Bohemia: Forging a Central European empire in Magna Mundi

[gabor]

The Mecklemburg gambit was great! And so devious!

Congrats on accepted cultures. This clearly signals you which way to expand.

Reading your notes on the fate of Jews, it occured to me how much different is their lot in most MM games to what they lived through in many parts of Europe in OTL. (Partly as we, gamers. tend to be so tolerant.)

Curious how much of Pol or Lith Russia will carve. There might be a potential rival growing in the East.

Rome in your hands (and that's what we call a lengthy siege!). The Hussite ancestors must have given a chuckle. I do hope you'll have some problems with 'Holy Leagues' trying to wrest the City on behalf of the Pope. (Yes I'm that mean. And what else could I say as the author of a Papal aar?! )

Hungary seems on its way to be partitioned.
And Navarre did it again!

[Chris Taylor]

I've been lurking in this AAR for a while and just wanted to say that it's great to see it active again! I always learn some new stratagem in the MM AARs.

I have a dumb gameplay question for you. Maybe I'm just dense, but i can't figure out why you went after Rome so soon. Wouldn't it be more advantageous to keep the Papacy intact for a while, so that (if you stay Catholic) you can use it as a free BB/infamy dissipator during your quest to grab Europe?

[Urza]

Just finished reading, really enjoying it so far. Keep it up, looking forward for more.
As chauvinistic Bohemian living near polish border, I strongly approve of your expansion into Poland. Lion FTW, down with eagles (except moravian and silesian eagles, of course, those FTW as well)!

Welcome and thank you! (Just don't take this AAR too seriously )

Hm, Bohemian occupation of Rome. Interesting. Does it have any consequences? Like giving rival christian countries CB on you or something like that?

No immediate consequences I think, except that the papal authority is of course weakened. The event I mentioned ('The pope in exile', which might lead to a 'Crusade for Rome') can happen to any powerful Christian country.

And Silesia has to be conquered! Borders are ugly with Silesia between Czech and Polish lands. Connect the two parts of your realm.

I agree that the map would look better with an integrated Silesia. However, as the Silesian provinces are part of the Holy Roman Empire and aren't Bohemian cores, annexing them would make our relationship with the empire suffer greatly and severe sanctions would be imposed by the emperor, which would for example lead to much decreased tax income from all of our provinces. This is a SRI mechanic.
I am of course aiming to dissolve the HRE at some point, but that will still take some time. Until that time, Silesia must be spared.

Reading your notes on the fate of Jews, it occured to me how much different is their lot in most MM games to what they lived through in many parts of Europe in OTL. (Partly as we, gamers. tend to be so tolerant.)

With pogroms being handled like simple rebellions which are usually easily put down and the main negative effects of the Jewish communities being increase in revolt risk and stability cost, while the economic advantages are enormous, there might be too little real pressure on the player to be intolerant towards Jews. (Not that I mind.)

Rome in your hands (and that's what we call a lengthy siege!). The Hussite ancestors must have given a chuckle.

Kind of turning the tables, isn't it?

I do hope you'll have some problems with 'Holy Leagues' trying to wrest the City on behalf of the Pope. (Yes I'm that mean. And what else could I say as the author of a Papal aar?! )

Oh, I also hope there will be some contenders. When somebody else declares the war, I won't have to take the stability hit to conquer their lands. (half kidding)
One of these days I need to get around to reading your Papal AAR, have been wanting to do that for a while now.

I've been lurking in this AAR for a while and just wanted to say that it's great to see it active again! I always learn some new stratagem in the MM AARs.

Nice to see the author of one of my favourite AARs.
I hope to be able to update more regularly at some point, but I have a habit of getting lost in details while writing or thinking about what to write.

I have a dumb gameplay question for you. Maybe I'm just dense, but i can't figure out why you went after Rome so soon. Wouldn't it be more advantageous to keep the Papacy intact for a while, so that (if you stay Catholic) you can use it as a free BB/infamy dissipator during your quest to grab Europe?

The papacy is still intact. The popes will rule 'in exile' from Avignon. The usual mechanics for the papacy all stay the same, including the possibility for me to bribe cardinals and become papal sponsor. Papal authority is weakened and the reformation might become stronger because of this. There could be some other consequences I don't know about (Dei Gratia being pretty complex), but probably nothing major will change regarding gameplay.

My main reason for conquering Rome is simply that it is an extraordinarily wealthy province in an area where I already have a foothold (Northern and Central Italy), which is pretty easy to get (the pope often gets into wars and you don't even have to annex the Papal State to demand the province) and is not part of the HRE. It might seem strange, but the HRE with its sanctions somehow tends to be a lot scarier than the pope in Magna Mundi.

