For the MothAARland! Muscowy Triumphant

[Bolingbroke]

It All Belongs to Mother Russia!

​

EU:NA 2.1 & Magna Mundi Gold 1.7​

Ever since I lost my first game of EU3 as Muscowy, I’ve had a fascination with the Slavic state. Their history is bloody, inspiring, heinous, and glorious. For my very first AAR, I decided to share a journey through time as I attempt to unite all the Russias under one banner.

I plan on being ruthless, pragmatic, and to always keep territorial expansion foremost. As there is an imbalance present in MMG 1.7 which combines with the NA 2.1 patch to give AI nations a huge tech boost, I will be cheating if my tech gets hopelessly behind. Otherwise, it’s with the following settings I will play:

Here is my initial situation. You can see I have vast, vast, vast tracts of open land. Vast!

Er, not really. It seems we will have to bring our message of peaceful coexistence among all the Russias to our neighbors.

By force.

But before that, let’s see to our domestic situation. Grand Duke Vasily II is not much to look at. He prefers to stay behind the scenes and let his Boyars handle affairs. It seems someone has seen some promise in him, as three excellent ministers came to court.

A highly skilled sea dog will help keep us up-to-date on the latest swash-a-buckler-ing. A good diplomat will be invaluable as ignorant foreigners will take offense to our bellicosity. A good reformer for our land forces shall prevent early obsolescence of our mighty hosts.

As for domestic sliders, we will go for a more centralized government. The provinces have too much auto-nomy, and that sounds like some sort of weirdo.

The rest is excellent, as we will rely on hordes of happy serfs led by loyal nobles. The power of the Orthodox Church is something to watch out for. While they will help us to bring the Orthodox faith to the heathens, they will also resist modernization. On with the sacred mission of uniting all of Russia!

So, who to proselytize first?

You can see puny nation #1 – Tver, Puny Nation #2 – Yaroslavl, and Muscowy’s good friend – Quasim Khanate (Ryazan). All three want to be part of the great collective we are going to build. However, only QK knows it yet. The other two must be idiots or something. We’ll deal with them later. Hopefully they won't decide they need a burly protector before it is their turn.

You can see Novgorod to the west. A bunch of nancy-boys and money-grubbing merchants. They should pose no problem.

Lithuania is big, scary, and purple. Like Barney.

Kazan *is* the Dragon on my flag. Soon to be killed by Saint George.

(Don’t skewer me, bro!)​

So who to send my army to visit? Hmmm…

 

[Capibara]

Looks interesting, finish with the gay dinosaur and the dragon , i'll follow

 

[unmerged(84033)]

Let's see. Well, I can relate to your writing style, that's for sure. Your ministers are excellent indeed, although the sea dog will feel a bit awkward surrounded by that huge landmass.

As there is an imbalance present in MMG 1.7 which combines with the NA 2.1 patch to give AI nations a huge tech boost,

Would you care to elaborate on that?

I'll keep an eye on your adventures. Good luck.

 

[Bolingbroke]

Capibara - Thanks.

Jestocost - I'll admit I'm stealing some of the style, but how dry would it be with just saying where and when?

As for the AI tech boost, it was noted on the MM forum over on terranova.dk that the patch 2.1 combines badly with the MM team's fix for AI tech lag. I've noticed it myself. There are comments on this forum as to the way Paradox made the AI in 2.1 not have to mint in order to balance their budget, leading to deficit spending and huge armies they don't pay maintenance for.

 

[clblabin]

(Don’t skewer me, bro!)

Priceless!

I've never had the pleasure of playing Muscowy in Magna Mundi, so I will be reading this with interest.

 

[germanpeon]

Ooooooh, I will most definitely be watching this one. Muscowy is one of my favorite nations to play. You get a free CB on everyone except your fellow Othodoxies (thats still a lot of nations) and you get to unite Russia! What could be more fun than oodles of war and lots of mid to late game colonization of Siberia?

 

[Bolingbroke]

As the war against the Crimean Khanate progressed, word of our glorious endeavors reached the small ears of Bessarabia. They wanted to offer us their services. Of course we accepted, as a tiny one-nation minor on the doorsteps of several major powers is the best kind of ally to have.

