Not enough to go bankrupt
Blobs are forming, and if the rebels don't say otherwise, then they stay. I have the feeling I'm not the only one randomly picking my next
victims nations, but the rebels are as well.
ChapterTen: The Lorrainian-...Lorrainian?-Commonwealth
….Whatever. The 'wealth' part is true at last: Lothringen (I'll call it Lorraine. No idea why it didn't change to its French form, despite the PLC being Burgundian) has 14BT. Sunda has a claim on it, so I have to be prudent. Our rival is Lan Xang, so I set my mission to insult them. King Stanislaw de Barrau has just seized the throne; seeing our great generals despite 4.5 army tradition, I'd bet on a revolt leader. He combats the low legitimacy by seeking help from the church. He has already found good allies: Asakura, Pattani, Djerid and Crete. Our mighty nation has Polish ideas, full diplomacy and started humanist ideas. We may need to grow a bit so that they may be of use. We are ahead of time in dip, one tech behind in mil and lack behind in admin. The level is 11, and we are only at 7. I remedy this by researching Workshop & Courthouse, and insult Lan Xang.
As we are in the HRE, it is time to take a closer look. No reform has been passed yet. And the election is close: Lan Xang and Nizhny Novgorod vote for Sunda, the former emperor from the Hansa votes for Yeren, who also supports themselves. Bashkiria and Keladi are for Danzig, while Crete supports Sus. Two reformed centers of reformation lie within the HRE, in the Hansa and Nepal, next to each other. It doesn't seem overly successful for now. Seeing as I am allied to one neighbour, I am watching the other closely, awaiting an opportunity. Right now, they are in a war with Champa, together with Asakura. I would need all my allies if I'd take on the emperor, and with only Djerid on my side, I await a better chance, and ally Danzig.
As soon as I unpause, I change my mind. I really don't want to rely too much on my allies again after Pagarruyung. I also forget everything I said about prudence. The church didn't help Stanislaw, so he doesn't need the pope. I convert to reformed. Sunda won't attack me, I hope. As new mission, I try to get the rats back on the ship. All I have to do is convince them I'm not sinking. The agent the AI had sent to Sunda gets discovered as well. Right! Show the world that now, I am here! Where are the nobles with their production flaws?
Danzig realizes I've become a dirty heretic and breaks our freshly concluded alliance. Well, that's bad, but I think the dirty part fits me well, at least in this period. As I am waiting, I begin improving relations with my allies, and build a courthouse in Lorraine from my conversion money. I happily notice that Bavaria didn't collapse. They integrated Pegu, and are still a close ally of Serbia, and has helped them to annex Benin. Nice to see the decapitaters punished for deciding the Pagarruyung war. Songhai goes bankrupt, and I see that Russia advances more and more on its own territory. Scary. Should they reform successfully at some point.
Manchu loses first to a pretender, then to Khandesh. But they survived their civil war thanks to the bad pretender. Still, having a period free of it is not possible, and the Venezuelan horde is the next country to fall into it. Champa seems to win the fight for the British isles, and beats Air around some more. Being a colonizer as well (Champani Colombia!) it will be another nation to observe. Powhatan has also taken exploration, but not colonized yet; while the Jalayirids missed vassalizing Buton again, becoming Kangra's underling.
I unlock the Matchlock Musket (mil 11), putting me on par with my neighbours, and fabricate a claim on Elsass. If Sunda is too strong, some backstabbing may be useful... But for now, I march off to war. Bashkiria attacks Pattani. Our armies look evenly matched, and I reinforce the Pattani advance on München. The battle swings in our favour, as another 15k men from Mewar and Danzig arrive. I retreat before taking too heavy losses, and leave Pattani to their fate. Don't say I didn't try.
My agent gets discovered, again. As the enemy amasses 29k troops in Memmingen, I decide to do nothing more in that war. I hope to get ignored, as any distant OPM would be. Just beat up Pattani, but leave me alone, all right? The population distracts me from the war by complaining about a greedy bailiff. As a war involves killing, I have him executed. I was at -93 prestige, and not fulfilling the populace's wish would damage our Commonwealth much more.
Watching Pattani go down, as they also joined a war against Orléans, which occupied the other part of our alliance in Southern Italy, I see that Djerid disbanded half its army. Do you have monetary problems, my friend? That's too bad. As my claim finishes, I start improving my relation with Nepal. As I've made up my mind now and am going to backstab Djerid, Nepal will make a fine ally, if I get their relations high enough.
As Pattani gets overrun by enemies, Flanders attacks them as well. Nobody supports them. Not that I could help or have any intention to, I accept the call to arms. It's only positive for me: Flanders is Djerid's ally, and can't help them if they're already at war with me. Their only other allies are Sus and me. I start sharpening my weapons.
Nepal doesn't like me enough to ally nor to marry them; so I send them a gift. Afterwards, they consider marriage. All that stands in the way of our alliance now is my alliance with their rival Djerid. I dissolve it. But before I can ally Nepal and declare War, Sus declares their wish to take out a part of Pattani for themselves as well. I decline, as Sus pulls Djerid in. I want to fight them on my own terms. Thing is, Sus is not in the empire, as it only has Venice and Treviso. The emperor rushes to their rescue. Good, more enemies for Djerid. I seal my alliance with Nepal and wait to be able to attack them. Before I can though, Nepal, as Sunda's ally, gets involved in Sus' war and attacked. Well, as long as they are fighting against my enemy, I'm happy. With Crete being on their side, only Asakura remains to join my war.
