"What makes a man turn neutral? Lust for power? Money? Or were you just born with a heart full of neutrality?" Zapp Brannigan
For most of their history, the Cantons of Switzerland had tried to stay out of both eachother's affairs and those of other nations. However, the outside world kept insisting on breaking in. Many tried to conquer Switzerland, and when they weren't they were slaughtering. For a time the Swiss were content with this, and even became prominent as mercenaries in the wars of others. However, one day in May of 1453, it was decided enough was enough. So long as Switzerland was small they would either be a target of other nation's aggresions or a pawn of them. The country would have to beomce powerful to be able to maintain its neutrality, even if that meant temporarily breaking it to conquer its neighbors. After all, if there were no other countries to start wars, then all of Europe could be neutral, couldn't it? A Beige Alert was sounded and the Vorort gave the Tagsatzung a rundown of the state of the nation.
The nation possessed a potential manpower reserve of 2,354 men for its armies, and 50 ducats with which to pay them. The first army of Switzerland numbered only 1,000 men, hardly enough to conquer any of Switzerland's neighbors.
Luckily, one of the members of the Tagsuntzung was a mercenary general in his youth, and agreed to lead the nation's army.
On the plus side, while the Tagsatzung contained few experts, between them they had a generally strong knowledge in administrative, diplomatic, and military affairs.
There were some advisors available for hire, although it would have to be debated whether the Swiss people's hard earned money should be spent in such a manner.
To the south a war raged on between Milan and Venice. In the east Austria ruled supreme, while to the west Burgundy and France were rivals. To the north were small HRE states, likely to be fought over by the larger factions.
With the resources currently available the Tagsuntzag would have to decide the best course of action. Should mercenaries be hired for an immediate war? Perhaps money was better spent on advisors and research. It could also be wise to seek out powerful allies and help them in their wars until Switzerland was strong enough. These issues would all come before the Tagsuntzag.
OOC: Hello all. If anyone is wondering, a "Beige Alert" was the emergency siren for a planet of completely neutral people in a cartoon show. It seemed fitting for the title of a Swiss AAR.
I had the idea of doing a sort of interactive aar like some of the other ones done before. My plan is to play in ten year intervals, pausing for a day or two between each one. Before each session, the Tagsuntzag will be called, and readers can make suggestions over the goals and plans for the following ten years. I will try to follow the ones that receive the most support as well as I can. Essentially I only have a single loose goal, to turn Switzerland into a major country and hopefully challenge France someday (they dominate Europe in every single one of my games. ). How to achieve that, and any other goals, is completely up to the readers.
This is the start of the first session so if anyone has any ideas/preferences I'd like to hear them. If not I'll just slink back into a corner and try to come up with another aar plan. o
For most of their history, the Cantons of Switzerland had tried to stay out of both eachother's affairs and those of other nations. However, the outside world kept insisting on breaking in. Many tried to conquer Switzerland, and when they weren't they were slaughtering. For a time the Swiss were content with this, and even became prominent as mercenaries in the wars of others. However, one day in May of 1453, it was decided enough was enough. So long as Switzerland was small they would either be a target of other nation's aggresions or a pawn of them. The country would have to beomce powerful to be able to maintain its neutrality, even if that meant temporarily breaking it to conquer its neighbors. After all, if there were no other countries to start wars, then all of Europe could be neutral, couldn't it? A Beige Alert was sounded and the Vorort gave the Tagsatzung a rundown of the state of the nation.
The nation possessed a potential manpower reserve of 2,354 men for its armies, and 50 ducats with which to pay them. The first army of Switzerland numbered only 1,000 men, hardly enough to conquer any of Switzerland's neighbors.
Luckily, one of the members of the Tagsuntzung was a mercenary general in his youth, and agreed to lead the nation's army.
On the plus side, while the Tagsatzung contained few experts, between them they had a generally strong knowledge in administrative, diplomatic, and military affairs.
There were some advisors available for hire, although it would have to be debated whether the Swiss people's hard earned money should be spent in such a manner.
To the south a war raged on between Milan and Venice. In the east Austria ruled supreme, while to the west Burgundy and France were rivals. To the north were small HRE states, likely to be fought over by the larger factions.
With the resources currently available the Tagsuntzag would have to decide the best course of action. Should mercenaries be hired for an immediate war? Perhaps money was better spent on advisors and research. It could also be wise to seek out powerful allies and help them in their wars until Switzerland was strong enough. These issues would all come before the Tagsuntzag.
OOC: Hello all. If anyone is wondering, a "Beige Alert" was the emergency siren for a planet of completely neutral people in a cartoon show. It seemed fitting for the title of a Swiss AAR.
I had the idea of doing a sort of interactive aar like some of the other ones done before. My plan is to play in ten year intervals, pausing for a day or two between each one. Before each session, the Tagsuntzag will be called, and readers can make suggestions over the goals and plans for the following ten years. I will try to follow the ones that receive the most support as well as I can. Essentially I only have a single loose goal, to turn Switzerland into a major country and hopefully challenge France someday (they dominate Europe in every single one of my games. ). How to achieve that, and any other goals, is completely up to the readers.
This is the start of the first session so if anyone has any ideas/preferences I'd like to hear them. If not I'll just slink back into a corner and try to come up with another aar plan. o
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