Exactly the same as usual and you have some NIs to help you convert everyone faster. Also you get constant + church power so you can get your 3 bonuses extremely quickly.
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Chapter 4: Great progress and great risks
After thinking so long and hard about how to break the alliance networks around me the first opportunity showed itself faster than I'd hoped for:
France declared war on provence, and wound up fighting their former ally Savoy. The main question here was whether I'd wait for France's call to arms, or if I should declare a war of my own.
I really wanted to return my vassal's former capital to them, so I decided on a seperate war. With France not only out of the picture, but fighting them too, Savoy didn't stand a chance.
Since I used Milan's reconquest CB the province of Milan was only worth like 2AE, so I figured I could get some more there. The AE is starting to pile up in southern Germany now, but thanks to my diplomats everyone but my rivals still has a well positive opinion of me.
Which can't be said about Burgundy...
Iirc this war didn't achieve much but weakening all participants, the overall power was too even and the strong powers too far away. That region really is just one big powder keg in 1.13, almost always spawns at least a few coalition wars.
With my own AE being pretty high as well I was really glad when I finally got the chance to pick up a Diplomat advisor. 30% may not seem that much, but it really adds up very fast.
With Milan now owning their former capital again (plus a little extra) I decided to start annexing them. They're pretty useful still, but since all their land is of my primary culture, I think I can make even better use of it that way.
Plus 15 years is a fairly long time, if I want to I can still grow them a bit during the annexation.
While Burgundy's coalition war still was raging on, I seized the opportunity to add some more turmoil and brought the rest of southern and western Europe to war.
Provence was in no shape to join the war yet, and I was positive that I can beat Florence while France keeps Castille busy.
That went much better than expected.
I marched into Modena before my morale was its max, so Florence must have thought this was the best chance they'd get.
... it really wasn't. My general had 3 shock pips on their's, and once Milan joined the battle the slaughter was perfect.
Meanwhile the coalition was against Burgundy ended, and so Austria decided to take another look at their diplomatic situation.
Now this didn't exactly come as a surprise (even if they did have a friendly attitude until then), but it's still not very good. I should be strong enough by now that I could handle them (especially with the allies I have), but I'd still prefer not having to fight Austria any time soon.
While I was busy fighting my own little war poor Savoy got partitioned between Switzerland and Genoa:
Genoa took all that from a trade war, queue everyone from Portugal to Brandenburg getting enough AE to potentially join a coalition against them. Might be a good opportunity to jump them too then, I do need the province of Genoa to form Italy after all.
With Genoa just having accrued such a huge amount of AE and me finally having a diplomat advisor I felt confident enough to get some more AE too:
And I ended the war just in time, barely one year later the Reformation triggered, in Salzburg.
Since the Pope and I will come to blows sooner or later anyways, and me not having played a Protestant nation since the added mechanics in 1.12, I decided to convert right away:
I was still small enough that converting was no problem (7 to 8 months per province thanks to religious zeal, plus my Center of Reformation). I was tempted to force convert my vassal Milan too, but with how big they were now they already had around 30 to 40 Liberty Desire, so I figured I'm better of just finishing the annexation and convert them later on if need be.
I also started a coalition against Genoa in the meantime, which convinced everyone in the near vicinity to join in. Genoa did still have very strong allies though, and no bigger power joined that coalition yet, so I was pretty worried that some small nation started the coalition war prematurely.
After thinking about it for a bit I decided on another route:
Hungary was getting invaded by the Ottomans, and Castille already was fairly commited to that war (plus they hadn't fully recovered from the earlier war against France yet).
If Sweden really did come marching all the way down here, and then decided to fight me rather than the Ottomans, it might become problematic. But between my own army, Milan, the Papal State, and Naples all being joined, I was confident that we'd be able to deal with everything that'd come our way.
And to add to the overall chaos Switzerland fired the coalition war against Genoa right after I got into my own war against them.
The war went really well. Hungary got destroyed by the Ottomans, Castille couldn't handle fighting on two fronts (they had a lot of troops helping Hungary, and Aragon fought them too), and Sweden never showed up.
The real question was how much of a risk would I be willing when negotiating peace.
And I decided to (finally) go all out on it.
Milan got the province of Genoa (remember what I wrote about taking land from secondary participants in a war all the time?), and I took Ferrara for myself.
It was such a huge step towards my goal of forming Italy that I just couldn't resist, despite the risks.
So I feel like I'm in a very strong position now (even moreso once I finished the annexation of Milan), and that I made some great progress in the recent years.
But this also finally managed to push my AE over the limit, creating a coalition against me:
I'm fairly positive that my rivals Florence, Genoa, and Hungary will join as well once the truces run out. I'm not sure if I can repair relations enough to disband the coalition until then, even with my diplomat advisor. So many small nations being in it makes it all the scarier, but as it is now I should be able to defend against it, if my allies stand true to me.
If I get a good opportunity I might trigger the coalition war before my rivals can join it, but I don't think I could get enough of my allies in on an offensive war.
Only Florence and the Papal State (I'm really surprised that they're still my ally after all this) are standing in the way of me forming Italy now, so if I can disband or beat the coalition I should be good to go.
More trouble is brewing in southern Italy though, with France having claims all over that region (Iirc they get a mission for that?), and Aragon having started to integrate Naples. I'd most likely join France if they ever come to blows, but I'd lose a strong ally either way.
So there you have it, a lot was going on in these 15 years of game time. I hope the next chapter will be mostly me keeping a low profile and building up, but we also might get even more action then.
After thinking so long and hard about how to break the alliance networks around me the first opportunity showed itself faster than I'd hoped for:
France declared war on provence, and wound up fighting their former ally Savoy. The main question here was whether I'd wait for France's call to arms, or if I should declare a war of my own.
I really wanted to return my vassal's former capital to them, so I decided on a seperate war. With France not only out of the picture, but fighting them too, Savoy didn't stand a chance.
Since I used Milan's reconquest CB the province of Milan was only worth like 2AE, so I figured I could get some more there. The AE is starting to pile up in southern Germany now, but thanks to my diplomats everyone but my rivals still has a well positive opinion of me.
Which can't be said about Burgundy...
Iirc this war didn't achieve much but weakening all participants, the overall power was too even and the strong powers too far away. That region really is just one big powder keg in 1.13, almost always spawns at least a few coalition wars.
With my own AE being pretty high as well I was really glad when I finally got the chance to pick up a Diplomat advisor. 30% may not seem that much, but it really adds up very fast.
With Milan now owning their former capital again (plus a little extra) I decided to start annexing them. They're pretty useful still, but since all their land is of my primary culture, I think I can make even better use of it that way.
Plus 15 years is a fairly long time, if I want to I can still grow them a bit during the annexation.
While Burgundy's coalition war still was raging on, I seized the opportunity to add some more turmoil and brought the rest of southern and western Europe to war.
Provence was in no shape to join the war yet, and I was positive that I can beat Florence while France keeps Castille busy.
That went much better than expected.
I marched into Modena before my morale was its max, so Florence must have thought this was the best chance they'd get.
... it really wasn't. My general had 3 shock pips on their's, and once Milan joined the battle the slaughter was perfect.
Meanwhile the coalition was against Burgundy ended, and so Austria decided to take another look at their diplomatic situation.
Now this didn't exactly come as a surprise (even if they did have a friendly attitude until then), but it's still not very good. I should be strong enough by now that I could handle them (especially with the allies I have), but I'd still prefer not having to fight Austria any time soon.
While I was busy fighting my own little war poor Savoy got partitioned between Switzerland and Genoa:
Genoa took all that from a trade war, queue everyone from Portugal to Brandenburg getting enough AE to potentially join a coalition against them. Might be a good opportunity to jump them too then, I do need the province of Genoa to form Italy after all.
