magyar magic: hungary AAR

[Storey]

Come on King Of Nines stop delaying the inevitable and take on the Ottomans. To tell you the truth when I’ve played Hungary I leave the Ottomans alone so that they can grow and become a real threat to Hungary later in the game. I usually annex Austria rather quickly just to get them out of the way of the future greatness that will be Hungary!

 

[Baron Jukaga]

I finally decided to get off my lazy ass and write a response. Great job Ko9, Hungary has been overlooked for too long.. Now wipe that grin off the Turk!

 

[unmerged(4004)]

Come on King Of Nines stop delaying the inevitable and take on the Ottomans. To tell you the truth when I’ve played Hungary I leave the Ottomans alone so that they can grow and become a real threat to Hungary later in the game. I usually annex Austria rather quickly just to get them out of the way of the future greatness that will be Hungary!

I finally decided to get off my lazy ass and write a response. Great job Ko9, Hungary has been overlooked for too long.. Now wipe that grin off the Turk!

well i think things are about to get more difficult. i went south early on instead of north, so austria is still kicking, and the ottomans have been going nuts as well (austrians on the north, turks on the south, here i am, stuck in the middle with you ). i'm strengthening my borders right now, so i'll be ready for the inevitable DOW from either ottoman empire or austria.

 

[unmerged(4004)]

last update for today. enjoy....

 

[unmerged(4004)]

out with the old, in with the new

March 1453 saw an unusual visitor arrive at court of King Laz VI. An envoy from Poland was requesting Hungary's entrance into a military alliance with Poland and Lithuania. They were currently involved in a war against a coalition of German minor states (Prussia, Saxony, Magdeburg) backed by Denmark. The king saw a golden diplomatic opportunity and agreed to enter the alliance and the war. Hunyadi was immedidately marched north and arrived in Danzig in August. After dispatching the small Prussian garrison, he laid siege to Danzig. A second Prussian attack was repulsed in October. In December, an Italian engineer approached the king with a propostion. He would agree to train the military in the art of siege warfare for a small fee. The king agreed and the contract was finalized on December 10 (Italian engineer hired: -50 ducats. Defensive doctrine +1).

January 1454 started with gifts to Hungary's new allies Poland and Lithuania, improving their relations and furthering solidfying the bonds between the nations. Danzig fell on May 26, and Denmark promptly offered a white peace, which was accepted. Hunyadi's army moved on to Prussia and joined the Polish-Lithuania army laying siege to Königsberg. The city fell on September 18. A month later, peace was signed with Prussia for the sum of 68,000 ducats paid to Hungary.

This money would be used to enlarge the fortress in Presburg (level 2 fort), and also send a small monetary gift to Moldava in January 1455. Merchants were sent to Venice, Thrace, and Danzig in July. In October, a sudden rush of new recruits resulted in the forming of a new regiment of 5,000 infantry in Moravia (random event: enthusiasm for army, 5000 infantry in Moravia).

The Wallachians again rose up in revolt in January 1456 and were defeated in March. In June, word came of the Ottomans on the move again, this time in Albania. Venice and The Knights both declared war on the Turks in defense of their ally, and Serbia dishonored the alliance. More bad news reached the court in September. The great general Janos Hunyadi, hero of the Venetian Wars and conqueror of Wallachia, died on September 23, 1456. A national day of mourning was declared, and he was buried with full military honors two days later. The king also commissioned a local sculptor to erect a statue in his honor in the central square of the capital Eger. The anniversary of the day of his birth was made a national holiday by royal decree, so that "all of Hungary would forever remember a national hero".

1457 featured another fortress expansion in Krain (level 2 fort), and monetary gifts to Austria, Poland, Lithuania, and Bosnia. In July, the Ottoman Empire annexed Albania. King Laz VI died on November 24,1457, and was succeeded by the young Mátyás Corvín. The new king was a man of extraordinary talents (D:5, A:4, M:5), and was an able military leader (M:3, F:3, S:4, S:1). The future of Hungary looked bright with him on the throne.

