Chapter 21: The Price of Peace
The Double Treaty – The Rome Peace
Jun 8 1589 – Jul 13 1591
------------
I’m sorry to break the narrative that I normally provide in each chapter but this chapter is not normal and I felt it necessary to explain the happenings of this short but crucial period.
Now I know that many players out there make it a rule not to reload a game however I find it acceptable in some cases. Europa Universalis II has an interesting AI mechanism whereby the AI reassesses their situation at the beginning of each session. This generally leads to a rush of merchants and several new war declarations being handed out in the first few days of the new session. Because of these well-known inconsistencies in the gameplay, I believe the ideal game is one play over a single session, however we all need sleep. So to counter this unrealistic gameplay I sometimes reload the game to effectively restart the session if I feel the AI has made an unfair reassessment of the game which in know way reflect the course the game was taking the previous session. However unlike in some other games, where reloading can be used to exploit known tactics that the AI will make, I find that in EUII the AI are far more unpredictable in their reassessments thus making the gain from reloading the game minimal. So I suppose my justification of reloading the game is that it makes the game fairer.
To bring this argument into context, the conclusion of the last chapter was also the conclusion of my session for that day. The session had been lengthy considering I play on Normal speed and had just completed 10 years of war. The next day when I came back to begin the next session I faced the toughest situation I have yet faced in this particular game and if people wish for it, I have a save game which I can turn into a scenario so that people can experience it for themselves. Indeed, this situation took me several days to figure a way out of and, yes, I did reload the game several times, a dozen times atleast.
Beginning the new session for the first time I looked forward to bringing Franconia into peace and return it prosperity by first defeating the rampant rebels and lowering war exhaustion. The war with France had just finished, Burgundy and Luxembourgh had been vassalised whilst three more provinces had recently been captured from Austria. To begin the session I decided to retract my two armies, the Ansbach and the Köln, which were both in France and send them to defeat the rebels close to capturing Mecklemburg and Provence. After just a couple of days had past, the Swedes and Danes reassessed their situations and declared war; so much for a lengthy peace and war exhaustion dropping. Thankfully the only way they could get to me over the Baltic which allowed me to at first ignore their declaration as it would take month for them to arrive in which time Mecklemburg would be lost. The Ansbach Army reached Mecklemburg in October and was able to defeat them but the Köln Army would fail in Provence. Soon enough the Swedish troops begin landing on the northern shores and due to the extensive war exhaustion, more rebellions begin popping up. Now this situation is cumbersome but manageable; the Swedes and Danes are far inferior for Franconia and over time the rebellions would be beaten and eventually the war exhaustion lower but this was only the half of it. One year after the session begins, in July 1590 the peace runs out with the Papal States. This allows Austria to declare war on us citing our 25 point badboy as reason enough and their alliance members the Papal States, Modena and France to join them. This is just 1 year after a treaty was made with France but because they joined the Austrian alliance during the previous war they are able to honour the alliance and join the war against Franconia without a loss of stability at all. This creates a disastrous situation, enemies on all sides, huge war exhaustion, rebels still reeking havoc throughout the countryside and an already diminished army and only the reserved Dutch to help me. Despite the unfairness of the French joining the war, I decide to push on only to find myself completely outgunned by French leader Henri IV who, after appearing in Liguria, is able to make light work of my Köln Army and siege and assault pretty much anything he wishes. Meanwhile the rejuvenated Austrians, the Papal and Modena forces march through Tyrol, Ostmarch and Odenburg using their supreme numbers to loot and assault as they go. The Dutch remain unmoved as the main French forces cross Luxembourgh to the Rhine provinces. Before the year is out I pretty much find myself with no army left and far fewer provinces to work with. And this is playing on easy!
Time to restart the session. Perhaps this time things will happen differently. I start the session with 2 diplomats and $87. I have a total of 36000 men, 6000 in Limousin and 26000 in Champagne. The rebels have 13000 men in Mecklemburg and 18000 in Provence. What can I muster? The first few attempts I try the similar tactic, defeat the rebels first and hope the enemies don’t declare war yet everytime they do; Sweden within the first few days and then the Austrian alliance 13 months later. I finally decide to try and deter the enemies from declaring war on me by expanding my alliance to makes us look more menacing and deadly. I add Burgundy to the alliance, despite them actually having no army, and try to bribe Luxembourgh enough to get them to join. The first time I did this, the bribes failed however the presence alone of Burgundy in the alliance was enough to deter the Swedes. This made the situation somewhat easier as now I would atleast have 13 months of peace to lower war exhaustion and I could now focus the men on defeating the rebellions whose numbers and skill level were pretty much tit-to-tat with our own making the battles difficult to win. Ok let’s see what happens when July 1590 will Burgundy’s presence deter the Austrians as well? The answer is no. The Austrians, Papal States, Modena and France all act as though nothing has changed and declare war in the usual manner and although the lowering in war exhaustion has raised incomes a bit, I can still only afford a few thousand men which won’t even replace the numbers lost against the rebels. The ensuing war begins to go the same way as the last. Henri IV proves invincible so before I end up losing all my provinces and end up vassalised by Austria or something I restart the game again.
After sleeping on the conundrum I come up with a new strategy, I will try to bribe Austria not to declare war on me. I start the game in the same way by making Burgundy my ally and sending my armies to kill the rebels. Sweden once again stays silent and I use my $87 to bribe Austria. With Austria’s size, $87 barely pays for a personal gift and it will require more than that to get their relations from -200 to a level where they won’t declare war. I decide to take out a loan of $200. It takes a few attempt (reloads) for the bribes to actually do more than +20 relations but eventually I manage to make some headway. One time I manage to raise Austria’s relations to about -50 before the 13 months is up. There’s no way they will declare war this time, I think to myself. Indeed they don’t, the Papal States do and Austria just honour the alliance. The next few times I try the same thing on the equally expensive to bribe Papal States. The raise their relations to neutral and then Austria declares war and the Papal States honour the alliance. There seems to be no answer. I try to bribe both of them but I find that I don’t have enough diplomats and would need the luckiest state gifts ever to raise the relations of both nations in time. Another idea, I’ll focus on one country and bribe them enough to create a royal marriage. This would require very lucky state gifts and two loans to be taken out but I manage to raise relations with Austria to +75 and create a royal marriage. July 1590 rolls around again and unbelievably Austria breaks the royal marriage to join the war declares by the Papal States. At this stage I’m practically ready to give the whole game up.
Another restless night later and I decide that here I am taking loan after loan out so that I can bribe my enemies. Why don’t I just use these loans to build a huge army, something that will be able to defeat Henri IV no matter how big his head is? $400 extra will buy me about 60000 more men, effectively tripling my army size, with which to take into the war.
On about my 15th attempt of starting the same saved game, I commence on the 8th of June 1589. That very day I use my $87 to bribe Luxembourgh twice, I take out two loans of $200 each and I ask Burgundy to join my alliance. Immediately I begin building troops in whichever cities have low enough war exhaustion to produce them and once again I bring my armies from France home to take out the rebels. The Ansbach Army arrives ready to strikes the Mecklemburg rebels just as fresh forces are amassing alongside in September. The poor rebels had no hope this time and were slaughtered as mere training for the new troops. The now huge army swung around and headed south to Provence where the Köln Army was waiting to strike. Still as the troops were on route, a rebellion sparked in Lyonnais so the columns of men took a slight detour before mounting in Piemonte for the attack. Time was running out yet it was all according to plan in fact better than to plan as an Exceptional year was announced in February. In May the assault in the Provence rebels was made and it would only take 9 days to break them. I now had 2 months to reposition the men for the war in which time I also bring Luxembourgh into the alliance.
