Sorry for the lateness of this update. Wireless has been out lately and I assumed that since I have trouble uploading other things on dialup(like saves for mp games), that pics were out as well. Turns out I can upload pics on dialup.
So, without further ado, Novgorod's 4rth turn, in which I learn that the term Pyrhhic victory can be applied to whole wars as well as individual battles.
From 1513 up to late 1514, I do nothing but mint heavily and build up armies for an invasion of Lithuania. Why, one might ask, after receiving so much good advice to put it off for a little while? The simple answer is greed. Greed, and idiocy. Visions of Novgorod catching up with Venice and uniting all of the Russian culture group provinces spun in my head. Somehow I managed to forget that Venice's targets in Italy were much smaller, or that Lithuania had a much higher land tech than Novgorod.
So, after over a year of building up for it, eating over a point of inflation in the process, I DOW Lithuania in Nov 1514. My faithful vassal Crimea joins me, and Poland joins Lithuania.
The war has a rather ambiguous start as I lose a battle against Lithuania in Pskov, but manage to inflict far more casualties than I receive.
For a while things go back and forth and we exchange border provinces. I lose Tula, Kholm, and lose and regain Pskov, while they lose Karsk, Pololsk and Wenden. A year later the warscore is still zero. The onyl bright spot is that Crimea is managing to put a few of their provinces under siege, and even try to relieve Tula.
Here's a pic of the high point of the war.
With my manpower down to zero and the tide turning slowly against me I start throwing peace offers at the AI. Finally I manage to get one, receiving only Smolensk. The good news is that I now technically have each province needed to form Russia. However, my manpower pool is completely depleted, my econmy wrecked. I basically did no research for two years, while amassing inflation, and Lithuania not only has a core on Smolensk but is as big and nasty as ever.
Oh, did I mention that Sibir DOWed me right after I'd disbanded my extra regiments of soldiers from the war? And that their buddy Kazan joins them?
After much cursing at my monitor, which just stares back smugly at me, I reraise my army maintenance slide and start minting again to buy mercs. After relatively little fighting, and much more attriting on both sides in steppe provinces, I secure a white peace with Kazan and Sibir.
One would think that I earned some peace and quiet but apparently the AI is taking its cues from tag team wrestling. No sooner do I have peace on my eastern front, than I recieve a DOW from tiny Mazovia, which happens to be allied with Poland. Well, at least Lithuania isn't in on this one. Of course, Poland can march troops through Lithuania to reach me while I must go through a tiny corridor in Crimea to reach any of their provinces, but I find solace in small advantages.
I do have access to one of Mazovia's territories, Estland, and one Polish island, Osel. Here I manage my only real victories of the war, and manage to get Mazovia to cede Estland. I assault Osel, then move most of my armies to the real front on Crimea's west border, where I manage nothing more than a stalemate. In what I think is a major coup, I get Poland to release the Teutonic Order, which they and Lithuania carved up a long time ago. I figure this is great, and will produce a rival for them and weaken my two main enemies. Then I find that apparently the reconstituted Tuetonic Order only received one province.
Then, of course, in January 1523, just a few months before Venice's turn, Sibir DOWs me again, and I have to leave Novgorod in a war with Sibir and Kazan.