General information and goals for the AAR
Hello everybody and welcome to my 4th AAR in general and 3rd specific for EU4. It's great to be back in EU4 AARland after my HOI4 AAR which lasted around 6 months! (not counting 2 months lost because of exams). This time, we'll lead Brandenburg-Prussia to greatness, and how could we do that better than by unifying all German lands under one Empire - an Empire that will undoubtedly lead the world and be a shining example of how a great Empire should be... well, great!
Now you might wonder: why Brandenburg - or better: why Prussia? That's easy as hell, OP ideas, Prussian space marines, we all know the memes. It is because this AAR will be different! By now you already now why: DLC. And if this still doesn't reveal the misty clouds surrounding this AAR, let's take a look at our goals.
Goals:
1. Form Prussia and Germany/the German Empire: most obviously because of the title. - Achieved in chapter 12!
2. Unite all German lands under one Empire (and with all German lands I mean a 'Kleindeutschland' or 'Lesser Germany'): just the German lands with Prussia included but without Austria) and those alone! I will not take any other land (at least directly but I'll get to that later) than German cultured land. A German Empire needs Germans, and nobody else! This way I will refrain myself from just going ham in Europe, but I might consider going overseas to claim the rights of the German Empire on some colonial holdings. - Achieved in chapter 13!
3. Become the number 1 Great Power in the world: you can't imagine how I love to be able to add this goal because of owning RoM 
! - partially completed due to not actually being #1 as of the RoM mechanic but I did trash the Ottomans who were number 1 so I consider it partially completed.
4. Make Berlin the highest developed province in the world (also thanks to CS): a grand Empire needs a grand capital . - Achieved at the very end.
5. Maintain the balance of power in Europe, and try to (more or less) simulate the situation in Europe as it was in 1914: this will probably be the hardest thing to do. Of course depending on how the alliance networks are near the end of the game, it might be that not France loses land and gets any revanchist ideas but another nation. - The only goal I utterly failed, can't say much of it, I was too slow unifying Germany and therefore was too late to truly get Europe the way I wanted, even though that PU with France made things a lot easier.
Because of this balance (and here I come to the point about holdings not directly owned by me), I want to make an exception of 3 vassals/client states for the moment: Switzerland, Belgium ( ) and Austria-Hungary (see 6). Those, and especially Switzerland, I want to take because of its strategic defensive positions. If a French rivalry appears, we need to be able to box them in - if not to keep them from expanding and keeping them in their 1914 borders.
6. Adamgerd's price: make a client-state "Austria-Hungary" and conquer its historical provinces as it was in 1820 (for map see here). - Successfully achieved with the correct borders completed at the end in the last chapter.
Now some more general information:
DLC:
During the Summer Sale I finally decided to get off my DLC-virgin reputation and embraced 5 DLC:
- Res Publica
- Art of War
- Common Sense
- Cossacks
- Rights of Man.
Those of you who read my AARs since the beginning know this is an important milestone for me and I almost feel sorry you can't joke anymore about not having this or that DLC-feature.
Mods:
For this AAR, I decided to go ham on mods: I wanted to have the full German Imperial feeling! The ones I will use are:
1. Prussian Blue 1.19: how else could I properly conquer the German lands without that beautiful Prussian blue colour? And you don't have to worry about the patch number: as long as they don't really need an update (like for this simple colouring mod), it gives no problems to use.
2. Prussian and Austrian Music: you won't notice this of course but I decided to conquer Germany with the right beats. For the full list of songs, check out the Steam Workshop and search for this mod.
3. Historical Event Paintings [COS Update]: these replace the standard art for events in-game with real-life paintings. Not much of an impact but definitely prettier to look at!
4. Banner Flags: this mod frees your flag from its disturbing shield holding back your full flag's glorious look and let it hang proudly at the top-left of your screen. Everything for a prettier game.
5. A Rev. Font Mod - White: nothing more than a recolouring of the nation's names on the map, but oh so gorgeous.
6. 50 Loadingscreens Mod: ever tired of the generic art from Paradox when you load the game? Than try out this mod which replaces it with 50 different paintings - better hope your game doesn't load in 10 seconds!
7. Better Urban Terrain Pictures: this was a mod I actually found the most refreshing mods. What it does is replace the terrain pictures (like grasslands, farmlands, mountains, etc.) for important cities with a artwork-like painting. Whenever you click on the province you'll see these beautiful pictures, but unfortunately for me my laptop screen is too small so it only shows in battles. That's why you'll have to face mostly useless battles to give you a look at these pictures.
8. GFX Overhaul - Ironman v6.21: this changes many aspects of the map, like terrain, the water, etc.
9. German Empire mod: last but not least, one which you'll probably not find in the Steam Workshop cause it's a personal mod. I decided to tweak Germany, including a renaming to "German Empire", refitting some province borders in the East to give some nice and realistic borders like the real Empire had around Prussia (it's up to you to decide whether I succeeded or utterly failed on that), tweaked the colour of the German Empire on the map along with some other things.
I hope you'll enjoy this AAR as much as I had playing and writing it.
Table of Contents:
Prologue: The beginning of an Empire
Chapter 1: 4th of April 1449 till 12th of September 1485
Chapter 2: 13th of September till 1st of April 1521
Chapter 3: 2nd of April 1521 till 1st of November 1537
Chapter 4: 2nd of November 1537 till 7th of June 1553
Chapter 5: 8th of June 1553 till 14th of November 1567
Chapter 6: 15th of November 1567 till 18th of August 1594
Chapter 7: 19th of August 1594 till 6th of January 1606
Chapter 8: 7th of January 1606 till 22nd of May 1621
Chapter 9: 23rd of May 1621 till 4th of January 1663
Chapter 10: from the 4th of January 1663 till 2nd of July 1695
Chapter 11: from the 3rd of July 1695 till 13th of May 1737
Chapter 12: from the 14th of May 1737 till 26th of February 1753
Chapter 13: from the 27th of February 1753 till 17th of March 1789
Chapter 14: from the 18th of March 1789 till 1st of January 1821
Now you might wonder: why Brandenburg - or better: why Prussia? That's easy as hell, OP ideas, Prussian space marines, we all know the memes. It is because this AAR will be different! By now you already now why: DLC. And if this still doesn't reveal the misty clouds surrounding this AAR, let's take a look at our goals.
Goals:
!.5. Maintain the balance of power in Europe, and try to (more or less) simulate the situation in Europe as it was in 1914: this will probably be the hardest thing to do. Of course depending on how the alliance networks are near the end of the game, it might be that not France loses land and gets any revanchist ideas but another nation. - The only goal I utterly failed, can't say much of it, I was too slow unifying Germany and therefore was too late to truly get Europe the way I wanted, even though that PU with France made things a lot easier.
Because of this balance (and here I come to the point about holdings not directly owned by me), I want to make an exception of 3 vassals/client states for the moment: Switzerland, Belgium (
) and Austria-Hungary (see 6). Those, and especially Switzerland, I want to take because of its strategic defensive positions. If a French rivalry appears, we need to be able to box them in - if not to keep them from expanding and keeping them in their 1914 borders.Now some more general information:
DLC:
During the Summer Sale I finally decided to get off my DLC-virgin reputation and embraced 5 DLC:
- Res Publica
- Art of War
- Common Sense
- Cossacks
- Rights of Man.
Those of you who read my AARs since the beginning know this is an important milestone for me and I almost feel sorry you can't joke anymore about not having this or that DLC-feature
.Mods:
For this AAR, I decided to go ham on mods: I wanted to have the full German Imperial feeling! The ones I will use are:
1. Prussian Blue 1.19: how else could I properly conquer the German lands without that beautiful Prussian blue colour? And you don't have to worry about the patch number: as long as they don't really need an update (like for this simple colouring mod), it gives no problems to use.
2. Prussian and Austrian Music: you won't notice this of course but I decided to conquer Germany with the right beats. For the full list of songs, check out the Steam Workshop and search for this mod.
3. Historical Event Paintings [COS Update]: these replace the standard art for events in-game with real-life paintings. Not much of an impact but definitely prettier to look at!
4. Banner Flags: this mod frees your flag from its disturbing shield holding back your full flag's glorious look and let it hang proudly at the top-left of your screen. Everything for a prettier game.
5. A Rev. Font Mod - White: nothing more than a recolouring of the nation's names on the map, but oh so gorgeous.
6. 50 Loadingscreens Mod: ever tired of the generic art from Paradox when you load the game? Than try out this mod which replaces it with 50 different paintings - better hope your game doesn't load in 10 seconds!
7. Better Urban Terrain Pictures: this was a mod I actually found the most refreshing mods. What it does is replace the terrain pictures (like grasslands, farmlands, mountains, etc.) for important cities with a artwork-like painting. Whenever you click on the province you'll see these beautiful pictures, but unfortunately for me my laptop screen is too small so it only shows in battles. That's why you'll have to face mostly useless battles to give you a look at these pictures
.8. GFX Overhaul - Ironman v6.21: this changes many aspects of the map, like terrain, the water, etc.
9. German Empire mod: last but not least, one which you'll probably not find in the Steam Workshop cause it's a personal mod. I decided to tweak Germany, including a renaming to "German Empire", refitting some province borders in the East to give some nice and realistic borders like the real Empire had around Prussia (it's up to you to decide whether I succeeded or utterly failed on that), tweaked the colour of the German Empire on the map along with some other things.
I hope you'll enjoy this AAR as much as I had playing and writing it
.Table of Contents:
Prologue: The beginning of an Empire
Chapter 1: 4th of April 1449 till 12th of September 1485
Chapter 2: 13th of September till 1st of April 1521
Chapter 3: 2nd of April 1521 till 1st of November 1537
Chapter 4: 2nd of November 1537 till 7th of June 1553
Chapter 5: 8th of June 1553 till 14th of November 1567
Chapter 6: 15th of November 1567 till 18th of August 1594
Chapter 7: 19th of August 1594 till 6th of January 1606
Chapter 8: 7th of January 1606 till 22nd of May 1621
Chapter 9: 23rd of May 1621 till 4th of January 1663
Chapter 10: from the 4th of January 1663 till 2nd of July 1695
Chapter 11: from the 3rd of July 1695 till 13th of May 1737
Chapter 12: from the 14th of May 1737 till 26th of February 1753
Chapter 13: from the 27th of February 1753 till 17th of March 1789
Chapter 14: from the 18th of March 1789 till 1st of January 1821
Last edited:
