L'État, C'est Moi - A France AAR (Veritas et Fortitudo)

[delpiero1234]

Chapter VIII - Overextension ​

To further increase the influence of the Byzantine Empire over Anatolia, another reconquest war was declared on Osman. Sultan Murad V called in his buddies Injuids, Tunisia, Georgia and the Ukraine. Kurdistan and Egypt also joined Osman since they were subject nations.
Conquistador Cook was in charge of the armies in Anatolia and Conqusitador de Saint Omer led 30.000 men to Georgia.

The battle of Kastamaonu was one of the decisive for the outcome of the war: An army led by Thomas Cook killed over 13.000 men. The opposition stood no chance but the war was dragging - three years had already passed since the declaration of war and peace was not in sight. de Saint Omer was only slowly making progress in Georgia which upset Edward II because he had planned to make a separate peace treaty with Georgia before ending the war. And so the fighting continued.

Settlers in Belle Elizabeth had a dispute with the Crown because they began trading with native tribes and Rio da Prata, a hostile colony controlled by the Portuguese, and thereby they circumvented the barriers that Edward II had put in place to protect the Union's interests. In order to smooth things out, the King allowed Belle Elizabeth to trade with native tribes but not with hostile colonial nations. The colonists were pleased with the King and liberty desire did not increase.

Rio da Prata was not pleased at all when they found out that Belle Elizabeth stopped buying their goods and so they declared war on Belle Elizabeth and thereby on the Union!! Edward II did not intervene immediately - he wanted to finish the campaign in Anatolia first.
Meanwhile, a separate peace was signed with Tunisia that gave the Union control over Langhwat and Saida which were 'sold' to Tlemcen later on. Georgia ceded Yerevan and Kutiasi to the Union.

A few weeks later, Murad V was forced to return four provinces to the Byzantines. Edward II also gave his newly acquired provinces Yerevan to the Byzantines for the sum of 20 ducats.
The small council and Edward II met in Paris where it was agreed that multiple trade dockyards had to be built throughout the realm to ensure repair support for the trade fleet as well as resupply for military vessels. Furthermore, (Merchant Adventures completed: +1 merchant; Angevin Ideas completed: -10% tech cost )

In the January of 1569, the Union enforced peace on Rio da Prata and another colonial war erupted. The Union assumed leadership against Portugal and Aragon. Castile refused to honor their alliance with Portugal. Good for the Union. Some in the small council assumed that this was due to Castile's colonial ambitions. The Castilians had formed a colonial nation in North America which they called Florida. They continued colonizing as fast as they possibly could.
To secure Angevin naval superiority a few heavy war ships were built. It was beneficial that a group of shipwrights from Chitimacha discovered a way to make more heavy war ships for no extra cost. Edward II wanted to build more heavy ships but the treasury did not permit it without taking loans. The shipwrights were slightly concerned about that.

At the battle of Beira Baixa the entire Portuguese army was wiped out! Conquistador Salisbury received the highest military honors for this astonishing victory over Portugal. In the North, Angevin troops assaulted Scane after Edward II agreed to declare war on them. Fryslan became the war leader and called in a bunch of allies.
Edward II chose Lisboa as the city where the peace treaty was signed. The Portoguese were still upset losing their former capital to the Union in a previous war. The terms were: Aragon gave up Palermo, Portugal lost Beira Baixa. Belle Elizabeth gained control over Salinas Grande and Pampas; Karankawa was ceded to Maryana. Soon after returning to peace, Portugal was broken by rebels and became a Noble Republic.

The shipwrights of Chitimacha continued to be concerned that not enough heavy ships were built. They begged the King to build more heavy ships even if it required taking loans but Edward II did not care about their opinion and no additional heavy ships were built.
Norway had honored Fryslan's call to arms which turned out to be a major mistake when the peace treaty with them was signed. They lost colonial possessions in Canada and Greenland as well as a few provinces in Norway. Saxony was annexed and then on July 17th 1577, peace was made with Fryslan: Skane and Belkinge were returned to Sweden. Sjalland were ceded to the Union. The Caribbean colonies Barbados and St. Barthelmy became a part of the Union, too. Fryslan also gave up its colonial possessions in Brazil and La Plata: These were ceded to La Capetie and Belle Elizabeth.

