Batlefront VII: Aar Thread

[admiral drake]

Post your Aar here

you can pick one of these rewards :

400 words

-0.5 iinflation
750 gold
-3 badboy
+1 stability
+ cores 2 points
+ conversion 2points

1000 words

-1 inflation
1500 gold
-5badboy
+2 stability
+ cores 4 points
+ conversion 4 points

core in europe/midle east = 1 point
core in rotw = 0.5 point

you can only claim cores on own lands or ai controlled lands (that are not a vassal of another player)
you can combine rotw cores and europian cores if you like aslong as they are equal to the amount of points you earn


conversion less then 500 gold = 1 point
conversions above 500 gold = 2points


if you wish to combine conversions and cores that is also possible, but keep in mind that you can spend a total of 2 or 4points in that case

for example:
a core on venice = 1 point
convert venice = 2 points
total = 3points
so i got 1 left to spend







Deadline is friday night midnight, after that i wil do edits as soon as i get arround to it
so anything not posted when i do edits is for next week

 

[King John]

Glorious Austria: Year: 0

Hard to say anything about my country before having actually played it, but there is one thing I can say about it. It could use another 500 ducats, so I will try to think about some other things to say as well.

Austria is a country that is nearly landlocked, trapped between foreigners everywhere except on the Adriatic through the tiny pathway of Carniola. Which makes it highly unlikely that Austria will be holding sway as a naval power anytime soon(not that this is ultimately out of the question). It also lacks in merchants, so will probably not be successful in trade for a long time, if ever(it probably will though. Just because it has no cots now doesn't mean it won't later). What Austria lacks in these two areas though, it makes up in raw manliness.

Army power is something Austria does not lack for. It starts with about 72k army support, and once Bohemia and Hungary are conquered, that'll go up beyond 100k. After that, only the very brave or very foolish will dare to wage war against Austria.

Austria holds the imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire also, but that doesn't really matter so moving on.

We, in Austria, are fond of fortune tellers and have been told by one that Burgundy will eventually be inherited by a Hapsburg. In fact, it won't even be a long time before that happens, just 23 years. We're really excited about this prospect. Eat it, France!

One thing that concerns the Austrians is the specter of being 3/5 surrounded by Poles. Usually having one Polish neighbor(Hal) is enough to ensure much unneeded death and loss of coin. Three... does not bode well.

I'm very glad though that Austria is close to having offensive 9 already. I haven't looked at any of the other countries, but hopefully I'm the only one who is so close. Otherwise, it's a testament to how bad EGO is at designing good scenarios. BTW, on that same topic, I just want to rant briefly about how stupid it is that every province has the practically the same tax value. Are we playing a random map? No, it's historical you say? Well, must be some kind of bizarro history, cause these demographics are bizarre. Oh well. We will just try to ignore that and think of this as more of an arcade game than a modeling of history(though, in terms of game possibilities, I think it is still vastly more interesting to have some provinces at only 2-3 base tax, since that forces you to build a smaller kind of fort, and to engage in sieges against such provinces in a different way). OTOH, it's nice that France has nothing near to the MP resources it had historically comparatively. Once again, eat it France!

Some might be wondering what ambitions the Austrians may be harboring in Europe. Well, nothing much really. Only to be well respected members of the European community, and to have ample opportunities to win glory and renown on the battlefield. Austria is a country of gallant knights and warriors, ruled by a long string of kings whose lust for battle is seconded by few(Hal may be one of them. I don't think he does as frequently, but he does it in spite of losing most of the time. When I DOW, my decision to DOW is reinforced by a reasonable expectation of victory. Hal can't possibly have that expectation, so his DOWs are fueled solely by the love of fighting. That's why I think his war lust has got to be greater than mine. It's a shame he's not in this game(I'm hoping he'll find a way to join later. If we're gonna have three Poles, might as well have four). ).


Austria will consider selling its services to other countries should those countries be willing to pay for such services as Austria is able to provide. No, I'm not talking about whores. I'm talking about sellswords. Austria will go to war for the country willing to pay reasonably(Assuming that war isn't too far away, and that I'm not already tied up on another war or something). We live in a market economy, and everybody has to sell something on the market in order to remain self sufficient, and this is what Austria has to offer(we have whores too, but for that you'll probably want to go to France, cause you can get them way cheaper).

Our fortune tellers also have told us that eventually there will be a wedding between Hapsburgs and the Spanish royal line, and since Spain's own fortune tellers have said much the same thing, we anticipate some cooperation between our nations even though we have no actual reason for it as of yet. We don't want to make an alliance awkward later on by creating a history of antipathy leading up to that point, I should think. So that's one friend that we in Austria hope to depend on. Beyond that, concerning other countries, I don't rule out the notion of some sort of a non-DOWing relationship for the first part of the game. If it works out well, I'd even be open for more of a long term arrangement, so feel free to contact me about it and we'll see if we can work something out.

Looks like Austria has a 223 leader to start out with. You guys better watch out, cause that +1 shock can be pretty deadly against leaderless armies. I know most nations also have leaders at this point, and will besides be receiving even more leaders via random generation. But if ye find yourselves fighting Austria and leave any of your armies unaccompanied by an able leader, then watch out! Cause given the smallest opening, my brave general will catch your leaderless stack and inflict great loss on it, perhaps annihilate it entirely(or my guy will lose. That's the other possibility, but there will be more of a chance of him winning in this event. The RNG is crazy this early in the game, but barring too much craziness, this scenario will favor me slightly). So, yeah. Watch out!

What will I spend my 500 gold on once this AAR is over. Hmmm. That is enough to buy about 60k infantry, or about 35k cavalry, or ten tax collectors, or two forts. Or I could buy a fine arts academy, with this added onto the default starting treasury. I'm going to leave this as a mystery for the world to speculate on. If I buy a fine arts academy right away, that should indicate that I'm not planning to attack anyone anytime soon. How could I, with my treasury almost entirely drained?... Although, what if that were just a deception- a way of making my neighbors think that I wasn't planning an attack? So they lower their guard down, maybe build a FAA of their own, and then... Slam! They get a taste of my 223 at the head of a 60k army(the one I start out with). Pretty cool plan, huh? Or, my idea could be to build a FAA to make them THINK that I was only doing it to trick them into a false sense of security, so they spend a lot of money on trips... AND THEN, I don't DOW them. I let them sit around with an oversized army for years on end, draining their treasury with huge maintenance, slowing down their tech advancement and preventing them from building up a sizeable treasury for future endeavors. Hmm, hmmm, hmmmm.

One thing that can be certain is that Austria is going to spend its money on the future, on the children, so that they have bright opportunities and exciting horizons to explore... Minus whatever we spend on alcohol.

 

[bluelotus]

Brandenburg: Introduction

Here lies Europe in the year of 1453, still trying to gasp the concept of the recent fall of the Eastern Roman Empire at the hands of the Ottomans. Well, except for the Ottomans, but they are not really European anyway so they don't really count. With the Turkish advance many European courts have hired experts to enhance their strategic abilities with the hope of copying their expansion – or checking it. I am one of these experts, although I have no idea how did I get landed with this job. In my CV it is outlined quite clearly that I am an expert of raging, profanities and boozing and not of strategic decision, but given that the duke probably can't read, and that I was the only one applying for the job, or well “a” job, here I am trying to lead Brandenburg to victory and glory. Let's take a closer look at this fine duchy, to determine what would be the price of glory.

As you can see Central Europe is mainly divided between many smaller German duchies. Well, we are one of them. What makes us different from the other smaller German realms is that we have plans, big big plans. Well I suppose Austria is even more ambitious than we are, but that has to do with being landed with an old crazed warmonger, but more about that later. A crucial part of our ambitions is to have common understanding with our most beloved neighbours. By the time of writing this memoir we have already reached out to other courts to settle a few things so that our plans can be implemented without any unnecessary bloodshed. On the other hand, some necessary bloodshed is unavoidable. Unless of course the multiple smaller German states decide to join Brandenburg voluntarily. In that highly unlikely, and boring, scenario my leadership might not even be needed. Until of course one of our trusted partners will go back on their word and backstab us. In this highly likely scenario I'll probably be vocal about the matter.

Anyway, the plan is to get rid of the minors as quickly as possible. First to ally a few so that we wouldn't be overwhelmed by the others, then, after achieving victory of the not-so-allied states, we will promptly turn around and backstab my minor allies, unless of course they decide to become our vassals through diplomacy. After officially getting my rightful provinces Berlin will probably see what the other courts are up to and act accordingly. This does not mean that we would only engage in reflective diplomacy, but our own initiatives will most probably come after assessing the other countries aspirations.

As for our close neighbours, to the East lies Poland with a previously not encountered mystical figure at its helm. Naturally a strong Poland means that Brandenburg has to look elsewhere for expansion, but because we don't know what to expect from a Poland led by a Pole different than the old suicidHAL one, careful approach will have to be taken.

To the North, there is the singing beauty with a voice capable of planting the idea of suicide in your head. In other words, Delian will be playing Sweden. No doubt he will pose us difficulties in the future, either by thinking that Sweden has anything to do on the North German coast, or by driving me insane by singing.

To the West, lies France with TC in command. If previous experiences will play any role in this campaign two possibilities can occur. Scenario A: I'll have to save his skin multiple times from his enemies by laying devastation to whoever touches him. Naturally, he'll backstab me when I'll be weakened later on and he will sleep well that night whilst I'll be busy being angry about people's silly diplomatic choices during the last session of the campaign(s). Scenario B: he'll be so obsessed with trying to make John's life hell that I'll be free to do whatever I want as he'll be constantly trying to batter Austria to death.

Finally, to the South, John has Austria in his hands. In the past 8 years I can only recall one campaign when we didn't go to war with each other, and that was the last one, so logic dictates that the next such game will be sometime around 2021. In any case, those of you who enjoy watching Germans and Austrians killing each other, I suggest RMs with both of us as no doubt you'll see plenty of hot deutsch speaking action. Of course most of these wars will be initiated by him, as I like to pose as the victim to secure the moral victory.

As for the rest, Berlin knows nothing about who is filling the vacant position up in England. To the far East Pepsikovich will lead the comrades into a happy technologically backward bear dance course. The Ottomans are being led by another previously unknown figure so there is not much to say about them, apart from they can be possible dear friends of us provided they dislike Austria as much as we do. To the far west dear Drake resides and I expect him to share his riches with me as soon as he gets rich. On this note, I encourage all of you to invest with your ducats, and not your soldiers, heavily into Brandenburg. If you do so, for every 500 ducats I'll record a video of my adventures in Amsterdam to make your investment well worth it. I suppose if you don't want to see my fabulous adventures you can just donate 300 ducats to Brandenburg and I'll tell you about it on skype. If not that then mayhap for 250 ducats I'll write a blog post or something. Or I suppose if we agree on a nice deal in game I can do stuff like declaring war on someone else for you. After all, if John can whore out Austria, I can do the same with Brandenburg.

 

[TC Pilot]

France: An Introduction

France is one of those countries that seems to be able to do a little bit of just about everything. Warfare on land and sea, exploration and colonization, even trade are all elements that an active French player ought to be able to make use of. This presents something of a daunting challenge for a player like me, who does not have quite the same experience as others might have in such countries. Certainly, the initial position looks promising enough. In control of two vassals at the start, it can quickly add two more to that list without any undue effort. Opportunities for expansion point France eastward toward the Rhine, and while this may draw France into war with Burgundy and its array of minor German allies, the abundance of wide-open territory, French cavalry, and shocking good leaders, this should not present too much of a challenge.

Expansion toward the Rhine (which is different than up to the Rhine) runs certain risks, however. For one, it might invite angry reprisal from either of the two major German powers. This, of course, is not a very desirable position for France, as its long coast and even its southern border leave much to be desired should France inadvertantly offend the sensibilities of its neighbors. That abundance of wide-open plains can work both ways, and no leader, however shocking he may be, can live forever. More to the point, experience has shown that my war-making abilities still need a fair amount of work. While Brandenburg and Austria's current "advisors" know from previous encounters that I can pull off some clutch victories, other times I can make elementary errors and bumble along, resulting in rather unpleasant and depressing outcomes.

