Exciting! Adding Brandenburg to your realm would be an incredible boost. I hope he manages to pull it off!
Ps: The 2nd and 3rd screenshot are the same.
It would indeed be an excellent addition. It would also remove one of my biggest potential rivals permanently
also, fixed.
A true roll of the dice indeed. A brave gamble but the rewards are considerable. I merely hope Gustav has learned from his bitter battles againt Adolf Friedrich von Schlien, Brandburg promies to be a tougher foe!
We shall see if that is indeed the case.
and here is some
mood music to play while you read.
20 May 1434, Stadtschloss, Berlin, Kingdom of Brandenburg
Gustav sat upon the throne of the King of Brandenburg, Christian von Zweibrucken, feeling contented with himself. Despite the misgivings of his council, he had chosen wisely on which nation to attack. As it happens, Brandenburg was, at the time of the declaration of war, having problems with a rebellion. While the rebellion would normally have been crushed easily, King Christian decided instead to focus his attention on defeating Mecklenburg and her allies rather then wiping out his internal enemies first. In pursuance of that goal, when he managed to capture the rebel province of Neumark, he elected to invade Pomerania, one of the stronger members of the Mecklenburg alliance, rather then pursue and destroy the rebels. The thinking was that the Pomeranians would immediately move to eject the Brandenburg forces from their lands to remove the threat to them. This would then draw them into open battle. Not wanting one of his stronger allies to be defeated, he reasoned that Gustav would move to support them, which would ultimately lead to his defeat. While a sound plan in theory, it went wrong almost immediately. First, the undefeated rebels retreated to another province and began to lay siege. That province was none other then his capital at Brandenburg. However, Christian still refused to move against them. He still believed his plan could work. Even if it didn't, he could simply move against the rebels when the fortress at Stettin, which he was besieging fell, which he was sure would not take long. He would be mistaken, as the city would hold for months before finally surrendering. In the meantime, the Pomeranians never took the bait, instead invading Brandenburg in retaliation. Then, to make matters worse, Berlin fell to the rebels. With the King of Brandenburg to busy besieging Stettin to do anything, Gustav had seen an opportunity he could not pass up. He immediately marched his army to Berlin and began to lay siege. now, after months of sieging the city, it had fallen. The first province of Brandenburg to fall to his armies.
June 27, 1434 Outside Berlin, Kingdom of Brandenburg
Gustav sat mounted on his horse watching his enemy run. While the Brandenburg army still sat in Stettin, the rebels had not been idle. Upon hearing of the fall of Berlin, they had marched to the city to try and fight Gustav and his allies. Gustav, who had allowed Franz Otto von Welf of Brunswick command the battle, he being the better general of the two, then waited with his allies to fight them off. And fight them off they had.
While losses on both sides had been minimal, the rebels having quickly realized they were figthing out of their weight, it was still a victory. Gustav, however, immediately ordered his men to pursue. He would not make the same mistake as King Christian had. He would hunt these rebels down to the last man before stopping to lay siege, thus avoiding having any "surprises".
4 January, 1434, just outside Berlin, Kingdom of Brandenburg.
After months of trying to chase down the rebels, he had finally managed to get them to commit to battle. While he had allowed Duke Otto to take the lead last time, this time he pulled rank and took command himself. The duke had proved a glory hound who had tried to claim all the credit for himself. Gustav could not afford allowing him to claim that the war was won all due to him if they won. That would lead to not only a loss of prestige for Mecklenburg, but might hurt his position at home or even lead the duke to get ideas beyond his station. Regardless of the situation, Gustav had managed to inflict yet another defeat on the rebels. While far from the decisive victory he sought, it still brought the rebels closer to defeat.
Moreover, while he had spent his time hunting down the only army in Brandenburg capable of challenging them at the moment, his other, smaller allies had not been idle. While he and the Duke of Brunswick had seized the Neumark region almost as an afterthought after chasing the rebels out (they had only had a garrison of 240 men to their 10,000 after all), his other allies had managed to siege and capture Potsdam. Now only Rupin remained to be captured. However, Gustav could not afford to waste time thinking about that, and so he got ready to lead his men in pursuit of the rebels.