The small council informed the King that the Union was now sitting on 162.9% Overextension. On the bright side: Some valuable provinces had been annexed. For example Leipzig was responsible for 42% OE. "Oh well!" was Edward II's reaction. It was estimated that it was going to take around 15 month to integrate all these provinces.
New maps were given to the King that included the latest conquests.

To be continued...

Comment: It really appears that I took the wrong ideas. I wish I took Centralization ideas instead Delegative Ideas to get an Administrator. Maybe I will edit the file for Administrator so that it is also available to Delegative groups.. The game really should tell the player that one cannot hire an administrator without Centralization ideas

 

[delpiero1234]

Chapter VIII - Take That, Osman!​

(I've modified the decision for the administrator so that anybody who completes delegative ideas can hire him as well.)

The next one and a half years were painful - national and patriot uprisings happened far too often. "All of that just because we demanded a few too many provinces in our previous war with Fryslan?" Kind Edward II did not want to accept that but he had to. Of course, rebel uprisings were not the only thing troubling the Union. Duke Gian Galeazzo II Visconti, Holy Roman Emperor, had the guts to ask the Union to return the unlawfully acquired territory. In Paris everybody laughed about his request considering that the Emperor was an OPM in Lombardia. "Maybe it is time to teach him a lesson?" asked one of the advisors the King. But Edward II said that going to war was not an option until the Overextension problem was solved.

Being at peace also had positive aspects as it allowed the King to concentrate on his colonial empire. More settlers were sent to Louisiana with the hope to establish a colonial nation there someday. Spies reported that so far no other European power had colonized Louisiana but they spotted some primitive tribes in the area. Perfect targets for a future war.
A trade company was founded in the South African Charter that was so successful that it provided the Union with an additional merchant. "Very good!" was Edward II's reaction upping hearing of the trade company's success. The extra merchant was sent to Constantinople to steer trade towards Palermo and from there to Genoa and then to Paris.
Edward II's son Thomas completed the generals' academy in Orleans and was his first assignment was in Leipzig where he took care of 37.000 Lutheran zealots in Aalborg. For European standard he was an ok-ish general but for Angevin standard he was rather bad. Most other generals of the army had a much better fire skill and maneuver skill.

The small council debated with the King to move the Union's main trade port from Paris to London but Edward II did not want to know about that. He was happy with collating in Paris - at least for now. The advisors tried to convince him that collecting in London was more profitable but Edward II felt that steering through Sevilla and Valencia was too dangerous considering that these trade centers were owned by hostile countries.
By June of 1578 Overextension was reduced below 90% and immediately a war war was declared on Morocco - Tlemcen was in need of more land! Mali joined the defensive sides and became war leader; the Mamluks dishonored their alliance with the Moroccans probably because they were troubled by a Tunisian invasion. The generals were amused by the fact that the Union's artillery outnumbered the entire defensive army.

Quickly siege was laid on all Morrocan provinces - the ideas was to defeat Morocco first and the to concentrate on the gigantic Malian Empire.
In Paris, Edward II fired missionary Saladin Issa from the small council and replaced him with Sydney Procter who was a skill administrator. He informed the King that the settlers in Bretonia formed a colonial assembly to take control of tax legislation. Was this the first step towards independence?

After Morocco was occupied, an army was sent to take care of Mali. "Only one army?" asked one of the generals the small council. "Yes, Edward II has decided that the rest of you will be stationed in Byzantium. We just declared war on Osman and we need you to fight those Turks. Byzantium wants its cores back!"
In the past, the Union was not a fan of fighting wars on multiple fronts but as of recently the army became so large that this was no issue at all anymore. Long live the Union! Many countries honored their alliance with Osman including Georgia and Jalayrids.
Roughly one year and a half later, the Union made peace with Mali on the following terms: Segou and Kaarta became a part of Nouveau Paris; Midelt, ar-Rabat, Safi and Tassurt were ceded to the Union. These Moroccan provinces were converted and later on given to Tlemcen. (
Isn't it silly that the AI refuses to 'buy' a provinces if they follow a different faith? So I have to convert them for the AI, then I have to sell the AI one province so that it cores it and only then I can sell the AI a second province. AI only buys provinces if its at 0% overextension... but it's still better than coring the Berber provinces.)

Many applicants failed to graduate from the generals's college in Orleans but not so Captain Saint Chamond. He was a greatly great leader and inspired the armies to fight with a higher moral. Saint Chomand increased national stability and so before he graduated from the generals' college a war of aggression was declared on Finland. Poland became the war leader of the defensive side. Holstein, who had joined Poland, was occupied after only 79 days and immediately annexed.
(Otherwise that +1stability would have been quite worthless and we don't want to waste free stability raises, do we?).

