There is some stuff that i would like to clarify anyway... And drake can confirm it.
SorelusImperion said:
reasons for my DOWs
1st EGO and Drake actively cooperated and supported each other against me. Not by direct military actions but by economical cooperation, exchanging informations about Austria's strategic situation and preparing a common strategy. This violated the agreement I made with EGO wich included
-cooperation against common enemys
-financial support for Austria
-support against England
-support against France to defend the Netherlands and the Palatinate untill Charles abdication
I made some deals with drake - that is true. I havent played one Spain without hyperteching at start, except when my enemies started teching LT as well. I made some deals with drake, like accepting his presence in the north of italy, and allowing him to expand without attacking him. He promised not to attack me in the meanwhile and accept me in what was left of Italy (basically what i got). And since Drake is trustworthy, unlike someone i could mention (haha?), i had no problems accepting that. He did, in fact, ask me for some loans, but i had barely any cash by the time he asked it (i only minted at the end of last session because of events - i had the fuggers and did a lot of deflation, and by the time he asked cash i had only 800d). So i didnt give him a single gold coin. If you doubt that, ask him. You might as well check relations between France-Spain if you doubt me. About the "cooperation against common enemies", that is very vague, and it was not what was agreed. I agreed to help you vs a possible English incursion, vs the OE and vs France. All on defensive purposes. Also, i NEVER spoke about your "strategic situation" with anyone else. I never knew anything about it anyway. You never spoke with me, we never had a RM (thus i couldnt spy), so i dont really know what "strategic situation" you are speaking about.
Even if i did all of what you state, i dont see that as a reason to do all the crap you did, in order to ruin Austria.
2nd
As soon as France had managed to get Frundsberg contained within Venice he build up a large army on the borders wich made clear that he was going to ignore the NAP. The state of his armed forces made also clear that he was only months away from his actual dow. As my economy was clearly inferior to France's I waiting for Drake's declaration of war would not have helped me in any way no matter wether it would have happened in 1528 or 1516 furthermore it became clear that EGO who was well informed about all this was not going to change his stance.
Drake always kept a huge army around (do you know that the French suport limit is huge?). He kept whispering me that you were preparing something since you were massing men on the borders. And when you said "EGO, if you dont give me MA you can forgive our agreement", in a very arrogant way, i allowed Drake to go to war against you without putting my nose into the conflict.
This unbearable situation left me with little choice. I could only try to wage an successfull preemptive war before France would be fully ready for war or at least stirring up Central Europe so that at least ONE of the nations sorrounding central Europe would be forced to pay attention and finaly start acting against the obvious Franco-Spainish coalition so that even if Austria itself looses the game won't end like the previous two QFCs with a few nations assuming virtual hegemony within the first 2 centurys due to beeing unopposes for the majority of the game.
Do you know, that loosing a war once in life is a normal thing? It does not mean that you will end annexed, anyway.
