NavAARra - Navarra Naval funds on the rise

[TheArchduke]

Finally I am starting my own AAR. After endless lurking since mid 2001 and a bit more in the Eu1 aar forum I decided to give it a try.
This is my first try at an AAR and it will hopefully be enjoyable to read although I doubt I can keep up with those high standards set up by the other great writers out there.

About the topic. I am austrian and I love the sea, sailing and ships in general. Well obviously the wrong place to be born!
So after looking on the Eu2 map I searched for a country with nice potential and no fleet whatsoever and what could have been better than little Navarra without ports?

So my goals are trying to make Navarra a mighty Naval nation, try WC when possible, in general try keeping naval funds up and my fleet well equipped.

Starting position in 1419:

Treasury: 500 ducats. Those will come in handy.

Dp:

aristocracy = 8 (Will stay where it is for starters I am sure I need the Diplomacy bonus)
centralization = 4
innovative = 4
mercantilism = 9
offensive = 5
land = 5 (Navarra is a landlocked nation!? Why is this slider neutral really?)
quality = 4
serfdom = 7

Territory: 2 provinces Bearn and Navarra.

Army: Under commander Uriz?! 7000 infantry and 4000 cavalry.
Fleet: No fleet sadly..

Goal 1: Obtain a harbour and build a fleet! And survive and get stronger of course but the fleet is more important!

Played until 1429 first AAR update will come soon.

 

[TheArchduke]

"Raise the naval funds!" Sweat-bathed Carlos III. awoke from his dream with those words on his lips. He looked around him realising that all what he had seen was a dream. Or wasn´t it a dream? Was it a vision?

He had seen numerous battleships cruising the sea. Escorting ships with vast riches on them to the nations in Europe. Europe was indeed ruling the world. Wherever you would look colonial nations like England, France, Holland and others growing rich from importing colonial products to strengthen their economy. And the mightiest of all, England dominating the world.

Suprisingly however Navarra was not to be found on the map which disturbed Carlos to an immense extent. Why was that he asked himself! It seemed like the future lay overseas. He had to ensure that Navarra would stay strong long-term. So the only option was to build a mighty fleet and to ensure nice overseas empire for Navarra.

Outside of the palace out of Carlos´s bedroom windown the sun rose over the little town of Pamplona. Slowly the light moved over the city brightening everything along her way. Carlos rose up while yawning and scratching his back. Thinking about it Navarra surely had to have a fleet or some ships. After all she was an important nation, wasn´t she? First thing I have to discuss with my ministers at the breakfast. Best to catch another hour of sleep Carlos thought while falling back on the bed and going asleep again.

 

[unmerged(1057)]

Hey..this is going to be fun..can´t remember the last time we had a Navarran AAR..

 

[TheArchduke]

Originally posted by Wasa
Hey..this is going to be fun..can´t remember the last time we had a Navarran AAR..

Checked it. In the Libraary there is only one Navarra AAR which was suspended about in the 16th century. Not sure about Eu1 though. Thx for posting btw!

 

[Director]

I understand your love for the sea - I was born inland myself and never saw a body of water bigger than the Mississippi River until I was 18. But I've loved ships and the sea all my life.

Navarra, navy... they start the same way, at least.

Good luck!

 

[Wyvern]

Good luck with the AAR Archduke - I love Navarre, nice cultures, nice monarchs, especially the last one! - what more could you ask for! So are you going to go for France or Spain first or just grab a few provinces and colonise? I'll be reading to find out.

 

[TheArchduke]

@ Director: I had more luck. My first meeting with the sea was at the age of 16 in Scotland sailing there.

@ Wyvern: Actually I will kind of make it up on the way. I joined the HYW immeaditly with hopes of snatching a few provinces. I got lucky actually. You will read more soon.

 

[unmerged(9509)]

Good luck in your game! It's always good to see the hope of a small land-locked nation of being a naval power.

 

[TheArchduke]

"How is our fleet doing today?" Carlos asked his advisors casually while eating his breakfast. Carlos sat alone on the table while his three most trusted advisors stood on the other side awaiting his orders, thoughts or other ideas that his majesty could have that early. That was also the main reasons why the advisors didn´t like those creative, early meetings.

