I can see great potential in Scandinavias navy. And would they not be more usefull as an ally rather then enemy?
I am afraid that if I attempt to ally with Scandinavia, I will hear deep baritone laughter coming from the computer as the AI realises "Now I can take over northern Germany, and
you will have to
help me."
Plus I try to get allies whose strengths are different from my own. If I'm playing a naval power I ally with land powers, and vice versa.
At the moment I don't see Scandinavia as a boon or harm; it's a big country trying to look after itself, and still has considerable internal tension. Relations-wise we are nominally friendly and things are working out well that way.
magna mundi will have changed naval combat, but from vanilla gameplay big ships can take on smaller ships quite easily. I remember taking on about 20 galleys with 4 or so galleys and a carrack and doing some major damage and capturing more galleys turning the tables for the next battle.
Carracks will maul the smaller ships (especially galleys), but I wouldn't bet on 24 carracks versus 70 pinnaces. I don't think they'd survive that. Scandinavia has enough small ships to make anyone's life unpleasant.
So, I realize you are doing this all for free and such, and I'm kinda a jerk for even bringing it up, but the work is so good I feel comelled to mention that an update of this fantastic story would be greatly appreciated
I know, I know.
I am having problems finding English-language books that discuss the Kalmar Union's history and political machinations in some detail. But in spite of that, I plan to have an update posted on Monday night.
This is a great story. It even inspired me to try my hand at an England game, which for some reason I'd never gotten around to playing until recently. I have to ask, what's your economy like? I've unified the Isles and beaten France (Ile-de-France is British), but I can't seem to keep a balanced budget. Any chance you'd be willing to share your budget?
Sure. Here is a snapshot of my budget from July 1494.
As you can see, in the middle of the Crusade I am running both a monthly and annual deficit. With current cash reserves, I will be able to continue the war for a further eight years before England is broke. Normally with the 36K army I am able to run with a monthly deficit but annual gain even in wartime, but I recruited additional men in the hope of speeding along sieges.
With these settings I am accruing just under 0.02% inflation every year, which is acceptable in the short term (3-5 years). In peacetime I will reduce the minting to help minimise (or even reverse) the growth of inflation.
EDIT: In MM there are buildings which contribute a small 0.01 reduction to inflation (Provincial Accountants, I think). I believe I built 3 of them over the years; without them, I would not be able to halt inflation. The MM base economy even with zero minting will increment a small amount of inflation each year. Oh, and the Bureaucracy NI has a 0.03 inflation reduction, too.
The type of building you put in each province will depend on the tax/trade/production values for that specific province. I plunk down workshops nearly everywhere, but am more selective about other buildings. One "magic formula" I saw in the forums is this:
Workshops + Roads + Markets + Anchorages (+ Taxes) = Profit
If you have these buildings in the appropriate provinces, you are going to make money eventually.
If I were to move the military maintenance slider to zero, and reduce minting so that inflation growth is more manageable, I would still have a monthly deficit but be gaining roughly 50d a year from annual census taxes. In peacetime, I reduce the maintenance slider to zero (or the minimum necessary to reinforce, if any units need it). In wartime, after enemy forces have been beaten and you are working solely on sieges, you can also reduce the slider a little to cut costs while maintaining adequate reinforcement.
Note also that my trade income is almost equal to my tax income. This is because 1) I have placed merchants in about a half-dozen high-value CoTs, and 2) my merchants have a better compete chance because I am still in a trade league. (They use the league leader's compete chance, not my own; they also do not suffer an infamy penalty because Lubeck hasn't racked up any infamy by conquering anyone).
EDIT: Other factors increasing trade efficiency and income are National Trade Policy (+10%), a Competent Government (+1%), and a content Commercial faction (+8%). Combined, these bonuses provide the efficiency equivalent of another 19 tech levels in trade!
Though it's tempting to buy huge numbers of men and ships, I try to ensure that economic buildings and improvements get prioritised first, and increases to military might come after I'm sure that I can reasonably afford it. Being England, I already started with a huge number of ships, and I actually had to disband about 60% of them at game start in order to be able to afford anything else.
World Powers ranked by GDP/Income
Right now England is home to the world's foremost economy, thanks to construction of economic buildings in key areas. Inflation is in pretty good shape relative to the rest of Europe, though it will inevitably creep upward. Within about 10 years our Iberian friends will have the world's largest economies, fuelled by colonies abroad.