Gott Mit Uns! - Rise of the Black Eagle

[HMAS-Nameless]

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FORWARD:

Welcome all Paradoxians to my brand new shiny narrative-history book combo. Taking on my family homeland in the proud Kingdom of Prussia we shall delve into the history of the Rise of Prussia and its infamous Black Eagle that saw Germany united under its monarch in the turbulent times that followed the Napoleonic Wars and helped the introduction of modern infrastructure and the way we live today. Please enjoy Gott Mit Uns! Rise of the Black Eagle!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS



i. Summer in Berlin

ii. Rise of Prussia

iii. In the Victor's Crown






I: The Protestant League


II: Foreign Affairs


III: War and Honour


IV: Political Intrigue

[Psychedelic Sou]

The AAR forum is finally opened up? Awesome!

Anyway, the banner you made looks promising I'll be following this.

[HMAS-Nameless]

yep by the looks of it! But we must remember that my AAR was the first non-beta Vicky 2 AAR

[Psychedelic Sou]

yep by the looks of it! But we must remember that my AAR was the first non-beta Vicky 2 AAR

Ofcourse. I think you should get a cookie for this. Am I able to award cookies for this?

EDIT: I have something better! Hereby I award you the very first Psychedelic Cake for the Most Epic First Victoria II AAR!

[HMAS-Nameless]

Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia, 16th June 1836
The crisp midnight air filled Friedrich’s lungs. The moon-lit stone road intersection the balcony overlooked seemed to gleam in the warm June weather. Berlin truly was grand this time of year. The bustling of day to day life seemed to stop and the world seemed at peace. It was a time of year for living after the frozen blanket of winter retreated. Peaceful and tranquil was the feel of the city. Friedrich could feel it in his bones. It was nights like these when the King and his advisors were finished setting him work for the day and a sense of relief spread over him. But it was also times like these when his mind drifted back to the days nearly twenty-one years ago. It was another warm June eerily similar to this when the grand Prussian Army was marched across a war-weary Europe towards Napoleon’s new French army. One such private in this army was a young soldier named Friedrich Reinhardt.

An impression of Berlin during the Summer of 1836

Plancenoit, Waterloo, Walloon-Brabant, Southern Netherlands, 18th June 1815
Friedrich drew his bayonet onto the end of his musket as the company of Prussian soldiers neared the villa gate. The villa of Plancenoit, nothing more than a couple small farm houses, a church and a small wall around it was in reality one of the most important points of the battlefield according to General von Blücher as they marched the previous days. The column of soldiers, Friedrich among them, charged up the road to the small villa readying bayonets for fierce hand-to- combat. They were coming close as they began to hear the cannons stationed in the villa firing on the British positions far off further up the battlefield. As the troop column came up on the villa gate they pushed through to find a line of fire rocketing at them from the windows of the farm house on the right side of the villa. The French had been waiting for them. Dozens of the first soldiers through the villa gate fell dead bleeding to death from the holes blown in them from close range to their left flank. Luckily for Friedrich most of the shots had ended by the time his section of column entered through the gate stumbling atop of dead or dying fellow Prussian soldiers. Friedrich ran up to the side of the farm door and kicked the door in and charged into bayonet combat with the French. It is funny though, when you are in hand-to-hand combat, all you can see is bayonets and blood. After the first seconds of bayonet combat in the farmhouse Friedrich looked down to his feet or what was muttering and bleeding at his foot: a Frenchman coughing up blood and begging him for his mercy while Friedrich’s bayonet left hand his stomach. Without thinking Friedrich soon found himself pushing the long piece of metal through the boy’s forehead piercing right through his skull with a sickening crunch.

Such things troubled the now highly decorated general of the Prussian Army. But he tried to push these things out of his mind from the tranquility of the view from the balcony. He looked over at his pregnant wife, Teresa next to him. The pregnancy, really a miracle at their age and what is to be Friedrich’s first child, was still in its infancy and was hardly noticeable. The moment even though tainted from memory’s ways was nonetheless grand. Friedrich could feel something happening however in Prussia as a whole. The Kingdom was about to take a dramatic turn, whether it would be in days, weeks, years or even decades Friedrich knew it was coming. However, in the end; only time would tell.

[Psychedelic Sou]

Hmm, I like your writing style. I'm pretty interested in the decisions Friedrich and his followers will make, and If Prussia will remain Prussia or become the German Eagle.

[Tommy4ever]

Well you've finally started.

You must feel proud to be the first public AAR for V2 .

Nice start, I assume you'll just to prologue until August 13th. Does this mean this AAR will also be following your first steps as you learn the game?

[HMAS-Nameless]

too a degree it will be about me trying to learn the game but not neccessarily my first game. It's mainly going to be narrative-history book style

[Tob.Ristlin]

Yay, I love narrative AAR's, plain and simple AAR's get boring soon, congratulations, keep up the good work!

[HMAS-Nameless]

thanks for all this great feedback guys! I'll be sure to post my second update pretty soon

[Qorten]

Very decent start. I imagine this won't be based on the very first game of Vicky 2 as it'll probable get a first patch very soon in true Paradox tradition!

[HMAS-Nameless]

Very decent start. I imagine this won't be based on the very first game of Vicky 2 as it'll probable get a first patch very soon in true Paradox tradition!

I'll be posting the three parts of the Prologue this week then once Vicky 2 comes out I will be patching and playing for roughly a week (depending on how long it takes for me to get a grip on the game) then proceeding to begin the main section of the AAR the following week

[Singleton Mosby]

(depending on how long it takes for me to get a grip on the game)

The tutorial is good so it might not have to take you long to "get a grip on the game".

[m45tion87]

Excellent start, sir! I wonder which direction the kingdom of Prussia will choose to advance...

[HMAS-Nameless]

-Lukas von Boehm | Suum Cuique: History of the German Empire in the 19th Century © 2010
Prussia, the very name brings around the thoughts of the entire world. It is curious though how this tiny duchy on the Baltic that initially only reigned over a few separated swamps, villages and castles throughout most of its existence after liberation from the Teutonic Crusader State that was housed there and original annihilators of the pagan Prussian faith came to prominence in the world power clash. Throughout the early years of its existence the Duke served as a vassal and then member of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.


In the early years of 17th Century a personal union was established between Prussia and the then military powerhouse known as the Margraviate of Brandenburg whose Duke had attained the title of Elector in the Holy Roman Empire since the 15th Century and the split with the House of Luxemburg. Brandenburg-Prussia was formed and the territory was split between the old Royal dukes of Prussia under Polish sovereignty and the new Hohenzollern Prince-elector Johann Sigismund of Brandenburg-Prussia. Eventually at the very turn of the 18th Century the Margrave and Prince-elector at the time, Frederick I of Prussia was proclaimed King of Prussia and the nation was renamed in accordance to the “Kingdom of Prussia”. This is where the modern history of Prussia begins.

The new Kingdom of Prussia was born into national poverty as the region of Brandenburg and political centre of the Kingdom had not yet recovered from the Thirty Year’s War. The new Kingdom, while large in size was dispersed across the Holy Roman Empire from the ancient heartlands of East Prussia to the Hohenzollern homeland of Brandenburg and even to the many disconnected exclaves of Cleves, Mark and Ravensberg in the Rhineland near the French border.
Worse more a new strain of bubonic plague showed its ugly face in 1708, only seven years after the Kingdom was created and in the proceedings killed a third of Prussia’s population before mysteriously stopping in its tracks less than 50 miles from Berlin.

Frederick I of Prussia, first King of the Prussian realm

After a hard two decades under Frederick I, Prussia’s luck seemed to return with the securing of Pomerania through victory against Sweden in the Great Northern War 1700-1721. After steady progress through the next two decades, as well as the ascension of Frederick II (Frederick the Great) Prussia found itself in numerous conflicts with the other major German power, Austria and found itself even contesting the Habsburg Emperor himself over the region of Silesia to the south east of Brandenburg and to the north of Austrian Bohemia near the steadily collapsing Polish border. This initiated the War of Austrian Succession and the Silesian Wars which continued until 1763 with the end of the Seven Years War. The Silesian Wars and Prussia had seen two major conflicts of Central Europe and had soured the uneasy Austro-Prussian relations long term. Although moderate peace had been secured after the end of the Seven Year’s War through the next decades Prussia took part in the massive partition of Poland and steadily grew to become a major player on the eighteenth century world stage.

However the Kingdom of Prussia was not truly a major world player until the Kingdom’s greatest challenge yet came to their borders. This grand challenge it would seem came in the hands of one man; a Frenchman named Napoléon Bonaparte.

A map illustrating aquisitions of Frederick II the Great and the early growth of the Kingdom of Prussia

[HMAS-Nameless]

so there it is, the second form of update I shall be using on this aar. Basically I will include a big gameplay element as I will give each occurrence in the game (events, budget changes, wars, international business) a section in my updates.

[Psychedelic Sou]

I can't wait until you start with the actual gameplay
I always find Prussia AAR's interesting, and I doubt this one will be different

[Tommy4ever]

I'll nto lie, I much prefer your history book update. You wrote it very well and if you continue to produce updates like that I shall definately be following.

[HMAS-Nameless]

I'll nto lie, I much prefer your history book update. You wrote it very well and if you continue to produce updates like that I shall definately be following.

thanks, its good to hear positive feedback for my history book-style update. The majority of the aar will be that of history book with character intervals showing the human relations between two families, the Reinhardts and the von Boehms. Because I always feel that with history book and gameplay aars the viewpoint of your actual population is missed out, like how did it feel to live a normal life with all this going on around you. With that said like I mentioned it shall mainly be a history book style aar.

[Nikephorus16]

I love this slightly unconventional AAR. Will definatly keep an eye on it! Once you start the game, will you get to screen shots?