Struggle for world domination (7 ppl LAN game AAR)

[Alerias]

I have started playing a Grand Campaign with all the friends ive gotten interested in EU2 over the last months, on a LAN. We played for 8 hours flawlessly, and will do so every week. I have volunteered to write an AAR from the POV of my country, Austria. I must say this was a LOAD of fun so far, and the results are promising! While not fully historical, i feel a nice balance of power in Europe.

During the first session we got to 1483. Player-controlled countries are:

France, England, Spain, Austria, Novorogrod, the Ottoman Empire and Danemark. So we'll have a very European-focused game, obviously, and the rest of the world is loot, more or less Rules are: Normal (after some debate; unavoidable full BB wars are undesirable in this game and we have our own system to keep each other in check), Furious, 2 months per minute, no purposeful turbo annexing, no excessive abuse of loopholes such as loansharking (a loan once in awhile is okay). Theres also no map trading with AI countries except if its your vassal or if a player grants another a permission to trade maps with his own vassal(s), no cheats or reloads of course, same installs of the game (We all used a slightly modified version of the GC that we usually play with. Fix inconsistancies and add or tweak a few things here and there, nothing too major), patch 1.05, all cavalry units early in the game in moderation only and we named a refree, between players war exhaustion should be used in a realistic manner whenever possible (if you havent been fighting at all for years, and have no real reason to keep warring, then make peace), no holding of diplomatic offers for later, no DoWs without CB on AI co-religionists, victory will be based on score in 1819. We've also decided to discourage excessive agression that should a player enter a BB status, other players should feel free, but not forced, to consider non-existant and void any official or officious deals made with them previously. Now, the most important rule; aside from the previously mentioned, there are no rules

Palace of Vienna, september 1484.

Milord, you have to pay attention. One day Maximilian, when you are all grown up, you will be the ruler of our nation, Archduke under God and if He wills, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. If you do not understand well what happened over the last sixty years, how will you deal with the politics of Europe? Please listen to your old mentor once again. A couple of hours and you'll know it all. Right, that's a good boy. Err young man, no need to give me that stare... Where were... Oh yes, there I was.

So our lesson takes us back to the days of your great-grandfather, Albert V. Europe was much different back then, Austria was still only made of her essential lands, the core of our Empire. France was a tiny nation besieged by the English and the ... oh right you know all that. Well, anyhow, your great-grandfather wanted a bigger realm, he envisioned a glorious empire, see? He wanted to unite a portion of the empire under him completely, if possible by peaceful means. But he had not only friends. There were the evil swiss threatening his peaceful nation. Oh they were nothing like the good subjects that serves your father today, oh no. They were bloodthirsty and vicious and all; didnt even want to pay taxes! So your father rallied his neighbors against the swiss in a glorious war. He allied with his vassal of Baden and led the Imperial Guard to Tirol, and declared war upon the evil swiss.

The fools moved against Baden and Albert's army fought to conquer a mostly defenseless country. But the barbarians came back, and were repelled from both Switz and Bern. And meanwhile, your great-grandfather reinforced his alliance, oh yes. Strengthened relations and allied with Wurtemberg, Bavaria and Mantua, he did, all while fighting the enemy! The evil swiss convinced the alsacians to follow their misguided exemple though, and that made matters more complicated. Albert had to move his army to Strassbourg later, and beat the Alsacians as well. But in 1423, when all was said and done, both Bern and Alsace paid tribute to Vienna and gave all their money in exchange for peace. Plus Swchyz was annexed back where she belongs. It was a splendid victory. Cost us most of our standing army to winter and a few war-taxes mind you, but still splendid.

In the next couple years, Albert examined the situation in Europe while improving his own. Relations were realllly good with his allies now, and Albert spent three years and quite a bit of gold to vassalize Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Mantua, in addition to Baden, Switzerland and Alsace who were already paying tribute. You are taking notes right? Hmm...? Hey! I told you not to look by this window. No, you dont care about the pretty girls, come sit here. There. Note. By 1427, your G-G-F analyzed the situation in other countries too, to know what was going on outside of Austria. Europe was quite the mess, you know.

The iberian peninsula was the least bad. Over there, Castilla had pulled a switzerland on those evil muslims in Granada and Portugal had done so in Fez too. Those two were quite good friends, and they were allied with the crown of Aragon too. United Iberia was quite the threat to the muslims, oh yes. Castilla had chased the runners all the way to Tunisia. Algeria was reduced to a single province!

But in France things were much more chaotic and bloody. See the French and the English were fighting a destructive war and had nasty attacks against each other. England annexed Orleans and pillaged the country side while France and her vassals tried to fight her and Burgondy wherever possible. France did pretty good for awhile, tore Britanny apart, that sure was their biggest success of that war. Latter on, their vassals were teaching Burgondy a lesson, but France was exhausted, and signed peace with England and her allies in exchange for just Orleans, and some ducats. But a few years years later, war broke out again just after France declared war on Navarra, now an english ally. We're not there yet though.

The Ottomans and the Danes were very active at the time. Both seemed to have no concern at all about international opinion, annexing Holstein here, or Albania there, raiding German cities, and all. Such despicable nations. Hungary was shielding us from the Ottomans as always though. They even beat Venice pretty badly and vassalized Croatia and such back then. All in all, it opened nice opportunities to your GGF, which he siezed.

In 1427, things were quiet enough for him to declare war on Venice. Why? Well, they held Istria, which belongs to us. They were also already beaten pretty badly by Hungary, but we dont say that, it might look like we attacked because there was no risk. Its just that it was a noble cause and all. No really, honest!

