World conquest and major achievements completed!

Diplomatic mapmode:


First off all it is good to know that I am no native English speaking. So sorry for any typos or weird sentences. Feel free to comment and rate/like this guide.

This guide was made playing with patch 1.13 with just a few days left for 1.14 (The Cossacks). Some pieces will reference to certain in between guide updates on the progress. Despite some minor changes on certain game mechanics the info is still viable for 1.15.

I started with this challenge in September when I could buy several expansions including Common Sense cheap. Playing regular, but only when I got some time, I like combining some fun challenges. When 1.13 was released, I was still busy with the achievement combo of the Great Khan + Over a Thousand (1001 provinces), as the Golden Horde. Combined with experience from previous games like African Power + Guarantor of peace and several colonial achievements as Kongo ( I can recommend both challenges as fun), I was planning for a world conquest with the Golden Horde that was good underway. But since I want to do The Three Mountains also sometime + check out the new fort system already for a while, I choose to do it starting as an European OPM, while forming the Netherlands for Je Maintiendrai and Sinaasappel + no Pirates in my Caribbean , the Master of India and Rising Sun achievement.

All in all world conquest is no fast run, and unless you can play every day it will take several weeks or even months. For myself I expected to be done probably end of January, and was actually finished first week of February. This guide will be able to help players with some overall basics for large expansion/World conquest. I will have the short summarized version first in chapter 3, followed by an more in depth version with some more explanation so even newer and less experienced players can use this info and use it for their overall games.

Guide to my Ryukyu three mountains achievement.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1334725265

Feel free to like, rate and comment this guide.

1: Introduction
2: Index
3: Short version and plan for those that don't want to read much
4: General useful info and tips
5: Notable countries and regions in game
6: Ideagroups and national ideas
7: More detailed steps of my game
8: World conquest gives some easy obtainable bigger achievements
9: In between progress updates on situation in my game before completion
10: Final thoughts for world conquest and ideas for the Three Mountains

1: Befriend some strong allies that can assist and keep you safe. Also try to befriend or stay positive with huge close by threats like France. When possible allying with a big power is always a good idea, in this case France is preferred. If possible also befriend the emperor.

2: Try to gain some extra provinces asap, preferably rich ones. Keep an eye on your expansion, and avoid coalitions as long as possible. Especially in the HRE expansion as an OPM is difficult because of the big hits in reputation and relations if you take HRE lands. Claiming as many provinces is key.

3: Fight wars you are certain you can win. As long as it doesn’t take more than about 4-5 years for a war you are good to go. Use the ledger to determine the strength and resources for enemy’s. Also know their allies and their current situation ( are they at war or in peace). Create an sustainable war rotation, that you can keep up.

4: Make use of well timed wars, when surrounding country’s are weak. An enemy with busy allies and/or low manpower, can be an easy target, so you tackle a superior enemy.

5: Form the Netherlands as fast as possible = reach admin level 10 asap. Depending on how wars go and your options, even snipe the required provinces in short wars if it suits the circumstances. You have some time then to counter rebels and let autonomy decrease.

6: Until you are big enough, make sure you stay friends with your biggest allies as long as possible. If possible being allied with the emperor helps to in the HRE.

7: Reaching admin efficiency is a main goal so admin tech all the way asap. Advanced casus belli is also very useful. Both help to grow exponentially in the late game.

8: Since starting in Europe its best to gain a good stronghold there before you expand to other continents trough wars, but of course colonize once you gain colonists. This can help to keep the big powers like Portugal and Spain in check so they don’t expand to fast, and you grow your country. Keep the colony liberty desire in check.

9: Make use of vassals, but keep an eye open for the combined liberty desire. Although dumb at times, they can still be useful to feed them provinces, and save your own manpower by letting them take the initial hit (assuming they can take it of course). Annexing at least 1 all the time is mandatory, but annex multiple vassals depends on your diplo income, reputation and war exhaustion.

10: Be prepared before declaring war, and station troops @ key points as much as possible to speed up wars. It can be handy to create landing zones of about 1-2 provinces a few country’s ahead so you get close to certain targets. This speeds up future wars against these targets.

11: Get Europe under control, while keeping the colonizing powers @ bay in America and Africa. This helps you later on while they don’t get too strong.

12: Once you can manage Europe, expand towards Asia and Africa. Some missions might also give an incentive towards this. So make use of this, as long as it’s no big hassle.

13: Protectorates can be useful. If you have Common Sense you can also gain easy provinces from them at the cost of liberty desire. Useful to gain key locations or certain areas.

14: Overseas expansion has greatly reduced coring cost. Use this to your advantage. Cutting land connections off is easily done with vassals and protectorates.

