I don't know if I will form Germany... Depends how the game turns out.
Willem Frederik III walked across the ports of Netherlands, visiting each and single one of them. He would direct orders, do modifications and inspect the work that was going on. Only a few peasants knew what was happening. Lacking the equipment to reach the New World, the King had ordered the construction of a mighty fleet, a fleet that would even make England tremble. Four Carracks had already been completed and five cogs were on their way, in case an assault on a distant shore would one day happen. Nodding his head, the King looked at his advisor.
''Only four Carracks? Five cogs? We arn't going to invade anything with this! I want atleast twenty more carracks and as many cogs!''
Turning his back to the advisor, the King jumped on the back of his horse and went in direction of Amsterdam, the new capital of his nation. Since he was in Antwerpen, he was going to need atleast a month to reach his destination.
When the King finally arrived to his throne, a messenger was waiting for him with a herald.
''My King, since most of Europe dislikes us since your excommunication, we thought it would be good to strengthen our relations with the Pope and his states. To do so, we gave them a few gifts, mostly ducats.''
The King nodded his head a few times, waiting for the rest of the news.
''Also, we received a herald from Novgorod. They ask if we would be interested in a military alliance with them. This would improve our relations and we would have an ally in the East.''
Willem Frederik III sat on his throne and started to think. An ally in the East could also mean an acess to further territories, a possibility to expand the nation. The King did a sign to a diplomat to come next to him.
''You, start righting this. Dear Novgorod, we gladly accept your proposal, and we hope that this alliance is the beginning of a great relation in between the Dutch and the Slaves.''
The King then gave the letter to his messenger, who immediately left Amsterdam, in direction of Novgorod. Little did he know what was waiting for him.
When the messenger arrived in Novgorod, in 1494, he didn't know what was happening. He passed the great gate to arrive in front of a fort ingulfed in flames. Looking around him, he saw peasants running with men chassing them and slaughtering them. A man arrived in front of him and took his message. Helpless, the messenger watched him.
''What? Allies of Novgorod? Bring this herald to your King, you shall all fall under the axe of the Muscovites!''
So Novgorod was at war with Moscow, including their allies : the Teutonic Order, Scandanavia and Tver. Willem Frederik III would only learn, eight months later, that he was the leader in a war against Muscovite oppression.
Realising that Novgorod was a desperate case, the dutch and the british regrouped their forces to take control of the Scandanavian islands before attacking their mainland. Meanwhile, a diplomat was sent in Danzig to conclude a white peace with the Hochmeister. He cheerfully accepted that peace offer, because he had just finished a bloody struggle that left most of his nation defenseless. Almost every men capable of fighting had been killed or injured, resulting in a major shortage of workers.
Rooebur Koorsa commanded the first and second Lever van Friesland army to take out the Scandanavian outpost at Faroe island. Assisted by the navy, the three regiments took out the fort in about two months. Then, two regiments of mercenaries were recruted to guard the province. Koorsa then led an assault on Reykjavik, in Iceland, to get the last island the ennemy held. Assisted by the british, the fight for the fort was won in a few weeks. Koorsa left the army for guard duty on Reykjavik, while he returned to Guelders to take command of the Amsterdam Korps division. Leading 13 000 men, he assaulted Jutland and North Jutland, while the dutch and british navy assured a blocade in Fuen, preventing the Scandanavians from counter-attacking. He split his army in two disivions, one of 6 000 men and one of 7 000 men. The second division was called Lever van North and it assaulted Fuen. In all these battles, the dutch armies only encountered the ennemy garrisons. No army was ever spotted.
When those three provinces were secured, Koorsa and 5 000 men took a cog in direction of the western coast of the ennemy, the provinces Norway used to control. Shattered by rebels, the forts rapidly fell into dutch hands. It is only then the longbowmen spotted ennemy troops, but they were easily dealt with, because they were exhausted.
A few days after the fall of the provinces, the navy which held the blocade encountered a fierce attack. Ships were hit on each side, but it is the dutch ships that suffered the most casualties. A Carrack was hit directly on the captain's cabin, destroying its navigation wheel and also making it sink. A few survivors were able to get back on the cogs, but it wasn't the end of the battle. Another Carrack was hit exactly where it stored its cannon powder, resulting in a huge explosion, destroying everything around it. When the fire lost its intensity and the smoke became less thick, only two carracks and 3 cogs were still floating. That meant a total of four ships had sunk in a single battle, almost half of the dutch navy. The King decided that that was enough loses for a war, it was time to conclude a peace deal.
Willem Frederik arrived in Jutland in 1499 to sign the Treaty of the North, where the scandanavian ruler confirmed his defeat. He ceded the provinces of Faroe and Reykjavik, Jutland and North Jutland, along with 75 ducats. Norway and Sweden also became independant after the war, taking advantage of the weakness of their ex-master.
