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No it is not dead. I have simply been busy with my new job which seems to be in denial of the fact that I have a life and the fact that I have been playing other games lately. However, I intend to return to this in the next few weeks if I can find time. Also, no one has guessed the contest right. I will give another clue at the risk of giving the game away. It is something that happens when you press a claim on another nations throne.
Surly I've got it now.
All other countries you have a royal marrage with get pissed with you.
All other countries you have a royal marrage with get pissed with you.
That is a good guess but this is something that effects my nation a lot more directly and has the potential to hurt me far worse.
All right, as this has laid dormant long enough, I believe it is time to call the contest and resume updates. I am awarding the contest to King Melik as while he did not guess correctly what stupid mistake I made, he got the closest. He also did actually name a few things I didn't notice, just not the one I was looking for. I plan to update this next week, but with going back to school, it will be hard. For King Melik, send me a pm with your characters specifics and I will add him in.
ok now that it is totally one week after I made that last statement, let us get to the updating.
29 December, 1459, Mecklenburg army camp, outside Aarhus, Jylland
"Well, the die has most certainly been cast, hasn't it Ulrich"
"Indeed it has sire, let us hope it comes down in our favor".
"Indeed, things could go very badly for us otherwise."
Indeed, if Philip Ludwig von Hannover was to be perfectly honest with himself, he was not entirely certain that he had made the right decision. Sure, he had all the certainty in the world when he made the decision, but now, he just didn't know. He had counted on the Hansa engaging the Scandinavian navies, but so far, that had not happened. The Hansa seemed reluctant to risk there navy in a straight up fight. He had given orders for his own miniscule navy to sail to assist the Hansa forces if they did engage. Indeed, he sorely hoped they did. If the Hansa did not engage, then little progress could be made. Sure, his army was currently laying siege to Denmark's holdings in Jutland, but that would not be anywhere near enough as long as Norway and Sweden remained in the war. He and his men could occupy Jutland and his vassals could take occupy the lands of any Northern German state fool enough to join on Denmark's side, sure, but Norway and Sweden's territory remained untouchable as long as they had there navies, and there was nothing Philip could do about them.
Such matters had quickly proven the least of his concerns after and unexpected problem reared its head. The nobles of Mecklenburg had rejected violently to Mecklenburg's attempt to seize yet another throne. Indeed, with the rampant marriage policies of his father as he tried to establish the legitimacy of there dynasty, many of the nobles had marriage ties with the Danish. Indeed, it was one such opportune marriage that had given his the excuse for war. Surprisingly, it was the family of that particular relative whose marriage had been exploited who had started grumbling the loudest, as their pride was apparently wounded from being used in such a way. This led to a drastic weakening of his hold on the throne as several of his nobles, many of which had ties to the royal family, started to ponder making there own attempt at the throne. Further more, these nobles had started complaining to there relatives in other countries of the rapacity of King Philip which had led to a worsening in both there reputation and relations with other nations. Indeed, while virtually everyone had been wary of there rampant expansion, some had begun throwing around the term "Dishonorable Scum" while referring to Mecklenburg. (translation, I forgot that going to war lowers your legitimacy, which in turn lowers your infamy cap, meaning I am now over my infamy limit)
It was then that a runner entered the tent, looking visibly exhausted and holding a rather urgent looking dispatch. After the boy simply stood there panting for several minutes without a word, the King decided he had had enough of waiting.
"Well, what is it boy, I do have a war to fight her if you don't mind"
"Yes sire, There is news form the fleet."
At that Ulrich's heart sank. If the fleet was sending him any kind of word it was very unlikely to be good. Indeed, it likely told him how some great fool (who was likely to be cured of that malady by losing his head soon) had taken the fleet into some engagement they had no chance of winning and gotten them all sunk.
"Well, best get this over with, give me the dispatch"
As the boy handed him the dispatch, he steeled himself to get the bad news....And was rather pleasantly surprised by the actual contents of the dispatch. It appears that the Mecklenburg fleet, tiny as it was, had actually managed to score a naval victory over Denmark, capturing two ships in the process.
