Gentlemen in Germany - a Brunswick AAR

[FinnishFish]

Alas the poor Haasa...
...But let's nevermind them and claim some more land.

[Malurous]

Ah, poor Haasa

Well, at least they exist now.

I'll miss Haasa. They were great, off in cloudy white land. I assume they are a Republican enclave in a sea of Monarchies. Hopefully they aren't swallowed up immediately.

Yeah, hopefully they'll survive. Not that the alliance with me would have helped, I have no convenient way of projecting any meaningful power to that area.

Haasa. The stories about her will be told in Brunswick for decades...

Hehe, certainly.

alas poor Haasa I knew her well (well actually not at all as you couldn't find it)

nice steady gains though and the Ottomans neatly bounced out the Baltic with minimum fuss

After I semi-accidentally annihilated the Ottoman fleet I figured it's safest to remove their Baltic access since it had become nothing but a security risk.

It's funny how you can end up in an unbreakable alliance like that. It sort of reminds me of a Master of Orion game I played years ago where my conquest of the galaxy failed because I had an ally who refused to speak to me so I couldn't break the alliance and declare war.

Cores on two TPM capitals? That'll be a drain on your Prestige for a while. And you might end up losing Artois anyway; you'll need to be lucky enough to core Calais, then lucky enough to core Picardie within 50 years.

At least you've got the core you need for the Baltic connection.

Prestige isn't an issue, it's been going towards +100 on its own ever since I started employing two court Philosophers some time in the 1630s. As I don't really need any advisor I can afford a luxury like that. Also, the core won't be lost: I don't actually need to conquer Artois within fifty years (which isn't likely), it's enough that I end up in a war with Liege (which is likely) to reset the timer. Still, not a good situation to have, I admit.

The Sieradz core is indeed enough for the connection. Hooray!

I am not quite sure, but is there a chance to get both Ottoman provinces in one war now? One is a core, the other one becomes a core after the reconquered HRE province event happens...

Yes. I just have to make sure that I select the provinces in the right order in the peace deal - I'm under the impression that the event fires for the first province chosen.

And furthermore, Haasa must be allied

In many games I might, just for the heck of it, but not here. It would not only be out of character for the Pope fearing Brunswickers to ally with a Muslim nation, but any alliance also has the danger of leading to a choice between dishonoring the alliance and joining a dishonorable war. I don't want any more such situations, the Bavarian one was bad enough.

Alas the poor Haasa...
...But let's nevermind them and claim some more land.

Sounds like a good plan!

[Malurous]

1649-1653: Philosophy of War

Syndic Karl Talken spent late 1649 and early 1650 on military reforms, further strengthening the land forces at the expense of the navy as it had become clear that there was no match for Brunswick's navy.

But even with the reforms, Brunswick's army was larger than the nation could properly support. Ordinary measures didn't seem to be sufficient, so Talken decided to make a more drastic move. Many of the administration's top economists were reassigned to work for the army only, taking care of the army support issues once and for all but causing outrage amongst the populace.



Fortunately, talented philosopher Wilhelm Opp's teachings made most people believe that while taking resources from the general administration and giving them to the army seemed jingoistic and harmful to the nation as a whole, there was no way to actually know this without first trying it and seeing what happens.



As the confused burghers debated the matter Talken ordered an expansion of the army and once again started looking for foreign claims. The inhabitants of Kalisz seemed worried about the tens of thousands of Ottoman soldiers on their border, so finding local support for Brunswicker protection was a simple enough task.



Finally in December 1651 the Syndic did what any German head of state trying to convince people that he isn't an overly militaristic madman should do: he invaded Poland.



The election was held eight days later, and the voters seemed to agree that Talken was a decent enough chap after all.

Both Kalisz and the Palatinate's capital Koblenz fell on New Year's Eve, so peace deals were signed early in 1652. The Palatinate were forced to recognize Brunswicker rule in Vlaanderen, while Poland was annexed.



The Syndic still felt the need to prove his good intentions, so he started to act as a patron of several local musicians and other artists, especially some notable organ composers in the southern parts of the country.



In the same vein, several major concerts were sponsored in different parts of the nation.



In July the army was needed again - Hainaut had to be protected against French aggression. This time, Brunswick fought on the same side as its perennial enemy, Great Britain.



French troops near Hainaut were eliminated, and Valenciennes was swiftly taken. In a more major battle, general Hehn's men defeated a large Bavarian army that had tried to invade Bamberg.



July also featured some interesting peace deals in that same area. The formerly strong Baden was torn apart as Bavaria conquered Württemberg's provinces and Switzerland took Schwyz and Breisgau. As a result, the province of Baden was suddenly within Talken's grasp.



War was declared in September, with Great Britain choosing to stay out of that conflict.



Meanwhile, inconclusive battles took place in Bavaria and Vermandois was taken. Any forces still standing by in the German region were sent to take care of Baden, Hesse and Trier. Luckily these countries were all relatively weak.

October's battles in Bavaria were more successful, with some enemy armies routed. Baden was taken late in the month, but the rest of the alliance was still trying to fight on.

Trier fell in December and the tiny nation was given peace in exchange for a small indemnity, while ill news from Bavaria reached Hannover: general Hehn had died a heroic death in battle. In need of leadership, the Syndic did something that he had often contemplated because of the skills of the individual in question but had been leery of doing because of the danger involved - he sent his younger brother August to the battlefield.



Nemours in France and Franken and München in Bavaria were taken soon after. With their capital in Brunswick's hands, Bavaria had to pay money for peace early in 1653.

After Berry fell to Brunswick and Anjou to Great Britain, the British bailed out, retaking Cornwall from the French in March. Meanwhile in Alsace, Brunswick's alliance had full control of the nation and Talken negotiated a peace deal that saw Alsace hand over an astronomical sum of cash.



With that done, there was no reason to keep fighting against the French. Peace was signed, with France releasing Bourbonnais and Dauphine.



The resurgent French were in some trouble again thanks to their misguided aggression. With Savoie separated from the rest of the country, the court moved to Morbihan and out of the Holy Roman Empire. Talken immediately spoke out against the now outsider nation holding Imperial land.

The conflicts were wrapped up in July. Both Hesse and Baden renounced their claims on Brunswicker land, Hesse paid a very large indemnity and, most importantly, the ownership of the province of Baden was transferred to Brunswick.

[loki100]

nicely done, a quick glance at some empiricism, an invasion of Poland and France even more fragmented ... & still with such an umblemished reputation. You do, of course, have to watch out for the pitfalls of logical positivism when it comes around.

[etranger01]

Germany, here we come!

[Avindian]

That was a whole lot of cash from those German minors. I wonder why the AI never spends its cash?

[FinnishFish]

...And more land you claimed!!

[Chief Ragusa]

Another interesting set of wars.

Syndic Talken was trying to arrange for a different type of organ doner -that's here the three magistrates went - but got a lot of musical instruments. Wars invading Poland require lots of replacement organs.

[Memento Mori]

Invading Poland and playing Wagner The South German Organ music while doing so. Interesting. But I guess that Brunswick is not technically Germany, so everything is ok.

On a different note, how much more do you need to form Prussia? It would be nice to get their reforms before Germany is finally formed...

And the part with France holding HRE territory was pure gold Reconquest of Paris from France, anyone? Perhaps it would be prudent to allow it to take more french minors in the HRE before doing so, however...

[Chieron]

Invading Poland and playing WagnerOn a different note, how much more do you need to form Prussia? It would be nice to get their reforms before Germany is finally formed....

Prussia needs Prussian, Pommeranian or Saxon primary culture (Brunswick is Hannoveranian culture)
as for provinces, Danzig is missing. (and for the reforms, the capital move to Berlin(Brandenburg))

*is envious of the enormous amout of reconquests* .. in DW the lack of reconquests on capitals really hinders expansion in the HRE

[Athalcor]

Only few steps and you will connect the western and eastern parts of your nation! LLL! (Long live Lebensraum)

[Fronzel]

Baden will cede Baden?

Do they have any land left? Does it not mention "Full Annexation" if you're using Reconquest on a one-province country?

