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Enewald, rocky43, volksmarschall: thanks for your support. As you're about to read, things get shaken up rather quickly in a different way
Lord Strange: Thanks! Yes, my goal is first to take back all formerly celtic provinces, even that spot in Turkey. And anything in between if I feel like it. I'll have vassals for lands I don't want, but it must be under my control.
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Well, I sat and thought, then reviewed past attempts, then thought some more. The more I thought about it, the more I knew I was screwed. In 1.3 I could try to make a colonial empire in America and go from there; the way colonies work in IN, I can't afford it. Another idea would be to take the Tyrone route and go for the lowlands first and get a power base there; in IN the HRE would keep me from doing it if their armies couldn't. I could honestly see no way to beat England without an enganged Scotland and France. So, true to my conditions, I just restarted. I took the same approach as last time, but was far more aggressive in minting to afford more merchant placements. Really, if you want to survive as an Irish minor in IN, you need a whole lot of the luck of the Irish.
Well, I lucked out in that England was dragged into wars with Brittany, Scotland, Burgundy, and France & Co. Now, not all at once, but a progression of a dogpile; some came in when England warred and annexed Tyrone and Connaught (initially a bad thing for me). Others just smelled blood in the water when France killed off their armies. When I noticed that England had almost no troops and that Scotland was at war with them, I took out a loan, grabbed some mercs, and ferried 2K troops to Scotland, and had 2K to deal with English troops in Ireland (By the way, with land force limits of 1K, I was BLEEDING cash, I had to mint at almost 0.5 inflation a year blech). I crushed them and started sieging as many provinces as possible. I don't know for how long I'll have this window, so I'll need to work quickly.
As I mentioned, I was worried about new armies popping up, as that was the issue in my last successful Ireland game. This time, I've fewer troops and little resources to call on, so I needed a break. I think I got one, as England went bankrupt, woohoo! Hopefully this means few new troops. Also, you can see I've made some progress various factions have made against the English. Depending on how it goes, my primary goal is to get the 3 irish provinces. If I can release Wales, I'll take it, but we'll see. If England starts to recover, I'll peace out with what I can take. When Ireland was pacified, I disbanded my merc knight unit to cut costs, as I need to save up to repay the loan.
The nice thing with going bankrupt is that it kills morale, so it was easier to quickly nab a few more provinces. I peaced out to get the three irish provinces, and as much as I would have wanted to try to free Wales, I just couldn't do it with all the rebels re-sieging my conquered provinces. At the very least, I have most of Ireland, very little BB, and only Munster between me and a united Ireland. That and 1.5% inflation, which isn't too bad all things considered.
As an aside, the image below right after peacing out should explain why I need certain conditions in order to get past England. Either England implodes, or you get eatten in IN. First try was bound to be the first, after 8 tries (or more, lost count) I finally got the latter. So playing Leinster for me really is a lot about the odds.
So now I have 4/5 provinces to form Ireland, so the question is really how/when to take Munster. I would take a large stab hit to DOW them, which normally doesn't concern me. However, since they are guarunteed by both England and Brittany, I see a potential for more land grabbing here, so I'll pause here to think.
I apologize for the random shift, but this is really a case of me wanting to make this AAR interesting. Sure I could have continued on the previous track, but I knew it wasn't going anywhere fast, and I want this to have something worth reading. Next update I'll give a full review of where we are and where the world is, as I know this was a rather abrupt shift, but I'm somewhat crunched for time at the moment, my apologies.
Lord Strange: Thanks! Yes, my goal is first to take back all formerly celtic provinces, even that spot in Turkey. And anything in between if I feel like it. I'll have vassals for lands I don't want, but it must be under my control.
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Well, I sat and thought, then reviewed past attempts, then thought some more. The more I thought about it, the more I knew I was screwed. In 1.3 I could try to make a colonial empire in America and go from there; the way colonies work in IN, I can't afford it. Another idea would be to take the Tyrone route and go for the lowlands first and get a power base there; in IN the HRE would keep me from doing it if their armies couldn't. I could honestly see no way to beat England without an enganged Scotland and France. So, true to my conditions, I just restarted. I took the same approach as last time, but was far more aggressive in minting to afford more merchant placements. Really, if you want to survive as an Irish minor in IN, you need a whole lot of the luck of the Irish.
Well, I lucked out in that England was dragged into wars with Brittany, Scotland, Burgundy, and France & Co. Now, not all at once, but a progression of a dogpile; some came in when England warred and annexed Tyrone and Connaught (initially a bad thing for me). Others just smelled blood in the water when France killed off their armies. When I noticed that England had almost no troops and that Scotland was at war with them, I took out a loan, grabbed some mercs, and ferried 2K troops to Scotland, and had 2K to deal with English troops in Ireland (By the way, with land force limits of 1K, I was BLEEDING cash, I had to mint at almost 0.5 inflation a year blech). I crushed them and started sieging as many provinces as possible. I don't know for how long I'll have this window, so I'll need to work quickly.
As I mentioned, I was worried about new armies popping up, as that was the issue in my last successful Ireland game. This time, I've fewer troops and little resources to call on, so I needed a break. I think I got one, as England went bankrupt, woohoo! Hopefully this means few new troops. Also, you can see I've made some progress various factions have made against the English. Depending on how it goes, my primary goal is to get the 3 irish provinces. If I can release Wales, I'll take it, but we'll see. If England starts to recover, I'll peace out with what I can take. When Ireland was pacified, I disbanded my merc knight unit to cut costs, as I need to save up to repay the loan.
The nice thing with going bankrupt is that it kills morale, so it was easier to quickly nab a few more provinces. I peaced out to get the three irish provinces, and as much as I would have wanted to try to free Wales, I just couldn't do it with all the rebels re-sieging my conquered provinces. At the very least, I have most of Ireland, very little BB, and only Munster between me and a united Ireland. That and 1.5% inflation, which isn't too bad all things considered.
As an aside, the image below right after peacing out should explain why I need certain conditions in order to get past England. Either England implodes, or you get eatten in IN. First try was bound to be the first, after 8 tries (or more, lost count) I finally got the latter. So playing Leinster for me really is a lot about the odds.
So now I have 4/5 provinces to form Ireland, so the question is really how/when to take Munster. I would take a large stab hit to DOW them, which normally doesn't concern me. However, since they are guarunteed by both England and Brittany, I see a potential for more land grabbing here, so I'll pause here to think.
I apologize for the random shift, but this is really a case of me wanting to make this AAR interesting. Sure I could have continued on the previous track, but I knew it wasn't going anywhere fast, and I want this to have something worth reading. Next update I'll give a full review of where we are and where the world is, as I know this was a rather abrupt shift, but I'm somewhat crunched for time at the moment, my apologies.
Ok, so since I had repeated that procedure so many times today, I kinda sped through it, to be fully honest. Since both the economy and the war was a total and unprepared blitz, lets stop and review where we are. First our economy is in good shape, we have 14 merchants placed in the top 3 CoT’s, we have a 3 star master of the mint, and a 3 star merchant compete chance advisor. I have a positive yearly income when I have no inflation gain, and things are looking rather well economically speaking. I do have a 76 gold loan to repay, but I’ve the money and it’ll be repaid in a few months. I usually don’t like having inflation this high, but I think its manageable over time, plus I hope to get an event or something to reduce inflation. Politically, we now dominate the island, with only Munster remaining. They are unfortunately guaranteed by both Brittany and England, the former having lost one province to France, the latter having recovered from their rebel problem. This makes taking the last province more difficult, as I’m seeing signs of England’s recovery. What makes this the more annoying is that now I have to deal with revolts in 2 of the irish provinces as I have no cores on them, whereas having all 5, I can form Ireland, get some centralization, and get cores. Such is the price for waiting to DOW Munster.
However, its not all dark and gloomy. England seems to have the mission to vassalize Scotland, which is an ally of Burgundy. This is important as it keeps a land component in Europe for the war, so hopefully lots of English troops will meet a bitter end at Burgundy’s sword. When I thought about it, I still want to stay off the continent for now, as I don’t want to get into a war with France until I am closer to their level of power. For that, I need to control England, so they are my first target. Heh, rather bold to just come off of playing a near death grapple with them to now casually saying their my next target. However, the main change of tune is due to a few things:
1. Larger land force limits. Now that trade money can be used to fund larger armies. Before a 4K army would cost absurd amounts of money as it would be at 4X the cost, now its not.
2. England’s not in Ireland. The key value for this is that I can focus my forces on crushing armies in England proper and besieging. Since England has 27 carracks to my 2 cogs, once war starts my force disposition is fixed. Therefore, I can keep 1K of troops in Munster as vacationers, just in case England invades the island (to counter siege taken provinces) while the bulk of the troops go to Scotland and siege English cities.
3. Greater renown. Now Scotland is eager to make me an ally. Perhaps France might be interested. This allows me to pick some allies that might help in a war, plus provide a way into the war (England’s mission to vassalize Scotland)
While having a local plan is great, lets also take a look around Europe. Northern Europe hasn’t changed much. The two important points is that Burgundy has been weakened by a growing France (losing 2 provinces, plus 1 to Hainaut), so that will probably make my life harder; also Bohemia has inherited Mecklenburg, so that should make it easier for them to blob up. At least this means I won’t be short on large enemies to face should my plan gain more traction.
Southern Europe likewise hasn’t changed too much, some gainers being Venice and Naples. Also worth mentioning is Castille in a war with Aragon, so we can see where that is going. Hungary is also involved in some Italian war. If they win, they also might be someone to keep an eye on.
As a funny quirk worth mentioning, Armagnac was annexed by France (being one of their vassals) but later formed when one of England’s French provinces revolted. Humorous seeing a French vassal not a vassal, though I doubt they’ll last long.
After thinking, I’m going to go with an alliance with Scotland, and hope to beat up on England. They have a 22% inflation, so I don’t think they’ll be able to recover from their repeated bankruptcies, at least not with my attempts to kick them while they’re down. Also being a large island, they’re isolated from France. I’ll try to release Wales and vassalize Scotland, but keep the rest for myself, as they are good provinces. I’ll also make a program to be on good terms with the regional powers: France, Castille, Burgundy, and maybe Denmark. I’ll use RM and whatnot, and hope they don’t look my way. I’ll also expand trade when I see the opportunity.
After a few years, it seems that we might be getting an opening. England is dragged into a war with France and its cohort vassals over Calais. If this can drag on a little like the last one, England might spiral out of control again. Even better, once the truce ends, I might be able to dog pile England and bring Scotland into the fray, which would give me greater boots on the ground so to speak.
Looking over the army page, England only has 13K troops that it has rebuilt, which is probably made difficult by the 22% inflation. Scotland has 9K by itself, so given that a good chunk of England’s troops are expected to meet their grisly end in France, we might have another shot at England again.
While I wait and watch England and France stare at each other, I get another chance to move my slider. If I recall correctly, there’s a chance I can get inflation reduced if I push towards free subjects. However, I need another push towards free trade more, so I do that. I need to get a greater merchant income for the beginning phase. Once I dominate the British Isles, then I can start to work towards a more mercantile and conquest friendly system of private CoT’s.
Well, that’s all for now. I’m going to have to do this carefully here, as I need to make sure England doesn’t get back up and smack me around again. I probably won’t be able to update tomorrow, so it will take another day or so to update.
However, its not all dark and gloomy. England seems to have the mission to vassalize Scotland, which is an ally of Burgundy. This is important as it keeps a land component in Europe for the war, so hopefully lots of English troops will meet a bitter end at Burgundy’s sword. When I thought about it, I still want to stay off the continent for now, as I don’t want to get into a war with France until I am closer to their level of power. For that, I need to control England, so they are my first target. Heh, rather bold to just come off of playing a near death grapple with them to now casually saying their my next target. However, the main change of tune is due to a few things:
1. Larger land force limits. Now that trade money can be used to fund larger armies. Before a 4K army would cost absurd amounts of money as it would be at 4X the cost, now its not.
2. England’s not in Ireland. The key value for this is that I can focus my forces on crushing armies in England proper and besieging. Since England has 27 carracks to my 2 cogs, once war starts my force disposition is fixed. Therefore, I can keep 1K of troops in Munster as vacationers, just in case England invades the island (to counter siege taken provinces) while the bulk of the troops go to Scotland and siege English cities.
3. Greater renown. Now Scotland is eager to make me an ally. Perhaps France might be interested. This allows me to pick some allies that might help in a war, plus provide a way into the war (England’s mission to vassalize Scotland)
While having a local plan is great, lets also take a look around Europe. Northern Europe hasn’t changed much. The two important points is that Burgundy has been weakened by a growing France (losing 2 provinces, plus 1 to Hainaut), so that will probably make my life harder; also Bohemia has inherited Mecklenburg, so that should make it easier for them to blob up. At least this means I won’t be short on large enemies to face should my plan gain more traction.
Southern Europe likewise hasn’t changed too much, some gainers being Venice and Naples. Also worth mentioning is Castille in a war with Aragon, so we can see where that is going. Hungary is also involved in some Italian war. If they win, they also might be someone to keep an eye on.
As a funny quirk worth mentioning, Armagnac was annexed by France (being one of their vassals) but later formed when one of England’s French provinces revolted. Humorous seeing a French vassal not a vassal, though I doubt they’ll last long.
After thinking, I’m going to go with an alliance with Scotland, and hope to beat up on England. They have a 22% inflation, so I don’t think they’ll be able to recover from their repeated bankruptcies, at least not with my attempts to kick them while they’re down. Also being a large island, they’re isolated from France. I’ll try to release Wales and vassalize Scotland, but keep the rest for myself, as they are good provinces. I’ll also make a program to be on good terms with the regional powers: France, Castille, Burgundy, and maybe Denmark. I’ll use RM and whatnot, and hope they don’t look my way. I’ll also expand trade when I see the opportunity.
After a few years, it seems that we might be getting an opening. England is dragged into a war with France and its cohort vassals over Calais. If this can drag on a little like the last one, England might spiral out of control again. Even better, once the truce ends, I might be able to dog pile England and bring Scotland into the fray, which would give me greater boots on the ground so to speak.
Looking over the army page, England only has 13K troops that it has rebuilt, which is probably made difficult by the 22% inflation. Scotland has 9K by itself, so given that a good chunk of England’s troops are expected to meet their grisly end in France, we might have another shot at England again.
While I wait and watch England and France stare at each other, I get another chance to move my slider. If I recall correctly, there’s a chance I can get inflation reduced if I push towards free subjects. However, I need another push towards free trade more, so I do that. I need to get a greater merchant income for the beginning phase. Once I dominate the British Isles, then I can start to work towards a more mercantile and conquest friendly system of private CoT’s.
Well, that’s all for now. I’m going to have to do this carefully here, as I need to make sure England doesn’t get back up and smack me around again. I probably won’t be able to update tomorrow, so it will take another day or so to update.
I'd be carefull when tackling England, maybe send a ship around to check on their troop positions. Check war exhaustion aswell
Well, if you enter in a war with England, I suggest you make their WE higher as possible, so they can possible break
England will be a tough nut to crack but I feel you can do it. Just make sure you are careful.
I found some time to work on an update, hope you all like it.
Enewald: Poland didn't have the largest army, I had to scroll down the list to find England's, rather sad.
To all: its funny that you all mention that I should be careful dealing with England, as you will soon see how a simple bit of "oh what the hell" had some very interesting results. Without further ado:
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A few years pass while I watch England wage war. They fight France, Burgundy, then annex poor Armagnac brutally. Meanwhile I send merchants to Novgorod and Alexandria, netting me 25 merchants in the top 5 CoT’s. This gives me a good income base to work with, so I should be done with merchants for now. Most likely I’ll lose a lot of them due to reputation gained from annexing Munster and lots of English provinces (I hope). I also expand my diplomatic advances, getting an alliance with Denmark, and raising relations with them, Scotland, Castille, France, and Burgundy. Denmark expands nicely into northern Europe during a war which I “take part in” to keep the alliance (actually I just sit on my island making money). They trounce an assorted alliance, annexing Oldenburg, vassalizing Brunswick and taking a province, doing the same to Münster (the German one), and forcing the Palatinate (the HRE) to pay them a tribute. Considering they have a core on Mecklenburg, I foresee this getting interesting.
During this, my king dies and is replaced by a decent king who I can’t recall well, because he quickly dies as well, giving me a regency council. After two years, I get a 4/7/3 king, so I of course turn him into a general, as he’s worthless otherwise. Turns out he is a 4 shock general. “Hey, not bad” I tell myself, lets see what England has. Well I’ll be, they have 3 generals, the best of which is a 1 shock. They also only have 16K troops to my 6K (plus Scotland’s 9K and Denmark’s 13K who probably wouldn’t get into the fight). So, in a spark of utter rash and poor decision making, I do what any one itching for a fight would do, I declare war on England. I call this rash as I expected no help, and England had Holland and Brabant as allies, so Ireland would probably get invaded. Lo and behold, both of England’s allies dishonor the treaty, and Scotland stays true to me! Denmark’s quitting was a good thing, keeps me from helping them in their wars.
Well, so I’ve got 6K against 13K (as Scotland goes one province in and sits there like a moron), so what to do? Charge! I suppose my being so bold is partly due to my good king leading them and having a tech advantage (my army was 3K cav, 3K longbowmen while England still had medieval infantry). This is made even better as England splits up his army into 4 blocks, 2 medium sized ones and 2 small ones. I quickly overrun the small ones, and beat up the smaller of the 2 large ones while the other goes north to fight Scotland, again a lucky break for me. I beat the crap out of the English army and route it in a few battles.
Once the armies in the south are dead, I proceed to do a rousing game of whack-a-mole with all the rising regiments England tries to make, oh boy what fun. Really the trick was to keep my army in 2 groups, 1 all cav, the other all infantry. I had the advantage, so it was just a case of getting to the province just as or before they are formed.
After about 6 months of this, I kill off all of England’s manpower/merc pool/money so I can get started with sieging. Looking at the ledger of armies, you can see that the only troops England has are still north in Scotland. Somehow, despite being outnumbered, they beat Scotland’s army and is sieging the capital, while the Scots siege some random province. Either way, I hope they remain occupied while I do my thing.
After pausing to think, I’ve come up with a dastardly plan. I’ll try to get as close as I can to 100 warscore, and get as much as possible. Before I peace out, I’ll make a few more regiments in Ireland, perhaps ship some over to Scotland once the deal is made, then quickly declare war on Munster, bringing England back in for another round where I can grab some more land. This way I should be able to permanently cripple England and gain maybe most of southern England and free Wales.
Well, seems England must have taken out a loan, as halfway through the year he starts to train a bunch of regular troops. Great, time for another round of whack-a-mole. After clubbing those baby seals, I look north to find Scotland down 2 provinces, while taking 1 of England’s. Not the brightest ally, but useful I suppose. I split my forces up and start to siege southern England. During this time I get some rebels popping up in Ulster, so I create a 3K man army in Ireland to deal with them (being rich is great). I also get an event where I can either lose 3 merchants or pay 50 ducats. Since it costs 30 ducats to replace them, assuming no misses, I might as well save myself the trouble and just pay the 50 ducat bribe. Below you can see the progress of the war.
Right after I type that, Scotland buggers out, bunch of sissies. They lose a province and pay England a lot of money. Great, now I get to fight England’s 7K army, then probably do more whack-a-mole. Yay.
Ok, so fighting England’s last stack is getting bloody, and he’s using the Scottish war fund to hire a lot more men. I finally took East Anglia, so 2 can play at this game, I’m going to spam mercs right up where the sun don’t shine, and we’ll see who like it then.
Then to top it all off, somehow England got into another war with France? I’m not sure how that happened, but England of course loses again. Take that Saxon dogs!
After a few months of reorganizing while 9K Englishmen watch me siege their capital, I finally take London and gather the whole of my army. With so many soldiers and mercs, I’m bleeding cash again, so I need to kill his army quickly and get back to sieging. Its time for a showdown! Let’s charge the field lads! Remember what we’re fighting for (not to start over again) so cut down those Saxon dogs! For a greater Celtica! Slay them all!
After much ping-ponging, they finally die, the last of the English troops. Now to take the land for us lads!
At the end of the year, I decide to use all that land tradition to hire me a pair of generals, as I expect to be doing more fighting now that England has been put in its place (at the very least a lot more rebels)
I get the event “Diplomatic Insult” which makes it easy to declare war on Munster. I decide I’d like to get a cheap DOW on them, so I peace out with England earlier than I would like (war score of 77) and get 2 provinces, a core removed, Wales released, and 50 ducats. Now I’ll just declare war on Munster and get them dragged back in again. Surprisingly Scotland does not join me. I guess for that they won’t get their province back from England when I vassalize them.
After a year or so of sieging, England goes bankrupt and I clean up, taking all of his provinces. Ah, so satisfying to finally beat the snot out of the dreaded red blob. Isn’t that a nice shade of green?
I peace out with England, taking all of southern England: Cornwall, Wessex, Kent, and East Anglia with its second wonderful university. Next war I’ll try to kill off the cores and take more land. This gives me a good economic base, especially once cores start popping on these guys. It also guts England, meaning they’ll never again be able to rise up, while I’ll be able to smack them around if they get uppity.
To show how bad it was, Brittany was the alliance leader in this war, though I never saw them. I simply white peace out with them, leaving me only one thing left to do.
So here is what our kingdom looks like (don’t worry, I’ll change the file to give Ireland Leinster’s green color, I mean its Ireland for pete’s sake). We have our emerald isle, and most of southern England. I’m going to work on making Wales and Scotland my vassals, as well as working to release Northumbria and making them a vassal as well. I’ve got a fair bid of BB at about 12, so I’ll take my time now to burn it off.
