Reason III
This game is too hard.
Issue Six
I mean really. Should it take fifty years for France to get where I am now? I thought not.
We left off last time, I was at war with Burgundy, but they were mostly beaten already, and so was Switzerland and Milan. Brandenburg still sends me the occasional "End the vassalisation of Alencon" bullcrap they have so much of at home, but I couldn't care less. Unfortunately I can't vassalize Switzerland, because that would take 104% War Score. (Actually, that is a fix compared to Victoria, where I could vassalize the British Empire...) So they will get away easily this time: they shall annul all their treaties with everyone, and give me their 50 gold. No provinces change hands because I already have 12 Infamy, and I will get more from Burgundy soon. That's 9.5 Prestige. Milan will have to annul their treaties with Burgundy, Tuscany and Brandenburg and release Oldenburg and Pisa. That's 5 more Prestige. Burgundy had the sharp end of the stick:
They had it coming! With that, I have 94 Prestige, getting me ahead of the Golden Horde!
With that gain, I had the opportunity to adopt the Imperial administration. I had to look that up in the manual (or more precisely, the game files), because I had absolutely no idea what that did... After some consideration, I decided to go for it. My current Feudal Monarchy gives some manpower (which I don't need), some more land units (which I don't need) and 0.5 Magistrates per year. The Imperial government gives 0.6 Magistrates and a Land Morale bonus, which sounds much more useful for my Quality Army. The policy restrictions are less appealing by one point, but that doesn't really bother me, because they are much better in another field. And I should be able to regain my +3 Stability relatively quickly now that I'm not at war.
In late 1440, I gained Flemish as a tolerated culture. I have no idea how that works, I just randomly got that like an event, but it was not an event, I'm sure. Anyway, that is good news, since it will allow me to harness my new gains in Antwerpen, Ghent and Vlaanderen to their full potential. By the way, I couldn't help but notice that Burgundy didn't really go to great lengths to improve the buildings around here. Or were they destroyed in the war? I don't know.
Turns out, taking land from the Holy Roman Empire was not the best idea. Now they got an event to claim Barrois back. The province itself is not really that imporant and not even a core, so I let it go. I'll take it back when I'm strong enough to defy the entire HRE. Bohemia gets the land and I get 5 Prestige. After that came a relatively peaceful few years, with the occasional revolt in former Brittany and an event giving me a core in Artois. This is just the thing I wanted to attack Burgundy again in a few years!
I will come back for that later.
"You can click on a slider to lock its position." Well, most of the sliders are locked in their position and I can only change them once in every decade, so thanks for nothing. "Technology tooltips now show what the next level will unlock." Nice. Can't imagine how useful they were
before...
After my successful war against the evil Burgundy, all their armies were destroyed. Sucks to be them now, especially with 7000 Peasants sieging a province next to their capital.
Anyway, back to our current arch-nemesis: England! They still have their Wooden Wall, but now I can have 31 ships, and they are dirt-cheap to maintaine, so I will build some more in the next few years. And the stupid Pope Excommunicated Pisa, which is my Ally since I made them be released by Milan not that long ago. In such a defensive war, I'm supposed to help them out. The attacker is Venice, allied with Transylvania, a one province minor at the moment, and at war with Sicily, Savoy, Naples, Milan, Aquileia and Bohemia already. Stupid move I would say. And I also took leadership in this war, which is quite nice! Alright then, let's kick some Venetian bottoms!
It sucks to be Venice right now, too.
A month later Tirol joined the fun, only on the wrong side. Their loss. Then Ragusa thought it would be a briliant idea to join, too. Are they stupid or what? Tirol was very easy to subjugate, they accepted Forced Vassalisation after taking one of their two provinces. 3 Infamy, but another Vassal in the Empire! Transylvania was a bit more problematic, considering their distance. I had to march through Tirol, Bavaria, Bohemia and Hungary to get there. Meanwhile Milan peaced out, asking for Albania to be released.
Then I realized that my new protege, Tirol was at war with both Hungary and Bavaria! What a twist! I canceled the Military Access I had in both immediately, hoping for a Call to Arms, after I sent an Alliance offer to Tirol. That didn't come, and I didn't really want to risk getting into a war against the current Emperor Bohemia by declaring war on either of them. To reduce the clutter, I decided to end the war that Venice started with a relatively harsh peace: they were to pay me 50 bucks, revoke their cores in Albania, release Montenegro and Crete. I also decided to pretty much give up on Tirol. I didn't really want them anyway. But then suddenly I was called into that war automatically. Strange. I crushed the Bavarian forces with ease, and after taking Munich, they accepted to revoke their claims on Tirol. Problem solved!