So, either way, that war too took about three years. Our armies marched south and defeated all the enemy armies on the way to siege simultanously Venice, Istria and Dalmatia! Hmm how many? Oh about 9000 enemy soldiers in total, why? Nevermind how many we had, it was just glorious and all. Either way, by late 1430, the Venicians sued for peace, offering us money, Istria and Dalmatia. We didnt really want Dalmatia but it was offered so nicely that we took it too. Ragusa, Bosnia and Croatia, our new neighbors were all Hungarian vassals, and since we keep good relations with Hungary, this was good news. And his enemies beaten, your GGF could now focus on diplomacy, he liked that alot you see...

Meanwhile in the west a new war has sprung. The french had good leaders now and were follow a girl from Lorraine, Joan of Arc. They did pretty good, crushed Navarra while defeating several british forces. Peace was only signed in 1435 but then both main belligerents agreed to transfer half of Englands coastal possessions to France. England then used this break to deal with the scots and the Irish. Oh the French also got France-compté from Burgondy too; they were starting to take shape. At the end of the war, they annexed Auvergne and began building up again.

Further away, in the north, Danemark was now covering Holstein, Macklemburg, Brenen, part of Pommerania, Norway, and seemed to be the premium naval power. Their invasion of the Empire did not go unnoticed but there was little to do at the time. They did have a growing rival in Novorogrod though, who was eyeing their swedish posessions with interest. Interest is good you know. You can try it sometimes.

In Vienna, there was a council in 1430 during which the policies of the country were established. Some western countries seemed about to embark on a colonial race, and the Archduke debated if some effort should be undertaken in that direction. Given that competition for all territories would be quite fierce, it was unclear at first. But then it was realized that the country could focus entirely on land aspects and bolster the quality of its army while keeping its training inexpensive if the colonial race was put aside. Furthermore, the nation could afford to be more innovative, giving herself an edge in technology over rivals. This would have the effect of allowing more decentralized administration, which is more profitable and creates a more stable country. Finally, free trade could be put aside altogether, making merchants cheaper and austrian interests well defended. Heavy aristocracy and serfdom were also decided on. Thus were established the goals to reach for the country. (Ideal dp: aristo 8 or 10, cent 0, inno 7, 8 while CRC (to keep some converters), merc 6-10 low priority, land 10 first priority, quality 10, serfdom 8.) Also, back in 1419, a decision was made to forego any naval reasearch. Its budget was split between the four others equally; Austria did not seek to rule the seas. In accordance with these guidelines, an innovative philosopher was soon after allowed to remain free, and upset a few people it did.

They soon forgot though, because soon after your GGF annexed his old vassal Baden, beginning a seven year camapaign to make the nation the greatest in the world. While some vassals resisted at first, fortunately none were so bold as to break their vassalship in rejection. Bern and Alsace were meanwhile paid to forget old hard feelings. By 1437, Albert had accomplished alot, annexing diplomatically Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Baden and Mantua. The last few years had been nice and quiet, save for the occasional dalmatian revolt. He was then planning to join the western alliance made of Alsace, Baden and Savoy since his own was non-existant anymore, but it suddently expired. Calmly he ordered his diplomats to forge a new one, but the diplomatic personnel available only allowed to do so with the former two; France immediately added Savoy to her own alliance of warmongering, which displeased old Albert. He was elected Holy roman Emperor about then though, first of three archdukes to hold the title consecutively. But trouble was brewing on the horizon now...

Albert completed the annexation of Switzerland and Alsace. All these annextions had a price diplomatically for Austria. We were now unpopular with most of our neighbors and had to bribe many to remain popular. Even then, we had a slightly tarnished reputation in 1438 (flirting with plain tarnished), which was not very pleasant. On the other hand, most of our competition was worse, like those vikings in Danemark and their 3 military annexions of co-religionists! In 1439, Albert passed away, and the ducal properties were passed to your grandfather, Ladislas Postumus, who's first actions were to consider a new alliance to join for Austria. There diplomatic board was quite a mess and there was no obvious choice until France did the unthinkable for Austria. In 1439, while a new war in the west was expected to tear apart the remaining english lands in Europe, Paris did two very odd things. A split between Burgondy and England allowed the French to lure Burgondy into their own alliance, breaking the balance of power. Provence had recently been annexed as well. And now France's appetite was growing, and she set her eyes on northern italy... thus war was declared on Genoa soon after the coronation of your G-F. For austria, this meant war.

Genoa, Lombardy (who had emilia as well), Tuscany, Siena and Aragon (no clue when they switched alliances but aparently they did. They also had annexed southern italy) were thus at war with France, who's generals were massing in Savoy, dreaming of plundering Italy. The move worried others as well and Madrid was very relieved to see Austria petition Genoa for membership in the alliance. The goal was clear for Vienna; capture Piedmont from the french puppet and thus secure for the archduchy all the lands eastwards. The French, in addition of Savoy, also had the Papal States on their side however...

