Berlin uber alles: A Brandenburg AAR

Notes:
This is my first AAR. I am not a extremely good player but I am pretty good.

My first goal is to establish Brandenburg as the Third Reich was after it finished in Poland. To do this I will take Poland, Bohemia, Austria, and any or all small German states.

I have studied Peter Ebbesen's AARs as well as Wyvelt's and a couple others'. I firmly belive in "Why use cheating if cavalry works just as well?". I am not a suicidal printer of money (ie, go bankrupt repeatedly), though the more money I print the merrier

I am not a Nazi.

I hope you all enjoy my story.

Johann recalled from history class what he could of feudalism, which wasn't much. All he remembered was that merchants and nobles ate like lords (well, some were) and that Agincourt, though it happened but four years ago, proved only the ineffictiveness of cavalry in swamp conditions. He resolved that therefore, infantry would be use only in sieges where they were as goood if not better than cavalry. He also figured that the more merchants in the kingdom there were, the better off Brandenburg would be. Therefore, he resolved to take on the Hanseatic League and declare war on Mecklemburg despite the lack of a casus belli. In late September, Denmark declared war on Holstein, and Scandinavia was pitted against the Hanseatic League. Brandenburg allied itself with Magdeburg (a vassal) and Saxony. In November, it declared war on Mecklemburg. The treacherous Saxons did not honor the alliance.

Well, Johann, scribe, you seem to have fallen asleep. I, Friedrich the First, will have to write down our history instead of you. Hmmpf! Well, I could intersperse it with stories of stealing the beautiful Maria from you, but you would find that and become angry. I do not wish to anger a wizard, even if he is officially out of favor at the moment.

The armies of Brandenburg soon conquered Mecklemburg, and it was annexed, taking our reputation down to tarnished (already!). The only ally of Mecklemburg that actually honored the alliance was Pommern, and soon its armies annexed Magdeburg. After years of playing cat and mouse games with armies, trading sieges, and so on, our heavily cavalry army destroyed the Pommern army on open plains in Magdeburg and captured all of its provinces. We settled for peace then. We got a hundred ducats, Hinterpommern, and Mageburg for peace in 1426. Gelre had declared war in the meantime, but we quickly killed the measly 5000 men they sent to Mecklemburg and sued for peace, handing them fifty ducats.

Saxony was mad at being left out of the plunder, however, and declared war in 1427. Fearing war exhausting nightmares with most of Germany pitted against us, we quickly ran around destroying small Saxon armies and got a white peace three months after the war declaration. Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, Bohemia annexed Pommern, Burgundy captured and got in peace a couple of provinces surrounded by French provinces (Austria will have serious issues when it inheirts Burgundy. It will be in recurrent wars with France. This might be fun to watch or more fun to get involved in). In 1430, just as I was looking for someone else to declare war on, I joined the Polish alliance, which was at war with Bremen and Holstein. I lost control of Mecklemburg briefly, but Poland settled a peace that did not give them Mecklemburg.

Johann scratched his head. Surely there was a better way than this? Perhaps he could get into wars - that is, convince Friedrich to get into wars- that he wanted to from now on, instead of being dragged into them. Well, here comes a courier. What news does he bear? He says that my efforts to persuade the Polish king to attack Prussia were successful! Good. My plans to secure a food supply for our armies will soon be successful, too.

Johann directed the armies to siege areas of high grain production and low fortress size. They found an area - Livland, it was called - where food was plentiful. It was promptly besieged and captured from the Teutonic Order (Prussia's ally). Poland thereafter sued for a peace giving us Livland! The Teutonic Order accepted. Johann was now faced with a dilemma. The area was prone to revolt, and there were only two ways of getting there from Brandenburg. Through Poland and Lithuania, which weren't going to be permanent allies, or through the Baltic Sea (which there were no ships to sail on). Johann decided to build a navy of 6 galleys to ferry troops back and forth to Livland in case of a revolt (after the rebels had conquered it and left, that is).

Elsewhere, Sweden picked the Torch of Freedom in the Englebrekt Rebellion and ended the Kalmar Union. The Norwegians, however, chose to be annexed by Denmark. Immediately after peace had been declared between Brandenburg and the Teutonic Knights, however, Saxony (again!) declared war. Poland honored the alliance, but wasn't any help. Johann proudly watched as the armies (at his direction) captured Anhalt. Peace was declared, giving Brandenburg 57 ducats and Anhalt. By this time it was 1434, and war exhaustion has high. In order to avoid being dragged into any more wars, he left the alliance of Poland and Lithuania. Johann also laughed because he still had only a tarnished reputation.

Bremen now declared war, bringing along Holstein, but our armies defeated theirs in the field, and we force-vassalized them. Holstein took advantage of the lack to Bremen's armies to attack its former ally and annexed it, making Johann very angry. Johann joined the Austrian alliance for protection now. It included Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Sienburgen, and now Brandenburg. After Bohemia attacked Johann, Johann captured most of the Bohemian provinces without significant losses as Central Europe turned into a bloodbath. Johann finally settled for peace, getting 90 ducats, Silesia, and Erz.

notallama - yes, by 1460-something I am in an alliance with two vassals of five years

Dan - How do i take screenshots (with Windows)?

never mind, figured the screenshots out:

Brandenburg in 1443:

http://www.angelfire.com/la3/zy/Brandenburg1443.JPG

as for vassals, I keep trying to force-vassalize, but things don't work in my favor I could have vassalized Bohemia, but their gov't fell. I tried Wurzburg, but they turned out to already be someone's vassal. I vassalized Bavaria later, as you will see. Next installment in about an hour.

