Ad augusta per angusta - a Moldavia AAR

CONTENTS​

INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I. Iuga and Alexandru cel Bun's (part 1) reigns
CHAPTER II. Alexandru I cel Bun's reign (part 2)
CHAPTER III. Alexandru I cel Bun's (part 3) and Alexander II's (part 1) reigns
CHAPTER IV. Alexander II's (part 2) And Stefanita I's reigns
CHAPTER V. Alexander III and Constantin I
CHAPTER VI. Ioan I (part 1)
CHAPTER VII. Ioan I (part 2)
CHAPTER VIII. Alexandru IV (part 1)
CHAPTER IX. Alexandru IV (part 2)
CHAPTER X. Alexandru V (part 2), Alexandru VI and Alexandru VII (part 1)
CHAPTER XI. Alexandru VII (part 2) and Constantin II (part 1)

That will be all for today.
One question though: how do I make my picture bigger? So you can see the picture, not it's thumbnail.
Thanks

Done it. Thanks.
How can I delete my attachmets?

PS. No need anymore. I figured it out.
Thanks anyway.

As expected, the Horde’s troops cross the Dniester and siege Bujack. It fell fairly quick, then the tatars move in looted Bessarabia. Attrition does it’s job, so about fife month and almost 12k dead tatars later, a polish relieve force crossed into Bessarabia, annihilated the besiegers then moves to Bujack and frees the province. In the meantime, my armies conquered Cherson, then Crimea (I canceled my vassalisation, so I can control the provinces I conquer. The war it’s going well for my and the alliance, the poles conquered Zhaporozhia and Kharkhov, while I’m colonizing Cherson. When this happens:

Finally, Cherson it’s colonized and becomes part of our great nation, a missionary is sent to spread the light of the only one true faith among the pagans, the settlement policy is enacted and soon after, Poland makes peace with the Horde.
The war has been costly. It’s true, I gain a new province – Cherson – but it is a poor one. If the Horde will declare war on me after the truce expires, I will probably sell it to Lithuania, so that I won’t have a border with the them any more. I was practically minting for the entire period of the game (now it’s November 1406) so that I already have 4,4 inflation. That was stupid really, because for the last for years of the war I was receiving war indemnities from both Poland and Lithuania (about 15 talers/month, that’s huge for a small realm like mine); but I forgot to get the treasury slider back to zero. Every magistrate I've got (1,7/month), I've invested in Cultural Tradition, I want to draft some great man and let them be hired by others, so I’ll get a few extra money.
My monarch also died in the war, (that wasn’t such a tragedy given hits stats). The new monarch is Alexandru cel Bun a more than decent monarch, which is not what I can say about it's heir, who is clearly the result of an incest.

What's important is that we are at peace, so that we can recover from the war (the war exhaustion is at around 10). But one can not enjoy peace while the map it's being populated by warmongering idiots that can't even reach us.


Well, it seems they are not completly idiots after all. They are allied with the Ottomans. Yes, the Ottomans, that huge, green and mean country in the south, that has a bigger and more advanced army than we have. And don't forget the fleet:

Serbia and Bosnia also declared war to us. The turks are fighting the Timurids in Asia Minor, but they are winning. We need fresh troops, so a swarm cavalry and an eastern archers regiment are currently recruited in Cherson, while our entire army (3000 men) is besieging Silistria.

With Silistria almost in our hand, a message of peace came from the Ottomans. They ask for a small amount of money, so we say no. Immediately another offer comes, this time from the Jalayrids, the lieder of the alliance: a white peace. With the bulk of the ottomans armies heading for Europe, I accepted it, hoping that this time peace will last.
And it did. Is January 1411 now, my war exhaustion is down to zero, Cherson became orthodox and the truce with the Golden Horde it's coming to an end. So, in a completely unselfish gesture I, magnanimously, sell the province of Cherson to Lithuania for the huge sum of … 0 talers. Quite a businessman I am. At least there are no more crazy tatars at my doorsteps.
I also got the mission to protect the orthodox in Silistria. This means I have to conquer Silistria, and, if I do, I'll receive a core in it.
For the entire peace period I was trying to get closer to (and eventually vassalize) Wallachia: we exchanged military access and married our heir to a wallachian princess. One could say he is very young and it will be a while until he'll be able to consume his marriage, but I was afraid that, with the incestuous history of the family, he will produce an idiot heir with one of his many cousins (female cousins that is). And I don't want this royal family growing into onother bunch of inbreeds. The Habsburgs are more then enough for Europe already..
So, I was telling you about Wallachia. Well, Wallachia got DOW by Transylvania, which was allied with Hungary, which occupied the entire country. Curiously though, they accepted peace with the walachians for just a few talers. I quickly offered the wallachians an alliance which they gladly accepted.
In august 1412 I noticed that the Ottomans are in war with both Castille and Venice, among others. I send my fleet to explore their provinces, only to stumble into a big navy battle in the Sea of Marmara.

With the Turkish fleet out of the picture and two of their european provinces being already under siege, with my mission concerning one of their provinces and with no serious ottoman army in Europe – it can be only war. But to get to war, I need a DOW and for a DOW I need a diplomat.

This was only a short delay. Then came another one, this time because of the truce I had with them from the previous war, truce that had yet to expire. Still, the beginning of December, saw de declaration of war on the ottomans.
But about the Ottoman War, in my next chapter.