We’re the richest nation on earth (or at least known) although that might change if I lose a lot of merchants due to my reputation. My compete chance advisor died, so it might be difficult. I’m also relying on a 3 star master of the mint to keep me afloat financially, though I have a good war chest to last me a while. My next NI will be the Bank to secure my income and to start to reduce my inflation.
Poor England has been reduced to a hollow shell, having the world’s highest inflation, going bankrupt twice in this war, 4 times in the very first one. They are going no where, and will only be gobbled up by my growing Celtic Empire in due time.
My tech levels are adequate. I’m keeping up in government as I’m trying to get to 9 for the Bank idea as quickly as possible. My other tech’s are lagging somewhat, but I’ll manage. Most of the advanced countries are small and in danger of being eaten.
Countries to watch are:
1. Bohemia – still has Lubek and Mecklenburg, so has the economic power to become something. Has been fighting Brandenburg some, so has been expanding, but can be beaten by Austria (has already once)
2. Milan – Has conquered a good portion of Italy, and might form the country if another outside power doesn’t stop them
3. Denmark - they continue their conquest of northern Europe, making Holland one of their vassals while still keeping Sweden and Norway in a PU. Will be interesting if they get in a fight with Bohemia or France.
4. Castille – will probably form Spain, so I need to watch them as I plan on taking Iberia at some point.
France has been strangely tame lately though, but I’m not complaining.
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Well that covers a rather long update, hope you enjoyed!
Enewald: Poland didn't have the largest army, I had to scroll down the list to find England's, rather sad.
To all: its funny that you all mention that I should be careful dealing with England, as you will soon see how a simple bit of "oh what the hell" had some very interesting results. Without further ado:
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A few years pass while I watch England wage war. They fight France, Burgundy, then annex poor Armagnac brutally. Meanwhile I send merchants to Novgorod and Alexandria, netting me 25 merchants in the top 5 CoT’s. This gives me a good income base to work with, so I should be done with merchants for now. Most likely I’ll lose a lot of them due to reputation gained from annexing Munster and lots of English provinces (I hope). I also expand my diplomatic advances, getting an alliance with Denmark, and raising relations with them, Scotland, Castille, France, and Burgundy. Denmark expands nicely into northern Europe during a war which I “take part in” to keep the alliance (actually I just sit on my island making money). They trounce an assorted alliance, annexing Oldenburg, vassalizing Brunswick and taking a province, doing the same to Münster (the German one), and forcing the Palatinate (the HRE) to pay them a tribute. Considering they have a core on Mecklenburg, I foresee this getting interesting.
During this, my king dies and is replaced by a decent king who I can’t recall well, because he quickly dies as well, giving me a regency council. After two years, I get a 4/7/3 king, so I of course turn him into a general, as he’s worthless otherwise. Turns out he is a 4 shock general. “Hey, not bad” I tell myself, lets see what England has. Well I’ll be, they have 3 generals, the best of which is a 1 shock. They also only have 16K troops to my 6K (plus Scotland’s 9K and Denmark’s 13K who probably wouldn’t get into the fight). So, in a spark of utter rash and poor decision making, I do what any one itching for a fight would do, I declare war on England. I call this rash as I expected no help, and England had Holland and Brabant as allies, so Ireland would probably get invaded. Lo and behold, both of England’s allies dishonor the treaty, and Scotland stays true to me! Denmark’s quitting was a good thing, keeps me from helping them in their wars.
Well, so I’ve got 6K against 13K (as Scotland goes one province in and sits there like a moron), so what to do? Charge! I suppose my being so bold is partly due to my good king leading them and having a tech advantage (my army was 3K cav, 3K longbowmen while England still had medieval infantry). This is made even better as England splits up his army into 4 blocks, 2 medium sized ones and 2 small ones. I quickly overrun the small ones, and beat up the smaller of the 2 large ones while the other goes north to fight Scotland, again a lucky break for me. I beat the crap out of the English army and route it in a few battles.
Once the armies in the south are dead, I proceed to do a rousing game of whack-a-mole with all the rising regiments England tries to make, oh boy what fun. Really the trick was to keep my army in 2 groups, 1 all cav, the other all infantry. I had the advantage, so it was just a case of getting to the province just as or before they are formed.
After about 6 months of this, I kill off all of England’s manpower/merc pool/money so I can get started with sieging. Looking at the ledger of armies, you can see that the only troops England has are still north in Scotland. Somehow, despite being outnumbered, they beat Scotland’s army and is sieging the capital, while the Scots siege some random province. Either way, I hope they remain occupied while I do my thing.
After pausing to think, I’ve come up with a dastardly plan. I’ll try to get as close as I can to 100 warscore, and get as much as possible. Before I peace out, I’ll make a few more regiments in Ireland, perhaps ship some over to Scotland once the deal is made, then quickly declare war on Munster, bringing England back in for another round where I can grab some more land. This way I should be able to permanently cripple England and gain maybe most of southern England and free Wales.
Well, seems England must have taken out a loan, as halfway through the year he starts to train a bunch of regular troops. Great, time for another round of whack-a-mole. After clubbing those baby seals, I look north to find Scotland down 2 provinces, while taking 1 of England’s. Not the brightest ally, but useful I suppose. I split my forces up and start to siege southern England. During this time I get some rebels popping up in Ulster, so I create a 3K man army in Ireland to deal with them (being rich is great). I also get an event where I can either lose 3 merchants or pay 50 ducats. Since it costs 30 ducats to replace them, assuming no misses, I might as well save myself the trouble and just pay the 50 ducat bribe. Below you can see the progress of the war.
Right after I type that, Scotland buggers out, bunch of sissies. They lose a province and pay England a lot of money. Great, now I get to fight England’s 7K army, then probably do more whack-a-mole. Yay.
Ok, so fighting England’s last stack is getting bloody, and he’s using the Scottish war fund to hire a lot more men. I finally took East Anglia, so 2 can play at this game, I’m going to spam mercs right up where the sun don’t shine, and we’ll see who like it then.
Then to top it all off, somehow England got into another war with France? I’m not sure how that happened, but England of course loses again. Take that Saxon dogs!
After a few months of reorganizing while 9K Englishmen watch me siege their capital, I finally take London and gather the whole of my army. With so many soldiers and mercs, I’m bleeding cash again, so I need to kill his army quickly and get back to sieging. Its time for a showdown! Let’s charge the field lads! Remember what we’re fighting for (not to start over again) so cut down those Saxon dogs! For a greater Celtica! Slay them all!
After much ping-ponging, they finally die, the last of the English troops. Now to take the land for us lads!
At the end of the year, I decide to use all that land tradition to hire me a pair of generals, as I expect to be doing more fighting now that England has been put in its place (at the very least a lot more rebels)
I get the event “Diplomatic Insult” which makes it easy to declare war on Munster. I decide I’d like to get a cheap DOW on them, so I peace out with England earlier than I would like (war score of 77) and get 2 provinces, a core removed, Wales released, and 50 ducats. Now I’ll just declare war on Munster and get them dragged back in again. Surprisingly Scotland does not join me. I guess for that they won’t get their province back from England when I vassalize them.
After a year or so of sieging, England goes bankrupt and I clean up, taking all of his provinces. Ah, so satisfying to finally beat the snot out of the dreaded red blob. Isn’t that a nice shade of green?
I peace out with England, taking all of southern England: Cornwall, Wessex, Kent, and East Anglia with its second wonderful university. Next war I’ll try to kill off the cores and take more land. This gives me a good economic base, especially once cores start popping on these guys. It also guts England, meaning they’ll never again be able to rise up, while I’ll be able to smack them around if they get uppity.
To show how bad it was, Brittany was the alliance leader in this war, though I never saw them. I simply white peace out with them, leaving me only one thing left to do.
So here is what our kingdom looks like (don’t worry, I’ll change the file to give Ireland Leinster’s green color, I mean its Ireland for pete’s sake). We have our emerald isle, and most of southern England. I’m going to work on making Wales and Scotland my vassals, as well as working to release Northumbria and making them a vassal as well. I’ve got a fair bid of BB at about 12, so I’ll take my time now to burn it off.
We’re the richest nation on earth (or at least known) although that might change if I lose a lot of merchants due to my reputation. My compete chance advisor died, so it might be difficult. I’m also relying on a 3 star master of the mint to keep me afloat financially, though I have a good war chest to last me a while. My next NI will be the Bank to secure my income and to start to reduce my inflation.
Poor England has been reduced to a hollow shell, having the world’s highest inflation, going bankrupt twice in this war, 4 times in the very first one. They are going no where, and will only be gobbled up by my growing Celtic Empire in due time.
My tech levels are adequate. I’m keeping up in government as I’m trying to get to 9 for the Bank idea as quickly as possible. My other tech’s are lagging somewhat, but I’ll manage. Most of the advanced countries are small and in danger of being eaten.
