1460 - I took power in Brunei, a jungle empire based on a large island. It was in really poor condition. Manpower was very low. It was in a war with some tough Buddhist/Hindu nations up north - Champa, Ayutthaya, and Lan Na. Inflation was horrible, at 16%. The budget was even worse.. there's no real source of income, so the nation needed around 0.4 inflation per year just to break even.
The previous Sultan did spend a lot of money on prestige, though, that's where the bills went. Starting prestige was at 32, ah how we love you, Sultan.
As soon as I took control, I centralized power and changed the national policy to merchant adventures, to encourage more trade. Peasants were unhappy, but they were killed easily. My goal is to just increase manpower to give Brunei strength to survive against Champa. And preferably an economic gain too.
The largest state in the area was Makassar, 100k, good resources, few enemies. But we have a truce with them, and they're fellow Sunni Muslims, so we can't touch them... yet. Malacca and Aceh are far too strong, so the only source of manpower would be one of those Hindu/Buddhists up in Indochina. Pegu would be my target then.
I allied with Pattani, not for their troops, but for a base to disembark my troops. Could only move 2 troops at a time, and Brunei was too poor to even build more cogs.
1461 - Declared war on Pegu, who had few friends, a nice large area, and were isolated from their main attack force. Khmer jumped to their aid.
1462 - After sinking a few ships, I've managed to negotiate peace with Champa. They weren't able to sail to attack me, so white peace it was, with them. Both Champa and Ayutthaya declared on their former war ally, Lan Na for some reason.
1463 - Managed to finally capture Khmer. I demanded all their provinces to split their nation and weaken them enough to annex if needed later. The provinces were both Buddhist. They'll cause a lot of problems in the future, but for now, I need the manpower. Since they were Buddhist, I used it as an excuse to put some jizya tax on them for more money.
1464 - Finally defeated Pegu. Instead of controlling their provinces, I made them my vassals. Less rebels to deal with. And I got reparations of 175 ducats, which was 17 months of income!
There would be a problem with conquering non-Muslim states... rebels. The Brunei people weren't at all tolerant, I'd have to spread to Muslim nations to stability. The only Muslim targets were Malacca and Aceh. It'd be a really tough war, but Brunei's shitty economy left little other choice. War taxes were actually supporting most of my economy... without wars, I'd be deeply in debt and hyperinflation.
1565 - Pattani had two provinces just north of Malacca, and one on Sumatera. I started moving troops there, two by two, taking a whole year to finally get all of them.
I had a valid CB on Malacca, so I declared on them. Aceh was guaranteeing their independence, so they declared in defense. Malacca had miserable defenses, it took only a short while to move troops down into there with Pattani's help.
1566 - Conquered Malacca. I took all of their provinces short of the capital, Pattani took one of their provinces. The capital is really where their wealth lies, it was the biggest CoT in the region.
1568 - Finally defeated Aceh. They put up a good fight, but finally lost. I took all their provinces except the capital as well. A shame, because that's where all their wealth was.
1569 - Majapahit declares on Makassar, my main target in the region. This was very annoying. I wanted to annex them. I noticed that Makassar was being guaranteed by Aceh, Malacca, and Pattani... well, an excellent chance to declare on them and take their capital - no truces broken. Having my former ally, Pattani turn on me would make that war much tougher, but they were war weary and it was a good time to strike. It'll be a 4 on 1 war, but I needed the war taxes.
I declared on Makassar without a CB. Stability dropped all the way to -2. Champa warned me to stop being so aggressive or they'll take action.
Aceh was annexed immediately, they were already demoralized from war. Pattani put up a really good fight, and many rebels started getting in the way.
1470, december - I finally annexed Malacca. Pattani fell shortly after. I took all their provinces, except one.. vassalized them, then let them be my ally again.
It was the turning point of Brunei's future. Malacca's wealth turned Brunei from a starving nation into a comfortable imperialist, income went up by around 30%. Prestige hit 68. And I now have 14k manpower, enough for any war in the region, short of attacking Ming.
1471 - Majapahit had just annexed the prosperous Makassar. There was no war left to fight. I thought about attacking Majapahit, but Champa's warning will be too much of a thorn in my side.. Champa had no navy, but many troops. Majapahit had little troops, but a strong navy. It'll be impossible to fight a naval battle to the south and a land battle to the north.
I worked on stabilizing Brunei; attacking Islamic nations made the public very unhappy. The new wealth also let me upgrade the navy... Brunei was now capable of carrying 6k soldiers in one go.
1472 - Champa was at its weakest point right now.. they had fought another nation to the far west and have rebels and just ended a war with Dai Viet, where they had annexed them. It was the only oppurtunity for war.
Indochina was a tangle of treaties, declaring on one resulted in a chain from others. I found a weak point, though - Champa's former enemies, Lan Na. Ayutthaya had vassalized them, so they had no friends. I declared on Lan Na, having Ayutthaya and Champa declare on me as planned. They were the biggest players in Indochina, defeating them disarms any potential threat later.
1474 - Finally defeated Ayutthaya and vassalized them. Lan Na was a negligible puppet, it was now a one-on-one war with Champa.
1475 - I finally conquered Lan Na and vassalized them. They were militarily useless, but they'll make good meatshields.
1476 - I slowly moved into Champa, finally taking their capital. They were too big and arrogant to become my vassal, so I just demanded some more Hindu/Buddhist states from them, especially the richest non-capital state. I also got them to liberate Dai Viet to weaken them further. Dai Viet became an ally, I had 85 prestige at this point.
Another tough choice. I had 15 years left. Should I convert these nations and have a stronger grip or spread my influence into the rest of SE Asia while I'm strong? I did both. Spent around 140 gold on conversion, several years of income.
I sent the troops down to wrest Makassar from Majapahit. Majapahit was highly isolated. They had no allies. But a large portion of their nation was in terra incognita. Very annoying to attack.
Dai Viet broke their alliance on me. Oh well, it gives me a valid CB on them.
1479 - I sent a few troops up to teach Dai Viet a lesson. I took Makassar from Majapahit, and a very wealthy coffee producing island, Bali. They ceded both quickly, so I left them alone. Castille landed just east of Makassar at this time. Great oppurtunity to westernize.
I captured and 'upgraded' Dai Viet to being a vassal state. Military tradition got high, so I hired a general. Prestige actually capped at 100 here. I didn't know there was a prestige max
1480 - My daughter's royal marriage to Bengal paid off. They entered a personal union with Brunei!
1481 - I ran out of things to do, so I moved the troops back north, to take over the remaining nations. I declared on Khmer. Boom.. the biggest war SE Asia has ever seen.
Side A: Brunei, Ayutthaya, Dai Viet, Lan Na, Pattani, Pegu, Bengal
5000 cavalry, 23684 infantry
Side B: Assam, Taungu, Shan, Champa, Khmer
4000 cavalry, 5000 infantry
Somehow they called it the "5th Brunei War of Aggression" instead of something cool like "The Great War"
Khmer fell after a 4 day siege. Champa was war torn, and being hit in both sides by Brunei and Viet, so they fell soon.
1482 - I was right about the other vassals making good meatshields. With the distraction, I managed to easily vassalize Shan, Chin, and Assam within a year, even got 50 ducats out of it too.
1483 - The Sultan has died, seemingly on cue... leaving quite a legacy to his name. The empire of Borneo stretches across the islands. Their vassals lie all the way up north to China, and to the northwest, bordering Nepal and India. And these are vassals.. they pay their taxes and they never break alliances, much more useful than your average ally.
Abdul Al-Qahhar is the new Sultan. Seemingly the best suited to the job of leading an empire. He has low military skills, but great administrative and diplomatic skills, good for bringing down the inflation and the bad boy reputation.
An era of peace and prosperity follows. The state manages to get down inflation. Inflation is expected to reach 0 in 190 years. Reputation should reach 0 in 20 years. But that's all for someone else to worry about...
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Topic: Let's re-write history! (forum game of eu3) (Read 29986 times)