1.16 - Spanish strategy

Going for Rome

Spoiler :

In this game i used GG to upgrade Lancers.

Now, while tech tree goes to firearms and Renaissance, Madrid trains Settlers to upgrade every city, Barcelona trains some work boats and a Cog, Santiago trains a couple of Cogs and a Scout, while Cordoba builds wall, citadel and Krak des Chevaliers.

A Crossbow in each city is enough to keep happiness, and the army with Lancers and Trebuchets waits in Rome the opportunity to get Naples.

In this game without Italy a good expansion strategy is to settle Nice east of Ruins of Marseilles and Cagliari in Sardinia.
It is also possible to begin to spread catholicism in Europe.

 

After getting Rome, another step is done. Gold from Shrine.
Now, while researching to Firearms (and Reanissance), some Settlers are trained in Madrid, and some missionaries in Rome.
Because in 1.16 Settlers can build buildings for free based on era.
Renaissance allows free harbor, library, and something else...

Some tech trading in the meantime...

Spoiler :

And got Firearms at last

Spoiler :

 

Next tech is Cartography, and caravels , but do not meet American civs before Exploration and Conquistadores.
Use Caravels and Explorers to get some huts, instead.
There are a hut in Caribe, two in South America, east of Andes, one in Easter Isle, one in NZ and two in Australia.
With a bit of luck it is possible to get a hut in Borneo, one in India, and one in Japan...
There are also a hut near Quito and two huts in North America. You'll get them later, after conqueror event.

Spoiler :

 

And this is definitely the key to a good game with Spain.

Spoiler :

Free citadels everywhere, including colonies.
Extra culture to cover those silver sources in SA with cultural border.

 

Up to now the strategy has been linear, with few variables and few unexpected events, and almost always it will be in the games with Spain.
But now the colonization is going to start.
My strategy is to wait to get Conquistadores, so Firearms+Exploration. Then contact Aztecs and Incas from Pacific Ocean in order to get extra army in most favorable tiles.
With Aztecs there are two options based of what you'll find:
1) Get Mexico City immediatly
2) Let it there and go for yucatan first.

Same for Incas. The landing zone for conquerors is between Lima and Cuzco, because of the silver source behind Andes.
In core cities you'll train missionaries to convert colonies, and settlers to upgrade buildings.

Do not forget UHV1.
My best choice for first colony is Santo Domingo, because a galleon can travel from Ponta Delgada to Santo Domingo in one turn, and with more galleons you can set up a chain of galleons to ship units from Europe to almost everywhere in one turn.

The other step of the game is managing with Protestantism.
My choice is to go for Academia just after Exploration.
If i control holy city, civs are less inclined to convert to Reform.
Anyway: Sweden is often collapsed in 1400 so it does not convert. France is weak. Poland rarely convert to Reform.
The civs you have to deal with are England and HRE.
England is an island, and your army has to cross the sea to land there, but this also applies to them who cannot attack you.
HRE is stronger and bordering, so your army must stay ready in Rome.

Let's go for the second half of the game.

 

1300AD : cartografy and caravels. We are ready to explore the world, get some huts, circumnavigate the globe and meet some eastern civs to trade.

Spoiler :

Santa Maria del Fiore in Madrid

Spoiler :

A Great Prophet in Rome.
It is ok. A GP is useful to convert protestant cities or colonies.
If it had been a GE, you can speedup a wonder like Escorial or Trading Company (you must build both)

Spoiler :

 

1365AD: Got Exploration. Colonization begins!

Mexico City

Spoiler :

Cuzco

Spoiler :

Santo Domingo

Spoiler :

 

Wow! My game as Spain went horrible and I gave up. First I lost 1 knight trying to conquer Barcelona and burn Marseille. Then I got to the New World in 1490 something and not with conquistadors only with Tercio's because France was already sending galleons and I stopped waiting for exploration. I didn't get an army in Peru only in Mexico. The only good things where that I founded Protestantism, built Notre Dame, Escotarial, and Santa Maria del Fiore, and conquerued all of Italy and forced the HRE to convert to Catholicism. So only England was Protestant.

 

Well, loosing units in conquering of Barcelona, Marseilles and Cordoba is ok, if you achive your targets.
In some games with Spain i lost almost everything to get Barcelona, i had to train army again, and lost almost everything to get Cordoba, and re-train all to get Rome. But this does not slow down research.
Did you build monasteries everywere? With monasteries and Roman Shrine there is no need of libraries until renaissance.
To win tech race you'll need to trade techs. Best trading partner are Bizantine and Vikings (because they will collapse later).
And you can trade all techs out of path to exploration with other european civs.

