Rex Germania - A Brandenburg to Prussia Strategy AAR

[coz1]

Nice work gobbling up Danzig there. That will be very helpful later in the game (and probably with trade.)

 

[Black Watch]

It appears to me, that playing inside the HRE/Central Europe is a slightly different beast from playing Southeast Asia, or even my other completed games as Spain or the Ottomans. The sheer number of small countries all trying to grow at each other's expense is a different dynamic (well I suppose Southeast Asia has a lot of small countries too, but in that case there's also uncolonized land to colonize, which I think gives whoever picks colonization ideas an advantage against the rest - as most Southeast Asian countries will not take colonization ideas under the control of the AI, this will be the player.)

This war was pretty easy due to having regional big fish Poland on your side...however, as you implied, you will probably have to fight Poland later. Hopefully Brandenburg should be of equal or larger size than Poland when that time comes.

I also found slashkig's comment to be very informative regarding the fixed historical events that take place in Europe, something I'm not too well-versed in (I still remember the time I declared war on Aragon as Castile in order to annex them, not realizing that apparently you can just diplo-annex Aragon entirely with the Iberian Wedding, as in real life.)

On that note, how did the Burgundian Inheritance go, if it's already happened? And has Sweden launched their independence war against Denmark? That seems like something Brandenburg might want to get involved in.

Could you check which provinces Poland has declared as being of vital interest to them? I can't help but think that Danzig is one of those provinces, because of...reasons.

 

[El Pip]

I admit much of the mechanics mean little to me, but that all seemed to go very well. The benefit of having an ally prepared to do all the hard work while demanding little in the way of actual reward, it's a good trick particularly if you can pull it off again.

The HRE voting thing looked good? Just because I assume higher numbers are better in this context and that getting elected is good, it seems like it should be. And presumably that is the first cardinal of many with the aim of influencing the papal election and perhaps eventually getting a puppet pope elected.

 

[Rensslaer]

I realize I have a whole stack of responses to give feedback to, so...

If you want to be HRE, you have to make one of your diplomats the go to guy for that. It is constant, but worth it (mostly) when you gain the crown.

I'm realizing this, after having come close and then fallen behind again...

Some advice from my experience in the game:
In regards to economy, tax is going to be your largest source of income in the early game. Try to get that as high as you can. Later on, trade and production become more important. Once your economy can handle it, it's a good idea to start drilling your armies during peacetime to increase their combat effectiveness and your army professionalism.
Prestige is useful, but it's not a country defining trait. Certainly not one you use to compare with other countries. Development, economy, tech level, army/navy size/quality/forcelimit are all more accurate ways to compare yourself with others that I often use myself, but not prestige. Plus, it decays fast, at a base rate of -5% per year. Though later in the game, you'll probably be able to stack enough modifiers to keep it at max level.
I've never played within the HRE, but playing from the outside, unlawful territory isn't really that bad. Though be aware that declining hurts relations with the emperor plus everyone else in the HRE. If you don't want the emperor to constantly demand your conquests, try improving relations with them. Securing an alliance with them is even better if you can manage it.
If you're going to play a (relatively) historical game and not do any crazy blobbing, admin points shouldn't be too much of an issue as long as you pace yourself. As you progress through the game, you'll pick up more admin efficiency, especially once absolutism picks up. Admin efficiency reduces province warscore cost as well as core creation cost. So that's something to keep in mind.

Some notes on early game political developments:
- Surrender of Maine. It looks like England surrendered Maine to France. Normally England chooses to fight, which would allow France to take most of their continental holdings. This is going to put France at a disadvantage.
- Burgundian Inheritance. When Charles dies, Burgundy will most likely fall under PU with either the Emperor, France, or a country they have a RM with. There is also a chance they decide to stay independent. Depending on which option is chosen, a conflict will probably start over the region.
- Prussian Confederation. In 1452, a disaster will start in the Teutonic Order, which if not addressed by 1460, will result in the revolt of Danzig. Poland will get an event to support them by joining the war. If Danzig wins (which will probably happen) the Teutons will be left as a rump state (if not completely annexed) and Danzig will become a vassal of Poland.
- Sweden starts as a subject of Denmark, but they are very disloyal and will want to declare an independence war. They're typically supported by multiple countries and usually win quite easily. If undermining Denmark is something you're interested in doing, consider supporting Sweden's independence.
- Austria will likely get a PU over Hungary and Bohemia, and Poland over Lithuania. None of them are guaranteed, but they'll probably happen.
- Not sure if this has happened already, but the Roman's Invasion event will make Moldavia a subject of either Poland (most likely option) or Hungary.

Yeah, I'm not going to be too a-historical. No blobbing. But even with the little expansion I've done (relative scale) the Illegal Territory is definitely affecting my relations with basically everybody in the HRE.

I'm way past 1460 by now. Not sure if I missed something important or not, but there was no war between Poland and the Teutonic Knights. I don't recall a revolt in Danzig either. Also no revolt so far in Sweden. I think Moldavia (see the latest update) was a Polish ally.

Thank you! And welcome, @slashkig!

Okay, I'm just about caught up. It must be frustrating having both the Emperor and the Pope breathing down your neck. Hopefully Brandenburg becomes strong enough that they can ignore them with impunity. I'm not much of an EU4 whiz so I don't have any gameplay tips, but I definitely love the setting!

Stettin, Danzig, Prussia, the Teutonic Order? These factions are just like different kinds of sausages on Brandenburg's massive Wurstteller. That is to say, they should all be gobbled up with a dash of mustard.

Are Poland and Lithuania still in a personal union as they were historically?

Welcome @The Kingmaker! Thanks! Yes, Poland and Lithuania are in a personal union, and I think you may have seen the Jagiellon grand duke in the last update.

Glad to have you along!

Will need to defer to someone more experienced re the peace making question.

Take that, buttheads!

Huzzah! Nothing they wouldn’t have tried in similar circumstances.

lol Thanks @Bullfilter

Congrats on your victory. The Poles and Lithuanians made great sacrifices allies, and Brandenburg finally has land in Prussia!

Maybe Stettin still counted as the war leader for some reason? I don't know why they would since the Teutonic Order is a larger and more influential state, but that's the only explanation I have for why a separate peace was possible, unless you negotiated the peace with Stettin first. You can negotiate with lesser cobelligerents and knock them out of wars.

Thanks! In the end I'm not TOO torn up about offending the Poles... You'll see.

Well, as I recall I made peace with the Teutonic Knights first, and then with Stettin. My declaration was against Stettin, and so the Teutons joined as their ally. But I agree Stettin must have been the War Leader.

Normally the state you declare on is the war leader, regardless of size or importance. The only exceptions are declaring war on a junior partner of a personal union (at which point the senior partner becomes war leader, e.g. if he were to declare on Lithuania, Poland would be war leader) or the fairly rare occurrence of going to war with an independent country and then during the war the country becomes a vassal/junior partner of a personal union of another, at which point that country becomes war leader. In the latter case, this is almost always the result of declaring on a country that is already losing so badly in another war that the limited amount of territory that you occupy isn’t enough to prevent the victor in the other war forcing vassalization/PU on them.

