Gentlemen in Germany - a Brunswick AAR

[FinnishFish]

Pro or Ref... ???
It's the question of this week...

[Malurous]

Awesome the hear that this is back in action. Will this lead to a Protestant Brunswick? A Reformist Brunswick? I can hardly wait for the next part!

Pro or Ref... ???
It's the question of this week...

Depends on how the reformation progresses in Brunswick. If Pro or Ref spreads to many provinces, I'll probably change, while if not, I'll probably stay Cat. These guys are good Christians and hold the Pope in pretty high regard, so I won't be changing just because. I intend to completely ignore the political side here - converting could be used to milk religious Boundary Disputes, but I'm hesitant to do so as it doesn't feel like a proper reason to convert.

And yes, this AAR should be back for good.

[blsteen]

And yes, this AAR should be back for good.

Sweet!!!!
Nice to see the beginning of religious change start in Europe. And the addition of another province.

[FinnishFish]

Blargh... Being Cath sucks!!
Think about all those boundary disputes... <33

[Boris ze Spider]

Sweet!!!!
Nice to see the beginning of religious change start in Europe. And the addition of another province.

I think he got two, Luneburg and Oldenburg.

[Dewirix]

Hmm... seems the Reformation could seriously screw up the political calculations within the Empire. On the other hand, that's probably the sort of situation that an up and coming young state can clean up in.

Good to see this back, and hope things are going better for you.

[Facit]

I'm so glad this is running again. You're the best Malurous! I'm anxious to see what happens to Brunswick in these following decades.

[Athalcor]

There is a lot of interesting in this developing world - massive Deccan, massive Ottomans, massive something in the SE Asia, Spanish ultra-conquista,...

[morningSIDEr]

Good stuff on the whole, two new provinces. Although the seeming turmoil promised by the rise of Protestantism can lead to opportunity but also considerable problems. I'm looking forward to seeing how Brunswick deals with the issue.

[Stormvloed]

Wow.. how do you get so many boundary disputes? I can go with a small country for 200 years without getting a single one!

Anyway, its a good read going to expand south and hope to inherit brandenburg?

[Malurous]

Sweet!!!!
Nice to see the beginning of religious change start in Europe. And the addition of another province.

It is nice. Some of the powers get hit pretty hard with religious turmoil...

Blargh... Being Cath sucks!!
Think about all those boundary disputes... <33

Hehe. Brunswick will do what the people want.

I think he got two, Luneburg and Oldenburg.

Yep.

Hmm... seems the Reformation could seriously screw up the political calculations within the Empire. On the other hand, that's probably the sort of situation that an up and coming young state can clean up in.

Good to see this back, and hope things are going better for you.

Thanks, somewhat better for sure.

Time will tell what comes of the reformation in the grand scale of things.

I'm so glad this is running again. You're the best Malurous! I'm anxious to see what happens to Brunswick in these following decades.

Wow, thanks for the praise!

There is a lot of interesting in this developing world - massive Deccan, massive Ottomans, massive something in the SE Asia, Spanish ultra-conquista,...

I also get the feeling that the ol' EU III has been putting in its best effort for this game. I'm almost sad that I have the house rules for this game because the rest of the world (where I'll probably never go) looks so interesting. Then again, the French, Bohemian,Ottoman and Golden Horde developments (among others) should mean that, with Brunswick's relatively limited power, I shouldn't have it too easy here any time soon.

Good stuff on the whole, two new provinces. Although the seeming turmoil promised by the rise of Protestantism can lead to opportunity but also considerable problems. I'm looking forward to seeing how Brunswick deals with the issue.

Current plan to deal with issue: do nothing. I'm small and stable enough that I have a decent chance of either converting provinces to a chosen religion or getting counter reformation (whichever is applicable) without running into serious trouble.

Wow.. how do you get so many boundary disputes? I can go with a small country for 200 years without getting a single one!

Anyway, its a good read going to expand south and hope to inherit brandenburg?

Thanks. Brandenburg is of course in the hopes, while I'll expand wherever the boundary disputes take me.

I did a pretty thorough analysis of the boundary dispute frequency on the previous page.

