HT Succession Game - AAR Thread

Joseph Clemens was a king that did not even know he was king. From his palace in Alexandria, far away from the capital of the empire he spent his time helping the Alexandrian clergy to convert locals to Catholicism. Ludwig had made it clear that anyone who so much as hinted at the death of Luitpold to the new king would be met with a slow and painful death. To keep the king busy, Ludwig sent orders under the seal of King Luitpold that Joseph was to oversee the construction of a long and arduous canal project through the deserts around the city of Alexandria. Ludwig hoped that this would take many long years to complete and keep the king from getting too homesick.



Peace in Europe could not last forever though and by 1656 the clouds of war had gathered once more and forced Ludwig to act. Polotsk, along with assistance from Serbia and the Ukraine had launched an offensive against Poland. Polotsk, having been warned previously by Bavaria not to meddle in the affairs of her neighbors had clearly ignored these warnings and thought that the mighty Bavarian Empire would not react. Ludwig gathered a meeting of important statesmen to discuss the ramifications of war with Polotsk and her allies, a decision he was initially against. He wanted Bavaria out of foreign wars and to focus on internal affairs. In the end he was convinced that a failure to act on Poland's behalf would do more to hurt the reputation of Bavaria than actively engaging in a war would, and so he authorized over 50,000 brave Bavarian soldiers be sent to assist Poland immediately.



Polotsk was soundly defeated and forced to submit under Bavarian occupation after a 2-year campaign. Ludwig ordered most of the army to then make its way into Serbia and subdue them as well. It would not be until December of 1661 that Ludwig received news that Serbia had finally been crushed and given in to Bavarian demands. Both Serbia and Polotsk were forced to convert to Catholicism and to cede a number of territories to Bavaria in order to limit their power in the region. The long war had made the men exhausted and Ludwig had hoped that there could now be peace.



The only problem with this was that the Bavarian forces occupying the areas that had once belonged to Polotsk had no direct route back home once Poland had made peace with her enemies. This left a large portion of Bavaria's military far away from her core territories. Yet, this was not as bad as it seemed, for Sweden, eager to exploit the fact that Bavaria's troops were exhausted and tired of war, decided to launch a surprise attack upon Denmark. Bavaria would have no choice but to now march on Sweden.



When the declaration of war reached Ludwig, he was informed that the small kingdom of Flanders had also launched an attack upon Bavaria in order to support her Swedish allies. Ludwig demanded that Flanders be utterly wiped out for this audacity. By May of 1663, Ludwig's wish was fulfilled and Flanders ceased to exist as a kingdom any more.



Meanwhile, war with Sweden continued, with the armies that had occupied Polotsk being the only ones within range of Sweden's mainland holdings. Denmark was forced to capitulate to the Swedish in the mean time, and Ludwig had a large army from Bavaria move to liberate Jylland from the Swedish. It would take another 3 years before the Swedish finally admitted they had been defeated and desired to end the war on terms that were favorable to Bavaria.



Unfortunately, as a result of these wars and their settlements, the reputation of Bavaria was in tatters once again, with the entire world condemning what it saw more and more as Bavarian imperialism and expansionism. Relations with many of the few powerful kingdoms were shattered and practically impossible to repair in the short-term now. Ludwig would need many years of peace now to make up for these unfortunate events. He also had the knowledge that his empire was larger and more splintered than when he has taken it over. To his dismay a large portion of troops were now stationed in and around Novgorod that could not make it home because the other neighboring nations would not allow his troops to march through for fear of being conquered. Should a war erupt with the major powers such as England or Portugal, Bavaria would not be able to bring her full might to bear any longer. This would need to be rectified.

JDMS said:

More potential conquests, in the name of national security?

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I just have a hard time justifying the thousands of brave Bavarians who died in battle if I don't get something out of it.

With Sweden finally defeated, Ludwig went to work on his grand plan of religious conversion. He knew the key to maintaining a stranglehold on Europe was to convert the heretics back to Catholicism. Things were looking good, as he weeded out many more heretics within Bavaria herself.



