Round IX (1423 - 1426):This is not our war
Ray: GOOOOOOOOOOD Evening everyone and Welcome to "BIG RULER". I'm Ray Porter, and I am here with George I. Joe and B. Rene Daid to help you all follow that alternative history! This season, we are following Savoy. Last time, our guest Amédée VIII de Savoie did liberate Jerusalem from the Mamluks, and restored the Catholic Faith in Europe, against the Hussites. Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Amédée VIII de Savoie, Roi des Arpitans, Rei d'Aragó, Rìghrean na h-Alba, Knjaže Bălgarija, Prince de Savoie, Δεσπότης της Ηπείρου, Duc de Lorraine, Graft von Hohenzollern
Ray: Amédée, how are you doing?
Amédée: Fine Ray, Thanks!
Ray: Amédée, as a true defender of the faith, you achieved nice things last round, liberating Alexandria, and Jerusalem, pushing back the Ottomans and the Hussites... But right now the Ottomans are back attacking European nations... We are in the middle of the war here, so what to expect from you?
Amédée: Well, first of all, please note that the Hussites are not down yet. They do not have the support of any government, but this does not mean it will stay like that. So our European forces will remain alert, ready to attack any nation that would openly support the Hussites.
George: This is good talk boy!
Ray: What about the Ottomans?
Amédée: Well, right now our partners are taking care of the situation. Epirus, Bulgaria and Aragon are doing a good job, so we'll have to push back the Ottomans as far as we can, to stop that threat for good. We will stay alert, ready to deploy troops in Turkey if they need it, but the last reports I've received were optimistic enough, so we probably won't have to physically take part of the fight. We have to focus on Europe, as it would be a shame to have a Catholic Turkey with Hussites in our backyard.
George: About that... The few battles during the Hussites wars - I'm thinking of the ones in Brussels or Denmark - showed your troops being defeated. In my mind, it came from two factors: First of all, your stupid decision to reduce by a sixth the size of all armies. Savoyard troops have better generals, and better techniques, so they do not need the number advantage, but some battles might have been won with a couple more regiments. Second, the reduction of 25% of your armies. During the last days of the wars, some troops were exhausted because this involved less rotation. And again, more armies mean more reinforcement. Gaspard de Lornay or Philippe de la Palud asked for reinforcements, but there was just no army to back them up!
Amédée: You are entirely right. We did reduce our army force by more than a third, which are large numbers. We knew this would mean less power on the battlefield, and probably a few defeats. But we had to do this. But in the last days of the war, we did learn from our mistakes. First, we would use more troops in every conflict. It is better to oversize the enemy than to give him any hope. Moreover, we raised a 10-th defending army, and recruited 1000 knights for each army. This is a total of 15 additional regiments.
George: Only half of what you disbanded ! And we know that 10-th army will be disbanded after the war. It only came from your vassals and costed you nothing in recruitment!
Amédée: Indeed. But you'll have to understand that we are not as strong economically as we might want, and I fear our neighbor would modernize faster than we do. Get better techniques, better weapons. And I'm not only talking of military -since obviously we are ahead in military techniques-, but of everything. The center of trade of Firenze has been disbanded, Bar's is not doing that well, and our own center in Alexandria loses merchants every day. Why is that, while Lubeck, Paris and London are wealthy? How do you pay for an army without resources? Why do we produce less wheat than France, Austria or Castille? How are we going to feed our troops? I heard from the Aragon court that some Genoan sailors would like to follow Fez' banks to find a way to India. Right now no one wants to sponsor them, but what if someone do and these guys find something worthy? Will we explore with the transport ships we have right now?
Ray: So, expansions should be done through new vassals or annexation of existing ones?
Amédée: I wish it was so easy. Well, the hussites wars made a lot of small nations - vassals or not - strongly believe in us. You could say they are in our "sphere of influence" -whatever that means-, so we could think it will be easier to vassalize / annex them. Although, according to my councilors, I am not charismatic enough to offer that.
Ray: So, they agree to join Savoy, but not under your rule?
Amédée: this is exactly that...
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George: So Amédée is not planning to help Epirus. Let see if they need help... There are still two reasonable Ottoman Armies over there. One is sieging Genoan Amasra, while the other one is occupying a small Malta Order Island. But they can't cross the straights with the Epirus navy patroling, so they are pretty much stuck there. Then a large Epirus army is taking cities one after the other, in Ottomans mainland...
