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

[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.

 

[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.

 

[mackwolfe]

1470-1490: What to do with France?

I am covering 2 decades this chapter because not much happened from 1470 to 1480. Though plenty happened in the 1480's

I left off having conquered Verona from Venice using Austrian help. I had cancelled my Castilian alliance in order to preserve the French alliance . Now I wait for a chance to expand again. I pass the time by developing Rome with ADM points - which are plentiful now since I have not been blobbing a lot - to hit 30 Dev and get an Age Objective:

(Age objectives - 2 done. Inset shows Poland becoming our 3rd Major Power ally)
I also take the chance to ally Poland , using the slot vacated by Castile. Poland is rivals with Hungary, who is rivals with me , so it makes sense. I am still neutral about their squabble with the Teutonic Order.

My next target was supposed to be Aragon+Castile whose truce would run out in 1473. I estimated that I can beat them with French help . But unfortunately, France declares on England in 1472. And so become unavailable to help, and I shelve my plans to conquer South Italy. And I watch the Ottomans swallow the Knights of St John who were abandoned by their Venetian allies ( my fault).

(Ottomans annex Rhodes. Insets show my truce with Castile expiring, and France declaring on England. France picked Bordeaux for war goal, which was occupied by MOrocco in a separate war. So they fail to earn warscore and this lengthens the Franco-English war )

The loss of the Knights causes me some consternation as I check the expiration of their cores - 1524. Only 50 years ( does anyone know for sure why some cores expire in 50 years and others in 150 years? is it because of incorrect culture). But I remembered from Arumba's you tube that there is a possible event to spawn them on Malta. And I check the wiki and indeed there is :

So all I need to do to make sure this happens is for me to own Malta and then I will cede it to them .


I continue to wait for an opening for expansion. Nothing happens. Then I get a CTA from Poland who is being attacked by Hungary+Austria ( those two are just allies, no PU yet) . I check the ledger. Poland had 16K, Lithuania another 16K. Hungary 24K, Austria 36K. I had 20K. Even with my help, Poland will lose. No point in sacrificing my Austrian alliance. I decline and eat the Prestige hit.
Poland loses of course , and that leads the Teutonic Order to take advantage:

(TO dogpiling Poland after my cowardly refusal to help ).
So I was super duper smart and allied Poland in order to betray them and let the Teutonic Order win against them . Or it was just dumb luck.

Back to Italy. France finally finishes their war with England in 1477, taking 4 provinces . And this makes them available to help me in war with Castile:

ALthough I had enough favors for an offensive war, that only worked against Castile directly and I did not have a CB on Castile. So I have to declare on Aragon again promise the French land. again

Unlike the 1st Aragonese war 20 years ago, where the Papacy was a tiny power compared to their allies, this time we have enough fire power to make a difference. I first overrun Naples and Sicily , while i watch France get clobbered:

At one point I worry about France dropping out. I considered sitting back and letting them lose. But I worried I could not handle the Iberians all by myself if that happened. So I send my army to Southern France. But instead of losing troops in battles alongside the French, I invade Iberia directly.

(fall of Valencia, where I use Canonns for the first time )

My army then moves on to Toledo. While sieging that, I get an important Papal event: Selling of Indulgences .

I chose to take the Stability hit . THis reduces Reform desire by 10%. And also disables the event for other catholics. This should significantly slow down the REformation Which would give me more time to get stronger.

As I capture Toledo, I get news of Austria declaring on Venice :

The poor venetians are getting dogpiled, with Ottomans and Austrians beating them up.

This means I have to hurry up my war in Spain , if I want a chance to grab something out of the Venetian empire. In the peace, I give France Barcelona. Although they wanted more, claiming they did 67% of the work. Balderdash I said. I was the one who capture the enemy capitals. They just fought poorly .

(peace with Castile. France is not happy . Neither are the north Italians)

I immediately wheel my troops around and head to Venice . The venetians have now been declared on by Milan and Ragusa as well. I declare claiming Venice itself, and I manage to land my troops on the island before the Austrians took the fort at Treviso:

It is a simple matter to capture the Venetian capital, and I annex that alone in the peace:

The annexation of Venice will trigger a coalition. But better to take it now, while I have the chearper Excommunicated ruler CB available, and while Austria is still an ally . If I wait too long and Austria takes it, it will be much, much harder to get it later.

