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Er...but he had all those pips! He cannot die!
You got a little epic in the description of his death there, "many did he fell". But appropriate for this colossus of the battlefield.
So was that a betrayal or a miscommunication?
You got a little epic in the description of his death there, "many did he fell". But appropriate for this colossus of the battlefield.
So was that a betrayal or a miscommunication?
This chapter is the longest I've ever written, but I feel that it does Turenne justice in its magnitude... it's 8 fricking pages in Word! However I felt compelled to write such an encompassing update since Deamon asked me to write a "sad" chapter in narrative form just after I had posted GERMANIA.
Anyways, response time!
@ Enewald: As I said, the unexpected will play a prominent role in the coming updates I'm still not quite sure of what became of d'Artagnan. Whether or not he died with Turenne is still pretty vague in my plans.
@ Irenicus: *Immediately starts to play the Marseillaise mixed with the lyrics of Vive Henri IV* "Allons enfants de la patrie!" The enemy will feel our wrath and not stone upon stone will be left of Vienna!
@ asd21593: Oh thanks. I do hope that the recent focus on narrative haven't scared the readers away...
@ volksmarschall: Well the Bible declares, "an eye for an eye", but does Austria truly have anyone in its arsenal worthy to be named the equal of Turenne?
@ Winner : Honestly, I'd rather have him alive and still fighting with a bit of disgrace to entice him to fight even harder than not have him around at all. The Huguenot successors will not have an easy task ahead of them, despite the ridiculously high casualties the Austrians have suffered.
@ gabor: Well that's a question that begs to be answered. Did he get lured off the field a bit too easily?
@ Rabid Bogling: That's up for Condé to decide. The next chapter will bring some more detail to the status of the Frondeurs, as well as a much needed update on the Spanish front.
@ RGB: Ah, true. I've been reading a bit too much Tolkien lately (for no apparent reason what so ever... besides the fact that his works have absolutely nothing to do with my curriculum) and this might have influenced me somewhat.
Still I hope the ending of the chapter was as fun to read as it was to write.
@ dem61s: ...And running for their lives, and disillusioned and scared and worried...
Anyways, response time!
@ Enewald: As I said, the unexpected will play a prominent role in the coming updates
I'm still not quite sure of what became of d'Artagnan. Whether or not he died with Turenne is still pretty vague in my plans. @ Irenicus: *Immediately starts to play the Marseillaise mixed with the lyrics of Vive Henri IV* "Allons enfants de la patrie!" The enemy will feel our wrath and not stone upon stone will be left of Vienna!
@ asd21593: Oh thanks. I do hope that the recent focus on narrative haven't scared the readers away...
@ volksmarschall: Well the Bible declares, "an eye for an eye", but does Austria truly have anyone in its arsenal worthy to be named the equal of Turenne?
@ Winner : Honestly, I'd rather have him alive and still fighting with a bit of disgrace to entice him to fight even harder than not have him around at all. The Huguenot successors will not have an easy task ahead of them, despite the ridiculously high casualties the Austrians have suffered.
@ gabor: Well that's a question that begs to be answered. Did he get lured off the field a bit too easily?
@ Rabid Bogling: That's up for Condé to decide. The next chapter will bring some more detail to the status of the Frondeurs, as well as a much needed update on the Spanish front.
@ RGB: Ah, true. I've been reading a bit too much Tolkien lately (for no apparent reason what so ever... besides the fact that his works have absolutely nothing to do with my curriculum) and this might have influenced me somewhat.
Still I hope the ending of the chapter was as fun to read as it was to write.
@ dem61s: ...And running for their lives, and disillusioned and scared and worried...
Hors du doute, hors des ténèbres, vers le lever du jour
Il chevaucha, chantant dans le Soleil et l' épée hors du fourreau.
Il ranima l' espoir, et dans l' espoir il finit;
Au-dessus de la mort, au-dessus de la peur, au-dessus du destin élevé,
Hors de la ruine, hors de la vie, vers une durable gloire.
Absolutely, mon ami.
I have recently went through the previous chapters of this AAR and there is definitely a trend here
At first, it was a purely "history book" style AAR, but lately you include much more narrative. Not that I want to complain, your writing is excellent Austrian manpower reserves are somehow bottomless, always. They just keep coming, I wonder if they're cloning their soldiers or something...
Ha! Go Maximillian!
Edit - Forgot to say: That chapter was a blast! I really enjoyed it!
Edit - Forgot to say: That chapter was a blast! I really enjoyed it!
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Another (and far more troublesome) exam has been passed and I've gotten some time to begin work on the next update.
It's.. it's simply so beautiful
As ever with narrative I find it most rewarding and interesting to write. I'm glad that so many people find it as interesting as the history book style.
Gracias none the less
Heh, well I sure hope that the manpower base drops sufficiently enough for me to successfully liberate Bohemia and Württemberg before more bad stuff happens.
The Iron Cardinal is glad and thankful for your support!
Hors du doute, hors des ténèbres, vers le lever du jour
Il chevaucha, chantant dans le Soleil et l' épée hors du fourreau.
Il ranima l' espoir, et dans l' espoir il finit;
Au-dessus de la mort, au-dessus de la peur, au-dessus du destin élevé,
Hors de la ruine, hors de la vie, vers une durable gloire.
Absolutely, mon ami.
It's.. it's simply so beautiful
I have recently went through the previous chapters of this AAR and there is definitely a trend here
As ever with narrative I find it most rewarding and interesting to write. I'm glad that so many people find it as interesting as the history book style.
Gracias none the less
Heh, well I sure hope that the manpower base drops sufficiently enough for me to successfully liberate Bohemia and Württemberg before more bad stuff happens.
The Iron Cardinal is glad and thankful for your support!
Chapter LVIII – The Hardest Struggle
As the French army fled back to Passau under the joint leadership of Luxembourg, Crussol and Coligny the Austrians celebrated their victory. But even with Turenne out of the picture, Linz secured and the Huguenots on the run it was hard for his Eminence Maximillian to enjoy his triumph. The Habsburgs had been mauled horribly both at Passau and at Linz and not many professional soldiers remained in the Catholic ranks.
Luxembourg led the Protestant infantry into Passau where he was greeted by Frederick V elector of the Palatinate and the man Nicolas Henri had designated as the true sovereign of Bohemia. The German Protestant had been at odds with the French sovereign in the past, but ever since switching sides to support the Huguenots and their “Rhine Coalition” he had enjoyed Nicolas’ favour, thus ensuring his French-supported candidature for the Bohemian throne. Although the Protestant Bohemian estates had agreed to acknowledging Frederick as their lawful sovereign, they were becoming more and more dissatisfied with the lack of an advance on Prague- if Prague fell, they argued, “the whole of the rotten Habsburg monarchy would come crumbling down.”
Yet without Turenne to lead them, the French despaired behind the walls of Passau. Nobody seemed capable to take up the mantle and popularity of the disappeared Marshal General and since Condé hadn’t appeared at the rendezvous the generals were certain that he too had been lost outside Linz. With the two of his most prominent generals seemingly dead or captured, Nicolas was rendered in a deep and malicious state of wrath and sorrow. “Leave a trail of waste and destruction through Austria and Styria so that the Inquisitor might learn that one does not oppose those whom God has anointed…” he supposedly wrote to his officers in Bohemia before adding “…the Bible declares an eye for an eye, but no Austrian is nor will ever be the equal of our much beloved Vicomte.”
The generals, however, promptly decided to elect Crussol chief commander of the German front in the absence of the two marshals and his first order was to send Coligny and Luxembourg to Paris for further instructions. The Armies of Flanders and the East were respectively put under the command of Claude de Villeneuve and Jules de la Ferrandie – two of Turenne’s young favourites.
Frederick V of the Palatinate portrayed in a contemporary painting as a Roman God. The German Calvinist was one of Nicolas’ chief supporters in his claim for the imperial title. Besides being an ally of Nicolas, he was also a qualified candidate for the Czech throne because of his dominant position within the Protestant Alliance of the Rhineland that lent substantial amounts of credit and war material to their belligerent co-religious brothers in France and the Low Countries.
