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This Chapter’s Mood Music

“We’re in it deep now, brother.”

“Oh shutup Gábor. How exactly was I supposed to know the Scandinavians were going to actually honour their position as Holy Roman Emperor? Besides, it’s not as if we’re doomed…how many men do we have under arms?”

“Nearly half a million. And you could have at least prepared for them honouring the call to arms.”

“If I prepare for everything I’ll not have the time to do anything else. This Empire wasn’t built on timidity, brother, and by God it won’t be preserved by such,” Ákos paused for a moment to drum his fingers on the table, “Recall all the armies in Arabia and Persia, bring them to the Austrian border. I fear we will need them.”

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The war against Austria began on the 6th of February, 1629, and a day later it already looked like Transylvania was in deep waters as the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Scandinavia honoured the call to arms from one of the German member states – Austria. Transylvania stood with its allies against two of the largest military powers of Europe, forced to fight a war on three fronts – one in Austria, the other in Russia, and the third in the Hindu Kush.

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The Second Excommunication war between the Transylvanian Empire and the Austrian Reich, February, 1629

Transylvania was not alone however, as their allies, union states, and vassals readily joined the fray until it seemed that all of Central and Eastern Europe was at war. Lithuania, Georgia, Crete, and Prussia stood beside the Transylvanian Empire in the conflict, and their help would be sorely needed indeed.

The beginning of the war began well for Transylvania, as armies flying flags emblazoned with the seven Saxon fortresses of Transylvania swept across the border into Austria and Scandinavian Central Asia like battering rams, easily smashing aside the tiny border guard forces. The Scandinavian province of Herat fell just 5 days after the war began, and the Austrian provinces of Sopron, Erz, Poznan, and the capital of Vienna fell shortly after that, but there were already signs that perhaps this war would not be such an easy victory against Austria as before, when they had been suffering from a severe manpower crisis as a result of their war against France. Even Transylvania’s long list of renowned Generals might not be enough to stem the tide and force a victory…

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Transylvania’s Commander Roster, February, 1629

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The first real engagement with Austria is a defeat for the Army de Plater and Transylvania, and the war on the Eastern Front fares no better

The Internal Government screamed for a peaceful agreement that would end the conflict, but Ákos was mad at the Austrians and Scandinavians now, and vetoed anything that even hinted at resolving the conflict peacefully. The victory at Czizo in June of 1629 only strengthened the Emperor’s conviction that the war could be won, as nearly 20,000 dead Austrians in Croatia proved that. The Emperor ordered a renewed offensive against the Austrians and Scandinavians, adding the armies recently recalled from Arabia into the offensive.

In June the push began as General Leopold Apafi led three Transylvanian armies against the Austrian force at Erz which stood just above 30,000 strong. The Austrians were no match for the professionalism of Transylvania’s armies and the overwhelming numerical superiority, and General Leopold succeeded in breaking the Austrian army and opening the way for the Pomeranian Offensive. The goal was to take the Slavic provinces in Northern Austria, while three of Transylvania’s armies held off the Austrians from advancing into Croatia or Hungary.

The Austrian response was to renew their offensive into Bohemia and Hungary, and the Austrian King himself, Leopold Johann von Kapfenberg led the Austrian 12th army into Bohemia, where he was met by the Transylvanian Army de Ferenc commanded by Emperor Ákos Plater. Despite overwhelming cavalry superiority the Transylvanian soldiers refused to give ground under the Emperor’s watchful eye. He was a God to the soldiers in the Army de Ferenc, and they showed their love for him by riddling the field with Austrian dead.

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Transylvanian and Austrian cavalry clash at the Battle of Bohemia, August 8th, 1629

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The Butcher’s Bill for the Battle of Bohemia

The Pomeranian Offensive was a success, taking a number of the Slavic provinces under control of the Austrians, but Ákos was forced to abandon the offensive and recall the armies back to Transylvania as Austrian and Scandinavian armies started to overrun Transylvanian Poland, and even General Bethlen’s stunning victory at Pecs was not enough to dissuade the Austrians and Scandinavians from striking into the Empire’s core lands.