[Urza]

14. Aspiring Peace

A pretty relaxed update for a change, also a bit shorter and more gameplay (mechanics) focused. There were few new stories to tell, but some loose ends to tie up.


In September, the first event of type 'Merchants Restless in Province' arrives, proof that we have reached trade and production tech 10.




These events will happen for provinces which, like all of their neighbouring provinces owned by me, don't have a certain level of mercantile infrastructure once the next level has been researched. In this case I have the tech to build 'Seasonal Markets', so the event prompts me to build the less extensive 'Biannual Fairs'. As you can see, the cost to do that in Torun would be 100 ducats, which is twice the regular price. The other two options have non-trivial negative consequences, making the choice difficult; I opt for the one which doesn't cost any money, because I don't have much remaining in the treasury. The event has a mean time to happen of 50 years for every province and is one of the most important reasons to invest in infrastructure in the early game. (I still won't do that soon, because it requires hiring certain advisors and I don't want to lose my current advisors)


In absence of a pope, the Council of Pisa manages to reach a relevant decision, unrelated to the situation in Rome.


A step in the right direction.


October sees the election of a new pope, Innocentius XI. He does have some ties to his Burgundian patrons (Burgundy chooses 'The pope is know to us'), but owes his election mainly to the fact that he is the candidate preferred by most of the Italian cardinals seeking to prevent conciliation with us. Everything seems to indicate that his papacy is going to be a relatively weak one.

Also in October, another battle near Krakow brings about the predicted turn on the Carpathian front.





Rather alarming news then come from the East, where the Russo-Polish war just ended.

Not a small change

Lithuania got split into two disconnected territories, and we now have a common border with Russia. Fortunately, we still have a royal marriage and I intend to keep relations positive with the Russians during the next time to avoid conflict. What has also become clear is that I can't wait very long to get the rest of the provinces I (may) want from Pol-Lit.

By November, the two Slovakian provinces bordering Bohemia have been secured (using assaults), while in the South Austria has assumed control over Croatia. Now to increase the warscore some more..

1509 comes and I get to move a policy slider. The decision to further secularize the country finds the approval of the estates of Bohemia (stability +1, to +2).





With this, the Ecumenism NI will finally have an effect on administrative efficiency. Together with the effect from the Bureaucracy NI, we should soon be doing very well.

I spend some of the army tradition accumulated during all these wars on a new general, who turns out to have genius-level talents.



All our current generals. The new guy is Fridrich Vratislav z Mitrovic and the most senior member of the officer corps is Miroslav ze Striba, who has been with us as a member of the general staff since the second Polish war in the late 1470s.

You can see how having both the 'Battlefield Commissions' and 'Engineer Corps' NIs pays off: There simply are no bad generals and every general will on average be much better.

The Ottoman Sultan seeks imperial attention in March, declaring war on Genoa. Austria dutifully enters the war against her long-term rival over the Balkans to prevent the loss of strategically important Lesbos (or at least worse consequences). Emperor Rudolf is not the only monarch with an interest in containing Turkish expansion and he soon finds himself as leader of a coalition including Russia, Portugal and some smaller states in the empire. Obviously, the importance of the conflict with Hungary pales in comparison to the significance this new (old) threat and, although the siege of Vienna is still ongoing, Austria's main army, together with Rudolf himself, marches directly from its current location in Croatia towards the Ottoman border in Serbia. It is reported that he was very enthusiastic about the 'crusade' and, when one of his generals expressed concerns about the situation in Austria, answered "Let the elector handle it".

Some weeks later, Vienna falls to the army of the unexpectedly competent Károly. With only 8000 men, he accomplished what in our timeline Sultan Süleyman could not accomplish with 80000. To be fair, it took the Hungarians well over half a year and the city's capitulation was under the condition that its garrison and population would be spared, which they were. (sieges, looting and occupation in general only lead to very small decreases in population in this game, except if lasting for a long time)

Miroslav ze Striba, who was on his way to relieve the city, while coming too late to prevent its fall, manages to engage a large part of the Hungarian army in battle and the Bohemian cavalry inflicts severe casualties on the enemy. The Hungarians subsequently barricade themselves behind the city walls.

Soon after, news arrive that Bratislava has capitulated to an Austrian army, while the Bohemians have taken Eger and it can't be long until they will reach Buda. Under these circumstances Károly accepts a complaisant peace offer from the emperor, who is also under pressure; the war against the Turks isn't going very well.

