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Chapter 3: The Last War of Brandenburgian Aggression

January 1, 1690: A quick look at the army comparison page shows Brandenburg in 15th, with 11K armies (6k inf, 2k cav, 3k art).

The Ottomans are getting crushed. They started at war with Austria, Poland, and Russia.
P3_015_OE-crushed.jpg


First order of business - find a target. It's past 1670, so Protestants and non-german countries should start fleeing the empire. Unfortunately, at the moment, everyone loves Austria, so they are standing pat. I could declare war on Holstein (outside the HRE), if I wanted to fight Hamburg, Mecklenburg, and the Netherlands. This is promising - although the Netherlands are pretty powerful.
P3_016_Eying-Holstein.jpg


March 1: Stability increases to 1.

March 18: Architectural Development nets me 2 innovative (moving from 1 narrowminded to 1 innovative). The prestige and money are nice too.

September 1: Stab increases to 2. The army building program continues - we have 8 inf + 7 art, with 1 art and 3 merchantmen being built.

October 1: Spain will probably be the next HRE. Austria will pay.

October 3: The Palatinate declares war on Baden, bringing France, Austria, Munster, Trier, and Switzerland against them. I wonder who will win...

December 23: Baden is annexed by the Palatinate. For now.

May 2, 1691: Brandenburg declares war on Mecklenburg, whose allies desert her. Austria joins in as HRE though. I can probably take Austria as long as she's also fighting the OE. 3 stab hits = 3 BB + 3 WE. I forgot a screenshot. Whoopsie! My allies, of course, duck out of anything resembling a war with Austria.

August 31: Carlos II of Spain becomes the new HRE. Austria's manpower and force limits drop like a rock.

December 1: Stability goes back to 1.

December 18: Mecklenburg falls to an assault on the 4th try. I need Mecklenburg out of the picture quick so I can regroup and hit Austrian armies as they trickle in.
P3_017_Mecklenburg-falls.jpg


February 22, 1692: Lubeck falls to Brandenburg, and Neumark falls to Austria. Exactly what I wanted to avoid.

February 23: Mecklenburg cedes Mecklenburg and 175 ducats. I didn't vassalize them, because I want to take Lubeck soon, and I'm pretty sure I'll piss them off a lot in the near future.
P3_018_Mecklenburg-gained.jpg


March 20: A little overzealousness closing popups here...heh. The Ottomans sue for peace with Russia, and cede Podolia (no idea to who), and release Crete, Cyprus, Karaman, Candar, Dulkadir, Trebizond, and Haasa. Ow!
P3_019_OE-dies.jpg


May 6: First blood is drawn in Brandenburg, where Austria's armies get kicked around.
P3_020_Bat-Brandenburg-1.jpg


May 11: Denmark offers alliance. Accepted.

May 22: A small Austrian detachment is wiped out in Neumark.
P3_021_Bat-Neumark-1.jpg


May 27: The main Austrian army is beaten in Neumark - but not decisively so.
P3_022_Bat-Neumark-2.jpg


June 13: Neumark is retaken and scorched.

July 26: After an Austrian detachment was driven out of Hinterpommern back into Poland, the main Austrian army goes into Neumark and retakes it with an assault. They are ripe for the beating - look at how depleted the regiments are getting.
P3_023_Neumark-retaken.jpg


August 1: Stability rises to 2.

For some reason, the AI decides to put some artillery on the wings. I guess I need 2 more units of infantry to keep artillery in the back. Too bad I didn't think about this until writing this update.
P3_024_Artillery.jpg


October 8: Sweden offers alliance. Accepted.

November 1: I lost the results of the August battle in Brandenburg, but the Brandenburg armies inflicted quite a bit of damage before being forced to retreat and reinforce. This time - the same thing happens. Austria is being bled dry.
P3_025_Bat-Brandenburg-2.jpg


January 6, 1693: A 9 on a dice roll means someone is getting some pain...Austria has 38 regiments in this fight.
P3_026_Ow.jpg


January 23: I finally get in the lethal blows I've been trying to deal to Austria throughout the war. This army is going to die.
P3_027_Bat-Brandenburg-3.jpg


February 14: 38 Austrian regiments are wiped out in Neumark. As you can see, my prestige is creeping up, manpower is being used at an unsustainable rate, and Austria is in trouble.
P3_028_Bat-Neumark-3.jpg


P3_029_War-Summary.jpg


March 26: Already Austria has 18 cav, 10 inf, and 2 art in Breslau waiting to hit Neumark. Gah!

April 1: Stability increases.

