What if the pope had 200,000 men?
"Treat the pope as if he has 200,000 men at his command" -- Napoleon Bonaparte to Cacault, French minister plenipotentiary to the Holy See
Allegedly, after spending some time in Rome, Cacault's answer was that 500,000 men would be a better estimate.
"Treat the pope as if he has 200,000 men at his command" -- Napoleon Bonaparte to Cacault, French minister plenipotentiary to the Holy See
Allegedly, after spending some time in Rome, Cacault's answer was that 500,000 men would be a better estimate.
Game: EU3, patch 1.3, no mods (except the ToT graphics mod)
Difficulty: Easy (yes, I'm a whimp)
Start Date: Grand Campaign (1453)
Objective: Turn the Papal States into a global superpower able to support 200,000 men or even 500,000
House Rules: no obvious cheating (e.g. reloading as a different country), but I am not above a few "gamey" things
Prelude: Introduction
This is my first attempt at an aar. I am rather new to EU3, I have played a Portugal game but that was under patch 1.1 and 1.2. I am a little scared with the new army and especially navy masses of patch 1.3, this is the reason I chose to play on Easy difficulty. I also am afraid of inflation as there is no auto-minting in patch 1.3.
It will be a gameplay aar. I will comment on many things in a hope that it will be useful for an overwhelmed "newbie", that he may read this aar and learn from it. I am still learning the finer aspects of the game so any comments on my playstile and tactics are most welcome! Please also ask any questions if you feel that my explanations given were not adequate. I hope to learn a lot from writing this aar and the feedback, and I also hope that other readers will find it equally useful.
So, without further ado, let me start with some reasoning why I chose the Papal States and the difficulty level. The main reason of me choosing Easy was the inflation reduction of 0.25 and the manpower boost. In my previous Portugal game, I know what it means to live without much manpower -- and it isn't fun, I can tell you.
Why the Papal States? It's a fun country and who doesn't want to be the pope? The States are located in the center of Italy, with rich provinces of corresponding culture located conveniently next to our capital. Once we have united Italy, the Papal States have a very good starting position. The first few years will be crucial.
An apology to start with: I am a fast-clicker, and I forgot to take quite a few screenshots in the first years. I try to recreate some of them from save games, so not all of the screenshots will be 100% "correct" and some will be missing altogether. In the later years, I got used to pressing F11 for every important event so there are plenty of pictures!
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: First Steps
Chapter 2: Uniting Northern Italy
Sidenote: German Diversions
Chapter 3: Papal Hegemony over Italy
Addendum: Papal Wisdom
Chapter 4: The Pope ready to see the sea (and the world)
Chapter 5: heathen Conquests
Distractions: Spread of Discoveries
Chapter 6: Papal Expansion and Delusions of Grandeur
Cliffhanger: Papal Self-confidence, Run Amok
Chapter 7: The First French War: Initial Success
Chapter 8: The First French War: Leo X Turns the Tide
Chapter 9: The First French War: Temperance is a Virtue
Chapter 10: Those "Neutral" Swiss, Again
Postscriptum: In Unrelated News...
Some Charts
Chapter 11: The Second Papal-French War: The Papal States Strike Back!
Chapter 12: Making Money Without Resorting to Indulgences
Further Notes: Places of Interest
Chapter 13: The Third Papal-French War: The War Arrives in Castille
Chapter 14: The Tenth Crusade
Off Topic: Load Troubles
Chapter 15: The Tenth Crusade at the Gates of Jerusalem
Chapter 16: The Tenth Crusade and the Fall of Jerusalem
Chapter 17: Castille, for Sake of Variety
Chapter 18: No Time to Lose? No Time Toulouse! -- Counter-Crusades
Chapter 19: Fez joins the Counter-Crusade
Chapter 20: Upstart Pagans
Chapter 21: The First War of the World
Chapter 22: Vice-royalty of South America
Chapter 22: (Part 2)
A Declaration of War
Chapter 23: The Burgundy War: Resistance is Futile
Chapter 24: Tempting Fate
Chapter 24: The Incompetency of Xystus IV
Chapter 25: (Part 2)
Chapter 26: Consolidating Years
Chapter 26: (Part 2)
Chapter 27: Sit back and relax
Chapter 28: Let others deal with your revolts
Chapter 29: Mass Conversions
Chapter 29: (Part 2)
Lazyness and Lack of Updates
Chapter 30: Return to Former Papal Glories
Chapter 30: (Part 2)
Chapter 31: Marginal Benefit of BB-investments
A Few conversions
Chapter 32: Obtaining New Sources of Income
Chapter 33: State of the World in 1589
Chapter 34:
Chapter 35:
Chapter 36:
Chapter 37:
Last edited: