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Very good AAR so far, enjoy the format and the topic. Do you have any specific goals in mind?
 
I've been greatly enjoying your Cuzco AAR and this seems a spiffing idea for a new AAR. Top hole old boy, I shall be following (and I also promise to refrain from any further use of 'posh gentlemanly' language!).
 
I like your style thus far. Subscribing for sure :D
 

If this was DW or MEIOU I'd be terrified, but alas there's no such thing here. Unless you mean Ferrara? :p
Oh He Who Will Not Be Mentioned is there, he's just in his "safehouse"
Ferrara...poof, a mere flip flopper
Now...TO THE SEA! To conquer the INCA! or the Aztecs, I'm not picky:D
Or just TO THE SEA! Since I don't see how you'd pop a core on any Aztec/African/Indian/ROTW territory without the ability to build a boat, nay a ship.
 
Oh and I'm especially glad to have you in here as you've been an inspiration - while Children of the Sun is a very different style, I've done more or less this style before (in my Succession Game accounts) and any refinement I've done on it since has a lot to do with reading Yamato Destiny.

That's very kind of you to say so! I've very much enjoyed reading Children of the Sun and it's obvious that you're a fine writer.

I've always seen Yamato Destiny as being composed mainly of my scrambling to provide semi-plausible reasons for gameplay decisions/events, which occasionally leads me into long digressions. I'm hoping to have a bit more of a considered approach to its continuation in V2, if I ever get the conversion done.
 
Update coming!

Very good AAR so far, enjoy the format and the topic. Do you have any specific goals in mind?

Thanks! Not really - a lot depends on the direction I happen to be allowed to expand to. :D And how the world develops.

I've been greatly enjoying your Cuzco AAR and this seems a spiffing idea for a new AAR. Top hole old boy, I shall be following (and I also promise to refrain from any further use of 'posh gentlemanly' language!).

Thanks for the kind words, good to have you here as well, posh gentlemanly or not! :D

Subscribed. I really should start playing some more EU3 instead of reading AAR's :)

I'm fine with you just reading AARs. ;)

I like your style thus far. Subscribing for sure :D

Thanks! :)

Oh He Who Will Not Be Mentioned is there, he's just in his "safehouse"
Ferrara...poof, a mere flip flopper
Now...TO THE SEA! To conquer the INCA! or the Aztecs, I'm not picky:D
Or just TO THE SEA! Since I don't see how you'd pop a core on any Aztec/African/Indian/ROTW territory without the ability to build a boat, nay a ship.

Hehe... Overseas and/or islands are pretty much out of the question with the variant rules... Maybe the Inca will come here? :p

That's very kind of you to say so! I've very much enjoyed reading Children of the Sun and it's obvious that you're a fine writer.

Thank you! :) Children of the Sun is a different beast as it's pretty much pure gameplay except for the "theatrical" segments (and the modern day survival horror :rofl:). Game world perspective and player's perspective require somewhat different things from the writer.

I've always seen Yamato Destiny as being composed mainly of my scrambling to provide semi-plausible reasons for gameplay decisions/events, which occasionally leads me into long digressions. I'm hoping to have a bit more of a considered approach to its continuation in V2, if I ever get the conversion done.

I for one really hope you get it done, it would be great to see where that leads to. :)

I think the main thing I've tried to poach from your AAR (and others too, but mainly yours) is "scrambling to provide semi-plausible reasons for gameplay decisions/events". :rofl: I think you did a heck of a job with that, however. I haven't been that good at transitions from one event or set of events to another (something you get away with in a gameplay AAR because you can just list stuff if you can't think of anything smart :D) and that's something I've been trying to work on here.
 
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1408-1419: The Hehn Rebellion​

After the war it was time to let the wounds heal. The initial funds were acquired by letting the mercenaries in Westfalen know that they weren't needed, getting a partial refund. Military spending was also heavily cut: everyone realized that this was only temporary.

To compensate for the annulled treaties, Heinrich negotiated alliances with Brabant and Trier, stronger nations than those that Brunswick had been associated with earlier. The traditional pact with Gelre was also signed.

The economic healing was complicated when Treasurer Schütze died of old age. There weren't any competent replacements available, so the King decided to alleviate the loss by once again lessening mercantilist restrictions, as well as by extending the land reforms to the new province of Westfalen.

Early 1411 was a good time for Brunswick: with the high income it was now estimated that the loan could be repaid, while the Palatinate finally gave up on the war.

0201.jpg


Soon afterwards, Mecklenburg re-entered Brunswick's alliance.

Later in the year it became apparent that there was one wound that wouldn't heal: the King's condition was getting worse by the day. Finally on October 17th, after thirty-eight years on the throne and many important policy reforms, King Heinrich died of his injury.

With a young Karl Wilhelm, the nobles attempted to establish a council to temporarily lead the nation, but this turned out to be problematic. Born out of wedlock, Karl Wilhelm's imminent rise to the throne wasn't well received, and some nobles supported Johann Hehn as the King instead. A local noble, Hehn's family was an important one in Brunswick and had serious backing in Anhalt as well.

0202.jpg


It all started badly for the loyalists: the cut military expenses led to poorly prepared defenders in the province of Brunswick. Hehn, having strong support in that area of the nation thanks to Anhalt being in close vicinity, was able to gather enough forces to successfully assault the city.

0203.jpg


Hehn's army then continued towards Westfalen, but the royal military was quick to reorganize and managed to beat the rebels in a close battle outside Paderborn.

