Asian Invasion - A Comprehensive Ming 1.21 and 1.22 WC Guide

Want to bag the elusive World Conquerer achievement? Don't want to attempt it with some puny European nation or be generic with Kebab? Look no further! This guide will illustrate in great detail the steps it takes to achieve Asian domination.

Part 1: Background Details

Hello fellow World Conquerors! Let's get right to it:

An illustrated version in its full glory, my complete guide can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QFx9-IY0PHFOosZZcQn7d0ietPDX_I_UHIe9bLvOZa8/edit?usp=sharing

Companion AAR

The AAR of my personal playthrough can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/boyMl

^This is for those who are more visual learners or those who TLDR

*Please note that content from the AAR may contain vulgarities

Who am I?

My name is asparagustasty, and I have been playing the game since it was first released in 2013, with over 1200 hours total. However, I will write the guide to be as simple as possible to make it accessible for as many people as possible. I have done WCs before, such as with Austria in 1.12/1.14 and Muscovy->Russia in an even older patch.

Ming Advantages

+Best starting position with no comparable powers in the region, with the most starting development
+Tributary system means MP and manpower are not a limiting factor (yearly infusion of ~`100 MP of choice and 20k manpower per year by midgame)
+Best religion in the game that allows 100% religious unity by 1630 (or earlier) plus other buffs
+No revolts under 100% OE since Mandate gives -2.50 unrest and Animism gives -0.5, plus no religious unity penalty
+CCR of 20% puts Ming at comparable level to Ottomans and other WC countries of choice

Ming Disadvantages

-No PU mechanic to take over large amounts of land quickly
-No direct counter to colonizers from get-go due to position
-Late-game Absolutism cap may be a problem

DLC Info

DLCs are obviously a controversy in the community right now, and certainly none are really necessary to achieve WC but will certainly help, and I will write the guide with them in mind, although will try to note when DLCs will make a difference or not for those of you who do not have them

Recommended DLCs

-Mandate of Heaven (duh)
-Art of War
-Rights of Man

Personally, I played with Mandate of Heaven, Art of War, Wealth of Nations, and Res Publica.

For my strategy to work, only Mandate of Heaven is required. Everything else is optional but recommended.

Turn Common Sense OFF. This will reduce coring-cost significantly and speed-up WC.

*Note that I actually did not have Rights of Man at the time of my playthrough and therefore was actually at a small disadvantage compared to most Ming WCs. Rights of Man grants Ming ‘Great Power’ status which grants +25 PP and other CBs and subject interactions. This comes to show though that DLCs are not crucial to WC.

Notes About Patch Differences 1.21 and 1.22

My personal playthrough was done on patch 1.21 where MoH was first introduced and a couple exploits were out there and Siberian Frontiers is not a factor yet. However, my strategy makes no use of said exploits and accounts for Muscovy’s buff in 1.22 and therefore, the playstyle will be exactly identical. You may choose to use the exploits (I won’t judge) if you want in 1.21, and 1.22 by default has them disabled. This includes the “island capital” exploit which can greatly enhance Mandate output.

Part 2: Playthrough and Strategy

Playthrough Details

My playthrough took 2 months/300 hours, with 0 restarts on patch 1.21. Prior experience of about 900 hours. I divided the timeline into 5 acts as each act corresponds with a particular playstyle.

Idea Groups at a Glance

I get this a lot, so I’ll just list it here for convenience:



*Note that aside from Admin and Exploration Ideas (maybe Humanist), the rest is up to you but this order is what I generally view as preferable

Reasoning:
Administrative - CCR of 25%; max use of -10% Admin tech; allows generous use of mercs to save manpower
Exploration - Must be needed to trigger Colonialism spawn in Ming, allows you to establish CNs to contest New World
Humanist - National unrest -2; -10 years separatism allows fast expansion; -10% idea cost; overall enhances Ming’s advantages even more to allow <150% OE if necessary without massive revolts

(in the order in which you have MP surplus)
Expansion - Additional advantage in New World; only take if surplus of Admin power
Diplomatic - Additional vassals; Diplo-annex speed; warscore cost reduction pairs well with high cost of European provinces; only take if surplus of Diplo power
Quality - In order for troops to be competitive with European troops; may be swapped for Offensive if siege speed is desired instead; only take if surplus of Military power
Influence - Diplo-annex cost reduction and speed; take after Diplomatic if surplus in Military power
8th idea up to you

A Condensed Timeline

(an approximation for your playthrough, but also keep in mind that I finished in 1765, and you have until 1821)

*Contained means they are no longer a threat

Playthrough and Strategy Cont.