25 February, 1435, Neumark, Kingdom of Brandenburg
Gustav sat observing the field, infinitely pleased with himself. After two relatively minor victories, he had finally gained the decisive victory he was looking for against the rebels. It had been a relatively simple thing. through clever, yet bold tactics, Gustav had managed to trick the rebel cavalry into making a suicidal charge on his position. When the battle had been joined, he had put his archers out in front of his force, with the infantry behind. They had showered the enemy cavalry with arrows. The cavalrymen, wanting to put an end to the harrasment, made a charge towards the archers. They did not appear to be supported closely enough by the infantry, and everyone knew that archers cannot stand up to cavalry due to their lighter armor. It was a target a cavalryman dreamed of. However, Gustav ordered the archers to hold their ground until the last possible moment. When the cavalry force was committed to the charge and with the archers keeping up their fire, providing distraction, he had moved his spearmen up to just behind the archers. The cavalrymen, already committed to the charge, could not see this. Then, at the last possible moment, the archers fell back and the spearmen, who had not been there before the charge, now moved forward. Even if the cavalrymen had noticed what was happening, it was now too late to do anything about it. They were all slaughtered by the spearmen, leaving the rebels without any cavalry support. Seizing on the opportunity afforded by this, Gustav ordered his army on the assault. His cavalrymen slammed into the rebels flanks, now completely unguarded by the rebel cavalry. The rebel commander had not had time to move his spearmen to the flanks and so they were completely unprepared for when the cavalry hit them. With the infantrymen at the front preventing him from shifting forces from there and the cavalrymen decimating his ranks, the rebel commander had no choice but to order the retreat. However, he ordered several of his units to perform a rearguard action to cover the retreat. These men fought valiantly, taking out many Mecklenburg men before the rest of the army was out of reach of a pursuit, at which point they either quit the field or were cut down. All told, he had lost just under a thousand men, most of them infantry. However, the rebels had lost their entire cavalry force along with 1,000 infantrymen, and they could not afford such losses. They were now down to just 2,000 men, which could be easily cut down by Gustav and his forces. It would not be long now before the rebels had been crushed.
June 30, 1435, a few miles from Berlin, Brandenburg, Kingdom of Brandenburg.
Gustav thought to himself that it was a good thing he had arrived when he did. Despite his resounding victory over the rebels, he had been forced to call off pursuit when informed that his allies, the Pommeranians, were engaged in battle with the main Brandenburg army. King Christian having finally seized the province of Stettin and realizing that his strategy was failing and failing fast, had ordered his men back to Berlin to try and recapture his capital. They had managed to arrive while Gustav and his Mecklenburg forces were away. Had he not arrived when he had with his reinforcements, he feared the outnumbered Pommeranians would have been defeated. With one of their principal allies thus out of the war, the Mecklenburgers might have been forced to sue for peace. As it happened, however, Gustav was able to arrive just in the nick of time and in just the right place. They had appeared from behind the Brandenburgers and immediately launched an attack on their rear, catching King Christian completely by surprise. Fearing complete encirclement, he quickly disengaged his army and ordered an immediate retreat before things could get any worse. All told, it had been a rather indecisive battle, with both sides suffering similar casualties. Despite that, however, it was still the allies first win over the main Brandenburg army. Hopefully, it would not be the last.
16 July, 1435, Potsdam, Kingdom of Brandenburg
King Gustav was not pleased with this particular "victory". The King of Brandenburg was turning out to be a general of superior quality and had managed to inflict significant casualties on his men before a break in his lines forced him to order a withdrawal. When he withdrew, he had orders several of his men to carry out a rearguard action, something that they did with great skill, preventing Gustav from exploiting the momentary weakness of Brandenburg's army.
The result was a victory that felt more like a defeat. His army was now done to just 1,500 men, less then half their original strength. That meant that, for the time being, he would be unable to carry out offensive operations and certainly unable to pursue the Brandenburg army. Gustav, however, was not as worried about this as he would have been normally, however. While Gustav had kept the rebels and the Brandenburgers busy with his main army, his allies had managed to seize Ruppin and Potsdam. With Neumark having fallen back into rebel hands due to his calling off the pursuit of them, that meant that all of Brandenburg was either in his hands, or the rebels. The King of Brandenburg would have his hands full besieging all of those different cities and if they chose to attack his allies, he still had enough men to provide support. King Gustav, therefore, decided to bide his time and see what move his enemies would make next.
25 September 1435, outside Berlin, Brandenburg
"Their running, keep up the pursuit"
Gustav had yet again managed to secure victory in this fight. Due to the current state of his army, Gustav had decided to take what remained of his men back to Berlin to rest and reinforce. While his men were recuperating, they were suddenly attacked by the rebel army yet again. The battle had been a simple matter, the rebel commander haven fallen for the same trick he had before, only this time, he ordered the retreat as soon as his cavalry started getting mowed down, ensuring that his infantry suffered relatively few casualties.
