One Last HurRAAh... A Milan Interactive AAR

So skipping majority of battle results it is. I'll probably show the majors and the wipe outs though.

Just got done with most of the writing, so update in 3... 2... 1...

Chapter 5: Once We Had Blinds; But Now We See...​

The air is becoming warmer, and the days are getting longer. Stomachs have been doing this all winter as feasting and sleeping under many skins and furs to keep warm has been the rule of the short days. It is only now that we fully appreciate that the light of day is far more pleasant, having dealt with the Venetian Heresy of the blinds.

Yes, Spring is in the air. And what better way to celebrate it's arrival and remind my people that I am still here, and still in charge, then to go and make a policy change:



As was planned before, the Centralization Move would be made first. Had I been +2 instead of +4, I would have moved Aristocracy day one, as nsahn spoke of. That slider gives a cost reduction to CAV, which are a touch on the expensive side this go round, and gives a bonus to shock. I consider it a solid alternative first move anytime the central slider is in a reasonable position.

As it stands this game, I think it will be a third or fourth.

So, why did we wait such a long time to move the slider you ask...? I really don't like to wait to move it normally. Why waste the years when you could be half way to another move...?

Well, here's why:



There's no way I could handle the 8K while already at war, especially reinforcing Pretenders. Peasants, who are one and done wouldn't be an issue, but Pretenders can be a bit nastier, especially in populated, rich provinces like the ones Milan has.

Of course, if I'm at peace, and I want an instant Army, I let them spawn and just wait to collapse. I get a new King and a new Army in one shot... It's a gamey thing to do, but any port in a storm. Something to remember when the ruler and the situation are REALLY bad. Maybe that new leader can turn things around, you know...?

As for Treviso, it ends up being a good solid province that will only get better as time goes on. It's a base tax of 9, which allows you to clearly see from the info just how much WE, RR and Decentral are taking from me at this point:



Oh, and they are the first province to get a super center. With the finances so tight, I have to be thrifty and save money anyway I can...

Later in March, I proposition Bavaria for an RM, just to keep the relations up so I can't get excommunicated...

I'm fighting rebels and enjoying my days lounging off my meager 1 BB for cost for the war and the province:



The only other issues I have at the moment are budgetary. Inflation is creeping a little and the slider move helps, but it really won't be anything to write home about for another 3 moves.

I contact the Kingdom's program director and tell him to cancel Hogan's Heroes.
The Commandant really doesn't need to stay with us while it's quiet.
Instead I take:



The AI don't like these guys early on, as nations are smaller and the relative gains aren't as good as a tech producing guy. But heck, when your counting pennies and you have your servants out picking up bottles and cans... At least with him I have a positive cash flow vs. a drain.

I will miss the discipline though.

I guess I could buy the Queen a new latex outfit and introduce her to our wide assortment of torture devices to help me with that.

What ??? She's always acting like a dominatrix anyways. Now she'll just look the part. Looks like Royal Court won't be any more of that run of the mill same old same old stuff any more.

Probably a good time to check on my life insurance policy too, while I'm thinking of it.

My thoughts are interrupted by the KingFX man bringing an over land envelope:



Well that's nice.

The real plus at home is one less sister I have to hear complaining about everything at the royal dinner table...!

And with her gone, it looks like I will have some room for other guests...

I seem to remember something about Ferrara...



(insert long record scratch here...)

Whoa, not that one...



That's better. Hey, What's this ? An alliance with Naples, huh ? Well now, I do believe this calls for some action on my part. We'll start with a GTY on Tuscany and Urbino. Naples has been fairly quiet, and with our previous warnings and such it kind of froze them in place a little. That and Urbino is one of those all time favorite targets of any Italian Minor.

Meanwhile, back in the Kingdom, my Army is having a bit o' the difficulty:



Yikes...! I didn't see that coming. (Does anyone, really...?)
A good roll for them near the beginning makes for a bad battle for me.



For some reason, my peasants are very pleased by this news.

This just isn't right.