Eníque de Enderiga, chancellor of Navarra and responsible for interior affairs who was a bald, stout person endued in red while supporting himself to stand upright with a wooden staff. He was a very tradition-orientated person who had served Carlos´s father already.

Ferdinand de Alberque, leader of the armed forces of Navarra. Being a proud, warlike type although he was a rather small person and didn´t really fit in his battle armour. He was nevertheless rather proud of which was the reason while he was seldom seen without it.

Martínez de Irujo, responsible for foreign affairs. He was a rather secretive, observative and silent character. Which only supported the rumours that he was indeed quite clever or rather noone had yet proven otherwise.

Hearing Carlos´s question Enderiga and Alberque seemed quite suprised while Irujo remained silent.

"Ehrm our fleet majesty? You mean those wooden containers floating on water?" Alberque managed to ask after a short, wordless negotiation between Alberque and Enderiga.

"Yes, I was thinking about that kind of thing."

"The fishing fleet looks quite good as far as my latest reports show." Enderiga sprung in.

"Well that is fine but I rather thought of a war-fleet which could sail to distant lands."

Alberque and Enderiga became seemingly uncomfortable now.

"If I am not mistaken we don´t really have a fleet suitable for war or high sea." Alberque answered.

"Although my latest reports show that we could support 4 ships due the support from our merchants, our country has not yet built any. If you may now look into these reports from our southern boder..." Enderiga added.

"Aha. Well then raise the naval funds and commission 2-3 warships to get a fleet going."

"This is impossible, your majesty!"

"Do we have access to the sea?"

"Yes, Majesty."

"Do we own a town with an harbour?"

"Yes, Majesty."

Carlos looked quite puzzled now and scratched his chin. "You mean we have a harbour which opens up to the sea but we can´t build any ships?"

"Tradition, sir. As we don´t have any "military harbours" in the northern province."
Alberque raised his two hands behind his ears and dropped and raised his middle finger and forefinger two times while saying "Military harbours". Carlos looked quite irritated but decided to drop the issue as there were clearly higher reasons for Navarra not having ports.

"Well then we better conquer a port, shall we? There seems to be one to the north in the english province of Gascogne. I heard it should be quite nice. Irujo send a declaration of war to the English king demanding this harbour for our country!"

"Impossible as we do not have a diplomat avaiable!" Irujo speaking for the first time, said. "Also I would rather recommend allying with either France or England against the other rather then going to war on our own."

"Ehrm... Well see to that we somehow get into this war in the north soon. Try to bribe our way into the french alliance. Alberque prepare the troops! Enderiga appoint baliffs in both our main cities and raise taxes as we will soon go to war. Also on another issue I want to have our country´s policy moving towards a more naval-friendly attitude."

"Is this prudent, Majesty?" , Alberque inquired, "Our soldiers will become more expensive probably!"

"But it will make our ships cheaper, won´t it? Am I the only one thinking long-term in here?", Carlos raised an eyebrow whilst saying this, making Alberque quite sure about the fact that there was no discussion about this issue. , "Well of you go then and carry out my orders!"

And with this words the meeting ended.


@ LaMotta: Difficult with no harbours but I am working on that.

 

[unmerged(10915)]

When is the next entering coming up?

 

[unmerged(16529)]

Cool format! When's the next one coming up?

 

[unmerged(4271)]

Ya know, it seems like I read about someone playing a VERY aggressive Navarra, who got into the Hundred Years War and actually ended up claiming the title of France!

That may be a little ambitious, but I'd love to see you usurp Portugal and turn Navarra into a mighty colonial empire.

 

[Prince Eugene]

Good job Archduke. I've always wanted to make or see someone make a landlocked minor a naval and economic power.

 

[TheArchduke]

Thx for the feedback guys. I will post more tomorow. Too sleepy now.

Make that tonight!

 

[TheArchduke]

Seven days later as Carlos again sat eating his breakfast. He dreamt of a mighty fleet of proud ships under the flag of Navarra cruising the seas...

"Ahem."

