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unmerged(9451)

Corporal
May 24, 2002
32
0
Ragusa Story

I think that I am quite good in this game, and to get more challenge I am playing with worse and worse countries. Someone mentioned Ragusa as an impossible country and I have never before played that, so here is my newest game.

I am not really much into story telling so I am just going to tell what I am doing in the game and what I am thinking. There is two reasons for this.

1) I want to learn more, so I am writing my thoughts up so that I can see where I could improve.
2) If someone of you have some interesting thoughts, I am open to suggestions.
3) Maybe some noobie learns something from reading this.

My gaming style

NEVER reloading. In my opinion reloading is cheating. If something really bad happens, well, I just have to live with that. This means that I have to be extremely careful. I don’t ever start a war unless I am really certain that I am stronger than my opponent.

Because I don’t ever reload there is a slight possibility that this game ends very soon. It is possible that some of my neighbours will DOW me immediatedly and then I am annexed. Well, shit happens and my first AAR ends very soon.

Economy is exactly as in real life the basis where everything is built. I try always to keep as much cash available because there might be a bad event or some idiot might attack me. I also want to keep both my trade and infrastructure levels as high as possible.

I try to keep inflation always at minimum. Although I understand that sometimes printing some money is necessary, but only on really desperate situations. On the long run, increased costs are greater than benefits of printing money.

My country, Ragusa

My country is a one-province minor. It has 5 000 infantry and 1 000 cavalry and 10 galleys. It is a small army but I can’t afford greater yet. It is a poor province which has 9 000 inhabitants in it’s capital and it produces fish (Hey, what else?).

I have really much cash to spend, 500 gold. Problem is that my province is really poor, so I don’t have much income. I can only wonder where my country got this huge amount of money. Development aid from Sweden, perhaps?

Ragusa is in catholic techonology group so tech levels should not be a problem for me.

My strategies

Inner policy

First of all, I will immediatedly promote a tax collector to give me more really much needed income.

Second, I will lower the maintenance level for both land and naval militaries to 50% to lower costs of having an army. I will continue to do always when I am not in war or preparing for a war.

As a first domestic policy change I will change my slider to one point to more innovative. My country is quite narrowminded and thus increased stability costs should not be a problem.

My center of trade is Venice, where I can send merchants really cheaply, 1 gold/1 merchant.
Later my own center may change to Istanbul, when Ottomans conquer it, I really don’t know.

Foreign policy

My country is really a weak state whose well-being depends of other states. My neighbours are these.

1) Albania. Albania is also one province minor which has cb agaist Serbia. They should not be a problem, at least not immediatedly. Orthodoxians.
2) Serbia. Serbians are natural enemies of albanians. They have also cb against Bosnia and Hungary. Albanians, Bosnians, Hungarians and Croatians will keep them busy not to bother me. Maybe if they are in war with everyone, there might be a chance for me to conquer Kosovo. Orthodoxians.
3) Bosnia. Bosnia is also a one province minor. It has catholic religion and slovonic culture in her province so when I am ready to attack it will be a natural direction. My ability to attack is still very weak, so that has to wait. They will sooner or later have a war against Serbia and that could bring me an opportunity what I need.
4) Venice. Venetians think that my country should be part of their own. Although I look Dalmatia with greed, I don’t have capability to resist them, so I have to try hard to have good relations with them. Luckily they are at the beginning have a war against Croatia and Hungary.

I guess I try first to keep good relations with all my neighbours by having royal marriages with them. Actually it seems to me that it is not necessary for me to have military alliance because no-one of my neighbours are really threatening immediatedly. Later I have to get in an alliance with some of enemies of Venice. I don’t know who it will be, maybe Papal States, Austria or Hungary.

I will post my first installment tomorrow.

And last thing, excuse my bad English. I think my text is highly readible still.
 
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Your English is good enough and your choice of country is promising. Good luck!
 
I will post here what important happened. I will mention only interesting events from my point of view, not “Saxony DOWd Magdeburg” or anything like that.

