L'État, C'est Moi - A France AAR (Veritas et Fortitudo)

Chapter V - Jihad!​

(this chapter is longer than planed because at some point 29 countries will declare separate wars on the Union. I summarised the wars as best as I could to not make the chapter too long)

The Angevin army was looking forward to a more peaceful era, given that in the last couple years several wars had been fought, but they were disappointed when the small council informed them that they had to march on Denmark. Novgorod, a loyal ally, had declared war on Finland and the the Union had promised to support the Novgorodian grand principality. A 35-ship strong fleet was positioned in the Storebaelt to prevent any Danish troops from moving between Fyn and Sjaelland. Queen Mary I was still on her trip to the colonies and so the decision rested with the small council.
46.000 Angevin soldiers were shipped to Denmark and began besieging Slevsig and Midtjylland before moving to Fyn were they engaged the trapped Danish forces.


Bohemia celebrated twenty five years under Angevin suzerainty. This increased their tax income, production efficiency and manpower. Queen Mary I planed to integrate Bohemia once all Czech provinces were returned to them - Austria was still holding some territory that rightfully belonged to the Crown of Bohemia.


A messenger with good news also arrived from Dijoin: Burgundy had completed all necessary stepts to be integrated into the Union on May 30th 1486! James Adam, administrative advisor, began finalizing plans to make Burgundy a part of the Union. (Well that's what the tooltip says - but in VeF it's not possible to annex a Burgundy vassal (unless you get lucky with the Burgundian Succession crisis event) so I will integrate Burgundy with the console once I'm at peace. I don't like using the console but I feel that after completing the integration process, which lasted over 176! years, I deserve to have Burgundy as part of my realm, or not?)


After occupying most of Denmark, Novgorod worked out a peace deal with Karl I of Denmark that gave the Union control over Midtjylland, Slesvig and Fyn. In exchange, Angevin troops promised to move northwards and support the Novgorodian armies in Finland and Norway. A couple of years later, Novgorod was still at war with Finland - despite having occupied most of Finland. Mary I had returned from the Caribbean and gave orders to sign a white peace in order to end this war.
The treaty was signed in Paris and then the Queen sent a diplomat to Burgundy to integrate the duchy into the Union (Well the console integrate Burgundy but so what..)
In Castilla La Vieja a special marriage between the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon took place. The Aragonese agreed to be ruled by the Queen of Castile. Nobody in Paris understood the Aragonese motivations "Those silly Aragonese don't know what they are doing!" said one of the members of the small council to Mary I.


Fantatic Hussites were putting pressure on the Queen and the small council to invade Judea - the true faith had to be brought to the Holy City. In order not risk a civil war she agreed and sent two conquistadors with their armies to the Angevin outpost in Rashid to conquer the Holy Land. The war was declared on July 3rd 1490. Morocco and a few other Muslim countries sided with the Mamluks. Nobody supported the Union's just cause.
Conquistador du Fournay was positively surprised when he found out that the Mamlukian army was fighting a war in Kilawa. This allowed him to lay siege on Al-Qahirah, capital of the Mamluks, without fighting a single enemy.

In Paris, Mary I was informed by newly hired administrator advisor Giacomo della Torre, who had worked as an architect in several Italian cities, that the Union had advanced enough to focus on a seventh set of ideas. To strengthen the Angevin naval dominance, Grand Fleet Ideas were chosen by the Queen.
To further improve the navy Naval Tactics I & II and Convoys I & II were researched. (Convoys II: -10% trade ship cost, +5 tariffs; Naval Tactics II: +15% Moral of Navies, +0.66 Naval Leader Maneuver)


The Crown of Castile had established multiple colonies in Brazil and La Capetie felt threatened by their Catholic settlers. Governor de Luynes proposed to strike against them before they grow larger but this not an option given that Castile was part of the anti-Angevin coalition. The small council was given the task to come up with a plan to attack Castile. Reports reached Paris that gold was found by Angevin settlers in Grao Para! Wonderful news! The Queen was delighted!
Meanwhile in Egypt, Angevin troops sacked city after city but peace was not in sight and the troops were advancing into Arabia.