In the meantime, Burgundy managed to get completely screwed, with half of its territory being occupied by rebels, and Bohemia reached the levels of being Dishonourable Scum, giving a Casus Belli against them for everyone. I unfortunatelly have a Royal Marriage with them though, and they are too strong for me anyway, but they will probably be brought down soon. I hope. And while we are waiting for that, let's fund some more revolts in Burgundy, shall we?
I hope I will get something out of those revolts!
Now, back to that fleet-building project! I will need some Docks for that! Not that it actually helps or anything, but still. And it increases production by 10%, which sounds nice. So let's check which coastal province has the most production! And the winner is Antwerpen, with 19.34 points of Production. The province next to it, Vlaanderen, also has 19.34 points of Production. Both of them are cores of France already, so I can build ships there. So I build Docks in both.
In September, 1443, Burgundy has broken under the enormous pressure, releasing Flanders and Hainaut. Good thing, because I have cores in Hainaut, so I can start a nice little war against them! That might bring in Bohemia against me though, and they have more than twice as many soldiers as I do. But they are Dishonourable Scum, spread out all over the place, so I may still be able to get them before they get me! Let's do this!
It is sort of like a World War, is it not?
The strategy is similar to before: take their armies down one by one, while they are invading. And yes, my gamble does seem to work out: a few days after my war with Bohemia starts, the Teutonic Order and Utrecht declares war on the Dishonourable Scum, and a few others joined the fun later on. In the first four battles, I defeated and completely wiped out two Bohemian armies of 15000 Soldiers each, one Hainautian Army of 6000 Soldiers and another minor Bohemian Army of 1000 Soldiers. Good! Meanwhile, my vassals are sieging the cities of the enemy. Liege was relatively easy. They are Wallonian, which is in my Culture group, so I decided they will be annexed. Down you go! Man, I will have to lay down for a while after this war, I'm afraid... Hainaut accepted to give me my core and 175 bucks for my efforts at making them kneel. And with their buddies removed from the equation, Bohemia was also willing to part with Bar, their cores on Ratibor and 100 bucks.
Now, with that, I gained a lot of cash. And right now the best investment is to Support the Florentine School, which will give me ten years of epic goodness, with Prestige, Cultural Tradition and a loss of Infamy! At a steep cost, mind you, but I can afford that. And I will commission a new Tapestry soon! And now, back to building more ships! Wait a minute... England lost their ships?! How? When? What the... Probably in their war with Castille, I guess.
It's time to move the sliders! (Which are usually locked in place, even without right-clicking them.) I move one point towards Centralization, hoping for a Local Pretender to rise, because that would be pretty easy to deal with right now. Much easier than losing a point of Stability... And the lucky guy I am, I get a Local Pretender in Calais! With only 6000 men! Nice! In the meantime, I remove Namur, then Liége from the Holy Roman Empire. I don't want them to be in there. And after that, a period of peace and calm comes in the life of France.
And by peace and calm, I mean an event about some Nobles in Namur messing with politics. But actually, their offer to reform the society sounds pretty good: two points towards Aristocracy (I'm already at -4) and two points towards Serfdom (I'm at +3, which is two points beyond the supposed limit). I would take that over one point towards Decentralization anytime, and 13 Regiments of rebels in Namur are not that tempting either. Aside from that, Normandie turned into Cosmopolitaine. Isn't that a cocktail? And I also noticed a very nice-looking Cultural Decision: Byzantine Refugees! It gives 5% discount to Technology cost in addition to +2 yearly Cultural Tradition. Sounds good! Problem is, it requires 5 Diplomats and 3 Magistrates! That will take two years! Oh, whatever. And I also got a level 6 Statesman, Joseph de Richemont! He is much better than my current level 3 philosopher who I don't need anyway with my 94 Prestige! Awesome! I will reach Government level 9 in 1450!
Still during this peaceful period, I got an event about an 'Agricultural Revolution' in Ilé-de-France. Apparently, even the crops are revolting against my rule because of my Infamy! Anyway, I could either turn this into a biological weapon, giving me manpower or into an eco-biological one, giving me tax. I'll take the cash, thank you very much! Yeah, and by the way, my current mission is to annex Bourbonnais, so let's try to do that now! And they accept! Wonderful! That's one point of Stability lost, but a nice province gained, along with ten points of Prestige: five for the annexation, five for the mission. And fulfilling the mission also gives me back my Stability point! Groovy! So, what's the next mission?
Italian Ambition? Is that some sort of genital disease?
So, Italy, huh? That includes Sardinia and Sicily, even Malta, but of course excludes Corsica. And I have no Casus Belli against any of the Italians. Well, I guess I won't do anything about this just yet. Maybe when the opportunity presents itself. And it didn't really take that long for that: I recieved a Casus Belli against England. A "Violated Sphere of Influence" Casus Belli. I have absolutely no idea where that one came from, as they are not at war with any of the nations under my wing, must be a bug. Wouldn't surprise me in this game! Oh, whatever. The point is that I will now take Malta!