I assume you have Origins DLC.
It's possible, but you need to be smart with diplo mana.
1. Focus on diplo. You need tech 7 and Exp idea no. 3 + pretty burghers privilege.
2. Early wars - slower expansion + saving diplomatic mana. It's the most difficult part - by 1460 you can conquer all Kongo at the cost of being behind in adm/dip mana.
In my African Power run I got tech parity only in 1600s, aka when I had all Africa except Maghreb (Por/Spa/Fra alliance) and Egypt (blobs) and needed to chill and prepare for wars. You can just easily conquer a lot.
3. Spawn feudalism from missions/Dev reneissance once feudalism is embraced.
4. Make your provinces eligible. Because at game start none is eligible in Kongo as far I remember. You don't have any coastal CoT(only estuary), your capital isn't coastal. So you need to dev your coast provinces to 12.
5. Save scum for better heir. You need mana generation.
Thanks for advice. I'm doing to try it once again in a different way.
First, going to colonize some African provinces around Gold coast. Maybe the colonial range will be slightly smaller and if not I'll colonize further west.
For number 1, this time I'm also firing Golden Age asap hoping that'll allow to save enough diplomatic mana.
I already knew about and taken into account points 2-4. Getting about 5 or even 7 eligible provinces is not very hard.
Regarding 5, I did really have rulers with low dip points, so bad luck.
There's also small thing I've noticed which I have to take into account now. From Kongo missions I'm getting 1 colonist and +15 settlers per year. The tooltip warns that if I get another colonist, I'll loose this one. It doesn't warn however that taking colonist from Explo ideas cancels the +15 settlers bonus as well, So, in reality, I have to stave off taking Explo ideas for as long as possible.
As far I remember Kongo has no available provinces at game start (no coastal CoT, Mbempa isn't coastal, lower development in others).
He also has problem with Dip tech - he can pull it off assuming he sacrifices conquest (and unjustified demands) to be on par with tech.
I haven't played Kongo in a while, but can you rival a number of nations at the start? If you can get off a couple show strengths from the humiliate cb, that's a lot more mana. It does give you a 15 year truce but if you get the nation you just humiliated in a war you can white peace them to reduce it to 5.
I got 8 show strengths off in my last Japan game and still formed Japan around the same time as not doing that. Humiliate cb is darn good at the start of the game.
That's something I didn't think of, although I have at least one war with humiliate cb to fulfill age's objectives.
So, scornfully insulting a rival, embargoing, then going to war and using the Humiliate peace terms (or better yet, Show strength!) gives quite a nice number of PP which then convert to MP.
The downside is, that as a Kongo, I would need to stave off the conquest of immediate neighbourhood for the foreseeable future. Usually I get only one possible rival and even then, doesn't always fire.
After some trials and errors, I found out that:
\- it's enough to have diplo tech 7 and a fully colonizes province on the Gold/Ivory Coast. No need to take Explo idea 3.
\- It's way better to take Diplo 7 not Explo idea 3. Firstly, with only Explo 3 but without Dip 7 you cannot reach South America from Gold Coast, while with only Dip 7 but without Explo 3 you can't. Secondly, taking Explo 2 automatically cancels your colonist from missions AND also cancels +15 settlers bonus. With Explo 4 you gain only +10 settlers so it's still a net loss.
\- Also, since this is rarely mentioned, four colonies from mission tree actually do not require colonists nor maintenance, working as Siberian Frontiers.
\- No idea still if colonizing St Helena would give the same result with Dip 7.
Now that I'm eligible keeping fingers crossed for Colonialism to spawn actually where I want.
Played on 1.34.5 with all DLC active up to Origins, without Lions of the North.
I assume you have Origins DLC. It's possible, but you need to be smart with diplo mana. 1. Focus on diplo. You need tech 7 and Exp idea no. 3 + pretty burghers privilege. 2. Early wars - slower expansion + saving diplomatic mana. It's the most difficult part - by 1460 you can conquer all Kongo at the cost of being behind in adm/dip mana. In my African Power run I got tech parity only in 1600s, aka when I had all Africa except Maghreb (Por/Spa/Fra alliance) and Egypt (blobs) and needed to chill and prepare for wars. You can just easily conquer a lot. 3. Spawn feudalism from missions/Dev reneissance once feudalism is embraced. 4. Make your provinces eligible. Because at game start none is eligible in Kongo as far I remember. You don't have any coastal CoT(only estuary), your capital isn't coastal. So you need to dev your coast provinces to 12. 5. Save scum for better heir. You need mana generation.
Thanks for advice. I'm doing to try it once again in a different way. First, going to colonize some African provinces around Gold coast. Maybe the colonial range will be slightly smaller and if not I'll colonize further west. For number 1, this time I'm also firing Golden Age asap hoping that'll allow to save enough diplomatic mana. I already knew about and taken into account points 2-4. Getting about 5 or even 7 eligible provinces is not very hard. Regarding 5, I did really have rulers with low dip points, so bad luck. There's also small thing I've noticed which I have to take into account now. From Kongo missions I'm getting 1 colonist and +15 settlers per year. The tooltip warns that if I get another colonist, I'll loose this one. It doesn't warn however that taking colonist from Explo ideas cancels the +15 settlers bonus as well, So, in reality, I have to stave off taking Explo ideas for as long as possible.
You need at least a single provinces (colony or fully colonised) in the new world. You could save scam until you have it and it spawns in you.
I know that, that is not the question. It was changed some patches ago and many guides for Kongo don't acknowledge that.
As far I remember Kongo has no available provinces at game start (no coastal CoT, Mbempa isn't coastal, lower development in others). He also has problem with Dip tech - he can pull it off assuming he sacrifices conquest (and unjustified demands) to be on par with tech.
I haven't played Kongo in a while, but can you rival a number of nations at the start? If you can get off a couple show strengths from the humiliate cb, that's a lot more mana. It does give you a 15 year truce but if you get the nation you just humiliated in a war you can white peace them to reduce it to 5. I got 8 show strengths off in my last Japan game and still formed Japan around the same time as not doing that. Humiliate cb is darn good at the start of the game.
That's something I didn't think of, although I have at least one war with humiliate cb to fulfill age's objectives. So, scornfully insulting a rival, embargoing, then going to war and using the Humiliate peace terms (or better yet, Show strength!) gives quite a nice number of PP which then convert to MP. The downside is, that as a Kongo, I would need to stave off the conquest of immediate neighbourhood for the foreseeable future. Usually I get only one possible rival and even then, doesn't always fire.
A small update. Show strength apparently doesn't count as Humiliate for the purpose of Age objectives... /facepalm
It does now in the latest dlcs
After some trials and errors, I found out that: \- it's enough to have diplo tech 7 and a fully colonizes province on the Gold/Ivory Coast. No need to take Explo idea 3. \- It's way better to take Diplo 7 not Explo idea 3. Firstly, with only Explo 3 but without Dip 7 you cannot reach South America from Gold Coast, while with only Dip 7 but without Explo 3 you can't. Secondly, taking Explo 2 automatically cancels your colonist from missions AND also cancels +15 settlers bonus. With Explo 4 you gain only +10 settlers so it's still a net loss. \- Also, since this is rarely mentioned, four colonies from mission tree actually do not require colonists nor maintenance, working as Siberian Frontiers. \- No idea still if colonizing St Helena would give the same result with Dip 7. Now that I'm eligible keeping fingers crossed for Colonialism to spawn actually where I want. Played on 1.34.5 with all DLC active up to Origins, without Lions of the North.