The first phase of the battle was the despicable French moving troops to siege Lombardia and Genoa simultaneously. The French General in lombardy, that Austria intended to rescue, was Gilles de Rais. Haha, if you had seen your grandfather. He was sca.. err worried of the general's fame, but when his army got to Milan it was not an issue anymore. See, Gilles the Rais was a vicious murderer and a cruel torturer, like most of his co-citizens mind you, but for some reason they didn't approve at the time. He was taken before a court martial, and summarly executed during the very campaign for Italy, removing France's best card over Italy! In another realm there was a long laughter when the powers overseeing the fates of Europe noticed this. (It turned out France both wanted to improve relations with Burgondy and needed the stab. Soon after the DoW on Genoa they got a political crisis. We only learned that much later though)

Thanks to all of this, when the Imperial Army approached Milan, they won a narrow but decisive victory against the French, saving Milan for now. But Genoa was sieged by an even larger French Army, led by Dunois (Richemont died in 32). This army split and tried to push back the Austrians. Your grandfather though, was happy to have just lifted the siege and had other plans for his troops. While he was playing hide-and-seek across north italy with his Imperial Guard, most of his forces, the K.u.K armee, moved south from Mantua into Papal lands. By the time Genoa fell to the French, the pope only had Rome left in his hands. The French eventually captured lombardy as well, meeting little Austrian resistance, but then the Pope surendered and an enemy was knocked out of the war. This focus on the lesser enemy was based on two things; first it would ensure some gains even in the advent of a defeat, and second, it saved our face since we had no real way to defeat the 70kish French army; ours was barely half that size, and our treasury was emptied by diplomacy. The Papal States, by the peace treaty, handed over Romagna to Austria and accepted vassalization, as well as paying over 100 ducats in indemnities; not bad at all.

The awaited disaster of french victory did not come as planned. As France was about to win at Emilia, a coordinated attack of the last chance between Aragon and Austria threw them back, saving the city for a few more months. Vienna's worries were discussed in Madrid; French hegemony seemed likely, with a potential diploannexion of Burgondy (low countries) down the line and control over north italy. In a bid to avoid that, large state gifts were sent to Vienna! This amounted to nearly 300 ducats, a very welcome sum that marked the beginning of a fruitful friendship between the two capitals. Upon reception of the money, war taxes were ordered and 22,000 cavalrymen were raised in Steinmark; fire has to be fought with chees.. er fire. Simultaneously, emissaries brought the news that Savoy had accepted peace for mere ducats from Genoa. Great news, except that Austria, after her victory in rome, was no longer held by Genoa's peaces... But little worry; Savoy posed little to no threat and unlike the pope, had no standing army. In spring of 41, the Imperial Cavalry under the auspices of the Army of Italy charged down the alps and hit very hard the almost all infantery french army. This cavalry prove to be the tide-turner, and France was obviously taking notice as both Genoa and Milan recieved, and fortunately declined, peace offers that France deemed generous. Victory seemed a hair away.

But its always then that crappy stuff happens, isn't it? From the other side of the continent, the Ottoman Empire declared war on Genoa... eager to profit from the conflict to sieze her crimean posessions. Stability was good in Austria, but nontheless, war was declared. The only forces in the balkans though, were ten under-maintained galleys and a small rebel-breaking force in Dalmatia... Aragon did not feel like fighting the Ottomans and betrayed her alliance to make matters worse. And in Italy, french reinforcements were pouring through Savoy. Ultimately, the war was won in the British isles, where the British, content of their harsh peace terms with the Irish and the Scots, decided to use the situation to regain lost lands. The declared war, and immediately indicated they would withdraw for two of their old territories. The French king did not take the blackmail kindly though, and the reinforcements under young Jean Bureau turned back towards the channel. War waging continued for a year, until French ambassadors asked your grandfather, while they still held cities in northern italy, what he wanted for peace. He said he'd be happy if they made peace, on whatever terms the AI would accept, with Genoa and her league.He would then offer France a white peace. France was very glad at the "fair" Austrian peace and signed a white peace with Genoa, since the poor merchants refused to even pay ducats to get their city back.

Paris would learn though, that Austrians are generous but not foolish. We kept our word alright, and signed peace with *FRANCE*. Our dear foe failed to notice the fine print where it was written "separate peace". A few swears and fifteen months later, Savoy was surrendering, giving up Piedmont and accepting Austrian vassalisation. The dream of Empire was shaping up for Austria. Your Grand-father then convoked his Foreign Ministers and indicated that despite his now tarnished reputation, he wished to expand his influence as his father had. Milan was deemed unsuitable for diploanexation though, Genoa would not accept, there were only Siena and Tuscany. Little prizes, but they would cement Austrian control of North Italy. But there was a slight problem, the Ottomans were still at war with them, as well as Austria. The crimean posessions were already occupied but Genoa would not sign peace yet. Discreetly behind the scenes, we dealt with the infidels. They would get a white peace from Austria, and our blessings on their new conquests, if they immediately paid Tuscany and Siena for separate peaces. Do not look at me like that, young man, when state affairs commands, you occasionally have to strike deals like this or waste five years waiting, you know. Anyway, thus were the city-states made into vassals peacefully. It was not such a bad choice either. Taking only two small provinces over twelve years, Austria would benefit from a slight gain in reputation hopefully. And the very prudent Habsburg leader would meanwhile calm the spirits in all his annexed lands, reducing the pesky nationalism revolt risks.

Meanwhile, elsewhere...

Hungary was doing really well for itself in the balkans, having annexed or diploannexed Siegenburgen, Moldavia, Croatia, and still holding as vassals Bosnia, Serbia and Ragusa. The main reason was the lack of warfare with the ottomans, who, once they had obtained Albania, seemed pleased with their balkanic holdings and focused on waging war first to conquer their peninsula, and then some caucasus and crimean possessions. They were now widely believed to be looking at the mamelukes possessions now, but instead they embroiled themselves in a war with Venice over her mediteranean islands, and her two island vassals. It should be noted Genoa accepted peace eventually after the turks came take Corsica. Austria kept an interested eye on these developments, figuring happily that first, ottoman annexions on her islands would make Venice very vassalizable, and if the turks kept on their military annexing trend, Venice would be ally-less and open for grabs soon enough. For now though, Genoa, now greatly reduced in size, accepted vassalization from Austria in 1445. 1445 was a great year for us too, not just because of that but because the economy was going great at home, it was an exceptional year. Helped us expand our trade, and slashed inflation.

