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after losing my saves for malacca AAR , and a long time where i did not play much , but reading forums , i wanted to start a new one :D

version/mod : 4.1 beta with fixpack , + i reverted France province to their IN taxes values :D
country : Alsace
goals : ... well god is on our side , so surviving is a nice start :D

eu3494.jpg

Our initial situation. scary nations - nations that are bigger than us - are everywhere , but there are a few nearby who are known for their aggressivity : the BBB (big Burgundy blob ) - Austria - Bavaria - Milan - Bohemia the holy roman emperor - France and England , the evil brothers

In the year 1399 , divine favor shone on the country of Alsace , and Archbishop Wilheim II , not that great leader , is granted a divine advisor. ^^
He will help the leader , and his successors to achieve glory and fight all kinds of yellow-hating blobs :D .

While Wilheim was undoubtfully a very devout man , he wasn't that great of a leader (admin 5 - diplo 4 - military 5 )

-Wilheim ... looking at our policies , what is our strong point?
- hmm ... our narrowmindness , to be loved by the Pope?
- the Pope support sure is a blessing , but to achieve glory , we will need money !
-don't we already have disciplined peasants and wine exports for that?
-yes we have , but we will need more tha that ! so let's favor a bit more the freedom of trade , and see what noble task God will give us!
- i think i know , we should have a greater army than our neighbor Baden
-so let's recruit another infantry regiment , and i would ask you to hire any nice advisors , but we don't have any at our disposal yet ...

eu3502.jpg


notes :

- so , yes , we are a little rich theocracy , member of the HRE , with three neighbors : Baden , the Palatinate , and the usually short-lived Lothringen


next part : after unpausing !
 
Alsace is always an interesting country. Good luck. :D
 
Here's to Alsace. May the Alsace and this AAR survive forever.

I see you want to move toward free trade quickly...great idea. And, a bigger army is also good...and, as you build up your trade there's no telling what could become Alsace's.

Good luck.
 
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Excellent stuff, I do so love AARs based upon small nations. Alsace is in a great position to provide a good challenge and plenty of action. Your Malacca AAR was a good read and, of course, consider me subscribed for this!
 
feedback :

garudamon11 : yea Alsace is a theocracy

soulking , dinofs , blsteen , Range , Dewirix , morningSIDEr : thank you

well my forcelimits are ... 2 regiments for the moment , so it's easy to reach


Chapter two

Stability dropped when Wilheim discounted some remarks on production technologies ... the holy bible did not speak of all that ... fortunately by february 1400 the stability reaches +3 , and we can focus entierely on deevlopping the government (well , we had ... Wilheim is able to raise the stab by himself !)

-we are researching government? i hope that isn't on the purpose of throwing me out!
- i'd prefer an administrative republic as the swiss , but we can't change that before a couple of centuries ...
- i don't know if this is good or bad ...

We send some merchants to Lubeck , and about a year after i arrived here i was summoned by wilheim

-a year has passed and i don't see much changements , except we gain a little money from those expansive merchants ...
-well , it's time to hire some advisors to change that
-we have only 20 ducats on the ocffers , you won't be able to bring here the best ones , and for that 'divine mission' somehow changed to establish trade in Andalucia ... but that seems quite hard given the active mercantilism there!
- so it's time to lure the best advisors here ^^ and i know how we are doing to do that
In fact , i've already picked the three we wanted , a five star trader , a three star trader , and a three star MoM
-how did you paid them? and what good will they do?
-they will increase our positions , and artisan ... will extract some profits out of this !
-and where did you find the money ?
-Oh , i negociated a loan with some rich swiss families , and if we can't pay we can always send the bill to Rome ...
- i'll send you personally to rome if that happens


so , advisors were recruited , and merchants sent to three centers of trade : lubeck , antwerpen , and Andalucia
Andalucia had of ourse the iercest competition , and a year before the loan was to be repaid , we were reminded of that fact ...

1405 saw a major breakthrough , a possibility to change the country like never before , so a national trade policy was established , and the fifth merchant soon enough occupied a place in the sun , the reward ou their grateful faction was 50 ducats , plus half of the leftovers in the coffers of the state and we repaid the swiss and everything ended up well ...

around 1407 we recieved the bishop of worms , who claimed not to feel secure in the palatinate , and wanted our protection against the palatine king
Letters were sent to the pope and the holy roman emperor , where the pope recognized our rightful claim on the province , and the HRE statued that both claims were right , and to settle that without him
we have two regiments ...
and they have seven ...
we will need some help to get it back , some divine intervention , but it will not occur tonight ^^
 
I'd say scorch the earth and retreat, but it's not as if you've anywhere to go to. Besides, the attrition on a 7,000-man stack isn't going to be too horrendous anyway.

Interested to see what Alsace can do with this.
 
Thank goodness Wilheim II is an Archbishop, he knows exactly what to do when against a considerably larger opponent; pray!
 
Claim...well, you do get 50 years...to actually claim the province. Send more merchants...and more and more merchants to market...in fifty years who knows?

For the Glory of Alsace!

Good Fun.
 
feedback :



blsteen : we will ... once we get some favorable omen

dewirix : scorching would do no good with armies that small. plus scorching as an OPM ...

morningSIDEr : indeed praying is always an option , and is often used

Range : we actually get more than that as they are our brothers , so we won't lose our claim unless the population embraces a foreign culture








Chapter III : some expansion , some changements

Wilheim was a devout man and often prayed to incorporate Worms into our bisopric , but he wouldn't live long enough to see that

In 1409 , we favor a little more freedom of trade , so we are now nearly fully free trade oriented.

In the month of september of the year 1411 he passed away , and our new ruler was Louis Constantine I , not very germanic but whatever.
Archbishop Louis was a skilled commander ( 8 ) , he was gifted too in the administrative field ( 7 ) and not too shabby when it comes to foreign affairs ( 5 )

Our trade was quite successful , as we hold 5 merchants in the most flourishing european centers of trade : Lübeck , Antwerpen , Liguria , Venezia and Andalucia. One of our advisors died but we were still gaining more from trading than our taxation and production combined.

On the diplomatic front , we are worried from the expansion of Burgundy , they annexed two minor powers on our border , Lothringen and Bar.A treaty of military access was signed with them so our forced were free to enter their territory.

the expected omen occured in late 1413 , we saw that the palatinate was at war against Bavaria , and losing : Franken was occupied , and their capital Pfalz was under siege!

Louis ordered his troops to get ready and marched to Metz , he took the lead of that army , he had the siege skill at level one. the military access to the palatinate was revoqued , and the next month Louis declared war on the Palatinate to reconquer Worms.
We had no allies on our side , but their only ally , Wurzburg had no way to walk to us to it was a one on one battle. their Stack started the siege of Strasbourg while we started the siege of Worms. Our scouts send regularly alarming reports , both sieges were progressing equally fast , and we would likely be crushed if we would not win the siege race. Hopefully God was on our side , as they didn't try to storm the walls , while Worms fell on third assault , ordered after the walls were breached , our Capitol also had a breach but God hide it from the view of our ennemies!

By that time , their capital had fallen to the bavarian forces , the palatine lord came in person to sign peace , where they agreed to cede world and pay 41 ducats to end the war. One week later , they were annexed by Bavaria.

Alsace was strengthened by that war , we doubled our territory , both provinces were productiong wine and with good base tax ( 7 )
Our forcelimit jumped from 2 to 5 regiments so two units of Cavalry and one extra regiment of Infantry were ordered. Another gain : Alsace was now big enough to have its name written on the map !

quick view of the political situation in july 1414 :

eu3496.jpg


Bavaria gobbled two minors , Milan annexed Switzerland , and Burgundy began swallowing its neighbors.Somehow the Netherlands exist in Friesland ? and Holland has cores on both Friesland and Utrecht , so I expect them to form a greather netherlands some day.

Having its international standing upgraed , we get some propositions of alliance from foreign powers , something new as previously they would only guarantee our independance and would not consider getting an alliance.

the first two cuntries to offer such a deal were welcomed , but not the third one , who came from Salzburg , as if they scored bonus points from being a theocracy too , were a minor holding between two giants : Bohemia and Austria , and we wanted to be nice to both of them as they were much more powerful than us.
So we were allied to Milan and England , two powerful countries , one italian inside the HRE , and the other was simply the greatest naval power of the time being who could hold their own on other fields.

One day , Milan declared war on Sardinia without a casus belli , and Louis wondered on wether he should answer the call of arms or not. if he answered , he would keep an ally , but some serious unrest would occur , and if he didn't he would lose and agner a powerful ally , and Alsace's prestige would be tarnished. a council was summoned , and together they would give the solution : we could declare ourselves a war against Sardinia , our cassus belli would be to help our ally , then we answer them telling that was OK.Louis agreed to that plan , and this was done , one setback though : our ally england refused to help us on our offensive war and dishonored the alliance.
we could not reach Sardinia , and they could not reach us either , so a white peace was quickly agreed.Strangely , Milan would not bother sending troops with their navy and signed a white peace too.
After that war , Holland seeked an alliance with us and we eagerly accepted , wanting to keep them out of Burgundy's sphere of influence. they were also allied to Milan , so the triple alliance was born !

in 1418 , to counter the death of our master of mint , Louis seeked to improve the centralisation , and a pretender came with 6000 men and defeated our glorious 5000 men army.
Louis was desperate , and send a request for help to Burgundy , and we were relieved to see that they agreed , they send a big stack to alsace that beat the pretender army quite a lot , he fled to Worms where our army was recovering from that battle and the pretender was utterly defeated , his army disbanded and he was forced into exile

Louis would live until 1423 , but nothing important would happen until then ...
 
Alsace has doubled in size, but Burgundy is looking worryingly big and close.

Losing the alliance with England might be a blessing in disguise. If Burgundy go for Calais at least you won't be dragged in.
 
Twenty Merchants in big markets...wow.

As for Milan they will honor call to arms that is for sure...as will their call to arms will be plenty...still a good move as you couldn't afford to lose prestige...and a powerful land ally in Milan.

Great read.
 
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Another gain : Alsace was now big enough to have its name written on the map !

This is when you know your nation is approaching superpower status. It matters not your income, army size, technology etc. - having your name appear on the map is all important! Good stuff, hopefully you can make some more gains before any bigger neighbours turn their eyes towards you...
 
This looks interesting! Some very nice trading going on there.

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