Here is how it stands. Read this document well for it is the last I will speak on the subject. Any flippant response you fire back to me, will have already been answered below.
Tonio is simply unable to cut his losses.
A) Initially, the Ottoman's war against Austria and Brandenburg went well. The Ottomans had CRT, but Austria and Brandenburg had better manpower (combined) and much better leaders. Furthermore, as Tonio's chat log have shown, England, Portugal and Spain were sending him various amounts of ducats. He had a NAP with Poland, and Russia was close to possibly seizing Crimea. Venice was being begged to join.
B) Knowing this, and being able to focus the full intensity of his considerable skill, Tonio was able to prolong the war for five more years, eventually gaining CRT, and by the eighth year, managed to bring the war back to under stab hit. Throughout all this time, the Ottomans would have peaced for Moldavia.
C) At last, the Sultan was willing to offer a white peace, provided that Austria and Brandenburg gave him a NAP until 1619. This was rejected, and it seemed that the Germanic powers were intending to drive the Ottoman Empire right into the teeth of the Bej event.
D) At this stage, France began to deliberate far and wide, approaching every neighboring power about the justice of entering the conflict in an honest, public manner. Not one nation told France he should not join. France was not joining this war for territorial purposes, but to give his geopolitical ally from being overrun. Russia was a going concern owing to their NAP with Poland and his loud words. There was a threat that the OE would be round-robined during his Bej event.
1) So I joined the war, fought a single short battle with the Brandenburgian forces whom quickly retreated after suffering 15k losses and white peaced all sides.
E) The war then begin to procede in a number of stages. And keep in mind, Tonio still had a sizable army with which to beat back besiegers. Yet he was slowly being attritioned. The French and the Ottoman Empire each spent a HUGE amount of ducats to storm these medium CRC fortresses. And as each half year went by, another couple fell, while fighting various wars with the Austrians penned up in Bohemia.
1) At first, the demand was simply a NAP. All saw Tonio refuse this.
2) Then, the demand became Moldavia and a NAP. Tonio refused this.
3) Then the demand became Istria/Moldavia and a NAP. Tonio refused this.
4) Then, Tonio was willing to offer a white peace but no NAP. He made a big deal of this at the time. Rezag and Babur latched onto it as proof of him acceding, but in truth, he was not.
5) At this stage, after considerable expense, I grew angry with Tonio's fanatic idiocy and told him that the French may begin demanding a province of their own for such troubles. This was to hasten the end of the war, as the Bej event was slowly encroaching.
6)Finally, with almost max war score, I asked for Pfalz and Alsace in order to drive his stab down and smack him with the trout of reason. Surprisingly, Tonio accepted. But then we realized his darker motives.
F) Tonio was hoping that with France out of the war for five more years, he could recover and hold out against the Ottomans until his the 1615 event, only three years away. Furthermore, I believe that Tonio believed he would get the provinces back, by working a number of propaganda angles. And that such, could even do more to revive his underdog angle and provoke more support. Such as has worked with Daniel and Rezag. But it was a calculated maneuver nonetheless.
G) Yet, King John, at massive expensive, brought forward another wave of troops, and in a series of battles and sieges, managed to finally crush the last Austrian resistance. At this stage, King John could have asked for Steirmark. Yet under international pressure, he restricted his demand to simply Istria. And I don't blame him. KJ probably thought that Tonio would STILL try to hold out, waiting for his provines to be sieged one by one, until the Bej event hit and then Russia could join.
1) Tonio caved.
H) Then, Sweden attacked Brandenburg. It became ironic to reflect that if Tonio had simply ceded Moldavia way back when, or agreed to a NAP which everyone can clearly see KJ offer in the posted log...He would have been able to defend his ally from Gustavus. And he might even have been in position to attack the Ottomans during the Bej event and reclaim much more besides Moldavia. And he'd never have lost Alsace and Pfalz. Since I wasn't in the first 10 years of the war.
I) Finally, one needs to recognize the degree of frustration felt by fighting this rectangular, CRC morale, fanatic, low supply, highly fortified country, even as everyone poured ducats into him and killed his rebels. Tonio was quite willing to ruin his country to not lose one province. Which is why his econ techs and income still suck.
1) Eventually, one becomes so frustrated and annoyed, that there is a tendency to say "Fuck it!" and go for the throat. Yet King John STILL refrained himself from asking for more then Istria.
2) This, after Russia had just lost five provinces to Poland. And then Brandenburg lost 3 to Sweden, including Prussia. So Austria is hardly the most bullied. If anything, he is harming everyone around him by sucking so much support into the gaping black hole of his nation.
Conclusion: I will agree to vassalize Alsace and Pfalz, provided that the Ottoman Empire are given their choice of two provinces from Austria.
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