15: Most of this game is rinse and repeat, and is always a battle against time. It looks like you are way to short of it in early and midgame. But remember that in late game because of the admin efficiency and growth of your country = bigger and more army’s, it speeds up.

16: If really needed near the end of the game, it might be useful to brake truces to quickly deconstruct a country and release them as an vassal. By then you probably have the army forces to counter the negative effects. But use it as a last resort only.

That's all there is to it. Keep reading ( I recommend that) for a better in depth look.

1: For world conquest you must eyeball everything and fight multiple wars at a time, sometimes on different continents, especially later on. So I overall play @ 3 or 4 speed, that also has less hiccups since the CPU has more time to process. No strange thing having like 5-6 wars @ the same time.

2: Also a War Rotation is important especially when you have an reasonable force. What this means is that you must play as efficient as possible with your resources and time your wars. If you put your wars in a rotation like: big enemy 1+ allies year 1, start a small war of at most 1-2 years halfway with enemy 2 and then finish all wars so you can regenerate resources/ lower War Exhaustion for like 4- 6 months. Then go on to enemy 3 and 4 and so on until you get an near 15 year cycle because of truce timer for an enemy, with some small pauses in between hammering specific enemy’s. Early to midgame it might be worth is to just wait 1-2 years for manpower to recover combined with MP's.

3: Monarch points: the more, the better, but early game I tend to focus mostly on admin in events and advisors. If you can set focus (by having the required expansions for it), begin with military first for a head start, but overall switch to admin fast. In late game (and depending on ruler stats) it can be handy to go diplo when annexing multiple vassals. Reaching the levels required for admin efficiency is a must have + of course new idea groups. Military you always want to stay on top, so I personally use the first idea group for military, but military is overall the easiest MP. Diplomatic falls behind most of the time in my games because of annexing vassals, but once around level 20 I tend to catch up for the advanced casus belli and because of the liberty desire.

4: Idea groups and national ideas: there is a lot of useful stuff but it’s always choosing between tradeoffs. It’s wise to adjust your national ideas with your idea groups, also look @ the bonus you get on completing a group and what policies you can get. Remember that completing ideas also decreases the cost for leveling tech.

5: Money: Early to mid game money is an big issue sometimes, however once u get big and have grown it isn’t a big deal overall. Taking a loan now and then can be useful as long as you can pay it back. Raise war taxes is very useful early on since you are constantly @ war, but keep military MP reserves for generals and forced march.

6: Manpower: super important, and you will need it much. Being on or near 0 is almost impossible to avoid in the early game with near constant conquest, so be smart when fighting. If on 0 it was for me an good time to also build up some MP's, and have a break for like 6 -18 months. Use terrain to your advantage, and always have an leader assigned with big battles. Mix things up with infantry mercenaries really helps with this. Once grown I overall go to 2 attack force regiments with infantry mercenaries that deal with the biggest hits and use normal groups for backup/(carpet)siege stuff/rebels. This really keeps the momentum going + helps with your own survival because you can finish wars faster. Later on that will grow to 4 groups. Quantity or Aristocratic ideas helps much, and personally I rather have Aristocratic since I find it an more useful mixed bag overall, and I can manage well without Quantity.

7: Related to both money and manpower are consolidating and mercenaries. These 2 things are huge factors that I use for any game I do.
7.1: Mercs is mainly about the manpower savings. Unless I would do no intended conquest for like ever, their costs is a worthwhile trade off. I only go for infantry mercs, while cavalry and cannons are normal units.
7.2: (Shift)Consolidating <---- This is a game changer that is overlooked by so many, while it is an real easy few extra actions. Selecting an army that just came out of battle (assuming you don't get attacked in like 2 days again), consolidate and split of the low manpower units for regeneration while the main force keeps on going. Full units are way more effective then double units with half manpower = faster battles and better survival. This is a manpower savings but also cost reduction on it's own. This cost reduction is achieved since fewer units have to regenerate @ the tick of the month. Of course use shift + consolidate so you don't lose regiments, unless you want to ditch them anyway or are over your forcelimit.

8: Carpet siege = splitting your troops up to occupy as much provinces as possible at once. Less easy with the fort system, but still viable for faster and easier wars.

9: Stats: All is needed, but prestige is the overall negative event sink if there is no option for money. Other than that you want all as high as possible, but overall I try to get stability first to at least 2, preferable 3. Don’t forget Rivals, so u can build up Power Projection (PP). Prestige will also build up in time, and both prestige and PP help getting morale. For me in this case trade related stuff gets second, unless it’s an big hit.