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The Battle of Pecs and the Austrian advance into Transylvanian Poland

The offensive into Scandinavian Central Asia was faring much better however, due to the spare concentration of Scandinavian forces in the region. Reports of victory after victory flooded into Koloszvár from messengers – a Scandinavian army destroyed entirely at Balkh, and then just weeks later another destroyed in Quetta. The situation in Asia was well under control, and Transylvanian armies were pushing deeper into Scandinavian lands, but the Austrian advance into Poland was becoming worrying, even more so when the Transylvanian garrison that was holding Vienna was forced abandon the city when the citizens took up arms against them. Even more concerning to the Empire was Prussia’s surrender to Scandinavia, cedeing the province of Danzig to the Austrians.

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The Transylvanian advance into Scandinavian Central Asia, December, 1629

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The Treaty of Memel, removing Prussia from the war, December 7th, 1629
The war progressed now as an out of control see-saw, with provinces in Northern Austria and Transylvanian Poland flipping constantly between the two powers. Again Bohemia became the centre piece for Austria’s new offensive in January of 1630, and the four Transylvanian armies within the province would need to be broken if they could continue the advance, but again the Transylvanian armies under General Leopold Apafi routed the Austrian 6th Army and sent it fleeing back across the border. Fighting still took place all across the front though, and Transylvania lost yet another army to the Austrians in Moravia in February.

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The Second Battle of Bohemia, January 20th, 1630

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The Battle of Moravia, February 1st, 1630

But as Leopold Apafi was defeated in Moravia, his brother Dávid descended upon the victorious Austrians shortly after, and routed them and their allies from Wurttemberg.

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The Second Battle of Moravia, February 28th, 1630

Despite these victories, Transylvania was on its last legs. The warfare on three separate fronts – in Austria, Russia, and Central Asia, had taken its toll on the Empire’s manpower reserves. Simply put, there was nobody left who could fight aside from what Transylvania had. Ákos managed to cover up this massive problem by withdrawing entire armies from the frontlines, reforming new battalions and then marching them back under new colours so the Austrians and Scandinavians wouldn’t know, but if the fighting continued much longer Transylvania would be defenseless. The fighting still continued though, with Transylvania losing another army in Istria in March.

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The bottom of the barrel, no manpower for the Empire, March 12th, 1630

Ákos knew that peace was needed, and it was needed quickly, and so he sent out diplomats to the Austrians and Scandinavians. The Austrians however did not wish to even speak of peace, and the diplomats were turned away from the Austrian court before they could even utter a single word. The Scandinavians however were the weak link in the alliance. They had entered only as their obligation as the Holy Roman Emperor, but had not expected such a devastating war. Further, there were rumours that Ming China was readying its armies to take advantage of the weakened Scandinavian titan and reclaim their lost lands. However, Scandinavia too was willing to hang on for a little longer, as they didn’t truly feel threatened.

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The extent of Transylvania’s advance into Central Asia before manpower shortages halted the offensive, March, 1630

What ended up happening next was probably one of the most remarkable special operations in military history, as under complete secrecy 12,000 Transylvanian soldiers were loaded aboard transport ships and sailed through the Mediterranean, around Europe, through the Scandinavian controlled Kattegat, and landed just outside of the Scandinavian capital of Stockholm, under the command of General Lorand Bocskai. Under the cover of nightfall they assaulted the city with nothing but ladders and took the Scandinavian capital and the Swedish King hostage. After that, the Scandinavians almost pleaded for peace, now that their core homeland was under threat and their capital taken by the Transylvanians.

The last battle before the war ended was in Steiermark, where Transylvania’s remaining four armies left on the Austrian front managed through sheer desperation to beat back and nearly destroy the Austrian 2nd Army. However, Transylvania was on the verge of being over-run by Austrian armies, and the peace that Scandinavia signed with Transylvania angered the Austrian King and the German people incredibly.

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Transylvania on the very precipice of destruction, July 9th, 1630

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The Treaty of Stockholm, July 10th, 1630

Though technically a victory for Transylvania, the Second Transylvanian-Austrian Excommunication War would definitely have been won by the Austrian-Scandinavian alliance had the Scandinavian king held out for peace just a few more months. What was worse for Transylvania, was that following the war, the landscape in western Transylvania had been so devastated, and the population so depleted that cuts were need in the budget, though owing to the Austrian people’s seething anger over the peace, Ákos wisely chose to cut production investments instead of military (Event: National Decline, ‘Cut Production Investments’).

