Alrighty then, I've been terribly remiss, having played all the way through Vassili III's reign without writing one word about it, so here are a few...
With the rise of Vassili, we also get a true leader of soldiers, Glinski (4/4/4/-1), whose older brother/cousin/something-or-other Michael serves the Poles. We send our occasional colonists to Far Karelia, build up our armies at Kazan, Tambow, and especially at Vorones, and slowly improve relations with Georgia. In Feb 1506 our Land Tech advances (4), giving us a slight lead over our neighboring enemies.
This is especially important versus the Golden Horde, which in that spring sent an envoy to demand why Vassili had not yet given homage to our Tartar 'overloards' since we were his 'subject vassals'. Needless to say, such an insult did not sit well with the Grand Prince, and Igor was instructed to plan a war against them to set things right. I nearly failed in my own efforts, as while each war was short enough, we would end up fighting constantly for three and a half years.
When we declared war on 27 Jun, Crimea came to the aid of the Golden Horde. Our main army was based at Vorones, and Igor sent them towards the Tartar towns, but the entire Horde (10k cav) reached our province first, on 16 Jul. By the time the smoke and dust settled, on the 25th, they had been wiped out to a man. Glinski again set his army in motion, only to be pinned again on 8 Aug, this time by a Crimean army coming up from the south. That battle would rage until the 22nd.
Little more than a week later, Crimea had a new problem, as Donetsk rebelled. Bogutjar fell to us on 27 Sep, and two days later the Horde offered that for peace. They would repeat this offer again on 11 Nov, but they refused to recognize Vassili as
their overlord. Saratow fell on 22 Nov, Kujbyschew on 30 Dec. On New Year's 1507 they offer both Bogutjar and Saratow; Igor and I both argue against this, he claiming that the Horde poses an iminent threat to all Europe, me holding out for the gold of Samara. That last province fell to Glinski on 8 Feb.
Igor argued that we should try to annex part of Crimea as well, and Vassili listened to him, demanding that the annexation of the Horde be a separate peace.[OOC: the beauty of having two advisors is that I always have a scapegoat
] And so the war entered its second phase. Horde inf and Crimean cav had been seiging Vorones together, and news of the peace led to combat between these former allies. One week later, just before their own morale broke, Crimea wiped out the last of the Horde. But attrition would lift the seige by the end of Mar.
In Jun Donetsk rebelled again, and they would capture the city on 2 Jul. Just one day earlier France errupted in Civil War, with a dozen provinces (including Paris) in revolt
. Once the rebels in Donetsk had won, we sent in Glinski to take it for ourselves. And then the complications started
. On 14 Jul Astrakhan declared war on us. By 9 Aug we had wiped out the rebels, but had lost too many men to assault the city (where did rebels get cav
). TND, with one star and Crimea sending a 37+k army our way, we demand indemnities for our assistance in restoring order. They agree, and we recieve 94 gold.
One month later Glinski arrived at Lugansk, and that city fell rapidly, on 3 Oct. Things quieted down over the winter, but Volgograd fell on 10 Mar 1508 and Uralsk on 16 Apr. That same month we built up Far Karelia into a city. Then, on the 29th and within weeks of victory, they abandoned their seige of Lugansk, only to reinstate it one week later. With their capital under seige, on 9 May we demand Uralsk and cash, but they refuse.
Along the Baltic, Poland annexed Courland at the end of Jun, and on 17 Sep the war entered its third and final phase as Poland declared war on us. Fortunately, all our allies supported us; we had no troops of our own but were on the Caspian coast
. We scrounged up a diplomat in early Nov, and hurridly sent him off to Warsaw with an offer of a white peace; Polish troops were marching through Ingermanland with nothing but unfortified provinces beyond that. We were, however, rebuffed, So when Astrakhan fell on 7 Nov and the next day they offered Lugansk, Volgograd, and Uralsk, we accepted and ordered Glinski to the Polish front.
Luckily for us, the Poles are not receiving aid from famed Irish statesmen and ignore all those cheap victories in the north. In any case, all their armies head for Moldavia, whose armies are equally obstinant in avoiding their one and only province. By Jan '09 their small fortress was being beseiged by armies totaling nearly 50k men. It fell on 17 May, and TND Moldavia ceased to exist.
With the arrival of our Glinski that spring, things went well for us. Tula was first to fall, on 11 Jun, followed by Kursk (6 Jul) and Smolensk (9 Aug). After the Glinski boys met (and ours "strategically withdrew") we asked for Tula and cash (3/4) on 24 Aug but were rebuffed. Our army reached Tula on 22 Sep, and we sent the bulk of it back to Mozyr while at my suggestion the cav was used to pin the Poles in order to save Pskov from Moldavia's fate. They did so twice in Oct at Welikia, while on the 13th Crimea repaid their debt to us in full, declaring war on Poland. On 11 Nov, as Mozyr fell, we again demand Tula and cash, and recieve 42 gold.
I have to wonder, why doesn't Russia have a sheild in Tula when every province all around does? They would rebel in Apr '10, as well as Jan, Mar, and Oct '11. The rest of these next few years was spent repaying loans, our first true payoff being in Jan '10, culminating in clearing our ledger in Sep '13. Crimea would end up ceding Donetsk to Poland on 4 Oct '10. France got ganged up on in Apr of that year, as England and Spain declared against them on consecutive days, France losing Bearn and cash to Spain six months later. And in Mar 1512 Vassili remarked about Igor's ramblings "it's all starting to make sense!", and was deemed to be suffering a Temporary Insanity.
More coming soon, I promise!
-Pat