The Pope celebrates the annexation of our Rival's Capital with the decoration of the Sistine Chapel:

THis is the second event - alongside the Vatican Library - that gives permanent bonuses for the Papal States . Choices here include -1 unrest, +1 missionary power , or 5% idea discount. MOst players pick the idea discount, but since I will not be blobbing outside Italy , I doubt I will be short on ADM and DIP points. Instead, I go with +1 missionary . Missionary power is hard to come by, and it will be helpful when I try to convert provinces before releasing vassals.

The flurry of annexations triggers a small coalition of North Italian minors. I felt safe , though, with both French and Austrian alliances. Unfortunately, France appeared to be still upset about not getting enough in the last war. They send me a warning about alliance breaking. I try to improve relations, and even spend 10 favors to get 5 trust. But to no avail. The alliance I concluded on 11 November 1444 is no more:

Without France , I felt exposed . I now shared a border with Austria and did not know if they would turn on me in the future. I look for new allies. I manage Portugal ( who is unfortunately weak), and barely get England:

(alliance with England. Note recovery of the Baltic Orders )

I then get another nice event. The Knights can spawn in Malta if I am willing to give it to them. I say yes of course:

Only issues is that they are not immediately vassalizable, citing distance between borders. I guess Napoli to Malta is a long voyage according to Paradox! IN any case, I immediately guarantee and ally them . Otherwise, Tunis would probably gobble them up.

I spend the remainder of the decade doing this:

improve relations and take it slowly until Shadow Kingdom

By my reckoning, the event ought to trigger early in the next Chapter, and I can resume expanion in North Italy.

The only notable event in this decade is Castile declaring war on Scotland for the French throne. It appears that the French king died without an heir, and Scotland got a PU over France. And this was contested by Castile.

I have not intervened in this war yet. I checked liberty desires. France is at 100%, so Scotland will not be invading Spain . But Aragon is also at 100% liberty desire, so I doubt Castile can successfully invade France on their own. If Scotland holds France in a PU, that is not necessarily bad for me . BUt I certainly do not want Castile to successfully contest the PU and end up ruling France . So I may yet intervene. We shall see.

I then get yet another nice event with a permanent bonus: The Swiss Guard. I reply that I want the guard and Switzerland agrees to send the guard. This gives a permanent +10% manpower bonus:

I end the decade being called to war to help Austria against Bohemia. I agree of course:

Austria was going to win this on their own anyways, so I don't know why they bothered to ask . I plan on doing nothing, and just keep drilling my troops in Italy .

One big benefit of accepting the CTA , is that Hungary - fighting alongside Austria as well - leaves the coalition against me:

Soon the Shadow Kingdom should fire and I will have the option to expand in North Italy with less AE concern. Though I still have to be careful.

 

[mackwolfe]

1490-1500: Crossing the Adriatic

The 1490s open with the Shadow Kingdom event:

Finally north Italy is outside the HRE's protection .

This is followed soon by the election of a new Pope, Marcellus II , 5/5/3 . Very lucky stats. Castile is curia controller now.

You may notice in the screenshot that I had an army in Romagna ready to pounce on Ferrara and the small coalition. And I was about to declare, but then remembered this advice:

Patience is a virtue, or so they say.

So I decided to wait till Austria was done with their Bohemian war, and would be able to help . Luckily, patience pays off as one after another the coalition members quit. And when I declare on tiny Lucca, they only have Florence and Ragusa as allies:

I enlist the willing help of my Genoese ally just to make an easy war even easier.
I first target Florence, sieging their capital, and then forcing them to release Pisa ( direct annexation would have caused a widespread coalition):

I immediately start to improve relations with Pisa . I then get military access from Austria and capture Ragusa . In the peace, I annex Lucca and vassalize Ragusa .

This causes some AE generation . But thanks to having one diplomat dedicated to improving relations with outraged nation ( using the diplomacy feature in macro builder), I manage to keep Hungary out of a coalition .

