EUIV - Amaranthine Invitational #3 (1500)

It is now 1500. 56 years have been and gone and that's more than enough time to see the results of both long term scheming and pragmatic opportunism for our AI controlled custom nations.

## Campaign runs @ www.twitch.tv/kamichi every Sunday at 9PM UK time. ##
## Youtube VODs @ www.youtube.com/user/kamichi ##
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Remember the Institution map mode? Well get used to it, because in a game of West vs East (which is the ultimate end-game of this campaign) it's Institutions which make the difference. As we can see, the Renaissance has just made its way through Anatolia and is making its way down the Levant coastline. Read: nowhere near our eastern friends. With 50 years having now passed since the dawn of the Renaissance, it's easier to demonstate just how disadvantaged the Asians will be.

As of 1500, Junlin and Epiphany are at the same tech levels (6/8/8). Despite their relatively large reductions in admin tech cost from Confucianism, Junlin will soon fall behind due to the massive 'Renaissance not embraced' tech penalty.

Being behind in technology is enough of a disadvantage in itself. There are various passive bonuses from each category of technology which means the more advanced a country is, the richer and more powerful they will be, even before leveraging the other advantages of superior technology. Junlin could spend more and more of their monarch points to stay afloat, but this would mean falling behind on Ideas and Development. It'd mean not being able to core as much land in wars. Essentially, even if Junlin could still achieve tech parity, it would cause other disadvantages.

These disadvantages will get worse as more institutions spawn.

As I've mentioned in previous updates, starting in 1450, new Institutions are eligble to spawn every 50 years. In the midst of the Age of Discovery, Colonialism is up next, representing the exploration and spread of the major European powers throughout the world.

As you can see, Colonialism may spawn in a country once all the following conditions have been met:

- The year is at least 1500.
- They are in Europe, Asia or Africa.
- They have a coastline.
- The coastline province is in a State.
- The coastline province is either:
- - A Coastal Centre of Trade
- - At least 12 development
- - The capital province.
- The capital province is not an island.
- The coastline province is connected to the capital.
- The country has the idea Quest for the New World and has discovered any American or New World province.

Quest for the New World is the second idea under Exploration Ideas, which nobody took as their first idea. Therefore, Colonialism can't spawn, and won't spawn until someone does. (Great news for those who haven't embraced the Renaissance yet).

Not even Patria - the Colombian colonisers - can spawn Colonialism without Exploration Ideas despite literally colonising Brazil.

For most countries, the only way to access Colonists are through Exploration (and Expansion) ideas. When the AI is in control, countries which historically colonised (Portugal, Castile/Spain, France, England, etc) are heavily weighted towards Exploration ideas you'll pretty much always get Colonialism spawning in western Europe pretty soon after 1500.

In our case, not only do most of our custom countries start with +1 colonists, making them able to colonise without exploration ideas, they don't have the same AI weighting, meaning it could be a long time before we see Colonialism.

The weightings I'm looking at could well be out of date by now, but at the very least they're very interesting indicators of what our countries might do: https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Idea_groups#AI_preference

Lastly, here you see the 1500 tech map, which is broadly following the path of the Renaissance, with the exception of a few countries in the east still able to keep up.

The 1475 roundup was less a roundup and more an 8000 word dissertation. All I'm going to note from hereon out for the country summaries is the development, the ruler, and anything particularly interesting that happened. As for the rest, the VOD for the stream is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28L1Tb65wto and I'll gladly answer any questions about any country anyway, just hit me up on Discord or something.

Ruler: kamichi
284 -> 410 -> 457
30 -> 43 -> 49

Ruler: Rey the Great
268 -> 318 -> 331
42 -> 49 -> 54

Ashwinder spent much of the inter-update period with their independence guaranteed by The Savage Men. Otherwise they'd be dead.