A painting a british artist realised to commemorate the loss of those brave men, at the battle of 1499.
Note : The dates are far after the war, because I continued the game for a while before taking the screenshots.
In 1500, tensions rose in Europe, every nation seeking a way to gain power over its neighbors. Along with the fights against the new uprising religions, like the Calvinists and the Protestants, wars against the infidels rage on to the East. Willem Frederik III saw the vast armies of the french and the powerful navies of the british. Being in the middle of those two great powers, the Dutch had to find a way to impose their supremacy. Even though they had large armies, about 50 000 men, and an average navy, about 20 ships, they wouldn't be able to fight the french or the british, due to their lack of powerful allies.
Also, with the British controlling almost all of Greenland and a good portion of North America, the colonisation of the New World would be harsh, since the Netherlands still couldn't reach the land they desired so badly.
In 1506, Willem Frederik III perished at sea, while he was travelling towards Reykjavik. A regency council gained power in the Netherlands, commencing what is called the Cold War. A lot of nations tried to seize power over the dutch nation, since it lacked great leaders and good administration. Though not being involved in a war, other empires like the Habsburg destroyed the relations they had with the Netherlands, indicating a possible future war.
In the regency council, there were multiple ideas concerning what should the advisors research in particular.
'' I propose that we fortify our land technologies, to assure a victory if we fight the french in the future! ''
The nobles of Normandy, Guelders and Westfalia agreed, because they were land provinces. They were used to war and fighting, as their ancestors were. But the nobles of provinces like Antwerpen, Zeeland and Holland protested.
'' We must maximize our naval equipment and thus be able to reach new colonies! The fight in Europe is currently at a stalemate, we must search for new lands! ''
The council thought about that for a few weeks and, at the next assembly, most of the nobles were enchanted by that idea. Ducats were sent to every coastal province to devellop new equipments and new ships to be able to reach any land that was free.
It is only in 1514 that a cog finally reached a desolated area in Greenland. About 100 colonists established their outpost there, but the temperature rapidly started to kill the weakest of them. The natives were also quickly eliminated, because they had tried to burn the colony a few times. The outpost was given the name of Willemland, in order of the Willem generation that ruled the dutch people for more then 100 years.
By 1516, a few colonists were able to reach more distant and interesting shores. The natives over there called those regions ''Manhattan, Connecticut and Massachussetts'', but two of them were renammed New Amsterdam and Frederikburg, in memory of our Kings, once again. Everything goes well except one thing. Several hundreds of Calvinists leave the Netherlands to come and establish in New Amsterdam. Its great to boost the population, but the council said that they wanted ONLY catholic colonists! The sinners won't be accepted in the New World, they shall be converted! They had worked so hard to kick them out of their homeland, they didn't want to restart all over again in their new provinces.
In 1517, Antonius I, the son of Willem Frederik III, rises on the throne. His colonial ambitions are huge! He wants to gain control over most of the free american land, and also on the land that the ''savages'', as he calls them, control. With the help of his conquistadors, he sets up an outpost called New Frisia. This new outpost shares a border with the Iroquois, a group of natives that are reputated to be fierce fighters.
While he walks across the new land, Antonius notes that the weaponery of these natives is far weaker then the weapons used by his men. He had replaced his fearsome longbows by powerful battle axes that could tear up a knight in seconds. Also, he had invested ducats to produce multiple heavy iron cannons, perfect for sieging provinces and especially forts. It wasn't long before war broke out in between the dutch and the iroquois, but it finished as fast as it started.
Journal of a Dutch Soldier
January 18, 1518.
We have easily crushed these natives, only having a couple of casualties. You only have to fire once with your cannon and they all run away. It looks like they don't even know what horses are... They don't even wear armors. I was suprised to see this man wearing a feather hat on his head. People would obey him, like if he was a High Chief. Another thing that suprised me is the tortures these natives practice. A couple of months ago, I came across this guy we had lost during a battle. He didn't have anymore hair on his head and the skin on his legs was all burnt up. The other soldiers that were here for a while call that ''scalping''. They say the natives take the scalp of their ennemies as a war prize. I also came across some spanish soldiers that told me about some... aztec or maya things. Something like they take your heart out of your chest while you are still breathing, and then they chop your head off. We are really far from Europe...
Journal of the explorer Felipe de Toulebes
Antonius I, in his obcession to gain power, declared war to each native tribe he came across, not even evaluating if there was any danger associated with his decisions. The Hurons fell shortly after the Iroquois, followed by the Shawnees and then the Cherokees. In only a couple of years, Antonius had doubled the size of the Dutch Nation, forming the Dutch Empire. Now know as Kaiser Antonius, he commands an army of more then 80 000 men, along with almost 30 ships. He also colonised a good portion of the East Atlantic Coast, like the british call it. He is trully a hero to my eyes.
