Chapter 22: Early war catastrophes... ahem... incidents
So, we left when Brittany decided it was high time to attack England and Scotland. Why on earth they thought this was such a good idea with nearly 20 war exhaustion is beyond me. But then again, nearly all of the AI countries have high WE, no matter on which side of the war. We have a nice, zero WE balance. Still...
We are blockading the Scots to drive their WE even higher. And because we can't really win against their numbers and technology.
Unfortunately, the wisdom contained in the last sentence was gained the hard way. By the usual, New Irish Alliance Doctrine, way of losing the first battle in a war. Ouch.
Customary, the first expedition force is completely routed. Not customarily, we now have two full 10-unit armies ready so we can switch out our general. The first army is nearly annihilated can retreat back to our waiting ships. We transfer the beaten army back to Ireland for morale and men replenishment. The second army is sent to Scotland. Unfortunately, that army is
also vaporised. Another shock-6 king-general, this time the Scottish king. I thought I was playing without lucky nations?!?
We manage to retreat our near-annihilated army. Our WE is by now pretty high.
Oh well, third time's a charm, isn't it? And we'll place our army in our defensive terrain in Wales. Those mountains will help us, won't they? No -- they won't. The Scottish king Robert MacMurrough uses the old "disappearing mountains" gambit and surprises our troops by pulling away their defensive positions from under their noses.
Our third try nets us our third total defeat, and a by now staggeringly high WE for my standards.
The war overview so far, luckily for us the AI also has a high WE. Burgundy actually has made an invasion and has troops stationed on the British Isles. A new William the Conqueror?
Will Ireland send another wave of Irishmen to the senseless slaughters of the West English battlefields? What about Burgundy, will they be able to turn the war? Find out next time, on Ireland's Teardrop!