Yes We Can! - A France IN AAR

[PrawnStar]

FEEDBACK​

kebzero - Very close with guarantee Granada and the two MAs. The fourth option is different. This is VH, Castile takes a while to beat down - they have lots of money and better morale - although it generally gets wasted on mercs.

Nodscouterr - Not yet, guarantee to start. There are some incredibly predictable starting events.

The Arch Mede - I'm not saying France is poor, it's just I'm going to spend a lot of money I trade but just in my own COTs hence the push for mercantilism. I need the colonists from coastal COTs without having to care about core/non core. Interesting post with a lot of good points, thanks!

sprites - Actually I definitely won't ally with Provence; it's directly counterproductive. Something for you to think about there

Well there are a lot fewer views and posts than the start of my last AAR. Anyone would think a France WC is less interesting than the Iroquois :rofl:

 

[PrawnStar]

Chapter Two​

Starting with five diplomats, I send four straightaway. The first guarantees Granada. Basically this means a free war against Castile within days of the game starting. By free I mean no BB or stability penalties. The second and third diplomats request Military Access from Aragon and Navarre so that I can actually get troops to Castile.

The fourth, well that’s a bit more interesting. It’s an attempt at a cunning plan.

Armagnac

OPM vassal Armagnac could be diploannexed at a cost of 1BB (as far as I can tell the core doesn’t help in diploannexations). However, as a French core if I took it off someone else I would get it BB free. Armagnac is also an English core so I cancel vassalisation. I do this right at the start of the game – France can have prestige problems early on because there are so many unclaimed cores and grabbing them all first might not be the best option.

I’ve not tried this plan before so we’ll just have to wait and see.

You can also see the troop build up and the first rebels; I haven’t unpaused yet :rofl:

And we’re off…

Aragon and Navarre both grant military access while I get one of the French diplomatic annexation missions. There are four of these (IIRC) where you get a core and a move centralised when you DA – it counters the decentralisation move that DA causes. The core is very nice as well.

Right on schedule Castile DOWs Granada on the 17th. Algiers answers the alliance call. A day later Castile allies with Portugal, timing gentlemen. I honour the call even though I’m a couple of months from being able to do anything as my troops are still in Paris and have a rebellion to crush first.

These numbers are essentially meaningless as everyone starts with cash and manpower. I would not be surprised to see Castile add another 20,000 soldiers within the next year. By the first of January 1400 Castile has 19,000 soldiers under arms. My cavalry are still building and I’ve only just driven the rebels from Rougerie, I still need to finish them off.

August 1400

Castilian forces are gathered in the south of the country fighting Granada so I’ve started some sieges in the north. A strike force has just broken the Castilian siege of Almeria; the longer Granada holds out the longer I have to damage Castile before facing the main armies. Normally I’d say smash the enemy armies then take the provinces but if the enemy army is busy take the provinces first. I want to do is drive Castilian war exhaustion up as far as I can.

14th October 1400 – The new court

I recruit two 4* diplomats. I’ve no BB yet and probably won’t have for a few more years but it’s best to be ready. With my Diplo 6 King I currently burn 1.15 BB a year, adequate for now.

August 1401 Granada makes peace

Disappointing but it should still leave me another opportunity to fight Castile before they get annexed. Now I can expect the full weight of Castile’s troops to march against me. I end up minting 0.4% to fund 4,000 more cavalry and 2,000 infantry.

Summer 1402 – the first peace offer

I’ll decline this; I aim for a ~100 point peace deal here. The earliest wars are not totally optimised for BB. I’ll waste several years BB reduction to ensure that there is no European colonisation.

Also, look at the relative war exhaustion values. I’ve been very very careful to use small forces wherever possible and rest demoralised or damaged units in Aragonese territory – This war has so far been 2 hours of playing time.

August 1403 Peace!

Castilian war exhaustion is 12.65, French 0.14. Castile was all but entirely occupied for a 93% war score. Gibraltar has been captured by Andalusian patriots but they probably won’t last long enough to defect.