10: Warfare stats: same as above, all is needed but if possible I prefer Discipline over Morale. Even 5% more can be a game changer and makes you stronger with less troops then your enemy’s. Army tradition = the higher, the better, and it will grow nicely because of all the wars.

11: Advisors: military/admin is usually my first choice and overall my preferences are in this order: Discipline, better relations over time, morale/maintenance cost reduction, unrest/inflation/reputation/missionary, then rest. Better relations is a winner early/midgame to avoid coalitions as long as possible.

12: Use your diplomats wisely. Early game keeping relations good is a must, so you avoid powerful coalitions. Also claim as much as possible before going to war(s).

13: Buildings are important and only cost money. Go for more manpower first in this case, but mix and match if you have good reserve.

14: Religion: each one his own perks, but in this case it was easiest overall to stay catholic. This also helped with unity and diplomacy for a long time. Biggest drawback is the randomness of curia controller. It is made up with very good bonuses, but losing curia control is a big loss on many factors, and the timing of loss can screw things up as well. Still the bonuses from curia control, easy unity and diplomacy early on in Europe, and the possibility for crusades and excommunication are a winner. Defender of the faith has nice bonuses as well, but because of the negative tech cost I postponed it a long time until I had real use for the missionary as well.

15: Aggressive expansion: unavoidable, this is a huge influence on the pace of the game. Early on you must be very careful and still expand reasonable fast. Coalitions are dangerous but can also be useful if you can time your wars and use an rotation. Some wars are less about expanding and more to just keep your enemy’s under control. Winning locks several country’s so you can weaken allies of a strong enemy not in the coalition. Only to declare war on them halfway once the coalition war is under control. In certain situations even a small loss can be useful. I actually used an coalition war to get a window of peace by giving up East Frisia in a coalition war against half of Europe including Austria, only to come back even stronger with less danger. Also if you can handle it, declaring a fast war on a coalition member before too many can join the coalition helps to disassemble potential large coalitions.

16: Unrest and over extension is unavoidable, but never go beyond 100%. This should not happen overall, besides making a last sprint if you would be in the last years of the game. Unrest I keep an close eye on to make sure I have troops close by for rebels. But once you have an country of decent size it might be easier to increase the autonomy if that is enough to stop an uprising.

1: France. No explanation needed, they have it all: good rulers, ideas, forces, provinces, economy and colonizing. Very useful ally, or an big enemy. I used them to gain early access to Castile/Portugal, and stay safe in coalitions. Try to get them involved in your wars and not vice versa. Try to block them as much with colonizing by being the first to have a colony in a region. Tend to go for Caribbean, Brazil and Africa colonies first.

2: Poland/Lithuania/Commonwealth. East Europe’s powerhouse that can be useful allies. Similar to France with as upside they are 2 country’s @ start that might break up. In my game they formed Commonwealth that is a big threat with it's enormous size. Monarchs aren't overall as good as France, but still reasonable.

3: Austria and HRE. Very strong combined with being emperor and also good ideas. Fighting them can be difficult early on because of the mountain terrain, many allies, and their big chance on personal unions. If not friendly, keep them small and occupied with wars asap.

4: Castile/Spain/Portugal. Also very strong, sticking together and they are the earliest colonizers. Keeping them @ bay early on is hard but rewarding work later on. Getting them separate by breaking their alliance goes a long way. Notable is Castile forming Spain and their high chance on personal union with Aragon/Naples. They where one of my first directions to expand to outside the HRE. Snatching their colonies away in war is very useful.

5: Aragon/Naples. A very notable force, especially if Naples get integrated as in my game. However they where useful to crush Castile. This caused them to be a strong enemy navy force, but luckily they don’t colonize.

6: England/Great Britain. Large and rich countries, luckily busy early on conquering Scotland and Ireland. Very powerful and large navies, made this my first choice as large opponent to crush. Also helped getting and stay friends with France. Colonizing North America, so that was my first direction with colonizing. Convert to protestant.

7: Burgundy. A strong force but breakable, especially now Burgundy itself is not that big anymore since latest expansions. Multiple personal unions, France neighboring them and of course their events ruin them overall early on.

8: Brandenburg/Prussia. In my game the one that overall mostly forms Prussia if it forms. Starting small I keep them small. Their bonuses are very strong (loads of discipline and morale) and if they are big I find them an bigger threat then France.

9: Scandinavia. Denmark with his personal unions is a big player with many troops early on, but luckily a fragile combination. Was my first big ally, and useful against England and Muscovy.

10: Muscovy/Russia. Long wars ahead if you let them grow and colonize. Sniped the last 3 Novgorod provinces away in a trade war, and release them as vassal and landing zone. Attrition sucks so use mercenaries as much as possible in these (reconquest) wars, and cut of their advance to Siberia early on makes this an containable strong force.

