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King of Men

Resident Opportunist
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Mar 14, 2002
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ynglingasaga.wordpress.com
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The Great Game continues! From 1066 to 1419 the dynasties of Europe have plotted, assassinated, and warred against each other. Victorious against Mongol and Turk alike, they now turn their sights outwards. Tempered and honed by their unending feuds, they are such a force for conquest as the world has never yet seen. If they can overcome their own differences, no nation on Earth can stand against them. But four hundred years of battle are not so easily forgotten. We have played for the dominance of a continent; now the stakes are higher. To the victor will go the dominion of the world. Let the Great Game begin!


----------------------------------------------------------------​


The Great Game is a multiplayer campaign spanning from 1066 to 1920. The Crusader Kings portion is now done, and Europa Universalis begins. We use MyMap, and no historical events or leaders, as they are rather a-historical in this alternate timeline. Herewith the AARs for our conflicts.

At this time, there are some powerful positions open in Europe, as major players have unfortunately dropped. The kingdoms of Burgundy and Castille are wealthy and powerful kingdoms, crying out for a strong leader to guide them to glory. France is a rather less powerful kingdom, but still controls the southern half of its historical area, and may well recover in skilled hands, since nobody likes Burgundy. Bohemia is small, but not yet gone.

Further south, the Kingdom of Jerusalem is large and powerful; Egypt, the Mamelukes, and Iraq not so large or powerful, but I think quite playable. Outside Europe, we could help the Timurids out a bit, there's China, and there's the Indian powers. Speak up, and grab a share in the fate of the world!

AAR proper to follow later.

EDIT, 19th April : It turns out that MyMap is just too unstable; we were unable to play with it for more than a few minutes at a time. Consequently we went back to the vanilla map, and 1419.

On the plus side, we did fill some positions; Castille and Burgundy are no longer available. France still exists, but is reduced to control of Paris alone. Englad will need to be considerably pruned to maintain the balance of power there, and France may yet recover, but not by its own efforts. Jerusalem and Egypt remain open, though they cannot be considered very major powers; still, with opportunities to expand into Africa and the Indian Ocean, they could easily develop into considerable players.

Further update, April 29th : Jerusalem is now played, and has absorbed most of Egypt. France remains a two-province minor, though several major Powers have expressed their intent to restore it to its former glory. Outside Europe, a Japan or Bengal player could certainly request some buffs, as we need to keep an expansive China in check.
 
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*subscribes*
 
Hoorah! A question king of men...Did you do the rebel thing as I suggested? Or if not, what handicaps have befallen the European powers, so they wont dominate extremely quickly? I must say, that puting on handicaps each time, you reach a new game is extremly important. I find it far more interesting and satisfying to at the end of each game, you have an empire but not one spanning all of Europe. If no handicaps (signifigant ones) are implaced by the time we reach 1800 I fear that is what will happen! Well...mabey not in Europe, but in the world. Either way, I hope you handicaped the major powers to at least an extent!

When will you post the first Chapter?
 
Well, it turns out that vassals get quite rebellious when you start without an army and they outnumber you. All the major powers are dealing with a bit of a breakaway tendency. Also, this is MyMap, so the Asian powers are not quite as short-changed in provinces as they are in vanilla. Finally, I for one am going to be colonising with a wary eye across the Baltic.

We're also looking for new players to take on China and the Timurids (suitably strengthened), in the hope of not having Asia be complete cannon fodder. China, incidentally, can be deadly in Vicky. Egypt and the Mamelukes are also open, and could come to dominate Africa in short order - lots of room for expansion there.

As for the update, patience, I'm working on it. Short session today, we only got ten years.
 
At long last! Will follow this, definitely.
 
OK. EU2 really doesn't lend itself to the saga style I used for CK. I've been experimenting with various narratives, but none of them seem likely to be scaleable to a full 400 years; and I hate running out of ideas partway through. So I'll split the AAR into two kinds of text : Narrative, where I just explain what I'm doing and why; and flavour - extracts from chronicles, poetry, scenes from the court, whatever takes my fancy. I'll separate them by having flavour in italics.

--------------------------------------​

The flow of time is a great river, which carries all life with it on its way to the ocean whence it came. It is a journey unmarked by signposts, its stages imperceptible to those who sail its flow. But though the years are long, still they come at last to their end. The time of sagas and heroes is done; their bright swords and mighty deeds glide slowly away, however much they resonate in our hearts.