Once they laid siege on Mecca, Muslim countries from all over the world issued a Jihad warning and threatened to declare war on the Union if the siege of Mecca continued. Furthermore, the Jihadists demanded that the Union settled for a white peace with the Mamluks. This offer was unacceptable. Not sacking Mecca might have been acceptable but signing a white peace after crushing the Mamluks? No way!


This was the biggest mistake in the history of the House of Capet. Twenty-nine Muslim countries declared separate Jihads on the Angevin Union. The Union was now at war with Granada, Armenia, Golden Horde, Kazan, Yemen, Oman, Najd, Tunisia, Kazahk, Khiva, Khorasan, Jalayirids, Mali, Kilwa, Adal, Brunei, Chagatai, Tibet, Bengal, Delhi, Koch, Sogdiana, Ilkhanate, Injuids, Sarbadars, Kakheti, Karakhanid, Maldive and Osman. 'Fortunately' only a few of these countries called in their allies. Less ideal was the fact that seven of them were listed in the top 10 of the countries with the largest armies in the world.

The Jihad was strange because even Tunisia, the Queen's loyal ally, declared war on the Union! Some of these countries the Queen had never heard of before. Lots of them were located on a far, far away island somewhere in Asia. Was this going to be the end of the Angevin Union? Were the Jihadists going to succeed? And all of this because of some holy city? Queen Mary I was shocked and the people in the streets were upset with her decision making. She hoped that the peasants weren't going to revolt.


As a first reaction, peace was made with the Mamluks. And no, it was no white peace like those Jihadists demanded. The Union demanded Gaza, Judea, Dumyat, Sinai and Mecca! When the Jihadists heard that the Union conquered Mecca they were outraged! At the same time, Conquistador du Fournay arrived in Mali where his army engaged 50.000 African warriors.
But these 29 wars were not the only issue that were troubling the Union - In Firenze, Girolamo Savonarola and his followers rejected the emerging humanism of the Renaissance. Pope Xystus V declared Savonarola a heretic and sought him killed. Problem for the Pope: Queen Mary I did not give a crap about what the old man in the Vatican wanted. She decided that Savorala was allowed to live in Fireneze. This hurt the technological advancements of the Union but at least Savonarala and his followers were not causing the Union any trouble (Burning him would have spawned a 35k rebellion in Fireneze and I don't have time to kill rebels right now!)


While du Fournay was pushing back the Malian forces, conquistador des Coulons led an army to Yemen and Osman. Reports said that both were very brutal and killed not only the men but also kept the women and children as hostages. (AI, are you sure you wanna Jihad me again?!) Hanseatic and Bohemian troops were fighting against the Golden Horde that managed to occupy some provinces of Mary I's subjects Novgorod-Seversk.
The war against Osman was also painful - not for the Union but for Byzantium. It became clear that Angevin soldiers were needed to protect the Byzantines from those Turkish Jihadists but all Angevin armies were currently busy fighting elsewhere.
The Union offered a number of aggressors to concede defeat and signed a couple of white peaces with others. To further offend the Jihadists, missionaries began converting the population of Judea to Hussitism.


By January 1498, the Union had made peace with 28 out of the 29 aggressors - the only country left was Oman. Better troops were needed to fight off the last few Jihadists and so the Queen hired some German military researchers that taught the Angevins a few new moves. (preferred infantry unit changed to Landsknecht Infantry)
The new Landsknecht Infantry were killers - they sacked Omani cities and defeated the last Jihadists at the battle of Muscat. Oman ceded Mahra, Dhofar and Nuzwa to the Union. All Jihadits had been defeated! A miracle - the Union triumphed in 29 simultaneous wars!
Mary I complained that all her map of the Union and the world were heavily outdated - none of them included any of the latest conquests. Anthony Duquesne, a skilled cartographer, was hired and given the task to draw new maps. He completed them by early June of 1498.