As for France, she revenged herself plentifully in the west. The word of the day was now total victory, and the new war removed the British tastes for continental war once and for all. The french militarily annexed Britanny while Aragon, still independant, militarly annexed Navara and shortly after joined Castille's alliance. The British lost quickly, their cavalry unable to stop the french leaders. Normandy's army was pushed back into the channel and the stronghold fell to France, as well as Gascogne and Calais. England, fortunately for her, had crushing naval superiority and won a few naval battles, preventing any invasion of her soil. England finally settled for a very historical peace; Gascogne, Normany and Calais, her last possessions, were handed over. She promised not to launch continental wars of conquest against France anymore as well, but in exchange, France declared all the isles were British, and accepted to rupture their alliance with the scots and the Irish. (Through separate peaces, England had defeated them separately either way), allowing England to incorporate them (both one province nations now) into her's for future diploannexion. For us though, the end of the Hundred Years War was an awful outcome. It meant France could now focus her attention on the continent...

Because of this, we strengthened our relations with Madrid and London, hoping to establish a more or less common front against agressions. Over the course of a few years, the French were now obviously in a consolidation period. They dealt with their rebels, annexed their last vassal, and imposed vassalship to Burgondy, after many failed attempts. Southwards, in the Iberian Peninsula, Castille had finally annexed Granada, and had been struggling to impose a vassalship on Portugal. (Gee, we all wonder why given our house rules ) In the end, she finally did so militarily in 1447, seizing Tangiers in the process. Morocco then annexed Fez, giving the crown of Castille a Casus Belli. Do you even know what a casus belli is? Hmm? Pfaw, the youth has such a crappy latin nowadays. Either way, Castille used her gold to lure Portugal back into her graces very quickly and marched along the african coast, winning maps of the african heartland. I heard there were valuables down there that the spaniards were after. Either way, they plan on fighting their way there while using Portuguese maps to get an hard-start in the colonial race.

In the north, in an unexpected turn of events, medium power blocs were slowly forming from the ruins of the small German states. The Palentinat of all nations had done very, very well, conquering Kleves, Cologne, Munster and Lorraine, forming a great German shield against the french. Their entire western border was covered by Burgondy. Austria got into the habit of renewing guarantees on The Palentinat every five years. Oldenburg north of that, was now added to the list of danish possessions, creating an increasingly danish coastline. Bohemia had taken a couple provinces from poland, Brandeburg had expended a fair bit also, taking the rest of Pomerania, Hannover and Poznan. Prussia had taken part in the dislocation of the Teutonic knights, siezing Kurland and Livland, while Lithuania reclaimed one inland province and Estonia fell into Novogordian hands. Finally, Saxony had siezed Hessen for itself. Things were definitely taking shape up in the north, and your grandfather was a bit worried that his current italian affairs would leave him in a bad position northwards... At least Wuzburg and Mainz, Austria's backyard, were still both independent and allied to each other.

Finally came 1451 and with it, the annexation of Siena and Tuscany. France was still quiet. She was out of enemies and her next one would probably be the Palentinat as awful as it seemed to your grand-father. On their side, somewhat bored at the inactivity, France banned Savoy from his military alliance in 1451 and marched against the austrian vassal. We protested, of course, yep, but we had no alliance with them and didnt control Genoa's so we had to watch the evil French annex them outright. The archduke didnt know if he should faint or rejoice at the news. Were all the other countries too stupid to know what enimity annexing co-religionists that way would earn them? France aparently cared little. After that happened, Austria couldnt afford to bide her time five more years to annex Genoa. Our ambassador in the great trading city let them know we were leaving the alliance.

Yep, you heard that right, your grand father left the alliance of Genoa. Not to join another mind you, he had recieved other news. (game advice, keep alliance betrayals on popup mode when you play Austria. Stuff like this is pure gold you cant afford to miss). Lituania had been doing very well in the east, and diploannexed Poland outright in the 1440s. Well Bohemia, controlling Masovia, was the theater of some revolts during a war with Lithuania, that led to the independence of Poland in said Masovia. Immediately, Wuzburg, Mainz and the Palentinat announced they would not interfere and pulled from the alliance they had with Bohemia, giving Austria the opportunity of a monarch's lifetime. With four diplomats available, Austria rushed to cancel her alliance, and form a new one with the palentinat (That fortunately hated France as a "crap!" from the other side of the room in the parallel dimension with the powers soon revealed), and added immediately after Wuzburg and Mainz. For your grand-father, you know, that was the highlight of a lifetime. He felt, rightfully, that Austria was a great power now, and once again he commanded his own alliance. More importantly, his alliance controlled all the territories that France could expand to westwards, save for Danemark's Oldenburg. Over the next year, Mainz and Wuzburg agreed to pay tribute to Vienna, but the Palentinant resisted temtation for now.

