The Forgotten Ones - A Livonian Order AAR (SRI for DW)

[kepler]

You seem to be trying to perform an impossible split. On one hand you keep an eye on the religious upheavels in the Empire (and I demand the the Knights get involved!); on the other the Russian East is where you're planning to expand! Understandable as you accept their culture and these provinces will provide you with the means to shape the things in the HRE the way you want.

What's not to love about those core-giving missions!

The cascade alliance is odd. I wonder how does it play with the alliance leader thing then. One of my pet hates was that e.g. Denmark to conquer Holstein had to ultimately peace out the Swiss.

I agree with you, we need to do something within the Empire... In a couple of updates we will get our chance to change things but still I haven't played it through so I dunno what exactly will happen. We shall see.
LOL the situation you described with Switzerland being war leader was SO common... In my case the series of chain alliances made quite sense (Bohemia tends to be weaker than Venice with this starting date). I think globally the situation is not so bad as in the earlier versions of DW and in SRI the Emperor is usually quite strong so he ends up being war leader within the Empire most of the times.

[kepler]

Chapter XI: Wolves at the Door

1523

Before actually going to war, I get the chance to move my sliders. I centralise and get a stab hit; it will take 8 months to recover with stab investment maxed.
Also, as I mentioned in the previous post, I am going to fight Lubeck together with Ryazan and Novgorod, so I call to arms my ally Brandenburg to deal with that heretic city of merchants (Lubeck I mean). Novgorod stays war leader and nobody else is called into this conflict (for now at least).
As I had to declare war hastily, my troops are a bit far away from the front, so these are my initial movements:

Half of my forces will deal with Novgorod, the other half with Ryazan.
However Ryazan moves its forces through Muscowy to siege my province of Yaroslav. The army meant for Novgorod takes then a detour and engages Ryazan, before engaging Novgorod in Beloozero:

I couldn't pursue Ryazan because they retreated into Muscowy.
After that I am forced to split this northern contingent because I notice a stack of Rebels spawned in Olonets and routed by England who is moving towards Novgorod. I also realise that England (who is on a war of its own against Novgorod) is sieging Archangelsk, which is annoying because it's gonna prevent me from achieving maximum war-score against the Russians. Anyway I can siege the other two provinces belonging to Novgorod:

In the meantime, my other army is sieging the two provinces belonging to Ryazan.
In November I can use some of my troops to corner what's left of Ryazan's army while it moves on my territory:

Tula is the first enemy province to fall in December.
Also, in 1523 Bohemia defeats Hungary, but clearly the AI doesn't like nice borders:

To its defence, that province is not too bad in revenues...


1524

Ryazan falls in May, Ustyug in June and Vologda in July. I am waiting to sign peace because I want to see if Brandenburg can occupy Lubeck (which would allow me to convert them) or if England signs peace with Novgorod (which would allow me to fully occupy their country).
I get Vyazma cored in November.
Scandinavia chooses Lubeck as next frontier of expansion and DOWs them without CB: the Emperor is called in defence of that city with a bunch of other HRE Minors. I can't see this war going anywhere for Scandinavia, but probably our provinces are too poor to satisfy the Northern king's expansionism… Which is good!
BTW Brandenburg's siege of Lubeck is not going anywhere, given the Level 4 Fort that city has.
In the rest of the world, the Ottomans DOW Venice using the Holy War of Expansion CB. It's a CB which can be invoked by countries against religious enemies to conquer some specific lands (like the Balkans) at better conditions than the usual Holy War CB (similar to the Holy War CB in Vanilla).
Venice is forced to make peace with Genoa in a war they were winning anyway:

Not a very good position for an upstart country…


1525

As expected, the Kazan Horde quickly conquer the little Kasimov country which was release a while ago:

In July Brandenburg signs White Peace with Novgorod after throwing so many men against Lubeck's wall in vain. We sign a White Peace with Lubeck as well because I have enough to do in my own lands. Their conversion will have to wait…
I have decided, given my BB are low now, to give a (pen)ultimate push against Muscowy to isolate their capital Moskva. So I prepare my troops for another war when next Winter is over.