The Cold War and the Americas 1490-1536
Willem Frederik III walked across the ports of Netherlands, visiting each and single one of them. He would direct orders, do modifications and inspect the work that was going on. Only a few peasants knew what was happening. Lacking the equipment to reach the New World, the King had ordered the construction of a mighty fleet, a fleet that would even make England tremble. Four Carracks had already been completed and five cogs were on their way, in case an assault on a distant shore would one day happen. Nodding his head, the King looked at his advisor.
''Only four Carracks? Five cogs? We arn't going to invade anything with this! I want atleast twenty more carracks and as many cogs!''
Turning his back to the advisor, the King jumped on the back of his horse and went in direction of Amsterdam, the new capital of his nation. Since he was in Antwerpen, he was going to need atleast a month to reach his destination.
***
When the King finally arrived to his throne, a messenger was waiting for him with a herald.
''My King, since most of Europe dislikes us since your excommunication, we thought it would be good to strengthen our relations with the Pope and his states. To do so, we gave them a few gifts, mostly ducats.''
The King nodded his head a few times, waiting for the rest of the news.
''Also, we received a herald from Novgorod. They ask if we would be interested in a military alliance with them. This would improve our relations and we would have an ally in the East.''
Willem Frederik III sat on his throne and started to think. An ally in the East could also mean an acess to further territories, a possibility to expand the nation. The King did a sign to a diplomat to come next to him.
''You, start righting this. Dear Novgorod, we gladly accept your proposal, and we hope that this alliance is the beginning of a great relation in between the Dutch and the Slaves.''
The King then gave the letter to his messenger, who immediately left Amsterdam, in direction of Novgorod. Little did he know what was waiting for him.
***
When the messenger arrived in Novgorod, in 1494, he didn't know what was happening. He passed the great gate to arrive in front of a fort ingulfed in flames. Looking around him, he saw peasants running with men chassing them and slaughtering them. A man arrived in front of him and took his message. Helpless, the messenger watched him.
''What? Allies of Novgorod? Bring this herald to your King, you shall all fall under the axe of the Muscovites!''
So Novgorod was at war with Moscow, including their allies : the Teutonic Order, Scandanavia and Tver. Willem Frederik III would only learn, eight months later, that he was the leader in a war against Muscovite oppression.
Realising that Novgorod was a desperate case, the dutch and the british regrouped their forces to take control of the Scandanavian islands before attacking their mainland. Meanwhile, a diplomat was sent in Danzig to conclude a white peace with the Hochmeister. He cheerfully accepted that peace offer, because he had just finished a bloody struggle that left most of his nation defenseless. Almost every men capable of fighting had been killed or injured, resulting in a major shortage of workers.
Rooebur Koorsa commanded the first and second Lever van Friesland army to take out the Scandanavian outpost at Faroe island. Assisted by the navy, the three regiments took out the fort in about two months. Then, two regiments of mercenaries were recruted to guard the province. Koorsa then led an assault on Reykjavik, in Iceland, to get the last island the ennemy held. Assisted by the british, the fight for the fort was won in a few weeks. Koorsa left the army for guard duty on Reykjavik, while he returned to Guelders to take command of the Amsterdam Korps division. Leading 13 000 men, he assaulted Jutland and North Jutland, while the dutch and british navy assured a blocade in Fuen, preventing the Scandanavians from counter-attacking. He split his army in two disivions, one of 6 000 men and one of 7 000 men. The second division was called Lever van North and it assaulted Fuen. In all these battles, the dutch armies only encountered the ennemy garrisons. No army was ever spotted.
When those three provinces were secured, Koorsa and 5 000 men took a cog in direction of the western coast of the ennemy, the provinces Norway used to control. Shattered by rebels, the forts rapidly fell into dutch hands. It is only then the longbowmen spotted ennemy troops, but they were easily dealt with, because they were exhausted.
A few days after the fall of the provinces, the navy which held the blocade encountered a fierce attack. Ships were hit on each side, but it is the dutch ships that suffered the most casualties. A Carrack was hit directly on the captain's cabin, destroying its navigation wheel and also making it sink. A few survivors were able to get back on the cogs, but it wasn't the end of the battle. Another Carrack was hit exactly where it stored its cannon powder, resulting in a huge explosion, destroying everything around it. When the fire lost its intensity and the smoke became less thick, only two carracks and 3 cogs were still floating. That meant a total of four ships had sunk in a single battle, almost half of the dutch navy. The King decided that that was enough loses for a war, it was time to conclude a peace deal.
Willem Frederik arrived in Jutland in 1499 to sign the Treaty of the North, where the scandanavian ruler confirmed his defeat. He ceded the provinces of Faroe and Reykjavik, Jutland and North Jutland, along with 75 ducats. Norway and Sweden also became independant after the war, taking advantage of the weakness of their ex-master.