It looked to him like rather then making someone shorter by a head, he was going to have give someone a medal, which was hardly the worst thing that could have happened. Granted, the victory was minor in the extreme, but it did strengthen Mecklenburg's navy slightly. While it was true that a victory like this would hardly decide the war at sea, if Mecklenburg continued to win victories like this one, small battles that ended in a few ships captured for them, they might be able to tilt the balance, ever so slowly, in there favor. perhaps this gamble would pay off after all.
15 July, 1459, Aarhus, Jylland, Kingdom of Denmark.
Christopher Anderberg, former commander of the garrison in Jylland was humiliated. The 26 year old had been in the army since the age of 16 and had risen quickly in the ranks. Having been born to a powerful Swedish noble family, he had quickly realized that remaining at home was not going to get him anywhere in life. Sweden may have been a great power once, but those days were long gone. The glorious period following Sweden winning its independence had been so full of hope for the future greatness of Sweden. Those hopes had been dashed spectacularly by the likes of its neighbors. Norway had taken chunks out of their country and the Finns had launched a successful revolt. Even the Hansa, smelling blood in the water, had bitten off a piece of Swedish territory. The only solace they had had was that their greedy neighbor Norway had soon suffered her own bout of misfortune when England had started trying to take back their territories in the British Isles and ended by taking a chunk of Norway's most populous territories. However, while he had realized that Sweden's power, and indeed that of all the Scandinavian nations, was in the decline, his father never did. His father had been among the group of Swedish nobles who insisted on living in the glory days of the Swedish empire and thinking that they could somehow regain their former glory. After numerous arguments with his father on the subject, that only grew in intensity and frequency as he got older, things had finally come to a head when he had explained in great detail to his father about why Sweden's days as a Great, or even a major power, were done for and he needed to face the truth. His father had disagreed. Rather then face the truth, he had disowned his son. When his younger brother tried to come to his aid, he had been disowned as well. Deciding to seek his fortune elsewhere, he decided to offer his services to one of the more up and coming nations in Germany. His father, however, had many friends abroad and he had used his connections to slander his son and make sure that he could find no employment anywhere.
Eventually, Christopher and his brother were forced to sign up with a mercenary company to try and make their way. Christopher had soon proved himself to be a natural born warrior, cutting down enemies by the thousands on the field. His comrades had said that while he was always so grim off the field, the moment he went into battle, his eyes seemed to burn with an insatiable fire and he fought as if possessed by the devil himself. He always joked that he simply imagined every man he fought was his fool of a father, allowing him to release all the rage he had against himself on the field. That wasn't his only skill either, for young Christopher soon discovered he had a knack for strategy and tactics. It was said by his fellow mercenaries that he could look at a field and instantly come up with a battle plan. More importantly, these plans worked and they worked flawlessly. By the time he was 18, a scant two years of serving with the company, he had risen high. His skill in battle had earned him a place as an officer and his mind for strategy and tactics earned him a place as one of the lieutenants of the company. When the commander of there company died, Christopher, at a scant 19 years old, was elected as the companies new commander. Eventually, his mercenary company came into the employ of Denmark. During one particular battle, he managed to catch the eye of the Danish King, who offered him a generalship in his army. Christopher accepted, provided he was permitted to bring his brother, who had never been more then a mediocre fighter, along as a staff officer. The King agreed and thus, at the age of 21, Christopher seemed to be moving up in the world. Two years later, after proving himself to be among the King's most fiercely loyal and competent officers, the King promoted the man to be the head of his military, heaping more and more honors upon him. That had all changed about a year ago when the King died. Since his heir was not yet old enough to rule in his own right, a regency council was formed, of which Christopher naturally formed a part. The other members of the council, however, had grown jealous of the lads meteoric rise to power and thus began plotting against him. Eventually, they managed to convince the young king that he was plotting to seize the throne for himself. While his popularity with his fellow soldiers meant it was too dangerous to simply have him executed, the King had decided to remove him as head of the military and he had been imprisoned.
