Once again a short, badly detailed AAR
During this game, Austria was never leader of any alliance, therefore most of her wars were due to alliance play and not from her own will. More than half the total time found Austria at war.
In 1617, Austria is a middle power in Central Europe.
In the South is a mighty Turkey.
East is Poland.
North are many German minors
West are more German minor and Switzerland.
South are Venice, Spain controlled Milan and then Italian minors.
Austria has no access to the sea, no COT on her territories.
We are allied with Spain. The Holy Roman Emperor is Austrian, giving our troops access to all HRE territories in times of war.
Alliances in time will shift from Spain to Russia. Russia will be the leader of a Russian-Danish-Hanseatic-Venetian-Austrian coalition. However, both Spain and Russia kept fighting everyone, dragging Austria in countless wars. Hopefully, Austria has so many neighbours that there is always lots of ennemies to fight. Sometimes too many in fact.
France is allied with Poland and Savoy which are its vassals (or at least became its vassal during the game).
Turkey is allied with lots of Muslim minors and sometimes with European powers as well, Sweden and even Prussia at the end of the game.
The Spanish wars
Spain dragged Austria in wars against France, therefore Against Poland too and some Italian minor.
During a war, Austrian troops crossing Spanish Milan assault, conquer and annex Parma. This lower our relations with all catholic countries…
Later on, Spain annex Lorraine and there is war against some German minors. Austria annex bavaria and Wurtemberg, leading to further downgrading of her diplomatic relations… In a subsequent war against France and Poland, separate peaces leave Austria and France at war alone against each other. France conquers Parma and as Spain is no more at war, I cannot send troops through Milan. France asks for Parma and 250 gold and I always refuse : they cannot access more Austrian territories, but I can. As Emperor, we can cross Switzerland to reach Lyon, what we do. After conquering Lyon, we propose a white peace but France refuses. We then conquer Cevennes and Auvergne (nearly unfortified) and ask for peace but this time asking Lyon, which we get !
Now Austria has two unreachable provinces (in time of peace) : Lyonnais anad Parma, and France has a permanent CB against Austria. The wars against Poland are draw, because Poland is much too strong to oppose directly. So I’ve heavily fortified all bordering provinces. Polish armies lay siege to a province and I place a relief army next to it. When my province is about to fall or the Poles have low morale, we strike at them, win generally and then withdraw to wait the next opportunity. Using this tactic, Austria manages to contain Poland.
At the next emperor’s election, we lose the title to the Spanish King. That’s bad ! Now, Lyonnais is definitely cut from us. The only solution is to annex Switzerland…
From there, we will have lots of war against France. Even if Lyon was sometimes conquered, we always managed to keep it and even expand our French possessions. Auvergne first, then Cévennes, then, much latter, Roussillon.
The Russian wars
When we shift alliances after a Russian proposal, wars are fought against Poland-France and against Turkey. We eventually capture Posen from Poland. Turkey also captures Polish provinces that we will conquer later from Turkey.
More than ten wars are fought against Turkey, and at the end, we reconquered Hungary, Croatia, Ruthenia, etc. Ruthenia is a problem because it is the first and only Orthodox province I have. Already managing three religions (catholics, protestants and reformed), I cannot give much tolerance to Ruthenia and it rebels quite often. I therefore chose not to expand against Turkey again, as all bordering provinces are either orthodox or sunni. In subsequent wars against Turkey, I’ll keep fighting their armies trying to quench revolts, therefore permitting Walalchia and Moldavia to free themselves from Ottoman rule at times.
Having reinforced and fortified Parma, I wonder how to make this position an easier one. When our army there receive great leaders (Austria has many) that I cannot use anywhere else, we decide to go for Tuscany and, after it is annexed, for Papal states. Now Central Italy is Austrian.
As Savoy has annexed Milan from Spain, Austria, using yet another war between France-Savoie and Spain succeeds in annexing Savoie (by 1780), eventually reuniting all Austrian territories.
The last war : 1791-1792 drawn in by Russia against Turkey, Sweden and Prussia leads to the annexation of two Prussian provinces and an access to the Baltic Sea.
End of Game : Spain first, Austria second, Russia third.
Without its own COT, Austria has a hard time acquiring monopolies and do not earn much from Trade. So Austria is not so rich, but its armies cost a lot. At the end of the game, I had 420 Taller per year plus 20 per month (660 per year) and 1k inf costs 25, 1k cav 76 and 10 cannons 104.
Austrian armies were never gigantic so I had to use them wisely. At its height, we had circa 160k men in 4 armies. The final onslaught on Savoie cost us over 40k men. A bloodbath.
The only ships we had were caught from Tuscany/Papal states as we annexed them, 12 of them. We never built one.
We had three times a « rush of colonist » event. We managed to implement a full-size city in Antigua that was always attacked, sometimes conquered but never annexed. We got the Papal and Savoian trade Posts in North america but lost them at war. At the end, we installed a level one colony in North Canada.
Screenshot of Europe by 1792 to come tomorrow.