***
The Neapolitan War of Succession
***
Maximillian had left the field outside Linz when it had become apparent that the French wouldn’t be able to resist the onslaught of his many battalions. The Austrians swept the fields outside the city walls clean and dumped the bodies of the fallen into mass graves, often alongside their broken weapons, armour and other personal belongs. This has later proved quite valuable to contemporary historians as the excavations have brought much detail to the equipment of the armies of early modern Europe. The fact that the Austrians didn’t seem to care to scavenge what remained of usual equipment from the fallen just goes to show how much faith the Habsburgs put in their victory – why gather more weapons when the enemy had already been broken?
But the Iron Cardinal had more good reasons to not believe the French able to continue their offensives as favourable news began to arrive from Italy.
Gaston, the brother of Nicolas and former Frondeur, had married a daughter of the Neapolitan king who ruled much of former Spaniard Naples. The southern Italian kingdom had been liberated by the French in the war between Spain, Lorraine and the France of the Three Marshals in 1628. After a long and turbulent rule, the French noble who had been elected King by the estates of Naples passed away and left his throne to his son-in-law. But this was vehemently disputed by the Duke of Tuscany-Urbino who opposed any thought of letting the French gain a foothold on the Italian peninsular. The Tuscan sovereign had long been preparing for a takeover of the rich city of Naples and his allies in the Republic of the Sicilies had already been in a war with the French ruled kingdom to their northern flank, which had resulted in complete Sicilian control of the boot of the peninsular.
Besides the Sicilians the Tuscans also had an offensive and defensive alliance with the Holy See where the Pope himself was more than willing to avenge his defeat in the French-Papal War that had seen the Papacy’s loss of Avignon and the reformation of Venice.
Nicolas was eager to back his brother despite the strains it would put on France’s finances to fund a new front in Italy. But in the end the pros outweighed the cons. If Gaston was to leave his Viceroyalty of the Ebro for Naples it would remove a powerful Frondeur from the internal stage of French politics. The king’s brother had always wanted a kingdom of his own and since Nicolas finally had managed to produce an heir[1] and the obvious resentment against him from the loyalist courtiers and military officials it had become clear that ruling France would be out of the question.
That Naples wasn’t the most powerful of the Italian kingdoms wasn’t important to the Huguenot prince. With backing from the Louvre, Gaston hoped to expand Naples beyond her meagre borders and turn the country into the foremost power of all the Italian states.
With both sides prepared to defend their claims with armed force, the duke of Tuscany issued a declaration of war against France and her allies on the 7th of May 1656 and rallied his Papal and Sicilian allies for an invasion of Naples.
Those poor fools…
The War of Neapolitan Succession would become only a sideshow of what historians later have described as the last phase of the “War of European Dominance” between the Bourbon and Habsburg dynasties, but to the rulers in Vienna and Madrid the entrance of three more Catholic nations meant that their cause had gained tremendous ground. Indeed, one only has to look at the amount of Austrian propaganda leaflets being distributed in the Habsburg zones to understand what exactly the Papacy’s entrance to the war meant to the Eminence in Vienna. With his Holiness fighting alongside his chief defenders in Spain and Austria it would seem that finally all of Catholic Christendom had finally united against the Protestant onslaught and invasion.
However, Maximillian could not hope to provide aid to his allies to the south and neither could the Italians bring their mercenary and citizen armies north to the principal battlefields of the war because of the Calvinist government in Venice. The Venetians had been woefully isolated internationally in the peninsula’s political scene because of their affiliation with the French and Swiss states and as such the Doge-Prince of the most Serene Republic was delighted at the prospect of having an ally in a French Naples.
Italian troops being readied for advance.
***
Spain - Between a Rock and a Hard Place
***
When the French armies in the South of Spain were unable to break through to Toledo and the remaining unoccupied provinces of continental Spain, the commanding officer de Chambly decided to go north instead… towards Madrid. With fresh men and supplies arriving from Gaston de Orleans’ Barcelona (a show of good will to his brother, who was to conquer Naples for him), the French first marched on Murcia where they broke the Spaniard army ravaging the countryside before turning towards the Spanish capital. The small army had been gathered by local guerrilla commanders intend on breaking the Huguenot stranglehold on the Catalan coast, but they were unable to bring the local Portuguese forces and troops of Don Carlos’ central government to the fore and against the massive army of Chambly they all perished or disappeared into the mountains.
