Mecklenburg: Shadow WC

[unddu]

Beating ottos after 1450s is easy as europeans have reached them in tech...

But still fun!

Beating the Ottomans with an army as small as mine and them being lucky is not as easy as it might sound ^^

If you need to go west, then bohemia sure looked tasty with all those, relatively easy - to - get provinces, by the by, could you explain the five days, retreat tactic?

Well it consists of the following. For fightning in early game I rely solely on cavalary. This means I will have an army of only cavalery for fightning and an army of only inf for sieging.

I will make sure that my cavalery army is equiped with the best shock general I can hire. In the early game I will often be outnumbered. The 5 day and retreat tactic makes use of the fact that the first 5 days of combat are shock, since the AI will use inf their armies might be larger than mine, but will do less damage on average in the shock round. You can't retreat in those first 5 days even if you had a bad dice roll and would have wanted to. After the first 5 days, I will retreat, towards or into my own territory. The enemy army will still be bigger than mine and follow up. I will arrive in the next province sooner than the enemy will, being pure cav. This means that for the new 5 day shock round the enemy will have the -1 penalty for crossing provinces or perhaps even more if the province has a river or is mountainous.

Also the moment I'm in my own turf, the AI will suffer a nice amount of attrition, while I will suffer a whole lot less and once we are not bordering any provinces friendly to the AI the AI will not receive reinforcements! This means I can usually wear down armies up to 175% of my own size. Not more then 200% ofcourse since this might cause me to get beaten once and have my army vaporised. If I'm facing an army more than twice my army size, I will wait for attrition to break them down a notch.


Since France is HRE all the HRE states are off limit for the time being

[unddu]

Another day another update!



I can't get enough of war! More enemies more! I don't want them to be gobbled up by anyone else, more often than not this type of nation tends to not last long. Although I did have a Zaphorizia that took over almost all of the former Timurid territory!



Building workshops where-ever I can. Sieging Crimea and attacking the Turks.



And down they go. Also , the reason why the war with Crimea is not a bad thing, is that all my armies are concentrated here anyways, this means I can always shift them back and forth with relative ease.



My we is pretty high for me, I wasn't planning on any more than 1 after the initial costly dows, but the Ottomans are not that weak...



Their last ally decides to pull out.



And another army bites the dust.

Don't worry if my actual combat is not emphasized enough, there will be plenty of wars with a lot more screenshots.

Also: You could see Austria and Hungary helping me out in the Crimea, I must make sure they wont siege any provinces rightfully belonging to me.



Yes I didnt want to, but the Ottomans were not showing any signs of dying any time soon and the rate at which they hire mercenaries is too much for me. Perhaps they can life with 20% inflation, but I can't. I will let WE do it's job and return with both Hungary and Austria by side in not too long.



Some better news.





Some more war ^^ Two birds with one stone, Zaph and Crimea!




The timurs tire of a pointless war.







And my empire is nice and continuous once again.



Another NI at 9, I picked Conscripts for obvious reasons. My mp pool is still too tiny to deal with a serious threat. Remember agression towards me means war with France, not many nations wanting to start something with the Frenchies.



Another round of warning, who knows perhaps something will happen/



It does work!

Sweden Muscovy Poland!



We can guess the reason why Musc wants a piece of TO



Musc inherited Georgia, great easy to give them some WE with those provinces ^^



I wont be invading Russia though . Ill just defend here for while. Invading Russia is something noone should ever undertake unless properly prepared.



Also at war with lith? Good! That's free territories right there! I also let the Hungarisn have Krakow since 6bb for one province is a no-no at this stage.

[Enewald]

You should conquer the ugly Brandenburg.

And become Germany.

[unddu]

You should conquer the ugly Brandenburg.

And become Germany.

France is still the HRE and Brandenburg means annexation means 6BB for meager gains ^^

[Tjena Med Laxen]

Got a better idea, betray TO and eat up all of it ^^

[PrawnStar]

It's interesting how the interaction of no DA and BB management is pushing you eastwards up against large countries earlier than you might otherwise do.

