You are getting there... A WC is really one long and tedious chore... But you are getting there. ;)

It’s fascinating how your “The Sun Never Sets” Spain run has morphed into something more akin to a global chess match, especially now that you’re pushing through an unexpected “backdoor to the north.” This phase of a near-World Conquest (WC) often reveals that old adage: controlling the high seas is only half the equation; the real trick is how you pivot maritime supremacy into inland footholds, forging a path behind your enemies’ defensive lines. A few deeper insights: Maritime Dominance Becomes Strategic Leverage In earlier expansions, Spain’s oceanic power might simply secure trade routes or colonial possessions. But come late-game, your fleets become stepping stones to create unconventional invasion routes. That “backdoor to the north” implies an amphibious leap that catches entrenched powers off-guard. Once that landing is established, the rest of your hegemonic ambitions fall into place with minimal friction. The Fluidity of Frontiers Earlier in a campaign, traditional land borders and alliances often drive your expansion path. But by the time you’re focusing on a full-blown WC, those typical “choke points” or “hard walls” can be circumvented. Landing an army behind an enemy’s lines, forcing them to reorient or split their forces, can unravel entire alliance networks. The strategic emphasis shifts from direct siege warfare to psychological disruption-making your adversaries unsure where you’ll strike next. Late-Game Administration Puzzle Pushing this deeply into a WC intensifies the administrative overhead: overextension, rebellion risk, and the swirl of global unrest. Deploying your armies via the “backdoor route” can reduce the slog of coring massive new territories all at once-if you sequentially absorb them from different theaters. Think of it as a large-scale “divide and conquer,” but for admin points and autonomy management. You’re essentially pacing your conquests to avoid an explosive meltdown at home. The Interplay of Religion, Culture, and Vassal Management By this stage, realms often face religious or cultural friction. The cunning infiltration from the north might let you isolate certain high-value provinces or vassals in a region that’s culturally cohesive (or less rebellious). A small, targeted “beachhead” in hostile territory can eventually become a stable base if you effectively manage cultural conversion or deploy client states. The result is you’re not just conquering more land; you’re distributing local governance so your empire doesn’t buckle under unrelenting revolt cycles. Meta-Layer: The Psychological Impact Even in AI-driven gameplay, the unexpected strike from the north breaks up enemy coalition logic. It might cause defensive lines to collapse because allied AI doesn’t regroup quickly enough if they expect you from the southern front. The AI might even attempt to guard irrelevantly far borders, leaving your actual incursion path minimally defended. For a player controlling Spain, harnessing that confusion can buy precious time to siege strategic forts or encircle major armies. Why It Matters in the Endgame When you’re nearing a world conquest, each new front demands more subtle resource allocation and timing. A single misstep-like committing too many forces to a slow land war-can sap momentum, especially if war exhaustion skyrockets or manpower dips. Leveraging a maritime “backdoor” can accelerate expansions in areas you’d otherwise ignore until last. It prevents the final arcs of a campaign from devolving into mindless map-painting. Instead, you’re orchestrating a grand opera of strategic amphibious assaults, coalition management, and administrative finesse-all culminating in that final, hard-earned global empire. So, “Backdoor to the North” does more than open new conquest opportunities: it reaffirms that even in the late game, cunning strategic nuance can triumph over brute force. For an empire where “the sun never sets,” it’s yet another stroke of brilliance-spreading Spanish might from distant seas to the far-flung corners of the map. Enjoy the final push!

Be fast to conquer before time runs out.

Viva🇪🇦

U should clear 1 religion and culture at a time ... Europe u just get pu with some nations and kill the rest (u can truce break all u want if u're powerfull enough, diplomacy ideas make it even cheeper) ... After that u just go on and focus on 1 power at a time ... u need several wars to take down major powers, so u just break them and truce break them again and again till they are gone ... u take provinces with forts first so that the next wars go faster ... U have a button to auto siege ... Your war score cost is different of ur puppets or other nations war score ... ur diplomacy ideas, the malta monoment, as well as high absolutism, the system os councels and other stuff makes cheeper to take land directly than to give it to other nations ... Also love playing spain, but u should focus more ... high intensity war in one region at a time ... after that u just let some armys behing to supress rebels ... that way u always only fight 1 front at a time with ur and ur vassals full power ... Sorry for the english ... good game though :)

This game is racist! There are no nigers and hos here

yeap kong and timbuktu in the war but you need conquestedar for the terra invognita its bad.

portugal defenseless and no troops on the main land why you peace out occupy everything and then ask for some province cause you need for seville trade power shara. do not easily gave them up peace deal.

no explorers or conquestedar for you do not choose explorer idea _ ? i have starter pack which comes with art of war common sense and rights of men and i dont have explore mission on trade ship.... you just get so easy on war allies with france just taking money not enough.

just boost your cheap and plain city for land force limit and crown land and for manpower you do not boost your city and dont show your trade merchand i watched all the series.

this moroc threaty comes with 60 percent agressive expansion this is bad .

where is your merchands mate and you need to build some church for tax and some marketplace for trade power and protect the trade with lots of barque.