The first act of King Matty's reign was to send a letter of introduction to Moldava. He did not have long to wait to test his sword-arm either; a revolt broke out in Wallachia again in February, and the new king swiftly and easily crushed it in April. Ten days after that, war was declared on Serbia (04/17/1458). Since Serbia was now without allies, it was hoped that the war could be brought to a swift conclusion, so Poland and Lithuania were not called up. The war started well for the new king's army, defeating the Serbian army and laying siege to Beograd in July. The retreated Serbian army began a siege of their own in Croatia. A newly-assembled army of 4,000 Serbs was eliminated in September, and in January of 1459, the city of Beograd was taken. King Matty marched into Kosovo and defeated the Serbian army there, laying siege to Nish on January 29.

In celebration of the fall of Beograd, a royal marriage was arranged with Austria, further strengthening the relations between the two nations. The king himself could not attend, being in the field, but he did send a wedding present of captured Serbian gold to the Austrian court. The Serbian army, meanwhile, had abandoned the siege of Zagreb and marched back to Serbia, attempting to recapture Beograd from the Hungarians.

In the meantime, a second Hungarian army had been sent northeast when Hungary's ally Lithuania declared war on the khanate of Karaman back in April 1458. The Golden Horde and Ak Koyunlu had also joined their ally Karaman. The smaller expeditionary force reached Kouban in August 1459 and was immediately attacked by a large horde of warriors from Ak Koyunlu. Unable to withstand their vastly superior numbers, the Hungarians retreated to Daghestan and began a siege of Kouban on September 11. Unfortunately, the mad horde of Ak Koyunlu had pursued their beaten foes, and attacked them again the following day. The Hungarians again retreated, this time to Sochi, joining a Lithuanian army laying siege to the provincial city.

Back in Serbia, the Serbian army managed to recapture Beograd and marched on Kosovo. They were no match for King Matty's army, and were forced to retreat back to Serbia. Matty quickly wrapped up the siege of Nish on February 1, 1460, and turned his army back north to Serbia. They attacked and destroyed the remnants of the Serbian army and for the third time this war, the city of Beograd was sieged. Reinforcments arrived in Serbia on March 26 in an attempt to speed up the siege and bring the war to a conclusion. An outbreak of plague occurred in Wallachia, killing 2000 citizens in Bucharesti (random event: plague) in July. A last desperate attack by an army of Serbian conscripts came to naught, and the city of Beograd fell on August 18. As a result of the peace agreement, the Serbian government agreed to relocate to Nish in Kosovo, and to recognize Hungary as their overlord (Serbia becomes a vassal). The province of Serbia was annexed directly by Hungary (note: I edited the save game file to change Serbia's capital to Kosovo. This made sense as the government probably would have relocated once their capital had fallen. This also allowed me to take the CB shield province of Serbia without having to take the isolated province of Kosovo first). In the other war, peace was achieved with Karaman and its allies for a small fee of 50,000 ducats.

hungary in 1460

hungary after the 1460 serbian war. note the serbian capital relocation to kosovo (i edited the save file to make this possible).

 

[Lt. Tyler]

Ko9s,

You've got yourself a nice little empire starting there!

But now I think you have to turn your attention to the Turks. It seems like you've covered your other fronts diplomatically, so spend a few years building troops, and unleash your own Hun horde on the Ottomans. They won't know what hit them!

 

[unmerged(9046)]

Ko9s-

Nice start there. Time to kick the Muslims out of Europe!

Stroph

 

[unmerged(6777)]

I have to agree. The Ottomans pose a far greater threat to you at the moment than anyone else, and it's time to bring them down a notch before they start getting silly.

Great job so far - both gameplay and some most enjoyable writing.

 

[unmerged(4004)]

all those waiting to hear about the turkish wars will be happy to note that i fought two bitter wars with them last night. but i'm getting a few decades ahead of myself.

i'm about to get dragged into some serious BB wars now though. my reputation has dipped to "rather bad" in 1490. but again, i'm getting ahead of myself.

next installment some time today.

