Mega Grand Campaign 3 - 8 player MP AAR

[PJL]

The Ottoman perspective – Part II (1530-1560)

During this period I had connection problems to this game, and I guess there may have been AI control/inactivity for as much as 10-15 of this 30-year period (non-consecutive though). Having said that, the AI at least didn’t screw up too badly when I was out, and even did a couple of things right! In general, the period itself was one of consolidation, and a focus towards the east (Persia and Oman) rather than in Europe.

So, back to the narrative, but before we start in 1530, I just like to add that I chose the historic option (in 1524) of the Veneto-Ottoman conflict regarding control of Alexander (and who wouldn’t do that, unless you clicked on the wrong button of course hehe).

Back to the 1530’s – the decade was really a time of consolidation as I did some religious conversions of the smaller religions (mainly catholic and protestant), and built tax collectors over all my CB shield provinces – until then I hadn’t even built one collector, as I had been so busy trying to cut Venice, Al Koyoku and the Mamelukes down to size. The AI also took over for a few years too, and did a good job of annexing Algeria in 1533 (about 20 years earlier than I would have done it, but then again having Suleyman helps) – I had thought this was an event, but it looks as though it was a normal diplomatic move. In 1538 I also chose the historic Great Naval Reform which meant having a wharf (golden shield port), a big investment in the navy, and some ships I think. At the time I thought this might have been a mistake, but on second thoughts this might prove to be a better, especially regarding for plans for later.

In 1539 I declare war on the one province Mamalukes again. This should have been a quickie war, intended for them to change religion, but it drags on for 3 years (though I only ever utilised a small portion of my forces against them), mainly due to bad luck and a bit of poor tactics on my part (also a bit of overconfidence).

A more successful war is waged against Persia in 1545, which lasts from March ’45 to July ’46 the following year, forcing them to change religion and handing over 128d. The war against their allies, Oman is less conclusive and lasts longer (though I was really only concentrating on Persia this time round), and I offer a white peace from them in March 1547.

I was disconnected from the game in around 1547, and which the AI took over again (well it was really inactive, apart from one army which I had moved prior to being booted). During 1547-1553, which the AI took over it chose the Expand Bureaucracy option in the Expansion of the Royal Bureaucracy event (which I don’t think was a good choice – the others give more tax income, but more revolts IIRC). There were also revolts (which had broken out before I left, but was going to deal with), which led to the independence of Wallacia, and subsequent re-vassalisation by the AI Ottomans. The AI also chooses to pay the Shah to have Beyazid extradicted (sounds okay to me) in the series of Turko-Persian conflicts. However, the AI does manage to annex Tunisia in 1553, meaning I now have almost a continuous empire from the Moroccan border to Thrace apart from the one-province country of the Mamalukes in Egypt.

I retake control again in 1556, this time declaring war on the Persians and Oman again in Apr 1558, leading to us vassalising Persia in May 1559 (indeed I was so eager to do this, I forgot to try and get some money from them lol!!!). Oman however again proves more difficult, and despite a more serious attempt to invade them (both on land and from sea), the terrain, land and naval forces prove quite a match for the Ottomans (especially the navy which really prevented me from landing serious forces in Oman, though the terrain is not exactly good for fighting either). So I decide to cut the war short against them, and offer another white peace (having realised it would take years, and a bigger naval superiority to obtain any sort of victory against them), and perhaps have another go at them later.

Btw, although the wars against Persia were quick, they did put up a good fight, and in both wars made several counterattacks where I was concerned that I might lose or even have my army annihilated against a bigger force.

So that basically wraps the situation at my end to 1560, though the game is now up to about 1565 now (I have no idea what the situation is, as I couldn’t re-enter the game after the 1561 save). In general, less expansion, more consolidation, and hopefully a more secure foundation for the future.

 

[ulver]

Not sure how smart it was for France to grab Manhattan. Won’t that pretty much assure a permanent hostile relationship with England? From a Spanish perspective I’m delighted at the prospect of no French-British alliance obviously but I’d have left it for England myself. (In fact I did having scored 100% against them as part of my North American tour of conversion) Won’t any English player seeing a French Manhattan make it a linchpin of his policy to take it for England?

How did France get a casus belli? Or did she simply pay the 4 BB points for attacking a nation of same religion without CB?

 

[ulver]

Seems to me England really needs to counter French moves in North America NOW! Before France success in converting the provinces to French culture. France only has 1 warship so it should be doable. Surely they can keep 1 bloody French ship of the line away?

If he fails to do this now England will never amount to much of anything. I urgently advice England to consider the long-term consequences of effectively abandoning North America. I believe she has a window of opportunity to restore her position before France converts newly captured provinces to French culture. Once that happens the window is effectively closed.

