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Unsung Ballads of Aquitaine

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Just caught up with this, nice work. The poetry's great, as is the commentary. A very interesting situation. And a nice, unusual concept, a poetry-based AAR.

This last update is very good too, the poem sounds like true 16th-century pulp fiction, (referring to cheap novels for commoners, not the brilliant movie) scornful of the powerful through-and-through.
 
comagoosie, you're right, I was lazy with this map. You're also right that whatever way I choose is bad for me... on the upside, both are good for the story :) However, Aquitaine is not yet 50% Protestant, so the matter of conversion still hangs in the balance.

rcduggan, it is not a coincidence that Protestant faith is spreading, say, in my lands vs Brittany's. I chose all the right events in Magna Mundi, complained loudly about church's corruption and here I stand, with five Protestant provinces... The fish rots from the head.

Amob_m_s, welcome and ouch, where are my manners? Forgot to put the credit for poem's inspiration, here it goes:

Goliard

It is only fitting, since the land of Aquitaine boasts two universities in Bordeaux and Toulouse and has plenty of young scholars who are ready to waste time on poetry instead of dedicating their life to King and Country.
 
Armagnac Brandy

Our land is rich in many ways,
But mostly wine.
It has received many a praise
For taste divine.
But brandy do not seek today,
You’re out of luck,
The Spaniards keep from us away
Our Armagnac.

From all the corners of our lands
You hear the cry:
Away with Spaniards! God demands
That they should die!
The villain and the lord alike
Shall lack no pluck,
When ‘tis a time our foe to strike
For Armagnac.

In dreadful silence our host
Takes the field,
’Tis not a time for empty boast
Yet none shall yield.
The Spaniards form into the line,
Attack, attack!
We shall get back our Brandywine
Of Armagnac!

Commentaries: This popular 16th century song jokingly implies that the true cause for the first war between the kingdoms of Aquitaine and Castille was the popular desire to drink Armagnac brandy. Good for a laugh, it certainly cannot be taken serious, for the traders of Castille were more than happy to sell this particular brand abroad.

In 1531 King Louis I passed away, succeeded by his son, Louis II. Prince Louis proved to be a more competent ruler than his father, but not by a large margin. His skills in governing the country aside, he possessed his father’s ambitions. A month after the coronation took plans he was planning his attack on Castille.

The attack was rather problematic. Castille was allied to Portugal, Aragon, Normandy and Granada. Aquitaine was allied to Bretagne, Orleans, Provence and Aragon. The latter would, without a doubt, choose Carlos I of Castille over Louis II of Aquitaine. The wisest course to take would be to launch an attack on Normandy, thus bringing all Aquitani allies to action, while limiting the enemy alliance to Castille and Normandy itself.

Unfortunately, Aquitaine had no casus belli on the Normandy. Fortunately, Normandy had casus belli on Bretagne, both Duchies disputing the ownership of Maine. This dispute soon led to war, saving King Louis II the trouble of declaring war himself. There was a downside to entering the defensive call of Bretagne, however – the other two allies of Aquitaine could not be called to war. It was Normandy against Bretagne and Castille against Aquitaine, both acting as defenders of their weaker allies.

The war was fought on three fronts. Armee de Normandie, formerly Armee de Gascogne, soon to be Armee de l’Espagne, led by one of the greatest generals of the time, Pierre Wernigerode, fought in cooperation with Breton forces. First, it brought the submission of Normandy, the Duke forced to accept Louis II as his suzerain and pay war indemnities. Later, it moved against Castille itself, freeing Armagnac and eventually overrunning most of Castille proper.

Armee de Bourgogne was led by Philippe Werden. Initially, it was outnumbered 3:1 by the forces of Castille, led by King Carlos I himself aided by his son, Prince Ferdinand. Armee de Bourgogne was assisted by a siege train with artillery. Artillery, however, was mostly used in sieges and saw little action in battle.

At first, the war in the east progressed with mixed results, Castille concentrating on capturing the County of Avergne, while Werden aimed to liberate Bourbonnais and Nevers. The decisive point of the struggle was the epic battle of Nevers, where Philippe Werden’s 8,000-strong army (2,000 of this number cavalry) faced some 6,500 Spaniards (3,100 knights and 7 artillery pieces). Despite suffering 954 casualties, the Aquitani general managed to annihilate the entire enemy army, killing Carlos I himself in the heat of the battle. Since that day Philippe Werden was known as the Kingslayer.

Prince Fernando became Fernando VI of Castille. His bold actions and determined defense in the face of superior Aquitani forces prolonged the struggle in the east for another three years. The Kingslayer was not able to best him in battle, no matter how badly Philippe wanted to earn this nom de guerre for the second time in one war. In the end Werden was transferred to Castille to fight against Fernando Orellana. This brave Spanish general managed to give a lot of grief to Aquitani forces without winning a single battle, his guerilla tactics delaying the advance of the Armee de l’Espagne. He managed to keep his army alive until the very end of the war.

