France - "Better than Napoleon" (Feb.1487) including "Big Blue Blob" (Apr.1480)

[DensleyBlair]

More solid progress, good stuff as always. I do idly wonderments how you might approach the challenge of trying to post-rationalise all of this from a historiographical point of view. What could have possibly happened to France in the early fifteenth century that sent them on a wild conquering spree throughout tenuously connected parts of Europe?

 

[WolframS67]

Well, France is doing very well... yes, these achievements should probably be harder.

Maybe you can use Castille to create a colonial empire?

Also, why don't you have a bunch of rebels? Or a defensive pact against you?

Interesting point about Castile: Castile/Spain/Portugal are scripted to take Exploration and Expansion as their first two Idea Groups. But, according to my knowledge so far, if these nations are subjects, they are not allowed to pick these groups. Yet, later in this game Castile will take Expansion as first group and use the settler from the first idea ... to develop the capital. Sigh. Eventually the rule only applies to vassals and not to PUs, I don't know.

I have picked up your question about rebels and coalitons. At the end of the next chapter I will give some details on it. The short answer is: I make a lot of efforts to prevent these problems.

More solid progress, good stuff as always. I do idly wonderments how you might approach the challenge of trying to post-rationalise all of this from a historiographical point of view. What could have possibly happened to France in the early fifteenth century that sent them on a wild conquering spree throughout tenuously connected parts of Europe?

Puh, that is a too difficult question for me.
In the game I know all other nations (my enemies) are dumb like bread. And they will stay so during the course of a game. No learning.
I suppose, that's already a difference to real life history. Even if a nation correctly concluded, holding an advantage over another nation, this might change over years or decades.
Moreover in the game everything is deterministic. If I conquer new provinces, the rules of the game tell me what to do to integrate them. Even events like the Dutch Revolt can be handled by this rules. Moving the capital to the Low Countries or changing the primary culture and no Dutch Revolt will happen. Such rules didn't exist for real life history people, so that's very different.

 

[WolframS67]

Muscovy and Brittany (3rd)

France holds 71 provinces, incl. Ceuta in Africa = 30 to go for BBB.

Renaissance spawned late in this game, just in 1455, in Rome. I have it in two southern provinces, but it is not enough to embrace the institution. France has 742 in development and with the autonomy counted in, it is 446 of effective development. 1466 is the year to take Tech 6, without penalty for being too far ahead in time. So I will take Mil Tech 6 now and Adm Tech 6 in a few months. I have developed Paris to 30 some years ago and I use the state edict for the institution spread bonus, but that's about it. The Renaissance now has time to spread out on its own to many of my provinces until 1479, the next Tech cycle.
As I don't tech up in Diplo, but reserve the points for the idea group, I start to get corruption from "unbalanced research". Because I have 15 state slots and currently hold 15 states and 15 territories, with the next newly conquered area, I will also get the beloved "corruption from territories". I will pay it down, but "rooting out corruption" will become an even more serious source of my expenses.

No excuses anymore, it is time for Muscovy. The Russians have attacked Kazan some years ago, but the war is undecided, atm Muscovy is on -7% warscore. Kazan gets help from Chagatai, Uzbek and Nogai. That's some pressure from the south and east. Oh yes, Mil Tech 6 gives +0.25 tactics, +0.2 fire and +0.3 shock for infantry. Perm has it, the others are on Mil Tech 5. By the way, any advantage of +0.25 in tactics gives +6.25% siege ability.

Numbers look good, they reflect the exhaustion of the years of war with the hordes. Muscovy has 15 Mercs and just 3.6k manpower. With these numbers AIs are normally extra reluctant to start battles, even more than usual. Yes, the enemies could come up with 92k troops in total against my 54k, but that won't happen.

I keep my things together. Jean Bureau is still my best leader. But with 75 AT I have two other generals with 3 and 2 siege pips respectively.

A 5k-stack of Perm stumbled into me, after a forced retreat from a lost battle somewhere in the steppe lands in the first months of our war. Otherwise no enemies to be seen anywhere. I have even sent a 16k-stack home for rebel suppression in England temporarily. Forts: Novgorod 27.Jul.66, Pskov 27.Oct.66, now Mozhaisk, neighboring Moskva.

So King Charles VII is dead, Marie (62 y.) is on the throne for child Louis. The next important truces to run out are with Brittany in Mar.69 and with Denmark in Jul.70. I hope Marie survives until this date.

