Chapter 24: Domination
Riga Declares War
This chapter begins with Riga declaring war on the combined Germanic hordes. Normally, such a move would be considered suicide; but as Riga was already a vassal, the only point of this war from a Brunswick standpoint is to prove to Riga just how overmatched it was.
The nobles demanded the right to destroy the Rigan rebels by themselves. The King ignored them.
As it is, they didn't miss much.
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The Last King
Corsica was the last province of the Holy Roman Empire not yet in vassalship to the greatness that was Brunswick. Corsica therefore had to fall. That France would join only added to the fun.
France was the only nation of the two of them that would put up stiff resistance. That is, if you could call the Battle of Normandie "resistance."
The nobles were rather ticked that a peasant leader took credit for the great victory, and went on strike for a month.
The war was not without other ill effects, however--a good portion of the educated class of Worms packed up and left for Africa, where they hoped to establish a new life in the "new world."
Eventually, Corsica surrendered to the armies of Brunswick.
Their king was granted a nice dukedom made up of his former lands; and a place in the history books.
The King of France was not quite as lucky.
It was rather amusing to see Catholic Zealots besieging Paris merely months after. France was more or less dead at this point.
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Hesse, part two?
The King explained that he would rather have the Dukedom of Denmark in Jylland as opposed to Fyn, as this way his armies would have free passage to Sweden. He apparently forgot that the way was blocked by Mecklenburg in the first place; and thus this was rather pointless. Still, it did net the kingdom 780 ducats, which was no small sum.
Despite the recent conquests, the King still wished to get Brunswick's reputation back under the badboy limit, and so he hired a four-star advisor to help the process along.
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Mayan War
Is comment really necessary?
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Defending the Advantage
After noticing that the Spanish had made it to the Pacific coast, Heinrich V decided that this could not be and attempted to pay off the natives to kill Spanish colonists. After three attempts, the bribes were successful in expelling the Spaniards.
Nathan the Prophet showed up with a new mission for the king. "Destabilizing the Mamluks," he called it. The King thought it was a joke that Nathan called the Mamluks a "serious rival;" but truth was, the Mamluks were the only serious rival left in the world that the Germans had not completely crushed in a war.
This amused Heinrich almost as much as if he had been warned.
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Cabinet
For the last several years, Brunswick had been beelining Government Tech, out of hopes that it would land them Cabinet soon enough to control that pesky reputation.
Now the research was complete and the benefits could be harvested.
Heinrich's council was renamed "cabinet;" and in that one move, all of Heinrich's neighbours suddenly respected him more, and thought him an absolute dove to have done so.
With the latest technological improvements, Brunswick's reputation was falling at a rate of 2.01 points per year; if Brunswick were to stay still, Heinrich could be under the badboy limit within two years.
And so Heinrich bided his time...
But this wouldn't be the
Brunswick Vassal AAR if Heinrich didn't do something stupid, now, would it? Or at least someone else force his hand...
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Odd Sights Around the World
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Bulgaria Declares Independence
The revolution of Bulgaria had actually been a long-awaited event; and Heinrich was thrilled to get this out of the way before the Mamluks hordes were sure to pour over the border.
The rebels offered little resistance; especially after the rebel leader was promised a dukedom.
