Jianzhou Opening Moves

They have the highest development out of the three tribes



They have the largest starting military



They have the only fort of the three tribes



They are in the best position to prevent Korea from expanding

do not do this

We will begin as Jianzhou. The reasons for this are simple:The reason is that we want the mission offered at game start "Unite the Jurchen Tribes". When you pick rivals, the game changes your missions and often deletes the mission. If this is the case, restart the run. We need the free claims on Girin and Hinggan, both capitals we need to core to form Manchu and get free cores on the rest. We can do this without raising autonomy if we're fast enough.That said, the opening moves are fairly typical for any start. Mothball your navy, place a merchant in the Girin trade node, and mothball your fort permanently.Once you take the mission and pick your rivals (these don't matter, but I would pick Korchin last if you can rival the other two tribes and Korea), you have a decision to make. A Manchu run is all about staying afloat financially and being as efficient as possible. It is possible to form Manchu without going into debt whatsoever, surprisingly enough. The decision I refer to is whether you raise five banners now, or utilize the tribes estate for five calvary units and a 20 tradition general. You begin with 10 infantry and 3 cavalry. Using the tribes estate will put your influence at 79%, so for some, that is too risky. Regardless of which route you take to recruit to force limit, always support tribes with some ducats. This gives you -20% cavalry cost and 20% manpower recovery speed.We're going to make our ruler a general, because he's terrible in comparison to our heir. Pickthe best general out of the two, or your ruler. This is important for your Haixi battle, because if you take too many casualties, Korea will declare on you. Quickly.Start fabricating on Buryatia, Korea, and keep the last diplomat ready for Ming in January. If desired, you can improve relations for the two ticks. We're going to claim Buryatia's territory, or at least their gold mine, all provinces we can in Korea, and become a Ming tributary in January after the tribute is paid. This lets us avoid paying in the beginning. Korchin sometimes asks for an alliance, I usually let the offer expire so they don't ally anyone else.As a side note, we claim on Buryatia's gold mine so that when we core it, it starts at reduced autonomy. We also want to become a tributary so Ming doesn't declare or give us a warning, which would end our run.Come January, we declare on Haixi. Use Tribal Conquest on them and this is basically the first check. If you kill them fast enough, you'll stackwipe and be set to carpet siege. If you don't, but win, you can stackwipe in their topleft province. As mentioned if you take too many casualties, you'll get a nice declaration of war by Korea soon.Another important note, do not sit your troops on future land you will be owning! This raises devastation (moreso than you already would have from occupying) and looting the province. Looting is great for Ming, but not so much for your Manchu culture and free cores.At this point, you're just waiting for the siege of Girin. You can either wait for it to finish to bring your 3000 troops with your main army, or you can declare on Yeren now and get a head start. Yeren, for some reason has a pathetic army almost every time. I'm talking about 4-6k troops max. The most common scenario is this, with them being defeated in battle once and fleeing to Sakhalin (their island). You won't win the naval battle so don't bother with that. Carpet siege everything else, keeping in mind that they are mostly mountains.So let's talk peace treaties. For Girin, you want all of their land and the max ducats they'll allow, at 44. Unfortunately we cannot take all of their ducats. Start coring Girin and nothing else.For Yeren, we want to complete an objective, so let's choose Hinggan, Humilate, and some clay. I recommend taking all coastline except their capital, to include Sakhalin. This gives us an important area we'll utilize soon. Take Hinggan, their coastline, and a humilation. You can choose to get 59 more ducats or another province. The decision is yours. Start coring Hinggan (thankfully it is much cheaper) and depending on the RNG gods, you may or may not get a rebellion of Haixi separatists.Once the two provinces are cored, form Manchu.Now that you have a nice map color and two enemies in Korchin and Korea, it is time to attack our first razing target- Korchin. Depending on your speed, you should be prior to 1450 at this point. Depending on how you chain your wars or simultaneously start them will affect what year it is. In the run I started for this guide, it is mid 1447 with some chasing of Yeren's troops:We are going to conquer Korchin outright and raze everything. As Manchu, the Buryat culture is barely present and worth razing, if possible. Time your conquest of Korchin and peace deal to coincide when Hinggan and Girin are finished coring so you can instantly form Manchu and drop your now 100%+ overextension to the low 40s. It is all but guaranteed, however, that you will get rebels since the southern half of Korchin belong to a different religion group. This is not as bad as it seems since they are all on flat ground, our best land for combat.Annexation of Korchin aside, depending on how events unravel in your area, we want to absolutely siege down Onan Gol, Korchin's border province with Buryatia. This is for our future claims there.Your times will vary, but now we're going to attack Buryatia, which we can full annex thanks to razing Korchin's lands. We are not razing the gold mine here, since it is the only one for a long time. Depending on your spy network success, you can either fabricate on just the gold province, or that and other provinces.Now that we've conquered Korchin, another point that bears mentioning. An age objective in the Age of Reformation is to convert 10 provinces. Combining positive stability with the state edict and advisor, you can get a head start on this now. It is a money sink, however, so you may not wish to do this.Another note to elaborate on is the decisions for your nation. The relevant ones require Admin 3 on our ruler, and a stability of 1. We begin with a 2/1/3 and you may have noticed a 3/3/4 as our heir. Making our ruler a general is one way of removing him early. We want him to abdicate as soon as possible though, which happens in 1453, 20 years after his rule began. If he does not die before that, abdication and restoring stability back to +1 will enable you to take these decisions. Alternatively, you could boost it early and take one or two of them, and then raise it back up after your ruler dies.Our neighbors, save for Korea and Oirat, have been crushed. Notice the mothballed fort in Korea. The AI typically does this, but not constantly after a set period. Thanks to razing, I am able to tech up to Military Tech 4, instrumental in our war with Korea, who starts with a godly king and will outtech us. I am waiting, however, for them to take it so that we can get a -5% discount. This is up to you and if you are planning to war with Oirat, as I am, then you obviously want to tech up.Once your Korchin rebels are dealt with, seize the chance to take this mountain fort immediately and the rest of Korea will be flat land. In the beginning I used the tribal action to get 5 cavalry, and have now recruited banners to my force limit, who are still all cavalry unfortunately.