A Fistful of Tobacco - A Friesland AAR

Paying a Visit to my Neighbours

With the creation of the Netherlands, four leaders immediately started their service in the Dutch army and navy, among them the monarch Willem van Oranje. The state of the dutch military was good - a very large navy and 30000 soldiers could be used to defend the country. Below you can see a naval forces comparison:


From the top: Spain, Portugal, China, Netherlands, Denmark, Ottoman Empire, Dauphiné and England. England's navy is completely crushed, so it shouldn't be to hard to invade them in the future.

Maintaining such a large navy (65 ships) costs money. Including the costs of the army, the yearly loss for the Dutch was around 60 ducats. When considering that census taxes were around 80 ducats, it wasn't exactly easy to upgrade forts and improving diplomatic relations with other countries. More money had to be collected. Minting was out of the question (inflation was over 13%), so where could I get some money?

The answer was to get the money from peace deals, and thereby put the Dutch leaders to good use. The target was, not surprisingly, Burgundy (and England). In addition to get money from them, I had as mentioned planned to get them down to one province by taking Champagne. Champagne would then be given to French Catholics along with Calais. As for England, my plan was to again make an attempt to capture their capital, getting their maps.

Before I had the chance to get van Oranje in place next to Brabant, Denmark (my ally) declared war on Sweden. I joined in, but didn't want to participate in fighting. Instead, I followed my original plan and declared war on Burgundy in March 1566. van Oranje defeated the Burgundian army in Brabant and started a siege there, while Champagne was covered by a small cavalry force. The Dutch navy was splitted in two, and patrolled the shores of Calais and Holland. Not long after, Dauphiné joined the fray by declaring war on our mutual enemy Burgundy. Dauphiné actually helped my cavalry force in Champagne to capture the fort. When Brabant was captured as well, peace was concluded at very nice terms for the Dutch: Burgundy had to cede Champagne and 150 ducats, and they had to convert to Reformed as well. The invasion of England was underway...

Left: Defeating the Burgundian army. Right: Invading England after the defeat of Burgundy​

To my surprise, Anglia was undefended as well as Kent... the party must have ended. However, it didn't take long before the English armies appeared when their capital was under siege. Even with a CRT level better than the Dutch, they didn't manage to break the siege. London was captured after a year - van Oranje's siege bonus sure helps. As expected, maps over the New World were found in the English capital:


Fortunately the English haven't discovered Manhattan yet, nor the tobacco provinces next to it. What they did have discovered wasn't much help to me, as I had no plans of colonizing Canada. On the other side, they had discovered one province that was very interesting to me - Cape Verde. More interesting was the fact that it was not colonized by Portugal. Dutch traders were immediately sent to the island, as it would work as an excellent forward post for Dutch explorers. At the fifth attempt, the Netherlands had got their first territory outside Europe secured (1570). The trade post was expanded for a while, until being replaced by colonists.

Peace with England was concluded for (only) 75 ducats to the Netherlands. The war between Denmark and Sweden ended too, so when the Netherlands was finally at peace again, the French Catholics was released as vassals, getting the desired provinces. It was in fact possible to release France(!) as well, in Champagne. Not soon after the Dutch got LT level 14. Moreover, the conversion of Geldre that started during the war against Burgundy, ended in success (60% prob) in late 1570.

Peace, as usual, didn't last long. Denmark was on the warpath again, and they declared war on Russia (1571) without an obvious reason, at least for me. Russia was allied to Spain, Austria and Mainz, so I hope Denmark knew what they were doing. After thinking about it for a while, I decided to support my Protestant alliance and thus joined the war.

Denmark, Hesse and Saxony got hammered by the Austrians. I sent von Oranje to support my allies, but it was hard to find enemy armies small enough to attack. As my German allies lost battle after battle, it was good to see that von Oranje and the Dutch fleet managed to win the few battles they fought. It went actually very well, and when warscore was at 10%, Austria bought me out of the war for 100 ducats. It didn't take long before Saxony gave Austria Hannover for peace. That was a really unnecessary war for both me and my alliance. Since Denmark had brought me into so much trouble, I decided to leave the alliance when it expired, and instead join my old friends of Cleves, Lorraine and the Palatinate in their alliance.

As peace was finally restored, the colonization of Cape Verde continued until it reached city status (1577). Meanwhile, nice events happened: First of all, Holland converted to Reformed, and secondly, an event made the inflation go down with 5% and a refinery was built in Geldre. The only bad news was a Burgundian DoW against the French Catholics. Hopefully they will manage to hold on to Calais.


Only a couple of months until the first explorer arrives!

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R. Daneel: Thanks - nice to have you along! I hope the goals I have set will give me challenges throughout the game - it will be fun to see how many tobacco provinces the Portugese have secured in Brazil. And as long as it is profitable, the Dutch will spread tobacco around the world.

Anarion: The truce with Burgundy expired about 10 years ago. Actually, it could be a good idea to attack them now - if I bring my alliance partners with me, and one of them annexes Brabant, it will be easier to get it later on. In addition, I could try to capture London again and see if they have explored some more.

PrawnStar: Yeah, I was very lucky that Cape Verde was uncolonized. It will make it so much easier to explore around America and Africa. I have also built a fort there, so the Portugese won't take it so easily.

Emperor_krk: Yes - well spotted! I don't know when they got it, or how. I skimmed through the history, but couldn't find any mention of it. It is a bit irritating though, as I have to start again to get them down to one province. Hopefully it will be possible to release Luxemburg if I get the province in a peace deal. But if possible I will let one of my allies take it.

