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You seem to be doing well at maintaining a healthy number of vassals as well as expanding through direct conquest, the immediate future looks rosy for France.

I'd be tempted to take that alliance, if only to secure no hostile Austria in the near future. Could make an expansion into Italy very tempting...
 
You seem to be doing well at maintaining a healthy number of vassals as well as expanding through direct conquest, the immediate future looks rosy for France.

I'd be tempted to take that alliance, if only to secure no hostile Austria in the near future. Could make an expansion into Italy very tempting...

Yeah, it is very tempting, isn't it? The main question is: will they break it off and rival me when/if they become a Great Power themselves?
 
Yeah, it is very tempting, isn't it? The main question is: will they break it off and rival me when/if they become a Great Power themselves?

They probably will - but still better to take advantage of the period I'm between when it gives you a freer hand. Even just one or two decades with Austria effectively neutralised could allow you to make significant inroads into Germany or northern Italy.
 
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Chapter 9: Centralizing Royal Authority.



The Nobility of France has always enjoyed a large degree of authonomy. During the Hundred Years War, that authonomy was used against France, creating a deep division that resulted in the independence of the Duchies Of Burgundy and Brittany.
This must end.
The annexation of Brittany is progressing smoothly, but already dark clouds are massing over the entire Christian World.
With protestants on the rise, risk of rebellion and unrest is increasing tremendously.


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A priest in Compiègne has translated the bible in French. Such heresy cannot be endured. The priest and his books will be burned. France must stand as one.


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For 3 years, France has kept its nose clean, staying out of international entanglements. Enemies are all around us.
Burgundy’s unholy coalition with England.
Castile, considering us a rival and an enemy.
Poland, allied with Sweden, Bohemia and Genoa, might be next on the list. With Austria and Lithuania firmly under its control, Poland can muster a total of 150,000 men. Twice our Force Limit.
This very same Poland, probably the only nation in Europe with the singular power to destroy all we have worked for, has now agreed to enter an alliance to increase their power versus England.
Our eastern border is now secure.


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The largest benefit of being the Papal Controller, is the extra diplomat. This allows us to begin annexing Flanders alongside Brittany, while still keeping a 3rd diplomat around for improving relations with Poland, Provence and Galicia.


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June, 1504. Louis ascends the throne. His son will be Louis XIV someday.


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I belatedly realise we didn’t enter into a Royal Marriage with Poland. This mistake is now rectified.


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1505. The English War Of Scottish Subjugation is still going strong. England has all of Scotland occupied, but for some reason cannot make the end run. Poland peaces out, but the war continues.


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Even France cannot escape the ravages of reformation. Paris has turned Protestant. A dark day for the church.


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Offensive ideas are now fully realised. Economic ideas are halfway there. France is making 14 ducats per month, even with a “lowly” stability of +1. Life is good.


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I have not mentioned it before, but we have been Curia Controller for a couple of decades now and it looks like we will be staying for some time yet.


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Oktober, 1505. Show Elan turns the French army into an unbeatable juggernaut for the next 5 years. I really should take advantage of it, and start casting a leery eye north. But our AE is still too high, and I am more than a little worried about adding to our troubles before I am ready.


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In december of that same year, the English finally call it quits. Faced with only a relatively meagre outcome, I cannot help but wonder who exactly has won the war.


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Almost a year later, Brittany is fully integrated. Flanders is halfway there and I am prepping Provence to be next. I spend the next 2 years building up our infrastructure.
Then, on november 3rd, 1508, I am as ready as I will ever be. After all, it would be a shame to have that Elan go to waste, wouldn’t it?

Burgundy, I hope you’re ready for another round, because here I come…
 
Paris going protestant. Ouch! Do you have any plan to convert it back (or just ride with it and go protestant)?

I've encountered an event a couple of patches ago that made a protestant province catholic (it even still had that massive missionary strength modifier on it) but I only encountered it once in my 435 hours of gamepley, so it's not really an option :D

And I'll eagerly await the war...
 
Is Paris the only province that is protestant? Weird game concept when the capital changes religion.
 
Paris going protestant. Ouch! Do you have any plan to convert it back (or just ride with it and go protestant)?

I've encountered an event a couple of patches ago that made a protestant province catholic (it even still had that massive missionary strength modifier on it) but I only encountered it once in my 435 hours of gamepley, so it's not really an option :D

And I'll eagerly await the war...