Under normal circumstances, a war leader can individually negotiate with every non-vassal/subordinate country on the other side, and indeed, this is the optimal way to do peace negotiations if for no other reason than more money is milked out of the enemy this way. The one exception to this is when the war leader is going up against a coalition directed against them. Coalition members are not allowed to make separate peaces. I do need to explain that this does not mean they are fighting a country that is in the coalition; if I attack country X, which is not in a coalition against me, and they call in their allies of Y and Z, who are in a coalition against me, unless I click the co-belligerent button on either of them and cause them to summon in the whole coalition, they’re not treated as fighting against me as a coalition and can be peaced out separately. But if instead I attack Y, X can be peaced out separately, but Z and the other coalition members will not sign a separate peace.

And in cases where a country is not the war leader for their side, such as when the player has been called in as ally to the AI, they can only negotiate with the war leader for the opposing side.

Hope this helps.

Okay so @Historywhiz - this makes sense, if the country I declare against becomes the War Leader. Trying to recall in my next war why it would seem to have worked differently. But I don't recall I could make peace with anyone but the one country. I may be misremembering. I'll look at the history and screenshots, etc.

I may lay everything on the table and have you figure it out when we get to that war. Thanks!

Nice work gobbling up Danzig there. That will be very helpful later in the game (and probably with trade.)

Thanks @coz1! I kind of like the gems.... Plus it has a lot of development already.

It appears to me, that playing inside the HRE/Central Europe is a slightly different beast from playing Southeast Asia, or even my other completed games as Spain or the Ottomans. The sheer number of small countries all trying to grow at each other's expense is a different dynamic (well I suppose Southeast Asia has a lot of small countries too, but in that case there's also uncolonized land to colonize, which I think gives whoever picks colonization ideas an advantage against the rest - as most Southeast Asian countries will not take colonization ideas under the control of the AI, this will be the player.)

This war was pretty easy due to having regional big fish Poland on your side...however, as you implied, you will probably have to fight Poland later. Hopefully Brandenburg should be of equal or larger size than Poland when that time comes.

I also found slashkig's comment to be very informative regarding the fixed historical events that take place in Europe, something I'm not too well-versed in (I still remember the time I declared war on Aragon as Castile in order to annex them, not realizing that apparently you can just diplo-annex Aragon entirely with the Iberian Wedding, as in real life.)

On that note, how did the Burgundian Inheritance go, if it's already happened? And has Sweden launched their independence war against Denmark? That seems like something Brandenburg might want to get involved in.

Could you check which provinces Poland has declared as being of vital interest to them? I can't help but think that Danzig is one of those provinces, because of...reasons.

@Black Watch Oh, yes - Danzig is DEFINITELY one of those provinces Poland wants. And now I have it...

I do not believe I've seen either a Burgundian inheritance or the Swedish revolution.

I admit much of the mechanics mean little to me, but that all seemed to go very well. The benefit of having an ally prepared to do all the hard work while demanding little in the way of actual reward, it's a good trick particularly if you can pull it off again.

The HRE voting thing looked good? Just because I assume higher numbers are better in this context and that getting elected is good, it seems like it should be. And presumably that is the first cardinal of many with the aim of influencing the papal election and perhaps eventually getting a puppet pope elected.

@El Pip I'm very happy with the way that went. I mean, I went into it thinking I wanted Stettin entirely under my control finally, and I came away with the bonus of Danzig, which is a nice prize.

Yes, the HRE was looking promising. It falls apart quickly, as Coz1 notes. And I realized something else relevant, which I'll bring up in an upcoming update.

Updating my other AAR in the next couple of days, then I'll get right back to this one. Thank you all for your comments! Any lurkers out there?

Rensslaer

 

[Rensslaer]

I want to thank everybody who voted for Rex Germania for Best Gameplay AAR of 2023. Turns out we came in 4th Place, which is quite auspicious, considering the competition. Congratulations to my friends @Bullfilter and @VILenin for coming in 1st, 2nd and 3rd! My other AAR, Shining Stars, came in 7th. Again -- considering all the great work out there I'm honored to have earned two of the top 7 spots!

Spoiler

I do really appreciate the votes and attention, though that's not why I'm doing this. Mostly it's just there are amazing stories, prompted by these games, that compel me to tell you about them. Plus, it's YOU! I may have stories to tell, but who am I to tell them to? You folks are what drive this Forum, and this story (and all the others).

I'll tease you also about another magnificent war! I mentioned I just finished a war in gameplay that was quite an adventure. I've got another of those underway currently, and it'll be alot of fun to read about when I get to it. That's not to say there aren't significant periods of peace. It's just easier to tell about long stretches of peace in an update or two.

For now, there's a time of peace. I'm preparing the update right now. Not sure how long before I can get through all the screenshots with a coherent picture I can box up into a proper update. But soon!

Thank you to all my readers! Your encouragement, advice and comments keep all this going. Anyone out there lurking want to say hi?

I'll be back soon with the next update.

Rensslaer

 

[jak7139]

I accidentally missed the last update, but all seems to be going well.

It's a good thing you called Poland into the war with you. Now they have a truce and cannot declare their own separate war against the Teutons. And you were even able to get away with not giving them anything (are they close to breaking the alliance because of that?).

If you call them in again against Prussia, you have to make sure to get a unit on each province so Poland can't steal the occupation from you.

 

[Rensslaer]

It's a good thing you called Poland into the war with you. Now they have a truce and cannot declare their own separate war against the Teutons. And you were even able to get away with not giving them anything (are they close to breaking the alliance because of that?).

Umm... Short answer: Yes.

Rensslaer

 

[jak7139]

Umm... Short answer: Yes.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Going into Prussia meant it was going to happen eventually. And they can't seek revenge very easily since you're part of the HRE.

 

[filcat]

Lurking around the forums -once a lurker, always a lurker, then checking some curious posts, but avoiding to post. Eh.
Now the urge is felt. But trying to ignore the thread-banner, going against own principles, while scrolling -crawling through the gigantic images, with no threadmarks - this is hard.

Sigh.

Spoiler: whatever get it over with. bring it on.

---

Subject tag: brandenburg
Game conditions: No info on difficulty setting; assuming Normal, non-ironman.
Player objectives: Forming prussia-tag.

Challenge conditions: None. It is set as a brandenburg-prussia run; no difficulty setting, no ironman setting, none can be considered as a challenge, other than what the player can do to itself in a brandenburg-prussia run.

Run Analysis
The player opens the run with three (3) mistakes.

1. Initial alliances​

The player made alliances with magdeburg-, lüneburg-, berg-, and... poland-tag.

Spoiler: magdeburg, lüneburg, berg

The magdeburg-tag as an ally can be seen as acceptable, but that is part of the initial brandenburg-tag provinces. It usually is more beneficial to keep them in check, to be later annexed, or better, force-vassalised, so no alliance. That tag will want the same provinces as the player-brandenburg.
The lüneburg- and berg-tags are mistakes. The first is again better to keep as a vassal, so leaving it alone to make an alliance with someone around, then force-vassalise in a co-belligerent war. The latter as an ally is a terrible choice. Once it gets a ruler with militarist personality, the code will call the player against tens of tags, as berg-tag has too many neighbours, and the code is at hyperdrive to connect its three separate provinces.

Spoiler: useful initial allies for brandenburg

Useful allies are those that do not get greedy so they will not call the player, else those with fewer options or less incentive to conquer, and those that cannot be conquered nor be declared war easily. That means free cities.
Of those, hamburg-, bremen-, and frankfurt-tags are fine examples. No tag will dare to attack them, and they will have fewer opportunities to go on a conquest thus no meaningless code-wars that the player is called to. As they are opm, they have fewer neighbours, and increasing the relations to set the attitude as friendly with those is far easier compared to dealing with the enemies of for example poland-tag, or hungary-tag, or bohemia-tag.
In case of a player-war, then they will be ready to be called-to-arms within ten years, and they can muster a 10k-army as they are rich, and they can hold off the enemy well since they have level 2 forts. The code-poland will not be available without promising land or without currying favours (new dlc feature, have no idea) until much later.