Same can be said of Fernando VI as well. Once general Wernigerode took Werden’s place, the young King of Castille was finally defeated in defensive battle of Bourgogne. However, his army was not annihilated and the casualties on both sides were so high that Wernigerode refused to pursue him to Othe.

By this time most of Castille was occupied by Aquitaine and Breton forces with only the fortress of Gibraltar resisting the invaders in the south and general Orellana keeping the fight in the north.

Despite the brave resistance offered by two Fernandos, Castille had to surrender sooner or later. The terms of peace treaty were rather generous, or so were the thoughts of King Louis II. Castille ceded Armagnac, Bourbon and Nevers and paid a small amount of war indemnities. Nevers was released as a vassal state of Aquitaine. Armagnac with its famous brandy became part of the province of Gascogne. Bourbonnais was kept too, to punish the province for treacherous behavior of its Dukes some sixty years ago.

The victory over Castille brought Aquitaine recognition from most of the courts of Europe. Now she was a major power and no one disputed her rulers calling themselves the kings.

1537.jpg


Western Europe in 1537

Dark and Light Purple: Kingdom of Aquitaine with allies and vassals (Pr. for Duchy of Provence, Or. for Duchy of Orleans and Nv. for County of Nevers)
Yellow: Kingdom of Castille
Green: Duchy of Lorraine, all her provinces within HRE by now
White: Archduchy of Austria in the west
Light Blue: Duchy of Ile-de-France, vassal to Austria since 1532
Red: United Kingdom of England and Ireland
Teal: Kingdom of Aragon, ally to both Castille and Aquitaine
 
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I had three generals, two worthy of mention, the third one (Guillaume Wernigerode, father of Pierre Wernigerode) was at all times with my siege train - 3,000 infantry, 1,000 artillery (I assume 10 guns, as in previous EU games). His stats were 2/2/5/1. Werden the Kingslayer had medium stats (4/2/3/2), which proved enough to destroy Carlos I, but not enough to tame his brilliant son. Fernando VI had a shock value of 6.

Wernigerode (3/6/6/1), on the other hand, made it to the first page of the best generals of the world section in the ledger. I do not think he lost a single battle during this war.

Still, even he had tough time when on attack against young king of Castille.

Castille's Orellana was not a genius by any means. There are three reasons he survived that long:

1) I did not want to lose time chasing him around, prefered to conquer land first;
2) his small, 4,000-strong army, had a healthy mix of cavalry, infantry and artillery;
3) when Castille was invaded 7,000-strong Armee de l'Espagne was splitt into three groups (4k, 2k and 1k) to cover as much ground as possible. My main force, led by Wernigerode, could defeat him all right, but not annihilate (see reason 1 for not pursuing). Once Werden got transferred to Spain there was even less reason to seek battle.

In the end, Orellana controlled only Galicia, but was forced to relocate behind enemy lines after determined attack by main Breton army (which did capture at least three provinces in Spain).

I think that covers all six generals on both Castille's and Aquitaine side.

Technology wise, Castille was slightly ahead, but all her national ideas were geared toward the conquest of the New World, while mine were geared toward defeating the French.

Espirit de Corps, Battlefield Commissions and Military Drill, they all do add up :D Thus, my troops were more disciplined and morale was always higher.
 
Excellent poem there, nice rhythm to it. :) And good job with the gameplay, taking down Spain with only half of France.

Ah, yes, I recall the Goliards from European History class last year (although our book simply called them "Satyrical Authors of popular poetic works") and loving their pieces, usually poetry in general bores me but poems that are well written, (Poe,) have interesting topics, (Tennyson,) or are funny (the Goliards) are exceptions to this. Yours falls in all three categories, though I'll be honest and say I still think Poe and Tennyson are better writers- to best them would be almost unbelievable :) . But anyways, point is, good work keeping your poems well-written, interesting, and occassionally funny, and good work mirroring the diverse styles of early modern poets :D
 
The borders are rounding out nicely aided surely by the fall of France. I knew you'd be at it with the Spanish kingdoms soon. And it seems as though relations are strained with the Pope. Now that's no way to get your Kingly title. ;)
 
Amob_m_s, ah, thank you for the compliments, sir :) Yes, Poe and Tennyson I am not, but I will still try hard to entertain you :D

Half of France it is, but Spain was not really whole by the same measure. 'Twas but a fight between Aquitaine and Castille, whom I do call Spanish quite often, as I imagine they would call Aquitani French. Still, it was some fight, so your compliment again is not out of place :D

coz1, thank you, that was the sentence I forgot to include in the end! Corrected now, of course. Right after the victory of Castille I've got me a Magna Mundi event recognizing Aquitaine as major power. Since there will be no events from Emperor or Pope recognizing me as the king, I believe this one will do the trick. From now on it is Kingdom of Aquitaine, recognized as such by the courts of Europe.
 
Nice achievement there, becoming major power. So what's up next? Some more Castille-bashing, going for some Aragonese lands or colonize?
 