I am just going to do what I always do when I want to stay catholic: wait 25 years for the fervor to wear off and then convert them back peacefully.

Is Paris the only province that is protestant? Weird game concept when the capital changes religion.

No, it's not the only one. I think I have 3 protestant provinces. The only problem is that it affects my income.

Going for Burgundy's jugular this time?

I have a ton of options. Release Holland and/or Brabant and/or Nevers, grab a couple of provinces for myself, force-vassalise Lorraine (which would give me Metz). I'm sure there are more possibilities. I haven't really decided, but the plan is to shrink them as much as possible without taking a ton of AE in the process.
 
I am just going to do what I always do when I want to stay catholic: wait 25 years for the fervor to wear off and then convert them back peacefully.

well, given the large basetax paris has, conversion even without the modifier can be a bit difficult (or am I just remembering stuff wrong? I haven't had to convert a very high basetax province in a long time)
 
well, given the large basetax paris has, conversion even without the modifier can be a bit difficult (or am I just remembering stuff wrong? I haven't had to convert a very high basetax province in a long time)

TBH, I have no clue either. Ile De France has such a high basetax, it will take stab 3 + perfect infrastructure+wo-knows-what-else.
 
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Chapter 10: Burgundy, You Cheat!


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I must say, I like those odds: Burgundy, Lorraine, England, The Hansa and Münster (the German one) against France and Poland + their respective underlings. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, as it will turn out, something did. I just don’t know exactly what, but we’ll get to that later.


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The war starts fairly normal. 15,000 each to Holland, Lorraine and the actual duchy, with the rest on standby in case of English landings.


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After taking care of the enemy forces, I start carpet sieging Burgundy and Lorraine. After a while, it becomes obvious that the English are too smart to land in France. Instead they go for Galicia, where I can’t get to. Yet. So I send my 4th army to Münster via Gelre, just in time to intercept a Hanseatic army. They turn back without engaging.


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I freely admit it: when I saw those Austrians heading for my siege stacks, I almost broke the sieges up North to prevent a shattering defeat.
Then I realised that Austria was on my side. They hate France, the have rivaled us, but they love Poland too much not to help us. Very nice.


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Remember that Hanseatic army that ran when faced with the might of French troops? Turns out that running wasn’t an option either. I am so glad that these guys are on my side.


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With all those allied forces hanging around, the war became rather dull. It was just a matter of time to wait for the inevitable. Münster was the first to see the light. It will be a long time before they are a threat to anyone again.


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The Hansa was next. I could have given Lübeck to Poland, but I don’t think I want them that close to me. Besides, Lübeck is way too rich for them.
Notice how I have practically all of Burgundy occupied, and have a warscore of 47? That’s when I began getting suspicious. I have almost all of the warleader’s lands. My score should be much higher. I think.


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I was temporarily distracted by this lovely inheritance. With the potential backing of Poland, Napoli could become a summer retreat for king Louis XIII.
I have 30,000 men standing around, doing nothing. My warscore is 51.

By the time I have all of Burgundy sieged up, my warscore has only gone up to 57%. And before you ask, Burgundy was the warleader on their side. Galicia was under English occupation and my ports were (of course) being blockaded by the Royal Navy. But those elements shouldn’t have such a high score.
I check.
I double-check.
All of Burgundy? Holland, Breda, Zeeland, Brabant, Nevers, Charolais, Bourgogne? Check.
Burgundian allies and vassals? Occupied or peaced out? Check.

Why am I not at 100% warscore against them?? Burgundy was warleader, so the fact that England was untouched shouldn’t make a difference. I didn’t in my previous wars. Why now? Why??
Even if I wait a couple of months to let the ticking warscore (occupying Charolais) get to its maximum, I will still not get 100%.
I don’t understand.


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In the end, I have to settle for this. It’s good to have Lorraine, but I wanted Burgundy broken.
What happened? What did I do wrong? I have no idea.


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I play on a while longer, and finish integrating Flanders, while Burgundy leaves the coalition.
I am still so angry about this. Any thoughts or suggestions as to why I had a crappy 57% warscore after winning all the battles would be more than welcome.
 
Any thoughts or suggestions as to why I had a crappy 57% warscore after winning all the battles would be more than welcome.