Though, if there is a country in the game that has the capacity to bounce back from setbacks, I don't think it's unreasonable to single out France. In a way that is satisfying to my particular temperment, France is quite well-suited for early and mid-game internal growth and development. Because I can't dispose of my vassals for at least 50 years, things will most likely need to advance in a very methodical, straightforward manner. After the initial, and presumably succesful, war against Burgundy, it should be relatively easy and inexpensive to remove it as a serious danger, and the north Italian states like Milan, now that it appears there will be no Venetian player, can offer a happy diversion should my armies grow bored.

While France is interested in keeping its wars short in time, limited in scope, and cheap in cost, France is fortunate to have quite a bit of money to toss around to fund whatever projects it might have in mind. Again, this is where the emphasis on internal development comes into focus. The 500 ducats promised by the completion of this report will offer France a very sizable starting resevoir of funds, and its possible uses give me reason to think more carefully and plan ahead just what it is my mid-term goals ought to be. Will stability be an issue to the point that I should build a fine arts academy right away? Will I need to maintain a large cavalry army to repell invasion? Is Calais available to buy from the inscrutable English player? Is it worthwhile to try some early-game trading? These are all questions I do not have any answers to right now, and knowing me, I probably won't know for quite some time, if at all.

Edit - It occurs to me that I ought to spend a bit more time on this AAR in order to actually earn that 500 ducats that I talked about earlier. Sure, 250 is nice, but 500 is even better!

It took me awhile to think of how to expand on things in here without repeating a lot of what Krisz already said, or laying out a strategy (which would be counterproductive) that I wouldn't follow anyway. So I decided to discuss a little history, not of the game world, but of my own multiplayer experiences. The first really full campaign I participated in was almost three years ago, and I did so as Burgundy. I had the benefit of a very weak, if not outright ghosted, France for much of the campaign, which was what allowed me to survive a lot of the late-game, since Burgundy steadily loses its cores and accepted cultures over time. What kept me alive in that time was trade, as well as close reliance on a mutual understanding with one neighbor (in this case Brandenburg), and a close alliance with another (first John's Austria, later Krisz's England, as he pointed out in his own AAR). All-out warfare was never a serious option, and victory was counted in terms of surviving, not dominating, the world.

Subsequently, we played a randomized campaign, with me as Byzantium. In this one I was more aggressive, and found myself enjoying few successes. I was thoroughly outclassed by Drake's Egypt, which succeeded in expanding virtually unimpeded eastward, and boxed in by a strong power to the west and a very defensive power to the north. My ambitions were thwarted, from a combination of bad luck and poor planning owing to my inexperience.

In the next two campaigns (one of which, since it used the unbalance MyMap scenario, did not last very long) I was England, and yet again consistently showed myself poorly equipped to conform to a country's specific context. In the first, early and expensive efforts were made to knock out France, but owing especially to an uncooperative Burgundy, I failed in this ambition. The second time I reached an over-generous understanding with France, allowing it to achieve paramouncy in Europe. In the case of my Burgundy and England playthroughs, I found my plans thwarted by surprising limits to my resources. Neither could support an especially formidable army, nor could either of them afford the kind of navy needed to effectively make the homeland invulnerable.

This situation appears to no longer (or at least not as strongly) apply with France. But over the last few campaigns, I like to feel I have taken a few lessons from the experiences. Firstly, I have consistently overestimated other players' ambitions and greed. Or, in contrast, I have consistently underestimated other players' strategic myopia. In so many cases, my efforts to mobilize grand coalitions against a common threat, complete with grand plans of new world orders and dramatic partitions and province transfers, have gone unfulfilled. In a way, this ought not to be so surprising. Other people may not neccesarily share my own interpretation of the strategic situation, nor will they inevitably trust either my judgement or intentions. Though it can be a conclusion reached from these factors, I do not think it would be productive to blame other players. Rather, it seems more fitting for me to limit the ambitions of France, whether in terms of direct aggrandizement or in terms of improving the global strategic situation in France's favor. Far too often, it seems, every effort to master the course of events results instead in becoming a victim of circumstance. This is all the more the case now, as France's rather central location means that any attempt to rock the boat will create waves in every direction.

 

[Pust'el'Nick]

Ottoman Empire Pre-AAR​

England : Borek
France : TC pilot
Spain : Drake
Austria : John
Persia : AlterEgo
Ottoman Empire :Imperator
Russia : pepsi
Poland : Mystic
Sweden : Delian
Brandenburg : Krisz
​

On the begginings i must apologize for my english. As I said on skype chat room, feel free to point out my mistakes. Perhaps it's the only way to learn this language priopriet (via PM, not here ;P )

Rise of the ottoman Empire is stick with it's main character, Mehmed II. he came to the Ottoman throne following Murad's death in 1451. In 1452 he proposed, to siege capitol of Byzantines Empire, Constantinople. Most of his divan were against it. Also Grand Vizier, Halil Pasha join to criticized the Sultan, for being too rash, and overconfident in his abilities. Mehmed was sure his rights and skills, so he start preparations for the siege of Constantinople in 1452. It took one full year. In april 1453 Mehmed II and his army laid siege of capitol of Byzantines. After two months constant pounding by heave artillery, Turkey troops were able to breach the walls and rout the defenders. 29 of May, AD 1453, Mehmed II, the ruler of Ottomans, entered Constantinople with his army through Topkapi Gate. The city fell, and with it, the whole Byzantine Empire. In the place of past empire, the new grown up. The Empire of Turkey, ruled by Mehmed II, the conqueror, also claimed the title of "Caesar" of Rome (Kayser-i Rum). Major adviser of Ottoman's sultans was Imperator...

Thats how a new campaign begins. The game promises to be interesting, and adds extra flavor to the fact that I play in a group of people, most of whom do not know. I do not know what they can do, what style of game they like, are they ofensive, agressive style, or rather defensive, perhaps merchantile? In part i feel like i did before the first eu2 multiplayer campaign . So far as I know, my neighbours are agressive, war-loving type of players, which on one hand is good, because i won't be bored. On the other hand i can end up really bad, as a third world country, which, I hope won't happen.

First thing, that jumps out is new rules for the random leaders generation. Explorers and conquistadors will be available for the first time in 1550 (we used to play 1500 in Polish campaigns). This gives Spain a huge advantage, with its historical leaders, too rule the New World areas. Second thing is land/naval rule = 5 (which can be fun). Now theoretical land countries can fight naval powers, and in other way's, naval can fight land countries on land . Other rules are same or very simillar to ours, we apllied in polish campaigns.

A few words on my neighbours (acording to my spies):

Castile - will be led by Drake, a player who has a good reputation among Paradox players. We met once, in the Polish campaign, but only for a few sessions. The preliminary talks about Africa, shows that it's very unlikely to come to each other in the zone of influence. I hope for good relationship with Iberian King. For sure Castile is a strong player in Europe, especially, with their allaince with Aragonia, and Neapol.
Poland - My favorite country in eu2, ruled by Mystic. Poland in the early years is one of the strongest country in Europe. In my opinion, is the strongest. The Sultan has a peaceful coexistence with Lechistan and hopes for cooperative moves in the future, according we may have common enemys. Which, checking our history in the past fill up with wars, won't be easy.
Moscow - driven by a man named Pepsi. It enjoys a reputation among players Paradox when it comes to warfare. So far there have been no discussions, but I hope that the Russians will enter not too deep into the Caucasus, which is always considered Turkey's sphere of influence. In most of games Russia and Turkey are the strongest enemys. We will see how this deal will look here.
Austria - led by King John, another warrior, whose Paradox rulers fear. Another potentially dangerous neighbor, with whom there were no any diplomatics moves. I hope, however, we can divide the sphere of influence in the Balkans and coexist in peace. So far, after some dyplomatic moves, we can say, that ruler of Austria is a wise, and politic king.
England - will be headed by a "Mad" Borek. Let's hope he does not bring shame and show the best side.
Persia - led by Alterego, shiism country with, which I hope, coexist in peace. Hoping that he would go with his expansion into east, rather than west. Perhaps, if Persia will want to change their faith, Turkey will gladly help them. After all, sunni will dominate the whole world...


In 1453 Turkey is a very strong nation. It had the biggest start army, counting 60k soldiers, leading by Mehmed II himself (a great leader, that other countries should be fear). Also, Turkey, thanks to starting events, got as first 9 offensive. Another plus is a powerfull fleet, a total of 65 galleys, which are one of the largest fleets in Europe (probably second biggest in Europe, after Venetian). The treasury is full, which can let to recruit even more soldiers. The country is as religiously homogeneous. Sunnityzm dominates in most parts of the province. Only the southern balkans are Orthodox Christians, and Trabzon and Adana.
I'm planning to use the advantages of Turkey as soon as possible to take great expanse of mighty Mamluk state. The second hit will be Georgia, and thus create a safe mountain belt that will separate Turkey in the future of the Ruthenians expansion. I hope that I can take care of the Caucasus before Moscow will do it.

In fact it's hard to write something before the priopriet session. Everyone above are writing, how they spend their extra money from AAR. Manus, or army? I think, my extra money will go on converting heretics, into one and only true faith. On the end i wish everyone a great game, lots of fun, and let Ottomans win the whole campaign.

 

[Pust'el'Nick]

Mystic AAR

Poland since 1453
Poland is really ugly country. Trust me!! I lives in this country for 20 years. It is seriously quite well. I am playing eu2 for about 3-4 years. Not counting a single of course. Now i have to talk something about my country before 1453. History began in year 966 when Polish accepted Christianity. Mieszko I as the first Pole was baptized. He was a prince, not king. Our first king was Bolesław Chrobry. He was being crowned in 1025 and died in 1025. Nice, hmm? I forgot to say. First ruling dinasty was Piastowie and first capitol Gniezno. Gniezno isn't a major city, but has rich history. I wont be telling u about all kings, but about a few. So next important king was Bolesław III krzywousty. After his dead our country divided in 4 areas, rules by his sons. Only after 200 years Władysław Łokietek united them. In 1385 Poland formed a union with the Lithuanian and in 1386 Władysław Jagiełło became the king. This started Jagiellon dynasty in my country. The Jagiellonian dynasty led to the growth in importance of Poland in the European arena.
15.07.1410 a great battle took place in history. Pol + Lit fought against Teutonic Knights. And Pol won. After this battle Teutonic Knights lost the position in europe. Poland become the strongest country in the middle of europe. What's interesting Poland had a chance until the end to destroy Teutonic Knights. If reached it perhaps prevented in order to it for disassemblies, or perhaps the World War II. It didn't reach in order to then to connecting Brandenburg and eastern Prussia
Now its time to say something about players.
Imperator - I played with him on eufi so I know about him the most
Alterego - u will see
Now people from wrold area
Delian - traitor You don't know what he is gifted to. Good ally
Drake - they are saying that he is pr0, but we will see
John - they are saying that he is really agressive player, but we will see
Pepsi - I heard about him some strange things. I know one, he is nice. He told me that he was usually winning races
TC pilot - I heard nothing about him. Really.
Krisz - He is friendly. I like him so much !! I also heard that quite well he was playing.
England - who is playing eng?
Now i have no idea what to say

Now I will tell you about my plans. I played Poland mayby two times. Largely of games this country was conquered, annexed, ganged and really whipped. It is necessary to lead with good diplomacy in order not to come off too quickly. Particularly on casperus the situation seems to be really heavy, since Germany will be here strong. Reportedly the player on Russia is also strong, and at the same time aggressive what is leading to the fact that I will have to play mega cautiously. My past with the player on Turkey isn't too colourful, so one short circuit can bring about war. Personally I am open to offers and latest experiences, therefore it is possible at any time to write to me. The most I wonder what will make Delian. Sweden can always much stir it up. Put country on of out-of-the-way places. The frosty winter causes, that with the medium potential and for averages dyplo he is "outside the range". Often it is only England shadow, but can put a stab in the back and make a mark after troupes a good time. Eu he has it to himself, that how many players of so much ideas and one stumble can sometimes lead for falling on very bottom. Some players here, like to boast and to frighten with the internship. With times fairly good option for the foreign policy, but we will see whether they will manage to put their plans into practice. I regret a bit that earlier I didn't learn about paradox. Once I thought, that already in eu2 more on multi I won't play, because Poland boldly I can already probably call the stage fell down. I think my aar is totally boring .
A bit about what I noticed.
Of provinces which Poland can win it is quite much and they aren't so poor at all. It is only a pity that I don't have from the start 9 shock, because it much would facilitate the case and it is likely that even it would be fair. I noticed also a huge diversity as regards money with which is starting every state. Personally I think that everyone should get the same amount for the start. As for the land/naval plateau however I have always been sceptical. I'm sure that it will carry a lot of interesting situations into the games. For what sceptical? I am old-fashioned. n't know whether well I read. But the first discoverer on 11 nt. Isn't it putting Spain in the too good situation? If yes, it a lot will depend on the duet England-Sweden. I hope that he/she won't reach the hegemony of one colonial state. It is a pity that Poland even with a lot of the province won't achieve the sea potential of Sweden or England. Then only it would be ridiculously. Generally I am a bit excited with all these new principles. At us on eufi than they weren't innovating, but it can because many players weren't willing for the game. EU is super I don't know whether I didn't already write about it, but it my for the first time when I am writing aara before the session. Quite strange, because there is no about what to write.
About me
I am Piotr. I live in surroundings of Poznań and is interested in everything what's interesting. I wishes the peace in the world and when I will be a beauty queen of world will eliminate hunger by showing tits. The end justifies the means

