• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Hrm, Burgundy's trying to tell you something, but they're just being too roundabout. Can't figure it out...
 
I'd say the message is "drop dead"
 
naggy, History_Buff: I'm sure they just want to come round for tea, along with their forty-thousand friends.

This is just a quick update to show the situation at large. I'll be able to post a full one tomorrow.

Interlude: World Situation 1460

688zgy.png


England is doing as normal with Ireland conquered and Scotland vassalised. France is focusing more on Iberia than its cores in Burgundy for some reason. Lithuania is blobbing it up in eastern Europe. Milan is dominant in Italy. The Timurids are still going strong while the Ottomans are actually doing okay. Somehow the Arabian peninsular had been completely united.

Mod-specific stuff: Iceland is free, Japan is still divided, and China is unified and stable.
 
Excellent fighting against Burgundy, I look forward to seeing how this coming conflict pans out.
 
Well at least you have allies this time around. Still, it should still be a tough war. :)
 
morningSIDEr, JDMS: Having a single ally to distract the enemy can really change the way a war is fought against the AI. This time things go quite differently.

Chapter Seven: The Lowlands United?

Burgundy had certainly bitten off more than it could chew this time, as now it was up against what could only be described as the Northwest Alliance. The Dutch and German peoples wouldn’t stand for the Burgundian expansionism anymore and were ready to fight for their freedom.

7fri1.jpg


While Burgundy still had the numerical advantage most of its army was in the south, while the Alliance could bring all its forces to bear quickly in the northern territories.

The local Burgundian forces attempted to invade through Zeeland, but were intercepted by the newest addition to Friesland’s arsenal.

7fri2.jpg


Geldulf Halbertsma was a brilliant tactician who had emerged at the recent jousting tournament and been raised to position as chief of the Frisian Army in place of the late General Gauma. He was able to move his soldiers at high speed along the front to crush the smaller Burgundian armies everywhere.

Meanwhile, Johan I watched the diplomatic situation carefully to see if anyone else was willing to join in with the war. He seemed to have his wish when England approached him with an alliance offer.

7fri3.jpg


However, the English were more interested in attacking France than Burgundy, so Johan was forced to abandon the alliance quickly. At that point he decided to keep out of the English-French feud for good and focus on the conflict in front of him.

General Halbertsma was proving his skill on the front as he joined up with forces from across the Alliance to fight and crush the Burgundian armies as they came.

7fri4.jpg


Thousands of enemies were killed or captured in his short campaigns, slowly but surely bringing the Burgundian war machine to its knees.

Alliance forces were advancing across the front and seizing Burgundian cities as the enemy mulled around in chaos, their command structure in ruins from Halbertsma’s strikes.

7fri5.jpg


Luneburg in the west, Hesse in the east and the Dutch from the north squeezed the Burgundians tighter as the war went on.

To add to Burgundy’s misery, England had them excommunicated by the Pope. The diplomatic consequences of the Lowland Campaign were really showing themselves as no one was coming to their aid in this, their darkest hour in decades.

The king was more than content to leave the conflict to his Generals and focus on diplomacy. The contested region of Osnabruck was a concern of his. It had been a full possession of Brunswick, but during the chaos of the vassalisation Münster had retaken it with their own claims. Hesse had then taken it from Münster, and they didn’t have any sort of claim on it. Through his vassal, the Duke of Brunswick, Johan I was able to press a claim for Friesland’s right to the territory.

7fri6.jpg


It wouldn’t matter much for the moment, but if relations with Hesse soured after the war then it would be a useful way to weaken them.

As Alliance forces advanced unimpeded, the Burgundians gathered all their forces together and made a desperate push towards Hesse, in an effort to remove one side from the war against them.

7fri7.jpg


It was surprisingly effective, as the incompetent Hessian king pulled rank on General Halbertsma to lead the Alliance forces, leading to their first great defeat of the war. Casualties were high enough to force the general to pull back into Frisian territory and recuperate his forces.

Despite that victory, things continued to get worse for Burgundy as Baden declared war on them.

7fri8.jpg


Baden wasn’t the problem however, it was its far larger allies Bavaria and Austria that brought terror the leaders of the Burgundian army. They began desperately sending out feelers for peace towards Friesland and its allies.