The Emperor was on his last legs though. The stress of the recent war had accentuated his various illnesses, and he knew he was close to his deathbed. His last couple years alive he spent reforming the military of Transylvania so that it would not face such a monstrous threat so unprepared ever again (Event: Military Development, ‘Invest in Higher Quality Troops’ – Quality Gain 2), and ensuring that a Transylvanian cardinal would be Pope upon his death. What also happened that the Emperor had not planned upon was that upon his death on February 22nd of 1632, the Kingdom of Lithuania ceased to be a client kingdom, and the nobles within nearly unanimously agreed to absorption within the Transylvanian state.

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The Death of Emperor Ákos the Great, the absorption of the Kingdom of Lithuania, and the election of a Transylvanian Pope, February 22nd, 1632

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The Emperor is carried from a port in Budjak to his final resting place in the Citadel of Tarten, February, 1632

Whatever his faults may have been, Ákos would be forever remembered as one of Transylvania’s titan Emperors. Taking the throne at the age of 14 in the middle of the first war with Austria, Ákos had fought nearly every state on Transylvania’s border by the time of his passing, and expanded the Empire more than twofold in his lifetime.


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The Transylvanian Empire, February 23rd, 1632
 
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How the bloody hell does an army with over 10k men get massacred by a 1000 men regiment?
 
How the bloody hell does an army with over 10k men get massacred by a 1000 men regiment?

Probably due to morale. They lost a battle and retreated and the 1k army attacked them and destroyed them. It happens but usually you need more than an 1k army to do it.

Excellent update! It's sad to see the King go though. What a bloody war...
 
What of eating the Southern Rus states and Georgia?

One must always experience the challenges of a two front war, otherwise the game is too easy. :D
 
An, Sweden. Where is the navy when you need your capital defended? Probably in India, or something.

Well, what can I say - Akos can win against any kind of odds, although I suspect this will be the last globe-spanning conflict for Transylvania for a while...
 
The Emperor is dead ! Long live the Emperor ! By the way, is Kristof the heir to the throne, as we saw in that family tree you posted ? I hope Akos' brother, Gabor will try to usurp the Transylvanian throne. He is the regent I suppose, right ?

Oh, and yes, I am Romanian. Speaking of Romanians, did Iancu Sasul died ? He wasn't in that general rooster and didn't command any armies in the Austrian war. Or is he a mediocre general ?
 
And so a legend dies...

This is almost as tragic as The Great Unspeakable Evil. :p

:(

How the bloody hell does an army with over 10k men get massacred by a 1000 men regiment?

Idk, I get that a lot. I've had something like 60,000 men destroyed by 500 infantry before.

Excellent update! It's sad to see the King go though. What a bloody war...

Indeed. More than 150,000 casualties (at least) on the Transylvanian side.

What of eating the Southern Rus states and Georgia?

One must always experience the challenges of a two front war, otherwise the game is too easy. :D

There's just Kiev, and that'll come soon enough. Then Georgia...gah. Hopefully I can inherit the damn country soon.

Dude they were hakkapelitas and the general had readed too much horror books of them :p and now my people are free atlast :D

Must've been, and yeah thought you'd get a kick out of that one.

An, Sweden. Where is the navy when you need your capital defended? Probably in India, or something.

Well, what can I say - Akos can win against any kind of odds, although I suspect this will be the last globe-spanning conflict for Transylvania for a while...

Yeah it was off somewhere. Probably in China. Ha!

Hopefully yes. Need some time to recover.

The Emperor is dead ! Long live the Emperor ! By the way, is Kristof the heir to the throne, as we saw in that family tree you posted ? I hope Akos' brother, Gabor will try to usurp the Transylvanian throne. He is the regent I suppose, right ?

Oh, and yes, I am Romanian. Speaking of Romanians, did Iancu Sasul died ? He wasn't in that general rooster and didn't command any armies in the Austrian war. Or is he a mediocre general ?

Krisztóf died from the fever or something not that long ago, so the heir is Ákos' bastard son Mihály II. He's 5 I think atm. Gábor is the regent yes, and he'll be in the next chapter.

:) Sasul died I believe, he was a decent General.

edit: I'm actually working out the rough plan for the next chapter, and it looks like it'll be a pretty epic 2 or 3 chapter story. Getting goosebumps just thinking about what's happening, so that's a good sign.
 
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With Ákos’ passing the throne of Transylvania sat empty, the sole heir of the late Emperor being just a child of five years. While the Internal Government stepped up to the plate to manage the Empire’s internal affairs, political matters and foreign policy was handled by the to-be Emperor’s regent and the late Emperor’s brother Gábor Plater. But Gábor was unhappy; livid, actually. He did not want to see the bastard son of his brother on the throne, a child who bore common blood. Gábor was old, nearing 56 years, but he had a son of his own, one of royal lineage and noble birth, and so he began the early stages of what would later be known as the Palace March.

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“I don’t see why this victory parade is necessary, Lord Regent. It seems to me to be a dreadful waste of spending in light of the devastating war this Empire was just in.” Artaxias Papadakis locked eyes with the Regent of the Transylvanian Empire before quickly casting his eyes back on the papers spread on his desk. Gábor hadn’t really needed to come to him for permission for the parade, it was merely a formality, but Artaxias appreciated the gesture that attempted to show that the Internal Government at least held some power.

“I think it is most necessary because of the devastating war we were just witness to,” Gábor stood and walked around the room, picking up and examining the trinkets and other oddities that were displayed in this Greek politician’s room in Constantinople, “the people need something to show them that it was in fact a victory. A close victory, but we shall take what we can in such situations.”

Artaxias could agree with that, at least, “But why recall the Army de Samuel from the Austrian border? Was it not you who said we needed more armies there just last week to me?”

Gábor shrugged, “They won’t be gone for long. Keep in mind as well that the Army de Samuel was involved in nearly every major engagement with the Austrians and took the brunt of Transylvania’s casualties in this war. The parade could use the palace guard, but the people in Koloszvár don’t need to see those frilly little cowards march around, they need real soldiers, men who fought and died for them in Austria and Poland.”

“You may be right,” Artaxias sighed, “Very well, April the 9th is the date? I should like to see what show you manage to put on.”

Gábor smiled in response, “Oh it will be grand; that I can promise.”

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“The parade is today, no?” Sára Lázár yawned as a servant placed grapes and wine on the table beside the couch. Her husband Kálmán crossed the room and sat by her feet.

“Yes. I won’t be able to see any of it though, trapped in the palace watching over the Emperor.” Kálmán leaned down and began tying the boots to his uniform. It was early morning, and the sun was slowly easing its way upwards, but it was still a dreadfully cold morning for early April.

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Kálmán Lázár, Captain of the Emperor’s Guard, 1632

“He’s not the Emperor yet. Just a boy.”

“He is the Emperor. And don’t talk like that.” Kálmán finished tying his boots and stood to buckle his sword.

“You act as if he’s in danger.” Sára’s toyed with him, smiling at the flash of emotions her husband’s face.

“Before the Emperor died he told me to protect his son with my life, no matter the cost. He wouldn’t have said such a thing if he did not think that perhaps Mihály was in some sort of danger.”

“Wasn’t he just telling you to do your job?”

“I served as Ákos’ guard for five years. I know my job, and he knows I know it. There was just…the way he said it. I can’t really explain it.”

Sára smiled and poured herself some wine, “You’re just being paranoid. Have fun at work and try and sneak me out some of those nice candlesticks they have lying in storage.”

Kálmán snorted in response. He snapped his sword into its scabbard and walked out of the room, shouting his goodbye before leaving the house.

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The reality of the job of the Emperor’s Personal Guard was far removed from the romanticized version. Captain Kálmán Lázár’s day was not spent charging through corridors fighting off would be assassins and brigands, but spent idling around the palace keeping an eye on the young Emperor. And today, on April the 9th of 1632 he was within one of the study rooms of the Royal Palace at Koloszvár alongside three other men of the Guard, the young Emperor, and Father Borev, a Bulgarian priest who was today giving Mihály his weekly lesson in Latin.

“Not even a window that we could see the parade from,” The three men of the Guard and Captain Lázár sat in a corner near the door, removed and out of earshot of the priest and Mihály, and it was Borys Kowalski who spoke first, the son of a low born Polish noble given into the service of the Transylvanian Emperor during Ákos’ reign. Kálmán nodded in agreement.

“I’m sure we all feel the same way, Borys.”