That didn't last long though, as Denmark soon found itself dragged into the revolt against the emperor by their ally Munster. After several embarrasing defeats, the King finally offered to reinstate him as a general. After being released and reuniting with his brother, who had been taken on as a staff officer by another general as a favor, he was informed that the King had been forced to reinstate him when half the army threatened to mutiny of the glaring incompetence of his replacement as head of the military. Soon, Christopher was managing to turn the war around when suddenly, another tragedy struck. After suffering several glaring defeats at the hands of the Danes, the badly overextended Bohemians decided to try and remove the source of their problem. They sent an officer over to him under a flag of truce offering to negotiate peace terms. Christopher accepted, thinking that this was his opportunity to end the war quickly. When he arrived at the meeting, he found that it was a trap. The Bohemian "ambassadors" were really 20 highly trained killers. The Bohemians, however, did not reckon on Christopher's amazing fighting skills. Eventually, after cutting about 5 of the men sent to kill him, one of them managed to get the drop on him and was on the point of killing him, when his brother stepped in front of the blade, getting killed in the process. This caused Christopher to fly into a murderous rage and he easily dispatched the remaining assailants. When he went to go back to his army, however, he realized that he was not the only one who had been ambushed. The Bohemian army had stolen a march on his men while he was away and had caught them by surprise while they were still in their camp. The result had been red slaughter. With fully half of his men dead, Christopher was forced to limp back home to Denmark. His indignation at the temerity of the attack and his rage at the way his brother had been cut down like dog right before his eyes combined to give him a healthy hatred for the Bohemians, causing him to regard them all as honorless curs who deserved nothing less then eternal damnation.
When he returned, he found the King to be less then pleased. The King had never liked being forced to reinstate Christopher and, while he lacked the spine to arrest him, for fear of inciting a mutiny, the King decided to reduce him in rank to a lowly garrison commander. Placing him in charge of the garrison at Aarhus, Denmark had limped on until Mecklenburg had come calling after his throne.
It was in his official capacity as leader of the Aarhus garrison that he was now meeting with the young King Philip of Mecklenburg in order to surrender. Utterly humiliated, he offered up his sword to the King.
"No, no, you keep that. I have no need of your sword, just your city."
"It is traditional sire, not like I will be needing it anymore, the King will probably have my head off anyway."
"Why should he execute you, you fought well. Indeed, it was a close run seige. Had you had a true army to back you up, I doubt that it would have been a victory"
"Because the King is a self important young prick who listens to the advice of fools over those who have been his loyal servants."
"I must say then that your king himself is a fool. You fight like a lion. You remind me of my old friend Adolph, full of fire and vigor. In truth I was surprised to find such a skilled commander as you in charge of a lowly garrison command, not that Denmark has any army left to speak of."
"I was once a general sire, Indeed, I had command of the whole army, but I was betrayed by the over ambitious fools on his council and the spineless Bohemians who feared me so much they decided to hide behind assassins rather then fight me like men."
"What a waste of such a great talent, What say you come take service with me, I assure you I will most certainly be able to make use of such a talent."
"A few years ago, I would have thrown that offer right back in your face, but I have had my fill of serving Denmark, who has been circling the drain for a while now and does not know how to reward loyal service. I see no reason not to take you up on your offer."
"It is settled then, you shall ride with me and we shall see if I have not misjudged your talents."
And with that, Christopher Anderberg swore fealty to his new liege.
1 August, 1459, Mecklenburg army, Jylland, Kingdom of Denmark.
Philip Ludwig von Hannover was not sure how to feel about the war so far. Sure, Jutland had fallen and Munster would fall soon to Brunswick, but the rest of the war had not gone well so far. As it happened, the navy was unable to keep up its luck, as it was attacked shortly after its much hailed victory by a equal sized, but fresh, Norwegian fleet. While the battle had been going against them to begin with, the arrival of Swedish reinforcements had forced the Mecklenburg ships to withdraw and cured them of any daring they might have had, as they now refused to leave port at all. However, all of this was nothing compared to the catastrophe that had happened just recently. That catastrophe was the Hansa accepting peace without even trying to fight the Scandinavian navies. The disaster this represented could hardly be overstated. Without the Hansa's navy, it would be difficult if not impossible to take the Danish capital. Victory would depend on somehow making sure the Swedish and Norwegians navies were away from the Sound for long enough for an army to cross. Even if that worked, the army would be trapped in Sjaeland after that, as the Navy would be unable to retrieve them and the Norwegians and Swedes would be unlikely to let them escape. That would put the army in a situation where it would have to win before Sweden could bring its men South to squash them, and that was a gamble the King looked forward to with dread.
