Crown of the north: a Denmark AAR
The reign of Erik VII part I: 1419-1421
Erik VII himself
His IQ
In the year is 1419 Denmark was ruled by King Erik VII, also called Erik of Pomerania. He was an intellegent but hot tempered king renowned for his lack of skills in diplomacy.
King Erik was looking to expand his kingdom, and had a keen eye on Holstein as he had always disliked the counts og Holstein.
January 1st 1419
Erik called in his court to discuss the future of his kingdom, and when they were all gathered the talk began, until Erik out of the blue said:
Erik:
What about Holstein?
His Steward replied:
Steward:
Holstein, my lord?
Erik:
Yeees Holstein, they would make a good addition to our empire?
Steward:
ehhhm, yes my lord they would, but it seemds a little dangerous to mengle with them at the moment, since they are in a pretty good position in terms of allies
Erik:
Nonsence, they are ripe for conquer!
Steward:
Im afraid things are a little more complicated than that my lord?
Erik:
Very well, explain yourself!
The Steward showed Erik a map over Holsteins alliances:
Steward:
as you can see my lord, Holstein currently have alliances with Bremen, Mecklenburg, Pommern, Prussia and the Teutonic order, so in my opinion it would be would be too costly and risky at this point, if i may say so my lord
Erik having realised he was wrong about the Holstein question, desperetly tried to save his honor:
Erik:
ehh, YES! i knew that, i was just testing your skills, of course a war against Holstein would be a wrong move at this point. You are dismissed
The court went back to their own business, and the king went to his bedroom dreaming of conquoring Holstein all night.
On january 5th 1419 Sweden as expected declared war on Novgorod. This was not what Erik wanted, he had no interest in Novgorod whatsoever, but in an effort to keep the swedes pleased Denmark joined in, while Norway surprisingly DISHONERED ther alliance and stayed out of the war.
This did not please Erik who wanted the Kalmar union as closely tied as possible, with Norway out of the alliance the stability of the union was threatened.
Something had to be done, although nothing could be done at this point...
On January 6th new Opportunities arose:
POLAND DECLARED PRUSSIA WAR!!!
This was all Erik could had hoped for, with the Holstein alliance at war, Holsteins position was weakened, sadly no diplomats were ready to deliver a Declaration of war, but if the war would drag our long enough, Holstein would be ripe for conquest!
King Erik quickly called for his stewars and marshall:
Erik:
Holstein then!?
Steward:...
Erik:
Holstein it is then!
on Ferbuary 7th the Copenhagen Defenders Army was moved to Jutland, to make preperations for an attack on Holstein as soon as an decleration of war could be delivered.
On April 2nd Diplomats reached Hamburg with a letter signed by the Danish king saying:
"We hereby pronounce you DEAD AND GONE!!!"
The wasn't any real war strategy. The entire Danish army was to march into Holtstein Besieging Hamburg, ehile the Jutland Army Would Continue into Mecklenburg to Besiege Lübeck.
The danish troops met little opposition since most of the hostein army was fighting poland to the east.
But on May 1st the Holstein made a surprise attack, coming semingly out of the blue. This ghost army defeated the Danish army and followed behind it into Jutland were the Holstein ghost army again lost, and retreated to back to Hamburg, with the Danish army right behind them. The battles and retreats waved back and forth once more, when finally the Danish army gained foothold in Holstein only to be disturbed by the homecoming mecklenburg army. This time the battleground was mecklenburg, luck changed back and fourth until the Danish army finally made the definitive blow on July 20th 1420
Finally on april 3 1421 both Hamburg of Holstein and Lübeck of Mecklenburg were captured, and the Holstein (as Erik called it) alliance was dissolved, leaving Holstein and Mecklenburg all alone.
On the same day Erik recieved good news: Norway was back in the fold, as they had agreed to reenter the alliance. the union was safe.... for now!
map of the situation April 5th 1421
This ends the update. Peace resolutions will come in the next update (tomorrow) since im pretty tired and can't seem to make up my mind about it right now.
Some closing comments:
Im still trying to figure out how to write this AAR, so the style may change a bit. The next updates will feature more pictures, an more indebt coverage of wars, the reason for the not so througout step to step coverage of the wa against hostein is that i had already played throug this way when i decided to write this AAR, but i assure you that ill be more througout from now on...
So EU III is coming up, and having played this game for the last five years i just realised that i have never written an AAR. So therefore i decided something had to be done about that, and here we are.
, feel free to come with suggestions and comments.