I didn’t want this war to be like any other war. I already had all the war exhaustion I needed, I planned this to be the quickest in and out operation I’d ever performed. I mounted two massive armies close to 50000 each, one in Provence (Piemonte couldn’t support it) and one in Salzburg. July came and went and there was no declaration. Could the greater manpower have persuaded the Austrians not to attack? No, they were just a few days slower; the declaration came in August 1590. By the end of the month the Ansbach Army had steamed into Austria and defeated 2 armies in 3 days and laid siege. Within a month, the Köln Army met Henri IV in Liguria but narrowly failed to win the battle. In November Henri IV counter-attacked into Piemonte but the huge numbers made thousands of Henri’s men die to attrition and they were sent packing to Milan whilst the Köln Army now strolled into Liguria. There was no time for a siege on Liguria as the Austrians were already entering Tyrol and Ostmarch so an assault was initiated and by February the important CoT was ours. The next target was to march south to Roma itself, considering the Papal States were the alliance leader its possession of its capital should have them screaming for peace. The Modena army was defeated in Emilia and then the Pope was defeated in Romagna but then Odenburg fell into Austrians hands, I had to be quick. It was then that a foreign drill instructor became available and in the heat of the battle his skills were utilized only to put Franconia into even further debt as a third loan was arranged. The Köln Army made it to Roma in May but in the same month the French navy got busy as Wabana was lost. The Köln Army was ambushed mid-assault and forced to retreat to Napoli but by July I decided it was time to get some serious warscore as two more colonies Placentia and Jamaica both fell into French hands. The Ansbach Army who had breached the walls of Wien by siege was sent in to assault and by the 13th of July it had fallen. Without further a do, a diplomat was sent to Rome and peace was announced the same day.
I had finally done it; peace with the major threat was assured for a further 5 years and this time I would not see another France-like debacle where they would break the truce after a few months. Peace however had come at a huge price to Franconia. It had been a bumpy last 12 years for the whole empire, badboy was still atrocious and war exhaustion was at epidemic proportions and now to add to it all Franconia had 3 loans to pay. Julius Echter was still the king of Franconia and he still had Burgundy as his vassal but boy would his administrative skills get tested over the next few years.
----------
Meanwhile around Europe...
Coming soon... Chapter 22: The Indebted Years (and back to narrative)
The Double Treaty – The Rome Peace
Jun 8 1589 – Jul 13 1591
------------
I’m sorry to break the narrative that I normally provide in each chapter but this chapter is not normal and I felt it necessary to explain the happenings of this short but crucial period.
Now I know that many players out there make it a rule not to reload a game however I find it acceptable in some cases. Europa Universalis II has an interesting AI mechanism whereby the AI reassesses their situation at the beginning of each session. This generally leads to a rush of merchants and several new war declarations being handed out in the first few days of the new session. Because of these well-known inconsistencies in the gameplay, I believe the ideal game is one play over a single session, however we all need sleep. So to counter this unrealistic gameplay I sometimes reload the game to effectively restart the session if I feel the AI has made an unfair reassessment of the game which in know way reflect the course the game was taking the previous session. However unlike in some other games, where reloading can be used to exploit known tactics that the AI will make, I find that in EUII the AI are far more unpredictable in their reassessments thus making the gain from reloading the game minimal. So I suppose my justification of reloading the game is that it makes the game fairer.
To bring this argument into context, the conclusion of the last chapter was also the conclusion of my session for that day. The session had been lengthy considering I play on Normal speed and had just completed 10 years of war. The next day when I came back to begin the next session I faced the toughest situation I have yet faced in this particular game and if people wish for it, I have a save game which I can turn into a scenario so that people can experience it for themselves. Indeed, this situation took me several days to figure a way out of and, yes, I did reload the game several times, a dozen times atleast.