In 1500, tensions rose in Europe, every nation seeking a way to gain power over its neighbors. Along with the fights against the new uprising religions, like the Calvinists and the Protestants, wars against the infidels rage on to the East. Willem Frederik III saw the vast armies of the french and the powerful navies of the british. Being in the middle of those two great powers, the Dutch had to find a way to impose their supremacy. Even though they had large armies, about 50 000 men, and an average navy, about 20 ships, they wouldn't be able to fight the french or the british, due to their lack of powerful allies.
Also, with the British controlling almost all of Greenland and a good portion of North America, the colonisation of the New World would be harsh, since the Netherlands still couldn't reach the land they desired so badly.
In 1506, Willem Frederik III perished at sea, while he was travelling towards Reykjavik. A regency council gained power in the Netherlands, commencing what is called the Cold War. A lot of nations tried to seize power over the dutch nation, since it lacked great leaders and good administration. Though not being involved in a war, other empires like the Habsburg destroyed the relations they had with the Netherlands, indicating a possible future war.
In the regency council, there were multiple ideas concerning what should the advisors research in particular.
'' I propose that we fortify our land technologies, to assure a victory if we fight the french in the future! ''
The nobles of Normandy, Guelders and Westfalia agreed, because they were land provinces. They were used to war and fighting, as their ancestors were. But the nobles of provinces like Antwerpen, Zeeland and Holland protested.
'' We must maximize our naval equipment and thus be able to reach new colonies! The fight in Europe is currently at a stalemate, we must search for new lands! ''
The council thought about that for a few weeks and, at the next assembly, most of the nobles were enchanted by that idea. Ducats were sent to every coastal province to devellop new equipments and new ships to be able to reach any land that was free.
It is only in 1514 that a cog finally reached a desolated area in Greenland. About 100 colonists established their outpost there, but the temperature rapidly started to kill the weakest of them. The natives were also quickly eliminated, because they had tried to burn the colony a few times. The outpost was given the name of Willemland, in order of the Willem generation that ruled the dutch people for more then 100 years.
By 1516, a few colonists were able to reach more distant and interesting shores. The natives over there called those regions ''Manhattan, Connecticut and Massachussetts'', but two of them were renammed New Amsterdam and Frederikburg, in memory of our Kings, once again. Everything goes well except one thing. Several hundreds of Calvinists leave the Netherlands to come and establish in New Amsterdam. Its great to boost the population, but the council said that they wanted ONLY catholic colonists! The sinners won't be accepted in the New World, they shall be converted! They had worked so hard to kick them out of their homeland, they didn't want to restart all over again in their new provinces.
In 1517, Antonius I, the son of Willem Frederik III, rises on the throne. His colonial ambitions are huge! He wants to gain control over most of the free american land, and also on the land that the ''savages'', as he calls them, control. With the help of his conquistadors, he sets up an outpost called New Frisia. This new outpost shares a border with the Iroquois, a group of natives that are reputated to be fierce fighters.
While he walks across the new land, Antonius notes that the weaponery of these natives is far weaker then the weapons used by his men. He had replaced his fearsome longbows by powerful battle axes that could tear up a knight in seconds. Also, he had invested ducats to produce multiple heavy iron cannons, perfect for sieging provinces and especially forts. It wasn't long before war broke out in between the dutch and the iroquois, but it finished as fast as it started.
Journal of a Dutch Soldier
January 18, 1518.
We have easily crushed these natives, only having a couple of casualties. You only have to fire once with your cannon and they all run away. It looks like they don't even know what horses are... They don't even wear armors. I was suprised to see this man wearing a feather hat on his head. People would obey him, like if he was a High Chief. Another thing that suprised me is the tortures these natives practice. A couple of months ago, I came across this guy we had lost during a battle. He didn't have anymore hair on his head and the skin on his legs was all burnt up. The other soldiers that were here for a while call that ''scalping''. They say the natives take the scalp of their ennemies as a war prize. I also came across some spanish soldiers that told me about some... aztec or maya things. Something like they take your heart out of your chest while you are still breathing, and then they chop your head off. We are really far from Europe...
***
Journal of the explorer Felipe de Toulebes
Antonius I, in his obcession to gain power, declared war to each native tribe he came across, not even evaluating if there was any danger associated with his decisions. The Hurons fell shortly after the Iroquois, followed by the Shawnees and then the Cherokees. In only a couple of years, Antonius had doubled the size of the Dutch Nation, forming the Dutch Empire. Now know as Kaiser Antonius, he commands an army of more then 80 000 men, along with almost 30 ships. He also colonised a good portion of the East Atlantic Coast, like the british call it. He is trully a hero to my eyes.
Last edited:
