Folks,
My first AAR... It's a bit bare, for which I apologize, but my notes seem to have vanished...
I'll provide more complete stuff in the future, with some flesh.
Age of Revolution
November 13th, 1823
In 1773, The Kingdom of Prussia extended from Magduberg in the West, E. Prussia in the East, Selisia in the South and Memel in the North, encompassing some dozen provinces and the vassal of Saxony. Within three years, it had more than doubled.
My name is William Greg, and I am nine centuries removed from pure German stock. As a student of my predecessor, Voltaire, I ingratiated myself to the otherwise exclusively nationalistic Prussians and, most importantly (or perhaps of sole importance, in this still very monarchistic state), King Friedrich... Or as he would come to be known, as I would make him known, Fredrick the Great.
I am now myself as close to death as he was when I first attended court, and give myself no more than his seven years. I am now merely the Minister of Archives, a position created out of esteem for me which shall expire no doubt when I do. I've heard the snickering of loitering lieutenants, whose grandfathers were lieutenants in my armies, and I cannot blame them: my back is bent, my staff is knarled and my belly is plump.
But I was once strong, tall, broad and brilliant, my eyes burning with passion and ambition, my sword in place of my cane, my hands skilled, and without quiver. I was the Prime Minister of all Prussia, and for a time (after Fredrick) its greatest general.
It is my duty to record history, where it was once my duty to make it.
But enough of this. I became Prime Minister in 1773, and it is then that we shall begin.
1773: War In the Stale, Frozen Air
The year began cold and dreary, the streets of Berlin slick with melting snow in the day and ice at night. King Fredrick had been eying the rich and strategically advantageous Northern provinces of a beleaguered, gold-poor and shriveled Poland for several years, though squabbles with Catherine II and the Swedes had rendered any designs upon them ill-advised. Now, however, his alliance with Austria and Russia seemed firm enough, and a standing army of eighty-thousand (including some number of canon and fifteen squadrons of Calvary) gave weight to the proponents of invasion, top military advisors and ministers whom I had carefully maneuvered into a bloc of expansionists.
In late February his Highness approved of a general strategy, and ordered the requisition of firearms, horses, uniforms and provisions from landholders. 1o,ooo peasants in Brandenburg and 9,ooo in West Prussia were conscripted and marched to the frontier for defensive purposes.
A standing army of fifty-thousand infantry, some two hundred cannon and fifteen thousand Calvary, under the overall command of Fredrick himself, was split into three equal groups deployed along the Polish border.
Our actions did not go unobserved, as Polish forces were diverted from the Russian frontier. The scope of our aims, however, did.
1774: First Blood
War was declared in February, to much fanfare in Berlin and foreboding in Krakow. Even as Fredrick mounted his white horse, cheers deafening around him, and I my black one, even as the first shots were fired in Lithuania, even as we subdued and occupied three provinces within two weeks, we had no notion of what was to come.
Russia and Austria, true to their word, entered the war and, by March, had broken Polish lines along its Southern and Northern frontiers. Before the year was out, the standard of Muscovy would be raised over two Eastern provinces, and after another that of Hapsburg would let fly in the West.
The Anti-Poland Coalition had given way to a confederacy of sorts, which Sweden, Denmark, England, the Netherlands and Venice had entered by the winter of 1795. It would prove the harbringer of the bloodiest and most bizzare era in recent memory, immediately after the Treaty of Lithuania was signed in April.
Regards,
---R.
My first AAR... It's a bit bare, for which I apologize, but my notes seem to have vanished...
I'll provide more complete stuff in the future, with some flesh.
Age of Revolution
November 13th, 1823
In 1773, The Kingdom of Prussia extended from Magduberg in the West, E. Prussia in the East, Selisia in the South and Memel in the North, encompassing some dozen provinces and the vassal of Saxony. Within three years, it had more than doubled.
My name is William Greg, and I am nine centuries removed from pure German stock. As a student of my predecessor, Voltaire, I ingratiated myself to the otherwise exclusively nationalistic Prussians and, most importantly (or perhaps of sole importance, in this still very monarchistic state), King Friedrich... Or as he would come to be known, as I would make him known, Fredrick the Great.
I am now myself as close to death as he was when I first attended court, and give myself no more than his seven years. I am now merely the Minister of Archives, a position created out of esteem for me which shall expire no doubt when I do. I've heard the snickering of loitering lieutenants, whose grandfathers were lieutenants in my armies, and I cannot blame them: my back is bent, my staff is knarled and my belly is plump.
But I was once strong, tall, broad and brilliant, my eyes burning with passion and ambition, my sword in place of my cane, my hands skilled, and without quiver. I was the Prime Minister of all Prussia, and for a time (after Fredrick) its greatest general.
It is my duty to record history, where it was once my duty to make it.
But enough of this. I became Prime Minister in 1773, and it is then that we shall begin.
1773: War In the Stale, Frozen Air
The year began cold and dreary, the streets of Berlin slick with melting snow in the day and ice at night. King Fredrick had been eying the rich and strategically advantageous Northern provinces of a beleaguered, gold-poor and shriveled Poland for several years, though squabbles with Catherine II and the Swedes had rendered any designs upon them ill-advised. Now, however, his alliance with Austria and Russia seemed firm enough, and a standing army of eighty-thousand (including some number of canon and fifteen squadrons of Calvary) gave weight to the proponents of invasion, top military advisors and ministers whom I had carefully maneuvered into a bloc of expansionists.
In late February his Highness approved of a general strategy, and ordered the requisition of firearms, horses, uniforms and provisions from landholders. 1o,ooo peasants in Brandenburg and 9,ooo in West Prussia were conscripted and marched to the frontier for defensive purposes.
A standing army of fifty-thousand infantry, some two hundred cannon and fifteen thousand Calvary, under the overall command of Fredrick himself, was split into three equal groups deployed along the Polish border.
Our actions did not go unobserved, as Polish forces were diverted from the Russian frontier. The scope of our aims, however, did.
1774: First Blood
War was declared in February, to much fanfare in Berlin and foreboding in Krakow. Even as Fredrick mounted his white horse, cheers deafening around him, and I my black one, even as the first shots were fired in Lithuania, even as we subdued and occupied three provinces within two weeks, we had no notion of what was to come.
Russia and Austria, true to their word, entered the war and, by March, had broken Polish lines along its Southern and Northern frontiers. Before the year was out, the standard of Muscovy would be raised over two Eastern provinces, and after another that of Hapsburg would let fly in the West.
The Anti-Poland Coalition had given way to a confederacy of sorts, which Sweden, Denmark, England, the Netherlands and Venice had entered by the winter of 1795. It would prove the harbringer of the bloodiest and most bizzare era in recent memory, immediately after the Treaty of Lithuania was signed in April.
Regards,
---R.