In 1444, Brandenburg has just constructed the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. I was disappointed to learn that it wasn’t originally as grand as it was by the 1700s.
Brandenburg’s global power, too, was a bit smaller than it was destined to be. In 1444 it consisted of 8 provinces, including Berlin and Brandenburg and Potsdam. It’s pretty much all forest.
The game’s introduction to Brandenburg begins thusly, mentioning the decline of the Robber Barons under Friedrich I (the previous prince-elector), and the fact that both neighboring Poland and Bohemia have no current rulers. Bohemia’s situation is less relevant to Brandenburg in 1444, since they are a clear rival and wouldn’t accept a royal marriage entreaty if offered.
Speaking of royal marriages, and such, the current ruler of Brandenburg is Friedrich II von Hohenzollern, styled Prince Elector, which is a title of nobility and authority within the Holy Roman Empire. The HRE, of course, stretches across most of central Europe, including most of Germany, Bohemia, Austria, northern Italy and some of the Lowlands and eastern France.
The current emperor is Emperor Friedrich III of Austria.
Everything in western Europe, religiously, belongs to the Latin Catholic faith, except for a small patch of Hussite reformers in Bohemia. The Eastern Orthodox faith has many believers across central and eastern Europe, stretching into Russia. The Muslim faith stretches across Africa, and touches Europe in Anatolia and the Balkans (where the Ottomans still struggle against the remnants of the Byzantine Empire) and in Spain, where Castille faces off against Granada. As I recall, EU III started in 1492 instead, and so the landscape is different.
The immediate environs of Brandenburg in 1444 are as such… Forgive my crude map – I’m not accustomed to having to supplement Paradox maps, but the EU IV map is cluttered with unit shields until you get to such a height as to not be able to see the countries clearly. I’ve tried to outline the neighbors of prime concern while not tracing every crazy border of the Germanic lands.
Brandenburg shares borders with a number of jealous countries – potential rivals. Mecklenburg (green, and not specifically outlined) to the north. Brunswick to the west. Saxony to the south, which holds Thuringia as a junior partner (so I combined their borders). Bohemia to the south. The Teutonic Order to the northeast. The Order, alone among these countries, remains outside of the Holy Roman Empire (though a Catholic holy order). Bohemia is clearly the strongest and most threatening of these neighbors, but is also surrounded by potential enemies and thereby is a less likely foe.
Poland, meanwhile, is a relatively friendly neighbor, and quite powerful. Poland’s “field of view” is more southward focused, as she (and Hungary and Austria and Lithuania) has been quite active in fighting off the Ottoman Turks. Austria – the current seat of the Holy Roman Empire – is also relatively friendly (but equally relatively distant).
Brandenburg needs to have some carefully chosen allies, amidst all this sea of potential rivals. Speaking of rivals, we choose Teutonic Order, Saxony and Brunswick as our most obvious threats (we already have tense relations with each). We might have named Bohemia as a rival, rather than The Order. This is a choice I made because I covet Teutonic land, but not so much the Bohemian land. We’ll see.
A small power to the south – Magdeburg – has 5,000 soldiers, and is well positioned to help against either Brunswick or Saxony if need be. We arrange an alliance. We also arrange a royal marriage with Poland, whose throne is empty. This is a gambit, and maybe a gamble, that you might disagree with. I’m taking a chance, marrying into a country that’s clearly more powerful than us. But we want Poland as a friend, though we may not immediately want to be obligated by an alliance.
At this point I was still figuring out the game, and figured I would start the game running. Remarkably, nothing really happened.
Eventually, I decided to make a move against a neighbor whose land I wanted. I could have chosen anyone, because my long term goal had us expanding in four directions (roughly in a historical pattern, but not slavishly so). Stettin had the misfortune of having the wrong allies (few and weak), being small and weak themselves, and being immediately adjacent to Brandenburg.
