A Test of Two Theories: [IN] England Learning AAR

[unmerged(63467)]

I've picked up In Nomine at last, and it's a gem! More importantly for present purposes, it brought me back to playing EU3, and therein lies the tale.

Now being English, I tend to default to playing the pink blob in NW Europe while I get to grips with a new version of the game. So this game is going to be played as England, and I intend to use it to test two theories that I had always been curious about but could not quite bring myself to play vanilla/NA EU3 long enough to test.

PROPOSITIONS

• Subject to the periodic needs to mint cash and maintain stability, one can obtain and maintain a tech lead by setting a single slider all the way to the right and rely on the neighbour bonus not to fall too far behind on the others. (The target slider may change from time to time depending on priorities).

• Assuming for the purposes of this test that the game becomes dull after a certain power threshold is reached, and assuming that the reasons it becomes dull are (i) consolidation of all those interesting little medieval statelets into giant blobs; and (ii) the boredom factor of ruling a giant blob, it is possible to keep the game interesting and fun throughout the entire grand campaign by maintaining a balance of power in Northern and Western Europe, cutting any nascent blobs down to size from time to time.

The first theory is quite straightforward; we'll see how that goes. The second is to my mind more interesting: it means keeping your nation as a hegemon rather than as a conquering empire; going to war to force opponents to de-vassalise or release nations even when there is no benefit to your nation in doing so; and everywhere possible vassalising rather than conquering defeated neighbours.

APPLICATION

As England, the three other contenders for hegemon of Western Europe are France, Castille and Burgundy. My plan is to fight these three one after another to keep them small, forcing them to disgorge subject nations at every opportunity and hopefully vassalising them all in due course.

The other benefit of this strategy is that it should maintain a low ratio of size to income, which again helps technological progress.

Careful diplomacy will be needed: the plan is not to blob up and overwhelm by force but to use allies' armies as much as possible to achieve England's ends.

RISK FACTORS

• In order to achieve her goals, England has to go for an all-in continental strategy, maintaining a large land army and choosing national ideas to that end. This is bound to slow down colonisation. Castille/Spain in particular is likely to get an edge in the new world even if I can contain it in Europe.

• By consciously limiting the amount of territory annexed, there is a risk that England's manpower will be too small to win wars with the opposition. I will try to counter this with force concentration, cavalry raids and so on.

STATE OF PLAY

I have played the first hundred years or so and will post the outcomes shortly. In summary: the strategy worked like a gem against France and Castile at first after France and Scotland DoW'd me in the second game year; Scotland, Auvergne, Provence and Granada are now English vassals and Brittany remains independent with 4-5 provinces. However, while England was resting between wars, the rump of France was annihilated by a resurgent Castile, and Burgundy grew to absorb most of the Netherlands, Western Germany and Eastern France. It now leads the income and power charts with about 60,000 men under arms and 100,000 manpower, as against England's 40,000 men under arms and 35,000 manpower.

The good news is that as at 1492, England is the nation with the second highest income (about 40 as against Burgundy's 60), and Burgundy and Castile have just fought a bloody but inconclusive war over control of the southwestern French provinces around Toulouse (at peace, Castile kept them). They are not allied.

THINGS I DON'T KNOW AND WOULD LIKE TO KNOW

• Is there a limit to the number of vassals I can maintain at any one time?

• What factors make a beaten country more likely to accept a forced vassalisation?

• Is there any value in waiting for Burgundy to suffer the consequences of its bloated growth, or should I seize the opportunity to try to break up Burgundy now before she gets any stronger?

I'd really welcome any suggestions for how to achieve these goals, ideas, comments or side-bets on whethet it will work! In particular, any answers to the final couple of questions would be very welcome.

 

[Capibara]

Interesting, about your two questions, as far as I know there is no a limit of vassals you may have, and it's more likely that a country will accept vassalization if it's small and not to strong, otherwise you'll have to cut to pieces before vassalizing it.

 

[unmerged(98701)]

I like the idea behind this- I'll be reading it.

 

[unmerged(37697)]

I'm on board. Best of luck, and feel free to ask further questions.

 

[EUROO7]

A noble task. Not to conquer, but to maintain the Status Quo...

I suggest not letting Burgundy become stronger.

 

[unmerged(63467)]

Turning 'em around

EDIT: Kind thanks to everyone for explaining how to get the pictures up!