11: Ottomans. Portal to Asia and Africa, they are an large and very powerful force. They can expand very fast without issues. So I targeted them as crusade target asap and lucky for me they got sandwiched between Venice, Genoa, The Knights and later the Mamluks. Got destroyed to only 1-2 provinces, then I conquered them only to release them as an very useful vassal. Lucky me can now use them as an major force that will surely help a lot against the rest of the middle east and Asia if I keep their liberty desire low enough.

12: Africa. Several large countries formed in my game, but Mamluks and Morocco are the largest. Nice targets for crusades. In my games Mali also gets big, but as an western nation the rest of Africa is overall not a huge deal. Only issue overall is the Berber traditions that make coring and annexing expensive.

13: America. Mostly depends on how colonies evolve, but in this game it’s key to cut of others asap. So taking their provinces in their war goes a long way, since they don’t add to over extension unless they are conquered native provinces. Only thing about the natives is that America is big, but other than that the natives are an useful bank, and nice trade goods income.

14: Asia. It’s just big. In my game Ming has grown even larger and is number 2 on score. They are on par with tech levels and even ahead of me diplomatic, and they already have some provinces in India and south Asia. So making them a protectorate under me, they expanded more once they rebuilded. It saved me a lot of time, since they couldn’t westernize. Japan also can be a reasonable force but as an western nation no big issues there.

15: India and Persia. Persia is a reasonable force, but no big issues overall until they westernize. India region is big and rich, but until they westernize also not much going on. In my games Bahmanis becomes overall the major force allied with Bengal, however Vijayanagar is also a possible major force. Delhi overall also becomes a large and rich nation. A problem in the past was that there where many countries with increased coring cost, but it seems that won’t be an issue overall with the recent changes.

I won’t talk about Utrecht since the idea is to form the Netherlands asap. The Netherlands is a major trading and seafaring power usually. In their ideas are also some military upgrades like better siege and stronger heavy ships. They lack morale and discipline bonuses however, so military depends mostly on idea groups. Having more ideas of an type also helps lowering costs for that tech to level up.

With world conquest there are several useful ideas that help, but it also depends on what point you can achieve them in game. Some of my choices may be obvious and some less, but all in all it works best for me in this situation with my playing style.

1: The first is very crucial and sometimes also hard to choose. With all this conquest, being on top with military is a good idea. So Aristocratic it was, with plenty of useful bonuses so early in game. Cheaper and better cavalry is very useful since starting small, and since manpower is a real deal breaker if on 0, serfdom is also very nice. The army tradition is also a no brainer. And an extra diplomat, reduced war exhaustion cost, free leader and the very important less military tech cost is great. The local nobility looks like to help you make an less obvious target by other small countries. I prefer this group over quantity since quantity is basically cost reductions and increase of reserves only, while Aristocratic still has 25% manpower increase and army tradition but also some other bonuses for a better mix.

2: Economic ideas was my second group. In my opinion more money = more and faster growth on all kinds of aspects. Especially with buildings changed and only costing money, in the long run this really helps keeping things going. Mercs are an major part of my army, so then having the money to sustain them is useful. Who cares you can also buy them cheaper if you have enough money anyway :). The decreased maintenance cost is a no brainer, and less building cost, inflation reduction and monthly autonomy decrease make this an ideal group as second choice. Also combining this with quality gives a nice 5% discipline policy, and I want that very much.

3: Exploration is the obvious choice. Also by now the range is big enough to reach north America if you have Iceland like I did. By completing it you gain the casus belli against natives in America. So very useable as bank. And you unlock the policy that gives an extra diplomat + reputation. Exploring helps a bunch by pumping up prestige and naval tradition. And colonizing helps a lot with growing big and rich.

4: Quality time. With military points stacking up fast, a military group was needed. Since I crave discipline either quality or offensive was the next choice, but because of the policy of 5% discipline combined with economic ideas and better troops it was easy. Rest of the ideas are also useable, and the army tradition is again a nice bonus. Since I was so for ahead in military it was kind of mandatory to take a military idea group.

5: The next had to be an admin idea group since I had near no diplo reserves. This one was between innovative and administrative. This was an hard choice but I did go with administrative. Main reasoning behind it is that in this game admin power is the biggest influence on your pace of expanding. 10% less admin tech cost and -25% core creation cost pulled me over. Reason I found innovative so appealing was because of an overall 5% tech cost decrease, monthly war exhaustion decrease, and some very nice sounding policies.