Yeah, I cannot comprehend why Denmark is so aggressive. Declaring war here and there isn't so profitable in the end. So it was good to leave their alliance.

Brian: I have a core on Brabant, so the CB is always there to back me up. If I'm very, very lucky, some other in my alliance will get Luxemburg in a separate peace, and then Brabant could be annexed. When the alliance expires, I will create a new one and invite every former member except the owner of Brabant. Then it should be easy to take it from them. And yes, Dauphiné could create some big problems for me. Hopefully my alliance members will keep them at bay if they do declare war.

OE got Hungary through an event (The Death of János Zápolya) in 1540. It should make some interesting wars with them and the Habsburgs!

coz1: It was releaving to leave Denmark behind and rejoin my old friends. As for colonization: Will do!

Don Matito: Hey thanks! It's a difficult region to play in indeed. I think I was really lucky, that I didn't get a big France on my tail. Dauphiné owns the provinces in Italy, but it's Order of St. John who owns Albania and Kastamon.

Burgundy: Thanks! Yeah, I will try to get as many colonies as the Dutch owned historically. It should bring some interesting events (and riches!).

I will play now; maybe I will finish the update tonight, or else tomorrow.

How 'bout a Cigar?

Spain, rather unexpected, guaranteed Dutch independence in 1583. Wonder if they would have done the same if the Netherlands had been created after a revolt from Spanish provinces in the Low Countries. Anyway, one nation who could have used a independence guarantee, was Burgundy:


Lorraine, Strasburg and Cleves didn't want to support their ally in the upcoming war. I guess Palatinate didn't want to either, but losing control of the alliance seemed to convince them to join. They managed to persuade the former members to rejoin after a while (except Cleves). Anyway, the Dutch war-machine progressed even with or without allied support. While Burgundy was busy in the south, van Oranje besieged their capital. The English, meanwhile, moved to Artois with their army in Calais. They also managed to muster enough ships to send an invasion force to Cape Verde. Cheeky bastards! I thought the Dutch navy had covered enough English ports to prevent things like that to happen. Oh well. To make things worse, a small English looting army managed to destroy the naval manufactory in Zeeland. It didn't stop there: Willem von Oranje was assassinated by a French Catholic after orders from the Spanish king. This made relations with both Spain and the French Catholics plummet. This in turn led to the French Catholics breaking the vassalization. Great, is that the thanks you get for protecting your vassal in war?

Even if there were many setbacks, the Dutch army managed to capture Brabant, and moved on to Artois to liberate it from the English. Things were looking rather good, when the Palatinate sold the alliance out of the war against Burgundy for only 116 ducats. Meh. I'm not going anywhere with this war. Nevertheless, Artois and Calais were liberated, and the English army that had captured Artois (16000 men) was annihilated by the new Dutch monarch Maurice von Nassau. With no more English presence on the continent, a new invasion of the island was underway:


Being protected by the river Thames proved extremely valuable, as the English armies never managed to defeat von Nassau and his men. When Kent was captured in September 1588, a separate peace for 250 ducats was concluded. This war brought much good and bad for the Dutch. In order to avoid "the bad" in future wars, a reformation of the army was started. Every Dutch army was now equipped with engineers and cannons to bring enemy forts faster down.

The Dutch weren't only occupied with fighting during the war. Right before the DoW, Jan Huygen (a Dutch explorer) and his 3 warships started exploring the sea zones west of Cape Verde. Soon the coast of Brazil was discovered, and as expected the Portugese had established many colonies there. Sadly, all of the coastal provinces producing tobacco were occupied. Huygen continued northwest, where he found many Spanish colonies. However, St. Thomas (sugar resource) was unoccupied, and a new Dutch colony was constructed there (1585). After roaming a bit around, Huygen went north, and discovered Manhattan and Delaware which were settled by Dutch traders in 1589. Finally the Netherlands had their hands on a tobacco province! This will hopefully be the beginning of something big... Huygen then went back to resupply at Cape Verde, and then southeast to South Africa.

Expansion of the colonies and trade posts had to halt for a while when the army and navy again required money for a war. Dauphiné declared war on Lorraine in 1591, and the Dutch stood up for their French allies, even if they were Counter-reform Catholics. With support from the might Dutch navy, von Nassau invaded Wessex:


With von Nassau's cannons, siege bonus skill and Defensive Doctrine bonus, the minimal fort in Wessex fell at record pace. The next target was Caux, also with a minimal fort. While my alliance members struggled with Dauphiné, I concluded peace after capturing Caux, getting 200 ducats. The money came in handy when colonizing Table (1593), which was discovered by Huygen in 1592. Meanwhile, Burgundy and England again went to war against the French Catholics. This time they managed to get something out of it: England was once again in control of Calais, almost 150 years after last time they controlled it. In the mean time St. Thomas was fully colonized, and Chesapeake got a trade post. However, as before, expansion of the colonies was quickly halted when Mr. War again knocked on the door:


Austria is allied to Spain. Hmm, maybe it will be possible to secure some unprotected Spanish colonies? Lastly, a little show off:


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Brian: I had played before I saw your message, but I will remember it in the next war against Burgundy.

demokratickid: Thanks!

Hopefully my allies will halt Austria, so they won't reach my provinces. So I will focus on Spain. I think I will leave the galleys outside Holland, and take the warships with Maurice von Nassau down to the Caribbean. Spain got a larger navy than I do, but if I know the AI right, they will split it into many smaller fleets, so I should manage to get through to their colonies. The main prize is of course Havana, which produces tobacco.

I hope to get the next chapter up during the evening...