Make the Maldives Great Again: A Maldives AAR #3 (Europa Universalis IV)
Hello again Steem folk!
Today I'm back with the third installment of my Maldives AAR. For the previous episode, click here. Check that shit out. I just figured out how to make words into hyperlinks. Shit just got real, baby.
FOR THE NEXT EPISODE, CLICK HERE!
Anyway, I'll waste no time with introductions, you all know the drill. Let's do this!
The Highlights:
We continued to expand our influence in the Spice Islands by colonizing more land. This will allow us to fabricate claims on the surrounding nations. We want to grab as much land here as possible as these trade nodes are highly valuable to our economy.
Oh, by the way, our explorers found a weird looking place called Alaska that is mostly barren.
Since Mewar is fairly useless as a vassal, we begin the annexation process.
Vijayanagar drags us into yet another war with Delhi and friends. We're happy to oblige as we hate those bastards and want their land anyway.
The war is tough, but we push into their lands, occupying their capital along the way. Their army is no match for ours even with the help of Bhukara.
With the mainland of Australia occupied mostly by Maldivia, we send colonists to New Zealand to further grow their strength as they've proven themselves reliable time and time again.
With the war in Vijy's favor, we dip out and take some land.
Now that we've gained enough prestige and land, we become the true Maldives Empire!
With Mewar integrated, we again increase our size.
As we see the benefits that freeing their slaves has brought to the Ottomans, we decide to free our slaves as well. In doing so, we gain many useful trade resources throughout our African holdings.
We take in Khorosan as a vassal. They like the idea very much.
We declare war on Taberestan and, though they're guaranteed independence by Shirvan and the Great Horde, we feel our armies are strong enough.
The war is long and bloody. While it is going in our favor, we are ambushed on Tabarestan's capital and take a very big terrain penalty as we are considered the attackers due to our attempt to siege their fort. This is the first time in a long while that we've tasted defeat and it is bitter.
After their capital falls, we immediately seek peace, take Birjand and Sabzevar for Khorosan. The victory feels Phyrric as our manpower is drained and our men tired.
We take Rum and give it to Khorosan.
We go to war with Delhi and Bengal as they appear weak from Vijy conquest.
The war is over and we take several provinces from Delhi. We also go ahead and force vassalize them as reparations for their constantly antagonizing us throughout the past 200 years. This feels good after our last terrible war.
While our armies are in the area, we send them on vacation in Kashmir.
We've integrated the lands of Khorosan into the Empire. They served us well.
Here you can see that our colonists have civilized the last of New Zealand for Maldivia.
Tabarestan is looking tasty and only guaranteed by the Great Horde. We declare war once more.
At the crux of the war, our forces meet the Great Horde army while sieging their fort in Zhetyru. We're able to route them only by a small margin.
All said and done, we take a large chunk of Tabarestan's land as well as some for Afghanistan to reward their bravery in battle. We then send a diplomat to annex Afghanistan as their services are no longer needed.
Our faithful ally, Vijy, calls us to aid them in taking Goa back from the scoundrels in Portugal. After much debate, we join them as we despise the fools in Spain as well. We will defend India from European invasion in the name of Shakti!
In the end, the combined might of India emerged victorious against the European invaders. We fought the bloodiest and most intense war in our Empire's history and took many heavy losses. Vijy regained Goa, pushing the Europeans away from our lands and giving them a big middle finger, but at what cost?
After taking time to recover from the invasion, we decide to make a move on Bukhara in its weakened state.
This proves a bit problematic when, halfway through the war, the Ottomans declare war on us. This is the moment we've dreaded since we first gained borders with them. They are teamed up with Mombasa, our greatest threat in Africa. In our corner we have our trusty subjects, Golkonda, and Vijy.
We immediately make peace with Bukhara in order to focus on the Ottomans. We redirect our armies to their borders. We take land for both Afghanistan and Delhi in the process.
With Mombasa's army attacking our undefended land in Africa and the Ottoman army sieging down our newest fort, we regroup our regiments and prepare to defend against the greatest threat our Empire has seen so far.
We mobilize our troops to key positions, mountainous lands which will give us a terrain advantage should the Ottomans attack. Our defense is key here as it would be nigh impossible to win by attacking them head on.
The Ottomans strike in Bam, but unfortunately for them, we've isolated this regiment from their others. They suffer a heavy terrain penalty and we're able to stackwipe them fairly easily. Also to note, our soldiers are much more disciplined than theirs and boast higher morale, giving us a huge advantage in battle.
A massive Ottoman attack leaves us scrambling to reach our friends before their reinforcements can arrive.
While our friends lead the charge, we protect them from oncoming Ottoman armies. We attack Yazd in a risky move as we take a terrain penalty.
With our successful defense, we manage to break the Ottoman regiments and push deep into their lands. Had we not had the mountains on our side, we may have lost.
After taking Yazd and exhausting all of our manpower and much of our resources, we make peace with the Ottomans. Nothing is gained, but we dealt a heavy blow to their ego. The Ottomans will surely be wary when picking a fight with the Maldivian Empire in the future. We can only hope that those lost aren't in vain.
We finally fully integrate Delhi into the Empire. We sell Ngari to Vijy as we can't core it due to it not being adjacent to our borders.
Seeing Tabarestan in such a weakened state makes us hungry. We declare war in order to save their people from their foolish government.
The war ends quickly as we fully annex them.
Our next target is Brunei, who still hold lands in the Malacca trade node, which we heavily desire. We declare war.
They don't last long as we take what they have left.
Shirvan, looking delicious and lonely, becomes our next target. We declare war on them as well as Georgia.
After wiping out their army and sieging down their other forts, we take some of their land and make them our vassal as they are quite powerful.
And so ends another episode of our campaign. We've made it more than halfway through the 18th Century and vastly expanded our borders. With our newly acquired land and subject, we march into the future. What will happen next time? Stay tuned and find out!
Thanks for Reading!
I hope you enjoyed this episode and will stay tuned for the next one.
Please feel free to comment and I'll gladly respond.
This is P5yc0path, signing off.