Beginning the new session for the first time I looked forward to bringing Franconia into peace and return it prosperity by first defeating the rampant rebels and lowering war exhaustion. The war with France had just finished, Burgundy and Luxembourgh had been vassalised whilst three more provinces had recently been captured from Austria. To begin the session I decided to retract my two armies, the Ansbach and the Köln, which were both in France and send them to defeat the rebels close to capturing Mecklemburg and Provence. After just a couple of days had past, the Swedes and Danes reassessed their situations and declared war; so much for a lengthy peace and war exhaustion dropping. Thankfully the only way they could get to me over the Baltic which allowed me to at first ignore their declaration as it would take month for them to arrive in which time Mecklemburg would be lost. The Ansbach Army reached Mecklemburg in October and was able to defeat them but the Köln Army would fail in Provence. Soon enough the Swedish troops begin landing on the northern shores and due to the extensive war exhaustion, more rebellions begin popping up. Now this situation is cumbersome but manageable; the Swedes and Danes are far inferior for Franconia and over time the rebellions would be beaten and eventually the war exhaustion lower but this was only the half of it. One year after the session begins, in July 1590 the peace runs out with the Papal States. This allows Austria to declare war on us citing our 25 point badboy as reason enough and their alliance members the Papal States, Modena and France to join them. This is just 1 year after a treaty was made with France but because they joined the Austrian alliance during the previous war they are able to honour the alliance and join the war against Franconia without a loss of stability at all. This creates a disastrous situation, enemies on all sides, huge war exhaustion, rebels still reeking havoc throughout the countryside and an already diminished army and only the reserved Dutch to help me. Despite the unfairness of the French joining the war, I decide to push on only to find myself completely outgunned by French leader Henri IV who, after appearing in Liguria, is able to make light work of my Köln Army and siege and assault pretty much anything he wishes. Meanwhile the rejuvenated Austrians, the Papal and Modena forces march through Tyrol, Ostmarch and Odenburg using their supreme numbers to loot and assault as they go. The Dutch remain unmoved as the main French forces cross Luxembourgh to the Rhine provinces. Before the year is out I pretty much find myself with no army left and far fewer provinces to work with. And this is playing on easy!
Time to restart the session. Perhaps this time things will happen differently. I start the session with 2 diplomats and $87. I have a total of 36000 men, 6000 in Limousin and 26000 in Champagne. The rebels have 13000 men in Mecklemburg and 18000 in Provence. What can I muster? The first few attempts I try the similar tactic, defeat the rebels first and hope the enemies don’t declare war yet everytime they do; Sweden within the first few days and then the Austrian alliance 13 months later. I finally decide to try and deter the enemies from declaring war on me by expanding my alliance to makes us look more menacing and deadly. I add Burgundy to the alliance, despite them actually having no army, and try to bribe Luxembourgh enough to get them to join. The first time I did this, the bribes failed however the presence alone of Burgundy in the alliance was enough to deter the Swedes. This made the situation somewhat easier as now I would atleast have 13 months of peace to lower war exhaustion and I could now focus the men on defeating the rebellions whose numbers and skill level were pretty much tit-to-tat with our own making the battles difficult to win. Ok let’s see what happens when July 1590 will Burgundy’s presence deter the Austrians as well? The answer is no. The Austrians, Papal States, Modena and France all act as though nothing has changed and declare war in the usual manner and although the lowering in war exhaustion has raised incomes a bit, I can still only afford a few thousand men which won’t even replace the numbers lost against the rebels. The ensuing war begins to go the same way as the last. Henri IV proves invincible so before I end up losing all my provinces and end up vassalised by Austria or something I restart the game again.
After sleeping on the conundrum I come up with a new strategy, I will try to bribe Austria not to declare war on me. I start the game in the same way by making Burgundy my ally and sending my armies to kill the rebels. Sweden once again stays silent and I use my $87 to bribe Austria. With Austria’s size, $87 barely pays for a personal gift and it will require more than that to get their relations from -200 to a level where they won’t declare war. I decide to take out a loan of $200. It takes a few attempt (reloads) for the bribes to actually do more than +20 relations but eventually I manage to make some headway. One time I manage to raise Austria’s relations to about -50 before the 13 months is up. There’s no way they will declare war this time, I think to myself. Indeed they don’t, the Papal States do and Austria just honour the alliance. The next few times I try the same thing on the equally expensive to bribe Papal States. The raise their relations to neutral and then Austria declares war and the Papal States honour the alliance. There seems to be no answer. I try to bribe both of them but I find that I don’t have enough diplomats and would need the luckiest state gifts ever to raise the relations of both nations in time. Another idea, I’ll focus on one country and bribe them enough to create a royal marriage. This would require very lucky state gifts and two loans to be taken out but I manage to raise relations with Austria to +75 and create a royal marriage. July 1590 rolls around again and unbelievably Austria breaks the royal marriage to join the war declares by the Papal States. At this stage I’m practically ready to give the whole game up.
Another restless night later and I decide that here I am taking loan after loan out so that I can bribe my enemies. Why don’t I just use these loans to build a huge army, something that will be able to defeat Henri IV no matter how big his head is? $400 extra will buy me about 60000 more men, effectively tripling my army size, with which to take into the war.
On about my 15th attempt of starting the same saved game, I commence on the 8th of June 1589. That very day I use my $87 to bribe Luxembourgh twice, I take out two loans of $200 each and I ask Burgundy to join my alliance. Immediately I begin building troops in whichever cities have low enough war exhaustion to produce them and once again I bring my armies from France home to take out the rebels. The Ansbach Army arrives ready to strikes the Mecklemburg rebels just as fresh forces are amassing alongside in September. The poor rebels had no hope this time and were slaughtered as mere training for the new troops. The now huge army swung around and headed south to Provence where the Köln Army was waiting to strike. Still as the troops were on route, a rebellion sparked in Lyonnais so the columns of men took a slight detour before mounting in Piemonte for the attack. Time was running out yet it was all according to plan in fact better than to plan as an Exceptional year was announced in February. In May the assault in the Provence rebels was made and it would only take 9 days to break them. I now had 2 months to reposition the men for the war in which time I also bring Luxembourgh into the alliance.
I didn’t want this war to be like any other war. I already had all the war exhaustion I needed, I planned this to be the quickest in and out operation I’d ever performed. I mounted two massive armies close to 50000 each, one in Provence (Piemonte couldn’t support it) and one in Salzburg. July came and went and there was no declaration. Could the greater manpower have persuaded the Austrians not to attack? No, they were just a few days slower; the declaration came in August 1590. By the end of the month the Ansbach Army had steamed into Austria and defeated 2 armies in 3 days and laid siege. Within a month, the Köln Army met Henri IV in Liguria but narrowly failed to win the battle. In November Henri IV counter-attacked into Piemonte but the huge numbers made thousands of Henri’s men die to attrition and they were sent packing to Milan whilst the Köln Army now strolled into Liguria. There was no time for a siege on Liguria as the Austrians were already entering Tyrol and Ostmarch so an assault was initiated and by February the important CoT was ours. The next target was to march south to Roma itself, considering the Papal States were the alliance leader its possession of its capital should have them screaming for peace. The Modena army was defeated in Emilia and then the Pope was defeated in Romagna but then Odenburg fell into Austrians hands, I had to be quick. It was then that a foreign drill instructor became available and in the heat of the battle his skills were utilized only to put Franconia into even further debt as a third loan was arranged. The Köln Army made it to Roma in May but in the same month the French navy got busy as Wabana was lost. The Köln Army was ambushed mid-assault and forced to retreat to Napoli but by July I decided it was time to get some serious warscore as two more colonies Placentia and Jamaica both fell into French hands. The Ansbach Army who had breached the walls of Wien by siege was sent in to assault and by the 13th of July it had fallen. Without further a do, a diplomat was sent to Rome and peace was announced the same day.
I had finally done it; peace with the major threat was assured for a further 5 years and this time I would not see another France-like debacle where they would break the truce after a few months. Peace however had come at a huge price to Franconia. It had been a bumpy last 12 years for the whole empire, badboy was still atrocious and war exhaustion was at epidemic proportions and now to add to it all Franconia had 3 loans to pay. Julius Echter was still the king of Franconia and he still had Burgundy as his vassal but boy would his administrative skills get tested over the next few years.
----------
Meanwhile around Europe...
- Nothing of note
- 1590 Malwa annexed by Vijayanagar
Coming soon... Chapter 22: The Indebted Years (and back to narrative)
I would much rather support 2. especially if you change your flag to the luxemburg flag and the nation name to Imperium Caroli Magni 
