Rise of the Magyars - A HUN tutorial

[Kovax]

Another session cut short, but it did set up a few situations for later exploitation.

2/1682 - The 24,000 Granadan Nationalists previously routed from Almeria return, and are routed once again, this time by only 14,000 Hungarian troops led by a competent general, back into the waiting arms of 30,000 Portuguese troops in Granada. Problem solved.

7/1682 - A final group of colonists is dispatched to Koda, scheduled to arrive in 226 days to complete the resettlement of the last Golden Horde province.

8/1682 - Tunisia enters a Personal Union under the Sultan of Georgia.

10/1682 - Colonists arrive in Surgut, which defects from Golden Horde to Hungary, leaving GH with only one province. Brittany surrenders to Morocco, giving up the province of Gabes in North Africa. Brittany then accepts an offer for a Royal Marriage, placing the Emperor of Hungary second in line, right behind the 3 year old heir to the throne, while the country is controlled by a Regency Council. There's more than a decade for an accident to happen.

11/1682 - Genoa cedes Abomey to Ashanti, but remains at war against Sokoto.

3/1683 - Hungary settles a Border Dispute with Portugal over Yucatan; it's not worth fighting a major war over, and I'd rather keep relations reasonable in case of the unexpected death of their ruler, since there's a Royal Marriage.

4/1683 - Koda defects from Golden Horde to Hungary, relegating the Golden Horde to the history books. Since there was no surrender, no Imperial Authority is gained, which is now down into the mid 60's. Unfortunately, checking my Personal Unions, neither Savoy nor Milan are showing "will inherit" anymore, since Hungary's probable next king is now 46, several years past his prime. Past experience has shown that these indications are not set in stone, merely indicating the most likely course of events, so it's possible that one, or even both, could still be inherited upon the passing of the current Emperor, but the odds are no longer favorable.

5-6/1683 - Several spies are sent against Hungary to foment revolt in various colonies. Two of those spies are traced back to Hesse, and three fail outright. One of the successes increases revolt risk but is insufficient to provoke an actual revolt, while the other causes a minor revolt by 2000 dissenters which is immediately squashed by the 14,000 Hungarian troops already in the province. I'm half-tempted to use the "discovered spy" CB to vassalize Hesse, which is now the Protestant "Defender of the Faith", but only 3 provinces in size, and have a year to decide. Funny, but sending spies against a country is a poor way to improve Relations, and Hesse's current mission is "Make Hungary Vote for Us". The really sad part is, in a couple more years, once Milan is inherited, I'd actually WANT to see Hesse to take over as Emperor of the HRE.

7/1683 - Genoa and Sokoto settle for a white peace. Genoa is still allied with Papal State and a couple of other fairly sizable countries, so I'm inclined to wait, rather than declare war over the illegally held HRE province of Genoa.

9/1683 - Ramazan is annexed by Morocco. This makes the acquisition of one of the last two provinces in Asia Minor a little easier, because I can take the province from Morocco for 2 Infamy, rather than 4 to annex an OPM using the same CB, and Morocco doesn't have the long list of guarantors that Ramazan did. There are a couple more years to go on the truce with Morocco, so it's not going to happen right away.

Right now, I'm ambivalent about jumping into another war, because the odds of inheriting Milan and Savoy have sunk to a low chance, but are still possible, and an active war would probably make that all-but impossible. Then again, since the odds are low, I'm not risking too much, if a good enough opportunity presents itself.

There is still about a year to go before three more provinces in Egypt/Palestine become cores, and another two years after that until cores are gained in some ridiculous number of former provinces of Castille (it must be well over 50 provinces) and the three from Morea. I've got either my king or heir as second in line for the thrones of at least half a dozen countries, some of those major, but odds are that none will pan out into an inheritance or PU.

I'm also waiting for London to assimilate into Hungarian culture before beginning another forced assimilation in Oxford, then moving my National Focus elsewhere (possibly Egypt or Asia Minor). The more provinces which are bordered by the national culture, the more likely it is to have one of them randomly assimilate. I've also "discovered" an unsettled province beyond GH territory to the east, so colonizing that would give me at least the possibility of culturally assimilating some of those more easily assimilated Horde provinces from the reverse direction, since the process seems to have stalled in the usual direction at Bessarabia and Budjak. Cultural Assimilation has been happening gradually down the length of the Balkan peninsula, and Macedonia is now Hungarian, yet there has been no advance into those Croatian provinces owned by Hungary from the start. Cultural Assimilation prevents a few potential random events that result in large revolts, and reduces the base revolt risk by a couple of points, so it's desirable, especially in those large, scattered empires where it's hardest to achieve.

 

[Kovax]

Not much happens for the first couple of years, so magistrates and missionaries are put to work converting and upgrading Churches and Constables in as many of the former provinces of Castille and Morea as possible, and building a few Workshops in the more populous provinces.

1684 - 3 more provinces previously taken from the Mamluks become cores of Hungary.

5/1686 - 62 provinces inherited from Castille become cores of Hungary after 50 years of ownership, as do the 3 provinces from Moria. Income rises dramatically, and additional troops and ships are constructed.

8/1686 - Hungary settles a Border Dispute with Milan over Valencia for the second time. There's no point in souring Relations over it if I'm going to inherit the province anyway. The lost point of Prestige will be recovered in a matter of months, since the Prestige for being Holy Roman Emperor and various other effects more than offset any losses due to decay.

