Not Fade Away … A Breton AAR for Magna Mundi Gold 2

[zstrif]

Originally Posted by glengarry leads

your plan seems quite sensible, but perhaps i have not mentioned the little matter of the size-seven fort sitting on Orleans...

seven!? how the bexenu did that happen?

[Zlovie]

well, mmg2 takes in consideration the difficulty a countryside can give when trying to conquer a province. And thus a lot of the provinces in Europe have at least a lvl 3/4 fort. Malta and rhodes for example have lvl 7 i believe. Don't know why orleans has such a large fort size, cause I don't know the area there.

great aar by the way...

[ubik]

Originally Posted by zstrif

seven!? how the bexenu did that happen?

Fort levels are totally different now. You can have a teorical maximum of Fort level 21. At game start, you can expect most of the fortresses to be level 2-3. A capital has the royal guard building that gives a bonus of 1 fort level. THere are also the old defensive position modifier that gives one fort level and the legendary fortress that adds another three levels.

The standard six forts now grant a maximum of 16 fort levels.

Any settled province has immediately fort level 1.



Building the higher level fortresses is *expensive*, however. Unless you are filthy rich, don't expect to max your fortresses. It takes 4400 gold to do so (per province).

[zstrif]

Hmm, I am quite familiar with MMG2's system, but I still think it's weird the AI has a level 3 fort on Orleans, given that around this time, most places will still be level 1, if not mayyyybe level 2. In any case, there's a level seven fort. Looks like artillery and a leader with good siege and maneuver would be a prerequisite to tackling that beast...

[glengarry leads]

Off the Normandy Coast, August 1536

General Deniel de Beaudiez received the orders from Nantes with a mixture of dismay and childish excitement. “At last, a real war!” he exclaimed to his subordinates.

As a soldier of Bretagne’s standing regiments in Flanders, Beaudiez had spent the last decade infrequently putting down Dutch rebellions, and frequently worrying about the massive Austrian army that frequently was quartered in Brabant.

How many of these men remember a proper fight, Iain wondered. He didn’t doubt the Breton will to battle, and their training and equipment, at least were at least, were well looked after. But he wondered at the policy of recruiting Catholic Dutchmen into the regiments, especially now that they were to sail and fight the notorious Papist, the Duc d’Orleans.

The general brought 5,000 men back from Flanders and took command of half again as many freshly-mustered Breton soldiers, and crossed the border into the Duchy of Normandy. Duke Francois V had refused to recognize the treaty surrendering the province to Orleans, and vowed to restore Protestants’ rights.

In six months’ hard fighting, the general dispersed the tired Orleannais regiments, the duke’s mercenaries having already departed for Italy. With the province of Normandy under Breton control, Francois rode from Nantes to join the commander at Alencon, not far from the narrow frontier with Orleans.

“Is there any word from Orleans?” Beaudiez asked.

“Our diplomat has not secured the Duke’s withdrawal of claim on Normandy,” Francois replied. “We’re going to have to push on into Orleans.”

Months later, the Breton regiments had made very little headway at driving the Catholic soldiers from their defensive positions, and the attrition of fielding an army in such a hostile land was taxing Bretagne’s manpower to the limit. But Normandy was freed, and the old duke’s son had survived the occupation by staying with the refugees at Mont St. Michel. The heir had signed a law granting religious rights to both Protestants and Catholics, then asked Francois to be absorbed into the Breton crown.

The Duc d’Orleans, facing the reality that his dream of controlling Normandy was broken, finally relented and signed peace with Bretagne. The support he expected from other Catholic monarchs never materialized.

Francois V and Charles X reunited finally at Mont St. Michel on the anniversary of Jean’s death, at Mont St. Michel, to put into writing the alliance that all Europe already knew to be in effect. It was a grand occasion, and the Norman Protestants had great plans to turn the old monastery into a great center of learning. The two were alone, watching the sun set across the bay.

“Tell me, brother, the truth. Do you really believe our father died of a wasp’s sting?” Francois asked.

“I saw the mark on his neck myself, Francois. The groundsmen found him in the hedge maze, he could have been there for hours, no one is sure.” Charles looked down, striken. “He swallowed his own tongue, Francois.”

“Is this even possible?”

“My most learned doctors took great pains to tell me that it was. The way some men are allergic to cats, or you, with the down feathered beds, only much worse… and you know how awful the pests got during the summers at Saint-Germain.”

“The Lord works in mysterious ways,” Francois V said, crossing himself and watching the sun.

[stnylan]

I continue to be very interested by the religious progress of Brittany.

So, Francois recognised - what effect does that have?