 

I only built a monastery in Madrid and Mexico Ciudad. The Byzantines don't want to trade anything with me, only the Vikings.
Anyway I will retry with Spain again.
The most annoying thing in DoC is that when I play with France I end up conquering al of Europe except England and Byzantine territory by 1300-1400 AD and collapse around 1450-1550 AD. That wouldn't be such a big problem except that when I collapse I lose all my territory and am defeated, not like in RFC where you still have your capital. I don't think it makes sense that a huge empire suddenly loses all its territories, I think one at a time would be more historically correct.
Anyway the easiest UHV's in DoC are Korea and maybe also Maya. Those are the only ones I won with.

 

Maybe that's the reason of your lack of research. If you try to follow my strategy, build monasteries and churches everywhere since first turns.
Madrid: monastery then missionary to Santiago
Barcelona: monastery and church
Santiago: workboats then monastery and church.
Religious buildings make money if you control Shrine in Rome, and you can keep percentage of research to 80% or more.
Moreover you do not need to conquer everything but cities of your goals. Stay within historical borders to avoid instability.

 

I just started a new game about an hour ago and until now this is how I stand.
Every city has a monastery, library, barracks, and some of them also have a stable. I have 3 cities in Spain (Santiago, Madrid, and Barcelona), Venice and Rome.
I did not built any wonders yet, and my army is 2 heavy swordsman + 3 trebuchets + 1 lancer.
It is the year 1140 AD.

 

Barracks are not necessary: with Conquest civic you'll get +2 XP anyway.
(in the game i'm playing and posting, i built barracks in Madrid because catholicim self spread in Santiago and i saved time for a missionary, and i used those turns for barracks, but you can win without those extra XP).
Venice is out of your historical border, and it could be cause of instability.
In this version of DoC you'll get free buildings using settlers in Renaissance age.
For this reason my suggest is to build jails and not libaries that will come for free using settlers.
Follow tech path to firearms and try to trade more techs you can.

 

I built libraries because I need extra research to get Academia.

 

Looks exciting and informative! I had a game with Spain not too long ago which was a real close call to meet the goals on time. Looking forward to see how yours turns out and how you'll deal with the last victory condition.

 

Here we are, in another important step of the game: Academia!

Spoiler :

And new tech path to Geography and Colonialism. This is the last important tech.

Spoiler :

Beware: DO NOT RESEARCH Scientific Method, or you well not be allowed to train missionaries.
(And you need to spread catholicism, you know).

Time to change some civics: Theocracy for deny protestantism to spread and Caste System to speed up your workers.

Spoiler :

We are in war with France and England, so, to prevent Protestantism to spread in other countries, pay to convince them to adopt Theocracy.

Spoiler :

All these things in one turn!

 

And now it is time to go to war.
France first.
I apologize for no pictures of warfare: i was concentrate to strategy and i forgot to save screenshots.

However, the plan was to attack Bordeaux, hope in capitulation, force conversion of France.
Then settling Brest in order to have a city where to load army for landing in Britain.

I landed my army of 5 conquerors, 3 cannons and one sword, using 3 galleons.
Whole army landed 1E from Plymouth.
Galleon then resisted to two attacks and Plymouth fell next turn.

Because England accepted peace for converting (Edimburg was both catholic and protestant) i agreed to end the war.
I got my target: no protestant civs in europe.

Spoiler :

 

I can't believe you left Portugal untouched, its culture borders interfere a lot with Spain. I think its worth the stability penalty of razing their capital as soon as the initial Peace Treaty ends.

 

That would be very hard because of many reasons. First of all you need Cordoba and Italy more then you need Portugal so your army is probably too weak by now to conquer Portugal.
In DoC portugal also has an Iron resource so they are able to build Lancers, Portugal initially starts with Heavy spearman which are upgraded to Pikeman and Crossbowman. So to conquer Lisbon will be very hard because melee units will get killed by crossbows and lancers will get killed by pikeman.
The only way to conquer Lisbon is to built a bunch of Bombards and tercios or arquebusiers.

 

In my eperience playing with Spain, Portugal is totally unuseful to achive Spanish goals.
Portugal never declared war to me, never asked money or resource, and sometimes (like in the game i'm playing) it asks to be vassalized for free.
Santiago and Cordoba can grow without tiles of Portugal core, and almost often it remains Catholic after shism of reformation.
My strategy expects to do just what i need to achive my goals. In this way i ignore Portugal and i let it grow and spread Catholicism in Brazil.