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CJL78

Duca di Firenze
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Oct 15, 2009
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Gloria di Firenze
A Magna Mundi Ultimate (submod) AAR


Florence1.jpg

The Republic of Florence, 1453


This AAR is dedicated to the Magna Mundi team for all their fine work, and to the hope they will include Florence and Tuscany as seperate states in their upcoming standalone game.​



Table of Contents

Introduction - Below (original post)
Chapter I - The Birth of a New Republic
Chapter II - The Death of the Father
Chapter III - "il Magnifico"
Tolerance Update 1501
Chapter IV - Fall of the Republic
Chapter V - il Granducato di Toscana
Tolerance/Religion Update 1538
Chapter VI - To Trample Underfoot
Chapter VII - Like Father, Like Son
Chapter VIII - Dynastic Succession
Religion Update 1599
Chapter IX - A Weak Duke Amongst Kings
Chapter X - Italian Ambitions


Introduction


Welcome to my first EU3 AAR. (I have done two EU:Rome AARs, check them out in my sig) I will be playing Florence in my personal modification of MMU 1.26. Firstly, as you can see, I have modified and "ported" my Repubblica di Firenze mod to MMU, which simply replaces Tuscany with Florence and adds a decision to form Tuscany as a Grand Duchy. For MM, this includes modding the localisation for a Tuscan culture monarchy (Major) to be called a Grand Duchy. Secondly, this mod/AAR will be testing some modifications I have made to MM's Ecumenism and Humanist Tolerance Ideas, and to static_modifiers, in the hopes of slowing down conversion in "tolerant" states (OE, Lithuania, etc). Basically, Ecumenism and HT now give significant penalties to missionaries, but even more importantly, the effect of tolerance on missionary success chance has been increased dramatically.

Other than that, it is exactly the same as MMU 1.26. My main goals in this AAR are to form Tuscany, and later, form Italy... The last requirements for forming Tuscany aren't shown very well in game, but basically you either 1) are Catholic and are good friends with the Pope (ie Pope declares you Grand Duke - historical option) (2) are good friends with the Emperor (ie HRE proclaims you Grand Duke) or (3) are not Catholic AND not in the Empire (ie you proclaim yourself a Grand Duke)

florence_goals.jpg


Other than that, whether or not I become entangled in colonial empires or the Reformation will be decided when the time comes. I try not to play with too much of a plan in my mind, but for my general strategy to be as reactionary as possible while still being successful.
So, without further ado...

Diplomacy
In 1453 Florence begins in a 5-way alliance with the duchies of Milan, Modena, Urbino, and the Republic of Siena. Milan is embroiled in a war with the far stronger Venice, and Modena is ruled by the Duke of Ferrara.

florence_startingdip.jpg


Florence is part of the Holy Roman Empire, as are most Italian states. Venice is not, and directly to Florence's south and east, Urbino and the Papal State are not under the juridiction of the Empire. In 1454, Cosimo de Medici turns his gaze outside his borders, recognizing that he cannot rely on Germans to protect Florence. In order to secure Florence's independence, it must expand and grow strong, but expansion is only possible outside the boundaries of the Empire. Cosimo informs the Duke of Urbino that their previous arrangements are no longer valid, but guarantees their protection in the event of attack. Simultaneously, the wise Cosimo guarantees the Papal States, and signs an alliance with the Duke of Ferrara.

Economics
Florence is rich, as is the port city of Pisa which the Republic controls. But such a small state cannot become prosperous enough for conquest on taxes alone. With a National Trade Policy and a history of Merchant Adventures, Cosimo seeks to expand trade, sending merchants to Genoa, and later, Venice.

florence_genleague.jpg



Military
But what a conqueror needs most is an army, and possibly a navy. In 1454, Cosimo is able to use his considerable political power to push for a new National Idea, by creating popular appeal for either a new professional army or navy.

florence_firstidea.jpg


What Idea should Cosimo adopt? A naval idea would help with piracy and enable Florence to fight on the Mediterranean Sea... instilling Military Drill or a Regimental System would make the army the backbone of Florentine power...
 

Attachments

  • mmu_tolerance_complete.rar
    55,5 KB · Views: 104
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This looks very interesting...subscribed! I love MM. I would be playing MMU right now but I have a Mac plus HttT and they don't have a version for us yet. :(

And what NI should you take first? Well that's a bit tough especially since your first NI will basically declare your strategy for the first couple hundred years. Since your goal is to form Tuscany and later Italy, I would say Military Drill to have the extra morale. It's one of the ones I always pick first.
 
Interesting idea with the change to tolerance; however, did you make it so that extremely low tolerance will have the opposite effect (more missionary chance and such)? If so, that might be a possible exploit.
Concerning choice of NI, I suggest Engineer Corps.
 
3 responses already :) of course, I think EU3 has more readership than the EUR forum...