This was followed by years of military build up under Ludwig's orders. The army was nearly doubled in size and generals throughout the land were recruited to lead the new armies that were being formed. Ludwig's ambition was not to conquer, but to convert. His first targets were Switzerland and Savoy. In 1673 war was declared on both nations. After a relatively quick campaign, Savoy gave in to Bavaria's demands.



With Savoy converted, war was declared on Wurttemberg two years later in 1674. Despite help from Holland, Wurttemberg was quickly overwhelmed and also surrendered, converting to the one true faith as Ludwig had desired, as well as becoming a vassal of Bavaria.



Following this string of victories, Ludwig cast his gaze eastward towards Prussia. The Prussians had been stirring up troubles for him for years in the east and now the time had come to deal with them. In 1675, a grand war against Prussia was launched. Within a matter of months most of Prussia had fallen to the mighty Bavarian army.



The Prussians in the end had no choice but to divide their country with Ludwig's demand that the Teutonic Order be reestablished throughout most of Prussia's lands.



All had been well in Bavaria up until this point. Now, with the kingdom actually seizing more land her reputation was once again in danger. Ludwig had tried hard not to seize land from the heretics, only to convert them, but even he eventually began to succumb to the greed of running a mighty empire. In order to continue to solidify Bavaria's empire without running the risk of tarnishing her reputation even further, Ludwig ordered that the kingdom of Liege be converted at the end of a sword and made a vassal as well.



The war with Liege was not without risks, and it soon brought Serbia and Sweden back into conflict with Bavaria once more. All the while, Ludwig was not concerned, having the gall to also draw up an assortment of forged documents that claimed that the von Holstein family was the rightful ruling family of Polotsk and declaring war on them as well. What Ludwig did not expect was that because of these actions, Dulkadir decided it was now time to reconquer the land that had been taken from them in the middle east and declared war upon Bavaria. In response, the Mamluks and Dehli agreed to assist Dulkadir in the war against Bavaria. Now Bavaria had enemies at all sides.

Also, my turn is done now, so I only have one or two more updates before we can move on.

I left my successor in a great position with a war pretty much over and enough imperial authority to enact the second to last HRE reform if they so wish to do so.

JDMS said:

So we can infer that the war went well, despite the number of enemies?

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I had some minor set backs, but having lots of vassals to help you fight is indeed useful.

The next ruler might very well hate me though, because I've made it so that we have rebels popping up every 2 or 3 months all over the empire now.

Now with wars raging on all sides the nobles went into a panic. War exhaustion was ever increasing and Ludwig did nothing to try and shorten the wars, choosing instead to fight them out to the fullest extent. Serbia was knocked out of the war quickly enough, being forces to release Wallachia as a sovereign nation, but this would still take an entire year to accomplish.



Discontent was in the air, and during the course of the war there were numerous rebellions at home, forcing Ludwig to dispatch armies both locally and abroad to subdue all enemies to his rule. Much to the chagrin of the nobility, it was now being sad that old Ludwig was now forcing servants and officials to refer to him as "Emperor" now.

In Northern Africa, success was made against the Mamluks, thanks mostly due to assistance from Bavaria's ally the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines cut a swathe through the Mamluk Empire and Bavaria used this to her advantage and seized Asyut, just to the southwest of Cairo. Missionaries were immediately established by Ludwig's decree to wipe out the taint of Islam from the region.



The Ukraine was then assaulted at their capital and sole province of Kiev. With Kiev's downfall, the Ukrainians capitulated without further fighting. Ludwig demanded that they become proper God-fearing Catholics as part of his terms.



With most of Bavaria's enemies now finally out of the fight, Ludwig had his armies in the south turn their attention to Dulkadir and his armies in the north continue to focus on Sweden. With the help of the mighty Byzantines, Dulkadir was forced to submit to Bavaria and lost 2 precious coastal territories. The world looked on nervously as Bavarian infamy now knew almost no bounds, making King Luitpold's reign seem like a truly peaceful one.



