Monopoly - a Hansa AAR

[naggy]

Since HTTT has introduced the newly revamped Merchant Republic, and it's fun to try something different, I'm going to play a Trade game with the Hansa.

Rules:
1. Expansion will only be done in:

• German cultured provinces
• CoTs (If a nation builds a CoT in their capital, I will take all provinces, destroy the CoT, and release vassals.)
• Missions
• Triggered modifier provinces (Sound Tolls, for example)

2. Settlement policy will be used ruthlessly.
3. No wars without a CB.
4. No going over BB limit.

Goal:
1.) Own as many of the world's CoTs as possible.
2.) Have the largest trade league possible.

I'll start in 24 hours - if anyone wants me to modify/add rules, now's the time to propose 'em.

[naggy]

Chapter 1: Trading (explanations)

Chapter 2: Opening Moves
Chapter 3: Ending the Sound Toll

Chapter 4: Mercantilism vs. Free Trade (breakdown)

Chapter 5: Preparations
Chapter 6: The Fall of Genoa and Danzig
Chapter 7: The Push to Liberate Danzig
Chapter 8: The second Hanseatic-Teutonic War

The world after the Second Hanseatic-Teutonic War

Chapter 9: The Fall of Venice
Chapter 10: The liberation of Western Denmark
Chapter 11: Colonization

Map: Europe: 1399-1455

Chapter 12: The Fall of Bohemia - Part 1

[Malurous]

One habitué reporting for duty. I'll follow with interest - I haven't tried a merchant republic in HTTT yet, myself, so there should be something new for me here.

[Wayloss]

I'm in, sad to hear about Prussian death.

[JDMS]

Subscribed. Good luck!

[Boris ze Spider]

darn it not another hansa aar. Good luck though

[Landris]

It may be another Hansa AAR, but it is a naggy Hansa AAR which should be all you need to know!

[PrawnStar]

*Subscribes* - I'm interested in a good gameplay AAR covering HttT trade mechanics.

[Mannisks]

Yes.

[History_Buff]

Those objectives sound like a plan. One thing I might add. I think It would be better if you release only part of their lands as vassals. For example, France has a CoT in Ile de France, why not take Northern France and, provided you have a single unbroken border that ends in Brittany, Why not keep Northern France and release Southern France. Also, your vassals can create competing CoTs so you should either mod that out or otherwise releasing vassals after you conquer somebody may not be as viable as it sounds (though it would make the owner of the new CoT vulnerable enough that you should be able to take them out fairly easily.

[Boris ze Spider]

It may be another Hansa AAR, but it is a naggy Hansa AAR which should be all you need to know!

Yes i know, its just that after I started mine, two others popped up

[naggy]

Hrm...good points. I've re-thought using religious CB's - filthy capitalists will use any excuse to make a ducat.

History Buff: Good thinking - I may have to jiggle things around. Paris is a good example, as is Lisbon. Worst case, I sell provinces.

The code is more what you call "guidelines" than actual rules.

[morningSIDEr]

Very glad to be able to follow this AAR from its start, subscribed!

[The_Shepherd]

This looks very Promising.

[oddman]

*Subscribes* - I'm interested in a good gameplay AAR covering HttT trade mechanics.

What he said.

Also, you seem quite adept at writing decent gameplay AARs in general. This is a Good Thing.

[Johan11]

Finaaly in from the start in a naggy AAR!

[naggy]

For those that still have In Nomine, check out my Castille AAR (in my sig), where I do crazy trading things there. Some of that will reappear here, but HTTT's wrinkles change the game significantly.

The two main features of HTTT that affect trade are Trade Leagues and Trade Rights.

Trade Leagues are a group of nations that have agreed to trade exclusively in League CoTs and not compete with each other. Diplomatically, this results in +1.20 annual relations with all league members. While this sounds wonderful, there are some drawbacks - the chief one being that if a league member gets a monopoly in a League CoT, you can't just throw them out. It also is probably very hard to get all 20 merchants in a CoT, since you can't throw out your own league members.

Trade Stations (kontors) (+10% tax, -1RR) can be established in any league province with at least 4 base tax, 1000 people and no CoT. The MTTH is 40 years (30 for many colonial goods). However, if you leave the league, all stations shut down with an MTTH of 1 month.

However, trade leagues aren't all peaches and cream. Occasionally, nations will leave your league for no apparent reason (Holstein seems to do this almost immediately in the 1399 start, despite having 125 relations with the Hansa), and they will almost certainly leave if you go to war or drop relations. You can demand that a nation join your league as part of the treaty to end a war, but since your relations have probably dropped, you'll need to mend relations to keep them in the league. It also seems to be next to impossible to get CoT owning nations into a league, and if you do, you won't keep them.


The Hanseatic League in 1399. Nations with stripes are in the league, thus, some nations trading in Lubeck are not league members

Trade Rights redirect all of a nation's provinces producing a certain good to the nearest league CoT. It has two province effects: -25% Trade Income and +66% local Production Efficiency. Here, for Franken, we see the difference: the province makes the Palatinate .90 ducats/year more, and makes our CoT 6.5 ducats/year less.


