mainland and take in two loyal subjects. We've weakened our greatest enemies and strengthened our friends. But times are changing as the 18th Century rears its ugly head. Only the sages know what will come. See you all next time! 

Thanks for reading!

I hope y'all enjoyed and will join me in the next episode.

UPDATE: NEXT EPISODE IS HERE!

This is P5ych0path, signing off.