0204.jpg


Still, Hehn did not give up. The national distress turned out to be a good motivator, and led to new advances in military technology.

0205.jpg


In the next battle, the improvements surprised the rebels and gave the loyalists the upper hand. The usurper Johann Hehn was finally slain in the ensuing slaughter in late June 1412. The Hehn faction couldn't find another strong leader, so the rebellion died with him.

Unfortunately, in investigations carried over the next few months it was discovered that the Milanese advisor Lamberti had been conspiring with Hehn. Having access to budget documents due to his role as an economic expert, the Collector had leaked information regarding the temporary defensive budget cuts - and therefore weaknesses - to the usurper in hopes of personal gain. While the regency council tended to be lenient to ordinary people who had sided with the pretender, a traitor of Lamberti's stature was swiftly executed. Sadly any qualified people to take his place couldn't be found.

0206.jpg


Despite losing some trade experts lately, Brunswick was able to accumulate enough cash by May 1413 when it was time to pay the loan the nation had taken during the conquest of Paderborn.

0207.jpg


Feeling overworked as the only economic advisor in the court, the remaining Treasurer Schauseil finished the training of his late colleague's son, Anton Ulrich Schütze, to the same profession. Brunswick again had another trustworthy local advisor.

0208.jpg


Not wanting to be undone, his own son, an able Natural Scientist, joined the court the next year.

0209.jpg


Finally in June 1415, Karl I Wilhelm rose to the throne. His gifted half-brother Wilhelm was the next in line.

0210.jpg


Next year there was an advance in naval technology, its roots in the previous King's obsession with reaching Morocco. While it wasn't seen as something that's ordinarily useful for the land-locked Brunswick and didn't get government funds as a result, some of the researchers Heinrich had appointed had continued working on the project on their own.

Only months later, Julius Schauseil proved his worth to the court as new production methods were introduced.

The father Schauseil had been lucky enough to see his son's triumph, but died of old age only about a year later, in August 1417. This wasn't the most high profile death of the year however, as the talented eleven year old heir Wilhelm fell ill late in the year and died on December 17th.

0211.jpg


During the search for a replacement for Schauseil next year, Karl I Wilhelm and Brunswick's nobles proved that they had gotten over the civil war. As a gesture of goodwill to remove any remaining tensions, Hehn's son was hired as a court advisor.

0212.jpg


This led to an unexpected bonus. Thanks to the Hehn family's ties to Anhalt and some discontent among the nobility of that country, the good treatment and demonstration of mercy had the effect of many important people in Anhalt yearning for Brunswick rule instead.

0213.jpg


Karl Wilhelm wasn't a talented man in any way, but that didn't stop him from trying hard when an opportunity like this presented itself. Perhaps too hard: drawing up plans to attack Anhalt turned out to be too stressful for the poor man, and he died of a sudden fit of disease in the spring of 1419. He was only eighteen years old.

The following process showed the weaknesses of the decentralized feudal system that Brunswick utilized. With no clear successor, the nobles somehow ended up swearing allegiance to the King of Friesland.

0214.jpg


Few could explain how this had happened, as most nobles felt hatred towards the vile Frisians - after all, they had humbled Brunswick in a recent war. This led to barbs flying between the two countries, so relations, already strained by the war, began falling further.

But for now, nothing could change the fact that Brunswick would be ruled by the foreign King Albrecht II van Egmont, the father of whom had caused the wound that eventually proved to be the death of King Heinrich.
 
An unfortunate but interesting turn. From a strictly gameplay perspective, how does one get out of a personal union?
 
An unfortunate but interesting turn. From a strictly gameplay perspective, how does one get out of a personal union?

One of the following:

  • Have negative relations with the senior partner (typically by insulting, which the "barbs flying" was) and the union ends when the monarch dies
  • Change to a republic
  • Fall to pretender rebels (which tends to lead to nasty policy slider changes)
  • Attack the senior partner - this counts as a war without a proper CB so there is a stability hit and the Emperor will join an internal war (like would be the case here)

And yeah, I find it interesting too. The game threw some exciting coincidences at me there as far as telling a story goes. :)
 
Oh no! Still, it's good from an RPing perspective I think. The best part is that when you toss out the foreigner you might well get a decent King!
 
Rise up against Friesland! Liberty against the foreign king!
 
Oh no! Still, it's good from an RPing perspective I think.

Yeah, and the senior nation was an interesting one considering recent history.

Fortunately, vanilla is very fast for me, so it won't take that long in real world time.

The best part is that when you toss out the foreigner you might well get a decent King!

Hopefully that's the case.

Insults, I believe. Then hope the king dies.

Sad to see, but gentlemen do not give up because of adversity.

True, gentlemen never give up, they hurl insults instead! :rofl: I'm advocating a non-literal interpretation of "insult" in this case. ;)

Insults. Republics are not made by gentlemen, but by voracious politicians.

Yes, insults are more gentlemanly than republics. At least you have noble people insulting. :D

Rise up against Friesland! Liberty against the foreign king!

Will do!

Those vile frisisans.

Indeed. They have the nerve to start leading us after taking our cash and beating up our King? I gotta say that I don't know what our nobles were thinking. :D
 
Very well written, easily and seamlessly tying every event together to create a very good update, the civil war proving an especially good read. A pity that you are stuck in a personal union with Friesland but it should make for yet more interesting content.
 
The gentlemanly thing is to stab them...politely. :p