The Historic Inevitabilty of Epic Failure

Thandros, Franconian, Dr. Gonzo, AwesomeSauce123, Taylor - Welcome on board.

Arakhor - Playing England you know France are coming after you until you smash them hard so no great excitement it's all about finding the opportunity...

tamius23 - I've lost track of Aragon's activities, they're involved in near unending warfare for the 40+ years I've played to no great effect other that losing Rousillion to the French.

blsteen - I was concerned when the DOW came in but...

JKNUBZ - I went after Castile early because I could, the cores in France are still there and will be reclaimed soon. The important bit in the first few decades is to secure control of Western Europe. Two reasons, first so that there's no one on your doorstep who can cause problems when your army is halfway across Asia and secondly so that no one goes exploring and through colonies creates BB.

sprites - North Africa yes to stop another Christian getting it - if I don't someone else will. Badajoz simply because it was the only other Castilian province I'd occupied connected to my new south Spain holdings - Algiers had seized the other two coastal provinces. I needed some BB to burn remember I need enough to get to the next peace deal without running down to zero. Of course anything that hurts Castile is also beneficial.

mathl33t & Malurous - See my answer to sprites, Badajoz isn't special in its own right.

Cresilia - That's the idea, take too long and you get Christian enclaves.

aldriq - It is indeed 'Frogtime'.

Ltn.Owning - I don't think it's possible either, that's the point of trying!

loki100 - Cats? All four are alive and well. It's interesting having four in that it's clear they all have their own distinct personalities and levels of intelligence!

Some thoughts on strategy. I need a secure base and I need to prevent European exploration before I can go crazy on the non-Christian world. Both these aims can be achieved by uniting the Isles and destroying Aragon/Burgundy/Castile/France/Portugal/Scotland. Ideally this can all be done before 1500 so I've plenty of time to push East with the Holy War CB before the Hordes implode - the Pacific is the goal for the Holy War phase so my armies will be very spread out and unable to deal with a major threat to the Homeland.

Chapter Three​

That was the 7th of August, two days later Burgundy DOWs France! Burgundy has the same sized army as France although that excludes the French vassals. Later that month…



Castile declaring war isn’t too bad while France is distracted by Burgundy. I may take a 4BB hit here if it gets me another Castilian coastal province - stopping colonisation dead is vital for long term success. It does make peace with Algiers more of a priority - I need the army back from North Africa.

Peace with Algiers - January 1418



BB is 10.26 / 25.00 falling at 1.10 a year. With a new border I now have the Holy War CB against Tunisia so they promptly send a warning, which may prove unnecessary.

Having waited several months for the cascading alliances to work through the war situation is very interesting. The Burgundian attack on France has really affected the position. While Burgundy vs. France is a full alliance conflict my wars are:


I doubt I’ll get a better opportunity any time soon…

Peace with Castile - May 1418



This isn’t BB efficient at all but it does help stopping Castile. Also a nice picture of the English holding in southern Spain. Time to concentrate on France - I’d like to extract a couple of my cores. By the end of the year a beleaguered France is offering White Peace - lets face it that will never do will it. August 1419 and Aragon peaces out, France annexes Provence but otherwise things look pretty good.



September 1420 - Mission switch.



This is the jackpot! Occupying Paris gives cores on most of northern France. Of course right now Paris is under Burgundian siege so I might have a wait but I’ve lots of BB to run down. I’ve +44 war score and France has no army and no navy. Over the next couple of years Portugal leaves the war, Orleans joins and Brittany peaces out from the Burgundian alliance. This allows me to seize a few more provinces but until Burgundy makes peace I can’t occupy Paris for all those cores.

French peace with Burgundy - February 1423



Now it gets interesting…

Mid June and Aragon calls me to war against French vassal Foix. I honour the call but as I’m already at war with France I don’t actually get to join in.

A new King - March 1424



Not much of a king but diplo 6 is better than the last two. Then again the heir is diplo 8 so I’ll make the new guy a general in the hope of getting rid of him quickly. He does inherit a great war position.

A month later I get my first boundary dispute - a core on Ayrshire brings war with Scotland a lot closer.

Paris falls - October 1424



I DOW cored French vassal OPM Alencon, might as well pick up a core while it’s easy.

December 1424



Oh.