January 1419
I was able to arrange a royal marriage with Venice. This was really important. My king Gingic is a very able monarch who will help me much in diplomacy, trading and tech levels.
Ottomans declared war against Byzantium. I guess the goold old Rome doesn’t survive very long.

March 1419
My stability is back to +3. I don’t seem to have almost at all stability costs which is very good to know.
My merchants doesn’t seem to survive in Venice. Well, they are cheap anyway.

April 1419
I arranged a royal marriage with Serbia.

June 1419
Bosnia proposes military alliance. I thought about this really long. Would it be possible for me to make them later my vassals and diplo-annex them? I really don’t know. Serbians have a cb against them. Serbians are not currently in war with anyone and they might attack Bosnians. After long thinking I answered no.

August 1419
Croatians and Hungarians besiege both Istria and Croatians Dalmatia. I hope they can beat my enemies.
I arranged a royal marriage with Albania.

October 1419
Bosnia grants Croatia military access.

November 1419
Bosnia grants Hungary military access. These two events are bad because they allow Hungary and Croatia potentially attack me and because they mean that these contries will not DOW each other.

December 1419
Ottomans finally besieges Thrace.

January 1420
Ottomans besiege also Morea.

February 1420
Venice joins military alliance of the Knights and Cypros and at the same time their war against Karaman and Teke.

February 1420
Austria, Baden, Mantua and Milan declare war to Helvetia. This was meant to be happen sooner or later.

March 1420
Venice accepts peace with Croatia paying 106 gold in indemnities. Bad, I hoped Croatia would take a province from them because Venetian army had been badly beaten.

April 1420
I am not sure if my chosen strategy has been right. Maybe I should have with my huge cash reserve just bought lots of troops and attacked Bosnia. If successful I would have had another province and I would not be afraid of being annexed. I don’t want anymore to do that because all my neighbours are in peace which means that they are able to attack me.

October 1420
Ottomans conquer Morea. After that in peace Byzantium gives them Morea and 39 gold. This is also bad, I hope that I don’t have too soon problems with Ottomans.

January 1421
I am starting to see what is so difficult in this country. January 1421 I collected my yearly taxes. My treasury increased from 412 to 419. Yeah, that makes seven/year. So I really have to think where to send my merchants. I am a little lost now. Maybe I should just conquer some province with my cash but at least I have to wait that my neighbours will get some wars and problems because I don’t want to attack anyone strong alone. I also want to wait for first event to happen.

May 1421
My monarch wents temporarily insane for 3 months.

November 1421
I entered royal marriage with Genoa. Although Genoa is far away it has strong fleet and economy so it probably is good to have good relations with her.

November 1422
Dulkadir annexes Trabizond.

December 1422
Venice annexes Teke.

July 1423
Karaman accepts peace with Cypros. Karaman pays 2 in indemnities and Adana to Cypros.
War between Karaman and Venice still continues.

October 1423 Karaman besieges Antalya.

July 1424 Foreign instructor wanted to get 250 gold for some reforms in my army. Guess what was my answer? Yeah, no!

Now it is July 1424 in my game and there is not much happening so I thought this would be a good time to finish the first installment. There has been some wars that have been in my interest. First of all, Venetian wars. They have been continuously at war first against Hungarians and Croatians and then against turks. War must be exhausting their economy and therefore they are not posing great threat at least yet.

Austrians have been at war with Helvetia long also. They seem to be winning but it must have taken a tremendous effort from them. Helvetia has also annexed Baden. This is good, because in my opinion Austria gets usually irritatingly strong too early.

Ottomans can become a true problem. They have not had wars since 1420 and it is just a matter of time when they will attack and annex Byzantium.

During the start of the game I have not done much anything. I have just sent merchants to Venice and waited for an opportunity to come. My problem is that all of my neighbours except Venice have done exactly the same. Balkan seems to be quite and peaceful place compared to these days. I am disappointed to Serbia, which has cbs towards Bosnia and Hungary and Albania which has cb towards Serbia. It should not take long before Serbs go to war, at least I hope so. They have Wallachia and Moldavia as their allies, though.

I have 397 gold and I have spent money mainly on promoting a tax collector and sending merchants. When I started this game I had 500 gold, so you understand that getting more funding is really important for me.