Ah, there they are. Except for 5 more Muscovite regiments, that's all what is left of the hostile armies. No battle with me. In Jul/Aug.67 Muscovy and Kazan signed a white peace. I suppose after this, AI-Muscovy had the brilliant idea to disband some troops. Why show any little sign of resistance? Let the French do, what they want, give them endless warscore and surrender the most important provinces in the peace deal. What a weakling.
Moskva 31.May.67, Rostov 3.Aug.67, Ryazan 24.Dec.67. After Yaroslav I will have enough WS to peace out and grab a lot.

Six provinces for 69 development, including Novgorod and Moskva. I simulated before, that I can core all immediately, due to my core in Neva. Maximum AE is -65, but with the Catholics in the far west it is only -6 AE. The Orthodox, the land of milk and honey.
Oh yeah, the Castilian soldiers in the Arctic. As we have seen before, the passive subject interaction ("zzz") doesn't work for ships. Transports are ships and troops on ships are seen as staying at home, it seems. Including the naval landing in hostile territory. I had this problem in another game long ago, but I forgot. So "zzz" is useless. The worst is, that after the peace deal AI-Castile will consider these troops as too expensive and prefers to delete them, instead of walking home blackflagged.
The French monthly manpower gain is 567. Although I lost almost 10k by attrition in the Russian winter, I come out of the war with a bit more manpower, than I had before the war. I expected a fairly clear victory. Advantage in Mil Tech, better morale because of prestige, AT and PP, plus the distraction from the war with the hordes. But in all honesty: That war was ridiculous. Absolutely no resistance from the Russians! Very disappointing.

In Feb.68 I entered into an alliance with the Ottomans. Because, why not? One day later I dissolved the old alliance with Burgundy, so I can attack him in Apr.73.

Social mobility, I hate this event. Exactly 10 days ago, I restructured the Burghers and assigned London to them, while revoking another province in the Bordeaux node. With 42% loyalty and 95% influence I don't have much of a choice. Besides disloyal Burghers for 15 years now, I have to pay 15 AT, 15 NT and 75 adm points. Simply awful.

As Marie is alive, I can start the next war on time. Two minors, my armies and navies are in position, so no problem to expect.

War is already over. I let The Isles go for some money to not overstretch my AE or OE. Finally I can integrate the rest of Brittany.
The AE-list for a possible coalition: Aragon (-65) is the only nation, being really on it. Others, like England (-149), Muscovy (-64) or Burgundy (-61) are on truce. My diplomats are constantly improving relations to keep many nations off that list. From Ireland, like Tyrone (-67), to the HRE, like Austria (-55). I always do the diplomacy before signing peace deals. This way the opinion of a critical nation just has to be 0 or better. If improving relations is done after taking new provinces, the opinion needs to be higher. Because critical nations get outraged and it needs +50 opinion to change their attitude again, so they leave the list for a possible coalition.
Since 1447 France (so me) is the Curia Controller, giving -20% AE impact. Another -10% AE come from the age ability "justified wars" and -10% AE from being at 100% prestige. Total: -40% AE impact, clearly helpful.

First battle with rebels this campaign. In general I try to avoid rebels, especially very early in the game. They just cost money and manpower. So I have raised autonomy in many areas like in Scotland and Sweden. I don't raise autonomy in France and England, to get at least some resources from these provinces being at 50% autonomy, like tax, trade power, manpower etc. But I keep forts in these regions to reduce the rebels' damage on my provinces. Moreover I regulary use the rebel suppression ability of my armies to reduce progress of rebel factions, if possible. The orthodox lands are a bit different, because of the increased unrest stemming from their "heresy". So I can't control these areas with raising autonomy anyway, I keep forts here as well. Thus now I have to ship over some regiments sometimes, to fight a bit with the rebels, like here with Novgorodian separatists.

 

[HistoryDude]

Well, the French are doing very well.

Really, though, why doesn't the AI learn from their mistakes? That would make the game much more realistic.

 

[WolframS67]

Scandinavia (2nd)

France holds 79 provinces, incl. Ceuta in Africa = 22 to go for BBB.
Moscov is owned for BtN.