I'm sorry for the quality of my screenshots, but I didn't save any of the first ones in file format, i've just copied them directly in a *.doc file. From here I had to make a *.jpeg file for each picture, so I could upload them on Image Shack, ergo the quality isn't quite what I wanted. For the following updates though, I will take care of this problem.
For the Moderator"s: if it is possible, can you move the "Contents" post at the beginning of the topic? Thanks.

@thebigboss-89 - There are a few Moldavia AAR's, but I don't think there is a completed one.
@Tudyboss - Mersi
@TonyJoe - Thanks. My next post will by just about that: survival.
@MarkusH - I had no choice but to give up Cherson, otherwise the Horde would have been all over me. I'm not in a such hurry to form Romania, it want give me such big bonuses

Tomorrow a will post a new update.

It's been almost a hundred years since the ottomans are the growing power of the Balkans. The greeks, serbs, bulgarians and wallachians, all had to bow their heads to the crescent's power and in the last war the turks tried to beat us into submission. But they should've known better: no one can bully a country that has an auroch bull on it's shield!!

Our entire army of 4000 men headed towards Silistria. Poland and Walachiah honored their alliance and joined my war, while Serbia, Bosnia, Marocco and the Jalayrids helped the Ottomans. With 1K of my soldiers besieging Silistria, the other 3K were hunting down the fresh troops that the Ottomans were recruiting in their European provinces.
In May 1413 I reached level 4 in Government Tech, that means our first National Ideea; I choose Military Drill for the +1 Morale.
In august Silistria fell to our troops, Bulgaria, Burgas and Nis were also under siege and there were no more Turkish soldiers in Europe.

The war drags on, Poland and Lithuania eventually went out of it with a white peace, as did Castille and Venice. I paid Marocco (and their fleet) 15 talers so they get out of the war and made a white peace with Morea and Jalayrids, so by 1420 it's just me against the Ottomans and their vassals – Bosnia and Serbia. The turks also have their own private party with the Timurids.
I didn't offer peace, I decided to wait, let the Timurids make the first move; which they did, asking the turks to end the vassalization of both Bosnia and Serbia. Then, I stepped in, and promptly vassalled the two kingdoms.
With Serbia and Bosnia out, it was time for peace with the Ottomans. But it seemed that peace was not what they wanted. Not on my terms, anyway. (I had an 83 war score on them and they didn't want to give me provinces I was interested in, provinces that counted for about 60 warpoints; they would've said now even to a 30 points peace offer). So I decided to play dirty (after all, all is fair in love and war): I offered them peace asking for Burgas and Silistria, about 30 warpoints. They refused. Twice. But because of the difference between the warscore and my offer's value, they took a one point stability hit. Also twice. After that, I've just waited. And it didn't take long for them to come to their senses:

I accepted their offer, won the war and the peace. And with it, for new provinces, all of them orthodox; with them Moldavia can now support 16 regiments instead of 4 and a larger fleet.

So we are no longer that weak kid (we still are green though) we were twenty years ago. Oh, no. We grew up a little. Even have some vassals of our own: Bosnia and Serbia, united in their allegiance to Moldavia. And when two south-slavic countries unite, they will form Yugoslavia, right? Wrong!

As I've told you, Hungary annexed Transylvania and with it, the core I have in... well, Transylvania (I know, I'm being repetitive here but is not my fault that the country bears the same name as the province). Now, I have to go to war against them soon, or I'll lose my core (this will happen in December 1454) and I don't want that. But now is no time for war. Now I will relax, enjoy peace and improve my realm.
With all those magistrates invested in cultural tradition, I was able employ some greater "Great Men": a level 5 Master of Mint to decrease my inflation (-0,10 inflation) and a level 6 Natural Scientist (+18 talers invested in Production). My treasurer died, so the two mentioned above will be what I'll have to do with for a while.
I tried to vassalize Wallachia, but they refused my first attempt. And there was no time for a second one, because they got DOW and then annexed by Hungary. Idiots!! That will teach them. They could have been my vassals but they "choose" to be just another two provinces of Hungary; which, by the way, now has two provinces with my cores on them. This makes me think that they are really asking for it. But still not the time for war.
In may 1430 I received a "call of arms" from my friends in Poland against Pommerania. The time for war had came, so, I said "yes" and I started collecting war taxes; but this will be a phoney war, since I had no intention of actively being a part of it. My vassal Bosnia though, took this conflict very personally and got very much involved. They even sent troops in the very far north and started a siege in Stettin. Which they conquered. For me. The pommeranians (how do you called the people of Pommerania anyway?) must have got really frightened by the people of the south, for they quickly change their minds after the fall of Stettin: when before they were offering peace asking for money, after, they were very happy to give me Stetin just to call my Bosnian minions home. I accepted, so, out of nothing, I got a new province at the Baltic. We can almost see Santa's home from here. Now this is the kind of war I like!!!
I'll have to hire a few scribes to redraw all Modavia's maps though. Those poor kids in Geography class; they will break their necks looking for Stetin on the new map of Moldavia.

@ all: Thanks. Stetin is indeed part of HRE, but, as generalolaf sad, I can remove it with just one magistrate
@ MrQwerty: I'm not very mutch interested in Byzantium's provinces. As long as they stay in my alliance, is OK. Maybe I'll be able make them my vassals.