die Goldgelbe Fahn - an Austrian AAR

well all such used information comes from the game.
I gues I could do a better job on making it more accurate.
for now I'm having a bitter war with the picture service

Politics, Economics and Force


Chapter II

Heinrich? Heinrich where are you? Heinrich where in the name of god are you?
Nobody answered the amazed Political Advisor in the early hours of the first of january 1420. He opened the door a little wider, stood out into the hallway and closed it behind him. Where did that incompetant idiot of a man go this time? Ludwig Ehrhart thought to himself in the few seconds he took, considering looking for heinrich himself or sending a guard, he decided the guard would be a better option, and ordered the guardsmen to look for Heinrich Febel, the former Financial Advisor to the king.

Although Febel had been highly spoken of, his lack of ability was simply unacceptable. a lot of money from tax incomes over the last 5 years was missing and a lot of things administrated as expenses were questionable least to say. Ludwig decided that Febel deserved the humiliation of explaining this in front of the king and his staff of advisors and military commanders and went back into the meeting room of the Royal Hall, were he was mett by King Albert V himself and his staff consisting of the 2 military commanders, the newly appointed Financial advisor her Heze Leurhausen, Cardinal martin Von Bokh and Simon von mulbergen the accounted advisor on foreign relations




Ludwig opened his papers and started his presentation.
Gentlemen, as you can see this is a recent map of territory throughout europe even though it is not precisly accurate I must insist it is useable to give a good impression of your plans your mayesty.
as the men gathered around the map, the king moved towards the head of it.
gentlemen he said, looking all in the face for a brief period,times are changing.
a lot of wars will rage and we are obligated to prevent disaster from ravaging our nation. instead of relieing on our pure strength of arms and knock our heads dead against army after army we will encounter in years to come. I feel we have 2 very subtile means to prevent it from having to come to war, unless ofcourse we choose otherwise, Ludwig why don't you brief us on what you had in mind.

ofcourse your mayesty Ehrthart said while bowing over the map with a smile. gentlemen we will not be in any war not of our choosing thanks to 2 very efficient means. namely Marriage and Money. Ehrhart waited a second to let everyone get the clue right and continued.
my friends our court is rich in daughters and sons and we will marry them with the nations surrounding us. relations are already good in most cases
but if we want a long term policy this should be the most effective in undermining the enemy's will to invade us.
however we will maintain a strong army Ehrhart spoke while looking directly to the military commanders as if the statement was solely meant to please them. Thank you ludwig the king answered smilingly to Ehrharts effort to keep the entire staff on the pro side. everybody took a few seconds to realise what was just said. the king walked around the table hmm yes good
noble her leurhausen would you do us the honor of showing your wits and..the king stopped and looked around for a second.

wasn't Febel supposed to be here to be accounted for the administration ?

ludwig's cynism could nearly be heard in his replie well yes sire but he did not show up, I've already sent a guard to look for him.

Albert V took a second to figure out if his ears where right about the tone in Ehrharts voice but decided that Ehrharts opinion on Febel was of no importance. since we are forced to delay her Febels explaination to the end of the meeting I suggest her Leurhausen goes ahead and unfolds his plan for economic reform.

Leurhausen smilled and stepped forward to the huge dark oaken table to unfold his papers, the fact that his preceder had apparantly made another blamage only ignited more of his pride.

gentlemen the economic system we are using is that of any nation and therefor it is inferior. Heze explained with a loud voice

the Crown has 2 forms of incomes, monthly and annualy
income comes from trade and taxes
my plans suggest :

- no more monthly incomes for the treasure to keep inflation low
- expenses should be centralised and be divided among the 3 fields most important for us : the army, trade, infrastructure.
- maintaince of the force is cutt back to 50 % in peacetime
- an active trader program optimally using our trade resources
- a reform in the tax collection system, starting by upgrading our tax collectors.
- expansion policy now falls under the economy policy as we will only go to war when there are rich lands to gain.

these measures will be welcome with the people and most effective for economic growth and advancement in our plans.

furthermore gentlemen Heze said to round off the presentation of his contribution, this means the army is now completely under control of the kings financial behaviour.

thank you Heze the king said, obviously pleased by Leurhausen's excellent first performance as the rest seemed to agree.
suddenly there was a loud knock on the door.
the king curious yet annoyed gave permission to enter after which two Royal guard Captains entered.

my lord we have found Febel in the Venetian Quarters, he was burning papers
we tried to stop him but he resisted violently so we had to.. err calm him down.

Ludwig raised an eyebrow Calm him down Captain ?

let's just say that he'll have a headache when he wakes up sir the Guard Officer responded with a twinkle in his eye

It seems Febel has some more explaining to do then we expected the King noticed with a deep sigh thank you for your effort Captain you are excused. the 2 guardsmen nodded and silent left the meeting room

the King walked around in silence for a few minutes
one of the 2 military commanders decided to offer a reaction

My liege should I go and get the rascal for questioning?

No Gartenisch, Feber will be accounted for in the morning, not now. King Albert V waved the offer away and walked back to the head of the table.