As a last victory before the storm, in 1453 the Ottomans war with Venice ended in a very satisfactory way. Simultanously, The Knights and Cyphrus, only allies of Venice, were militarly annexed, right after Venice had agreed to cede Crete, Ionia and her treasury in exchange for peace. Only problem, relations with Venice were bad, and three large state gifts were dispatched quickly to patch up old wounds. Then, Venice formally joined Austria's alliance, and with only Corfu and her main province, she did not resist vassalization for long. Once Venice was a vassal, a last attempt was made on The Palentinat, which now suddently accepted to pay tribute to the Emperor. In 1454, though, the storms of war covered the Holy German Empire.

Your grand-father recieved an exhausted messenger in his office. "Excellency!" he said, "They claimed we murder the french in Lorraine, milord! Their raiders torched Joan of Arc's village and they are blaming it on us! Jean Bureau is marching a hundred thousand men on The Palentinat, and we need your help!" And so the day had come. Our armies were ready mind you. They had been for five years already. Messengers dispatched to London and Madrid explained that for all practical purposes, France already had the low countries, which would be annexed in only a matter of time. If they were to piece into central europe, the balance of power would be shattered forever in an overly dramatic tone. It did not take much to gain Castille's willingness to help and they DoWed France without asking questions. England was much more reserved. They had just annexed Scotland and Ireland and were thinking about ways to jump into the colonial race, not get involved again into costly continental wars. But they did offer a large 1% loan if we needed it. The Papal states betrayed their alliance with France also, and we promptly added them to ours.

At first, we fought for Lorraine and lost, but held well in Piedmonte and Bern. The french focused mostly on the lands of the Palentinat, hoping to force them into a harsh separate peace. But then, Jean Bureau died at the walls of Koln during the shock phase of a cavalry attack, leaving the french as leaderless as us. Surprisingly enough, our allies were very ressourceful. Tiny Venice sent no less than 20,000 men to die in the Palentinat. Castille and Aragon sent both their armies past the pyrenees, forcing the french to divide their excessively large army to fight on two fronts. But soon, they were marching into Iberia proper... (OOC a mistake both castille and I made was to stay a bit too much into "single player mode" with "at legal limit" peacetime armies, while France built up ridiculous forces and went quantity). At that moment in the frozen north, Novorogrod and her Swedish ally, having finally annexed Muscowy, began clashing with Danemark in a titanic struggle in what would become known as "The War of the twenty Winters" and the Ottomans called upon Holy War to chase the Mamelukes from the holy land and Egypt. Europe was on fire.

The war against France would last no less than seven years. While we focused everything on land, the french wisely annoyed us with ship landings in Italy and even Venice. Austria held on, though, largely thanks to Spain's help. France could ill-afford to fight on four fronts, and had to focus as well. Meanwhile, our commanders devised a strategy. While we continued to defend remaining palentinian castles, we gathered forces raised with an English loan, and attacked the low countries, quickly dispatching Burgondian units, and forcing France to relocate north long enough for us to retake most lost cities. England finally joined the war, with the firm intent of not capturing any continental lands. France was being pushed out of Iberia, but in the initial assault, they went south with one clear goal in mind; Madrid. Castillian efforts eventually pushed them out, but the cost was steep, as France had looted the maps. England in turn, joined with the same intent in mind, and landed fourty thousand men, all her army, with the goal to sack Paris. At the time, Portugal had recently gone all the way to China, that large empire to the east. (of course since we couldnt buy chinese or indian maps that was no good at all, and spain had all the few discovered coastlines colonized, but I guess the psychological factor of not being late on the maps played...)

The English failed, but not without spreading the french even thinner and forcing them to finally see the bottom of their manpower. Quickly, we added England to the long list of nations we had royal marriages with, by giving your grand-mother's 2nd degree cousin by alliance to... err right, the point. We saw them withdraw the remanants of their army to Anglia, and wage naval war against France. Luckyly enough for them, the captured naval maps from France aboard their ships! (This feature is really buggy sometimes... it sometimes does nothing, sometimes gives part of the maps and sometimes all. This time it gave all, somehow). Given how widespread these early maps were by now, Castille didnt mind sharing them with us for eastern europe maps and access to Astrakhan's CoT. But there were also more pressing worries, namely the continental war. France, although surrounded, prooved the ressources of her nation to the world by fighting a war on three fronts with acceptable success. At some point during the war, two noticable events occured; the expiration of the Genoa-Milan alliance, that resulted in the invitation to Genoa to fill our own alliance, and her subsequent annexation (after 4 tries... I was worried it would break by then hehe). The second event was your grandfather's death... Noble leader, he had brought Austria many stunning successes. His son, your father, was even more of a diplomat, but he shunned war, and wished it would come to an end. The revolts were becoming more present across Austria, and even if the situation was worse in centralized France, it worried him. The Electors of the Empire met in Vienna in 1457 and elected him Holy Roman Emperor, maintaining his access to all imperial lands and the Austrian dream to unite it all under one crown.

Yet under Friedrich, the war carried on for a handful more years. It had almost developped into a stalemate, but Austria was confident, and rightfully, that France would collapse before anyone else. But then France, treacherous as ever, gave Calais to England in exchange for peace, and the promise not to fund the continental powers anymore in this war. This needle removed, the French won once again stunning victories in the south. But on the Austrian front, they had spread too thin, and we sieged several of their cities, as their rebel problems grew. As french castles began to fall to Austria, the French paid us back the favor of 1440 with a sneaky peace. They still had Lorraine and they had crushed The Palentinat in many battles, so they forced the Palentinat to accept unilateral peace for our entire alliance, gaining Lorraine. Friedrich was angered for a time, thinking he could have defeated the French easily by now. (I was sooo mad I hadnt signed a separate peace with Burgondy to prevent that earlier) Yet, then again, Austria was war-weary, all of this did cost France her permanant casus belli on his alliance, and it would gain him the time to consolidate central Europe. The war was a moral victory. Moral victory consolidated by the French's quick white peace with Iberia despite their advantageous position there. A very simple reason; with a depleted treasury and pool of manpower, a -2 stability France had lost her capital to rebels. The fall of the government was a very real possibility. (And youll remember we play with points).

