The Historic Inevitabilty of Epic Failure

Barsoom

Post-Punk

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Jan 29, 2010

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• Aug 23, 2012

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• #1.181

For a moment there, I thought extending the war meant attacking the other Electors to dismantle the Empire. You seemed well on your way: two (Brandenburg and Pommern) are Bohemian vassals involved in that war, Styria came in with Finland - but you let that last one go and the new war doesn't bring any new ones in. An opportunity like this one, half of Bohemia and most of its vassals already occupied - go for it, I say, go for it!

 

sprites

Field Marshal

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May 1, 2008

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• Aug 23, 2012

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• #1.182

what are you wanting from Bohemia? and it's weird Burgundy still has not taken quest ...

 

unmerged(398952)

Second Lieutenant

Oct 22, 2011

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• Aug 23, 2012

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• #1.183

You're going for the dismantling of the HRE, aren't you?

 

Ricardo Rolo

Captain

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Jun 5, 2011

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• Aug 23, 2012

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• #1.184

The Empire marches out

I would definitely grab that Swiss core. Really, you will not have better time to strike the imperials, after Milan and Bohemia decided to smash each other and after you grabbed most of the second's land ( BTW how much of Bohemia will you grab now ? ). Maybe a knock on Burgundy or the Hansa door would also be a good idea *evil grin*

 

unmerged(471650)

Major

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Apr 3, 2012

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• Aug 24, 2012

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• #1.185

Nice WE for that length of time.
I don't think you will have a better opportunity to push the dismantle button go for it!!

 

Malurous

Field Marshal

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Jun 24, 2007

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• Aug 24, 2012

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• #1.186

PrawnStar said:

What happened to cocktails with the cutie from accounts? Or is that just my idea of how to start the evening?

Click to expand...

For me, it's exactly that first, then several hours of something I perhaps won't remember tomorrow, then shambling around till I somehow end up reading the AAR update at 6 am. But maybe I'm just old school.

You seemed rather powerful in that there chapter.

 

aldriq

Part Time Warp

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May 30, 2007

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• Aug 24, 2012

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• #1.187

Very nice, the holy mop-up pretty nearly done within schedule, the imperialist mop-up already started in earnest. Having a single serious theatre from now on should make things more manageable too.

 

unmerged(58610)

Field Marshal

Jul 2, 2006

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• #1.188

You don't need an open sea lane to colonize. You need to know the province exists and have the range to get there. Anyone trying to colonize a province with that high aggression would be lucky to have it survive more than a few months and that's before your spies get active.

3 cores on 6 provinces - that's just greedy. Brunei must like England. You look as though you are planning to clean up your western frontier with Bohemia.Amassingthe warscore you are with Bohemia ought to allow you to dismantle the HRE, if you've got all the vassals occupied as well. You must be hoping Milan annexes Avignon and that someone inherits Castille, at least long enough for you to help yourself. Grabbing Freiburg is a nice free province and a nice throughfare to Mainz and Styria.

The longer Bohemia and Milan fight each other , the better for England.

 

Aminti

Sergeant

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Jul 13, 2012

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• Aug 25, 2012

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• #1.189

I'm bogged down in some unexpected and rather horrible RL feces for a few days and I manage to miss an entire update... That's a first. Anyway...

PrawnStar said:

What happened to cocktails with the cutie from accounts? Or is that just my idea of how to start the evening?

Click to expand...

Don't let the missus hear that - she'll have you buying gravel or expensive non-revealing dresses for the rest of the UK tax year.

On to the show: Nice selection of cores, good timing on the switch. It's earlier than expected, but if opportunity knocks... That's a rather meh set of occupations going on - immediate targets are probably Bohemian Finland and some of the fringe provinces in the Empire - but only a few maximum as you can only get a few at a time. Unfortunately, Finland looks to be occupied by Milan and not you - that tends to put a spanner in the works. If Bohemia and Milan are still at war when your next truce runs out, which I highly doubt, you should look for a set of wars to dismantle the HRE. Perhaps now is the right time, as Bohemia seems to have Milan on the ropes and you have Bohemia on the ropes...