PS: This is I as a player talking, wearing my “Ulver gives advice to newbi” hat. Not The government of Spain urging a war against France. If Paris takes offense I’m not only willing to retract this, I’m also quite willing to deny I ever said it

 

[ulver]

Had an interesting discussion with Damocles. He was worried we might feel his style of play was disruptive. His inclination was to demand the Flanders from the Netherlands or even crush them utterly should they fail to accept his protection in exchange for Flanders.

I assured him no one minded his Napoleonic ambition beyond the fact that a collation was likely to form against a powerful France for beating up on tiny Netherlands. Personally I have enjoyed the tension an assertive French player has brought to the game and I’m sure Mowers feel likewise.

I shall watch the epic battles to come with great interest, and yes, I’ll offer considerable support to any anti-French collation protecting the territorial integrity of the Netherlands. Should France win I’ll accept defeat and submit to reasonable terms. I won’t complain about it either. Needless to say if France were to crush the Netherlands utterly we should offer the player a new country.

But I’d like to poll you on my statement that they’ll be no hard feelings. He told me he has been holding back considerable in the interest of not making a bad impression on his co-players. I assured him that was quite unnecessary and the he should act in the interests of France. If he succeeds in establishing a Napoleonic hegemony in Europe we’ll all respect him for it. (And then we’ll get busy planning how to take it away from him)

Obviously they’ll be in-game consequences such as a massive anti-French collation forming. Personally I feel we screw up if we fail to protect the Netherlands. I do not feel he is playing badly at all for annexing them if he truly feels that is in his interest.

In fact, personally I’d enjoy seeing him going for it.. It is just that an attempt to crush a player nation will likely result in him having to fight at least an English Austrian Turkish collation financed with Spanish money. Should he win I’ll happily submit to French dominance in Europe. (well officially anyway while I plot behind his back) We have a group of great players. On indicator is that we don’t mind losing – rather enjoy doing it to someone skilled. I assured him if he made formal statement claming the Netherlands we’ll respect that while we try to stop him.

Comments?.

 

[unmerged(8463)]

Ive been bit busy lately mostly with SPWAW (great strategy game too btw) so Polands AAR comes bit late but here it is.


1492-1530

As soon as game started i ran a war against Pommern-Mecklenburg alliance to control of Baltic seas southern coast and the COT. All went as planned and Poland gain both under her control. Some years later Brandenburg annexed 1 province Pommern becoming 4 province power in the area. My next plan was to run war against them regaining the land access to Mecklenburg. Situation changed dramaticaly when Austria decided to intervene in the conflict seeing Poland advancing too much into northern Germany.

War started with a row of several Polish victories until my main army was beaten. Shortly after this Mecklenburg was captured by Austria. This is where i did fatal mistake by continuing the war. I was getting my army back on its feets and it was on plans to make a landing to retake Mecklenburg. I also counted on either France or Ottoman intervention which to my suprise never happened. Finally Austria was able to fully destroy my army and i signed peace with giving 150 gold and Mecklenburg to Austria. I had earlier given province of Galizia to Hungary. War left by economy badly damaged and unlucky event led it to total bankcrupcy.

Until the end of this playing session i was able to regain most of my political strenth on the area by getting Saxony and Wurzburg join my alliance and vassalising Brandenburg and Prussia. My economy was still badly hurt with inflation in around 50%.


1546-1556

The 16 years between these two sessions i played Poland was run by AI. It was able to get rid off the inflation totally. On diplomatic front it was a disaster. I lost 2 allies and 3 vassals i had had and was myself vassal of Lithuania instead. This proved to be not as bad as it had first looked like though. Vassalization with Lithuania was quickly resigned. On the look for new allies to replace the lost ones i noticed France without one and the treaty was signed. This would effectivly stop another Austrian intervention. Also as Austrias alliance got expired i was able to steal Venice from his alliance to mine.

After this i started to plan expansion of my power back to the west. I got Austrias guarantee of not interventin and free hands to advance to Elbe. Luckuly i was able to get CB against Prussia through an event before the war. Pommers army was quickly beaten back but Saxony proved to have larger army than i had thought and they were able to win in our first battle. After reformation i was able to win it, signed white peace with Saxony and started siege on Prussia and Pommern. This is when Sweden intervened the war. I was able to invade their controlled Kurland. All went good until i decided to get Sweden off the war to get free hands on finishing the war against Pommern. Accidently i had chosen Sweden as leader of alliance when signing white peace and Pommern got away with it because of this. &%(#=. Well, atleast learnt the lesson of taking a look at it carefully in the future.

 

[Damocles]

Perhaps I should elucidate France's position.


I made an agreement with Spain to where I would receive Flandern in exchange for agreeing to keep the Italian city states independent and not making an attempt for Dutch culture by conquering the Lowlands off of either Spain or Austria.

Now, Spain has somewhat reneged on the 'deal', in declaring that he is ready to support Dutch resistance. So this puts me in the position of either taking it quietly, or doing something about it.