This looks very interesting...subscribed! I love MM. I would be playing MMU right now but I have a Mac plus HttT and they don't have a version for us yet. :(

And what NI should you take first? Well that's a bit tough especially since your first NI will basically declare your strategy for the first couple hundred years. Since your goal is to form Tuscany and later Italy, I would say Military Drill to have the extra morale. It's one of the ones I always pick first.

Thanks, I'm leaning towards drill myself.

Looks good, i would take miltiatry drill

Thanks, lots of support for M. Drill

Interesting idea with the change to tolerance; however, did you make it so that extremely low tolerance will have the opposite effect (more missionary chance and such)? If so, that might be a possible exploit.
Concerning choice of NI, I suggest Engineer Corps.

No, intolerance effects are unchanged. I am really hoping for a strong OE with an Orthodox Greece/Balkans under its control. Worst case scenario is OE wastes all its money on missionaries and ends up weakening it.... Or manages to convert it all to Islam anyway.... Or Bohemia ends up a patchwork of Reformed/Protestant/Catholic provinces....

The Corps are a good choice. When I first started playing MM I thought it the worst army Idea, but it has a wider range of useful perks for land warfare and has grown on me.
 
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Congrats, good opening post. I'm keen to see the progresses of the Medicis.
Hopefully they will not be too much embroiled in the Italian messy situation of late XV century!
 
The Corps are a good choice. When I first started playing MM I thought it the worst army Idea, but it has a wider range of useful perks for land warfare and has grown on me.
Yes, it is not the best "power" idea to win wars, so if you want to go up against Austria soon, maybe a different NI would be better. But the +1 to siege gives a huge advantage in that particular field (sieges) and helps with some more creative strategies.. also speeds up wars which you will win anyways (less WE gain etc.). Combined with a defensive policy, even better. But most of all, it is one of the NIs enabling SciRev and you already start with one of those.. Ah, if I were to play such a game, making (or rather, keeping) Italy the most advanced and innovative place in Europe would be one of my goals.
But that is only me, of course ^^
 
Yes, it is not the best "power" idea to win wars, so if you want to go up against Austria soon, maybe a different NI would be better. But the +1 to siege gives a huge advantage in that particular field (sieges) and helps with some more creative strategies.. also speeds up wars which you will win anyways (less WE gain etc.). Combined with a defensive policy, even better. But most of all, it is one of the NIs enabling SciRev and you already start with one of those.. Ah, if I were to play such a game, making (or rather, keeping) Italy the most advanced and innovative place in Europe would be one of my goals.
But that is only me, of course ^^

But see I do not like to plan my XVIII century strategies in the XV century. I like to 'roleplay' somewhat, and pretend that I know what the actual ruler does, and plan like he/she would. At this point, my ruler is not even thinking about what Florence will be like in 300 years. He does not know that America will be discovered in 40 years, or that the Catholic Church will be torn apart by the Reformation.
 
But see I do not like to plan my XVIII century strategies in the XV century. I like to 'roleplay' somewhat, and pretend that I know what the actual ruler does, and plan like he/she would. At this point, my ruler is not even thinking about what Florence will be like in 300 years. He does not know that America will be discovered in 40 years, or that the Catholic Church will be torn apart by the Reformation.

I think the same way when I write my AARs. :) With that role-play aspect, the AAR will have another level of realism then just a game-play aspect. But to each their own.
 
I like roleplaying, too. Usually I consider a meta-strategy ahead and then try to fit the roleplaying aspects to that (I often pretend my rulers are visionaries ;) ). But doing it the other way round is admittedly more hardcore, so go for it. :)
 
It definitely keeps me from gaming the system and maxing out the largest possible empire I can get, that's for sure.

I guess noone is going to try to talk me into a naval NI and going for Sicily/Sardinia, so expect an update later tonight or tommorrow.
 
this mod/AAR will be testing some modifications I have made to MM's Ecumenism and Humanist Tolerance Ideas, and to static_modifiers, in the hopes of slowing down conversion in "tolerant" states (OE, Lithuania, etc). Basically, Ecumenism and HT now give significant penalties to missionaries, but even more importantly, the effect of tolerance on missionary success chance has been increased dramatically.

For this feature alone I'll have to test your mini-mod. I'm in my first MMU game, mid-1600 and OE converted almost the entire Balkans, there are also almost no Shiite provs and there are other things like that, unseen in MMP.

As regards your first NI a land one seems an obvious choice. I like Urza's suggestion, Engineer Corps can be great especially when you want to win the siege of Siena before others can take your provs. But it doesn't shine so much in the long run, I dare say you won't need Sci Rev. My reservation to all land NIs though is that they are useful only when you're at war; and at least early in the game I can hardly imagine a warmonger Firenze go on a conquering spree. Cloak and dagger might turn out mighter after all.

Siena will be your target no matter what, so maybe Cabinet (or another spy-friendly NI)? Cabinet is versatile, decreases infamy (a lot of small parties to be annexed around), helps with core forging and opens up paths to special NIs. And you should be rich enough to afford spy missions.