It was in this moment of melancholy that Christian Ludwig Seeland, walked into the room looking incredibly pleased with himself.
"Well here is a rare sight Christian, you in good spirits and me in rather poor spirits. Usually you are the dour and serious one and I the one with the big stupid grin on his face. What has caused this particular reversal I wonder."
"It appears, sire, that our hard work to get Norway and Sweden out of this war have begun to bear fruit. I have just returned form a talk with the Norwegian ambassador and he has informed me that, in light of the fact that his country stands little to gain from continued fighting, there King sees no point in there continued involvement and will consider a peace."
"Will he now, and tell me Christian, what would he ask of us in return, the entire contents of our treasury no doubt."
"Not at all sire, he asked for a much less considerable sum".
"Oh, and what might that be"
"Nothing".
"Nothing, now I know you must be joking with me. Why would he agree to a white peace, we have not even put a scratch on his forces."
"That may be true sire, but, conversely, they see no way for them to harm our men without bringing them over in transports and that would be suicide, given they can only bring over their men 1 or 2 regiments at a time and that would simply end with them feeding men endlessly into a meat grinder. Given this, I have convinced them that it is in there best interest to simply back out of the war and leave Denmark to its most deserved and inevitable fate. Indeed, given that they have only recently escaped a personal union under them themselves, I believe it would be rather ironic for them to simply let Denmark have a taste of its own medicine."
"This is most excellent news. Now we just need to convince Sweden to go away and we will be all set to make Denmark bow to our whim."
"Indeed sire, I will begin the negotiations to that effect now."
"I wish you luck. If Sweden leaves the war, I believe that Denmark will cave. Otherwise, we will have to somehow get our men across to Sjaeland and hope we are not sending them to there doom. A situation best avoided if ever there was one."
"On that we can agree, by your leave, I shall excuse myself."
While he may not have directly stated it, King Philip believed that the outcome of the war would now rest entirely on one thing: If Christian Ludwig Seeland could get Sweden out of the war. If he could manage that feat, then Denmark would have no choice but to submit. If not, Mecklenburg was in a dangerous if not impossible position. All there was to be done now was to wait and hope that Christian would find success.
27 November, 1961, Mecklenburg Army camp, Luneburg
Philip Ludwig von Hannover wiped sweat from his brow in relief. After months of sieging, Luneburg had finally fallen.
While Luneburg was hardly a power that could threaten might Mecklenburg anymore, every little bit counted at this point. Every province and every pissant state that fell before the Mecklenburg alliance put the screws to Denmark a little more. However, it would still all come to nought if Christian Ludwig Seeland failed and this was looking more and more likely. the poor diplomat had been away in Stockholm since there last meeting and the Swedish had done nothing but delay himself. Indeed, they proved to be masters of delaying tactics. Johann's spies told him that the delay was to try and prevent a loss of face on Sweden's part. Sweden knew that the war was going nowhere but its pride would not let it admit that it could not stomp a bug like Mecklenburg. Therefore, the King delayed in hopes the Mecklenburg would simply tire of the war and go away, thus preventing any significant loss of face for him. What's more, the recently conquered Kingdom of Brandenburg had become more and more restless as of late. Seeing the war as an opportunity to try and claim there independence, the people of Brandenburg had risen up three times. The first revolt in Neumark had gone on and on until a coalition of several of Mecklenburg's vassals had finally put it down, Philip being too busy in Jutland to bother with it. Now the people of Berlin and Potsdam had both risen in revolt. Indeed, Philip began to worry that he might have to end the war simply so he could focus on keeping the Kingdom of Brandenburg, which clearly did not want to be a part of his kingdom, down. Thus, without even stopping for a rest, Philip marched off once again to battle.
