Ragusa: Jewel of the Adriatic

I have no plans with this AAR. Don't know where it's going to go. I expect ... bankruptcy.

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to avoid bankruptcy. annexing Montenegro has sapped our frindly realtions with everyone and Savoy is now our worst enemy. A carack will cost 45 of my 81 ducats. An admiral might be advisable to fight the single ship fleets that Savoy will send. The only country I could fight who might pay off several loans in the Ottoman empire and they're too strong and Savoy's still on Doge Vucic's back. There's no guarantee that Bosnia and Albania would support that war.

No sign of the large Hungarian armies that would be needed to tie the Turks down. Still, Ragusa is now the 14th most powerful country and let's not forget, a two-province minor minow.

Throne, Colonel Bran, Enewald, Demon1, Babington-Smyth, Imarboman, humancalculator, CatKnight, thebigboss-89, r6mile and Treppe, thanks for your comments. This AAR was a promise that I as soon as I could play EU3, I'd play Ragusa. I thought about Crete, but I've got a Rome game going as that country.

Taking Montenegro was, I think, the easy part. Savoy is an intractable enemy.

Other wars onclude Austria and Portugal fighting Venice (The Poles and Lithuanians came too late as allies), Modena,Naxos and Cyprus are fighting Morean and Athens, The Turks are at war with Hungary and Transylvaniaand have eaten Serbia for breakfast.

All of Urbino's neighours have piled in against her.

Georgia and Trebizond are fighting the Ak Koyunlu, Dulkadir and Candar and are doing quite well.

2nd March 1454

Doge Demetrio Vucic's study

The Doge was furious. How dare the Savoyards meddle in Balkan affairs? They had no right to be assisting Montenegro. They were now Ragusa most bitter foe.

Doge Vucic wondered what turn of fate, what irony had driven Gennadios Scholarios that champion of Orthodoxy and possible betrayer of Byzantium to put his missionary talents in the hands of a man like Vjecce the Flatulent in the service of Catholicism. The Doge couldn't even remember the name of the man he'd hired to spread Ragusa's fame far and wide.

Fame and prestige did not hire troops or pay the bills. Vjecce had left an impending bankruptcy and, according to the Treasurer, many bankruptcies until Vucic could expand the state or its revenues.

In all the posible scenarios his advisors had planned, Ragusa could nt avoid going bust. Ragusa could not afford to fight a war, relying on mercenaries, because they'd all desert the moment a defecit happened and then another loan would kick in. The Turks had too many troops. It was Vucic's instinct to tackle the Ottoman now before he grew too big to sit on. Worse was that fleets deployed to protect said coast from troops landing could not now be stopped by deploying in the coastal waters. This made a mockery of fleet deployment.

Doge Vucic scanned the names of admirals available to hire and didn't like the look of any of them. He finally spotted the name of Sigismundo Tudosi, like himself an exile from Montenegro (a Man 1 and Shock 1 admiral) andalso a firm believer in capturing ships. His flagship, a cog called Kupari was currently out at sea, keeping the Albanian cog company.

Doge Vucic sent a message out to the cog recalling it to port. He wrote another series of orders reelasingtehmercenaires for their service. He'd have liked to have kept the eastern knights, but he couldn't afford to.

He despached a rider carrying a message to order the construction a carrack in Ragusa.

The Doge tried to work out how many troops his enemies might have. Taking two-province Bosnia as a guide. It's 1000 cavalry and 3000 infantrywould work out at 2000 troops a province. Savoy's three provinces would suggest a 6000 strong army with 2,000 cavaly and 4000 infantry. the 16 Turkish provinces = 8,000 cavalry and 24,000 infantry and their conquest of Serbia would add another 2000 men. Hungary could only field 16,000 men and Transylvania 4,000.

Savoy could build a cog every 6 months. Come May they'd be able to field three cogs to add to the one they probably started with. That meant at least two invasions before Christmas. Ragusa would have to rely on Bosnian goodwill to send their 4000 troops to beat off Savoy's possible 4000 strong invasion force.

Doge Vucic thought he would need an army of 5000 inclusding 3000 cavalry and 2000 infantry to defeat Savoy. He'd need to lead troops into Savoy itself to win this war and that meant 5 cogs and 4 more regiments. He'd need military access through Genoa. More merchants to send to centres of trade with open slots would be necessary though unlikely. He'd pray Ragusa got lucky. The state needed the taxes. This war with Savoy would last a fair length of time, so war taxes were out of the question.

Doge Vucic looked at the map and thought that the provinces on the Adriatic would look good added to Ragusa. That was for the future. Doge Vucic would count it a win to still be Doge in a decade with the bankruptcies induced by Vjecce survived.