Alright, it is time for another ten year report.
This session we had many goals, among them to keep up the trade, change government focus to improve trade, look for an opportunity to take Konstanz and/or Lothringen, and eventually seek to unify all the German lands. I am forced to report that many difficulties were faced, preventing us from being as successful as we were at fulfilling the goals of the prior Tagsuntzag.
It was decided to institute greater freedom of trade to improve the number of merchants we can hire.. Despite some temporary stability loss this went well. Our merchants continued to fill European centers of trade.
Then in 1467 disaster struck. Leonardo Bischofberger, the man chosen by the Swiss people to be Stadtholder, died in a freak horse and buggy accident. He was replaced by Stefan Amman, a man wise in the ways of war but poor at diplomacy and administration. Stefan tried to follow the orders of the Council, but failed at almost every turn. Slower our traders began to be pushed out of major centers across Europe, while Stefan tried in vain to support them to regain a foothold. All of our money had to be spent to keep any merchants in at all.
Then, any chances of gaining Lothringen were dashed by a personal union between Burgundy and Lorraine, with Lorraine's king ruling over both countries. On the plus side, Lorraine was technically still an ally, and this meant war with Burgundy was no longer a worry. Wurzberg did not provide any Casus Belli for us to invade them, despite our warning them and guaranteeing their neighbors, and the Stadtholder was reluctant to start a war that would worsen our trade without the permission of the Tagsuntzag.
We did receive some interesting news from the east, with an immense war between Austria and Hungary on one side, and Poland and Lithuania on the other. At the moment it is anybody's war.
Our biggest success this session was the increase of our trade technology to level three, with our Land and Naval techs cathing up just towards the end of the ten years. Investing further in trade at this point will mean penalties as we are ahead of our neighbors.
So we come to another meeting of the Tasuntzag, with several new issues. One is the best way to allocate our technology investment. We have already had one suggestion on this issue from Councilmember coz1, recommending we focus on Production or Government a while. Does this sound wise to the other members?
The other is the issue of trade and Wurzburg. Try as hard as he might, as long as Stadtholder Stefan is in office trade will be difficult. We have an army almost the match of Wurzburg's, and are allied to Lorraine and Venice while they only have Alsace as as ally. If we are careful we could beat them and take Konstanz, succeeding in that particular goal as well as the one to unite Germany and the Rhineland, and maybe take Alsace as well. This would mean a short abandoning of trade, and possibly taking a loan or minting temporarily to afford full upkeep on our armies. What say you?