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Cliffracer RIP said:
Ouch! You really took chunks out of France.
Yes. The new defection event makes it worth sitting on a medium/large country for a while if you have 100% occupation. Watch out for the 3 year White Peace, you still want the 100 WS peace at the end.

It also will help WC's, because you can occupy for a while and let stuff defect instead of having a shortage of diplomats preventing you from expanding.
 
naggy said:
Yes. The new defection event makes it worth sitting on a medium/large country for a while if you have 100% occupation. Watch out for the 3 year White Peace, you still want the 100 WS peace at the end.

It also will help WC's, because you can occupy for a while and let stuff defect instead of having a shortage of diplomats preventing you from expanding.

There are particular conditions that have to be met by the province in order for this magic defection to happen? Like them being of the same/accepted culture.
 
Cliffracer RIP said:
There are particular conditions that have to be met by the province in order for this magic defection to happen? Like them being of the same/accepted culture.

The province must be occupied by someone other than rebels, must have a garrison of 1000+, cannot currently be under siege, and the aforementioned WE scores. I think there's also a War Score requirement, but I'm not at home to look. It's in morerandomevents.txt - search for war_exhaustion=15 and you'll eventually find it in there. There are no culture or religion requirements (although religion is a modifier to the MTTH).
 
Enewald said:
Oi, being an emperor is helpful!
Provence really should be a kingdom instead of a dukedom. :D
Buy the tittle from the pope. :p

Being Emperor is a dual edged sword.
Pros:
* Higher force limits and manpower.
* Prestige
* More diplomats
* Stability bonus per state in Empire - huge for smaller countries
* Free guarantees on entire HRE
* Free military access through HRE
* HRE states are often also guaranteed by other powers, so wars often resemble a dogpile.

Cons:
* Automatic guarantee on HRE means you get drawn into wars at inconvenient times or against countries you can't possibly beat.
* Free military access for your opponents through HRE.
* Higher force limits artificially lowers the War Capacity calculation, making you look like a target for the AI.
* You don't get an income boost to pay for your higher forcelimits. Provence has a forcelimit of 122, and couldn't possibly pay for that many troops.
* With missions to bribe electors, it can cost quite a bit to stay HRE as the AI tries to bribe away your electors.
* You almost always will come into conflict with France, Denmark, the Papal State, and Burgundy.
* Conflict with Papal State will kill relations with the pope at the same time you're angering people by getting into wars - so you risk Excommunication.
* -25 prestige hit to avoid the guarantees.
* Your most natural powerful allies are the most likely to trigger wars you have to get involved in - so it's hard to keep relations up and alliances solvent.
 
Very nice outcome on the defections, particularly when against a lucky nation.

Also, fun watching you flip NIs all the time using the HRE stab bonus. I suspect you could have taken France even without mil drill, but since it is so easy to get why bother trying :cool:
 
Middelkerke said:
Could you give us a map of europe? Its easier to understand the situation...

I don't have a save game for several years, sadly. Luckily, some looking around on the forums has allowed me to get some tools to create my own maps. I'll work on them tonight.
 
If/when you form France are you going to cease playing from there or are you going to set a new set of goals?
It would be interesting to see how far you could expand after starting from such a disadvantage. :)
 
GooseyPasture said:
If/when you form France are you going to cease playing from there or are you going to set a new set of goals?
It would be interesting to see how far you could expand after starting from such a disadvantage. :)

New goals, of course! There are nations that must pay for trying to stop me!
 
Chapter 11: Eroding the King's Authority

In early 1438, the scattered lands that had been taken by the House of Valois-Anjou were similar in size as the lands still under control by the House of Valois. The similarities ended there, as the King of France's economy was shattered, their armies destroyed, and their treasury emptied. The House of Valois-Anjou instead led an economic powerhouse, with a thriving Center of Trade in Antwerpen. It was time to press the advantage.

First, God made his will clear to the Emperor that he should marry off one of his nieces (preferably not the bucktoothed one with leprosy, a hunched back, and the championship for seed-spitting) to Ansbach.
P71_Mission7.jpg


On May 1, 1438, Emperor Charles declared war on Orleans, forcing France to come to her aid. Apparently, this action (among others) started rumors around Europe that the Emperor was a ruthless powermonger. His response:
"People say I am ruthless. I am not ruthless. And if I find the man who is calling me ruthless, I shall destroy him." [1]
P72_DoWOrleans.jpg

P73_RepTarnished.jpg


On New Years Eve, a grand wedding ceremony was held in Ansbach, where Emperor Charles' niece was wedded to the Duke of Ansbach's fourth cousin. There was much rejoicing. The Emperor's council got so drunk, they decided that the Emperor should give Milan lots of money in exchange for an Imperial vote they didn't need.
P74_Mission7success.jpg

P75_Mission8.jpg


On March 6th, 1439, a group of Aristocrats visited Aix-en-Provence and gave the Emperor 100 ducats in recognition for his support of the aristocracy.
P76_GratefulAristocrats.jpg


Through all this, there wasn't much of the war for the Emperor to worry about - Orleans' armies barely lasted a month, and France's barely rebuilt army scattered at the first sight of the Imperial Cavalry. By the middle of 1439, the King's provinces were fully occupied.