And there you have an update. Christopher Anderberg is King Melik's character. I had planned to give you the whole win one go, but given how long the backstory for Christopher went on, I figured that this would be sufficient. I will try to update as I can, but with student teaching, school, EUIV, and life, all screaming for my attention I am not sure when the next update will be, but I will try to make it soonish.
29 December, 1459, Mecklenburg army camp, outside Aarhus, Jylland
"Well, the die has most certainly been cast, hasn't it Ulrich"
"Indeed it has sire, let us hope it comes down in our favor".
"Indeed, things could go very badly for us otherwise."
Indeed, if Philip Ludwig von Hannover was to be perfectly honest with himself, he was not entirely certain that he had made the right decision. Sure, he had all the certainty in the world when he made the decision, but now, he just didn't know. He had counted on the Hansa engaging the Scandinavian navies, but so far, that had not happened. The Hansa seemed reluctant to risk there navy in a straight up fight. He had given orders for his own miniscule navy to sail to assist the Hansa forces if they did engage. Indeed, he sorely hoped they did. If the Hansa did not engage, then little progress could be made. Sure, his army was currently laying siege to Denmark's holdings in Jutland, but that would not be anywhere near enough as long as Norway and Sweden remained in the war. He and his men could occupy Jutland and his vassals could take occupy the lands of any Northern German state fool enough to join on Denmark's side, sure, but Norway and Sweden's territory remained untouchable as long as they had there navies, and there was nothing Philip could do about them.
Such matters had quickly proven the least of his concerns after and unexpected problem reared its head. The nobles of Mecklenburg had rejected violently to Mecklenburg's attempt to seize yet another throne. Indeed, with the rampant marriage policies of his father as he tried to establish the legitimacy of there dynasty, many of the nobles had marriage ties with the Danish. Indeed, it was one such opportune marriage that had given his the excuse for war. Surprisingly, it was the family of that particular relative whose marriage had been exploited who had started grumbling the loudest, as their pride was apparently wounded from being used in such a way. This led to a drastic weakening of his hold on the throne as several of his nobles, many of which had ties to the royal family, started to ponder making there own attempt at the throne. Further more, these nobles had started complaining to there relatives in other countries of the rapacity of King Philip which had led to a worsening in both there reputation and relations with other nations. Indeed, while virtually everyone had been wary of there rampant expansion, some had begun throwing around the term "Dishonorable Scum" while referring to Mecklenburg. (translation, I forgot that going to war lowers your legitimacy, which in turn lowers your infamy cap, meaning I am now over my infamy limit)
It was then that a runner entered the tent, looking visibly exhausted and holding a rather urgent looking dispatch. After the boy simply stood there panting for several minutes without a word, the King decided he had had enough of waiting.
"Well, what is it boy, I do have a war to fight her if you don't mind"
"Yes sire, There is news form the fleet."
At that Ulrich's heart sank. If the fleet was sending him any kind of word it was very unlikely to be good. Indeed, it likely told him how some great fool (who was likely to be cured of that malady by losing his head soon) had taken the fleet into some engagement they had no chance of winning and gotten them all sunk.
"Well, best get this over with, give me the dispatch"
As the boy handed him the dispatch, he steeled himself to get the bad news....And was rather pleasantly surprised by the actual contents of the dispatch. It appears that the Mecklenburg fleet, tiny as it was, had actually managed to score a naval victory over Denmark, capturing two ships in the process.
It looked to him like rather then making someone shorter by a head, he was going to have give someone a medal, which was hardly the worst thing that could have happened. Granted, the victory was minor in the extreme, but it did strengthen Mecklenburg's navy slightly. While it was true that a victory like this would hardly decide the war at sea, if Mecklenburg continued to win victories like this one, small battles that ended in a few ships captured for them, they might be able to tilt the balance, ever so slowly, in there favor. perhaps this gamble would pay off after all.
