Spinellu e puntu de organu - A Sardinia Death & Taxes AAR

[Lookwhatifound]

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - Race for annexation
Part 3 - Lurking in the shadows

Hello all and thank you for taking a look at my AAR! Today we'll be taking a look at the Kingdom of Sardinia. You know, that tiny nation on the island full of copper that Aragon always tries to take. Not this time however, because this time I'll be at the steering wheel. Well, at least I hope not this time... That would be a rather awkward conclusion to this AAR.

But anyway, happy thoughts! As I said before this will be a Sardinia AAR on the Death and Taxes mod, which, among other things, adds some unique missions to Sardinia-Piedmont. Which brings me to one of the first goals I have in this AAR: Forming Sardinia-Piedmont. Aside from this, there are a few other objectives and rules that will need to be completed and followed in order to make this play-through successful in my eyes.

Dem objectives:

1. Form Sardinia-Piedmont
2. Own and have cores on all Italian provinces (I'm not allowed to form Italy however)
3. Own all the islands in the Mediterranean sea: Sardinia (Duh!), Rhodes, Corfu, Crete, Cyprus, Corsica, the Baleares, Sicily, Malta and the Naxos islands
4. Own at least one province on every continent
5. Have a Production and Trade monopoly on sardines fish

Da rules:

1. Settings all on normal, lucky nations on random (Please not France, please not France, please not France)
2. No save editing
3. I cannot form Italy. Ever.
4. No cancelling missions unless they are absolutely ridiculous (hurrr naval race versus England)
5. No reloading, not for bad events, not for bad luck, not for getting annexed. If I die it's game (and AAR) over.
6. No DoW without a CB
7. I'm not allowed to break the Infamy limit (I'm a good boy, after all)

Bonus points for: Destroying France, Destroying the HRE (yeah right)

Some of these aren't very easy, like taking Cyprus down without a CB, but they certainly aren't impossible. I think they should make the game interesting enough to last for a while.

I'm certainly not the best EU III player out there and I will most likely make some really stupid moves for which people will scream at me for (Which, by all means do! I can only learn from this), but I still have my hopes up that I will succeed in my quest.

Oh and before I go, have some traditional Sardinian music to get into the spirit of Sardinia's world conquest.



It's a strange island.

[MizarNX]

I love sardinia, you have your first follower!

[Avindian]

I'm intrigued to see how you do with this; I have (but never play) MEIOU, but I've heard good things about D&T as well, so I'll sub.

[Omen]

Some interesting goals. I love to take all the islands myself when I play an island nation in the Med.

[Derahan]

Sardinia surely is interesting, you have my eyes caught!

[Ybakgibumpti]

No idea how you will cope with Aragon and Genoa.

[Lookwhatifound]

Part 1 - Introduction

Right, first update. This one starts with some story. I'm not really planning on making this AAR story-heavy but I thought it would make for a fine introduction. Second part of the update is more gameplay related.

Friday, October 14th 1399...

On that faithful day when our quest began...

Also the day after that totally awesome party...

The king, albeit a bit hung over, requests his most faithful advisors to come to court to inform him of his country's current state and affairs...

He's getting a bit old after all and his memory isn't what it used to be...

"My lord, we have calculated our expenses and incomes and I regret to say... well, it's not very impressive." the King's financial advisor began, taking out a scroll of parchment.

"I've filed a report with our current financial situation to illustrate our... problem." he continued as he handed the scroll to the King.

The King took the scroll and unfurled it. A deep frown appeared on his face.

"I may be getting old and my memory might not be in its finest shape, but I don't recall us doing this poorly. Care to explain what happened?" He finally said, after studying the parchment and all its details.

"Well..." He started, shifting uncomfortably on his feet "we've spend a great part of our treasury on buying goods for last nights party. In fact, we bought beer and wine for every citizen of our fair nation to feast on. As a result, everyone got so drunk that fights started in all parts of the kingdom, destabilizing it. Also, it seems that everyone is so hung over that no one is going to work today, resulting in a great loss of production and trade income."

The King let out a deep weary sigh and scratched his short gray beard, before speaking "This is unacceptable and a shameful display for our glorious nation." He began, clenching his fists "We must make work of this immediately, spend all resources on breaking up those fights and getting our citizens out of bed and back to work." he ordered.

"As you wish, sire." the advisor said as he bowed to his King and made his way out of the throne room.

"Anything else I should be aware of, gentlemen?" The King said, shifting his attention to the other advisors.

