The Three Mountains for Everyone (Guide/AAR)

So. The Infamous Three Mountains Achievement!, Conquer the world as Ryukyu!!

Updated Versions:
Tengri Manchu Ryukyu Strategy
1.27 Horde Ryukyu Three Mountains Strategy


You might have already seen a handful of top players done it, or even did it as 1-Tag WC (1-colour world conquest). But of course, not all of us are THAT good. I finally hammered up a solid strategy myself, and I did the achievement with it, painlessly.
Thanks to my genius strategy! **evil laugh** I got the achievement.

And I think I should write a guide and share this with everyone who wants to do The Three Mountains legit (not just unlocking it with Steam Achievement Manager :/ ). It is a Very Memorable & Fun run afterall.
Enjoy reading this guide/AAR, it took me hours to write and organize all of it, so enjoy, hope it's useful or entertaining to you!

If you like this guide and appreciate my work, please give it a thumb up, leave a comment; and check out my Youtube channel as a token of appreciation & support!! Thanks.

My other guides:
Vassals: Tips for World Conquests/Ultra Blob Expansions
Guide to do Easy WC/1-Faith, Revoke Privilegia in 1530
Guide to Stacking Discipline
Guide to Buildings & Income

Preparations

Let's start.

First of all, this strategy is completely tailored to Patch 1.14.
So if you want to follow this guide, use my strategy to beat this infamous achievement, then you need to revert your game version back to 1.14.
=> Right click on your game - Properties - Beta - Old versions.

Why? Well you will know if you read on.

Secondly, certain DLCs will differentiate your run between heaven & hell.
I FULLY RECOMMEND THESE DLCS ENABLED:
-- Art of War
-- Common Sense
-- Cossacks

You will also know why if you read along.

Introduction & Pre-planning

Every big EU IV achievement, especialy World Conquest (unless you are Ottomans) will need some pre-planning.
Before we go into details, here is the general layout;
Think of it as the Content.

-- Use Sell Ship exploit to get more trade cash at start. (Thanks to Florryworry)
-- Go wreck a India minor and vassalize.
-- Eat an OPM by border then Ceylon and make core, now coring range is up to India.
-- Convert to Theravada, then Mahayana Buddhism.
-- Be opportunistic in India/South East Asia/China.
-- Take Exploration & westernize quick as usual
-- Build a strong power base
-- Colonize Australia for more cashflow & extra Merchant
-- Go Arabia, core Africa using Overseas discount then connect for full benefits.
-- Protectorate/Annex India and/or China (tolerated Heretics)
-- Use Full annex trick on Spain, France & England and release as Marches.
-- Europe can be eaten quickly with overseas coring discount & admin efficiency.
-- Protectorates WILL HELP you in Colonial Wars.

Tips & Tricks & Exploits

List of Exploits, tricks, tips, whatever that will help you in expansion.

-- Sell Ship exploit to get 2 more ducats per month from trade.
if you don't know what "Sell Ship Exploit" is, google it from Mr. Florryworry.

-- Convert to Theravada, then Mahayana
in 1.14 Mahayana gives +2/+1 tolerance and can stack up to full +3 tolerance for heretics & heathens. 100% Religion Unity forever!
AND Buddhists does NOT pay any diplo points in any peace deals. No need for Religious CB anymore! (bug? dunno)

-- Colonist can be used to colonize and fibricate claims on nearby nations like Ternate, Luwu, Sulu, Kilwa etc, then you can abandon the colony.

-- Overseas discount, well-known to everyone, that's not even an exploit.

-- Protectorate/Annex India & China
Why? If you declare war on an enemy that is overseas (ie: Europe & Africa), you can declare Colonial War and ALL your protectorates will be dragged into war like your vassals. They will help you out.

