The Hundred Years War - an England Combat Tutorial AAR

[naggy]

No cores on entire Aquitane region?

Nope. I didn't see a mission available to get them, either. France gets Recover Aquitaine as a mission - can't remember the benefit of it offhand.

Excellent work. I forgot you can just detach a regiment and put the leader on it.

Yup. Your idea would have been better if I was deeper into enemy territory, since a single regiment walking alone through France both ways is rather...doomed.

[sprites]

recover normandy awards you perstige and cores , but you start with those cores ...

england->france should be an absolute monster
just lose some provinces if you have to ...
maybe i'll try that

edit : there are 12 english provinces at start , and 14 cosmopolitaine ones

you should conquer ireland beforehand , scotland ... well they are not rich , but you'll need them for some english decision

[Rockingluke]

Regarding having enough Cosmopolitaine provinces, couldn't you release the irish minors as vassals and conquer em later. Or get them force released so you keep the cores.

[sprites]

the irish don't count as you need to have a majority of cosmopolitaine culture , not having 51% ^^
there are only 5 irish provinces

[lordkestrel]

Note: I'm trying this in a test game to see if there are enough Cosmopolitaine provinces to do this.

There are 12 starting provinces with English culture, 13 with Cosmopolitan French. Two of them are owned by Burgundy, and two by Provence. You could also just create vassals of Northumberland, Lancaster, and Yorkshire to release your English culture count.

[naggy]

There are 12 starting provinces with English culture, 13 with Cosmopolitan French. Two of them are owned by Burgundy, and two by Provence. You could also just create vassals of Northumberland, Lancaster, and Yorkshire to release your English culture count.

It's not just # of provinces - it's also based on base tax. French provinces tend to be richer, so I may not have to spin off as many vassals.

[Rabid]

It's not just # of provinces - it's also based on base tax. French provinces tend to be richer, so I may not have to spin off as many vassals.

Actually for dominant culture it's a simple count of number of provinces owned - neither cores nor tax make any difference. You could have 1 base tax 20 province of 10 different cultures and 2 tax 1 english provinces and english would still be your dominant culture.

[lordkestrel]

Yep, as Rabid said it's purely province count. Accepted is where income/cores matter, for changing the dominant culture it's just how many you own.

[naggy]

Yep, as Rabid said it's purely province count. Accepted is where income/cores matter, for changing the dominant culture it's just how many you own.

Ah ha! Well, France it is then, in my test game.

[naggy]

Chapter 13
A Stake Through the Heart

With Paris fallen, it's time to get out of this war with France. Since France was an ally in the war and not the original target, I have no causus belli against them, and thus, I would take full infamy if I took any provinces. France simply doesn't have any provinces worth full infamy.

With my new cores, I now have the Reconquest CB on Provence, Berry, Orleans, Bourbonnais, France, and Burgundy. I'm at war with France (so I have to wait 5 years to declare war with my CB), and Burgundy is too powerful for me to fight coming off high war exhaustion. That leaves Provence, Berry, Orleans, and Bourbonnais.

Normally, if you declare war on a vassal, their suzerain will join the war. If the vassal and suzerain is in a war with you, you must make peace with the suzerain to take provinces from (or annex) the vassal. Thus, under normal circumstances, I would have to immediately restart a war with France just to grab a 1 province vassal. Not really worth it.

There's a catch: --- if a nation is already at war with you, they will not be called into new wars with you. --- They also can't use their any CB (such as alliance) against you, without breaking the truce.

Luckily, I have 5 diplomats. On April 1, 1407, I use 4 at once while paused:
1.) DoW Provence (lesser in a Personal Union with Naples, allied to themselves (?), Ferrara, and Milan. They are also part of the Empire, so technically, Bohemia could join in - not that they can get to my armies.
2.) DoW Orleans. (allied to France (can't join), themselves (?), Berry (who I'll DoW next), and Aragon).
3.) DoW Berry. (allied to France (can't join), themselves (?), Orleans (see above), and Aragon).
4.) DoW Bourbon. (vassal/allied to France, allied to Orleans, Berry, and Aragon).

