God Savoie The King! - A Savoy 1337 AAR

[LordEnglish]

@tnick0225 : Well, Andalusia isn't too far away, and now I have lots more boats. As for creating the Spanish Empire, that actually hadn't occurred to me at this point! It might have been possible in the fifty years remaining, but at the point I've played to now I don't think there's enough time, sadly.

Chapter VI: The reign of King Amédée 'the Lion' of Savoy and Andalusia, Part Five​

With Andalusia under my control, it's time to distribute the land. Before I touch Andalusia I get around to creating the duchy of Upper Burgundy, which I promptly rename to Upper Savoy, and hand it off to a vassal.

The duchy of Seville goes to my third son, Aymon, who was so far unlanded.

I give Granada to my heir Andre, while Badajoz and Toledo go to randomly generated guys. I can't make Murcia, since some counties were in a rebellion against the sultan when the crusade finished. I tried to attack them, but the rebellion ended too quickly.

Amedee's grandson Pierre comes of age!

As you might guess from his arbitrariness and slothfulness, I forgot to teach him myself so my son got a random teacher for him.

Two years after the crusade, it's time to attack the Pope!

This is France, Pope, you need to stay in Italy!

Some of my armies begin besieging the county, while others wait on the italian border. I spy a big Papal army coming, and hire some mercs to supplement my forces.

My army and the Pope's meet in Genoa!

...and he fights us off, and lands another huge army in Nice!

This obviously calls for more mercs! My army in Venaissin finishes the first siege.

The Pope sends his combined army to lift the siege. My extra mercs arrive in time!

I quickly chase them down and wipe them out.

As sieges continue to finish, the sultan of Mauretania says he'd like Andalusia back now.

I'm then sent messages asking to join the war from the HRE, Genoa, and lots of others. So I leave my armies in Savoy while they fight off the muslims.

It is now July 1410, three years into the war with the Pope. He is landing another large army in Provence!

In Andalusia, Genoa and the HRE are fighting off the sultan easily. It's relaxing to let someone win your wars for you.

I have completely occupied Venaissin at this point, so the warscore is ticking in my favor. I just leave my army where it is, not engaging the pope, until...

100%! The war is over, Pope, send your troops home.

I send my army to Andalusia, but they surrender before I can actually attack them.

With peace at hand, I look in on my northern neighbours.

The Plantagenets rule both France and England once more! But they speak French now?

The English and Irish dukes don't much like that. Aquitaine is ruled by a different King, who is English, and also has his share of rebels.

Only half a year after the previous war, now some more muslims want to try their luck: the Hafsid Sultanate of Africa.

Genoa and some others join up again, making me wonder how Galicia lost Andalusia in the first place. This time I'm not fighting the Pope, so I defeat their army myself.

With the Hafsids kicked out of Andalusia, I bring the fight to their home, to find that Genoa has already been doing that.

1 year of besieging convinces them to admit defeat.

So peace returns to Savoy. Two of my sons decide it would be awesome if their children married, while I'm just shaking my head at them.

Amedee gets a mistress!

Seriously dude, you're going on 80 now, she's young enough to be your granddaughter, or even great-granddaughter!

In fact Amedee soon has his 80th birthday in 1414, and I'm wondering when he's going to die. He becomes infirm, so it can't be long. He gets his mistress pregnant, but then she dies in childbirth! That is just sad. Then Amedee's wife dies, leaving him with no women. Although her county being inherited by my son is nice. I don't bother remarrying since Amedee will die soon. Right?

I stop waiting around for Amedee to die and declare war on the muslims!

My heir Andre also had a war going, again to claim Aragon. This time, he lost, meaning he doesn't have the claim anymore! I am really annoyed with him.

I send my troops to besiege Cebta and Tangier. The Mauretanian army was fighting the Portuguese in a separate war already, and they send their army south and across the strait into Tangier!

Between the crossing penalty, and my reinforcements from the Cebta army, they just don't stand a chance.

The Battle of Tangier and some sieges won the war.

I am informed that my grandson Pierre began a plot to kill my son Andre (his father). I don't tell him to stop, because I'm still annoyed at Andre for losing the claim on Aragon.

It is now January 1420. King Amedee the Lion celebrates his 86th birthday, and then finally dies.

He reigned from 1346 to 1420: 74 years! Will Andre be able to top that? No, probably not.

 

[LordEnglish]

Interlude: State of the World in 1420​

With the death of King Amedee, I thought it was time to show what the known world looks like.

