EU IV Portugal AAR Part 7

King Afonso V... 1458 - 1462

November 1458, and for the glory of our new King, the Falkland Islands (my favourite place in the world!) are discovered.... we will, of course, be colonising them at some point! :)

Only four days later we manage to attract additional settlers to our colony of Rio de Oro

Which pushes it into being a self-sustaining province... hurrah!

November is turning out to be a bonanza month, with England offering us another Royal Marriage, which we gratefully accept

On Christmas Eve, 1458, our intrepid explorer Diego Gomes rounds Cape Horn and enters the Pacific Ocean for the first time...

In January 1459, our colonists arrive in the Cape Verde Islands. We now have the jump on Castile in the colonial race, and once the Cape Verde Islands are fully colonised we’ll have the range to get to South America

Later on that year, the King decides that he needs some advisors, and we take a Master of Mint (Uriel Eanes). He will add +1 to our monthly administrative power, and will reduce inflation (should we incur any)

And then in July, an heir is born! Huzzah..... he looks quite good as well!

In November 1459, we have enough diplomatic power to take the third idea in the Exploration Group, Overseas Exploration, which gives us +50% colonial range! Taking our third Idea also activates the first of our National Ideas, Afonsine Ordinance (appropriate given that our King is called Afonso), which gives our production a 10% boost.

The following year we get the option to enact our fist National Decision, in this case to formalise our weights and measures, taking the first step in creating the SI system. This gives us a nice tax bonus for the rest of the game!

King Afonso, so happy with his first advisor, instructs us to hire a second. This time, he is a navigator, who will add +1 diplomatic power and also 20% to our colonial range.

Turns out that with the additional 20% from the navigator, we have enough colonial range to get to South America without waiting for Cape Verde to finish colonising. However, there are two things which provide a dampener to our colonial ardour:

First, we only have 1 colonist. This is less of an issue than it might seem at first glance, as once a colony is being settled, the colonist who was initially sent there does not need to stay. If he does stay, he will provide a monthly bonus to colony numbers (so it’s usually a good idea to leave him there), but the colony will still grow without him. Recalling a colonist can trigger an uprising, but this isn’t an issue with the Cape Verde Islands as there are no native inhabitants.

Second, the number of colonists sets out colony limit. Every additional colony being settled in addition to the limit gets a +100% cost hike...

Either way, in this instance, we take the risk and settle our first South American colony

The colonist arrives, and we complete a mission

We are presented with an option we can’t ignore, and trade with the local natives

This, however, forces us to take a loan... putting additional strain on our finances

Our next mission is simple... turn Pernambuco into a city and make more money!

By June 1461, although our finances are a bit squishy, our colonisation is going swimmingly, and our intrepid explorer makes it all the way round Africa to the Gulf of Aden

In an effort to help our tax collectors, we spend some admin power increasing our stability, but we are forced into taking more loans...

And by September of 1461, the strain appears to be getting to the King, and he starts seeing things...

Meanwhile, our great military thinkers realise that if our pikemen stand in a square, horsey types can’t get round the back of them.... genius!

By December of 1461, we have had to take out 5 loans.... the second colony is killing us!

The King has the bright idea of fabricating a claim against Mali (which has a gold producing province and rubbish tech levels) in order to get monetary tribute in a peace treaty...

But then, in September 1462, only four short years after taking the crown, King Afonso V dies, leaving a 2 year old as heir, with a Regency in control, and 8000 rebels to deal with on the Algarve (oh well, at least they weren’t British holidaymakers!)

And as Regency governments can’t declare wars, our Mali plan is put on hold...

Next time, we’ll chart the success, or not, of our Regency Government....