World Map
(I highly recommend you open the World Map in a new window. The map is huge and you can zoom in to see provinces in detail)


South America


Africa


To be continued...

Penguintopia said:

I'm not sure your ally should go into Jihad against you - perhaps break the alliance, but Jihad does seem a bit much. I'll have to mull over this one...

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I played and wrote this yesterday night and my first reaction on Tunisia declaring war on me was WTF. That was also my reaction to the Jihad. I expected to get crushed and to heavily lose but I actually profited from this Jihad more than any of the aggressors. The Union has now a presence in Arabia




Edit: I'm thinking about including a short tutorial on monarch/heir/regency improvement in the next chapter. Does that topic sound interesting to some of you?

GreatUberGeek said:

I'm interested in tutorials on anything, as it's been a while since I've last played VeF.

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Ok. I see if I can come up with a good tutorial on why ruler but especially heir improvement policies should be enacted.

Nice expansion in Denmark and the Mideast; have the Moslems really made any moves against you yet?

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Thanks! Well in the last chapter, 29 Muslim countries declared war on me.. So I'd say they have tried to make a move against but utterly failed.

DKM said:

You're missing the point of what I was saying. I was saying to make it like the Papal States decision to become the Kingdom of God where it ISN"T a tag change thus would keep the color of the original country.

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You are right, I seem to have misunderstood you. Probably because I'm not really familiar with the decision to form the Kingdom of God. If you say that this is a viable solution then I suggest you post this in the VeF suggestion thread

DKM said:

Okay, thanks for listening and sorry if I sounded hostile. I just reeeeeeeallllly hate the color purple.

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Well I will keep this color now for this AAR - I fear some readers might dislike it if I keep changing colors but you could always post your 'two color solution' in the VeF suggestion thread. Maybe the VeF team likes it and they'll add it in the game. Maybe they don't. Who knows

Edit- I just noticed you posted a new chapter. I'm surprised you didn't get destroyed from so many wars. Also, yes; a tutorial would be quite interesting.

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I'm surprised, too, that I won all these wars. I expected to get crushed and I was worried that this was the going to be the end of this AAR. But I won and this shows how bad the AI is. 29 AI countries should manage to beat 1 human player but they didn't..

BBBD316 said:

How the coalition didn't work out that the time to attack you was just then I will never know. Silly AI.

Still great work on the jihad.

I like the colour purple.

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It will remain a mystery how 29 AI countries have failed to defeat 1 human player :ninja:

Glad to hear that you like purple!




Edit: There will probably be no tutorial on ruler/heir education. I fear that I don't have enough screenshots to explain why enacting those policies is good and what ruler/heir education does.

The Jihadists were defeated - Mary I still couldn't believe it. Just days before peace treaty with Oman, the Queen had celebrated her 80th birthday. For over 60 years she had been ruling over the Union. During her reign, Scotland was integrated and the first Angevin colonial nations were formed. She was a strong follower of the Hussite faith and she had put pressure on missionaries to speed up their conversions of the heretic population. Many wars were fought and won, lots of provinces conquered and many ideas unlocked. She survived the Jihad and the frustrations of the peasantry. Queen Mary I had achieved more than any previous monarch of the House of Capet and she was still healthy at the age of 80!



The months that followed after the Jihad were used to integrate all the new provinces and to come up with a plan to reduce the number colonial competitors. Being at peace inspired more foreigners to move the Union, which led to more tax income. Tarbes, for instance, was a popular destination for Franconians.
Spies gathered information about colonial competitors and discovered that Norway was allied with Iceland and that neither of them were part of the anti-Angevin coalition! Both countries had colonial ambitions and so the spies immediately reported back to Mary I.
The Queen discussed their report with the small council which advised her to declare war on Norway.



Days after the first Angevin soldiers arrived on Orkney, small council member de Tournemine brought sad news to Queen Mary I. Her brother Louis was found murdered in one of the narrow streets of Paris. He believed that an English assassin was behind this given that the English had a reputation for assassinating members of the House of Capet. Sorrow overtook the Queen and she swore to take revenge. "The English will pay for this crime!" she screamed upon hearing of the death of her brother.
She chose her ten-year-old grandson Henry as the new heir to the throne.