But if the laughter of gods and giants no longer resounds in the lives of kings, still the affairs of nations must continue in their course. And although ours is an age not of sun-gleaming steel but of paper and gold, it is the only age we have to call our own. So I set down the chronicle of these leaden years, for the instruction of the sons of Yngling. For it is no longer enough that our scions be brave and honourable men; in a time where steel no longer rules supreme, we must also strive for wisdom.

And that, too, is worth a saga.


--------------------------------------​

My first task is to build an army to dissuade my vassals from decamping. The wealth I've built up in CK, around 250 ducats, goes out quite swiftly; in addition to 20000 men and some ships to move them about (in MyMap, there is no strait between Skåne and Sjælland), I need to build some tax collectors. Decisions, decisions...

Iceland, Novgorod and the Livonian Order break away, but it could be worse; Trav down in Italy apparently didn't realise he needed an army quick-like, and had to deal with most of Italy breaking off. I don't really care about Iceland; it has a population of 500, and since I have a shield on it I can snap it up whenever. Novgorod, in this scenario, owns two completely useless provinces in Russia, surrounded by my vassals, so I'm inclined to let them go for now. Later on, however, my vassal Wurzburg (which somehow ended up in Russia, about where Muscovy would otherwise be) saves me trouble by DOWing them, the upshot of which is that Novgorod now controls one completely useless province, and has no money. As for Livonia, I didn't notice their defection for a while, and Sterkarm (Poland) got there first, the bastard.

Meanwhile, I've been gathering my more important vassals into an alliance; Denmark, Sweden, Wurzburg, and Finland between them have the bulk of my CK possessions, and now that my army is ready seem happy to stay with me. I'm a little less happy with Denmark DOWing Holstein, also my vassal, but what can I do? Annex 'em, is what, and solve the problem for good.

Whatever money I can spare from armies goes into tax collectors, with excellent results : My yearly income goes from 37 in 1419, to 166 by the end of the period, when I've got tax collectors all over Scandinavia and in most of Germany. With that amount of income, I'm thinking I should use my newfound Infra 2 and build my first manufactory. However, this is the moment that my esteemed vassal Wurzburg, already at war with Muscovy (a former Polish vassal, which I have no access to, or the war would be much shorter) chooses to declare war on Poland. Thank you kindly, Wurzburg.

Actually, if the truth were told, I'm not so displeased as all that. I would need to deal with Poland at some point anyway; it might as well be now, with my navy able to dominate the Baltic (Sterk hasn't built one yet) and our armies not too uneven. Also, I have two good generals - one of them with siege 1 - and an admiral. And, with no Burgundy player and both England and Hungary dealing with rebellious vassals, there'll never be a better time to really settle, mano a mano, who is boss of the Baltic.

Europe in 1428 :
Europe1428_2.jpg

The black lines show the borders between empires. Note that the southern half of Italy no longer swears allegiance to Traveller; Egypt and Morocco are independent, as is Iraq. Also, Ireland is aflame with rebellion.

As you can see, Poland is a rather impressive sort of empire; even so, that green in Germany is split into a lot of provinces, so it's a source of more wealth than its size might indicate. One of my longer-term goals will be to build up my position in Germany, absorbing as much as I can of Bohemia and pushing back Burgundy to our old Weser border or beyond. For now, though, my goal is more modest : Beat Poland soundly, and regain Novgorod and Ingria, thereby restoring my land border with my vassal-ally Wurzburg. It is a fairly powerful and aggressive nation, and it would really be a pity if it gained independence, after all my efforts to build a strong position in Russia. Of course, Novgorod is a COT, and has been a bone of contention between me and Sterk for centuries; it'll require a major defeat, indeed, for Sterk to hand it over. It should be an interesting war.

--------------------------------------​

This is Norway : Stark mountains, unadorned by any softening
green. Houses sheltering in deep valleys. Fields scrabbled out of thin
earth. And always the sea, source of life and death alike. There are
few men in Norway who do not go to sea; and there are many who never
return from it.

This is Norway : Tall, powerful men. Long-limbed, gold-haired
women. Children who learn quickly how to handle sword or spear, and to
face a storm undaunted.