15 October, 1435, Neumark, Kingdom of Brandenburg
He had finally done it. All of Brandenburg had fallen to his armies. At this point, King Christian of Brandenburg would probably be willing to give anything for peace, most certainly his throne. Gustav, however, was not ready for peace. While some had accused him of becoming bloodthirsty for prolonging the war at this point, he had a more practical purpose in mind. That purpose was in ensuring that the Personal Union thus established would survive his death. As is, the Brandenburg Army outnumbered his own. If peace were ensured now, he felt certain that the nobility in Brandenburg would spend the rest of his reign generally being annoying and, while he doubted they would rebel against him, he felt certain that they would find some reason to deny his heir the throne and give it instead to one of their number. He therefore felt that the only way that he could ensure peace is if he could destroy the Brandenburg army. He hoped that in doing so, it would buy his own country enough of a headstart in the ensuing arms race to be able to overtake Brandenburg. He therefore set out towards Ruppin to confront King Christian and the Brandenburg army
28 November, 1435, a few miles outside of Rostock, Mecklenburg
Gustav still could not understand what his adversary had been thinking. While he had arrived to late to meaningfully contribute to the battle at Ruppin, he joined the Duke of Brunswick in pursuit of King Christian following the battle. The strange part, however, was the choice of destination for the retreat. Apparantly, King Christian had ordered a retreat into Mecklenburg itself. To King Gustav, this made no sense. He guessed the plan was to try and take the city in a surprise attack and then force Gustav to the negotiating table. That plan, however, made little tactical sense when considered with what the situation on the ground was at the time of the retreat. They had been defeated and their enemies were in hot pursuit. Surely, the king must have known he would be caught before he managed to actually take the city. Regardless of the reasoning, the plan had failed nonetheless. Indeed, he could hardly call the "Battle of Mecklenburg" a battle. both sides suffered hardly any casualties, the only action being a failed charge by the Brandenburg that Gustav was not entirely certain had been ordered. After hardly suffering any casualties at all, common sense seemed to have taken hold, and Christian fled again, this time back into Ruppin with Gustav and the Duke of Brunswick in hot pursuit.
17 December, 1435, Ruppin, Kingdom of Brandenburg.
King Gustav was furious at himself. He had allowed his forces good showing in the war to go to his head. He had gotten overconfident and now he paid the price. Having ordered a pursuit of the Brandenburg army after the victory in Mecklenburg, he finally caught up to them a few miles outside of the provincial capital. However, in his arrogance, he failed to notice the absence of much of his opponents cavalry. Thinking that they were simply out foraging or that they had defected, he ordered his men to the attack. Soon enough, however, he realized his folly, for he soon found out where those cavalrymen were. King Christian had anticipated the road that Gustav would take to catch them and had thus told his cavalry to lie in wait, hidden in a small forest not far from the 9 battlefield When they heard the sounds of battle, they quickly mounted a charge straight into Gustav's flank. Realizing too late what was happening, Gustav quickly shifted his troops to try and repel the attack. Ultimately, he succeeded in driving back the cavalry attack, but the damage had been done. When he saw that the charge was not going to break the Mecklenburg line, Christian had ordered a withdrawal, with the remnants of the cavalry charge and a few picked infantry units serving as rearguard. The distraction thus bought provided enough time for King Christian and his army to escape. When the dust settled, his men had lost around 1,300 men. King Christian had only lost 1,000 men, most of them cavalry killed in the initial charge. Bloodied, but still determined to bring his nemesis to heel, he ordered a continued pursuit. He would catch the Brandenburg army if it killed him, which, he mused privately, it very well might if he won many more battles like this one.
9 January 1436, a few miles outside of Berlin, Brandenburg
"It seems they have lost their stomach for battle Anton"
"I would agree, this was almost to easy my liege"
As the two men mused over the battle they had just fought, both of them hoped that it was a sign of things to come. After ordering his men to Hinterpommern due to erroneous reports that that was where the enemy were retreating to, Gustav had arrived in Brandenburg to a battle between the Brunswickers, under their Duke Anton, and the Brandenburg Army under King Christian. Unlike the last time this had happened, King Christian did not stick around long enough to get caught between the two armies, ordering a retreat almost as soon as Gustav and his army arrived. Gustav felt this might be a sign that his army was weakening and ordered his men into pursuit. Anton, however, decided to allow his men to lick their wounds. This amounted to quite the gamble. If Gustav was right, the war could very well be over very soon. If he was wrong, his army would be outnumbered almost 2 to 1. Gustav decided to roll the dice and hope he won.