France would be pleased to have Netherlands as a little protectorate whom would make a nice ally, in exchange for Flandern, however, France also knows that the Netherlands cannot afford to waste the precious time and ducats it would require to resist France. Whether or not the Coalition helps. Just about all of my provs are CB shields, so war exhaustion isn't a factor either. I am essentially all catholic as well except for a few stray provinces.

I am no stranger to coalitions against France...Should be very fun!

 

[BiB]

As the player for the Dutch Republic I'd like to outline our modest, yet ambitious objectives.

1) Own and control all our core provinces, which are all the Dutch cultured provinces. I will not part with any of those unless I cannot do so otherwise aka am forced to do so in a peace treaty after being totally crushed in a war.
2) Get a colonial thing going around Batavia.

Good luck

 

[ulver]

Placed the updated file at http://www.ulver.dk/files/eu2game.zip
Going to eat now. We’ll meet in an hour or so to discuss if we play on without mowers tonight.

 

[BiB]

Well, I joined in as the Dutch Republic. Got a cool 3 provs to start with and 1000 soldiers. Gelre chose to join the Republic but well it just didn't work. So I had to get them militarily at a steep BB costs and instead of inheriting their armies I had to slughter 40K. Great start. Well, at least I got loads of financial support from Felipe II, if Willem of Oranje would know he'd turn in his grave Then Hannover was attacked because they had Friesland, that was qutie easy with William of Orange himself at the helm and Friesland and Oldenburg were annexed (I got a bit greedy). Brabant was still being held by Austria though. Meanwhile Spain helped us get set up colonially and we have established quite some TPs and waypoints in North America and Africa though our "success" rate was abominably low. Lots of wars between France and its ally, Poland and the anti French coalition around me but I escaped the dance for now. Slowly I was building a trade empire with those wacky (for me anwyay ) dp settings that I had. The fleet is looking good, army wise, due to our manpower and dp settings it went slowly and expensively. At least we have good leaders. A war between France and Austria, my ally, and me was brewing though and I knew the score when France converted to CRC. War was declared soon after and 50K of crazy Dutch heretics, led by William himself, swept into France, Paris was sieged for a moment, some assaults failed and then we spotted a rashly assembled 100K French army coming our way We soon made our way back to Zeeland to defend our ground beyond the Schelde river with no manpower or money and Austria also in trouble ...

 

[Damocles]

1565-1581 (Or thereabouts)

I once more returned to take control of France after a peaceful 20 year interlude. Once more the armies of France would march triumphantly upon the earth. Little did I know that French blood and ducats would be sorely taxed in nearly 15 years of continual warfare.

Beginning in 1566, France was in an immeasurably better position financially then it had previously been left. Knowing that I would be facing a large coalition of nations at every step, I began to reduce quality from an ugodly 8 to a more manageable 7 then to 6 throughout the course of the game, which gave me around 110 manpower. A considerable improvement.

The first year or so was fairly peaceful, I did not impose my demands on the Netherlands and was content to get my house in order. It was at this point, somewhere in late 66 or 67, England (Aryaman) decided to declare war on me. Sweden (Cockney) joined him but didn't do anything since via a bug and a reload, my ally Poland (Jonicro) didn't have to enter the war. This was first of one of the many dubious instances in which my erstwhile ally gave me something of a headache!

This was a misadvised war at best, and I could only guess that it was being urged on by Spain (Ulver), the war largely being fought with Spanish boullion yet with Anglo blood.

England had a 30k army in the colonies. He owned Bangor and Penobscot (or whatever) and a few trading posts. I was in command of roughly the entire eastern seaboard. It was a difficult fight at first, since I had to start recruiting many more troops from my colonies around Roanoake, Manhattan and Delaware to supplement the 19k I had in Manhattan. Luckily for me, England wasted his time chasing 4k cavalry all around New England.

What followed over the next 2-3 years was a series of fairly equal battles fought between my small colonial army and his, back and forth. He was constantly getting 20k reinfocements like clockwork yearly from England and recruiting in Bangor, and I was recruiting what I could in 1k and 3k increments with the occcassional war tax boost.

At this point, Bohemia DoWed Poland, dragging Netherlands and Austria into the war. Poland requested my help of course, and so now I find myself with a continental battle. Throughout 99 percent of this war, Poland largely ignored Austria, working on suppressing its revolters and fighting the AI. This left somewhere around 100k Austrians to surge across the border at 3 different places with the accompanying AI. I got a nobles ally with a foreign power, a meteor sighted, and a political uprising during the course of this war. Which made it all the more fun. (Bye bye war taxes!)

Laying siege to a couple Netherlands provinces, I settled in for a long war. I had to fend off England in NA, while arranaging an invasion of England, fighting off Austria, and keeping an eye on the Dutch. So, business as usual.

I decided to let the Austrian army attrition itself a good deal, allowing them and their allies to take Mainz. I had to be careful since in the last 20 years they had reached land tech 18 and I was still at 17, probably because those before me focused more on infra and trade.