Ottomans still exist 0/10

Question, when I get the pop up to colonize in game. It is blank. It doesn’t let me click on it to colonize. Does anyone know why?

Keep it up man, I love your content!

cool gameplay, good mod tho still waiting for new Battle Brothers Legends since the basic game boring af

Nice find keep it up bro

your voice reminds me of chris chan

Playlist is backwards it starts at 45 and ends at 01 (there's also 46 at the bottom).

Nice vid man, subbed.

i give you luck with the game

Yessss, the best empire of all time!!!!

Austria is a great country to play for learning wc also. With the amount of PUs + revoke you can have all of Europe in the 1500s. I really recommend it

Was hoping for stuff pertaining to invictus.

Thank you, I really appreciated all of your guides. Helped a lot with getting me back into the game!

does anyone know why i have to wait 5-10 minutes every day for steam updates, and nothing on my computer works while its updating, when i only have 3 games? is there a way to stop the constant updates? if i press cancel during the update, it basically ruins steam and it wont play my games at all..

slow

- Out of the provinces you took from France, I would release Gascony! That's a very good vassals with many claims for reconquest for your next war. You can also convert them into a march and keep them for a hundred years. - Try to enact the two nobility privileges 'Strong Duchies' and 'Noble integration policy?' asap and before integrating Navarra or Tlemcen. It will be cheaper and it will negate the -3 diplo rep you get after and integration. **I cannot stress enough how mandatory that is** - You need to be more careful about your manpower. Especially while sieging. On a level 1 fort, leave only 4 regiments. On a level 3, leave 10. Try to surround the fort and leave the bigger army around to protect the siege. Will save manpower. - Dont transfer occupation of provinces to your vassals before peacing out. Rather take them and give them after the war to the vassals (using the diplomatic tab), diplo ideas give you -20% to their warscore cost. Your vassal don't have that reduction. So it's cheaper to take them for yourself first. - You can have Aragon fabricate a claim on Genoa by setting your diplomatic attitude to hostile towards genoa and marking the desired provinces in red. Let me know if you have trouble with that.

- I think you should try peacing out tags faster. Like here, I would have peaced out Milan for war reps, money and break alliance with France the moment the capital fell... (You could not take anything else anyway) - Always take war reparations if you can. 10% of their income for 10 years is really good. - If you Right Click on the country, you can see the number of their regiments active.

- When you get an event with a reward of prestige, and you see your gonna bust the max 100, dump some by placating your subjects beforehand. -20 prestige, -10% liberty desire. - I would use my upcoming colony in Arguin to fabricate on Wolof and start conquering west Africa. - Set your vassals attitude in the diplomatic tab. You can tell burgundy to stay home. - Think you can also disable the 'province legitimized' and 'conversion completed' notification pop ups...

- In your diplomatic tab, you can indicated to your vassal the attitude to adopt. Like Burgundy, to stay home.. - Reseting the truce with Tunis was the good call. Cycling truces like that is a key component in a WC. - I think you can start colonizing now, perhaps next to Djolof in Africa? - Scornful insult for power projection have a cooldown (I would scornful insult those you won't ally anyway..)

- You **really** want to revoke that 'control over monetary policy' privilege. +5% all power cost, that's really bad. Inflation can be fought of with other means. - I suggest you use more often the trade policy in the nodes where you have a merchant. You can change it, according to your needs. +15% improve relations, +25% spy network (Like against morroco, in Safi) , +10% siege ability, etc... It's very good. - I suggest you ally either Venice, or Austria, and start attacking Ottomans slowly. Even if you don't commit much to the war, and don't take anything from them, it will weaken and cripple them. It's important to prevent the major powers to grow too much. - If you want to find a particular province (Agadir), you can press 'f' and seek the province that way. - One way to reduce for free the liberty desire of a subject (Tlemcen) is to transfer the occupation of forts to him in the wars. He'll pay for them, take loans etc. And you just have to pay these loan for him. It will make him super happy. - Don't hesitate to seize land, even if the loyalty of an estate is lower than 50. Sure it will spawn some rebels, but so few and weak that it doesn't really matter. - I hope you will use that sweet +10% morale of armies you got from your mission to fight France. Perfect time. + tip: If you fight them while your at war with the crusade war target (Morroco or Tunis), you'll have an extra +10%

- In your religious tab, you can select the 'include subjects' button in the bottom left. That will allow you to convert tour vassal province. Since they accept the local culture, it's often way faster to convert them. - Now that you have a colonist, you can enact a privilege for the burgers, allowing you to recruit an explorer for free every 10 years. It's very good. - Fix your power projection! :) It must always be over 50 if you can. Gives you an extra monarch power of each every month. You can easily fix it by **scornfully** insult a rival. And other harder means. - You **don't** want to build market in non trade centers provinces or for no reasons. Big big no no... As said, you want to take the two centers of trade from portugal. And in the next war, PU them. You will dominate the sevilla node that way. - Trade Compagnies... Will need a tuto of it's own. But provinces like Djerba and East Tripoli, you don't want to make them states, but rather but them in a trade compagnie. Double the trade power, and gives you an extra free merchant. - The next time you have a message an enemy spy network have been discovered, you can deactivate the message in the setting at the bottom. It's a waste of time receiving these. - You can focus your monarch power category in which you need the most. Here, I would focus diplo...