I don’t know yet what I will do. Probably I am still going to wait for opportunity. Military alliance would also be interesting option but there doesn’t seem to be enough riskfree alliance which would accept me. I’d like to join Italian alliance between Toscana, Siena, Genoa, Papal States and Duchy of Athens, but there is no space for that. (Why can’t there be an alliance where would be more than 5 members?)
 
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I'll salute you for taking a seriously challenging country to play. Now all you have to do is make it work! I think you must get an alliance with someone. Otherwise you are seen as an easy target by just about everybody in the neighborhood, and as you have seen, it's a tough neighborhood.

Human led alliances are capped at 5 members (counting yourself) but an AI led alliance can be arbitrarily large, even with a human among the nations in the alliance. So go ahead and try to join Genoa (or some suitable alliance).

Attacking Bosnia sounds like it would have been a better idea. Maybe you'll still have a chance to do it. Good luck.
 
Seeing this inspired me to try a quick game as Ragusa. My strategy was to ally with Venice (powerful, naval, fellow Catholics - and if you're allies they can't attack you), and try and exploit the Balkan infighting to pick up some Slavonic provinces before the Ottomans grabbed them all.

By 1435, I had a solid alliance with Venice (Cyprus, Knights) and had acquired Bosnia (from Serbia) & Kosovo (from Albania). :)

By 1440, I had been stamped flat by the Turks. :( :(

Here's hoping your strategy fares better. Good luck - i fear you may need it!
 
You know your best bet might be to ally with the Turks. They get into lots of wars and have a big, nasty, well-led army to fight them with. Odds are, they'll sweep the Balkans clean, but you can pick up a piece or two if you're their allies.
 
Years 1424-26

July 1424
Ottomans declared war upon Candar and Dulkadir.
Toscana, Duchy of Athens, Siena, Papal States and Genoa declare war upon Modena, Naples and Albania. I was just thinking of joining the first alliance. If Albania moves their army away to attack Athens, I will join that Northern Italian alliance (from now on NIA).

August 1424
Antalya surrenders to Karaman troops. Ottomans besiege Kastamonu.

September 1424
Karaman army beats Venetian troops attempting to land Antalya.

November 1424
Albanians besiege Athens. Troops of Athens escape to Albania. Now if I attack Albania and conquer it, it will belong to Athens, so maybe I just wait still.

December 1424
Modena is besieged by NIA. NIA troops liberate Athens and besiege Albania.

March 1425
Venetians besiege Antalya.

April 1425
Modena conquered by NIA (This soon?) and annexed by Toscana.

July 1425
I arranged royal marriage with Aragon. They are also one of the great powers of Mediterranian. Ottomans are besieging Sivas.

September 1425
Ottomans conquer and annex Candar. NIA conquers and Athens annexes Albania. Cypros and the Knights declare war upon Dulkadir, Venice dishonors alliance. I guess Venetians have had enough of warfare.

November 1425
NIA troops besiege Naples.

March 1426
Venetians retake Antalya.

April 1426
NIA troops conquer Naples.
Venetians besiege Konya.

May 1426
NIA troops beat army of Naples and besiege Apulia.
Karaman army beats Venetians and besiege Antalya.

June 1426
Plague happened to us. Stability costs are nothing but losing of 1 000 people is bad. Sivas surrenders to Ottomans.

Ok, time to finish the second installment.

In July 1426 I have 397 gold, just like before, I have only sent merchants to Venice. It is only thing that I can afford with my income. I want to save my money for good opportunity, I wont waste money doing something idiotic.

There was an opportunity for me to attack when NIA attacked alliance of Modena, Naples and Albania. Now it seems that it would have been a good chance, Modena and Albania are annexed and Naples is losing. But then it didn’t seem certain, and like I have written, I don’t want to have wars which I could lose.

NIA war has been only important event since last posting.

