Reuniting Romania with Russian Rubles

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Starting out: (I'm playing Moldovia, for one!)

I'm using IGC 2.3 running on EU 1.07c. IGC options turned on were Moldavian Bujak, Balkanization, Turkish Unrest, and Russian unrest. EU options were difficulty level: Normal and AI agressiveness: Weakling.

1492-1496: "I am Voivoda Stefan, Great man in Moldovia. I build forts, fight enemies, and win battles. I let secretary fill in details." Ah, yes. With this remark, my career began. Stefan decided he needed some poor fool to try and chronicle the incredibly boring history of the pathetic state of Moldovia. That's my job. I'm excited. Can you tell?

In the early 1490's, nothing much happened. Oh, Prince no-adjective built a fort in Moldovia, entered an alliance with the Hungarians (Who hate us), Austrians (Who pity us) and Bohemians (Who don't even know we exist). Oh, and he sold off some of his daughters to Pskov, Russia, Serbia, and Poland. That last got the clergy angry, as the King of Poland was a Catholic. (Random event, rebels +5) And the "Great man" also slaughtered some other Romanians in the south. That must be SUCH a stress-reliever, huh? (Annexed Wallachia.)

1496-1500: "You keep writing. Not dead yet." Ah, intellectual conversation number two, is it? All right, all right.

In the the late 1490's, I was extremely bored. But enough about me. My "Glorious leader" over there built a fort in Wallachia, and sold off some more of his daughters. He must have an infinite supply, as he has arranged marriages with Ryzan and Greece now too. Oh, and spent some serious cash on building up the military. Now we have eleven infantry regiments and 5 cavalry.

1500-1504: "I tell you, write! I... Uh.. Agggggggg." Oh, joy!!! He's dead!! Oh, crap. Here comes another one. "I Bogdan III," lovely name, "I rule now. You keep writing chronicle." Oh, goody. Another mental giant.

In the early 1500's, life pretty much went along as it has. In other words, heart-rendingly boring. We arranged another marriage, this time with Austria, and sent lots of money to Venice and Persia in return for some really sucky maps. Oh, and interestingly, half the population of Moldavia, Bujak and Wallachia just died in the night. Must be from boredom. Oh, and my new master recruited 1 additional cavalry unit.

 

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Tell me if this style is any good, please? If it is, I'll keep writing.

 

[Morlac]

Originally posted by Celt
Tell me if this style is any good, please? If it is, I'll keep writing.

Celt

The style is just fine. Very brief and easy to read, with none of the overwhelming literary pretensions that characterize certain other AARs I won't mention (but which you can find in my sig)

Between this and Radio HANSE (which really does deserve to continue in your sig!) you are becoming a master of the terse AAR.

Two comments:

(1) If the narrator is truly just one of those people who is always bored/never impressed, fine and dandy. But do make a clear distinction between his boredom and your own... (I honestly wasn't sure whether you meant that you too have been bored playing Moldavia...)

(2) Could you give us some more info either In or OOC? For ex. what your goals are, what your tech priorities and levels are, stability, etc.

Glad to see that you liked one of my suggestions enough to try it!

 

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(OK, I realize I should of made this clear, Morlac, but I HATE long intros. Anything in parentheses "" is the opinion, thoughts of any character other then the narrator. Anything in well, whatever these are called () is me! Anything just written is that of the narrator. No, I'm not bored with Moldovia, but my narrator is meant to be, like you said, someone who is not impressed by anyone. I'll get the tech levels for you next time I post, and will continue posting them there after, hopefully in character.)

 

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(Tech levels/goals: Trade: 3, Infrastructure: 3, Naval: 2, Land: 4, Stability: +3. No funding towards Naval, Stab., equalized funding towards everything else.)

1504-1508: In a typically ridiculous move, our "Glorious Voivoda" supported the Austrians in their wars vs. the Helvetian-Wurtemburg alliance. Both countries were annexed by the Austrians. Then, as if our soldiers didn't have enough to do, we declared war against the biggest country we could find, Turkey. The Hungarians did not support us, and so, soon, we found ourselves surrounded and outnumbered. Luckily, we got off with only a five ducat payment. Hardly worth their time to invade us, eh?

1508-1512: France and Venice attack the Habsurg/Moldovia/Hungary/Bohemia alliance. Venice invades Bujak, forcing me to go to Wallachia to write this chronical. At least I got to see some of the countryside. But luckily, a peace settlement is made between France and Austria, leaving us in peace with all our territory. We currently have no field army, as it was destroyed by Venice. So, we should be just dandy then!

1512-1516: War between Russia and Poland loses Russia Tver and Tula. So, things are going well for Orthodoxy in the north, right? And down here, Selim I, another typically BORING leader. We built a new army to help defend us against another attack by one the hundreds of enemies our "wise leaders" have gotten us.

(Trade: 3, Land: 5, Naval: 3, Infra: 3, Stab: +3)

1516-1534: The Reformation is upon us!!! Hordes of half-crazed lutherans running around, smashing statues for the fun of it!! Now this is interesting. Oh, and by the way, Moldovia fought a 14 year war, starting now. (Ok, so I decided to regain some territory for the "Romanian people", i.e. me. Invading Hungary alongside Serbia, who I had recently formed an alliance with. Taking out all the loans I could, I built a huge army consisting entirely of artillery and infantry. Conquering all of northern Hungary, my allies invaded the south, and because of a war with France, Austria couldn't help. I won't lie to you, it was hard fighting, and several times I thought I would be completely destroyed. But Serbia helped a lot, and the Hungarians seemed to concentrate on attack more then defence. I'll try and include a screenshot.)