“You want to see the parade too, sir?” Marku Inoescu put down the wooden puzzle he had been working on.

“Yes. I actually fought with the Army de Samuel for a brief period during the end of the war, when they were calling up anyone who knew how to fight. I’m curious to see if I recognize anyone.”

Borys eyed his Captain, “Why not go see then? We’ll stay here, then when you’re done come back and one of us’ll go,” the Bulgarian guardsmen stuck his thumb in the direction of the priest at the far end, “It’s not like he’s going to notice, his world is those papers in front of ‘im.”

Kálmán leaned back against the bench he was sitting on and pondered the proposal. Borys was right; it wasn’t like anyone would notice, and it wasn’t like any harm could come to the Emperor while inside the palace filled with servants. And if someone did want to attack the Emperor, four men would fare no better than three. It’s not like I’ll be gone for long, anyways.

Kálmán stood and nodded at Borys, “I’ll be back within the hour, keep an eye on the Emperor.”

“Aye, sir, don’t worry about us,” Borys smiled back at the Captain and gave a crude salute before Kálmán walked out of the study room.

Kálmán picked his way through the myriad of corridors and hallways within the royal palace until he was in the front hall, where he grabbed a drink from one of the pitchers sitting on a table near a sidewall, watching the bustle of servants scuttling across the polished stone floors. It always amazed him how many servants there were within the royal palace, practically an army housed within this one building. He finished his drink of water and walked out of the main palace doors to the top of the marble stairs that led into the palace, and immediately he knew something was wrong.


He had made sure he knew the route of the parade beforehand, so that he could perhaps catch the tail end of it on his way home from his guard shift at the palace, but the parade was not where it was supposed to be. It was advancing along the main road that led to the royal palace, and from what Kálmán could see it was smaller than it should be, there weren’t as many soldiers within the parade as there should have been. He turned and looked at a young lieutenant of the Palace Guards that was watching the parade advance unperturbed and his eyes caught a group of men loitering around the eastern gate of the Palace.

His eyes narrowed as he inspected them. To the casual eye they would simply seem to be individuals who were simply taking in the sights of the Empire’s capital, but Kálmán was a soldier of the Emperor’s Personal Guard, and a soldier unlike the Palace Guards, and what he saw was not individuals, but a group of men; more worrying he saw a group of soldiers, and his eyesight picked out the odd bumps and indents within their coats that showed they were armed.

His eyes darted to the western gates and he knew what was happening, for a very similar assortment of men were loitering outside of that gate. One last glance at the advancing parade made any other possibility impossible; for at its head he could see a man wearing the same uniform as had adorned the shoulders of the Lord Regent earlier. Gábor.

Kálmán spun around and raced inside the palace, the steady tramp of soldier’s boots slamming the cobblestone roads just barely audible in his ears. He ran headlong through the corridors of the palace, all the while shouting out the alarm.

“Guards to me! Guards to me! To arms guards!”

The palace was thrown in a panic as those who looked outside the front gates finally realized what was happening, all the while the call to arms rang out echoed through the halls.

Kálmán burst into the study room and the three guards inside leapt to their feet, swords scraping out of scabbards in surprise.

“Christ, captain. You scared the shit out of us,” Borys’ eyes focused on the panic going on behind his captain in the hallway, “What the hell is going on, sir?”

“Gábor is here, it’s a bloody coup. He wants the throne,” Kálmán pointed at Mihály, “Grab him Marku, and follow me. We’re going to the stables by the south gate.” It was a forlorn hope, but he knew there were men outside the east and west gates, and they certainly weren’t getting out the northern gate, not with Gábor leading the Army de Samuel down the street.

Kálmán and his guards emerged from the study to find three dozen of both the Emperor’s Guard and the Palace Guard waiting for him with anxious faces. He had no time to answer questions, so simply shouted at them to follow him and led them back into the maze of corridors to the southern exit of the palace.

As they neared the exit, shouts and screams carried over from behind them, signaling that Gábor had entered the palace, marching up the steps with thousands of Transylvanian soldiers behind him, soldiers loyal to the General they had fought under for the entirety of the Austro-Transylvanian war – Samuel Bethlen. And he in turn was loyal to the Lord Regent Gábor.