Another opportunity may be rising. If NIA forces conquer Apulia and some of them takes it in peace, there wouldn’t be any troops in Naples after peace. It would be really great start for my game if I could simply DOW, conquer and then annex Naples. This would bring very much opportunities, because I could not yet really defend it, I should join NIA, which would be around my new Italian territory. Then I should not be afraid of being attacked in Naples. There is also other gains from having territory on both sides of Adriatic Sea. If I would in war lose other of my provinces the other one would not be immediatedly attacked.

I am a little afraid of Ottomans. They have already annexed Candar and are beating Dulkadir. Sooner or later they will cause problems. Albania was annexed by Duchy of Athens. This means solving problem for Serbia, who doesn’t have anymore an enemy on her southern border. Serbia and Bosnia are still just watching around, just like me. Still it should not take long for Serbia to go on war path. Their other neighbours, Hungary, Bosnia and Ottomans are not easy to deal with. I will call alliance of Serbia, Wallachia and Moldavia from now on Orthodox Alliance. I don’t think I will have any problems with my new neighbour, Duchy of Athens.

Venetians are still having a war with turks and they have dishonored their alliance. They are not a threat at this moment. I hope that Karamans are able to beat them because I want them to be weak and because strong Karaman could also resist Ottomans.

Austrians are also having their very long war with Helvetians. Swiss seem to be tough opponents for them.
 
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:D

Great going!!!!

Few times, I also got kicked, stamped and drowned in Ottoman Empre.

Once, only once, I managed to kick Ottoman Empire's back and cheerfully annexed all the countries. I managed to grab Thrace after they lost Morea and rest are history... :cool:

Keep going and looking forward to Ragusa around at 1820...

:)

Thanks

Joe (Sapphire)
 
1426-29

June 1426
Hungary, Luxemburg, Siebenburgen and Croatia declare war upon Orthodox Alliance. (Why is so that when I load a game usually some big wars in my neighbourhood happen? Is AI reacting somehow strangely to loading, or am I just paranoid?) Croatia became vassals of Hungary 1425, forgot to mention.
Venice joins alliance of Cypros and the Knights and their war against Dulkadir.
Ottomans besiege Trabzon.

August 1426
Wallachia is besieged by Hungararian alliance. Venetians don’t anymore besiege Konya.

September 1426
Serbians besiege Croatia and are recruiting new troops in both Kosovo and Serbia. Better not to attack them at least not yet.

November 1426
Serbians are still recruiting new troops both in Serbia and Kosovo. If I hate one thing in this game it is that AI seems to cheat with maintenance costs. But I guess AI just couldn’t survive without this cheat.
Trabzon surrenders to Ottomans.
Siebenburgen is besieged by Orthodox Alliance.

December 1426
Peace between Ottomans and Dulkadir. Trabzon and 89 gold to Ottomans and Dulkadir becomes a vassal. Now Ottomans are free to annex Rome (Byzantium). Venetian alliance is in war with Dulkadir and will now probably annex it.

January 1427
I arrange a royal marriage with Toscana. They are a leading member of NIA so I must have good relations with them.

February 1427
Apulia surrenders to Papal States. Papal States make peace with them getting Apulia, 73 gold and Naples becomes their vassals. Unfortunately war between Naples and other NIA states still continue and troops of Genoa and Toscana besiege Naples immediatedly before I can attack. Sigh.

June 1427
Wallachia surreders to Siebenburgen.

August 1427
Serbia conquers Croatia and Wallachians Siebenburgen. Siebenburgen accepts peace by paying 30 gold. Now Wallachia is again free. On the southern side of Mediterranian, Mameluks attacked 1424 Tunisia and are beating them badly.

September 1427
Orthodoxian troops besiege Banat. This game is going too well for them.

November 1427
Genoans conquer and annex Naples. That much from my Italian conquest.

January 1428
Helvetians accept finally peace with Austria. They will pay 82 gold and give Baden and Schwyz to Bavaria. When before Bavaria had annexed Wurttemberg, they are already a power of 5 provinces, just like Austria.

February 1428
Karamans retake Antalya from Venetians. Moldova besieges Ruthenia.

March 1428
Banat surrenders to Wallachians. What Hungarians are doing? They are losing their war.

May 1428
Orthodox troops besiege Krain.