Countries to watch are:
1. Bohemia – still has Lubek and Mecklenburg, so has the economic power to become something. Has been fighting Brandenburg some, so has been expanding, but can be beaten by Austria (has already once)
2. Milan – Has conquered a good portion of Italy, and might form the country if another outside power doesn’t stop them
3. Denmark - they continue their conquest of northern Europe, making Holland one of their vassals while still keeping Sweden and Norway in a PU. Will be interesting if they get in a fight with Bohemia or France.
4. Castille – will probably form Spain, so I need to watch them as I plan on taking Iberia at some point.
France has been strangely tame lately though, but I’m not complaining.
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Well that covers a rather long update, hope you enjoyed!
Nice job! Welcome to the forums, and you've done brilliantly well in the game! Keep up the good work! 
I've just read the AAR and I only can say: excellent work! I'm really surprised you've managed to do such a good job with Leinster and now as Ireland. Keep up the good work and I'll be following!
Don't forget to fight off those Protestants when the time comes.
And don't forget to annex Wales, Scotland and Brittany!
And don't forget to annex Wales, Scotland and Brittany!
volksmarschall: Thanks! Dealing with the English is the hardest part of playing an Irish minor. While there will be tougher wars, at least I'm not at risk of being destroyed.
Enewald: Yes, it will be very interesting to see what power blocks form in the next 50 years. Its somewhat moot though as they will all fall under the boot of the Irish (we hope!) And yes, I do plan on liberating Galicia and taking Thrace! Those damn Romans killed the Gauls! No mercy!
demokratickid: Thanks! This AAR has been more fun than most runs of Leinster I do. Its nice having a far reaching goal, as I usually get bored after forming Ireland.
Capibara: Thank you kindly. Leinster was my first nation in EU3 back in vanilla version and I always enjoy the idea of reversing history.
Hardstuff: I was debating whether to go Protestant or stay Catholic, but I suppose given Ireland and Northumbria's tradition of being Catholic learning centers during the Dark Ages I will stick with it. Also, taking control of the Curia would help me with various goals... hmm... perhaps something to do rather soon to help with the stab hits. As for annexing Wales and the others, I actually plan on making them vassals. Wales has rather poor provinces, as does Scotland. Plus, I like the idea of making a dominion of celtic aligned states under my protection. In the next update you'll see some of my reorganization of the islands. As much as I like Brittany's lands, I'm tempted to let them stay a vassal just to keep them around and have a vassal on the continent. I think Galicia and Navarra will also make good vassals. Heh, when I'm done I might have a good half dozen or so vassals :rofl:
I'm also tempted to do some colonization of North America to make sure I keep Irish as a dominant culture (plus to take some more land before I go into a continental showdown). What do you lads think?
edit: By the way, can you control the Curia and still have the decision where you declare your king above the church? (can't remember the name of it, it gives -1 RR and you have to be on bad terms with the papal states)
Enewald: Yes, it will be very interesting to see what power blocks form in the next 50 years. Its somewhat moot though as they will all fall under the boot of the Irish (we hope!) And yes, I do plan on liberating Galicia and taking Thrace! Those damn Romans killed the Gauls! No mercy!
demokratickid: Thanks! This AAR has been more fun than most runs of Leinster I do. Its nice having a far reaching goal, as I usually get bored after forming Ireland.
Capibara: Thank you kindly. Leinster was my first nation in EU3 back in vanilla version and I always enjoy the idea of reversing history.
Hardstuff: I was debating whether to go Protestant or stay Catholic, but I suppose given Ireland and Northumbria's tradition of being Catholic learning centers during the Dark Ages I will stick with it. Also, taking control of the Curia would help me with various goals... hmm... perhaps something to do rather soon to help with the stab hits. As for annexing Wales and the others, I actually plan on making them vassals. Wales has rather poor provinces, as does Scotland. Plus, I like the idea of making a dominion of celtic aligned states under my protection. In the next update you'll see some of my reorganization of the islands. As much as I like Brittany's lands, I'm tempted to let them stay a vassal just to keep them around and have a vassal on the continent. I think Galicia and Navarra will also make good vassals. Heh, when I'm done I might have a good half dozen or so vassals :rofl:
I'm also tempted to do some colonization of North America to make sure I keep Irish as a dominant culture (plus to take some more land before I go into a continental showdown). What do you lads think?
edit: By the way, can you control the Curia and still have the decision where you declare your king above the church? (can't remember the name of it, it gives -1 RR and you have to be on bad terms with the papal states)