 

[Pepsi_max]

Muscovy (1453)​

If there is a country that has expanded the most between 1453 and 1821, that would probably be muscovy (along with brandeburg)

The initial situation is pretty though. Muscovy have much cores on Novgorod, Tver, Pskov, Ryazan and Teutonic Order, but the problem is the land, which makes sieges longer than 6 months, and thus forcing a winter siege which is always very costly. On the other side, there is the very powerful golden Horde, allied with Crimea, which have both 20k cavalry and also a lot of infantry. Those may be costly to take if the first battles are lost but both of them will fall quickly once their armies are destroyed.
Lithuania is a mix of them, if their armies arent as powerful as the hordes, they are allied with Poland which can reallly bully Muscovy, forcing a many-years war. If muscovy gets the upper hand on this, lithuania wont be much the threat it could be later in late 1400's.

Hopefully, northern russia is a pretty much uncontested land for everyone, which allow Muscovy to play their own game for some decades, while other powers would be fighting over bohemia, hungary, italy, burgundy and south germany.

Early expansion is very necessarly, given the need of lands for muscovy to become a manpower-power later in the game. Even if those mainly comes from cores, getting lands and grain allow muscovy to get a higher support limit very early, and thus being able to be seen as major power in a war, even if its weak economically.

What's the world around us ? :

Russia : Main future power of the world. The player is very nice, never betray his allies and doesn't have any obsession of vassalizing every possible country, the player is always logical and never dowed 2 times a country within the first 15 years of a game, never vassalized both france and spain as OE in 1500's to screw up everything, never reached china in 1470's, getting 8 civil wars in a single session, and never the most death count in almost all his games. - The country has usually some opportunities in the early game, but has a though choice later on expanding to siberia/china/india or having a very active diplomacy in europe.

Ottoman Empire : Molesting John is a pleasure. I only save him from death to be able to do it myself...do that please so i can jump on him and say FINISH HIM with mortal kombat voice - Murderers of our byzantian brothers, They shall be kept out of russia at all cost. By far the most powerful country at start to have played it many times. Can basically invade france then gets betrayed by evil john, england, kill hungary, plunder austria and destroy africa within the first 10 years. When i usually play it i often gets gangbanged by 3 or more players. I recall having huge wars against the most lucky Austrian ever seen krisz in a recent game. That's the hardest part of the country.

Poland : If they manage to build a good advantage on their neighbours early on, they can become a huge power in the mid game and be the main eastern power instead of russia.
Often ends up being killing or killing russia in the mid/end stage of the game. It get hurts slowly from events though.

Austria : Hey John. Let's meet in Poland in 20 years (once i'll have annexed it) to redo our previous Neustrian-Eire show. We both know we're going to directly fight each other at one day. I know you've got stuff to do with others players too. So it may be delayed a bit - Austria is basically a pain in the ass

Brandeburg : Surprisingly, that's the same as John. I've not fought him in only one game. (where we were france-like and russia-like). Being russia/poland and austria/oe helps it though.
he very often relies on early starts to have a really strong game. Never been lucky with that country though, getting hit by a strange OE-Austrian alliance the first/second session doesn't help. But still winning it was a big achievment.

France : Even if i played much with TCP, i never had huge diplomacy with him. Contrary to John and Krisz, we were often far (he prefer western countries while i prefer eastern...). - France is usually a big power in all stages of the games. Maybe a bit weaker if it cant create anything outside europe while spain has all america and austria/brandeburg all germany. But leaders are strong so it the end france always have a big importance in the game.

Spain : Drake is maybe the more tactical player of us all, tryharding everything : diplomacy - economy. I usually have good relations with him, since we both knows when we can cooperate safely and what are both of our interrest. - Spain is pretty hard to play imo, maybe the hardest with brandeburg and venice, since you can get screwed by a lot of ways. can get invaded by almost everyone...france, uk, oe, pepsi's russia...

England : Borek. Unknow player for me. I'm not sure how will go my relations with him when i'll reach new york by 1480 through siberia and alaska. - The country heavily depends on his colonization and how it can manage spanish advantage.

Sweden : Delian is the newest player of our english group. He reminds me a french friend who as austria, got invaded by salzburg in eu3. Who lost to teutonic order as sweden and to tver as muscovy - That would be a good test for him, if he can match drake and borek.


I won't say my plans at the very first session, but people who played with me usually know which places i'll go first as russia. Haven't been playtesting at the moment so i can only think by memory what i can do and what i can't. I never fuck up my start so it's a good point anyway for me. We generally miss ampo and mats in this game i think.

 

[admiral drake]

Castilie 1453

Castilie is a country on the verge of reconquering the last remaining Muslim lands in Iberia, after which a golden future awaits across the sea
Though in 1453 Castilie just recovered from a nasty civil war and is ruled by a fairly incompetent ruler, and a even worse king awaits after that for the better part of the next 25years or so.
While the army is capable the leadership right now is not, with a support close to 60 000 men and a starting army of about 40 000 I can easily handle all my neighbors if needed 1 at a time but my best general has 3shock after my better general dies in about a month after the game starts.
Castilian policy will be to act in its own benefit first and for others later, while certain friends and brothers may get support this will generally be considered from a "is it in my advantage point of view".

At the moment I have a few potential ways of expanding my realm for the first session
To the west lies Portugal:
a fairly small nation with a big army and vast riches at the start, good relations and the ability to form a alliance with them does make this a bit of issue, considering they are my only potential ally at the start of the game
To the east we got Aragon/Navarra:
Most of the single player games I start Aragon/Navarra attack each other and Navarra becomes a part of Aragon in a matter of years, while this is not a issue for me, Aragon has a alliance with Naples at the start of the game making it impossible to ally him
This country is a lot weaker then Portugal is, has rich provinces on my border and I got cores on entire Naples and Aragon making this a very cheap conquest in terms of bad boy.
and once aragon falls, italy is within range with the rich provinces both in manpower and taxes

To the south we got Granada and the Muslim nations of North Africa:
Conquering these lands gives me access to west Africa, but comes at a cost, all those Muslim provinces are really bad for stab costs, fortunately most of them are cheap to convert and with the help of Portugal they are not so tough to defeat.
Pushing further into Songhai is where the real challenge of the south would be, the vast plains of Africa are an ideal area to be ambushed by cavalry and that can hurt without a good leader and better tech. but the rewards may make this gambit worth it, vast gold and other recourses lie here waiting, and this could make exploration across Africa for anybody not Spain a real challenge if the coast is controlled by me. And if this is done early enough most of these lands will be below 5k population thus allowing cheap conversions.
But those are only some of the potential areas to expand into during the next session as castile is currently ruled by an incompetent king and no generals worth mentioning since my only 4shocker dies in about a month after the game starts the rest isn’t really worth mentioning yet…

A few short notes about my neighbors
Ottoman Empire
After a few short talks a non-aggression agreement has been reached and Castilie feels confident I won’t have to worry about the Ottoman Empire expanding towards Algiers or morocco anytime soon, thus I don’t see any conflict in the nearby future and possible cooperation may even be possible.

France
Has just won the HYW and became a stronger nation out of it, controlling most of France with a few vassals left, to the west he still has Brittany to deal with and to the east he got burgundy but other than that his borders are fairly secure and his internal wealth is pretty big, enough to be able to save a good treasury and build refinery’s should he choose this or a big army if he plans to fight Austria, Brandenburg or Spain, there are certainly plenty of reasons to come in conflict in Italy or The Rhineland but there is also potential for peace if both sides are not too greedy and are open to compromise.

England
A unknown player on my account, I heard some rumor of nap breaker and aggressive play and I will prepare accordingly but until I get some kind of contact I can’t do more than that, if his reputation turns out to be true I may be forced to do a pre-emptive strike to slow him down.

Austria
My future Hapsburg brother, while I consider him a ally I am fully aware of john his passed and I know I will probably get a dow from him eventually so I will keep a close watch on him even if I support his efforts to some degree.
austrian area of conflict is actually limited to italy so if a dow happends it wil probably be fairly late

Russia
Unknown barbarians, I know Pepsi pretty good and I expect to do fine as Russia but we have no doplomacy or contact with russia at this time
eventually we may have some interesting diplomacy with the Russians, when they become useful and United Russia but for now i'm not bothered

Sweden
Another Barbarian nation crawling its way out of the dark ages, formidable warriors when they terrorized Europe a few hundred years ago, I wonder if the Swedish will proof to be as capable as their ancestors, it wil be up to delian but i'm sure he can handle sweden

Brandenburg
I expect krisz to be a capable Brandenburg and unless Poland attacks it at the start his survival should guaranty plenty of German wars between Brandenburg and Austria and a other neighbors, I for one will enjoy watching that aslong as i dont see a german fleet trying to steal maps

Poland
Well I don’t really know much of mystic other than that he did pretty good in the previous game I joined, so I expect Poland to do fine and hopefully become the great central European power it could have been if they had better rulers. i wonder if they wil make a move towards hungary/bohemia at the start.

Persia
Ancient and scary nation on the edge of the map, I don’t know its ruler so I can’t say much about it but time will tell

 

[delian]

För Sverige genom tiderna! 1453- 1480
Sweden had just got her independence from their former overlord, Denmark. Nationalregentet is currently managing the economy, diplomacy and military. Not very good tho, but not that bad either.

There was a lot of argues about “what should we do next”? Denmark was still an ally of ours, and we are the alliance leader. Many wanted to strike back on Denmark, taking valuable provinces and integrate them into Sweden. But it would be a time for that, later! For now we could use Denmarks army and navy.

We saw a rapid expansion in north germany, the duke of Brandenburg was waging war against Hannover and other neighbors. We as well had act rapidly, there was a valuable CoT in Hollenstein that could not be neglected!

We declared war on Hollensteins ally, Pommern. And hoping Hollenstein would join, and they did along with Mecklenburg and Bremen.

The Hollenstein army immediately started to siege Slesvig with 30k troops, leaving the capital unprotected. Sweden landed 20k troops, 50/50 in infantry and cavalry. Hollenstein tried to defend but where soon defeated.

But here it starts to take an interesting turn; suddenly I see Brandenburg’s troops marching towards Hollenstein, trying to break the siege. There was somewhat between 15-20k cavalry in their army, but luckily the Swedes fought with great courage and went back as victorious. I made heavy looses, and tried to rebuild my army. I managed to get a decent army, 14kcav and 14k infra this time. Bradenburg tried one more time to break the siege. This time he waited to Mecklenburgs troops to attack, and follow them. It was pretty equal, but again we pushed them back. And at this moment Hollenstein was secured, Brandenburg started to focus on Saxony instead!

Now with German CoT in our hands we started to look elsewhere, and Novgrod was having issues with Tver. Easy targets for the Swedish army, and once again the Danish supported our glorious realm. Novgrods troops was doing siege on rebels states and Tver, leaving their land unprotected. The goal was 2provinces, Ingeria and Kexholm. The winter delayed it, but Muscowy joined and cleared the east. So soon we got our demanded provinces.

