America: Largest of the British Isles

[Moquel]

Byzantium has just fallen to the turks. The christian world is shaken. Henry VI knew the ongoing war against France, while not a disaster, was not going to end well. It was bound to end with either a loss of territory to the French, or a very expensive stalemate. He wanted neither. A white peace, while most would consider it better than loss of territory, would without any doubt result in the French declaring war again in 5 years time. The white peace would be even more expensive then. Which would lead to a third war, even more expensive.

So, if England was to lose it's french possessions, what was to be Englands destiny? The King pondered this long and hard, and then after a full 3 minutes of humming to himself, he formulated his plans for England:

• Get rid of the English possessions in France.
• Unite the island of Great Britain.
• Start exploring westward. Anything found there belongs to England.

Uniting Great Britain means uniting England and Scotland, and preferably taking Orkney as well. How fortunate then, that Norway, the owners of Orkney, and Scotland are in an alliance. However France, is bound by alliance to come to the aid of Scotland, should the English attack it. Conveniently though, France is already at war with England. With that, a Declaration of War is sent to the Scots, even though England has nowhere near enough armies on Great Britain to defeat the Scots. The two regiments in London are sent north and the recruitment process of four more cavalry regiments also begin, as two Scottish armies advance into England.

​

The very next day May 31 1453, Scotland's only other ally excepting France joins the war; Norway. With that, England asks France for peace in exchange for Gascogne, which they gladly accept.

​

And so, as of June 1 1453 England, along with it's ally Portugal, is at war with Scotland and Norway.

​

The England military command is relieved the French accepted the peace offer, to say the least, since every englishman in France is needed in northern England, and fast.

 

[Moquel]

Notes on this AAR

This will primarily be a gameplay AAR, and it will focus on colonization. The third point in Henry VI's plans for England laid out in the first post is the crucial one, and will guide the foreign affairs of England for a long time. The goal is to make every province in the entire Americas, North, South and Caribbean Islands and all, English. No, I don't mean that England has to simply own all of it; I mean every person on that large piece of land shall be of English culture. That is the goal of this AAR.

What this means is I will need to DoW any nation who colonizes anything in America before they can turn their colonies into cities, or even level 9 colonies. A poorly timed Regency has the potential of ruining everything. If I manage to do this, we will see what happens then.

No territorial expansion into continental Europe will occur while America remains not entirely English, this means no annexing of Portugal or Castile to eliminate colonial competition. The only land border England is allowed outside America will for the time being be on Ireland.

Game played on vanilla 1.3.

 

[unmerged(59851)]

Interesting. A completely English America. I like it.

 

[Moquel]

The War of Scottish Domestication, Part 1

The home fleet of 9 cogs can't carry the entire army of 13 divisions found in France, so first the 4 cavalry regiments available in Gascogne are collected. Landing in Cumbria they engage the lone Scottish regiment besieging the province, a battle easily won by the English commander Richard Plantagenet. In Northumberland however, the English 1st Army, merely 2 regiments strong, quickly retreat despite help from the Portugese, as they find themselves facing a numerically superior Scottish force of 4 regiments, commanded by the very competent James II of Scotland.

After lifting the siege of Cumbria, Plantagenet's cavalry army move north and lay siege to Ayrshire. Early september, the remainder of the English force in France are on transports and waiting at sea to land in Northumberland. Their arrival time is matched by the small 1st army, and so both armies engage the Scottish in the Battle of Northumberland, where despite a clear numerical advantage of 11,000 to 4,000 the Scots manage to kill nearly 1500 English infantry though the course of the battle, despite being led by the very competent John Mowbray.

Nothing however can stop the red tide, and so the Scottish eventually retreat towards Lothian, as the small infantry contingency that previously besieged Cumbria, manages to sneak back into the province and begin the siege anew. 3 of the 4 regiments that began their recruitment process in the first days of the war are now available. One of them is sent to Cumbria, where it is to meet up with a detachment from the victorious army of the Battle for Northumberland. Once there they are to deal with the Scottish pest that can't seem to leave the poor province alone. The other half of the army from Northumberland is sent in persuit of the retreating Scottish main army toward Lothinian. Another two newly recruited Cavalry divisions are ordered onto boats, their mission being one of the least prestigious of the war; the invasion of Iceland.