December 1, 1439: Limousin defects:
P77_Limousindefects.jpg


April 9, 1440: Bearn defects:
P78_BearnDefects.jpg


June 5, 1440: Perigord defects
P79_Perigorddefects.jpg


In February 1441, the downside to being Emperor reared its ugly head, as Denmark declared war on Bremen, and Bremen begged the Emperor for help. The Emperor agreed - the Imperial Diplomats were likely to be all the help they would get. Also, England decided to join in the fun against France, declaring war.
P80_DenmarkvsBremen.jpg


Finally, on September 10, 1442, France surrendered Ile de France and Blois, along with 50 ducats.
P81_Francesurrenders2.jpg


Map after surrender:
P82_Map9-10-1442.jpg


[1] Quote from Robert F. Kennedy
 
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curufin said:
England is looking pretty nasty. You'll have to tangle with them at some point. Just mint & build a huge navy. :)

You're funny. You realize that I have only one port with a core until the 3 Dutch provinces turn core in 1472, right? 1 port + huge navy don't go together (and I keep having other spending priorities). I do have Naval 4 on the sliders, so that should help once I actually have a fleet, but my fleet right consists of 2 cogs. England has 30+ carracks.

My plan is to beat England down as much as possible before she gets Naval 9, using her French provinces to goad her into stupidity.
 
Chapter 12: Kick 'em while they're down

September 16th, 1442:
Adviser: "Sire, our lands are scattered, and our armies have a hard time reaching all our holdings."
Emperor: "The map of our holdings looks like a child tripped carrying a bottle of paint. We must fix this. Tell the Archbishop of Avignon to hand over his lands or we'll crush him like a bug. I'm sure the foolish King and the Duke of Burgundy will fall over themselves to defend him."
P82_AttackAvignon.jpg


Alas, the Duke of Burgundy, Archbishop of Avignon, and King of France had only 3000 troops between them, leading to a swift occupation and annexation of Avignon.

On December 13th, 1443, Brunswick decided that the Emperor's occupation army looked bored, so they declared war on Anhalt. A month and a half later, Brunswick was a vassal and surrendered 200 ducats - before the Emperor's cavalry could even get there!
P83_BrunswickattacksAnhalt.jpg

P84_Brunswickvassal.jpg


On May 3rd, 1444, England warned the Emperor not to go to war. The Emperor interpreted that to mean that England didn't want an army anymore, was was happy to oblige soon.
P85_EnglandWarning.jpg


On July 1, the Emperor gave up trying to get Milan to vote for him, since Milan was determined to vote for themselves. Instead, he was advised to get a royal marriage with Brabant, which he achieved on January 8th.
P87_Mission9success.jpg


On August 30th 1444, Auvergne defected.
P86_Auvergnedefects.jpg


And on November 1, 1446, the Emperor was treated to something that had happened to his line in recent memory...
 
Your success on defections is inspiring. In my one test so far, I sat on a 30-province non-lucky same-religion country with 100% warscore for 10 years and only got 1 defection. Based on that, my initial conclusion was that it was not that useful of a mechanic. However, based on your results I will definitely have to study the modifiers to MTTH more closely when I get home.
 
Chapter 13: England throws down the gauntlet

November 3, 1446:
P88_Englanddeclareswar.jpg


Unfortunately for England, they picked a very bad time to attack - the Emperor's armies were idle, and he was able to recruit 2 excellent and 1 very good general to help crush the English army.
P89_Newgenerals.jpg


On the other hand, there was an angry mood in some of the Emperor's new holdings, and on January 27th, 1447, Loys di Riquetti rose up as a pretender to the throne. Within a couple of months, Loys was crushed underneath the hooves of Imperial cavalry, like many before him.
P90_PretendersinAuvergne.jpg


On April 19th, the Emperor decided to let France and Burgundy surrender so he could focus on the English, who were wandering throughout the countryside. France gave up Toulouse, Languedoc, and Lyonnais, and Burgundy gave up Picardie and Cambray.
P91_Burgundysurrenders.jpg


Throughout the Emperor's lands, Pretending was fast becoming the national sport, with Pretenders popping up in Avignon and Languedoc. Apparently, they didn't want to wait for Halloween...
P92_PretendersinAvignon.jpg


In September, the Emperor visited a local festival in Nevers, going incognito to see how things were going in his new empire. Lo and behold, an unsavory carnival operator was letting peasants pretend to be Emperor!

"Step right up, ladies and gentlemen! Come step behind our backdrop here, and you can pretend to be Emperor. For 20 ducats, our painter will paint your likeness on the Emperor's backdrop. 20 ducats for this novel one-of-a-kind keepsake!"
P93_PretendtobeEmperor.jpg


In January, the Emperor declared war on the Duke of Bourbon again, drawing France into yet another war it couldn't win. Further, in December, the Emperor and the King of What Was Left Of France had a dispute on the boundary between the French ex-Breton province of Armor and the Emperor's province of Anjou.
P94_BoundaryDispute-Armor.jpg


After the marriage in Brabant, God had made it clear to the Emperor that he needed a fleet. God apparently, cannot read maps, or note that with only one coastal province that had been in his control recently, the Emperor could only build 1 ship at a time...so in 1451, God was asked for something different. Something like...throwing money at Salzburg in return for a vote.
P95_Mission11.jpg


The war in England had flared up and died down quickly - the English armies marched into Imperial territory, got squashed by cavalry, then learned that infantry cannot outrun cavalry. England then learned that it's very hard to fight a continental war with no army. Eventually, both sides tired of the inactivity, so England agreed to release Wales on September 17th, 1452. The Welsh celebrated their independence by setting a record for fastest time to get their king excommunicated...by the English controlled pope.
P96_EnglandreleasesWales.jpg


Explanations:
* Darn those lost screenshots! I keep having to refer to the save game for some of the dates and events, since I forgot to take screenshots.
* Without a navy, I can't take England out. However, by having Wales independent, I may be able to station enough cavalry there at some point to invade England and beat them down. We'll see.
* Since I have a core on Bourbon from a previous Boundary dispute, and a core on Maine, I get CB on them to keep declaring war. Useful!
* I am leaving Maine with France to keep my CB.