Greetings to all I know and to all that I don't... well, greetings to you as well.
I haven't been writing lately due to the fact that it takes too much time and I get to bored to finish an AAR around 1650. Nevertheless, I still play the game and sometimes the results are just too much fun to keep to myself.
Anyway, this is the short Burgundian AAR (the only reason it even exists is because of the growth of Austria that I witnessed around 1575).
Settings, 1.07, normal, normal.
Goals: wanted to have a "normal" game. No bb wars, slow, wise expansion, no colonization (or minumum) as it ruins the game for me personally. I get too involved in Americas and then, before I know it, European politics seize to play an important gane.
French solution
I started as every sensible Burgundian player would: kicked French hard while they were down. The first war with them ended in me taking Champagne and Nivernais, then Picardie defected and the rest was business as usual. I conquered and let my English allies conquer as well and by mid 15th century I annexed Ile de France and French were gone. I really did not plan to expand into French territories much, this is why I let couple of provinces go, but I did not feel like fighting France all the way till 1820 either.
My allies
From that point my French policy was aimed toward playing Duchies against each other and making sure France does not come back. This required babysitting English, but it was Provence that suprised me by loosing Maine to rebels. Luckily Brittany intervened and annexed France for the second time. From that point on I singled out that Duchy, financed its wars and made sure it would rise to power with me. This came after realization that too many powers in Gaul would always make it more likely that French might come back.
I also supported Guyenne (it grew at expense of English, as they lost Gascogne to rebels), fought and supported Auvergne and Provence, while slowly expanding in the east.
English dissapointed me again around 1500 by letting French come back at Caux. By this time Austria is still small and pathetic. Now, if I was playing French I would make sure it would stay this way. However, I was playing Burgundy and my goal was to act as a part of HRE, support the emperor and help Austria in the future by fighting protestants. So, without provinding assistance, I let it be, not even paying attention to what the Emperor did. We did fight couple of wars, as Brittany kept attacking Savoy, the latter being a part of Austrian alliance. But those wars were short, fought on my ground, and ended usually in white peace.
The whole point of my story was to compare Austria at 1507 and Austria in 1575, so here comes the first screenshot:
English adventure
A lot of things happen to Burgundy in between. I fought a liberation war against England (the sudden growth of Brittany, which diplo-annexed Guyenne and swallowed Auvergne made me itch and try to meet its expanse somewhere south of Seine not visa versa). Needless to say, I was victorious, occupied most of their island (have to admitt, they were already having their share of problems there with numerous rebellions threatening to overthrow the government. At least I solved that problem). The end of war saw England ceding Normany and Orleans. Calais at the time was occupied by Genoese, curse them, so it will have to wait its turn.
Austria the Huge
Then, of course, as we all knew it was going to happen, I ran into problems with Dutch, made "right" decisions, spent a lot of money, but did survive till Union of Arras. At 1575 I have only two troublesome provinces left: Holland and Zeeland and I think I can take care of them without too much effort. I even started converting them, but this is another story.
Here comes the kicker. At 1575 I looked at my eastern border and, suprise, suprise, saw that two provinces I wanted to incorporate into my kingdom are taken by Austrians (Kleves and Palatinate). Since they look like an eye sore to me, I decided to wage a quick war on Austria, take them two provinces and then use the reminder of my cash on re-establishing warm relations with the Emperor. Then my eyes wandered to the east. Make no mistake, I was fully aware that Austria grew at expense of Bohemia and Hungary. I was suprised they diplo-annexed Wurtemburg and Bavaria in a matter of weeks, but not much. Wurzburg? If I was them it'd be the first one I'd take. Milan? Theirs by right, although they should've hold on to Mantua too. Yes, they do stand at the walls of Istambul, but that was too be expected. But diplo-annexing Poland-Lithuania? Right after Wurtemburg and Bavaria? God, this is the picture, judge for yourself, have any of you seen bigger AI Austria?
Ouch, they are going to have a lot of rebellions (I can see independent Ukraine with more than 1 province
). Plenty of bb wars, I will tbe the first to start one, but I wish them luck, and I want them to survive after loosing no more than 10 provinces. If I get them in my alliance, protestants will start loosing ground everywhere.
Anyway, I should've just posted the screenies, but smth compelled me to write an explanation. Would like to hear your opinions about this behemoth.