[Malurous]

1506-1511: The War for Thuringian Independence

Bremen was the next Brunswicker city to embrace the Protestant faith. The Pope's reaction was interesting: Brunswick became the Papal Controller.



Apparently, the Holy See believed that giving more power to Brunswick, one of Europe's most diverse nations as far as religious denominations went, might help battle the heresies.

The continent was strangely quiet until July 1508. Then, Bohemia declared war on Thuringia, a small nation under Brunswick's protection.



While Bohemia appeared to be significantly more powerful than Brunswick, Heinrich III saw little choice in the matter. The weak had to be protected.

General Wassman took care of Brunswick's first encounter with the enemy, eliminating the small army that Mecklenburg had sent to siege Altmark in August.

Two months later, general Opp won the first major battle against Bohemia near Thuringia's capital. The Bohemian leadership failed them in this struggle.



The enemy army was routed in Sudety in November. Opp had entered Bohemian soil, if only for a quick visit.

Weeks later, Wassman finished assaulting Mecklenburg's walls, leading to a peace offer. The cash-loaded proposition was so good that Heinrich III didn't waste time accepting it and removing the small nation from the enemy coalition in the process.



Despite these victories, reports from the foreign fronts were alarming: some regiments were running out of equipment only months into a war that would surely last for a long time.

Heinrich reacted quickly, ordering the construction of a massive weapons manufactory in Brunswick. While this was expensive, it could be afforded thanks to the Mecklenburger peace deal.



The next couple of months were relatively quiet, with Wassman sieging Hinterpommern and Opp launching small raids into any vulnerable Bohemian positions.

This changed in the spring of 1509 as the Palatinate finally allowed Brunswick military access after long and painful negotiations. Brunswick's troops could now reach Trier, and by mid-April the small nation's armies had been defeated and the fortresses seized. Trier was let off the hook after paying a small indemnity.



Pommerania, too, was removed from the equation soon after as Hinterpommern fell. The Pommeranians were forced to renounce their claims on Brandenburger territory.

Bohemia was now all alone, but things weren't looking as positive as one might expect: Brunswick was running out of able-bodied men.



Once again, Heinrich III and Brunswick's government reacted quickly and by July, conscription policies were in place. While the change happened seemingly too late to save the conflict at hand, it would certainly prevent similar problems in the future.



The situation caused intense debate in Brunswick. Some pragmatic members of the court advocated pulling the troops and letting them rest, but most didn't see this as a viable strategy because it would surely lead to Thuringia's fall and loss of independence. The army pressed on.

As a result, Julius Opp led his army towards Dresden despite depleted ranks. The siege was successfully lifted in August.



The combined Brunswicker and Thuringian armies held the Bohemians at bay for months, winning several close battles, one of which led to general Wassman's heroic death. However, a peace deal between Bohemia and Bavaria enabled the enemy to strike at Dresden with its full might. This major offensive in December turned out to be too much for Opp's exhausted troops.



Brunswick didn't have a choice anymore. The few men that were still alive returned home and spread around the eastern part of Brunswick. Apart from the province of Thüringen, which was now under Bohemian siege, there didn't appear to be any kind of wartime activity in the nation.



However, this wasn't entirely true. While King Heinrich's initial actions - replacing the recently deceased Statesman Hein with Otto Hattendorf, organizing some religious reforms that the Pope was pushing for and fine-tuning the trading machine - seemed benign enough, government officials were working hard behind the scenes to further improve recruitment.



Unfortunately, this was too little, too late for poor Thuringia as Bohemia annexed the tiny nation in April 1510. Brunswick's attempts to save the country, while well-meaning, only caused it to end up in the same mess.

October saw the fall of Thüringen.



With Bohemian troops pouring into Anhalt and Brunswick, the local armies fled northwest, stripping the land of any resources the enemy could use as they went.

Still lacking the means to do anything about the Bohemians and unwilling to listen to their preposterous peace offers, Heinrich III started overseeing the establishment of post offices all over Brunswick in order to keep his mind off the war.

Opp, however, would not stand idly by. In a daring operation, he took a raiding party behind enemy lines via Brandenburg, Meissen and Saxony, starting a siege to retake Thüringen in December.