Scouts of the 1st army reveal that the Firth of Forth on the east side of Scottland holds the Scottish navy. While a battle between the English and Scottish navy would likely result in a win for the English, the risk is deemed too great for the admiralty, and so they instead send the navy south, to sail around England and then up north from the Irish Sea in order to avoid any danger from Scottish or stray Norwegian ships.

The war, however, is not the only thing of note for England during this period, as 3 new advisors are recruited to serve the nation. Francis Smith in particular, a very talented statesman that would do much good for England, was hired to give much needed help to acquire those highly coveted levels of Government tech. This area of research would otherwise have been mostly ignored as most of the Nations monthly earnings would be used to fund the military and any surplus being put towards improving the very poor stability of the nation. A move was also made towards centralisation, to aid with the collection of taxes as well as increase the production of our provinces.

 

[canonized]

Hmm using the Anglo-French provinces as a gambit , interesting !

 

[unmerged(78106)]

nicce start!

 

[Moquel]

The War of Scottish Domestication, Part 2

Having eradicated the sieging army at Cumbria, the 2nd army under the command of Richard Neville is sent north, past the two provinces of Ayshire and Lothian, already under siege, to Fife. In this key province, bordering all other Scottish mainland provinces, the Scottish army had decided to wait for the English to come to them, rather than trying to alleviate the sieges in the south. The English 2nd Army is nearly 6,000 men strong while the Scottish Army is nearly 4,000 strong and under the competent leadership of James II himself. Facing an army 50% larger than his, James must have known he was in trouble, but he did have the upper ground.

The battle raged on for a few weeks, until James' army finally broke. Retreating north, they took up defensive positions yet again in the hills of the Highlands, as the English 2nd Army laid siege to Fife.

As 1453 came to an end and 1454 began, the English expeditionary force sent to Iceland finally made land on in the eastern province of Akureyri, quickly siezing the tiny colony from Norway, and began the march towards Reykjavik.. Have you ever besieged Reykjavik in the middle of January? It's cold and wet. To the men of the 4th Army it also seems utterly fruitless as the fortress, manned by a 1000 man strong garrison, guards a mere 300 people strong settlement within it's walls. Well, at least there was plenty of fish to eat.

Then something wonderful happened. On the 13th of January our celebrated advisor on the affairs of government who already contributed 18 ducats a month into government research bless us by publicising his book "The Spirit of Laws". Not only do we get an extra 15 ducats a month invested in to government tech for the next 6 years worth 1080 ducats in total, but also it raises our stability by 3, back to the much more comfortable level of 0.

The army laying siege to Ayrshire finally manage to take the fortress and so move on up through Fife to the Highlands, when the march began expecting to find the Scottish army there, but by the time they arrived the army had split in two, one half moving south to Aberdeen and the other half out to Orkney to repel a band of Portugese who had made an amphibious landing there.

The fortresses of Fife and Lothian fall in close succession as June draws to a close, and at about the same time we start collecting war taxes again, knowing that if this war lasts one more year, it will probably not be a good idea to collect them then. We had a relatively high war exhaustion even going into the Scottish war from the 100 years war with France, and at this point it's hovering around 8%. The army that took Fife is sent to Aberdeen to drive the Scottish army out of there, while the 1st Army victorious pillagers of the Scottish capital move up through the country towards the Western Isles.

On the 1st of June we reach our first level of Government Tech, and we swiftly pick Quest for the New World as our first Idea. Our first Explorer, Richard Benbow, is immediately recruited and is sent with a fleet of 3 cogs to The Azores. From there it will explore westward, toward the east coast of North America and the important naval base of Bermuda.