"Yes, actually, sire. It's been a while since we last took a look at our nation's policies and reviewed them." One of them spoke up, holding yet another scroll in his right hand.

"Ah Dionigi! Yes, it has indeed." The King said as he gestured the man to come over.

Dionigi walked over and unfurled the scroll, revealing the nation's current policies scribbled on it.

The King opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by the doors to the throne room opening up with a loud slam as a messenger ran in, holding a piece of parchment in his hands.

"My King! My King!" The messenger practically shouted. "A message from the Kingdom of Savoy!"

"Well then, what is it? Speak up man!" the King retorted, aggravated by this sudden interruption.

"It's an insult, sire! They claim that our sardines are of horrible quality, that they aren't even worthy to be used as bait." The messenger said, panting a little due to fatigue "Furthermore, they have decided to dump all of our exported sardines into the cesspits where they, and I quote, 'belong'"

"What?! They... They dare calling our sardines unworthy? The nerve!" the King spoke up, obviously offended by the statement.

"Our sardines are amazing! The best! Top notch! Loved throughout Europe! And these Savoyards think they are tasteless? Worthless?" The King continued, now shouting while slamming his fist on the armrests of his throne.

"Dionigi!"

"Yes my lord?"

"Inform Field Marshall Denanni; tell him to prepare the armies. He can use whatever resources he needs to make sure the armies are in good shape for battle and quick!" ((-1 navy/army policy))

"Of course, my lord! Right away!"

"As for the rest of you, start calling the nobles to arms. We need to prepare!"

And with that, all advisors and the messenger left the throne room with their task at hand, to mobilize the country and prepare for war. Nobody was certain what the King was actually planning on doing, but not a single person dared to ask the King while he was mad.

---

So far for the narration. But yeah, Sardinia, funny place.

Those disgraceful Savoyards insulted our glorious nation, it seems liken they've got their eyes set on Sardinia-Piedmont themselves, those snakes.

Our navy isn't very impressive as it only has three ships: 2 cogs and a galley. However, it's more then the single cog Savoy has, so I don't mind for now. Manpower is, as you can see, a big problem though. We can only create one more regiment and then we're all out of juice. By moving our Army/Navy slider one position to the left it's increased a little, but it's a laughably small difference. This means I'll have to recruit mercenary's to combat the 4k strong Savoyard army.

I decide to raise 3k mercs to add to our 2k of battlehardened Sardinian soldiers. The cost for this is quite high however, forcing me to start minting immediately. But no big deal, it's only until we can beat Savoy. Still we better get a move on before inflation gets too high.

Another thing you might notice is the lack of Advisors, this is not because there aren't any good ones, but because I cannot afford them for now. Same thing goes for Merchants (I'm too mercantile to make a chance in Liguria anyway). My King is pretty decent, for which I am happy. Still, I decide to put him in charge of the army because I need a general. It's a bit of a risk but it's one we have to take.

As I unpause I get my first mission.

Vassalize? I think not, game.

Time to put on my diplomacy hat!

I get RM's with all the mayor nations near me. Including France, Aragon (Unlikely chance, still worked out), Naples and Castille. After which I search for Alliances to help me out. Naples, Milan, Castille, Aragon, Austria, etc. None of them want to help me. Luckily Switzerland decides that I'm a cool guy and offers me an alliance, which I greedily accept. Perfect.

Time for my next step.

I get Military Access through Genoa and start ferrying over troops to Liguria, preparing myself for the war. Then, I notice something.

Oh god.

As the last of my troops arrive in the port of Liguria, I hastily declare war on Savoy, fearing a French annexation. I'm in luck, the Savoyards decide that France is a bigger threat and moves into France instead of attacking my troops as they arrive in Nice and Cu-

Blast! a million pop-ups suddenly show up, completely blocking my view of the battlefield. I bet those Savoyards are behind this! Curse this game, real medieval generals never had to deal with these annoyances when they went into battle.

Gah! Naples we have a royal marriage! I thought you loved me... That I was the only one in your life...

...

*sniff* No point sulking over my broken heart, I may have been betrayed, but there is still a war to be won. I'll punish Naples for their insolence some other time.


Curses! those vile... um... Provencians? Provencards? Provençines? Whatever they are called ambushed my navy! They've got more ships then I have too.

But wait... what's that on the horizon?

Is that...?

I love you Aragon.

[Lookwhatifound]

I love sardinia, you have your first follower!

Thanks!

I'm intrigued to see how you do with this; I have (but never play) MEIOU, but I've heard good things about D&T as well, so I'll sub.