Now the reason I vassalized Ragusa is that I obviously cannot annex and core them, being against my Italy-only rule. I looked at their ideas. Lots of trade and naval ideas. As Badesumofu indicated earlier, they make a good trade power march. They will be a big help in the eventual war on the Ottomans. I intend to eventually feed them Greece and the old venetian possessions in the Eastern Med.

After the peace I spend several months to diplo-vassalize Pisa. This required hiring a Diplomat for +1 Dip Rep and building to the force limit , but eventually they accept. Meanwhile, Castile loses the war of the French Succession:

France has 100% LD and as Tom D said earlier, they will fail to keep France in chains. If you read the peace treaty carefully, you will notice that I got a nice gift from Scotland. They released Naples from their Castilian bondage .With no allies, Naples was easy pickings. But first I needed to refresh my claims which had expired. So I spend the time hitting the Venetians:

(DOW on Venice. Inset shows France becoming independent again , and Papacy making it to Great Power Status)
Venice is allied to the Knights. This would be a good opportunity to vassalize them . The war is quite easy. I land simultaneously on both islands:

(Papal troops landing in Crete and sieging Malta. Inset announces start of Aragonese war of Independence )

While waiting for those sieges, I declare on Naples. And when the sieges finish, I vassalize the Knights and annex Venice completely:

I feed Venice to Ragusa via a combination of transfer occupation during war and grant province after the peace . So to clarify my rule about not blobbing outside Italy, I can annex land. I just cannot core it . So here I annexed Durres but did not core it, and I later granted it to Ragusa . And this is the first instance where my conquest behavior is adjusted because of this rule. Normally I would have annexed Crete myself so that I can fabricate on Mamluks and later invade Egypt on the way to India. Not this run .

As for the knights, I would have preferred to have diplo-vassalized them. But force vassalization will do , and with that I have one of the 3 vassals needed for the Holy Trinity . I intend to later feed them their cores in Rhodes and Sugla. And use them as another naval force in the mediterranean alongside Ragusa.


Annexation of the last remnant from Naples is done soon after:

We are starting to snowball.


Having taken care of South Italy, I turn north. I target Ferrara, whose land inconveniently separates my province of Verona from the rest:

On their side they had Milan and my soon-to-be-ex ally Genoa. On my side, I enlist Austria ( so they end up fighting their own ally Hungary - a double bonus since growing Austrian power is always a concern for me )

The war goes well . I avoid any pitched battles, letting Austria do those. Instead I keep my army together and siege their forts one by one :

After taking Ferrara itself I capture Mantua, Firenze, Milan, Piedmont and finally siege Genoa . And I discover that the blockage of Genoa alone gave enough warscore to have them release Corsica .

(Genoa peacing out and spitting out Corsica as independent OPM)

I then peace out Milan, releasing Parma and Mantua:

Obviously I had enough WS to annex land, but AE was the limiting factor here .
And finally, I peace out the main belligerent:

I annex Ferrara, which fulfills a mission and gives me a land connection to Verona. And I release Modena .

I immediately start to improve relations with the newly released countries. I get a mission to vassalize Parma which is done just before the end of the decade:

I am now working on vassalizing Mantua, Modena and Corsica.

This brings us to the end of the century. I want to post some status screenshots, as I feel this will be a transition point. So far I have played this campaign pretty much the standard way. I expanded as much as possible, and did not roleplay much . But once all Italy is unified, things will change.

First, is religious map and tab:

No reformation yet of course. Reform desire stands at 67%. Twenty years ago it was at 40% , when I forbade the sale of indulgences. So I estimate the reformation will hit at this rate between 1510 and 1520 . I hope I get another event to delay it further .
The infidels had made inroads into Iberia, and are rolling back the reconquista. And have expanded in the Balkans. This needs to be remedied, although my actions are certainly to blame for this .
Tech and ideas:

I am keeping up on tech. I took Economic idea group as my second . This is my first campaing ever in eu4 I take it . I hope to use the Dev discount to build up Italy . And the construction discount is helpful too,

Economy and trade:

Taxation is by far the highest component , thanks to increased efficiency from Economic ideas. But eventually trade should surpass it . I may very well be taking Trade at some point.