1526

No need to call for my allies and nobody can / actually bothers to help Muscowy. They are replenishing their forces, but at the moment they have got only 10k troops. Time for the Grandmaster to fight their Duke!

The battle of Moskva is won and the war as well, but it will take a bit of ping-pong to completely route their amy. In the meantime we start sieging all of their provinces and killing any freshly spawned regiment.

In the rest of the world, the Ottomans have won a decisive victory against Venice:

The block of countries around Montenegro is alive mainly thanks to England you might recall.
On the religious front, Bremen and Frankfurt go Protestant. Poland starts having a consistent Protestant presence on their lands thanks to the Spread events.


1527

All enemy cities except Moskva fall (they've got a better fort after all).


1528

Still struggling with Crimea, Lithuania institutes Liberum Veto.
Moskva finally falls and we can sign peace with all of our enemies:

I admit I took Vologda from Novgorod mainly to make my borders look nicer, but also to prevent England from releasing it as country… Now only one-province Muscowy stands as an Orthodox country in the Russian area (Ryazan was converted in a previous war). Champ… No, vodka for everyone!
However, our Administration Level drops immediately to Inefficient (the first negative Level) and we have got several high RR new provinces (none of them was cored). I move my NF to Vladimir which allows me to cover the greatest area.
Also (and more urgent) now we to deal with the Nomads… We enter war with Kazan automatically. I didn't know what to expect so I committed myself completely to this conflict. I guess Hordes are already declining at this point the game: however Kazan can still throw at me around 50k troops total and has 2 Shock 6 Generals. So better be careful! They soon attack us in multiple points, so we are going to fight them at home; we obviously don't make their mistake of spreading our forces.
The Battle of Murom shows that we will prevail thanks to Fire and Morale:

In Vologda we face difficult terrain and we have to cross a river, but the enemy is without General:

The war will continue onto next year, but, before that, some other news.
To continue my war efforts I have to mint a bit (between 5% and 10%).
We get a Level 3 Natural Scientist which I am using to replace my old Army Reformer.
Finally the Catholics get something right:

Some minors immediately embrace the Counter-Reformation, but also Scotland and Croatia. Apparently I cannot do that for now, perhaps because the heart of the Reformation is too far from my own lands.


1529

The Battle of Ryazan against their Khan decides the conflict with Kazan. The AI confuses me with its moves and I engage them initially only with half of my troops. Still, they don't have great numbers either:

And we can sign peace with the barbarians. I prefer to plan my next war with them (in 25 years) before trying to take any of their provinces. Because I now border the Nomads, I get 0.8 Colonist/year which I will need to claim their lands.
Having grown a bit (and our enemies shrunk a lot) I can place Muscowy and Novgorod in my Sphere of Influence:

Now we have got a bit of consolidation ahead of us.


1530-1532

Smolensk is converted to the True Faith (ours). I decide it's time to start getting some money and I recruit a Master of Mint, getting a Level 5 one (which leaves me with 42% CT). I let him in my court to replace the Level 6 Theologian, who is getting old and won't be needed for a while (can't convert my new provinces as long as the Loyalty to the Old Regime is too high):

In the rest of the world, several things are going on.
Scotland is subjected to a PU with Ferrara (!)
When Aragon declares war on Naples, war breaks out in the Iberian peninsula: Castille helps Naples while Portugal helps Aragon. In the end, Castille is forced to make peace with Portugal, giving them Leon, to win the war versus Aragon (which has grown quite powerful in this game). Aragon loses against the full might of Castille, they are forced to cede the province of Aragon and release Sardinia.
Like vultures, other countries take advantage of Aragon: their PU with Navarra is broken and Tripoli DOWs them (!), taking Gabes and Gilbraltar (!!!) in the peace settlement… What God gives…
The current Pope annexes his vassal Urbino before dying: all hail the New Pope, Urbanus VII.
England signs peace with Novgorod, not getting much, really…
Finally, after an useless war with Lubeck, Scandinavia reforms into Empire, not sure if this is a feature of SRI or Vanilla.


