[For the Motherland: a Novgorod AAR 5.1]

[12doze12]

For the Motherland !!!

Starting year: 1399
Version: Divine Wind [5.1]
Settings: Normal
Mods: None

History : For over a hundred years Russia didn't had a leader, his provinces were fighting each other and didn't knew about the great future that that huge, pointless to some,piece of land would be one of the greatest world powers of the XX century. My objective? Merge all this brave disperssed men into one solid country as soon as possible and together aim for Europe Domination !!!


Objectives:

- Form Russia;
- Beat the crap out of the HRE or Germany;
- Don't let infamy slip too high;
- Go east and beat the Golden Horde;
- War only with casus belli or Call to Arms;
- Always try to finish Missions (no cancelling);
- No war with troops in enemy territory.


Years:

1399 What are we up to ...
1400 - 1405 A Lost Chance
1406 - 1410 Kostroma is ours !!!
1411 - 1415 Just taking back what is mine !!!
1416 - 1418 Damn you Golden Horde

[12doze12]

1399 - What are we up to ...

As I start my new game as usual my new mission pops up.



I like this mission, Muscowy is our natural rival and owns provinces needed to form Russia, our main objective.

To see what are we up against I ask for militar access to Tver and Yaroslavl. This will help me in the future when I declare war to Moscowy and also allows me to see how big is their army.



For now they only have a stack of 13 but if I wait too much they might recruit more.



Denmark, Ryazan and Poland offer me alliances and of course I can't deny them. Ryazan will help me against Moscowy and Denmark is pretty much the owner of Scandinavia.



I also buy 2 new advisors, a Production Tech Investor and a Philosopher both level 2 to add to my other advisor a Inflation Reductor also level 2.



Because I now have an Inflaction Reductor I can mint some money and don't get any inflaction at all.



I also go for Free Subjects as I want to develop my Technology faster.




1399 ends with no other special events.

Notes:
- Sorry for low quality screenshoots I guess I must find a better way to take them instead of print screen and paint
- How can I link a bit of text to a specific post ?

1400 coming soon ...

[MrQwerty]

You don't want to save your images as .JPEG; .PNG is better.

Otherwise, you seem to be off to a good start for your goals. Just be careful when fighting the Horde, since your army is quantity-oriented, and won't be great at combat.

[12doze12]

You don't want to save your images as .JPEG; .PNG is better.

Otherwise, you seem to be off to a good start for your goals. Just be careful when fighting the Horde, since your army is quantity-oriented, and won't be great at combat.

Thank you so much for the reply, I figured out how to get better quality, Paint.NET and Png.

This is my first AAR so thanks.

[homy_dog34]

Good setup. Just try not to war Muscovy and the Horde at the same time.

[Avindian]

I've got a fondness for Novgorod, so I'll follow along!

[12doze12]

Thanks for all the support, I'll try to post 1400 today but it's going to be hard.

[12doze12]

Also, good news, I just bought all the sprite packs on steam. 50% off, each costed 1€ (1.25$ I think).

I suggest everyone to get them, awesome quality and variety.

[anubisfike]

You should be setting your sliders up for westernization, free subjects is fairly negligble, especially since it increases stab costs. It's better when you're already established.

Anyway good luck with your AAR, though I suggest that you make larger updates and not an update for every year. A time span of 10 years is good, or one session.

[12doze12]

OK I might do that, also I'll do every 10 years then, every session I take is like 50 years, I just did that 1 year because I didn't had the time.

[12doze12]

1400 - 1405 A Lost Chance


1400


As our stability is low and our economy is suffering from that I invest the maximum possible in Stability




A new event comes up and so I decide to go Narrowinded, unfortantly we lose stability again




1401


Our stability increases finnaly !




Ingermanland has now Russian culture.




1402


We finnaly reach stability +3 our economy is now at max productivity




A new event comes up and as our mission is to take Kostroma we go for Offensive




I just notice I forgot an important step, send merchants to my CoT.




Our chance is here, we can finnaly take Kostroma




1403


I go for Kostroma and I start building another stack of 5. It's not much but our economy is still weak and it should be enought.




The Election comes up and I decide to get a Military candidate




They send some of their troops to recover Kostroma but their army is mostly busy with Poland and Lithuania. I easily win the battle with few casualities




1404


Just before I could ask for Kostroma, Poland, the leader of the war, declares peace. I guess Kostroma will have to wait.




A new event comes up, Holstein will lose a merchant in Novgorod while we gain one, this isn't that good as I already had 4 merchants in Novgorod




I'm worried the truce with the Golden Horde will end soon and so far they appear to be devastating everyone around




1405


Tver is now at war with Moscowy, this will weaken them even more I think




Smolensk as emerged in the map and they ask us for Military Access, why not




They ask us for an alliance now, they might help us with Moscowy.




Our economy is so weak right now that I have to disband some troops, I hope the Golden Horde doesn't messes up with us right now.




Another event comes up and I decide to gain the core in Yaroslavl, I guess that alliance will end soon.





NOTES:

- I'm happy with the images quality now, thanks;
- Kostroma will have to wait let's see what happends meanwhile;
- 1405 - 1410 is done but I still need to edit images, maybe later today.

[homy_dog34]

Remember, westernizing is something that you HAVE to do if you want to compete with Western Europe, so never go decentralized or narrowminded, even if it costs you a stability.
Also, When you joined in on Poland's war with Muscovy, you could have just declared your own war, and then accepted the call. Since you would have already been at war, you would be your own war leader.

Anyways, make sure you defund your troops if you don't want to lose money, and be prepared should the Golden Horde come to your borders.

Hope to see more of this soon!

Oh yeah, try not to get any royal marriages with countries that you might attack in the near future., such as Smolensk and Tver.

[12doze12]

Remember, westernizing is something that you HAVE to do if you want to compete with Western Europe, so never go decentralized or narrowminded, even if it costs you a stability.
Also, When you joined in on Poland's war with Muscovy, you could have just declared your own war, and then accepted the call. Since you would have already been at war, you would be your own war leader.

Anyways, make sure you defund your troops if you don't want to lose money, and be prepared should the Golden Horde come to your borders.

Hope to see more of this soon!

Oh yeah, try not to get any royal marriages with countries that you might attack in the near future., such as Smolensk and Tver.

Thank you for your advise, I'm trying to keep the biggest amount of troops possible because of the threat that is the GH.

[12doze12]

1405 - 1410 Kostroma is ours !


1406


We gained a CB on the Teutonic Order but for now we won't get into trouble with them.




1407


The Golden Horde is at war with Muscowy, this will weaken them but, is this a sign ?




1408


Our Production technology level as increased to 4, I can now build constables to improve our tax income.




1409


The Truce as come to an end and I now declare war to Muscowy.




Muscowy is so weak that as I take Kostroma and I can immediatly ask for it. Mission Accomplished !!!




As I just finished my first mission a new one comes up, this time it's Yaroslavl, a Smolensk province.




I revoque Military Access to Smolensk, I need to get rid of our good relations.




Because I have soo many Magistrates and no money to build I use commission paiting event to gain culture. I'll later use this to buy advisors.




1410


When analising the Teutonic Order I notice that there mission is to vassalize Riga so I proclaim them guarantee




As we are the owners of a trade league I decide to analyse the trade and resources map. I notice that our mission, Yaroslavl has iron and Ryazan and Kasimov have cloth which can be worth getting for trade.




I ask for Iron trade rights to Smolensk and they accept, obviusly this is just temporal as Yaroslavl soon will be ours.




To end the year I centralize, unfortantly I lose stability.




NOTES:

- Everything seems going as planned right now

[Nordhus]

Novgorod starts out paying tribute to the horde, which means they will never attack you. You can dow the horde whenever you think you are ready, but until then just ignore them.

Oh yeah, try not to get any royal marriages with countries that you might attack in the near future., such as Smolensk and Tver.

No royal marriages for merchant republics like Novgorod.

[homy_dog34]

No royal marriages for merchant republics like Novgorod.

Well herp derp, now I look like a fool(with my pants on the ground). Thanks for correcting me.

Anyways, looks good for Novgorod. Keep on doing good!

[12doze12]

Thanks, so far so good.

[12doze12]

1411 - 1415 Just taking back what is mine !


1411


Our next mission is to take Yaroslavl so first I need to get rid of our alliance with Smolensk.




I then declare war to Smolensk and I decide not to do a call to arms, I could lose some alliances in the progress and I don't feel like I need help.




Our Stability as also increased to +3




A Smolensk stack goes for Kostroma and I send a bigger stack there to fight them.




To my surprise we lose ... I guess our army quality is very low




A new election comes up and I go for a the Military Candidate, I'm lucky that's probably one of the best rulers I've seen in a while




I send a bigger army to take care of them.




1412


I now control almost all their provinces.




I sue for peace and they accept to give me Yaroslavl




A new mission comes up, this time I must vassalize Pskov, easy I guess.




I decide to now invest all in Land Tech, we sure need to improve it.




I lower our relations with Pskov to don't suffer stability lost with an insult




1413


I declare war to Pskov, Moldavia and Tver are their allies, not a problem




Pskov goes for Neva and I pursue them.




I am know occupying all their territories, Moldavia didn't join the fight.




1414


A new event comes up and Vladimir is now our core.




I ask for peace with Tver and I ask them to join our league, I vassalize Pskov and the new mission comes up, vassalize Nizhny Novgorod, a just emerged country




Karelia is also now self-sustaine, I didn't knew we had colonies , that explains our weak economy




1415


I build a constable in Novgorod, this will increase our income




I send a missionar to Karelia, Infidels !!!




The Hansa embargoed us, why ?




The new election comes up and I go for the Bureaucrat candidate




NOTES:

- We are starting to be a threat to eveyone around us;
- Our technology is very "late", we got to do something;
- The Hansa is not going to stay laughting forever.

[homy_dog34]

Well done. Keep up the good stuff!

[12doze12]

1416 - 1418 Damn you Golden Horde!


1416


Our land tech improved I hope this will make a difference against regional powers.




Another event comes up and I decide to go for Innovative, even with the stability loss




Smolensk stops providing us with Iron trade rights, who cares, Yaroslavl got's Iron.




Mission failed, the Golden Horde got Nizhny Novgorod, DAMN GH !!!

The new mission comes up, this time is Tver, looks easy.




1417


I decide to build an armory in Novgorod, this will boost our army build a little




Our Truce will Tver will end soon, we will be ready.




1418


I decide to Expand the Bureaucracy to gain more Magistrates, our economy is growing!




Another event, more production !!!




NOTES:

- Sorry for only 3 years, I busy right now but I will try to post at least one session each day;
- I can promise, the next years will be very epic