The War for Rome
An Excerpt from "The War of Giovanni and Clement" by Antony Blair
Ultimately Giovanni Maria was, in 1411, still a very young man, a flamboyant patron of the arts, and in the realm of politics more than a little impulsive. Perhaps this is the simplest explanation for what seems like the very rash act that led him to lead his armies against those of the Pope. His father had been altogether more careful in his later years, perhaps surprised by the vehemence of Pope Boniface's opposition. Pope Boniface however had now passed away, soon after his old foe, and the Cardinals elected Clement
Clement had foreseen the new lord of Milan sought to settle scores with the Papacy, since a number of prominent Milanese had advocated that the lords of Milan were the true heirs of Rome, so he had done his best with a web of alliances, principally with Savoy, Mantua, and Naples. The King of Naples had further allies he might be able to bring, and when in 1411 Giovanni Maria dispatched his declaration of war to Rome it did not take long before a range of enemies lined up to oppose her ambitions. To the west was Savoy, newly vacated by Austrian troops now the matter of the Teutons had been resolved. To the east, Aquilea, allies of the King of Naples, formed a significant threat, but fortunately for Milan the traders of Venice forbade the Archbishop from moving his troops through their territory. Mantua abandoned Milan, and instead cleaved to Rome. Ferrara, also allies of Venice, and their vassal Modena also opposed Milan. The Kingdom of Naples lay to the south, and then the Principality of Achaea too joined in. In total, only Genoa, Venice, and Florence were not initially involved in this wideranging conflict. Duke Giovanni for his part choose not to call for his allies, the Emperor in Austria and the Lords of Bavaria.
Milan soon faced assault on all sides, but proceeded quite calmly to face up to her enemies as they came. With two primary armies, constantly in movement, they defeated the small forces of the opposing states. In this Milan was undoutbedly aided by Aquilea having to ship every soldier to the front, and by the fact that Savoy needed to entirely rebuild its army before it could be a threat. Meanwhile Modena, Mantua, Ferrara, and Achaea simply did not have armies all that large, and the primary army of Naples quickly became bogged down in a siege in Ancona, and the citizenry of Rome itself rose in exasperated revolt against the Pope.
It quickly became a war of many small engagements as the territories of Milan were invaded from all sides – but by relatively small contigents. The two Milanese armies spent the year marching to and fro about the domains defeating and dispersing these contigents as they could. Meanwhile Duke Giovanni Maria was raising more troops throughout the Po vally. At times this recruiting was disrupted, especially by Savoyard raiders, but by the autumn a third, albeit smaller army was ready, which he ordered to invest Mantua.
Milan's situation was made much easier by the fixation the Neapolitans had with seizing Ancona, which proved itself a very difficult nut for them to crack. The local Urbinese, while bearing no great love for Milan, had lost their independence to the Pope just recently, and loathed him more. This more than any fact likely explains the great resistance that the Neapolitans encountered in this region, which was the centre of their efforts until the dying days of 1412.
The war became a good deal more confused when, in October 1411, the City of Florence declared war against Modena, with the support of Switzerland. Modesta itself was supported by Ferrara and Naples. Although the two countries were fighting much he same enemies, they nevertheless were not allies. Due to a prior treaty Milanese armies were freely allowed to cross Tuscany, and indeed fought some battles there, and it can only be assumed that unofficially at least the Milanese and Florentines co-operated against the common foe. The addition of Florence to the warring powers meant however that on mainland Italy only the two great trading republics of Venice and Genoa remained uninvolved.
As raiding parties, and at times more substantial forces began to enter Milanese territory in the spring of 1412 the Duke declared that he would lead an army himself. He had already sent out a new set of recruitment ordinances, but the idea that the young and hitherto city-bound Duke would prove martial caused more than a little bit of mockery, especially amongst his opponents. That spring brought good news however, as the city of Mantua finally surrendered. Shortly thereafter Mantua was forced to withdraw from the war against Milan, its Council formally acknowledging its errors, and granting Milan in recompense the right to appoint their Captain-General.
1412 saw the first very serious invasion of Lombardia from Savoy, a second Neapolitan invasion of Ancona, and a substantial series of battles fought with the allied troops in central Italy – in and around Pisa, Modena, Tuscany, Ferrara, Mantua, Parma, and the Romagna. Milanese troops besiged Ferrara, whilst Modena was surrounded by Florentines. Two Florentine raiding forces were also now conducting razzias through the Kingdom fo Naples. That autumn, knowing that Savoyard troops still defiled Lombardia, the Duke finally turned his back on his court, and took the field. Integrating the troops newly recruited that year with one of the existing mobile armies he marched, and defeated the Savoyards. Without hesitating he conducted an invasion of Savoy, raiding the countryside just as his own lands had been raided. However, he did not stay long because Aquilean troops were had besieged Verona, and his other armies were busy investing Ferrara and clearing out enemies from Siena and Pisa. Towards the end of the year the countryside of Ancona finally fell to Naples, but the valiant defence of the people there had given Milan much time.