Sir Francis Drake, a renowned English privateer, offered his service to King Edward II. He was hired and became a member of the small council. (Drake gives +15% Trade Power Abroad)
The war with Osman was dragging but the Jalayirids were more or less occupied and so a separate treaty was signed with them. The terms stated that the Union received control over Tarablus, Antioch, Homs and Al Nabk.
An aristocrat from York published an interesting treatise on military thought. The generals felt like it was a very good read.

In Paris, the King chose Infantry Ideas as the Union's ninth set of national ideas mostly because the army was heavily relying on infantry units and so improving them was only natural.
On November 9th, 1584 Osman agreed to the Angevin peace terms which stated that Aydin, Germiyan, Ladik and Tavas were returned to its rightful owners of Byzantium. Three weeks later, Finnland became a part of the Union.

Reports reached the homeland, that enough Angevin colonists had settled Louisiana to form a colonial nation. It was named New London. After all the English culture had become a part of the Union's heritage and so it was only natural to name the colony after a major English city.
The Union returned to peace on June 19th 1585 after Elbing and Viken were integrated into the realm and in September the final steps to complete the integration of Sweden into the Union were undertaken. It was estimated that this process was going to take six years.

A short war was declared on Cyprus to return the island to the Byzantines. The foolish Pope had honored the Cypriote call to arms and so he was force-converted to Hussitism became he a vassal of the Union. This caused great turmoil within the Catholic community because as a result of the Angevin occupation of Roma, the Papacy had been dissolved! Finally! The Pope was hanged and the Papal States was transformed into a Duchy ruled by Duke Pius III Capet.

In the meantime, Sir Francis Drake was fired and replaced by Sir Walter Raleigh, an English aristocrat and explorer (+1 colonist). He supported the settlers in Louisiana and encouraged some brave men to found a colony in Peru.
Cartographer Matthew Procter drew a map of the new Byzantine 'Empire' and the small council presented the King with some interesting stats about the Union and its competitors. One should not forget that not even a century ago Byzantium was a shadow of itself and almost completely annexed by Serbia and Osman!

Map of the Byzantine Empire

Score Comparison

Army Comparison

To be continued...

Comments:

• It will probably take another 1-2 wars to force Osman to return every Byzantine core. These provinces simply cost a ton of war score
• After I've returned all Byzantine cores I plan on conquering Osman/Georgia and feed their provinces to Byzantium. This depends on if I can find a way to tell the AI to buy provinces even if it has a little Overextension. Currently it only buys provinces when it has 0 Overextension which i find a little silly.
• I find it quite entertaining that my colonial nation La Capetie has a larger army than the Holy Roman Emperor (Milan)
• My entire army is larger than the combined armies that are ranked #2-#10: 364.940 VS 351.621
• Here is something I find very amusing:
  
  Spoiler

  

  
  I noticed that Serbia has the domineering attitude towards me :rofl: Serbia's army is not even listed in the top 10! Especially the tooltip for domineering attitude made me laugh. Go ahead, Serbia, try to force me into vassalage!

 

[Scott1964]

What a weird name

 

[delpiero1234]

What a weird name

If you mean that advisor then I very much agree with you!

 

[MiltonS]

What's the imperial laurels symbol next to the HRE one for?

Great update. And I love the purple you use!

 

[Penguintopia]

If you mean that advisor then I very much agree with you!

File encoding issue. I'll fix it for 1.2.2. Sorry about that!

 

[delpiero1234]

Great update. And I love the purple you use!

Thanks The world will be painted purple

What's the imperial laurels symbol next to the HRE one for?

In VeF, some government types have factions and the imperial laurels are the symbol VeF uses for factions. The Angevin Union has three factions. They get some events but I haven't used them much in this AAR because all these events do is spawn rebellions somewhere. The Angevin Union has three factions. I like The Union Angevin faction so I always keep them in power. The screenshot does not show the boni and mali of each faction but for me the Union Angevin works best but I have to say that the French faction (La Maison) is also very good for militaristic players but my military is already so strong so I don't need to have them in power.

File encoding issue. I'll fix it for 1.2.2. Sorry about that!

No prob! I figured it was some error and not WAD

 

[GreatUberGeek]

Serbia must be annexed to show them the truth!