I decided to take the advice and attack Burgundy, allying with Castile and getting them involved. At first the war went well, but I was subsequently steamrollered and ended up ceding southern England to the Burgundians. While this would be an interesting scenario to take forward, to get better screenies I'm starting over with the experience - and knowledge that France at least can successfully be contained - in the bag. All settings are the game defaults.

Now to business. England starts the 1399 scenario badly placed to prosecute a continental war. As the game opens, she has 4,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry, 12,262 max manpower of which I currently have 10,000 in the pool, Calais, and the exposed provinces of Saintonge and Gascogne on France's southern Atlantic coast. France has much better territorial integrity for the purposes of a land war as she can defend in depth, and can also boast a starting army of 6,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry and 24,524 max manpower. Scotland lurks in the north, but experience suggests that it is more of an irritant than a serious threat as Scotland's manpower is severely low: under 4,000. This means that Scotland cannot really survive the loss of one decent sized army. England's fleet, however, is fortunately more than adequate to the task of keeping the channel clear.

At least the treasurer has some good news: our finances are healthy, England starting with an income of 19.0 Ducats. This is fifth in the world, although unfortunately remains behind Castille, France and Burgundy. This is important as it has a bearing on my first decision: attack immediately, or tech to Gov 4 first (and get the national idea)? Having seen it put to good use in the Tequila/Aquilea thread, I think that the NI that gives +1 Morale could well be the deciding factor in my first war, so I decide to tech to Gov 4 while building up my army and, if not DOW'd first, declare war on France and mint like crazy as soon as I have it. I duly put the slider all the way to the right on Gov't tech, due to complete in October 1406. Note: Oxford and Cambridge give a total of 10D/month toward gov tech. THe king gives a further 4.

A second administrative decision to be taken is what to do with my first slider choice. I move 1 point towards Land (from 0), for the higher manpower and cheaper armies. I also hire a 4-star +manpower adviser and a 5-star +stability adviser. Finally, I commission 5 new regiments of cavalry. This takes up half of my manpower.

The plan is to build an all-Cav army in units of 5,000 and send it rampaging through France wiping out small French armies one by one (to avoid attrition), but coming together quickly to wipe out the main French army when it forms. For this to work, I will need military access through all non-aligned nations: Brittany and Burgundy. All cash not used in the army will go toward this purpose. Let's set the ball rolling and see where we get to.

Shortly thereafter: good news! Scotland has sent an insult. Casus Belli time!

And in less good news...the very next day, France DoWs me. Scotland piles in too. I decide to cut my losses on the continent for now, leaving Gascogne and Saintonge to their fates. The first item on the agenda is to annihilate and vassalise Scotland, and the troops I already have in England should be enough for that. In the meantime I'll continue toward that NI and obtaining military access.

Sure enough, the frogs are in like a flash, with just shy of 10,000 troops in all merrily sieging away at Gascony.

Britannia rules the waves, though, and the French fleet soon finds itself at the bottom of the beautiful briny.

The Scots army is routed in Northumbria by the starting army (renamed 'Malleus Scotorum') of 4K inf 1K cav, commanded by the 3 shock starting general Robert Knowles, and pursued into the Scots highlands by the new 5k cav force, no leader (renamed the 'Border Hunt'). The Border Hunt catches up with the remnants of the scots army in Fife and proceeds to annihilate it.

Meanwhile, our diplomats have been busy in Morbihan and Flanders, with the result that I now have Royal Marriages and military access to both.

Just a quick note: my first mission is to recover Normandy. For winning Caux and Normandie from the French, I gain cores on both. Something to bear in mind assuming I win this war with France.

Scotland offers peace with the Highlands and Fife, which I reject. I want a strong Scotland - as a vassal. Still, once an EU3 nation offers territory, you know it's down for the count. I offer vassalisation and BANG, they accept. The effect on my finances is to add 0.77 to my total income - that should bring me my NI a bit sooner.

Turning back to France, the ledger contains grim news. France has 14,000 Cav (down to about 13k due to attrition) and 12,000 infantry. I have 6,000 Cav and only 4,000 infantry. I need to build more cavalry, quickly. To beat France one on one in a massive battle would be very tough: their King is a superb leader, much better than any I can recruit. However...with a superior Navy and military access to Brittany and Burgundy, I can attack on three fronts. The plan is therefore to drop 4k infantry armies into French territory on each front, to force France to split its forces. Then use the cavalry to annihilate each force one by one. If France's armies look like getting close to any of the infantry armies, I'll retreat the infantry over the border. This should keep them pinging around nicely. Then, once France is mostly down, I'll recruit waves of mercenaries to hold each province while moving my infantry gradually forwards. I'm budgeting 20k Cav and 12k inf for this purpose, which is 2k below my FL.

