Chapter X: War of the Crosses
Battle of Tannenberg, A.D. 1410
Historians debate on the main cause of the so-called War of the Crosses, which involved all the three main Knightly Orders. Some writers put the greatest emphasis on the personal grudges of the two most important advisors of Grandmaster Ludwig, Gotthard and Karl Koskull, against their older brother. Obviously the story of their banishment from Prussia for challenging the Hochmeister's decision and their arrival in Livonia where they rose to positions of respect and authority, one as High Chaplain, and called in secret by the small-folk the "Pope in the North", the other as Commander and first diplomat, has a wide basis of truth. However this analysis is partial as it ignores the rift which continuously grew wider between the two Orders, once friends, after the autonomy achieved by the Livonian Branch, and another rift within the very Teutonic Order, where many officials supported the idea of an union with their Livonian Brothers, against the Hochmeister's wishes.
Eventually Grandmaster Ludwig was forced to make a hard decision for the good of the Order and all Livonia, as his predecessor Grandmaster Johann did when he granted autonomy to the newly converted Houses of Pskov and Tver, whose help proved essential in ruling and converting the rest of the Russian lands.
What's funny, from a purely historical point of view of course, is that everybody was expecting the next major conflict in Europe to break out between Bavaria and Austria, who fought for spiritual and temporal supremacy in an Empire torn by the blasphemous reformation of the mad Italian monk, Agostino Rovigo.
And, like often happens, everybody was wrong…
- By an anonymous Chronicler of the Livonian Order
1515-1516:
The Pope decides to do something about these Heretics, DOWs Urbino with the Cleansing of Heresy CB (he has got Unam Sanctam as a NI), then convert and vassalize it. Well done!
We manage to convert Vyazma and then Yaroslav. As conversions are achieved, we begin to spend most of the time in Competent Government, but the line is thin…
We also get a new core in Yaroslav:
I guess the Diplomat did help.
I put Ryazan as well in my SoI, although at moment it feels a bit useless.
I cancel the crazy mission to attack Scandinavia and I get a new mission to conquer Memel, a Teutonic province!
I am going to go for this core; basically after two Supports for Dissidents Abroad events and a refused alliance, the union between the two Orders unfortunately must be enforced. The province in itself is not too valuable, but tax efficiency is secondary to survival against our powerful neighbours.
The problem is that the Teutonic Order is allied with Poland and their chance of joining my war is very low, so I have to wait.
1517
We get to Trade Tech 15 and we can get a monopoly in Novgorod. With more than 5 placed merchants our trade modifier meant to help little traders has changed:
Not a big deal for us, but it's of importance for real trading nations..
Our ally England is dragged in yet another war against the Ottomans who are trying to reconquer Albania and they ask for our help. As usual: accept and send war subsidies. We wait for a white peace offer who is not coming, in the meantime we enjoy the Crusade bonus.
1518-1520
Beloozero embraces the True Faith as well.
In the Empire, Brandenburg annexes Mecklenburg who entered the war to protect Pommerania. When one of the Imperial Princes is annexed, the Emperor gets a CB for a limited period of time: if he doesn't use it, like in this case, Imperial Power will suffer.
I get some news from the colonisation front:
The AI should be more likely to go for historical colonisation (although not deterministically)… But poor Incas!
1521
After running one of my routine checks, I find out that now I have a good chance of having Poland's help in unifying the Order. I think this might be due to the fact that Polish cores disappeared in the Teutonic lands and their King doesn't see them anymore as his "property".
So this is the situation of the Teutonic Order:
I DOW them in April with Conquest CB (3 BB for Memel) asking for my allies to join me. The chance for England to help us is Very Likely while the Polish one is Likely… I am taking some risk, but I am lucky, they both accept.
About the Teutons friends, obviously they accept the defensive CTA, and I finally witness the true extent of the cascading alliances in DW…
It goes as follow (I could have made a nice screenshots collage but I did not think about it): Scotland and Bohemia join the Teutons, Bohemia is War Leader, calls for Silesia and Venice, they agree, Venice is War Leader, calls for Hungary, they agree, Hungary is War Leader, calls for Castille, they agree, Castille is War Leader, they call for the Knights. The chain end.
So, to recap:
Livonian Alliance: Livonian Order*, Poland, Lithuania, England
Teutonic Alliance: Castille*, Teutonic Order, Scotland, Bohemia, Silesia, Hungary, Venice, The Knights
All the three Knightly Orders are involved in the war (hence the name of the chapter).
Our navy is by far the greatest (courtesy of England, 44 Big Ships) so we are in a net position of advantage.
On the other hand, I expect only to gain Memel out of this mess, so my main duty is to quickly get that province and then secure a peace with Castille to end the conflict.
So, while Poland-Lithuania engages Hungary and Bohemia and while England attacks Scotland, we move south:
While 2k soldiers begin the siege of Memel, the rest of our forces engage the Hochmeister in Warmia. I expect this war to be easy on me, so I left the other 8k soldiers in my homeland to put down revolts and (unlikely) landings on my western shores.
Everything goes according to plans:
After winning the Battle of Warmia, enemy forces surrender while retreating to Plock.
At this time Ostpreussen is already under siege by Lithuanian forces, I leave there my Knights to see what's going on and the Grandmaster goes back to Memel to speed up the Siege with his Siege 2 value.
I then realise I can withdraw my support to the Knights of Saint John:
And it seems very appropriate to do that. It used to cost us some taxes, manpower and forcelimit; but no more Spies from now on. Anyway I have 2 of them at the moment which might come handy in future. I also repair my relations with the Pope.