So Queen-Regent Marie has reached the age of 65 and it is round 2 with Denmark and friends. I could have declared Reconquest for Finland on Sweden. But I don't want to inflate the vassal with 5 more provinces and then having to pay 8 Dip points per dev. Instead I have set him on scutage and started the integration already. If I take any provinces in this region, I keep them as territorial cores. This way it just costs 5 Adm points per dev. Besides Finland is far away from Western Europe, so the AE reduction from Reconquest should be small anyway.

The wargoal is Reval in the Baltics. The additional Danish territory over there, stolen from LO, and the presence of Brandenburg (+junior OPM Anhalt) should make this war more difficult, than the last one in 1453. On the seas the Scandinavians have 0/7/30/14, while my fleet is now 13/0/0/18, better than ever.

I start the war by fighting on two frontiers. About half of my army to knock out the two Germans and the other half to take care in the Baltics and first occupy the fort in Reval. The situation with Oldenburg is very much the same as last time. I have blackflagged troops in Bremen, who gives me mil and fleet access. So after the start of the war, I use my transports to unblackflag one stack of 14k and move it over to Oldenburg, to deal with his 6k.

Oldenburg is already out. Dead army, a stack sieging his capital and my fleet blockading his port. Thus in the first month of the war, the minor has given my some money to get out. Proving to be an useless ally for Denmark once more.

My army moved on via Brunswick to Brandenburg's fort in Braunschweig, to discover some enemies. No full morale, a weak general and lagging behind one Tech in Mil. But the AI-Brandenburg didn't master the very difficult task to move this army to safety in over 5 weeks after the start of the war. Even woods terrain didn't help, Brandenburg has no army no more.

Kattegat is inland sea, homeland for Galleys. But more important for naval combat is the engagement width. 20 Galleys don't fill it, 13 Heavies do. So naval superiority is secured for this war once more.

In recent months the "Master of Sieges" Jean Bureau, as well as pope Callistus III died. Both have served France for a very long time. The Papal State is the new Curia Controller.

In the Baltics I am sitting on Reval, while the enemies have decided to occupy the western part of my Swedish belt. With my navy I can always block straits or move my armies away, if it gets too dangerous.

The siege of Braunschweig went faster than in Reval. After a wallbreach I could assault the fort. The rest of that army already moved via Pomerania to Berlin for a siege over there. As after the debacle of Braunschweig, Brandenburg's army is still almost non existent, he is willing to go out of the war. I agree, only on one small condition: Annul all treaties with Denmark, please. I decide to move my exilied armies from Germany through Denmark to Elfsborg, where they can unblackflag.

Despite my usual naval support for the siege, it took a fairly long time to succeed in Reval. Armies have moved on, the enemies are in Northern Sweden and Finland. While most of my troops are spread out over Central Sweden and Danish Skaneland.

A really stupid battle from my part. I attacked a small 3k-stack in Viborg (Viipuri), totally unnecessary. As the initial kill was over, some Danish and Norwegian stacks were already locked in and even more hostile troops were attracted by the new battle. With my Transports I could reinforce too, but with better timing. In the end the enemies were defeated, but it cost me more than 10k manpower. For the moment my manpower is above 50k, so I can take it. But I didn't gain anything by this battle. It is just sending over the Scandinavian troops by forced retreat to somewhere in Norway. Where they can cause more trouble than in this area with my fort in Novgorod.

The integration of Finland has just finished, so 2 more provinces for BBB = 20 to go.
Forts: Kalmar 24.Aug.71, now Stockholm. Bahuslen is under siege and some troops are waiting in Lund for reinforcements to start the important siege of Sjaelland. But I clearly have to keep an eye on the hostile 25k-stack moving south, still on forced retreat.
At least I used the presence of my troops in Viborg for a trip to Moscow, to quickly suffocate the rebellion of Muscovite Separatists.

The situation in South Norway looks a bit more critical than it is. I have 16k on board of Transports (with my admiral) in the Northern Baltic Sea, to arrive soon in Elfsborg. To get the siege of Bahuslen done without naval support was a little surprise. Work on the very important fort in Sjaelland is in progress.

This battle was not that stupid. As I had a serious chance for a stackwipe, because of the 2:1 superiority. Moreover I want to move forward to the Norwegian capital Akershus and thus I have to split and spread out my forces for the two sieges and their protection.