The advanced benefit is: The code free city wastes an alliance slot with the player, and the code is not able to call the player (friendly attitude with every rival-enemy-target of the code-tag), so the free cities have more chances of surviving by staying dormant, until the player is elected as the emperor. A successful hre requires many free cities; if all conquered, then it will be a poor hre, and with lower imperial authority.

Out of the initial allies the player has, the poland-tag is the actual mistake.

Code-poland and player-brandenburg want the same provinces. The player cannot compete with the code-poland, and once it has the Jagiellon ruler with pu-lithuania, the player will be out of the game. The worst condition is the code not taking the Jagiellon ruler, therefore there would be two instead of one potential rivals.

Spoiler: risks of alliance with poland-tag

Not to forget: The code-poland will call the player-brandenburg to all its offensive wars, if the player does not increase the relations with the hungary-, the bohemia-, and the muscovy-tags to set the attitude as friendly. Player-brandenburg is a duchy, code-poland is a kingdom, thus the code will accumulate favours faster than the player, and the player does not have the time, nor the opportunity to fend off the code-ally offensive wars through diplomacy - only two diplomats at the beginning. The player will be in utter loss with that alliance.

And the defensive wars: Once code-ottos or code-muscovy gets stronger and declares war, then quit game is much more preferable. There is no gain in surviving such wars. Favours gained with the code-poland will be useless in absolute scale.
For example: Attacking wolgast-tag and thinking about calling poland-tag. Code-poland is usually of friendly attitude toward wolgast-tag, because usually both rival the same tag: code-teutonic. Add this to the probability of a wolgast-tag supporting an heir in the poland-lithuania sejm, and gets a Greifen elected. The code-poland will never join a war against such a code-wolgast. Too good relations and friendly attitude modifiers prevent that.

Doom case is the code-poland calling the player-brandenburg against the code-teutonic. Again, both tags want and require the same provinces: Danzig and Königsberg. The player will not be able to reach Königsberg due to the forts of the code-teutonic.

Needless to add: Forming prussia-tag requires the player to have the Königsberg province as a core. Not Berlin, not Danzig, not any other, but Königsberg. Danzig is useful to reach Königsberg, but the latter is the requirement. And the code-poland will be faster to reach that province in such a war.

And when it is 1460, the danzig uprising event happens to the code-teutonic, and the code-danzig emerges, makes an event-alliance with the code-poland. Therefore the player is running against time. There is not enough time conquering wolgast-tag, then going against the teutonic-tag, due to the limitation of aggro-exp.

Spoiler: useful initial allies for brandenburg, p.2

The more beneficial choice determines the runstyle: Alliance with the emperor, austria-tag. This will guarantee smooth conquests without the imperial demands. If not, then the player-brandenburg can still benefit from being an elector - the code emperor-tag usually does not demand from elector-tags, but it has its limit. And in any case, when the emperor-tag rivals the player, then the run is over. Not the challenge, but the enormous amount of patience the player requires is the determining factor in this equation. An initial alliance with the code will prevent the code rivalling the player.

And when decided to make a run with emperor-austria-tag, it has to be done before the unpause, when the code-austria is friendly towards the player-brandenburg, due to being an elector; if first with a royal marriage, then this has the risk of waiting for one more month after the pause for an alliance, then the code-austria may not be friendly any more, else it will have too many relations modifier - the code will finish the initial alliance phase within the first month. Still it is doable, but pre-pause alliance offer is always available, and the guaranteed approach.

The definite risk of allying the emperor-tag is obvious: The impending doom, that is the burgundy-tag, otherwise known as the rabid tag. When Charles the Bold ascends with a militarist personality, and rivals the austria-tag, then there will be blood for Liège. Surviving that war as an ally of code-austria is more beneficial than surviving any war as an ally of code-poland: The latter will give the player nothing, the former will be more tolerant to the player's conquests within the hre. Granted, a tag cannot call emperor-austria to a war against an hre-tag, but that is irrelevant. The initial wars will be the burden of the player, and only the player. That is the reason for alliances with hamburg- or bremen- or such tags, so for some sort of help with crowded wars, and then, vassals.

A standard hre run means a vassal run. If the player goes on conquering entire regions within hre, then that is a generic run of mundane chores, and one that is done to torture player's self.

2. Initial wars​

As the brandenburg-tag at the beginning, the player has only one (1) advantage: Being an elector.
The brandenburg-tag has no economy, has no valuable provinces, has no defensible position, has no navy, and has no credible army at the beginning. Its manpower recovery rate, normal for a duchy, is in the order of magnitude 10^2. This means in any war the manpower reserves will be depleted, either by defeating else by getting defeated in battles, and it will not recover until ten years pass.

It is also, well, in hre.

This means the conquest potential is constrained by the budget of aggro-exp. If the player ignores and goes on berserking, then the code will hand it to the player. With a punitive war. Not to mention the furor of the emperor-tag, too.

This is the second mistake of this run. The player opens with a conquest on the stettin-tag, and finishes it with an actual conquest. This will kill the run.

Again, the player is in the hre; the aggro-exp has to be rationed for the upcoming series of the conquests. This means: the stettin-tag is more beneficial when it is vassalised.

Spoiler: further concerns: unreachable targets

In this run, the code-stettin is allied to the code-gotland - a new tag came along with new dlc's. Nice, but this first war is a mistake again, from its planning to the execution. Gotland-tag is an island, stettin-tag is coastal; the player-brandenburg has no navy. For vassalisation, or full-annex (?), the player has to wait at least 5 years; otherwise it is not possible, since the player has no possible moves against the code-gotland, the war ally. Then the player ends the war within one year, obviously with conquering only one province.

Whether allied to austria-tag or not, whether illegal imperial territory demanded back or not, that is a conquest, it generates aggro-exp, and the target is still alive; not vassalised, and not full-annexed. This means, in addition to bad relations with tens of tags, bad relations with the emperor-tag, there is now also abysmal relations with the target tag that is left unvassalised, or alive if going for full-annex.

The player is brandenburg; it is not a turbo-tag, not yet, it cannot afford such impossible wars. It requires two or three allies, and it requires at least two vassals. Stettin-tag is usually the prime candidate for such a force-vassalisation. If chosen a rival, such a war also brings nice power-pro. If it has other allies that are rivalled by the player-brandenburg, perfect, those allies can be humiliated for power-pro jump at the beginning.

That is, if those are reachable by the player-brandenburg. Declaring war against unreachable targets or targets with unreachable allies is a mistake.

3. Election​

This is the mistake that can kill the run.

Brandenburg sent envoys to improve relations with each of the HRE Electors, in hopes of someday having more influence with regard to the Emperor.

The player increases the relations with other electors.

Judging by the uncontrolled, unplanned, unreasonable conquest-spree of the player, they will not; but in the case that the player is wishing for getting elected as the emperor, and in the case that the player gets its wish and is elected, then, the run is over.


While playing the brandenburg-tag, one cannot form the prussia-tag while being catholic. Forming the tag requires: core province Königsberg; tag is either protestant or reformed or anglican or hussite; admin-tech 10.