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The Lord Regent Gábor I Plater and General’s Samuel Bethlen and András Gyulai lead the Army de Samuel to the Royal Palace at Koloszvár, April 9th, 1632

As the men of the Army de Samuel darted through the palace searching for Mihály, Captain Kálmán Lázár took his men into the stables and had them start saddling the horses while he checked on the south gate. He left the stable and quickly returned, his face showing well enough to the guardsmen that the south gate was not unguarded as hoped.

“What do we do, sir?” It was a teenager wearing the ceremonial uniform of the palace guards, and whose weapons looked like they hadn’t even been used for decades. Kálmán would have to rely on the dozen or so members of the Emperor’s Guard to get out of this mess, but at least he could use the palace guards in some way.

“Borys, take six of the guard and get them right of the exit, Marku take whatever else and go left. You lads,” Kálmán pointed to the palace guardsmen, “Mount up. And draw your swords.” He doubted they even knew how to load a musket, but even the dumbest of soldiers knew how to swing a stick of steel hard enough to kill someone.

Kálmán and the Palace Guards mounted what horses were available in the palace stables and filed out the twin doors. The plan, if it could be called that, was fairly simple. Borys and Marku would take the Emperor’s guards out the gates and attack the men outside, and when they struck Kálmán would charge out with his palace guards. Hopefully the pressure would scatter the group, which couldn’t possibly have pikes or weapons to deal with a cavalry charge.

It all happened rather quickly as Borys and Marku led their men out the gates and attacked the men outside, hacking away at them with swords. The sharp crack of crude pistols carried over to Kálmán, and then he and his men were charging out through the gates. They crashed into the enemy group, and it was moreso the horses than the palace guardsmen that made the enemy group flee, biting and battering their way through the soldiers clothed in civilian coats.

They fled, and the Emperor’s Guardsmen mounted the spare horses they had brought just as the first of men from the Army de Samuel were appearing out the back of the south doors of the palace. A trumpet peeled out behind them, the signal that the Emperor had been found, but Captain Lázár and his were already galloping through the streets of Koloszvár, making for the southern gate of the city.

As they got closer to that gate Kálmán finally realized why there had seemed to be less men in the parade than should’ve been, as the cloud of musket smoke and the banging of steel on steel showed that men from the Army de Samuel were fighting along the walls against the men of the 4th of Banat, the wall guards for the capital. Kálmán kicked his heels into his horses’ flanks and silently thanked God and whoever commanded the gatehouse at the Southern wall that the gates were still open. The sound of fighting briefly filled the group of horsemen’s ears as they darted through the open gates, and then they were on the open field outside of Koloszvár.

There was no time for rejoicing however, as a trumpet called again outside the walls, and cavalry from the Army de Samuel was charging headlong towards the group as another trumpet answered from across the field.

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Captain Kálmán Lázár and Guardsmen race away from the capital after the Palace March, April 9th, 1632

It was a race as the small group of guardsmen sped away from the capital, pursued by two groups of cavalry from the 6th regiment of Larissa. The horses panted with the exertion, but eventually the group made it across one of the many bridges across the Danube and Kálmán held up his fist to grind the group to a halt.

“Why are we stopping?” A lieutenant of the Palace Guards shouted from the back, and Kálmán turned his horse to address them all.

“These are not war horses, or horses bred and trained for this sort of riding. They can’t take much more of this. Some of you need to stay here and buy us time.” He didn’t like it, but it was a losing race they were running, and eventually the men on horses that had endured far worse during the Austrian campaign would catch up to them, and there were far too many men behind them to fight off.

A sergeant in the Emperor’s guard trotted forward, “I will stay.”

Kálmán nodded, “Thank you Andrej. Any others?”

Nobody came forward, and so Kálmán started pointing at random. By the end it was decided that 8 of the Emperor’s Guard would stay, as well as 17 of the Palace Guard, leaving just six men out of the original party that would carry on. Those six plus the Emperor sped off from the bridge, and Kálmán made one last glance behind to see Sergeant Andrej ordering his men to kill the horses a pile their bodies atop one another to make a makeshift barricade on the bridge.

The men left behind did their duty, paying for the time required for the Emperor to escape with their lives, and two weeks hard riding later, a battered, bloody, and weary group of six men and a young boy made their way inside an army camp in the Hungarian province of Pecs, where Kálmán could only hope his friend was still present in, and had not been replaced or killed as part of the coup. Word had obviously not reached the soldiers inside the camp of the Army de Koloszvár, as they looked on at the party which rode under a grimy banner emblazoned with the Plater coat of arms.