So, we could not sit idle while others where expanding. So we looked for another, easy target. And Livonian Order had for long been struggling with their diplomatic relations, nobody wanted to befriend then. So with no alliances whatsoever the Swedes decided to grab a hold of these precious provinces. With our new boarder with them, we hoped they would spend those 35k troops on stupid siege in east parts of Sweden. They did however spend a lot of troops on that, but 25k was still in their capital. And it took some time for the Swedes to defeat them; they were running around, crossing rivers. Trying to delay the inevitable!
After 5years they had stopped running, fire spread across balticum! Victory was once again completed, but all this expansions have led to revolts… un-stabilizing the country, we had to invest a lot money to recover the trust of our people. But the news of even more glorious victories in the east has a positive effect on the people, they are now proud over the motherland!

But rumors spread across the country, an intervention against our faithful ally, Denmark. England was planning to attack the northern islands. Raping the women, make them eat beans and have silly hats. We had barley finished the war with Livonian Order, and we received a message that the English had sent their armada to the Danish islands. Unfortunately we were incapable to assist our allies; the Englishmen had invested a lot of money into their navy. Counting almost twice as many ships compared with our own.

So we had to dishonor the alliance, but now the thoughts of brining the Danish provinces to Swedish rule came to Nationalregentet minds, Denmark was busy and easy target. So, we waged war against over former overlord, they did not make much resistance! We had laid siege on the Danish islands and Jutland in just a couple of months. Their navy was soon defeated and the small army left in Norway did what they could, but with no success. Skåne, Copenhagen, Jutland, Slevsig… all soon fell into our hands, we just needed a couple more sieges in Norway for complete victory.

Christiania, Jämtland, Bohus soon fell as well. Once again the Swedes won a decisive victory! Bringing 4 wealthy provinces to our realm. 2provinces with base 12tax, 2provinces with base 10 and a CoT!

We now controlled most of the trade in northern Europe, money started to flow into the treasury. And some brilliant economic reforms had reduced our inflation with -4, we are now somewhat in the middle of economical power. Not great at OE, but still better than our main rival England.

After the peace was settled, Copenhagen soon got new visitors. England had told me before that he would only take Orkney and Färöarna. And Nationalregentet was fine with that, for now. But we got suspicious when they conquered all of the islands, including Greenland. And stacked 35k troops in Copenhagen, and the traitors soon took all the islands and Greenland.
They even exterminated the whole population of Scandinavians in the Orkney Islands, and replaced them with… Englishmen. Blä

The Nationalregentet was furious, and told the Englishmen that this conquest will bring war between our countries. England replied by attacking us, destroying 20% of our navy. With 250ships the Swedish navy was an easy target, however… there will be a time for revenge, and there will be future war for the supremacy over those islands!

We soon sought peace with the English, realizing that it was to soon. And instead we started to focus on Denmark again, Denmark and rebuilding the navy…

Again, we laid siege to the islands and capital. The Danes moral for fighting was very low, they did not resist much. The cities around the capital fell, and shortly after did Christiania and Jämtlands. The peace deal will include ceding big chucks of norways to Sweden, and eventually an visualization.


1026words

+500gold

 

[delian]

Sweden on the rise -1553
Once there was a big, powerful union: Kalmarunion. It had a purpose… under the rule of margareta the first, the north was flourishing.
She was raised by a nun, Saint Birgittas daughter. She controlled a single, great state in the north that controlled the trade, Baltic sea, trade of fur, iron, copper and much more.
But the time of joy did not last very long. Margareta manage to develop and unite the union… Sadly her heir did not succeed well as her.

After her death her son Erik became king. He was raised in the castle, shielded of from the reality. He did not learn the respect the people nor the nobles. All he wanted was glory, and the only way to get it was thru war. So he declared war on the german minor states, singlehanded he tried to defeat Hansa and their allies.
He did not succeed, the passionate search for glory soon turned into a desperate quest for victory.

The people soon grew restless… The Swedes, the Norwegian, the finish soon grew tired of paying for a war that was ongoing in Germany, far far away from their homes. They did not have the urge for glory, they wanted their money to survive… And the nobles did not want the king to take their lands and limit their power.

The nobles of the two states in the north had a secret meeting… they wanted to break the union, they wanted to spend their tax money on home field, develop themselves instead.

The foolish nobles of Norway decided to stick to the union, they believed that better days would come. And be more beneficial in the long run.

The Swedes however could not stand this brat king and broke the constitution that held the union together. The Danes were so busy with the German wars, so they had no other option that accepting. They could not afford a two front war, the separation was peaceful and the two countries still saw the use of each other. They formed an military alliance, but that was it. The Danes continued their war in Germany, Sweden was rebuilding herself.

After centuries of Danish rule, the state had not developed well as Denmark, many reforms were made. An increase of the army, and the navy was made. And soon the Swedes were equally strong.

It was just a matter of time, but soon both states realized that the north is not big enough for them both.

Only one can prevail


426 words
+500gold
and +1stab in total for next session

 

[bluelotus]

What, why would you get +750 gold? The AAr deadline for the previous AAr was Friday night - not one day after the session.

 

[TC Pilot]

France: 1453-1480

France begins the scenario with a large army and a large collection of leaders practically beginning to be used. Foremost among them is Richemont, who enjoys a 5-shock rating and can reliably trounce enemy armies with all-cavalry. Second is Dunois, weaker than Richemont by 1 in all categories but siege (where they are equal), but also longer-lived. There’s a third who boasts a 3-siege rating, but I can’t remember his name right now. Combined with the 1,000-ducat treasury France possesses, expansion by military means is only sensible.

On day one, I ally with Bourbon, who uses it to promptly declare war on Orleans, a 1-province vassal of mine. Since Orleans could not be diplo-annexed until 1492, I take the opportunity to join the war and annex Orleans, although at a cost of -3 stability. After this practically bloodless war, I turn my attention to Burgundy, who is allied with Lorraine and a host of German minors. Surprisingly, Lorraine breaks its alliance when I declare war, but since I possess cores on Lorraine, attacking them in the future will not be a problem. In any case, the war with Burgundy goes smoothly. Richemont crushes most opposition, Burgundy’s southern provinces are rapidly taken, and peace is settled for 3 provinces.

A series of more wars follow in quick succession, though I forget in which order. Suffice it to say, Lorraine loses one of its two provinces and is vassalized, while Provence loses two provinces and is also vassalized for good measure. Later on, acting in consultation with the King of Castile, France declares war in order to take possession of Rossello and also annexes Armagnac, a vassal of Castile through an unrelated war, for good measure.

One of the perennial issues facing France over this time is the cost suffered in terms of its stability. With all the wars France participated in, as well as a handful of political crisis random events, which bring -3 stability, a great deal of effort is needed to keep stability at acceptable levels. This, of course, hurts my investment in infrastructure tech, which I was still able to reach by approximately 1472. Furthermore, despite the wars France fought over the years, the need to replenish losses, as well as promoting tax collectors in all the new provinces conquered, France managed to maintain a large treasury reserve with little to no inflation, in preparation for the construction of a series of refineries. At least, that was the plan, which as will be explained in some detail below (and hopefully enough to reach 1,000 words), is not how things ultimately played out this session.

One of the most remarkable features of this first session was the series of human vs. human wars fought. The immediate concern, of course, was the near-simultaneous declaration of war by Poland and the Ottoman Empire against little Muscovy. Neither of these two attackers could, as far as France was concerned, articulate any coherent reason for declaring war, and it seems, at least in France’s opinion, that both Ottoman attempts to block expansion south into the Golden Horde and east into Siberia, as well as Poland’s refusal to allow expansion into Lithuania, are unreasonable demands to foist upon a country like Russia. But without a navy and preoccupied with matters much closer to home, obviously France could not make its opinion felt in my material terms. That is not to say, mind you, that France harbored at any point a desire for war with any of those three countries.

One of those more immediate concerns was that of the situation in Italy. Venice, for reasons that defy sensible explanation, elected to aggressively expand into southern Italy, in land typically accorded to the Castillian/Spanish player. While it may be reasonable that Venice’s declaration of war was a preemptive measure, the aggressive nature of Venice’s actions, among other things, precluded any possibility of French intervention. Indeed, France used this moment of distraction to launch its own invasion of Italy, seizing control of half of Savoy in the process. Simultaneously, Austria decided to invade northern and central Italy, taking advantage of the large AI alliance bloc to expand quickly and cheaply. This expansion was looked at with some concern, as Austria’s war gains held little geographic sense, blocked the natural avenues of Venetian expansion, and disrupted the spheres of influence previously marked out informally by Castile and France prior to 1453. Regardless, France was not willing to go to war on behalf of Venetian claims, certainly not after the pounding it had received in its lost war against Castile.

This situation, however, changed with Austria’s decision to, in turn, attack Venice. Perceiving this as an effort to effectively remove Venice from the game, France decided it was time to intervene, and the full French army was brought south. War was declared, and military access into Venice received. The French performance in the war left much to be desired. Richemont, Dunois, and the 3-sieger were all dead, replaced by rather unimpressive random generals. France also was one or two land tech levels behind. Thus, despite numerical superiority, French armies were routinely defeated, suffering heavy casualties.

France’s problems were compounded by the political landscape. Switzerland controlled the direct routes from Savoy to Venice, and a string of minor countries meant French armies would need to march through Genoa, down through Tuscany and across to the Romagna to reach Venetian territory and reinforce the other armies. Worse, Austria enjoyed military access with these minors, giving the Habsburgs vastly superior mobility, allowing them to pick and choose their engagements and defeat the reinforcements in detail. The navy, which had been originally assigned to transport troops, was pulled into the Adriatic by the need to help clear the Austrian navy out of Venetian waters, though even then it took several battles to ultimately win.

Having suffered such costly losses and convinced that losing two provinces would not cripple Venice irreparably, France was looking to exit the war at this point, but held on due to the intervention of the Ottomans. This formula was instantly changed by the Palatinate’s declaration of war on France, which pulled Burgundy in. Faced with war in the north, France accepted a white peace with Austria and immediately withdrew.

After quickly rebuilding the army, France threw back the enemy invasion of the Champagne region and, pulling Brandenburg into the war, determined to complete the partition plan for Burgundy reached with England decades earlier. To do this, all or nearly all of Burgundy had to be occupied, and this was eventually done, with the exception of Amsterdam which was nearly ready to fall.

It was at this point we rehosted, prompting an event to fire in which Austria “inherited” Burgundy, yet one that also gave ownership to whoever control Burgundy’s provinces. Thus, the war came to an abrupt end, resulting in France owning 10 provinces, Austria in control of Amsterdam, and Brandenburg picking up Oldenburg. In other words, France unintentionally gained twice as many provinces as it had set out to conquer. Obviously, some sort of solution is needed, if the peace is to be maintained between England, Austria, and France.

Word Count: ~1,200, so give me 500 ducats please.

 

[King John]

My focus for the session was to secure most of the Burgundian inheritance. I anticipated TC making a mad dash to acquire the best provs in Burgundy right away, and therefore made arrangements to be able to shift my attention to the west very quickly. I made deals with Poland, Bra, and the OE delineating partitions of Bohemia, Hungary, Germany and other parts of the Balkans, and signed 20 year NAPs with all of them. I hoped I could then settle with my part of Bohemia and Hungary quickly enough to be able to shift Westward and throw back the French invaders before they were finished.

To start out, took advantage of the high relations between Austria, Hungary and Bohemia to get MA in both of those, and moved my forces up into Bohemia to knock out its army right away and lay siege to everything. Built 13k cav and DOW'd Croatia, their ally, who also shared good relations ensuring they honor the call, and then went to work. Things went quite predictably in Bohemia. Killed most of its troops and put everything under siege. Hungary sent its big army to siege Marchfield, which eventually fell, but it threatened nothing except to lower my support below my current troop level. Since I'd lost a few thousand men, that wasn't a problem.

As provinces fell in Bohemia, I shifted forces toward Hungary. They had a pretty big army under a strong leader. I eventually fought a battle against this leader, and lost it along with 15k cav, but the rest of the war went smoothly, and after another year or so, Hungary and Croatia were pacified, and I took all their land except the two K provs and Transylvania, which were to go to Poland. Took four provs from Bohemia, leaving out Silesia which was promised to Poland. Funny thing about that was that he couldn't actually take most of them because Bohemia was now surrounded by Austria and he lacked MA into Austria. I used this leverage to try to get him to separate peace Russia, and also got a promise of 100D for it.