Did you check your invidual warscore against the other nations that still where in the war (Such as England)?

On another note, do you have plans to colonize the New World? It can be quite interesting when your are France.
 
Did you check your invidual warscore against the other nations that still where in the war (Such as England)?

On another note, do you have plans to colonize the New World? It can be quite interesting when your are France.

no, I didn't think they mattered as Burgundy was warleader. I thought in a coalition, warleader trumps all?

As for colonies, I probably will, especially because you get some interesting "fading empire" (or some such) events that punish you for not colonizing.

edit: I am about 2 years ahead on admin and mil tech. Less so on diplo. So I might take colonial ideas next. Does Galicia add to my colonial range or do I have to annex them first?
 
Does Galicia add to my colonial range or do I have to annex them first?

I think that you have to annex them, but I'm not sure.

Edit:
I thought in a coalition, warleader trumps all?

Not sure about this either but you declared the war so I don't think that the coaliton matters for the warscore.
 
Coalition

A coalition is a group of a nations which band together against another country. They serve the purpose of containing a mutual threat: if the target nation declares war on a coalition member, or a coalition member declares war on the target, all coalition members are called to war. Note that this call to war is not triggered if a coalition member is joins the war of a non-coalition member against the target nation. A coalition comes with no obligation to aid coalition members in wars that are not against the target. As a result, rivals may join a coalition to stop a mutually disliked country, even if the rival countries would never sign an alliance.
Forming a coalition

A coalition is formed when a country decides to join a coalition against the target; joining and leaving a coalition is an instantaneous diplomatic action. A country can only be part of a single coalition at a time.

An AI nation will only form a coalition if it has the outraged relations attitude towards the target. Once a coalition has been formed, nations with the Rival, Hostile or Threatened attitudes are likely to join it. The target's level of aggressive expansion is also an influencing factor.
Dissolving a coalition

If no nation in the coalition has the Outraged attitude, the coalition will dissolve. A nation with this attitude will switch to another if its opinion becomes positive, so if there is only one Outraged nation in the coalition, placating it is an effective way to get rid of the coalition.

Outraged only leave at positive relations.
Rivals and Threatened leave at -99 or better.
Hostile nations leave regardless of relations.
Nations won't always immediately leave upon hitting those breakpoints as they are sometimes out of diplomats for a brief period.[1]

Coalitions in war

The coalition call-to-arms is an automatic one and will result in all members with or without a truce with the target and not currently at war with another coalition member instantly being part of the war. There is no option to decline.
Each coalition has a war leader. If the coalition is attacking, the war leader is the country that declared war. If the coalition is defending, the war leader is the most powerful nation in the coalition (determined how?)
The war leader always negotiates for the entire coalition; unlike alliances, countries in a coalition cannot make a separate peace. This means that if countries opt out of allowing the leader of a coalition to negotiate for them they will not be a way to gain provinces from them in that specific war.
Occupying all of the provinces of a member of a coalition will allow a country to ask for that member as a vassal in the peace deal.
War leaders may call non-coalition allies into the war, but these allies are not bound by the coalition rules - they may decline the call, and can sign a separate peace with the enemy.

This is what the wiki had to say abou coalitions in general. I have confirmed that Burgundy was the warleader; they were at the top of the list the whole war. Münster and The Hansa were just allies, and as such, were allowed to make a seperate peace, which they did.
 
This is what the wiki had to say abou coalitions in general. I have confirmed that Burgundy was the warleader; they were at the top of the list the whole war. Münster and The Hansa were just allies, and as such, were allowed to make a seperate peace, which they did.

Maybe it was a bug then.
 
I have no idea. Why don't I ask it in the quick questions thread first? Because at best, it cost me 5 years. At worst, the extra war I will need now just might push Castile past the tipping point.
 
The question about what happened has been resolved. The rules have been changed. It is the coalition leader who counts, not the warleader. Burgundy used to be coalition leader, but they lost that spot when someone or other started grabbing their provinces :D
 
Well, despite not gaining as much from the Burgundian peace as you might have hoped it seems that no one has yet managed to halt the French momentum. Most of the 'core' is already in your hands, where will you focus your expansion from now?
 
The rules have been changed. It is the coalition leader who counts, not the warleader.

That's good to know. It does make sense. Oh well, what's an extra war with Burgundy in the great scheme of things? :)