I admit, Death and Taxes is the only mod I've played so far, but I love it so much that I can't even play vanilla anymore.

Some interesting goals. I love to take all the islands myself when I play an island nation in the Med.

Yup, it's a must-do. When playing an island, you take every other island that isn't yours. Even as Great-Britain.

Sardinia surely is interesting, you have my eyes caught!

It's something different alright, haven't seen a Sardinia AAR before, so I decided to do one myself.

No idea how you will cope with Aragon and Genoa.

Cross fingers and hope Aragon gets eaten by Castille or France. Well, maybe not France.

I don't like France.

[Arilou]

What does the Death and Taxes mod do, briefly?

[Lookwhatifound]

What does the Death and Taxes mod do, briefly?

Adds a number provinces and changes borders of existing provinces (like the additional province in Sardinia for example), adds some new formable nations (Iberia, Roman Empire, etc.), adds new missions and events (Some unique for certain countries), replaces some nations (Tunisia is bigger and is called the Hafsids for example), National ideas and Policies are revamped and have more effects. There's more stuff but these are the most important things. The modder is still working on it and plans to add more in the future.

[Avindian]

Great first update! Several parts made me chuckle.

I was thinking, however, perhaps you ought to consider vassalizing Savoy and annexing them later, so you don't have HRE problems.

[Lookwhatifound]

This one is purely gameplay with plenty of screenshots.

Part 2 - Race for annexation

A race against time...

Against inflation...

And against the blue threat

We shift our focus from the ongoing battle on the sea back to land, trying to assess the situation.

Not bad, though it seems Switzerland is busy fighting rebels. We'll be fine without them for now though as Aragon is taking care of the Savoyard army while we besiege their lands. Unfortunately, we weren't fast enough to make it to Savoie before Avignon, France's faithful vassal, did. We will have to wait and see how this turns out.

As we wait, a message arrives from mainland Sardinia. It seems like t want more power for themselves. Unbelievable, our nation is already so decentralized and yet they think it's not enough. Those greedy urban dwellers!

Choosing between a stability hit or decentralizing is like choosing between Cholera and the Plague. In this case we choose for Cholera, or the stability hit, as our nation, being small and all, can recover quickly from it.

As expected it doesn't take us long to recover, as 2 months later we are back up to 3 stability. Unfortunately, the constant destabilization and war has strained our economy, and as a result we are no longer as prosperous as we used to be.

A minor setback, nothing more then a small dent in our nation's powerful economy. Nothing to worry about, we've got wartaxes anyway! Besides, the war must go on!

Finally in July 1400, the garrison of Savoy's capital city Piedmont surrenders to our mighty army, Armata di Sassari led by the King himself, who marches through the streets of the city celebrating victory over the first city to fall (But not too much celebrating, we don't want to destabilize our country again). More work is still to be done however, so the King marches his army towards Savoie where France and its vassals continue to besiege the city.

Meanwhile, in the Mediterranean, the Savoyard navy decides to come over and help Provence's navy in battle... after they've been beaten.

Good job AI.

Even Scotland came over with their navy to laugh at you.

The idiotic Savoyards are soon beaten, losing both ships to the depths of the sea and leaving our navy to rejoice over the victorious naval battles. Celebrations are once again short-lived however, as we receive word from inland; France has taken Savoie while our troops seized Cuneo.

It's only one province though, surely they wont have enough warscore to annex it, right?

Oh.



...



Goddammit.

It also seems Baden is giving Switzerland a run for its money and is now charging into Piedmont lusting for Sardinian blood. They aren't up for peace in any shape or form, so we'll have to end this war. Quick. We decide to move all forces to Nice, to aid in the siege, while our navy blockades the port, speeding up the process of surrender even further.

This pays off, as we receive a message from our marshal soon after.

Perfect. Game over Savoy! Although the mission was to vassalize Savoy, we decide to annex them instead. It will give us some infamy and some issues with the HRE, but we need more land. Presto!

Haha! Time to form Sardinia-Piedmont!

...


FRAAAAAAAAAAAANCE!

[damienreave]

Hrmm... I think your best shot at this point is releasing them as a vassal, then waiting for France to get in over its head and trying to nab the one province from them. Of course, France rarely loses wars...

[Saulta]

Bummer =o

[Lookwhatifound]

Bummer =o

Hrmm... I think your best shot at this point is releasing them as a vassal, then waiting for France to get in over its head and trying to nab the one province from them. Of course, France rarely loses wars...

Not to worry, it's going to get very interesting next update.

[Concrete]

I'm really enjoying it so far, keep up the good work.