I stop and write a little note to myself:



The realization that the people at home were over joyed at all my soldiers dying didn't take long to sink into my CAVs collective conscience:



Le Ouch... Le Burn... Le Hurt... I even had better shock and fire, not that fire matters at this point without my pet Land Table, but still...

"Half moral Rebel Troops just kicked your butt, what are you going to do now...?"

"Heal up, get ready, and send them to Hell... Er, Disney World..."

Same difference. Except you can still tell which one's Mickey on this side of the dead divide...

While we're on the subject of divide, part two is coming right up...!

Chapter 5: Once We Had Blinds; But Now We See...​

With so little really going on, and with my BB and all back in line, it's time to check out trade options and see if we can't make some extra coin...



I start out cheap, just to get the ball rolling. That way, should my 53% not be enough to hold on, I don't lose much. If i is, then I will have the bankroll necessary to go into the big COTs at Antwerpen and Lübeck.



Hungary is really trying hard to not survive this one, huh? Nice thing about this is I no longer have to worry if their name pops up anywhere in future wars. Unless through some small miracle they come back from this. I doubt it though, Poland and the Otts, and even Lithuania will be hot to take from them now that they're down.

After some R&R, my troops decide it's time to go back in and see what can be done with our Pretender Friends...



A much more prototypical result. From basically the same moral standpoints too. Amazing what a few die rolls can do to you. From there it's light work to remove them completely.



Now here's something you don't see every day:



Good thing I got a pic of it. I rarely turn my military slider down. I prefer to have fewer units at full strength and ready to go than more units at lower strength. There's equal risk of accidents both ways, but less micro managing with fewer units.

I also decide it's time to dump my mission. I have no desire to work the HRE at this point. I'd have better luck manipulating my shoelaces with my shins than I would manipulating HRE votes right now. The new mission isn't one I can realize right away, but I don't think I'll be canceling it either:



Long about this time, England decides Morocco is a good victim for a crusade. Needing the cash, I join in for the bonuses. Mantua joins in, as one would expect due to the target nation:





My people get even happier at the thought of more soldiers dying and I go +2 STAB.

It takes a little while, but I eventually get my 5 merchants in Liguaria. It's a little chunk, but it's better than no chunk:



With the cash flow easing up, I begin to look around for an opening into my next war. I go through the targets but come up empty for holes. I seriously debate going ahead and pulling the trigger anyways.



It's then I notice I'm getting shunted out of Liguaria at a record pace. That sends warning hackles up, so I stop for a minute and look into it.

First, I move my Merchants to breaking the big COTs that are out of my field of fire...



The 70% WITH an open slot is very telling. It basically means my trade ability sucks hind tit. I have a respectable 51% for Lübeck. The thought though is that I can make there with 2 or 3 merchants what I was making in Liguaria with 5. I pop them to red, and remove Liguaria with it's 49% (and sinking) compete chance.

With that done, I check out Aquileia, and whether or not I can swing a DoW. First, the list of adversaries I'd encounter if I went ahead:



Oooh, scary. Naxos puts the fear of Dudley Do-right in me, and Salzburg, oh the horror. We already know Hungary has been reduced to a frozen hungry man dinner.

Wait a minute you say... What happened to Ugly Betty ?

Well, here's what I uncovered as I was poking around:



See that ? Aquileia has nearly the same income as me. And I know I can get three of four provinces. And I know two of those are Gold provinces. And I know Görz is one of the best provinces to put a COT in on the map.

I used to put it in Istria, but unddu's legacy lives on, and I put there in his honor, for he taught me much.

AND, don't forget I can split the Venetian COT at will, further weakening them for a take over. So, Aquileia becomes the target simply by financial necessity.

Besides, we still have Naples in our back pocket. So long as they stay allied, it's only a matter of time.

The part I don't like about all of this is the following:



Bavaria can be a handful. I can't risk losing control of a home province, it'll kill my WE and my income. That means trying to peg the Aquileian forces ASAP, then trying to return in time to keep the homelands clear against the brunt of the at peace Bavarians. Only way that works is to hope they get a call to defend someone else. At least as HRE it's a likely call.