Taking my time, I assembled a 90k army composed of infantry and cavalry. Some fresh-faced recruits, others veterans from the first battles across the Rhine. Throughout these preparations, I lost around 30k men total in various invasions of England (To secure a bridgehead) before I achieved naval supremacy with a brand new fleet. I built some 30 ships...Seeing a I started with 1 and some transports.d Luckily, England seemed too busy in NA to make an honest attempt to retake the channel waters.

Finally, I struck the Austrians in Baden, annihilating them to the last man. Then I destroyed the second army they had in France at this time, leaving some 64k total dead, and about 10k casualties on my side. Victorious, I began to invade Austria, now that their entire army was wiped out. The sieging in the lowlands was coming along nicely as well.

At this point, Poland made peace with Austria...White peace. Grrrr. I knew that letting the Austrians off so easy would come back to haunt me, which it did.

Eventually, England fell to my armies and I destroyed him in NA, but he kept not wanting to make peace. Eventually, I generously settled for a few colonies. Austria got off scot free, but not it's ally, Wurzburg, whom I annexed.

Peace for year or 2.

Suddenly Sweden dowed P-L who had taken all of Bohemia except Bohemia. This drew England back into the war. Simultaneously, the Ottoman Empire DoWs Poland-Lithuania. Russia was also invading them. P-L of course invites me.

The first stage of the war, I blitzed England, knocking them out of the war immediately with a large scale invasion. This time, he gave in to peace seeing it was hopeless, and I took Kent as a guard against further Anglo aggression.

I now launched my armies into Poland and navally invaded Sweden. Knowing that Sweden has very little manpower, I was intending to make short work of him, even knocking him off a siege and begin to land in Skane, when Poland made another peace, giving up LIvland and 500 ducats which in hindsight, he didn't have to do.

Now, it was just the Ottomans. The Ottomans aren't exactly that easy to get at, and as became apparent, they were being heavily funded, like a state gift a month, by Spain.

Spain/Austria tried to justify this in that they were preserving the Balance of Power by taking out Poland, my ally in the east...Ottoman at this time comprised all of their CB shields, and the ENTIRE middle east. Spain controlled all of it's colonial CBs getting a massive income, and Austria had inherited Hungary. Seeing these three great powers arranged against Poland in the interest of preserving the balance...Was amusing.

What followed was many years of Ottoman deliberately prolonging the war until war exhaustion began to rise to ungodly levels. He was doing this on instruction from Austria/Spain. This of course, was being a pain to me since I had little ability to reach the Ottomans, needless to say. Eventually, I broke my alliance with Poland because it was becoming a occupational hazard, and also because I wanted to diplo-annex Savoy.


At this time, Austria invaded Poland now that his W.E was super high. Now, Ottomans took peace with him, which seeing as how he didn't matter war exhaustion wise, he probably shouldn't have accepted. I accepted peace on exorbiant terms, but only because I knew OE was more then happy to just sit there prolonging the war and more importantly, I didn't want to be caught with outrageous war exhaustion in the next war that was coming. So it was worth it.

Austria now happily violated a barely breathing Poland-Lithuania. Though, I could understand Austria's reason. Poland shouldn't have tried to take all of Bohemia. Still, it was a brutal way to go about it, and I was surprised that the Ottomans were so complacent in doing everything Spain/Austria said.

At this time, I warned them the gloves were off, but despite Poland's begging, I did not attack anyone. Instead, I bided my time once more, spending two years raising a massive army. In the meantime, I had DoWed Wurtemburg and diplo-annexed Savoy. Netherlands and Austria dishonored their alliance with Wurtemburg rather then be drawn into a war with me.

Upon annexing Wurtemburg, I switched to Counter-Reformed Catholic. This now gave me a horde of screaming religious zealouts. Eyeing the Reformed Dutch (and the free CB), I launched an all out invasion. Which was timely, since the armies I had built were costing me 20 ducats a month.

Nobody ever expects the French inquisition!

I didn't expect the Dutch heretics to be so prepared however, as 60k of the bastards crossed the border towards Paris under William D'orange. Then they dithered around a bit taking attrition while I formed a 80k army and chased them back to Zealand where I defeated them.

While this was happening, the French were pouring over the border into Austria who was already heavily engaged with Poland...Well, as far as sieging several of it's provinces.

Since about all of Austria is a medium sized fort, I began to besiege all of his western German provs, leaving only Hungary uninvaded.

He must've pulled back his army from Poland, because then 69k Austrians counterattacked, but were defeated in Steirmark by my army of fantatics. (Invincible morale is nice).

At this moment of suspense, with the armies of Counter reformed Catholicism waging vicious war on two fronts, while Austria was sorely interrupted during it's conquest of Bohemia, Mowers called a halt to the game. I do not envy the next player who takes up Austria if we continue today.

 

[ulver]

“The armourers, accomplishing the knights,
With busy hammers closing rivets up,
Give dreadful note of preparation.”

William Shakespeare
Henry V

As I arrived to once again take over a Spain whose wealth had been squandered by the staggering ineptitude displayed by the misnamed AI (unless it stands for Artificial incompetence that is) in my absence, I found a Europe rife with rumours of a great war coming. The simmering hostility between France and Austria for domination of the European continent had been building up for a long time. Being mindful of the terrible consequence that might befall the Spanish empire if she found herself at war my policy thus far had always been to give secret financial aid to the weaker party but not risk a public stand against my powerful neighbour for fear of possible consequences. One constant overriding concern of mine has been to keep out of any war unless absolutely necessary. My motto “My gold; Their blood”

I proceeded to pour cash into anybody and everybody willing to take the field against France and his ally Poland. At various times England, Sweden, The Netherlands and Turkey took up the fight to stop the French/Polish colossus. Due to religious differences I were unable to watch as much of the action as I’d have liked but Poland finally succumbed to war exhausting and was forced to break with France.

The French acquisition of Manhattan and further inroads into Germany had, however, solidified my belief that a more anti-French stance might eventually become needed. With a great deal of dread I may be forced to intervene directly to stop France from overrunning North America.

 

[ulver]

http://www.ulver.dk/files/eu2game.zip
have updated the file again. Screenshot in a moment here

 

[Damocles]

1581-1601

The next 20 years were not quite so hectic for France as the previous had been. Much more methodical. Maur took over as Austria in place of Mowers, and immediately, I knew I had a particularly uppity Habsburg on my hands.


It began with France victorious on all fronts, my armies sweeping over the Austrian hinterland. There was little Maur could do, thrown as he was, to the wolves from the get go. Seeing the desperate situation, Ulver intervened and bought a white peace in exchange for 2000 ducats to me.


In the meantime, the heretical Dutch acknowledged France as their overlords, becoming vassals.

What followed was a period of relative peace and prosperity for all nations. This continued until there was a trade altercation with Spain. Using this CB, in 1591, I declared to Spain that I was going to relieve them of Milan. Dutifully, the Spanish garrison withdrew, I entered, sieged and took it. He signed peace, handing it over. Milan was a small price to pay for a Spain all alone who did not want to see the entire Iberian peninsula in flames.

It was the first taste of physical conflict that Spain had thus far experienced, having been masterfully playing one nation off the other using France as a boogeyman. His maneuverings accounted for much blood being spilt in Europe. From every nation besides Spain.

In the closing years of the game, Austria under Maur directly defied my explicit warnings (And after I was good enough to invite him into my alliance and so share continental hegemony) and began to slaughter northern German minors wholesale.

I retaliated by annexing two of his vassals. One of them being the Palatinate whom without being in existance he cannot get his Bohemian CBs.

The tension was simmering, war threatening to envelop the continent again when we crashed and then called a halt to the night.

Austrian troops are certainly more plentiful and financed quite liberally with Spanish gold, yet France is secure and confident.

 

[TeutonicKnight]

As I took over for England in 1581 she was wrecked with unfavorable wars in which much of England's colonial empire was lost. The wars in which she was part of had destroyed her Navy, Army, colonial existence and trade; the situation was dire at best.

I decided that to help England, if anything at all could be done in such a short time, that I needed to secure her Northern border from the always uppity Scots. I was afraid that France or somebody else would ally with Scotland putting even more pressure on England, as they would have a jump point to either invade or to retreat if I defeated an invading army, or just keep me busy with Scottland wasteing troops.

I quickly readjusted the taxes and tech bar to allow me about 15% of all my revenue being liquid cash. I was able to raise an army of 40K infantry and along with the 22k cav that I inherited from the previous king, declared war on Scotland in 1582.

We both had the same land tech level so I knew I had the advantage because of my sheer size and manpower advantage; or did I? The initial attacks began with me launching into Lothain with about 15k infantry to lay seige to the Scotish capital. I then sent the reaming 22k cav and 15k infantry to deal with the 30k Scotish army camped in Strath. I thought that the battle would be fast and I already had another 9k cav army coming up from North Umbrel to route the defeated scots. Alas the reports came back from the front that we had lost the battle in Strath(I lost 8k infantry and 6k cavlery). I halted the Cav army heading for Scath and reorganized them in North Umberl.

While waiting for my newly recruited army of 21k men and 10k cav to come up from Angilia, thanks to Spanish bouilion, I decided to hit the Scot army camped in Strath again. I figured his 22k infantry and newly arrived 2k cav, had no chance against a reinforced army of 15k men and 26k cav and launched with high hopes. Once again I was thwarted losing 12k infantry and 6k cav. He then routed my army in North Umberl as he laid seige to it. I decided to wait for attrition to help me as he laid seige to my land. When my newly recruited army arrived from Anglia along with various other recruits who were pouring in for the war effort, I swept in with 30k infantry and 28k cav, and thanks to Spanish boulion again, I was making cannons to lay seige while I routed his army.

I finaly checked the Scotish invasion and divided up my army to deal with his fresh recruits, and to keep the route of his main army going as I dispatched 20k of my cav to destroy him. The whole time my first wave of infantry in his capital had took its toll and the garrison of Lothain surrendered. With the news of victory more recruits came in(Army enthusiasim event) 5k infantry and 2k cav).

The war was going smoothly until I routed an army of 1k infantry into my army of 150 cannons thus annihilating them and lifting the seige of Scath. With one last boost of infantry I assualted Scath with almost 40k infantry and it fell like a house of cards. I then took over Grampians and the Highlands fairly easily.

In 1591, I sighned a peace with Scotland with him giving me Scath, Grampians, The Highlands and some money, don't remember how much though.

After seemingly securing my North border I then looked at expanding my colonial empire but thats easier said than done. I decided to turn my focus on the indian tribes as France in previous wars had taken almost all my colonial possessions, thus cutting me off from going to the interior of North America.

Because my income was so bad I knew that colonizing was going to be too hard so I decided to focus on two particular points to further my colonies, thus allowing me a point to recruit for my upcoming war with the Indians. I chose, not by any means of a real choice as I had nothing else, Nueltin, in Northern Canada as my base of colonization and springboard into the Dakota. I also had a buffer in Eskimalt because it would seal off that area from further exploits of others and allow me a free hand at tradeposts or colonies. I got Nueltin up to level 5 and Eskimalt is a tradepost, so my war there has yet to materialise.

However, the Southern area, while being more contested by the ever growing French menece, was a bit easier. I used my lone possession Santee as my base of operations. In the short year that followed peace with Scotland I was able to swing 9k infantry to Santee along with the 5k infantry and 2k cav that I recruited. I then DOW'd on the Cherokee and quickly overan thier pitiful armies. I recieved all thier cash, Tennessee and Alabama from them.

The downfall to this little incursion was that for some reason it would not allow me to make them change religion, but hey it happens. I now had a string of awful luck. While at war with the Cherokee my Stability was +2 then came an event that decreased my stability to -1 then about 3 months later I had a court scandal with another -3 stability hit. Within 1 year my whole empire was on the verge of civil war as all of occupied Scotland revolted and the Midlands, Lancashire and Whales revolted. In Ireland all but Meath had revolters. I had to spend my entire war chest in recruitments to help put them down.

In 1599 after all revolts were seemingly put down I DOW'd on Scotland to finish her off. This time it was much faster and painless as the war took less than a year and ended with me annexing Scotland. However, my whole nation again looked on the verge of civil war, as my stability was -2 and revolts would pop up anywhere and everywhere. I sent missionaries to the new world but a nasty revolt killed them off. I am now behind badly in the conversion race of the Pagan nonbelievers.

I already have my eyes turned towards Benin in Africa as Raleigh has just recieved a fresh army of 9k to launch from Guinie. I hope this time I can get them to change religion thus making my takeover less painless and more swiftly.

When I took over England she had a pitiful army of 2k infantry, 22k cav and 2 ships of the line. I have somewhat built her Naval power back a little to about 20 Ships of the line and an Army of over 100k. Will take some doing but England, if the stability gets better, will be able to make a comeback.

 

[BiB]

The Golden Age of the Dutch Republic seems set to start. After a tough start things are coming together. Maurits van Nassau has taken over from William of Orange and looked every bit as good. Our situation Europe wise was bound to the faith of Austria our ally and thus by extension Spain too. When Spain paid France 2000 ducats to get Asutria of the hook, we became vassalised. We're now in France's alliance. However this didn't mean things took a real turn for the worse for us. As the Dutchies most of ur income comes from trade and not taxes so being a vassal doesn't really hurt financially. Seeing France let us keep all the Dutch cultured provs I can't really complain. This left the way open for us, being taken out of the cross European tensions to an extent, to invest, colonise and build. Tech wise we closed gaps thanx to our innovativesness. Our money making techs are still low but our military ones are amongst the best in the world. Inflation is at 0 thanx to the many great financial institutes in Amsterdam (events). We also got a few manufactories thru events, which was very nice also. Our dp settings are set towards making money from trade and building a fleet (fully naval and plutocratic) so we did. Another event gift, a shipyard, helped nicely with that. We now boast a fleet that is amongst the biggest and best in the world (33 warships, 33 galleys and 10 transports). Our army is high quality, high morale and has great leaders. Shame our manpower is 16 Stab also is a pain as we have full free subjects and we have non state religion provinces. Yup, the lutherans from Oldenburg, whom I really should ditch, and sunni muslims as we annexed Malacca to get a serious foothold in the East Indies. Explorers had flocked in and had brought us places. We had gotten there thru a series of stopover cities (Louga, St Helena, Ciskei, Madagascar). We also managed to found Batavia. So things are looking up but till the moment is there till our colonial trading empire cannot be torched in 3 weeks we will not be safe Oman and Portugal still have quite a few lands in the area and we're on a conflict course for control of the spicetrade. So basically we're an economic powerhouse with a good fleet (just about every VP earned has come from the economy category) but one which doesn't have an leg (read army) to stand on in a large scale ground war

 

[ulver]

Well the 1581-1600 se a new Austrian Monarch take the throne, something I must confess gave rise to a certain trepidation. Would he be able, and willing, to continue the anti-French policies of his predecessor. Austria stated off at somewhat of a military disadvantage so when France offered a peace deal for 2000 Spanish ducats I was happy to ransom my ally with such a minor payment from the petty cash. The Netherlands came to a separate agreement, becoming a French vassal.