Needless to say, the emperor cannot convert to any religion other than the official hre religion, that is the catholic. Once elected, there will be no forming prussia.

It is certainly a playstyle, staying as catholic emperor brandendurg;

Spoiler: but why though

Playing cilli-tag, or nassau-tag, or mecklenburg-tag, etc. will be just as the same. Bohemia-tag has more flavour for its available options, but then again, it is just another day in hre.
Getting accidentally elected is fairly frequent in eu4, which will drastically change the run course. Personally, the quit game is the best option when playing for example a stable savoy-run, or a surviving rheinpfalz-run, or a chill france-run, or a calm poland-lithuania-run, or a berserk burgundy-run, or a lonely bosnia-run, etc. and getting elected just because the ruler of the code-austria dies by the pseudo-random number generator. Avoid increasing such a probability while playing brandenburg-tag, and aiming for reforming into prussia-tag.

Increasing the relations with other electors is necessary only when:
During the war of the religious league, with the electors that have chosen the side of the emperor, and naturally after they are peaced-out - the first election of the new emperor depends on the relations with the old electors. Of course, if the player is fighting against the emperor.

---

Anyway. Bonne chance with the run.

 

[Rensslaer]

First off, I am working on the next update, but lack time to really put everything together right now. Hoping in a few days I should be able to put one out.

@filcat - I love your analyses, and I'm glad to have the benefit of one here! I will try to break up your analysis and respond where I can. Welcome! Thank you for stopping by to analyze and comment!

I'll say up front that this is my very first EU IV game, and even now I'm not really that familiar with it. I'm learning as I go, and this AAR was part of my trying to learn, and also "a strategy AAR" to help others learn as I do. So your analysis is very helpful to anyone who would come read here.

I recognize a number of mistakes that you point out that I've come to realize only over time. Some of them are pretty big! But my habit/commitment is generally to push through despite mistakes or setbacks, which unfortunately is how any real world leader has to "play" also!

Basics first:
Difficulty Level: I almost always play with "Normal" and "Average" settings, wherever they may be. I don't like cheating, and I don't like the game cheating against me. So I avoid the higher difficulty levels. I'm a beginner at this game, besides!

Goal: I'm assuming I'll create Prussia at some point, but I'm not committed to forming Prussia. Mainly I want to play realistically, and I want to bring Brandenburg into a place of relative security in the European environment. I don't want anybody to be able to push us around. It's hard to keep the big guys from pushing us around -- Muscovy, Ottomans, etc. -- but I at least want Brandenburg to be in a position where we have something to say about it. Naturally, in order to build Brandenburg to a larger, regional power, Brandenburg sees a need to push some of its own smaller neighbors around.

I've actually considered the idea of following this up with "Pax Germania" -- an AAR where I build Brandenburg through diplo-annexing and other peaceful means, attempting to avoid war wherever possible. Might be an interesting experience!

Run Analysis
The player opens the run with three (3) mistakes.

1. Initial alliances​

The player made alliances with magdeburg-, lüneburg-, berg-, and... poland-tag.
The magdeburg-tag as an ally can be seen as acceptable, but that is part of the initial brandenburg-tag provinces. It usually is more beneficial to keep them in check, to be later annexed, or better, force-vassalised, so no alliance. That tag will want the same provinces as the player-brandenburg.
The lüneburg- and berg-tags are mistakes. The first is again better to keep as a vassal, so leaving it alone to make an alliance with someone around, then force-vassalise in a co-belligerent war. The latter as an ally is a terrible choice. Once it gets a ruler with militarist personality, the code will call the player against tens of tags, as berg-tag has too many neighbours, and the code is at hyperdrive to connect its three separate provinces.

You're quite correct on all of these from a "gamey" perspective. But one wouldn't know in advance Berg will get a warlike leader.

On first glance, I decided that my primary concerns were the powerful countries around me, not the small ones. Poland, Bohemia, Teutonic Knights. I figured if Poland were my ally instead of my enemy I'd be in good shape. And this was borne out through my first couple of conflicts (Poland was only called into the one with Teutonic Order).

If I'd been playing with a mind toward vassalizing and diplo-annexing (which, frankly, I SHOULD have been!), I wouldn't have made the Magdeburg alliance, and maybe not Luneburg either.

Useful allies are those that do not get greedy so they will not call the player, else those with fewer options or less incentive to conquer, and those that cannot be conquered nor be declared war easily. That means free cities.

On the subject of allying with free cities, I've actually seen them involved in a number of conflicts. They also seem to have rather small armies, though (as you say) may have the funds to hire mercenaries. At the time of start I didn't realize how many mercenaries would be wandering the surface of Europe. I don't remember EU III being quite like that (am I mistaken?).

Out of the initial allies the player has, the poland-tag is the actual mistake.

Code-poland and player-brandenburg want the same provinces. The player cannot compete with the code-poland, and once it has the Jagiellon ruler with pu-lithuania, the player will be out of the game. The worst condition is the code not taking the Jagiellon ruler, therefore there would be two instead of one potential rivals.

Not to forget: The code-poland will call the player-brandenburg to all its offensive wars, if the player does not increase the relations with the hungary-, the bohemia-, and the muscovy-tags to set the attitude as friendly. Player-brandenburg is a duchy, code-poland is a kingdom, thus the code will accumulate favours faster than the player, and the player does not have the time, nor the opportunity to fend off the code-ally offensive wars through diplomacy - only two diplomats at the beginning. The player will be in utter loss with that alliance.

And the defensive wars: Once code-ottos or code-muscovy gets stronger and declares war, then quit game is much more preferable. There is no gain in surviving such wars. Favours gained with the code-poland will be useless in absolute scale.

Doom case is the code-poland calling the player-brandenburg against the code-teutonic. Again, both tags want and require the same provinces: Danzig and Königsberg. The player will not be able to reach Königsberg due to the forts of the code-teutonic.

Needless to add: Forming prussia-tag requires the player to have the Königsberg province as a core. Not Berlin, not Danzig, not any other, but Königsberg. Danzig is useful to reach Königsberg, but the latter is the requirement. And the code-poland will be faster to reach that province in such a war.

And when it is 1460, the danzig uprising event happens to the code-teutonic, and the code-danzig emerges, makes an event-alliance with the code-poland. Therefore the player is running against time. There is not enough time conquering wolgast-tag, then going against the teutonic-tag, due to the limitation of aggro-exp.

W/re to Poland I figured if they called me to war against Hungary or the Ottomans I wouldn't necessarily have to participate actively. That was an assumption -- maybe a bad one. I say that in the light of full hindsight, where I've seen this demonstrated. Eeesh! <shivers>

Maybe I was lucky, but Poland never actually called Brandenburg into any wars. They did fight with the Ottomans at least once, as I recall, but did not call Brandenburg.

Honestly, I do not know how to use Favors, nor do I understand the importance of them. I seem to be giving favors to my allies, which they never use. But I tried, once, "curry favors" with a country, and it took FOREVER to get just 1 (as opposed to 10 from a war declaration), so it seems useless.

Lastly, I've heard people talk about the Danzig uprising, but I haven't actually seen it. Could I have avoided it somehow? Did it happen and the Knights fought it down, and I just didn't notice?

