One Catholic and Apostolic Church ( Papal States with blob restriction)

[mackwolfe]

A good shepherd guides his flock and protects it. A good shepherd grows his flock. A good shepherd does not steal another shepherd's flock. Pope Eugenius IV

Welcome to my next AAR. After force converting the entire world to Buddhism , I am changing a bit of tempo here. I am going back to Europe where, as the Pope, I will try fulfill the true mission of the Church. That is to bring salvation to the world, not to conquer it. The primary aim of the campaign will be to spread Catholicism as far as possible. Seconday aim would be to get the Holy Trinity achievement. Limitation would be no mindless blobbing - which is the solution to most problems in eu4 . To codify this restriction clearly, here is the actual rule I will follow:

I am not allowed to core any province outside Italy , except for colonies. This applies to coring via vassal integration as well.

In other words, if a province causes over-extension, and is not Italian, I cannot core it. This effectively puts a soft limit on holding non-Italian land, due to over-extension. I am allowing coring of colonies so that I can get coring range to Americas and Africa. After all, the church is Apostolic and spreading the faith to the heathens is one of its core missions.

Mention should go to Tom's Kaiser AAR for inspiring this idea of limiting blobbing to your own nation.

Why the restriction? Because it will drastically affect playing style and therefore be more fun. Or at least I hope so. For example, I cannot count on a bunch of trade companies to get many merchants , and may need to take Trade Ideas directly. And I would probably not take Administrative ideas or Influence. I will also have to juggle the great Catholic powers such as Austria and France. I would probably want them strong to crush protestants and Ottomans, but not too strong to dominate the Papal States.

If you have played Papal States before, your advice is highly appreciated.

 

[parats]

Keep in mind that you need a full core on Jerusalem for holy trinity. NoCB TO or LO is also set to stone.

Good luck and subbed!

 

[Tom D.]

Mention should go to Tom's Kaiser AAR for inspiring this idea of limiting blobbing to your own nation.

I'm glad I could inspire you to try a non-blobbing campaign and rather go tall. Juding from my campaign, if you can't take much land you must use the land you have as efficient as you can, meaning developing it a lot (Economic finishing idea is very good for that, I would advise to take it as soon as you can, I took it quite late). As Italy is quite rich, you should be able to dominate Europe by owning Italy alone (and don't forget the good defensive borders on the Alpes, building forts to keep them out of Italy).

Why the restriction? Because it will drastically affect playing style and therefore be more fun.

I definitely had a lot of fun, and I can advise a run like mine or this one to everyone. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to this, subbed.

 

[stnylan]

I am signing on the register. I have thoroughly enjoyed your Rassid and Buddist Mingstralia games, and I am very intrigued at what will happen here.

 

[Nikolai]

I love to see a Papal game, with such limitations. Good luck!

 

[mackwolfe]

, if you can't take much land you must use the land you have as efficient as you can, meaning developing it a lot (Economic finishing idea is very good for that, I would advise to take it as soon as you can, I took it quite late).

Good advice. I think I may take it first then .
Thanks for alerting me to badesumofu's France mini AAR . That was instructive as well.

As Italy is quite rich, you should be able to dominate Europe by owning Italy alone (and don't forget the good defensive borders on the Alpes, building forts to keep them out of Italy).

AH yes. I almost never use forts for their intended purpose. but this time it will be different.

and I am very intrigued at what will happen here.

I'm intrigued too . I really have no idea whether I will be able to bring Catholicisim to places such as Mecca , Japan and China by the end of the campaign. Could turn out to be easy. Or impossible. I guess we will find out.

I love to see a Papal game.... Good luck!

This is my first papal run. I watched some of Arumba's Holy Trinity run on youtube. Seems the pope has some neat mechanisms ( such as excommunicating rulers) that can bring flavor. The Wiki also says the Pope can slow down the Reformation Desire quite a bit. I wonder if I should do that, as it would lead to a powerful Austria passing HRE reforms. For the history buff in me, I am curious to see how the tension between Pope and Emperor would play out if the Pope manages to become a powerful state.

 

[mackwolfe]

Keep in mind that you need a full core on Jerusalem for holy trinity. NoCB TO or LO is also set to stone.

WEll, I could make an exception for the Holy City. No one would argue that Jerusalem does not belong to the Pope's flock. Or I can just core it right at the end to get the achievement, and let a vassal hold it in the meantime. ...Assuming I manage to snatch it from the Muslim powers, of course.

Yes. I thinks a no CB war on the baltic orders is necessary, since I cannot blob my way there. I will need to get big enough first so I can vassalize them ( or them get very tiny). And once vassalized, I will have to fend off the Polish and Russians .
Hmm, methinks this campaign will be harder than I first envisioned.

 

[Tom D.]

WEll, I could make an exception for the Holy City. No one would argue that Jerusalem does not belong to the Pope's flock. Or I can just core it right at the end to get the achievement, and let a vassal hold it in the meantime. ...Assuming I manage to snatch it from the Muslim powers, of course.

Or you could convert the region around it and release Jerusalem and make them your vassal/march and try to take the Levant back from the Muslims/try and convert Arabia that way. You do release them as an independent nation though AFAIK and not as a vassal or march but you can easily diplo-vassalise them after enacting the decision. Could be a fun side-goal or for roleplaying purposes, the 9th/10th/11th/etc. Crusade for the One True Faith.

 

[mackwolfe]

Or you could convert the region around it and release Jerusalem and make them your vassal/march and try to take the Levant back from the Muslim

Could be a fun side-goal or for roleplaying purposes, the 9th/10th/11th/etc. Crusade for the One True Faith.

Assuming I make it there before their cores expire, Lebanon is certainly on my list for conversion and making them into a vassal. Historically, this is also realistic as Lebanon had cathloic as majority religion in the 17th and 18th centuries. And still has one of the largest christian minorities in the middle east today.

There are no other tags to easily flip there. The other option is to use Cyprus or the Knights as vassals. The Knights *are* crusaders, after all.

Good reminder about making them a march . Since I won't be annexing, this is certainly a bonus.

 

[mackwolfe]

1444-1460: Starting Slow and Steady

At game start, the Papal States is outside the HRE. It has Urbino as a vassal. And starts as papal controller, so has an extra diplomat. The rivals appear to be always Provence and Hungary, and then one third random country. In my game, that was the Teutonic Order. Ironic, since our achievement calls for us to protect them and vassalize them. In any case, I ignore that, and my first actions are to ally France and then rival and Excommunicate Aragon:

(opening diplomatic moves)
By excommunicating Aragon on day 1, I ensure they do not get European allies, especially Austria. I then start to improve relations with Castile who is their mutual rival. My intent is to oviously use France and Castile to take land - mainly Naples - from the Aragonese.

The alliance with France, available on day 1 which was nice , serves also as a defensive protection. THis way I do not have to join the Empire.
I then start to fabricate on Venice and Aragon, and bide my time.

Internally, I raise Estate influence by hiring a general , and admiral and seeking Clergy support. This lets me get 150 MP from each estate. I keep my fleet and do not sell it, since we have positive income, and it can come in handy in an Aragonese war . I mothball the galleys and transports and protect trade with the Barques. I dismantle the fort in Avignon. I considered selling it to France, but having a bigger country can help you secure alliances ( plus it gave trade power in Genoa node), so I decide to keep it for now. But later on I will abandon it if necessary, since I cannot use it to expand in Provence, the latter being outside of Italy.

In 1446, I get my first Papal flavor event, when a the hussite heretic Podebrad ascends the Bohemian throne:

I pick the choice to decrease reform desire. I will try to delay the reformation as much as possible, and allow myself time to grow and be able to do something about it.

Meanwhile I am improving relations with Castile to get an alliance, when these max out in 1447, I find myself close enough to snag it with the hiring of a Diplomat advisor:

(securing Castilian alliance . Inset shows Poland started their conquest of the Teutons . Hope the latter live a while . Note Genoa asking for alliance as well)

With Castile on board, it is time to declare on our Aragonese neighbor:

I enlist the help of Genoa as well as I know the Aragonese have a powerful navy, and my wargoal had to be on an island ( if I declared on Naples, the other countries would not join. And for some reason - a bug I think or maybe not sharing a border? - , I can use the Excommunicated ruler CB on Naples, but not Aragon , even though both have the same ruler)

The war is easy. My allies take care of Aragon itself, allowing me to focus on Naples and capture Napoli without much trouble. The French even land a stack in Sardinia and capture the war goal and hand it to me:

(fall of Napoli at the time when Poland annexes most of the Teutonics )

IN fact my biggest hurdle in the war was securing enough War Participation to allow me to take land without pissing off my allies too much . After taking Napoli, I use my fleet - glad I kept it - to secure a quick passage of an army to Sicily before the main Aragonese fleet blocks the straits of Messina.

After I capture Messina, there is not much WS for our troops to take, unless I go to Aragon itself. And I did not want to risk my army there as the Aragonese still had plenty of troops. Although Aragon was beaten, I could not ask for Naples without pissing off all my other allies. So I decide to wait till exhaustion forces my allies to peace out . And Castile does just that at the 5 year mark, when call for peace triggers. I thought about continuing the war to see if Genoa and France peace out. But I had a 21K Bogomist rebellion blow up in Naples. If the rebels took the province, I may not be able to take it in the peace . And with only 14K , I did not want to fight them. Besides, France and Genoa still had high enthusiasm. So in the end, I make peace and give my allies their fair share:

I only take one province: Naples, with its center of trade.
I could have betrayed my allies and taken more and giving them less. But at this point of the campaign, I think keeping up trust with my allies is a priority, so that I can act against future enemies like Venice and still get help.


Soon after the war, I secure my third major power alliance with Austria:

I now set Venice as rival. Unfortunately, Austria is not rivals with them, so they would not help me in a war. At least not yet.

This turns out to be Pope Eugenius last action. He is succeeded by Gregorius XIII ( of the Gregorian calendar ? ) :

The new Pope has better stats. But now Venice controls the curia and I lose my 4th diplomat and the ability to excommunicate. Oh well.

The new Pope is soon greeted by news of a rare victory of Christian arms against the Turk. By the Albanian AI to boot:

(AI Albania beating AI Ottomans - impressive. )

Not sure if this great news or not for us. The Knights are now larger , having taken Sugla. But our rival Venice is now stronger. Still, anything that slows down the Ottoman juggernaut is probably welcome news.

The new pope soon faces a choice about the Vatican Library. This is a great event that the Papal States always get early on, and it gives -5% tech cost, with choice of either -2 unrest, +1 dip rep, or +5% discipline

To help me decide, I look at how many of these bonuses I can get from ideas. For Dip Rep, there are 2 ideas each giving +2 , so the +1 from the library was mathematically not a good value ( worth 1/2 idea, while the other options were full idea bonuses) . Between unrest and discipline, it was easy. The Pope gets an additional +3 Tolerance of True Faith from NIs and government, translating into -3 unrest in catholic provinces. Since I will not be blobbing much, the additional -2 unrest will not help much . So I go with discipline. And this fits in with my strategy so far of maximizing the quality of the army . Thanks to having a solid income, I have been drilling all along , and this has upgraded my general to +6 shock, and my Professionalism has risen to over 10% so far.

As for the actual 1st idea group, I go with Diplomatic . I will likely pick economic second as TOm D suggested for the Development discount. Picking economic now will delay the next Admin tech group acquisition.

I spend the rest of the decade looking for an opportunity to expand, and finding none. I complete a mission to integrate Urbino, and watch the HRE pass its first reform:

As the decade ends, I still find no outlets for aggression and expansion. Ragusa and Venice are well protected, and anything inside the HRE brings the wrath of Austria. It may be that I will attack Aragon again , when their truce expires in 1466. Assuming the Iberian Wedding does not fire.

So this has been a slow start so far. But at least I have my alliances in place and have acquired Naples. Since I won't be conquering the world, there is no hurry.

 

[stnylan]

And a nice set of alliances they are too.

And, and go Albania!

 

[mackwolfe]

And a nice set of alliances they are too.

The alliances will not survive the Inheritance and the Wedding, as you will see soon,

 

[mackwolfe]

1460-1470: Inheritance and Wedding

THe new decade opens with the death of Chales the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. As head of the Church, the Pope is consulted on how to split the inheritance and he decides to.....never mind. Somehow, it ends with Castile taking the German lands:

France has to feel surrounded now.

As I wait for an opening to strike, the Pope dies and Gregory XIV is elected by the curia. And the next day, news comes of the excommunication of Venice by the Austrian-controlled curia.:

This could only mean one thing: Austria and Venice are now rivals. This is the opening I was waiting for .

After taking the army off Drill and moving into position , I declare:

War goal is Verona. But because Venice is allied to Siena ( and several others through their trade league), I have the opportunity to swipe that city from the HRE in this war. I make sure I use my last Rival slot on them before I declare.