 

[delpiero1234]

Serbia must be annexed to show them the truth!

Won't happen next chapter but I plan on doing it in the chapter after next. Serbia will suffer!

 

[MiltonS]

Thanks for the explanation.

 

[delpiero1234]

Chapter VIII - Integration​

(I've modified defines.lua so that the AI will buy provinces up to 50% OE no matter if he is a vassal or not. I think this change was necessary because I couldn't make sense of the fact that the AI refused to buy provinces just because it had a little OE. Anyways, let's get started!)

With the Papacy gone, Edward II was certain that the Catholic faith was in decline but he forgot about the Crown of Castile which had claimed the title Defender of the Catholic faith! Rumors spread through Europe that Castile was making plans to retake Roma and thereby restore the Papacy. But in Paris the elite believed that those rumors were false given the fact that Castile was looking rather weak. But who knows? Maybe the Pope? Oh wait, never mind, he's dead.

The King asked the small council to inform him about the situation of the his colonial empire. Louisiana was growing slowly but steadily and so far no competitor had dared to colonize in that area. La Capetie was the sole colonizer of Brazil and La Capetie was also by far the most profitable colonial nation of the Union.
Portugal was the first nation to colonize Peru which was not ideal. The settlers on Greenland were troubled by bad weather and food was getting scars so a ship was sent with additional supplies to the colony. Bretonia dominated Colombia but Castile still held a few colonies in that area.

Guyana was settled by Flemish settlers was well as by Glere. This was problematic because the Union was not able to form a colonial nation in Guyana unless those Flemish colonies were somehow taken by force.
Mexico was colonized only Maryana which definitely pleased Edward II.
Two colonies of La Louisianne had defected to Portugal which gave them a foothold in Canada.
Eastern-America was still up for grabs with multiple countries having a few colonies in that area but Florida, a Castilian colonial nation, controlled the majority of those colonies.
Noveau Paris was the Union's only colonial nation outside of the Americas. Located in Sahel, it has some difficulties expanding its territory because it shares borders with the massive Malian Empire.

William Shakespeare, a English playwright and poet who wrote Macbeth and many famous sonnets, joined the King's small council. The Shakespeare's Histories were published a few weeks later (+0.5 yearly prestige).
But enough peace. It was time for war decided the King and so the Union assaulted Venice with the intention to conquer Krain. Bulgaria joined the Venetians but that did not really matter because the siege of Krain lasted only 7 days.

The Union was involved in a slightly larger war after the Angevin navy blockaded the port of Tabruq on a hot afternoon in July. A month later, 56.000 soldiers laid siege on that province. Edward II forgot that Mali had sworn to protect all Sunnis and they naturally came to the Mamluks defense by becoming war leader.
Noveau Paris had difficulties defending itself against the Malian warriors and so the Union was forced to sent reinforcements.
July 1st of 1591 was a proud day for the Union because the integration of Sweden was completed! This was celebrated with parades in Stockholm and Paris.

Now that the Union controlled the Baltic Sea, the Hansa saw its trading success in danger, especially after an Angevin merchant arrived in Lübeck to collect trade. So what did the Hansa do? They asked the Union to give up 25% of its trade power in all shared trade nodes. Edward II doublecked the calendar to make sure it wasn't April Fools' Day. It wasn't. The Hansa was serious and their request was politely declined.
After two years, a first peace treaty was signed with Oman which was forced to give all but two of its provinces.

On July 30th 1593, the war with Mali and the Mamluks came to an end after they accepted the Union's terms. Nouveau Paris gained ownership over four Malian provinces; the Mamluks ceded Suakin and Najd to the Union.
Edward II gave his colonial empire more attention after the treaty was signed. His first order was to linder the pain that the natives were suffering in Quito. He also instructed the small council to launch a campaign that motivates more settlers to move to Eastern America and Louisiana. Meanwhile in Eastern America, colonists from Gelre founded New Gelre.

Inspired by architects from Firenze and Napoli, the Union underwent a period of architectural development where numerous monumental buildings were erected. Advised by the small council, the King decided to support this architural development even though the Hussite clergy was against it. The clergy felt that these monuments were unnecessary distractions. This movement inspired great persons like Galileo Galilei to make the Union their home. Galilei was an opponent of the Roman Catholic Church and upon his arrival in Paris, he thanked Edward II for dismantling the Papacy.