2. Initial wars​

As the brandenburg-tag at the beginning, the player has only one (1) advantage: Being an elector.
The brandenburg-tag has no economy, has no valuable provinces, has no defensible position, has no navy, and has no credible army at the beginning. Its manpower recovery rate, normal for a duchy, is in the order of magnitude 10^2. This means in any war the manpower reserves will be depleted, either by defeating else by getting defeated in battles, and it will not recover until ten years pass.

It is also, well, in hre.

This means the conquest potential is constrained by the budget of aggro-exp. If the player ignores and goes on berserking, then the code will hand it to the player. With a punitive war. Not to mention the furor of the emperor-tag, too.

This is the second mistake of this run. The player opens with a conquest on the stettin-tag, and finishes it with an actual conquest. This will kill the run.

Again, the player is in the hre; the aggro-exp has to be rationed for the upcoming series of the conquests. This means: the stettin-tag is more beneficial when it is vassalised.

I get the impression (I may be wrong, but I swear I've checked) that you get the same aggressive expansion penalty for force-vassalizing as you do for annexing. Or it's pretty hefty for either, anyway. It seemed like I might as well just annex and skip the extra steps.

But you're right -- I have had to ration my aggressive moves, both to let the Emperor calm down, and also to allow my Manpower to recover. I would be increasing my Manpower base more aggressively, except that we use the same points to do that as to pursue military tech advancement, so which do I choose?

3. Election​

This is the mistake that can kill the run.

The player increases the relations with other electors.

Judging by the uncontrolled, unplanned, unreasonable conquest-spree of the player, they will not; but in the case that the player is wishing for getting elected as the emperor, and in the case that the player gets its wish and is elected, then, the run is over.

While playing the brandenburg-tag, one cannot form the prussia-tag while being catholic. Forming the tag requires: core province Königsberg; tag is either protestant or reformed or anglican or hussite; admin-tech 10.

Needless to say, the emperor cannot convert to any religion other than the official hre religion, that is the catholic. Once elected, there will be no forming prussia.

This is a good point I honestly hadn't (yet) considered. Do I want to be Emperor if it means I must remain Catholic?

Is there any dynamic for turning the HRE into a tolerant empire with allowance for both Catholic and Protestant? Has anyone tried this, if it's even possible?

Thinking back to EU III and my Sforza!!! AAR, I was Milan, and I became Holy Roman Emperor (not to mention Papal Controller lol), and later I converted to Protestantism. I don't recall there being anything special I had to do in order to make this happen. Is EU IV different? Maybe because this sounds a little implausible? Then again, it's not impossible to conceive of such a possibility. It's just not historical.

But you're right. Most of the Electors are wary of Brandenburg due to my aggressive expansion. And so I think while I could maybe pull off an Emperorship, it's not particularly likely if there remain other viable candidates.

You'll see more of this give-and-take in future updates.

Anyway. Bonne chance with the run.

Thank you! It has already proved quite entertaining for me, as I've played up to 1480 now, and our readers shall have much more to entertain them!

Hope to see you continue watching!

Rensslaer

 

[jak7139]

I know you replied to filcat, but figured I'd chime in here too. Just in case.

Honestly, I do not know how to use Favors, nor do I understand the importance of them. I seem to be giving favors to my allies, which they never use. But I tried, once, "curry favors" with a country, and it took FOREVER to get just 1 (as opposed to 10 from a war declaration), so it seems useless.

Favors are useful. It's just that the rate of accumulation is based on your relative power to your ally. So, since Poland is much stronger than you currently, the favors grow more slowly than if you had allied an equal or lesser country. You need 10 favors to call a nation to war, but they can also be used in other ways (getting a lump sum of money/manpower, breaking your ally's alliance with a third party, placing someone of your dynasty on their throne). Favors accrue naturally, so I'd only use a diplomat to curry unless you really need something from your ally or your diplomats have nothing else to do.

Lastly, I've heard people talk about the Danzig uprising, but I haven't actually seen it. Could I have avoided it somehow? Did it happen and the Knights fought it down, and I just didn't notice?

The Teutons can avoid the uprising, but I've never seen the AI be smart enough for that. You may have not noticed it (depends how zoomed in you like to play). It's not like a normal rebellion. Instead a whole new Danzig tag pops out and takes half the land.

I get the impression (I may be wrong, but I swear I've checked) that you get the same aggressive expansion penalty for force-vassalizing as you do for annexing. Or it's pretty hefty for either, anyway. It seemed like I might as well just annex and skip the extra steps.

Force vassalizing is still a lot of AE, just less than taking outright. Vassals also have the added benefit of being extra armies, manpower, forts that you don't pay for.

But you're right -- I have had to ration my aggressive moves, both to let the Emperor calm down, and also to allow my Manpower to recover. I would be increasing my Manpower base more aggressively, except that we use the same points to do that as to pursue military tech advancement, so which do I choose?

I would always prioritize tech first over developing. If you can't take tech and are hitting the points cap, that is the time for developing your land.

Do I want to be Emperor if it means I must remain Catholic?

It depends on your goals. But presumably if you want to go for Prussia then no.

Is there any dynamic for turning the HRE into a tolerant empire with allowance for both Catholic and Protestant? Has anyone tried this, if it's even possible?

You can do this. If the Religious Leagues form but no war happens, then after many years the HRE will accept either religion. Alternatively, the war can happen but no side will win, also causing this outcome.

and later I converted to Protestantism. I don't recall there being anything special I had to do in order to make this happen. Is EU IV different?

I'm not sure how it worked in EU3, but for EU4 you just click a button and it changes your state religion. If you are one of the first three Protestant, or one of the first three Reformed, countries you also get a religious center to help with conversion.

 

[filcat]

- You are not able to stop, are you?
- I just -
- Oh shut the faq up filcat. Despite not wanting to, despite those principles you set for yourself supposedly, despite knowing it is a mistake, you are still writing.
- All right. I swear this will be the last time commenting anything in eu4.
- Hmm.

<a couple seconds later>​

- Errr... unless it is a story.
- Here we go.
- And to join in discussions when it's about definitions, not to forget them. And some concepts.
- Yeah right. You know what? Go faq yourself.
- Umm... if you are me, then by faqing myself I faq... you?
- ?!? Mate, just shut it. Just... shut it.

---

Every point that @jak7139 highlighted is correct, except the one about the religious league.

Spoiler: highlights

• Favours are required to call the allies to the wars. In your dlc version, those other actions that jak has mentioned are introduced.
• Code-teutonic is never able to prevent the danzig uprising event; and the event underwent significant changes over the years. In your dlc version, it is designed as a disaster; own version 1.30 it is only an event with the option to prevent it by increasing the share of the crownlands against the burghers class-estate until 1460. Yet in any case the province Danzig has to be owned by the teutonic-tag for triggering it. Therefore since the player has conquered the province as seen in the screenshots, it is effectively aborted, thus no event even if it is 1480. The warning in the analysis is given as a general rule of thumb.
• The aggro-exp equation is:

base aggro-exp = [d].[p_mod].[1+aggro_impact].[1-admin_eff].[cb_mod].[nonbel_mod]

Focusing only on the subject variable; [p_mod] is the peace term modifier.
For full-annex it is 60% whereas force-vassalisation is 50%. That 10% difference is the line between punitive war and good enough relations, especially during the initial phase (1444-1500), or in game terms the age of discovery.

• Especially during the first three (3) tech levels, the monarch points have to be saved up for the tech-advance, few necessary initial conquests, and the mindless events that blackmail the player into spending those. Developing the provinces is a move that will be beneficial only after the cost for it drops, such as after embracing the renaissance, after the first imperial reform if in HRE, after 15-20 years of being late in institutions - so to force-spawn (depends on the tag; HRE-tags do not need it that much), etc. and preferably when the monarch points are about to cap at 999 (depends on the institution embracing). As an example, a teutonic-tag with mil-tech 4 can annihilate a poland-lithuania-tag with mil-tech 3, despite the enormous power difference between the two that is in favour of the latter. But that will risk the danzig event for the player, who has to develop the provinces to gain crownlands against the burghers (in 1.30 emperor; after 1.34 lions of the north, it has other aspects to consider, from what the files say).
• "If the Religious Leagues form but no war happens, then after many years the HRE will accept either religion." This is not correct; if the league war does not happen for 30 years, or if the league does not even form, then the diet of [capital province] event is triggered, locking the imperial religion to catholic.

The other event peace of westphalia is triggered when the religious league is formed, the war starts, and neither side can enforce religious supremacy in the peace deal, else when the war continues for 25 years. This will ensure tags of any denomination to be elected.

• Switching religion is as simple as jak has said; it costs 100 prestige, that should be added. But many tags have events to switch (e.g. persia-tag switching to shia), and most tags are barred from switching; especially the emperor of the HRE. Force-converting the emperor (possible for example when a minor tag is elected and loses a war with that peace term) will cause an immediate election.

---

Is EU IV different?

Apart from the ported art assets (adviser portraits, some of the ui, etc.) and text-strings of the concepts, the only two similarities between the two are:

Both eu3 and eu4 have the name Europa Universalis, and they are both developed by Paradox. That is all.

You're quite correct on all of these from a "gamey" perspective.

gamey?

Anyway. Each and every tag of eu4 offers a unique run to the player, owing to the default design by numerous variables. Out of those, many tags have additional flavour, of which brandenburg-tag is able to form prussia-tag.

It is needless to add that however you play it, it will be fun, that is natural.
Personal preference is role-playing the given ruler and the advisers, trying to benefit from the very few simulation elements the game has, trying to get comfortable enough in power, trying to survive, etc. depends on the played tag, so never gamey chores such as meaningless world-conquest type silliness.
But eu is very limited in strategy mechanics by its simulation elements unlike the beauty of ck, and eu4 will annihilate all the goodwill of the player for it.


Have fun, and bonne chance.


Edit: Corrected semantic mistakes.

 

[Rensslaer]

So at the close of the last war, at the end of 1460, I mentioned Brandenburg had achieved +3 Stability. This was done through event, where the Nobility gained and Burghers lost loyalty because we refused to sell titles. But the +1 Stability helped. Stability improves the economy and a bunch of other stuff (trade power, spy detection, corruption, taxes, unrest, institution spread, etc.).

I should note, here, that Prestige affects many of the very same statistics/modifiers, just it takes more Prestige to have the same impact. I think I hadn’t mentioned that the war brought us to 27 Prestige, which compares nicely with the great countries of the world.



We paid off one of our wartime loans.

Poland annexed Mazovia and moved their capital to Warszawa.

By 1462 the Burghers had finally been mollified and were not so restive (30% loyalty finally).

Brandenburg’s embracement of the Renaissance continues to happen slowly…

Danzig is at the forefront of that embracement, being a port city and center of commerce.



Besides the Renaissance, Danzig brings with itself many other advantages. They produce precious gems as an industry, which has a good price to it. Having a natural harbor increases the Trade Power, as does being at the mouth of the Vistula Estuary (even better). Being near the Hanseatic League trade of the Baltic improves production in the province.

Danzig is a significant city – one of Brandenburg’s largest. I’m surprised there is no fortress in place there. The Teutonic Knights have their main fortress at Konigsberg, but couldn’t afford another at Danzig. That may be the only reason why Brandenburg now owned it, and not the Knights or Poland.

Here’s Europe in 1460… This will change by the end of this update!



Centers of power in Europe in 1460 seem pretty well distributed. Denmark controls Norway and Sweden (still – no rebellion yet). They’re friendly, though, so I’m not too worried about them (allied to Teutonic Knights – so I’m not unmindful of that – but they didn’t involve themselves last war).

Muscovy is gradually gobbling up its neighbors, but they’re not to us yet. They will probably hit Poland/Lithuania first, and that’s a behemoth I don’t believe Muscovy will overwhelm easily. The Ottomans are worrisome, and expanding, but they’re still far enough off Brandenburg has no worries about this.

Hungary and Austria are respectable, and I imagine the Mediterranean trading cities have money, which equates to power. But again they’re too far away for us to worry about. Austria isn’t a friend, but isn’t an enemy. We’ll aim to keep it that way.

France, Burgundy, Castille, England… Again, all too far away to menace me directly unless I do something stupid. I will endeavour NOT to do something stupid.

Now, it might be possible to argue I already did something stupid…



By taking Danzig I have earned the enmity of my ally, Poland, which is a powerful ally, and could be a powerful nemesis. They’ve alerted us that the alliance is in danger of breaking. And, eventually, despite our attempts to improve relations and get things back on an even kilter, they officially abrogate the alliance in April of 1461.

We waste no time choosing another ally to counterbalance. We choose Hungary. Now, Hungary is a good sized power itself, and is a rival of Poland. This hopefully won’t develop into a war, but if it does, Brandenburg will do a lot better against Poland with Hungary on her side.

There is a difficulty with this alliance. Two, actually. It could bring us into conflict with the Ottomans (same problem as with Poland). But we wouldn’t likely have to send troops all that way. And Hungary has a truce with Austria. I’m not sure exactly why. I didn’t see that war. There are other circumstances that could cause a “truce”, but I think this must have been a war.

Our relations with the Holy Roman Emperor (Habsburg Austria) and the Pope (that’s Pope… someoneorother) remain somewhat fractious…

In March of 1461 it is privately discovered that Electress Catherine is seeing one of our advisors – Franciszek von Borcke (von Boncke, maybe??) – behind Friedrich II’s back!!!

What a quandary! There are a number of options, none of which seems without cost to Brandenburg or Friedrich II himself. It is decided to take the most proper course, which is to ask the Pope for a divorce and be rid of the harlot. Unfortunately, the Pope is disinclined toward Brandenburg and ignores the request. <facepalm><sighs>

We lose 10 Prestige! STUPID events!!!





And then a month or two later the Pope offers a Cardinal to us as an advisor (and of course to whisper in our ear all the things the Pope thinks we’re doing wrong. We tell the Cardinal to take a hike, and in so doing we regain our 10 Prestige.

Well… Not so stupid events. But then…

In November 1462 another of our troublesome advisors raises a stink and needs to be controlled somehow. Reviewing the options, one of which involved losing another 10 Prestige but gaining 25 Mil Points (I was not willing to accept this), resulted in the execution of this advisor (and, of course, the loss of his “finding fee” and services).

Then, four years after we thought we’d at least ended the affair between Catherine and our advisor, THE VON BONKER IS BACK!!! This time, having failed at handling it without blood the first time, it’s just time to execute this guy. We lose ANOTHER advisor!

But Brandenburg STILL has an adulteress for a Queen! And the Pope doesn’t give a damn. Or… didn’t provide us with a damn. Or her? How does that work?

Stupid events.



The economy…. Umm… I’ve just skimmed through the whole AAR so far and somehow it appears that I have not yet posted ANY of my Economics or Trade screens! That’s VERY atypical. Usually that’s how I start off. Oh well. Catching up, here.