Fridrich I of Bohemia reacted quickly, moving from Brunswick to intercept, but Opp used the terrain to his advantage and scored a stunning upset in the resulting battle. With the elimination of the main enemy army, the tables were suddenly turned.



By March 1511 Thüringen had been retaken and the remaining Bohemian armies cut off. In spite of the failure of the initial attempt to relieve Anhalt, all Bohemian sieges were lifted by early August.

Late in the month, King Heinrich got the news he had been waiting for: the Bohemians sought peace with a return to status quo.

The decision wasn't as easy as it seemed. While Brunswick's army was in shambles, Bohemia's was probably even more so. But the King realized that Bohemia was a large country, slow to occupy yet quick to get back on its feet. Thuringia's independence had been lost.

[Dewirix]

Great update! Those battles with Bohemia looked fierce and I was surprised to see you winning at the end. You must have pretty much been on the ropes not to press your advantage after that. Restoring Thuringia would at least have meant that you didn't have to share a border with your new enemies.

[gabor]

A very dynamic war. So I gather it ended in a white peace. Rightly so, pbly; Heinrich III realises his country needs time to recover. Imagine another vile power trying to take advantage of Brunswick's weakness at the time.

Your peace terms with Mecklemburg made me want to stop playing MM and get back to the vanilla. Oh my, over 2k!

[FinnishFish]

And so the evil trollhemia was won... :P

[Facit]

Ah, another update. It was probably a fierce debate on which option was the more fit for a gentleman - releasing the old friend from the bohemian yoke or sparing the nation the deaths of even more of her children. Your manpower should be getting close to 100k by now, so next time I expect you beat those bohemians bad.

[Malurous]

Great update! Those battles with Bohemia looked fierce and I was surprised to see you winning at the end. You must have pretty much been on the ropes not to press your advantage after that. Restoring Thuringia would at least have meant that you didn't have to share a border with your new enemies.

Thanks! My armies were badly damaged and I was out of manpower, and WE was insane to boot. Bohemia was completely out of troops in the end, but their resources make rebuilding much easier, and most importantly (and this is the reason why I took the white peace) their huge size meant that I couldn't siege a large enough part of the country to meaningfully curtail their recruitment.

I'd rather fight them again later when I don't have a minor to babysit. Most of my losses and WE in this war were taken while trying to keep Thuringia alive like the protective big brother that I am. It was one of the most difficult wars I've fought in EU III in a long time, mostly because by the time I was "free" to fight it optimally, my country was in terrible shape. And a monster like that isn't by any means a cakewalk at the best of times.

A very dynamic war. So I gather it ended in a white peace. Rightly so, pbly; Heinrich III realises his country needs time to recover. Imagine another vile power trying to take advantage of Brunswick's weakness at the time.

Your peace terms with Mecklemburg made me want to stop playing MM and get back to the vanilla. Oh my, over 2k!

That Mecklenburg peace is the only non-RP reason that made that war worthwhile.

Recovery is indeed necessary. WE is in the high teens and the manpower pool is empty.

And so the evil trollhemia was won... :P

Yes. But at least they're in WE hell too and I got out with a white peace. It could have been worse.

Ah, another update. It was probably a fierce debate on which option was the more fit for a gentleman - releasing the old friend from the bohemian yoke or sparing the nation the deaths of even more of her children. Your manpower should be getting close to 100k by now, so next time I expect you beat those bohemians bad.

You're overestimating heavily. My max manpower is 22k, and that's with the NI and regimental camps everywhere.

I would have tried to release Thuringia and probably someone else too, but it wasn't at all feasible (like explained in my answer to Dewirix).

[Omen]

You limited the losses as best you could while taking a toll on Bohemian allies. I think that the advances you made during the war, as well as the manufactury will help any future wars you have immensely. A good showing none the less.

[FinnishFish]

I wonder when you will get in a war with Frenchies...

[History_Buff]

Just finished reading this and I like what I see. I like how you have managed to expand quite a bit while only taking core territories. Bohemia indeed needs to be dealt with somehow. France is getting scary. Methinks you either need a strong ally to fight them or you need to expand yourself to the point were you can beat them in a few limited wars and gradually break their power.