3/1687 - London assimilates to Hungarian culture, thanks to the 5+ merchants in a coastal Center of Trade plus the ongoing Cultural Assimilation province decision. A fresh decision to assimilate Oxford is made, since Oxford borders a lot of provinces to spread the effect. Still undecided on the next National Focus location.

7/1687 - Hungary gains a Border Dispute core on Adana (now owned by Morocco) in Asia Minor. Additional Hungarian troops are shuttled from Europe to Al-Djazair, and Morocco has been at war with Syria for some time, with a large force of troops in Syrian territory repeatedly taking and then losing provinces.

12/1687 - Hungary declares a war of Imperialism against Morocco, and Khiva supports Morocco. Two groups of 14,000 Hungarian troops begin hunting for the main Moroccan army, while 5000 more advance into Bone.

2/1687 - Syria and Morocco settle for a white peace.

[ Laszlo VII passes away, Nothing is inherited, and the new heir dies immediately and is replaced on the same day by Albert (3/3/6), having only a weak claim. Sorry, but having both Administration and Diplomacy at 3 is unacceptable, and the weak claim just adds insult to injury. I'd play it out with one terrible stat out of the two, but not both, so this is cause for a reload. Continued from the last save in November before the war, and replayed the last couple of months' events as close as possible to the initial run. ]

3/1688 - A small Moroccan fleet of 5 ships is engaged by the main Hungarian fleet (12 Large ships, 4 Small) off the coast of Adana, and sunk without losses.

4/1688 - Candar (province of Kastamon) joins Morocco against Hungary. 15,000 Moroccan troops attack the small 5000 man Hungarian detachment sieging Bone, and rout them toward Al-Djazair, but are in turn engaged only 3-4 days later by the 14,000 Hungarian troops sent (too late) to reinforce the siege group. The Moroccan army, already badly shaken by its encounter with the smaller Hungarian force, is crushed where it stands. On the one hand, it's a shame that the 5000 men couldn't hold on for 4 more days; on the other hand, if they had held on for 2-3 days, the relieving force would have routed with them, taken 2 months to reach Al-Djazair, and 2 more months to return.

5/1688 - Khiva, with 2 of its 3 provinces taken by Hungarian forces, offers to revoke its claims on Mangyshlak and Khawarzam, as well as pay token reparations. This is accepted. Meanwhile, 8000 more Moroccan troops are destroyed in Atlas.

6/1688 - Candar's navy is sent to the bottom of the Black Sea, and their sole province taken by Hungary. Their offer to renounce claims on Yazgod and Sinope is accepted by Hungary mere days before 14,000 Hungarian troops are due to arrive to obliterate their 3000 men sieging Sinope. Another 1000 Moroccan troops are destroyed in Al-Djazair by the arrival of 5000 recovering troops fleeing from Bone two months earlier. This leaves Morocco with only a few scattered individual brigades left to defend the country.

9/1688 - Morocco's offer to cede 4 poor desert provinces is rejected. Morocco cedes Tlemcen and Melilla to Hungary, causing 4 Infamy for Hungary. Adana can wait for the next war, since Hungary's core claim there will be good for another 50 years.

1689 - The next year, nothing of note happens aside from several religious conversions, colonists reaching settlements, and minor revolts mostly in the east. There are no significant opportunities calling for a war, and not much in the way of minor ones without engaging either Toulouse or Portugal over them.

The Emperor or his heir remain second in line for the regencies in several promising target countries, but odds are that none of the primary heirs will die. Poland's and Austria's successions remain solid, with a von Luxemburg on the throne of the latter, but Portugal and Toulouse both have regency councils and Hungarian nobles at or near the top of the list of successors. The age of Hungary's king and heir are making it difficult to inherit their thrones, if the current heirs should die.

Merchants keep getting competed out of Venice (one of my 8 CoTs), since the 4 points of Infamy have reduced my competition chances against Western merchants in my own markets to barely above 50%. I'm considering a slider move toward Mercantilism to boost my chances in my own CoTs, since trying to move all the way to Free Trade this late in the game would result in a catastrophic loss of trade spots for the next century until I could make all of those slider moves needed to compete in foreign markets. Besides, the Trade income is secondary at this point, and I'm swimming in cash now that all of those Castillian provinces have become cores, my tariff income is rising due to a larger fleet, and my Production income is growing by leaps and bounds. A band-aid solution, one more move toward Mercantilism, should be sufficient, and I've got another National Idea coming up in 2 more Government research levels, but I've got other ideas for that.

The other option for a slider move would be toward Open-Mindedness, since the primary reasons for keeping the slider roughly centered are gone: faster Stability recovery despite the +50% penalty for Westernization, plus increased Missionaries for all of the unconverted provinces after the Reformation as well as in the East. Now I'm able to recover Stability in only a few months, and I'm down to only 4 provinces on the far eastern fringe of the Empire still lacking a Missionary. Time to boost Research speed and take the technological lead, rather than sit in the middle of the pack. Those unbelievers can just wait a bit longer for salvation.

 

[Kovax]

Another war, another emperor...

2/1690 - Norway once again declares war on Portugal over a couple of provinces in Scandinavia. This escalates into a major confrontation, with Norway, Denmark, Lithuania, and Toulouse facing Portugal, Bourbonnais, Brittany, Thuringia, and Milan. Hungary has two cores in Toulouse's territory. In the east, 19,000 Kazani Nationalists manage to take control of Samara before the arrival of 14,000 Hungarian troops, then repulse the Hungarians in a brutal fight.