In the spring of 1413 the Duke of Savoy launched another invasion. There was more campaigning in central Italy as well, but most importantly, Ferrara fell to Milan in the early summer, and a couple of months later Modena succumbed to Florence. The Florentines wasted no time in incoporating Modena into their state proper, just as they had in former days to Pisa. Duke Giovanni, somewhat mindful of Imperial niceties however and not wishing to offend the Emperor, made the Duke of Ferrara his vassal. It was also about this time that the Prince of Achaea withdrew also from the war, as did the Archbishop of Aquileia (on the simple grounds his army was destroyed). With Ferrara and Modena subdued, the Duke instructed his armies now to move on Rome. The Pope had lost control of Rome, and so in a somewhat patronising move Duke Giovannia Maria declared that he was going to liberate the city for Pope Clement. In actual fact he let one army to do that, he himself was busier with a repulsing by far the most serious Savoyard invasion. This repulsed he launched a more determined counter-attack.
As it happened however no Savoyard towns fell to Milanese troops, because in March of 1414 Roma itself was liberating. The Duke promised to restore Clement to his City in return for the Pope's undying friendship. Seeing as his allies had let him be ejected unceremoniously from St Peters, and seeing the tide of war decisively turn against him, Pope Clement mustered what grace he could and accepted this humilation. Witht his, Naples and Savoy no longer had any true cause. Not wishing the pursue the war any longer, the Duke aggreed to evacuate Savoy for the return of Ancona. At a stroke, Milan was at peace.
The war was not quite over however, because Ferrara and Naples still were fighting the Florentines, but that conflict was small in comparison to what Milan had endured. The Duke was lauded as a great man, and Milanese prowess widely feted. However, the strain of the war was telling on the Duke, and for a time he had to restrict his public life quite severely – during which time he allowed a council of hand-picked notables conduct most of the day to day task of ruling. Also about this time Albrecht V, Emperor, passed away. His younger brother, Franz, was elected and another Regency Council instituted, as clearly the Electors preferred this weaker arrangement. There were some at this time who thought that the Duke should seek election, but he publicly poured scorn on this idea, and while this may have caused a loss of standing his committment to Italian affairs generally did him credit.
Gameplay
Half-way through this war, I realised just how badly trapped I am by EU2 thinking. It took me ages to begin besieging Mantua et al, because at first I was under the impression one needed an army of 5000 men to conduct a siege – just like on did in EU2. It was only mid-way through 1413 I realised my error, by which time the war had gone on much longer than necessary but which did allow me to close it of fairly quickly thereafter. The second blunder is that I should have upgraded my troop type when they became available part-way through the war when I got Land Tech 4, as that would have much better fitted by strategy for the war.
These aside, my main strategy for the war was to use my two armies (one 7inf/1cav, the other 7inf/2cav) to go around and fight the opposing armies as they arrived, and use a newly built army to conduct my sieges. The basic strategy here seemed to work very well, but my (other) mistake was declaring war before having completed building my third army – this meant that a couple of hte units were caught by enemy raiders and destroyed.
I enjoyed the war quite a bit (apart from anything else, I totally forgot to take screenshots), especially the first two years where I was always going from one battle to another. The pace of the war slowed very noticeably after I managed to White Peace Aquileia, and the final six months or so I was at that point really just waiting for siege tickers. Longer-term I am going to have to bring Naples and Savoy within my orbit. Naples certainly I intend to annex, but I wonder if Savoy might not be better as a buffer state between France and I. Likewise I think I should potentially take an interest in Switzerland – perhaps those Austrian Hapsburgs might be persuaded to join sides with me in that endeavour. 
More seriously though, one thing this war did make plain is that I do need at some point to acquire myself a fleet. I was very reactive throughout most of this war for the simple reason my enemies could land in nearly all of my provinces. It worked for the moment, but a war with Venice I think could become a frustrating thing very quickly.
One thing not related above is that I went moved another point towards centralisation in 1410 – but this was effectively negated by the event at the end of the war which caused my Aristocracy to gain one. Also not related in the above, in 1410 I had Clergy Condemns Philisopher as Heretic event, where I chose the option making me +1 Innovative. After the war my mission changed to have Bohemia elect me for Emperor, but I declined this and the next mission is to incorporate Mantua into my realm. When I got that mission, I smiled.
The big war between Burgundy and England ended up with Scotland basically losing all but two provinces to England. Otherwise in foreign affairs the other main event taking place is the spread of the Golden Horde.
Finally, my Sheriff died, so I hired a new, 5-star one; and using the army tradition I had built up in the war I also hired a new General, Uberto Sporansi. He is 1/5/1/1. Duke Giovanni Maria by the war turned into a 2/2/2/0 general, which did make my life significantly easier in the second half of the war.
Infamy 12.5 Prestige +71 Legitimacy 100 Inflation 2.5 (I am minting +0.1 a year in peacetime).