I haven't been writing lately due to the fact that it takes too much time and I get to bored to finish an AAR around 1650. Nevertheless, I still play the game and sometimes the results are just too much fun to keep to myself.
Anyway, this is the short Burgundian AAR (the only reason it even exists is because of the growth of Austria that I witnessed around 1575).
Settings, 1.07, normal, normal.
Goals: wanted to have a "normal" game. No bb wars, slow, wise expansion, no colonization (or minumum) as it ruins the game for me personally. I get too involved in Americas and then, before I know it, European politics seize to play an important gane.
French solution
I started as every sensible Burgundian player would: kicked French hard while they were down. The first war with them ended in me taking Champagne and Nivernais, then Picardie defected and the rest was business as usual. I conquered and let my English allies conquer as well and by mid 15th century I annexed Ile de France and French were gone. I really did not plan to expand into French territories much, this is why I let couple of provinces go, but I did not feel like fighting France all the way till 1820 either.
My allies
From that point my French policy was aimed toward playing Duchies against each other and making sure France does not come back. This required babysitting English, but it was Provence that suprised me by loosing Maine to rebels. Luckily Brittany intervened and annexed France for the second time. From that point on I singled out that Duchy, financed its wars and made sure it would rise to power with me. This came after realization that too many powers in Gaul would always make it more likely that French might come back.
I also supported Guyenne (it grew at expense of English, as they lost Gascogne to rebels), fought and supported Auvergne and Provence, while slowly expanding in the east.
English dissapointed me again around 1500 by letting French come back at Caux. By this time Austria is still small and pathetic. Now, if I was playing French I would make sure it would stay this way. However, I was playing Burgundy and my goal was to act as a part of HRE, support the emperor and help Austria in the future by fighting protestants. So, without provinding assistance, I let it be, not even paying attention to what the Emperor did. We did fight couple of wars, as Brittany kept attacking Savoy, the latter being a part of Austrian alliance. But those wars were short, fought on my ground, and ended usually in white peace.
The whole point of my story was to compare Austria at 1507 and Austria in 1575, so here comes the first screenshot:
English adventure
A lot of things happen to Burgundy in between. I fought a liberation war against England (the sudden growth of Brittany, which diplo-annexed Guyenne and swallowed Auvergne made me itch and try to meet its expanse somewhere south of Seine not visa versa). Needless to say, I was victorious, occupied most of their island (have to admitt, they were already having their share of problems there with numerous rebellions threatening to overthrow the government. At least I solved that problem). The end of war saw England ceding Normany and Orleans. Calais at the time was occupied by Genoese, curse them, so it will have to wait its turn.
Austria the Huge
Then, of course, as we all knew it was going to happen, I ran into problems with Dutch, made "right" decisions, spent a lot of money, but did survive till Union of Arras. At 1575 I have only two troublesome provinces left: Holland and Zeeland and I think I can take care of them without too much effort. I even started converting them, but this is another story.
Here comes the kicker. At 1575 I looked at my eastern border and, suprise, suprise, saw that two provinces I wanted to incorporate into my kingdom are taken by Austrians (Kleves and Palatinate). Since they look like an eye sore to me, I decided to wage a quick war on Austria, take them two provinces and then use the reminder of my cash on re-establishing warm relations with the Emperor. Then my eyes wandered to the east. Make no mistake, I was fully aware that Austria grew at expense of Bohemia and Hungary. I was suprised they diplo-annexed Wurtemburg and Bavaria in a matter of weeks, but not much. Wurzburg? If I was them it'd be the first one I'd take. Milan? Theirs by right, although they should've hold on to Mantua too. Yes, they do stand at the walls of Istambul, but that was too be expected. But diplo-annexing Poland-Lithuania? Right after Wurtemburg and Bavaria? God, this is the picture, judge for yourself, have any of you seen bigger AI Austria?
Ouch, they are going to have a lot of rebellions (I can see independent Ukraine with more than 1 province
). Plenty of bb wars, I will tbe the first to start one, but I wish them luck, and I want them to survive after loosing no more than 10 provinces. If I get them in my alliance, protestants will start loosing ground everywhere. Anyway, I should've just posted the screenies, but smth compelled me to write an explanation. Would like to hear your opinions about this behemoth.