 

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Ok, new plan. Go to this address, I'll post screenshots there.
http://www.geocities.com/xerxesiii550/eu.html

 

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lol! LOL! lol! LOL!

 

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1534-1544: "Oh, you. Write some more! What do I pay you big money for, eh?" To be harrassed every four years? Anyway, a level 2 fort was rebuilt here in this little squatter village they call Moldovia. Oh, and Selim married off another of his daughters to the Prince of Ryzan. Plus a typically boring oppurtunity for the half crazed Visigoths that call themselves "nobles" to hack each other up in a war between Serbia and Moldovia on one side, Austria on the other. At the battle of Pest, inferior Moldovian forces destroyed Austrian troops. Oh, and in the peace settlement, Styria and Presburg went to Serbia. Revolts resulted in them losing Styria just days afterward. So, that was worth thousands of Moldovian lives, eh?

1544-1550: Some damn fool called Jean Calvin decided he didn't like Catholics either. Oh, and Selim's typically moronic rule just about made Moldovia fall into anaracy. (Two revolt +5 random events back to back!)

 

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(Ok, strategy time. My ideas at this point:

1. Foster good relations with Poland
2. Vassalize Serbia so I have a powerful, permenant ally in the south.
3. Conquer parts of the Turkish Balkans, including the remaining Romanian provinces.
4. Keep the Russians and associated states friendly
5. Maybe conquer the Ukraine if that ever forms to give me a good, wealthy northern frontier.

Any other ideas?)

 

[Morlac]

Originally posted by Celt
(Ok, strategy time. My ideas at this point:

1. Foster good relations with Poland
2. Vassalize Serbia so I have a powerful, permenant ally in the south.
3. Conquer parts of the Turkish Balkans, including the remaining Romanian provinces.
4. Keep the Russians and associated states friendly
5. Maybe conquer the Ukraine if that ever forms to give me a good, wealthy northern frontier.

Any other ideas?)

I am unclear as to what alliances exist around you. Serbia is a natural alliance partner, but unless you are willing and able to take on Poland or Turkey, Serbia is also your natural target for expansion as your options are very limited. (You could take Carpathia from Hungary, which wouldn't help very much, or annex Hungary outright--which would be a diplomatic disaster.) It actually hurts a bit in that regard that you've successfully recovered all of your CB shield provinces except possibly Dobrudja.

I think that (1) and (4) (kiss up to Poland or Russia) are pretty much a waste of time unless you are going to ally with them--esp 4 since they don't seem to border you at all. A Polish alliance would almost certainly drag you into lots of wars, which could be good. But since they are so big right now, you might not be able to snatch any neighboring/nearby provinces out of it.

Item 5 (wait for the Ukraine) is a real long shot unless you already see Poland disintegrating. I don't know if it's the kind of thing you can base a strategy on. (Though you might want to stay flexible enough to take the opportunity if it arises...)

Item 2 (Vassalize Serbia) is also a long shot. From your map it looks like Serbia is big enough (and probably stable enough) not to want to be vassalized. Unless you have lots of extra money and diplomats, and a king with a very high diplo rating, it's probably got a low likelihood of success. And eventual diploannexation (which would be very tempting) would be even less likely given the closeness of your sizes.

Note also that vassalizing them won't guarantee their compliance. They still have to have good enough relations with you and any other allies to support your wars, etc. (I've had vassals DOW me before!)

I think your course of action also depends on your long term goals.

• Do you want to simply stay peaceful/prosperous/stable? (In which case by all means, kiss up to your neighbors)
  
• Do you want to become a regional power? (In which case I'd suggest allying with Poland and --depending on whether your BB, stability and relations can take it--annexing Hungary and maybe taking a bite out of Austria. Then after a long break to digest and let BB settle down, go after Turkey w/o recovering your CB shield from them.)
  
• Do you want to become colonial? If so, you need to push Turkey hard right away, getting more of their coastal provs. Then build up a navy and annex venice. That would give you their shipyards and 1/colonist per year (some of which you might want to use for religious conversions.) Of course, colonizing also requires maps, so you might need to get tricky about that as well...
  
• Want to backstab Serbia? Let your relations with them naturally drift way down, then DOW someone you have legitimate CB on (like Turkey). Leave the "call for allies" window open until you're almost ready to conclude the war. Call for allies, let Serbia dishonor the alliance, then finish your war. A month later, after your troops are home, DOW Serbia (with your temporary CB from their dishonor).
  

 

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I am Voivoda, Great Admiror of Moldovia. I go on holiday for 4 weeks. You write more, 40 pages when I return!

 

[Morlac]

Where Did Celt Go?

Hey Celt!

Where'd you go? You'd better hustle if you're going to have 40 pages for Citizen Paul when he gets back...

 

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As you may have guessed, I'm no longer working on this. Please close this thread.

 

[Morlac]

Originally posted by Celt
As you may have guessed, I'm no longer working on this. Please close this thread.

Does that mean we should expect a new AAR, or that you've more or less moved on to other things?

I really hope its the former, but since I haven't seen you around in quite awhile, I fear it's the latter...

 

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Oh, I'll be back. (Though possibly in the EU II forum, if I ever get that). It's just I am working on a diorama right now, takes quite a bit of time, so it's not fair to you or me to try and finish this one.