6: The next group was finally Influence in the diplomatic idea group. I preferred to have this sooner but because of bad rulers + integrating multiple vassals, diplo points where scarce. Also since I required exploration, that one had more priority early on. Very much needed group for large scale conquest and vassal integration + the 2 diplo reputation is also very useful for managing liberty desire. Some very nice and useful policies are related as well.

7: Offensive was the logical group, although it didn't really matter @ that point anymore what I choose. Good group on it's own, it didn't have a priority for my game, but I took this one for 1 reason: the siege ability. rest are just nice bonuses.

The choices I made for groups did fit my game plan and country well. My original intended order however was different with influence second or third but the rulers where not favorable, so it was a trade off for that moment. And I would need exploration as a early priority.

The situation might change as it did in my case, and the choice also depends on national ideas as well. But my recommended order for the Netherlands would be:
1: Aristocratic
2: Administrative
3: Influence
4: Exploration
5: Economic
6: Quality
7: This and onward is free of choice, but depends on your progress and use for their ideas.

In cases where economy would be less required and/or naval is no part for you, quality might be dropped for offensive or defensive ideas. Quality is situational idea group in my opinion and there are other more effective stand alone groups. But if you have a navy and a related idea group for some of the very useful policies like economy it's useful.

Some might wonder why I didn’t take quantity and religious with the extreme powerful dues vult casus belli. Quantity is explained by the aristocratic idea group. For religious the main reasoning was the following: I have to create claims for the sake of the admin power so I have casus belli anyway, I can’t use it on my early neighbors that are mostly catholic, and it’s only useable on neighbors. Unity would also be no issue early and midgame and Advanced casus belli is a good replacement for fast expansion.

1: I did choose Utrecht as OPM. Reason for me was the fact that as an bishopric they have some useful ideas like the first of 5% discipline and also less stability issues when a ruler dies + the ruler is a cheap general. Starting ruler isn’t too good but making him general can help decrease his lifespan. Most negative part is you can’t make royal marriages, and thus no throne claiming and personal unions. But since that is a very chance based part of the game I didn’t miss it.

2: I befriended Gelre and Münster early on. It all depends on what the AI does, but early allies also included The Hansa and several of the Electors like Bohemia. My first big power ally was Denmark, with later Poland and last but not least France. England was /care, because they turn protestant, helps in getting/staying allied to France, and I want their rich and yummy provinces asap when I am ready for it. So I kept them neutral as long as possible.

3: In my game I want the HRE not to be powerful, and because of the regular wars this is obtainable. What also helped was Bohemia becoming Emperor for a while. Later on Austria regained it, what helped dismantle the empire in a coalition war. I was friends with 1-2 Electors and the rest including Austria where in the coalition. This helped a huge amount so I didn’t get the return territory demand and annex vassal in HRE penalty’s. I also choose the option that during my growth I removed HRE status from provinces, so that the Emperor had no use for it.

4: Religion stayed Catholic. This is useful because most of Europe stays Catholic, and I picked the other religions as targets. Also I became the papal controller asap, using the excommunicate to weaken the south of Europe or a close by enemy. Call for Crusade is extremely useful, and in my game it helped to decimate the Ottomans and Mamluks. Last country I could use it on is Morocco. Timing an crusade war can be very useful because of the very nice and big bonuses, while you are low on manpower and fighting another war. The league wars stay easy since a lot of the big powers like France, Austria and Poland stay Catholic overall. Best part for me was that I did not enter the actual league war, so I kept all allies and also got the useful bonuses. There comes a point that you can’t stay friendly with the Papal state, but if you drag it out as long as possible influence keeps on coming. By the time they hated me I had enough of influence income by converting provinces. Later I did vassalize them, but remember that you get an negative -2 diplomatic relation then.

5: Expansion: my first directions are the coastlines, the needed Netherlands provinces, and small parts of the HRE. Then on towards Brandenburg and Denmark. Once I had grown a bit and it was time to make bigger picks, England was first followed by Castile/Portugal and Muscovy. Castile/Portugal because of colonization, and Muscovy to prevent them become Russia and grow big. Once I had France and Poland as allies, Denmark became obsolete. Meanwhile I had several coalition wars from HRE members. Difficult, but I made it almost every time to come out even better. In 1 coalition war with all of south Europe including Austria, no manpower and I didn’t have France as ally yet, I had to release East Frisia. This did however give me a break from war for some years at that point since I had truce’s with all possible targets. Only to come back even stronger and being the turning point that basically did make the HRE and Europe manageable.