France didn't really make a big push into Burgundy. He took his French cores, and then let it be. I found AI wars to fight though. Took Breisgau from Wurtenburg, and vassalized Helveta. Then took advantage of the CB on Milan, Savoy, Genoa, Parma and Tuscany that came from them being at war with the Papal States. Got MA in most of them beforehand, and then DOW'd Milan. That was an efficient war, in which I don't think more than 5k troops were lost, and it netted me four rich provs and a vassalage over Milan and Parma.

Meanwhile, Hal had picked a fight with Spain, and lost. And of course when he loses, he always loses big. His fleet was mostly gone, and it was a fair assumption that his treasury was drained, along with his will to fight. I could've at that point swooped in and taken what I wanted. My NAPs with the OE and Poland still had almost a decade remaining, but I delayed. I think it was from feeling bad for him, and wanting to be more sportsmanlike by giving him a breathing space to recover some of his strength. I made it clear to him that I wanted to have Istria, and in the months and years leading up to the war, tried to get him to talk about selling it. He wasn't too interested in that, though, and instead resorted to trying to guilt me away from any kind of aggression by calling me greedy.

Well, eventually I got bored and impulsive enough to DOW him. I was by this time getting very worried about the OE's impending LT CRT, and wanted to do something about that when I got the chance. But I also wanted to DOW Hal, and with three years remaining, figured I still had enough time to do that. Theoretically I had more than enough to overwhelm Hal and send lots of stabhits, but was slowed down by another intervention.

France. It came to my attention that forces were being mobilized in the west, and so I positioned my troops accordingly to meet their arrival. Wasn't sure what to expect here. I knew he commanded a lot of men, but my initial resources to resist him seemed pretty sound. My fleet had been growing, and by this point numbered about 40 ships. I had captured a couple provs from Hal, and battered his men around here and there. Dropped an army in Venice, and had already killed one of his that tried to force me out.

France attacked my army in Parma, and lost. Then I had to retreat, having been too depleted there to hold again. I had 30k cav hanging around. They captured Fruili, and then went to Brescia, but then left that one to some inf to hang around Modena in case TC gave me any potshots at his inf in Pisa. It wasn't a long wait. I had abandoned Pisa and Siena to be put under siege, which they soon were, and moved my infantry to Marche where they would defend effectively whilst also gaining territory, given enough time(Venice owned Romagna, Marche, and some other prov on the Adriatic side of the Italian peninsula above the Po). France sent some forces against this Marche army, lost a couple times and then won, kicking me out to Romagna. Meanwhile, the two 6k armies in Siena and Pisa were hit with my big cav army and both annihilated.

I don't remember all the rest of the details of the French stage of the war, but there was a lot of battling in the hills of Parma, which tended to favor me, and I was able to get up to stabhitting warscore against Venice while holding back the French.

Then the NAP with the OE expired, and they exploded into Hungary, assaulting as they came. At this point, Spain pressured France into white peacing, which TC did gladly. It was actually quite a coup for him. It was the perfect opportunity to grab Burgundy, which he proceded to do. I had a failsafe ready in England, with whom I'd arrived at an agreement whereby he would help me defend Burgundy against French incursions and in exchange would receive Flanders, Zeeland and Holland. So I appealed to him to surprise TC with an English cav army. However, I was to be disappointed. The English had a shamefully inflated perception of French power, and dared not attempt to stall their attack. The truth of the matter is it would've been the height of ease. It would've taken as little as 40k cav and a halfway decent leader(and everyone had halfway decent leaders). French forces were scattered in the low countries trying to lay siege to everything at once. So he could've landed on one of them, killed it, then moved along to kill another one or two before they could react and get their armies back together. There was a lot of potential for killing Frenchies. I don't know if TC had MA in Burgundy, but if he didn't, then it would've been an uphill battle from that point on.

The war with the OE and Venice went fairly well. The initial thrust into Hungary lost me the border provs around the riverlands, and Buda. Buda however was recaptured with my cav army after a few months, and then the one that starts with an Sz was put under siege. I won some battles in the plains here and there, but Mehmet is a very good leader and requires overwhelming force. I was raising my cav numbers and generally had about 45k to meet him if he cave me the opportunity. At one point he tried moving to Pozozny with 30k, and I hit him with 45k or so and nearly killed Mehmet(he was down to 9k). A bit after that, I won some battles in the south that allowed me to then march into his territory where reinforcements were being built. Was able to kill 6k cav as they appeared, and won a battle against one other reinforcement army before having to retreat. These are just highlights, as the exact course of the war is a bit fuzzy to me already.

My fun times ended when he got the CRT. By this time, Venice was at about -75 warscore, and had refused 10+ stabhits, but since Hal has an endless tolerance to pain, that wasn't that decisive. The last few stabhits were for a white peace, and then to just give up Siena. They wanted a lot more though- all my Italian land plus something for the OE. I continued to resist the OE hoping to score a surprise cav victory that would wipe out a leader, but it's pretty hard against the CRT and Austria was inexorably pushed back.

It took a long time for them to respond with a concrete peace proposal. The OE wanted to have everything- a long NAP to protect them from further trouble, which as was explained is against the rules. He flirted with the idea of taking maximum demands for himself, which would've made the total land gain for their alliance something like 11 provs I suppose. But finally, after a seemingly endless internal debate, agreed to a peace for only seven provinces and an inclusion of Poland in a 20 year NAP(good call on that one. I would have taken it out on Poland given the chance). Their delay in deciding on peace terms caused me to take a loan, since my army support and income by that time were very getting small relative to my remaining army size, which caused a big discrepancy between my income and costs. But... Austria emerged from this adventure still alive, which may be something to be thankful for.

The OE cleverly demanded provs that caused my Varad prov to become surrounded after the peace. Thus, I may end up losing not 7 in total by 8 should rebels happen to pop up there. *Shrug*. I'm going to get it all back from him the next time we fight(Or the time after that, should that not work out, or the time after that... Eventually, it will all come back to Austria).

500 ducats

 

[HALNY (HAL)]

Well, eventually I got bored and impulsive enough to DOW him. I was by this time getting very worried about the OE's impending LT CRT, and wanted to do something about that when I got the chance. But I also wanted to DOW Hal, and with three years remaining, figured I still had enough time to do that.

Honest confession at least ;p

 

[HALNY (HAL)]

I. Venice - The Intro - Story of Golden Lion

The fame of Venice spread long time before year 1453. Not only its wealth, fleet and splendid admirals made it so, but most of all a great legend of its timeless hero The Golden Lion also known as HAL The Annexator! His unimaginable actions from the time when Europe was threatened by wild hordes from the east and south, had made Venice a country flowing with milk and honey. And that is why many nations throughout the continent looked with admiration on the City of Canals. Unfortunately, many rulers also looked with envy and jealousy at Golden Lion. Excelled in this were miserable kings of Spain and Austria, who from generation to generation passed hate to Venice, the Doge and all Italians. But let us not focus on bloodsuckers of Europe. Let the contempt of their own peoples take them into oblivion, and let us return to the story to the legend of the HAL The Golden Lion, a great leader and defender of many nations in the face of annexation.
Before the 1453 HAL the Annexator was unaware that his next task will be to take power over all Italy, and fight against the forces of evil that have been and are interested in cutting up the beautiful land of the ancient Romans. He was quietly working on art and patronage in the landscaped gardens of province of Firuli, sometimes only advised to Doge on matters of defense and foreign affairs.
And that is, on one of the quiet Saturdays, when he was purchasing seafood on one of the local markets, suddenly the rider pulled him off the road with the news that there has been a revolution in the country, Doge is dead, court aristocracy leads contention and mindlessly arguing on internet forums and chat rooms, and there is no one to take power. That moment Golden Lion knew that there is no time to lose and he must go, as soon as possible, to Venice to take control and restore order. He gathered a group of trusted armed men, came to the palace of the Doge, and announced that anyone who does not submit to his rule will be sent to most horrific torture that exist in the world - to Vienna to learn waltz on lessons taught by the John B. to music by Andreas C. ... Immediately pale of fear fell upon all the courtiers, and no one dared to oppose him. And so in this way, on September the first of Anno Domini 1453 HAL The Annexator became the new doge of Venice and flag of Golden Lion began to wave over the city and on all ships.

However, it is worth mentioning about the fate of the Annexator from the pre Venetian era. Of particular note is his campaign for the reconstruction of the so-called Europa Universalis group that gathered people from many countries around the world, and the aim was to promote quality entertainment while learning history. Among the prominent members of this group one must include such names as: TCPilot, Krisz (bluelotus), Ampoiloros, King John, Delian, Drake (Aenigma), Kanth, Pepsi, Ear, Barca (Dane), Mats, Colonel General, Mulliman, and many many others. Noteworthy is also joining to this group by people like ImperatorPL and Mystic.
HAL The Golden Lion (also known as: Sarmat Lion, Lion of Oceans, Le Roi Lion, Lion of Orient, Lew Lechistanu, Lion des Alpes, Slavic Lion, Sea Lion, El Leon) spent a lot of time teaching members how to fight and die with honor, how to behave in the face of annexation, when to prepare uprising, and how to move the capital to another continent. However, the most valued of all skills of Golden Lion (except of a sense of humour and infinite resistance to pain) was to master and develop the mysterious, ancient magic of even more mysterious name "Power & Prestige"! This known only to a few magical knowledge has allowed HAL to perform efficiently many difficult and lengthy campaigns. As we can read in the old books and archives, through the "Power & Prestige" Europa Universalis group had many historical discoveries, and beat a whole lot of world records. For example, one of the campaigns was fought until the distant future to the year 2048. No one knows what magical powers were used to wage battle over the so distant history. Only a Golden Lion has this knowledge in his head. And that is why so much he was and he is esteemed by many rulers of the world, and why he is the new doge of Venice.
His enemies are definitely worried of that mystical experience and that is why they do plotting and scheming with each trailing occasion. But over time, in the past and in the future, HAL destroyed enemies, even under adverse circumstances, many times (to be written about this more in the next AAR), and it can be expected that as the Doge of the country on the Adriatic coast, and perhaps also the future Pope, he will handle all evil opponents and their gamey plans.

And just speaking of enemies and other Les Miserables of coming campaign around Venice: before 1453 there were some diplomatic talks between Spain and Venice. Venice generously agreed to allow Spain to maintain a sphere of influence over Naples, in exchange for the rights to the province of Capitanata. Also HAL helped to conclude an agreement with France, under which France relinquished claims to the lands inhabited by native Italians.
As it might have been expected Venice not entered into any agreements with Austria, as its ruler spent days torturing their subjects with waltz lessons, and spent night with his lover Andreas, and had no time at all to receive diplomats. Bored with waiting HAL The Annexator (remember, here called Golden Lion) moved to Constantinopole and managed to establish a very good relationship with Ottoman Empire. Many kings and nobles of Europe with disapproval and envy looks at the growing friendship of Venetians and Turks, but time will tell (and next AAR) that 'covenant' with the Ottoman Empire can be a very good diplomatic move.



around 1000 words
500 gold reward please

 

[HALNY (HAL)]

II. Venice - Romans Heritage

It was spring of 1454 when news of Aragons' agression reached Venice. Greedy king from Barcelona poisoned Naple's ruler and proclaimed his sovereignty over all south of Italy. Such dirty move couldn't go unpunished. In matter of days Venice gathered massive armies and managed to strike Capitanata, Apualia and Sicily at once. Venetian armies and their great leader HAL The Golden Lion once again proved that his skills come directly from Roman ancestors, and that even such well equipped armies like Spanish can't compete with them in battle. After several months of sieges most of Aragonian provinces (Sardinia, Malta, Sicily, Messina, Apualia, Capitanata) surrendered to Venice. Such tremendous defeat forced court in Barcelona to quickly give up most of lands they stole from Naples. Venice was triumphant!
But... victory was not celebrated too long. Petty king of Castile simply couldn't bare the fact that his puppet gave lands so easily without real fight. He ordered seizures of properties all over the country and raised taxes, just to built a bit more ships than mighty and legendary Venice fleet had. He also use money stolen from his own people to bribe advisors to king of Portugal, who manage to convince him to join the war against Venice.