As the war drags on, we are glad to see Kazan turning on the Golden Horde. Let those Tartars sauce one another, we say!

To our great surprise, the Metropolitan of Moskva decided to call on all good Muscovites to join in the struggle to free the mother land from the Crimean grip. As an aside, the Metropolitan event is one of the wonderful Orthodox events added by MM and the Catholic Church mini-mod both.

During Russia’s history, the Orthodox Church had great estates called Lavras on which they built magnificent monasteries. Many of these were formidable fortresses and bastions of defence against invaders as well as being centres of learning. The Monasticism event is also from the mod. It allows many nice benefits, but the one I choose this time is to build a great Lavras. This will give me a Temple for 50 Ducats and some penalties to province income. A nice deal so early on.

The first war of Muscovite Aggression ends with the provinces of Tambow, Kharkov, and Voronezh being ceded. This brings 3000 warm bodies a year into the army, and a pittance of taxes into the treasury. It also brings two unfortified provinces and all three are Moslem. Definitely a mixed blessing. Let’s see how our other neighbors are doing.

Not very well it seems. Oh, and the Grand Duke had a stroke when he was delivering a fiery speech about “Uniting all the Russias.” No matter, as Boris I will lead Muscowy into battle against the puny pretenders to the title of Czar. Yaroslav and Tver won’t stand a chance.

One month later….

Now it seems the Tartars need to rape and pillage our peace-loving people. Don’t worry, little Kazan, your time will come soon enough. For now, have a taste of your own medicine.

New ideas can be scary. But sometimes they involve sending sods like this out to get killed -peacefully convert the heretics.

So we decided to embrace the idea of Divine Supremacy. This is of little immediate help, but as we push into heathen lands it will prove invaluable (I hope). Now we settle down to play the waiting game. Land tech 1 = level 1 fort for our southern provinces, and Production tech 1 = workshops. We shall also grow our army to 30K men and see how the situation develops.

 

[BBBD316]

Nice, I really like Russian AAR's for some reason, will be interesting to see how you develop.

 

[Capibara]

Good first update, those early moves against Crimea were fine, now take care of Kazan

 

[Bolingbroke]

First War of Tartar Sauce

In 1458, Kazan declared war in a most cowardly fashion. The reply sent back to the Khan was simple and direct:

It seems there is some sort of magical allure to Tartar sauce, as the incompetent Khazanistas brought a whole pile of their ugly friends to the party. As Romanians hate the smell of the sauce, they declined to fight alongside us. Cowards.

Things were looking grim. Muscowy lost 2 provinces (with no forts), and the hordes kept coming. Then a peace offer arrived! Joy! A White Peace perhaps?

………..

Finally, we came to acceptable terms.

This unfortunately gave our vassal 2 territories, but more importantly it denies over 2000 men to Kazan. Men they will need in the next phase of Operation Throw Off the Tartar Yoke.

That war really hurt. War exhaustion is at 13.2%. We two loans totaling 92 ducats, and worst of all we are covered in red Tartar sauce.

But wait, what’s this?

Now that’s what I’m talking about! Finally a bit of love from our nancy-boy Novgorodian neighbors. They will be handy in the eventual wars with Poland-Lithuania. Or Kazan. Or anyone for that matter. Unlike those cowardly Bessarabians. Cowards.

Back to the mater plan: invent fences (Land 1), build sweatshops (Production 1), and watch the rubles come in.

 

[Bolingbroke]

A question for my readers (both of you):

Should I do blow-by-blow on the wars and every little event/change?

 

[Bolingbroke]

2nd Tartar Sauce-ing

As usual in Muscowy, things go from bad to worse. Oh, well. Our soldiers need the practice.

Let it never be said that Boris I doesn’t listen to his serfs.

The Novgorod Nancies fight one whole battle and make peace. Way to go! Let’s hope they fight that well when their time comes. The rest of the war is fairly simple. Huge land tradition = recruiting two 6 shock monster generals. Hopefully they last through the coming war with Poland-Lithuania.

I think Khazan is done with picking on the Russians. Elsewhere, Crimea got eaten by Lithuania, Genoa, and Aragon!? Yes, they got annexed by Aragon.