[Fabolous]

Go Brittany! I've been following this AAR the whole time but I realized I hadn't posted to say how much I am enjoying this AAR...

Originally Posted by stnylan

So, Francois recognised - what effect does that have?

No tons of rebels from nobles opposing the new king. And I believe there are other effects to an unrecognized king, like trade penalties.

[germanpeon]

Nice! New lands and a recognized king.

[glengarry leads]

stnylan: yeah, it clears flags you may have accumulated under regency (frequently) or post-death of monarch (infrequently) ... nice mechanic.
fabolous: thx and welcome aboard. oh, erm... Gainesville, really? fancy that. I'm sitting in Rinker Hall at this very moment.
germanpeon: yeah, i haven't added new territory in, cripes, two decades... it's not going to get any easier, either, unless i can get some colonial action brewing...

gameplay notes: so the personal union carried over one monarch but not two... not sure what dice-rolling EU3 is doing behind the scenes to represent that, but I am grateful to come out of it in one piece... of course, it means my oh-so-valuable alliance with France was out the window, temporarily. which gave me a window to take Normandie... the timing was perfect really, they annexed it about the day my monarch died, so it was about three months later (morale, recruiting) before I moved in... Normandie *was* easy to get but i was getting NOWHERE fast on Orleans... was ready to spam mercenaries at the walls but offered the peace on the off-chance they would take it and was happily surprised to see they did. maybe war exhaustion was higher than i thought, i never checked... big financial push to advance army tech (which had gotten a bit behind) and fortress up Vlaandern as much as possible.

[Enewald]

another great update... but shame that the good old king died to young... but maybe his sons will provide peave and properity...
Next goal is Maine.
And Anjou...

[glengarry leads]

Nantes, Bretagne. December 1548

Gilles de Rohan threw a black cape over his black suit and huddled his way out the front door into the snowy Sunday morning. It was December 20, 1548, in Nantes, and the educator was bound for the hillside cemetery reserved for Bretagne’s great men, to there see the great administrator Mathurin du Plessy put into the ground.

Gilles de Rohan, the Royal Tutor

Gilles’ boots clacked on the new cobblestone road that wound out of the city centre and up into the bluffs overlooking the river. So strange that this wild terrain suddenly be in vogue for the wealthy class, Gilles thought. He passed the modest country homes with their stone gates and fences, made to resemble the great dolmen and menhir that dotted the old Bretagne countryside, left by whom, only God knew.

A few hours later, a procession would leave the Cathedral de Saint Peter et Paul and make their way to the cemetery, but Duke Francois V had asked Gilles to arrange affairs at the plot. So Gilles ambled into the cemetery and ascertained that, yes, the grave was dug, and yes, the Irish gravediggers had retreated to their shacks, and yes, the flowers, brought from Portugal in the winter at great cost, no doubt, were just so.

Sitting on a low stone fence to await the funeral, Gilles watched a barrel-laden barge floating downriver toward the coastal docks. The great engine of Breton commerce does not stop, even in Winter, even for the Lord’s Day, Gilles thought. He scanned names in the cemetery for ones he recognized; no Dukes or nobles, but everyone else of import was here… there a clutch of de Pontbriands, there a Kergullen, de Penguem. There’s Pier du Tonquedoc. What of Bretagne would that great man recognize?

The Catholic Church, a tolerated minority in Bretagne, a vital majority in the Dutch provinces Pier had worked so hard to maintain and integrate. The dizzying array of competing sects of churches formed then splintered in the wake of Martin Luther’s great Reformation. Mostly, people got along, but foreigners were hard-pressed to understand the shifting landscape of Breton religion. Let alone the creeping influence of the Huguenot French church, which venerated Jean III, as the next-best thing to Jesus himself. Martyred before his time by a wasp, Gilles thought wryly.

Flanders was the great hub of European commerce, and Bretagne had profited mightily by controlling it, though on more than one occasion, force had been required to maintain that grip. Even though they are granted greater freedom than any other men of Europe, Gilles thought. Still, the Dutch were gifted traders, manufacturers, thinkers. Gilles’ own students learned Dutch right alongside French, without exception.

Fifteen years of unbroken peace… and a decade before that. Some feared a war with Spain, others with the Austrians who sat still on the throne of the Holy Roman Empire… but those sorts of men had spent an entire lifetime fearing those wars, and still they had not materialized. Above all, Bretagne was growing fat and happy…

… But perhaps, too fat, Gilles thought, as the first elements of du Plessy’s funeral procession labored into view downhill.