First years of war went pretty well for Venice. HAL The Golden Lion was using his sea tactics in interesting manner... but than suddenly, devious Portugal set a trap! Spanish fleet was running in fear for months, but last day of their escaped occurred to be tactical move to join with Portuguese forces near Sardinia island (to be honest I had no idea Portugal joined war vs Venice ). Since that moment Venetian ships started to diminish in terrible way. On one of them admiral Gonzaga Abarruzio lost his life and with him died morale of all Italian sailors. Spanish galleys used this moment to break into Adriatic sea and started invasion of our holy land!

Meanwhile the most greedy cormorant in entire world - Austria - exploited turmoil in Italy and was attacking one city state after another. All Italia was burning and fat Germans rampant in the cities and villages. The Golden Lion got mad and instead of fighting till the end and turn Spain into ashes, he decided to peace in order to prepare for fight with Austria.
But let the reader will weigh on the fact that it was not Venice who seek to war with Austria. After taking over the five provinces and making vassals of two Italian states Austria launched an aggressive diplomacy demanding commitment from Venice in form of Istria of Marche provinces. Of course such disgusting and provocative offer couldn't be accepted. Sensing the impending danger HAL (also known as Annexator!) immediately send envoys to Paris to discuss situation. French king was very knowledgeable and understanding the problem, and didn't like German presence in Rome, so ordered preparation for intervention in the event of aggression from Austria side.
The funny thing is that so called emperor declared war so fast that his marching armies were intercepted before they reached the southernmost provinces! Anyway, exhausted remnants of the Venice army didn't stand a chance against massive invasion, so most of them were put on ships and were attacking marudering Austrians.

After first year of FRA - VEN - HAB war France was still unable to break Austrias' defence lines in mountains. It became obvious that it is leading to dangerous stalemate, so Golden Lion moved the world from its foundations, shaken all courts in Europe, but none listened! Only foreseeing sultan of Ottoman Empire realised that lost of Venice in this war means its on the way to annexation by Austria, and that soon all world will face behemot from Vienna. That is why Ottomans moved armies from Russian border to provinces on the banks of Danaube, and helped Venice by joining the anti-Austrian alliance. It was of course major turn in war, as Austria had to move armies east. Unfortunately evil Spaniards started throwing threats towards France and they white-peaced Habsburgs (maybe a little too fast ;p ). Also furious emperor started to send dozens of stabhits offers, but it seems he forgot he was dealing with the most resistant creature of all times: THE GOLDEN LION! HAL refused most of his pity offers and despite great turmoil in country and many thousands rebelling was still able to control the situation and rule all territories and armies.
Yet, combined forces of Ottomans and Italians managed to throw away Austrians from Italy, and when citizens of Vienna saw marching Turks they forced their mad ruler to give up (pit they didn't hand him). Peace deal was sign in Rome by emperor himself, kneeling before Doge HAL The Golden Lion and Sultan Imperator. And so in this way Venice regained control over Lazio, Siena, Pisa and Parma.

And now let us all read with proper respect about the most important event of last decades (and most important in entire game so far). Habemus Papam! On January the seventh of Anno Domini 1480 the Holy Conclave of Our Holy Mother Catholic Church elected HAL The Golden Lion also known as Sarmat Lion, Lion of Oceans, Le Roi Lion, Lion of Orient, Lew Lechistanu, Lion des Alpes, Slavic Lion, Sea Lion, El Leon as the new Pope! His first words to crowds gathered in hundreds of thousands in Rome were:
- Peace to all people of good will! War and death to all those who dare to undermine Our Holy Power!!!

So much turmoil, so many battles, such a heavy losses! Who could expect that?! But it seems Venice is not sunk ship yet. Victorious war with Austria, current diplomatic deals (NAP with Austria, NAP with Spain, province deals with France and Ottomans), and most of all Pope from Venice - all this give hope for a slow recovery, and maybe even improvement in shape and condition of country of brave and strong Italians who proudly wear the Lion's color of Gold. Once again land of ancient Romans feels on the top and look forward to next session!

Around 1000 words.
500 gold please.

 

[Pust'el'Nick]

Imperium Osmańskie 1453-1480

England : Borek
France : TC pilot
Spain : Drake
Austria : John
Persia : AlterEgo
Ottoman Empire :Imperator
Russia : pepsi
Poland : Mystic
Sweden : Delian
Brandenburg : Krisz​

Imperium Osmańskie 1453-1480

W 1453 roku doradcą Mehmeda II Zdobywcy został polski strateg, Imperator. Po wstępnych rozmowach z co bardziej znaczącymi władcami Europy nakreślił on plan tureckiej ekspansji. Rosjanie nakłaniali Turków do podboju Węgier i tym samym osłabienia na starcie Austrii. Austriacy z kolei proponowali pierwsze uderzenie na rozległe państwo Mameluków. Hiszpanie wspominali o Kaukazie, jako dobrym miejscu do zatrzymania przyszłej ekspansji rosyjskiej. Plan jednak był zgoła odmienny. Dzięki potężnej flocie, sporej armii, mocnemu dowódcy, jakim bez wątpienia był Mehmed II, oraz pełnemu skarbcu, postanowiono pierwsze uderzenie wyprowadzić na Krym. Plan podboju był ambitny i bardzo ofensywny. Po podpisaniu paktu o nieagresji z władcą Austrii i wyznaczeniu strefy wpływów (na mocy którego całe królestwo Węgier należeć się miało Austriakom), oraz po obopólnym zagwarantowaniu bezpieczeństwa i nienaruszalności terytoriów z Madrytem, Turcja była gotowa uderzyć na wschód. Ankara (wówczas stolica Osmanów) i Warszawa porozumiały się bez problemu co do strefy wpływów na wschodzie. Już na samym początku podzieliłem armię na 3 części. Pierwsza, główna armia, wraz z całą kawalerią, pod wodzą Mehmeda II została przetransportowana na okrętach wojennych na wody krymskie. Druga armia, pod wodzą Hamzy Beya, skierowała się w stronę gruźińskiej granicy. Trzecią armię, dopiero co werbowaną, powierzono młodemu wodzowi, Aybarowi. Miał on uderzyć na państwo Mameluków, gdy tylko odpowiednia ilość rekrutów będzie stacjonować w Adanie. Pierwotnym planem było uderzenie w trzech kierunkach jednocześnie. Na Krym, Na Gruzję, oraz na Państwo Mameluków.

Wojna rozpoczęła się od desantu na terytorium krymskie. W kilku potyczkach Mehmed II rozbił wojska nieprzyjaciela i przystąpił do oblegania miast Chanatu. W międzyczasie Hamza Bey przekroczył granicę z niewierną Gruzją, rozbił wojska wroga i przystąpił do oblegania prawosławnych twierdz. Armia Aybara wciąż czekała, jak potoczą się sprawy na wschodzie. Plan podboju wschodu szybko musiał zostać zweryfikowany. Państwo Moskiewskie, barbarzyński twór z dalekiego wschodu Europy, zaatakował Złotą Ordę. Tamtejszy władyka, zwany przez swych pobratymców Pepsi, od samego początku napawał się swoim doświadczeniem, niejako traktował z góry swoich sąsiadów, dając im do zrozumienia, że to właśnie Moskwa będzie głównym graczem na wschodzie. W swej bezczelności i pysze ośmielił się wypowiedzieć wojnę Krymowi. Jego armia jednak nie zaatakowała Chanatu, wysłał on jedynie jednego ze swych liderów, w celu przejmowania tureckich oblężeń. Nie wiem na co liczył, jednak dla Turcji sprawa była jasna. Rosjanie jawnie prą do konfliktu. Turcy nigdy nie ustapią pod wpływem gróźb i zastraszania. Nadszedł czas na plan B. Turcja wypowiedziała wojnę Złotej Ordzie, która walczyła już z Państwem Moskiewskim (Rusini oblegali już stolicę Złotej Ordy, Tsaritsyn). W obliczu moskiewskiego zagrożenia, Turcja zdecydowała się wypowiedzieć również wojnę Państwu Moskiewskiemu.

We wrześniu roku pańskiego, 1454 stolica Złotej Ordy oblegana była przez 24 tysiące Rusinów. Prowincję na południe, w Alanii, stacjonowało 19 tysięcy tureckich kawalerzystów, pod wodzą Mehmeda II. Prowincja Kouban oblegana była przez 18 tysięcy Turków. W Kaffie stacjonowało 12 tysięcy kolejnych Turków, gotów wesprzeć oblegających kouban, w przypadku rosyjskiej agresji. W październiku jednak wojska rusinów, w obawie przed zimą poczęły się wycofywać na północ, zostawiając do oblegania stolicy jedynie 12 tysięcy żołnierzy. W listopadzie doszło do pierwszej właściwej bitwy z Rusinami. 12 tysięcy ruskiej kawalerii pokonało 20 tysięcy kawalerzystów, pod wodzą samego Mehmeda II. Nie był to dobry prognostyk... W grudniu jednak Turcy ponowili atak. Tym razem górą był Mehmed II, który rozbił w pył oblegających miasto Rusinów. Rosjanie wycofali się na daleką północ, tracąc na skutek zimy kolejne cenne jednostki kawalerii. Turcja jednak nie goniła wroga. Postanowiono skupić się na Złotej Ordzie, głównym celu tej wojny. Systematycznie przesuwano wojska i zajmowano kolejne miasta. W marcu, 1455 roku padła stolica Złotej Ordy. W sierpniu padła Mordva, oraz Donieck, a miesiąc później Astrachań. W tym momencie Polska wypowiedziała wojnę Państwu Moskiewskiemu. Celem wojny było zagwarantowanie sobie wieczystego prawa do ziem Litwy. Już w tym momencie wojna była przesądzona. Państwo Moskiewskie postanowiło jednak walczyć, nie godząc się z utratą Litwy i południowych terenów Złotej Ordy. Do roku 1458 terytorium Złotej Ordy było w 100% kontrolowane przez Turków. Do bitew z wojskami ruskimi dochodziło sporadycznie, głównie przez gapiostwo Pepsi i zazwyczaj kończyły się anihilacją wrogich wojsk. We wrześniu 1458 roku Złota ORda zgodziła się na pokój z Turcją, zrzekając się na jej korzyść prowincji Alania, Astrachań, Yaik, Donieck, Uralsk, Burtasia. Już wcześniej pokój podpisały rozbite całkowicie Krym i Gruzja, na mocy którego całość ich terytoriów, za wyjątkiem stolic, zostały wcielone do Imperium Osmańskiego. Polska podpisała z Moskwą biały pokój, zyskując gwarancję do ziem Litwy. Z kolei Turcja wciąż trwała oficjalnie w stanie wojny z Moskwą, pomimo tego, że oba kraje nie mogły się już wzajemnie atakować, oddzielone przez terytorium Złotej Ordy (Moskwa podpisała z Ordą biały pokój przed Turcją). Jak dla mnie to próba prowadzenia wojny na wyniszczenie, ale w obecnej kampanii nie ma wzmianki o tego typu akcjach, więc spokojnie chciałem odczekać 36 miesięcy. Ostatecznie, po jakimś roku Pepsi podpisał biały pokój i tak zakończyła się pierwsza konfrontacja Turcji z pogańskim wschodem. Cele, które zakładał pierwotny plan zostały wykonane aż w nadmiarze. W związku z owym faktem postanowiono wcielić w życie plan ataku na Mameluków.

Kampania w Afryce trwała o wiele krócej. Państwo Mameluków, w konfrontacji z weteranami I wojny rosyjskiej, nie miało szans. Wojna nie trwała zbyt długo. Kolejne twierdze padały. W momencie kiedy Turcja osiągnęła 5 poziom technologii lądowej, umożliwiający jej szturmowanie wrogich twierdz, wojna zakończyła się błyskawicznie. Potrzeba było jednak aż dwóch wojen, by całość ogromnego państwa nad Nilem wcielić do Turcji. Obecnie jedynie stolica, Egipt pozostaje pod kontrolą Mameluków.