June 1428
Hungarians besiege Wallachia.

October 1428
My infrasftructure is improved to High Renaissance (2). It will take long before I build Fine Arts Academies, but perhaps my income will now improve a bit.
Tunisia makes peace with Mameluks giving them Tripolitania, 18 gold and becoming vassals.

November 1428
Ak Koyunly annexes Dulkadir. So Venetian alliance doesn’t have anymore problems with them.
Venice accepts peace with Karaman by paying 63 gold. Unfortunately they are finally in peace. I have to start thinking about military alliance because they might attack me when they recover from war exhaustion.

December 1428
Ruthenia surrenders to Moldova.

January 1429
Time to change again my inner policies. In move one step towards more innovative, because stability costs should’t be a problem even after that. My stability will be back +3 in February.

February 1429
I reached trade level High Renaissance (2). Maybe from now on my merchants will compete better in Venice. Bosnia invites us again to join military alliance, which I decline.
Serbians conquer Krain and force Croatians to these terms: Croatia pays 75 gold and gives Krain to Serbia. Now Hungary fights Orthodox Alliance alone, Luxemburg can’t send troops. Elsewhere in Balkan, Wallachia surrenders to Hungarians. Wallachia still has Banat in their control though.

June 1429
Hungarians besiege Ruthenia.

September 1429
Orthodox Alliance besieges Wallachia.
My fourth event happens. I get 5 000 infantry and now I will end this third installment.

It is now September 1429 and I have 394 gold. Like before I have just waited for opportunities to happen. What has happened has been war between Hungarian and Orthodoxian Alliances. I wished that Hungarians would be successful so I could maybe attack Serbians and steal Kosovo from them but Orthodoxians have been extremely succesful. They have beated Croatia and Siebenburgen and now control Hungarian provinces of Banat and Ruthenia, when Hungarians control Wallachia.

I have to think about military alliance very hard, because Venice is recovering from their almost 10 years lasted wars. There is plenty of chances.
1. very strong NIA, who controls whole Italian peninsula except Siena, Albania, Corsica, Hellas and areas on Crimea. Leader Toscana, my relation with them is +56. This strong alliance has a border with me and Venice so I probably would be protected from Venetians.
2. alliance of the Knights (leader), Cypros and Venice. My relation with the Knights is very high, +124. It would be good to be in the same alliance as my worst enemies, Venice, but this alliance will probably have useless wars in Middle East where there would not be anything to gain for me.
3. Orthodox Alliance. Leader Wallachia, with whom I have +4 relation. They seem to be doing well, and I am not planning attacking them, at least not yet. Problem is that they will continuously have wars wars against Hungarians and later ottomans so their long term future doesn’t look too good.
4. Ottomans. My relation with them is -168, so I would have to probably bribe them. This would certainly cause sooner or later war with Venice which I could lose and be annexed then. Maybe it is not a good idea, but if Ottomans will rise to be a power in my neighbourhood it would be good to have good relations with them.

Venetian and Austrian wars have ended. Both wars were for both somewhat succesful, but I am not sure if they really were worth it for them. Anyway both countries are recovering from costs of war and are becoming more threatening to their neighbours. Leader of the game is Portugal with 136 points. They have not conquered any areas, so I guess they are already now sending colonists to Western Africa. At this moment it seems that I will reach land tech level 2 1434. If I have still then only one province I must expand my fortress to level 2.

I have now gained 5 000 infantry. I can’t afford this “huge” army because of maintenance costs. I have two options: I can disband half of my army or I can attack Bosnia. Bosnia is still outside of any alliances and they still have their original army of 6 000 men. I should be able to beat and annex them. Not without risks of course. If I am able to annex Bosnia, both Serbia and Venice have casus belli towards me. Then it would be good to be allied with Serbia or Venice instead of NIA or Ottomans.
 
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I'd recruit some more infantry before going after Bosnia (you can always disband them after the war), since if you lose the battle to the Bosnians you could be in serious trouble. Bavaria's growing nicely I see and Serbia as well, they'll need it when the Turks come calling. The AI often declares lots of wars at reload since reloading causes the AI the evaluate its position vis-a-vis its neighbors, if one looks weak, the AI goes on the warpath.
 
