“When the Archbishop surveyed the breadth of his domain he wept, for there were still far too many worlds to conquer.”
The day is January 1, 1419. Dietrich von Mors, Archbishop-Elector of Cologne, was restless. When he acceded to the Archbishopric in 1414, he had resolved to recapture the seat of his Archbishopric from its rebellious guilds. It was important to insure that the Archbishop’s prestige was more than a matter of simple theory. Besides that, Dietrich didn’t care that much for Bonn. Ever since 1414, Dietrich’s life had been consumed with the problem of retaking the city of Cologne for its rightful sovereign. He managed to assemble a mercenary army 10,000 strong without alerting his enemies in the guilds and “forgetting” to tell the Emperor Sigismund of his little enterprise. The Archbishop and his army had made their surprise entry into Cologne in December 1418, when Dietrich felt that the guilds would be unprepared. The guilds were indeed caught completely unawares and surrendered without a fight provided that the Archbishop continued to allow the city its customary economic privileges as a free city of the Empire.
By January 1 of 1419 the Archbishop found that his lust for conquest had not been quelled. Cologne had been regained, but why stop there? Dietrich’s Archbishopric remained a small island in a decidedly hostile sea, no matter how great the purely hypothetical prestige of the office was. Dietrich wished to be a man of stature and prestige in truth as well as in theory. Dietrich certainly knew he was vulnerable, it required nearly all of Cologne’s resources to maintain the Archbishop’s army of 10,000, despite the fact that Dietrich rarely paid them more than half of their promised salaries. He knew that the Dukes of Burgundy and the Kings of France ate 10,000 men armies for breakfast on an almost daily basis, and even the lesser princes of the region (and Dietrich hated to be thought of as a lesser prince) could be a potential threat. Nevertheless, the region’s only real powers, France and Burgundy, hated each other with a passion. If Dietrich could successfully play the French off the Burgundians while annexing his smaller neighbors, he might just to be able to pull off his real goal—to make Cologne into a great power. It would take skill and cunning to pull off this trick, but fortunately Dietrich was amply endowed with both.
The motivation for this AAR was my recent trip to Germany, which included a stop in Cologne, which I enjoyed the most of all the German cities I visted. I'm aware that is sort of cheating to start a new AAR with an old AAR already in progress, but I promise to make every effort to finish both AARs.
Settings:
EU2 v. 1.08, no mods
Normal/Normal (Difficulty/Aggressiveness)
Goals:
1. Make Cologne a power in its own right, equal or surpassing France, Austria, etc.
2. Survive (This will be my second attempt at playing Cologne, the first met a sorry end in 1426 with me being annexed by Luxembourg (but we won't ever mention that again)
3. Ideal: Grossdeutschland
House Rules and other notes:
1. Take German-culture provinces only in Europe (colonies are fair game, assuming I get that far)
2. Cologne, being an Archbishopric, must remain Catholic no matter what
The day is January 1, 1419. Dietrich von Mors, Archbishop-Elector of Cologne, was restless. When he acceded to the Archbishopric in 1414, he had resolved to recapture the seat of his Archbishopric from its rebellious guilds. It was important to insure that the Archbishop’s prestige was more than a matter of simple theory. Besides that, Dietrich didn’t care that much for Bonn. Ever since 1414, Dietrich’s life had been consumed with the problem of retaking the city of Cologne for its rightful sovereign. He managed to assemble a mercenary army 10,000 strong without alerting his enemies in the guilds and “forgetting” to tell the Emperor Sigismund of his little enterprise. The Archbishop and his army had made their surprise entry into Cologne in December 1418, when Dietrich felt that the guilds would be unprepared. The guilds were indeed caught completely unawares and surrendered without a fight provided that the Archbishop continued to allow the city its customary economic privileges as a free city of the Empire.
By January 1 of 1419 the Archbishop found that his lust for conquest had not been quelled. Cologne had been regained, but why stop there? Dietrich’s Archbishopric remained a small island in a decidedly hostile sea, no matter how great the purely hypothetical prestige of the office was. Dietrich wished to be a man of stature and prestige in truth as well as in theory. Dietrich certainly knew he was vulnerable, it required nearly all of Cologne’s resources to maintain the Archbishop’s army of 10,000, despite the fact that Dietrich rarely paid them more than half of their promised salaries. He knew that the Dukes of Burgundy and the Kings of France ate 10,000 men armies for breakfast on an almost daily basis, and even the lesser princes of the region (and Dietrich hated to be thought of as a lesser prince) could be a potential threat. Nevertheless, the region’s only real powers, France and Burgundy, hated each other with a passion. If Dietrich could successfully play the French off the Burgundians while annexing his smaller neighbors, he might just to be able to pull off his real goal—to make Cologne into a great power. It would take skill and cunning to pull off this trick, but fortunately Dietrich was amply endowed with both.
The motivation for this AAR was my recent trip to Germany, which included a stop in Cologne, which I enjoyed the most of all the German cities I visted. I'm aware that is sort of cheating to start a new AAR with an old AAR already in progress, but I promise to make every effort to finish both AARs.
Settings:
EU2 v. 1.08, no mods
Normal/Normal (Difficulty/Aggressiveness)
Goals:
1. Make Cologne a power in its own right, equal or surpassing France, Austria, etc.
2. Survive (This will be my second attempt at playing Cologne, the first met a sorry end in 1426 with me being annexed by Luxembourg (but we won't ever mention that again)
3. Ideal: Grossdeutschland
House Rules and other notes:
1. Take German-culture provinces only in Europe (colonies are fair game, assuming I get that far)
2. Cologne, being an Archbishopric, must remain Catholic no matter what