The opposing alliances are balanced in numbers. But their alliance is spread out among many minors who can be peaced out individually . And the fighting starts auspiciously as I stackwipe the tiny Siennese army:

(annihilation of the army of Sienna by our well drilled troops. inset shows opposing alliances total troops)

But then the Venetians send the bulk of their army to Roma, before the Austrians had mobilized. After some maneuvering in the northern Appenine hills , I try to relieve the siege of the capital :

Unortunately, I am unable to replicate the stackwipe in the hills, and I am forced to retreat when Venetian reinforcements arrive :

After that, I let the Austrians do the heavy lifting while I focus on sieging some of the minors down . THat meant they will get most of the participation, but so be it.

I manage to take Mantua and force them out.

After Mantua I move my stack to Siena and siege it . During the siege , the truce with Aragon expires. IF it were not for the war I started with Venice, I would probably have started a war on Aragon right now . But Aragon will have to wait.

Once Siena falls, I annex them in a separate peace:

(annexation of Sienna- inset shows Aragon truce expiring )

This action carries a HUUGE AE penalty. Siena was not a collibegerent. And they are a member of the HRE. Their annexation is poorly received in North Italy. But, I did not want to pass the chance to annex my neighbor right from under the nose of the Emperor. And if I core it quickly enough, and continue the war till after I cored it , I will not get the "demand unlawful land" malus .

After that, I peace out Savoy for money and reparations. I had the chance to annex Nice from them, but that would really have put everyone in a coalition against me:

(peace with Savoy . Note Aragonese-Castilian war )

As I let the Venetian war drag so I can core Siena first, I watch Aragon take provinces from Castile, only to fall under them in a PU the day after making peace:

Obviously, I had missed my window to attack Aragon a second time with Castilian help.
The Iberian Union leads Castile to rival France. Which leads France to send me an ultimatum: you must choose . It is us or the castilians!

France had two -50 maluses from my alliances with their rivals Austria and Castile. I guess they could stomach one, but not both . After some internal deliberation, I chose to break the alliance with Castile in order to save the one with France . My strategic plan was to expand in Naples until the Shadow Kingdom event fires. Whereas I could not annex land in Southern France.
WIth the French alliance secured, I focus back on the war with Venice. I start to improve relations in South Germany when I realize that annexing Verona will cause a 7-8 state coalition . After waiting some time for , I finally annex Verona as the decade ends:

I will close with a view of diplo map, and summary of finances.

I am running a surplus despite having full advisor slot and drilling the army. Italy is rich indeed.


A closeup of Italy and technology.

I will be hitting Admin 7 on time ( although I still have to core Verona ) . I think the next idea will be economic , to get that Dev discount.

I have not been paying attention to the Holy Trinity achievement yet. Teutonics will probably die at the hand of the Polish. As long as their cores do not die, I will be able to get the achievement.

 

[parats]

Poland seems quite aggressive in your run, may check ruler traits. TO should be under 100ws right now and LO could be set as co belliregent to snack both in one war.

 

[Tom D.]

That Castilian inheritance combined with Iberian Wedding might prove troublesome for your conquest of Naples and Sicily, hopefully the rivalry between France and Austria doesn't cause any further trouble. Allying both of them always went bad one day for me. Good progress too in Italy, just improve relations and take it slowly until Shadow Kingdom and Italy could be well under your control in a couple of decades.

 

[Nikolai]

Spain is indeed bitt overly powerful now, yes.

 

[stnylan]

Shame about Iberian wedding firing like that, just after Castille received a drubbing.

 

[mackwolfe]

TO should be under 100ws right now and LO could be set as co belliregent to snack both in one war.

True that. But I do not have the resources to win such a war , and my allies would not help. Not to mention the AE I would get from no CB war and vassalizing . I will continue to wait as I unify Italy. As long as they stay alive , or their cores stay alive, I should have time.

In any case, as you will see in next chapter, the TO has rebounded and won their second war against Poland. My bigger concern now is not them dying, but them forming Prussia. Per Wiki they can do that after admin 10 if they become protestant:

Would the TO forming Prussia remove their cores?

 

[mackwolfe]

hopefully the rivalry between France and Austria doesn't cause any further trouble. Allying both of them always went bad one day for me

Prophetic words as you shall see...

just improve relations and take it slowly until Shadow Kingdom

Good advice. Just checked Shadow Kingdom event and it should trigger after 1490 .

Spain is indeed bitt overly powerful now, yes.

Juggling Spain , France and Austria is my trickiest task right now . Quite fitting since Italians historically struggled with that same problem. I cannot let any of them get too strong.

 

[Tom D.]

Would the TO forming Prussia remove their cores?

As they form another nation, I fear they will remove Teutonic cores. On the other hand, it's quite uncommon of them turning Protestant but with the Reformation always being different, it's a risky business.