-- Full Annexation Bug on Colonial Powers
If you take the same number of colonies from ANY colonial nations as the number of provinces the overlord has, the peace deal becomes "Full Annexation", regardless if the overlord's total warscore is 10000%. You will know what you pay attention to the displayed peace deals.
Example: Take 30 colonies from Spanish Mexico, when Spain has 30 provinces.

-- Manpower Exploit:
Lets say you only have 1000 manpower, if you make a template of 50k infantry, and click to build it on your vassals provinces; you can start pressing (-) to cancel it, and you get ALL your cash refunded, AND ALL 50k manpower refunded.
Basically you can take a loan to "build" it, and gain infinite amount of manpower while not spending any money at all.

-- Westernization No-Bad-Event Trick:
Once the first bad event pops up, mark down the date, like 5 June, then every year, whenever you get to 3 June, Pause Westernization, then Unpause after passing 5 June.

-- 1.14 Estates:
When Cossacks comes out, the Estates provide so much benefits and interactions that are very powerful, while it is nearly impossible for them to go disloyal or disaster unless you ♥♥♥♥ up tremenously.

Ryukyu. Opening Moves

This ♥♥♥♥♥♥ 5 development island in the middle of nowhere...How do I lead this piece of crap to glory?!
Apparently the only one i can get a Conquest CB is Japan, but....No worries.
Lets start with some cash.

2 more ducats per month! That sounds like a huge difference there...
But at least from that, I can afford a skill 1 adm advisor and You should start putting your national focus on Admin (IMPORTANT)
You will want to keep pushing and building up while getting your idea groups unlocked asap.


Anyway back to business, the usual opening would be a No-CB war on either:
1) South Indian OPM, vassalize
2) Malaysian nation, vassalize

Apparently the first case is MUCH easier because:
1) Those OPM are on par with you in development, so as the size of their starting army, you CAN and WILL beat them without much bleed.
2) There are other targets on the side to expand
3) You can completely ignore AE in India because they have NOT discovered you!! Nobody can ever coalition you.

So here we go.


I go military access from Ceylon, improved relations etc, win the war.
I vassalized the OPM, unlucky for me, it did not have a claim on Venad. But whatever, i'm just gonna do another No CB war on Venad and core it :p


Hindus are pretty pissed but who cares.

Prepare for Conversion

Next target - Ceylon!!

I made my ruler a general to kill him off quickly.
And I got a much better Regency Council, yay.


And if you take Ceylon, you will get an event to convert to Theravada Buddism, take it.


Now here is what Estates are for.
You can give Venad to Clergy for +2% missionary strength for faster conversion, I was able to convert before rebels pop up.
While Ceylon is in correct religion, I gave it to Nobility & Merchant Guild and apparently boy they love the ♥♥♥♥ out of me

USE the interaction for free cash & free monarch points!! (you should do that constantly throughout the run!)

Be Opportunistic

then I saw Vijayanagar & Bengal wrecking Orissa so I did my 3rd no-CB war in India to grab as much as I can.
In short, be opportunistic, do not be afraid to do No-CB wars, because AE is of no problem in India since nobody can see you yet.

IMPORTANT: DO NOT MOVE YOUR CAPITAL AWAY FROM OKINAWA. You can move your trade city but don't move your capital.





By 1476 I unlocked my first idea group, and obviously, Exploration.
South India core gives you a powerful benefit of island hopping to Africa very quickly.



By 1483 I also grabbed myself a province in South East Asia through claims on Bengal Delta to border the Buddists.



By 1491, although Brunei ate Kutai ages ago, somehow Kutai rebel popped and I took this opportunity to vassalize Kutai and ate entire Brunei with Reconquest CB (75% cost too!)
Meanwhile Wu also detached from Ming so I also got a Conquest CB on them with a colonist on Taiwan.

The Importance of Trade

By 1501,
After getting an alliance with Jaunpur, together we wrecked Bengal together, I took all the trade centers in the Bengal Delta and my income instantly shot up.