Half a year later, the Union's efforts to reconquer Byzantine territory continued. Luckily, the Jalayirids joined the war and so one of the best armies was sent there to conquer more of their Syrian holdings.
In the February of 1595, Edward II published Galileo Galilei's 'Dialogue Concerning The Two Chief World Systems' in which Galilei recorded comparisons between a geocentric and heliocentric solar system. (-2.5% tech cost until 1865)

Edward II hadn't forgotten that the silly Ältermann of the Hansa had asked that Union gave up 25% of its trade power. So he sent a diplomat to Hamburg that delivered a crystal clear message. The Union demanded 60% of the Hansa's trade power. The Ältermann was frightened by the diplomat and accepted the deal. The result of this agreement was that the Union dominated the Lübeck trade node. Prior to the agreement, the Hansa was able to pull over 90 ducats out of Lübeck - after the agreement this sum shrank to 36 ducats.
With the help of Sir Walter Raleigh, the Union managed to grab a foothold in Eastern America and formed a colonial nation there which was named La Husian after Jan Hus.

The Jalayirids lost Aleppo, Antep, Elbistan and Palmyra in a separate peace treaty that was signed in mid-August of 1596. A year later, Tunisia ceded three provinces which were later on sold to Tlemcen. Peace with Osman was made six month later in Cairo. The Sultan had agreed to return four provinces to the Byzantines!


Trade in the Union flourished and the Crown granted had granted a trade company in the South African Charter the exclusive rights to traffic goods. The owner of said company was a Toulousian business men who sought to increase his influence over the area and so he negotiated a deal with Edward II which granted his trade company additional privileges. In return he paid the Union 11335 ducats. (I feel like I won the lottery )
Now that the treasury was full, the King gave orders to construct an Admiralty in Bordeaux and a magnificent Capital was erected in Paris.
The remaining 9000 ducats were spent to improve the Union's economy (I built paper mills, trade companies, mines and glassblowers)

The governor of La Husian complained that foreign settlers and Native American limited the colonies expansion plans. He asked for assistance and claimed that the land of the Cherokee should become part of La Husian. Edward II agreed to help the governor and sent a small army to Mobile from where the attack was launched.

Seven other tribes came to support the Cherokee and together they fielded an army of nearly 100.000 men. Maybe those 30.000 soldiers that Edward II sent to New World were too little to deal with all those natives? It turned out that 30.000 men were enough to take care of these rather primitive cultures. The era of archery was in the past - the musket was going to bring victory to the Union.
In fact, after less than a year, the lands of the Iroquis became a part of La Husian and those of Ho-Chunk were integrated into New London.
Four years after the declaration of war the Apache lands became a part of Maryana and the territory of Muskogee was given to La Husian.

A final peace treaty in which the the Cherokee were annexed was signed on September 30th 1602 in a small Native American settlement.
Almost all Native American Tribes had been annexed only Nez Perce and Arikara still existed west of Louisiana and then there were the Incas in Peru. What matter though, was that the Union's colonial nations were now stronger than ever before!

The World On November 16th 1602

To be continued...

 

[unmerged(576153)]

Nice acquisitions. I see Perm collapsed Did Kiev form Rus?

Anyway, I have to say, you've inspired me enough so that I'll, when the Art of War gets released and the VeF team release an update for that expansion, I'm going to write an AAR playing as my favourite nation. Kudos to you.

 

[delpiero1234]

Nice acquisitions. I see Perm collapsed Did Kiev form Rus?

Yes, Rus was formed by Kiev and I'm not sure if Perm was ever any bigger. The Golden Horde was a massive blob from Hungary to Mongolia but then they collapsed.

Anyway, I have to say, you've inspired me enough so that I'll, when the Art of War gets released and the VeF team release an update for that expansion, I'm going to write an AAR playing as my favourite nation. Kudos to you

I'm looking forward very much to your AAR What nation are you going to play as?

