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1682-1715 EU timeline continued.

1682-85. Bavarian (German principalities war) against the Ottomans.


The Ottomans decide they want to take on the HRE, now that they have most of c. Europe under control. This however would cost them very, very dearly. Bavaria receives support from Portugal, Parma, Naples, Lorraine and Tuscany. (Savoy and Milan are Bavarian vassals) The Ottomans from the beginning are severely defeated, non more so spectaculary when their main armies meet combined Bavarian alliance forces in late 1682 and are utterly annihilated. Alliance armies in 1683 move onto the offense invading Turkish (formerly Austrian) Tyrol and conquoering the territory w/o too many hassles within a month. Other alliance armies charge into western occupied Austria, the war leads to serious destruction and pillaging of the countryside around Vienna. Just when the Ottomans are about to perform a massive counter-attack into Bavaria a civil war breaks out in Turkey! Across the entire, massive Ottoman domain revolts start exploding of the size not yet seen in this game. The situation now gets completley out of control for the Ottomans. After Bavaria signs a cease-fire taking Tyrol from the Turks, both Austria (1687) and Iraq (1688) declare their independence from the Turks. Unable to deal at all with any of these actions the Turks must humbly accept Austrian and Iraqi demands. After 150+ yrs of occupation Iraq is once again free. After 60+ years so are the Austrians though at a much reduced capacity. Austria (Vienna) and Styria are the only provinces that are able to be recovered from the Turks.

By 1710 I noticed that Bavaria had also vassalized (not only Savoy / Milan), but also Cologne and Lorraine. They are starting to become a powerhouse in central western Europe and have much influence. All they need to do now is incorporate those vassals into their territories then vassalize or conqueor Thurgien / Palatinat and we have ourselves the first major German European power united under the rulers of Bavaria.


1685-89. New French-Dutch war.

The French invade the Netherlands hoping to redress the imbalance and the defeats of the last 20 years after the Dutch sign an inconclusive peace treaty with the Swedes just a year prior. The Dutch-Swede war was mostly fought on the sea. The French choose the perfect time to attack, as the Dutch are weak and low on manpower after that war. By 1689, a peace-treaty is signed in which the French take Luxembourg, though they are unable to recover Orleans or Auxerre. This is also due to French numerical weakness, most of their armies tied up in huge sieges in this war, the Dutch unprepared to meet them in the open due to their much larger numerical superiority. The French on a high, subsequently declare war on Spain in 1690, though that war is inconclusive and the Spanish cannot be forced to relinquish control of the French provinces they already own, though they do cede one of their colonial provinces.

The Swedes meanwhile, to my utter disbelief .. vassalize the Ukraine, and create a military alliance with the Ukranians and the Turks.. virtually eliminating any possibly offensive action from the Poles. If we declare war on the Cossacks, the Swedes/Turks declare war on me. If I declare war on the Swedes, the Cossacks and Turks attack me -- charming. The Muscovites are too weak themselves. The Poles, after constant expansion and war have fallen behind in infrastructure and military tech to the point where they are seriously weak. The last 20 years has been spent building up defenses, though most of the cash previously waas spent on defeating the Ukranian bandits and other such rebels ..
This in turn equals problems now. Here's a good tip for you guys when you play EU: Don't try and expand too much beyond your means.. don't spend too much cash on building armies .. you'll regret it later.

The Poles in 1690 look for a re-approachament with Muscovy seeking a possible alliance against the Swedes. In 1691 the Poles / Muscovites agree to a royal marriage between the two countries. In 1692, the Poles officially join the Muscovites in an alliance with the Dutch, cancelling the long standing off and on alliance they had with the French for the last 40+ years. The Muscovites now take advantage of this and declare war on the Crimeans (no longer allies of the Ottomans), in 1690 destroying their armies completely and capturing many cities by 1691. Azov and Koubun (area just east of the sea of Azov)is relinquished to the Russians in late 1691. Until I can (hopefully) get back on my feet and gain a few technology advances, I will need to be in this alliance.


1699-1709. 10 years war between Hessen and Hannover leads to a lot of blood shed, pillaging, death, destruction.. and status quo. :)


1702-3, 1706-9 Civil wars in Sweden. By 1709 most of the rabble has been cleaned up though they do still hold several Swedish cities ..


1711 Civil war in Turkey ..

1712-1714. Polish-Cossack war. The Poles take advantage of the termination of the alliance of the Cossacks with the Swedes and invade the Ukraine. After 2 years of very hard fighting most of the areas are recovered by the Poles. However, in 1714, just as the final blow is about to be delt to the Ukranians, Bohemia declares war on the Poles. In 1713 the Cossacks agree to cede Ukraine (Kiev) province as well as Krementjug, leaving them the province of Poltava and Podolia (capital) province. Meanwhile the Bohemians invade Thorn (w Prussia), their armies destroy a large Polish relief force (a crushing defeat where three special leaders are killed, and most of the army is killed or captured). Part of the reason for this defeat, as as I've said before, our military tech is just not up to where it should be at this moment in the game. They demand the secession of the territory and the Poles must agree. This is the 2nd time the Bohemians have taken advantage of my movements in the Ukraine to gain territory..