3/1690 - A second Hungarian army arrives in Samara, only slightly outnumbered and in better shape for morale, but the Kazani general is exceptionally good (3 Fire, 5 Melee, 2 Move), compared to the usual Hungarian leader (2Fire, 1Melee, 2 Move). Both sides suffer heavy casualties and near-total loss of morale, but the Kazani rebels break and flee toward Saratow. The first Hungarian army reaches the province it was fleeing to, and turns back toward Samara.

4/1690 - Both the Kazani rebels and the second Hungarian army arrive in Saratow, only partially recovered from the previous fight, but neither the terrain nor the dice are kind to Hungary, and both sides suffer a complete breakdown of morale before the disengage timer expires. The Hungarians are forced to retreat. The first Hungarian army easily recovers Samara from the minimal garrison that has built up since its loss.

6/1690 - Both Hungarian armies converge on Saratow, and overwhelm the remaining rebels, 25,000 versus 8000. The outcome is decisive, and the rebels are crushed completely. Meanwhile, in the west and New World, Hungarian troops begin to arrive at the borders of Toulouse and its overseas territories, although Brittany and Portugal, with some help from Bourbonnais, already seem to be grabbing most of Toulouse's provinces, leaving Norway for later attention.

1-4/1691 - Hesse sends 4 more spies against Hungary's provinces (2 traced to Hesse, 2 merely suspected), managing to provoke a revolt in Modena which draws off one army from the Toulouse border for a while.

5/1691 - Hesse joins Norway against Portugal and company.

6/1691 - Hesse converts to Reformed.

9/1691 - Toulouse surrenders to Portugal, handing over the provinces of Sayultecas and Tarasco on the Pacific side of Mexico, releasing two countries from its sphere of influence, and cancelling several treaties and alliances. Elsewhere, Poland's heir dies unexpectedly.

12/1691 - Poland sends two spies to provoke revolts in Hungary's colonies; one fails, one succeeds in triggering a trivial revolt; both are traced back to Poland.

3/1692 - Zsigmond IV (7/7/7) becomes the new Emperor of Hungary and the HRE, and Albert (8/6/5) is the new heir at age 38. No countries are inherited. Due to the age of the heir, Zsigmond is converted to a general immediately, to hasten the succession, and Diplomats are sent out with offers of Royal Marriage to several former partners. Poland gets a "Child in the Reeds" event.

5/1692 - Norway becomes Defender of the Faith, taking the title from Switzerland and removing the last substantial support for Toulouse (Switzerland would have come to the aid of Toulouse against Hungary, DESPITE being a Hungarian vassal - I suspected so, and tested it). Hungary's transit rights through Toulouse are cancelled by Hungary.

7/1692 - Hungary calls in the entire alliance against Toulouse to regain its cores in Bearn (Europe) and Guayra (South America). Norway, as Defender of the Faith, but already fighting Portugal and its allies, declines to get involved, and only Nevers answers Toulouse's call. The dog-piling on Toulouse and Nevers by Hungary's allies is almost funny, with 43 brigades besieging one province, 38 in another, and so on. Most of Toulouse's provinces in Europe are quickly taken, and Hungary seizes two of Toulouse's unfinished colonies in the South American interior while besieging several other finished colonies. The siege of Nevers, with a Level 4 fort, is taking its time.

5/1693 - The Level 4 fort in Nevers finally falls to 42,000 Hungarian and allied troops after two failed assaults by over 35,000 troops. Nevers' offer to renounce its core in Bourgogne and pay 377 Ducats is accepted by Hungary. Toulouse's surrender follows shortly after, turning over the disputed provinces of Bearn and Guayra to Hungary, renouncing its claim on Delta, and converting to Catholicism. Toulouse, at over 19 War Exhaustion, is almost immediately blanketed by revolts.

Settlers are sent to the first of the two seized colonies, to change their culture to Hungarian. Missionaries are sent to Bearn, leaving Guayra as the only non-Catholic province in Hungarian territory not currently undergoing conversion. Another couple of moths and that will be in progress as well.

Poland's new heir (a former Child in the Reeds adoptee) will undoubtedly have low Legitimacy, so I'm hoping to be able to force a PU there. Portugal is still in a Regency, with Hungary's king as the second in line, right behind the current infant heir. Savoy is now back to showing "...will inherit", but Milan is in a "...will continue" state while still at war against Norway.

Like it or not, the next National Idea will have to be an increase in Compete Chance, because I'm typically sitting at least one merchant short in one or two markets at any given time, and my replacements are failing way more than 50% of the time in my own markets. Basically, I'm losing merchants just about as fast as I generate them. While my placement odds have gone up to 72% in my domestic markets since my Infamy dropped, I'm still not very competitive against other merchants, roughly 48-52% Compete chance in most cases. In foreign markets, I don't stand a chance. A slider move further to the Mercantile side will also help in the domestic markets, but will further weaken any attempts to expand into outside markets. The good thing is, I've got a lot of them....

 

[Kovax]

One more tender morsel is swallowed by the Hungarian rusty-red blob.

9/1693 - Norway surrenders to Portugal, ceding Trondelag and canceling several alliances.

10/1693-3/1694 - Spies are sent against Hungary by Poland, Nevers, and Hesse, with no significant effects. Hungary continues to send diplomats to restore Royal Marriages with several strategically significant previous partners. Several more provinces are converted to Catholicism.

4/1694 - The last of the list of guarantees of France's independence expires, Isle-de-France has been under siege for some time by Pentecostalist heretics, and Orleans declares a war on France for Berry and calls Hungary to arms. Avignon joins France, but France's other weak allies refuse the call. Boubonnais declares its own war on France.