1533-1535

I will have a couple of extra Missionaries which I will send as Delegates to the Pope.
I start building a few ships but I miscalculated the amount necessary to complete the Build a Proper Navy mission, as it seems 8 ships is enough (5 transports, 2 galleys, 1 barque) so I can stop for now. My next mission is to convert Vologda but it's not going to happen for a while, so I cancel it and get a mission to fortify Kostroma (build a Level 2 Fort). It's a good mission because it fires on border provinces and will give me 5 MT once it's completed. Thanks to my Master of Mint I have some extra gold and I can quickly complete this mission.
The next mission is curious: improve my relations with the Knights of Saint John (200). The rewards is to get the modifier "Support for the Knights of Saint John" (which I lost earlier) and a bunch of prestige. It will cost some money, but I suppose I will follow this suggestion...
I move one step towards Centralisation (currently Decentralisation 1) and I get the large revolt event, but nothing to worry about…
England DOWs Scotland (no CB) and we agree to help (sending some money): as mentioned earlier, Ferrara is the major partner in an union with Scotland so England won't be able to vassallize Scotland.
In the Empire, a new Emperor: Albrecht V of Bavaria. The Bavarian dynasty firmly holds the throne at the moment…
Venice converts to Protestantism while Portugal embraces the Counter-Reformation.


1536

The Reformation starts spreading through Europe, but I didn't get notified about its beginning, weird. It's quite weak for now anyway, no Country converted outright. Mazovia converts to Protestantism instead.
About our new conquests, we get the Foreign Interference event in Vologda, courtesy of Novgorod. All the other provinces get instead the Tentative Acquiescence event, probably Muscowy is too weak to challenge us right now.
We get to the very significant Land Tech Level 18, which gives us +1 Military Tactics and allows us to upgrade our Infantry to Tercio. At the moment we have 26k soldiers (as much as our force-limit allows with no penalty).


1537

Old Grandmaster Ludwig dies in May leaving a charismatic but inept successor in his place:

We need to do something about this administrative deficiency…
Next time, the adventures of Grandmaster Wenzel as he messes around with the Emperor!

EDIT: after having a look at the game files, I realized that in SRI the Reformation will start spreading 20 years after Protestantism, but can emerge as a full Religion only after 50 years from Protestantism... Guess the bad news about the Reform are not over yet.

[TonyJoe]

Nice progress. I noticed you said that it would be 25 years before the next horde war - I assume this is a change for this mod. I think it's every 5 years in vanilla (which can be tough).

[Aliasing]

Oi!
You are doing the Old Prussians Proud with this

[kepler]

Nice progress. I noticed you said that it would be 25 years before the next horde war - I assume this is a change for this mod. I think it's every 5 years in vanilla (which can be tough).

Yes, normal truces last 12 years in SRI and Horde ones last 25 years. I notice you can still DOW Hordes with -2 Stab hit, probably after 12 years (haven't checked before).

Oi!
You are doing the Old Prussians Proud with this

Cheers ;-) During next update (this weekend I think) we'll try to make the Imperial Catholics proud as well.

[Arakhor]

Well, this has certainly been an introduction to SRI. I'm not sure I want to play the mod now! *concerned look*

[James The 1st]

Nice ARR, a good intro to SRI!

[Boris ze Spider]

As a lurker coming out of the shadows, I have to say good job.

[kepler]

Well, this has certainly been an introduction to SRI. I'm not sure I want to play the mod now! *concerned look*

Too many limitations to expansionism?

Nice ARR, a good intro to SRI!

As a lurker coming out of the shadows, I have to say good job.

Thanks guys, glad to have you reading my AAR ;-)

I am about to post the next update. As I played on my laptop, the "style" of my screenshots will be different and I also forgot initially to change the default localisations, so, if you see the advisors call me "bishop", don't worry, we are still a Knightly Order!

[kepler]

Chapter XII: A Cross-Shaped Dagger

1537

In October we witness to one of the few historical events who are incorporated in SRI, the Burgundian Succession. To be honest, I never realised it was event driven before because I normally play with event alerts off… Anyway here we go, I believe MM players are already familiar with this:

The Emperor inherits most of Burgundy and Bavaria gets cores on Antwerpen and Vlanderen while the other provinces are added to the Imperial Demesne, which means they will switch hands when the Emperor changes and will never become his cores. As you can see the Imperial Demesne modifier make this provinces quite valuable despite not being cores. The Emperor might further expand the Demesne every time he gets an un-cored provinces.
In November England gets Aberdeen in a peace treaty with Ferrara-Scotland.
Before the end of the year, Poland DOWs Mazovia, ending up in a war with Venice, Pommerania and Hungary, but for now they don't call us.