They made their way to the front of the biggest building in the camp at which point Kálmán tossed down his reign and threw himself out of the saddle, marching straight up to the entrance of the building and throwing open the door. It was the officer’s mess and a rather hilarious joke must have just been told as Kálmán burst through the door, instantly silencing the crowd as their eyes turned on the exhausted looking man wearing the uniform of a captain of the Emperor’s Personal Guard.

“Where is General Apafi?”

“What do you need with the General?”

Kálmán gaze darted to the man who spoke, and the man quickly averted his gaze under such murderous eyes, “He’s in the back room,” the man managed to squeak out, “but he’s sleeping, you can’t go in-“

Kálmán waved the man away as he threw open the door to where General Dávid Apafi was dozing on a couch. The General jumped up and started to prepare his admonishment for whoever it was that had interrupted his sleep before his eyes focused and he saw Captain Lázár standing there. Kálmán had fought as a junior aide during the war against Hedjaz, and Kálmán had saved the then Colonel’s life during the battle for Medina. But even to General Apafi, Kálmán had not looked that weary and downtrodden as he did now, and Dávid knew something was wrong.

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General Dávid Apafi, Commander of the Army de Koloszvár, 1632

“What is it?”

Kálmán looked behind him to the room behind and saw a handful of other officers who just happened to be within earshot of their conversation, and he slammed the door angrily.

“There’s been a coup. Gábor has taken the capital, he just marched the Army de Samuel straight up and took the palace,” Kálmán cursed, “there was nothing we could do. We had to run.”

Dávid rested his elbows on his knees and ran his hands through his hair in thought, “Where is the Emperor?”

“Here.”

“He’s here? In the camp?”

“Yes.”

“And you need my help?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know I will help you?”

“I don’t.”

General Dávid Apafi stood and brought his eyes level with Captain Kálmán. They were of equal rank technically, a captain of the Emperor’s guard being equal to that of a General of the army.

“I was there with you when Ákos named his son heir, even if his son is a bastard. I will help you, but I hope you know what this means.”

Kálmán didn’t want to think about it, but he knew what it was. What was more, his duty and sworn oath demanded this be the path he must take, “Civil war.”

General Apafi crossed over to the door and opened it to find more officers outside who quickly shuffled back and pretended they hadn’t been listening.

“Gentlemen; no doubt you have heard, we are at war once again. If anyone objects to my course of action, then they may leave now with no repercussions,” Dávid nodded at them and smiled, “Oh. And someone send a messenger to my brother Leopold, and tell him I respectfully request he bring the Army de Mihály here. Only fitting, considering the namesake of that army’s namesake is here with us now.”



The Transylvanian Civil War had begun.
 
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Oh my. That was certainly unexpected!
 
Wowza...I'm a little shocked. Civil Wars can be brutal especially for a large empire. How interesting!:D
 
No enemy of great success as terrible as a civil war :D

Is this the end of the rise and the beginning of the fall?

Nice to see the little intrusion of narrative....brings history to life.
 
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Oh my. That was certainly unexpected!

:)

I can just picture a long haired minstrel singing
"I don't need no civil warrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"
Crush the rebels and stick the pretenders head on the palace gate!

Haha, war HUH! What is it good for?

I shall try.

Wowza...I'm a little shocked. Civil Wars can be brutal especially for a large empire. How interesting!:D

Indeed.

Great update. Looking forward to what's coming.

I shall try my best to entertain!

No enemy of great success as terrible as a civil war :D

Is this the end of the rise and the beginning of the fall?

Nice to see the little intrusion of narrative....brings history to life.

This is....hm. Probably could be seen as the first big crack within the Transylvanian Empire that leads to the fall, but it hasn't quite begun yet.

:)

monty-python-black-knight.jpg


Just a flesh wound, eh?

Haha, yep!


And i i think those guys are funded by asshole scandis whit Finnish money :(

Oh Scandinavia is nearly broke though.

Bah, what happened in game terms?
Pretender? :p

I was thinking more along the lines of that event 'Regent Usurps the Throne'. Or the civil war event. Never know ;)
 
Go Scandinavia :(