I began building a spy network. At 26% strength it’s my understanding that I can use that network to fabricate claims against Stettin, which I can use as justification for a war of conquest (because THOSE WRETCHED STETTINIANS ARE HOLDING
OUR LAND!!! – HOW DARE THEY!!!).
I’m just feeling things out, at this point, and I justify this in realism terms by thinking that Friedrich II was probably still feeling things out still IRL and might have chosen to try a little something. I did the same.
And apparently this was the same thinking elsewhere around our perimeter, because our neighbor to the south Glogow (the teal blue country) fabricated claims against Brandenburg for supposedly stealing Sternberg from her. Prince-Elector Friedrich snorts and goes about his business.
Also in August 1446 we rejected a royal marriage proposal from Luneburg (Luneburg is in the upper left of the frame above). Remember this.
It becomes a thing… We rejected because there was nothing particular that Luneburg offered for us, and it already had heirs with strong claims, so there was little likelihood of our acquiring a claim to their throne in the near future. Thoughts? Should I have accepted?
About this time, also, I grew frustrated with the slow progress of acquiring money/ducats, and decide to try to speed stuff up. I have to grow my economy somehow – production, trade, conquest (production and trade being the more conventional methods). I decide to spend some Administrative Power on building up my tax base in Berlin.
I remember from my time in EU III (which I played for many years – my AAR Sforza!!! Itself ran for 6 years!) that building an EU economy is a slow, tedious process, and so is developing technology. There are many different things to spend points on (Diplomatic, Military, Administrative), many things to spend money on, etc.
In the EU III Strategy Guide I wrote about this. I am not good at long, tedious processes which seem to take forever. I lack patience. You will often see me disregard my own best advice because I have lost patience. I believe leaders throughout history have lacked patience with slow, tedious processes, and instead do something rash. I use this as an excuse for my behavior.
Anyway, this is the status of the Brandenburg economy in 1446 (and in 1444). Berlin, Brandenburg and Altmark are the most developed provinces, with Uckermark close behind. Brandenburg produces Iron, but the rest of our Principality trades primarily in cattle and textiles.
In September Poland offers us an official alliance. I hemmed and hawed and finally decided to accept. There are networks of alliance around us which means most of the directions in which we choose to expand are going to bring us into conflict with, likely, two of our enemies at once. It might be nice to have a big brother to back us up in such cases.
About this time “some shady people” visited and offered their services to improve our spy programs in other countries. I considered this quite seriously, because I was at the time trying to build spy networks in Brunswick and Saxony. But then I noticed if I refused their services Brandenburg would gain 5 Prestige. Well… That’s no contest. Prestige is the name of the game. Well… One of the names of the game. Brandenburg’s prestige increases to 9.
Remember the importance of Prestige (not trying to patronize veteran players, just saying remember this…), because you’ll see it matter quite a bit later in this AAR. Prestige adds greatly to a number of things you see listed there – relations, diplomacy, whose heir gains the throne, military morale, trade power. Yes – Prestige. Let’s grab some.
I’m hoping to get more prestige through conquering some territory, as well as to add some to our economy. In mid-October I declare war based on our fabricated claims, and our armies march. I’m calling no allies because I don’t want to share the spoils, and my army should be sufficient to knock this minor power down.
Another “name of the game” is Stability – it’s CRITICALLY important, and has effects that spread to every aspect of your game. I notice that I’d spent some points (Administrative I’m pretty sure) to increase Brandenburg’s Stability.
That’s it for now. What do you think? What major mistakes am I making, what opportunities missed? What tricks do you use that I might make use of? Is there something obvious I’ve missed? Let’s talk strategy. What strategy questions do you have for me? Anything that doesn’t make sense in what I did and you’d like an explanation? It may be that I know something I can pass along, or it could be you know something you could pass along to me and others.
This should be fun! Comments, please!
(Sorry - I notice some of my screenshots have silly errors - I will fix this soon)
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