1538

A new Emperor is chosen, Ferdinand I of Bavaria. I have now raised my relations with the Knights, completed the mission and got back the modifier. My next mission is to fortify Nizhny-Novgorod.
I match the requirements to enact the national decisional "Protect Domestic Trade" which will last for fifty years and increases the Trade Appeal of my CoT, basically making more likely for provinces to trade in it. This in exchange for a reduced chance of competing abroad, but, as you know, that's not a big deal for us. I verified empirically that my CoT will rise from a 280 value to 320 in the next few years.


1539

In September we get a Call to Arms from Poland and we accept. It could be nice to convert Pommerania but we cannot sign peace with them because Venice is war leader; anyway Poland is winning the war so no need for us to get involved, I just send some economic help.
Rzhev embraces the true faith and this is now our consolidated religious situation:

In October war breaks out in the heart of the Empire, polarising countries around their different faiths. Our ally Brandenburg DOWs Pommerania with the usual Conquest CB; Duke Joachim calls immediately Austria and Munster to his support, but not us. Brandenburg stays war leader so we might get eventually called into this conflict. Pommerania is helped by the Palatinate, Trier, Wurttemberg, Ansbach, Saxony and the Emperor himself, who becomes war leader for his field. As it's Catholic vs Protestant it seems like a religious war in miniature… Too bad we cannot join the fray yet!
In December my fortifications in Nizhny Novgorod are complete and my next mission is to Colonise the barbaric land of Pensa, which is on my list of things to do when I will fight again the Kazan Horde. The reward is 2 extra Colonists.


1540-1541

The truce with Muscowy expires and it's time for us to end their sufferings. Sadly nobody helps them. The war is one way:

Yes, 8BB is a lot, but our period of crazy expansionism is ending and Muscowy is a very valuable province.
A few days later I get a nice Event which will give us some extra cash:

In 1541 Gelre becomes (diplomatically) a Vassal of England, which gives the Emperor the Foreign Interference CB on them. However the Emperor has other things to worry at the moment… Saxony is subjugated by Brandenburg and it's reduced to their Vassal. Austria is breaking the bavarian line, but, judging from the sheer numbers, the Emperor is recruiting a bunch of mercenaries in the Demesne. He also calls for the very annoying Imperial Tax; it's an Imperial Decision available after the Circuits are established under some conditions, who are however levied when the Empire is in a state of emergency, like when the Emperor is at war with religious enemies. This decision will give the Emperor a bunch of gold, but all the Imperial provinces will have a steep 20% Direct Tax reduction for a few years. In our case this only involves our original provinces (except Wenden) because the others don't belong to the HRE.
Before the end of 1541 I sign a white peace with Venice.


1542

During the next years I will be building Counting Houses (+20% local production efficiency) in my most productive provinces (starting with Novgorod of course). It's a good investment in itself I think and it also opens the way to the highest level production buildings.
In the Empire the Catholics are not able to achieve victories in the Netherlands and the rest of the Demesne, but something happens to change the tide of the conflict. France starts a war of reconquest against the Emperor, bringing one of the best armies in the world with itself!
It would be nice to intervene at this point, but Brandenburg is not calling me.
I also get a Level 2 Army Reformer that I use to replace my Level 3 Natural Scientist.


1543

The Teutons are now in our sphere of influence.
|n May I finally get a CTA from Brandenburg against, Bavaria, Ansbach, Trier and Wurttemberg… It was about time! I accept and prepare my forces for the long march west, but before that I recruit a General from my 95% MT pool… As expected I get a 5/6/5/1 military genius, Thomas Pahlen. About the forces I can spare for this conflict, I need 10k of my men at home to put down revolts, but this allows me to send 15k to beat the Emperor up.