With war exhaustion at an all time high, Bavaria's reputation around the globe in tatters, and internal rebellions against the state rising up monthly, the generals and nobles begged Ludwig to give up his mad quest of conquest. Ludwig however, refused, declaring that he would not stop until the Swedish heathens had been brought under his boot and made to fall to their knees in front of the Pope and beseech their Lord and Savior to forgive them for the error of their ways. It would take another year of fighting and the loss of blood from both Bavaria and her loyal allies before Sweden dared accept such an offer.



With Sweden now out of the war, her ally Polotsk, the initial catalyst for the war was left with her northern flanks dangerously exposed. Poland had offered assistance from the south, but was besieged by the Byzantine allies of Bavaria and also embroiled in a war with Great Britain, allowing her to only offer token resistance. Polotsk was soundly defeated and forced into a personal union with Bavaria. Unbeknownst to Joseph Clemens in Alexandria, he was now King of both Bavaria and Polotsk.



Polotsk's defeat was then followed by the vanquishing of Holland in the year 1688, who had been defender of the faith for the heretics, coming to their defense. In the ultimate irony, Ludwig made these so-called defenders renounce their heretical beliefs and accept that the Church of Rome had truly been right all along.



By this point, Bavaria had been embroiled in near constant warfare for an entire decade. Ludwig's actions at home and abroad were now straining the empire to its limits. He ordered more armies to be raised, but the time it took to gather up the necessary manpower was now longer than ever and his patience grew thin. His actions became ever more erratic and eccentric. He reportedly even began wearing King Luitpold's crown everywhere he went within the castle. The only nation left resisting Bavaria in war was Poland, and simply making them concede defeat was out of the question. His generals knew what Ludwig desired, and they hurried to try and end the war so that there might finally be some peace throughout the land. With Poland finally admitting defeat, mostly in part to the assistance of the Byzantines and various other allies, the Poles were forced to convert back to Catholicism.



Peace would only last two years though. Avignon, would go to war with the Teutonic Order and demand that Bavaria come to her aid as the leading member of the Holy Roman Empire. Against the wishes of his people, his administrators, and his generals, Ludwig accepted, throwing Bavaria back into war yet again.



The nobility had been waiting for Ludwig to die this entire time. The man had served on the Bavarian court for decades and was well into his 80s, but instead of his physical health failing, only his mind appeared to age. When he learned that the nobles were planning on sending for Joseph Clemens in Alexandria, Ludwig ordered the King to be poisoned. In March of 1692, King Joseph Clemens was found dead by a servant, and suspicions quickly grew. The palace cook in Alexandria was seized by nobles loyal to the royal family, and after several hours of "questioning" confessed that Ludwig had given him the order to kill the king. This was all the evidence that the nobles needed, and in the next few days they established a council of loyalists, raised a small army and stormed the capital of the Empire. Ludwig was found sitting on the King's throne defiant till the end, and it would take several gaping wounds from soldier's blades to turn his long flowing purple robes dark red with blood. With the death of the old tyrant, Bavaria was once again free, but her heir to the throne was but a child. And so, the council that had overthrown Ludwig became caretaker of the kingdom, until the time that Karl Theodor could rule properly.

Enewald said:

What have you done to Bavarian BB!

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Actually, my policy of religious conversion helped reduce the BB, my successor will have about .5 BB when he starts and two nations that are already soundly defeated that he can pick apart as he wishes.

Final update with save is coming up!

Enewald said:

GB is huge!
Who allowed them to expand that much!

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I had more pressing matters, like converting all of Eastern Europe back to Catholicism.

I also did not enact that one HRE Reform. I'm a big fan of keeping us as Bavaria instead of turning us into a giant HRE blob. I don't want us to lose our national identity. (I'm sure others will see things differently though )

Besides, if GB gets big enough, perhaps we'll have a worthy adversary!

Malurous said:

This. It's a good thing that there's someone that can be at least something of a threat in surprise situations.

To further answer Enewald's original question, Bavaria got major coastal areas so late that it was pretty much impossible from a naval point of view to take down a naval empire that spreads the world.

Great turn, TheLoneGunman!

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You'll be happy to know that GB has the largest Navy in the world, with over 100 ships while we have about 60 or so.

And thanks!

OrangeYoshi said:

I can has mapz?

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I posted the save on my review of the kingdom at the very bottom.