One thing that the 2.1 patch does is to tie revolt size to population and manpower of a province. With the provinces my vassal Qasim Khanate holds, the revolts are usually ~10000-12000 strong. Since they have no forts in the provinces, the revolts immediately take the province and march into an adjoining province. Usually mine. Grrrr….

 

[Bolingbroke]

Major Muscowy

 

[Alikchi]

This is really very good. Please continue.

To answer your earlier question, I think you're hitting a pretty good spot right now in terms of amount of content. I like seeing all these MM events.

 

[Bolingbroke]

Showcasing MM is pretty much the goal of my AAR. Also to get more people interested in the Russian region of the game. Thanks for the encouragement!

 

[unmerged(76711)]

I like it! Your giving us a good idea of whats going on without telling us every little thing that is happening. I also like how the pictures enhance what your saying :rofl:

Keep it up!

 

[Bolingbroke]

ProfessorEGADD: Thanks! I also like your avatar! Try this on for size:

 

[Bolingbroke]

Frequently Bishops of the Orthodox Church would use their power to criticize those in power. Because it would be unwise to anger such powerful men, often the criticism had to be suffered in silence.

Serendipity is taking advantage of a lucky occurrence. During Muscowy’s fallow time, when sweatshops were almost invented, just such an occurrence came our way. Poland went to war with half the major powers in the Holy Roman Empire over the succession of Silesia. This is exactly the opportunity Muscowy needs to liberate the Byelorussians from their Lithuanian overlords.

As soon as another army of 10,000 brave men could be assembled, we sent word to our allies to make ready a gallant stab in the back to Lithuania.

However, it seems Novgorod beat us to the punch.

During the chaos of war, a monastery was built in Bolgar – far from the fighting with swords but close to the fighting for souls in the shadow of the Urals.

The fervor of war brought out the zeal of the people against heretical religions. The Metropolitan of Moskva sent out word that there should be renewed efforts to convert those poor benighted Muslims happy enough to find themselves within our borders.

Note that this bonus, as well as my NIs, give me a +45% chance to convert and a -17.5% cost for missionaries. Pretty sweet. I’m taking out several loans to take advantage. Right now half my land pays almost nothing in tax and has huge revolt risk due to being Muslim.

In retrospect, I think it makes more sense to attack Yaroslavl and Tver from the outset, and then Novgorod as their lands will provide income. Right now I don’t get much besides manpower and constant revolts from my conquests.

In the second year of the War of Byelorussian Liberation, Novgorod was attacked by the Sibirian Khanate and its puny ally Khazanista. Though we may have been expected to back our ally to the hilt, we decided that now was the best time to break the alliance. Not only did we have no troops in the East, but this additional war would bleed Novgorod of resources. This would make them ripe for conquest as soon as our current war was concluded.

Speaking of which:

You win some, you lose some:

The Duke is dead! Long live the Duke! Andrei IV is a giant in the land. He will finally make it possible to incorporate our sniveling vassals Qasim Khanate and Yaroslavl into our glorious realm. He also cuts a dashing figure on the dance floor, but that is another matter.

It was a shame to lose Savily. He was our 4-star land reformer. Qaplan can’t even fill his boots. Oh, well. Focus on the positive – Andrei IV is a tiny god and we gained 3 very nice provinces all of which are of the proper Orthodox faith and Russian culture. Orel needs to be fortified, but that is a minor matter. Now we can focus on preparations to smite Novgorod and enslave them to our will.

 

[germanpeon]

Wow, you are making fantastic progress!

 

[Bolingbroke]

We are glad to see Lithuania was left in ruins, and that the displaced peasants have taken matters into their own hands.

In Chernigov, we discovered Papist influences. It seems the Bishop of Rome is not content to have most of Europe under his thrall; he wants to ensnare our happy peasants to his slavish army of religious zealots. We put an end to his meddling.

Thanks to the magic of reloads, we have nothing but good news to report:

The conversion and annexation brought in about 20 ducats more a year. Too bad we are still not accepting Tartar sauce as a culture. That’s a shame, as it is a tasty sauce if used in moderation. Maybe we need another couple of Tartar sauce-producing provinces?

Sadly, we are crushed under a vast weight of debt. Inflation is creeping up, and our armies are poorly funded. We are also behind Novgorod in tech. Once we are financially solvent again we will crush them. Oh, yes. Crush. Them.