I'm curious as to how much land you're now able to pinch from France via Imperial Reconquest. Can you even get to it all? Savoie would make a good Boundary Dispute "seed" like Riga did, plus it's bordering land you'll eventually take as Germany anyway.

I wonder why you changed out National Bank for Grand Army, though. You don't really seem to have any serious rivals. Do you need a bigger army that much?

[Fyregecko]

I would love to find out what Malurous' real-life property portfolio is like. I suspect that, while he started out with one flat or house, he has gradually acquired solid claims on all of his neighbours and absorbed them into his realm.

[Malurous]

Bad news regarding this AAR: I have a good number of finished updates stored on a USB memory stick, and I appear to have misplaced it. Now, you can rest assured that finding the stick is pretty high on my list of priorities (it also has some pretty important work related stuff on it), but it's been gone for a while and I'm beginning to lose hope a bit.

But fear not - this is not the end of the AAR, merely a delay. I have all I need to reconstruct the updates, but I also don't want to start redoing everything before I'm pretty sure the updates I already did are lost for good. So don't expect anything here for a couple of weeks, except if I happen across the stick of course.

nicely done, a quick glance at some empiricism, an invasion of Poland and France even more fragmented ... & still with such an umblemished reputation. You do, of course, have to watch out for the pitfalls of logical positivism when it comes around.

Hehe... I like how the philosopher event text was so easy to build an over the top narrative around.

Germany, here we come!

Indeed! It's not far away with only one province needed. Then again, seems that I'm conquering most of it with boundary disputes before I get that one province.

That was a whole lot of cash from those German minors. I wonder why the AI never spends its cash?

I guess nations in positions like those don't have much to spend on...

...And more land you claimed!!

Yup.

Another interesting set of wars.

Syndic Talken was trying to arrange for a different type of organ doner -that's here the three magistrates went - but got a lot of musical instruments. Wars invading Poland require lots of replacement organs.

Hehe, interesting theory! And considering the future development of this Syndic's mental health, perhaps a valid one...

Invading Poland and playing Wagner The South German Organ music while doing so. Interesting. But I guess that Brunswick is not technically Germany, so everything is ok.

On a different note, how much more do you need to form Prussia? It would be nice to get their reforms before Germany is finally formed...

And the part with France holding HRE territory was pure gold Reconquest of Paris from France, anyone? Perhaps it would be prudent to allow it to take more french minors in the HRE before doing so, however...

Hah, loved the strikethrough! Like Chieron points out, Hannoverian cultured nations aren't eligible to form Prussia. I might go the "move capital, release Hannoverian provinces, change primary culture" route in some game, but it's too gamey for a story like this.

Reconquering Paris from France would require them to get it back from the Palatinate first.

Prussia needs Prussian, Pommeranian or Saxon primary culture (Brunswick is Hannoveranian culture)
as for provinces, Danzig is missing. (and for the reforms, the capital move to Berlin(Brandenburg))

*is envious of the enormous amout of reconquests* .. in DW the lack of reconquests on capitals really hinders expansion in the HRE

Yeah, that does really change things, plus there are less boundary disputes in general in DW. Good thing in this case that I didn't buy DW immediately so this AAR ended up using HTTT.

Thanks for the Prussia explanation!

Only few steps and you will connect the western and eastern parts of your nation! LLL! (Long live Lebensraum)

Indeed, and what's better, I got the core on Sieradz and it's all I need for the connection, so nothing can go wrong anymore on that front!

Baden will cede Baden?

Do they have any land left? Does it not mention "Full Annexation" if you're using Reconquest on a one-province country?

They do have the worm infested Rebels rebel infested Worms.

I'm curious as to how much land you're now able to pinch from France via Imperial Reconquest. Can you even get to it all? Savoie would make a good Boundary Dispute "seed" like Riga did, plus it's bordering land you'll eventually take as Germany anyway.

They don't have too much Imperial land currently. And conquering some random province that isn't anywhere near my current lands just doesn't feel reasonable, at least if it's an inland province like Savoie. Hopefully France will eat some HRE minors, but I'm not holding my breath for anything big.