I'd want to take Troki in this war, easy access to Lith's capital next time around and you can be land connected to the provinces north of the TO's capital

How is your religious mix looking and do you have a conversion strategy (although I suspect not yet on cost grounds)?

[unddu]

Got a better idea, betray TO and eat up all of it ^^

I can't betray them since they aren't my allies I just guaranteed em that's all ^^

It's interesting how the interaction of no DA and BB management is pushing you eastwards up against large countries earlier than you might otherwise do.

I'd want to take Troki in this war, easy access to Lith's capital next time around and you can be land connected to the provinces north of the TO's capital

How is your religious mix looking and do you have a conversion strategy (although I suspect not yet on cost grounds)?

Normally in a Non-WC game I would try and get a more centralized nation, meaning more spherical and largely within my own culture group. Since I need to take each nation at some point in time anyways, there is no real point in sticking to my own culture group.

Also: I will become Protestant as soon as I can, meaning no converting any time soon. Once we hit 1500+ I will start converting the heathens, it's also pretty expensive so it's better to focus on actually getting a better starting position for the BB wars, that are still scheduled to commence in the 16th century. Also : I will be playing pretty much on speed 3 or slower as of the moment Ill enter BB wars, expect loads of screenies ^^

[rasmus40]

This is great stuff

Defending a country stretched out as far as yours is no easy task with an army as small as yours. Well done.

I guess we won't be seing any further expansion in Germany before the French get a regency council

[Valentin the II]

Nice.
Ill be folowing this.

[unddu]

This is great stuff

Defending a country stretched out as far as yours is no easy task with an army as small as yours. Well done.

I guess we won't be seing any further expansion in Germany before the French get a regency council

We wont be seeing a lot of action in Europe for a while, but i can promise you that when we will see some action in Europe it will be very entertaining ^^

Nice.
Ill be folowing this.

The more the merrier!

And because I can, I will post another update in the coming 15 minutes!

[unddu]

Pyrric victory anyone?



As you can see I pulled back to Grodno, inviting them to follow me, which they promptly did! Thanks for signing your own death warrant lith!



Me sieging three provinces with small cav stacks and my main 10k cav stack taking advantage of the up and coming Hungarian army to join in and make a combined effort at taking out the Lith armies.



It worked like a charm



My we is getting a tad high ish, but nothing I can't handle.

Losing and sometimes even winning battles will cost some WE



To likes WE so they move into Russia....




More dead liths



I move out to take a recuperating break and let Hesse have some fun, when their 7k stack is gone , Ill move back in.



That was a short lived Hessian adventure... Cowards!




Muscovy joins the fray, too bad I already took their freshly DA or inherited (?) lands.



My first victory against the combined lith/musc forces! I need to thwart their dreams of an united Russia asap!



More dead russian, they just keep on falling in my 5-day retreat trap!



The beginning of the 5-day retreat tactic, after the 5days of shock I move into my own turf and wait for them to come to me. It does costs a tad of WE, but even more so for them!



Rinsing and repeating twice

I retreated from Mogilov to Polesia, I retreated from Polesia to Grodno, I retreated from Grodno to Podlesia and if Im correct from Podlesia to Sandomierz. I won that last battle, followed the retreating Russians back to Podlesia and boom their army is vaporised! 5-day-retreat ftw!!




Some lost Swedes join the Fray.



Recupertaing is just as important as fightning. If an army is below 75% fightning strength, then there is no use in using them in offensive combat



The lost vikings return home, tired and beaten.



Hungary thinks that not getting anything out of a war is the best way to proceed. Sure thanks a lot ally of mine!





All is quiet on the eastern front.




My bb is at an all time low!

Diplomats and a tough enemy help a lot there. As does not annexing for 6bb all the time!



And some cores! Great.



Pulling back some armies for rebel and resting duty



Their capitol is mine.!



And so is krakow which I will not annex, or will I? Find out on the next episode of A Shadow WC: An Unddu production!

[Slinky]

I don't think you will take Krakow, because if I am not mistaken taking the last province of a country gives extra BB. Better to wait till they are annexed by some other nation.

[Tjena Med Laxen]

Do you give me a prize if I'm correct?

[rasmus40]

You must take some territory soon. Letting your BB fall to zero is a waste of ability to reduce BB, which is a very precious ressource in this game. Judging by the time passed since you showed us your BB this has already happened. Shame on you

[slokiller]

With your BB at an all time low, my guess is that you took as much as you could with out maxing out the BB.

[unddu]

I don't think you will take Krakow, because if I am not mistaken taking the last province of a country gives extra BB. Better to wait till they are annexed by some other nation.

6bb for annexing, just 1bb for taking a province, annexin sure is expensive!

Do you give me a prize if I'm correct?

I would have given you another update ^^

You must take some territory soon. Letting your BB fall to zero is a waste of ability to reduce BB, which is a very precious ressource in this game. Judging by the time passed since you showed us your BB this has already happened. Shame on you

Consolidating is not always a bad thing

With your BB at an all time low, my guess is that you took as much as you could with out maxing out the BB.

I wish I could get as much as BB allows out of this war

[unddu]

Another overview.



Another siege won, Musc is keeping rather quiet.



Workshops are now build everywhere! Even if this means a tad of inflation, this is still good news



In the end this is what I got: All of Georgia and some Lith holdings. I always rather pull out asap with as much as I can, then fight on wasting time and resources.



More than 3.7 WE

That sure helped me in making the decision to pull out!



Activatin and updating the trade roster.



An event! Gogo free subjects



Another round of warnings it is then.



And after a bit of scouting I find the weakest link. I want war with the Ottomans, not with their stonger allies!



There we have our proxy!



Even added crusade boni!



An overview of the beautifully build Hungary. Take note that I usually use wars to weaken my own allies, so I can eat them later on and move on to bigger and better allies. Hungary this time around does not seem very fragile at all.

Austria is still the same damn size as it was in 1399!!!!



Pirates are blocking the strait and one of my 10k cav stacks is cleaning the deck!



More pirates please! WE will be soring!



Not much action here, carefully sieging and avoiding any WE.

The next screenshot is way cooler though.

Remember me taking Georgia? Well I had my cav and inf stand at the ready to move into and stab the soft lower belly of the Ottomans! While they move their armies around I enter and take over!



Take that!



The Ottomans 10k+stack was hiding out in Greece having fun with the locals, but can't cross over any more. They are taking it out on the Hungarians, while I'm sieging their heart lands.



An overview: A huge amount of cav (30k) compared to a tiny amount of inf (5k) this will change though.

Also Denmark ceased to exist, it's Norway (?) running the show in Fyn and Sjaeland. I love Sjaeland btw, it's of the best provinces to have in CK ^^



Such a crap admin ruler.... Sigh I will change to a republic ASAP! Kings plain suck.



The Knight rebelled ^^ Go go Knights, work your magic



Syria also declared their indepence, the mameluks can't hold their empire together.



Hungary pulls out finally taking a single Province (Bulgaria). Time for me to move in a single 10k cav stack. Austria is still having fun with their 15k troops in the Lower Balkans.




The first defensive battle .



I won that battle so i have to be following them instaed of the other way around, Ill arrive in Edirne before they will, being cav and all.



And down their army goes!

Will I go for Greece, will I go for Anatolia? Find out on the next exciting episode of A Shadow WC: An Unddu Production!

[rasmus40]

Will I go for Greece, will I go for Anatolia? Find out on the next exciting episode of A Shadow WC: An Unddu Production!

How about both? You have plenty of BB to spare.

Which national ideas have you picked so far and why? National bank is a given, but what else did you pick?

[unddu]

How about both? You have plenty of BB to spare.

Which national ideas have you picked so far and why? National bank is a given, but what else did you pick?

I could have sworn I wrote down that I picked conscripts

Ah yeah I did write that down like 2 updates ago , good thing Im not going bonkers ^^

Conscripts is a must have for MP poor nations. And all minors are MP poor, I mean I can easily lose 2k troops a battle when I win said battle, how am i going to refill that with just 500 soldiers a month, I need conscripts!

[Harve]

Nice again. Are you going to bother converting some of the ottoman provinces once you're protestant?