The French in the end were not as bad loosers as they appeared. They notified Austria that they would recognize their current eastern border as "permanant" if Austria did the same. Considering this made no mention of the low countries and would perhaps give him more time, your father agreed. Following this, the ruler of France sent Austria a State Gift as representative indemnity once the situation in Paris was under control. This helped ease relations quite a bit, and suggested troubles in the west might be over.

Austria's stability had been hurt by the war taxes, but the end of the war was followed by two rapid annexations to Austria: Mainz and Wuzburg, which helped. (I'm a lucky dog, not a single vassal break despite all these 10 years-annexs, but I decided not to push it too much) Within a year, all revolts were put down, the Army was reorganized, diplomatic contacts were renewed, Milan was brought into the alliance, (Giving full control of northern and central italy to Vienna) and a couple years passed uneventfully. Uneventfully doesn't mean you have to go look by that window young man! Sit. There. Where are we? Oh yes, Europe in 1462.

Hungary had annexed Bosnia and Serbia during our war, and only had Ragusa to go. They were still at peace with the turks, and their Empire seemed increasingly magnificient. Then again, it was an increasingly tempting prey for Istanbul. (With their CB shields, they could grab all Hungary for no BB... I suspected that the Turk player has been waiting for Hungary to annex minors so that they can get everything in one war) Austria started issuing guarantees of Hungary every five years as a result.

In Iberia, things were quiet again, but the Castillian rulers made it clear that they felt the war against France was a mistake and that Spain would not actively take arms in the future, secretely of course. They hinted however, at the fact that they would not let Austria deal with France by herself either. After twenty years of guarantees and warnings across west africa, BB-concious Castille finally had a decent casus belli to conquer the continent when a simple DoW made all hell break loose in the region, and her troops marched down from Dakar and Morocco to Timbuktu and the gold mines around the region. Additionally, they finished off the Kingdom of Algeria and set their eastern border near Tripoli.

In the north, Sweden, once an ally of Novorogrod, was now somehow both at war from Sweden and Novorogrod (muscovian rebels I think..), and the War of the twenty Winters took a new turn, with the two powers splitting Sweden between them and fighting along their "border", with constant naval raids on each other's shores (I didnt follow their war too much since I didnt have RMs with either, but they were obviously the two who were having the most fun at the time. Good for em )

[Alerias]

Back to us, well, things were going rather well in Austria. Our "Continental realpolitik" was paying off. Without real effort on our part, our state had decentralized itself (4! "demand rights" in 25 years), we had finally pushed ourselves to full land, decent innovativeness and perfect aristocracy and serfdom. Aside from that, we could now annex Venice and The Palentinat. While Venice accepted our offer immediately, we decided to wait at least 10 more years to offer the same to the powerful Palentinat, wisdom that would later pay. Thus once again our alliance had shrunk: Palentinat, Milano and Papal States only. Speaking of the latter, we were of course unwilling to annex it, since it would threaten the pope and put the whole catholic world against us. Thus we striked the "Italian deal" with Castille. Confident they would soon be in a position to annex Aragon, they simply proposed that theyd keep south italy, sicily and sardaigne, while we would keep north italy, corsica and the vassalship of the Papal States. After that, we would work together to preserve Status Quo in the area. Should the situation about the Pope change eventually, it would be considered in our sphere of influence. Simple, huh?

Anyway, once that was done, a few quiet years went by for most of Europe. In 1468, Ragusa was finally annexed by Hungary, and that left Hungary ally-less; we immediately jumped on the occasion and brought them into our own alliance, improving greatly our possibilities to reach to Turkish invasions. A permanant Austrian force was then stationed in Wallachia. Realizing we could demand their vassalization, and since we had an exceptional minister in 1469, we tried, half-seriously, and very surprisingly, Hungary accepted the offer! (I was really not expecting that. I just had 200 relations after a state gift, and since they improve by themselves, I gave it a shot. Friedrich's 8 diplo +3 really paid off!) The extra tax revenue would then help improve our technological edge over Europe. (Austria was ahead in the tech race thanks to no naval, generally alot of vassals, decent innovativeness more than offsetting decentralization and adequate monarchs, no colonies, and an average stability close to 3).

Then some time passed calmly again until 1474. Everyone seemed busy doing their own thingin the land, although we were highly worried about the lack of events in France. Surely they were building forces for something... (In fact they were waiting till 1474 to diploannex burgondy with maximum chances, but before the event). The Ottomans finished off the Mamelukes in the south, and invaded Tripoli. The Spaniards removed Songhai from the map and captured the west african CoT. The northern war finally came to an end with dramatic results on the map. Sweden was no more, entirely, capital included, gobbed up by Danemark. Novorogrod had all of Finland, Finmark in the north (part of the Norway), and had conquered Danish maps, and Iceland. As a casualty of the conflict, Prussia had been reduced to almost nothing, Novorogrod taking over the critical Kurland and its CoT. However, Danmark had Danzig (We have agreed to two CoT changes during the game. We'll have to edit it manually, but Kurland CoT moves to Danzig at a determined date, and Flandern's to Holland at another. Forgot to mention that.) Additionally, and although I have no way to know that, France of all powers somehow has the maps of Danemark and has established a colony in Gander, Newfoundland.