Starting in Iberia:

After the collapse of Castille, Galicia was the most powerful until they lost their Andalusian possessions. Now Savoy is the most powerful, with Portugal also strong. Castille owns part of Aragon because it was inherited by the Duchess of Valencia. Which means Castille is Catalan. Also, Aragon is Italian. The titular kingdom of Trinacria owns a few provinces, having been kicked out of Sicily.

The British Isles:

Ireland is independent, but under an English king. France and England are still unified under a Frankish Plantagenet. The HRE owns one county there for some reason. Scotland is just sitting peacefully in the north.

The Empire of Scandinavia!

It was formed by the Kingdom of Sweden, which begins with Norway and Finland at this start, so it's fairly easy for them to create the empire. Much of Denmark has been taken by the HRE.

Eastern Europe/Russia:

Novgorod managed to create the Kingdom of Rus. The Golden Horde used to be much more powerful, but the arrival of the Timurids hurt them. Lithuania and Poland both fell apart; the Teutonic Order got some territory extending into Ruthenia.

The Middle East:

The Timurids are big, but some emirates gained independence at some point. The Ilkhanate is still around in a few places. The Bahri sultanate lost some territory to Timur earlier on, but managed to fight them off more recently. Cyprus owns part of Nubia because some Miaphysite guy inherited Cyprus.

Finally, Anatolia, the Balkans, and Italy:

Venice has taken lots of territory in Greece and Anatolia. The Kingdom of Sicily has some room to expand. The Byzantine Empire is still hanging on, while the Ottomans try repeatedly to take Constantinople.

Next update will be the reign of King Andre! As usual, any comments are welcome!

 

[tnick0225]

Definitely have an interesting world forming! Nice to see Trinacria limping along but still in the game. I once had the AI Komnenos form Trinacria years ago after they were banished from the ERE. It was kind of interesting they formed an island empire in the Mediterranian.

And an Empire of Scandinavia! Its always rare seeing the AI form something like that, although I guess from that starting position it probably was inevitable, but still great to see that the AI has those kind of ambitions.

Looks like the Ottomons are occupied by someone perhaps the ERE?

Anyway like the world and looking forward to what King Andre can do with his time on the throne of Savoy.

 

[LordEnglish]

@tnick0225 : Hmm I didn't know Trinacria was formable, it exists at the start in 1337. As for Scandinavia, I played another 1337 game before and they appeared then too (in that game they also took Scotland!).

Chapter VII: The reign of King André 'the Great' of Savoy and Andalusia​

Meet King Andre.

His stats have gotten worse since he came of age! He's also maimed, which I believe happened during his first war for Aragon. As a reminder, his mother was an Aragonese princess, and he pressed the resulting claim twice, losing the claim on the second war. If he had only been more patient...

Oh well. I give the duchy of Granada to his son Pierre. Pierre is already of age, and has a son of his own! Amedee was a great-grandfather when he died, apparently.

Soon some factions spring up around my brother, Duke Amedee of Dauphine. They seem weak for now, so I decide to clean up my borders a bit.

The Marinid Sultanate of Mauretania has three counties left in Andalusia which were rebelling when the crusade finished. I begin with Kunka.

My Andalusian levies and my retinues are sent to besiege Kunka, while my Savoyard levies sail to Gibralter and stand guard at the strait.

That faction picks this moment to rise up! I send my strait guarding army over to Savoy to deal with them.

The rebels don't have enough troops to pose much of a threat.

In Andalusia, the Marinids have arrived to besiege Cebta, while my siege continues in Kunka.

I continue to chase down rebels, and soon I get a white peace.

This lands my brother in prison, as well as the faction leader, the Prince-Bishop of Nice! I leave my brother in prison so that he doesn't get up to any mischief, and I revoke Nice.

My demesne is getting too full now since I didn't give Provence to anyone. I give Susa away to my young, slow, son Andre.

As the siege continues in over in Kunka, I notice an army attacking me!

Yes it's a catholic uprising... are we not catholic enough for them?

In June 1422 the army in Savoy returns to finish the war in Andalusia. At this point I am fully occupying Kunka, and the sultan is fully occupying Cebta. He sends his army over the strait to fight me; I merge my armies together and wipe him out.

I head down to retake Cebta. The sultan raised another army, but I defeated it too in Tangier, improving Andre's military education trait too!

The sultan surrenders, giving Kunka to my vassal and renaming it Cuenca!