There's a random thing. Portugal DoW'd Morocco. I joined in to keep them onside, but Castille followed up by inducing the Pope to call for a Crusade against the North African Heathens. Result: so long as England remains at war with Morocco, I now get the Crusade bonuses (+10%tax, +0.1 Morale, +30% manpower and +1 prestige/year) for my ongoing war against France. Serendipity!

5 June 1405: Bugger. The French have got their NI first and took Military Drill (+1 Morale). I now HAVE to get this to avoid disaster, but it won't give me the edge I had hoped for.

4 August 1406: Got it. I also picked up military access from Aragon. That leaves me with three places from which to annoy the French. The bad news though is that France now has nearly 20,000 of each of Infantry and Cavalry under arms. This means I am very reliant on being able to bring all 20,000 of my cavalry to bear against the French stacks without being annihilated by attrition and whilst fighting on French soil. This may be tricky.

18 November: Peace with Morocco. Oh well, the Crusade bonus couldn't last forever and was a welcome boost while it did.

Wha-? Aragon joined in a war against Castille, France? Damn - that means the French are going to be wandering into Aragonese territory, which was NOT part of the plan. I'd like to think that Aragon was going to add something in this war but it's far more likely that Castille will just steamroller them. ARGH!

That's all for now folks - more later today. Any thoughts on things so far would be very gratefully received.

 

[unddu]

Convert a batch of bmg's with irfan view. JPEG is the best. Upload them to photobucket and you're all set ^^

 

[Landwalker]

You can also use BIMP to mass-convert image types. And, yeah, photobucket is definitely what I use for this (just beware the rollover Captain Morgan ad).

Cheers.

 

[unmerged(37697)]

(just beware the rollover Captain Morgan ad).

Bloody excellent stuff, though. An excellent festival beverage, I find.

 

[unmerged(80402)]

I don't see any pictures... are you still editing the post?

 

[unmerged(63467)]

I don't see any pictures... are you still editing the post?

Will do so shortly. Have some things to do first.

 

[unmerged(63467)]

Sure enough, our force left in Rousillon is attacked and beaten by the French - albeit not before giving a fair account of itself. They flee into Langued'oc where they are promptly annihilated by the main French stack. In the meantime, I invade Northern France with the infantry army and 10k Cavalry, with a view to grinding up any French units on the move. This works well, and France is soon about 5,000 men down.

We run into the main French army just outside Blois...about 15k. My force of 5k Cav retreats, but not before doing 500 damage for its 800 losses. Could have been a lot worse!

12 Sep - The Scots declare war on us. WTF? They were my vassal, and I don't remember getting any message about this. I can't afford to recall any troops from France right now so I set to building a large mercenary force in England to deal with the upstarts. In better news, we win our first major engagement with the French in Maine!

1409 - Things went well in the North, with our army finally pinning down and annihilating France's biggest force in Normandie after years of back-and-forth battles. It looks like the French are having rebel problems though - this lets me besiege all the Northern France provinces.

Sweet sight! On 27 October, 1409, the last French army is forced to Blois, where it is encircled and destroyed.

From now to a 100% war score is just a matter of time. This highlights one of the interesting features of (I think) IN (tell me please if it comees from NA or an earlier patch): nations' new willingness to make peace as soon as it is clear that have lost, without one needing to achieve a 100% war score. Since I am now starting to get patriotic rebellions in France which I do not want to have to handle, it is probably time to make peace. Within reason, I can get whatever I want - which has to include Normandy and Caux. The question is whether to grab more provinces, or to demand vassal-cancellations or release of nations. NOTE: when a country releases a nation, the new nation starts with very good relations with its benefactor, and is likely to agree to vassalisation immediately.

I decide to leave the clever stuff for future wars. Right now, England needs land and manpower from continental France more than it needs the vassals' limited income. Another consideration is that Normandie and Toulouse both have, ahead of time, level 2 fortresses which I don't want to besiege again. In the end I ask for Normandie, Caux and Toulouse, 50 Ducats' reparations and for France to cede its cores on Calais and the two Gascon provinces. Combined, this makes for 96 points on an 87% war score - not bad. I'll leave behind a garrison in these new lands. Scotland was, unsurprisingly, no challenge at all and has been revassalised.

It's not yet time to reap the peace dividend though. Over the next quarter-century, I go to war with France twice: in 1418...

and in 1431...

In each case, to cut away at the blue blob. Both Provence and Orleans are now up for grabs. Among the other things that happened in the period, I've become (somewhat randomly) Papal Controller.

Another happy side-effect of my hard work has been that rebels were allowed to flourish in Champagne. The rebellion spread over the border to Burgundy's flemish possessions and Hainaut has profited mightily. No Greater Burgundy this game, I hope.

So, with the first couple of wars over - any comments? I'd love suggestions about winning wars fought on other peoples' soil - the big battle against France's main stack nearly went the wrong way because of attrition, and I found that I was best off taking a loss or two with a smaller army and then pursuing with a fresh one, rather than bringing my full force to bear in a grand battle. Also - where to go next? Three choices make sense to me:

• 
  I'm thinking of taking on Burgundy now that it's a bit weakened, with a view to permanently cutting away its Dutch provinces. I'll probably keep the CoT and vassalise the rest.

• 
  Alternatively, I could turn south and try to beat up Castille, which has already munched up most of Aragon and Portugal and absorbed Granada.

• 
  Finally, I could beat up the French again. I have a new mission - to vassalise France - which will mean getting rid of all of those blue provinces except Ile-de-France and its next-door neighbour, either by annexing or vassalising them. Bit dull as I've been doing this for a while, but kicking the French is so much fun, and they can still raise a big enough army to really ruin my day if I'm in the middle of another war

 

[Vharzul]

Nice game, id suggest taking out France first lol, once they are nearly gone, thier wont be any problems anymore, as for Spain well they probably wont put up much of a fight with your large army and MP that you will have eventualy, also build a large enough navy and they cant get off thier part of the map and you can cut them off up north with a few large army units at the boarder making them think twice about posibly attacking.

 

[unmerged(80402)]

I suggest to kick burgundy - you should not let them become any power - as long as they still have COT they are a power, and you should kick their ass, and take the COT. When you will have it, then you can leave them for armagedon . I mean - when they lost COT, they become just one of other weak nation. Secondly you should kick france ass, and vassalize it. Thirdy, you should beat castille, and take their COT. Then, destroy both, and make new COT in London - you and then become mentricalistic - you will be the only owner of the COT. But of course you have to be able to have monopol, so invest in trade. When you will be enough advanced in trade - then invest in land until about 10, OR invest in production to about 7-8(i don't know when you get manufactories in IN). It should be like that - if you will want to have more fight - take land tech. If you want to become economical power - invest in production and trade. Also - when you will destroy castille COT - sell the province to portugal.

 

[Landwalker]

Impressive progress! I'm going to recommend a three step approach: First, build your own center of trade in the British Isles (East Anglia is a good option--definitely somewhere on the coast). Then relieve Burgundy of their ownership of Flanders (do what you want with the rest of the country. I don't even know that I would bother vassalizing them, but if you think they might be useful later on, go for it). Then relieve France of Paris.

If France doesn't control any provinces adjacent to Ile-de-France, you can demand that province in a peace negotiation. Then vassalize France. I'm going to push ownership of Paris as essential, though, because this (in combination with the first two steps) would give you three centers of trade under your control. Economic problems? What economic problems?

I'd also suggest doing it in that order. If you wait too long on Vlaanderen, there's a chance Burgundy will lose it to somebody else, whether it be Hainaut or a Flemish Nationalist uprising (I frequently see the latter happen). If the country of Flanders forms, it may be more of a hassle to pry the trade center from them since, I believe, it will be their capital.

In any case, keep up the good writing!

Cheers.

 

[unmerged(63467)]

KonigMax, Iwanow and Landwalker - thanks for your insights! Having given it some thought, for now I'll take on Burgundy. They are allied to Brittany, Brabant and Lorraine - Lorraine's a one-province nothing, but Brabant and Brittany both have functioning armies (7k inf and 1-3k cav each). Burgundy itself boasts 19,000 infantry and 11,000 cavalry, but with a lowish manpower of only 10,000, will have difficulty replacing any losses. I can probably take them with my 16,000 infantry and 21,000 cavalry, but I'm going to build another 4k cavalry stack anyway just to make sure.

About to declare war...pah! They have diploannexed useless Lorraine, and accepted useless Aragon as an ally instead. Nice one. The annexation of Lorraine is of course all the more reason to go to war RIGHT NOW. So it's War! See how we outnumber them. Ahaha. Hahaha.

The strategy is to eliminate Brittany first, vassalising it. I'll then wipe out the Burgundian army, defeat, occupy and vassalise Brabant, and depending on how advanced the war is by that stage, either try to conquer and vassalise Aragon or simply sign a white peace with it.