The service was solemn, simple and brief, as befitted the great chill. The assembled crowd made its way back down to Nantes in fits and starts. The duke, as was his custom, discouraged any sort of ‘entourage’ and barely tolerated the need for guardsmen, so few men were crass enough to loiter and seek audience. But Francois had bid Gilles to wait for him, and so Gilles did, as Francois pensively toured the graves.

“At least the walk after these affairs is always downhill, eh Gilles?” Francois called out.

“A fine tradition, my lord!”

“How goes the schooling of my heirs? They never have bad news to divulge at table,” the duke continued.

“Master Jean is as studious as ever, but Artur can be difficult, as I am sure you are aware,” Gilles said.

“And the schools you are establishing…”

“There are no shortage of merchants’ children who can afford a serious education,” Gilles replied. “I’m just trying to cull the ranks of charlatans and fools posing as men of learning.”

Gilles and Duke Francois were both in fine health and soon caught up to the slower members of the funeral party, including Admiral de Dol and his attaché, trying to help the older man down the path as best he could.

“Good of you to come up on foot, Admiral! No one would have thought ill of you to arrive via carriage.”

The admiral answered the duke’s playful words with a scolding wave. “You’ll never appreciate how much you owe that man,” Mikael said, gesturing back up the hill.

“My father said just as much, fifteen years ago, and I heeded his words, just as I do yours,” the duke replied. “Tell me, how goes the admiralty’s latest research into long-range sea journeys?”

“Slow, as always, my lord. With so little help from our French counterparts, I’ve lately resorted to recruiting spies amongst the ranks of French sailors, but all navigational information is closely guarded indeed.”

“To hear the English tell it, there is but one great continent across the sea, one could hardly fail to make landfall if one headed due west,” Gilles de Rohan suggested.

“It’s the return voyage that’s the problem. We’re pretty certain we know how far away this ‘New World’ is, but I don’t believe our ships can weather the voyage there and back,” the admiral said. “And we don’t know what kind of settlements the French and English have made, and it’s not certain that they would assist us, even if we could find their colonies.”

“What of these Indian Men who are said to live there? I have heard tell that the English have brought some back from overseas?” the duke asked.

“Furious primitives, all, and certainly no use for repairing boats… but I’ll have your route to the New World before I die,” Admiral de Dol vowed. “And then you can carry me up this hill, but not before!”

[Fulcrumvale]

Three Cheers for Mikael de Dol!

[Enewald]

Hurray! Westwaards shall you sail, and hopefully come back.

[stnylan]

Westward Ho!

But spreading your wings does seem to be a good idea.

[rcduggan]

Very nice.. Brittany will look to the west, and hopefully establish some lasting colonies.

[Steckie]

It seems that this AAR has gone a bit silent.
Can we perhaps expect an update soon or did Glengarry Leads abandon it?

[rcduggan]

Originally Posted by Steckie

It seems that this AAR has gone a bit silent.
Can we perhaps expect an update soon or Glengarry Leads abandon it?

It's only been a month, it is not necessarily abandoned. I too have been hoping for a continuation.

[glengarry leads]

i have a couple more chapters written, but the game is abandoned. I needed to take a break from EU3 and gaming in general for a while. I will try and cobble some pix together and post the rest of what i'd written in the next few days. the real issue is: I hit that 'nothing happens for 50 years' stage of the game... and couldnt figure out how to write it.

[dharper]

Originally Posted by glengarry leads

i have a couple more chapters written, but the game is abandoned. I needed to take a break from EU3 and gaming in general for a while. I will try and cobble some pix together and post the rest of what i'd written in the next few days. the real issue is: I hit that 'nothing happens for 50 years' stage of the game... and couldnt figure out how to write it.

One option would be to start a new chapter after those 50 years - you see this in novels all the time, although not usually for quite so long. "Days passed into weeks, weeks into months, months into years, and before he knew it, George was bouncing a baby grandson on his knee. The years had been good to Brittany, and the turmoil of his youth had become a distant memory, an old man's tale to pass down to future generations such as the one on his lap that was greedily reaching for his lapel buttons with questing fingers...just then, a messenger burst into the room. 'You are recalled to the capital at once, milord!' he said, out of breath."

Another option could be to take a look at the interesting things going on in the rest of the world during this time of peace, prosperity and mind-numbing boredom for Brittany.

A third option could be to make something up, some personal story of love, betrayal and petty politics, that has no game effects but could play out over the years. You see this a lot in 'What if Spain did not rule the world', for example - it's more or less taken over the AAR part of the story and become the story.

By all means, though, feel free to skip it if nothing is stimulating the ol' juices!

[Sekenr]

Excellent AAR, thank you.