This is Norway : A realm stretching from Iceland to the Urals, from
the arctic North to the plains of Germany. It is a kingdom forged in
battle, its borders uncertain lands of raid and counter-raid. The long
shadow of the dragon ships is woven into the cloth of its banners, and
the terror of Norse fury goes before its armies.

This is Norway : A land without slaves, where no man can be held in
bondage if he is willing to fight. A kingdom of freemen, whose least
farmer has the right to be heard at Ting, and will defend the right
with his life.
 
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Looks quite messy, the map does. Jolly good update as always. I know that you probably won't agree with me here, but it would be quite interesting if Wurzburg secedes and becomes a major power. ;)
 
Good Luck with the war! I really like the long view of history, with your rivalry with Sterkarm carrying on into EU! I suggest some 15th-16th century chronicler or geographer as the source of your style initially. Olaus Magnus perhaps? Or Biørn Jonsen paa Skarsaa, who would give a distinctly "nordic" 16th century style to your narrative (http://base.kb.dk/pls/hsk_web/hsk_vis.forside?p_hs_loebenr=31)

Where is your capital? Do you have any COTs? Can we get a closer look at the realm? A save file?
 
Was quite scared when I didn't notice it at all, on the first page... so bump. And I join the above questions.
 
Update will follow sometime today or tomorrow, but to quickly answer the questions : My capital is Bergen, which is as it should be. Sjælland is a COT. I'll show some more detailed maps. You can dl the save here., though it won't run in vanilla - you need to get MyMap, and remove the leader.xxx files from the Leader folder.
 
Bah, some kind of one-day bug (anyway I hope it is one-day) has struck me down, and also I need to do my taxes. Those damn forms, not to mention figuring out whether I am resident or not (well, I was here all year, but I'm on an F-1 visa so I'm exempt from the Substantial Presence test... I think :confused: :wacko: ) have rather deadened my inspiration. :(
 
Eh. First I'd need to get them to apply Full Citizenship to me, which I don't want to do anyway since I'm happy with the citiszenship I've got. But seriously, they could learn something from the Norwegian tax forms. You only have to fill out one!
 
Actually, nowadays you don't have to fill in any over here, it's sent to you finished, you only have to send a sms to confirm it(if not something is wrong of course:p). Great stuff!:p
 
Gah, I could have sworn I posted the update this morning. I must have forgotten to hit submit, or something. Anyway, I'll post it this evening. :)

About taxes, well, you do have to fill out a form if your income is outside the country. And anyway I don't have a cellphone. Good oldfashioned Internet forms are good enough for me!
 
OK. We tried for several hours this week to play with MyMap; it was just too unstable. Every five minutes someone would crash. In the end, we just gave up, went back to the CK save, and converted to the vanilla map, restarting in 1419. Thus, the events described in my previous update, and in the one I've been writing this week, never happened. That is unfortunate, except in the sense that I now have not lost large tracts of Russia in that hellish war with Poland.

So then. Because I had written most of this anyway, I'm going to post it, but it never happened. Consider it a might-have-been for this timeline. I'll post this week's update, which will cover 1419-1428 again, fairly soon. Since this history doesn't actually exist, I won't do any screenies, I'd need to reinstall MyMap and that's too much hassle - sorry. :)

As a matter of actual fact, the campaigns in Poland were fought almost exclusively by cavalry, as is sensible for this stage of EU2. I am going to ignore this completely and write as if the armies made some kind of historical sense. Also, casualties of several tens of thousands in a few years is ridiculous. I'll stick to ordinary defeats.

--------------------------------------​

Plains north of Krakow
High summer, 1433

Terrible as an army with banners... In truth, the Norwegian host did not look very terrible to Ragnvald Yngling, banners or none. But then, he had served with these men all his adult life, ever since King Erik had begun to expand the hird into an army large enough to stand on its own, without peasant levies. He tried for a moment to see them as their enemies might : Grey wool, muddy faces tired from the day's march, smell of horse sweat and dung, the cavalry on little scrubby ponies... Not all that impressive, he conceded to himself. Still, they had fought well in the days since they'd crossed the Weser. Now Krakow itself lay ahead, its protecting levies brushed aside, and perhaps a swift end to the war.