Stage one goes well - so much for the Breton army.

Heavy fighting in Calais sees us roundly beating a combined and disturbingly large force from Brabant/Burgundy.

Excellent news: doubtless emboldened by Burgundy's mounting losses, Hainaut jumps onto the dogpile, allied with Savoy. Things look grim for the Burgundian court.

Brittany capitulates and is welcomed into the arms of England's growing family of vassals.

Look there. Hainaut has done rather well out of its war with Brabant, and has annexed a corridor between the northern Netherlands and its own cores. We can't be having with that kind of expansionism. They've just made themselves my next target.

Well well. Savoy accepts peace with Burgundy in return for Burgundy disgorging Liege as an independent state. Gives one a warm, fuzzy feeling, that kind of thing.

I've only captured half of Brabant, but with only one province left which is due to fall soon, it knows that it's beaten. I am therefore able to get a vassalisation out of it without needing to besiege the final province.

Now that's interesting. Rousillon, a rather pretty town in the French Pyrenees, was captured by rebels and has just defected to Aragon. As a result of this, we now share a land border. I think I will end up vassalising them after all.

Turned out I couldn't vassalise Aragon as they are just a bit too big. I took Rousillon and the Baleares from them - I'll vassalise later.

The juicy question is what to do with Burgundy. I'll want to keep Flanders for myself, as Vlaandern and Antwerpen are two of Europe's most valuable provinces and contain two manufactories(!). Beyond that, I would rather dismantle Burgundy and vassalise the constituent parts than try to hold all those 5 and 7 income provinces. So I ask for Vlaandern and Antwepen, and request that Burgundy releases Nevers (I couldn't get them to agree to letting go of Lorraine as well), and also to renounce its core on Calais.

They never learn - France has DoW'd my vassal, Guyenne. Time to teach them a lesson. Unfortunately, I currently have very little manpower and don't really want to muck about fighting France's allies Castille and Hainaut (1-province Luxembourg is not an issue). I am however confident that I can take France down nice and easy, so what the hell.

Finally, and after the catastrophic loss of a 5,000 cavalry stack to a brilliantly executed French ambush (ouch!) , I manage to wipe out the main French stack. It's a piece of luck the Castilians haven't really been involved so far. By the by, why the HELL does France get such atrociously good military leaders? Must be something in the Parisian water.

I achieve a white peace with Castille. This is crucial as it leaves the two important opponents, France and Hainaut (both of which need cutting down to size) in the fight. Unfortunately, however, rebels have started popping up as far afield as London and Glamorgan. Bowing to circumstances, I quickly negotiate a white peace with Hainaut.

The good news is that France is now beaten, and I can and do dictate terms. I ask for the valuable province of Dauphine as English soil proper (something like a Royal Demesne, I suppose), and demand that France grants independence to Foix, Champagne and Armagnac.

You've got to admire France's timing - it could so easily have gone the other way. A human Castille player would have managed a seaborne invasion, or a military passage agreement with Aragon, and brought my fledgling power to its knees. Only the fact that France's best ally failed to bring any troops to the front won me this war.

London, Kent and Northumberland are all captured by tax insurgents. I'm glad now that I quit the war when I did; it means a tough 10 years ahead, but I avoided being overwhlemed. The only regret I have is not being able to cut Hainaut down a bit: France is now out for the count, and Burgundy is unlikely to cause trouble for quite some time.

Make that a good long while! Burgundy has just collapsed.

Time to take stock. Among the pluses, my monthly income has risen to 47.3, second only to Castille on 53.1, most of France is now a vassal and Castille is the only serious competitor for hegemon of Western Europe. At 83%, England's prestige is the greatest in the world, and damn if we haven't earned it. Less welcome are the depleted manpower and heightened revolt risk that naturally result from protracted war, and the sight of Austria blobbing it up in the East.

@Landwalker - I really like your idea of capturing Paris! In my next war with France, I'll take Vermandois, which will leave Ile-de-France cut off from France's 3-4 other provinces. This will not work if the far-flung provinces revolt in the meantime, but I will take that chance.

@Iwanow - that's an evil mind you have there! I'm very attracted to this strategy of 'extreme mercantilism' - in fact, I can see a lot of fun in a doctrine of destroying as many foreign centres of trade as I can get my troops to. Mind you, with every nation in Europe trying to compete, I'm not sure I could keep many merchants alive in my CoT.