Then we have a few years of peace. One of my vassals tries to press a claim against Castille, and fails. My traitorous brother dies in my dungeon.

In 1425 my heir, the Duke of Granada, attacks a rebelling vassal of the Marinids.

He easily overwhelmed them and took the county.

In 1427 the truce is gone because there is a new sultan, so I go to take the last muslim county in Iberia.

The war is fairly uneventful. Andre gets a new son named Thierry, and some peasants revolted back in Savoy.

After a year and a half, the war is won.

I send some troops to deal with the peasants too; they are crushed.

My realms are annoyingly separated; the Baleares would join them up a bit, though not by land.

That's the OPM Kingdom of Trinacria, which is now gone. They were allied to Castille, but they didn't join, so the war was just a year of my retinues besieging Menorca.

In Portugal things have been happening. Galicia managed to take the kingdom, but it fell into civil war. My brother Aymon, the duke of Seville, attacks a rebel and gets a county. My son Pierre has a claim on Portugal, so if this instability continues I will be able to take it! As long as he doesn't do what Andre did and lose the claim while he's a duke...

In 1431, Andre becomes 'the Great'! I'm not sure what he did that was so great, but okay.

Looking around while I fabricate a claim on the other island in the Baleares, I notice that one of my dukes has a claim on a whole duchy: Valencia! It's time for war!

Valencia inherited Castille a while ago, which is why Castille is Catalan.

My duke with the claim is in his 60s now, so I dispense with subtlety and just mass my troops together and assault holdings.

After lots of assaults they surrender!

Then I get a weird message from the Pope: he's asking to marry one of my courtiers! Aren't you supposed to be celibate, Pope? I agree anyway to see what happens. A couple months later he asks me for another wife, and no he hasn't converted to Islam. I think the first marriage was automatically cancelled because the Pope's not supposed to marry! After this the Pope seems to realise this and doesn't ask for any more wives.

I get the "Ars Moriendi" event again, and Andre loses his annoying slothful trait. I then start to get ambitions again, which I never noticed didn't appear for slothful characters.

In 1434 I get a claim fabricated on Mallorca! Unfortunately Aragon is involved in some wars, and the island is occupied by other people.

So Andre goes and makes love rather than war.

I guess Duchess Jeanne likes old guys, since Andre's about 60, and her husband isn't young either.

My chaplain then asks me to convert to Lollardism! I was really tempted, so that I could holy war for the rest of Hispania, but of course then all my vassals would rebel and I would be invaded by France and the HRE (and maybe even get crusaded against) and everything would fall apart! Actually in retrospect that probably would have been more entertaining to read. But sadly I sent the chaplain to the jail instead.

Soon afterwards, King Andre 'the Great' dies.

It is now 1436: Andre reigned for 16 years. There are 17 years left now.

 

[tnick0225]

@tnick0225 : Hmm I didn't know Trinacria was formable, it exists at the start in 1337. As for Scandinavia, I played another 1337 game before and they appeared then too (in that game they also took Scotland!).

It used to be formable a few years ago I think after SoI came out. They put a stop to it since there were two titular Kingdoms someone in Sicily could create so it was a little overpowered having the titular kingdoms of Naples and Trinacria to be formable.

 

[mike the knight]

Hispania shall rise

 

[LordEnglish]

@tnick0225 : Ah, I see.

@mike the knight : Well, there isn't too much time, and fabricating claims is so slow...

Chapter VIII: The reign of King Pierre 'the Apostle' of Savoy, Andalusia, and Portugal​

This is King Pierre.

He has high Intrigue and Stewardship, which is nice, but I hate his low Martial and Diplomacy. It means people don't like him, and he is less able to defeat them in battle!

His heir is prince Andre, named after our previous king Andre the Great. I give him the duchy of Granada, which seems to have become the official heir's duchy.

A few factions begin to form, but instead of dealing with them, I decide to take Portugal!

Pierre is the son of a Portuguese princess which gets him his weak claim; the title itself is held by the King of Galicia, but his vassals are all rebelling for the Duchess of Beja's claim. She owns over half of Portugal!

I send my retinues and Andalusian levies to Salamanca to besiege it, while my Savoyard levies sail to Galicia. The rebels are besieging the Galician capital!

I defeat the rebel army, and take over their siege, which ends mere days later.

The rebels negotiate a white peace with the king.

I doubt they can win even united though. Leon joins in too, but they are hardly a threat.