Wilhelm nodded off during his briefing of the situation. The stamping of horses’ hooves woke him up a couple of hours later. “What is the news, courier boy?” he asked. The courier did not scratch his stubble before giving the message, but simply replied (in Greek, of course, why couldn’t he simply learn Latin, the language of civilized Europe). The courier's reply was only two words, but it would dominate Wilhelm’s life and plans to thwart the “wizard” for the next decade. Laetentur Coeli.

Johann had other things to worry about. After he joined the Austrian alliance of Austria, Hungary, and Sienburgen in February 1441, in March five hundred and three years before Hitler annexed the Sudetenland, Bohemia sent a courier to the palace at Brandenburg, followed by fifteen thousand troops into the mountains in Erz. Even as the troops prepared to invade Brandenburg, a larger force of Brandenburg loyalists smashed the troops to pieces at a mountain pass. After Austrian and Brandenburg’s forces had completely besieged Bohemia and captured Silesia and Erz, it agreed to peace for the captured provinces.

The 1440’s were the days. Brandenburg was at peace for six long years after that, and Johann enjoyed the comfort of all those courtiers wanting favors from him. He especially enjoyed that he kept his youth after the courtiers began approaching him with female “cousins” in tow. But that story for another day. By 1448, after yet another rebellion in the grain fields of Silesia, Johann was fed up. He dressed up some dead peasants into officers’ clothes, put large amounts of Bohemian currency in their pockets, and let an (honest) Austrian colonel find it.

Still, some were surprised when the declaration of war (officially called a Declaration that Bohemian Leaders Should Seek Peace – with God) was issued. Stability dropped precipitously (stab -3) and was later further dropped by nobles allying with Austria. The plan for the war was similar to the Schliessen Plan, and had similar results. Hordes of cavalry poured into the Bohemian mountains. They met at first with victory but then suffered 50% casualties and were forced to retreat. The only forces which captured any provinces initially were five thousand men sent to besiege Bohemian-owned Hinterpommern.

Holstein did not help the plan by declaring war. Its all-infantry force was quickly crushed, though with over seven thousand casualties and both provinces put under siege. It captured Livland with the help of its ally Lithuania, preventing Johann from both taking Bremen and force-vassalizing Holstein in one war, but Johann managed to take Bremen for peace.

Meanwhile Hessen declared war with its allies, pitting Brandenburg against half of Germany. Johann responded by doing some arm-twisting and securing a loan from bankers. The two hundred ducats were quickly used to build cavalry to crush the armies of Kleves and Hannover on the plains of Hannover and Munster (which Kleves had annexed). At long last (by 1451), Kleves, Hannover, and Munster were put under siege. By 1453, Brandenburg owned Munster, and had Kleves and Hannover as vassals. By 1454, the Empire of Brandenburg was at peace with the world. The rest of Germany took the opportunity to erupt in warfare, with the Hessian alliance at war with the Bohemia alliance and Burgundy. After the revolts were put down, the empire enjoyed seven years of peace, until Johann took advantage of a dead merchant to declare war on Bavaria, triggering war with the Bohemian alliance.

---- I would continue this but I have other concerns like work to do. I will resume this tomorrow if I have the time, or on Saturday if I don’t. ---

Never mind, seems I have time today to work on this after all. Well, here is the next installment:

Wilhelm’s diary, March 14, 1461:

Deutchsland uber alles. Morgen, wir werden Deutschland sein! Und Brandenburg oder Prussia oder Deutchland, das Vaterland, mit das Fuhrer Wilhelm. Und Johann, tot.

----- Calcsam’s Note: I am not going to translate that for at least another three episodes. So you better either translate it now, or don’t complain. Although even the most German-illiterate should understand at least one word. ----

The war of Brandenburgian Supremacy, as it came to be known, was neither quick nor easy. After having its troops routed at the Battle of Wurzburg, Brandenburg trained over twenty thousand cavalry and sent them to attack enemy forces and besiege provinces. Soon, the Sudeten had fallen to Brandenburg’s forces (in 1463) along with Alsace. Twenty thousand of Brandenburg’s finest cavalry defeated over sixty thousand enemy infantry in separate battles to lift sieges of Hannover and Munster.

That left the gate open to besiege and capture Wurzburg and Alsace (owned by Wurzburg), and peace was settled with Wurzburg for 75 ducats and Alsace. Vassalage would have been demanding if Wurzburg was not already a vassal of the rotten Bohemians. The Bohemians were not faring well, however. Troops captured Moravia, but did not attack rebels besieging Bohemia itself. When rebels captured Bohemia, the government fell, so Brandenburg could not demand that Bohemia become a vassal.

Also, forces stormed into, and captured, almost all of Bavaria (which had also taken Pfalz and Sachsen). Repeatedly defeating Bavarian infantry in the forests of Bayern, the Brandenburg army captured it in March 1465. Peace was declared in April with Bavaria (and the rest of the alliance, since Bavaria was the leader) in exchange for Bavaria submitting to the crown of Brandenburg and ceding Sachsen to it.

Muscowy had taken advantage of the whole situation to declare war on Brandenburg, and not having the money or inclination to fight it, Brandenburg ceded Livland for peace in 1468.

Screenshot in 1469:

http://www.angelfire.com/la3/zy/Brandenburg1469.JPG

to all readers: this is NOT a dead AAR. I am being forced to postpone my new entry until Thursday due to extenuating circumstances