Qorten, thank you, and next, of course, is the complete expulsion of Castille from French lands... but first we'll have some years of peace and then some years of internal strife... you get the picture? :)

Meanwhile, some eye-candy to reward my readers.

1537i.jpg


Holy Roman Empire and Ottoman Turkey in 1537

Black relief border: the extent of the HRE in 1537, largest to date
White: the lands of Archduke of Austria, currently holding the title of the Emperor
Green: Ottoman Turkey (of note: Italian province) in the west
Yellow: Duchy of Lorraine (note her German and French conquests)
Blue: Kingdom of Savoy (note: Corfu, Athens and Morea)
Brown: Kingdom of Bohemia (note: province in Aegean)
Teal: dismembered Poland
Dark, very dark orange: Kalmar Union
Red: Brandenburg
Dark Purple: Milan in 1537, Light Purple: areas held by Milan during next 30 years (could be more or less, would be nice to put areas held by Milan in the past, e.g. Avignon and Rome, but Milan is proving to be such a warmonger that it is actually becomes hard to keep record of the city's conquests and subsequent losses).

What near future holds for HRE and her members: two wars between Austria and the Ottomans. Vienna will be burnt and not only once. Imperial court will move from Vienna to another member state. Milan... as look on the map dictates... will conquer Venice and will loose Venice... again, not only once, but twice. A few provinces will leave the Empire, mostly the ones held by the current Emperor. Austria, despite several devastating wars, will peacefully annex the rest of Sweden... leaving enough for Russia, of course (the history of the northern conflict between Austria and Russia will be told in the Aquitani court by a Russian princess maried off to a member of the roayl family... for the third time in history of Aquitaine).
 
Beautiful map, wondering how you make them?

And I have to agree with Cyrus, I too would go for a Huguenot kingdom, but it's all up to you of course.
 
comagoosie, the smaller states with smaller font can are hard to distinguish. But worry not, if they are important enough the color coding will help, if not... most likely I've put a label there just to fill the space :D

Cyrus_The_Great, thank you. Conversion shall be done, sooner or later. I almost started calling my Protestants Huguenots myself, until I realized the name came into being some twenty or thirty years later.

Qorten, are you good/semi-good with Photoshop? If yes, I'll post a couple of steps that should help you without taking much of your time. The hardest part, of course, is the borders.
 
I'm not especially good at it, to be honest. I have it but rarely use it. But even a small basic explanation would do a lot.
 
Lots of layers is a must. Get yourself either a province bitmap from EU map folder or trashing mad's bitmap and make it your first layers. Make the layer above it your borders layer - this is where you draw your borders (transparent background, of course, and set the first layer to 80% opacity). Once borders are drawn it should be easy to select each country or all land or sea. To make the map look old use Actions/Textures/Parchment action. For land add texture effect, for water Parchment by itself should be enough. I usually run this effect on another layer on top of the rest and set its blending to Screen - this takes away some of the bright colors.

Countries: select the country shape using borders layers, then using fill this selection with any color on a separate layer. Play with Photoshop styles to get a desired effect (once the style is applied have some fun with individual effects using layer palette... you will learn a lot and have a great time at the same... eh... time). The rest is in details.

Let me know if this helps, if not, don't be afraid to ask more questions.
 
Who knew you had such a good grasp of period poetry. I'm rather impressed...sure it isn't REALLY period poetry....but it certainly LOOKS like it to me, anyway. Well, without the curlicues and other stuff that makes it hard to read....like f's that look like s's, or vice versa. Things like that. Which is neither here nor there. All in all, it seems that Aquitaine is doing quite well so far. Now that France is virtually eliminated, you will have to ensure that if you do not wish to become France when the game asks you about it that you make sure that you say 'NO' when it asks.
 
Eye-candy, indeed. Sweet, seet maps yet again. And I see the Turk is huge once more. Any plans for a crusade?
 
Amric, I don't really know much about period's poetry, I learn as AAR progresses and, hopefully, the end-result is a couple of readable ballads (or whatever they maybe) that you can enjoy.

So far, there is no chance of me getting a France forming event, since I do not hold Paris and have no intent of doing so :) Well, maybe, later.

coz1, as far as crusades are concerned I have no plans right now. I am too occupied with local affairs to even consider such an adventure.

Everyone, I apologize for the lack of updates, here's the explanation.

My company decided (no pressure applied, really) to send me to ASP.NET class since we are switching from Classic ASP to this so-called "bundle of joy". Somehow, I found myself in Santa Clara, CA (I just happen to like this part of CA, but this is obviously an accident). I had great time learning new things and even greater time swimming in the ocean, hiking in Pinnacles Ntnl Park and attempting to climb Half Dome (Yosemite Park) when the roads are closed for winter... apparently this wasn't just an empty threat, but I made it far enough to feel good about myself.

Anyway, all these activities kept me away from EU3 and in a week I am leaving on vacation (mostly hiking canyons in AZ and UT). I hope to get couple of updates before that.
 
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