Vijay finally saw me and joined a coalition of only him against me. lol
The rest of India is still ignorant of my existance or AE has already burnt away.


Meanwhile I am reaching Africa from colonization.


With All the trade cash pouring in, Ryukyu can finally build up a much larger army.


....even though Manpower is never a concern.


+10 Mercantilism, Damn i'll take that for +20% provincial trade power.

Power Base & Westernize

Snowballing is always important.



By 1543, I started a war to grab a Portugal trade company core.
To grab a core from Spain/Portugal is always easy - Fib a claim, declare Conquest CB war, sit on their province and wait until the warscore ticks up, apparently the AI is too retarded to ever land troops over.



Worth noting that, it is always my strategy to use admin points to core overseas (50% discount) like Africa, while I prefer to core home continent (Asia) with vassal annexation.

Otto-blob reveals itself....over 1000% warscore, gonna be a ♥♥♥♥♥ to eat.


By 1567, I am sitting at Ivory Coast westernized.
I spent 10 years waiting for Portugal to tech up 1 tech so it is 7 techs ahead of me actually.
And while I was waiting to start westernization I was filling out my 3rd idea group - Humanist.

Humanism.

The idea groups so far are:
1) Exploration - the best place to dump all your diplo points to lag behind in diplo tech
2) Admin - took it up to Adoptability (-25% core cost) for more blobbing.
3) Humanist - Filling it up during westernization, and filled it as a priority.

Why do I insist on filling up Humanist ASAP?
Here is why.

As said in the plan, After filling out Humanist, I will switch my religion from Therevada to the heretic Mayahana Buddhism.
Mayahana gives +2/+1 Tolerance, together with +3/+3 Tolerance from Humanist,
AND Exploration+Humanist Policy of +1 Heathen Tolerance, you will have +3/+3 permanent tolerance to heretics and heathens
= NO conversion ever needed anymore.
= total 100% religion unity!!

Together with Buddhist not paying diplo in peace deals, you basically have both Religious & Humanist benfits.
So Blob away!!



On top of that, you get -15% influence on Clergy Estate, so spam those interactions!

Onward to Glory.

This section is basically just showing the speed of blobbing,
working my way in
1) Africa - Easily crushing them from superior military tech, and super cheap admin core.
2) India - Also crushingly easy, and I decided to force protectorate Vijayanagar because they were worth over 500 warscore at that point, might as well feed them India as my vassal.
3) China - I used Chu as my vassal to feed, same cultural group, same religion, they can stay alive well with high OE.

Worth noting, post westernization, you will change to Western tech group, so all the vassals in India & China will become obsolete and you can only release/force protectorate.
If there is a vassal you want to place strategically for feeding, you need to do it before you finish westernization.

1583


Japanese Culture Event always happens and give -15% diplo tech cost.



Religion map in Pink...



1591


After integrating Kutai, the unrest reduction allows me to even lower autonomy




by 1599, diplo tech is caught up.

Post 1600

As a rare sight, I have never seen Prussia formed


Or Ottomans blobbing so hard into Lithuania


Nevertheless I made a new Protectorate - Multan and fed him Jaunpur.
Made a vassal Tabarestan to core Persian region (since Timmy blew up :/ )
Made a vassal Najd for the sole reason to block Arabia from Africa so I can core Egypt with 50% cost before I connect it for 0 autonomy.
And Chu has taken and cored entire Chinese region while I worked on up to Moroco.



That's a neat shade of pink...


Another -15% diplo cost

Wreckage of Mighty Ottomans

Remember I told you about Protectorates? Here it comes!
Declare Ryukyuan-Ottomans Colonial War (nothing colonial about it)

Eventually Ottomans has to be broken down...





More awesome Ryukyu events


And their backs are broken.


Vassals/Protectorates covering my flanks.