Our coasts had been raided by Rugen’s pirates, and so I had negative modifiers on some of the revenue there. War Exhaustion is also weighing on us, and a handful of provinces (Danzig for one) have devastation.

Sometime soon after the war was over I/we choose to implement the Noble Privileges reform. It provides +15% to the National Tax Modifier, which helps a lot.



Now, in the above image, there’s a percentage noted next to each of the Trade income indicators – in 1460 it’s 1%, in 1463 it’s gone up to 12% and in 1465 it’s 27%. It is apparently our “trade efficiency”, but the income from trade doesn’t seem to scale to those numbers. Why is that?

During the post-war period we did spend a fair amount of money Drilling our soldiers, which is quite expensive. Brandenburg really, at this point, can’t afford it, but it seems important to outclass our enemies. What are your thoughts on this?

I looked at maybe funding an expansion of the tiny little Brandenburg Gate, but it’s kinda expensive! Like prohibitively expensive. I suppose it will scale in time.

Eventually, with that banner hanging up there to remind me, I decided to turn West Prussia into a state (Danzig). Was this the right decision? I only have one of the provinces of the state in my possession – is it worth it? What are the pros and cons? It appears that it must have improved my tax income from the city.

I also spent a relatively small number of Monarch points to improve development in some of my provinces. I can’t spend too much because I’m definitely falling behind some of my neighbors in tech levels.

But my economy appears to be growing steadily, if slowly.



Trade appears to be increasing also, but I feel like I have a lot to learn still about how to improve it.

I’m a little confused, still, about the “trade steering” and where to steer, as opposed to where to collect, to get the most value. It looks like Brandenburg is not in an idea position, because the trade seems to all be flowing from the southeast, vaguely, where we cannot control a whole lot about how it’s steered, and it’s broadcasting out from Saxony into the Baltic and to Lubeck.

I decided that, whatever I was doing, it could be improved, so I experimented with shifting my merchant from Krakow (where he was steering trade – I think I’d already called him home in the graphic below, which is why it doesn’t show two merchants) and I moved him to Lubeck, where it seemed a lot of our trade was moving to. It also seemed that since Lubeck seemed to have twice as much value as Saxony that a merchant positioned there might be able to collect a larger amount of trade than in Krakow, even if we had a smaller portion of the trade power in the node. Was I thinking correctly?





It did appear that it worked, because our total trade collected increased after this move. I’d also shifted the merchant from steering, which he’d been doing in Krakow, to collecting, since it seemed to me (yes?) that if he steered trade from Lubeck it would be steered in the wrong direction (it appears to cross into the North Sea from the Baltic, yes?).

Incidentally, I don’t know what all those sigma notation symbols are at the top of those columns, and I don’t have the manual handy at the moment. What are those columns, exactly?

At the beginning of 1465 we completed the Berlin Marketplace, which seemed to help our trade numbers. And then, after we embraced Renaissance, our Trade numbers climbed to 2.93 (not shown in the above graphic – 2.29 collected in Saxony and .64 in Lubeck).

In coming years I made another change that improved things over what I’d developed here.

Any guesses as to where I might have increased my Trade income, judging from the graphics I’ve shown you (if you need to see other graphics ask, and I’ll see if I can find them and post them)?



Now, the military and related considerations….

So obviously we have to recover our manpower, after a destructive and costly war. It was far more costly than I ever expected. I guess war is likely always like that, huh? Maybe not always – in a few minutes I’ll show you the “one month war” (not mine). My stats show I have 2600 men to recruit and recoup. The after-war stats showed I’d lost 9,000 men to combat and attrition. I guess the rest of them were already replaced? I don’t recall consolidating units this time around, though I do in the future. I guess over the past two years (Aug 1458 – Oct 1460) I’d earned that much in manpower.

In perusing the map I realized there were English (and Scottish too) pirates in the Baltic Sea. Those nefarious Albionese!!!

Despite it’s being expensive we did drill our troops quite a bit (until I had to move some to head off separatist movements). This drilling increased Brandenburg’s professionalism from 5% to 6%.



We built two more barques (3 total now), and assigned them to trade protection duties for the Lubeck trade.



Anyway… On to this whole Renaissance thing…

Castile and Portugal embraced the Renaissance in April 1463, but Brandenburg was still puttering along. Was there something I could have done to encourage a faster embracing??

Finally in September of that year, Danzig embraced it.





And yet it didn’t seem like things were going much faster. Stettin had already (the port cities get it first). Berlin was coming along. Other provinces not so much.

I waited another 2 years, hoping that we would creep across that mark and acquire the institution naturally. In the end I took 300 ducats in loans and simply paid the cost to embrace the rest of the way. Is that what a lot of countries have to do?

Fortunately, immediately afterward, Ansbach asks us to share knowledge with them about the Renaissance, for a fee, which is very welcome (I don’t think there were any richer countries still lacking Renaissance, by this point)….



Finally, let’s talk about geopolitics and history over this 1461-65 period.

I already had the alliance with Hungary. I thought about maybe an alliance with Denmark. That might keep them from honoring their alliance with the Teutons when the time comes. It might also help against those northern German principalities and free cities. Or it could make it more complicated. It also would cost me Diplo points for having too many diplomatic connections. Ultimately I decided this was a bridge too far.







Three major wars during this period changed the face of southern Europe substantially.

• By August of 1462 the Ottomans had occupied every Venetian province but Venice itself, and the peace left the Ottoman Empire in control of several more Aegean and Adriatic provinces.
• In October of 1463 they were at war again (not sure how – allies I suppose) and ONE MONTH LATER the Ottomans annexed Albania and the 2nd war was over.
• In September 1463 Savoy lost its two-year war with France and its allies. They lost five provinces to France and Switzerland and had to move their capital.
• Hungary had declared war against Bosnia and Serbia in July of 1463. By January 1465 Bosnia ceded 4 provinces to Hungary and Serbia surrendered 3. Quite a dramatic change. Hungary didn’t call us as allies.
• In February 1465 a long war between Castile and Naples ended with Castile taking control of Corsica and Calabria (the tip of the Italian boot).

By the end of 1465 Brandenburg recognized that a distant emperor in a distant land called China was pretty powerful for an uncivilized empire. But Castile was top dog in the European region, which might as well be the world at large. England came second, and the Ottomans and France rounded out “the big guys”. Poland and Burgundy were concerning powers of great regional strength.

Brandenburg was on her way up, but not quite what Francis II would call secure. Too many threats. Hungary was a nice ally to have. Poland was not a good enemy to have, but she wasn’t really an enemy.







The geopolitical changes that were most directly important to Brandenburg were these:

• Poland and Bohemia each absorbed one small vassal, making them bigger, making them look more threatening.
• Lubeck, leader of the Hanseatic League, has taken Brandenburg as its rival.
• Saxony had apparently lost status, and Brandenburg no longer qualified as a rival. They switched their rivalry to Goslar – small fry. Brandenburg had to switch too. Who to choose? Existing rivals are Teutonic Knights and Brunswick. To choose Poland would be tempting fate. I could have chosen Lubeck, but I didn’t. I choose Bohemia.
• In August 1463 Brunswick entered a personal union with Wolgast. So if I want to go after the rest of Wolgast, war with Brunswick comes with it. Noted.

It was time for another move. But which move to make?