It turns out I needn't have bothered send both of those armies from Fife and Lothinian east and north respectively. As the battle for Aberdeen was just beginning, the Scots offer us a peace deal giving us most of her provinces. While tempting, I turn it down, and make a counter offer.

Norway, however, is still in this war, standing alone against the might of England.

 

[unmerged(9046)]

Interesting. You took the vassalage over land. I guess I am a land monger, myself. Nice start so far....

 

[Moquel]

To all of you, thanks for reading

Interesting. You took the vassalage over land. I guess I am a land monger, myself. Nice start so far....

The reason for this is mainly because I don't have cores on the provinces in question. Great Britain forms ridiculously fast once I own all of Scotland, which will then give me cores on it, most likely well before I've owned any one province of scotland for more than 25 years if I were to take the land.

Leaving Scotland hurt, but still alive by takin land would mean I have a northern neighbor who I need to completely annex to form Great Britain who is an ally of France, a nation I really wish to avoid unneeded wars with. And as if to make matters even worse, it's a nation I do not have a Casus Belli on.

The economic upside of owning the province as opposed to having it owned by a vassal isn't that great since I would be penalized for not having cores, as well as increasing tech costs by having more provinces. Couple that with a further loss of stability in order to conquer the rest of Scotland, it seems clear that vassalisation is the more economic option. Of course, I could have gone for a land grab as well as vassalisation, which would probably be the best deal of all, but I saw a chance to end the war right there and then and I took it.

 

[unmerged(61606)]

looks interesting... are you going to go for a diplo-annex of scotland later?

 

[Moquel]

looks interesting... are you going to go for a diplo-annex of scotland later?

Yes. I fully expect to be able form within 15-20 years of game start, by diplo-annexing Scotland in 1464 or so, which means a +2 bonus to centralization as well as cores on all of Great Britain and Ireland.

 

[Saulta]

I like the idea, looking forward to seeing if you can fulfill your goal Good luck!

 

[PrawnStar]

Interesting idea, I expect you'll have to change alllies pretty soon! One question why no Ireland in your plans?

 

[unmerged(9046)]

Of course, I could have gone for a land grab as well as vassalisation, which would probably be the best deal of all, but I saw a chance to end the war right there and then and I took it.

I usually play smaller nations and have this built in mechanism against ever giving back a spot of land I took. Of course, that usually gets me in big trouble so I bow to your reasoning!

 

[BBBD316]

Yes, what about the Irish? They have flaunted their freedom for too long.

Great read!

 

[Moquel]

The Irish Question

BBBD316 and PrawnStar: Ireland is a bit of a sore spot. Any invasion of Ireland will come at the earliest once Great Britain is formed, since that will give me cores on the entire island (and there's just no way I'm paying 3 stability levels for a war there without Casus Belli). Invading just for the sake of it seems unsound from an economic perspective. They are a different culture group from us, which lands us on a -30% penalty to taxation, and then another -30% for being "overseas", plus they aren't cores of ours, so we only get 10% census tax. That's not all that good.

"Ah," you might say, "what about production huh? The Irish produce a fine beer! Or something." While it is true that I wont suffer much penalties for the value of things produced in Ireland, what is produced there on the other hand doesn't have much value to begin with. Fish and grain. Though if any continental European nation were to intervene in Ireland, I would feel it was my duty to defend it.

Actually, I just realized, I did have the opportunity to take the Irish without much hassle, and that opportunity has already been missed. A declaration of war should have been presented all Irish nations when my stability was already at -3 from DoWing the Scots. If my stability ever reaches -3 again, I promise I'll take the opportunity to rid myself of those nasty land borders in Ireland.

 

[PrawnStar]

So right, you're going to have a huge overseas empire with a large number of low value provinces and you're worried about Ireland being an economic drag - I think you've started on the Guiness already

You can't DOW at -3 stab, however if you get to -2 the pain isn't so bad and once its done then that's that.

Ireland does attract attention from other nations, someone always seems to take over. Gaining Ireland seems to be a bit of a race but at least you're in pole position.