 

[unmerged(10139)]

Great report. I like the personal Ziggy and Matty, though if you really wanted to go all out on Matyas Corvin you could call him Matyika... truely endearing. It is sad how few leaders you get relative to the other countries around you. It is very difficult to maintain parity on an economic front as well as militarily. The unwillingness for the Crown to properly recruit Croats and Germans is also depressing. Only Magyarok and Slovak's line up readily for your army. Finally, the religeon is a bit unbalancing. Hungary is effectively a Catholic country today. About 3/4's of the Country is Catholic. However, in the game, I believe only one Magyar region out 5 remains Catholic?


The entire reason I bought EU I was that I thought I had a war game where I could play as Hungary. Much to my chagrin, I could only play "major powers" in the grand Campaign. Of course, when I saw EU II out with the ability to play ANY power in the grand campaign, two coutries came to mind, Ireland and Hungary. I played the first game as Hungary and have not yet played ireland because I coulldn't find it under "I". Only later did I realise it was with "E" for Eire.

I have enjoyed your story up to now. I had a much different approach to Hungary. Perhaps I will write a AAR on "The Mad Magyar's" attempt to run Hungary. I wanted history to be rewritten.....

 

[unmerged(4004)]

mad magyar - thanks for the comments. btw, are you from hungary? you seem to know a lot about the country. i'll admit myself that i didn't really know a whole lot about it, only that they had been crushed by the turks at mohacs and later annexed by austria. i'm actually learning a fair bit about the country's history, both by playing the game and doing background research for my AAR.

the culture thing is quite an anomaly. i think now i have something like 6 or 7 different culture groups in the empire (magyar, slovak, romanian, czech, german, slavonic, and even italian). as for religion, my only orthodox provinces are serbia and wallachia. everyone else is catholic (ruthenia started orthodox but was converted in a random event). i'm only up to 1490 right now, so i have yet to see the reformation, but i'm not really looking forward to having half my empire go protestant or reformed on me. as you can tell by reading the reports, maintaining stability is tough enough as it is with all the different culture groups. if i drop below +3 stability, revolts become a problem.

hungary gets some good leaders though, or at least they have so far. i've gotten 3 before 1500, which is a lot for most major nations, let alone a "major minor" like hungary.

in retrospect so far, perhaps i should have expanded a bit more cautiously. my reputation is bad now after the last war with the turks, and i expect i'll have to fight some bb wars when i get home today.

my last game was as ireland, and i enjoyed building them into a colonial power. go full naval and stay out of european politics as much as possible. england left me alone the entire game. for some reason they kept going after scotland and france. not that it bothered me, of course.

next update coming up in a few...

 

[unmerged(4004)]

3rd venetian war and prelude to madness

1461 was a quiet year, with only the sending of merchants and some diplomatic gifts made to Serbia, Austria, Poland, and Lithuania. The long war between the Ottoman Empire and the Italian city-state of Venice came to a close that same year with the Ottoman capture of Zara, in Dalmatia. The Doge of Venice agreed to pay the Turkish sultan 50,000 ducats in war indemnities in December.

January 1462 saw the Hungarian army in action once again. A new brigadier general by the name of Pal Kinizsi was given command of the army in Croatia (M:3, F:2, S:3, S:1), and with an army featuring two talented leaders, King Matty issued a declaration of war to Venice on February 22, 1462. The aim was to capture a port city on the Adriatic, thereby increasing Hungary’s trade and giving the military more viable options in time of war. Lithuania and Poland also joined in, and Venice’s ally The Knights did so as well. King Matty marched the Royal Magyar Army into Istria and defeated the Venetian army stationed there, laying siege to the city in March (03/22/1462). The following day, some prominent religious leaders in the capital decried the government’s constant declarations of warfare, preaching that doom would come at the hands of the Turks if it continued. This of course caused murmuring among the populace (random event: wave of obscurantism – revolt risk +3 for 12 months).

As predicted, the murmuring soon turned to open rebellion, not surprisingly in Wallachia in April. A detachment was sent to deal with the rebels, which they did on September 23. Pal Kinizsi’s army was sent to Dalmatia to lay siege to Zara, and after defeating the small Venetian garrison in the province, they then laid siege to the city on May 20. In September, an envoy from The Knights came offering a white peace, and King Matty gladly accepted. The Knights had done well in the earlier war with the Ottoman Empire, having received a settlement of 131,000 ducats (May 14, 1462), and so were reluctant to commit to another war so soon.

Istria fell to King Matty on December 22, and his army moved on to Venice. The king had decided to upgrade his army while they were still in the field, and the extra training as well as the forced marches made many soldiers grumble (Land DP slider +1, stability –1 to +2). But deep down they were all glad to be following such a wise and brave leader, and they all resolved to fight that extra bit harder for king and country, reaching Venice and laying siege to it on January 14. In addition to the field upgrade, the fortress in Croatia was expanded (level 2 fort), and a diplomatic initiative sent a monetary gift to Serbia. It was the king’s desire to create a “Balkan League” of smaller states for mutual assistance in defense against the Ottoman Empire.

But not everyone saw things the same way. The province of Ruthenia rose up in revolt in February 1463, and as all the armies were in Venetian territory, the revolt would have to wait to be crushed (it was not until July that they eventually were). Three Venetian attacks were defeated in March, July and August, and a travelling saint visiting the capital in June performed a miracle in healing some beggars of leprosy (random event: saint performs miracle. Stability +1 to +3 and revolt risk –3 for 12 months). This, coupled with the military’s successes in the war with Venice, served as a calming force, and relative peace and quiet was enjoyed for a time. In November, engineers made a breakthrough in naval tech (now level 2). But since Hungary was still without a port city, this meant little if any to anyone of importance.

Dalmatia was captured on October 20, and Venice fell soon after on November 14. An initial peace offer of Dalmatia and Istria was refused, so the war continued for a few more months before Venice finally agreed on the province of Dalmatia and 100,000 ducats to Hungary on February 1, 1464. A diplomatic gift was sent to Serbia with the money received from Venice. Hungary now had a port city (albeit on the Adriatic), and trade would gradually increase over the next year (+1 merchant/year for having a coastal province). A short but inconclusive war was fought with Bohemia and Austria from April to May, resulting in a white peace. A few minor skirmishes had been fought, with neither side able to gain much of an advantage. Merchants were sent to Venice, Genoa, and Constantinople, and the rest of the year was uneventful, save for Bosnia declaring war on Serbia on July 14, which ended September 1465 with Bosnia paying 25,000 ducats to Serbia after a few small battles.

The next two years (1465-66) were full of revolts and uprisings as Hungary tried to consolidate its control over some of its more dissident regions. Dalmatia, Wallachia, Krain, Banat, and even the capital province of Magyar all revolted after a large majority of the population expressed its discontent with the expansion of the Empire (random event: unhappiness among peasantry. Revolt risk +3 for 6 months. Stability –2 to +1. Revolt in Magyar). All revolts were eventually crushed, but this widespread discontent would be just a hint of what the future had in store for King Matty.

But there were some positives as well. Merchants expanded trade in Venice, Constantinople, and Lisbon Portugal (Tago). The Portuguese had been sending out explorers in earnest, and the wares their settlers and traders brought back from distant lands had made the Iberian capital an economic haven. In December, a group of nobles donated a portion of their tax revenue to the treasury (random event: gift to the state. +100 ducats), and this money was used to enlarge the fortress in Moravia (level 2).

In October 1467, Hungary’s ally Lithuania declared war on Crimea, which had declared its independence from the Orthodox nation. Poland chose not to enter the war, but King Matty honored the alliance and declared war on Crimea, though he did not send any troops. “No need to waste Hungarian blood in lands that are of no use to us” he told his military advisers. The war did not last long, and Lithuania annexed Crimea on February 7, 1468. This was another relatively quiet year for Hungary, save for a revolt in Dalmatia, which was crushed in December of that year. A monopoly company helped boost trade as well as the treasury, and merchants were sent to Venice, Lisbon, and Genoa (random event: monopoly company formed. +100 ducats and merchants +1). This money funded a fortification increase in Carpathia (level 2 fort) in January 1469. Word came in June that Suzdal had entered our military alliance with Poland and Lithuania.

