CHAPTER SEVEN
Peace! - September 1445
Yes BB is rather high (19.53 / 26.00) but Portugal has gone and I’ve nearly a month before my truce with Burgundy ends. War exhaustion is a regrettable 10.40 but with BB this high I do have a chance to reduce it before starting another war. The WE does mean I have revolt risk in cored right culture/right religion provinces.
Drat! Somewhat unfortunate but that’s how we roll.
By the end of the year Burgundy is involved in a war against Imperial Bavaria and various Germans while Castile (with Scotland) is butting heads with Aragon. The breathing space is looking promising! That said if Burgundy does get chewed up badly they’ve a core I could take while I‘ve still got the vassalisation CB on Scotland. Bavaria calls me in January 1446 and I decline. Accepting their alliance offer had always been opportunistic, this wasn’t the opportunity I wanted.
While I’ve got a quiet moment lets take a look around.
Map of 1446
The Horde is doing a reasonable job on Eastern Europe. The trick is to start hitting them around the time the Latins get a tech edge. In my test game I drove from the Caucasus to Archangel, unfortunately Prussia (ex-TO) also went postal on the Horde and reached as far as Moscow and Kiev. Nasty late game wars before I got my Trade 6 building spam going - they had a 450k army and a 15 level Land Tech advantage.
The Economy
Neighbour bonus is already noticeable, I’ve a lot of low contribution provinces although trade isn’t too bad as I have five merchants in each of my three COTs.
Ideas and Sliders
Nothing special going on here yet. Free Subjects, Narrowminded and Mercantilist are the likely options near term.
I keep it peaceful for a couple of years until December 1447.
Nice, not only is the new King Diplo 8 so is the heir! Boundary disputes please. He also reduces WE at 0.06 a month up from 0.04, not a lot but every little helps.
By April 1449 BB is down to 13.45 / 28.00 falling at 1.8 points a year. War exhaustion is 4.61 and the army is up to 57,000. I’ve CBs against three countries, Scotland to vassalise, Burgundy for a core and the Mamluks for both a core and Holy War. The CB against Scotland doesn’t last forever…
Annoying set of allies but at least Burgundy and Castile are already caught up in wars. And yes that is a Danish siege of Edinburgh; because the best time to kick a man is when he’d down! Everyone joins in and Scotland quickly peaces out against it’s other foes so I should have a clear run - assuming I can storm a couple of forts before the ‘Highlanders’ event starts spawning new Scottish armies out of nowhere.
Scotland is vassalised in September; no screenshot due to operator error. I white peace alliance leader Castile a few weeks later.
War with the Mamluks - September 1450
Right, lets get back to the all important business of smiting heathens. At the moment my naval range in the Med is coastal waters of my provinces as my nearest core is Gascony and my supply range only reaches Gibraltar! This is tricky since I plan to land in Alexandria - along with Cairo it’s about the only Mamluk province with any sort of supply limit.
February 1451
Annoying timing. There’s nothing I can take in the peace deal since I’ve no cores on France now. France is forced to make peace within months as a small stack is wiped and Lyons occupied. I gain 25 ducats and force them to renounce their claim on Paris (insert your own Casablanca joke). The war against the Mamluks goes quite well for the first couple of years until they finally bring their cavalry heavy main stacks (around 30k) to the party. At this point my horse are hopelessly outclassed - with a Shock 5 general against a no general force of about the same size I can just about hold my ground. This is just the usual business of early Latin Horse being rubbish.
By October 1452 I’m in danger of being stack wiped in Cairo so I make peace.
War exhaustion is only 4.03 and Aragon has finally got a decisive result against Castile.
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