Johan could see the desperate position Burgundy was in, and wanted to push further before seeking peace with them. However, events forced his hands. The Hessian king was captured after one last futile attempt to retake Nassau and to secure his life and freedom he offered up the province and valuable trading centre to the Burgundians. Cursing the man’s cowardice as the large enemy army turned back towards Friesland, Johan made a peace for what he could get.

7fri9.jpg


It turned out Burgundy was more than willing to cede all of their remaining Flemish territory to get the Alliance off their back. Despite it not being everything Johan wanted, it was still an incredible victory. The Lowlands were finally free of outside invaders and ruled solely by the Dutch people. This included the city of Antwerp, a valuable trading centre just like Amsterdam.

To celebrate the great victory, a massive monument was commissioned in Groningen honouring the Dutch people and their perseverance in the face of Burgundian invasion.

7fri10.jpg


Meanwhile, the other members of the alliance looked around hungrily for expansion to keep up with their Dutch comrades. Escalating a minor trade complaint, Luneburg invaded Lübeck with the intention to seizing the trade of the Hanseatic League.

7fri11.jpg


Johan offered words of support, but he was secretly irritated that he could no longer use the Hanseatic League to aid his merchants. In the end he had to go all the way to Russia and the Republic of Novgorod to find a trade league that would accept Frisian merchants working with them.

He wasn’t too concerned by that though, as he had achieved one of the main goals set up by Hendrik I. The Lowlands were united; either ruled by him directly or by his vassal the Duke of Brabant. There was one small problem with that, however...

7fri12.jpg


The tiny Bishopric of Utrecht remained independent, and Johan was not willing to consider his work done until the last independent Dutch state was absorbed into his. It wouldn’t be very simple, though...

To be continued...

So, what do my readers think? If I attack Utrecht without a CB, I’ll probably have the Emperor and his 100K soldiers blitzing me. I don’t have a CB at the moment, and I can’t fabricate claims or claim their throne since they’re a Theocracy, so it seems I’m stuck unless I get lucky with an event...
 
You're doing great...it's hard to offer a suggestion. As for me...I wouldn't attack Utrecht. Of course if you have cores on Ultrecht, Zeeland, Holland I believe you become unified.

As for your alliance...its doing fine...but, if you go to war with Utrecht you may find friends turning on you.

Have you checked out France as a big brother...they are a natural enemy of Burgundy
 
Last edited:
Yeah I think an alliance with France would be best. If not, and you're that worried about the Emperor, I wouldn't bother with Utrecht. I'd say the risk out weighs the potential gain.
 
Yeah I think an alliance with France would be best. If not, and you're that worried about the Emperor, I wouldn't bother with Utrecht. I'd say the risk out weighs the potential gain.

Last time I checked, Utrecht was required to form the netherlands.
 
Last time I checked, Utrecht was required to form the netherlands.

Yes, but I would wait a few years/decades until a weaker Emperor ascends the throne before taking it.
 
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. As it turns out I was worried about the Emperor over nothing, as you will see.

Chapter Eight: End of an Era

It pained Johan I to do it to his fellow Dutch people, but the only way he could bring them into the fold was to aggressively conquer the city of Utrecht.

8fri1.jpg


War was declared, and the armies of Friesland quickly moved into the lightly guarded city.

Besides Utrecht’s allies, the aggressive action brought in the Emperor himself against Friesland. Luckily, Johan’s nephew in Luneburg had brought his own nation into the fray and would keep the Emperor at bay for the time being.

8fri2.jpg


Time was all Johan needed, as the enemy coalition was led not by the Emperor but by the lesser King of Thuringia. If he could seize the leadership of that small nation by quickly storming their capital in Dresden he could end the war easily.

With the entire Frisian army pressing against the walls, the city of Utrecht could not hold. General Halbertsma personally entered the Bishop’s palace and stripped him of his title and lands.

8fri3.jpg


Such an aggressive absorption of the city-state led to much concern through the Empire about whether Friesland was beginning a dishonourable land grab.

After that, the army was diverted eastwards through neutral Hesse, who had reasonably not wanted to be a part of the war but were still willing to offer Frisian troops passage through their lands.

8fri4.jpg


As they marched, the slipped past the Austrian forces heading northwards to Luneburg and entered Thuringian territory.

There, Halbertsma engaged a large Imperial army that had been quickly rallied to defend the leader of the alliance.