During this game, Austria was never leader of any alliance, therefore most of her wars were due to alliance play and not from her own will. More than half the total time found Austria at war.
In 1617, Austria is a middle power in Central Europe.
In the South is a mighty Turkey.
East is Poland.
North are many German minors
West are more German minor and Switzerland.
South are Venice, Spain controlled Milan and then Italian minors.
Austria has no access to the sea, no COT on her territories.
We are allied with Spain. The Holy Roman Emperor is Austrian, giving our troops access to all HRE territories in times of war.
Alliances in time will shift from Spain to Russia. Russia will be the leader of a Russian-Danish-Hanseatic-Venetian-Austrian coalition. However, both Spain and Russia kept fighting everyone, dragging Austria in countless wars. Hopefully, Austria has so many neighbours that there is always lots of ennemies to fight. Sometimes too many in fact.
France is allied with Poland and Savoy which are its vassals (or at least became its vassal during the game).
Turkey is allied with lots of Muslim minors and sometimes with European powers as well, Sweden and even Prussia at the end of the game.
The Spanish wars
Spain dragged Austria in wars against France, therefore Against Poland too and some Italian minor.
During a war, Austrian troops crossing Spanish Milan assault, conquer and annex Parma. This lower our relations with all catholic countries…
Later on, Spain annex Lorraine and there is war against some German minors. Austria annex bavaria and Wurtemberg, leading to further downgrading of her diplomatic relations… In a subsequent war against France and Poland, separate peaces leave Austria and France at war alone against each other. France conquers Parma and as Spain is no more at war, I cannot send troops through Milan. France asks for Parma and 250 gold and I always refuse : they cannot access more Austrian territories, but I can. As Emperor, we can cross Switzerland to reach Lyon, what we do. After conquering Lyon, we propose a white peace but France refuses. We then conquer Cevennes and Auvergne (nearly unfortified) and ask for peace but this time asking Lyon, which we get !
Now Austria has two unreachable provinces (in time of peace) : Lyonnais anad Parma, and France has a permanent CB against Austria. The wars against Poland are draw, because Poland is much too strong to oppose directly. So I’ve heavily fortified all bordering provinces. Polish armies lay siege to a province and I place a relief army next to it. When my province is about to fall or the Poles have low morale, we strike at them, win generally and then withdraw to wait the next opportunity. Using this tactic, Austria manages to contain Poland.
At the next emperor’s election, we lose the title to the Spanish King. That’s bad ! Now, Lyonnais is definitely cut from us. The only solution is to annex Switzerland…
From there, we will have lots of war against France. Even if Lyon was sometimes conquered, we always managed to keep it and even expand our French possessions. Auvergne first, then Cévennes, then, much latter, Roussillon.
The Russian wars
When we shift alliances after a Russian proposal, wars are fought against Poland-France and against Turkey. We eventually capture Posen from Poland. Turkey also captures Polish provinces that we will conquer later from Turkey.
More than ten wars are fought against Turkey, and at the end, we reconquered Hungary, Croatia, Ruthenia, etc. Ruthenia is a problem because it is the first and only Orthodox province I have. Already managing three religions (catholics, protestants and reformed), I cannot give much tolerance to Ruthenia and it rebels quite often. I therefore chose not to expand against Turkey again, as all bordering provinces are either orthodox or sunni. In subsequent wars against Turkey, I’ll keep fighting their armies trying to quench revolts, therefore permitting Walalchia and Moldavia to free themselves from Ottoman rule at times.
Having reinforced and fortified Parma, I wonder how to make this position an easier one. When our army there receive great leaders (Austria has many) that I cannot use anywhere else, we decide to go for Tuscany and, after it is annexed, for Papal states. Now Central Italy is Austrian.
As Savoy has annexed Milan from Spain, Austria, using yet another war between France-Savoie and Spain succeeds in annexing Savoie (by 1780), eventually reuniting all Austrian territories.
The last war : 1791-1792 drawn in by Russia against Turkey, Sweden and Prussia leads to the annexation of two Prussian provinces and an access to the Baltic Sea.
End of Game : Spain first, Austria second, Russia third.
Without its own COT, Austria has a hard time acquiring monopolies and do not earn much from Trade. So Austria is not so rich, but its armies cost a lot. At the end of the game, I had 420 Taller per year plus 20 per month (660 per year) and 1k inf costs 25, 1k cav 76 and 10 cannons 104.
Austrian armies were never gigantic so I had to use them wisely. At its height, we had circa 160k men in 4 armies. The final onslaught on Savoie cost us over 40k men. A bloodbath.
The only ships we had were caught from Tuscany/Papal states as we annexed them, 12 of them. We never built one.
We had three times a « rush of colonist » event. We managed to implement a full-size city in Antigua that was always attacked, sometimes conquered but never annexed. We got the Papal and Savoian trade Posts in North america but lost them at war. At the end, we installed a level one colony in North Canada.
Screenshot of Europe by 1792 to come tomorrow.
