Moose, Midgets and miserable memories - a Sweden DW AAR

[the_turtle]

Moose, Midgets and miserable memories
Welcome to my first AAR, featuring Sweden (in honour of Paradox). I hope to be able to feature 1000 elephants (or, for lack of them, moose) before reaching 1821.

This is played on DW (started with the 17-5 beta, will keep upgrading), everything on normal, historical nations off.

Chapter list
Chapter 1 - The beginnings
Chapter 2 - The fun begins

The beginnings
Let me begin and take you back to, well, let's say 1399. Unfortunately, at this moment of time the great country of moose and midgets is being ruled from Legoland. 'Personal Union' they call it. Ha. We'll show them, in time.

Also, the great country of moose and midgets isn't too great yet. There are some lands in the north that we can take, allowing us to grow stronger before confronting the legomen. We will move our focus there, to encourage growth.



Also, we recognize the importance of trading our riches for even bigger riches from abroad.



Some months later, we are reconfirmed in our choices. The Hansa opens up a trade station, resulting in an economic upturn.



In the meantime, we are reminded of another thing to do, but we will take our time to do so, lacking the monetary means for now.



And so the years go by. Quiet years they were, with the main achievements being the full colonization of the north.



But the first signs that things weren't going to be quiet forever were also visible. To the east, Novogorod had been eyeing us enviously.



With the growing tensions, we tried to get a tighter grip on the country. Not everyone liked this.



The revolt was quickly suppressed, though. Just in time, as it turned out:

[tamius23]

Hello!

Your pictures are quite difficult to read, especially for someone without the Mac screen-zoom facility.

I'll be interested to see how your game turns out!

You've managed to get to 1431 (I think) in one update. I'm on my ninth and just finishing 1401. :P

[CivandEUIII]

Get Jämtland off those miserable moose-impostors to the north and try to look like Sweden!

[Avindian]

I will follow this with great interest; looks like the pace will be very quick (at least until we have a proper war )

[Memento Mori]

You bought me with the Terry Pratchett reference

Subscribed

P.S. I believe it would be most prudent to colonise Africa, or for the lack of it, Asia

[the_turtle]

Feedback

@tamius23: I tried to fix the pictures, but I am still struggling as to what would be the best size to host them in. Any ideas from experienced AAR-authors?
The update itself spans 13 years, to 1412. There's not much to do when you're in a PU struggling to get your economy in order. And I probably made lots of mistakes .

@civandEUIII: Oh, no worries there...

@MementoMori: Well, as it appears I cannot build a zoo as a building in Stockholm, I'll probably have to. When and if I get closer to that goal, I'll post a poll . And if you like Pratchett, there may actually be more to come...

[the_turtle]

It was the year of the meandering moose (also known as 1412)[1]. Just before the winter solstice, a man came into Oskars throne room. He was an emissary for Muscowy and told of a war far away. He requested our aid, but we refused. It was not time yet.




The winter had gone, when news reached us that the Muscowytes hadn't been able to win their war without our help. The same night, Oskar had a dream.




But the dream had to wait, for less than a year later, our allies (Hungary and Muscowy) gave us the chance we had waited for patiently:




Oskar prepared his country and then issued the command: Reclaim Jämtland!



The war raged for two years. Swedish troops occupied the north of Norway and Novgorod. The norwegian troops were soundly defeated in a few battles, but the legomen proved to be more of a challenge. The sieges in Norway were still going on, but Smaland fell despite Oskars attempts to get the nation to focus on its defensive capabilities[3].




Only two months later Smaland was retaken. To free up the men on the eastern front, a white peace with Novgorod was negotiated, and the troops started to move back to the main battle areas.




In the meantime, Oskar pursued the legotroops through a series of battles. Wearily in september 1415, the final battle was fought. There were no more legomen on Swedish (or Norwegian) soil.




'Dear king!' The messenger approached the king on the battlefield.
'What is it?' the king asked.
'I bring a message - Magdeburg has honoured their alliance with Legoland and are now at war with us.'
'Where, who and what is Magdeburg???' the king asked, not being able to prevent multiple question marks to escape his thoughts.
'I do not know, majesty, but here is the message I was to give you.'




'At war with us, and half of the western world? I will not stop after Jämtland. The legomen will be removed from our soil. They *really* are in trouble.'

His words proved to be true. It was another year of fighting, but in the end the danes accepted our offer to ced Jämtland, Bohuslän, Halland and Skane.




In hindsight, the french navy (impostors with almost our flag!) keeping the legoland ships busy in de Skagerak seas and peventing them to transport troops that may have decided the war. But then, so may the bohemian occupation of Slesvig and Jylland.


Footnotes
[1] There's a strange thing with naming years - fantasy runs dry after a while. So yes, the names will return approximately every 25 years or so.[2]
[2] Yes, there shall be footnotes. Possibly a lot of them. Nestled even.
[3] I chose Engineer Corps as the first national idea to help me in this war, fully intending to switch to Church Attendance (for the Gilded Iconography) and then to National Trade Policy. For some reason I thought changing national ideas cost only 1 stab, but its 3. Together with the frequent stab hits from events, that did slow me down a bit as you'll see in the coming updates.

[tamius23]

Destroy Denmark and take all their bacon!

Does bacon go well with swedes?

[Tallfellow]

Bacon goes well with everything. It's bacon!!! The third central spice!!!

[CivandEUIII]

Ah, you are wrong there - Sweden has three crowns (rightful Moose Rulers), France three flowers (sissies)

[the_turtle]

Yes, this AAR will continue. Yes, this will take a while due to a real life 'A new Heir is born' event (actually, second in line). I have played enough for another episode, and hope to be able to play again in a week or so...

[Boris ze Spider]

Nice AAR, congratulations on the brand new addition to your family.

[loki100]

nice jaunty start to things ... & congrats on the new potential Paradox supporter in future years

[Johhog]

Midgets? I feel offended...

[blsteen]

Could be legomen