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This is part 1 / 7 part aar, written about 2 months back but not yet posted. Hopefully, it'll encourage Patric to post the remaining 6 parts with screenshots to the AAR section ;)


Part 1 – AAR – Austria (30 Years War scenario 1617-1680) Spanish-Austrian-Bavarian war with Lorraine and France. 1617-1619


Hello there, lads, welcome to the new AAR  This time I’ve decided to go for a more continental feel and play as Austria during the 30 years war ‘scenario’. By the start of this scenario Hungary has already been wiped off the face of the earth by Turkey to the east. To the west there’s several German principalities, one neighboring me, Bavaria in an alliance with Austria and Spain. Austria starts out with 500c in the treasury that I immediately use to build up my fortresses, promote majors and bailiffs. There’s a ready made army of Austrian soldiers under Field Marshal Papenheim in Vienna: 50,000 infantry, 15,000 cavalry and 40 pieces of artillery so I’m in no need to quickly build up my forces as yet.

I decide on a plan to invade Venice, to the south of me so that I may take their COT (center of trade) from them and incorporate it into my own territory. Venice, currently allied with Papal States & Tuscany + Parma. They have insignificant armies, and with the hopeful backing of Spain, we can take them apart rather easily, watching carefully the movements of the Turks just to the south.

Unfortunately, a declaration of war puts those plans on hold. Spain has declared war on France and an envoy arrives in Vienna asking me whether I’ll honor our alliance and declare war. I do so, being a loyal ally and friend  Therefore, declaration occurs on May 2nd, 1617. Bavaria goes to battle on our side, whilst Lorraine declares war on our alliance in support of France. My plan is to attack Lorraine outright, whilst Spain deals with the French. I hope to annex both of their provinces, Alsace and the capital province of Lorraine as quickly as possible. Therefore I detach 49k infantry, 2k cavalry and 40 artillery pieces and make my move almost immediately through allied Bavaria into Baden and finally onto Lorraine. The trek is both slow and many of my men die due to disease / starvation and the general stress of marching such a long way. Equipment is also lost and destroyed.

November 2nd, after a long and hazardous trek I arrive in Besancon, a Spanish province being pillaged & assaulted by 17,000 Lorraine soldiers. The fortress cannot hold out much longer so I attack them to their complete surprise in a dawn charge, cavalry leading the assault on Nov 20th annihilating close to 5,000 of their men and sending them into flight back into their own territory with my 40k+ army. A Spanish envoy congratulates the Field Marshal for his courageous service on this day, especially since our army is still quite exhausted from the long march from Vienna.

In December my army under Papenheim moves into Metz, already being assaulted by 23,000 Spaniards. Papenheim immediately joins the siege, (combined Spanish / Austrian forces of 66,000) assault Metz. Two days later Metz surrenders unconditionally due to overwhelming losses.

(To the east, Spanish and French armies battle out just across the borders of Lorraine, the Spaniards slowly gaining advantage because of much larger forces and the inability of France to send in reinforcements quick enough)

January 1618, our combined Spanish and Austrian armies of around 60+ soldiers now, with their path cleared of field armies between them and Lorraine, they assault the capital itself on the 1st of the month. Capturing it 6 days later, showing no mercy to the defending soldiers who refused countless times to surrender, causing our army high casualties during this week-long siege.

Alsace now alone and surrounded refuses to surrender to our forces. In early February this same combined army moves onto Alsace. March 27th, Alsace waves the white flag against the combined assault of our powerful forces. Both provinces come under the occupation of the Austrian forces. At this point, our army is extremely tired, and has lost almost 15+k men dead and wounded, due to incessant marching, non-stop battles and sieges. We await reinforcements from Austria whilst our army rests and we begin the process of forcing Lorraine to accept our annexation or face a terrible fate. During the discussions they agree to hand over Alsace, but not their capital. We refuse however, we are not in a position to press them, after all, we aren’t about to begin slaughtering the population until they relent. That’s bad PR 

Spain continues to lay siege to Lyonnais and other bordering French provinces whilst desperate French armies try to relieve this situation, however to no avail.

My forces being idle for many months now (May, June, July) now decide to try and help the Spanish out by forcing the French to agree to terms. We move our 20+k army across Lorraine borders to assault Reims (in Champagne). After a brief assault during the first few days of September, we lose a staggering 4,000 men and our army is shattered. That’s what you get for attacking a massive fortress without artillery support. Papenheim orders and immediate retreat back into Lorraine.

Philip III becomes New Emperor of Spain. January 1st 1619.
Ferdinand II, rises to the Austrian throne, 1619


March 27th, due to information received from allied patrols we gather information that there are between 1 & 3 large French armies moving on Lorraine. Certainly, we wouldn’t be able to defend ourselves against them. Therefore, we force a peace on Lorraine, annexing Alsace and taking 250 in indemnities. (Dijon & other French cities now captured in eastern France by the Spanish) Not to worry though:

In September 1619, these French armies retreat back into French territory and Spain assaults the capital of Lorraine with 28,000 soldiers. On the 17th of that month Lorraine is formally incorporated into the Spanish sphere of influence – forcefully. Independent Lorraine as a state, ceases to exist. In November a French army, of 14k soldiers tries to take it back but retreats from its walls only 2 days later. France is now in totally defensive war against Spain. Most of its armies have been shattered and forced to retreat back into their own territories. Most of its border provinces west of Lorraine are under occupation of the Spaniards.

Therefor what happens next is elemental.

On October 30th, 1619, France agrees to a peace with Spain. Spain in return takes 153c in indemnities + the French provinces of Kebec and Nova Scotia. France has been definitely beaten in this war and its only ally has been partitioned between Austria and Spain.

After the end of the war, Ferdinand II, now quite confident of his army and the support of the power of Spain begins to dream of invading the German provinces east of Austrian Alsace. To start off with the alliance of Baden & Helvetia needs to be crushed and their territories annexed and incorporated into the Austrian Empire. However that’s for another AAR 

End of Part 1

Sapura
 
They invaded it and captured the territory. That's how it works in EU. You have to have the territory in your possession, to get it in a subsequent peace treaty. Even then though, if the particular province is very valuable, your enemy may not give in to your demands unless its utterly defeated.

i.e. 5-6 star victory.

Sapura
 
Sapura,
Congratulations on a good start... heh, I'm still thinking about 'Nueve Scotia' that's pretty funny.

Now, I've got a question for you on a topic that we've gone over in the past, but this AAR brought up again. After you defeat Lorraine, you try to get them to cede both provinces to you in dipolmatic acticity. You state...

...we are not in a position to press them, after all, we aren’t about to begin slaughtering the population until they relent. That’s bad PR ?

Is this you taking a bit of artistic license, or is it actually viable to commit atrocities in order to get your way?
 
Jim,

...we are not in a position to press them, after all, we aren’t about to begin slaughtering the population until they relent. That’s bad PR ?

Is this you taking a bit of artistic license, or is it actually viable to commit atrocities in order to get your way?


A bit of both actually. Let me explain..

In peace negotiations (I wrote this aar 2 months ago so its hard to remember), they refused to be annexed by us, because there was still a chance France would win the day and recover their provinces for them. Also, annexing Lorraine would have ment a big relationship hit because I would be annexing a country of the same religion.

Atrocities are already commited when an army trambles through enemy territory. A lot of the time, this is represented by seeing the graphic icon of the city in the province begin burning. Even if the city is not being besieged, the army still pillages much of the countryside causing destability and population loss.

Sapura
 
Sapura,
As always, thanks for the info; especially as it required you to dust off your notes.

I've got a bit of follow up... So as a player, do you control the degree of pillaging that goes on by your army? So far I've gotten the impression that its something that just takes place automatically.

Even if the PR is bad for committing evil deeds on civilians, I'd think that a player would have an incentive to keep the bloodshed to a minimum. In the long run, you're reducing the number of taxpayers and/or infrastructure available to you and negating the whole reason for the conquest in the first place.
 
Nah you can't actually pillage or kill, we aren't playing 'Europa Under Fire: The Mongol Hordes' here ;)

As an enemy army passes through a province, that province instability increases due to the 'normal' operations of a foreign army .. not that I would consider, pillaging as something normal. Greven, is pillaging in the officers hand book of tactics and ops? :)

Sapura
 
So troops automaticly 'pillage' an enemy territory? That sounds a little unusual (unless Ghengis Khan is your general) :)

[This message has been edited by Field_Marshal (edited 09-08-2000).]
 
Originally posted by Sapura:
Nah you can't actually pillage or kill, we aren't playing 'Europa Under Fire: The Mongol Hordes' here

OK - I think I'm starting to get it. I suppose the stability hit gives you a powerful incentive to stay on the offensive and keep foreign troops off your soil. This is a nice representation of reality.
 
Field,

These were standard 'procedures' of enemy armies moving through foreign territory. Drain the province of its supplies, food, booty and if the army isn't disciplined enough - rape, pillaging and murder can occur too.

Sapura
 
Sounds pretty normal for the times, to me. You lost + my poor logistics systems = your people/economy must support the occupying army. Given the general poverty level, this would be very destabilizing.
 
Pillage was a commonn part of warfare from the Ancients to the end of Napoleon. It filled different purposes over time. i'll try to give you some.Note that pillage often was order by the commanding officer, thus not necissarily done by undisciplined units even if that also happened.

1) To feed the army for free.
2) To deny 1) to the enemy.
3) To deny movement through the area.
4) To tax the population so that the enemy couldn't buy any new troops.

P.S. Every time a units moves through a foreign (ie not owned) province there is a chance that this province is pillage. Lowering incomes and supply levels from it. Tactically that means it can be good to send out small forces of 'dogs of war' running round in enemy terr. pillaging as merry hell.

/Greven
 
Another cause of de-population during wars was disease. Even Allied and Home country armies would cause an outbreak of disease along the path they marched. Most armies practiced poor sanitation and the proximity of so many unwashed bodies would be a breeding ground for disease.

Often the local citizens would flee from any army to avoid disease.
 
Originally posted by Greven:

Tactically that means it can be good to send out small forces of 'dogs of war' running round in enemy terr. pillaging as merry hell.

Greven,
I see the logic of this tactic; in fact, most strategy games program the AI to take this approach. I always found it irritating in the Civ games when a neutral or 'allied' unit would camp out in my best production squares. I absolutely hated it when an enemy would pillage all of my infrastructure improvements. I never was much of a pillager myself however if I intended to conquor a nearby city, as ultimately I'd have to build up the infrastructure again.

So my question for you is: can you limit the pillaging that occurs after you conquor a province if you intend to annex it?