The best theologians and scientists were hired to teach young Henry how to become an excellent monarch some day. (Heir Education Policy enacted) Mary I also designated Henry's uncle to rule in his name until he comes of age in case of her death.


Reykjavik and Akureyri were the destination of conquistador de Dampierre (Impressive siege 4 conquistador). The Icelanders tried to fight him off with every single men who was able to hold a halberd had but they nonetheless they were defeated and Iceland became a part of the Union.


Some of the realm's ore mines had depleted and so the small council tasked Toulisian merchants with importing iron to bypass this shortage. This temporarily increased the cost for new units because producing armors and weapons required lots of iron. Fortunately, the increased cost was no problem because Angevin merchants had been particular successful over the last six months. Colonial goods were in particular high demand and the Union controlled a large portion of the coffee, cocoa and sugar trade.


The war with Norway went well and led to two additional separate peaces: Prussia lost Warmia to the Union and Denmark ceded Vendyssel, Nordjylland and Lolland. This strengthened the Union's position in the Baltic. A couple of weeks later, a final treaty was signed with Norway in Dijon. The Treaty of Dijon gave the Union control over the islands Orkney, the Shetlands and Foroyar and of the province Bhuslän.


On February 5th 1503, Queen Mary I died at the age of 85 and the whole country was in shock. Young Henry was still not old enough to rule the Union and so his uncle (5/2/4) ruled in his name for a little over half a year until he turned 15. One of the first orders the regency councils gave was to integrate Novgorod-Seversk into the Union. It was estimated that this would take roughly six months.
By building granaries the local tax income of several provinces had been increased. Temples were constructed in provinces that still had to be converted to the true faith.


Grain from Limousin was said to be of very high quality and the demand for it was so high that the local farmers developed a new technique which increased the production of grain. The local administrator raised the taxes on grain which boosted the country's income.
The last order the regency council gave was to position armies in Diolo and along the Morrocan-Angevin border with the hope that Henry was going to declare a war on the Malian Empire. Henry's uncle also tried to come up with a plan to strike against the Habsburg but he saw no way to go to war with them without avoiding a coalition fight.


Henry III took matters in his own hands on December 20th, 1503. While he was a child, the King was taught in the art of war, which increased the moral of the army. His younger brother Edward ensured that the succession was safe.
The armies were in position and Henry III declared war on Mali on September 20th 1504. As excepted, Morocco honored the Malian call to arms and it paid off that Henry's uncle had positioned an army in Sibtah.


Edward was a quick learner - his training in the arts of diplomacy had paid off. The scholars said he excelled in the art of negotiations.
At the battle of Caypr, 24.000 Malian warriors were attacked by 25.000 Angevin troops under the command of conquistador de Dampierre. Half of them were slaughtered like pigs, the other half managed to escape certain death. de Dampierre had previously successfully conquered Iceland for the Union and was given the task to conquer enough provinces so that the Union could establish a colonial nation in Sahel.


The young heir was not only a good negotiator but also an excellent general. He led the troops to glorious victories in Morocco. After three years, a peace agreement was reached with Mali that gave the Union control over five Malian provinces. Morocco ceded two provinces to the Union which were released as a vassal.
Interesting news spread through Europe: Aragon rebelled against the Crown of Castile and broke free! A unification war embroiled Iberia. The Portuguese had sided with Aragon and England supported Castile.


Castile also had left the coalition against the Union and so it was time to deal with them but war was not declared for another one and a half years. Moving troops around the world took more time than anticipated.
By mid-March of 1509, everything was in place and Angevin troops assaulted Castilian and English provinces. Naples and Savoy also honored their alliance with Castile. A couple of days earlier, the colonies in Sahel had been reorganized as a colonial nation. Henry III named the colony Nouveau Paris after the Union's capital.