5/1694 - Hungarian troops quickly advance into Isle-de-France, engage the 12,000 Pentecostalists, and drive them toward Orleannais. Avignon's tiny army is crushed in Provence, and the victorious Hungarian troops proceed toward Avignon to besiege their only province. Berry is already under siege by troops of both Orleans and Bourbonnais, and is quickly taken.

6/1694 - Isle-de-France surrenders to the besieging Hungarians, and terms are immediately delivered to France: cede Isle-de-France (war score cost roughly equal to the war score for taking it) and renounce France's core claims on Gascone, Normandie, and Vermandois (1 point of war score each, which still totals a few points less than 10 over the current war score). France accepts the terms (more than 10 points over the current war score is never accepted, from my experiences), and Isle-de-France becomes a part of Hungary, well worth the 4 Infamy that it invokes. That leaves France with only Berry, but not under its control.

7/1694 - France, down to a single province under foreign control, has still not surrendered. Missionaries are sent to Isle-de-France, and there are currently no further provinces in Hungary still in need of missionaries; all are either Catholic or already undergoing conversion. A spare missionary is sent to Rome for the first time in over a century; not a major matter, because Hungary has been Papal Controller for 90% of that time, and any new cardinals have a 40%+ chance of being from Hungary.

The truce with Persia has long-since expired, so unless Poland's king passes away and leaves behind an unsuitable heir, I suspect that the next conflict will be in the east. As Defender of the Faith, any wars against Syria, Morocco, or Mamluks will bring in Persia anyway, so taking on Persia first, and having a 5 year truce with them, should allow conflict with the other targets without their interference. The one minor detail preventing immediate action is that I've now got a few points of infamy that I should burn off before I accrue more. Starting a war with a point of Infamy is generally fine, because it will typically burn off before the peace settlement anyway, but 4 points going into a war is higher than I'd like.

 

[Kovax]

This turned out to be a long and interesting session, but it was interrupted by something unexpected.

1695 - Burned off roughly 1.5 points of Infamy, put down revolts, converted provinces, etc.

1/1696 - Persia declares war on Rajputana and its 3 small allies.

4/1696 - Hungary gains a Border Dispute claim on Tver in Yaroslavl territory.

5/1696 - Morocco declares war on Tunisia, which is in a Personal Union with Georgia.

6/1696 - Hungary launches a war of Imperialism against Persia and its vassal Baluchistan, and Iraq (Sharizhor province) makes good on its warning against Hungary, joining Persia. Days later, the Mongol Khanate declares war on Persia. Persia is at -3 Stability, and already over 5 points of war exhaustion, but has roughly 65,000 troops at its disposal.

7/1696 - Hungarian troops take Khiva, and Iraq's army in Sharizhor evaporates on contact. Days later, Sharizhor is taken by assault, and Iraq surrenders, renouncing one core claim. Bukhara and Alimuly are both taken by assault.

8/1696 - Ceylon and Vijayanagar both jump into the wars against Persia, then accept white peace only days later.

9/1696-1/1697 - Gilan is taken by Hungary, then Kyzl Kum a month later, followed by Hamadan, Tashkent, and Samarkand over the next month or so. Mazandaran falls in January.

2/1697 - Poland's geriatric king finally passes away, leaving behind an adopted infant "Child in the Reeds" with only a weak claim, and a regency council running the country. In the east, Ajam falls to a Hungarian assault.

3/1697 - Rajputana accects a white peace with Persia, and Persia shifts its primary attention to the Mongol Khanate. In the west, Hungarian agents manage to successfully produce "Obscure Documents" showing a legal claim on the throne of Poland, but are detected in the process, causing a point of Infamy. Karshi is taken by Hungarian troops, and 18,000 Persian troops pass through the neighboring province on their way to Mongol Khanate territory. Another 30,000+ Persians appear in the western end of Persia, apparently seeking to recover the provinces taken by the two 14,000-man Hungarian armies operating there.

6/1697 - Persia accepts Hungary's demands, surrendering the provinces of Ajam and Mazandaran (causing a 4 point Infamy hit to Hungary) and renouncing core claims on 3 provinces, two of them taken previously by Hungary and one in Syrian territory. Now those Hungarian missionaries have something useful to do. Hungarian troops in Persia return toward friendly territory, one eventually heading for the restless Novgorod border. Another army is moved closer to Poland. The Poles have 24,000 visible troops, compared to 28,000 Hungarians on the border, and Poland is allied with Prussia and Nizhny Novgorod. The unit from Persia will not arrive on the border with Nizhny Novgorod for a couple more months, but their army is close to negligible.

10/1697 - Hungary declares a Unification War against Poland, and both Prussia and Nizhny join Poland against Hungary. Georgia sends a warning to Hungary.

11/1697 - 8000 additional Polish troops appear from an interior province, and begin besieging Kalisz, but they are engaged and eliminated by 14,000 Hungarians of the Royal Honved, led by Emperor Zsigmond IV. The main Polish army of 24,000 is joined by 8000 additional troops from Prussia, and they march south to besiege Sandomierz, while the other 14,000 Hungarians in the area maintain watch from a respectful distance. Reinforcements are on their way from Brunswick. A slider move becomes available, which is used to shift one step toward Mercantilism, granting 5% higher Compete Chance in domestic CoTs, at the expense of foreign CoTs. As a side effect, Hungarian merchants placed in foreign CoTs suffer, but there are none, so it has no practical effect.