15 July, 1459, Aarhus, Jylland, Kingdom of Denmark.
Christopher Anderberg, former commander of the garrison in Jylland was humiliated. The 26 year old had been in the army since the age of 16 and had risen quickly in the ranks. Having been born to a powerful Swedish noble family, he had quickly realized that remaining at home was not going to get him anywhere in life. Sweden may have been a great power once, but those days were long gone. The glorious period following Sweden winning its independence had been so full of hope for the future greatness of Sweden. Those hopes had been dashed spectacularly by the likes of its neighbors. Norway had taken chunks out of their country and the Finns had launched a successful revolt. Even the Hansa, smelling blood in the water, had bitten off a piece of Swedish territory. The only solace they had had was that their greedy neighbor Norway had soon suffered her own bout of misfortune when England had started trying to take back their territories in the British Isles and ended by taking a chunk of Norway's most populous territories. However, while he had realized that Sweden's power, and indeed that of all the Scandinavian nations, was in the decline, his father never did. His father had been among the group of Swedish nobles who insisted on living in the glory days of the Swedish empire and thinking that they could somehow regain their former glory. After numerous arguments with his father on the subject, that only grew in intensity and frequency as he got older, things had finally come to a head when he had explained in great detail to his father about why Sweden's days as a Great, or even a major power, were done for and he needed to face the truth. His father had disagreed. Rather then face the truth, he had disowned his son. When his younger brother tried to come to his aid, he had been disowned as well. Deciding to seek his fortune elsewhere, he decided to offer his services to one of the more up and coming nations in Germany. His father, however, had many friends abroad and he had used his connections to slander his son and make sure that he could find no employment anywhere.
Eventually, Christopher and his brother were forced to sign up with a mercenary company to try and make their way. Christopher had soon proved himself to be a natural born warrior, cutting down enemies by the thousands on the field. His comrades had said that while he was always so grim off the field, the moment he went into battle, his eyes seemed to burn with an insatiable fire and he fought as if possessed by the devil himself. He always joked that he simply imagined every man he fought was his fool of a father, allowing him to release all the rage he had against himself on the field. That wasn't his only skill either, for young Christopher soon discovered he had a knack for strategy and tactics. It was said by his fellow mercenaries that he could look at a field and instantly come up with a battle plan. More importantly, these plans worked and they worked flawlessly. By the time he was 18, a scant two years of serving with the company, he had risen high. His skill in battle had earned him a place as an officer and his mind for strategy and tactics earned him a place as one of the lieutenants of the company. When the commander of there company died, Christopher, at a scant 19 years old, was elected as the companies new commander. Eventually, his mercenary company came into the employ of Denmark. During one particular battle, he managed to catch the eye of the Danish King, who offered him a generalship in his army. Christopher accepted, provided he was permitted to bring his brother, who had never been more then a mediocre fighter, along as a staff officer. The King agreed and thus, at the age of 21, Christopher seemed to be moving up in the world. Two years later, after proving himself to be among the King's most fiercely loyal and competent officers, the King promoted the man to be the head of his military, heaping more and more honors upon him. That had all changed about a year ago when the King died. Since his heir was not yet old enough to rule in his own right, a regency council was formed, of which Christopher naturally formed a part. The other members of the council, however, had grown jealous of the lads meteoric rise to power and thus began plotting against him. Eventually, they managed to convince the young king that he was plotting to seize the throne for himself. While his popularity with his fellow soldiers meant it was too dangerous to simply have him executed, the King had decided to remove him as head of the military and he had been imprisoned.
That didn't last long though, as Denmark soon found itself dragged into the revolt against the emperor by their ally Munster. After several embarrasing defeats, the King finally offered to reinstate him as a general. After being released and reuniting with his brother, who had been taken on as a staff officer by another general as a favor, he was informed that the King had been forced to reinstate him when half the army threatened to mutiny of the glaring incompetence of his replacement as head of the military. Soon, Christopher was managing to turn the war around when suddenly, another tragedy struck. After suffering several glaring defeats at the hands of the Danes, the badly overextended Bohemians decided to try and remove the source of their problem. They sent an officer over to him under a flag of truce offering to negotiate peace terms. Christopher accepted, thinking that this was his opportunity to end the war quickly. When he arrived at the meeting, he found that it was a trap. The Bohemian "ambassadors" were really 20 highly trained killers. The Bohemians, however, did not reckon on Christopher's amazing fighting skills. Eventually, after cutting about 5 of the men sent to kill him, one of them managed to get the drop on him and was on the point of killing him, when his brother stepped in front of the blade, getting killed in the process. This caused Christopher to fly into a murderous rage and he easily dispatched the remaining assailants. When he went to go back to his army, however, he realized that he was not the only one who had been ambushed. The Bohemian army had stolen a march on his men while he was away and had caught them by surprise while they were still in their camp. The result had been red slaughter. With fully half of his men dead, Christopher was forced to limp back home to Denmark. His indignation at the temerity of the attack and his rage at the way his brother had been cut down like dog right before his eyes combined to give him a healthy hatred for the Bohemians, causing him to regard them all as honorless curs who deserved nothing less then eternal damnation.