Seems that your run is going well. - I wouldn't take techs in advance, unless I need it. Otherwise, it's a lot of points wasted that should go into deving the country. - When you have an event (like the one leading to the war with Austria), you have several months before the event trigger itself. You can put the pop-up window in a corner of your screen and delay that way. After a certain amount of time, the **first** option will be automatically taken. So you have to remember it of course if you want to click the 2nd. But it may allow you a moment to prepare.

I love Spain runs. One of my favorite country to play. I think you could benefit from being more aggressive though. Allow me some advices? 1 - Use your diplomats! Always have your diplomat do something. Improve relations. Spy network. Curry favors. Always. 2 - Ally the pope and maintain 200 relations with him. As a catholic, the more relations, the more papal influence. 3 - Fill your idea groups. They are the priority. Whenever your started an Idea, (here diplo), I would not put a single point anywhere else until it's filled up. Even if that puts me 3 techs behind. 4 - Don't build churches before enacting the privilege 'Sanctuaries of the church?' from the clergy. It gives you +3 papal influence every time your build a church. It's worth having and taking advantage of. 5 - I would go Diplomatic into Expansion. CCR from Administrative is good but it will take you some time before being able to take advantage of it. Expansion will help you now, a lot. 6 - Take the 'Nobility Officer Rights' for the nobility (if the influence don't cause issue), you can take a free general every 10 years. It's very good. 7 - Take the 2 centers of trade from Portugal before PUing it. Attack him and take them. 8 - I would try asap to get another vassal to enact the 'Strong duchies' privilege from the nobility. +2 diplo relations and -10% liberty desire from subject is very good.

hey, does anyone know how to become Christian as Japan? I got the event to open up to Christianity and converted my leader to Christianity. Wiki says something about my capital converting to Christianity, but mine didnt. Is it because I took the mandate of Heaven? Can i not become Christian with the mandate? if so, how do i get rid of the mandate? i hadnt planned taking the mandate but Dai Viet & Ayuttaya were huge and there was a mission to subjugate if i took mandate.. only i realised after its a tributary subjugation and not a vassalize subjugation so i took the mandate for no reason it seems. Is there a console command to remove mandate of heaven or some other way to do it? my original plan was to convert to Christianity & then ally electors and to try to become hre emperor as japan.. not even sure its possible. i might have buggered the whole thing though... im not doing it for achievements so dont mind using console command to remove mandate... advice? thanks

it's pronounced "roh-may". at least it might as well be if you butcher all the other words :D

That was a pretty different video of a person first time playing the mod than I expected it to be, which is nice of you to pick a nation that is kinda removed from all the main conflicts to see how the world works! Right off the bat I can say that while your magical research looked underwhelming it was mostly due to the fact that you have a generic research tree, all the other races like ponies or griffons have their own unique flavors of magical research, giving you unqiue bonuses or even special divisions only aviable to them.

why didn´t you put an relic into your holy sites? genuine question. can they have an effect in the store, too?

why giving one ship and admiral and another ship another admiral? why not go for the high income trade routes?

Loved the long form gameplay! I love Colonization but I'm terrible at it haha!

It was really strange for me to see Armenia does not have a dedicated mission tree, given the faction is important and the mod has dedicated significant attention to it (even changing the initial set-up)? I mean, so many tiny states in Asia have dedicated mission trees, but Armenia doesn't lol.

Thanks for the guide! I am a returning player and I am going to give this mod a shot. But what a bit underwhelming for me is that the UI including all the icon and visuals are only roman style. it does not let you fully integrate into the process when you have romansl style UI while playing an arabic faction

this was too easy and too long in my opinon

press y

First computer game I ever had, along with Warcraft 1! What a nostalgia trip!

wait i though psychic rain made your colonists age really fast what 😭😭😭 one of my colonists turned 50 from 30 in like 10 days

the legion units would not heal because you didn't have iron.

You should remember to use your legion charges up to cut down woods or chop dear tiles up to help build your builders quicker to develop quicker

Haven’t watched to the end yet but I think you are forgetting about the legion chop charge. Use it to chop a feature (woods/marsh) for production or growth. Get those builders out quick and grow cities for loyalty pressure. I would assume the fort is pretty crap if you manage units well.