A sensible decision for both belligerents. Croatia is of great value for Austria as a land bridge to their Balkan holdings. On the picture you can see that England had also sent an army.

You might be wondering about what happened to the war against Venice. The truth is that I have been thinking for a while whether to demand provinces from them or not. In the end I decided for it.

Top right: Now stability is again at +3. Bottom: Our territories (light green, striped) and dependencies (dark green) in Italy.

The two newly acquired provinces fit perfectly with our other possessions; excluding Istria and Rome, everything is connected. Now only military access through Austria (and Urbino) is necessary to move armies between Bohemia and any of the Italian holdings. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that in a war against Austria, we could properly maintain two fronts, although no regiments can be recruited in Italy yet because of the missing cores. What is also important: Tuscany, Modena and Mantua will have no problems to move their armies to where they are needed in case of war. (AI often finds it difficult to get or even decide to ask for military access through other countries)

Talking about the value of the two provinces: Treviso is very rich and populous (both in manpower and urban population), while Verona has mediocre economic value and manpower, but the city itself is pretty large (more than 50k urban population). Both provinces are considered coastal (which gives +10% to tax and local trade income), but don't actually have a port (because there are no big coastal cities in these provinces, I assume; Padua doesn't show up on the map) and aren't subject to piracy. This is a nice little bonus and there are only a few provinces in the world sharing this quality (e.g. those bordering the Caspian Sea).

Both provinces will count towards my 'rogue' score as a member of the empire, and since I already hold two provinces illegally (Fruili and Neumark), some sanctions will doubtlessly be imposed on me rather soon. The income reduction from these sanctions will be much higher than the economic advantages attained from the two provinces. Still, I think that the strategic value of the provinces is enough to justify the cost, as my (tax-based) economy is already very strong at this point. Of course, the sanctions will disappear as soon as the empire will have been dissolved.

During this year, several thousand Jewish refugees arrive, after previously made arrangements, in Danzig to settle in Bohemian and Polish cities and found new Shtetls across our realm. I am not sure where they all came from exactly - some might be from Mecklenburg, others from Iberia.





I must now admit that I cheated a bit. After the event happened, it was still impossible to settle Jews in the Bohemia province. I looked for a reason in the files and discovered that the province had a flag called 'pogrom_happened'. After a pogrom has happened once in a province, the province gets this flag and while it is present, no Jews can be settled there. I then searched for what ways there are to get rid of this flag and discovered that the only way is though a lengthy (silent) process which requires having the Humanist Tolerance or LEF NI or a high ADM or DIP ruler and also requires the country which undergoes the process to have the 'has_expelled_jews' flag. Right, it is impossible (as far as I can tell) to remove the 'pogrom_happened' flag if the country owning the province where the pogrom happened never expelled any Jews. This seems to be an oversight or bug in SRI (I don't know if it has been fixed in more recent versions of that mod, I am of course using the one which comes with MMP2). I reasoned that 50 years after the pogrom occurred in Prague, it would be appropriate to allow the settlement of Jews in the province again and edited my savegame, removing the province flag.

In the region of the 'Jagellonian Empire' (Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic coast from Prussia to Estonia), the default type of Jewish settlement is the Shtetl, which is probably also the best type regarding economic benefits as it, among other things, improves tax revenue in a the province by 40%. For this reason, the Jewish refugees are very valuable in my situation. The simple increase in population from Jewish migration (and the increase in population growth from the modifiers) can also make a difference, because having high (urban) population in provinces is so important in the later game when playing Magna Mundi.

Jews can be settled in all core provinces with at least 10k urban population. (There is an extra rule allowing to settle Jews in provinces with less population if the province has the same culture and religion as the country and one has the Humanist Tolerance NI or a ADM 8 ruler (or some other requirements), but it costs 2 stability for every settlement, which is a bit much; on a perhaps interesting side note, Hungary has received Jews in the past and enacted this decisions for two of their provinces: Pécs and Kunság)
The provinces of this type I currently own are Bohemia, Danzig and Torun:


"Upgrades" (Production is low because of wars and piracy.)



The easily-won war against Hungary is over in October. Now for some well deserved peace!

All your Slovakia are belong to us.

We now own all non-Silesian provinces in our (West Slavic) culture group.


It is time for an overview of our situation:

My reputation is "tarnished" with the BB value at 5.3 (currently reduced by 1.09 per year), while the war exhaustion is pretty high (8.67), which has a lot of inconvenient effects:

It will take over seven years for the country to completely recover from the destruction and losses caused by the wars.