(1444-1490)

Opening Moves:

-Hire lvl 2 Admin advisor, rest lvl 1 (upgrade as needed.) Prioritize theologian for -2 unrest, then Natural Scientist
-Station troops on northern and NE borders with tribes
-Offer tributary status to EVERYBODY who will accept (besides northern tribes), usually in Indochina and India
-Begin Harmonization of Theravada or Pagan (don’t stop Harmonizing everything)
-NEVER use missionaries
-Optional: Set MP focus to Admin (needs Res Publica or Common Sense)
-Set MP tribute to either Admin or Dip depending on need
*note that your diplomats should never be idle but always either fabricating claims via spy networks or improving relations with potential or current tributaries

Conquer the Jurchen Tribes:

-Once everybody who is willing is a tributary, use all your Diplomats to fabricate claims and declare on the hordes
-This should be done by 1470
-Do not go over 99% OE (you may keep a war going at 100% warscore for up to 5 years without ‘call for peace’ penalty)
-Optional: Make Manchu an accepted culture (one of the largest cultures in-game) and Mongols, if MP allows
-Optional: vassalize one tribe of choice and feed captured land to it to limit OE (requires Art of War)

Take on the Steppe Hordes:

-Try to unlock 25% CCR from Admin group by now
-Take provinces in a snake-like fashion until you reach the Timurids (point is to maximize # of people you can fabricate on and declare on to speed up conquest)
-This will trigger ‘Unguarded Frontier’ disaster due to Timurids. Ignore it since Timmies will drop below 300 development after 1 war
-Start replacing regular infantry with merc infantry to save manpower (finishing Admin idea group will help with cost)

Tame the Timurids:

-Rival the Timmies
-Declare war on Timmies when ready
-Do not negotiate peace until ‘call for peace’ triggers in order to maximize chance of Persian separatists. Let them capture land from Timmies.
-Optional: support Persian separatists (this will make them agree to tributary status after their release, which adds 12 MP per year for the rest of the game)
-Reach Muscovy border by 1500




and Expansion
(1490-1600)

Zheng He Ver. 2.0:

-Research Exploration Ideas and take the 2nd idea by 1485)
-Discover the New World by 1490
-Start colonization process around 1500 (parts of Alaska are colonizable from Siberia even before Dip tech 7)
-Pray to RNGesus that Colonialism spawns in Ming (should be heavily weighed to do so if conditions are met)
-Start establishing as many CNs as possible (5 finished colonies per Colonial Region) in order to start their own colonization
-Subsidize each CN with at least 2 ducats per month if they are not colonizing. Otherwise, they may not colonize on their own
-Try to get 1st CN by 1550 and multiple by 1600
-Global trade could spawn in Ming ~1600 if lucky
*Note: by mid-game, you should Embrace Institutions ASAP even if it means taking loans

Neuter the Russian Bear:

-Make sure to take all of Muscovy’s provinces that border Siberian colonizable regions by 1520
-Do not take any provinces that border Poland/PLC until ~1600 because that will drain Mandate
-Conquer Muscovy by 1610
-Optional: Make Muscovite an accepted culture
-Optional: Negotiate release of a vassal and feed vassal Russian land to them to help deal with OE

Inch into India:

-Fabricate as many claims as possible (India has high warscore cost) and declare war on Indian countries
-Alternate wars between Russian, Ottoman, and Indian fronts to limit AE penalties
-If a coalition is forming in India, stop Indian wars immediately
-Optional: Vassalize a Hindu country and feed Hindu provinces into it
-Optional: Vassalize a Muslim country and feed Muslim provinces into it. Baluchistan tends to be the right size release in peace deal

