First session 1399-1422
The first thing i did was moving my free trade slider to the right. I don't want to be a merchant republic forever for a few reasons:
-It gets antiquate over time
-The league is unreliable, if everybody decide that Hansa is evil they'll most likely quit the league
I will however keep it for some time, even while being full free trade, because i noticed that even normally i can keep a monopoly in my cots so it will be even easier as part of a league where i can exclude my competitors.
After the slider move, there was the race for the league, i played Hansa a bit and i know that there are a few nations like Bohemia, Lithuania or Poland that must be grabbed as quickly as possible, i was successful with Bohemia, but not with Lithuania which was grabbed by the sneaky Novgorodians, and Poland for some reasons refused to join (although most of his provinces trade through me anyway)
The extent of the league in 1404, notice the Ottoman Empire mostly trading through me
The next thing was my mission, the famous "Free shipping through the Sound", that either requires me to own the strait or to have 190 relations with whoever has the modifier (in this case Denmark).
Look at the chat, i'm having a discussion with the player, there isn't a lot of formality in it though
At first i sent a pm to the Denmark player regarding Holstein, but at that time i didn't remember about the mission, so i sent a sort of threat, i wanted to buy the province, but he refused.
This time though, he sent a threat to me to not build more than 7.000 troops. Altough i'm quite strong for having 3 provinces i still felt unconfident for his PUs, Sweden and Norway who had a fairly big fleet and army.
Luckily the crisis passed and we agreed on a sort of NAP, Non Agression Pact, and i fulfilled my mission.
The next mission was "Create a proper fleet", i canceled it and got a mission to secure 5 trade rights for some minor economy bonuses. Apparently though the game liked me, because i finished it while i was sitting to get a diplomat.:huh:
FFFUUUUUUUUUUU
Situation of Europe, poor Brandenburg...
Meanwhile i was trying to make Lübeck rich, i was rushing for trade tech 7, from the very start of the game, as there's no point in going for government (i'll get it anyway by the time i reach TT 7). One of the keys to success in rushing is hiring a collector, usually called "trade tech guy". I was comissioning a lot of paintings for the cultural tradition and in the end i got satisfied, 6 stars!
A small World War happened, because Austria wanted to take his three provinces of the infamous Our claims in Northern Italy (infamous because Austria keeps getting it everytime)
France went helping Milan and so Austria called his allies (don't remember who they were, these pesky warmongers don't deserve the attention of the superior Hanseatic League)
Good news for the league, Lithuania got out of the Novgorodian league! I didn't waste time and proposed them my league, they accepted
You can see Lübeck's apogee in value, however it didn't last long
As Lübeck's value, my income too got to the highest too...
...Only to get drastically lowered by the Ottomans who opened a COT in Thrace. This is why i don't like trade leagues.
Burgundy grew really large because of the French failure in in containing it... And Holland had to pay the price! I helped him with the war (didn't take screenies, i was kinda busy), my glorious 15.000 men marched and killed a Burgundian army of similar size, however France peaced out while we still had to siege, and Burgundy focused their attention on us, bringing 22.000 men. My army was about to be destroyed but luckily Holland peaced out and even got Gelre.
Bro tip: Let the AI assault the forts by going out of their sight, then strike when their morale is low, it's how i destroyed the Burgundian army. This tactic usually doesn't work with humans though.
Sign 10 April 1421 as an important date, because it's when i got TRADE TECH 7! (Yeah i lied first, it wasn't intentional though!)
For now that's it, i'll make a small update later in the week for my plans and the situation of the countries in Europe. Stay tuned!