After these wars, Bohemia still has a reserve force (remaining manpower) of 30k men (maximum is 46k), so we still won't appear very vulnerable. In fact, we have surpassed the emperor regarding maximum manpower (Austria has 40k).

I hoped that the administrative efficiency would improve to "Good" because of the slider move, but it only improves to "Capable" (the second-best level). The kingdom has become a bit large, but it won't be long now until the "Administrative Monarchy" will become available; switching to this more bureaucratic type of government will further improve the efficiency.

Given that our stability is again at +3 and there are no revolts at the moment, the yearly income of the crown has increased to a very healthy 253 ducats. Monthly expenses are only about 2 ducats when military maintenance is set to the minimum (and inflation-gain to zero); we still have that great banker. At the same time, our largely tax based economy only provides a monthly income of about 55 ducats (For example, I don't even bother sending merchants at this point).

In January 1510, the king of Sweden is the first person to be asked if he wants to try reclaiming Rome for the pope, but thankfully he refuses.

During autumn and winter the 'crusaders' have experienced many setbacks and now nothing seems to be able to stop the advance of the -invincible?- Turks.

The strategy to use our presence in Rome to undermine the papacy and to permanently sponsor a group of cardinals and other clergymen of our own seems to start paying off; our recent "charitable contributions" were all very well received.

Our party has the upper hand. The infamy reductions the cardinals provide is actually more important for us than who gets to sponsor the pope.

Concerning Treviso, a province which originally belongs to the HRE although it doesn't show up on the map as such (I'm not sure why; Venice held the terraferma as a fief from the emperor), we are faced with an interesting decision.




The first option is obviously nonsense. Gameplay-wise, the difference between the last two options is not great: Whether or not we officially bring the province back into the empire, the empire will always consider it as being part of itself and sanctions are imposed based on that rather than on what the HRE mapmode shows. The second option is different. When it is chosen, Austria gets an event to decide on our request for a lien. If the emperor accepts, we can keep the province for at least 50 years with his blessing (the time can be extended under certain circumstances, otherwise it is then returned to the empire). We won't be able to get a core on the province (or receive any events in the coring process) during that time, but the province gets a nice modifier lowering revolt risk. If he rejects, the province is lost for us and added to the emperor's demesne. As this option seemed attractive, I looked up my chances and discovered they are 8 to 2. I take the small risk.



By the way, I don't really want to return Treviso after the 50 years. Let's call it a time limit for the dissolution of the empire.


Verona does not offer the same choice and I get the normal infamy increase and standing hit from having conquered it, resulting in this:


Yearly income decreases to 228 ducats; the other effects aren't nice too.


In April, the pope convinces the duke of Burgundy (Papal Sponsor) to firmly aim the recovery of Rome. On a more positive note, Christianity breaths a sigh of relief when the Ottoman Sultan, seemingly uninterested in pushing his armies any further North, shows his willingness to negotiate peace at reasonable terms. Considering the extensive display of strength before, the eventual demands appear very modest, but the Turkish prestige gain should not be neglected for such considerations.


Strange Crusades. The option with missing localization is to give back Rome.


I have one remaining rather humorous bit for you. It is May and the aforementioned war between Milan and Genoa just ended.

Mecklenburg is now a merchant republic. The (small) Hanseatic cities have been placed into power and brought under their control, which was easy, the sparsely populated hinterlands. Apparently the emperor doesn't find that too strange. Well, it doesn't concern us..


--

Minor Notes

Marriages of two of Ferdinand's children (unlikely to inherit) with members of the English and French royal families were arranged.

The Mamluks won a war against Ethiopia, attaining the provinces Massawa and Tajura.

France chose the "Peaceful Integration" colonial policy for their North American trading posts and beginning colonies.

England has now also reached North America and the first colonies are being established on the Eastern coast. They are all so early. (compared to OTL)

Riga has become a popular place of pilgrimage after a local priest was canonized, increasing the wealth of the Bishopric. (Base tax improved to 7)

'Tentative Acquiescence' happened for my provinces Podlasia, Verona, Kiev.

Coring progress: To 'Minor Qualms' in Sandomierz, Poznan.

[gabor]

You helped the Emperor? Whenever I play an aspirational HRE minor (the Palatinate my favourite) I try to either undermine or at least ignore the Emperor's wars with the Turk. I even use spies to weaken the Emperor. But true, I strive for the crown for myself rather than dissolving the HRE.

Admonition is bearable. And you seem to have a healthy economy (based on rich provinces). Although the border with the Russians is worrying. Still it all boils down to what you want to take in the East. There are not many valuable provs there left and you might just decide to ignore those Russia has cores on. Are they still willing to ally you?

Meklemburg just loves to appear in its cameo roles. Can we expect more of this?

[Kurfürst]

An update! And the best kind of update, with war and expansion. Hooray!

I agree that the map would look better with an integrated Silesia. However, as the Silesian provinces are part of the Holy Roman Empire and aren't Bohemian cores, annexing them would make our relationship with the empire suffer greatly and severe sanctions would be imposed by the emperor, which would for example lead to much decreased tax income from all of our provinces. This is a SRI mechanic.
I am of course aiming to dissolve the HRE at some point, but that will still take some time. Until that time, Silesia must be spared.

Shame about Silesia, but as long as its time will one day come, I am content. It can wait.

(Just don't take this AAR too seriously)

Nonsense! Any AAR can only gain from occasional patriotic shouts from nationalist lunatics in the audience. And on that note: Go Bohemia! Kill, maim and burn everyone around for the Greater Good, that is the good of Bohemia!

Hopefully Russians will leave you alone, at least for the time being. And HRE has outlived its usefulness. It has to go crashing down. Looking forward for more.

[Athalcor]

Burn the German Empire to the ground! Long live the Jagiellon Empire!

Oh, and I have a small wish: Could you rename the Slovak lands?

Poszony - Presporok/Bratislava
Ersekujvar - Nove Zamky
Abauj - Abov

[kepler]

Nice update. IIRC Imperial Admonition allows for some bad events to fire, doesn't it? It's been a while since I played a game holding uncored lands in the Empire as a member, but I think the events were more annoying than the actual modifier.

[Urza]

You helped the Emperor? Whenever I play an aspirational HRE minor (the Palatinate my favourite) I try to either undermine or at least ignore the Emperor's wars with the Turk. I even use spies to weaken the Emperor. But true, I strive for the crown for myself rather than dissolving the HRE.

Since I was the alliance leader, any battles won against Hungary counted for me, and the prestige gain is also nice. I guess Austria is not a big enough threat anymore to warrant great carefulness. A war against them is also unlikely to happen soon.

Admonition is bearable. And you seem to have a healthy economy (based on rich provinces). Although the border with the Russians is worrying. Still it all boils down to what you want to take in the East. There are not many valuable provs there left and you might just decide to ignore those Russia has cores on. Are they still willing to ally you?

Not sure if Russia wants to ally me at the moment, but I wouldn't say 'yes' to that; they still have Novgorod, Yaroslavl and Pskov to annex. RM + positive relations is fine for now.

Meklemburg just loves to appear in its cameo roles. Can we expect more of this?

If something interesting happens with them.

Hopefully Russians will leave you alone, at least for the time being. And HRE has outlived its usefulness. It has to go crashing down. Looking forward for more.

Thanks. The 'deadline' for the HRE is 1560. That still gives me plenty of time to prepare.

Burn the German Empire to the ground! Long live the Jagiellon Empire!

The Jagiellons don't rule this Bohemia, though.

Oh, and I have a small wish: Could you rename the Slovak lands?

Poszony - Presporok/Bratislava
Ersekujvar - Nove Zamky
Abauj - Abov

I will do that. Good idea.

Nice update. IIRC Imperial Admonition allows for some bad events to fire, doesn't it? It's been a while since I played a game holding uncored lands in the Empire as a member, but I think the events were more annoying than the actual modifier.

Thank you. Yes, there are some events that can happen. But they only have small negative effects, like temporarily raising revolt risk in a province. Once you get to the higher sanction levels (Imperial Reprimand, Censure, Banishment), more nasty events become possible. But I don't intend to go there.

[Athalcor]

In 1453 we were under the rule of Ladislas Postumnus von Hapsburg but after a small civil war Henry of Podebrady became the Lord Regent and then even King. But he passed the throne to the Jagiellons so...who rules Bohemia then?

[Urza]

In 1453 we were under the rule of Ladislas Postumnus von Hapsburg but after a small civil war Henry of Podebrady became the Lord Regent and then even King. But he passed the throne to the Jagiellons so...who rules Bohemia then?

The game started with the rule of Jiri z Podebrad. I know that is not really historic, which is why I put that comment in the picture of the "Introduction". Ladislaus was crowned in October 1453 (I looked that up!) and maybe this is the reason why he does not appear as king when the game starts in May. Podebrad was 'administrator' of Bohemia at that time, but there is no event in the game to remove him and he is called 'king' by the game from the start. Since he became king later in real history anyway, I pretended that he became king in this timeline, too, and just omitted the details of the story. Ladislas Postumus does appear as duke of Austria and only died in the 1470s in the game, so Podebrad probably shouldn't have become king in the AAR's timeline. But.. let's just pretend he managed somehow.

I read that Podebrad (unsuccessfully) tried to establish his dynasty as the ruling dynasty in Bohemia, so I thought that this possibility (or something along these lines) could be explored here. I didn't give this very much thought, though, and didn't really write about it, because I'm not sure how plausible it is. There probably are some incongruencies in the game; especially the name of the current king, Ferdinand, is a bit strange and after his accession I edited the country file to increase the probability of Czech monarch names. Since the main focus of the AAR is gameplay, I thought I can get away with all that.

[aldriq]

Finally caught up with this over the weekend... Nice progress! To think I used to consider gabor the most opportunistic MM player...

I feel a bit sorry for Hungary, it's rare to see them independent and doing well.

[VPeric]

This is all quite interesting, thanks for writing it!

[Chris Taylor]

I hope you can get what you're looking for out of Poland-Lithuania, before Russia devours the rest of it! I like to leave them in place as a buffer while tinkering with the HRE, but that's 1) not always practical and 2) moot in your case, as you already share a border with the Bear.

As long as some heavyweight doesn't take up the Crusade for Rome, you ought to be okay.

Also, you're one slider move away from "Balanced Policies", aren't you? I'm surprised you didn't want to move the Land slider instead.

Oh, and I just learned something new with your remark about the the "Battlefield Commissions" and "Engineer Corps" NIs. Those look like must-haves for a land power. Good tip!

[Merrick Chance']

I hope you have zipped files, for you are the WinrAAR of the week!

[Urza]

Finally caught up with this over the weekend... Nice progress! To think I used to consider gabor the most opportunistic MM player...

Welcome (again ), aldriq. And thank you, what a nice compliment that is.

I feel a bit sorry for Hungary, it's rare to see them independent and doing well.

Yes, well they are not dead yet.

This is all quite interesting, thanks for writing it!

I'm glad to hear that. Welcome, VPeric.

Also, you're one slider move away from "Balanced Policies", aren't you? I'm surprised you didn't want to move the Land slider instead.

The bonus from balanced policies is nice, but not as important as the extra 10 AE from Innovativeness plus the Ecumenism NI. Being land focused seems fitting for Bohemia, but maybe I should go for the balanced policies later on. The most attractive part of the bonus would be the 5% reduction of stability cost.

Oh, and I just learned something new with your remark about the the "Battlefield Commissions" and "Engineer Corps" NIs. Those look like must-haves for a land power. Good tip!

It is one possible strategy. Military Drill is also quite good, especially early on, when the bonus to morale is most noticeable.

I hope you have zipped files, for you are the WinrAAR of the week!

Great! Thank you for the notice.

[Urza]

15. Some Peace and Introspection

To make his territories in Italy more coherent, a natural next step for Ferdinand is to somehow make the duke of Urbino join his fold, as a vassal or, failing that, at least as an acknowledged protegée. Diplomatic vassalizations and annexations are about the only goals for which getting a high amount of diplomats per year is really useful, as the number of diplomats you get directly translates into the number of vassalization or annexation attempts possible per year and the success of these attempts depends on chance to a great extent (apparently with usually quite low success percentages). These applications of diplomats can be rather important and personally I like the diplo-vassalization feature, so I care about the diplomat influx. (There are also other advantages of getting many diplomats, such as being able to have more royal marriages or to get that desired alliance or trade agreement with a slightly reluctant country faster.)


Getting 5.76 diplomats per year is quite good. Later, a royal marriage with Urbino was formed as well.


In November, the opportunity to participate in smuggler operations arises. In this event I often choose "Have direct control" (strong involvement), if the 40 ducats, which is the cost, can be spared, as it is a relatively cheap way to improve the merchant compete chance. But in this case, the bonus wouldn't be of much use as I don't intend to send merchants to foreign centres of trade anyway. (cost to send merchants too high, low trade efficiency, low compete chance : Bohemia at the moment is about the opposite of what could be considered a trading nation.)




With the census tax from 1511, some more domestic investments get underway in January. (for Chartered Markets as usual)


Although the kingdom has been expanding rapidly and the glory of the crown is ever-increasing, the Bohemian and Moravian lands at the core have experienced a certain decline. While militarily dominant, Bohemia can give few economic or cultural impulses to its surroundings and the provinces of the kingdom. The almost constant warfare has, time and again, decimated the population, while expulsions for political reasons and emigration for religious reasons have lead to a steady outflow of much-needed workers and, especially hurtful, of a good part of the intellectual elite. In some places, entire settlements have become depopulated.

The strongly agriculture-based economy, mostly in the hands of the high nobility and the crown and still relying on serfdom to a great degree (although some progress has been made in this area), does not support large-scale manufacturing of goods: Much has to be imported from the German regions or via our Baltic ports. The situation in Poland is even worse in that regard. The often protectionist policies of the cities have the effect that innovations from other regions take a long time to get recognized locally. Also, Bohemia proper (as Moravia) lacks an established trading elite : Apart from some notable Jews, there are no potential entrepreneurs in the country with the means and motivation for larger economic investments, so the money has to come, if at all, from abroad, i.e. mostly from Nürnberg, Silesia, Danzig and Saxony, leading to often unwanted inferences and divisions.

Adding to these problems, tensions between Czech and German people have been a recurring phenomenon within the country. Almost the entire nobility communicates using Czech and this language is also preferred in parliament and legislature, while a large and often economically important proportion of the Bohemian burghers and patricians in the cities and a smaller proportion of the rural population prefer German. Most of the time, these tensions arise from religious differences, with Germans accusing Czech Utraquists of heresy or Czechs accusing Germans of Papism and disloyalty to the Church of Bohemia.

In the area of literature, little of note has been produced here recently, and the use of letterpress printing in Bohemia is very limited, most print works being imported. Although in decline throughout much of the 15th century, the Univerzita Karlova in Prague has recovered somewhat in recent years, owing in part to support received from the crown, but mostly to the turnabout in thinking about theological matters and the question of what is to regarded as heresy which happened in many countries in and around the empire. After having been shunned for many decades for its alignment with the Hussite movement, the university is reporting an increase in the number of foreign student enrolments once again. Beneficial to this was the abolishment of the nationes system, which divided professors, scholars and students on basis of their country of origin. The system, regarded as obsolete by the king, was replaced by a stronger emphasis on the faculties. Of these, the faculties of law and medicine have only been refounded recently; this, and the fact that still many Catholic noble families within the country, in quiet opposition to state policy, send their offspring to study abroad for religious reasons, has lead to a general shortage of scholars and jurists, the latter badly needed for the administration of the growing realm. On the positive side, as a minor scholarly centre of humanism, the city (Pr.) has attracted a number of artists and philosophers to spend time here, and the patronage of the royal family now extends to several famous or promising individuals from within and outside of Bohemia; among these are also architects like Benedikt Ried, who recently constructed the impressive Vladislav Hall (named after the former king) in Prague castle.

A modernization of the economy, strengthening of craftsmanship in the cities and of the trade, moving away from mining as the main non-agricultural source of income: These might be necessary for Bohemia in order to catch up to her Western neighbours in the long run. This, in turn, might require a shift in thinking or focus for the ruling elite, which, in light of the military successes and political achievements, is not likely to happen soon. Instead, conservative thinking and nationalist-isolationist tendencies are more commonplace at present.

Apart from Prague and Krakow, cosmopolitan Danzig has also become home for a number of important thinkers of our time.


gameplaywise the most unimportant faction


In June, a new emperor, Franz I. von Habsburg, ascends to the throne.

With the balance of power in Italy disrupted, several countries could come to benefit from the situation. Not only is the French claim to Lombardy still intact, but also the Swiss Confederacy is beginning to cast a hungry eye on their Southern neighbours.

A core gained through a 'Claims on our Rivals' event. Afterwards, I removed the event because of its potentially unbalancing effects; cores in the HRE shouldn't come this cheap. The Swiss core on Milan I left in: After all, there was some Swiss involvement in real life during the time.

In February 1512, land tech 16 is reached, the Bohemian infantry receives muskets (which they already used extensively during the Hussite wars, but never mind) and is upgraded to 'Tercio'. An important improvement!

Also in that year, it is revealed to us that the cunning(?) Sultan of Algeria, maybe with the Ottoman threat as inducement, has struck up alliances with no less than three Christian kingdoms: Castille, Portugal and Naples. One cannot help wondering what greater plans might lie behind such arrangements.

For some time now, the prince-bishop of Liege has had more than an open ear for the wishes of the duke of Burgundy, whose lands embrace his own, but in February, the relatively long period of quiet in the region comes to an end as an army of the duchy enters the province under the pretence of quelling a revolt incited by an earlier Burgundian decree which dictated an impairment of the townspeople's rights. Franz I., however, is not fooled easily and responds to this potentially dangerous intrusion into imperial space territory and policy with a declaration of war. Eager to get a chance to pursue his claims to provinces in the lowlands, the king of France opportunistically follows suit. An unexpected participant in the conflict is the duke of Lorraine, aided by the bishop of Utrecht.


+declaration of war


To bring about badly needed changes within the Church, another council is called by Innocentius XI. The unlikely location of choice is the city Colberg in Hinterpommern.




Later during the year, the provinces Sandomierz and, more importantly, Poznan core. I also decide to introduce very high taxes in my three provinces in the Venetian region, as they are easily accessible from Bohemia with an army should a rebellion occur and after the last few conquests, it is better to have an army stationed in Italy during peace in any case.

In December, after a successful siege and subsequent sack, the duke of Burgundy forces the city Liege into submission (vassal status); for now at least.

The king of Denmark then decides to have another go against the Hanseats (now that the emperor's attention is diverted elsewhere) and declares war on Lübeck. Unfortunately for him, he receives no support from his English allies (only from Denmark's old ally Gelre), but Denmark managed to fight the empire and the Hanse to a stalemate before, so who is to say how the war is going to end? (Remember that Denmark still holds Bremen.)

This seemed like an opening to try and establish an alliance with England to me, but the chance for them to accept still read 'Impossible'.

Early 1513 sees the death of two important persons: The first one is our venerable general Miroslav ze Stribra; a pity, but he was old. The second one is the pope - good news, as we, thanks to consistent efforts, currently still control more cardinals than the other countries (3 to be exact). Additional 0.05 p.a. BB reduction beckons. I'm not sure how this will impact the church council, though.

With the Papacy in the weak state it is, it comes to no surprise that other Italian states are trying to fill the supposed power vacuum, furthering claims on the region around Rome. They quickly discover that it wasn't the king's intention to leave any such vacuum. Naturally, the Bohemian occupation is generating an unending stream of indignant exclamation and contestation.


actually a rather tame response gameplaywise; apart from the BB and relations effect, it means that Rome is now a 'contested' province, which among other things increases the difficulty to administer (+0.5 adm. cost usually until cored, with 1 being the normal adm. cost for cores).


Although most Italians condemn Ferdinand for meddling so much in their affairs, that does not prevent them from engaging in their own conflicts like always. This hints to an Italian 'trait' which can be exploited by foreign powers like ourselves most splendidly.




The righteous decision of the king to help protecting Italy against the Moors and the royal house of Naples, which we have thought of being a bit suspicious ever since its ascension in the 1460s, is ostensibly met with approval from other nations, but not so much in Bohemia. Is another war at this point really necessary? The potential gains seem limited, and indeed this decision was later widely criticized to have been one of the otherwise much-lauded king's worst, although not for very interesting reasons.

Rebel problems still exists in Poland, so we will only be able to use part of our forces in Italy.

Unrelated to all this, humanist scholars have been making important discoveries.




--

Minor Notes:

Prestige is now at +74.

Coring progress: To 'Minor Qualms' in Sieradz.

'Tentative Acquiescence' for Nove Zamky and Abov.

[myLAAN]

Nice update! I especially like the paragraphs on non-game matters, they combine actual events with you alternative timeline very well. It's sad nationes system was abolished by Ferdinand, it was a cunning invention. Saxons were those who came from Northwest, Bavarians those who were from Southwest, Poles those from Northeast and Czechs were Bohemians, Moravians and those from Southeast (Hungary and Transylvania). Those were the days when noone bitched about nationalities!

The attempts at liberating Rome are truly pitiful, those Italians don't stand a chance and they know it

[Urza]

Thank you! About the nationes, you probably know that the decree of Kutná Hora, which gave the Bohemian nation as many votes as the other nationes combined in the university councils, was responsible for the leaving of almost all of the foreign students and staff at one point. I thought that if things were kept this way, it might be too unrealistic to expect many foreigners to return. On the other hand, if the Bohemian nation would be given only one vote again, there would be a danger of Papists conspiring against us. Apparently, many universities in Europe during the time had a similar system with a division into nationes, but not all, so I figured that just abolishing it would be an easy way out. (Not completely sure about plausibility, but why not?)

[Willum]

Wow, it's good to see you updating again.