Jeopardize the Japanese:

-Get a border with Hokkaido island (top Japanese island) by either Conquest of Colonization
-Start taking land top to bottom
-This may be done when Western borders have accumulated significant AE/coalitions, and another war target is needed


(1600-1650)

Skewer the Kebab:

-Rival Ottomans
-Do not take provinces that border the Ottomans (will drain Mandate significantly)
-Instead, create a buffer state/vassal between you and the Kebab
-Declare war ~1610 and feed Kebab land into said vassal, using their Conquest CBs (I used Astrakhan for my playthrough)
-If 10% CCR Mandate is passed (ideally before 1650), then can proceed to take Kebab land for yourself

Erwin Rommer, Ming Edition:

-Proceed to take down North Africa
-Attack Mamluks when they are at war with Kebab
-Recommended: Vassalize Tunis and feed North Africa to them instead (this will avoid high coring costs that Berber traditions get)

We are the Ming. We will Harmonize your religious distinctiveness into our own. Your religion will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile:

-Harmonize all religions!
-Harmonization Order:
Pagan (~1470)
Theravada (~1500)
Muslim (~1530)
Christian (~1560)
Dharmic (~1590)
Shinto (~1620)
Vajrayana (~1650)
-Always take the +Harmonization progress choices during events

Absolutely Asian:

-This entire part is optional and only recommended for advanced players
-Absolutism mechanics trigger around 1610-1620
-While at peace, accept Ming Particularist demands (yes, you heard me right)
-This will grant many provinces +30% autonomy
-Immediately lower autonomy in every province (revolts will be prevented in the next 10 years due to accepting rebel demands)
-You will gain a net 5% autonomy, which will decrease profits significantly (in my game by 50 ducats per month) but this will quickly resolve since Mandate reform gives -0.05 monthly autonomy
-This will immediately grant Max Absolutism (75) which will grant 30% CCR multiplicatively!
-Youwill experience 1 revolt in 11 or so years once the -100 revolt risk wears off
-Be ready to deal with ~10 40k stacks of rebels in your home provinces
-Therefore, only do this is you feel experienced enough

European Endeavors:

-Expand into Europe cautiously
-Take on the PLC
-Invade Iberia from the south and take out colonizers
-Stop expanding if coalitions form
-These lands will be good places to build manufactories which will heighten the chances for Manufactories to spawn in Ming
-Also build manpower buildings if possible as Europe will require the rivers of Ming to run red with the blood of their sacrifice to take Europe (looking at you France)
-Optional: Vassalize Castile/Spain and/or Portugal (you will get their colonies as well when you annex them later, which means even more profits since they will continue to colonize for you without costing you anything)
-Optional: Vassalize Scotland and feed England/GB to them

Playthrough and Strategy Cont. (again)

(1650-1700)

Diplomatic Disillusionment:

-European provinces will undoubtedly cost many bird points
-This will happen until Dip tech 23 is unlocked
-Meanwhile, coalitions will form in Europe
-Either wait them out OR declare war right after truces before they have a chance to join a coalition
-Declare war on allies of coalition members will drag them into war without triggering the coalition
-Set MP focus to Dip to compensate
-Set tribute to Dip to compensate
-If you are behind on Dip tech, do not worry; you can research all Dip tech in one year for 30 Dip power a piece (the guide on Google docs will go into it in more detail) #Mingmasterrace
-Attack anything not in a coalition at your pleasure
- Around 1680-1700, you should become more powerful than any coalition, and the AI will calculate that it cannot win and disband all coalitions
-Paint the map at will




(1700-1821)

All Your Province Are Belong To Ming:

-Prior to 1700, any additional money should go into building Universities (will increase Enlightenment spawn chance and decrease Embrace cost)
-Start Diplo-annexing vassals (turn on -20% annex cost policy and any +1 Dip rep policies)
-Crack down on the last independent nations
-By 1730 (or later since you have until 1821), all nations will be either your vassals, CNs, or tributaries
-Revoke Tributaries individually and declare after 5-year truce (stagger them so as not to declare all at once)
-Congratulations, the entire world is now yellow!

Part 3: Miscellaneous Details

Thanks for your time! I hope you found my guide useful to your WC endeavors. And if you liked it, please give it a rating so others can see it as well!

If you would like another guide for another country, I will be taking requests. Feel free to ask me any questions on Reddit or elsewise /u/asparagustasty

This guide is part of a series of written guides I have been working on in multiple PDX games, since I oftentimes get many complaints that most walkthroughs are video-only.

Other works:

HOI4: 1.4.1 Czechoslovakia Guide
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1067336785

Future Plans

I am currently working on a guide for Mongolia -> Yuan for ‘The Great Khan’, ‘Back in Control’, ‘One Faith’, and obviously WC. I will have a link to that from here once I am finished. It will be out in a month or so.

Ming Meme Collection (work in progress)

When you see a new country near your borders:


Tributary mechanics in a nutshell:


When religious rebels are rampaging your lands, but they’re just converting your provinces from one harmonized religion to another:


When playing as any country bordering Ming:

[Doug]

You can get Kham, Tsang, and Guge as vassals if you play your cards right starting game. Worked every time for me. I just dont make kham a tributary. Ally guge and guarantee tsang. from there you improve relation with kham until 190 to vassalize them. and do the same for tsang and guge. rinse and repeat with any other country bordering your vassals. almost instant border with central asia/middle east. just integrate vassals overtime.

[asparagustasty]

You can attack Nepal/India or wait for one of them to be declared on by somebody else, then declare while they are distracted

Timurids tend to collapse to internal revolts by 1500. Definitely if you can encourage Persian Separatists, it would help with distracting them.

[JakesGotGames]

what to do if oriat allies timmies and uzbek in 1467?

[ray sism]

any pictures of the religious mapmode? I'm a bordergore enthusiast myself

[asparagustasty]

Of course! Lemme know if you have any other questions.

[Raydog Yottabyte]

Great! Thanks. I'll start with your strategy right ahead. Thank you, sir.

[asparagustasty]

*note that you will also probably adopt Colonialism way before you adopt Renaissance simply due to its spreading properties. I adopted Colonialism around 1525, but Renaissance took another 20 or so years. Your yearly tribute will be more than enough to compensate, and quite frankly, the additional MP storage limit allowed me to build up a decent stockpile of Dip power (~1400) to negotiate for parts of Europe, which tends to create huge deficits.

[asparagustasty]

Hey Julius,

You don't have to do that because Ming tends to blob really quickly. I was able to embrace Renaissance by 1550 just by conquering Russia and parts of Crimea. That will give you enough development to meet the 10% mark, which you will have to pay for the rest.

You will have to take loans to embrace since it's not worth waiting for it to spread. Take it as soon as you can as Ming makes enough money quickly enough, but MP is always a barrier to any WC.

asparagustasty

[Raydog Yottabyte]

Hi again. Thanks, but you misunderstood my question. What I meant was, do I develop a province to have the rennaiscance appear there, so it spreads to the surrounding provinces? I'm sure you're aware of the whole, development - Institution thing. So is that a viable option or do I wait for the rennaiscance to come to Ming, via colonists or such. Rookie question I know.

Julius

[asparagustasty]

Hey Julius,

You can't really control Renaissance spawning since it can only spawn in Italy, and there's no conceivable way to reach Italy by 1450. You can only weigh Colonialism, Printing Press (if you go extremely quickly), Global Trade, Manufactories, and Enlightenment by meeting the trigger conditions of each, found here:

http://www.eu4wiki.com/Institutions

Clicking on the Institutions button found in the technology tab will also allow you to keep track of them in-game.

From what I can tell from my playthroughs so far, Institutions seems heavily weighed to spawn in Ming, probably due to its size and being played by a human. Just meet the conditions for the rest, and chances are that it will spawn in Ming.

asparagustasty