 

[HistoryDude]

Poor Venice!

Is humbling the Hansa on Brandenburg's to-do list? They did declare a rivalry...

The loss of the Polish alliance isn't great, but allying with Hungary is likely a good move.

 

[Historywhiz]

Oh boy, if Hungary isn’t at least allied to Austria, then bad things are about to happen. The Ottomans will want some of their lands next, and if they get trashed by the Ottomans, then Poland first, followed by Austria and Bohemia, are just going to keep kicking them while they’re down.

 

[coz1]

I have to admit, I haven't the foggiest idea how trade works (never really have in the EU series.) That said, I never steer trade. I just collect and try to get some light ships to protect around where I am collecting. I am certain I am doing it wrong.

As to being an ally to someone at war a lot, if their enemy is far away it isn't that bad unless the wars last a long time. You can always raise war taxes which helps the ducats.

Finally, I am unsure about institution spread as well, but I do note that building things tends to increase such in that province. Until yes...you can afford to pay for it.

 

[jak7139]

I think I hadn’t mentioned that the war brought us to 27 Prestige, which compares nicely with the great countries of the world.

For your power projection in this screenshot, it can be a good idea to get it above 50 for an extra +1 of each point per month. You can embargo each of your rivals to help with this.

And Hungary has a truce with Austria. I’m not sure exactly why. I didn’t see that war. There are other circumstances that could cause a “truce”, but I think this must have been a war.

Hungary and Austria might've been allies, and then the alliance broke which caused the truce.

one of which involved losing another 10 Prestige but gaining 25 Mil Points (I was not willing to accept this)

For me, the monarch points are always the more valuable option. Prestige is nice but also very easy to get.

It is apparently our “trade efficiency”, but the income from trade doesn’t seem to scale to those numbers. Why is that?

I'm not sure on the exact equations (the wiki has those, if you're interested). I've never liked delving into games like that, I think it takes away some of the fun. So to answer your question, I'm not sure. Just know that more trade efficiency is always better (especially later in the game when it becomes your primary source of income).

What are your thoughts on this?

Drilling is good, but if you are having trouble affording it, then it is better to lower your army maintenance and build up a stockpile of money.

I suppose it will scale in time.

The cost doesn't scale. Level 1 will always cost 1000 ducats. Your economy will grow to afford these types of investments later on.

is it worth it? What are the pros and cons? It appears that it must have improved my tax income from the city.

Provinces in a state have a minimum autonomy of 0%. Non-states (called territories), have 90%. Half-states (something stated but not fully cored), have 50%. States take up more governing capacity (which you can see on the government screen, along with your stability, overextension, etc) and at this point shouldn't be an issue.

Autonomy affects the amount of money, manpower, and sailors you get from a province (with lower autonomy meaning higher numbers). Autonomy also effects how fast you get government reforms (with lower autonomy across all your provinces meaning faster growth).

You should try and state lands that are rich in development, but don't go over your governing capacity (a little bit is fine for a while, but not for long). Stated lands also build up prosperity over time, which further increases income and decreases development costs in the state.

I can’t spend too much because I’m definitely falling behind some of my neighbors in tech levels.

If you're falling behind in tech, development should be a distant luxury. Tech is more important.

It also seemed that since Lubeck seemed to have twice as much value as Saxony that a merchant positioned there might be able to collect a larger amount of trade than in Krakow, even if we had a smaller portion of the trade power in the node. Was I thinking correctly?

That's what I would've done. If your home node (where your capital is) isn't great, then collecting in other, richer nodes is the play. Later in the game you can move your main node someplace richer (like Lubeck or the EC) and start transferring trade to those places. To do that, you can either move your capital (costs adm points) or move your trade node (dipl points).

that if he steered trade from Lubeck it would be steered in the wrong direction (it appears to cross into the North Sea from the Baltic, yes?).

Yes. Those arrows show where the trade is going. Having a higher percentage of strength in a node keeps the money in the node (or wherever your merchants direct it if you are transferring) instead of it following the arrows.

Incidentally, I don’t know what all those sigma notation symbols are at the top of those columns, and I don’t have the manual handy at the moment. What are those columns, exactly?

You can hover over each of them and check (and I don't have EU4 installed currently to see myself), but I think they are your trade power in the node, the amount generated by your merchants, and the amount generated by ships.

Any guesses as to where I might have increased my Trade income, judging from the graphics I’ve shown you (if you need to see other graphics ask, and I’ll see if I can find them and post them)?

Having less autonomy from stating Danzig and building a marketplace in Berlin probably. Plus if you did any diplo development.

Was there something I could have done to encourage a faster embracing??

Three things you could have done:

• Allying someone who has Renaissance embraced plus them liking you means they could offer knowledge sharing to you (just like you did with Ansbach).
• Putting the state edict for faster institution spread on in your stated provinces.
• forcing the institution to spawn by rapidly devving in one province (presumably the cheapest one). Each dev click gives some institution progress, and you can check this by hovering over the development buttons on a province and reading the tooltip. As a western European this is usually unnecessary, but for the rest of the world (especially anybody outside of Europe) it is required to get institutions.

In the end I took 300 ducats in loans and simply paid the cost to embrace the rest of the way. Is that what a lot of countries have to do?

Lot's of players do this. Hopefully you took the burgher loans and not regular loans since they have less interest. But either way it was a good move.

(I don’t think there were any richer countries still lacking Renaissance, by this point)….

This can be a good way to pay back the loans you took from embracing the institution.

Ultimately I decided this was a bridge too far.

I would've chosen Denmark over Hungary as an ally. Denmark is more powerful and aligns more with your goals, while Hungary is far away and will likely get attacked by either the Ottomans or Poland (which will isolate you from the protection of the HRE, since you were not directly attacked.

Poland and Bohemia each absorbed one small vassal, making them bigger, making them look more threatening.

They may look more threatening. But their amount of troops/manpower probably went down overall. Vassals are great, especially small ones, because they still get the base 10,000 manpower and can field their own troops. Now Poland/Bohemia do not get those "free" troops and instead have to pay for them.

 

[El Pip]

Yep those screens all looked very EU4 like. You should definitely do the best things to do in this scenario. Sorry I can't be much more help than that, my knowledge of EU game mechanics cannot be under-stated.

I admit mostly I was wondering how Steering Trade works on a narrative level. I imagine it as a chap wandering about various markets telling the traders about all the great deals and customers elsewhere and how they should all start trading there instead. Possibly supported by some minions holding big signs saying "Great deals in Brandeburg!!!" Certainly this would explain why the mission was so unsuccessful.

 

[VILenin]

I am certain I am doing it wrong.

That's a pretty accurate description of how I feel when playing EU4.

Yep those screens all looked very EU4 like. You should definitely do the best things to do in this scenario. Sorry I can't be much more help than that, my knowledge of EU game mechanics cannot be under-stated.

I'm glad I'm not the only one here with a general ignorance of all things EU4. Calling my game knowledge "limited" feels overly generous.

@Rensslaer It seems like Brandenburg is getting ready to move up to the next weight class. Here's hoping the Hungarian alliance proves an asset and not a liability, given the number of potentially expansionary powers the Magyars are bordering.

 

[Lord Durham]

Now that I've caught up with @coz1's 'Magnus Opus', I figured it was time to inflict myself on you . Just finished page one, so give me a few days to catch up. I like what I'm seeing so far. Glad you're taking the AAR plunge again, I've always enjoyed your work.