So, then came the fateful event of 1474. A year marked by a major stroke of bad luck. (After all my successful peaceful annexations, I didnt feel as lucky as I should have, and as I felt when we all realized what had just happened as automn died to winter that year.) France, after about 27 years of vassalship, Paris demanded that Burgondy join the realm of France. The response was icy cold. Burgondy dissolved her vassalship with France... When the news reached Austria, Friedrich laughed to no end and decided to rub some salt in the wound. A month later, the Palentinat accepted the proposed modalities of Vienna's request of being incorporated into Austria on the first demand. The monarch in Paris felt thigns were sliding off his hands as the balance of power had just taken a serious hit.

His reaction was rapid, not that he had much choice. In a year, Burgondy would almost assuredly announce her annexion by Austria (Well he couldnt know, but hey ). There was only one thing to do. Maintenances were set to 100% and the armies took position. France had 6 months to improvise a 10 years war. (If Burgondy is at war for 10 years, it just skips the event). However, Burgondy might make peace on her own, especially if the fight is against an AI. There was only one country that would not make peace too early: France. In January 1475, France grit her teeth and banned Burgondy from her alliance. We, alas, had not had the vision to keep high relations with this country just in case. However, an unexpected third player had. England created a new alliance with Burgondy, bringing back the old alliance on the continent. For France it was too late to step back though. War was declared on Burgondy, and troops crossed all borders.

The ultimate problem for us, though, was that this did NOT consitiute a casus belli for Austria. We had no rights to invade France. We were reduced to spectators as the fate of the low countries was played before our eyes.

Burgondy had a decent standing army. Immediately, her treasury recieved large state gifts from Vienna and Madrid. British troops landed in Holland. But the French Army was marching, perhaps the most powerful of Europe, undoubtly the most numerous. The war, however, was not to last ten years.

By 1478, Artois, Luxembourg, Flanderns and Brabant (and of course Burgondy proper) were in French hands, but everything north of the river resisted. Of course Koln was Austrian so there was no way to go around it, and the English navy kept the coast clear. Soon enough, 80,000 british soldiers, England's whole army, was stacked on Zeeland, defending the great river. (If anyone needs proofs crossing rivers gimps attack power, the 20ish battles France lost there is all the proof you need). Stoic, the French sat on their conquests, waiting for 1485 to impose peace on Burgondy and take as much of these as possible.

Our army, meanwhile, was massed on the border, in full alert, when our diplomats recieved a message from Madrid. Castille, now the Kingdom of Spain, had decided to play the card of full support to Austria. The message read: "My dear cousin, Maximillian of Habsburg, I am pressing claims against France in a border dispute in former Navarra. I have dissolved my alliance with Aragon temporarly. You know what to do. "

The austrian officials were all shocked to see that note. The tide was about to turn, and France really expected nothing and was politically on her best behavior. (Remember that we cant DoW co-religionists without CB, and what were the odds of an event?) When suddently, Austria accepted Spain's offer of joining our alliance. Then, claiming the border dispute of Navara as a pretext, and despite earlier notice that Spain would not participate in continental wars anymore, Spain declared war on France. Hungary and the Papal states dishonored the alliance, only to be brought back in seconds later by Austria's fleet of diplomats and iron-fisted diplomacy. Troops began crossing the border in Piedmonte, Bern, Alsace, Koln, Kleves, Munster, Gerona and Navarra. The goal was to "crush in force", ie, attack so many different provinces with so many different and strong armies that France would have no time to react. The drawback of course was that all forces available were used, but then again, time was the essense of the conflict.

England's RMs were renewed immediately and she witnessed the crushing offensive of the Habsburgs, truly our hour of glory. For a year I think we didnt lose a single battle. But at the same time, we could see very well that France was training armies all over. The Imperial Guard walked directly to Paris, and laid siege to the capital. France did fight back in time, and we started being pushed back, but by then many border provinces had fallen or were in bad shape. Your father Friedrich then stated his war aims. White peace with Burgondy and the balance of the french treasury to Spain. If peace was not concluded by 1484, he added, the Habsburgs would crush all of France and patitionate it. "All hail Louis XI, King of "Ile de France", by the Grace of God!" he sneered.

France's standing army had simply suffered too much in Zeeland and was replaced far too slowly, at the pace that a England/Burgondy coalition commanded, and not an habsburg invasion. Still, the French fought, and were half-successful. Its only in 1481 that it became obvious the Habsurgs could and would carry out their threat if need be. The English were started to be concerned at the possibility, and signed peace with France, unwilling to help shatter the balance altogether. But before France complied, there was a last card to play. No realm in Europe knew of how close the French had gotten to the Ottoman Turks over the last fifty years. Nobody had heard of their plans of partition of the world. And nobody expected the Turks to DoW Hungary at THAT moment.

When they did though, Vienna did not react kindly. The offer for peace for good only for 60 more days, and since Spain had landed 880 men in Gander, theyd take that as well as the money. Ile de France was about to fall (for the 2nd time) and the treasury was dry. For 75 ducats and their single colony, France made peace with the Habsurgs and Burgondy.

The Imperial Army marched east at max speed, determined to halt the Turks' overwhelming army. Spain had also declared war back, interested to free Tunisia at least from the infidels. ( The spanish player seemed to see the religious status of the north african coastline as the status of the struggle of Catholicism against Islam).