Sapura
 
It does sound really bad to expand one's empire too much then. Isn't it better to use your power to get a good territory in Europe without going too 'fat' and expand outside Europe?
is there a lot of colonial war between major power (i.e. something like the Quebec war between French and English) ?

PS. Thanks so much to entertain us with this high quality report !
 
Sapura -
Those wiley Bohemians, they really seem to have it out for you! Perhaps you can improve your tech sufficiently and then make goulash out of them.

Two questions -
1) Why did the Ottoman Empire break down into civil war the first time (c. 1683)? Was it the initial military defeat by the Bavarians or the general pillaging of Vienna or something else?

2) What's going on with the English, they seem to have kept a low profile to this point. Did they take advantage of the French weakness to reclaim their provinces in the Marches and Calais? Would an alliance with them help neutralize the Swedish threat to your Northern Flank?

Good Luck
 
Sweden vassalizes the Ukraine... Heheh. *snigger* *shakes head*

I swear, that cunning AI plays Sweden better than even Sapura managed in his AAR. :)

I take that as a very good sign!
 
I would also like to know more about what England has been up to. It seems rather odd that it hasn't taken advantage of France's preoccupation with the Netherlands and Spain to complete its reconquest of captured territory.

Also, what are relations between Spain and the Netherlands like now? Since France is the main enemy of both, an alliance would seem natural.

Can't wait for the next installment!
 
Falp,

There are quite a few colonial wars, it's just difficult for a bystander to know much about them since 90% of the time they are covered by 'mist' and I can only see the results afterwards.

Also, expanding is fine, just as long as you can keep your country in order. I was unable to and this is why the Ukraine mutinied and why I had so many rebellions. I spent most of that cash on suppressing them instead of investing that money in research :( I _had_ to else, they would have wiped me out completley ..


Jim,

1) Why did the Ottoman Empire break down into civil war the first time (c. 1683)? Was it the initial military defeat by the Bavarians or the general pillaging of Vienna or something else?

Probably a mixture of military defeat / unstable govt, ruler / bad governmental policies and obviously the general instability which have been involved in almost non stop war for over 100 years. i.e. most of the Ottoman occupied Austrian provinces.

Dark, Falp

Regarding England. They've been very quiet actually. There hasn't been a single war against anyone in the last 15+ years. Maybe they're too busy with their colonial possessions, <shrugs>. I'm sure they would have taken advantage of it .. and it did sound like a reasonable idea to take back the Marches from the French. Calais on the other hand will be close to impossible to take, unless the English can ally with the Dutch / Spanish in a concentrated war against the French ...

I don't know the exact relationship between the Dutch and the Spanish at the moment, but I doubt its hostile. Still, in over 40+ years of almost constantly successfull wars against the French they have not bothered to form an alliance once ...

Sapura


[This message has been edited by Sapura (edited 03-08-2000).]
 
Well, it is nice to see the Ottomans do have limits. Also very nice to see one AI opponent reacting properly to another AI threat, that is definately a sign of a good AI. In too many games I have seen the AI only pays attention to the player (or so it seems, maybe I am just paranoid) and neglects the other AI opponents. It is also good to see that your not the only one having stability issues, a large Sweden and a very large Ottoman also had the same issues.
 
Sapura,

I'm also looking forward to hearing about how this all works out for you. It will be interesting to see if the Bavarian alliance keeps pressing on against the Turk or if they take a chunk out of a pathetic looking France.

How do you say 'good luck' in Polish?
 
Yeah

I'd love to see a German super power by the end of the game, under Bavarian leadership. It may happen ...


Good Luck in Polish ...well as close as I can translate: mjej szcenscie..


Sapura
 
Also very nice to see one AI opponent reacting properly to another AI threat, that is definately a sign of a good AI. In too many games I have seen the AI only pays attention to the player (or so it seems, maybe I am just paranoid) and neglects the other AI opponents.

I do not think you are paranoid. It is rare to see a game where the AIs attack each other with earnest. A couple of examples:

Civ2: basically it is a game of long protracted wars but I can probably count on one hand (maybe no hands) the number of times I have seen an AI conquer another AI city of any importance. In addition, I cannot think of an AI civ that ever had a military with more than 20% offensive units, making human victory just a matter of time. Twice I have seen civs still using phalanx that could be conquered with little effort totally ignored by strong bordering civs with armor and bombers (and once I saw an AI refuse to capture a city even after it destroyed all its defenders and it had 5+ defensive units in each of its cities connected by railroad).

MOO2: Most AI wars (i.e. ones that are not totally lopsided) involve one race sending its fleet to the planet of the other race, blockading or perhaps bombing it for a few turns and then signing a peace treaty. On several occasions my AI ally has insisted I join a war against another AI only to sign a peace treaty the very next turn without even attacking once. For some reason, they never agree to those quick treaties with me...

Of course, I have seen games that have done much better. MOO produced some very ugly AI wars until the human player became a threat. Imp2 could have AI wars with lots of land changing hands. I have seen the AI totally annihilate other AI powers in Castles 2.

If EU is as good as the beta testers say it is, this is going to be quite a treat.
 
You are right about MOO & MOO2. The only way I ever beat MOO on the Hardest level was to play the humans and make everyone love me.....(for those of you unfamiliar with Masters of Orion the one of the Humans special abilities is everyone is friendlier toward you initially). The AI in that game was vicious they loved killing each other.