A France, enraged by my massive constant financial support of his enemies then turned on helpless Spain. Having extolled everyone else to fight to the last drop of blood for their honor I naturally……hands over Lombadia and make a quick peace. He who lives to run away, well, in my case lives to run another day no doubt. Told you, Don Ulver dislikes war when he needs to fight it himself. One can get seriously hurt doing that you know. Almost immediately afterwards I see the formation of a French lead alliance including both the Netherlands and Austria. With all efforts to stop the Monster from Paris failed is this the end of the collation? Is Spain doomed to stand alone against the French menace? (well actually Don Ulver would be on his knees praising his new French overlords but that’s another story)

No, it is all part of the most cynical ruthless plan for the conquest of Germany I have ever seen on the part of Austria.

Under cover of the alliance Austria proceeds to completely ignore French warnings and goes on a rampage of conquest annexing German minors with a ice cold brutality Stalin would have admired. France, having invited Austria into his alliance is helpless to intervene directly.

Needless to say Spain reacts to this brutal subjugation of the Free people of Germany with a happy smile and sends a few thousand ducats more to Austria in appreciation. Realpolitik: I need a counterweight to French dominance so I’m quite happy to se Austria grab manpower any way she can.

By way of contrast Spain pursues very peaceful domestic policies in the period. Even going so far as the refuse to expel the Arabs twice. In a strange turn of events this has meant Spain is now the most innovative society in the world even exceeding our good friends the Dutch republic in our tolerance of freethinking. We have also proven to be believers in free trade and the rule of law. The latter giving rise to some rebellions “What do you mean we can kill our peasants as we see fit anymore? This is tyranny, tyranny I tell you!” A revolutionary new economic theory explaining that decentralization actually leads to increases revenue has also led us the decentralize considerably. (I suspect all players dread patch 1.06 as everyone is likely to have max decentralization)

 

[unmerged(2833)]

As we took the throne facing big French armies overrunning our western German possesion, and Spain willing to buy peace for us, we made a decision to make peace, despite not knowing the whole situation much.

Yet, it seems that it proved to be right decision. Next twenty years saw Holy Roman Emperor deciding to end petty bickering of small German statelets, in face of dire threat from French expansionism, which already gobbled up southern HRE.
Our idea was to unite German people and manpower to counter the French threat, which would be only possible under stron Habsburg leadership. After all, we were already Holy Roman Emperor, and we didn't annex anyobody, as did evil French.
All that with our kingly brother in Spain using his New' World gold to finance our just cause.

First, we vassalized Kleves, and Palatinate, and also got Luxemburg, our old core province from the latter.

After that, French monarch dared to threat us not to continue our uniting of Germany. But we laughed at his threats, knowing that he just want to secure his position of subjugation of Europe, southern Germany in particular. And indeed, he demanded Lombardia from Spain, which was handed over, as we didn't want to risk war yet.

The worst thing was that our ally, Sweden was quite unwilling to let it's allies, German statelets of Saxony (3 provs) and Pommern (2+2 it took from ai Poland), whose monarchs were suspiciously French friendly, be absorbed into new centralized Holy Roman Empire of German Nation

France made dear mistake. We gladly accepted their invitation to their alliance, knowing that even French monarch won't be so machiavellian to ban us without formal cause for war. And since we Dowed Pommern (shortly declaring ourselves counter-reformed nation), along with Saxony, Sweden and Russia (with whom we made white peace shortly-Sweden player finally dropped out due to his frequent crashes), France wasn't in position to do anything, except throwing empty threats at us.

(Here comes one of the most fun statements- i DON'T take instructions, buddy-from Austria to France. If you remember AvP2....)

And here was XVII century coming. Using Spanish gold, we turned Austria into real industrial powerhouse. Weapon manufactories, producing arms for all-hailed War Of Liberation, were built all over lower Austria, which along with manpower from our new German provinces, pushed up our support limit sky high. We also appointed few new governmental bureaucrats in our Austrian heartland (read:infra 5 researched). There is also new idea in among our military men, of supplying firearms to our cavalrymen (read:we are about to discover land tech 21, only the fact that date is too early prevents us from that. Tech 21 is the first one cav get's firepower, so cavalry only armies are again viable solution)

French monarch, seeing he can't directly attack Austria, resorted to his barbarous practices, and Dowed and annexepd Palatinate and Cologne, our dear vassals. Annexation of Palatinate outraged us, as we had a feeling that existence of this state was crucial for our future (Read: it is needed for Austria to get CB shields on Bohemia in 1619). We immediately begun asking our kingly habsburg brother in Spain for financial support, and begun concscripting volunteers from all over Germany for new War of Liberation

And so we saw the dawn of XVII century. Our Nation is united, our King is focused, our military is strong, people from all over Germany are willing to join the Crusade against barbarous French tyrrants.