FInally, MIlitary tab:

I am running an all professional army . I have built lots of barracks ( any province giving 500 + improvement was targeted ) . I may start to built regimental camps to increase the force limit soon . I think I will end up taking Quantity ideas at some point .

I do intend to eventually expand via either Exploration ideas in the New WOrld, or via Expansion ideas in Africa and Asia ( the finisher allows fabricating claims in Colonial regions, but I may do better just with Exploration and Colonist hopping ) . For exploration, I will need to get coring range from Italy to Arguin , which is I think the closest colony to us. Currently that is at distance of 342, with our range at 275. So I think the 3rd idea in Exploration may get me there. Arguin is currently held by my ally Portugal, by the way .

 

[mackwolfe]

1500-1510: Begone Aragon

The last chapter saw rapid expansion of the Papal states, with vassalization of Ragusa , annexation of Naples last remnants, and release of several OPMs in North Italy .

I start the decade trying to figure out how to finally kick Castile and Aragon out of Italy. Combined , they are still a formidable foe for our fledgling state. My current allies, England and Austria , would not help me in an offensive war. I look again for a French alliance. They refuse becaue I am allied to their rivals. I start to improve relations with France and seriously consider breaking the English alliance. But then I make a diplomatic error that puts a French alliance permanently out of reach: I declare Ottomans as my rival.

Because Ottomans had allied France , rivaling them upset the French and pretty much killed the idea of a new French rapprochement.

So I bide my time. But I don't have to wait too long, for France declares a conquest war on Castile in 1502:

This is a golden opportunity an I take it .

(DOW on Castile/Aragon+Provence)

Militarily, the war is a repeat of the previous one where I overrun Italy and then send my army toward Iberia. On the way there, I get the second big event affecting Reform Desire:

I ban Simony, dropping desire back to 60%. This should push reformation into the 1520s , I think. The price is 1 stab hit, but it is worth it. And soon after, it is the last ( and final) such event:

I ban the sale of Relics , dropping liberty desire all the way down to 50%. Now the reformation should really be far in the future . Which means the age of Exploration will drag on for quite some time. A short Reformation age should help my main mission because it shortens the time Centers of Reformation are active .

Back to the war. After taking Sicily's fort., I detour to Ragusa where I stackwipe a Provencal expeditionary force. This talks some sense into Provence who peaces out and gives me Nice in the process:

(annexation of Nice from Provence )

Then I invade Iberia, taking Valencia and then Toledo - while the Spanish armies are fighting in France . The poor Iberians can barely deal with the 2 enemies they have, when they get dogpiled by Morocco:

(Morocco declares on Castile, while I siege Castile's capital)

This is mixed news for me. Castile is convinced to peace out, but now I have even more Christian land getting lost to the infidels. At least I get Castile completely out of Italy:

IN addition to taking the Italian islands, I take Baleares as well. I am not allowed to core the Baleares, but they only cause 5% over-extension, so I will hold on to them until I am ready to release Catalonia .

Immediately after the peace, I start the annexation of Pisa, and vassalize Modena:

I also vassalize Corsica soon after. Then I declare on Florence's remnant to continue the Unification of Italy .

Another easy war . In the peace, I take Arezzo to complete a mission and Cuneo, the mountain fort that controls the coastal approach into Itally:

As @Tom D. said earlier, the Alpine passes present a natural broder for defense, and this is the first such fort secured.

The addition of Nice and Cuneo meant I had a new exclave disconnected from the rest of my land . To remedy that problem, I declare on Genoa:

Genoa has some heavy hitting allies , notably Lithuania ( who is apparently independent now). Genoa has a big presence in the Black sea region and that is why they are allies with Lithuania. So I again enlist the help of Austria. The Pope and the Emperor have been working well together. So far.

I let Austria deal with the Lithuanias while I focus on sieging Genoa down :

(view of the war . Lithuania attacks Ragusa, while I focus on Genoa. Note Castile losing badly in their wars)

While the Christian powers fight each other, the Ottomans start to consolidate their grip on the Middle East , with their first Mamluk war:

This is definitely NOT good news . I am in no position to intervene at the moment, and the 2 countries that usually form a bulwark against Ottomans - Lithuania and Austria- are at each others' throats.

And in the west, I watch with concern France grow at the expense of Castile. Remember that France is allied to the Ottomans

In the peace, France forces Castile to free Aragon . This is probably good news for me, since it means I can release Catalonia and eat into Aragon without fighting Castile. In fact, I really need a friendly Castile at this time, as a bulwark against Moslem expansion .

Back to Italy, I finally manage to convince Genoa to part with its Italian provinces:

All Genoa has now are its possessions in the East. I hope they manage to hold them against the Muslim tide.

With that annexation, I have almost all of Italy south of the Po river. I am really eager to finish the unification so that I can focus on rolling back the Green tide:

NOtice the Reform Desire at only 58% since I rolled it back by banning Simony and Relic sales. Doing some math, it was at 51.6% in January 1503. It is now at 58.8% in 1510. At this rate , about 1% per year, it should hit 95 sometime around 1540 .

The Reformation is not the only major event getting delayed in this run. Colonialism has not spawned yet.

And as I mentioned earlier, only Castile and Portugal have taken Exploration. I am now 8 years away from getting my 3rd idea group, and I think it is time for the Papacy to take up the banner of Exploration and spread the Gospel to the New World.

 

[mackwolfe]

1510-1520: A misguided war

I ended the last chapter with the Italian peninsula south of the Po river unified under Roman control. ( It is eerie how my expansion mirrors that of ancient Rome, including forays into Albania, Sicily and Spain ) . But this rapid progress came at a steep price in manpower and aggressive expansion:

So I decide to take a break for a few years, while I improve relations with my northern neighbors, and work on diplo-vassalizing and annexing the north Italian OPMs I released previously ( Parma, Corsica, Modena, Mantua ) .

While waiting , news arrives of a second imperial reform, of Ottoman conquests in Syria and of Moroccan progress in Iberia.

I can't do anything about any of those things at this time, and they are all concerning . I am torn between helping Austria - they have been my most stalwart ally so far - , and the fear that a strong HRE may one day revoke the privilegia .

I continue waiting till 1515, when the truce with Aragon finally expires. Remember that Aragon is now free of Castile, as a result of the French-Castilian war . I decide to act before they join the coalition. I release Catalonia , and declare for their cores :

(DOW on Aragon+Portugal)
As a bonus, Aragon is allied to Portugal, who has lost most of its land to the Moors. This is an excellent opportunity to snag a colony in the Atlantic. A quick check on colonial range shows that I can actually reach Cape Verde islands from Sardinia. And so off to war we go.

I simultaneously fend off a weak Aragonese invasion of Italy and land a stack on the Portuguese capital at Porto. Once Porto falls, I separate peace Portugal:

In the peace, I feed Porto to my Catalonian vassal. But only Porto. This has the Douro estuary, and therefore has extra trade. I do not want to feed my vassal any land, lest they become disloyal. I will instead focus mostly on provinces with trade bonuses. Since I will not be integrating them, I have to be careful about letting them get too big.

And I take Cape Verde for myself. I decide to leave Arguin to the portuguese. This way they can continue to colonize in the New World . You see, unlike a normal run, where I would want to completely crush the Iberians, I think of the Iberians as future allies against the Muslim world. Remember that my aim is to spread the Catholic faith. So the more catholic nations there are , the better.

As for Aragon, I peace them out once Valencia falls:

Here I return two cores to Catalonia, and also feed Valencia to them ( the interface does not allow returning a core of capital - so I have to take full cost of AE from Valencia )
I do not give Catalonia any additional land , again to keep them loyal. This is explained better in the next screenshot:

Because I am limited to Italy only, my total Dev cannot support large vassals over the long term. And to get maximum benefit from trade in Genoa node, I really need my vassal to give me all their trade power . So like @Badesumofu said earlier, it is better to turn them into a March ( no tax income) but divert trade to 100%. I eventually intend to feed Catalonia Sevilla and Languedoc ( centers of trade ) . But probably cannot give them much else ( e.g Lisboa may be returned to Portugal). If anyone has any better ideas on how to maximize vassal usage here, let me know.


With the setup I plan above, I think I will be able to steer New World trade to Sevilla and Genoa successfully. Given that my manpower appears to have recovered after a short break, I decide to go with Exploration ideas when I unlock Admin tech 10 in 1518 :

Potential benefits from Exploration will be additional merchants from colonial nations, and from Trade Companies in Ivory Coast ( majority of provinces are colonies that I am allowed to core) and the Cape . And trade income to Sevilla and Genoa nodes.

I do not get to savor my new idea group , though. Out of the blue, Hungary declares Punitive War on us:

Oh Hungary, Why? for the love of God, why?

I am asking rhetorically of course. There is now way the AI can read my mind that I intend to only annex Italian states, and then help them against the Ottomans. All the AI sees is that I have been annexing catholic land all the time. And so, in a way reminiscent of actual history, we find the Christian world torn by internecine struggle while the Turkish Sultan smiles approvingly.

The balance of forces in the war is quite close. I have Austria, England and my vassals on my side. They have a motley crew of Italin and German minors along with Castile on their side.

My immediate concern was to make sure that they do not knock out Austria. I quickly transport my army , still in Spain from the Aragonese war, to relieve the sieges of Dalmatia and Vienna. But my bigger fear was an opportunistic attack by the Ottoman-French alliance. And so it is with great relief that I read the Herald's announcement of war between Poland and Hungary:

(path of our army relieving Dalmatia and Wien, as Poland dogpiles Hungary)

Thank you Poland!. The best part about that news is that the AI must have determined we are the stronger side , and therefore the chance of me or Austria getting dogpiled is low .

After lifting the siege of Vienna, I head to the enemy capital and take it :

And then I proceed to occupy all of Hungary, in order to drive up their war exhaustion:

Despite occupying Hungary, the war is still far from over. I am now at -63 from a white peace and facing a -7 WS :

Unless someone suggests a better strategy, my plan is to finish the occupation of Hungary to prevent them from recruiting more troops, then move on and do the same to Bavaria and Milan. I don't think the coalition will manage to knock out either of my allies at this stage. Assuming, of course, that outside powers do not intervene.

EDIT: forgot to mention that one reason I took Exploration is that Coloniialism has not spawned yet, and I want to make sure it spawns near me , and not in Asia somewhere.

 

[mackwolfe]

1520-1530: If you can't beat them, join them.

I left off fighting a coalition war led by Hungary. I was lucky enough that Poland declared on Hungary . And I had just occupied Hungary itself. But my run of good fortunes ran out quickly:

The dreaded intervention by the Ottoman-French block occurred. Turkey declares on the Papacy's main ally Austria. At least they did not attack me directly . This was dire news indeed. I really had no choice but to decline the CTA. But I could not just abandon my ally like that. ANd I wait on it for another month.

But then my hand is forced when my army suffers a stinging defeat at the hand of the coalition at Pest:

I had mis-estimated the number of allied stacks nearby, and I started the battle against a single Castilian stack , but then their reinforcements started to stream in and I had no choice but to withdraw.
I therefore decline the CTA. This is the second one I decline this run. Not a good pattern, as it limits my future alliance options.

And now I have to adjust my strategy to face the coalition . I withdraw the army to Italy and adopt a Fabian strategy. I will just defend the Peninsula, and leave the Hungarian plain to the enemy . I hire mercenary infantry to avoid completely draining my manpower . And I hire a new general and luck out with a 4 pip siege. This helps me quickly take the fort at Firenze , which gives me a defensible line of hills north of Rome:

(view of the war after I withdraw from Hungary into Italy )
On the good side, I am helped by Poland occupying Hungarian provinces in their war. And by Austria still fighting alongside me in my war. But coalition wars are a bear because of their -30 coalition malus to any peace and to the enemy war enthusiasm .

The next few months bring mixed news. Poland and Hungary make peace, which removes the largest source of Hungarian war exhaustion. But I manage to capture Milan and England is finally landing some serious numbers on the continent.

THe strategy of focusing on Italy pays off as I manage to take the mountain fort at Piedmont , and then stackwipe a Milanese force at Milan thanks to Austrian help:

It has been a while since I played in Europe, and I am finding a defensive position in the North Italian plain quite good when the enemy has to go around the Alps to reinforce and I have internal lines of communications . I definitively want to secure those border forts in the Alps one day.