Ray: Genoa and France leave the war though. It is going to be Epirus versus the Ottomans...
Georges: Not really, because Aragon and Armagnac are landing troops in captured Biga.
Ray: in Autumn 1423, and during the following winter, Genoa sends several spies to Savoy to destabilize the country. They are all killed, but in March, Amédée is really annoyed by this... He looks at the situation in Turkey...
George: And he declares war on Genoa! Milan joins the fight against Savoy. This is a perfectly timed war, as the entire Savoyard army, from Denmark to Jerusalem, was already on Milan's boundaries, including the famous 10th and 11th armies of the Hussite war. This is no match for the defending troops.
Ray: This declaration of war against Genoa, for a trivial espionage reason, shows to the world how confident Amédée is of winning the war against Ottomans. As always, it brings vultures to the feast. Serbia, Venice, Karaman and Candar attack the Ottomans. On the other hand, Ulm is seized by Hussites rebels in July 1424
George: By November though, the situation in Turkey and Italy is neat enough, so Amédée can attack and siege Ulm.
Ray: The city can hold a siege though. And in November, Denmark converts back to Hussite. Amédée will have to wait two years to attack, for the current truce to terminate.
George: How is that possible? They converted back, the truce should be broken?
Ray: This is not that simple George. If you remember, Denmark converted back willingly. A catholic Denmark was not the terms of the peace treaty.... They are free to convert back if they want. But to prevent the spreading of heresy on Savoyard territory, Amédée supports (and finances) the creation of an Inquisition delegation in Chambery, with prerogatives on all Savoyard provinces. I'm not sure how this will help the investments as this makes Savoy more narrow-minded, don't you think?
George: I do. But it also gives more power to the Church. You might say this will help the relations with the Pope, this will help fighting the heretics. The main advantage this gives is that when Savoy wants to go full war against infidels, and I'm thinking North Africa, no one will complain. Right now, the pope would have been upset that a rather secular country attacks other on behalf of God. Now on the contrary...
Ray: do you think it will happen? I mean: Amédée is not very violent. I will think his next move will be toward a banking system, or the navy, or....
George: I don't know. Anyway three wars are still on, and making good progress... look at the situation in February 1426
Ray: This was a good time to look at the situation, as a few days later, Amédée passes away, assassinated by an Hussite. His widow fears for the life of François-Hyacinthe though, and refuses that he is crowned until an elite troop is setup to protect him against Hussite terrorists.
B.: I think they found an elite troop. It took them two months, but François-Hyacinthe is ready to be crowned in July 1426, just a few days after his fifteenth birthday!
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Ray: Back in studio for a state of the world report. Let's have a look at the lands under François-Hyacinthe's rule.
George: Little has been done in the last thirteen years by Amédée. His wars against the Hussites did not brought any new land, except that small holding in Denmark. His first crusade however - but this was initiated by his father - allowed him to grab some lands in the East, for Epirus, Bulgaria, Savoy and Trabzon.
George: He of course reduced the Hussite heresy -while it costed him his life -, but did not granted savoy any Land... This is logical because of his dumb army restructuring policies.
Ray: Well, this army size reduction was forced, because of two things. First of all, the need to spare money to invest into other fields. And this worked. Savoy is now one of the most advanced countries in the known world.
Ray: Secondary, remember what Amédée said before this round? While Savoy is doing fine overall, Savoy is doing very poor compared to what Savoy could be doing. Savoy is doing very bad in trade, and while this is not obvious, is doing very bad at production...
(HRP: I raised an eyebrown on that 0-infaltion column, but I've checked and indeed a couple nations do have inflation, but the highest one is Trier, at 3%)
George: Comm'on, you can't blame only the military for that!
Ray: Indeed. The high infamy, based on the previous conquest, slows down the Trade a lot. Amédée's stubborn attitude to refuse to trade with the Arabs did no good for the CoT of Alexandria. The huge mix of cultures, and the fact that only half of the Savoyard citizens consider the Savoy Prince as their ruler does not help...
George: But there are reasons to be optimistic though. While in Europe nothing has really changed under Amédée's reign, this is not the case in the East. The Savoy coalition is capturing the Ottomans lands, and the Mamluks have been attacked from everywhere for the last ten years...
Ray: Well, this opens a lot of possibilities for François-Hyacinthe's opening round.... Will he crush the Mamluks? Will he defend the Catholic Faith against Denmark? How will he deal with Ottomans, or with his vassals? Stay tuned, and don't miss the next episode of BIG RULER!
Ray: GOOOOOOOOOOD Evening everyone and Welcome to "BIG RULER". I'm Ray Porter, and I am here with George I. Joe and B. Rene Daid to help you all follow that alternative history! This season, we are following Savoy. Last time, our guest Amédée VIII de Savoie did liberate Jerusalem from the Mamluks, and restored the Catholic Faith in Europe, against the Hussites. Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Amédée VIII de Savoie, Roi des Arpitans, Rei d'Aragó, Rìghrean na h-Alba, Knjaže Bălgarija, Prince de Savoie, Δεσπότης της Ηπείρου, Duc de Lorraine, Graft von Hohenzollern
Ray: Amédée, how are you doing?
Amédée: Fine Ray, Thanks!
Ray: Amédée, as a true defender of the faith, you achieved nice things last round, liberating Alexandria, and Jerusalem, pushing back the Ottomans and the Hussites... But right now the Ottomans are back attacking European nations... We are in the middle of the war here, so what to expect from you?
Amédée: Well, first of all, please note that the Hussites are not down yet. They do not have the support of any government, but this does not mean it will stay like that. So our European forces will remain alert, ready to attack any nation that would openly support the Hussites.
George: This is good talk boy!
Ray: What about the Ottomans?
Amédée: Well, right now our partners are taking care of the situation. Epirus, Bulgaria and Aragon are doing a good job, so we'll have to push back the Ottomans as far as we can, to stop that threat for good. We will stay alert, ready to deploy troops in Turkey if they need it, but the last reports I've received were optimistic enough, so we probably won't have to physically take part of the fight. We have to focus on Europe, as it would be a shame to have a Catholic Turkey with Hussites in our backyard.
George: About that... The few battles during the Hussites wars - I'm thinking of the ones in Brussels or Denmark - showed your troops being defeated. In my mind, it came from two factors: First of all, your stupid decision to reduce by a sixth the size of all armies. Savoyard troops have better generals, and better techniques, so they do not need the number advantage, but some battles might have been won with a couple more regiments. Second, the reduction of 25% of your armies. During the last days of the wars, some troops were exhausted because this involved less rotation. And again, more armies mean more reinforcement. Gaspard de Lornay or Philippe de la Palud asked for reinforcements, but there was just no army to back them up!
Amédée: You are entirely right. We did reduce our army force by more than a third, which are large numbers. We knew this would mean less power on the battlefield, and probably a few defeats. But we had to do this. But in the last days of the war, we did learn from our mistakes. First, we would use more troops in every conflict. It is better to oversize the enemy than to give him any hope. Moreover, we raised a 10-th defending army, and recruited 1000 knights for each army. This is a total of 15 additional regiments.
George: Only half of what you disbanded ! And we know that 10-th army will be disbanded after the war. It only came from your vassals and costed you nothing in recruitment!
Amédée: Indeed. But you'll have to understand that we are not as strong economically as we might want, and I fear our neighbor would modernize faster than we do. Get better techniques, better weapons. And I'm not only talking of military -since obviously we are ahead in military techniques-, but of everything. The center of trade of Firenze has been disbanded, Bar's is not doing that well, and our own center in Alexandria loses merchants every day. Why is that, while Lubeck, Paris and London are wealthy? How do you pay for an army without resources? Why do we produce less wheat than France, Austria or Castille? How are we going to feed our troops? I heard from the Aragon court that some Genoan sailors would like to follow Fez' banks to find a way to India. Right now no one wants to sponsor them, but what if someone do and these guys find something worthy? Will we explore with the transport ships we have right now?
Ray: So, expansions should be done through new vassals or annexation of existing ones?
Amédée: I wish it was so easy. Well, the hussites wars made a lot of small nations - vassals or not - strongly believe in us. You could say they are in our "sphere of influence" -whatever that means-, so we could think it will be easier to vassalize / annex them. Although, according to my councilors, I am not charismatic enough to offer that.
Ray: So, they agree to join Savoy, but not under your rule?
Amédée: this is exactly that...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
George: So Amédée is not planning to help Epirus. Let see if they need help... There are still two reasonable Ottoman Armies over there. One is sieging Genoan Amasra, while the other one is occupying a small Malta Order Island. But they can't cross the straights with the Epirus navy patroling, so they are pretty much stuck there. Then a large Epirus army is taking cities one after the other, in Ottomans mainland...
Ray: Genoa and France leave the war though. It is going to be Epirus versus the Ottomans...
Georges: Not really, because Aragon and Armagnac are landing troops in captured Biga.
Ray: in Autumn 1423, and during the following winter, Genoa sends several spies to Savoy to destabilize the country. They are all killed, but in March, Amédée is really annoyed by this... He looks at the situation in Turkey...
George: And he declares war on Genoa! Milan joins the fight against Savoy. This is a perfectly timed war, as the entire Savoyard army, from Denmark to Jerusalem, was already on Milan's boundaries, including the famous 10th and 11th armies of the Hussite war. This is no match for the defending troops.
Ray: This declaration of war against Genoa, for a trivial espionage reason, shows to the world how confident Amédée is of winning the war against Ottomans. As always, it brings vultures to the feast. Serbia, Venice, Karaman and Candar attack the Ottomans. On the other hand, Ulm is seized by Hussites rebels in July 1424
George: By November though, the situation in Turkey and Italy is neat enough, so Amédée can attack and siege Ulm.
Ray: The city can hold a siege though. And in November, Denmark converts back to Hussite. Amédée will have to wait two years to attack, for the current truce to terminate.
George: How is that possible? They converted back, the truce should be broken?
Ray: This is not that simple George. If you remember, Denmark converted back willingly. A catholic Denmark was not the terms of the peace treaty.... They are free to convert back if they want. But to prevent the spreading of heresy on Savoyard territory, Amédée supports (and finances) the creation of an Inquisition delegation in Chambery, with prerogatives on all Savoyard provinces. I'm not sure how this will help the investments as this makes Savoy more narrow-minded, don't you think?
George: I do. But it also gives more power to the Church. You might say this will help the relations with the Pope, this will help fighting the heretics. The main advantage this gives is that when Savoy wants to go full war against infidels, and I'm thinking North Africa, no one will complain. Right now, the pope would have been upset that a rather secular country attacks other on behalf of God. Now on the contrary...
Ray: do you think it will happen? I mean: Amédée is not very violent. I will think his next move will be toward a banking system, or the navy, or....
George: I don't know. Anyway three wars are still on, and making good progress... look at the situation in February 1426
Ray: This was a good time to look at the situation, as a few days later, Amédée passes away, assassinated by an Hussite. His widow fears for the life of François-Hyacinthe though, and refuses that he is crowned until an elite troop is setup to protect him against Hussite terrorists.
B.: I think they found an elite troop. It took them two months, but François-Hyacinthe is ready to be crowned in July 1426, just a few days after his fifteenth birthday!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ray: Back in studio for a state of the world report. Let's have a look at the lands under François-Hyacinthe's rule.
George: Little has been done in the last thirteen years by Amédée. His wars against the Hussites did not brought any new land, except that small holding in Denmark. His first crusade however - but this was initiated by his father - allowed him to grab some lands in the East, for Epirus, Bulgaria, Savoy and Trabzon.
George: He of course reduced the Hussite heresy -while it costed him his life -, but did not granted savoy any Land... This is logical because of his dumb army restructuring policies.
Ray: Well, this army size reduction was forced, because of two things. First of all, the need to spare money to invest into other fields. And this worked. Savoy is now one of the most advanced countries in the known world.
Ray: Secondary, remember what Amédée said before this round? While Savoy is doing fine overall, Savoy is doing very poor compared to what Savoy could be doing. Savoy is doing very bad in trade, and while this is not obvious, is doing very bad at production...
(HRP: I raised an eyebrown on that 0-infaltion column, but I've checked and indeed a couple nations do have inflation, but the highest one is Trier, at 3%)
George: Comm'on, you can't blame only the military for that!
Ray: Indeed. The high infamy, based on the previous conquest, slows down the Trade a lot. Amédée's stubborn attitude to refuse to trade with the Arabs did no good for the CoT of Alexandria. The huge mix of cultures, and the fact that only half of the Savoyard citizens consider the Savoy Prince as their ruler does not help...
George: But there are reasons to be optimistic though. While in Europe nothing has really changed under Amédée's reign, this is not the case in the East. The Savoy coalition is capturing the Ottomans lands, and the Mamluks have been attacked from everywhere for the last ten years...
Ray: Well, this opens a lot of possibilities for François-Hyacinthe's opening round.... Will he crush the Mamluks? Will he defend the Catholic Faith against Denmark? How will he deal with Ottomans, or with his vassals? Stay tuned, and don't miss the next episode of BIG RULER!
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