By the time the Austrians got over there, things were still under control, thanks mainly to the aparently dobious land tech of the turks. Over a hundred thousand Austrians took over the defense of the balkans.

Suddently, the succession of Burgondy came, and the unthinkable happened. After all, the couple of state gifts sent to Burgundy to help them fight off the french might pay off one day. For us nothing at all had happened, but in that parallel dimension where powers watch over this world, a line was printed on a scroll that read "Burgondy went with Charles de Bold never died". (Theres what, 2 to 3% of odds?! I'm not unhappy in retrospect, as I'd have given them to spain eventually first of all, and secondly, as this will help keep things very interesting) The English, Burgondy's allies, obtained military access and concluded a marriage between their dynasties before one again landing their troops in the low countries. Somedays this will belong to us, thought their generals. This decision will undoubtly spark conflict between them and France; there's no way that the French will tolerate Burgondy within their frontiers forever!

In the Balkans though, things were less peaceful. There was a huge war in which many lost their lives. Attrition was vicious. General Von Frundsberg, a big part of the reason of the successes in France (Who had no leaders), arrived at the helm of the Imperial Guard: 20k inf, 20k cav, 18 cannons, and smashed the Turks as he fought himself a way to the capital. Sultan Bâyezîd II fell on the battlefield in Macedonia. While the Turks still held Wallachia, Ragusa, and Serbia, they were running the risk of losing everything to Istanbul. Friedrich was however, already tired of warfare, like some of his people. (I was more than happy with the ottoman/hungary border and only wanted to keep it that way till 1525) So a deal was stuck with Turkey; a white peace would be signed, in exchange for with the Muslims would pick a new target for awhile. Your father wondered if it has been wise to trust those Turks of course, and he still doesn't know. Still, at the end of 1483, the deal was stuck with the infidel. Spain was a tad less lenient and asked for her only conquest: Tunisia, which was granted reluctantly. The Iberian power, however, stayed after all in the Austrian alliance, and still is today, although for how long is another issue.

That is it, Maximilian, I'm all done. Don't yawn! This will be very useful to you one day, I know a smart young man like you will remember lessons from all this. See? You agree. Tell me, then, what will you remember from this story that could be useful in your own rule?

The young man replied, sure of himself; "Strike the Turks down before they can backstab me, dont let the French know I'm coming for their crown, and dont be easy on them when I have them at my mercy!", with a big smile. It seemed the Holy Roman Empire would soon have a warrior-monarch at it's head...

Comments welcome

Had to split my post in two, as it was too long hehe. I'll put up the next episode next week, hopefully another 80 years of Austrian goodness.

PS. Any idea where i could host the screenshots? I have pics of Europe at all the years I stopped to give the "Status of Europe" and some nice war shots in Italy and in the Palentinat.

[Alerias]

Gee in retrospect maybe I should have called this AAR "The power of white peaces" since its practically what I always signed so far, and yet I dominate central Europe

[Rhodz]

Geez...a 7 player LAN game...envy ++

[Estonianzulu]

I love MP AAR's.

[Alerias]

Anything more specific or related to our game? It took me four hours to write all of that!!

Any suggestions for the players, ideas, questions, comments, etc?

[Wasa]

Just one suggestion...when you publish, try to "cut" it up into smaller chunks..a long mass of text tend to scare some ppl off..

[Languish]

Screenshots would be nice too

[Alerias]

Yeah i guess i wrote too much

As for screenshots, like i said, just need to host them somewhere where it works...

[Duuk]

This is really, really good.

Keep it up.

Duuk

[Prince Eugene]

Originally posted by Alerias
Yeah i guess i wrote too much

As for screenshots, like i said, just need to host them somewhere where it works...

brinkster and topcities work and are free

you can also just send them to me and Ill host them

Good work on this so far and I find it amazing that you got that many players that are close enough to you to play on a LAN.

[Alerias]

Thank you, I'll register at one of those!

As for the players, its easy enough for me. I have plenty of leftover friends from college that are gaming gurus. Out of those quite a few are in strategy games and were delighted to learn about EU2. Then you add me, my girlfriend, a cousin, and the guy who told me about EU2 in the first place, and its a wonder I didnt manage to get to 8

Given Burgondy's continued existance, maybe a 8th player will join as the netherlands if nobody get their paws on them before they form. I wouldnt be counting on it though, I didnt get 8 inno for nothing

[Eochaid]

Playing EU2 with you girlfriend! That's nice... Mine keeps complaining that I spend too much time playing. NONSENSE

This is a great AAR and I love the way you write it. Indeed screenies would be welcome, but don't worry, everything is still very understandable without it so far. VPs would be welcome also, as you're playing VP victory.

The only problem I see with this AAR is that even if it gives a very accurate descrption of what happens in Western Europe, we have little to none information on what is going on in the ROTW (namely Scandinavia/Russia and Middle-East.)

Otherwise, this is GREAT! There are too few MP AARs around here and this one is a good one. Maybe you could stop by the bAAR to make a little advertising...

Eochaid

PS: BTW, how can you play with so many players by LAN? 'Coz I have my own LAN network, but it's a 4 players Max. Are you using a gaming room?

[Duuk]

Depending on the router and configuration, you could have unlimited numbers of players.

In my bedroom LAN, I could support around 8.

Duuk

[Alerias]

No, I just took out my stuff and installed a small LAN in the basement. I can support up to 12, but i thought the game was capped at 8. Good to know!