8fri5.jpg


His incredible skill won the day however, and the city was a simple proposition to capture after that.

8fri6.jpg


Despite being held at the point of a sword, the enemy king refused to offer any concessions knowing that Imperial troops could retake the city at any time with enough concentration of force. However, he did have his people to worry about and so agreed to accept minor concessions from Friesland in exchange for peace so he gained at least something from the war.

As the armies returned home, Johan finally relaxed now that the threat of the Emperor sweeping into his country was no more. He couldn’t spend too long on that though, as the war had seriously damaged both Friesland’s international reputation and the standing of the king within his own country. People doubted that he had the best interests of the Dutch people and the Church in mind after he stormed the independent Bishopric.

8fri7.jpg


Time heals all wounds however, so Johan focused his attentions on repairing his damaged relationship with the nations of the Empire and his people. Eventually, things would return to normal.

The changes that the country had gone through in the past seventy years had brought great prosperity to the Dutch people. Trade flowed through Amsterdam and Antwerp, while abroad Frisian merchants worked with the Novgorodian Trade League to send wealth back home. All this work had ascended Friesland to become the richest nation in Europe.

8fri8.jpg


Even the Emperor with his ample gold supplies wasn’t a match in income for Friesland, a fact that greatly pleased Johan as this had mostly been accomplished within his reign. While Hendrik I was the one to start the process, he had seen it to completion and would definitely be the one remembered for centuries to come.

Elsewhere in Europe, great conflicts raged without Friesland’s participation.

England found itself at war with Scandinavia, France and Burgundy. Thanks to their superior fleet however, they were able to hold out and survive with only some Irish territory lost.

8fri9.jpg


Denmark attempted to reclaim Holstein, which had been lost in an earlier war, only to bring the wrath of half the Empire down on their heads. They were eventually forced to renounce their claims on the state and pay a large sum of money in reparations. Holstein was then granted entry into the Empire to protect from any further aggression.

8fri10.jpg


In the east, Lithuania had been steadily building its power and appeared to be the strongest nation around. However it wasn’t able to withstand an attack from the Russians, the Poles, and even the Iberians, and it began to fall apart. Holding together such a large and diverse nation was not an easy thing to do.

8fri11.jpg


Poland itself came under attack when Austria decided to remove them from Imperial territory that their held. One combatant in this war was Hesse, which finally brought Johan’s thoughts back to increasing his power.

The Hessian army was engaged with a Polish force that had slipped through the frontlines.

8fri12.jpg


This was the perfect chance to press the claims on Osnabruck, as well as weaken the rising power of Hesse. Johan issued a declaration of war, and General Halbertsma moved into the country. Luneburg didn’t provide support, as they were technically still allied with Hesse in the war with Poland.

The war was a simple matter as Hesse didn’t have the strength to stand up to Friesland after dealing with the Polish invasion.

8fri13.jpg


Osnabruck was returned to the Duke of Brunswick and some smaller states were released as well, a clear defeat for the Hessians. (Brunswick got to Osnabruck first so they got it in the peace deal, but they’re my vassal so it doesn’t matter too much)

As General Halbertsma returned to Friesland he was met by a breathless messenger from the capital. He brought terrible news.

8fri14v2.jpg


Johan I, king of Friesland and the one who had repeatedly defeated Burgundy, freeing the Dutch and Flemish people from their foreign rulers, was dead. He had suffered a sudden heart attack whilst resting in his room, and hadn’t been found by servants until it was too late. His nephew, the brother of the king of Luneburg, had become the new king but he was nothing like his predecessors. The era of the ambitious and skilled rulers that had brought Friesland thus far was over.

To be continued...
 
Last edited:
Really enjoying this AAR! I'm too cowardly to play an OPM myself, but you're almost inspiring me to try :D

A question on becoming Emperor. What are the requirements to become eligible? As Russia, I wasn't eligible, even though I was part of the HRE, presumably because I was Orthodox. Here's my thinking.

Must be Catholic (Protestant/Reformed?) and Monarchy/Empire (Noble Republic?). Am I far off?

Again, great work!
 
Really enjoying this AAR! I'm too cowardly to play an OPM myself, but you're almost inspiring me to try :D

A question on becoming Emperor. What are the requirements to become eligible? As Russia, I wasn't eligible, even though I was part of the HRE, presumably because I was Orthodox. Here's my thinking.

