If you read the previous update, you will remember that we
spent a long time securing our colonial borders from other exploring nations. Well,
we also did that militarily in the same period.
1576-1590 King Felipe I, Part 4 – A Tale of 2 and a 1/2
Wars
Feb 1576 – Feb 1579
Mali
We have made war with Mali several times before, taking a
couple of their provinces out of the peace deals. Since those heady days of the
15 th century, we have essentially ignored Mali, and they have not been idle in
the past 100 years. As you can see from the picture, they have expanded their
territory eastwards, swallowing up a couple of nations. At the end of our last
war with Mali we could ‘see’ all of their lands, but now it would appear that
over half their territory is unexplored. Well, we don’t want them to get so big
that they try something silly like attacking us, do we?
By July we have won a number of battles, and are besieging
about 4 provinces. We are even taking the fight to uncolonised lands as the
Malians unsuccessfully seek to outmanoeuvre us
The battle of Wasuju in late 1577 is the final fight of the
war
And by early 1579 two thirds of Mali is occupied, and the
warscore is at 93%
The outcome is simple: Mali will become a protectorate. They
will transfer 50% of their trade power to me, permanently, and will not be able
to take any other ally except me. West Africa is secure, forever...
Between wars, we take another level of diplomatic tech (11),
and another level of admin tech (14), unlocking our fourth Idea Group. This
time round we take a military group, Quantity. And immediately unlock the first
idea, boosting our maximum manpower by 50% to a whopping 54,000. We shouldn’t
run out of available bodies for the army any time soon!
Jan 1581 – Sep 1583
Kilwa
Taking two years off to allow our manpower to climb and our
war exhaustion to recede, we then launch our strike at Eastern Africa.
On the face of it, we want the province of Quelimane, just
along the cost from our other territory in East Africa, but that is just a
political diversion. What we really want is to capture territory up near the
Gulf of Aden, giving us a border with the previously released nation of
Alderaan (or something like that!). Our ultimate goal is to get a presence in
the Aden trade node.
The first thing we do is destroy the Kilwanese fleet
Followed by their army
Another Kilwanese fleet has been hiding somewhere, but they
get a drubbing too in late 1581
In early 1582 we complete the siege of Mogadishu. This is
our main aim for the war, the rest is just icing on the cake!
More ridiculously one-sided battles follow
Until by September 1583 nearly all of Kilwa is occupied and
the warscore is at 99%.
In the ensuing peace treaty, we take Mogadishu and Mombasa,
and get Kilwa to release the two province nation of Malindi (which lies in
between Mog and Mombers). We don’t even bother to take our original war goal of
Quelimane, which was our Cassus Belli! We will establish Malindi as a
protectorate straight after the war, and they readily agree as they love us for
releasing them and giving them their sovereignty.
The following year, in 1584, Castilian La Plata declares war
on my subject nation, Rio da Prata. Castile is too weak to care, and we have
other fish to fry, so we let them get on with it to see what happens.
By February 1585 we have fabricated our claim against
Alderaan (“but we have no weapons!”)
We ask them if they would like to suggest another target, a
military target, but we can’t find Dantooine on a map, so we attack them
instead
Jan 1586 -
Alderaan are a subject nation of Yemen, and allied to the
Crimea and some small nation I can’t pronounce or spell, so this is going to be
the hardest of our wars by a long shot. In January 1586, immediately after
declaring war, 49 ships engage in a fight off Aden. Fortunately, 34 of them
were ours, and with the superb seaman Paulo Cabral commanding the fleet, we
wink the Yemeni fleet in its entirety.
In June 1586 the land war gets underway in earnest, with our
Mogadishu based force defeating a larger Yemeni force in Alderaan
1587 sees the land war move into Yemeni territory, and our
northern force defeats a larger Yemeni force outside the gates of Aden, proving
once again how important a good general is
By February, Aden has fallen, and Paulo Cabral has defeated
the rest of the Yemeni navy
Combining our armies, we destroy a Yemeni relief force to
the north of Aden in April
At the end of 1587, we face our toughest challenge, as the
Crimea finally sends its armies against us. One the coast, our 27,000 troops
face a combined force of 38,000. Fortunately, our general has picked the
terrain well, and the enemy cannot bring his superior numbers to bear
The result is decisive, with the enemy losing around 50% of
his army, whilst we lose a mere 6%
Meanwhile, over in South America, Castilian La Plata’s
decision to invade our subject nation seems to have been a mistake. Well done
lads!
The enemy come at us again and again, with seemingly
unlimited reserves of manpower. In Narjan in August 1588 we are ambushed by
over 25,000 troops to our 8,000.
Winning by a whisker due to superior morale but losing over
5,000 troops in the fight
Our army falls back to allow a relief force to finish off
the enemy
At this stage, the war is going swimmingly, with warscore at
over 50%, and our manpower still at around 20,000. What could possibly go
wrong?
Well, our King could die...
Oh!
King Felipe I von Habsburg, ruler from 1535 to 1590. 55
years of colonisation and expansion. Back in 1535, we were still colonising St
Helena and our colonial nation Rio da Prata hadn’t even been formed. Castile
had only just taken Bermuda, and no-one apart from us had a province in the
Caribbean. It was King Felipe who first instructed his navy to send colonists
into the Indian Ocean, forming the self-sustaining province of Mauritius in
1541. Now, we own nearly every island in the Indian Ocean. What a crazy period
the last 55 years have been. We should really consider renaming the Indian
Ocean the Felipe Ocean in his honour!
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