Castille declines to join the war on my side, and Aragon declines all 4 calls to arms (taking 4 -25 prestige hits, -100 prestige has to hurt). Ferrara also declines to help Provence and Naples.

On April 3rd, after all calls to arms are answered and I know who I'm fighting, I send a peace offer to France. With 23 war score from holding Paris and my battles, I can release Normandy (who get Normandy and Caux, both of which I have cores on). Releasing a nation will make it my ally and give +200 relations. (Of course, I can cancel the alliance, insult my relations down under 100, and declare war at my leisure).



May 1: Provence's armies are summarily crushed in Maine. At the bottom right of the screenshot, you can see the coats of arms for my 4 wars: Bourbon, Orleans, and Berry are alone. Naples leads the war for Provence (due to leading the Personal Union).



Since I'm facing a bunch of minors with no military power left, I can afford to split my armies and besiege each province. Over in Gascogne, Orleans managed to sneak an army down, so now I have to march to all the way to Normandy so I can sail down to Gascogne. If they take Gascogne before I take their sole province, I cannot annex them without retaking Gascogne.



September 24: With Gascogne secure, my main army returns to Normandy. In the outliner, the siege of Anjou shows >100%. When > appears in the outliner, it means that you just breached the wall, so I'm going to go assault Anjou to hurry things up (it quickly falls).



December 1: Berry falls and is annexed. As I use the Reconquest CB, I get a whole lot of prestige, and take no infamy.



February 3, 1408: Naples cedes Maine and Anjou on Provence's behalf.

February 14, 1408: Orleans falls and is annexed.

April 21: Bourbonnais falls and is annexed. I immediately cancel my alliance with Normandy.

May 25: Before I start to insult, I check to see who will join in if I DoW. I realize I forgot to add Normandy to my Sphere of Influence (SoI) (granted, I was short on diplomats), and so Burgundy did. Had I added Normandy to my SoI, AI nations would probably not have tried to ally or guarantee her. Now, I'll have to fight Burgundy (which I planned on anyway). Since I'll be at war, I cancel military access with Burgundy.



June 1: As I'm at peace finally, I can form Great Britain! --- After forming a new nation, save and reload. There are some minor weirdnesses that may occur if you do not. --- Most nation forming decisions require you to both own and have a core on a set of key provinces in the nation.




July 1: We gain the Reconquest CB on Norway (they hold Orkney).

Since I want to retake my cores from Burgundy, and I want to annex Normandy, I need to declare war on Burgundy first. Otherwise, I would be unable to use the reconquest CB on Burgundy when she defended Normandy, and I'd have to wait 5 years after ending the war before I could try and reclaim my cores (Picardie, Cambray, Franche-Comte, Nevers, and Bourgogne).




You probably noticed I took a stability hit against Normandy. In this case, Burgundy had just declared war on Brabant (she has a mission to conquer Brabant), so I wanted to strike while all her armies were tied down in the north. Insulting requires waiting a month, and I felt that stability was cheaper than Burgundy finishing her conquest of Brabant too quickly. --- When declaring war, each point of stability lost also results in an equal gain in war exhaustion and infamy. Don't take stability hits unless you feel it's truly worth it! ---

Unfortunately for me, all of Burgundy's allies join. Brittany needs to be smacked down quickly - I can't leave her moderately sized hostile army at my back.

[naggy]

No cores on entire Aquitane region?

I checked the missions: if France owns both Saintonge and Gascogne, you can get the mission to recover both provinces (which gives a core). I'd have to give up Gascogne first to do that (I suppose I could try to sell it to France).

I also could have gone for Vassalize France (requires keeping Orleans, Bourbon, Auvergne, and Provence intact, and wiping out enough infantry and cavalry so that I have more of both). I'm not sure that even with the Subjugation CB that France would be small enough to subjugate after just taking my cores.

[lordkestrel]

1.) DoW Provence (lesser in a Personal Union with Naples, allied to themselves (?), Ferrara, and Milan. They are also part of the Empire, so technically, Bohemia could join in - not that they can get to my armies.
2.) DoW Orleans. (allied to France (can't join), themselves (?), Berry (who I'll DoW next), and Aragon).
3.) DoW Berry. (allied to France (can't join), themselves (?), Orleans (see above), and Aragon).
4.) DoW Bourbon. (vassal/allied to France, allied to Orleans, Berry, and Aragon).