Must be Catholic (Protestant/Reformed?) and Monarchy/Empire (Noble Republic?). Am I far off?

Again, great work!

You must be Christian and a Monarchy. Orthodox pretty much requires vassalized electors, as they won't otherwise vote for heretics.
 
Great update, with a nice cliffhanger. :cool:
 
Good stuff :)

I played a Friesland game back in 1.3 - I spent a century hiding behind the Austrian Emperor and never freed the Dutch lands. I did have a lovely colonial empire in Brazil and the Indian Ocean.

*Subscribes*
 
Last edited:
So, what do my readers think? If I attack Utrecht without a CB, I’ll probably have the Emperor and his 100K soldiers blitzing me. I don’t have a CB at the moment, and I can’t fabricate claims or claim their throne since they’re a Theocracy, so it seems I’m stuck unless I get lucky with an event...

Good work on that front - for future reference make a list of the target countries allies, then wait for a notice that one of them is at war, ally one of the countries they are at war with. You then have the alliance CB :)

Excellent progress overall... are you planning to form the Netherlands? Or stay Frisian?
 
Excellent warring in the last few updates, look forward to the next!
 
Avindian, JDMS, morningSIDEr- Thanks!
Prawnstar- Didn't early versions have an uber Burgundy? I couldn't imagine trying to repeat what I've done against that.
Keinwyn- Utrecht didn't have any allies, just guarantors. I plan to form the Netherlands because of the decisions, but then again maybe with a little modding I could stay Frisian and take the decisions. :D

Anyway, sorry for not posting for a few days, but it took a while to work up the stomach to play through the same events for the third time (first time was a test run to see if I could safely take Utrecht). You see, I forgot to save after the last update and ended up overwriting my autosaves with another game I'm playing. So I replayed everything and tried to keep the outcome more or less the same. There were a couple of differences though:

frioops1.jpg


This is useful as I've got a mission to annex Brabant, giving me a core on Brabant (the province). Its a bit gamey, but they are my vassal after all.

frioops2.jpg


I managed to take Osnabruck myself this time, and then I killed my king to get a new guy on the throne. He's got decent diplo, unlike the original guy, but he's still not that great.

Full update later today.
 
Ignore any text errors in the pictures; I was fiddling around with the localisation files. The problem was fixed half-way through the update.

Chapter Nine: Burgundy’s Last Chance

Ernst I was not like his uncle, or the other previous Kings of Friesland. Instead of being raised in a time when Friesland was an insignificant piece of the Empire and Burgundy loomed seemingly indomitably over them, he had been brought up in stability and luxury. By dismantling the Hanseatic League and distributing the merchant’s wealth to the true ruling class, his homeland of Luneburg had become incredibly wealthy. Wallowing in opulence he had neglected to concern himself with the affairs of the people and the army, although he spent much time in the court dealing with other nobility so he had a keen ear for negotiations.

9fri1.jpg


As such the first thing he did was to organise a cease-fire with Milan, who had remained at war even after Hesse had surrendered.

He also spent much time with the Duke of Brabant, eventually convincing him to have his duchy completely absorbed by Friesland.

9fri2.jpg


With that the Dutch people were united under the Frisian banner, although Ernst I wasn’t concerned with that. He was more interested in the extra money flowing into the kingdom’s coffers.

He might not have been a military man, but Ernst was smart enough to know that Burgundy was still a threat, despite his uncle’s success in pushing them out of Flanders. He also intended to boost Friesland to stand with the greatest powers of Europe, so he ordered a massive expansion of the military.

9fri3.jpg


A whole new twelve-thousand man army was drafted and construction began on a number of carracks to boost Friesland’s navy to par with everyone else in Europe, with the exception England and the Iberians.

During the recruitment, tragedy struck as the aging General Halbertsma fell from his horse while marching with a group knights.

9fri4.jpg


The hero of wars with Burgundy, Hesse and the Emperor himself was given a state funeral equal to those of kings.

Ernst was pleased when his new armies got a chance to prove themselves in battle. Holstein was vulnerable, and his older brother took advantage of that. Despite much protest from his advisors, he went ahead with support for the war.

9fri5.jpg


Holstein fell quickly and was absorbed by Luneburg, while Frisian armies moved to attack their ally the Palatinate.