One of many minor armies thrashed in southern Spain
With the south more or less secure for the moment and with amble garrisons and munitions stored in the fortresses on the Mediterranean shores, the French pressed northwards where they met with reinforcements from Frondeur companies based in La Rochelle.
After a short skirmish outside the walls of the Spanish capital, the besiegers dug into the earth on the outskirts of the city’s ramparts and began construction of all the needed material for a prolonged siege. It would only be more than three months later that the Huguenots once again would enter Madrid as victors. Ana had not thought that her capital ever would come under siege and had gone to great lengths to convince her subjects that the Protestants “wouldn’t even be able to break a stone from the city’s battlements.” Yet even after a month of siege, much of Madrid’s idly kept fortifications would have been reduced to rubble.
Don Carlos saw this as his moment to force through his plans for a centralization of the Spaniard armies. With no news being able to leave Madrid, the Vallido announced his usurpation of de facto control of the Spanish state - although he refrained from taking the title as king – and immediately began work to assemble the local guerrillas around his strongholds in Toledo and Seville.
Many of the officers in the Spanish armies did not take the news kindly and dissent grew as it became clear that the Vallido had no intentions of attempting to relieve Madrid. Instead Don Carlos assembled what he could from the armies around the capital and together with his own personal forces marched north to attempt to break the French isolation of Galicia where separatists were getting ready to openly revolt against his rule. With an army of almost 20,000 men the new leader of the Spaniard cause moved for Asturias where he knew that a French army had failed several attempts at storming the fortress walls of the regional capital.
But halfway on his journey the news reached his headquarters that Madrid had finally fallen and that Ana had been taken prisoner.
Peace within reach?
It was a terrible blow to the decentralist policy of Ana and for a while it seemed as if Spain would completely collapse without her frail control over the southern militias. Yet Don Carlos did not despair. Instead he managed to turn the loss of the capital into a way to strengthen his own position through the channels of frustration within the lower nobility who thought very poorly of the higher social classes who, in their opinion, had allowed the French to advance so far. With backing form Portugal and the nobility of Andalusia the Vallido managed to bring some sort of order into the Spanish lines. From Caceres to Almería the Iberian armies managed to stabilize a defensive front that finally brought a renewed Protestant advance on Toledo to an abrupt halt.
Yet this relative success did nothing to outweigh the losses in territory. Half of Spain was more or less in enemy hands and the situation in Austria had not exactly improved despite Maximillian’s victory outside Linz. The young heirs of Turenne’s command had proven that they were more than mere favourites. Jules de la Ferrandie led the weakened Army of the East back to Linz where the hopefully insufficient garrison hadn’t even thought of the possibility of a counter attack from French. As a result the city was captured without much bloodshed, but the fortress held firm, denying the Protestants outright control of the town. So while the Eminence was sitting in Vienna desperately trying to turn his victory on the battlefield into diplomatic results through clandestine negotiations with representatives from Charles I and the Flemish Republic he received the news of Linz’ renewed besiegement. However, it seemed as if everything could still be won when reports indicated that Claude de Villeneuve had intercepted the remains of the last great Habsburg army in Austria that had been stationed in Ostermark…
It would prove to be the last of the war's larger battles and the Iron Cardinal was confident that his field marshal Pappenheim, who had returned from Württemberg when French troops and peasant rebels had stalled his advance, would be capable of routing the runts of the Huguenot armies… after all, he thought, the Protestants were low on manpower and Pappenheim had already proven his worth against the Dutch and Flemish in Tyrol.
Situation of the war in the later half of 1656.
Don Carlos did not know of the setbacks that plagued his Austrian allies, but he knew that he had to win the coming battle for the control of northern Spain otherwise his vague control of the most powerful Iberian state would either collapse or slowly disappear.
Outside Oviedo he engaged the exhausted Huguenots besieging the city and routed them with a charge from his cavalry, but as the Spanish prepared to enter the city with the much needed supplies for the starving populace a much larger French army appeared from the southern road to Madrid. Robert de Tocqueville had brought his 30,000 man strong Armée Royale north in anticipation of the Vallido’s flanking manoeuvre.