6: Colonization. Not my focus early on because the range is too short anyway, but I took Exploration as 3th idea group (admin lvl 10). By then I had some range + I took the Iceland provinces from Norway. Then I could start in North America, beating England. Later on I kept myself busy in Middle America, Caribbean and the easy island near Africa to cut of other countries especially France. While keeping Castile/Portugal/England busy with wars and snoop their (almost done building) colonies away I blocked the middle America coastline asap before crawling further north and south. Once the islands by Africa where done I kept going for south Africa and America, to cut everyone of from the Indian regions. With El Dorado it also helps that Catholics focus on different regions if possible if you have the first claim on a region. France eventually had some provinces here and there, but nothing too much for a single war once the time had come. At that point England was no issue, Castile was crushed, and Portugal was containable. No Pirates in my Caribbean is achieved.

7: Mid game Expansion. Formed Netherlands in September 1520 after reaching admin lvl 10. Was very sad @ that point, because I had an incredible ruler (after several mediocre rulers) for just 7 years with 655 stats and he was still in his 30s. So I was like /facepalm. Anyway, still focusing on Europe, my rivals, Muscovy and crusades to control Suez, it wouldn’t be too long before there would come a league war and @ that point I only had France as an ally besides my vassals. Already number 1 in score, having the largest navy by far, and topping the top 3 army size, forming the Netherlands wasn’t too difficult. So I felt good for World conquest. In 1550 the Commonwealth formed what was still scary at that time, but all went going on pretty well. I deliberately stayed away from Africa and Asia, apart for a mission to gain a province @ Ceylon. All these countries where still neutral and haven’t started westernizing, what is useful as long as they stay that way. I would go for some protectorates normally, but because of the intention to get Master of India achievement, I haven’t done that. Overseas expansion makes coring cheaper, so that helps a lot.

8: Late game Expansion. This was the point where I created the original part of this guide. I intended to make use of Ming as an protectorate that could expand and what worked well. Meanwhile I kept going from the West, and also break down Africa. I had to release some vassals in Europe and Asia, but this was mostly for faster expansion and cutting off land connections so I could keep the overseas coring bonus. For America I was in no hurry. My colonies are way bigger than anything there, but still in reasonable size for liberty desire. My main focus besides wars where my monarch points, so the wars where more about picking what I can handle in points, while still level up tech and ideas. Especially diplo I had to catch up so I could get that handy advanced casus belli since I skipped on religion ideas. Persia and India where the next big thing once I could put them in my European war rotation once I had 40% admin efficiency (admin lvl 23).




Thx for reading up so far. Feel free to like, rate and comment this guide. Hope the info in this guide might help fellow players out. Thoughts and ideas (no exploits) for the Three Mountains as Ryukyu are welcome. But keep it constructive towards others if they would give a way off suggestion or idea.
Next up is more on the achievements, followed by in between progress updates for those that are interested and the last chapter are the final thoughts on this run + initial ideas for Ryukyu.

Main goal where of course the Netherlands related achievements + world conquest. But doing world conquest will automatically unlock several expansion/conquest related achievements like That’s a Silk Road, or are good to combine with Master of India and the Rising Sun for example that are some of the bigger achievements. From previous runs I already had some bigger ones like Guarantor of Peace and Over a Thousand!, but if you look up certain requirements it should not be to hard overall to complete like 20 achievements in a run like this if you have none. Still some overall pointers can help for those that are not specifically looking for world conquest, but just these achievements.

No pirates in my Caribbean!


The Caribbean region (provinces in green are required + possibly Bermuda):


Relative easy as an colonizing power it requires you or your subject to own the entire Caribbean. In my world conquest very easy since I wanted to destroy Castile and Portugal asap anyway. Without too much wars early exploration is required, but of course in a war you can easily take colonial provinces dirt cheap. If you are not playing as Castile or Portugal you will overall be too late with forming the first colony, but it’s not impossible if they are under constant war. According to the Wiki Bermuda is also required, but I can’t confirm this.

The Rising Sun


Japan mainland (the yellow provinces are required):


Own as an European nation with the capital starting in Europe (Ottomans also works) all of the Japan territory yourself and it needs all to be cored. Not difficult unless they would have westernized and are on par with tech. Has an big navy that can screw your first landing if your own isn’t big enough, but bringing several heavy ships should do the trick. As you can’t create claims unless you own the main coast of Asia, it might be an possibility to go for an trade war, or else an advanced CB. Overseas expansion coring is luckily cheap and a first war is best prepared by having nearby land such as colonizing Taiwan and take as much sea provinces from them. By then you should have admin efficiency, so depending on development would be about 3 wars in total.