With Genoa just having accrued such a huge amount of AE and me finally having a diplomat advisor I felt confident enough to get some more AE too:
And I ended the war just in time, barely one year later the Reformation triggered, in Salzburg.
Since the Pope and I will come to blows sooner or later anyways, and me not having played a Protestant nation since the added mechanics in 1.12, I decided to convert right away:
I was still small enough that converting was no problem (7 to 8 months per province thanks to religious zeal, plus my Center of Reformation). I was tempted to force convert my vassal Milan too, but with how big they were now they already had around 30 to 40 Liberty Desire, so I figured I'm better of just finishing the annexation and convert them later on if need be.
I also started a coalition against Genoa in the meantime, which convinced everyone in the near vicinity to join in. Genoa did still have very strong allies though, and no bigger power joined that coalition yet, so I was pretty worried that some small nation started the coalition war prematurely.
After thinking about it for a bit I decided on another route:
Hungary was getting invaded by the Ottomans, and Castille already was fairly commited to that war (plus they hadn't fully recovered from the earlier war against France yet).
If Sweden really did come marching all the way down here, and then decided to fight me rather than the Ottomans, it might become problematic. But between my own army, Milan, the Papal State, and Naples all being joined, I was confident that we'd be able to deal with everything that'd come our way.
And to add to the overall chaos Switzerland fired the coalition war against Genoa right after I got into my own war against them.
The war went really well. Hungary got destroyed by the Ottomans, Castille couldn't handle fighting on two fronts (they had a lot of troops helping Hungary, and Aragon fought them too), and Sweden never showed up.
The real question was how much of a risk would I be willing when negotiating peace.
And I decided to (finally) go all out on it.
Milan got the province of Genoa (remember what I wrote about taking land from secondary participants in a war all the time?
), and I took Ferrara for myself.It was such a huge step towards my goal of forming Italy that I just couldn't resist, despite the risks.
So I feel like I'm in a very strong position now (even moreso once I finished the annexation of Milan), and that I made some great progress in the recent years.
But this also finally managed to push my AE over the limit, creating a coalition against me:
I'm fairly positive that my rivals Florence, Genoa, and Hungary will join as well once the truces run out. I'm not sure if I can repair relations enough to disband the coalition until then, even with my diplomat advisor. So many small nations being in it makes it all the scarier, but as it is now I should be able to defend against it, if my allies stand true to me.
If I get a good opportunity I might trigger the coalition war before my rivals can join it, but I don't think I could get enough of my allies in on an offensive war.
Only Florence and the Papal State (I'm really surprised that they're still my ally after all this) are standing in the way of me forming Italy now, so if I can disband or beat the coalition I should be good to go.
More trouble is brewing in southern Italy though, with France having claims all over that region (Iirc they get a mission for that?), and Aragon having started to integrate Naples. I'd most likely join France if they ever come to blows, but I'd lose a strong ally either way.
So there you have it, a lot was going on in these 15 years of game time. I hope the next chapter will be mostly me keeping a low profile and building up, but we also might get even more action then.
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That coalition sure is looking nasty! Good think you have your very own french bulldog
I've been enjoying the AAR so far, and I'm looking forward to see how it goes!
I've been enjoying the AAR so far, and I'm looking forward to see how it goes!
A coalition like this is almost inevitable when playing in Italy, the provinces are just too good and the opportunities for fast expansion too good to ignore. Just make sure you keep your AE with your allies managed well and you'll be fine.
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Somehow I seem to have missed another nice detailed AAR of yours. Shame on me!
Absolutely subscribed. Good luck!
Absolutely subscribed. Good luck!
I had a hunch ever since the Pope took Venice that you'd join the reformation. I'm surprised that you were only the 2nd to embrace it, however.
What are aquilea's future plans?
What are aquilea's future plans?
Sorry for the small break, I'm pretty busy IRL currently. Might continue to update this a little slower though, but I'll definitely keep it going.