Ruler: kamichi
242 -> 45 -> 46
23 -> 5 -> 5

Ruler: RevReb
280 -> 178 -> 168
33 -> 21 -> 17

Ruler: Shamed
251 -> 293 -> 360
39 -> 41 -> 49

Ruler: OoohYou
331 -> 440 -> 489
36 -> 43 -> 47

Ruler: Denial
279 -> 355 -> 369
48 -> 60 -> 60

Ruler: Epiphanus
324 -> 446 -> 563
19 -> 28 -> 39

Ruler: Ardus
350 -> 140 -> 134
47 -> 19 -> 17

Ruler: SolarS
310 -> 376 -> 376
19 -> 22 -> 22

Free Scotland's two new provinces are the Shetland and the Faroe Islands. That's how boring they've been.

Ruler: Mello
275 -> 276 -> 282
27 -> 27 -> 29

Ruler: Gaurav
256 -> 154 -> 99
24 -> 14 -> 9

Georgia is the tiny dark red country on the Black Sea coast. This is a map of where their country used to be.

Ruler: Devilyn Caster
239 -> 83 -> 13
30 -> 11 -> 2

Ruler: Ardus
291 -> 371 -> 371
30 -> 38 -> 38

Ruler: Jeoh
267 -> 330 -> 367
30 -> 37 -> 39

Ruler: Archon
321 -> 403 -> 461
33 -> 40 -> 51

Ruler: Lebubu
276 -> 341 -> 424
34 -> 39 -> 43

Ruler: Tribute
302 -> 316 -> 348
20 -> 21 -> 23

Legendia has not only grown its ally Malta, it helped Malta become Holy Roman Emperor and has fought an array of hilarious wars by its side.

Legendia #1 in our hearts.

Ruler: LegendoftheSkies
277 -> 308 -> 317
23 -> 30 -> 31

'King Olaf Rask is a masterful plotter' - me, 1475

Ruler: DarthLurtz
261 -> 271 -> 363
33 -> 33 -> 42

Ruler: Voytek
293 -> 352 -> 345
37 -> 43 -> 39

Ruler: Nero
271 -> 315 -> 208
24 -> 26 -> 16

Ruler: ninja colt
274 -> 154 -> 80
45 -> 32 -> 17

Ruler: Mistra
272 -> 274 -> 274
27 -> 27 -> 27

Ruler: Anarch
255 -> 263 -> 325
39 -> 40 -> 48

Ruler: RevReb
248 -> 338 -> 325
32 -> 44 -> 42

Ruler: Gobb
263 -> 150 -> 94
22 -> 14 -> 9

Ruler: iosif
264 -> 325 -> 325
23 -> 27 -> 27

Qiuyu have had a proper rollercoaster of a game so far. They were the definition of filler when they were created and nobody ever really cared about them, but now I'm invested and hope they survive.

Ruler: leet guy
270 -> 211 -> 284
20 -> 16 -> 20

Ruler: rsox
319 -> 375 -> 381
52 -> 59 -> 59

Ruler: LegendoftheSkies
244 -> 254 -> 276
23 -> 23 -> 24

I really didn't realise how much Schwarzwald jumped up in the last 25 years, even taking just the two provinces (Trier and Pfalz in the west).

Ruler: Denny
266 -> 282 -> 320
26 -> 26 -> 28

Ruler: King Brandon
286 -> 351 -> 397
36 -> 44 -> 49

Ruler: tequila
316 -> 399 -> 490
26 -> 35 -> 41

Ruler: csm
244 -> 326 -> 361
25 -> 33 -> 36

Ruler: tolk
318 -> 324 -> 325
59 -> 59 -> 59

Ruler: MagicalTrevor
245 -> 257 -> 261
16 -> 16 -> 16

rip too our brave viking TROOPS

Ruler: quinoa rex
189 -> 215 -> 129
30 -> 30 -> 20

Geopolitics are finely poised at the turn of the 16th century. We have some obvious victors from the first 66 years like Epiphany, Bengalistan and Junlin but there are still quite a few twists to come which could completely turn the game around. Colonialism could help countries like Free Scotland and Patria into power. The Reformation could destroy Catholic alliances and leave them vulnerable to the Norse. Our East Asian countries could scramble for Africa and America to divert trade away from Europe.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with the stats dump for 1500.

## Stream @ www.twitch.tv/kamichi every Sunday at 9PM UK time. ##
## Replay @ www.youtube.com/user/kamichi ##
## Competition @ https://goo.gl/Ut3HZq ##