Chapter eight:
Prepare for War
Casus Belli, A change of Mission, Your First Fight
This is where we left off in chapter 7. You can click the messages away by clicking on
OK. ---If you want a message to appear differently, simply right click on it and decide how you want it to display.---
There is something peculiar popping up in the lower left corner there. Do you see it? It's a message with a crown. If we don't click on it, it will disappear automatically after exactly one month after it's first appearance. We can't change that. Some very important messages are displayed this way which we need to keep track of.
- Royal marriage proposal. That's the message we see now.
- If someone asks for military access.
- If someone asks us for trade rights.
[*]If someone wants to vassalize us.
[*]If someone wants to diploannex us ---Yes, I've got proof of that.---
- If we receive a Call to Arms by one of our allies, when we guaranteed someone, when we warned someone, when we are Defender of the Faith and a heretic or heathen attacks our religion or if a member in our SoI is attacked.
The Call to Arms ---henceforth: CTA--- is the most important message that get's overlooked this way. So we need to pay attention too!
Now what to do with that royal marriage proposal?
Left click on it. Then read what it has to say and courteously
decline. We don't want to marry anyone just yet. ---If you see a message like this in the lower left corner, right click it to dismiss it at once.---
You can unpause now again.
Ah, something interesting happens!
This was on the 31st of October. So what's a
Crusade exactly? Well to put it easy, a crusade was several times called in history to unite the Christians to fight the heathens. So how did EU3 modeled this phenomenon?
Well, if you click the message away and let the game run again, you will see this.
It says we gained a
Casus Belli. I mentioned before that a casus belli ---henceforth CB--- is a 'legitimate' thing to declare war over. I guess you know about former US minister of defense claiming Iraq had some powerful weaponry? That's a CB, be it not completely legitimate. So what are these?
From the HT³ manual. ---The
bold CB's are the strongest in the game, as they can give you provinces at a very reduced
infamy rate.---
- Defected Province.
When rebels cause a province to defect, you gain this CB against the recipient of the province. Lasts for 12 months. Can demand back the defected province at 0 infamy, double prestige and half the peace cost.
- Cancelled Loan.
Triggered when a country cancels a loan from you, lasts for 12 months. Double Prestige and half the Peace Cost for demanding money.
- Discovered Spy.
When a foreign spy is discovered, this Casus Belli is given for 12 months. Double Prestige and half the Peace Cost for demanding money or the revocation of cores.
- Disloyal Vassal.
When a vassal declares war on its suzerain state, this Casus Belli is given. Zero Infamy, double Prestige and half the Peace Cost for demanding vassalization.
- Imperial Liberation.
The Emperor of the HRE gets this CB against anyone who annexes a country within the HRE. Lasts for 24 months. One fourth the normal Infamy, double Prestige and half the Peace Cost for demanding HRE provinces, releasing vassals and annexed nations, reducing the SoI and demanding gold.
- Diplomatic Insult.
Given against countries who insult you. Lasts for 12 months. Double Prestige and half the Peace Cost for demanding money or the revocation of cores.
- Claim on Throne.
Granted when you claim a throne. Lasts while the throne is claimed. Allows the formation of a Personal Union, annexation, and the taking of provinces at one tenth the normal Infamy, double Prestige and half the Peace Cost.
- Alliance
Granted against all countries that are at war with your allies, but not with you. Lasts while this is the case. Double Prestige and half the Peace Cost for release of vassals and countries, reduction of Sphere, revocation of cores and gold.
- Dishonoured Call
Given against countries that dishonour a call to arms. Lasts for 36 months. Double Prestige and half the Peace Cost for gold and revocation of cores.
- Conquest
This Casus Belli is granted immediately when you get certain missions, when the mission requires you to conquer some provinces. A quarter of the normal Infamy, double Prestige and half the Peace Cost for demanding the target provinces.
- Subjugation
This is another Casus Belli that is given by missions; in this case when the mission requires you to vassalize a country. Zero Infamy, double Prestige and half the peace cost for vassalization.
- Religious Unity
Given to the Emperor of the HRE when a country refuses his demand for Religious Conformance. Zero Infamy, double Prestige and half the peace cost for demanding religious conversion.
- Reconquest
This is the daddy of all Casus Bellis, active against any country that holds at least one of your core provinces. Zero Infamy, double Prestige and half the Peace Cost for demanding core provinces.
- Nationalism
This is a late game Casus Belli that becomes available at government tech level 30. Itallows you to declare war on all countries with provinces of your culture group. Half Infamy, double Prestige and half the Peace Cost for demanding those provinces.
- Imperialism
This is another late game Casus Belli, but rather than requiring a certain tech level, it is available for five government types; Revolutionary Empire, Revolutionary Republic, Enlightened Despotism, Republican Dictatorship, or Absolute Monarchy. It allows you declare war on anyone. Three quarters Infamy, and Peace Cost for annexations and demanding of all provinces.
- Revolutionary War
In the late game, monarchies and republics with the idea 'Revolution and Counter' get this Casus Belli against each other. Quarter Infamy and half the Peace Cost for annexations and demanding of all provinces.
- Colonialism
This becomes available against countries with distant overseas provinces bordering your own, but it requires the 'Quest for the New World' idea. Quarter Infamy and half the peace Cost for demanding those overseas provinces.
- Restoration of Union
When a Personal Union is broken, the old suzerain state gets this Casus Belli for ten years. It allows the restoration of the union in the peace treaty.
- Liberation
Countries with the 'Bill of Rights' national idea get this Casus Belli against nations that can release at least one state, or a vassal. Triple Prestige and half the Peace Cost for release of vassals and countries.
- Holy War
Muslims and Christians get this Casus Belli against countries of a different religion group, but it requires them to be neighbours, or that they have 'Unam Sanctam', 'Divine Supremacy', 'Empire' form of government, or are the Defender of the Faith. It is also given against the target of a Crusade. The Holy War Casus Belli is disabled after 1650. One quarter the Infamy, 50% more Prestige and half the Peace Cost for annexation and demanding of all provinces.
- Cleansing of Heresy
This is the 'Unam Sanctam' Casus Belli, given against countries of a different religion within the same religion group. It is also given against countries with the 'Heretic' modifier. One quarter the Infamy, double Prestige and half the Peace Cost for demanding provinces of our religion or a forced conversion.
- Border Friction
This Casus Belli is sometimes triggered by a certain event, when a foreign National Focus is right on your border, and not in their capital. Half the Infamy and Peace Cost for demanding their provinces with the National Focus effect.
- Excommunicated Ruler
This is given to Catholics against excommunicated countries. One quarter the Infamy ---only in your own culture group, changed since beta April 2010---, 25% more Prestige and half the Peace Cost for all normal peace demand options.
- Trade Dispute
The Trade Dispute Casus Belli is active against countries that embargo you, and is also always active for Merchant Republics against each other. Double Prestige and half the Peace Cost for demanding gold, revocation of cores or that the enemy joins our Trade League.
- Imperial Ban
Once the Holy Roman Emperor has passed the 'Reichsreform' HRE decision, he gets a Casus Belli against all countries with at least one province within the HRE, but who are not HRE members. 10% Infamy, double Prestige and half the Peace Cost for demanding the release of vassals, countries, or HRE provinces.
- Violated Sphere of Influence
This Casus Belli is given for 24 months against anyone who meddles with a country in your Sphere of Influence. Double the Prestige and half the Peace Cost for demanding the annulment of treaties, reduction of Sphere, or simply gold.
- Dishonourable Scum
Countries that exceed their Infamy limit will trigger this Casus Belli against them for all other countries. It allows for most peace options at a very reduced Infamy cost. One quarter Infamy and 75% Peace Cost for all normal peace demand options.
- Colonial Conquest
Countries of a religion that is designated as 'annexable', i.e. native tribes, can be attacked with this Casus Belli. 20% Infamy and half the Peace Cost for annexation and demanding of provinces, plus release of vassals, countries, reduction of Sphere, gold, and revocation of cores.
- Obscure Documents
This Casus Belli is triggered by 'Fabricate Claim' spy action, for 12 months. Allows the formation of a Personal Union in the peace.
- Trade League War
This Casus Belli is given to Merchant Republics when a member of their Trade League leaves. It allows them to demand gold, or a return to the League.
So if we want to start a war, we need to be sure to have CB against another country. If we really want, we can declare now on Morocco via the
Holy War CB. We won't do that now however.
Castille was able to declare a
Crusade, that's because they were the
Papal Controller. I won't go into detail here about that, but that's why they can declare a crusade. It also means that they can
excommunicate Catholics. Again, this will be explained later.
Now the benefits of a crusade are quite nice. If we would go to war, these are the benefits.
Those are very powerful bonuses. We don't need them yet. I just wanted to talk about a crusade.
Okay, do you remember our goals? One of them is to form the United Kingdom. If we want to do that, you can see in the
National Decision tab of the Coat of Arms menu, we need some provinces from Scotland. Our current mission to
vassilize them is not enough. Luckily for you, I know that there is
Conquer Scotland mission available for England. With that, we gain the
Conquest CB rather than the
Subjugate CB. In order to gain that mission, we need to lower our relations with Scotland to below +50. Now we have a relation of +60, so it's time to send another insult! You can only do that on the 14th of November, as you can only use a diplomat once a month in every nation. Because we send out a diplomat on the 14th of October, we need to wait a month.
Wait until you can send another diplomat to Scotland and give them a proper English insult about their blue faces! Make sure the relations are below +50 like in the screenshot.
Okay,
we now can cancel our current mission to vassilize Scotland. You can cancel the mission in the
National Decisions tab of the Coat of Arms menu.
As you can see, canceling a mission costs us a bit of prestige and can only be done once every 5 years. So whatever mission we get now, we'll get stuck with it whether we want it or not. We can only hope we will receive the
Conquest Scotland mission! ---You may have noticed, I won't be telling you when you can pause and unpause anymore. Just take your time.---
Immediately the day after we cancelled our mission, we get a new one. I wonder what that one will be?
Yay! I'm in luck today. What mission did you receive?
I'm happy with this mission as it provides
free cores. ---
Cores will be discussed after we've beaten down the Scots.---
Now our troops are slowly intercepting the rebels that popped up. We just need to wait until they get there. Then the battle will commence! Ah, it's time.
Naggy will be providing some very interesting reads about warfare and he's a much better EU3 scholar than I am. So for now, battles are divided into phases.
- It starts with a fire phase. Fire is responsible for the number of deaths after we developed gunpowder. There simply isn't much fire coming out of a halberd now is there? .
- After fire, shock comes into play. Shock is in the early game very important for killing other soldiers. Once we've developed gunpowder, shock is beneficial for lowering enemy morale.
- These phases follow each other up a number of times. Every battle must have at least 4 fire and shock 'rounds' before one can retreat his forces out of the battle. That is in 12 days, which means every land battle last at least 12 days before you can call the retreat. If no-one retreats, the battle is finished when someone's morale has dropped to zero or has no more forces.
Naggy will be explaining everything you see in that little battle screen. We just wait until the battle is over.
Okay, the battle is over! Who do you think has won?
---The effects you see in different colors will be explained in the next chapter, the war against Scotland---
That's right, we've won! We killed a bunch of his army, but not enough. After each battle, the loser must retreat. If he can't, he will be annihilated at once. So where ever the
enemy is going, we need to follow him. If we make sure we arrive there first, he will probably die in an instant. If you want to know where the enemy is going, simply hold your mouse above his army. You can see I did this too in this screenshot.
Now let's see who won this time.
We did! The rebels are destroyed. Darth Vader can learn from us
.
If we want to conquer the Scots, we need to recruit some more troops. 9k are not enough. We will increase our troops with 3 regiments of infantry and 3 regiments of cavalry. Now how do you recruit new men?
Click on the province of
Cumbria and look for the button I've highlighted here.
Click on the highlighted button and make 3 cavalry units. Also make 3 infantry units in Northumberland. It should look a bit like this.
As you can see, the units are created after each other in one province. This means it takes longer before all the units are created. It's possible however to create several units in more provinces so an army is quicker raised.
Our 9k
stack of troops should be enough to defeat the Scottish army, the units which we've recruited shall be needed to
siege their provinces. Which means we don't need to wait for our reinforcements to declare war...
So let's quickly move to chapter nine:
The War for Scotland.
Ho there, wait a second! I've got something special arranged just for you. Naggy, one of our experts on trading in EU3, is willing to write an article about
trade and production! Now how cool is that? The article is an
intermission, it has nothing to do with our game we're following, but provides a great insight in the 'hidden clockworks' of the game. So I urge you to read this
special intermission: Trade and Production before going to chapter nine.