They crested a small rise, and Ragnvald got his first sight of Krakow. At this distance, only the church towers were visible, glittering in gilt and marble. But of more immediate concern was the army that stood between him and the city. These were no local militia to be scattered with a charge. Ragnvald saw the Red Towers banner of the Krakowskie Guard, Fighting Mermaid of Warsaw, Black Bears of Novgorod - the whole strength of Poland, returned from its campaign in Russia and ready to kill him!

It was a confused sort of battle; the Poles were as unready as the Norwegians, both armies caught in marching order, not expecting to find their foes yet. Ragnvald soon lost track of the larger struggle; there was only his hundred, and killing Poles. The hot sun beat down on men yelling themselves hoarse to cover their fear. After a while, the noise faded to a white heat somewhere inside his head, as the world narrowed to the Pole in front of him, and the need to lift a ton of sword one more time.

At length he became aware that he was retreating from superior numbers more often than he was advancing; looking about, he saw that the entire Norwegian line, of which his hundred was the rightmost tip, was bending backward to form a crescent. He was given no time to try to rally others to his part of the fight; two Polish companies were riding hell-for-leather towards him, lances couched. There was nothing for it but to ride to meet them. His diminished hundred followed as he spurred forward. Time slowed; absently, he noticed the Polish banner, some nobleman's personal standard; heard their battle cry, "Wladyslaw! Wladyslaw!" and the Norwegians' answering "Til Krakow!" The lance point that sought his life seemed to move through treacle; he avoided it easily, brought his sword up to thrust into the Pole's face - and then suddenly normal motion was restored as the Pole's great charger smashed aside his smaller Finn-horse. He scrambled out of the saddle in time not to have his leg broken; then a mace came down on his helmet and the world went black.


wladyslaw.gif

Wladyslaw's banner​

He woke sick and confused. For a moment he thought he was back in his father's house in Bergen, and that his mother would bring him a brew to settle his stomach. But the hard ground below him soon penetrated the half-dream. He tried to sit up, and paid for the movement with a flood of vomit; afterwards he felt a little better, and stood up despite the desolate pounding of his head. Bodies lay strewn across the field, Norwegian and Pole intermingled in death, and their horses. Already a few bold wolves were coming out to scavenge. He shuddered in disgust, then regretted it as his abused head objected. Stumbling over his friends, searching for his army, Ragnvald walked away from the field.

Away from Krakow.

--------------------------------------​

Hamburg
Early spring, 1434

"Wladyslaw is coming!" The streets of Hamburg were filled with the rumour; it ran faster than a man could walk from the docks to the castle and back, gaining strength and detail. Wladyslaw had an army of a hundred thousand knights; no, they were only ten thousand, but each was a giant nine feet tall and had sworn never to rest until Norway was in ruins. Wladyslaw had impaled all the men taken captive outside Krakow; Wladyslaw had eaten the heart of a dragon and could breathe fire; Wladyslaw had sworn to rape every virgin in Hamburg; Wladyslaw had disguised himself as a beggar and was already inside the walls, waiting for the time to open the gate.

Ragnvald ignored the rumours; the truth was bad enough. The Norwegian host had holed up in Hamburg over the winter, straining the granaries to the utmost; rations had been cut in half, and it could only be a matter of time before the horses had to be killed. The Polish army was running wild and free through Germany, burning as it went; the rumours had that much right, it would not be a good time to be a virgin if Hamburg fell. Or any woman at all; maiden, mother, or crone, it was all the same to the Poles.

Not that there were many virgins on
this street; Ragnvald had come in search of relief from his thoughts, and there was no shortage of those willing to supply it. The whores were doing a roaring business; every surviving soldier, it seemed, wanted to celebrate his life while he still had it. The priests had stopped preaching around the Reeperbahn after the third time the soldiers had beaten someone for spoiling their fun; calves and eyes flashed, and a few daring women had cut their skirts to the knee. Ragnvald even saw one who had unbound her hair - he felt a flash of lust at this wanton abandon, but the woman was already surrounded by soldiers, and was egging them on as they bid for her favour. He headed instead for a quieter alley, where some younger and shyer girls had their beat. He had picked out a clean-looking blonde when a flash of colour from the harbour caught his eye. Gold on red, and who could afford that much gold cloth for a sail? He forgot about lust in a rush of hope. It had been long and long since he had been able to satisfy that emotion; he ran for the docks, not quite believing his quick glimpse. But his eyes had not deceived him. It really was the King's ship coming in to find a berth; and behind it followed dozens, hundreds of ships. Slender dragons filled with fighting men; tubby knarrs carrying horses and grain; carracks armed with guns; every kind of ship that plied the Baltic. And whatever their cargo, each one carried fresh hope for the Norwegian cause.