Anyways, here we go:
Chapter 5: Strength through Adversity
All my effort was directed at repairing (and keeping) relations at this point, that coalition was frightening me. With the annexation of Milan still taking a while I only had one diplomat available for this, but most of the nearby countries were pretty much at max relations anyway. That many of them still had negative opinions was a pretty bad sign though...
I also had to struggle a bit in keeping my current allies, between me being considered a great power now, having converted, and all the AE I accumulated, that was effort enough.
So I was actually pretty happy when my ally Aragon called me into an easy war:
Builds up some more trust with Aragon, and I can kick Switzerland out of the coalition, fine with me.
Even if I'm a little concerned that I'll get into conflict with Aragon sooner or later:
Maybe I should try to get Castille as an ally for the future?
But these considerations are a thing for the future, right now I had other things to worry about:
With the allies I had it didn't look quite that bad, but all these small nations with their base income and forcelimits really add up fast.
If I could form a defensive position with my allies I should be able to get out of this pretty well, but I'd have to weather the first attacks on my own:
I'm fine with losing battles like that, just gotta know when to run.
But after some initial gains things started to turn sour when Brandenburg and Poland decided to attack Bohemia.
With Bohemia being the Emperor that's a lot of troops I couldn't rely on anymore. The war was far from lost, but I couldn't really make any decisive gains either, so I started to look for a way that let me end this war without losing too much.
When the enemies brought more and more reinforcements into the big battle in Treviso, and it became obvious I'd lose that fight I went with the peace deal.
I still might have turned it around in the end, but that would have required a lot of effort (lots of loans and lots of time), with the risk of my allies leaving the war and totally screwing me over.
I figured I'd better cut the losses than take the gamble. Losing Friuli after it's been my starting province and my capital stings, but a) it isn't that rich of a province, and b) I have 150 years until my core there expires, I'm pretty confident I'll find an opportunity to get it back until then.
Sadly I was in no position to help Bohemia in their other war (considering their enemies I wasn't really willing either), so they lost that pretty badly. To top it off the Electors also got Austria back on the throne a bit later. Poor Bohemia...
More bad news:
That's two of my strong allies gone, and I still had 50 to 60 AE with most of the former coalition members. That could turn out really bad...
I improved what relations I could, got the Palatinate as a new ally (had to take what I could get), and was working on Brandenburg too. None of the major powers was up for an alliance though, I'll have to build up some more again for that it seems.
Meanwhile Genoa got wrecked by rebels and had to release Savoy again (sadly they still had their old AE with me), so I went and removed Genoa from the vicinity for good (they still had some holdings around Crimea):
Gotta take the little gains when I can get them, and in the overall scheme of things some 5AE outside the HRE didn't make much of a difference either. The nations I could improve relations with enough didn't care about this bit, the others hated me either way.
Which lead to the next coalition war once all the truces ran out:
I'm in a much weaker position now, but the coalition is weaker as well. No Hungary, and several of the small nations are missing as well. Plus Aragon is a real powerhouse right now.
So despite some small setbacks like the AI adventuring deep into enemy territory
I made some good gains pretty fast. Sieged out Florence and Provence, started working on Austria and Switzerland, and after a while I had the warscore needed to get a positive peace deal.
As tempted as I was to get some provinces out of it, in the end I decided against it. In my position ending a coalition war with piling on even more AE on seemed like a really bad idea.
As much as I wanted to get Friuli back right then, I'll rather do it in a reconquest war under my terms.
So I mostly focussed on a bit more safety, even if I hope to ultimately be able to diplo-vassalize and then annex Pisa.
Sadly I made a bit of a mistake after that. I had to decide on some new rivals, since neither Genoa nor Florence were eligible anymore, and with the options I got it looked like a good time to prepare for the conflict with the Pope by rivalling him.
I just missed that Aragon was allied with the Pope.
And that they liked him better than me. So that's all my big power allies gone now...