A shadow fell over his shoulder and Carlos sprung up and turning round he saw Martínez de Irujo behind him.

"What is it, Irujo? Don´t sneak yourself in this way!"

"Aragon sent us a warning not to get ourselves entangled in any wars. I would advise caution they field a mighty army indeed."

"And how I am going to get any harbours? If Aragon dares to attack us they will feel the wrath of Navarra. Barcelona is a quite nice harbour, no?"

Dismissing de Irujo Carlos fell back into his daydreams.

***

February went by but the Diplomatic Corps of the Kingdom proved insufficient as to provide Navarra with a diplomat. Finally on March 1st it became possible to send a diplomat away. Burdened with a letter of introduction he was sent on his way to France. One month later a diplomat arrived at the court and being permitted to an audience before Carlos he presented with an offer to join the alliance of England and enter the war for the french crown.

"So much for that letter of introduction." muttered Carlos "Ah well. Tell the King of England and France that Navarra will join in the war and help him defend his righteous claim."
Or gain myself some nice estates in France that way he didn´t add. Better to enter this war sooner than later.

So one day later another small force was raised in Bearn while the army marched onwards to Guyenne. Wiping out a small french force there the army under the command of Ferdinand de Alberque marched onwards to Languedoc which suprisingly hosted no military port.
Things looked bright as the main bulk of the french army was occupied in the north as in mid-june a declaration of war was issued by Aragon followed by the invasion of Navarra proper by 20.000 soldiers which was more than the whole army of Navarra. Regardless of that Carlos issued that the newly raised recruits should be sent off to France as to end this war quickly.
His next order was to pack his personal belongings and the whole royal court moved to Pau evading the aragonese army which a few days after Carlos left began to siege the city.

Recuitment of another 6000 soldiers ensued in Bearn soon after the royal court arrived. As if the situation wasn´t grave enough news of a new alliance between Portugal, Castille and Aragon reached Pau which would surely spell disaster for the small but proud nation. For now however it was only Aragon that faced Navarra.

The walls of Montepellier and Toulouse soon crumbled under the might of the navarranese Army and the new third army commenced a siege in Roussillon. After Roussillon was captured the army moved onwards to Navarra as the aragonese army had left for Bearn. The royal court moved on to Roussillon as to again narrowly escape the enemy. The situation was dire indeed. But in September England accepted peace with France that had to cede Languedoc and Guyenne to Navarra as to compensate for the looses of the allies in that war.

My treasury quickly reached 193 as I had to pay upkeep for my oversized army and as I had one province being sieged and the other one occupied things looked dire. I had extreme luck as England accepted a good peace for me.

Eníque de Enderiga stormed into the tent of the Carlos outside of the walls of Perpignan. Carlos was bent over maps of the surrounding region having personally taken command of the 3rd army in Roussillon.

"My Majesty, our brave army has returned victorious from France and France has been persuaded by England to cede her southernmost provinces to us."

"Those are great news. Now we can finally build our own navy!"

Now Eníque de Enderiga who had until then looked exhausted but happy began looking to the ground.

"Well, Majesty, this is impossible it seems."

Carlos face-colour turned slowly red. "Why that?" he inquired.

"The province of Languedoc holds no military harbour and Guyenne has no access to the sea."

Carlos closed his eyes and let his face sank into his right hand. "Just leave me Enderiga! Just leave me alone."

Enderiga hastened out.

 

[TheArchduke]

@ Mulliman, Emperor Manu and heagarty

It sure took its time but I will update more from now on.


@ Prince Eugene

Thx, I am doing my best.

 

[unmerged(10915)]

Wooo, good writing, looking forward to see the next one.

 

[Amric]

Very good. No ports, but two provinces aren't bad...I'm sure you'll build from them and continue your fine AAR in grand style.

 

[unmerged(16363)]

May Navarra rule the seas! Nice war against France! Although, I can't say the same about Aragon... unless your English friends help you.

Nice writing!

 

[TheArchduke]

Originally posted by Anibal
May Navarra rule the seas! Nice war against France! Although, I can't say the same about Aragon... unless your English friends help you.

Nice writing!

@ Have no fear. The wise man does not fight but siege!