Sjaelland 5.Jul.72, now Akershus fairly fast.
For the first time in the game I have done an exact count of provinces for BBB and decide to take 13 more in the peace deal, so it is 7 to go. For BtN I demand Bleking in Skaneland, so France shares a sea tile with Pomerania. The AE-list is harmless, thanks to my hardworking diplomats. As Norwegian and Swedish troops have been busy with sieges of my forts, I could sent 32k back to London to deal with the English Separatists. The rebels are clearly nibbling on my manpower and this war wasn't as effortless as others before.

By continuing the Danish war for some months I could have taken up to 15 low dev provinces. With a bit more of timing I could have taken 2 more provinces from Muscovy some years ago and could have annexed The Isles with his 3 provinces in 1469/71 as well. Thus I could have reached BBB in 1476/77, some years earlier than in the game.

 

[DensleyBlair]

Interesting to see you hitting something like a limit to even heavily gamed expansion with the effects of manpower and so on. Evidently you can still overcome it, but the reality of constant rebellions and the work required to administer such a sprawling and disparate polity is coming through even on this run. Not far to go now; would be quite interested to see how long the AI could hold onto your gains if left to its own devices, or in what ways "France" would come apart.

 

[HistoryDude]

Yes, a "Fall of the French Empire" is likely coming once the AI takes control.

Still, France is doing very well...

 

[WolframS67]

Interesting to see you hitting something like a limit to even heavily gamed expansion with the effects of manpower and so on. Evidently you can still overcome it, but the reality of constant rebellions and the work required to administer such a sprawling and disparate polity is coming through even on this run. Not far to go now; would be quite interested to see how long the AI could hold onto your gains if left to its own devices, or in what ways "France" would come apart.

Yes, a "Fall of the French Empire" is likely coming once the AI takes control.

Still, France is doing very well...

From a game perspective: The prize for quick massive expansion is I have to reign my empire without much helpers. E.g. a reliable way to deal with rebels and unrest is taking the Humanist Idea group. Simply wonderful. Indeed I am too early for this and I don't have the points to fill out the ideas. But such problems are exactly one of the challenges I like.
As my opinion of the competence of the AI is very low .... instant bankruptcy or a quick collapse to rebels, I assume.

 

[WolframS67]

Burgundy, Novgorod (2nd) and Pomerania Part I

France holds 94 provinces, incl. Ceuta in Africa = 7 to go for BBB.
Moscov is cored for BtN.

So we are just one war away from getting BBB. Next major truces to run out are with Burgundy (Apr.73) and with Novgorod (Oct.74). Muscovy proclaimed a guarantee for Novgorod.

Already after the war with Muscovy in Feb.1468 I should have enabled the Golden Era. Several years before I had gained two age objectives, "present on two continents" and "large city" for Paris. I could have easily gotten a third, "control CoT" by upgrading London, Calais and Contentin to level 2. For 600 more ducats that I don't have, but with already more than 5k ducats in debt, not much of a difference. I was reluctant to do so, assuming I can do it at anytime, if really necessary. A short time after starting the next war I discovered to my displease, I can't upgrade (or downgrade) CoT, while being at war. So no chance to get the nice extras from the Golden Era for a long time. Hmpf!

With Queen-Regent Marie being 68 years old, I take every chance I get. This is not a Conquest War as usual. Impossilbe to take seven provinces out of Burgundy so close to the HRE, without triggering a coalition. This war is purely to play for the [old 1.29] Burgundian Inheritance (BI). So I will go for a complete occupation of the enemies and then sit on the war and wait. Which means I have to kill all their troops at some point or another. If the BI triggers, France will get all provinces in the French region, not belonging to the HRE. That is seven rich provinces (Picardie, Artois, Rethélois, Nivernais, Charolais, Auxerrois and Dijonnais). Immediate cores with no separatism. Very juicy, but also very random.

In January I arranged a new alliance, with Bohemia. Castile has 19k troops left, momentary busy with Granadan Separatists, they got by an event. Maybe I can use my subject later in this war.
My count of troops is 56/0/0, while the enemies have 53/20/0. This war will be about forts and sieges first of all. As usual my navy (13/0/0/20) will rule the waves and the AI is really bad with sieges. A little something to do in this war. I start with the area Burgundy and its three forts, while the 20k-stack in Calais will be shipped away behind the frontier to safety.

I can't say I knew it, but I hoped for this. A Pomeranian Conquest War on Brandenburg: Pomerania, Lüneburg and Brunswick vs Brandenburg, Anhalt and Wurzburg. Only possible because I deprived Brandenburg his alliance with Denmark last time. I want Pomerania to take Berlin, so I just need one war to get this key province for BtN.

Burgundy peaced out with Liege for full annexation, giving him another fort. 52k on Calais with a supply limit of 34. And Brabant's 11k-army seems to ran to my fort of Barrois in the woods, isolated. I just have to wait a few days until it is locked in and then my 18k-stack in Reims can go for a highly superior clash.
Ending in a stackwipe of Brabant troops on 26.Jul.

The last two sieges of the forts in the Burgundy area are just over. Meanwhile AI-Burgundy made Duke Charles I of Burgundy into a general, which increases my chances for the BI.
The battle of Chartres: I could have waited, as the enemy hasn't progressed very far with the siege of my fort. But, as I had two stacks of exactly 24k, I decided to go and attack into the 32 regiments (including some wounded) of Burgundy. Base morale is 4.18 to 3.93 for France, my general is a little better than his and he has some horses, which are really bad at Mil Tech 6. My main advantage is to use the combat width (CW), which is 24. That's why I start the battle with exactly 24 regiments, not one more, not one less. Burgundy has more than 24 regiments in the battle, so all extra regiments do nothing in the battle, but stand in the back row and take full morale damage. Once more: Regiments in the back row take the same morale damage as the units in front of them. That's why it is detrimental to throw regiments into a battle blindly once CW is filled. My second 24k-stack is just waiting in Valois. Should the first stack in the battle run out of morale or soldiers, this stack will fully reinforce. But just at the right moment.
Another advantage to start these kind of battles is, that all hostile forces somewhat nearby are triggered to come over for help. So you can see the train of hostile stacks moving over from the north. And the siege of Calais? Given up completely. Not even a single-stack to preserve the siege progress. Everyone has left Calais. That's (another) fundamental mistake of the AI and one of the reasons I said: "AIs are really bad with sieges".
Five days later Burgundy gives up the battle, before the arrival of his reinforcements. Probably because I have started to send over my second stack from Valois. Result: 8k casualties for Burgundy vs 5.3k for me and two of his sieges nullified.

I used the time after the last battle to get rid of 12k hostile troops by peacing out secondary participant Friesland. The usual tactic. I asked his neighbor East Frisia for mil and fleet access, used all my Transports to ship over a 20k-stack. Moved into his two provinces. Occupied Groningen and sieged the capital Friesland with the usual naval blockade. Quickly I got a separate peace with some money for me.
On the opposite side I laid siege to Picardie.

I got Picardie at +21% progress. Next stage is the area Wallonia with the two forts in Liège and Luxemburg. For now the enemies decide to try their luck on sieges again. Fine for me. And ... Castile has started to move his 19k soldiers to France.

Our truce with Novgorod is over and promptly Muscovy has enough debts to dishonor. So I start this war as a backup. Should the BI not fire, I can gain 7 provinces from Novgorod for sure.

Another mass battle, in the woods of Rethélois. I don't have all the details anymore. It started with a 10k-stack of Holland trying to sneak through to somewhere. As I engaged him in Rethélois, many enemies were attracted. The Dutch survived and were sent home, but Burgundy's armies were locked in, so I had the terrain advantage in the second battle. Even Castile rushed in to help me. I made both of my sieges incomplete temporarily, to send over even more of my troops to the battle. This was a bit critical, as a full 20k-stack is on board of Transports to deal with the Novgorodians in the other war. This time Flanders kept sitting on the siege of Calais.

Novgorod's army tried to run to somewhere in Sweden. Bad luck they stayed in one of my coastal provinces and my fleet is so mobile.

Some days before Pomerania successfully finished his war with Brandenburg. Well, at some point he got additional help of his ally Poland (+junior Lithuania). He grabbed five provinces for himself and forced Brandenburg to give away even more to others.

Both sieges in Wallonia are completed. While the enemies? Progress in Calais is on -64%. Last time it was -35%. Flanders left, Burgundy started anew. Now I will go for the two forts in Antwerpen and Brabant.

Four days before, I dissolved my alliance with Poland. Plan: File a claim on Lithuania, declare on Poland, make Pomerania co-belligerent and take Berlin. This way I avoid the HRE to be called in. But this is something for Apr.1480.

The Novgorodians had to run home after the last battle in Västerbotten. My army was faster by ship. So I could start the occupation of unfortified stuff and let my main stack do the kill of the last hostile troops in Kexholm. No need to care much about forest terrain, as Novgorod hasn't seen the light of Mil Tech 6.