I actually stop and think about it for a minute. Something just says don't. I don't get it, really. I live for moments like this. Luck favors the bold, and I do love to jump the train early and give 'em hell.

I get side tracked by my people getting happy for no apparent reason:



This allows me to further improve my economic standing:



I switch my focus to the GOV slider for the first NI. I then go and check the war tab just to see where I'm at. It's there that that nagging feeling I had gets realized:



It dawns on me that my crusade against the Moroccans has been both a blessing and a curse. My WE has been frozen in time, it seems. DoWing Aquileia now would add three to what's there. No way I can start a war with a junk ruler and almost 6 (SIX !) WE.

I get some actual good news the following March:



I love April fools day in this game. I swear there's a special code in the game trigger wise for certain events. Usually, I get all my STAB increases on April 1st, but this time it's not me who's the butt of the joke:



That doesn't stop me from trying to play the fool though, as again I look into the fire:



I shy away again, instead just biding my time and playing the trade game. I decided to keep Morocco on the leash for the income bonuses and for the combat bonuses should rebels pop while my maintenance was down, but nearly a year later, my ally wises up, and I decide I'll follow suit:



I again go through a bout of compete outs in Liguaria:



I decide enough's enough and pull the plug on them. Antwerpen has been pretty stable, so I bump them up and then add Lübeck to the send list.

Twice now I've gotten activity like this, and I wonder if something's up. Maybe Venice is getting even with me...

Burgundy is ignored. Last thing I need is a mess with them at the center.

This time though, my hunch proves right, there was something up:



I had even made an extra 2K INF just in case... Now I'll even get to use them. Unfortunately, Venice is on my side of the equation, but Aquileia is wide open and laid bare with nothing but token support...

The popup confirms that the little blue lady is bare indeed...



Heck yes... Grab your gear boys...

We're going to WAR...!

And if that wasn't enough...:



"Ohhh... I'm... So... Heppay..."

Till next time...!

T

@enkhuush: From the update: "Burgundy is ignored. Last thing I need is a mess with them at the center." I didn't ally with Bohemia for the same reason. Those two always manage to get involved in farcical wars whenever they have an extra army hanging around.

It's not a bad thing if you border them, but if you don't, you can suffer prestige hits for not playing along when they DoW France or Poland or East Boondock...

@Yoshi: Many thanks, my son. I bow to your interpretive skills, and am 'so heppay' you approve.

T

@Iain Wilson: I've waited for so long to finally use that little pic. I wanted to put it in every post for a week...

@Beamed: I do hate to be grounded, I wouldn't be able to work on updates...

Back to the picture pages...

T

@Insignificant & OY: It doesn't matter. Two posts, one post. The pic count per complete update doesn't change, it just gets split up. Making somebody do this in 1 post, 2 posts or 10 posts is really irrelevant to the poster.

If it benefits them (the moderators) in some way, or makes the forum admin feel better, or makes for easier moderation or what ever, it's fine with me. The admin are the ones who have to go through all the posts and stuff, and this IS their house, so whatever the rule is, it is. I'll worry about making the best of it and following the guideline.

As it is, I rather like to keep it to 10-15 pics or so to a post, which is why I always seem to have alot of updates. I tend to split everything up into chunks anyways. This last one was an experiment with a longer post, and I wasn't really pleased with it, so really it suits me perfectly fine.

Part of this is also why I went to segmented screen shots instead of posting the whole screen for every shot. I still have some that are a little on the big side, but I try to keep them in the 50kb to 100kb range, instead of the 150kb-250kb range I did my first AAR in, where I had 10-15 full sized screens in every post. Poor Enewald...

There's nothing wrong with having a thing like this, and 20 is a nice limit, not too few but not too many. Now, if they start saying I can only have 20 pics per AAR, well that's a different story... (a rather short story, I might add... )

T

PS: Hey-a everybody... A-Welcome elbasto...

OrangeYoshi said:

Nope, it is only 20 pics per update, and you can't split it to two posts to bypass the rule.

Click to expand...