This would be the moment a certain other nation had been waiting for. While Friesland’s armies were busy in Germany and public support for that war was dropping their time to strike had finally come. It was an all or nothing charge to take back what was rightfully theirs from those irritating Dutch upstarts.

9fri6.jpg


Almost as horrible as the invasion, to Ernst, was his own brother refusing to aid him in the war and backing out of their alliance. He gave the excuse of being too caught up in his present war, but with the Palatinate’s armies beaten that was a foregone conclusion anyway. Ernst vowed to never forget that betrayal and ordered his armies to return home even when they were on the doorstep of the Palatine capital.

Friesland’s armies were badly out of position, with only one force ready to take on the Burgundians. The other two were recovering after suffering heavy casualties in the previous war and returning home respectively.

9fri7.jpg


Luckily, Burgundy was also quite badly positioned but they still had forces to mount an invasion by slipping by the single defending army.

Eventually, the returning army was able to link up with the defending forces and mount a counterattack against the invaders. Leading the combined force was a newly recruited commander, General Eelsma.

9fri8.jpg


He proved that he was more than capable of fighting on the level of Halbertsma as he crushed a large Burgundian army and started mopping up the smaller groups attempting to sneak by.

While the smaller enemy armies were no match, there was still the main force led by the skilled knight Marc de Villaines. He had easily swept through Friesland’s smaller allies’ forces and invaded the small kingdom of Münster

9fri9.jpg


The Frisians could only watch as their allies were annexed, and it took all that Ernst’s advisors had to keep him from ordering the armies forward to engage such a powerful enemy.

After calming him down, they proposed a different strategy. If they could lure the Burgundians into Friesland itself then they could starve them by burning the crops as they retreated. With his forces depleted the enemy general would be easily beaten. It took some cajoling, but they were able to convince the king to leave it to his generals.

9fri10.jpg


The plan went ahead and culminated in an ambush near Gelre, ironically close to the site of another major Frisian defeat of Burgundians, where the Burgundian force was decisively beaten. It was then pursued back into its territory and systematically routed until there was nothing left.

Even though Ernst couldn’t much for the war directly, he spent his time communicating with emissaries and agents abroad and learned some interesting information to affect it.

9fri11.jpg


The Burgundian army was in a state of collapse. Apparently they had been hinging everything on General de Villaines, so with that army lost there was hardly anything guarding the sprawling kingdom. It was very lucky for Burgundy that the likes of France, England and Milan chose not to attack as they were busy with their own problems.

With the enemy army crushed, Frisian troops and their allies rushed forward to enact their revenge. For the first time an all-out invasion of Burgundy was feasible and nothing was going to stop them taking advantage of it.

9fri12.jpg


In under a year Frisian soldiers and their allies had conquered the Wallonian and German regions and were beginning to push into the Lorraine. The only thing that stopped them in the end was Ernst himself.

He didn’t want to overextend his country by conquering too much of Burgundy. He ordered his men back, and began negotiating a peace that, while not offering much immediate gain to Friesland, would get Burgundy out of their hair for good. He personally marched a regiment of soldiers to Bourgogne to confront the Burgundian king in person and bring his best skill to the fore.

9fri13.jpg


With his lands in turmoil, his army crushed and Frisians threatening to swarm into the heart of Burgundy, the enemy surrendered. He was forced to release some of the Imperial states he and his predecessors had wrongfully annexed, as well as renounce all claims his kingdom had on the Flemish and Dutch peoples. The last chance for Burgundy to retake what it had once owned had been and gone.

It was quite ironic that in the end, the one to finish removing Burgundian influence from the Lowlands was the king that didn’t really care about grand designs for his nation rather than a mighty leader like Hendrik I or Johan I. However his only real weapon, his sharp tongue, was the decisive factor so it could be said that the Kings of Friesland brought the right skills to the table at the right time for them to reach the point they were at. Achieving victory and ensuring their place amongst the great powers of Europe is not the end of the story however...

9fri14.jpg


Reports were slowly trickling into Europe of Portuguese explorers uncovering a whole new continent filled with savages and resources to exploit. The promises of even more wealth flowing into Frisian coffers was music to Ernst I’s ears.

To be continued...
 
Interesting, no territorial gains.

Why?