The war against Castile was a cake walk which was mostly because the Castilian army had been crushed before by Aragonese and Portuguese troops. It took the Union two years to reduce England to an OPM in York - The English had lost their colonies in the Americas and ceded everything but York to the Union. Naples was more difficult to beat but at after six years, they ceded Salerno and Abruzzi.
The treaty with Naples also marked the end of the war with Castile. Castile gave up its colonial possessions as well as Sevilla, Huelva, Burgos and Gibraltar. Henry III was delighted how successful is first war went.



The realm was at peace again and a cartographer finished a new map of the world on June 5th 1513.


( In 15 years, that's the time between this map and the last world map I posted, lots of things have changed:

• I'm surprised that Sweden did so horrible. They lost most of their provinces.
• The Golden Horde is a super-blob - spawning from Hungary in the east to Mongolia in the south and from Perm in the north to Persia in the south. But I think they are a paper tiger.
• Annoying HRE minors have began colonizing the Caribbean (Fryslan, Flanders)
• Serbia annexed most of the Byzantine Empire. Osman never declared war on the Byzantines to conquer Constantinople. Silly Osman!

As always, I suggest opening the world map in a new window.)

To be continued...

AKronblad said:

It's been a pleasure following the French fortunes and adventures...! Both your style of writing and the pictures that you have uploaded, these give a very positive view on what VeF is all about.

Keep up the interesting story telling!

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Thank you so much! I'm glad to hear that you enjoy reading my AAR

Penguintopia said:

I agree. This is some of the best Public Relations we could ever have....

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Rumor has it that the VeF Public Relations office is now open

Blackoberst said:

As to the colour debate:

[video=youtube;SkkIwO_X4i4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkkIwO_X4i4[/video]

Apart from that, great AAR and very interesting looking mod.

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Purple wins :happy:

Henry III starred at the world map that cartographer de la Galissoniere had given him - He felt that his empire was impressive but he also noticed that his allies Byzantium and Sweden were doing rather poorly. Both were only a shadow of former glory. Maybe they could become vassals of the Union? "Now, wouldn't that be great!" said the King to de la Galissoniere and sent diplomats to their capitals to improve relations.
King Karl VIII of Sweden and the Byzantine Basileus both showed interest in becoming vassals of the Union but some details needed to be worked out first.
The military reported that the Union's excellent grain supplies allowed the army to feed more people, which increased the manpower pool by almost 15.000 men.


Extensive lead deposits were discovered by settlers on the Bahamas. This was good news because lead was very valuable.
The Union was at peace for almost one and a half years when war was declared on the Mamluks and their allies. Henry III's intention was to connect the Angevin holdings in Arabia with Al-Iskandariyya.
Damascus, Sidon and Al-Qahirah fell quickly and in Morocco troops from Tlemcen conquered provinces after province.


Byzantine and Angevin delegations reached an agreement in Constantinople that made Byzantium officially a subject of the Union. Byzantium had lost mots of its territory to Serbia and Osman and the Union offered the Basileus protection.
Sir Thomas More, a skilled missionary and noted humanist author, became a member the small council almost six years ago. In 1516, More wrote Utopia, a book about a fictional island society and their political and religious customs.


A peace agreement was reached with Morocco: Tlemcen received control over its former capital city and the Union became owner of Mailla which henry III planed to give Tlemcen after the war. Angevin troops sacked the holy Muslim city of Medina and were surprised that no Jihad was declared on the Union. The siege of Medina lasted only 30 days.
While the Angevin armies were besieging the Mamluks, their allies plundered and occupied Kaffa!


But the Chobanids were too far away to really make an impact on the outcome of the war. On Octoebr 27th, the Mamluks accepted unconditional surrender. The terms that Henry III set were accepted and consequently the Mamluks ceded Medina, Tabouk, Negev and Al-Qahirah. A day later, Mamlila was 'sold' for the sum of 20 ducats to Henry III's subject Tlemcen.