With a salute from his new mobile batteries Tocqueville opened the second phase of the battle by sending the Spaniard tercios into utter confusion through an intensive bombardment. Don Carlos hopelessly tried to reorganize his infantry, but the deployment had been meant to drive away entrenched enemies not an advancing and numerically superior attacker. A more skilled commander could perhaps have reorganized the Spaniards into a defensive position alongside the castle walls, but such talent had eluded the otherwise skilled Vallido.
The slow advance of the enemy infantry could not be withstood by his own troops and as the earth and trenches on the plain by Oviedo exploded into cascades of smoke and fire from the French bombardment the Spaniard realised that he had been outmanoeuvred and outflanked.
Wave upon wave of Huguenot cavalry swept down upon his cavalry squadrons crushing anything in their way.
In the end Don Carlos fled south virtually by himself. Only a few of his personal servants and a handful of determined guards followed suit as the Vallido escaped one of the most devastating defeats ever suffered by a Spaniard army.
Revenge… it’s sweet as hell!
[1]Will be covered later on, when I’ve learned how to write a successful shower scene.
Spain is finished, the Austrians are the last main problem, and the Italians are in a war at long last; well, it should be interesting to see them against your armies wouldn't it?
Looking forward to that final climactic showdown between you and the Austrians...
Looking forward to that final climactic showdown between you and the Austrians...
Man, those are CRUSHING defeats for Spain.
If I were a human Spain I'd be thinking about reloading by now.
Also, where IS Conde?
If I were a human Spain I'd be thinking about reloading by now.
Also, where IS Conde?
I find it interesting how passingly you mentioned a pivotal engagement in Austria and never gave us the results. Sneaky cliffhanger?
What are the stats of the young commanders?
Oh, and in case I forget:
Austriae delenda est!
What are the stats of the young commanders?
I'm wondering how the Prince and his sizable cavalry force eludes notice by both the Habsburgs and the French right in the middle of a war zone. Hrmm.
Oh, and in case I forget:
Austriae delenda est!
France is winnin on all fronts, yet it must be difficult to manage both Spain and Austria. No rebels in France so far?
Let's hope that the designated King of Bohemia will reign longer than just one winter
Let's hope that the designated King of Bohemia will reign longer than just one winter
great update!
the situation in spain is interesting, will Ana abdicate?
do i see peace talks on the horizon?
isn't your we getting too high and crippling?
you can't insall a ruler in peace terms in EU3, pity, so i ask myself what's your workaround here
the situation in spain is interesting, will Ana abdicate?
do i see peace talks on the horizon?
isn't your we getting too high and crippling?
you can't insall a ruler in peace terms in EU3, pity, so i ask myself what's your workaround here
The AAR is great per the picture work and similar, but there is one annoying thing. As the AAR is made it seems as a history book of a nation, but the history is rather boring since you are constantly in wars which you constantly win.
Its like when you see a guy shoot whit a gun which always hits. Its cool on the start, but gets boring in a while since he will hit anything anyway lol.
Its like when you see a guy shoot whit a gun which always hits. Its cool on the start, but gets boring in a while since he will hit anything anyway lol.
I'm glad that people liked this chapter as I personally wasn't all that satisfied with it. But hopefully I'll have something nice to post by the weekend.
@ Enewald: Well that is very nicely put, I should have thought of it myself and used it in the text.
@ volksmarschall: Indeed Spain looks as if it is about to crumble under the Protestant onslaught, but the war will be decided in Austria and I am still working on a separate plot line to spice the game events up a little.
But let's just say that Pappenheim could have done a better job in Tyrol... I mean hanging and mutilating inane amounts of the local populace isn't exactly the best way to gain friends in the middle of a war.
@ RGB : We have already established that the save game is quite smart (see post 325), but I don't think that it'll be able to spontaneously reload the game
Heh and the situation directly after the Battle of Linz you'll have to wait for. That includes where Condé went and what happened to Turenne after he collapsed after having slain so many poor nameless Austrian soldiers.
@ asd21593: I can just imagine the French general screaming, Yippie kay-yay mother****** as he brought his men down upon the Spanish ^^
@ Irenicus: Jesus, Irenicus... is there actually something you don't notice? Yeah hidden cliff hanger is no longer so sneaky anymore.