April 3: Here is where cav-heavy armies run into trouble: Austria's army is predominantly cavalry, and just botched their opening shock roll.
P3_030_Bad-roll.jpg


April 9: Another Austrian loss in Neumark.
P3_031_Bat-Neumark-4.jpg


April 24: Fortification Suffering event. I take the Defensive slider move.

May 15: Clergy condemns philosopher as heretic. 1 innovative for 1 stability - easy choice at this point.

June 14: The army runs into a meat-grinder in Breslau.
P3_032_Bat-Breslau.jpg


July 10: And another in Neumark. Time to reinforce.
P3_033_Bat-Neumark-5.jpg


December 1: Some quality time spent in Scorchedearthistan makes the Austrian armies more manageable.
P3_034_Bat-Brandenburg-4.jpg


December 29: And another army is about to go dooooown...
P3_035_Bat-Neumark-6.jpg


January 29: One more doomstack bites the dust. I've run the entire war with 18K men...and all my manpower.
P3_036_Bat-Breslau-2.jpg


March 1: Stability rises to 3.

March 13: Estabilish Cantonments in Mecklenburg. I pay 60 ducats for extra extra manpower.

May 4: Being out of manpower means this war has to end prematurely. I spend 200 ducats to make Austria go away.

May 5: With peace and prestige comes...Prussia!
P3_037_Prussia.jpg


Final casualty tally (thanks to Comagoosie's Stat's Generator):
Brandenburg: 21475
Austria: 59215

Wrap-up:
* My main problem is that I don't yet have enough men to assault level 2/3 fortresses and keep enough morale to take on incoming armies. I ran through almost all my infantry trying to take out Mecklenburg (2 level 3 forts) quickly.

* Don't get too complacent: Austria is still using Latin Knights.

* This does, however, prove that I can take on the big boys as long as I'm careful.
 
well defended - It's hard to survive an onslaught with such a tiny MP pool. Are you getting 2 cav regiments, so your cannons stop flanking?

I would like to see 1. how many days you fight, the die rolls and the casualities once in a while.

It looks, as if the Austrian cav army screwed their initial roll and then CONTINUED fighting, whereas the one massive loss you had were the opposite, and then fleeing after 5 days?
 
Kami:
1.) No - I kept my cavalry out of it. They'd just get crushed on the wings.

2.) I'll try and provide that.

3.) Correct.

This AAR is on hold while I wait for a response from Paradox as to why my game crashes every time I hit Feb 1, 1696.
 
Nice show of beating Austria around a bit. Hope the bug gets fixed. Have you tried going back to your previous auto save (assuming you use them) and seeing if it still crashes?
 
Excellent handling of the war with Austria, Mecklenburg and the prestige to form Prussia were definitely worth it. Besides, now you are in a much better position to recover, looking at Austria's WE...

Good luck sorting out the crash.
 
Teep: My main problem is that Saxony owns 3 of the provinces I need and Bavaria owns 1. They would be easy - if they didn't have HRE protection and allies.

Azugal: Both autosaves and my last save all have the bug.

Enewald: The lack of manpower will slow me down...

Kami: News flash: Paradox becomes Hapsburg Interactive...

Beamed: 25% extra discipline would be like arming my men with machine guns.

aldriq: The only downside is that Spain is now HRE - they are by far the most powerful military power in the game, and have a base in the Spanish Netherlands to march over and kick me around.
 
Subscribed 'cause I liked your insightful comments in PrawnStar's Iroquois AAR and this looks like a different take on war than the usual concentration on cavalry (and as such very helpful), but, err...

1688 was the year Frederick III of Brandenburg became Elector, who would later become Frederick I of Prussia, the first King in Prussia (that's right, not of, in). Not Frederick the Great, but his grandfather :p

EDIT: Oop, I see Teep already noted that this isn't Frederick the Great. But Frederick William the Great Elector wasn't Frederick III of Brandenburg, but his father ;)
 
All I get is "no free download slots"

Wonky. It just downloaded for me. If you PM me an e-mail address, I can email it.
 
Nice to see an AAR where the player isn't using all cav-armies. I kinda miss your Castille AAR though. :(

Yeah. I wanted to complete it, but I also wanted to not dread loading EU3 for the tedium of WC.
 
Yeah. I wanted to complete it, but I also wanted to not dread loading EU3 for the tedium of WC.
I know the feeling. Doing an Austria game, and after crushing France it just ain't fun anymore. I have more manpower than Ming and occasionally smashes some minors or other states stupid enough to DoW me.
 
Naggy, I loaded the game and played fine for a few months past 1 February in my 3.2b. I suspect support may ask you to upgrade to 3.2 or 3.2b.

Ah ha. Guess I'll upgrade to 3.2b after I get my new computer set up.