 

[delpiero1234]

Chapter VIII - India​

Edward II got upset with Serbia after he was told that the Serbian Tsar Alexa I had the domineering attitude towards him. Alexa I wanted to force the Angevin Union into vassalage which was also quite funny considering how weak their army was. The small council came up with a plan that allowed the King to go to war with Serbia without triggering a coalition fight. The plan was to declare war on Serbia's ally Venice. Edward II commanded the admiralty to position the navy in the Gulf of Venice and in the Straits of Taranto. Once the navy arrived, war was declared. Serbia took the bait and joined Venice in the Anglo-French Conquest of Istria. While conquering Istria would definitely be nice, for Edward II the important part was to grab some Serbian provinces.
Istria fell soon but before moving on Venezia, the two involved Angevin armies headed east towards Sisak and Donji Kraji.
Edward II got notice of the arrival of a renowned cartographer but he after meeting with him, Sir Walter Raleigh advised him not hire him and so the cartographer left the Union again. It was said that Castile was interested in hiring him. The King was also too busy with the war and had no time to think about replacing members of the small council.
The siege of the Serbian capital, Skopje, lasted only 14 days thanks to superior siege tactics which allowed the army to assault the fortifications without waiting for a breaching in the wall first.

Meanwhile in the New World, New London was facing massive nationalist rebels and the local governor sent a diplomat to Paris and asked the Union for help. 20.000 men were sent over the Atlantic to support the colonies and it was agreed to permanently station them in the New World as an emergency force against future rebel uprisings. (Don't we all love it to babysit our colonial nations?)
But not all colonies were having those problems and some like Mosquito were expanding. More and more settlers arrived in Mosquito and a few of them disliked the local province capital city and decided to found their own settlement. More people meant more taxes! Edward II was delighted about those news. The colony was a popular target for settlers because the land in Mosquito was very fertile and the climate favored the production of cocoa.

On December 3rd 1604, Venice accepted unconditional surrender. This meant that The Serbian provinces Sisak, Donjiu Kraji, Bosna, Zeta and Durres became a part of the Union. Venice was allowed to keep Istria and Venezia - The King believed it was more important to as much Serbian territory as possible. Those provinces were sold to Byzantium.
A decisive small council meeting was hold in Paris where Sir Walter Raleigh urged the King to establish a presence in India. Having a base of operations on the Indian subcontinent would allow the Union to exploit the Indians and to size their wealth. Edward II was convinced by Raleigh's plan and 53 brigantines were built in Arabia which were used to transport a massive army an to the Coast of Makran.

In the January of 1606, Conquistador de Boissieu invaded Karachi which belonged to the Sultanate of Delhi. Delhi dominated the Indian subcontinent and so it was obvious to declare war on them. Golkonda was the other major player on the Indian subcontinent but unlike Delhi they followed the Hindu faith. Their opinion of Delhi was pretty low and the Union tried to take advantage of that and sought to form an alliance with them but Gollkonda refused. Oh well, the Angevin invasion India was going to happen anyways.

Days after the declaration of war, Thomas Capet died a natural death leaving the Union without a legitimate heir. The succession was in danger and Edward II was already 69 years old! The House of Capet had ruler over the Union for centuries and Edward II was embarrassed that he had no legitimate heir. Was the rule over the Union of the House of Capet going to end with Edward II? The situation was far from ideal.

Three years later, the Union had occupied a large portion of Delhi's costal provinces and rebellions were rampaging through their Sultanate. Edward II was sure that peace was in sight.
The King was right, in mid-July Delhi ceded Kutch, Rajkot, Karachi, Ahmedabad and Vadodara to the Union. Immediately after the Union gained control over those provinces, an Indian Trade Company was founded (+1 Merchant). The five Angevin provinces in India joined the West Indian Charter trade company which was competing to gain control over the important Indus trade node.

While Edward II was planing a second campaign in India against Bijapur, reports arrived in the capital that New Gelre and Rio De La Prata had declared two separate wars on two of the Union's colonial nations. Naturally, Edward II sent more men to the New World to support the Angevin settlers. The result were two major colonial wars that involved much of Europe. The Iberians and Cologne supported the unjust claim of the Portuguese colony. New Gelre was only supported by its mother country.
Both wars costed many lives but the Union triumphed once again against foreign aggressors! Many provinces in Iberia, a few in Western Germany and some overseas were gained in those wars. Furthermore, Münster was forced into vassalage.

The aggressors were defeated and the King continued planing his attack on Bijapur. He commanded the Angevin army on the Indian subcontinent to travel by ship to the coast of Bijapur. War was declared and three Indian realms came to defend Bijapur. This was convenient and the Union changed its plan. Instead of sacking the provinces of Bijapur first, the army was sent to Madurai in the South of India. Madurai was weak and only owned two provinces.

But in reality, the Union was fighting a war on two fronts: The governor of La Husian had called for reinforcements haver ten thousands of rebels were rampaging through the colony. Most of them were patriots loyal to either Gelre or Castile. Over 50.000 Angevin soldiers arrived in the New World to support the settlers of La Husian.
Meanwhile in Paris, the small council informed the King that the government's policy to fight smugglers had convinced influential merchants to do the same. Their joint efforts increased the Union's trade income.

After Madurai was occupied, full annexation was demanded in a peace treaty. The army then marched westwards to the province of Kochin. The city's massive fortifications did not stop the Union from sacking the city. Consequently, Malabar was forced to cede Kochin to the Union.

The fight was then taken to Bijapur and province after province was sacked. Eventually Bijapur was annexed and the news spread to the capital but Edward II did not live long enough to hear them. The King died heirless and the House of Capet no longer ruled over the Union. The small council backed the House of Normandie and after a couple of days, Louis XIII Normandie was crowned King of the Union. Foreign monarchies questioned the legitimacy of Louis XIII but none of them dared to claim the Angevin throne.
This was a sad day for the Union considering what the House of Capet had done for the Union. Not only did they defeat the English and unite the Angevin lands, they also made the Union one of the strongest, if not the strongest, countries of the world.

To be continued...

 

[unmerged(576153)]

Yes, Rus was formed by Kiev and I'm not sure if Perm was ever any bigger. The Golden Horde was a massive blob from Hungary to Mongolia but then they collapsed.

Yeah, I thought of the Perm that was in your last AAR, my mistake. And GH usually collapses...
Did this patch changed the way blobs handle the game? I mean, the whole world is far less blooby. I remember in 1.1.3 patch that, at least in my game, in Europe both France, Austria, the Hansa and Poland were very big(the Ottos would probably have been too, but I took care of them), Russia, the Muzzafarids, Yuan, Nubia, Mali... Except for you, only Delhi *counted* as a blob, though you got rid of them.

I'm looking forward very much to your AAR What nation are you going to play as?

The Eastern*True* Roman Empire, of course! Though I'll edit the decision so that it allows the Roman Empire to be formed by Greek culture states.

 

[delpiero1234]

The Eastern*True* Roman Empire, of course! Though I'll edit the decision so that it allows the Roman Empire to be formed by Greek culture states.

That sounds fun and I like your idea of allowing Greek culture states to form the Roman Empire. I think in VeF the Greek culture states can form something called Latin Empire..

Yeah, I thought of the Perm that was in your last AAR, my mistake. And GH usually collapses...
Did this patch changed the way blobs handle the game? I mean, the whole world is far less blooby. I remember in 1.1.3 patch that, at least in my game, in Europe both France, Austria, the Hansa and Poland were very big(the Ottos would probably have been too, but I took care of them), Russia, the Muzzafarids, Yuan, Nubia, Mali... Except for you, only Delhi *counted* as a blob, though you got rid of them.

No prob. I had to cancel my old Savoy AAR because I got a CTD every few years
In 1.2 the AI also likes to expand but I 'took care' of most European blobs. Dali in China is a still quite blobby and there are are the Injuids.. Russia rarely forms in the 1.2 games I played because the Russian countries tend to get eaten by the Golden Horde very early.

 

[delpiero1234]

Chapter IX - More Expansion​

Louis XIII Normandie rose to the throne without a legitimate heir but he recently had married Anne of House York so there were hopes that Anne was going to deliver a heir soon. Securing the succession was crucial but in the meantime the small council advised him to conquer the Moroccan province Tanja. Tunisia and Mali were Morocco's allies and both honored the call to arms after Angevin troops were spotted outside of Tanja. Unfortunately, Tunisia became the war leader which meant that additional countries joined the defensive side including Nubia and Osman. This meant that the Union had to fight many more foes in order to annex Tanja but on the other side this allow allowed Nouveau Paris to take a few Malian provinces and Byzantium was looking forward to eat more of Osman.

Tanja was sacked after less than 90 day and the other two Moroccoan provinces also fell quickly but the Union had to defeat mighty Tunisia first but the army that was fighting in Morocco was ordered back to Iberia to deal with an 80.000 men strong Andalusian/Catalan rebellion.
Another army occupied Egypt at around the same time and marched northwards to support the Byzantine Empire in their struggle against Osman.

Anne delivered a son in the April of 1616 which was named Louis after his father. The House of Normandie had ensured that the succession was safe.
Conquistador d'Airan was sent to Sahel where he and his army helped Nouveau Paris to fight off Mali. On his arrival, he was informed that the forces of Nouveau Paris had only managed to sack two Malian provinces. D'Airan took over the leadership of their troops and split them in smaller sacks - carpet sieging Mali was very effective.
Good news also arrived from Iberia: All 80.000 rebels were killed!