[Sweboy]

This mod intrigues me so I will be following.

Would you be able to support nationalistic rebels in Savoie, hoping the province would revert back? You probably need to wait until France is otherwise engaged.

[Lookwhatifound]

Part 3 - Lurking in the shadows

There it lurks, in the darkest of shadows...

It observes its target and heeds its surroundings...

Like cat and mouse, the age-old feud...

Waiting to pounce, when the conditions are at their best...

~~~~

Field Marshall Denanni was pleased, ecstatic even, as he walked through the halls of the Royal Palace in Cagliari, Sardinia. He hadn't slept in a while, not even on the boat that ferried him from mainland Europe back to the island as his mild case of seasickness pestered him along the trip. He never liked using ships as a means of transport, he was a master of the field of battle after all and not a man of the sea. Nevertheless, the feeling of sleep deprivation did little to his excellent mood thanks to the recent events that had unfolded in Savoy.

"Or rather, ex-Savoy." The Marshal said to himself with a devilish grin.

As he entered the throne room he saw that Dionigi was already there discussing something with the King, who looked rather distressed. The Marshal wasn't entirely sure why he would be distressed after the complete triumph in Savoy. Then again, he hadn't seen the King since he marched his army to Savoie, perhaps he was unhappy with the French annexation of the province. Denanni let out a small sigh as he walked towards the pair, who still hadn't noticed him.

"I wonder what the King is worried about this time." He thought, before clearing his throat to announce his presence.

"Marshal Denanni, how nice of you to show up, we've been waiting for you." The King spoke up as he noticed the marshal.

"My apologies, sire, I came as fast as I could." Denanni quickly said, before continuing "Is there something the matter?"

"You could say that, yes. Several things, even." The King answered, then turning to Dionigi "Dionigi, care to inform the Marshal of the latest news from Europe?"

"Yes, it seems the Swiss government is... quite upset over what happened in the war." Dionigi started.

Denanni cocked an eyebrow. "Why? We crushed the Savoyards, with barely any casualties on our side! A clear victory."

"Savoy was crushed, yes, but it wasn't the only nation fighting us." He explained "Switzerland seems to have taken heavy casualties whilst fighting Baden, not to mention the infrastructural damage in their nation."

"Well it's war, what did they expect? Of course there's going to be battles and casualties." Dinanni said, confused over where this was going.

"Switzerland feels that they've been used by us as a buffer in this war, a meat shield." The King said "Which may not entirely untrue..."

"They claim that they took the heat and weren't given anything while we barely fought at all and took the prize." Dionigi continued "Therefor they decided to break our Military Alliance."

"Hmmm yes, I can see this is bad news. With no allies we're very vulnerable. More then ever now that we've taken land in mainland Europe." The Marshal said, the situation now dawning on him.

"Indeed, but that's not all." Dionigi continued with a weary sigh "We received a message from Milan earlier, it seems they aren't very pleased with our latest endeavors either. They've warned us not to go to war with any countries or they'll interfere."

"Why are those bastards on their high horse all of the sudden?" The marshal grumbled, crossing his arms and contemplating over what he just heard. "We've got decent relations with them after all."

"Perhaps they fear that we'll grow too powerful, or maybe they are jealous of our growth or they wanted to annex Savoy themselves, who knows?" Dionigi suggested.

"The point being here is that we are far from safe right now; we have no allies, many rivals and a small army and economy." The King finally concluded "This needs to change and that's where you come in marshal."

"Now that the mercenaries we hired before have left our service, our army is only a mere shell of what it's supposed to be." He continued "So I want you to start drawing in more recruits and bolster our forces."

"How much bolstering are we talking here, sire?" The Marshal said, at full attention now that military matters were at hand.

"I want about 7000 men on the field, Marshal, peacetime or not. We'll need them to rid of those pesky revolts anyway." The King stated.

"Very well sire, it shall be done." Denanni said as he bowed to his liege.

"As for you, Dionigi..." The King said, shifting his attention to his advisor "I want to increase the size of our *ahum* fleet. Go to the port and inform the Dockmaster that we need an additional 2 cogs to be built."

"As you wish my lord." Dionigi complied.

"That will be all, gentlemen. We shall discuss our future endeavors at some other time." The King stated with a sly smile "But for now, we can't allow any more attention brought to us, so we'll keep low."

And with that, both men took their leave from the throne room, both setting out to fulfill their task at hand.

The King returned his gaze to the map of Europe that was spread out on the table and moved his hand over it, stopping when he reached the Kingdom of Milan. Using his index finger to point at the name he started.

"Eeny."

Then moved it to Republic of Switzerland.

"Meeny."

Then the Kingdom of France.

"Miny."

And finally, the Kingdom Naples.

"Moe."

Chuckling, the King rolled the chart up and walked back to his throne. With a content sigh, he sat down and cracked his neck with a wide smile.

"I love this job."