Here's the rule as posted in the FAQ thread:

There will be a maximum of 20 screenshots per post allowed in any AAR post. Use proper discretion in screenshot usage and be mindful of your readers and the moderators computer load time. A helpful warning could be added to your title if you plan on having a screenshot heavy AAR. This rule will be watched closely.

Click to expand...

That says nothing about anything but a hard limit of 20 shots per post. I addressed this last post, and my intentions should be well within these guide lines.

Anything else and they need to start mandating what constitutes an update, and they have character limits for that already.

If you have other information, please provide a link.

T

Also, can we take this somewhere else... This is an AAR, not a picture post discussion group.

When we last left our intrepid nation of Milan, we had accepted an invitation to join in some festivities against one of our main targets of interest: Aquileia. Of course we accepted...

Ah, It's so good to be warring again, especially when we get to go after one of our initial objectives. Getting these provinces in the fold early and cored early will give us a very nice foundation for later expansion operations. Well that's the 'official version'. The reality is is just fun to go to war and see the map change colors.

What's even better is the fact we get to do it with near impunity:



Naxos will be nothing more than a nuisance that we'll white peace when they get tired or when the end comes when we peace Aquileia. They are basically along for the ride, as I don't want to be down in that neck of the woods just yet. The last thing I need is to give the Otts an excuse to come trick or treating, especially any time of year other then the end of October.

Aquileia does her best to put on a good show to kick things off:



Silly blue nation... Beating me to the punch just means I get to beat you with many punches... After a few battles, my CAV takes the final step to light work in eliminating the main Aquileian forces:



My INF is on the way, and as soon as they take over the siege in Friuli I can take my CAV and finish off the Blue Nation's troops. I split my CAV into 2 units so I can box them in, leaving the minor CAV siege intact and using the major CAV the fun of chasing all over. This means I can move my INF at my leisure, and they just augment and end the siege instead of having to start from scratch. This can save months if not years of siege time, and put me in a position to either end the war or drag it out for war taxes if I so choose.

The main CAV army finally corners the last Aquileian defenders:



With predictable results. With no resistance, the end is here.

The only thing that I need to consider is the occasional regiment popping up under my siegers:



I'd normally have 4K INF in a province for level 1 forts so I can assault them at will, but when I have to use 2K, assaults have to wait until after there's no more enemy build orders under my units. Not a big deal, but I did lose an INF siege once because I didn't pay attention to it. There's nothing quite so embarrassing as assaulting too early and having your INF insta-wiped by a popping enemy squad.

I've had to mint some. Having to turn the maintenance slider up has hurt, as has the loss of merchants in Liguaria. I've had to send a few extra merchants to Antwerpen too, but I now have a good foothold there. Our nation's Inflation is still well within tolerances:



With the merchants in Atwerpen finally sending Ducats back home and the end of active battles, I can relax a little andto drop it down a notch... Sorry Emeril, no BAM for the budget at this time:



The financial struggle still an uphill battle though. I'm right on the cusp of being sufficient with everything on full, which where I like to be. It'll be a few years yet, but the foundation is being built as we speak, and it looks to be pretty solid.

Come October, I get the prerequisite "please let us live" offer:



Not a chance. In fact, it isn't much longer until the first coffin nail goes in:



In January of 1407, Portugal decides to excommunicate Aragon. In February, they do it again. Naxos sues for peace, demanding 38 ducats. I laugh hysterically and tell them to go get bent. March brings with it news that Morocco has collapsed and Fez has joined the ranks of target.

I find also that my Uniforms don't cut it. I make a note to fire the tailor...

Come April, Portugal EXC's Aragon again, And we:



Two down, two to go. It won't be long at all now, and then we'll have the joyous dances in the streets and all that to celebrate our victory.

Did you ever notice that celibate and celebrate are just a few letters apart. Considering the diversity of their meanings it's a good thing they don't get criss-crossed in their usage alot...

All through the year, notices of first ideas being taken by other nations pass through the ticker. Right on schedule, on May 1st, we too get to choose a new idea.



It's about time too. You know how hard it is to be a monarch and wait years just to have an idea? Gives constipation a whole new dimension...

I wanted to take bar tending, but after much complaining and cajoling from my board of advisors I thought better of it and instead chose:



This really isn't a hard decision this go round with the limited funds available. I really need the freedom to mint a little without having 10% inflation by 1450, so this is almost a requirement at this point.

If I wasn't so far out on the decentral, it wouldn't be as big an issue. Also, if I had not brain faded on the 1 year advisor anniversary, I could have netted a nice MoM and it would be a non issue. Getting a 5 or 6 star MoM is near the same value as the NI, and 99 times out of 100 he'll live long enough to get the finances set up so you may not even need to take it. If you can manage another decent MoM and get to -2 decentral, NB becomes all but expendable, allowing that slot to be used by something more beneficial.

That will be the case here, but it looks to be 100 years or so before I can make that a reality. In the end, it's just another classic case of one decision effecting another, which is one of the best things about this game.

With Summer fast upon us, the weather turns ripe for sieging. The muck dries up, the nights are warm. We can lounge about in the shade of the afternoons with no worries, but for the stray arrow or two finding it's way to our position from the city walls.

As luck would have it:



I always liked the 13th... Only one more to go, and it's crying out to fall any day now. Had I room to spare, or a decent monarch, I'd have been hammering war taxes right now. But alas, I cannot. At least the WE is going down instead of up...

Unfortunately, I'm still hemorrhaging funds. I do my best to time my run out into the middle of December. That allows the maximum amount you can divert to go into tech, as you won't take a loan out at the end of the year. You do have to keep an eye on things... Sudden expenditures or income drops can cause you to dip at the end of November, and then you will get a loan. Right now, I don't want one.

Hey, guess what:



Those crazy Portuguese. Actually, I believe this has been fixed in the newer betas. I've actually been pretty lucky, not experiencing it very often. It's not a bug that does any real damage it seems, being more or less a pain in the butt. Once I reload the save, it should disappear. At least it usually stops after I do that...

As things in Aquileia die down, I reminisce of a past life as the Beatles roll through my head:



With a little help from my friends indeed. But we all know the real reason they showed up is for the free beer at the 'peace party'.

I actually like it when they show like this though. It saves alot of wear and tear on the old scouting reports, as it gives you a good idea of composition and mobility and generals you're likely to face later on...

I hold off on the peace just to go over and take a gander at Naxos... While I'm at it Portugal EXC's Aragon again. And again, And again... I arrive to find Venice has been having fun taking the Island and fighting Rebs in Athens. It seems the Otts wouldn't let them go through, so they took Naxos as a bridge to quell the Rebellion.

This is a good time to split the update, so we'll be right back to our AAR after this commercial message...

T

Thanks Yoshi.

It now becomes clear that they have to define every applicable term. It also means they'll have to define 'immediate'. For people like myself who have limited time to work on these, it means I'll have to go do other things. (at least the wife will be happy, as I'm sure she'll have something lined up...) A picture is worth 1000 words, and I really don't have the time to type those words because I can't post a picture instead.

It'd be nice, and well worth it to make a premium forum package for 10 bucks a year that eliminates this stuff. I wouldn't mind paying for the privilege of posting a few extra pics an update. As it is, 10-15 an update is enough for me, but on a day like today, where I have two updates, I'll go 'over the limit', so I can't finish the posting. This not only hurts me, but angers and frustrates the reader who has to wait for an update because I have to wait until my picture timer runs out. I completely understand 30 pics in a single post being too many. I even think the 20 could be pared down, so long as you can post again in a reasonable amount of time.

I don't think I've I've ever seen a company try so hard to alienate it's biggest supporters before. Modders and AAR writers tend to be some of the more intelligent and loyal supporters of a company's products. It makes no sense to me at all to single them out by making their mods unusable or their AARs more difficult to post. If anything, I'd be developing things to get more of these people, not going out of my way to find things that discourage them or make them feel unwanted.

I guess someday when I own my own game company I'll find out what it's all about...

Till then I'll just do my best to live within the confines of the rules.

Thanks guys for the heads up, BTW. I don't usually go to the main pages so I missed the post until it was pointed out.

T