You can see in the diplomatic mapmode what is the situation of our allies and enemies. Austria was pushed back from the Bavarian cores, but this is about to change as the Emperor's attention turns west again. Our first goal is to make sure Austria's new attack succeeds so the destination for my 1st Army is Sudety.
We arrive at our destination five months later, but it seems Austria is doing well by itself. We join the sieges of Ansbach, Munchen (the Imperial capital) and Schwaben, just before this one falls.

You can see Austria has spread its forces to siege Wurttemberg and Konstanz as well. The situation here it's under control. It appears the Emperor has still got a consistent army, but it's fighting France in the west.
Oh, in the rest of the World the Ottomans enter yet another war to conquer Albania, which is protected as usual by England… Man, the English really saved the day so many times in the Balkans… For now it seems they don't need our help anyway; because England is Papal Controller as well, a crusade against the Turks is renewed.


1544

Brandenburg negotiates a White Peace with Wurttemberg in January and with Ansbach in April; probably it would have taken a long time anyway before their capital fell. On the western front from what I can tell the Emperor and France are evenly matched for now. However Austria is frightened or maybe doesn't see any gain in this conflict and signs a white peace with the Emperor! Cowards!
To avoid losing the ground our coalition gained in the heart of the Empire, I leave 3k soldiers to continue the siege of Munchen while the remaining 12k move quickly to assault the forts Austria just left. Thanks to their small garrisons and our good leader, we re-take control of the situation:

My personal warscore against the Emperor is still very low because the Demesne is so big. I can't see a window to convert the Emperor, but I have another plan for the glory of the Pope. After having a look at the Electors, I choose my victim:

My goal is of course to convert the Electors of the Palatinate and Cologne. I am already at war with the Emperor so I can move freely for the Empire, but the same is not true for my enemy… If the situation becomes bad against Bavaria, I can still negotiate a peace with the Emperor and ask for military access to a few countries to continue the war. The real bad thing about this is that recovering one Stab at the moment takes 20 months… But the opportunity to convert the Electors without worrying too much about the Emperor is too good to let it pass!
My troops were already positioned close to my enemies, I don't waste time with Trier (I can't convert them because I am not war leader of that conflict) and our enemies, divided, are defeated in the open field.

In September most of my targets are under siege:

What's left is to reinforce the siege of Koln (it's a Level 3 Fort) and spare 2k troops for Aachen. That Imperial City has a Level 3 Fort so I don't expect it to fall but I need to kill any freshly spawned enemy regiment, because my forces are spread thin and the tide could turn quickly.
As you can see Pfalz is under siege by France (well, it will never fall as it has a Level 3 Fort) so for now I don't need to send anybody there. Franken is the last province belonging to the Palatinate and it's still besieged by around 5k Rebels so it can wait for now…
However, just before the end of the year, Franken falls and the rebel stack moves to Oberpfalz, that we are currently occupying. Those pesky rebels…
France seems to be getting the upper hand in the west, the numbers of the Emperor are shrinking.
In the rest of the world, Poland finally vassalise Mazovia and signs peace with Venice.


1545

In January the Imperial capital, Munchen, falls in our hands! My 3 regiments over there can carefully avoid the rebels and begin to siege Franken:

As you can see, a new rebel uprising breaks out in Oberpfalz and the rebels start fighting each other. Losers. However, what's left is a 7k stack which still is too strong for my forces in the area.
In April Westfalen falls and I can send some troops to regroup and deal with those rebels. Brandenburg is finally pushing through the Netherlands and France has occupied Picardie.
In May we get to Land Tech 19 (+0.25 Morale is always good) and I face the rebels. It's a difficult battle but superior cavalry and morale gives us victory against superior numbers and leadership:

In June I can concede defeat to Aachen to free some troops (shameful I know). In the same month, Worms falls. I also get the Tentative Acquiescence event in Moskva which was expected, but always good news.
In September I can move another step towards Centralisation (now that slider is balanced), getting a Large Revolt event, which anyway my Grandmaster and his forces can deal with.
In October Bavaria is almost defeated by combined attacks of France and our coalition:

Yes, our Vassal Ryazan is helping too. Also, I have enough forces to spare for Pfalz (Level 3 Fort).
Thanks to our Centralisation reforms, our Administrative Efficiency has improved and our Administrative Level goes back from Distracted to Inefficient (the first negative level).
Before the end of the year, we occupy Franken. Now, what's left is the two Electors' capitals…


1546

The Emperor bows his head in defeat:

Imperial power in the area has been dramatically reduced. We have to get military access from some countries to move our troops around, but it's ok.
The sieges are going to last a while… Without artillery and at this level of tech, Level 3 Fort are really tough. Still, we can wait…


1547

In October, both sieges are at 100% progress, but still they won't surrender…
In December Poland DOWs Crimea (Tribal Conquest) and CTA us. We accept and simply make sure that no enemies can invade us or Ryazan, placing our 10k stack in Tula. Enemy leader is Morocco, which is in turn DOWed by Portugal, using the Imperialism CB of SRI, available to countries who embraced a colonial NI against enemies in other continents with a much smaller army.


1548

Finally, after two bloody assaults:

And the Electors can see the light:

A similar proposal was accepted by Cologne of course, in the joy of the moment I forgot to save the screenshot… Now, four Electors out of seven are Catholics! This seems good for us and the world (and for those Austrian cowards especially).
The long (triumphal) journey back home begins for our army.
During the rest of the year, Poland and Lithuania are winning the war against the infidels and we can sign a white peace with Morocco..
I think I can spare a screenshot for a political view of Livonia:

1549

However we are soon called to arms again, this time by England, which is still fighting Ottomans and Mameluks (now in an apparently strong alliance which doesn't bode well for Christianity). We get the Crusade bonus and send some economic help to England.
Feudal Monarchies around the world start reforming in Administrative ones. The times are changing…
Now, this is why Estates are annoying:

I prefer to avoid getting those negative modifiers because IIRC they make more likely for other bad events to happen. Plus, eventually, I would like to move towards Plutocracy so a compromise between our government and the Estates is not too bad. Notice that Pskov Aristocracy policy is increasing by 1, making more difficult for this kind of conflict to happen again in future. In fact this Event had origin from a discrepancy between our sliders and those belonging to our House of Estates. Similar conflicts can happen over, for example, Serfdom/Free Subjects or Decentralisation/Centralisation sliders.
In October Poland gets Kharkov and Cherson from Crimea in a peace treaty, definitely crawling east like a snake…


1550

We sign a White Peace with the Ottomans. I am currently building Counting Houses and Level 2 Forts in my most vulnerable provinces.


1551

Aragon enters a PU with Savoy and it's now ruled by their Duke. After a beginning so promising…


1552

Before concluding this update, a South America view after the last war conducted by Castille against the Incas:

The country in Trinidad is Brittany.
And in the bottom-right corner, England colonial empire (they still haven't picked up Quest for the New World).
To finish in glory, in 1552 a new Emperor is chosen:

All for nothing?

Hey, wait a second..! The Palatinate has not yet switched to the rival of the Emperor (Austria), curse them! I suppose that, on a tie, the current Emperor wins. So, for now, an Heretic still sits on the Imperial Throne. Will this dark age ever end? To be continued on the next update!

[Arakhor]

That's impressive, Kepler. An interesting insight into SRI politics!

[BootOnFace]

You truly have forged a knightly order that stands above the rest! Who has converted more heretics? Who has taken by right of battle more lands for Mother Church? The Teutons? Nay! The Hospitallers? Don't make me laugh. When people speak of "The Knights," every mind thinks of Livonia and the Conversion of Rus. Your Grandmasters should be proud.

[Boris ze Spider]

Was that an OE army fighting in London in one of the screensohts.

[gabor]

Hmm... those Russians are speedily abandoning their old beliefs en masse.

Congrats on sorting out the issues of the HRE. It was a cunning dow. If the Palatinate's voting did not tip the scale, hopefully a religious war will. And LIV (with their expanded powerbase) will naturally get involved.

[brokentoy]

Great stuff. Good that you got a chance to interfere in the religious politics of the Empire - after the strong Reformation, it looked like the sides had backed down. One of my favourite EU3/SRI games involved a near century-long '30 years' war as a protestant emperor, Palatinate, with France, Castille and Spain all intervening on the Catholic side. As an aside, I think I would prefer it if you weren't allowed to 'force religion' as a standard peace term, only if a suitable CB had been invoked. But fair play for taking it.