War, conquest and recovery, years 1429-35

zachary, I think I need a lot of troops because I just can not afford losing this one battle to Bosnians. This is going to be short war: one decisive battle, then siege and annexation. After that or even during war I will join some alliance. That is why I am recruiting lots of troops immediatedly.

Odo (Is that real name?), Austrians are probably too far away. Their alliance is strong so I keep that option in mind.

BTW, I am writing this continuosly at the same time with playing the game. Everytime something happens I write it down with Word. So if I make some horrible mistake, reader can uderstand what I have been thinking.
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September 1429
Ottoman Empire declares war upon Byzantium and Georgia.
I give Serbians military access to my country. Now they can not attack me without warning.
I ordered 7 000 more infantry, all much as I can.

October 1429
Serbians are still ordering more troops. They must have ordered new troops something like 30 000 units. Still they have money to promote tax collector to Krain. Oh, how I hate when AI cheats on costs.

November 1429
Bosnians asks us to join military alliance. I deny because I am preparing attack against them. Sad, they don’t know what kind of viper I truly am.

December 1429
I declare war upon Bosnia and order my army of 17 000 infantry and 1 000 cavalry to attack them.
My stability drops to 0 but it will be back to +3 on March..
Ottomans besiege Thrace. 2 000 year old empire will soon be annexed.
Hungarian army besieges Krain.

January 1430
Ottomans besiege Georgia.

February 1430
I finally attack Bosnian army in Bosnia. I destroy them, leave sieging force behind and follow with my main force Bosnians when they are fleeing to Ragusa.

March 1430
Beated remnants of Bosnian army, 3 300 men beat my forces of 10 000 men in Ragusa. My army turns back to Bosnia. I will keep my forces there and wait for Bosnia to surrender when I annex counrty also those troops will be mine.

May 1430
Hungarians retake Ruthenia from Orthoxians.
Hungary accepts peace with Orthodoxians when they pay to Hungary 96 gold. They will now recover but it is only a matter of time when next war between these countries will break out.

October 1430
Thrace surrenders to Ottomans and Byzantium is annexed.

November 1430
Bosnia surrenders and I annex them immediatedly. Now I do many things pause on.
1. I promote a tax collector in Bosnia
2. Disband old Bosnian troops in Ragusa and 5400 infantry in Bosnia. I have left now 8 000 infantry and 200 cavalry which should be enough and doesn’t ruin my economy.’
3. Ask to join an alliance of the Knights, Venice and Cypros, The Knights say no.
4. Ask to join an alliance of NIA. Toscana says no.
5. Ask to join an alliance of Wallachia, Moldova and Serbia. Wallachia says no.

What the hell is this?! My monarchs’ diplomatic skill is very good and I have positive relations with the Knights and Wallachia, Toscana -36. I guess I should have tried to join alliance before annexation. Well, now I just have to wait and see. I am not going to pay anyone to be able to join their alliance. I think that I am now more readier to defend my self when I don’t have to be afraid of immediate annexation after each war.
Ottomans make Thrace their new capital province.
Georgia surrenders to Ottomans.

December 1430
Ottomans open a new center of trade in Thrace. I will send my merchants from now on there.
Serbia cancels their military access to our country. This is not good although I still have royal marriage with them. They have a huge army, but I think they want to rest a little after their long war against Hungarians.

March 1431
I arrange a royal marriage with Toscana. Should have done this much earlier.

April 1431
Wallachians decline from my royal marriage offer.
Luxemburg, Hungary, Siebenburgen and Croatia declare war to Mainz and Brittany. I haven’t ever understood what is the meaning of this alliance between Luxemburg and Hungary&co. They never gain anything from this relation but lose money by war exhaustion.
Ottomans besiege Sochi.

August 1431
Duchy of Athens become vassals of Toscana.

December 1431
Ottomans conquer Sochi. Georgia agrees peace with Ottomans giving them Sochi, 56 gold and becoming vassal.
Ottoman Empire cancels military access treaty they had in Duchy of Athens.
Now Ottomans are free to attack NIA, Orthodoxian Alliance or Venetian Alliance. I hope that my enemies attack each other, not me.