 

homy_dog34

Lt. General

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Feb 19, 2011

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• Aug 25, 2012

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• #1.190

Good call. Take out some minors in the HRE while you are already fighting Bohemia.

 

PrawnStar

Alien Space Bat

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Feb 21, 2007

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• Aug 25, 2012

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• #1.191

FEEDBACK​

hhhmmm - I don't see the Empire unifying now so yes, dismantling is the answer.

Barsoom - The question is why start a new war that doesn't involve any of the electors but does involve some midsized German powers? You'll see

sprites - Original plan for Bohemia was to grab five border provinces including OPM vassal Lithuania and vassal COT Estland - needs a lot of war score (50+)

uat2d - might be...

Ricardo Rolo - Here's a hint, the Swiss core isn't actually the point of the war, it's a side benefit.

dragonizer - War exhaustion does get a bit sticky coming up.

Malurous - A war against Milan and Bohemia would be a pain still but other than that I'm pretty much on a roll now.

aldriq - Yes, just fighting in Europe is an improvement, hopefully I won't leave any navies lying around to be beaten and captured!

Chief Ragusa - Yeah, I'm not bothered about colonisation attempts in Africa, easy to clean up - but better still the next 'open' provnces are the Andamans and Western Java - also high Ag natives. I'm going to have to take down Avignon myself - 4 points for a province but the isolated republics (looking at you Crete) are very difficult.

Aminti - Finland is Milanese occupied so the immediate goals were Livonia - essentially a straightforward push the border a bit further westwards.

homy_dog34 - Sights are set a little higher than that


And I've just realised I haven't hosted the screenies for the next update so it will delayed a bit. Feel free to discuss the feedback comments

 

Magnive

Colonel

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Aug 26, 2011

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• Aug 25, 2012

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• #1.192

Oooooh, chapter coming soon

 

Barsoom

Post-Punk

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• Aug 25, 2012

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• #1.193

This is cruel. You tell us you have a cunning plan and now we just wait.

 

PrawnStar

Alien Space Bat

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Feb 21, 2007

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• Aug 25, 2012

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• #1.194

CHAPTER FORTY FIVE​

War with the Swiss

By the end of May I’ve occupied the Swiss province I want as well as the Hansa’s capital Lubeck. But before making peace lets look at extending the war.

Ansbach is an Elector - do you see where this is going yet? The Papal State and Styria are as well while Switzerland, Bohemia and Bavaria are already at war with me. There’s a good chance Burgundy will be war leader and call vassal Palatinate. If all goes to plan I’ll be at war with all the Electors. Brandenburg and Pomerania are already occupied. The point of the Swiss war was to get the Swiss and Bavarians into a separate war so they could be easily peaced out

Random war leader time - two province Württemberg. Burgundy call Palatinate so this is promising.

Peace with Switzerland

I might as well grab that core while I’m at it. The Hansa accept a peace deal a couple of days later handing over a couple of hundred ducats. The plan now is to knock out all the non-Elector countries in the Württemberger alliance. The age old problem of warring in Germany reappears - all sorts of minors get called to arms in the next month or so. It’s very messy but I force Austria from the war in late September - I hold Burgundy’s capital but it’s not enough for a white peace. That front is stalemated.

Breaking the stalemate…

Burgundy are peaced out soon after although it’s starting to get tricky in the Alps as Bohemian stacks are working back northwards.

By the start of 1659 BB is below 4 although war exhaustion is above 4. I’m nowhere near peace in Europe so it’s time to meet the Aztecs.

By January 1660 war exhaustion is up towards 6 and there’s still no end in sight for the war in Europe.

April and I get a stroke of good fortune, Milan’s war with Styria ends. The Milanese were occupying Styria so now I can try laying siege to the last Elector capital.