When he returned, he found the King to be less then pleased. The King had never liked being forced to reinstate Christopher and, while he lacked the spine to arrest him, for fear of inciting a mutiny, the King decided to reduce him in rank to a lowly garrison commander. Placing him in charge of the garrison at Aarhus, Denmark had limped on until Mecklenburg had come calling after his throne.
It was in his official capacity as leader of the Aarhus garrison that he was now meeting with the young King Philip of Mecklenburg in order to surrender. Utterly humiliated, he offered up his sword to the King.
"No, no, you keep that. I have no need of your sword, just your city."
"It is traditional sire, not like I will be needing it anymore, the King will probably have my head off anyway."
"Why should he execute you, you fought well. Indeed, it was a close run seige. Had you had a true army to back you up, I doubt that it would have been a victory"
"Because the King is a self important young prick who listens to the advice of fools over those who have been his loyal servants."
"I must say then that your king himself is a fool. You fight like a lion. You remind me of my old friend Adolph, full of fire and vigor. In truth I was surprised to find such a skilled commander as you in charge of a lowly garrison command, not that Denmark has any army left to speak of."
"I was once a general sire, Indeed, I had command of the whole army, but I was betrayed by the over ambitious fools on his council and the spineless Bohemians who feared me so much they decided to hide behind assassins rather then fight me like men."
"What a waste of such a great talent, What say you come take service with me, I assure you I will most certainly be able to make use of such a talent."
"A few years ago, I would have thrown that offer right back in your face, but I have had my fill of serving Denmark, who has been circling the drain for a while now and does not know how to reward loyal service. I see no reason not to take you up on your offer."
"It is settled then, you shall ride with me and we shall see if I have not misjudged your talents."
And with that, Christopher Anderberg swore fealty to his new liege.
1 August, 1459, Mecklenburg army, Jylland, Kingdom of Denmark.
Philip Ludwig von Hannover was not sure how to feel about the war so far. Sure, Jutland had fallen and Munster would fall soon to Brunswick, but the rest of the war had not gone well so far. As it happened, the navy was unable to keep up its luck, as it was attacked shortly after its much hailed victory by a equal sized, but fresh, Norwegian fleet. While the battle had been going against them to begin with, the arrival of Swedish reinforcements had forced the Mecklenburg ships to withdraw and cured them of any daring they might have had, as they now refused to leave port at all. However, all of this was nothing compared to the catastrophe that had happened just recently. That catastrophe was the Hansa accepting peace without even trying to fight the Scandinavian navies. The disaster this represented could hardly be overstated. Without the Hansa's navy, it would be difficult if not impossible to take the Danish capital. Victory would depend on somehow making sure the Swedish and Norwegians navies were away from the Sound for long enough for an army to cross. Even if that worked, the army would be trapped in Sjaeland after that, as the Navy would be unable to retrieve them and the Norwegians and Swedes would be unlikely to let them escape. That would put the army in a situation where it would have to win before Sweden could bring its men South to squash them, and that was a gamble the King looked forward to with dread.
It was in this moment of melancholy that Christian Ludwig Seeland, walked into the room looking incredibly pleased with himself.
"Well here is a rare sight Christian, you in good spirits and me in rather poor spirits. Usually you are the dour and serious one and I the one with the big stupid grin on his face. What has caused this particular reversal I wonder."