Gentlemen lets continue, lets finish this while its still january, Von Mulbergen and Ehrhart, show us your suggestions on foreign relations according to our Economics and Politics plan

Ofcourse sir, the men replied while unvailing another map



this map displays our direct foreign enviroment divided into powersections
to the north-west we see the southern german city states, to the northeast our bohemian friends and to the east and southeast
our slavonic friends. these 3 sections all 3 deserve a different approach but all fall under our plan to strengthen relations to the level of non-aggresion
we will be their friends but not their allies. Austria will not do the fighting of any other nation since their acting can not always be predicted and will in most cases be not in our best intrest to participate. to the south and southwest we see the Italian city states. with whom we share good relations but their lands are rich and constantly besieged by conflict. because of the warlike alliances the italian city states mostly have thined armies and not much city defences that can resist a proper prepared invasion. Von Mulbergen stopped to signal Ehrhart that his part was next.

Yes, it is to the south and to the southeast that we will expand while keeping the other nations from turning on us by limited aggresion from our side yet a clear strong financial and military presence. they will not mistake power from weakness.

King Albert silently nodded with a smile
it seems like an excellent proposal gentlemen however it is getting rather late I suggest we continue the meeting tomorrow to finish things up and so that we can take care of the ''Feber'' mater with both Feber and the Venetians.

the men agreed and silently left the chamber as the King retired to what had been on his mind all night long, the birth of his son earlier in the night.

thinking about his boy he realised he had another, even better motivation to reform the Kingdom, that was to give his son not a Kingdom, but an Empire.

The Rising Conflict


Chapter III

Ludwig suddenly shuck up and from his warm but humble fieldbed looked around through his tent. he suddenly realised the sun shining through a small open spott at the top of the entrance side of his tent had awoken him and relaxed a bit. from the silence surrounding his tent he assumed that he had waken up very earlier then the rest.. again.
Ehrhart enjoyed everything about being in the camp and being around troops
except ofcourse for the earlier part.

he wondered if he should stay and enjoy the privacy of his tent a little more before preparing to leave for Vienna but decided to get dressed. after all he liked to think of himself as a decent hardworking man.
He got out of the bed and changed into the clothing normally meant for a General in the Royal Austrian Army and got to the army headquarters tent.
there he was met by General frederick Artzinger and his staff, the commander of the 9000 men force currently stationed in the southwest of the Steiermark.

morning herr ehrhart, did you sleep well? general Artzinger greeted Ehrhart.

morning my dear Frederick I wish I could say I slept long!, Ehrhart replied with a grin while getting some water and bread. any news from the king ?

the general walked around the long streched wooden conferance table and satt down near some papers. no, he's still in Baden for his daughters wedding.

he'll return soon, I'm sure of it. this king isn't the type to hang around those events for long. Ehrhart spoke with a half full mouth, busy working the last of his bread away.

come general let us go through the plan so that the officers can be briefed later today when I leave for Vienna

Artzinger and Ehrhart satt down at the empty end of the table in front of the map



we already knew that the venetians are at war with Hungary and Croatia
our scouts have confirmed that the Hungarians and the Croatians invaded Istria to break the venetian mainland into two parts.

now, this map displays the fighting area's between venice, serbia , the Knights and cypruss and on the other side Hungary and Croatia



The hungarian-croatian army is about 13.000 men
They do not have enough troops to bring the whole of venice, istria and dalmatia under control. furthermore serbia is an active front for the armies of hungary and croatia and cyprus and the knights could ship reinforcements in through dalmatia to make a push for croatian lands.

Ehrhart explained his view on things to Artzinger.
they dont mean to control it, they mean to push venice to buy them off.
venice is rich enough and will surely pay.
the venetian army is thinned down to about 2000 men in the mainland
the war they fought was costly, peace was even higher priced.

Artzinger took a second to check the map for any overseen information.
then he looked up to Ehrhart with a curious face.
You prepared an invasion plan didn't you ?

ludwig smiled and unfolded a third and final map
Ofcourse I did. the King and his counsel approved of it already 2 months ago. they did however not set a time but the operation needs diplomatic and strategic conditions like the ones we are in right now. venice is weak and has no allies that can form a danger unacceptable for us to take.
let me explain the plan!




the first step
our first move is the northern army currently stationed in the ostmarch. they will move to salzburg from where they can be a central response to any unexpected aggresion in the empire itself.

our second move involves the Tiroler army. it will move to venice to besiege the city and prevent any landings to take place on your flanks and back.

step III of the plan involves your army herr general, your force's designation will be to take istria while step IV a fourth force currently being recruited in Vienna will move to dalmatia to prevent any landing forces or serbian forces to move north to relieve Venice or Istria.

the general goal of this campaign is to get the venetians to give up Istria, whatever we get more out of it is ofcourse very welcome.

General Artzinger moved around the map and looked at it from various sides to see if he could discover something ludwig overlooked.

well my dear ludwig Artzinger laughed. This campaign seems bright enough yet the time to act will be soon.

I know ludwig responded, thatswhy I'm leaving for Vienna soon.
prepare your forces General, I estimate our invasion will start within 3 or 4 months.