Tunis is a great nation to abuse truce timer because they usually ally Ottomans.
Attack Ottomans, Tunis joins;
Separate white peace Tunis to get 5 years truce, take 100 WS from Ottomans;
Attack Tunis 5 years later, Ottomans joins;
Separate white peace Ottomans to get 5 years truce, take 100 WS from Tunis & Repeat.


Lastly it is worth noting that, it is extremely important to cut off Ottomans from Africa & Asia with land connection, that way they will get 75% autonomy on all those provinces and make them much easier to kill later.
Released Syria.


While I keep wrecking them, Internal Conflict popped up in Ottomans....See Egypt...
Mamluks is alive again!!!! They worth almost 300 Warscore too, sweet!



Syrian rebels gave Syria a core in Jerusalem lol.


While in Balkans...

Full Annexation on Colonial Powers

As mentioned, there is a full annexation bug if you take a certain number of colonies from any colonial nations. You will get instantly full annexation in less than 100 warscore.
You can take them from any Colonial Nations, as long as you take as many provinces as the overlord has. (Usually no Europeans will have more than 100 provinces)
As a bonus,
1) You do NOT need to siege down the overlord mainland/capital at all!!
2) You will take over ALL subjects the nation you fully annexed, that includes ALL his Colonial Nations in Americas.

Let's welcome Great Britain to join the Ryukyu family of vassals!!
Welcome 556% Overextension & +27.8 Nation Unrest!
And then released as a march (Later on I found out that was a mistake, because they keep colonizing and making new CNs, so eventually I still have to integrate them)




Then it's Spain! Thanks for eating Portugal for me pal, one less colonial power to deal with.





And somehow releasing them directly will be a pain in the ass...


So I settled for releasing and feeding Leon, Aragon & Naples.




Then Netherlands...

Post 1700

Ottomans is 20k in debt from Ryukyu plunders...


I moved my capital to Muscat long ago; upon integrating Najd, I get a land connection to entire Africa and have the full benefits of all its land. 0% autonomy everywhere.
Meanwhile, Buryatia & Mon Yang & Japan have joined my protectorate family.
I dont want to spend more time on Asia since Europe can be an annoyance to handle.

Local Autonomy map:


Unrest Map:

Massive Europe Vassal Feeding

Time is short.
Bukhara is half gone and fed to Buryatia;
Half of Russia has fallen under Ryukyu (Honestly their troops suck badly.)
But...HRE is still largely intact, and...Prussia is scary despite all the vassals I have.



I set a timeline for myself, by 1750 I MUST reach HRE.
That means France, Lithuania, Scandinavia & Russia must be killed.

To do that, vassal feeding is extremely important!
In EU IV, you really, really do NOT want to go over 100% Overextension, especially when you have a huge empire.
In late game you can easily take 125% OE of provinces in ~90 WS when you have admin efficiency and Imperialism CB, even more if you have diplo ideas (which I didn't need).

Therefore as you can see here, I'm glad that I have released 3 vassals from Spain:
1) France is fed to Aragon & Leon combined
2) Italy is fed to Naples
3) Balkans & Hungary is fed to Bulgaria, replacing Tabarestan (They are constantly above 100 OE but they will be fine as long as I keep killing their rebels)
4) Russia & Scandinavia is cored myself, since it is really cheap.

Tips here is, feed your vassals the same religion & possibly same cultural group provinces will help them stabilize despite high OE, A LOT.

By 1750


Poland, Brabant, Ottomans are carpet sieged and bound to fall.
I chained wars to keep the coring going non-stop.




5/5/3 Ruler at age 16, and free +1 stab, awesome!


Overview of my Army at Gates.




Denmark was annexed and released because I found out that they took Aristocratic Ideas!!
The bastards have +50% coring cost :/

HRE Total War

What must happen is going to happen.
The Great HRE-World War
Since I full annexed GB, Spain & Netherlands, there wasn't much trouble with uniting the Americans, and since this is a big war, I called up my Protectorates as well.