In November Crimea tries to take advantage of the situation and DOWs Poland to retake Zaporozhie. We enter the war to defend Poland and a new front is open: we didn't want that because Bohemia and especially Hungary are enough of a challenge. Fortunately Scandinavia decides to help Poland as well, although, well before they can send reinforcements, Poland is forced to Institute Liberum Veto… And now only Lithuania's Veto is left…
At the end of 1521 this is the situation on the southern and western fronts:
Situation uncertain in the struggle versus Hungary, while Scotland is basically defeated. You can see in the bottom-right corner some Castillian troops landed in Calais, but they shouldn't make any real damage over there.
1522
Memel falls and I decide to sign peace with the Teutons. Ostpreussen is a Level 3 Fort and the siege is still at 0%… It might take ages for that city to surrender, plus it's unimportant in our strategy.
I get Memel as planned and I also force the Teutons to break their treaties with some Heretics (certainly made out of convenience).
I then get a core in Memel (but not a BB reduction) and a new mission: to have a proper fleet (13 ships). I think I can manage to do that (but not now).
Having a look at my diplomatic options, I succeed in signing peace with Hungary by conceding defeat. Now we can raise our warscore by crushing Bohemia and Poland can deal with Crimea.
In march we engage what's left of the enemy in Ratibor, Silesia:
And after these series of defeats, this is Castille's answer:
Which we gladly accept. So hopefully this shows you can defeat cascading alliances with your own set of allies!
During the rest of the year we can withdraw and replenish our forces. This war was far from long, anyway it was good we did not accrue any inflation at all during that period. We can then sign a White Peace with Crimea (Poland can now deal with them quite easily) and the Ottomans, to start building up again our Cultural Tradition.
However, 1522 will be remembered as another bad year. The Catholic Princes have assembled in Wien choosing Austria as their leader… The only problem is that our leader doesn't have any will to fight!
This hits us a rock… Basically in SRI a religious war will break out within the Empire if a Catholic Emperor doesn't go for Toleration (which in my experience in HTTT is the most likely outcome) or if a Protestant Emperor comes into a power. However in this last case the League must be willing to fight. I had a look at the Event which fires for the League Leader (the strongest Catholic country in the League) and several factors are taken into account to decide whether or not to go to war. A bit anti-climatic perhaps but realistic as the Emperor has the backing of several Princes and he's not actually trying to suppress Catholicism (although I am sure he would like the idea).
I was planning to get military access to the Empire during the war and try to convert as many Electors as possible back to Catholicism but this will have to wait. Basically the religious war follows its course and at the end of the fighting a real, lasting peace can be signed via Event or the two sides can just prepare themselves for another round. Eventually the Reichstag will enforce a peace but it's perfectly possible to have two or more wars which actually will concur to determine the final outcome of the religious war.
Among the possible finals for the war, the most likely is an indecisive victory for one side or a draw: Toleration is the reward for a Protestant victory, re-conversion of the Heretic Bishoprics to Catholicism for a Catholic victory, both results as a compromise in case of a draw. Actual warscore, taken provinces and converted enemies are among the factors which will determine the final outcome.
Unfortunately describing this mechanism doesn't pay enough honours to Helius who designed it and, I assure you, it's a very funny part of this mod. Hopefully in one of my future AARs I will get a chance to talk better about it.
Back on track, before the end of the year we receive an alliance offer from Brandenburg which I accept to have a Catholic friend in the heart of the Empire. If war breaks out and I am alliance leader I plan on using Brandenburg and convert some of the Heretic Princes, but maybe this is just some wishful thinking…
In December I am guaranteed by Austria… Trying to apologise, are we? Not sure how much this will help, but it's nice to see the Catholic powers in the HRE sticking together (and I believe we could have kicked the Emperor's royal bottom if we were given a chance).
1523
We get to Government Tech 17 and we pick Guild Privileges as 4th NI:
Many of our provinces have got good production value and Guild Privileges is one of the few NIs which will improve our AE. We will stabilise around Competent Government thanks to this.
I also show you some of the other NI in DW, with some differences from Vanilla. Church Attendance Duty is nice, it could be my 6th NI, before moving capital and culture-shifting. The next NI I am pretty sure will be Bureaucracy instead.
I can now go back to research Land Tech aiming for the new significant levels.
The war between Ottomans and England ends with Albania more or less intact and Serbia release from Turkish dominance. However Wallachia, who foolishly challenged the Ottomans, lost Oltenia to them.
Poland signs peace as well, with Crimea:
Food for the Kazan Horde I am afraid… Because Scandinavia became War Leader against Crimea, fighting still continues on the Lithuanian border.
In Rome, recent events took their toll on Pope Iulius II who dies leaving behind him a church divided. The new Pope, Gregorius XIII, continues the policy of his predecessor and DOWs heretic Siena. War breaks out in Italy as all the Italian powers choose sides, with the important note that the Emperor joins the battle in protection of the HRE against the Pope…
Too bad we can't do anything. Certainly I am considering leaving the HRE, but the Grandmaster still needs the recognition which comes with belonging to the Empire. Plus for this AAR purposes it can be more interesting to stick with the HRE for now.
Anyway in March we get our hands full. England for some reason DOWs Novgorod using the Liberation CB (thanks to their Bill of Rights) and calls us to arms. I prefer to conduct my own war against the infidels and I DOW Novgorod as well:
Poland and Brandenburg would be happy to come but I don't call them outright. Soon I realise I am fighting Ryazan and Lubeck, so I guess Brandenburg's help will actually come at hand!
I can tell you I will use this occasion to fight Muscowy as well, so I postpone this third Russian campaign to next update.
Until next time!