Before (left) and after (right) giving trade rights for Wine to the Hanseatic League

Thus, you generally do not want to ask for trade rights from someone already in your league (except for a mission), and you want to make sure to cancel trade rights if you later get the nation into your league. It should be noted that trade rights override trade league obligations, but you cannot ask for trade rights from a nation in another league. Thus, for this to happen, League A would get trade rights, then the nation would join League B.

Trade rights are useful because you can get them from nations that are too far away to agree to join your league. You can also sometimes get them from nations that are close to a rival league but that have not yet joined - reducing the value of that nation to the rival league. Conversely, the AI is annoyingly good at pulling this trick on you - if a nation leaves your league, the AI is not above swooping in and getting their most valuable trade goods before you can get them back in the league.

Finally, there is one final joyous piece of being a Merchant Republic - all Merchant Republics get the Trade Dispute CB against each other. It's a relatively useless CB - 0 infamy, 200% prestige, and 50% cost for removing cores, enforcing trade leagues, concession of defeat, and demanding ducats.

[naggy]

History:
As with most of Germany, Lubeck's history is intertwined with the drama of the Holy Roman Empire. Slavs founded various villages in the area, Liubice being one, in the 7th century. The area remained thinly inhabited and unimportant until the 11th Century, when the castle was upgraded several times, then used as a capital by Henry, King of the Slavs. With Henry's death, Liubice was sacked in 1128 and destroyed in 1138.

Count Adolf II of Holstein was given permission to rebuild the town in 1143, and it was rebuilt near the destroyed castle, on the river island Bucu. The town was ceded to Henry the Lion in 1158, and was made an Imperial City in 1181 by Emperor Frederick II upon Henry's death. The city was made a Free City in 1226, while it was also becoming the main point of departure for Germans moving to the lands settled by the Teutonic and Livonian Orders.

Lubeck would have just been another imperial city, except that in 1241, she joined in an alliance with Hamburg, and Cologne joined in 1260. With their nascent trading empire controlling the German salt-fish trade, they were able to convince Henry II of England to grant them broad trading powers.

The Hanseatic League was made formal in 1356, uniting Hansa (guilds) from Lubeck, Hamburg, Cologne, and dozens of other cities. The league was relatively informal, however, and cities often did not send representatives to meetings. The league's power was not just its breadth, but its ability to establish kontors - in Bergen (Norway), Bruges (Flanders), London (England), and Novrogrod.

1399, in many ways, represents a high water mark for the Hanseatic League, with domination over Northern and Central Germany's trade, along with trade rights in England and Scandanavia. The key is to maintain and expand those rights. That will require diplomacy and force, which are often in opposition.

The Hansa begin with alliances with Riga, Bremen, Luneburg, Magdeburg, and Oldenburg. Riga is a problem, since she gets attacked relentlessly by everyone around her.

Stathalter Gregor Thelemann is a very good leader - average Administration, good Diplomatic, and great Military skills.


We start at Tech Level 3, and immediately move our budget slider to Government. Small nations regain stability very quickly, and we need to get our first idea ASAP (March 1406, at this rate). Our budget should quickly improve, because for some idiotic reason, we start with no merchants in Lubeck.

On the military side, we start with 1000 Latin Medieval Infantry, and 12 ships (4 galleys, 4 carracks, 4 cogs).

In religious news, we start out unable to take any decisions except Blasphemy act (meh). Also, note a new religious decision in 4.1b: Send Delegate to the Pope. This recurring religious decision lets you trade 1 missionary for 2 papal influence. If you turn on the message setting for decisions by other nations, you will get spammed mercilessly by this decision.

We convert our ruler to a general...4 fire, 1 shock, 2 maneuver. Why, oh why, does the game love to give you fire in 1399?

Our starting sliders are pretty good, though note the limits on centralization. We start with a move towards Free Subjects and immediately lose 1 stability.


If you look back up at the map of the Hanseatic league, you'll notice that Poland and Bohemia are on the league's borders, and not part of the league. I'll send two diplomats to lock them up in my league, before they get snapped up by Venice or Novrogrod or give away trade rights. Never take for granted that you can grab a juicy target later, until you're the last merchant republic standing. Both are Very Likely, and they accept.


Note that Lubeck's trade starts at 1030.20 - we'll watch it's value rise and fall over time.


October 15: Holstein breaks free of the league. They still trade in Lubeck.


Burgundy declares war on Hainaut, using the Reconquest CB. Burgundy is an early target, as they almost always get excommunicated within 25 years, at which point I want to grab Antwerp.

We get our first mission - End the Sound Toll. The best part of this mission is that it gives us a permanent modifier that stacks with the other Sound Toll modifier.




Non-binding Voting time: Do we go for war, or peace? Keep in mind I do not get a conquest CB, which means 2 wars against Denmark at max infamy. War will also probably lose all of Scandanavia from the League.

[Malurous]

Hmm, why not go the peaceful route in this one? Getting that modifier quickly is great for your economy, and waging war could be saved for more opportunistic times and richer gains.

Interesting situation and mechanics.

[Keinwyn]

You have an OK diplo monarch, it would probably be cheaper to bribe relations up, no? Do any nasty events fire if you don't keep relations high?