The fleet had arrived.

--------------------------------------​

Ford north of Torgau
Late April, 1434

"
GET that GOD-rotted wagon OUT of my WAY!"
The crossing was not going well. Ragnvald hoped their local guides were being hung by the thumbs over a slow fire; the ford was nowhere near large enough for an army. If he had been leading the army, he'd have retaken the fortresses of southern Germany before crossing the Oder, even if it did take the whole campaigning season. Too late now. He gave the finger to the loudmouth behind him; if he was in such a hurry, why not get down and push?

The wagon wheels finally came out of whatever they were stuck in, and Ragnvald's horse lurched forward with the release of tension; it was no work for cavalry, but what could you do? He shivered; the April air was merely brisk, but wet leather did not keep it out well. Deciding that he had done his bit to keep the army moving, he spurred ahead; if he hurried, he might have a choice of campsites and a good fire out of the wind.

His thoughts were brutally interrupted by a skirl of trumpets. He stopped on the bank of the river; the Norwegian army used lurs with a much deeper sound, and drums, but no trumpets. But there weren't supposed to be any Poles for miles around...
And this ford was supposed to be large enough for five wagons abreast! He snarled to himself. If the Poles were here in any force, this could be an utter disaster. It might just be a small scouting force, stirring up whatever trouble it could... But no. Up ahead, the banners of the hundreds that had crossed were moving about confusedly, trying to form a line; Krakow Field all over again, and God help them all if the Poles were better prepared.

There was nothing for it but to charge and hope. But, as he came out of the milling chaos around the ford, Ragnvald felt the cold sweat break out all over him. The plains were covered with Poles; carpets of marching
polak as far as the eye could see. Men enough to break the Norwegian vanguard like a twig and flood across the Oder to take the supply train. Squinting, he could see the banner at their fore.


wladyslaw.gif

Wladyslaw again!​

Wladyslaw again; Wladyslaw had stolen a march, had brought men from Russia in secret and now was poised to destroy the Norwegian army,
again. Angry frustration washed through Ragnvald. He was going to die here, still wet and cold from crossing the river, and it would do no damn good; Wladyslaw was going to kill his comrades whatever he did. He screamed, not a battle cry but a simple wordless shout of aggravation, and spurred towards the Poles. He was going to die, but first he was going to kill.

He was still shouting when he reached the Polish line. Startled, the horsemen there gave way before him, and he was in among them, slashing. Anger - at the Poles, the Oder, Wladyslaw, the fact of his death - gave him strength and speed; his sword went into some luckless
polak's face, smashing teeth out the other side, then across to drive deep into a horse's leg. A dim corner of his mind reflected that this must be the fabled berserkergang, the amok rage of his ancestors, and knew that it could not last. But most of him attended only to the savage joy of killing Poles; rejoiced in the speed and power of his body, the skill and deadliness of twenty years of practice, the chance to finally strike out at a foe he could see.

Even when the first lance entered his lung he was only dimly aware of it, cold and pressure more than pain; he whirled, sword landing on his surprised assailant's arm and snapping it like a twig. A heavy blow numbed his left shoulder, and his shield drooped. He snapped around to slam his point into the man's throat, but they were all around him now, and he was tired.
It's over, he thought, and watched dispassionately as his sword arm fell, unable to lift that weight of metal anymore; the exaltation of battle drained, and he felt only a great exhaustion, and a spreading cold from the spearhead in his lung. There was still no pain as the sword slid into his gut, only more coldness and a growing grey in his vision. He dropped his own weapon, unable to remember what he had wanted it for. Had he really wanted to kill these men? It seemed rather silly now.

He tried to draw a breath, but his collapsed lung refused; suddenly he wanted that breath more than anything in the world, even to see his home again. But his awareness of the want was brief; he was falling. And then he wasn't.

The battle was over.