April 1432
Quiet, very quiet. I arrange a royal marriage with Austria. Maybe I will later even join their alliance. They have common borders with Venice, NIA and now even with Serbia. (Serbs have Krain, remember?)

October 1432
Still really quiet. People of Naples rebel, destroy Genoan army and start besieging Naples.

April 1433
Nothing happens. Genoans beat rebels in Naples.

May 1433
Venice has reached second levels on both land and naval technologies. It will take some years for me to reach same. I have to change my country more innovative even with higher stability costs.

November 1433
Bavaria, Austria, Mantua and Milan declared war upon Mainz and Brittany. Hmm. It seems that 5 provinces are not enough for Bavarians. Mainz has 4 provinces but is in war with 14 countries. Some kind of accomplishment, I guess. :)
Ottomans joined an alliance of Golden Horde and Sibir and joined their war against Muscovy and Suzdal. Well, they are not threatening me, at least. Later also Ak Koyunly joins their alliance.

March 1434
Golden Horde pays 6 gold to Muscowy. Alliance of Ottomans continue their war against Suzdal.

August 1434
Unhappines among the Merchants-event happened. I lost 100 investment on trade but well, I’am at the moment reaching trade level 2 somewhere 1540’s.
Srong alliance, NIA accepted me as their members. NIA includes Toscana (leader), Duchy of Athens (Toscanas’ vassal), Genoa, Siena, Papal States and now Ragusa. I think this is one of the strongest alliances which controls most of Italia. Considering that its’ members are mostly wealthy and fast technology developing states, they certainly can protect me, if they want, that is. Also with them it could be possible to gain territory somewhere west instead of stormy Balkans. Well, at least I can dream.

October 1434
I entered a royal marriage with Portugal. They are still leading in points.

April 1435
Muscovy joins again Suzdal in their wars against Golden Horde and their allies.

Ok, time to finish again. It is now June 1435. I have made quite a lot progress since last time I wrote. I have now annexed Bosnia and am a member of strong alliance, so I am pretty proud of myself. My situation is now much better than before. Almost everything went better than I expected. I was able to add second province to my country declaring war to my neighbour, beating and annexing them and nobody declared war upon me.

Some thoughts

1. Ottomans are growing far too fast. They have already conquered Byzantium and have now 12 provinces (originally 7). Although they are now occupied with a useless war, it seems that sooner or later I will have a war against them. Duchy of Athens may be their next target and then I will probably go to war against them as a NIA member. Luckily Ottomans are threat also to everybody else. NIA expires November 1437 if new wars doesn’t happen.
2. Orthodoxians are now in peace and are a growing danger. They should have problems with Hungary soon, peace between them has just expired. Also Ottoman Empire may attack them.
3. Venetian alliance has been in peace for some time. They are too strong, they have been able to add to their countries Antalya and Adana.
4. I will reach second land and naval technologies 1436 if nothing strange happens. I hope that peace lasts at least that long.
5. I have now 229 gold. I have used my gold well but I hope I can save more gold to my treasury. You never know what might happen. My yearly income (what comes to me every January) is now 13 gold. Economy is never-ending project.
6. There isn’t any major wars going on at this moment, but it is again just a qustion of time when war will broke out. Probably Ottoman attack west or then Southern Anatolia (Karaman or Venetian alliance).
7. So far Austria has been quite pathetic. Since their stupid war against Helvetia they haven’t done anything. Sooner or later Habsburgs will anyway gain power. I dream that I could destroy them before that but probably that is impossible for me.
8. In Northern Europe Swedes are doing pretty bad. They are in war against alliance of Denmark, Norway and Novgorod and have lost now three provinces and other two are being besieged. Maybe we wont see SuperSweden in this game. At least not yet.

Question: I know that Mainz has annexed Pfalz, Cologne and Hessen and are currently in war with 19 (!) countries. Yes, they will lose. My relation to them is -200 which means they wouldn’t accept a royal marriage suggestion from me. I think this is highly unrealistic. They should be very happy when at least someone somewhere even talks to them even wants to have marriage with them and accept my suggestion screaming with joy.