1470 saw an unprovoked revolt in Banat (random event) that was crushed in June. Other than that, things were calm in 1470. Merchants were sent abroad and the diplomatic gifts resumed. Hungary as a nation was blissfully unaware of the dark events that were about to unfold in the years that followed.

 

[Lord Durham]

Nice little hook of forshadowing at the end. Good work

 

[unmerged(4004)]

Originally posted by Lord Durham
Nice little hook of forshadowing at the end. Good work

oh, just wait until i get to the where i am in the game now. i won't spoil the surprise, but it makes what i'm going to post here in a while pale in comparison.

 

[unmerged(4004)]

the hungarian civil war: 1471-1477

1471-1477 saw a nasty civil war break out that took years to fully quell. 1471 opened quitely though, with a fortress upgrade ordered in Ruthenia. The real trouble began in May 1471 when a delegation of nobles openly challenged the king's right to rule. They claimed that his bold annexations and declarations of war would one day lead to ruin, and that he was no longer mentally competent to administer an empire. The king naturally had the treasonous nobles arrested, and in a mock trial, had them convicted and executed. While most military hardliners and powerful nobles supported the king's actions, most of the lesser nobility and the commoners did not, and a powerful political and social backlash followed. The result was six years of bloody civil war that left the country ravaged and many of its people dead. It was later said that every family in the kingdom had suffered at least one person killed or missing in the years of turmoil that followed (Random event: nobles challenge king's right to rule. I had two choices: exceute the traitors or step down. Stepping down would have cost me -3 stability but also -100 victory points. So i went with execute the traitors. -5 stability to -1, revolt risk +4 for 36 months, revolt in Carpathia. Really nasty, but I wasn't going to part with those victory points).

Every province of the empire saw at least one revolt, and it was all the army could do to put them down. Fortunately for King Matty, most of his officers remained loyal to the crown, so the rebellion largely consisted of ill-trained peasants, with a few disloyal officers and soldiers leading them. They were certainly no match for the professional soldiers of the military, but their sheer numbers presented a problem. Just about every month, another revolt sprang up somewhere, and the army spent years just marching from place to place to put down a revolt, with only a few months' rest here and there. Several provinces were even controlled by rebel armies for a time, and lawlessness reigned supreme. With all the political and social unrest, the king had no time to govern or make laws, and many crimes that occurred during that time went unpunished. As if that was not bad enough, poor government policies led to a loss of research revenue in trade and infrastructure and further destablized the situation (random event: poor government policies on 10/01/1472. Stability -1 to -1 overall [I had gained +1 stability point at that time] and -250 ducats in trade and infrastructure).

The internal unrest was bad enough for Hungary, but there were troubles from without as well. Hungary's ally Poland had gone to war with a coalition of German minor states right before the civil war started, and once that was in full swing, Hungary of course was unable to spare any troops for the war effort. As such, they were not sufficiently on their guard against an invasion, and an army from Saxony laid siege to Moravia in March of 1474. It was hoped that the rebellion would be crushed before the city fell, but fall it did on July 1,1475. It should also be noted here that Courland declared their independence from Poland in July 1474. Poland requested that her allies join her, but Hungary, with the situation at home as it was, refused, which caused a minor disagreement among some of the nobility (stability -1), but it was understood nonetheless. A detachment of troops was sent to retake Moravia from Saxony in October 1475 after a white peace was signed with the other members of the German coalition.

In 1476, things began to calm down a bit. The clergy had preached openly against the constant warfare (random event: unhappiness among clergy), but it was soon forgotten once the king agreed to listen to their demands (innovativeness -1). The first few months of 1476 were quiet enough to order a fortress enlargement in Banat, and to send merchants to Venice, Constantinople, and Lisbon. More revolts sprang up later in the year, but they were quickly crushed.

1477 saw the last of the revolts in Dalmatia, but it too was quickly put down, effectively ending the resistance movement. A payment of 50,000 ducats to Prussia ended the war with the German states. Hungary had done well to survive its bloody civil war intact. She had retained all of her provinces and had managed to fight off endless waves of rebels within her borders. Now it would be time for reconstruction following the bloody civil war. Several fortresses would need to be repaired. New land was claimed in Maros in March 1477(random event), increasing the population (+2000) and increasing its manpower (+1000) and tax base (+1). By 1478 the nation had completely settled, and King Matty felt it was safe enough to reform the military (DP slider land +1). There was of course the usual grumbling among the officers (stability -1), but they accepted the reform as necessary. And it would be needed sooner than anyone though, for on January 10, 1478, the Ottoman Empire declared war on Serbia. Serbia and Hungary had signed a mutual defense pact during the Hungarian Civil War, and now the Serbs called upon their ally to aid them against the Turkish onslaught.

the hungarian civil war

note that at one time i had no less than 5 provinces either under rebel control or being sieged by rebel armies.

 

[unmerged(2952)]

Whhhhhoooooaaa! I give you credit, you jsut survived several years of hell there, to get hit with all of that bad events at once just sucks. In my game, at least, I never had to worry about anything nearly that bad, although I came close during my recent reign of Ulaszlo II. Keep up the good fight!

 

[unmerged(4004)]

Originally posted by DanielMcCollum
Whhhhhoooooaaa! I give you credit, you jsut survived several years of hell there, to get hit with all of that bad events at once just sucks. In my game, at least, I never had to worry about anything nearly that bad, although I came close during my recent reign of Ulaszlo II. Keep up the good fight!

i've had a string of bad events in this game. a few decades after the civil war i had a really nasty sequence of events that unfortunately i did not survive as well. you'll read about that in a while. but, this game has been WAY more exciting than my last game, to say the least.

next update some time today.

 

[unmerged(10139)]

I am very interested in what will happen in the future for you realm. I don't want to give away any surprises. I agree that it was tremendous fun and challenging to play Hungary. In the end I just did manage to pip France and Austria for a points victory, though I must say, I benefit far more from "keep Pressburg for 5 years" type points then it seems anyone else does. Without the "random points" I may have actually been beaten by the Economic, diplomatic and Milary point totals

Sounds like you are running things admirably. I am not sure what difficulty level you are running and how it effects relative pace in tech growth. I would also be curious to know if the "unbelievable gift to Austria event" i.e. all of Burgundy not in France is annexed by Austria has occured yet. Also, what is your standing with Austria in terms of alliance, royal wedding and relative military might. I found I fell behind Poland and Austria in Military capabilities.

As Austria has a permanent CB against Hungary, you must always be careful what they are up to. Unfortunately in my game, they took over most of Germany within the first 100 years. This made them a formidable opponent. The problem I had was that I used a trick in EUI that backfired in EU II. In EUI if I formed the alliance, only I could negotiate vassalisation. However, every time I got a new German state into the Austro-Hungarian club, AUstria (who had more states and resources) would beat me to the vassal, and eventually annex. I was running 1.02 so maybe this has been fixed. It really pissed me off though.

Can you give me a "lay of the land", a sort of Spies report if done in character, of the above things in your current year.

I am in fact part Hungarian and have a working knowledge of its language and history. The Battle of Mohacs (Near present day Belgrade) effectively wiped out Hungarian resistence to the Turks in 1526. FOr 150 years, hungary was divided in three parts. The Western third was run by Hapsburg monarchs and remained effecetively Catholic, these would be the shield provinces Oldeburg, pressburg etc. In game terms this would be an "annex". The middle remained catholic and was admisisted by the Turks (These would in game terms be provinces lost in peace deals, prior to Austrian Annex), the the Eastern part ran effectively as vassals of the Turks, but autonomous (Transylvania). This would be like the Turks "creating vassal" out of Siebenburgen. Here the "B" Princes's of Hungary found their own. This includes Bethlen Gabor, Bathory Istvan and Bocskay ??? most Hungarian in this region converted to Reformed faith. It was also a more "nationalistic faith" as the Hapsburg rule in the West was associated with loss of autonomy and the Hapsburgs were very, very Catholic. By becoming reformed, the princes were able to exert more influence on the people because it further severed the ties with Rome and Vienna. Similar arguments can be made in Scotland for the rise in the reformed church as a barrier or means of sperating from the established church of England.