I now have a land frontier with Portugal. Galicia is now French, good news as it’s a potential OPM revolter. Vizcaya as Basque cultured can also see the rebirth of Navarre once Aragon gets around to annexing Navarre. Much safer in my hands.

I’ve got military access from Scotland already; with BB to burn I can spend a couple of years looking for trouble.

BB is 4.91 / 16.00 as of 01/09/1403​

 

[Nodscouterr]

Woot, nice work.

 

[Capibara]

Agreed. That was a good strategy to get a cheap war against Castille. And the Armagnac trick is really interesting, I'd never think of it. So right now, destroy colonial nations and then, for the rest of the world!

 

[TheArchMede]

I forgot the MA. I did a lot of that.

The major difference from my strategy in that update is that you are taking inland provinces where I always took the coastal ones. No coast = no base to colonise from. When taking English provinces, the onces furthest west went first to take their best colonising bases.

There was a period when I was strained cash wise, and hence sending out colonists to grow colonies faster, and there was also a period when I was doing it in order to reduce the number of colonies that got taken over by protestants. I also had a 6* colonial growth boost advisor for a while in the initial phase which helped get the colonies finished for less expenditure. The other good non-diplomat I had early was a 4* minter, which could also have something to do with why I was not feeling short of cash.

On the loss of prestige from cores. You don't get it if the core is in the hands of a vassal. You still want to get your hands on it, because cores are nice, but you don't take the penalty if its vassalised. Freeing a vassal with a core of yours means you are taking extra prestige penalties, in the hope of being able to pick up the core BB (and decentralisation) free. I considered doing this sort of thing, for the centralisation more than the BB, but decided against it due to the prestige loss. Like you, I accept that I am going to end up fully decentralised from diploa-annexing, but this was a way I considered to delay it for a while, and it was the prestige penalty that was the clincher for me.

EDIT: One other point. You said you switch cavalry type from Chevauchee to the more commonly used Latin Knights because you want to have the option to be able to recruit upgradeable troops in foreign cores across Western Europe straightaway.

They are upgradeable anyway. If you stick with Chevauchee, you can use whichever type you prefer for a stack by picking where you recruit from. When a new unit becomes available and you want to upgrade to it, you do so by first upgrading to Knights, which turns all your Chevauchee into Knights, and then you upgrade all your Knights (which is now all your cavalry) to the new unit.

 

[Lord Strange]

Oooh, another Prawnstar AAR with an interesting Aim, I'm in.

 

[Enewald]

Prawnstar trying to beat Kebzero?
You shall receive my comments.

 

[aldriq]

Good start, next England then

Well there are a lot fewer views and posts than the start of my last AAR. Anyone would think a France WC is less interesting than the Iroquois :rofl:

I guess the Iroquois AAR was more interesting at the beginning, while this one is more predictable at the start but will become more gripping as the game advances.

 

[sprites]

hmm... aragon oftren goes after sardinia or sicily

provence is usually the third diploannex mission , and the only 2 province vassal for now

 

[unmerged(74857)]

Well there are a lot fewer views and posts than the start of my last AAR. Anyone would think a France WC is less interesting than the Iroquois :rofl:

They are probably playing HOI3.

Nice starting moves and good peace deal. You got the potential revolters and the university. Where do you plan to guide their capital. Murcia seems like a good place due to the proximity to Algiers, Morocco and Aragon.

Do you consider forcing nations into a bankrupt cycle an exploit? (because they can not disband their navy when they got their force limit lowered.) It's kind of hard not to use it though. A wild guess would be that Castile is already above their limit. And they will definately go above in the next war when you take their Andalusian land.

You can effectively cripple England in one war where you take oxfordshire, East anglia and Wessex. It is a bit gamey, but leaves you some room to allow England to gobble up the irish minors and Scotland.