Master of India


India mainland (the brownish provinces are required):


Own as an European nation with the capital starting in Europe (Ottomans also works) all of the India territory yourself and it needs all to be cored. The Maldives are NOT required. This a big hunk of land you need, and will have to wage several wars with several bigger countries. Can be difficult if they westernized and/or an large European nation is present. There are missions that give claims on the coastal lands. India is a rich and wealthy place to have and there are a few countries with traditions that increase coring costs. However because of overseas expansion coring is cheap, so as long as you don’t have a direct land connection no issue there. As with Japan the coastal countries have big navies, so bring enough firepower, and also troops since the countries are overall big. An good beachhead to start from is the south region by Ceylon. Again working your way along the coast works perfect in the long run.

This part of the guide is obsolete since it is completed. So skip it and go to the next chapter for final thoughts. But for those of us that are following a similar path as Netherlands or that just like reading situations during the progress, it might still have some value.

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UPDATED 4 January, have a nice 2K16

I finally had some time to play several hours straight, instead of the usual keep the game running in background and play for 15 minutes in between stuff. So there has been some progress. We have arrived in 1720 (55 years have passed since last time) and am still good underway for World Conquest.

All in all it’s going very well despite some /facepalm situations: losing Curia control and thus the diplomat on a crucial time, crap leader (but did get a magical old dude with 662 stats after that to make up, and hope he is undying @ 71) and some other events. It is that I am also focused on getting Master of India ( progress is good underway) and The Rising Sun (still optional, not yet started with Japan), but could be finished very well in time. So the basic layout for an Ryukyu run is solid.

Despite not looking completely Orange yet, a lot has happened. All plans like Ming, Papal State and Lithuania happened and worked out very well. Ming did several wars, and Timbuktu and Fulo grabbed some leftovers after I did hit Mali. Morocco is near decimated and I released Tunis to counter the berber traditions. Most brilliant was releasing Greece and return stuff from Venice in 1 year. Also released Ayutthaya from Malacca. Sadly they have not made war yet.

Europe in 1720:

I have been going a bit slower on Europe for 2 reasons: dragging out the duration to keep rivals for PP and also needed to catch up in tech a bit. Same situation still applies: Admin and Diplo points shortage, however currently am annexing Brittany and Ottomans that should be complete around the same time. After that I will probably only annex 1 country for a while so I can complete some Influence ideas and make sure not to fall behind too much in Diplo tech. Admin will keep getting worse, but will catch up for lvl 27 for the 60% admin efficiency. Also released Bohemia to swallow up some of the eastern provinces + saving a lot of admin (they have Czech Nationalism giving increased coring cost). Still destroying France and Brandenburg I did let Austria and Commonwealth of the hook a bit. But that will be no issue. Added an shot from the diplomatic mapmode below.



Africa and Asia 1720:

All countries are getting smaller, Ming helped out as well and after reaching 40% admin efficiency time was there for Master of India. Also started hitting the spice countries Malacca and Majapahit to be of a more decent size, while releasing Ayutthaya. Sadly they have not made war yet. In Africa not much issues there, only released Tunis for countering the Berber traditions. Middle Africa will be gobbled up in time, and I will probably start soon @ Mutapa and crawl up north. Maybe take over Warsangali and release as vassal now they are westernizing.

Currently I am in war with Delhi/Persia. I will take all Indian region provinces on the edge first so I can start cutting Persia off. Sadly they have westernized already, so it was a good bonus that they where allied. This way I can keep them weak.

America I won’t show, since not much happened there. Only did some bank wars for money. With the new building system I can keep building new stuff for a good monthly income. With all those forts @ 4th tier fortress it’s quite expensive. Currently I have around 120 Forts to get +1 army tradition. With only 2 ideas improving army tradition, and the near no gain of tradition in wars for me, I have trouble keeping it above 90. So the forts are a big help but it costs 480g a month. It seems that I only gain army tradition from winning same lvl forts (8 and above). Lower level forts seem to give none, but I can be wrong about that.

All in all Master of India will be complete soon. Will also only need to wait about 25 years for Sinaasappel! The Rising Sun in Japan is still optional but I think that I will also start doing that once I am done in India. Should only be 3 wars or so. Other then that I keep doing what I am doing ( it is very tedious overall). It goes pretty fast now for the goal of this run. I will however probably hit 1821 anyway, since I still need to do that on Ironman for the achievement.

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(Old) Current situation in 1664 for Europe when I created this guide:
http://i.imgur.com/OnpYXUZ.jpg

No more allies. Vassals: Cologne (being annexed), Cornwall, Brittany (next annex), Normandy, Navarra (being annexed), Ottomans. Created Fulo and Timbuktu as protectorates in Mali. Possibly release Lithuania and Papal state as vassal in the near future. Only rivals left are France and Commonwealth. War 1 with Manchu, Ming, Tibet and Taungu to gain provinces from Manchu and get Ming as protectorate. War 2 with Morocco, Mali and Kanem Bornu for Crusade bonus, and deconstruct Africa further. Rest of the world are mostly large country’s apart from America.