During the war, Pierre receives his nickname, 'the Apostle'. I have no clue how he got it, especially since he's cynical. Also, the Pope calls a crusade for Anatolia, which is ruled by the Eretnid Sultanate. Pierre is too busy killing fellow Christians to bother.

Anyway, Salamanca soon falls, and I send that army to destroy Leon's forces, who were besieging my territory. The rest of the war goes slowly as sieges finish. They surrender in 1439.

In celebration, I call for a grand tournament! Some random Catholic Berber count, Urz'ig, wins.

The Portugal situation is not completely resolved though. It turns out it's an elective monarchy.

Duke Soeiro 'the Ill-Ruler' of Portucale is apparently better than my son Andre. It doesn't help that I get a big foreign conqueror relations penalty with the dukes!

I set up a plot to kill Soeiro. The first attempt fails. I decide then that even if he died, my son would probably still not win; and changing it can't be done for 10 years, which I can't be sure Pierre has. So my only option is to destroy the kingdom.

Now they hate me even more, if that was possible.

It's not them who rebel first though. Some Andalusian dukes think my uncle Aymon would be a better King.

My retinue is already in the middle of their land, so I begin killing them.

However, the faction leader, the Duchess of Cordoba, is killed two months later by her sister the Duchess of Valencia, who inherits her duchy.

The rebellion soon ends inconclusively, I guess because the Duchess of Valencia wasn't rebelling.

Pierre's daughter wants to get married now, so I betroth her to the heir to the kingdom of England! Matrilineally, in fact, which was possible because he wasn't in the king's court for some reason.

I fabricated a claim on Mallorca, so I press it in 1442.

I receive word that the crusade for Anatolia succeeded without me. The count of Ravenna somehow won!

And he's a vassal of the Pope, so now we have a giant Papal state in Anatolia. That is now a thing. I also notice that Genoa controls Constantinople, and the Byzantine Empire itself is Italian and Catholic! It seems to have been inherited by the King of Sicily.

In my war, I quickly ferried some troops to Mallorca and assaulted the holdings. I then massed my troops together on the mainland, and tracked down the Aragonese army.

They were crushed.

The war ended within a year.

Just a month later, before I had dismissed the levies, the Portuguese dukes decide it's time to revolt!

They can't usurp the kingdom, which I destroyed, but they can go for independence. They get 10000 'rebels and opportunists' supporting them, so I hire some mercenaries just to be sure.

My resulting army of 40000 troops crushes their armies.

I could get a white peace now, but I want them in prison.

Some assaults on the faction leader's territory convince them to surrender.

I revoke all their duchies. I can't revoke their counties without being tyrannical though. I give Algarve to a de Savoie who has a county in the region, and Beja and Portucale go to some Portuguese counts who don't totally hate me.

I am then informed that someone is plotting to kill my son! It turns out it's his wife, who is a Sunni Berber lowborn for some reason. I imprison and execute her, and my son doesn't seem to mind. He soon marries a lustful French Catholic, so that's better.

I fabricated a claim on Valladolid in Castille next. Castille is allied to the Byzantine Emperor, who is also king of Sicily. I tried to break the alliance by murdering the relevant people, but that didn't go anywhere. Then the Holy Roman Emperor offers a marriage to my sister, so now we both have emperors backing us up! So then war was declared.

All that emperor stuff turned out not to matter, as I got impatient and just assaulted the county prompting them to give in. The county was given to my half-brother Thierry, who never got any land before.

That betrothal to the heir to England is now a betrothal to the King of England, since he inherited. He's still willing to honor the matrilineal betrothal for some reason.

Then the Emperor asks for my help against England!

I am now allied to England too, but the Emperor asked first. There's also a minor independence war he's dealing with.

I send my Savoyard levies north, killing a rebel army and an English army that landed on the coast. I send some portuguese boats up to the channel and ferry my army across, while the emperor gets a white peace with the rebels. After some besieging in southern England, the king surrenders. The Emperor was pressing someone's claim on the duchy of Norfolk, which is now independent. I'm not sure why the emperor wanted that, but okay.

Pierre dies in late 1447.

There are five years left, and I still need about 10 more counties to create Hispania. So, it's not happening. The game has gotten somewhat boring at this point, since I have enough troops and money to defeat anyone, and there haven't been any really bad civil wars. It's almost over though. The next and final update will be soon!

 

[mike the knight]

If only you had some years more ...I still want your save though to convert it

 

[tnick0225]

I like that Papal State Anatolia When I get too big I sometimes find it more fun to just sit back and watch the rest of the world play at war. Sometimes go off and help an underdog like help defend a tiny Aragon against a monsterous sized Castille.

You did a great job with Savoy though! I'm amazed at how successful a run it's been. And look forward to the next and final update!

 

[LordEnglish]

@mike the knight : I could have gotten Hispania with a few more years, yes. But Savoy has a better colour anyway! Here's the save from the end of this update: View attachment Savoy1451_08_16.rar. I actually converted the game myself, and have been playing it. It won't be an AAR though since I don't know as much about EU4. One note about the conversion: Savoy got French ideas rather than Savoyard ideas, but that was easy to mod.

@tnick0225 : Papal Anatolia is definitely not something you see every day! And yes, this was an extremely lucky game. I was sure, at the beginning, that I was going to badly lose at least one war against England or the HRE sometime. Perhaps in my next AAR I will try playing more recklessly!

Chapter IX: The reign of King André II of Savoy and Andalusia​

This is King Andre II.

He's a true warrior who has no time for things like learning!

He soon has the chance to put his skills as a warrior to the test, as England asks for help in some civil war.

For some reason I have some troops already there. I may have accidentally left them there earlier?

That's not enough troops to really war with, so I ferry some troops up there.

The English army almost lost, but my troops arrived in time to turn the tide. I assault the rebel leader's capital, and then leave. England can handle the tedious sieges on their own.

While Andre was away in the isles, treasonous factions were forming. I imprison one of the offenders, who was foolish enough to give me a valid reason by plotting.

He's my kinsman, the duke of Dauphine. Also, my uncle, count Thierry of Vallidohid, wanted independence. So I made him a vassal of the duchess of Toledo, who likes me better than my own family for some reason.

Now, last time I said that I had enough troops and money to take on anyone. But I haven't gone up against the biggest realm yet.

It's time to attack the HRE. Aargau, the last de jure county of Savoy, must be freed from their tyranny!

Aargau falls to repeated assaults.

My army is split in two to besiege Breisgau and Sundgau. The emperor, who is dealing with a civil war at the moment, sends 18000 troops to deal with me.

But they too are defeated. I go back to my sieges.

Andre gets his first son, Jacques, during the war. He's the new heir, but there is not enough time left in the game for him.

On the other side of my realm, the Marinid Sultan decides to kick me out of Africa.

So, I speed up the war with the Emperor by assaulting lots of holdings until he gives in.

Soon afterwards, the Emperor decides to kiss and make up, proposing a marriage between our family members. Sure, why not. I also catch the King of England trying to kill my daughter for some reason? He likes me so he agrees to stop.

My armies rush to the straits. Sheer numbers again assure victory.

Wiping out their army convinces them to agree to a white peace.

Andre holds a tournament. Some Portuguese lowborn named Paio wins, but Andre gets second place.

What is there left to do? Well, there is this one thing annoying me.

This Galician county is surrounded by my territory. It obviously should be mine. (It's actually a vassal duke whose claim I'm pressing though.)

Salamanca is quickly assaulted and occupied. My army tracks down the Galicians.

And so, the war is won.

At this point, it is 1451. I could play for two more years, but there is not much left to do. So I decided to end here.

Here is Europe, in all her glory!

It is mostly the same as in the 1420 interlude. The major changes are: Bohemia rejoining the Holy Roman Empire, Byzantium being inherited by Sicily, and the Pope's vassal winning the crusade for Anatolia. The status of the French/English blob vacillated multiple times throughout the game, but it ended with France controlling France, Aquitaine, Ireland, and Wales, as well as some holdings in England. While England only controls parts of England.

Paradox thinks I did as well as the af Bjalbos. Note how King Amedee the Lion ruled for over half the game, and correspondingly got over half the points!

And so ends the tale of Savoy.

 

[LordEnglish]

With this, my first AAR is over! I would be glad to read any comments you have.

I intend to start my second AAR in a couple weeks. It will be a Rajas of India game. I have something in mind for it, but I will have to see if it is feasible in-game. I will post a link here when I start it.

 

[mike the knight]

It waa a very nice story ! Truly worthy of Savoyard legacy I am waiting for your next story ,mate

 

[LordEnglish]

I have begun my new AAR: The Rise of the Chawda! And exactly a month later! That was entirely unintended, actually. I know I said a couple of weeks but I was delayed by waiting for the bugs to be fixed, exams, and FTL: Advanced Edition. But now it has begun!

 

[Greenskyguy]

That was an interesting story. I liked it.