"It appears, sire, that our hard work to get Norway and Sweden out of this war have begun to bear fruit. I have just returned form a talk with the Norwegian ambassador and he has informed me that, in light of the fact that his country stands little to gain from continued fighting, there King sees no point in there continued involvement and will consider a peace."
"Will he now, and tell me Christian, what would he ask of us in return, the entire contents of our treasury no doubt."
"Not at all sire, he asked for a much less considerable sum".
"Oh, and what might that be"
"Nothing".
"Nothing, now I know you must be joking with me. Why would he agree to a white peace, we have not even put a scratch on his forces."
"That may be true sire, but, conversely, they see no way for them to harm our men without bringing them over in transports and that would be suicide, given they can only bring over their men 1 or 2 regiments at a time and that would simply end with them feeding men endlessly into a meat grinder. Given this, I have convinced them that it is in there best interest to simply back out of the war and leave Denmark to its most deserved and inevitable fate. Indeed, given that they have only recently escaped a personal union under them themselves, I believe it would be rather ironic for them to simply let Denmark have a taste of its own medicine."
"This is most excellent news. Now we just need to convince Sweden to go away and we will be all set to make Denmark bow to our whim."
"Indeed sire, I will begin the negotiations to that effect now."
"I wish you luck. If Sweden leaves the war, I believe that Denmark will cave. Otherwise, we will have to somehow get our men across to Sjaeland and hope we are not sending them to there doom. A situation best avoided if ever there was one."
"On that we can agree, by your leave, I shall excuse myself."
While he may not have directly stated it, King Philip believed that the outcome of the war would now rest entirely on one thing: If Christian Ludwig Seeland could get Sweden out of the war. If he could manage that feat, then Denmark would have no choice but to submit. If not, Mecklenburg was in a dangerous if not impossible position. All there was to be done now was to wait and hope that Christian would find success.
27 November, 1961, Mecklenburg Army camp, Luneburg
Philip Ludwig von Hannover wiped sweat from his brow in relief. After months of sieging, Luneburg had finally fallen.
While Luneburg was hardly a power that could threaten might Mecklenburg anymore, every little bit counted at this point. Every province and every pissant state that fell before the Mecklenburg alliance put the screws to Denmark a little more. However, it would still all come to nought if Christian Ludwig Seeland failed and this was looking more and more likely. the poor diplomat had been away in Stockholm since there last meeting and the Swedish had done nothing but delay himself. Indeed, they proved to be masters of delaying tactics. Johann's spies told him that the delay was to try and prevent a loss of face on Sweden's part. Sweden knew that the war was going nowhere but its pride would not let it admit that it could not stomp a bug like Mecklenburg. Therefore, the King delayed in hopes the Mecklenburg would simply tire of the war and go away, thus preventing any significant loss of face for him. What's more, the recently conquered Kingdom of Brandenburg had become more and more restless as of late. Seeing the war as an opportunity to try and claim there independence, the people of Brandenburg had risen up three times. The first revolt in Neumark had gone on and on until a coalition of several of Mecklenburg's vassals had finally put it down, Philip being too busy in Jutland to bother with it. Now the people of Berlin and Potsdam had both risen in revolt. Indeed, Philip began to worry that he might have to end the war simply so he could focus on keeping the Kingdom of Brandenburg, which clearly did not want to be a part of his kingdom, down. Thus, without even stopping for a rest, Philip marched off once again to battle.
And there you have an update. Christopher Anderberg is King Melik's character. I had planned to give you the whole win one go, but given how long the backstory for Christopher went on, I figured that this would be sufficient. I will try to update as I can, but with student teaching, school, EUIV, and life, all screaming for my attention I am not sure when the next update will be, but I will try to make it soonish.
I apologize to all of you, but I am going to have to declare this AAR officially dead. However, you can all take heart, because I intend to resurrect it in a new form. You see, I have also acquired EUIV and actually find it much more enjoyable. I have already played a Mecklenburg game and made some remarkable progress. Therefore, you can all look forward to seeing this AAR resurrected in EUIV. To all of you who created characters in this AAR, I will give you the opportunity to either have your characters continue to exist in the New AAR from the start as Courtiers or to create a new one for submission. I hope you all will follow the new AAR as loyally as you have this one.