After the Milan victory, I look at peace options . THe recent success has helped make their demans less onerous ( previously they wanted me to release Catalonia and Venice out of Verona and Venezia). Now , I can get away with a lot less damage:

I stare at this screen for a long time, undecided whether to go on and fight, or take my losses and prepare to fight another day . On one hand, I had some recent successes, Italy was still free and my economay was running well with 2000 ducats in the treasury. But I could not count on England actually winning battles for me. Austria was not going to last much longer, and once they are out, I will be facing bad numerical odds. My manpower was low and I had to slacken recruitment once, wiping out all the Professionalism gains from the sack of Buda. So I swallow my pride and take this peace:

(peace deal ending the coalition war . My first real loss in a war in eu4 since many , many campaigns ago)

The peace is actually not that painful . Item by item, this was my thought process:
- having England give Normandie to France. Does not hurt me one bit. And is the beginning of a diplomatic realignment as you will see soon .
- giving Porto back to Portugal. This decreases Catalonia's Dev and improves their liberty desire . I can always retake it if need be
- releasing Ragusa . Honestly, I was starting to think they are a redundant vassal. I need only one vassal in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Knights will fill that role.
-ceding Avignon. This is one province I did not put any buildings in . I lose some trade power and tax income from it, but it removes a potential conflict source with France

And that's it. I do not lose a single Italian province. And I kept my crucial trade vassal Catalonia .

After the war, I am without the Austrian alliance and only allied to England. Relations with Austria are now bad, being neighbors and having a lot of AE with them . Since I also coveted their Italian provinces of Trent, Treviso and Friuli, it made sense to fully break with them. I check France's opinion now. They would ally me if it were not for England. So I go ahead , and do a diplomatic 180 degrees and break alliance with England, and ally France instead:

(the second Papal-France alliance is concluded)

By allying France, I ensure the Ottomans would not attack me directly . And I gain the potential help of the largest force in Christendom . Hopefully I can maintain that alliance for a long , long time and I hope they do not rival me if they run out of other valid rivals.

I next complete the break with Austria by declaring them rivals. They return the favor as soon as they finish the war with Ottomans:

In the war ( that I abandoned them in ) , they lose pretty much all of Croatia, getting the Turks almost to the edge of Italy. My Pope is doing a fine job helping the infidels

On the positive side, I have been filling up the Exploration idea group . I hired an explorer named Colombo and he discovered America. And I am rewarded by spawning Colonialism at his birthplace near Genoa:

I get a nice reward of 300 MP and should be able to adopt Colonialism before any of the major powers . This is the latest I have ever seen it spawn.

A year later, old pope Marcellus croaks at the ripe age of 80. Maybe senility explains all the carzy diplomatic decisions. The new Pope is a more average 3/2/3 but we are , finally, Curia controller:

ANd my first action is to excommunicate the Austrian HRE . I am hoping to isolate them so I can snatch the last remanining Italian provinces from them .

This gives me the Excommunication CB on them, which gives less AE. Unfortunately, they have renewed their Hungarian alliance , and so I cannot attack them yet. Maybe when Ottos attack Hungary, I will betray the Christians again?

IN the New World, I start my first colony at Curacao ( Caribbean Center of Trade ) , and follow it with another one at Managua ( also CoT) .

I have absolutely no competition in the New World from any Europeans . I plan to run one colony over limit , starting with Caribbean first and then moving to other areas (suggestions on best to follow Caribbean? )

I have also explored to the Cape and it is wide open:

After a hop in Fernando Po or St Helena, I should secure the Cape and get a trade company merchant.

Back in Europe, the Reformation has finally started :

This is also a very late date , thanks to my actions. I guess despite my best efforts , I could NOT delay it indefinitely . I am sure Paradox put events in there to make sure it happens, considering how crucial it is to the Ages system. Luckily it did not hit in North Italy . Only Frankfurt is converted for now, and as of 1530, there are no other centers of reformation yet.

On the Diplomatic front, I have allied Brandenburg as extra security and potential help. And I am following a few wars of interest in Europe, looking for a chance to intervene:

Lithuania, by the way, is now Orthodox and would not ally me