12/1697 - The reinforcements from Brunswick join the other two Hungarian armies on the scene, and Emperor Szigmond IV leads 40,000 troops against the combined 36,000 troops of Poland and Prussia. The Polish side suffers 12,000 casualties in the epic battle, while Hungary suffers 8000 losses, and the Poles flee toward Warszawa while the Prussians head toward Sieradz. Two of the Hungarian armies pursue the Poles, while the third army is in no condition to pursue anyone. To the east, Nizhny's army reaches Kazan and begins a siege, but 14,000 Hungarian troops are heading toward their undefended province.

1/1698 - Poland's army is annihilated in Warszawa, and a long siege of the heavily fortified capital begins. Hungarian troops reach Vetluga (Nizhny Novgorod), and take it by assault with minimal trouble. Nizhny Novgorod relinquishes its claims on the province of Nizhny Novgorod, and converts to Catholicism. Polotsk allies with Poland, and joins the war a day later.

2/1698 - Prussia's army begins, but is almost immediately chased from, its siege of Kalisz, back toward Sieradz, where it is engaged and destroyed. Additional Prussian and Polish brigades are completed, and Hungary sends small detachments to chase them down. Two of the three Hungarian armies divide into smaller siege groups, and all of the Polish provinces are put under siege. Troops are also sent to besiege Prussia's two provinces, but are distracted for a while by a couple of 1000-man brigades trying to slip past.

3/1698 - A major revolt breaks out in Isle-de-France, and the 16,000 rebels manage to successfully drive off the 14,000 Hungarian troops garrisoning the province. Another 14,000 man Hungarian army is brought north from the Toulouse border to assist. It looks like it's time to increase my standard army size from 14,000 to 16,000. Only half of my armies have artillery, the rest are kept light for maximum speed, in order to beat fleeing units to the next province. I've had a couple of cases where artillery left behind during pursuits was destroyed by freshly spawned rebels or another enemy force that appeared unexpectedly. Now I keep them with their army, and have separate armies for chasing.

6/1698 - The French rebels are driven out of Isle-de-France after a second battle against over 25,000 Hungarian troops, then pursued to Vermandois, where they are fought again and destroyed by the pursuing Hungarians and the kind assistance of 8000 Savoy troops. The one Hungarian army returning from Persia chases Polotsk's smaller army from its siege of Mogilyov to Minsk, then from Minsk toward Polesia, but several thousand Hungarians split off and head north to besiege the unprotected capital of Polotsk. The main Hungarian fleet is sent in several shorter stages around Western Europe toward the Baltic, and should arrive in a few more months.

8/1698 - Polotsk, with 0 war score, somehow demands that Hungary surrender 3 provinces, even though Hungary still controls them, and only one is even under attack. Stupid AI is stupid. The Polotsk ambassador is informed that no further negotiations will be considered other than Polotsk's complete surrender, and then ejected.

9/1698 - The game is suddenly interrupted by random cursor movement, screens and menus opening up without clicking on anything, and other bizarre behavior. I eventually have to shut the computer down. Rebooting and reloading from the last save results in more of the same. Running a different program causes similar but slightly different problems. At this point, the culprit appears to be either a bad transmitter chip in the mouse sending garbage to the computer, or else the receiving chip on the motherboard flaking out. Game halted until I solve the problem.

Fortunately, I had saved the game early in 1698 after the destruction of the main Polish army, so I'll only need to redo the last 5-6 months, and most of that was pretty one-sided anyway. Several of the Polish provinces only had Level 1 or 2 forts, and those have all been taken by assault or fairly brief sieges, but most of the Level 3 and 4 forts are taking a lot longer. The one Prussian province and Warszawa were both still at 0% progress when the computer turned into a funky random function generator on me. Next installment will depend on whether installing another rodent solves the problem, or if I need to replace a <2 year old motherboard with a failing chip.

 

[Kovax]

My efforts at world domination (a bit short of "world conquest") were temporarily interrupted by some "trash-talking" rodent (apparently spewing out random data), but replacing it with a borrowed mouse solved the problem.

3-9/1698 - Events go mostly the way they did previously, and are played as closely as possible to before as memory and my notes allow.

10/1698 - The Polish navy is forced out of port by Hungary's successful assault on Warmia province, and is engaged and destroyed by Hungary's main fleet. Polotsk's army is defeated in Polesia and eliminated in Minsk. Polotsk then makes absurd demands on Hungary, summarily rejected, and further offers are simply ignored and allowed to expire. The lightly fortified Polish province of Samogitia also falls to assault, but sieges of several of Poland's and Prussia's Level 3 and 4 forts are proceeding slowly, or not at all.

11/11598 - Hungary's highly successful 5 skill Theologian dies, and a 4 skill Theologian is created with Cultural Tradition points.

2/1699 - The methodical sieges of more heavily fortified Lublin and Sieradz are successfully completed, leaving only Warszawa (at 13% progress) in Polish hands.

7/1699 - Hungary gains a Border Dispute core on Morbihan (Brittany).

9/1699 - Naples declares war on Portugal.

11/1699 - Polotsk's massive Level 4 fortress walls are breached, and the province falls to a determined assault by 28,000 Hungarian attackers. Polotsk surrenders, giving up its core claims on Minsk, Mogilyov, and Polesia in Hungarian territory as well as Pskov (Pskov), and converts to Catholicism.

1/1700 - Another level of Government tech is completed, and a new National Idea becomes available. The recent slider move to increase Mercantilism seems to have stabilized the merchant competition problem, so "Cabinet" is chosen. This grants a -1.00 per year decrease in Infamy, which will be VERY helpful once I begin annexing HRE vassals and taking more outside territories at 2 points per province.

2/1700 - The "Abolition of Slavery" act is passed in Hungary, reducing Stability cost, moving a slider one step toward Innovation, and giving a trivial amount of annual Infamy reduction, at the expense of reduced Production efficiency. I can easily afford that. Near the end of the month, Wenden (Prussia) falls to siege, leaving them in control of only Ostprussia.

3/1700 - The Warszawa garrison surrenders, putting Poland 100% under Hungarian control.

4/1700 - A costly all-out assault is made on Ostprussia, and the province is taken with heavy casualties. Prussia accepts vassalization and renounces its cores. Poland then accepts a Personal Union with Hungary and renounces a core claim.

The 4 points of Infamy for vassalizing Prussia will burn off quickly with the new National Idea, and I should have time to take on either Syria or Morocco for a couple more provinces before the truce with Persia expires, although I won't be able to link my Egyptian holdings with Asia Minor in a single war.

It will take quite a few diplomats to bring relations with Poland up from the current -196 up to at least +50 before my current ruler expires, to insure continuation of the Personal Union and to have at least some chance of inheriting them.

 

[Kovax]

The weekend was hot and humid, so I mostly hid indoors and fired up the PC. A lot happened.

5-11/1700 - Relations with Poland edge into positive numbers, after a long string of diplomats bearing gifts. Prussia accepts a Royal Marriage, and both Poland and Prussia agree to mutual military access treaties and alliances.

4/1701 - Hungary declares war on Morocco to reclaim Adana (in Asia Minor), drawing in Candar and Khiva on the side of Morocco. Three Moroccan ships are caught off the coast of Adana and sunk, and Adana is taken by assault while Candar's army besieges Yazgod.

6/1701 - Candar's army is chased back to its province of Kastamon by the forces returning from Adana. The army is caught in Kastamon and destroyed, the province taken by assault, and the fleet sunk. Candar's offer to pay a trivial sum in reparations is accepted. Morocco's main army of 24,000 troops is broken in Marakech with heavy losses to both sides. The Moroccans flee to Figuig, where they are caught and eliminated. 11,000 Moroccans begin sieging Tlemcen.

9/1701 - Kara Kum (Khiva) is taken, and Khiva agrees to pay a token sum to exit the war. The 11,000 Moroccans in Tlemcen flee ahead of the Hungarian army toward Atlas.

10-12/1701 - The 11,000 Moroccan troops are engaged and crushed in Atlas, and several small 1000-man Moroccan brigades are chased down and eliminated, leaving Morocco devoid of troops. Cueta is taken.

3/1702 - 13 Moroccan ships (8 of them transports) are sunk by the main Hungarian fleet off the coast of North Africa, and 11 significantly damaged, with significant damage but no losses to the Hungarian fleet. The last of Hungary's previous Infamy is now gone, and Hungary presents its demands to Morocco: relinquish Adana, renounce core claims on Melilla and Tlemcen, and release Tunisia (3 provinces) as an independent country. Morocco accepts, ending the war with zero Infamy and only one non-Hungarian province remaining in Asia Minor. Tunisia breaks its alliance with Hungary only days later.

5/1702 - With barely over a month to go on the treaty with Persia, Hungary declares a war of Imperialsim on Syria. Qara Koyunlu, Kazakh, and Delhi join Syria.

6/1702 - Kazakh besieges Khawarzam, while Qara Koyunlu initiates a siege in Dagestan. 18,000 Syrian troops are sandwiched between two 14,000-man Hungarian armies and routed toward Badiyat Ash Sham.

7/1702 - Alimuly is taken from Kazakh by Hungary, and Kazakh offers white peace, bowing out of the war. Hammah and Tabouk are taken from Syria, and the remains of the Syrian army are crushed in Badiyat Ash Sham on arrival. Najd (1 province) allies with Syria and joins the war.

8/1702 - 3 Syrian ships are sunk in the Gulf of Suez after being driven out of port by the occupation of their port province. Najd's troops reach Judea and begin a siege. Hungary takes Al Karak by assault.

9/1702 - Najd's 2000 troops in Judea evaporate on contact with a Hungarian army.

10/1702 - Hungary gains a Border Dispute core in Aleppo (owned by Naples), which would provide the link that this war is merely setting up an alternate route around. The timing of that war will depend on their alliances. Mosul is taken, Hawran follows, and Qara's province of Murgan is taken as well, while an other Hungarian army approaches Dagestan to lift the siege by Qara Koyunlu.

12/1702 - After a couple of months of occupation, Najd must have gained a diplomat, offering a pathetic 7 ducats in reparations. This is accepted.

1/1703 - With one province taken and the other occupied by rebels, its army destroyed, and high war exhaustion, Qara Koyunlu surrenders, renouncing its claim on Azerbaijan. Hungarian troops take Damascus, the capital of Syria.

2/1703 - Dayr Az Zor is taken by Hungary. Syria's offer to surrender 6 provinces for 12 Infamy is rejected, and much more lenient terms are imposed: Syria cedes Dayr Az Zor and Negev and retracts its claims to Beirut and Sidon. Hungary gains 4 Infamy.

7/1703 - With the truce long gone, Hungary declares another war of Imperialism against Persia, with Baluchistan joining Persia.

9/1703 - Both Nevers and Iraq warn Hungary.

10/1703 - 24,000 Persians charge straight into 28,000 waiting Hungarian troops in Ajam, suffer a -4 terrain penalty, and find the skills of their high-level general (5 melee) mostly negated by an actually competent Hungarian general (a 3 in melee, rather than the usual 0 or 1). The Persians get a couple of mediocre die rolls, the Hungarians get one good roll in the first round of melee, and the Persian army simply evaporates before the disengage timer runs out. Meanwhile, Hungary gains a Border Dispute core for Zheteru in Kazakh.

1/1704 - 19,000 Persian troops try to slip past the Hungarians waiting nearby, and are caught and stack-wiped in Khiva.

8/1704 - Another 22,000 Persians try the same trick, and are broken in Khiva, run down, and eliminated. Rajputana declares war on Persia.

5/1705 -The 4 points of Infamy acquired in Syria are already gone (at just over 2.5 points per year), and it's time to build a few more in a good cause. Persia surrenders Hamadan and Fars, renounces its claims on Ajam and Maandaran from the previous war, and releases Kokkand (4 provinces) as an independent country. Hungary picks up 4 more Infamy. Between the surrendered provinces and the released country, that cuts 3 small isolated enclaves from Persia, which, with over 18 war exhaustion and -3 Stability, will almost inevitably revolt.

The next expansion effort may be against Naples over competing claims on Aleppo, depending on their alliances at the moment. I've also been waiting for a good excuse to take Kastamon (Candar's only province) at a reasonable Infamy cost, to complete the conquest of Asia Minor, but with the Cabinet National Idea, I can probably afford the 4 points to take it as a target of Imperialism. Then again, one never knows what the random number generator may have in store, leading without notice to a war against Austria, Portugal, or Brittany, or some other opportunity too good to pass up.

With Fars, I now have a port further to the east, and can move men and ships from Egypt to and from there. That opens up possibilities in the Far East, although it appears that China (Wu) already has a small coastal presence on the Indian sub-continent, and Japan (Tachibana) STILL has troops occupying a province in East Africa after several decades without a surrender or truce. So far, this game has not gone at all according to plan or expectations, but I'm doing alright in spite of it.

 

[Kovax]

More action in the East, but mostly silence in the West while the Emperor lives to maintain the peace.

5/1705 - Hungary breaks the brand-new alliance gained by the release of Kokkand, a tribal Khaganate.

6/1705 - Hungary sends an insult to Kokkand.

8/1705 - War is declared between settled Hungary and the nomadic Kokkand tribesmen, as "there can be no peace between nomads and settlers". Kazakh, freshly allied to Kokkand, takes control of the war, since Kokkand really doesn't have an army built yet.

9/1705 - Spies from Nevers spark yet another revolt, this time in Asyut (Egypt), quickly put down. The constant insulting pokes from feeble Nevers are really getting on my nerves, but they're allied or guaranteed by Brittany and Portugal, plus a handful of smaller countries, so there's not much I can do about it. Meanwhile, two more countries jump on the bandwagon and declare war on Persia, which is engulfed in revolts almost from end to end.

2/1706 - Kazakh and Kokkand both send small armies through Bukhara, where they are caught and destroyed.

6/1706 - Kokkand surrenders Bukhara to Hungary, and Kazakh renounces its claims on Khawarzam.

10/1707 - Moroccan troops seize control of Kastamon from Crete, which had only recently taken it from Candar. This could potentially drop the Infamy cost from 4 to 2, if I can take the province from either Crete or Morocco, rather than having to annex Candar as a country. In other good news, Aleppo falls to a lengthy siege by Syrian rebels, who will hopefully cause the province to defect from Naples to Syria. Further east, my troops are keeping very busy just dealing with the rebel overflow from the revolts in Persia. There are no Persian troops to restore order, and they're still in several wars.

12/1707 - Hungary gains a Border Dispute core on Kurgan (Sibir). Sibir is currently at war against Mongol Khanate and Manchu, who are besieging the neighboring province of Tyumen. It will take me close to 3 months to cross a single province to get to the border, and I need to reach Kurgan before they do. I really hate these immense steppe provinces. Sibir is currently allied to both Iraq and the Mamluks, neither of which presents any problem. Two days later, another Border Dispute occurs, and Hungary settles it with Portugal, rather than spoil Relations or fight over some low-value colony.

1/1708 - A Regency Council runs Austria for its 9 year old von Luxemburg heir. The Emperor of Hungary/HRE is next in line. Miracles do happen, but I'm not holding my breath for it.

4/1708 - Hungarian troops finally arrived on the Sibir border only a few days ago, and war is declared on the first of the new month over the disputed province of Kurgan, giving as much time as possible before Sibir's allies can bring their troops up to full fighting strength. As expected, both Iraq and Mamluks join the war in support of Sibir. Between them, the entire alliance can only field 17,000 troops.

5/1708 - The Iraqi army is crushed on the first of the month, and Sharizhor (Iraq's only province) is taken by assault only a couple of days later. With nothing else of value left to claim or take, Iraq relinquishes its claims on 3 provinces currently owned by Syria, since those will probably become parts of Hungary in the not-to-distant future. Mamluk troops reach Nile before the Hungarian defenders arrive from Judea, while the Mamluk province of Sofala on the eastern side of Africa is steamrolled effortlessly by a relatively small Hungarian army.

6/1708 - The Mamluk's offer of white peace is accepted, leaving Sibir to fight alone. Aleppo defects from Naples to Syria, and the truce with Syria has expired. The 8000 Sibir troops in Kurgan are destroyed in place, and the province falls to assault. Sibir hands the disputed core province of Kurgan over to Hungary and retracts its claims on Koda, Surgut, and Tobolsk.