Sprawa granicy na wschodzie nie została w żaden sposób uregulowana prawnie. Dyplomaci moskiewscy wciąż słali roszczenia i pretensje do byłych ziem Złotej Ordy. Posuwano się nawet do gróźb. Pepsi odgrażał się, że jeśli teraz nie oddam mu ziem na wschodzie, to w niedalekiej przyszłości, gdy tylko wygaśnie pakt o nieagresji z Austrią, stanie po stronie Wiednia. Jako, że traktuję wszelkie groźby wobec mojego kraju śmiertelnie poważnie, postanowiłem przeciwdziałać. Potężna armia stanęła na granicy moskiewskiej. Rosjanie wówczas zajęci byli walkami z muzułmańskimi chanatami w Azji środkowej. Odcięli oni Turcji azjatycką drogę ekspansji. Mimo wszystko zaproponowałem pakt o nieagresji. W odpowiedzi ponownie usłyszałem żądanie zwrotu ziem Ordy, w innym wypadku Rosja zaatakuje Turcję razem z Austrią. Nie uśmiechała mi się wojna na dwa fronty, w związku z czym wypowiedziałem wojnę Rosji jeszcze przed upływem NAP'a z Austrią. Rosjanie zostali błyskawicznie rozbici, wojska tureckie zajęły wszystkie ziemie na wschód od stolicy, Moskwy. Dopiero wówczas Rusini opamiętali się i poprosili o pokój. Na mocy porozumienia Turcja zyskała prowincje Emba, Yust-Yurt, Khiva i Turkmenistan. Ponadto podpisano pakt o nieagresji na 20 lat. Turcja była gotowa do konfliktu z Austrią. Po prawdzie obawiałem się, że Austria wykorzysta zaangażowanie wojsk tureckich na wschodzie i zaatakuje, łamiąc NAP. John postanowił jednak zaatakować Wenecję. Chciwość zgubiła go w tym momencie. Nie dość, że pozajmował zachodnie włoskie prowincje, podbijając kraiki prowadzone przez AI, to jeszcze zaatakował samą Wenecję, żądając od niej 2 prowincji na Bałkanach. Wenecja poprosiła o pomoc Francę i Turcję. Francja, która dość biernie przygląda się poczynaniom zarówno Hiszpanii, jak i Austrii, pozwalając obu tym krajom na agresywne przejmowanie coraz to większych terenów w Europie tym razem postanowiła wspomóc Wenecję. Austriacy jednak przełamali obronę francusko-wenecką i przystąpili do oblegania większości weneckich miast. 3 lata po wybuchu tej wojny, Turcja dołączyła oficjalnie do konfliktu po stronie Wenecji. Francuzi, widząc to momentalnie wycofali się z wojny podpisując biały pokój (tłumacząc się agresją krajów, prowadzonych przez AI). Turcja wykorzystując zaangażowanie wojsk austriackich w Italii dość mocno wgryzła się w Bałkany, przejmując austriackie miasta. Nie udało się jedna sforsować Dunaju i zająć prowincji Buda. Austriacy,w liczbie ok. 50 tysięcy kawalerii stanęli pod granicą i skutecznie blokowali dalszą ofensywę turecką. Sytuacja zmieniła się, kiedy Turcja, jako pierwszy kraj osiągnęła 9 poziom technologii lądowej. Dzięki przewadze technologicznej wojska tureckie skutecznie przełamały austriacką obronę i poczęły szturmować kolejne miasta wroga, aż podeszły pod Wiedeń. W międzyczasie desantowałem się w Italii i pomogłem Włochom w odbijaniu ich miast z rąk wroga. Austria dość szybko skapitulowała. Zrzekła się na rzecz Wenecji 4 prowincji włoskich, natomiast na rzecz Austrii 3 prowincji węgierskich. Wykorzystując fakt, że w wojnę zaangażowana po stronie Austrii była również Chorwacja i Węgry, Turcja dokonała aneksji tychże państw. Dzięki tej wojnie Imperium Osmański powiększyło się o 5 prowincji.

The Ottoman Empire 1453-1480

In 1453 Mehmed II the Conqueror advisor was Polish strategist , the Emperor . After initial discussions with the more significant rulers of Europe drew up a contingency plan Ottoman expansion. The Russians pushed the Ottomans to conquer Hungary and thereby weakening the start of Austria . The Austrians , in turn, suggested the first attack on the vast Mamluk state . Spaniards talked about the Caucasus, as a good place to stop future Russian expansion . The plan , however, was quite different . With a powerful fleet , a large army , its powerful leader , which no doubt was Mehmed II , and the full vault , it was decided to put the first blow to the Crimea . The plan of conquest was ambitious and very aggressive. After signing a nonaggression pact with the ruler of Austria, and the appointment of a sphere of influence (in which all belong to the kingdom of Hungary took the Austrians ) , and the mutual guarantee the security and integrity of the territories of Madrid , Turkey was ready to hit the east. Ankara ( the capital of the Ottomans ) and Warsaw agreed to without a problem on the sphere of influence to the east. Already at the beginning of the army divided into 3 parts . First , the main army , with all the cavalry , led by Mehmed II was transported on board a warship in the Crimean water . The second army , under the command of Hamza Bey , headed for the Georgian border. The third army , just recruitment, entrusted the young chief , Aybarowi . He had hit the Mamluk state as soon as sufficient number of recruits will be stationed in Adana . The original plan was to strike in three directions at once . In Crimea, the Georgia, and the Mamluks .

The war began with the landing on the territory of Crimea . Several skirmishes broke Mehmed II the enemy army and proceeded to besiege cities Khanate . In the meantime, Hamza Bey crossed the border with Georgia unfaithful , smashed the enemy army and proceeded to besiege the Orthodox strongholds . Aybara 's army was still waiting , how things in the East. Plan conquest of the East quickly had to be verified. Member of Moscow , a barbaric creature of the Far East, Europe, attacked the Golden Horde . The local lord , called by his fellow Pepsi , from the start savoring his experience , as it were treated in advance of their neighbors , giving them to understand that Moscow will be a major player in the east. In his arrogance and pride dared to declare war Krymowi . His army did not attack Khanate , he sent only one of its leaders , in order to take over the Turkish sieges. I do not know what counted , but the turkey thing was clear. The Russians openly currents to the conflict. The Turks never subsided under the influence of threats and intimidation . It's time for Plan B. Turkey declared war against the Golden Horde , which is already struggling with the State of Moscow ( Russians already besieged the capital of the Golden Horde , Tsaritsyn ) . In the face of Moscow's threats , Turkey has decided to terminate the war, the Moscow you .

In September the year of our Lord , 1454 the capital of the Golden Horde was besieged by 24,000 Russians . Province to the south, in Alanya , stationed 19,000 Turkish cavalry , led by Mehmed II. Kouban Province was besieged by 18,000 Turks. In Kaffi stationed 12,000 consecutive Turks besieging kouban ready to support , in the event of Russian aggression . In October , however, the army Russians , fearing the winter began to retreat to the north, leaving the besieged capital of only 12,000 soldiers. In November came the first proper battle with the Ruthenians . 12000 Rus cavalry defeated 20,000 horsemen , led by Mehmed II himself . It was not a good omen ... In December , however, the Turks renewed their attack. This time the mountain was Mehmed II, who crashed in the dust Russians besieged city . The Russians retreated to the far north , losing as a result of winter another valuable cavalry units . Turkey , however, not chasing the enemy. It was decided to focus on the Golden Horde , the main purpose of the war . Systematically shifted the army and dealt another city. In March , 1455 years came the capital of the Golden Horde . In August fell Mordva , and Donetsk, and a month later Astrakhan . At this point, Poland declared war on the Moscow you . The aim of the war was to ensure the perpetual rights to the lands of Lithuania. At that moment the war was a foregone conclusion. Moscow , however, you decided to fight , refusing to accept the loss of Lithuania and the southern areas of the Golden Horde . By the year 1458 the territory of the Golden Horde was 100% controlled by the Turks. To battle the forces of Ruthenian occurred sporadically for wool-gathering Pepsi and usually ended with the annihilation of enemy troops . In September of 1458 years Golden Horde agreed to peace with Turkey , surrendering to her advantage province Alania , Astrakhan , Yaik , Donetsk, Uralsk , Burtasia . We have already signed a peace broken completely Crimea and Georgia , under which the whole of their territory , with the exception of the capital , were incorporated into the Ottoman Empire . Poland has signed with Moscow White Room , gaining assurance to the lands of Lithuania. On the other hand, Turkey still underway officially at war with Moscow , despite the fact that the two countries could not no longer attack each other , separated by the territory of the Golden Horde (Moscow signed a Horde white room in front of Turkey ) . As for me, is an attempt to fight a war of attrition , but in the current campaign, there is no mention of such campaigns , so quietly I wanted to wait for 36 months . Finally, after some years Pepsi has signed a white room , and so ended the first confrontation between Turkey and the pagan East. Objectives, which in the initial plan were made in abundance . In connection with this fact it was decided to put into practice a plan of attack on the Mamluks .

The campaign in Africa took a lot less time. The Mamluks , in the face of Russian veterans of World War I , did not have a chance. The war did not last too long. Another fortress fell . At a time when Turkey has five levels of technology, land , enabling her storming enemy strongholds , the war ended quickly . It took , however, until two wars to a whole huge country on the Nile incorporate into Turkey. Currently, only the capital of Egypt under the control of the Mamluks .

Case border to the east is not in any way regulated by law . Muscovite diplomats still strewed claims and claim the former lands of the Golden Horde . Goes so far as to threats . Pepsi threatened that if we do not give him the lands to the east , in the near future, as soon expires non-aggression pact with Austria, to side with Vienna. As I take any threat to my country with deadly seriousness , I decided to fight it. The powerful army stood on the border of Moscow . The Russians were busy fighting with Muslim chanatami in Central Asia . They cut off Turkey's Asian expansion path . After all, I proposed a non-aggression pact . In response, I heard again the recovery of lands Horde , otherwise Russia will attack Turkey, together with Austria. I did not relish a war on two fronts , and therefore declared war on Russia before the end of NAP'a with Austria. The Russians were quickly shattered , the Turkish army occupied all the land east of the capital , Moscow. Only then will the Russians come to their senses and asked for peace. Under the agreement, Turkey has gained provinces Emba , Yust - Yurt , Khiva and Turkmenistan . In addition, the non-aggression pact was signed for 20 years. Turkey was ready to conflict with Austria. In truth, I feared that Austria will use the commitment of Turkish troops in the east and attack , breaking the NAP . John decided , however, to attack Venice. Greed lost him at this point. Not only that pozajmował Italian western provinces to conquer kraiki run by AI , it has attacked the city of Venice itself , asking it to two provinces in the Balkans. Venice asked for help on France and Turkey. France , which is quite passively watching the actions of both Spain and Austria , allowing both of these countries to the aggressive acquisition of more and more land in Europe this time decided to help Venice. The Austrians , however, broke the Franco- Venetian defense and proceeded to besiege the majority of the Venetian cities. Three years after the outbreak of the war , Turkey officially joined the conflict on the side of Venice. The French saw it immediately withdrew from the war by signing the White Room ( explaining aggression countries , led by the AI) . Turkey using the commitment of the Austrian army in Italy quite a bit into the Balkans , taking the Austrian city. No one was able to cross the Danube and Buda occupy the province . Austrians , the number of about 50,000 cavalry stood the border and effectively blocked further Turkish offensive . The situation changed when Turkey was the first country reached 9 level civil technology . With the technological advantage Turkish troops effectively broke the Austrian defense and other cities began to storm the enemy , until approached in Vienna . In the meantime desantowałem in Italy and helped Italy to bounce their cities at the hands of the enemy. Austria quickly capitulated . Waived for four Italian provinces of Venice , while the three provinces of Austria Hungary . Taking advantage of the fact that the war involved on the side of Austria was also Croatia and Hungary , Turkey made the annexation of these countries . With this war, the Ottoman Empire expanded by 5 provinces .

-5bb

 

[admiral drake]

Castile-Spain 1453-1480

In 1453 Castile had big plans, the completion of the liberation of Granada after 800 years of Muslim control,
and the conquest of Aragon where one of those, pre session we had some discussion with Venice, where I offered to stay out of north and central Italy on the condition that Venice would leave Naples alone, this was not accepted by Venice who got greedy and wanted Naples.

At first he was willing to let me keep Naples but upon checking the map he refused my offer so his aar is not exactly accurate, as the only thing he was willing to let me keep was Apulia.
When the session began I attacked Granada, with the help of Portugal and quickly captured Gibraltar using my army to crush the army of Granada after
which I allowed Portugal to siege Gibraltar but under my leadership, then allowed Portugal to siege Granada. Allowing Portugal to annex Granada.
After that something unexpected happened and Naples choose to be annexed by Aragon, a B option in a historic event, something that caught me by surprise and Venice to.