By May 1660 BB is down to 0.15 / 23.00 falling at 3.00 a year. Time for peace with the Aztecs.

BB is back up to 7.35 / 23.00 - gives me a couple more years of floundering around central Germany.

By January 1661 there’s only one fortress left to go, but it’s level three and I’ve just got a siege in place. War exhaustion is closing in on eight and rebels are starting to be a micromanagement problem.

January 1662 two failed assaults means Styria’s capital still stands while some bruising battles with Bohemia in the French Alps aren’t helping war exhaustion - now 8.66. The only thing helping my war exhaustion is that my assault stacks are too badly battered for attrition to be a problem. BB is again dropping very low at 2.23 / 23.00.

The last fortress finally falls in June 1662, war exhaustion is nearly 9 and BB 0.98. I need to race my stacks back to somewhere I can retreat from!

No empire, let the games begin. I peace out all the minors for cash and breaking treaties - the sooner the diplomatic spider web in Germany is ripped apart the better. Before the end of the month the first sharks are striking.

By September BB is just 0.21 and I’m in position to make peace with Bohemia bringing this round of wars to a close. Time to clean up the rebels, run down war exhaustion and watch Germany go up in flames.

Peace with Bohemia - September 1662

BB is now 20.21 / 23.00 falling at 3.10 a year although there’s not much chance I’ll keep all my Cardinals with this BB.

There’s a few bits going on in this peace deal. Kurland removes OPM Lithuania, a Bohemian vassal. Similarly Estland reduces Prussia to an OPM vassal of Bohemia - which can be annexed next time around. Once Prussia is annexed then I can use a cunning plan on the Teutonic Order (yes they’re both there pay attention!). Isolated Danish province Samogitia is culturally Prussian, once there is only the TO as an independent Prussian country I can use spies to raise patriot rebels so the province defects. This will turn the TO from a 4BB OPM into a 4BB two province minor.

I’m also trying to isolate the culturally Hungarian provinces so that I can do something similar and stop Hungary being an OPM.

This is rather a flyer on my Admin 8 / Diplo 8 chap making it through the next couple of years.

So what was the mistake I made in this sequence of wars and why do you think it occurred?

 

loki100

Field Marshal

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Jul 1, 2008

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• Aug 25, 2012

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• #1.195

well that was rather brilliantly well done ... presume that is Germany very much where you wanted it?

 

Barsoom

Post-Punk

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• Aug 25, 2012

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• #1.196

PrawnStar said:

So what was the mistake I made in this sequence of wars and why do you think it occurred?

Click to expand...

And now a trick question! I'll have to have a cup of tea before I even try to answer this.

Well done, though. Glad to see the HRE gone. I'm looking forward to the fallout, the next update is bound to have less English action, more reporting on the state of the world.

 

Minigrinch

First Lieutenant

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Aug 17, 2011

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• Aug 25, 2012

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• #1.197

Having your BB so high that if you get a terrible ruler soon you will get BB wars and the Ultra annoying BB events?

 

PrawnStar

Alien Space Bat

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Feb 21, 2007

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• Aug 25, 2012

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• #1.198

OK, the error was made over the last two posts and Barsoom has already queried it.

 

U

unmerged(297342)

Colonel

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• Aug 25, 2012

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• #1.199

PrawnStar said:

So what was the mistake I made in this sequence of wars and why do you think it occurred?

Click to expand...

Failing to seize Aztec provinces?

 

U

unmerged(81244)

Corporal

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• Aug 25, 2012

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• #1.200

Would it be more efficient to only grab provinces worth 8 to 10 points of BB, and then get into wars more often?
I am not quite sure about how many truces you have, but there should still be targets in europe, and by keeping BB low you should get better events and keep your cardinals.
If you alternate in beating Bohemia and Milan up, ending a 8 BB war every 2.5 years and hang on to your cardinals, you should get a more efficient BB burn. Providing you can keep WE low