Once again, I would like to apologize for procrastinating this for such a long time, and to express how bad and sorry I feel about it. I played my part of the game (1415-1424) 1,5 month ago, the results of which you will be able to see in this AAR. Hope it is enjoyable - if not because of the writing quality (which, on my part, won't contain things like plots/characters/etc), then because this 9-year long game was a very enjoyable one for me, and among the most 'intense' I had ever played before.
The military campaigns of Jan Zizka of Trocnov
I start the game at 1415 - we've decided 1419 would be too late, with Zizka's death coming just 5 years later. So, what is it we begin with? A moderately rich country in Middle Europe, with some 10'000 men under the brilliant (5-5-6) command of General Jan Zizka z Trocnova stationed in Praha - the capital of Bohemia. We spend half of our (enlarged to 599 ducats) treasury on promoting Tax Collectors - I feel that even with a 'military' game like this, they will be needed, if we want the results of our reign to last longer than the life of Zizka.
As our relations with Hungary are still very good, we ask for military access through their territory - we will certainly need it later - perhaps it would prevent from attacking us once the Hussite events break in? We also claim the throne of Austria, who we have Royal Marriage with. We want a CB on them, because I have a certain goal in my Bohemian game: to prevent the Big White Blob from forming. Another goal is to enable Bohemia to become a formidable power later, through the diplomatic annexations of their weaker neighbours - like Bavaria. That's why we decide to declare war on them - no CB, but who cares? 4 BB isn't
that much. We quickly destroy their army trying to fend off our attack, siege their provinces, and by October of 1416 Bavaria becomes a vassal of ours, giving us also Ansbach.
This will come in very handy in the upcoming war against the Habsburgs, as we want to have more than one direction of attack. We move Zizka's army to Ansbach and order to recruit another one in Praha, when...
Good. This will save us the stability hit. We are still allied to Hungary, Luxembourg, Croatia and Siebenburgen - who we ask for help against the evil Germans. Tha Habsburgs are allied to Wurttemberg and Milan, who quickly start besieging Ansbach - and, despite their numerical superiority (22'000 to my 8'000), are repelled with ease. While another army arrives, this time from Mantua (another habsburg ally), we withdraw Zizka - another such battle might be dangerous, given the odds being again in favour of our opponents. Soon we take Ostmarch from Austria and, using Zizka's brilliant leader values, destroy their army trying to take over Presburg. We start sieging their other provinces and notice that Hungary already controls Tirol. Damn. We'll have to take it later. By the beginning of January, 1419 we have a peace treaty signed with Austria - ceding us Ostmarch, Steiermark and Salzburg.
We give it all a second thought, though. It's 1419. We
need to destroy Austria. BUT we don't want to rack up BB points too quickly. We can't wait for the truce to expire though, as Zizka will die after a few months from that point. That's why we decide to attack Austria now - they don't even have an army, which will make their destruction easy as pie. Their allies may pose more of a problem, but once we get rid of Austria, the alliance leader, we will get those pesky Italians and south Germans off our back.
It was just as predicted - within a year the war ended, with Austria giving us Tirol and becoming our vassal. We had no problems crushing the invading Mantuan, Wurttembergian and Milanese armies - Zizka's stats come in handy. In September 1419, I think, we got the Hussite events, and a new leader - Prokop Holy - appeared at our disposal. His siege value (5-5-2-1) will be much needed - half a year earlier we were DoWed by the monstrous alliance of Poland, Lithuania and Brandenburg!