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The actual course of the war is quickly told. I landed my peacetime army in Mecklenburg, marched across the Polish border, quickly crushed what the AI had left there (choosing for inscrutable reasons of its own to march north into Russia), and settled down for three sieges. At the next session, Sterk was back, and quickly gathered an army at Krakow; I abandoned a siege to meet him on even terms, but it turned out his leader was better than mine. He harried me north into Denmark, where, with reinforcements from Sjælland, I made a stand and crushed his army utterly, killing his leader. Hah! I then marched south and tried to begin again the siege of Silesia. Unfortunately, Sterk stole a march with his Russian armies, and I found myself attacking across a river, against twice my numbers led by Wladislaw. That was the end of my army and my leader, and also of my war effort, as I was out of manpower. A really classically decisive ambush - I salute Sterk for his skill. I had no idea those 60k troops even existed.

Around this time Ear intervened, or I would have accepted Sterk's rather harsh terms; my plan, then, was now to rebuild my armies (I had given up on keeping WE down) and try again in a year or so. But Sterk surprised me again; led by Wladislaw, his armies rapidly smashed Ear's incursion and took the war into Hungary. Now, with two on one, I believe we could still have worn him down eventually; but Traveller has been annoyed by Hungary's dominion over Persia since 1350 or so, and chose to intervene. His lapdog Byzantium joined him, and that was basically it. Only Ear's stubbornness let the war continue.

I eventually settled for the loss of Lausitz and the province of Wurzburg, and giving Sterk a free hand in dealing with the nation Wurzburg, on the understanding that he will free it as a vassal when it is gone from Russia. As peace treaties go, it is rather nasty, but I didn't feel I had much choice by then. My plan for the next session is to lick my wounds, build a manu (a FAA in Bergen), and plot revenge.

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Hear my tale!

I am an army,
marching in the morning,
bright with banners,
pride of my people.
Mountains behind me,
plains before;
shadows of dragons
march at my side.
Oh! Heavy is my burden.

Hear my tale!

I am an army,
fighting by noonlight;
trampling corn
under heavy heels.
Harsh are screams
of youth extinguished;
pride of their peoples
to see home no more.
Oh! Heavy is my burden.

Hear my tale!

I am an army,
vanquished at evening,
defeat the payment
of morning's pride.
Broken the banners,
broken the bodies
left at the trail
to mark my path.
Oh! Heavy is my burden.

Hear my tale!

I am an army,
my dead remembered,
vowing return
by midnight's moon.
Never forgotten,
the war continues
while men remain
to carry the fight.

Oh! Heavy is my burden.
 
Well now, not so much happened this session, so I'll just put up some maps and stuff. I built tax collectors all over the place - I'm not, not, not going to write a snippet mentioning how the King stopped taking payment in kind and started sending out bureaucrats to collect money - and my yearly income went from 31.71 in 1420 to 160.16 in 1429. A considerable increase, and very satisfying, although it did mean basically sitting about and building new tax collectors every year. Iceland and the Livonian Order broke their vassalisations, which didn't really bother me too much; much worse is the partition of what was left of France between England, Spain, and Burgundy. France is now reduced to the region around Paris. However, the thieves have fallen out among themselves, and now squabble over the corpse; Burgundian armies march through Normandie, while Spanish troops are pushing through Languedoc, driving out Burgundian garrisons as they go. At the moment England and Spain are allied against their former accomplices; that may change. Meanwhile, the other Powers of Europe are not pleased at the partition of France.

This is the Baltic in 1429. Note how my converter made Poland a large, contiguous Power; there are not that many tags in Eastern Europe for it to use. A similar effect applies to Norway, although at least Sweden and Finland were broken off as units. Hungary is quite big too, not to mention owning Persia. That one is on my foreign-policy list for, say, 1650, after Poland has been partitioned.
Europe1429.jpg


Speaking of France, here it is :
France1429.jpg


You can't see it on this scale, but most of Normandie is under siege by Burgundian armies, while the English patrol the Channel and build their armies. And the Spaniards are besieging the Burgundian holdings in the south.

Finally, here is the Middle East :
MiddleEast1429.jpg


Ye gods, Hungary looks bigger every time I look at it. OK, maybe I'll move it up to 1600. Incidentally, that blue in Azerbaijan is my vassal Finland; some weird inheritance somewhere in CK, no doubt. I don't recall arranging for that one. Frankly, the Persians can have it.
 
Very confusing - could you post a map with nation names or something?