23 January, 1436, Neumark, Kingdom of Brandenburg.
After three long months of chasing the Brandenburg army from one end of the country to the other, it was finally over. Gustav had arrived in Neumark expecting a decisive battle. What he got was something completely different. After marching for three months and with only a single partial "victory" to show for it, King Christians men had had enough. Some of the men, who had been serving since the start of the war, had not seen their families in over a year. What that meant was that morale in the Brandenburg army was at rock bottom. Realizing that he lacked the numbers for a full on battle, he instead decided to go for a bluff. He sent a letter to King Christian stating that he was on his was only a days march behind him with a combined force of Meckelnburgers and Brunswickers that amounted to 12,000 men. He then offered them his terms. If King Christian von Zweibrucken agreed to renounce all claim to the throne of Brandenburg and recognize Gustav's claim to said title and his men agreed to lay down their arms, Gustav would let them all return to their homes. If they refused, he promised that he would show no quarter. The note gave King Christian three days to send a response. King Christian weighed his options. On the one hand, he could fight and maybe prevail. His own reports stated that the Brunswick forces had not joined Gustav in the pursuit, but they were at least a week old. That left plenty of time for the situation to have changed. However, even if he was bluffing, it did not change the fact that morale among his army was at rock bottom and he was not sure they would be able to hold their own in a fight for long. Thus torn, Christian called his generals to discuss the situation. To a man, they told him that he should accept the offer,as the men were close to mutiny and they could not guarantee how they would perform in a real battle, especially if King Gustav was telling the truth. Defeated, King Christian sent a letter informing Gustav of the acceptance of the terms. The next day, Gustav arrived with a handful of picked men to oversee the surrender.Perplexed, King Christian questioned King Gustav
"Is this all you bring?"
"No, this is all that accompanied me to the treaty signing. The rest of my men have been ordered to surround the area. If you fail to abide by the terms or I or one of my men do not return within the hour to tell them otherwise, they have orders to attack the camp immediately?"
"Do you think I would betray you, you wound me"
"I am merely being cautious. You are a man with nothing to lose at this point, I cannot be sure what you will do."
"Very well, then, shall we get on with this"
"I have the official terms of surrender for both of us to sign right here, if you do not mind, we can get right to it"
And with that, the two men sat down to sign what would come to be called the Treaty of Neumark.
"There, it is done, what happens now?"
"What happens now is quite simple, your men will lay down their arms and be allowed to return to their homes. The will be free to go once my men have collected their arms. You yourself have two options. You can either return to your estate in Brandenburg so long as you promise not to oppose me any further, or, if you would prefer, I can make arrangements for a villa and some land for you somewhere in Mecklenburg, but you will never again be allowed to return to Brandenburg."
Weighing his choices, the King of Brandenburg made his decision "I think I shall return to my lands in Brandenburg, my family has owned them for many years and I have grown quite attached to them."
"Very well, me and my men will escort you back. Be warned, Christian, I am trusting you to keep your word. If you break that trust, you will be summarily executed."
"I understand, now, if you will excuse me, I shall instruct my men to lay down their arms."
And with that, the former King Christian von Zweibrucken of Brandenburg left. After all of his men had laid down their arms before Gustav and the men that had come with him, he permitted them to leave. Christian then accompanied them back to his camp. Upon returning to the camp, he was shocked to see how few men there were.
"Were are the rest of your men? Have they not yet returned?"
"These are all my men, Christian"
It then dawned on Christian that he had been tricked into surrendering to a force half his size. At that moment, he felt like the biggest idiot ever born. That thought was soon replaced by anger, but their remained little he could do about it. while he was being permitted to return to his lands, he had no doubt that Gustav would be keeping a close eye on him. If he so much as breathed a word of rebellion, he knew his life would be forfeit. the former King therefore swallowed his anger and followed his escort to the tent that had been prepared for him. The Mecklenburg War for the Brandenburg Crown was now over.
And there you have it. Another update. I have finally finished one of my two monster papers so I may be able to update a bit more then before. the funny thing about this update, however, is that that several months in the making research paper was 17 pages and this update is 11. Hope you enjoy the update. Last Bastion gets updated next, so I cannot promise when I will update this again. Hopefully though, it will be soon.