However as soon as I dowed Aragon to take my mainland provinces + Sicily, Venice attacked Aragon to,
upon which he received a warning that I would dow him if he takes anything outside capitanata (or whatever name was). Venice obviously thought he could challenge Castile as he not only took that province but also proceeded to siege entire Naples and Sicily, Malta and also Sardinia.
When I stole the siege in Sardinia, Hal claimed it broke an agreement we never made(since he refused) and threatened to dow pre-emptive which was a foolish thing to do.
Shortly after he peaced for half of Sicily, 2/3 of Naples and Malta. After which I continued my war vs. Aragon.

However what Hal did not know is that I was building ships since the start of the game and had more ships then he did and Portugal had another 50 ships.
And thus since he was warned by me and threatened to dow pre-emptive to, I dowed his ass and attacked his fleet near Naples. A battle I lost despite better numbers but lower morale I retreated to Sardinia since I saw the Portuguese fleet heading there to, knowing that Venice would chase me and I was right. Venice chased me and lost a major battle vs. the combined Castilian-Portuguese fleets.
After that Major battle Venice was pretty much on the defensive the rest of the war, he won most battles because of my really bad morale, shitty king should have been shot,
especially when he became insane on top of his incompetence.
Either way despite winning a lot of battles, his numbers where dropping slowly both on land as at sea. Eventually allowing me to crush the remaining venetian fleet of the coast of Venice and started the blockade of Venice. At that point I landed in Venice and the province to the east of Venice and started a siege. This finally made Hal see the light and accept terms for the 4 provinces he took from Aragon.

During this war I used Ma in several Ai in Italy quite extensively, I had Ma in almost all of them allowing me to hit Venice anywhere I wanted, but even then my morale hurts me pretty bad.
After the war I had to recover my economy since I was suffering from lag and was taking lag loans, this disappeared on rehost but it was still pretty annoying.
Fortunately John his Austria send me some financial aid to help pay for the lag loans, allowing me to recover my finance.
By the time I was recovered fully castile became Spain and it was time to test the special ability of my new nation out, free casus belli on all heathens!
war was declared on morocco to get a pathway into Africa, and Algiers and decided to participated. Spanish forces now under much stronger rule with her majesty Isabella taking the throne,
now had the morale to fight like a normal force had very little issue with African army, despite the fact that Algiers participated it was only a matter of time before they got crushed by Spanish forces,
Spain conquered all provinces from morocco in a matter of years and peaced out for any province outside the capitol of morocco .
After a few battles crushing the Algerian army we sieged Algiers and made them into a vassal. Up to this day they pay tribute to Spain.

On the end of the session Spain offered a non-aggression pact with ottoman empire, venetians and France, allowing me to recover a little bit and hopefully have a peaceful session.
However it has come to my attention that the English are evil warmongers and may have plans to attack poor Spain despite the fact that I have done nothing wrong to Spain (yet).
Measures have been taken to ensure that if England attacks it will come back to bite him.
But Spain is still concerned because the English have been building ships like crazy and it could be a very annoying war should he attack me.

Fortunately Spain also has options next turn, Columbus soon showing up will allow me to explore as the first country and conquer the vast richest of both the new and old world.
New discoveries made in land tech allow Spain to assault any province right away but we heard some rumors about the use of gunpowder to great effect in the Austrian-ottoman empire war
and we look forward to discover these secrets and using them for ourselves.
While some may have teched infra to discover the ability for building refineries this also puts them fairly open to people who teched land so next week should proof to be an interesting one, with many news wars yet hopefully none involving Spain.
But with El gran Capitan showing up soon there are very few countries who can defeat Spain at this moment, El gran Capitan is probably the best general in the game at this moment,
outside maybe the sultan from the ottoman Empire.

 

[admiral drake]

Poland aar 1453-1480

Russia - pepsi
Hab - King John
Bra - Krisz
Swe - Delian
Per - Alterego
OE - Imperator
Spa - drake
Eng - Pustelnick86
Ven - Hal
Fra - TCPilot
Poland - Mystic
Already in 1453 the empire of Moldova declared war on Poland. Their imperialist attempts were tamed quickly and the almost entire state absorbed by Poles. Thanks to that for victory, Poland become huge.
"It was a good day to destroy russians friends" - said Mystic I Emperor and attack. Already in 1454 the situation forced me for the attack on Russians. I didn't want to do it, there was however no other choice. My armies quickly regrouped and in strength 80k conducted the invasion. Friends from Lithuania and OE helped us with the entire invasion. The war was cut. Predominating forces Systema Spetznaz in the end had to surrender to great trained Polish armies. It was a great victory. It provided the dominance for us in eastern Europe. The power in those times Russia was which quickly was turned in thwart.
Course of the war
Well organised Polish armies in the amount of 30 k stood up at the foot of Moscow in order to get riches and secrets of the Russian intelligence. There was no it a lot. However it was enough Polish scientists to fall ill with serious illness called the stupidity. The epidemic of this unknown illness quickly spread in Russian rows. It forced it to cease to seize this cold country by Poland.
After the excellent and sophisticated war with Russia came a time for the Czech Republic and Hungary. Hungary quickly recognised the Polish dominance and surrendered territories due to her. However Czechs used bugs and only in the second war after rehost agreed to give everything back except capitol which was spared. This way for it the Polish empire made a profit on the international arena. Congratulations letters came from the USA, Canada, Brazil, China, Japan and Singapore. Germans are also shivering in fear of Poles. However not everyone could see the generosity of Poles. Lithuanians as the smaller and uglier brother wanted to make a mark for the peak. It was their mistake. Their armies were quickly crushed and national proninces taken. In their requests however Poles were gentle but the penalty must be. A few years of the peace dawned. At that time Poles dealt with the development of the culture, the education and the army. Such people turned up at numbers of Polish sizes as: Vinci, Isaac Newton, Mikołaj Kopernik, J. R.R. Tolkien, Leonardo Tolkien, Maria Skłodowska Curie, Micheal Angelo, Jan Sebastian Bach, Żukov, Tesla and many other. These were truly golden years. However later it reached the next aggression of Lithuania. This time they merged their forces with the Teutonic Order. However they didn't expect that in Polish rows this way generals would be a genius as Mystic I Conqueror. Their armies in a flash were defeated, and captured areas. There was no mercy.
The international arena
The session was very interesting. She was full of wars. OE demonstrated fighting spirit which won 3 wars. Reportedly the army got free kebabs in order to have enough strength to the fight. With these wars much weakened Hab and Russia positions. Spain exploited the weakness of Venice and attacked her without scruple. Then Austria still decided to finish Italians, however the heroism of Turkey and France rescued Venetians before disassemblies. Admittedly French soldiers dropped in and gave up, but this way already have it in the custom. In the North Bra fought around Swe. However the war was cut Vikings had the upper hand. The German empire at the moment is only losing. Curiously it was formed on the line Sweden - Russia. Hearing they are informing that Russia wants Sweden to come into conflict with somebody in order to stick a stab in the back. It isn't nice serve, however Russians accustomed us to it. England as for now, isn't keeping an eye on himself and isn't fighting, it alone concerns Persia about which we are knowing nothing. Spain reportedly planned another invasion of Ven, however good-natured states threatened her and extorted on spa nap with Ven. Now hiszpania, after the conclusion nap from Fra, he is sitting in the peace and is developing until it is not for stopping.
What am i thinking about other countries
Hard to say to be honest, but lets start
Brandenburg - hearing they are informing that they are plotting behind our back
Sweden - they accepted our control and in the future want to serve Poland
Austria - they cheated us, even though we sent them gifts. sooner or later will notice our power
Russia - we did a everything in order to be friends with them. didn't appreciate our help. had to regard our superiority. this way everyone will finish for us disapproving
Ottoman empire - our little brother
England - England is at our service, it will be sufficient to wave the finger
Venice - they reportedly said the bad word against us. Our dogs of the war quickly punished them
France - quickly they underwent Germans. aren't worth in order to call our vassals : D
Spain - he is growing in strength and soon will catch up with our little brother
Persia - INFIDEL!!
Poland - BEST COUNTRY EVER
What I want to do in the future
Firstly I would like to turn it back all provinces. To line it what not-conquered. To enlarge one's support act, territories and the strongroom. Of cell it is a lot of. He can with somebody zawalczyć? We will see what the time will bring. The situation is heavy on account of the substantial amount of unconverted provinces and the expensive stability. however within a few years the situation should be taken control. restoring order is only a matter of time.
Certainly another session will be more interesting than previous, since AI largely was absorbed, and states are bigger, so wars will be far more interesting.
I hope, that aar isn't boring and is just enough legible.

+2stab to poland

 

[Pepsi_max]

Muscovy (1480)​

The initial situation for muscovy, as described in the previous aar, is quite fine. There is room to expand and no threat.

Before the session begins, agreements were made regarding northern russia, lithuania, crimea and golden horde with poland and sweden.
At start (the first year atleast) everything went as expected. Despite having a 8 month long ryazan siege (during spring-summer, in plains, with siege leader and no mens left for them), we've been able to launch an attack then on golden horde and crimea, which were both allied at that time (crimea being ottoman's vassals).

Crimea was being rushed by OE at that time, but there havent been much threats, due to an agreement specifically about muscovian precense into crimea with poland i was planning to be able to 1v1's OE and, atleast, get the biggest part of the hordes.

But finally, after a 2 battles victories victory against ottomans around saraï, OE and POL just decided to go all on me, with their lithuanian and others puppets, invading the Muscovian state in 1454 with over 200 000 troops. I guess that's a bit much, for the 45 000 army capacity limit that Muscovy has at start. War wasn't that lost until a 30k army caught for one day (i said no word during the game, but your pauses allowed your troops to get to mines 2 times and had a substancial impact during it). Poland tried to get Muscow itself but the winter losses are too high to spare than money.

Finding the OE-POL quite strange at that start (one year after game start) against me (and thus, an early betrayal), it was obvious that there were another plan behind it, larger. As i was seeing persia dowing uzbeks (probably for samarkand and to get some lands), the move here was quite obvious : cutting me from asia. The 3 way alliance was a bit annoying, but i managed, thanks to peacing them separately and put a 2 years gap between golden horde and oe peace treaties to get out of that possibility.

That's why, some years later, i've gone again against GH, the OE not being able to do anything about it. Then i proceed to rush all other hordes before OE could dow me again, which they did to try to cut me of it.

They took some lands back from Nogaï, but that wont be enough to cut me from there anymore.
Dows were made into khazakhs, territories and MA was taken. Despite not having Astrakhan from golden horde, we still have Samara, which is very worthy too.

Russia's relations with others countries :

Austria : We've heard you fought the OE too. Relations are very neutral. We can't expect much from them for now, but having them being able to get their part of hungary without being at all worried by OE is pretty fine.
Brandeburg : Northern part of Austria. A strong nation in the future but very very weak early. Hasn't been bullied by austria or poland. Something i'm sure is that we won't be killing each other.
Sweden : We found the explanation on why the world has gone wrong. delian won a war on its own.
Persia : That's basically terra icognita. We've got absolutely no relations with this country, and i don't think we'll get anything right soon, due to our tech problems and our quite locked countries. We are still going to have a border problably in uzbeks - khazakhs. We'll see where it will go from there. Perm is away this session so the country may be just ghosted.
Ottoman Empire : I'm not sure at all about your choice of basically trading 5 poor provinces from GH for hungary. You may have your reasons but you can't decently ask for a country to give up everything and helps you later. We'll see how it goes in the future.
Poland : Nice start. Getting parts of hungary was a good deal. As we stated before the session, i never had any kind of claims into lithuania. Nothing much against you...and atm winter pretty much anhiliate any invading tries from both sides.
Spain : Very far countries from here but i as for england, we may have some regarding monopolies, cots and stuff.
England : We'll probably have some relations in some far countries some times, but i can say nothing but good luck at the moment. We'll see
Venice : I'm sure you were going to try to be killed before me. I think our secret plans to take over john are working as expected : make an IA bigger, put a player on it and then hardcore ganks john.
France : best start so far i think. And the upcoming situation will allow you a lot of things to be done without risking much.


Globally, it's a real pleasure to feel new blood in this game, with others players joining. We're used to permanently fight all together since a lot of games and countries and i hope it will basically continue like that for everyone.

Reward - money money money.