Good luck anyway. I'll be following. :)
 
For this feature alone I'll have to test your mini-mod. I'm in my first MMU game, mid-1600 and OE converted almost the entire Balkans, there are also almost no Shiite provs and there are other things like that, unseen in MMP.

Sure, if you or anyone else would like to test it out, please do so. Let us know what your results are. Below rar file contains ideas.txt and static_modifiers.txt. Just insert these files into your mod/MMU/common folder (back up the original ideas/static_modifiers).

Since I'm uploading it, I might explain the specifics. Ecumenism and HT are mutually exclusive to Divine Supremacy (can't pick them if you have DS or vice versa), and Ecumenism no longer requires HT (just because I don't know why it would) but still requires gov tech 30. Tolerance's effect on missionary success chance has been increased by 1000% (from .5% per level of tolerance to 5% - a religion w/ tolerance of 1.5 will have -7.5% missionary success chance from tolerance). HT and Ecu's effects on missionaries can be seen in Idea menu like normal.

View attachment mmu_tolerance_test.rar

If anyone is interested in playing as Florence I can upload those files too but let me know if you want them because there's alot - I had to modify alot more files to add Florence into MM than vanilla, all the myriad HRE and AI-tuning events
 
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Chapter I - The Birth of a New Republic

"[He] was considered cruel; notwithstanding, his cruelty reconciled the Romagna, unified it, and restored it to peace and loyalty. And if this be rightly considered, he will be seen to have been much more merciful..."
-Machiavelli


A New Direction
Florence had been known for its love of the arts and the elite of the city had always paid well for fine works.

In his later years, Cosimo de Medici instigated a series of changes to the local government and university. Though still a cultural center in its own right, Cosimo's influence caused the University of Florence to produce more ministers and diplomats than artists. He also provided the University with an endowment for the education of engineers and officers in the military.

florence_ideachange1.jpg


Of course, that was not without some backlash. Many in the Republic believed the arts to be Florence's greatest contribution to the world. Florence suffered some social upheaval for a few years, but the wise and powerful Cosimo was able to assuage most Florentians of their fears.

florence_reneging.jpg


By the 1460s, Florence was more powerful than it had ever been, and the regional powers took notice. The Duke of Milan considered Florence his greatest ally, and the Republic of Siena came to fear its larger neighbor.

florence_medpower.jpg


Pope Clemens' War
In 1465, a new Pope took over the Holy See, and Clemens VII, as he was known, immediately set about on his designs to unite the Papal lands through the Duchy of Urbino. Clemens had expected the assistance of Genoa and Venice. However, with the Reichstag already in session at Florence, representatives of Milan and Genoa signed an alliance with Cosimo to repel the Pope from Urbino. Venice and the King of Naples were also wary of a strong Papal State in central Italy, and sided with the 'League of Firenze' as well. Even the King of France showed his support for the cause with a large donation of subsidies to Florence for the war effort.

florence_papalwar1.jpg


Genoa blockaded the Pope's ports, while the armies of Florence and Milan marched into Romagna, linking up with an army from Urbino, and defeated the Papal army. With the assistance of the Venetian fleet and milita, Romagna was quickly subdued and the garrison at Bologna surrendered after 30 days. The entirety of Romagna fell under the authority of Florence, which angered the Venetians, who made peace with Clemens and returned home. Despite this quick success, and the Neapolitan army besieging Rome itself, the Pope refused to make peace. The war dragged on for another year, until on April 9, 1466, when Rome surrendered to the League.

The Pope was forced to formally cede Romagna to the Republic of Florence. The Empire had also favored the war, hoping to see Bologna retaken from Papal hands. With the Reichstag - for the second year in a row - in session in the Republic, this time at Pisa, Cosimo immediately began the lengthy legal proceedings to have Romagna officially readmitted to the Empire, under Florentine authority.

florence_papalpeace1.jpg
 
I haven't had time to read the update (but will do, looks interesting), but I just remembered something.

Ecumenism and HT are mutually exclusive to Divine Supremacy (can't pick them if you have DS or vice versa)
Did you change anything about Bohemia? It starts with Divine Supremacy and Ecumenism in the initial setup.
 
I haven't had time to read the update (but will do, looks interesting), but I just remembered something.


Did you change anything about Bohemia? It starts with Divine Supremacy and Ecumenism in the initial setup.

Hmmm... no I didn't realize that they have Divine Supremacy well, I think one of the Berber states has HT and DS as well... I may have to look at the starting Ideas of all nations but no, for this game Bohemia will just have both I guess. Ecumenism will just negate most of the missionary bonuses they get for DS I guess, tolerance will still hurt them more.

Tags had been missing, but they're fine now....
:eek:o

Oh, well I posted the text and then edited and put in the images about 30 seconds later so you must have clicked right after my initial post