~~~~~~

Enough story for now, there is a world to be conquered!

As you saw before, we haven't gone unnoticed. Those pretentious Milanese snakes are jealous of of success and have threatened us. Hah! What are they going to do? Pelt me with Gorgonzola?

In all seriousness though, we're in a tight spot. Everyone hates our guts and would love to kick us back to our little island so that we can get conquered by Aragon. Of course, we're not going to allow that to happen.

Just a month after the annexation we get an Alliance offer from Naples as they just lost their buddy Provence to the French.

Now, under normal circumstances, I'd accept it seeing the situation I'm in. But since the Neapolitans have shown themselves to be treacherous bastards, we respectfully decline by throwing the diplomat into the sea to serve as food for the sardines.

Anyway, we raise our army to 7000 men to complete our mission and take care of any possible foolish rebellions who are blind to our infinite glory.

Seems like we're in luck, the game, too, thinks we should lay low for a while and gather up some strength.

Because the minting has given us about 1.4 inflation, we decide to hire a crappy Pomeranian Master of Mint.

We don't want to spend too much money after all. Unfortunately this also means we have to stop minting. To make sure we still make some money at the end of the year, we lower our Navy maintenance to 0% and our army maintenance to 75%. As we wait, we also decide to piss off Bohemia even further by removing all three provinces we annexed from the empire.

To get more prestige we also hire a level one prestige guy (I forgot what they are called) and to introduce our Heir to the fair people of Sardinia. The Savoyards aren't invited, they are too busy being oppressed by our glorious army.

Later, an event window pops up. Apparently some foolish Milanese Diplomat has insulted our fair nation, giving us the option of getting a CB on Milan.

On second thought however, we decide that Milan is actually a pretty cool guy and decide to improve relations with our neighbors.

Still, we won't forget this...

Surprisingly, we suddenly get an Alliance offer from Aragon. I'm actually really surprised by their lack of murdering me this game. Still, they've done well in my book so far and I decide to acce-

Wait a minute...

Nope.

----

One uneventful year later

As we gaze over our Kingdom, where absolutely nothing has happened in the last year except saving up money for our mission, we spot something... strange.

English troops besieging the French Southern provinces? What's going on?

Oh wow, the French are really getting it now. Everybody is mad at them. Unfortunately, I don't have a CB on them. Ah well... Perhaps some other day.

It also seems Burgundy wants to be our friend, that sounds like a goo-

Oh my, Cologne? That's just embarrassing, Burgundy...

It seems like they can't get military access to the southern part of their country, which makes them unable to do anything. Which is probably why he wants me to help. We decline however, we don't like being used for petty little chores like that.

Anyway, in 1404 we finally complete our mission to gather 100 ducats, as pathetic as that may sound. We also get a new mission: a naval race versus Milan.

Great, goodbye ducats!

It's not too bad though, we've got 5 ships and they've got 7. We decide to build two galleys and an additional cog complete this goal. It'll be nice to have a bigger fleet anyway if Milan decides to attack us. Or any other sea faring nation for that matter.

We also get an alliance offer from Sicily. It seems like after Aragon's war with Castille, Sicily managed to break itself free from the PU.

Works for me! Sicily has a decent navy and is a fellow rival of Naples and Aragon, so they might prove to be useful.

Then, out of nowhere, cores!

Cores everywhere!

Muhahahaha! I love these kind of events.

~~~~~~

I'm sorry for the amount of big images this update, and for the lack of... well any actual war. I've just played very careful in these early stages of the game out of fear of getting completely murdered. I may try and see if there is a way to crop the bigger images to a smaller size. Things are looking up now though. With France weakened and a handful of cores and CB's in our pocket. Stay tuned!

[Saulta]

May Sardinia feast on France! Forwards!

[Lookwhatifound]

Would you be able to support nationalistic rebels in Savoie, hoping the province would revert back? You probably need to wait until France is otherwise engaged.

Ain't gonna happen, I'm afraid.

I mean, I already have trouble trying to reach 100 ducats, not to mention 225.

I'm really enjoying it so far, keep up the good work.

Thanks, appreciate your kind words!

May Sardinia feast on France! Forwards!

Hehe, don't count France out just yet.