I split my army into two halves, each led by my two generals. Sus' attack on Nepal fails, while the Djerid army returns to its territory. As the council of München begins the counter-reformation, Djerid realizes that disbanding half their army wasn't such a good idea after all. They rebuild some troops, and I try to stop them. Just as Asakura's army arrives, I engage the enemy in Breisgau. Then, horrified, I notice 17k men under the Danzig flag marching through Hanseatic lands. This is bad. Their only enemy in this direction is me. They could easily crush me. Before anything happens, I try to make peace with Bashkiria, and am forced to relinquish all my wealth, pay war reparations and annul treaties with Nepal. But at least I can still win against Djerid.
As a brilliant diplomat with unclear loyalties appears, Sunda and Nepal reinforce my battle. Well, of course it is great to employ such a brilliant mind, but I'd like to know where his loyalties lie. He may be a agent of Djerid after all. If not their diplomat, their army is forced to retreat. My enemies' enemies then lay siege to their Western half, before going East.
As the Jalayirids begin to lose most of what they've gained in the last years, the returning and rebuilt Djerid army attacks all Sunda has left behind, 4k men, in Sundgau. Now it's my turn to reinforce, together with Asakura and our bitter rival, and beat them back.
Then, a catastrophe strikes: A lethal disease spreads in Lorraine, our only province. What can we do? Our nation is doomed! How could we recover from such a disaster? Who should pay or supply our army? Who shall save Stanislaw when the panicked population rises up? Time to take out loans, if the banker survives, that is. Or is there another solution? Salvation and piety? Sounds good. Keep it up, men, nothing happened at home.
The enemies are defeated by the Imperial armies south of the Alps, and rout to Venice. Having some time to invest in sieges, I remember that I can levy war taxes, and do it. The population that survived the disease can surely spend a ducat or two for their poor nation. I also set my fervour focus on war. Meanwhile, Medri Bahri starts to collapse, releasing Ming and Ning.
I spread my army around Switzerland, as does the Imperial alliance. Sus starts an audacious move, passing the Imperials through the North and attacking my siege army in Bern. I am sending reinforcements from Graubünden, but just a day or two before they arrive, Djerid attacks them in Waldstätte.
Bern is lost, but my main enemy completely succumbs to their ill-advised attack, even more as Imperial reinforcements arrive, and dissolves entirely.
I continue to Bern and chase out Sus. With Djerid's army dealt with, Stanislaw breathes more freely, and has time to celebrate the birth of his heir, Algirdas (4/4/0). Pattani then makes peace with Djerid, leaving me as their only enemy. The Imperials continue on Sus, so I don't have to worry about them either. It seems we have won. Considering the enemy has no money, I occupy more land unopposed.
Having shown my good intentions, Sunda agrees to a royal marriage, while Pattani is torn into pieces, being left with only Tirol. On my side, I only have to defeat one more regiment from Djerid, before all its land falls into Commonwealth hands. Ignoring the fact that it was our army research that played its part in making us win, prominent men protest against it. If they ignore the facts, I can ignore them as well.
As Konstanz falls, I enforce my conditions on my betrayed ally, reducing them from a minor power to a 3PM. The Commonwealth takes the shape of a weird cross or X and I return some cores. I want to stay on Nepal's good side, and at the same time make an alliance with the new nation of the region, Sukhothai. Both of my generals die in the last years of the campaign though, and most of the HRE hates me now, due to 60 AE my damned discovered claims plus the peace have generated. The emperor switched its attitude to domineering, and demanded unlawful territory, what I naturally declined. Ouch.
Still, no huge coalition follows. I improve relations wherever I can, but this is not the reason. There is a nicely sized coalition against Lan Na. Only Lan Xang, Keladi and Eretna, all minors, form mine. As the emperor dies, his successor is a diplomat who is neutral to the Commonwealth. It seems the nation will live to see another day. I celebrate by hiring Elisabeth Simonavicius, a Grand Captain.
The next years stay peaceful. Improving relations. Enjoying religious civil disorder in Djerid. Leaving smugglers alone. Watching Bavaria integrate Galicia, and Gondwana finally hitting the ground since it started falling. Well, there were Westphalian nationalists rebelling, and the successor of our brilliant diplomat is a moron, but it was calm around the Commonwealth. So calm that Osage joined the coalition to break the calm a bit.
Djerid was forced to convert to Protestantism. Berne as well, even though I had just finished to convert it to reformed. I guess that the process had already started while being a Catholic province. This is the reason why it didn't get cored yet; still, Rheinlaender culture becomes accepted and my merchants start to suffer due to our mercantilism. Well, you should have stayed home then. What do you say? You did stay home? Then why are you complaining!
(Rheinland is my home node)
As Pasai beats up the former emperor with the help of Powhatan, and Nepal attacks Bashkiria, 1541 draws closer. I take a look to the East, as I hear of another civil war in Mombasa. East Asia is rebel heaven since Medri Bahri joined the fun. I also notice that Brandenburg has gained a foothold on the continent.
Going back to Europe, my time is up. But I do roll a 4, meaning there are ten more years with the mighty Commonwealth of Lorraine. Though, with 60 AE, I doubt I can do much without sending them to their doom.