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coz1

GunslingAAR
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May 16, 2002
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The Glory of France

A Gameplay/MMG2 AAR


France.jpg


It's time to start a new AAR and hopefully one that is fun to write, but not too difficult. And since the good folks with the MMG team have released version 2, I thought it might be fun to track a game as I test it out. This is the first go around with this version but I've played with previous patches and really like what these folks are doing.

The question of France is fairly easy. It is just that - fairly easy. And though there are events that can challenge throughout the game, it can also be relaxing which is just what this guy needs right now. Plus there's lot's of wine there, and that's always nice (though I generally prefer Italian and Australian wine...perhaps I shall have to add these to my list.

Speaking of lists, I really have no goals other than to try and have fun with the game and see what changes are included in MMG2. Of course, form the proper boundaries of France which includes taking in the vassals. Burgundy will be a thorn or a friend...we'll see. Win the war with England to start. Um...anymore? You tell me. I'll be counting on gameplay advice throughout since I've been known to make a bone-headed move or two in my time.

Now let's get a look at France to start...

France1453.jpg

France, 1453

We can see the pesky English in Gascogne and lot's 'o vassals to try and rein in. I've got a sizable force to the east of the puny 1,000 odd English who are sure to move if previous games are any indication. That I pull Jean Bureau and 10,000 off my main stack and send him into the very same Gascogne will ensure the English move.

FrenchArmies1453.jpg

Armies on the march

Of course we have to make the usual slider moves to start the game as well as add or change whatever advisors the game starts with. I've got a plus 3 stab guy as well as a plus 2 Govt tech fellow. I decide to add Louis de Vergennes who gives me plus 3 production tech. If I can pull everything together, France can make a bundle. I haven't yet decided how I want to handle trade in this game, but you can't go wrong focusing on production.

FrenchAdvisors1453.jpg

My three wise men

You can see Charles VII stats above as well - good admin skills, decent military, less so on the diplomatic side which will surely hinder trying to up relations with those around us. Here's another shot of happy go lucky Charles...

charles-vii.jpg

Charles VII, our glorious king

I can also move the economic and focus sliders. I put full research into Govt. to get to the next idea and we'll have to address how much we'll mint in a month or two. I like the ideas we start with, to wit:

1453Sliders.jpg

Sliders and Ideas

I decide not to change sliders for now since I'm already at -1 and I don't want to lose any stability right now. I could (and usually do) but I want to win this war and I don't know what else MMG2 is going to throw at me off the bat.

Immediately upon un-pausing, I am inundated with requests for trade agreements from friend and foe alike. I don't like these as I believe they negatively effect your trading ability. Somebody convince me if I am wrong. But I don't sign any and don't plan to until I see what kind of trade network I can build.

I do however give Provence military access despite the fact that this move will forever plague me until they are annexed. Provence in previous games has had much fun messing with my attrition as their armies march up and down southwestern France from Anjou to Provence proper. However, I want them friendly and in my alliance and I may need access in return.

Not long into the game Burgundy asks for a royal marriage. I am of two minds towards this - the question is, are they friend or foe? As long as I need to fight the English, I decide "friend" and say yes. I hope this does not lead to an unfortunate situation down the line.

WoninGascogne.jpg

Meanwhile...

Bureau finally arrives in Gascogne and defeats the English force who then moves on to Saintogne to the north. No problem as I have Xaintrailles (who shall henceforth be referred to as X) already moving in that direction and he soon meets and destroys this remaining force.

You may have noticed that I had a third army in the above screenshot and this force, (6,000 strong) is heading to Lyonnais which begins the game under revolt and occupied. On top of this, we begin to get the barbary pirate events which give MM a lot of flavor.

PiratesandRebels.jpg

Pirates and Rebels

Mid-June also brings some rapprochement with Brittany who has decided to cool relations. I send some gold their way and up our friendship to -16. I want them in an alliance as well, and of course vassals. I may have to war with them to make that happen, and I am prepared to, but again - the English cause me to gather allies among my neighbors. To which end I also invite Orleans into my alliance and they accept.

July 1453 starts with two not so good events -

NotGoodEvents.jpg

Not good events...

I raise my war taxes anyway and set inflation to rise at 0.31 while I lose about 7 ducats a month. I can live with that until war's end. I am watching what appears to be several English armies unload into Brittany and there is an English fleet off Saintogne that looks as if it wants to unload but I think they too are Brittany bound. I consider moving an army north to counter any invasion in Normandy.

I also get pegged as a Major Power which is always nice:

August1453.jpg

Of course France is a major power

Perhaps this labeling causes England to offer peace because they do. But it's only a white peace and I want Gascogne. It sits under siege at 0% gone. Why is it that the French always seem to blow the garrison away when I play England? It falls in what seem like days then. No matter, Bureau is an expert siege artist and I am more interested in testing the English. I begin to move X and his men to Poitou and sure enough I see what looks to be a change in English tactics. Will they land in Saintogne and allow me to up my war score? Let's hope.

Since I've hit my screenshot limit, let's leave it there. I'll try and update this whenever possible. The Eagle In Winter is nearly to a finish and in a week or two I should be able to focus on this full time. For now, happy reading. Until next time... :)
 
sweet an AAR by Coz, sweet! + MM2 = *faint*

It seems you have average luck, balanced with bad events and good. Though it seems for right now the bad is outweighing the good.
 
This should be a good showcase for the new MM version, I like it so far.
 
A French MM AAR! Great! Like everyone else I'm pretty interested to see how quickly you'll get in trouble with the Holy Roman Emperor. I can give you a tip (I got this knowledge the hard way): Stay clear of him as long as possible. He can bring your whole realm to the ground if he is determined and has a nice powerbase of his own.

~Lord Valentine~
 
Coz!

My eyes completely skimmed over this the first time I saw it. It's normal to see your name associated with an AAR in comments, and so...

"Wait a second, what was that?" :D

I trust that the subdued color for France will not mean this will be a subdued France! :rolleyes:

I'll definitely be keeping tabs on this!

Rensslaer
 
This looks like it'll be fun, and a good showcase of EU3. I'm thinking of an EU3 AAR some time in the future as well, once I reinstall the game (since it crashes at start up :wacko: ) and get In Nomine. I'll be reading this as well :D
 
Fb-fb:

comagoosie - Nice to have you along for the ride. Thank you, sir. And yes, the luck comes and goes. The events are pretty balanced from what I recall, if I can stay out of trouble, that is. ;)

rcduggan - That was my thought. Hopefully it proves to be both a joy to write and read.

Enewald - Burgundy is definitely on my list of folks to finish off and if my gaming history is any guide, that should bring the HRE into it. Thanks for reading!

Lord Valentine - Yes, I have dealt with that issue in previous MM games. I think I can get powerful enough as France however to be able to thumb my nose at the old boy. At least for certain provinces. We'll see.

Jman47 - Yes, France gives a little of wriggle room to make some mistakes, thus my choice as well. We'll see how it goes since I'll likely need said wriggle room.

Rensslaer - The color may be subdued but this is still France, no mistake. Glad to see you here.

Myth - Great! And though I was skeptical of In Nomine at first, I think I'll be picking it up as well. I could have waited until that before starting, but perhaps this way I'll allow the bugs to get worked out.


Which leads to another bit of info to all - just a few months in game and already an issue. Seems the folks at MMG2 have released 1.03 that works out some bugs. I could play on without it but since we are so early, I think I'll go ahead and patch up and then restart. Hopefully I can get that up tonight.

Thanks for reading and commenting all!
 
The only reason I'm waiting for In Nomine (well actually, there are several of them :p) is that I have no idea how to play EU3 so I'll be learning in the meantime. Also, I have two AARs going right now, as you well know, and they're almost too much for me as it is without another one being thrown onto the pile. ;)

And it sounds fair enough to restart. I downloaded MMG2 1.03 a couple hours ago and EU3 didn't crash on start-up when I played with it, so I can actually practice my game :D
 
It will be interesting to see how MMG2 plays out. Looking forward to it.
 
Myth - Indeed, too many meals in the kitchen makes for a frazzled chef. ;)

stnylan - Thank you, sir. I am interested myself.

As for the restart, I thought I had a fix on my save game but tried it and it did not work. That leaves me to restart the game once again so here we go for the other, other game...

The Glory of France

A Gameplay/MMG2 AAR

...and all that jazz. We'll give you France's start again at least:

France1453.jpg

France, 1453

And once again, those pesky English sit in Gascogne. I aim to deal with them very much in the same way I did the previous time. But first, let's adjust settings once more. I copy my moves from the previous game except this time I get a better class of advisors to start (either that, or I was not paying attention...it's happened.) This go around, I pick a juicy 6 star stab fella to go with my Govt and production tech (who's not too shabby himself.) See -

NewAdvisors1453.jpg

Not bad at all...

