Cherokee

Primary culture

Cherokee (Iroquoian)

Capital province

Cheraw (936)

Government

Native Council

State religion

Totemist

Technology group

North American

Cherokee ideas

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Traditions:

−10% Advisor cost

−15% Core-creation cost

Moundbuilders Legacy

−10% Construction cost

Massacre of the Ani-Kutani

−10% Stability cost modifier

Red Chiefs

+20% National manpower modifier

Cherokee Adaptability

−10% Idea cost

Ghigau

+10% Morale of armies

Mountainous Isolation

+10% Fort defense

Cherokee Emperor

+1 Diplomat

Ambition:

+10% Institution spread

In the mountain valleys of the Appalachians, the Aniyunwiya, or Cherokee, have settled over what were once the cities of the mound builder people. At last free of the tyrannical rule of the Ani-Kutani priest caste, the Cherokee, distant relatives of the Iroquoian people to the north, now seek to expand their power over the surrounding regions.

To the south, the Coosa chiefdom and its Creek people still hold considerable sway, and represent the major obstacle to the rising Cherokee power. To the north, the Shawnee and their Algonquian relatives are much weaker, and unless allied together, should present much less of a threat.

The Cherokee are a Native American migratory tribe that resides in Eastern North America, in the Northeast region. In 1444, it borders sedentary tribes Etowah to the west and Altamaha to the south, and migratory tribes Joara to the east and Cofitachequi to southeast. Cherokee is bordered by impassable mountains to the north. Its national ideas are geared towards turning the country into an efficient, innovative and militaristic power that can compete with western countries.

Missions[edit | edit source]

Main article: Cherokee missions

Events[edit | edit source]

Main article: Cherokee events

Strategy[edit | edit source]

The below is one of many player suggested strategies for Cherokee. Bear in mind, due to the dynamic nature of the game, it may unfold differently for other players.

Cherokee is one of better nations for world conquest for these reasons:

-15% Core-creation cost
Totemist religion, which may provide war exhaustion reduction and national unrest reduction.
Being close to Mexico, a region rich with gold
Being far away from big threats in Europe

Before horde[edit | edit source]

To reform as horde, you need military tech 6 and to pass the corresponding government reform. Military 6 requires monarch points. Reform progress can be made faster with buildings, which cost ducats. Both ducats and monarch points can be acquired from neighbors via wars.

It's also preferable to migrate all the way to Mexico to be able to invade it right after reforming. Claimed tribal lands will be settled after changing government type. If you don't get a border with Mexico, you will have to wait until getting colonists otherwise.

The roadmap looks like this:

Get **land tradition** and **seasonal travel** government reforms
Start migrating and claiming lands
Stop near Witchita and Lipan
Keep migrating south
Research military 6
Move to desired capital location and settle down

While doing this, you also want to do other things:

win many humiliation wars
graze in other tribes' tribal lands to increase tribal development
develop a federation to make wars easier

Wars[edit | edit source]

Always make sure to pick "humiliation" or "humiliate rival" casus belli until you finished claiming lands.

Always hire free company and fire it between wars.

Always try to stack-wipe at least one of your co-beligirient armies, which can be done by attacking with much bigger armies (at least 2 infantry regiments bigger)

Don't engage in siege races. Ocasionally AI will win them. If one of your allies' provinces is besieged, prioritise scaring those armies away.

Use the ruler as general. Don't waste army tradition on generals, unless you have more than 25. This is important, because being above 20 army tradition may trigger [an event replacing current chief with new one], which will generate new rulers with new traits, which can be added to your collection of totems giving your religion permanent effect until the end of the game.

Don't go to war unless you have superior or at least equal alliance.

Before each war consider whether you want to move into tribal lands of one of co-beligirients within the next 15 years. If the answer is "yes", do it before declaring war.

Sign separate peace deals with each co-beligirient first, taking their money, reparations and trade power. Then sign peace with war leader, taking "show strength" treaty and money. This should give 100 monarch points of each type per war.

Grazing[edit | edit source]

Every month migratory tribe sits on province with less than 100% devastation, it gets tribal development. Neutral or your tribal lands provide 0.02 tribal development, while lands of other tribes give 0.1 tribal development. So, ideally you should always graze in tribal lands of another nation.

Notable limitations:

You can't move into tribal lands of other nation during truce. Don't lock yourself in, plan in advance where you have to move.
Each step of migration outside your tribal lands adds +100% to migration cost. So don't move too often, and when you move, return to your lands first.

Federation[edit | edit source]

Normal difficulty[edit | edit source]

As you start the game, invite Tuscarora to federation. Then try to invite other Iroquan culture nations. Most of them will drop out, but while doing so, they will still provide some federation cohesion.

How to grow federation cohesion[edit | edit source]

Strength of federation member is determined only by national manpower limit. If any member has national manpower limit bigger or equal to federation leader, cohesion will go down. These are the ways to increase manpower limit reliably as a tribe:

hire Master recruiter advisor
build Great Trail
enact increased enlistment edict through production interface (hotkeys: b 9 s)

It's worth getting loans to build Great Trail in the beginning of the game. By the time you finish first war or two you will almost have the first federation reform.

Which reforms to pick[edit | edit source]

The most important reform is united warbands. It lets you call other federation members into offensive wars whether they want it or not. Joint grain depots is ok.

Hard and very hard difficulty[edit | edit source]

Don't bother trying to start a federation on hard and very hard difficulties. Other nations will always have higher manpower limits. Instead, get two allies locally in the beginning of the game and join a federation 40-50 years later.

Migrating[edit | edit source]

Start migrating only after picking land tradition and seasonal travel government reforms. Ideally, your stability should also be at -2 or -3. Move to Cusabo and claim it - it will revoke ownership of your old tribal lands, but also reset the price for claiming new lands. There will not be enough monarch points to move all the way to Mexico, but you might get new neighbors, and therefore new targets for wars and places to graze tribal development.

Getting more rulers[edit | edit source]

Each former ruler can be turned into totem. Therefore, it's good to change rulers frequently, even if current chief is good.

There is an event that generates 2 new ruler whenever nation is at war and has 20 army tradition. Another good way to shorten chief's life is always keeping them as military leader on siege, fighting or drilling.

First idea[edit | edit source]

Native idea group is good, because it can speed up reform progress, make spawning institutions cheaper, provide building discounts and make upcoming wars with europeans easier.

Choosing a province to settle down[edit | edit source]

Chahta (920), Mabila (2532), Coweta (925) and Kasihta (930) are farmlands, greatly reducing required development to spawn institutions. Also, they are flat and easier to defend as a horde. Choose these provinces if you don't have borders with europeans yet.

Zacatecas (856) has high chance to spawn gold and a great project which increases its production. Also, Mexico trade node at this point is richer and easier to control than Missisipi or Cheasepeake Bay. Choose Zacatecas if europeans started colonizing nearby already; develop feudalism there, then take colonies after institutions spread to them, and then buff them to make them be a higher percentage of your total development. The province is terra incognita in the beginning of the game. You might have to try to improve relationships with local tribes to convince them to share maps. You don't need to own the province to settle down in it, just move in and pass the reform. Note that developing gold provinces above 10 production provides diminishing returns.

Chitimacha (893) isn't good. Even after upgrading it to world port, it still has +15% development cost, and it is surrounded by other provinces with high development cost. But it can be good to develop as auxiliary province for sailors and navy tradition.

After reforming as horde[edit | edit source]

Developing capital[edit | edit source]

First, you need to develop your capital to spawn at least Feudalism. If you don't develop Feudalism, rapid collapse of society will happen. Make sure to minimize the cost of developing by doing these things:

Pass "encourage development" edict
Complete the 'Develop Capital' mission
Don't state anything until you embrace Renaissance
[Optional] after reaching 30 development, start golden age (or don't. You might save much more admin points during age of Absolutism)

Idea choices[edit | edit source]

Native ideas provide a lot of useful stuff: development cost reduction, passive attrition to enemies, army morale, province war score reduction, etc.. They also provide good edicts. They are pickable only as native tribe and should therefore be picked first.

Administrative ideas are necessary for core reduction cost.

Religious ideas is slightly better than Humanist ideas because they synergize well with Totemist religion and Indigenous ideas. Religious-Indigenous policy provides an extra missionary.

Quantity ideas are more useful on very hard difficulty than on normal. Size of an army is one of deciding factors which can discourage other nation from invading you. On normal, you can match combined force limit of Spain, Portugal and Britain just by having a lot of land and regimental camps before 1600; getting even more seems like an overkill and may make getting army professionalism more difficult. On very hard difficulty it is necessary if you want to prevent regular invasions, or to have extra troops to do some parallel conquering while at war with europeans.

Offensive ideas can speed up sieges greatly.

Horde government ideas are more useful for normal difficulty than on harder ones. Each level of military tech reduces amount of monarch points acquired from razing; and this idea group is a way to spend military points on something that benefits your empire economically. Horde-economic policy can increase razing power, while horde-religious may reduce separatism. As for very hard difficulty, it's more important to

Economic ideas further reduce development cost, offset inflation produced by gold and provide other useful bonuses.

Trade ideas themselves aren't that useful, because two merchants are enough for trade manipulation in New World. However, trade-quantity policy increases production efficiency by 20%, which affects gold production as well.

Maritime ideas could be interesting, because Cherokee can field 30-60 heavy ships by 1560, which can be used to outright eliminate Spanish and British fleets. Then those ships can be used to blockade their home ports to either finish the war quickly or to get more blockade income. Later same ships can be used for trade wars with remote countries, such as Venice.

Influence ideas aren't useful until late game because most of your vassals will have less development after razing.

Exploration ideas and Expansion ideas are impractical, unlike direct conquest colonization doesn't allow razing.

The rest of ideas are situational.

Wars as horde[edit | edit source]

Make small nations you don't plan to invade tributaries before going to war.

Conquer provinces strategically to make new neighbors and set up future conquests.

Raze development in all conquered provinces except ones with gold and trade modifiers.

It's often a very good idea to sell captured provinces back to owners or other nations. Some tribes happily pay 200-300 ducats for 1-1-1 province that turns into tribal land immediately. If you don't know whether to annex a nation or leave them with one provinces and try to sell them provinces for the remaining money in their treasury, check how much money they have in ledger.

Tributaries[edit | edit source]

Tributaries are important because they don't generate aggressive expansion with their overlord and provide some utility.

Most of New World nations have little income, so the best tribute type is manpower. It's still worth demanding extra tribute whenever they have less than 20% liberty desire. Don't push their liberty desire above 45%, because above 50% they may stop sending tribute.

Invading Mexico[edit | edit source]

Do normal thing horde does, but in Mexico.

Try not to core anything until picking administrative idea 2 (-25% Core-creation cost)

It might be a good idea to vassalize Aztec and diplomatically annex them later, because Tenochtitlan makes development of their capital easier, making it a good spot to spawn Colonialism or Printing Press later. Same goes to any Mayan minors if they already started building their great projects.

Central America is a region mostly covered with jungle and hills, which makes it an unfavorable territory to fight as horde. However, this should not be a problem, because at this point mesoamerican nations should be behind in tech. If some of them are running big stacks or have good generals, let them come into flat provinces and engage them there.

To avoid fighting Europeans in this region in the future, occupy it like this:

Annex provinces Tehuantepec (2649) and Mixe (2631)
Annex anything you want north and west to them
Build a fort in Mixe. Mixe is plains province, which gives +25% damage bonus for horde. Tehuantepec is jungle province, and it can be occupied without taking a fort, but it is the only province that can be occupied. Keep the fort mothballed by default, turn it on and park an army behind it when you see a hostile army advancing through your vassal's lands.
Create a vassal in Yucatan. Turn on scutage for them. Don't core anything, keep only provinces needed for having casus belli. Annex every province and region, raze and give it to them. Ideally the vassal should be Itza, because their primary culture is Putun, which is required to build great project Tikal. Developing Tikal to magnificent level and promoting Putun culture will be beneficial in the future because Tikal provides -2 national unrest.

Don't annex the vassal until the age of Absolutism or until you have bigger army and heavy ship count than the largest colonizing nation.

Trade[edit | edit source]

It is difficult to trade efficiently in New World because North American and South American regions are connected through Caribean node, which will be dominated by Europeans. So you'll probably have to collect trade in Mexico and Missisipi or Cheasepeake Bay.

Therefore, invading Caribeans and eventually moving the main trade port there should be a priority. To do it, you can either send a colonist to Cuba, or, if everything is already colonized, demand at least one province as concession.

Navy[edit | edit source]

Doctrine: ship boarding. Not only it will save you more money on capturing ships

Build light ships and send them to privateer in Caribeans. Build impressment offices and a shipyard at least in one province and build heavy ships there. Try to get at least 10 heavy ships, then build more until you have bigger fleet than every colonizing nation. Europeans will have bigger fleet, but they rarely send more than 10 heavy ships to escort transports to Americas, and having a bigger fleet will be necessary to invade them back.

Keep heavy ships mothballed whenever you are not at war with Europeans.

Flagship design: light ship with Spare Jolly Roger and Trade Route Maps

Whenever at war with weaker nation, use double their fleet size for blockade to maximize the chance of capturing ships while the rest of your fleet.

During your first or second war with Portugal try to get Madeira (368), ideally even more islands. Madeira has no forts, so you don't have to occupy it to demand it in peace deal. This island will provide intel about advancing fleets in future wars and after coring you can use it to privateer in Sevilla node.

After getting diplomatic tech 12 build naval batteries wherever hostile fleets are likely to appear.

Dealing with pirate republics[edit | edit source]

If a pirate republic breaks off you or one of your neighbors, it might be beneficial to either ally it or annex immediately.

Allying it will make sure your provinces will not be raided, while hurting the economy of local colonial nations. Also, vassalising and annexing a pirate republic will transfer 400-800 ducats worth of ships to you.

Colonization[edit | edit source]

As New World nation, you can get a colonist from a mission. It requires conquering all provinces in home region.

Hordes have alternative uses for colonists.

Start a colony next to smaller nation and make it a tributary
Start a colony next to colonial nation, get "tribal conquest" casus belli and invade it
Seize a hostile colony and send a colonist there to change its culture and religion

Colonial nations don't call overlords in wars against natives in colonial regions. You can annex huge parts of colonial nations such as United States or Cuba with almost no consequences unless their overlords declare war first.

Mesa Verde[edit | edit source]

Mesa Verde is a great project located in Tachii'nii (875). It provides technology and idea discounts. Getting it might require 2-3 consecutive wars with tribes.

Beloved woman[edit | edit source]

This mission gives advisor cost discount and morale boost until the end of the game.

The easiest way to complete it is to wait for Two of a Kind event.

When it is triggered, select the first option and hire the new advisor.

Sunset invasion[edit | edit source]

Most of the game most of Europe lies outside your coring range. It's good to set up invasion of europe by annexing a few islands during invasions by europeans (such as Madeira or Mann)

Starting situation[edit | edit source]

The Cherokee share a border with the powerful Creek to the south. To the north and west reside three other major tribes: the Chickasaw, the Shawnee, and the Choctaw. To the east lie many empty coastal provinces that will make great colonies in the future, but for now the Cherokee must focus on dealing with immediate threats and improving the economy before they can support a colony.

Of all the tribes in the southeast, the Cherokee and the Creek are the most powerful, so naturally the Creek will almost always declare rivalry at the start of the game. The Choctaw will likely be friendly and will accept an alliance. The Chickasaw are also possible allies but they are more likely to take a neutral attitude and often ally with the Creek. The Shawnee and the various minor tribes will be unlikely to interfere or be interested in diplomacy in the early years of the game. The destruction or vassalization of the Creek should be the first priority.

The Cherokee only begin with 15 development, so they earn on average a ducat every month, far too little to support colonies, large armies, or multiple advisors. There are only enough ducats in the starting treasury to build a single native building and recruit some troops, so anything beyond that will require patience and loans, and the Cherokee will need plenty of both to survive. Thankfully, the Cherokee have a fairly straightforward path to jumpstarting their future economy: conquering the Creek will double the country's starting development.

As primitive members of the North American tech group, the Cherokee start with level 1 technology and a 50% increase to technology costs from not having any institutions. Worse, they cannot adopt any until they have reformed their government. They also cannot fabricate claims, can only colonize adjacent provinces, cannot build boats, have reduced gold income along with increased development costs, and are vulnerable to colonial conquests. Although that list is long, the region's lack of gold and the Cherokee's distance from the coast renders many of the penalties inert.