Oops, what's that? Pomerania with no significant allies?
First on 5.Oct.75 Hungary (+Austria, Moldavia and Genoa) declared on Poland/Lithuania. Poland got isolated, as I deprived him of the protection of France and Pomerania would dishonor, probably because of some debt and war exhaustion. Thus now the alliance Poland-Pomerania has been broken too. Pomerania has refused the call for "unlawful" by Austria several times, so now he has fallen into disgrace and the HRE is not willing to defend greedy Pomerania anymore. My spynetwork has just finished the claim on Greifswald, so I have a valid CB.
What a chance to take Berlin, so I quickly start this new war. Now I have to organize my three wars and I decide to prioritize Burgundy.

 

[DensleyBlair]

Plenty of action to pick over here. Good progress in Burgundy, and two highly opportune wars in the east to close in on Moscow and Berlin. Only a few years left, of course, and definitely feels like you're getting towards the end game. Amazing to think how much Europe has changed over the course of a few decades thanks to France's mad rush for expansion.

 

[HistoryDude]

Very good.

I wonder how in-universe historians will justify this...

 

[WolframS67]

Burgundy, Novgorod (2nd) and Pomerania Part II

Before my army of soldiers goes to action again, I check what my army of diplomats has to do. 12 days after the start of the war, I am only interested in the AE-list. So a lot of German minors have to be persuaded, to go off this list in the next months and years.

In the Burgundian War it is time for a kill of all hostile troops, about 50k. On 7.Sep.75 the siege of Antwerpen was done and I placed a single stack on the fort of Den Haag. So the enemies have nowhere to hide. Every lost battle means the hostile armies can only retreat a short distance, where I can attack them anew, while them being on low morale. I just left a few troops behind in Novgorod and shipped back 15k for this stage of the war.
I started the battle of Chartres again with exactly 24 regiments. Lead by my new star general J. de La Barthe (4/4/4/4), rolled with 90 AT. Castile sends in his last 16k. No good timing, but at least I can honor his intention to help.

The end of Burgundy's main army. Let's go to catch the other three enemy stacks.

The final of the bloodbath. In this war only some sieges are left and I can use Castile for this too. The warscore is close to 100% and the enemies can't build new troops. So I can ship over a lot of my soldiers to the other wars. Next I want to finish the Novgorodian War.

Aha, Pomerania visiting Luki. After the massacre in Burgundy I consolidated my armies a bit and raised a few new troops in this area. To have at least the minimum number for the siege of the Novgorodian fort in Luki. Thankfully Pomerania comes from the long distance province Vitebskas and I detected this nice plot in time. I can move my troops away to Kholm, avoiding the battle.
AIs can't stand still and wait to defend. Once at war their armies look for targets. Weak hositle forces or provinces to occupy, with or without fort. If nothing to do at home they simply "ran away".

A small stopover. My 15k-stack was planned to be the reinforcement for the sieges of Luki and Novgorod's capital Soroka at the White Sea. But there is always a little time for a quick stackwipe.
The Pomeranian 16k-stack has gone from Lithuania to Moskva and seems to be happy sieging my fort. So I return to the siege of Luki with my 6k-stack.

Half a year later. Luki 10.Oct.76. My troops moved on to Soroka and an appropriate fleet of mine has taken the long way to the White Sea. Now I can storm the capital fort. Naval barrage, moving in the additional 16 regiments of infantry and then an assault.

After the fall of Soroka I can demand the seven provinces I want from Novgorod. Coring can start and the last ones are scheduled for 10.Mar.80 to finish. But Novgorodian Separatists are pretty sure to come very soon. Either in Ladoga or Tikhvin, in any case in a ZOC of my fort in Novgorod.

Burgundy: After taking Brabant on 24.Mar.76 and Vlaanderen on 12.Sep.76, only Den Haag is left over. But there is no hurry.
The plan for BBB is now, whatever comes first: Sit and wait on Burgundy for the BI to fire. If the new cores from Novgorod are done in 1480, I can let Burgundy go in peace.

Huh, this was faster than expected. Since all Pomeranians run away, I came from two sides. A first stack via Lübeck in the west and then a second stack via Poland from the east. Military wise I could peace out, as I have enough warscore to grab Berlin. But my diplomats are still a bit busy.

And I need a new war. If I peace out Pomerania I have to prevent the call for "unlawful HRE territory" once more. The Burgundian War can end any second without my intervention, if the BI fires. As Queen-Regent Marie is now 72 years old and Louis will ascend to the throne only in Feb.80, I better start the new war immediately. I am not prepared for this war, but Scotland and Tyrone really aren't a force to fear.
Oh, on 18.Apr.77 Pomerania won the siege of Moskva. Noone cares.

Time for peace has come. Actually only Frankfurt is left on the AE-list. The others are on a truce (like England or Muscovy) or are in a war with me (like Burgundy or Scotland). I have to do the coring of these new German provinces in two steps. First Greifswald and only after this is completed, I can start the coring of Berlin (now called Brandebourg). This will take about six years in total.

I have waited for you, rebels. As coring is halted during a siege, I will lose a few days for BBB until my army wipes out this pests.

In the Scottish War the enemies did occupy some of my provinces, before I could ship over some of my troops. I have cleaned that up partially already and the hostile forces are stalemated in Sutherland and Shetland. So I can do my sieges.

Since Apr.78 I have the "Call for Peace". It is five years after the start of the Burgundian war and my warscore is better than +67%. A bit of extra WE, no big deal. I am ready to take this for the next two years, for the chance to get 7 provinces for free. Rebels in Burgundy? Not my problem. Even if they take over some provinces with forts, chances for BI aren't altered as long as my warscore is above +75%.
Lately I have filled up my manpower by twice using "slacken standards" from the army professionalism mechanic.

Scotland: Warscore is on 100%. Tyrone is sieged down and peaced out. The isolated Scots are killed and completely occupied.

Many of my troops are in Southern France now. I guess, this means something?!

 

[MachopPower69]

Blursed_blob

 

[DensleyBlair]

Tantalisingly close, it feels. The end is surely in sight.

 

[HistoryDude]

The goal is almost reached...

 

[WolframS67]

Aragon, Portugal (3rd) and England (3rd)

France holds 103 provinces, incl. Ceuta in Africa, 7 more to be cored for BBB.
Moscov is cored, Berlin is owned for BtN.

BBB is just a matter of some months. Either when the cores in the former provinces of Novgorod are done or if the BI fires. So I keep sitting on Burgundy. I am doing the same to Scotland, as I need that war until Brandebourg (Berlin) is cored. Or I have another war I can sit on to avoid the call for "unlawful".

All that's left for this campaign is to find a way to Vienna. As it is impossible to go the direct route via Switzerland to Austria, I have to come from the other side, the Balkans. Because of the coring range I can't take anything on the Adriatic coast for now. Firstly, I need a foothold in Italy.

Naples it is. So I declare on his overlord Aragon.
The 17k-stack already in Spain is to take the fort in Huesca for free. That are actually 16k from Castile attached to a single-stack of mine. The 23k-stack in Southern France will go to Navarra and the other 24 regiments are on the territory of my friend The Papal State, to pay a visit to Ferrara.

The pictures repeat: Instant kill of the minor's army. Next, win the small battle on sea to get naval superiority for a blockade of his capital. Send a stack over to start the siege of the fort. Maybe I have to wait for the other province Modena to be occupied, maybe not. That's all I have to do to eliminate Aragon's ally early in the war.

On 23.Nov.78 Ferrara was willing to go out of the war already. I have transferred most of that army to my other friend the Ottomans, next to Ragusa.

In Spain Navarra's army is also dead, I started the siege of the vassal's capital and the fort in Huesca is under my control. As all Aragonese head north to my fort in Narbonnais, I can spread out into his territory.

Oh yeah, 1.Jan.1479, the beginning of a new era. The age of cannons has come.
Take another loan, for about 8k ducats debt in total now. Embrace Renaissance, tech up to 7 in Mil and order some units of artillery. A lot of sieges are still to be done in this campaign and time is money, not?

For Ragusa it is the same fate as for Ferrara. Mil Tech 7 includes +0.25 tactics and I am the only one in this war to have it. Nice.

On 10.Mar.79 Ragusa left the war for some money. Too bad I couldn't grab anything or vassalize him, as he is too big. It wasn't possible to co-belli him, because of the scripted guarantee of Ottomans from the start.
Nafarroa 16.Jun.79, with the help of my first 4 cannons. As the siege of Napoli is more important than that of València, I will ship over my high tech weapons to Italy.