Charlie, of course, remains the same and he remains as dour looking...

charles-vii.jpg

Cheer up!

I get the same trade agreements and request for access from Provence. No to the trade agreements, yes to Provence. Burgundy comes courting again and I take her hand in marriage once more. This time, we make it a big wedding and include Lorraine who I also marry. I am going to try and kiss my way to victory in Northern France.

I also receive a strange event which pulls Foix into my alliance. I had not asked, though I will take it. It's risky though as it might draw me into wars to the south I don't wish to get into. In previous games I have held those southern vassals at arms length until things were in better shape. When Armagnac calls a few months later and joins as well, I guess I have to grin and bear it, accept them into the fold and hunker down in case the Iberians want to tangle. Thankfully they do not as of yet, but we do have a war going on as it is...

HYW.jpg

The Hundred Years War continues...

This go around, I change my forces from how I sent them forth in the last game, sending the 5,000 infantry with 5,000 cavalry with Xaintrailles (again, known as "X" henceforth) to wait for the inevitable English landings. Bureau goes with an 8,000/3,000 mix to attack the 1,000 force English garrison in Gascogne.

BattleofGascogne.jpg

Bureau finds success yet again.

Bureau finishes off the English, this time under the leadership of Richard of York, and sets to his siege while X waits. The other 6,000 infantry head over to Lyonnais. They remain rebel occupied as was shown in the previous update. I also got the Barbary Pirates again, as well as the Inefficient Govt., Bad Relations with HRE, and Major Power events.

While I am working on the siege, I sit back and work on my vassals. Orleans and Provence enter the alliance and this game I decide to take a cooler tact towards Brittany. I am not seeing the English land there as I was and I soon find out why. The English are off my western coast and unloading. While I wait, I get a message saying Aragon has inherited Sicily...

AragonInherits.jpg

Aragon after the inheritance

That could be problematic later on. I need a weak Aragon to my south if I can help it. Maybe I can...but for now, the English...we fight the English. And fight we do as they end up landing nearly 4,000 in Gascogne, each one beat off with great ease and into the waiting jaws of X stationed to the north in Saintogne.

August1453-1.jpg

The Party

By August, they are just about all in and well beat but off into Perigord the lot of them. So I chase with X who meets them and soundly beats them again. This begins a round-robin. While this is going on, there appears to be a scandal at the court which costs me a couple of prestige points. There's a joke in there somewhere but I'll be damned if I can find it. Instead I wait for Mr. X to get back to full strength and follow once more to Saintogne. I also invite Auvergne into the alliance and they gladly accept.

SaintognevWilliamIII.jpg

A new King?

Above you can see that a new King leads the English forces, Henry VI likely snuffed out by some scheming Beaufort, and he does about as well as any of the other commanders. Theres a Percy in there and surely a Neville. The English wisely decide to switch back to the Rose of York for their next loss,

Perigord.jpg

Richard Plantagenet back in charge

The pesky English have snuck a few more passed Bureau who's moving along with a better pace in his siege (I'm at 50% by November.) The ping pong continues but I do not see any other action from the English. I finally remember to put my navy out in the south in the event they try a landing (which they did in the previous game.) All in all, it's a waiting game at this point. Round about now I get an interesting event:

SocietyEvent.jpg

Glory if I can help it.

It says something about a western Europe tech group which I assume is good. New event and what the MM team is about so I'm interested to see where it leads. As I do this game but we are just about out of space. I got the game back up and running with the new patch and just about to where I left off playing before. I pause the game at November 1st and save, leaving me with 64 ducats (same slider adjustments as before, about 0.32 inflation rise), -1 stability and 8,322 in my manpower pool. Gascogne is about half way there and Lyonnais is 75% in the bag. It's a good restart. I'll take it. The situation as we part:

Nov1453.jpg

A foiled invasion by the English...but pesky
 
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What would a Paradox game be without a technical hurdle or two? :)
 
coz1 said:
I also got the Barbary Pirates again,

Still not sure if I like this event. I don't have the latest version of the mod so maybe things have changed. I just thought it funny that Spain and I captured all of North Africa and I (Papal State) still got hit repeatedly with this event. :wacko:

Joe
 
Burgundy comes courting again and I take her hand in marriage once more. This time, we make it a big wedding and include Lorraine who I also marry.
Huh, is polygamy allowed now? :D