Update 25
Update 25
Colour thieves!
20/10/1562
France joins Scotland at WAR with Castile. That’s more like it!
OK, France, 100k+ troops, a huge fleet, is lucky (obviously), great generals, wealthy with high potential manpower. They also have interior lines and with Scotland this war will be fought in several colonial theatres.
I hope to seize the lone French colony in Brazil and their two provinces in South Africa as well as Guantamano. One problem with the Cuban colonies they have troops and ships in theatre I don’t. War aims in Europe are probably about trying to link up the Pyrenees with the Alps, for better troop movement and tax take when I core on the old Austrian lands.
Against Scotland I’m interested in Canadian colonies and some of mainland Scotland, if they are going to DOW and bring in France they can stay around quite a while.
That said I have around 100k uncommitted troops available near the new front lines.
01/12/1562
France has seized Cuba but a relief force has just landed. South Africa is a few days from falling and the French regiment in Brazil is down to under 100 troops.
Scottish forces invade Northern England and French troops besiege several provinces in Germany and the Alps. 5 armies of 13 regiments march across the Pyrenees to set about taking southern France and distracting French reinforcements.
The Ottomans refuse a 96% peace deal at 82% War Score – I should really try finishing off some of those armies.
30/12/1562 Elsass converts
02/04/1562 Peace with the Ottomans, 96 War Score deal at 93 War Score – I could do with getting those troops back to Germany
Gains against the Ottomans
New territories have a red blob. Please admire my Leet Paint skillz, I should explain that among other things I have previously worked for a Graphics Design Studio for three years.
16/05/1562 Conversion of Alabama fails
01/08/1563 Naval 14 – With ahead of time penalties (2 years) applying to everything but Trade, I carry out my first Trade tech research.
Slow progress in the war – my navy in the Caribbean was caught and mauled by a much stronger French fleet – there will be no attacks on the French and Scottish colonies in the smaller islands.
All of Scottish Canada barring the most distant colonies beyond the Reformed Venetian province has fallen. A conquistador slowly works through the hostile Canadian interior, there is no possibility of naval actions in this theatre given the large French fleet nearby.
German provinces slowly fall to French sieges; Southern France is besieged by Castilians. This type of exchange greatly favours my much larger empire.
Scottish forces have been badly thrashed and pushed into the Highlands – Peace will be harsh - hopefully.
07/11/1563 Quijos converts
26/12/1563 Peace with Scotland. I gain Labrador, Abitbi, Moose Cree and Ayrshire along with 50 ducats. Scotland also lost the colonies of Attawapishat, Chipewyan and Woods Cree.
War aims achieved, Scotland is driven from mainland Canada and one of the important mainland provinces. I was very short of troops in Scotland after a couple of failed assaults, with rebels spawning across England I was losing provinces as fast as I could gain them. This could have been better but I didn't have the troops available.
A Regency Council!
A/D/M 3/6/7 Oh dear, no DOWs for me for a while and that admin score is unfortunate.
A couple of interesting things are visible:
Central Germany, Forces returning from the East are finishing off the last few French regiments from a 90 strong force that has been destroyed by assaults, attrition and sequential attacks by the rested and rebuilt armies from the Ottoman campaign. When you have a lot of territory letting big enemy stacks wonder around for a couple of years wearing down the AI’s manpower pool is an easy way of winning the war.
Southern France is slowly falling to sieges – Level 2 forts are very costly for assaults at my tech level, manpower is not good enough for that approach.
01/02/1564
Tyrone declares
WAR
01/02/1564
Cologne declares
WAR
Both are OPMs, I imagine you can guess how this will end.
21/04/1564
Inca Empire declares WAR. Kerching!
16/05/1564 Conversion of Pennyrile fails
01/06/1564 Trade 4
21/06/1564
Denmark declares
WAR
22/06/1564
Lithuania and Finland declare WAR in support of Denmark
23/06/1564
Sulu declares
WAR
24/06/1564
Rajputana declares
WAR in support of Sulu
01/08/1564 Summary - Wars against:
France
Tyrone
Cologne
Inca Empire
Rajputana* and Sulu
Lithuania*, Denmark and Finland
The war against France is now being fought on French soil but the cost is high. Endless battles rage in central France as the French pour new mercenary units into a meatgrinder in Auvergne. I’ve cycled three armies of 13k each through, all are barely half strength. Another army has wiped out scattered French units in the eastern provinces; Paris will be besieged within days. War Score is heading towards 40%.
Tyrone, troops are landing at this moment while Tyrone’s army besieges Meath. Annexation is the aim.
Cologne, after a failed assault troops regain strength, annexation is again the aim as the province is Catholic.
Inca Empire, I’ve seized a couple more provinces but I don’t have enough troops to fight this war so a run for Cuzco and a payday is the strategy.
Rajputana, I plan to White Peace these guys, ideally after annexing Sulu. I really don’t want Indian provinces right now.
Lithuanian alliance again White Peace, far too big to beat quickly and I’d like to recover some manpower and WE in a year or so.
13/08/1564 Inca Empire accepts Peace for 675 ducats – a 27% War Score after I seize 27 point Cuzco. Two provinces were seized in the fighting. This should fund the war effort for the rest of the year and may even pay to rebuild some of the fleet.
24/01/1565 Cologne falls
25/01/1565
Cologne is annexed
08/03/1565
Denmark offers White Peace – Accepted I want to finish all my wars by the autumn
13/03/1565
Sulu is annexed
14/03/1565
Rajputana accepts White Peace
16/04/1565
Finland accepts White Peace
France accepts Peace
A Land connection is established across Southern France to the Austrian provinces. Erfurt contains a University and connects another 4 isolated provinces. This was a 92 point peace deal with a 46% War Score – France was very short of troops and 9 provinces including Paris were under siege. I caught and destroyed over 135 French regiments, hopefully they are rather short of manpower now.
There are however one serious lesson to learn from this war – I’m not competitive at Sea. My Mediterranean Galley based fleet lost around ¼ of its strength clearing out French (and Danish) ships. The Spain based Big Ship/Transport Fleet is down to ½ strength having just been rebuilt after the Ottos chewed it up. The Big Ship/Transport Fleet in the Caribbean got caught by the French main fleet – I was able to retreat 3 ships out of 18.
One of the armies in France will be diverted to Ireland – I want to kill Tyrone quickly and the force in theatre is a wreck – failed assaults have reduced a 3/10 army to 3000/0 troops.
17/05/1565 Tyrone falls but they’ve captured Meath and the enemy troops are a lot stronger than what is left of my army
24/05/1565 Conversion of Tuskegee fails
02/06/1565
Lithuania accepts White Peace
They had taken 4 border provinces without any resistance – for 1.5% War Score. The manpower loses from overstacked sieges will have hurt them. Now all I have to do is push Tyrone out of Meath, storm the city and annex.
08/07/1565 Caracara converts
09/07/1565
Tyrone is annexed
Peace!
Stats, because everyone likes stats:
BadBoy 118.08
War Exhaustion 2.59
Inflation 5.6%
Manpower 106k of 139k max
Reinforcement need 52,131