As for the "disappearance" of Condé isn't it strange that it could just happen? And who says that the Austrians allowed him to withdraw from the field?
@ Winner: My WE was close to 12 at the end of the war, but I didn't experience that great a deal of revolts actually (as opposed to the last war) - except for insurgents in the occupied territories.
Maybe the former Frondeurs actually are unable to build up a new army to counter the royalists with Gaston in Naples, Condé running around somewhere in Austria and Rohan working very closely with the King?
Anyways, yes the new king of Bohemia will most certainly have to rule more than a mere winter ^^
@ gabor: At this stage my WE was at like... 5 or 6? I'm not quite sure actually... But I might have to use a chapter to properly explain the internal relations of France during the war.
Regarding the Succession, well if you take the OTL Spanish War of Succession into perspective (where Louis XIV fought the war in favour of his grandson) it seems quite plausible for Nicolas to go to war with Tuscany over his brother's claim on the Neapolitan throne.
However, the game can't handle such aspects of the early modern world and as such, if I win, it'll look like Nicolas will be the ruler of Naples.
@ Delex: Well I am sad that you find the work I've done here boring, but I really do not see what I can do about it? France is France (as Grubby once said) and it's quite tough to lose a game with her as one's fraction....
@ Enewald: Well that is very nicely put, I should have thought of it myself and used it in the text.
@ volksmarschall: Indeed Spain looks as if it is about to crumble under the Protestant onslaught, but the war will be decided in Austria and I am still working on a separate plot line to spice the game events up a little.
But let's just say that Pappenheim could have done a better job in Tyrol... I mean hanging and mutilating inane amounts of the local populace isn't exactly the best way to gain friends in the middle of a war.
@ RGB : We have already established that the save game is quite smart (see post 325), but I don't think that it'll be able to spontaneously reload the game
Heh and the situation directly after the Battle of Linz you'll have to wait for. That includes where Condé went and what happened to Turenne after he collapsed after having slain so many poor nameless Austrian soldiers.
@ asd21593: I can just imagine the French general screaming, Yippie kay-yay mother****** as he brought his men down upon the Spanish ^^
@ Irenicus: Jesus, Irenicus... is there actually something you don't notice
? Yeah hidden cliff hanger is no longer so sneaky anymore. As for the "disappearance" of Condé isn't it strange that it could just happen? And who says that the Austrians allowed him to withdraw from the field?
@ Winner: My WE was close to 12 at the end of the war, but I didn't experience that great a deal of revolts actually (as opposed to the last war) - except for insurgents in the occupied territories.
Maybe the former Frondeurs actually are unable to build up a new army to counter the royalists with Gaston in Naples, Condé running around somewhere in Austria and Rohan working very closely with the King?
Anyways, yes the new king of Bohemia will most certainly have to rule more than a mere winter ^^
@ gabor: At this stage my WE was at like... 5 or 6? I'm not quite sure actually... But I might have to use a chapter to properly explain the internal relations of France during the war.
Regarding the Succession, well if you take the OTL Spanish War of Succession into perspective (where Louis XIV fought the war in favour of his grandson) it seems quite plausible for Nicolas to go to war with Tuscany over his brother's claim on the Neapolitan throne.
However, the game can't handle such aspects of the early modern world and as such, if I win, it'll look like Nicolas will be the ruler of Naples.
@ Delex: Well I am sad that you find the work I've done here boring, but I really do not see what I can do about it? France is France (as Grubby once said) and it's quite tough to lose a game with her as one's fraction....
I don't say its bad, you make really good picture work, but lets take it as it is you kick the ass of the same nations all over and over again. Set new objectives.
Maybe you should then spend the time it takes to read up on the premises for this AAR (which I think have been properly explained in the first few chapters)?
There really isn't all that much else one can do as Huguenot France in 1589-1656 other than fight the Habsburgs again and again until they are thoroughly defeated/the reformation secured.
There really isn't all that much else one can do as Huguenot France in 1589-1656 other than fight the Habsburgs again and again until they are thoroughly defeated/the reformation secured.