We have over 200k under arms, manpower is about 2/3 of French. Treasury is infinite thanks to our Spanish friends. War is imminent.


(Btw, i actually called for ending it's game, since i was kinda sick, and got severe headache yesterday. No way i would wage war when i was barely able to sit without throwing up)

And so was Austrian point of view. Yes, you guessed it. For 20 years, the only thing we did was preparing to war against Frenchies, i barely noticed the existence of other countries

 

[Mowers]

BREAKING NEWS- 1621

******PEACE IN EUROPE*********
Ding, Dong, Ding, Dong.....
******PEACE IN EUROPE*********
Ding, Dong, Ding, Dong.....
******PEACE IN EUROPE*********
Ding, Dong, Ding, Dong.....
******PEACE IN EUROPE*********
Ding, Dong, Ding, Dong.....
******PEACE IN EUROPE*********
Ding, Dong, Ding, Dong.....
******PEACE IN EUROPE*********
Ding, Dong, Ding, Dong.....
******PEACE IN EUROPE*********
Ding, Dong, Ding, Dong.....
******PEACE IN EUROPE*********
Ding, Dong, Ding, Dong.....

Players this weekend

1565-1581

England- Aryaman
Spain- Ulver
France- Damocleas
Austria- Mowers
Poland-Jonicro
Ottomans- Rexmundi
Sweden-Cockney
Holland- BiB

1581-1601

England- Teutonic Knight
Spain- Ulver
France- Damocleas
Austria- DarthMaur
Poland-Jonicro
Ottomans- PJL
Sweden-Cockney
Holland- BiB

1601-1621

England- Mowers
Spain- Ulver
France- Damocleas
Austria- DarthMaur
Poland- Teutonic Knight
Ottomans- PJL
Sweden-Smirfy
Holland- BiB

 

[ulver]

as always the file can be found at http://www.ulver.dk/files/eu2game.zip

Dark blue is Sweden!

 

[BiB]

The colonial theatre

The Golden Age of the Dutch Republic really has set in now. We are an economic powerhouse, 2nd only to Spain and have the world's largest and best fleet. While wars were being waged all over Europe we were fooling around in the Indian Ocean. We mpay not have done much in Europe but have fought quite a bit in the colonies. With the foundations being layed before 1600, the real building was set to start. The way to the East Indies was secured and a bridgehead in Indonesia established. From there we started colonising everything we could put out hands on. Sooner than later this would bring us into conflicts with the regional powers and the otehr colonisers in the Indian, Portugal and Oman. A deal was struck with Spain. I was not to flood his COTs and I'd get the Portuguese possessions in the Indian (mostly lowly tps anyway). This was teh first test for our new fleet as Portugal had an extensive fleet herself and was in fact the owner of teh 3rd largest fleet. MAny naval battles were fought and we lost quite a bit of trade posts in africa but we came out victorious. Our navy truly had proved to be "very strong" and on the basis of that we concluded peace with Portugal kicking them out of teh Indian but leaving them most of their African holdings and all their Brazilian ones. Only tps changed hands apart from the main prize of the operation, the Table COT. The deal with Spain also included established way points for them (Kerala, Karroo, ...) in a Dutch Ocean. Lots of setlers came to populate the new found territories. Wealth was waiting for them in huge amounts and we stopped caring for America and Africa (apart from Table obviosuly) even though we had quite a bit of tps left there. The whole of of India, Indonesia and Australia was littered with Dutch TPs and slowly those were built up. Now in the best interest of game balance Spain and I decided to help out a ravaged England and promised it India and Australia (minus our waypoints). As reward we were allowed access in teh Spanish COTs to even further expand our trade empire. We should also get New Foundland as our base in North America from Egnland. Seeing we're getting along fine with England on the rebound (they got the COT in Ivoria on their way to the Indian and had a valuable COT (0 ducats worth ) pop up in their first settlement in Australia. We had kept Tasmania and Goa as focal points in those lands. India was being dominated by a huge Mughal Empire which England will have its hands full with. China was big but started to have dynastical problems recently, and with Nippon we are on very good terms. Small fry nations we banned from our COTs. This left only Oman as real competition but they didn't stand a chance, surrounded by 3 human adversaries, even though having 3 COTs. Soon those will be split, England will take Kutch, Holland will take Zanzibar and the Turk will take Mascate. Seeing we already had muslims in our realm and India was promised to England Zanzibar was an easy choice. The war is in progress but despite the morale bonus for shia the Omani fleet doesn't stand a chance. Now for consolidation ...