With the fall of Napoli on 22.Sep.79, after just 128 days, I can demand from Aragon all I want. Two provinces in Italy from Naples are now painted in blue. Lucania (south west) is the most distant province I can core. Once this core is finished, I will also be able to core all coastal provinces in the Adriatic. Bari, north east of Lucania, is to share a sea tile with Austria, so I can file a claim on Dalmatien.

Last days in the office for Marie. At the end of the month Louis reaches adulthood and can take over the reign. Only because of Marie's longevity I could declare so many wars after Charles' XII pass away. So without her, my campaign could have been ruined. A big thank you and enjoy your retirement, Marie!

BBB is done.

So let's celebrate the achievement by declaring a war on England. I have no intention to take anymore lands, it is just for money. Besides cash and war reps I finally want to get a third age objective. To avoid spending 600 ducats to upgrade 3 CoT, I am going for "Humiliate Rival". As the peace term "show strength" doesn't fulfill the age objective, I can use a normal Conquest-CB as well.
Because Portugal renewed his starting alliance with England, he is on my list of war enemies once more. The 1k-stack in Cuenca is the designated controller for the 16k of Castile. As these armies were exiled with the conclusion of the Aragonese war, the game automatically detached armies. Castile's army went to Cuenca to unblackflag and I did the same. But then Castile refused to reattach to my army, although we were still in two wars together. Subjects' interactions and the attach system are sometimes ... hmpf!
This time the fort in Évora is really mothballed and a 7k-stack of mine is already on the way to take it. I just count on the fact, that Castille will attach to me now again and AI-Portugal isn't aggressive enough to attack my 7k-stack immediately.

The BI didn't fire and I got BBB, so it is time to let Burgundy go. For money and a lot of rebels. Somewhere I picked up the trick that taking Defender of Faith (DoF) clears out "Call for Peace". But it didn't work here. Either it was removed from the game meanwhile or the conditions are different, I don't know.
Post-game I checked the chances for the [old] BI with the formulas in the Wiki. I had all modifiers (+75% war score, ruler a general) except the heir wasn't a general. In this case the mean time to happen (MTTH) is about 90 months or 7 1/2 years. I sat for 7 years on Burgundy, so my chance was substantial, but still somewhat less than 50%. In the end I used a lot of resources for this war and got out very little. Well good, that's life.

England's home army died in Norfolk, the others stay in Ireland with no intention to come over. But I have blocked the strait with one ship anyway. All my canons are on the level-1 fort in Norfolk, many single stacks are carpet sieging in England and a 12k-stack for Inner Hebrides, the capital of The Isles. Oh, the level-2 fort in Montgomery (Wales)? Mothballed and already taken for free again.

The Castilian army did indeed attach to me again and the Portoguese army (21k) did run away to Ceuta. Évora is taken and the siege of Lisboa is started. I have ordered 6 more cannons, which I should have done some months before. Anyways, I have sent a transport to each of the producing provinces.

The Isles went out of the war after the fall of Inner Hebrides on 19.Sep.80. Lisboa 3.Nov.80 in 151 days, after I transferred my new cannons over to the siege. This time I have waited with the peace deal a few days, until the Castilian stack has been on home ground again.

I continued the war against isolated England for some months. First I gathered all my forces, before crossing the strait Aryshire-Ulster. In Ireland I bypassed any battles with the 45k hostile forces and just aimed for the occupation of England's vassal Sligo.
As this has been done a few days ago, I can demand my tribute from England. I assume, humiliating England is part of any true French campaign somehow, not?

Rebels in Brandebourg (Berlin). Brandenburgian Separatists imported from Pomerania, intending to siege my fort in their former capital. I will probably get a rebellion myself from these separatists at some time (40% progress atm). Unfortunately I am not allowed to solve the problem by increasing autonomy in Berlin. Because Pomerania did that already.

On 15.Jun.81 I could start the Golden Era, finally.
After the short interruption coring of Berlin is now scheduled for 16.Aug.83, that of Lucania for 29.Oct.82.

 

[HistoryDude]

England kneels before the French!

The goalie within sight...

 

[MachopPower69]

What is gonna be done when BtN's done?

 

[DensleyBlair]

Congratulations on getting BBB all done. Nice to be able to fight wars for money now instead of having to think about territory.

 

[WolframS67]

What is gonna be done when BtN's done?

The game and the story will be over.
So two more episodes.