 

[Moquel]

The Norwegian Frontier

On August 1, 1454 something was happening in France. They reached Government Tech level 1. That means they get to choose their first National Idea. All of England held a collective breath, some even more so as the 1st English Army had just been ordered to walk to the Orkney islands. If France was to choose the same path England had, and attempt to explore colonize the New World, it could prove disastrous to the English effort. Henry VI had chosen to forego his possessions in France in order to avoid war with that most powerful of continental European nations.

Henry VI and all of England could finally take a breath of relief, causing several brave men of the 1st Army to drown. France had made a choice of National Idea that not only didn't come into conflict with England's overseas aspirations, but that also didn't seem to be very helpful for the French nation, +1 siege value for all it's leaders.

Later that same month the Siege of Orkney began as the 1st Army reached the the main island, referred to by the locals as "The Mainland". This caused much confusion within the English army who could have sworn they had to cross water to get there, many men cursing the military command for not doing their research properly before sending them out into the North Sea for no reason. It's important to note that at this point in history the concept of relativity theory was still a good 450 years into the future.

The brave men of the 1st Army were however not the only ones to be sent out into the North Sea in August. The English military command, wishing to ensure the acquisition of Orkney from Norway, decide to send a force to the Norwegian mainland, to be in a better negotiating position for the peace talks. The 3rd Army, consisting of 4 regiments of Cavalry and commanded by the proven skilled commander Richard Plantagenet, was thus sent from the Western Isles out onto transport ships and sent to the west coast of Norway, where they were to disembark and besiege Bergenshus. The more prime target for this had under normal circumstances been to try and conquer the Norwegian capital and so force the Norwegians into a most favorable peace, but Sweden had already conquered that province, and was busy besieging the rest of Norway.

The first of September saw another major nation reach level 1 of Government Tech, this time it was our ally Portugal. We could hardly believe our luck when the word reached us regarding what Idea they had chosen to persue, as we really wanted to keep them as an ally for now.

On September 10 the siege of Reykjavik is finally concluded, and the colony is legally siezed from Norway. Henry VI was very pleased to see yet another landmass turned completely red in his political mapmo- maproom, yes maproom.

In October another major nation reached Government Tech 1, Castille. Once again all who were sympathetic to the English cause held their breaths. Unfortunately this time there was no escape, and it was clear we were not to be allowed to operate in peace out west.

At the time there was of course no way to be sure if there even was any western side of the atlantic, but Henry VI and his most senior advisors were later quoted as saying "well, we just had a hunch that the earth was a slightly oblate spheroid."

Not much more was to happen. There was no Norwegian army or navy to be seen anywhere, and so the two sieges, that of Orkney and Bergenshus were left to continue, as military spending was cut in half in order to try and prevent the emptying of the English coffers as the collection of war Taxes ceased. As 1454 our exploration fleet stationed in the Portugese Azores was split into three, one cog each. Our brave explorer Richard Benbow would take one cog and sail west from the Azores, then return to the Azores and change from his battered old ship into a new, while the old one was repaired. In the spring of 1455 our brave explorer discovered the Coast of Bermuda, unfortunately not Bermuda itself. That Benbow chose to report home that he had found the Coast of Bermuda before he knew there was land nearby is a great testament to his genious.

The last week of June the sieges of Orkney and Bergenshus were complete, and we asked Norway for peace in exchange for just Orkney and 50 ducats. They against all common sense refuse, but then a week later they make a counter offer.

I came into the war wanting Iceland and most importantly Orkney. Here they are offering me Bergenshus as well. Our doctrine for contintental possessions is very clear; we should not have them. I don't want to waste any more time with a nation as inconsequential as Norway though, so I accept the offer, hoping to sell the province back to them, or to Sweden, for 50 ducats or more. It seems to be harder than I imagined.

 

[Myrmidon]

Nicely done, as a EU3 " new guy " I'm finding your style very informative. Thanks : )

 

[canonized]

Haha selling provinces too ? Very focused you are !