After a few battles...
I gotta say, Prussia has killed lots of my best men...
I had to keep pouring in my army into the battle to keep them winning.



IMPORTANT: Worth mentioning here.
In your attempt to dismantle/annex HRE, it is usually the first war that is most problematic and most difficult. After winning 1st war, everyone usually ends up with high war exhaustion, low manpower, massively in debt.
Then most nations will be in a truce with you, there is no worrying of coalitions;
You can keep declaring war on a minor and keep dragging the Emperor & his allies into the war, to keep eating them up.
On top of that, since Buddhists do not pay diplo, separate annex away!

More Full Annexation separate peaces, more vassal feeding
Massive chaotic sieges continue.




So much for your Empire.


Only pockets of Prussian & Tuscan resistance remain...
Aragon integrated, Leon & Naples are next.

Bulgaria: My Vassal To Be Killed.

While wiping out Prussia & Tuscany,
The Cossack Raid events popped up for Bulgaria, TWICE!!

Apparently that hit my opinion really hard and I realized I couldn't integrate them on time :/
I am not happy with it.
So I decided to straighten them out.




The last independent nation on God's green Earth, is....The Knights.
I completely forgot about them!
And somehow they developed Rhodes to 51 development... :o

The Final End Game.

Rhodes has fallen. The world is once reunited under the banner of Ryukyu.




Unrest Map



Religion Map, let's paint it PINK!!



Direct Local Autonomy





Economy, Ideas, Religion





Ryukyu in end net a total 16900 development

Thanks for Reading.

I hope you love this guide, find it useful or at least find it entertaining because I put a lot of time in it, organizing, writing and all these pictures took me hours.
This concludes my guide/AAR.

If you like this guide and appreciate my work, please give it a thumb up, leave a comment; and check out my Youtube channel as a token of appreciation & support!! Thanks.

My other guides:
Dismantling HRE by 1600 Using League War - Early Germany
Vassals: Tips for World Conquests/Ultra Blob Expansions
The Three Mountains for Everyone (Guide/AAR)
Guide to do Easy WC/1-Faith, Revoke Privilegia in 1530
Guide to Stacking Discipline
Guide to Buildings & Income
100% Mercantilism & Venetian Sea
Guide to Keep 75% Autonomy for Territories After Raising it for Lower Unrest

If you want to support my effort in sparing time and writing more guides or making videos, Feel free to buy me a coffee via Paypal: [e-mail]

The Magic Moment.

The Magic Moment.

If you want to support my effort in sparing time and writing more guides or making videos, I accept donations via Paypal: [e-mail]

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[Siu-King**]

Check the updated versions

[Koritalus]

Do you mean JUST this 3 DLCs enabled?
Thx a lot for your Guides and Introductions!

[Rustic Clover]

@MentalWarrior
It may have been patched out since the guide was last updated a year ago.

[IDDQD]

Guys, maybe it's just me stupid but I can't find anything about sell ship exploit that can boost your trade to 2 gold/month. Could you clarify this point, please?

[Jelaroul]

Finally done the achievement in the 2nd playthrough, genuinely appreciate this guide. However, I suppose that Ming has to be shatterred in any pplay through or it will be too difficult to eat it up if it is always stable (like in my first playthrough), as Ming is too big and developed to eat up in few wars after you have the potential to attack it. But the colonial power full annexation exploit and Buddist no diplo points cost method are absolutely, absolutely spectacular! Thanks so much sir!

[Siu-King**]

Yes, if you can afford to spare an idea group

[Seb]

Loved reading it, one question:

Was Quality worth it? (Not rhethoric)
I imagine at that point that individual battles were not an issue

[Siu-King**]

pal, 1.20 isn't even out.

[RockPaladin]

Can you update this for 1.20

[Siu-King**]

@SquirrelEMT Thanks for the compliments tho, the Buddist thing was kind of a surprise, I don't know if it is a bug or actually intended (after all they get a nasty penalty from low/high Karma)