[Urza]

Good update. Do you want to add Livonia/Russia to the distinguished ranks of the European (Catholic) Christian kingdoms eventually? That would be awesome. Maybe you should aim for the HRE title yourself, lol.

One minor request, could you maybe make the pictures in the next update a bit smaller? I use a low resolution (1024x768) and with my Firefox browser the larger images appear distorted, like this:

When I rightclick on the image and choose to have it displayed alone on the screen, I can see everything, but it is a bit incovenient.

[Arakhor]

If they were any smaller, I wouldn't be able to read them either.

[Derahan]

just have to say that i like the purplish russia! keep it up!

[kepler]

That's impressive, Kepler. An interesting insight into SRI politics!

Glad that found this AAR interesting anyway ;-)

You truly have forged a knightly order that stands above the rest! Who has converted more heretics? Who has taken by right of battle more lands for Mother Church? The Teutons? Nay! The Hospitallers? Don't make me laugh. When people speak of "The Knights," every mind thinks of Livonia and the Conversion of Rus. Your Grandmasters should be proud.

Thx, I guess we shall see where this timeline brings our intrepid Knights!

Was that an OE army fighting in London in one of the screensohts.

LOL yes, thay had countless wars since England released some minors in the Balkans from the OE. Probably the so-called naval bug that allows troops to land anyway helped the Ottomans (combined with lack of naval attrition, etc.).

Hmm... those Russians are speedily abandoning their old beliefs en masse.

Congrats on sorting out the issues of the HRE. It was a cunning dow. If the Palatinate's voting did not tip the scale, hopefully a religious war will. And LIV (with their expanded powerbase) will naturally get involved.

Yes many abandoning their beliefs for another heresy as we shall soon see -.-
I think the Electors can take some time to switch but eventually they are supposed to support the Emperor or the rival. There was this problem in SRI for HTTT with Bohemia always voting for itself, but I haven't met this bug in the current version.
And fortunately Bavaria hasn't been able to enforce any religious unity within the Empire.

Great stuff. Good that you got a chance to interfere in the religious politics of the Empire - after the strong Reformation, it looked like the sides had backed down. One of my favourite EU3/SRI games involved a near century-long '30 years' war as a protestant emperor, Palatinate, with France, Castille and Spain all intervening on the Catholic side. As an aside, I think I would prefer it if you weren't allowed to 'force religion' as a standard peace term, only if a suitable CB had been invoked. But fair play for taking it.

Thanks, I think that if the player becomes Protestant it's more like an even game, but, with the current system, the AI is likely to convert only if it's quite small.
I am a few years in the future and, solved the problem with the Electors, I am not facing major religious challenges (well, the Ottomans are getting closer, but that's another story).

Good update. Do you want to add Livonia/Russia to the distinguished ranks of the European (Catholic) Christian kingdoms eventually? That would be awesome. Maybe you should aim for the HRE title yourself, lol.

One minor request, could you maybe make the pictures in the next update a bit smaller? I use a low resolution (1024x768) and with my Firefox browser the larger images appear distorted, like this:

When I rightclick on the image and choose to have it displayed alone on the screen, I can see everything, but it is a bit incovenient.

About the HRE-ship we'll see, I am very allergic to monarchies since the heir's "chance of death" was introduced… But distinguished, for sure ;-)
The problem with screenshots is that, as Arakhor said, other users will actually have a worse chance of reading them if I make them smaller.
If people agree I think the best solution is what I was doing earlier, which means start with big screenshots on my iMac and cut/resize the interesting parts to a maximum of 1200x675, often less.
However, as long as I am playing with my laptop and getting smaller screenshots to begin with, I find cutting images not really worth the effort, but I will try my best, maybe resizing the screenshots a bit.

just have to say that i like the purplish russia! keep it up!

Thanks, glad you liked it!

I need to play a bit before posting because during the next twenty years or so not much is happening in Livonia to make an update worth its name. Still, consolidation and administration take time…
I will try to update this weekend or during next week at the latest!