 

[unmerged(147169)]

Haha, I've never played France so I haven't seen that mission before but that is poor wording :rofl: I loved your other one and I can't wait to see if you can do it

 

[unmerged(70585)]

Just as Kebzero latest AAR is reaching a conclusion, PrawnStar starts a new one.

thank you for giving me an excuse for not listening to my wife. "sorry honey, its an intese moment in the aar."

looking forward to seeing if you can pull it off.

 

[PrawnStar]

FEEDBACK​

Nodscouterr - Thanks!

Capibara - Iberia first. England has a lot of minors to annex first.

The Arch Mede - Yeah, you're absolutely right about the cavalry troop types o. Prestige is an easier problem to fix than reputation so I'll take the prestige hits - that said I haven't had positive prestige in the first fifteen years. The colonial financial problem was running 50 colonies at a time for a couple of centuries - especially in tropical Africa.

Lord Strange - It's always good to have a friend with cookies, hope you enjoy this one as much.

Enewald - I'm not trying to beat kebzero, after all he inspired me to try this. Comments are always welcome.

aldriq - England next? No they've got work to do first with the Irish minors, they have to earn annexation True the tension won't start to develop for many readers until the last few decades. In that sense it'll be similiar to the diplomat crisis in 'Audacity'.

sprites - I resent paying two BB for two cored provinces. I've something I'll try although not until the update after next.

Selmuth - An early game 100 point peace deal with England is East Anglia, Oxfordshire, Wessex and Kent England will have to wait until I'm happy with the situation in Iberia. Iberia is more important as there are two colonisers and Portugal usually starts earliest. Iberia is also a jump off point for Muslim lands.

I've decided I'm going to try and avoid using the 'navy bankruptcy cycle'.

Cityinthesea - France is a warmongers delight and brilliant if Burgundy has just wrecked your nice peaceful HRE trade and diplomatic game.

slokiller - LOL, I get into trouble like that way too much. My partner gets fairly direct

I'm not going to include much detail about individual battles unless people really want it.

 

[PrawnStar]

Chapter Three​

I’m doing something wrong; in November 1403 I get an alliance offer from England. Looking around England has only eaten one Irish minor; we’ll leave them alone for a while. Burgundy has just been beaten badly by Imperial Bohemia. Lorraine takes Franche-Comte and OPM Nevers is released, unfortuante.

Iberia shows promise.

• Portugal (allies Castile and Aragon) has the mission ‘Conquer Tangiers’.
• Castile (allies Portugal and Armagnac) is still focused on Granada
• Aragon (allies Burgundy, Portugal and Savoy) has the mission ‘Vassalise Navarre’

Decisions, decisions…

Burgundy and Portugal are warned, Navarre guaranteed. This should provide a war soon; otherwise I’ll be spending BB on a DOW, probably Burgundy.

Warning Portugal pays off on 12th July 1405 as they declare war on Morocco also drawing in Tunisia. Portugal’s allies Castile and Aragon join the party. I wait until August before accepting the call to arms as I’d reduced military maintenance during peace time. Cash is tight.

The competing alliances

Iberia

BB is 2.72 / 16.00

Peace with Aragon - September 1406

BB is now 3.48 / 16.00, three provinces for two BB as Rousillion is a core.

Peace with Aragon was needed; the Iberian alliance fields more troops than France. The North Africans have sat this out, Morocco picking up a province from Algiers in a more clearly profitable war. My armies are very badly bruised by attrition and a series of long low tech battles.

The first National Idea – 01/03/1407

It’s National Bank, I intend to mint steadily throughout this game and I’m already short of cash. I’d like a bigger army than I currently have but I only breakeven now. There’s also a free slider move defensive – the free forts from being defensive are very good.

April 1409, Orleans is rejecting DA attempts; they’ve a better diplo monarch than me. Both Castile and Portugal’s main armies have been broken but sieges are taking an eternity to complete. Burgundy takes its chance declaring war on OPM Nevers, all allies on both sides desert. If I was ready this would be an excellent opportunity as it is I dishonour the call. I want Burgundy to annex Nevers.

November 1409, BB declines to zero the month before Orleans accepts diplomatic annexation taking me back up a point. Burgundy has reabsorbed Nevers.

The new mission is to annex Provence with a move Centralised as reward. Provence consists of two cored provinces even so I’ll pay two BB. A plan is needed…

May 1410 Burgundy strikes again, this time against Hainault. Again I ignore the warning. I will honour the warning one day, probably when my entire army isn’t attrition wrecked in sieges at the wrong end of Iberia.

Spring 1411 a second slider move Centralised provokes another pretender to take up arms.

Peace with Castile – May 1411

BB had once again briefly zero’d out, it’s now back up to 5.00 / 16.00

The zero BB periods are of course horribly wasteful but preventing the colonial powers expanding is vital. It’s not just stopping them from colonising I want to stop them from exploring. Known provinces will eventually get settled by someone so cost BB to acquire.

September 1411 Aragon declares war on Navarre. Aragon has the ‘Vassalise’ mission. My guarantee is still in place, although I wait until Aragon sweeps away the single regiment of defenders and settles into a siege before honouring the call.

Peace with Portugal - April 1412

BB is now 7.95 / 16.00

Aragon vasselises Navarre in June 1412 and around this time Castile annex Granada in a war Granada started.

Peace with Aragon – May 1413

BB is now 9.72 / 16.00

I’m finally at peace, controlling much of Iberia and I can start working on my lamentably high war exhaustion and widespread rebel problem.

Europe in the autumn of 1413

Overall a successful session, the Iberian powers are all greatly reduced. Aragon will remove Navarre and Burgundy has started eating the Dutch minors. Portugal and Aragon both look as if they could be vassalised in peace deals. The English are cleaning up their backyard and Denmark has started it’s usual push into Northern Germany.

 

[sprites]

wellit may require some time to get provence attacked if you cancel vasselage , especially if you estroy england
in my games , 80% aragon DoW navarra before 1400 and i've never seen castille DoW granada later than 15 october in vanilla

 

[Capibara]

Time to reorganize and let the army recover from the Iberian Wars; and let BB reduce for now. You should be starting to build a bigger navy, if you want to take out England. But first, Burgundy

 

[TheArchMede]

The Idea choice is not unexpected. Only having the 4* minter led me to postpone the Bank to later. I am quite interested to see what you go for in the 3rd and 4th though, maybe even what you choose 2nd if you clobber the colonisers quickly enough that you dont need Quest.

It is definitely looking like England next, they may well have all Ireland by the time your BB burns down to the point you have to DoW somebody. Particularly if they have done what they did to me and taken QftNW as their first idea.

No navy yet though. Wait for a real challenge to your boats before wasting money that could be spent on Knights on a fleet.

 

[birdboy2000]

I would think this idea is insane and you have no chance of pulling it off. Except that I thought the same way about *surviving* as the Iroquois, let alone conquering most of the world with them.

Prawnstar, your skills are legendary. I'll be watching. (In other words, subscribed!)

 

[kebzero]

Things certainly are progressing smoothly - Burgundy has gotten their act together, England has yet to eat Scotland but is munching the Irish and Brittany... The Ottomans seem to be on a roll, too, as is Naples. I could be wrong, but that looks like a two-province Mazovia?

Your Armagnac gambit is interesting... I have my doubts England will take the bait, but time will tell. You've all but nerfed two of the three colonizing/exploring powers. I do question whether it was a wise move to take down Aragon so soon, though. They're usually willing to eat Sardinia. As for Portugal... it looks as if you could also evict them from Lisbon, and then just wait it out for a Boundary Dispute. With some 400 game years to go, it should appear eventually.

 

[Enewald]

A good idea to let Burgundy clean the Benelux and west Germany.
Going down to Marocco on your western trip?

England ought to be beaten quite early also.