I am a bit worried about Castille. I'm toying with the idea of getting naval tech sufficient for a blockade, building a modern navy, and then beating it down by sea. I can't see Castille getting any allies worth having in the short run, but if it goes the historical route and allies with Austria, I could well have problems. One idea I *really* like is taking away all of Castille's ports so as to hamper its colonisation efforts. I'll also create Granada and try directly to rule the wealthy Andalucia area - semi-historical, in that it's a bit like a larger Gibraltar.

Still, by and large I would say that the first proposition has been shown to be correct - the benefits of vassalising are quite good, provided one has a decently large country to serve as a base. Any other thoughts on progress to date? Anything I missed?

 

[unmerged(80402)]

Try to take their COT at first place - it give them most of their income, and when you will take it - they will have low chances to win any next war with you. As you see, took of burgundy's COT made them weak. So it will made weak Castille. You should try to do a desant - best from 3 places - 2 regiments from north, one from south(to capture COT). Portugal can be your place of regeneration, but not attack from there - attack from sea, and attack undefended positions. Try to take their capital, when you will take the provinces in the way to it. Also try to destroy their army. AND - blocade all ports that are not captured (if you can). But remember - blocking ports is not enough, you must take them down. Try to take all of their ports, cause it will make them starve, but you must capture their cot(with the "southern" regiment). Also when you will take Ile de France destroy this COT - more trade will go to england!!! But try to end wars - austria can look awful big, but for now i see that it is not a problem - just ally with them... also, they have no COT yet, so they are not a serious danger. When you will be at peace - try to vassalize portugal. Also try to annex everyone you can. And when you will be able to have monopolies - try to go in production. Unless you will need more wars.

 

[unddu]

First of, all of what I'm going to say is my opinion so don't fret if it collides with your own

A slider move to land as you just did, is an absolute no-no for a coloniser. And England is a coloniser if there ever was one. Even if you don't colonise it's still a no-no. Do not waste slider changes on these sliders at all.

Also keep in mind that diplo annexing moves you closer to decentr which is plain bad. A high decent will open the door to Times Of trouble and Peasant Wars. You don't want that. Also high cent is just kick ass for everything. So

A) Don't ever diplo annex! Don't! It is never ever worth it. Gaining a short term province or two versus having to wait over 50 years to get that cent back is never worth it. If you want the lands your vassal holds, simply devassalise and attack.

B) Always go for the highest amount of cent you empire can sustain. Even going above the red line doesn't matter if you can handle the +RR.

I would also personally have gone for Hainaut and the rest of the netherlands, but that's expensive in BB. You want to unite Europe instead of colonising?

 

[unmerged(63467)]

@Unddu - I think you're right. My priorities for slider changes now are centralisation and then mercantilism. I might make some pro-navy changes in the 16th century as well.

I have no plans to diploannex anywhere because my strategy depends on having lots and lots of vassals and it would be a total nightmare to take a 100 relations hit with each one.

There isn't really a plan to unite Europe per se, just to make sure that England becomes and remains top dog by dismantling potential rivals before they grow too powerful. I've got to say that compared to growth by annexation, a network of vassals is working great so far: by keeping high value provinces and hiving off the rest as vassals, I have great relations with most of Europe and zero badboy, which paradoxically means I can get away with starting a lot more wars than would otherwise have been the case.

@Iwanow: yes, my next major target is Castille. I want to spend a long time recovering and focusing on the domestic front first, though.

 

[HeilagOlav]

Interesting 2nd question

(the thread was too long for me to read all of it, but got the 1st part though)

I think you're really onto something with your strategy

Assuming for the purposes of this test that the game becomes dull after a certain power threshold is reached, and assuming that the reasons it becomes dull are (i) consolidation of all those interesting little medieval statelets into giant blobs; and (ii) the boredom factor of ruling a giant blob, it is possible to keep the game interesting and fun throughout the entire grand campaign by maintaining a balance of power in Northern and Western Europe, cutting any nascent blobs down to size from time to time.

The reason why I like this is twofold:

first: you can actually keep the game interesting for a long time. Some of the problem with playing a major european power is that after n years, some countries get too big and unbeatable. Nice strategy!

second: In my opinion, this is how England kept it's hegemony in europe for so long (particulary in the 18 and 19th century but also before that). Their main task was to keep the continent from being dominated by any one other country (+obviously keeping your maritime lead). Englands manpower was never great enough to invade and hold a significant part of Europe anyway.

It's a great way of learning history -maybe the best there is