Rest of the world:
http://i.imgur.com/Ya09L4F.jpg

North & South America:
http://i.imgur.com/c3pnqiK.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/iY9R0ft.jpg

Sorry that I linked the images. I had no idea how to instantly show the picture, and using the steamlink gave a very small picture.

All righty then, the run is complete and world conquest is done as an OPM.
This run was mostly done with the intention to make an solid basic plan and layout to work from for Ryukyu, despite the obvious differences for possibilities and confirm that certain plans are viable and solid. So the conclusion for me is that there is an possibility that the Three Mountains is doable without exploits.
There is not much room for error, a high pressure of time and tech, and the most difficult will be the actual start. These factors where also the reasoning behind me choosing a OPM forming the Netherlands besides the achievements I wanted. An European and already western nation is of course not the same thing as the Chinese tech single island that has to conquer the world. But there were several similar disadvantages and sort like issues. All in all the main plan for expanding, the mentioned war rotation and the constant (micro)managing that is required are worth it. Idea group plans will overall be similar. However the use for the religious group is bigger, and might take up a place in the run after all.

So let’s compare the 2 a bit here and see some of the major ups and downsides of these runs compared.

Ryukyu downside vs Utrecht/Netherlands:
1: Remote island with no neighbors and direct expansion possibility.
2: On start a no CB war is required for early expansion.
3: Chinese tech compared to Western tech = slower advancement, so westernization is basically required.
4: Chinese units will have bigger steps in between before possible switch + less units to choose from and later on less pips in units.
5: Pagan religion = near no bonuses, near no income from gold provinces, no defender of the faith. Switching religion is a most likely scenario, but early on you will have low unity because of surrounding nations that are not pagan. So unity will be a constant factor in mind during the game.
6: You reach the large and rich Europe countries later in game = overall strong enemies.
7: Japan overall gets an mission to conquer Okinawa, and getting on bad standing with Ming is a very likely early situation.
8: Not possible to intervene in the European colonizing early on.
9: On start a very small economy.
10: Until westernized no access to the easy protectorates in Africa and America.

Utrecht/Netherlands downside vs Ryukyu:
1: Starting out in the HRE makes large scale conquest as an OPM extremely difficult with aggressive expansion and penalties.
2: Because of the land connection, direct surrounding enemies + easy enemy troop access inside the HRE, defending the capital early on is hard.
3: Despite more in between tech steps for the Chinese group and less different units, they are on par overall or even better depending on what tech lvl you compare. Cavalry will get ahead in midgame while infantry will get better after lvl 26.
4: Much more big enemies close by that also conquer much.
5: There where several achievements in this run that required a more time and MP demanding approach that won’t factor in for Ryukyu. Especially Master of India.
6: The national ideas of Ryukyu are overall more favorable for expansion.
7: Because of the easy start in unity and diplomacy, stuck on catholic religion that has also near no useable bonuses for conquest if you lose curia control, and is a bit based on luck of the draw.
8: Ryukyu can colonize the rich spice islands early on.

All in all there are some pro’s for Ryukyu compared to this particular run, and despite a different difficult start I personally might lean towards the Netherlands as being more difficult early on with world conquest in mind. Ryukyu will however be difficult for the almost entire duration of the run.

For now I will probably try some opening moves as Ryukyu and do something else until 1.16 arrives. Current ideas I am toying with is switching religion early on to Hindu. Never played with that but read that this can increase MP’s as well in events besides some nice bonuses. This would sync well with my idea to expand first into the spice islands, and a early religion change might go a long way until I would reach Europe, since the India region has much Hindu as well. Exploration will most likely become my first idea group so I can find my way towards Europe and westernize asap. Besides reaching Europe exploration might also assist in expansion towards Muscovy.

Unless diplomatic stuff goes well Japan has to go soon before they get the same idea with their mission. Ming might be an useful ally until I grow big enough. America will be something I won’t focus on early. It might be even possible that I will not go there until last moment, but that depends on Europe as well. Currently I plan on going for the east African coast asap in expansion, then north for the Mamluks and reach Europe. Depending on Muscovy/Russia I might have a northern route as well. Biggest surprise will be to see what happened in Europe and what benefits I can get from there, but this all depends on the time period.

Thx for reading up. Feel free to like, rate and comment this guide. Hope the info in this guide might help fellow players out. Thoughts and ideas (no exploits) for the Three Mountains as Ryukyu are welcome. But keep it constructive towards others if they would give a way off suggestion or idea.