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.