The reason they appear to be allied with themselves, is that declaring war on a vassal/lesser in a union is considered the same as declaring war on the overlord. So France is allied with Berry, so it shows up as Berry allied with Berry. That's also why Aragon is called in for France, and Milan + Ferrara for Naples. The HRE call for Provence is because the province of Provence is in the HRE, and it makes a check for the vassal before the master.

[sprites]

that is a very agressive stance
aragon is the defender of faith to have that much call to arms?

[Enewald]

France is yours.

[dinofs]

All of France will soon be flying the Union Jack.

[naggy]

Chapter 14
Crushing Burgundy, part 1

August 4, 1408: Brittany's armies are wiped out in Vendee. Since I marched in to start the battle, I took no attrition with my large army. A quick assault on Vendee (Brittany's capital) will keep them out of my hair.

This is where assaults are helpful - had I gone for the siege method, I'd have to leave 4k men behind to babysit, and I'd have to be very careful with my army so that no one snuck over and wiped out my siege regiments.



Burgundy has decided to go straight through Bourbon and slice northwest. They've taken Bourbon and Berry here, but they made a fatal mistake by assaulting through both while not knowing where my army was. I'll hit them right after the new month lets me refresh morale - I'll have a slight morale advantage, neutral terrain, and my high-shock King. I can't afford to wait either - I need to either defeat their army, or hurt it bad enough to turn around, lest I run out of maneuvering room here.



December 7: This event takes me into the negative - I only avoid a loan because it's December.



December 13: My high-shock general and starting morale advantage let me grind the allied army into sausage. Most of both armies move back to lick their wounds. Mine didn't come with over 3 points of war exhaustion though. --- Don't be afraid to fight if you're not in optimum condition, if other factors favor you! ---



December 25: Inexplicably, however, the AI sends 19 Burgundian regiments forward to press their "advantage". This is where keeping your army in one giant fist is advantageous. The disadvantage is that occasionally, you lose the entire army.



February 18, 1509: The 19 Burgundian regiments surrender to my overwhelming force. In Maine, Brittany has sent a regiment to siege me, rather than regain their capital. --- The AI rarely moves small siege armies out of your way. Since you don't take attrition to move into the province with them, they can be an attrition-free way to move around, cause some WE to your enemy, drive up war score, and generally feel productive. ---



March 9: Since Berry hadn't been taken long, I assault its understrength garrison and take it back. --- Garrisons slowly regenerate their numbers, so it can take several months to return to full strength after falling. ---

April 8: While I'm waiting for my morale to recharge, Bohemia walks 4000 men into my army and dies. Unfortunately, the battle started at the end of the month. --- An army does not recharge morale and reinforcements if it is in battle at the end of the month. ---

May 3: Brittany accepts a suitable peace.



May 21: Savoy is spanked. --- When at war with multiple nations, exploit the fact that each nation acts individually. Destroy/drive off enemies one by one. --- In this case, I'm fighting defensively (on my own territory, not necessarily defensively in each battle), so the enemy is, on average, taking more attrition than I, and reinforcing slower. --- An army that spends a lot of time outside of occupied/owned territory is in danger of being worn down and destroyed. ---



June 5: The plan gets...modified. The AI is much more likely to attack you if you look weak - my wars with several European powers give France some (hopefully false) hope they can regain all that land I took from them and their vassals.

[dinofs]

Ah, France in that crippled state shouldn't prove too much of a challenge. It really just means more land for you.

[naggy]

From my test game - formed France in 1433 (took so long because France and Burgundy allied)



Had to release Northumberland because Glamorgan assimilated. Wiped France by forcing her to release an expanded Guyenne (due to Nationalists) and Auvergne, and took 8 infamy to annex her (from Languedoc and Dauphine). Other than that, all infamy came from events, Scotland, and Ireland. I have 5.4 infamy, and I'm Papal Controller for some odd reason.

[Enewald]

Why does the game allow England to become France?

[Rockingluke]

It appears if you keep moving capital and culture you can switch between great Britain and France. That's according to the wiki.