I did manage to ally Brandenburg and Bavaria right after this, and Castille, Poland, France (again), and the Ottomans all have good relations and common rivals with me. But even after having finished the annexation of Milan I'm still too weak to get an alliance with any of them, so I'll have to go with smaller allies for a while longer.
On the plus side I think I'm no longer in immediate danger, there are still some other nations between me and the really scary potential enemies.
I'll probably wait a bit longer before making any big moves again, but I think I have 3 directions I'll be able to expand in for now. Switzerland, Savoy, and Florence all are comparatively weak without too strong allies. With Switzerland being in the HRE, Savoy being the only thing standing between me and France, and Florence holding some land I need to form Italy, I think it will have to be Florence.
I'd love to go after the Papal State as well now, but I can't get through their allies yet:
I could get them by declaring on Venice, but I think I've learned my lesson about taking provinces from secondary enemies. Well, I already knew it before, so it's more about not getting too impatient really...
Anyways, that's it for now. The plan is to go after Florence relatively soon (gotta recheck my AE to make sure not to trigger the coalition again), but other than that it'll be mostly be about building up a bigger army again, reducing autonomy in former Milan's territory, and trying to get some strong allies again.
Compared to the last chapter things really slowed down, and while I'm not exactly happy with how things went, it could have been much much worse I think.
I was lucky enough that the reformation event happened while I was at peace, so I could immedeately convert. And the main goal still is forming Italy, will have to see how it goes from there. Full Italian borders are something I'll want too, but past that I have no idea yet tbh.
Anyways, here we go:
Chapter 5: Strength through Adversity
All my effort was directed at repairing (and keeping) relations at this point, that coalition was frightening me. With the annexation of Milan still taking a while I only had one diplomat available for this, but most of the nearby countries were pretty much at max relations anyway. That many of them still had negative opinions was a pretty bad sign though...
I also had to struggle a bit in keeping my current allies, between me being considered a great power now, having converted, and all the AE I accumulated, that was effort enough.
So I was actually pretty happy when my ally Aragon called me into an easy war:
Builds up some more trust with Aragon, and I can kick Switzerland out of the coalition, fine with me.
Even if I'm a little concerned that I'll get into conflict with Aragon sooner or later:
Maybe I should try to get Castille as an ally for the future?
But these considerations are a thing for the future, right now I had other things to worry about:
With the allies I had it didn't look quite that bad, but all these small nations with their base income and forcelimits really add up fast.
If I could form a defensive position with my allies I should be able to get out of this pretty well, but I'd have to weather the first attacks on my own:
I'm fine with losing battles like that, just gotta know when to run.
But after some initial gains things started to turn sour when Brandenburg and Poland decided to attack Bohemia.
With Bohemia being the Emperor that's a lot of troops I couldn't rely on anymore. The war was far from lost, but I couldn't really make any decisive gains either, so I started to look for a way that let me end this war without losing too much.
When the enemies brought more and more reinforcements into the big battle in Treviso, and it became obvious I'd lose that fight I went with the peace deal.
I still might have turned it around in the end, but that would have required a lot of effort (lots of loans and lots of time), with the risk of my allies leaving the war and totally screwing me over.
I figured I'd better cut the losses than take the gamble. Losing Friuli after it's been my starting province and my capital stings, but a) it isn't that rich of a province, and b) I have 150 years until my core there expires, I'm pretty confident I'll find an opportunity to get it back until then.
Sadly I was in no position to help Bohemia in their other war (considering their enemies I wasn't really willing either), so they lost that pretty badly. To top it off the Electors also got Austria back on the throne a bit later. Poor Bohemia...
More bad news:
That's two of my strong allies gone, and I still had 50 to 60 AE with most of the former coalition members. That could turn out really bad...
I improved what relations I could, got the Palatinate as a new ally (had to take what I could get), and was working on Brandenburg too. None of the major powers was up for an alliance though, I'll have to build up some more again for that it seems.