Oh, I love this all! I don’t know any other game where I could this carefully plan and see actually pretty fast see where I have succeeded and where failed. And there is so many decisions to make that you can always become better, unlike some “strategy” games I have played. Finally we Finns have something to be grateful to Swedes! (Ok, it took some time.) Thanks Paradox! HOI is ok, but its' diplomacy sucks. I haven’t yet bought Victoria or Crusader Kings.
 
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First off, your English is just fine. I understand you well enough!

Ragusa is indeed a challenge, but you seem to be holding your own. I think your 'viper' analogy is very good - that's probably the only way you're going to survive in the Balkans.

I wouldn't be too worried about Austria taking Hungary and Bohemia. Let them. You need a very powerful nation around to keep the Ottomans on their toes, and that's either going to be Austria or Venice. As you've noted, Venice would be just as happy to run you over, so...

It's too bad you weren't able to get to Naples. That sounded like a really good idea. The main problem, as you've found out, is the Balkans are dirt poor.

An earlier reader was right in saying wars tend to start right after a load, at least early in a game. The AI tends to go through three distinct phases. First it works on short-term goals (including, apparently, warfare), then long term goals such as colonizing and missionary work, then it seems to almost "fall asleep" if left alone too long. At least that's my experience.

No real thoughts on your progress - except you are indeed holding your own, which is a pleasure to see. Sometimes the Ottoman AI stops short of conquering the entire Balkan region and starts going after Asia Minor (Turkey). Once Persia shows up you may be able to breathe easier.
 
Ragusa is one of the hardest countries I ever play, I managed to did Tibet and other impossible countries alright but Ragusa is a little annoying since I got this limit.

The total amount of army must not go higher than the total popualtion of the country. As the result it is a little hard with the 9000 people...

Great job and good going.... :D

Thanks

Joe (Sapphire)
 
Nice AAR. Keep on and try to make Ragusa into a regional power!
 
Sapphire said:
The total amount of army must not go higher than the total popualtion of the country. As the result it is a little hard with the 9000 people...

Great job and good going.... :D

Thanks

Joe (Sapphire)

Thanks Joe,

actually the population you see in the province screen is just the population of your town or city. Population of the province is higher. It would be impossible for country of 9 000 people to continuously have an army of 6 000. Like, only one third of whole population working on something really productive?! And when I attacked Bosnians I had army of 18k, twice the same is population in my capital. I could have an army of this big only momentarily of course.
 
Republic of Ragusa

I called before my ruler a monarch. But if I remember correctly, Ragusa/Dubrovnik was a merchant republic like renaissance states in Italy. By little searching I found out several things about Ragusa. It was founded already 1272 and survived to 1808 when Napoleon annexed it to France.

Republic of Ragusa/Dubrovnik was aristocratic republic like many Italian states. Patician elite consisted 33 houses, about 1 000 people and only these had voting rights. Heart of the government was Great Council which held the highest power in the republic. Members of Great Council elected Rector, head of state, from their own ranks. Great Council also elected Council of Appeal (Senate), Small Council (governement helping Rector) and judges. All elections were done by secret ballot. So my Ginsic is not a king but a rector. There was about 160 different seats in the system. When you consider that these had to be elected from 1 000 people and most of the people didn’t work for the rest of their life, you understand that almost all capable and willing were selected to some place. Most of these places were not paid or at least not full-time jobs. During centuries no single house was much stronger than others but a house of Gose held more seats than other families. System was very stable unlike most of Italian republics. Thanks to this stability and staying out of warfare Ragusa become rich and it is history is very well recorded.

On late XV century the whole republic had a population of 30 000 inhabitants of which about 5 000 lived within the city walls. It’s independence was constantly questioned, first by Venice, then by Hungary and finally Ottomans. Finally it had to pay annual tribute to Ottomans. Ragusa was strongest on XV-XVI centuries when it had mighty merchant navy. 1669 there was an earthqueke which destroyed most of the city.
 
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