Take 3
The Trade Wars
Peace would indeed be disturbed in 1440. Poland could no longer tolerate the Knight's violation of Poland's trading privileges. The armies had been assembled, and war was declared in February of that year, just as the snows were beginning to melt.
Poland chose to go alone against the might of the Baltic-Russian alliance. Thanks to our neutral vassal though, the Livonian Knights, the Russians were able to play no part in this war.
It did not take long to see a result. The knights were no match for Polish numbers (although the Polish were still weary of their armies). Prussia was taken after a few scuffles, as was Kurland. The knights had made themselves comfortable sieging Wieklopolska and Galizien before they came back to engage the Polish forces. What ensued was a race between Polish troops sieging Memel, Danzig, and Wieklopolska (which the Knights had captured), and the Knights in Kurland. Wieklopolska was the first to come back into Polish hands, and before long the Knights realised Danzig needed to be given to end the war, and reinstate Poland's gains from the first war. It was agreed to, along with a little money, 2 years after the war had begun. Danzig was Poland's at long last.
The war with Russia continued for a little longer, as they didn't want peace. But eventually they peaced too not seeing the point in continuing hostilities any further.
Peace! With Danzig!
Poland was soon ready to settle back down again, but the King saw one last thing he wanted to do to be remembered for in his long reign.
Novgorod, the jewel of Russia. Previously it had been a proud nation of traders in the northern parts of the Russian backwaters. Still, a powerful nation in its time. Now was not its time though, it had been almost fully eaten by neighbouring Muscowy. All that remained of the state was its capital, Novgorod, where all of Russia's trade still flowed through. Unallied, it was a sitting duck for the Russians. Or perhaps the Poles.
It was fully surrounded by the Russian alliance, but the Polish had access through Lithuania. Pskov, Tver or Muscowy would need to give access. But Muscowy hated Poles (I wonder why?), so the task was laid onto Pskov.
Pskov proved a sucker for gifts. It did not take long for them to render military access to the Poles. The money they used for a larger army, but it didn't allow much support for Polish armies which suffered small amounts of attrition.
The final war looms....
It did not take long for the walls of Novgorod to fall for their final time, and 8 months after war had been declared, the realm of Novgorod came to an end. Poland triumphs, and set up it's enclave amongst the Russian lands.
More importantly, however, was the speed at which the people of Novgorod accepted the Polish. It was a mere two years before Novgorod was reported to have a majority population of Catholics. The Polish and the western world rejoiced in the fact that the faith of the Father in Rome was pushing east, with Novgorod being the easternmost balwark of the Catholic faith.
Whoot!
The treacherous Russians then went to repay this great act though, declaring war on the Polish vassals the Livonians. We were unable to declare war for them, but we sent many men to Latvia to disrupt the Russian supply lines as much as possible. It was in vain, as Muscowy annexed our vassals, but their cost in lives had been high thanks to Polish troop's work.
The final few years were spent in peace. Missionaries were sent to aid Catholics in the Orthodox reaches of the kingdom. Infrastucture was blooming, thanks to 40 years of work. Later economists measured inflation in the period as being a couple of percent, although at the time such measurements did not mean much to the rulers. The war of Novgorod had given Poland a bad name amongst the nations of that area though, but Polish kings were skilled at making people forget such expeditions, especially when he reminded them of the progress that was being achieved in that province since it had come into Polish hands.
Autosaving meant it skipped 11 days before I had a chance to pause, but better saving it properly than an autosave I think.
I really didn't do a lot as Poland. I took only CoTs, got given 2 provinces by events. The main change is that Poland is now centralised. Every move I made was to try and speed tech and a good army, and expand the economic base. That was quite a mission for Poland, but it should be a lot better now, than 40 years ago.
I really have no idea what the next kings of Poland will do (nor would I want to have any influence on those decisions), but I wish them luck and hand the batton (and crown) onto G-Klav. Good luck!