I hope you fare better against the Turks then Hungary did historically.

Note: Stephen Bathory even became head of the Polish-Lithuanian Crown. He is still spoken of highly by many Poles.

 

[unmerged(4004)]

without giving away too much, i'll say that the last decade of the 15th and first decade of the 16th was a rough time for me. if you thought the civil war of the 1470's was bad, wait until you read about the "dark years", as i have labelled them. i've got 4 screenshots to show when the time comes.

i've enjoyed the game so far. even the bad random events and massive internal instability have been enjoyable, and i have to credit the AI nations on pulling a good one on me. it's just the sort of thing i would have done had i been the other nations (in particular poland and austria). normally i would have quit probably as soon as the first instability event hit and revolts started breaking out, but i want to see if i can recover from the dark years. before that happened, i was running #3 in vp's just behind the ottomans and spain. now i've dropped to #10 since i lost some vp's during the "dark years". but with the situation stabilized now, i can begin the road to recovery.

i'm playing normal/normal difficulty and aggressiveness, with missions off, so the only points i can get are from economy, military, and diplomacy. i only play normal/normal since i feel it's the best medium for an effective AI opponent. at higher levels they tend to expand too aggressively and overextend, and at lower levels they sit around and build their military so when you do declare war they're too strong to beat.

i'm up to 1510 currently in the game, and austria is at land tech 6 and naval tech 3. i'm land tech 4 and naval tech 2. poland is only at land tech 3 though, so i do have a slight advantage over them. in terms of armed forces, most of my army was wiped out fighting rebels and such during the dark years, so i'm in the process of rebuilding the military. i'm also without a military leader right now as my last one died in 1496 (i think it was). austria actually struggled a bit at first but has since expanded westward and is now rather large. poland too is large, though as i already mentioned, is lagging in land tech at the moment.

i have a royal marriage with austria now, though relations have really dropped since i got involved in some civil unrest and could not afford to send diplomatic gifts. i was at one time in an alliance with poland and lithuania, but dropped out when i got hit with the civil war in the 1470's. now my only ally is siebenbergen, who broke off from me during the dark years. i'm trying to rebuild the relationship with them so i can diplo-vassalize and diplo-annex them again. speaking of diplomacy, france annexed burgundy.

as for the turks, i started out doing well against them but lost all of my gains in the dark years. but i don't plan on staying down for long....

i plan on giving an overview of the state of the nation once i hit the 100 year mark, and it should cover everything i just mentioned.

but i'm getting a little ahead of myself. you have to read about the turkish wars first. the next update will be in a little while, once i type it up.

 

[unmerged(10139)]

I did not want to give away that "The dark years" would come.
The string of revolts was depressing. I play at Very Hard/Most Agressive since I thought this was the hardest setting. It certainly makes the giants stronger as they gobble up all of the lesser powers quickly.

I also had to re-vassal and annex Seibenburgen, and this just as I got unrest down to 0. The whole process had to start again. Why they don't make Siebenburgen a shiled land is beyond me. The nationality is Magyar and the people very much Hungarian. Transylvania was a part of Hungary from 1001 until Turkey split hungary in 3.

I see there is a nother poster who has played Hungary as well. I will check to see what setting he used.

I still think AI (Hardest), Agresssion (Highest) must be the most difficult settting when playing a (Minor power)

In the game I played, I spent a lot of time getting out of wars quickly by winning a few battles and sueing for peace giving away cash. Sometimes, it just wasn't the right time to do battle. And as I said in an earlier post, I had a completely different objective. I may post a few digests from my game later.

I am not sure why, but though in the end, I had the highest Trade and Infrastructure, neither were at the highest level (10). I seems that in 400 years, no country was able to invest all the way to the top.

This I thought was unusual since, In EUI if I played a any major power, I would be topped out on Trade and infrastructure with many years to spare, and that was in 300 years.

I hope you have many more surprises in the future. I guess if you read too much of the other AAR, you will know what sort of problems you may have to face.