Meanwhile Genoa got wrecked by rebels and had to release Savoy again (sadly they still had their old AE with me
), so I went and removed Genoa from the vicinity for good (they still had some holdings around Crimea):
Gotta take the little gains when I can get them, and in the overall scheme of things some 5AE outside the HRE didn't make much of a difference either. The nations I could improve relations with enough didn't care about this bit, the others hated me either way.
Which lead to the next coalition war once all the truces ran out:
I'm in a much weaker position now, but the coalition is weaker as well. No Hungary, and several of the small nations are missing as well. Plus Aragon is a real powerhouse right now.
So despite some small setbacks like the AI adventuring deep into enemy territory
I made some good gains pretty fast. Sieged out Florence and Provence, started working on Austria and Switzerland, and after a while I had the warscore needed to get a positive peace deal.
As tempted as I was to get some provinces out of it, in the end I decided against it. In my position ending a coalition war with piling on even more AE on seemed like a really bad idea.
As much as I wanted to get Friuli back right then, I'll rather do it in a reconquest war under my terms.
So I mostly focussed on a bit more safety, even if I hope to ultimately be able to diplo-vassalize and then annex Pisa.
Sadly I made a bit of a mistake after that. I had to decide on some new rivals, since neither Genoa nor Florence were eligible anymore, and with the options I got it looked like a good time to prepare for the conflict with the Pope by rivalling him.
I just missed that Aragon was allied with the Pope.
And that they liked him better than me. So that's all my big power allies gone now...
I did manage to ally Brandenburg and Bavaria right after this, and Castille, Poland, France (again), and the Ottomans all have good relations and common rivals with me. But even after having finished the annexation of Milan I'm still too weak to get an alliance with any of them, so I'll have to go with smaller allies for a while longer.
On the plus side I think I'm no longer in immediate danger, there are still some other nations between me and the really scary potential enemies.
I'll probably wait a bit longer before making any big moves again, but I think I have 3 directions I'll be able to expand in for now. Switzerland, Savoy, and Florence all are comparatively weak without too strong allies. With Switzerland being in the HRE, Savoy being the only thing standing between me and France, and Florence holding some land I need to form Italy, I think it will have to be Florence.
I'd love to go after the Papal State as well now, but I can't get through their allies yet:
I could get them by declaring on Venice, but I think I've learned my lesson about taking provinces from secondary enemies. Well, I already knew it before, so it's more about not getting too impatient really...
Anyways, that's it for now. The plan is to go after Florence relatively soon (gotta recheck my AE to make sure not to trigger the coalition again), but other than that it'll be mostly be about building up a bigger army again, reducing autonomy in former Milan's territory, and trying to get some strong allies again.
Compared to the last chapter things really slowed down, and while I'm not exactly happy with how things went, it could have been much much worse I think.
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I love reading an AAR involving a more challenging start.
Good job on damage-limitation there. Keep it up.
Good job on damage-limitation there. Keep it up.
You should have at least taken your core back from Austria in that coalition war, damn the AE!
It's good to see that the AI can still put a stop to an aggressive player. As said above by others, good job limiting the blow of the coalition.
Also you kinda look like France.
Also you kinda look like France.
Don't you remember? He abandoned that core so he doesn't have it anymore.
He still has to retake Görz sometime, it'd be a nice slap on Austria's nose.
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Yeah, Friuli I'll definitely want to get back, and Südtirol I might take too, since it has Venecian culture.
Not sure on Görz though, maybe later on, when/if I'll try to go for Dalmatia. For now I'll keep to Italy though.
Not sure on Görz though, maybe later on, when/if I'll try to go for Dalmatia. For now I'll keep to Italy though.
If you take Fruili back from the Austrians you should take Gorz back in the same war just to take the mick
Do go for Gorz as well, it is part of Aquilea's ancestral home after all. It's like if Portugal took Galicia but lost Lisbon.