Louis XIII was unlike many of his predecessors not a fan of fine arts and when a skilled artists gifted him a beautiful statue he decided to sell it for over 2500 ducats. The money was spent on improving the economy. A number of trade posts and blacksmiths were built throughout the realm. The Ältermann of the Hansa had previously proposed Louis XIII to use that money to build another Hansa Kontor but those 2500 ducats were not enough: The Hansa demanded more than 5000 ducats for one single Kontor! Unbelievable! The offer was declined and the Ältermann was told to refrain from making silly offers.

In mid-December of 1618, two years after the first Angevin troops had arrived in Anatolia, a peace treaty was signed with Osman. Hamid was returned to Byzantium and the Union gained control over four Osmani provinces but those were planed to get sold to the Byzantines after the war was over.
Four months later, Mali ceded three provinces to Nouveau Paris. The war went exceptionally well - even better than anticipated.

Tunisia cried for peace and so Angevin and Tunisian diplomats met in Valencia where a peace treaty was negotiated and then signed. The Treaty of Valencia gave the Union control over Sus, Tanja, Qasfa and Qasantina but those provinces were all 'sold' To Tlemcen.
By July of 1619, the Union was the strongest trade power in many trade nodes including Lübeck, Amsterdam, Novgord, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. This convinced Louis XIII to confirm the Thalassocracy.

Louis XIII's reputation increased steadily and foreign rulers began slowly accepting that the House of Normandie was ruling over the Union. What they did not approve though were the Union's conquests and some of them were displeased when they heard that the Union went to war with Portugal.
Shortly before the war on Portugal was declared, the King had met with the small council to discuss what the realm's 10th idea set should be. After a short debate, the King agreed to follow the small council's advice: Imperial Ambitions it shall be!

Castile became the war leader in the war against Portugal and called in a bunch of allies including Austria and Milan.
Thanks to the trade dispute casus belli, the Union was allowed to make a separate peace with Portugal in which they lost a large amount of provinces.
The Union hired a skilled architect called Francois Mansart that began modernizing the capital - the Rokoko style was very popular in Europe. Mansart also built a museum in Skara financed with money from the local population.

The newly gained colonies in Peru were organized as a colonial nation for better administration purposes. Louis XIII called it La Normanelle.
On Octber 2nd 1623, a peace treaty was signed with Castile to end the ongoing war. Flanders, Austria and Castile lost a good number of provinces in the Old and New World. Some of them were given to colonial nations. For over a year, the Union suffered from lots of nationalist uprisings caused by high overextension but once overextension was reduced, a war was declared on Venice and their Serbian ally. The intention was to conquer as many Serbian provinces as possible.

Istria and Venezia quickly fell which allowed the Union to focus on Serbia. After enough Serbian provinces were occupied a treaty gave the Union control over five Serbian provinces. Two of them were given to Byzantium. The entire next year was used to integrate those provinces into the realm

To be continued...


(I am not sure if I will play this campaign until 1865 for one simple reason: The campaign is starting to get repetitive. Every war I declare I win in no time and it has just come down to painting the map. If I can come up with a a new goal then I'll continue but right now I think the campaign will end on January 1st 1700. If you have suggestions for goals I could set myself then let me know.)

 

[Scott1964]

I'm in the same boat. Trying to decide on something fun to do. Since I am way behind in the colonial race in SA and NA.

 

[delpiero1234]

I'm in the same boat. Trying to decide on something fun to do. Since I am way behind in the colonial race in SA and NA.

Sorry to hear that, Scott :mellow:
For me it's boring because I'm the ultimate super power. I'd go for world conquest/world domination but I chose the wrong ideas groups and WC is not feasible with my ideas.

 

[unmerged(576153)]

Well, I'd suggest you try to get all the ex-Roman Empire lands, but what would be left for my future AAR then?
Just kidding, do it if you think it suits you. Though, I rather think you should try something completely else. For example, give a general closing update on this AAR, then go way out of your comfort zone and try to play as the Yap island nation(I've seen it suggested on your previous AAR). Also, change your style a bit. Instead of this gameplay-type? AAR, give it maybe more of a history book type feeling? Otherwise, your AAR's, however good they may be, will ultimately become boring.
That's my two cents. Cheers!