I wonder why you changed out National Bank for Grand Army, though. You don't really seem to have any serious rivals. Do you need a bigger army that much?

Well, National Bank was completely useless by that point - if I ever need to mint, which I typically don't, the inflation reduction from centralization is enough - while I was always way above the force limits. The change wasn't exactly necessary, but trading one point of stability (thanks to the Great Man event) to change a useless idea into a somewhat useful one seemed prudent.

I may not have a true rival anymore, but there are a couple of nations still that can field notable, relatively modern armies (GB, Bavaria, Austria, and I believe at least Lorraine as well of the ones I have not fought) and even fighting someone like Bohemia requires covering a lot of ground. Not to mention that I'm close to bordering the very, very vast lands of the Horde...

I don't know why, but my force limits have always felt small compared to my size in this game. I've actually been spread pretty thin in the west when I've fought several nations at once, more because of the large amount of provinces to take than the enemy armies, but still. Of course, I could survive with a smaller army by moving troops around a lot more, but that's awfully inconvenient when I had the Grand Army option as well.

I would love to find out what Malurous' real-life property portfolio is like. I suspect that, while he started out with one flat or house, he has gradually acquired solid claims on all of his neighbours and absorbed them into his realm.

It's true that I have some very legitimate documents proving that I own most of the country. For instance, the parliament building was actually technically a part of the purchase when I bought my tea set. But I choose to just live in this little flat because it's so cozy!

And unfortunately, I'm not currently employing an army, so pressing the claims is a bit more difficult for me than for Brunswick.

[Fronzel]

Weeks? That's a blow!

This will teach you: back-up everything! Leave the original copies of the files on the computer instead of having the only copies on a stick.

[Malurous]

Weeks? That's a blow!

This will teach you: back-up everything! Leave the original copies of the files on the computer instead of having the only copies on a stick.

I know, right? Really, I backup fervently (it has saved me a couple of times in my AARland "career"), that's why I have everything I need to recover. The only reason I don't have the files in question in more than one place is that I'm in the middle of changing computers. Kind of feels pointless to backup stuff on a computer you're just going to more or less throw away anyway... The problem is, I chose pretty much the worst time in, like, nine years to lose some files.

But really, weeks is the worst case scenario - I really want to find that frickin stick. And if I do, I'll update immediately.

[FinnishFish]

Good luck with finding that stick! It sounds extremely important!

[loki100]

But really, weeks is the worst case scenario - I really want to find that frickin stick. And if I do, I'll update immediately

I find my partner is extremely good at finding things I lose around the place, like my glasses etc ... ok this is not much use to you I realise , good luck with the search

[Fronzel]

Ah, I forgot to ask:

They don't have too much Imperial land currently. And conquering some random province that isn't anywhere near my current lands just doesn't feel reasonable, at least if it's an inland province like Savoie. Hopefully France will eat some HRE minors, but I'm not holding my breath for anything big.

Are France's south coast provinces Imperial? I'd find it pretty funny if just after finally connecting up the Baltic exclave Brunswick got a Mediterranean exclave on its hands. Plus it'd be a nice warm place to relax from all that gentlemanly behavior.

[Malurous]

Found it! Strangely enough, it was exactly where it's supposed to be and I had looked there like ten times already. No files for the other AAR on it so the easy explanation of blaming a certain bling-bling oriented cult goes out the window... Well, I have the stick now so I guess it doesn't matter. Update to follow.

Good luck with finding that stick! It sounds extremely important!

Thanks, extremely might be an overstatement, but not finding it definitely would have led to some extra work, both AAR related and otherwise.

I find my partner is extremely good at finding things I lose around the place, like my glasses etc ... ok this is not much use to you I realise , good luck with the search

I suppose shipping your partner to Finland would have been a bit of an over the top reaction in this situation?

Ah, I forgot to ask:

Are France's south coast provinces Imperial? I'd find it pretty funny if just after finally connecting up the Baltic exclave Brunswick got a Mediterranean exclave on its hands. Plus it'd be a nice warm place to relax from all that gentlemanly behavior.

No, they don't have Provence and everything west of it is outside the HRE.

Of course you're correct, all this gentlemanning is hard work.