The small council tried to convince the King that war should be declared on Serbia for two reasons. First of all, Serbia was holding over 10 Byzantine core provinces. Furthermore, Serbia was allied to the Union's fierce rivals Austria, Naples and the Papal States - three countries that had to be cut down in size. The most important reason was that going to war against Austria gave the Union finally the chance to return the Czech lands to Bohemia! Henry III was convinced by the small council's plans and war was declared once the armies were in position.


Lutheran rebels popped up everywhere - the Protestant Reformation was spreading like wildfire through Europe and the Union faced a Religious Civil War. (The Reformation seems broken to me. The Hussite Faith which I follow is a Protestant denomination so it makes little sense that so many of my provinces are converting to Protestantism. So silly..)
Religious rebells popped up everywhere . Oddly some of them were in favor of Catholicism - the religion that the Protestants despised!
Rich cities like London converted to Protetantism which greatly reduced the realm's income.


Henry III provided additional funds to convert the heretics because this Civil War came at a most unfortunate time given that the Union was embroiled in a massive war. Loans had to be taken to pay wages of soldiers, missionaries and advisors. The Union was in decline.
Good news came from Stockholm - After years of negotiations, Sweden had agreed to become a vassal of the Union. The King was delighted that the Swedish swore allegiance to him but he also knew that they wanted him to reconquer former Swedish territory from other Scandinavian countries. A diplomat explained to the Swedish delegation that these conquests were not going to happen in the next couple of months.


Naples was the first party with whom the Union signed a peace treaty: Thessaly and Aetolia were returned to the Byzantine Empire and Naples ceded Termoli and Foggia to the Union. The army in Southern Italy received orders to march on Spoleto, Papal States.
Henry III claimed the title Defender of the Hussite Faith to increase the available number of missionaries. Mecca, the holy city of Islam, was converted to Hussitism. When Sultan Murad IV heard about this he immediately entered into a military coalition against the Union. He felt greatly offended. Khan Sayid of the Golden Horde joined Murad's coalition.
The small council was surprised that Sayid entered into a military coalition against the Union. After all the Golden Horde was finally collapsing!! At least that was what the small council assumed given the fact that Horde rebels were sacking pretty much every city in Sayid's Steppe Khanate. This was the best news in years that arrived in the capital. A few new countries rose to power including Don and Georgia. Unfortunately, they all followed the Sunni faith and diplomatic relations with Sunni countries was impossible. (impossible because every Sunni country has the Jihad! attitude towards me for holding a Hussite Mecca. I can't blame them.)


A second peace treaty was signed with the Papal States. The Pope lost Spoleto, Perugia, Romagna and San Marino. Austria returned all Czech provinces to Bohemia in a fourth peace deal and in a final treaty with Serbia Bzynatium regained control over Epirus, Thrace, Kastoria, Albania, Pelagonia and Gallipoli.
Missionaries kept spreading the true faith but the their job was dangerous: Religious uprisings kept happening throughout the realm. The rebels were well-trained - a single pursing was often larger than the the entire army of Flanders and Bavaria. Sir Thomas More greatly supported the missionaries - in fact he also travelled around the country converting heretics.
(Sir Thomas More is a great person and he increases missionary strength by 3%. He's awesome.)


Bohemia had been a vassal of the Union for almost a century - 99 years to be precise - and all these years the House of Capet had tried to come up with a plan to make the Austrians return the Czech lands to its rightful owner. Some members of the military had believed that this was never going to happen since the Austrians were part of the anti-Angevin coalition. Henry III proved them wrong and told them "Lesson learned: Never give up! There is always a way to succeed."
Shortly after signing the treaty with Serbia, the King instructed the small council to complete the integration of Bohemia. The small council estimated that this was going to take over five years. "
Five years? What are five years if my ancestors had the patience to wait a hundred years to reconquer the Czech lands?! Start the integration process already, would you!" yelled Henry III at the advisor who suggested that it was not worth it to keep a diplomat busy for five years.
(Want to know my thoughts about expansion and vassal feeding in VeF and how to get almost instant cores? Open the spoiler - if not, no problem and thanks for reading!)

To be continued...