8/1708 - Syria is still fighting a war it declared against Tunisia, and is faring so-so against the collection of small Arabic countries supporting Tunisia, while Tunisia is pretty much immune to Syria's predations as long as Syria doesn't have a navy to reach it. Hungarian troops arrive on 3 of the 4 sides of Syria, and war is declared over the disputed core province of Aleppo. Najd and Delhi join Syria, while Kazakh is bound by truce and does not get involved.

12/1708 - Six provinces have already fallen to Hungarian assault, and a joint siege on Judea by Syrian and Najd troops is squashed effortlessly by one Hungarian army in a single day of combat. The main Syrian army of 16,000 men remains intact, but preoccupied with fighting the other war in the south. Syria surrenders Aleppo and renounces its core claims in Dayr az Zor and Negev, taken by Hungary in the previous conflict.

This finally links Hungary's Egyptian provinces by land with the capital in Pest (note that a lone "s" is pronounced as "sh" in Hungarian - Pest is pronounced as "Pesht", while "sz" is pronounced with the "s" sound - so Szent becomes "Saint", and "cs" is pronounced as "ch" - Pecs becomes "Paich"). I'm still waiting to see what happens with Kastamon in Asia Minor, since Morocco has control of both that and Crete itself for over a year, yet Crete hasn't surrendered. I'm assuming that Crete still has a couple of ships in a friendly port somewhere, so Morocco only has 99% war score and can't annex the entire country.

As for the HRE, I've got over 600 points of support with almost all of the Electors, other than the one with Reformed religion who won't vote for Hungary under any circumstance, and the closest competitor with any of the others is at barely over 100 points (one Elector's second choice is at negative numbers). Getting out of the HRE is looking more and more difficult, unless I end up with a Queen on the throne, who would automatically be ineligible to become Emperor of the HRE. Meanwhile, my present heir is getting older, and I'm concerned that he won't inherit any of the three countries currently in Personal Unions. That would be 3 generations of fairly high-Diplomacy rulers without inheriting Milan. This campaign has not gone at all as planned, since I fully expected Poland to be an integral part of the country by 1500, and to be out of the Empire by 1600 at the latest. Of course, that's what keeps it interesting, if a bit frustrating at times.

 

[Kovax]

They say "All things come to those who wait". Well, not all of them did, but a couple of very important ones finally happened.

4/1709 - Naples annexes Tuscany at the end of a long war. This is an illegal HRE province in the hands of a non-member state. That means Tuscany is a potential instant core province for the Emperor, after a war with Naples.

7/1709 - Tashkent defects from Persia to Kazakh. Thar defects from Persia to Rajputana. Nearly half of Persia's provinces are controlled by rebels, and they're still involved in multiple wars, although they've finally gathered enough brigades together from the remaining provinces to form a credible army that can ALMOST take on the larger rebel stacks.

8/1709 - Zsigmond IV of Hungary passes away, leaving the thrones of Hungary and the HRE to 55 year old Albert (8/6/5 skills). Milan, with all of its overseas colonies and island holdings, is incorporated directly into Hungary, as is Poland, while Savoy remains in a Personal Union. Ulaszlo (4/4/8) is the new heir at age 32. Diplomats are quickly sent to renew Royal Marriages with several of the more important previous partners, while Colonists are sent to assimilate a few of the Milanese colonies into Hungarian culture, and Magistrates begin the long process of rebuilding Constables, Churches, and Workshops in a few of the more important inherited provinces. The important Royal Marriages with Portugal and Austria are both successfully restored.

9/1709-7/1710 - Most of the next year is spent in putting down revolts in the former Milanese colonies, mostly in Africa and a few remote islands, with Hungary's armies kept too busy to be employed in further expansion, despite several opportunities to do so.

8/1710 - Portugal declares war on Sweden, rather than the usual reverse.

A few opportunities available at the moment include recovering Tuscany from Naples for the HRE, or else taking Genoa's province in Europe for the HRE, either of which would grant Hungary a core on the target province. Morocco still hasn't settled with Crete, so I'm waiting for that to finish before I take on Morocco again. Note that as the empire expands, there's a lot more happening in scattered locations, and the game gets slower and slower to play due to the constant clock stops while I shift around the map to deal with the ever-increasing number of incidents, such as revolts due to Nationalism, revolts due to random events, rebels coming from neighboring states, and the occasional war, on top of the usual building, colonizing, and conversions.

I'll try to play this one out to the end, but most campaigns end up abandoned at this point due to tedium and the inevitability of the outcome. Essentially, this is NOT a "WC" AAR, it's primarily a tutorial and showcase of game mechanics, otherwise I would have had to consider it as a failed attempt over 2 centuries ago, because I can't possibly annex all that's left in the time available without going into massive Infamy figures. I THINK I could probably just build a few more armies and then steamroll most of the world with 500-600 brigades, which I could easily support at this point, but the micromanagement necessary to deal with the inevitable revolts would probably lead to me never playing the game again.

The bigger long-term issue is the HRE. Thanks to another state changing to a heretical belief and cancelling out the +10 Imperial Authority for succeeding the previous emperor, I've been able to whittle that Imperial Authority down to only 45 points (I'm about out of places to spend it, other than on the electors), and the lower Diplomacy of my new king and heir make them a bit less attractive as Emperor. Despite that, I've still got close to a 700 point margin over the next closest competitor for the Imperial Throne with one elector (Brandenburg), 500+ with another (Holland), and close to 400 with most of the others, except for the one elector of Reformed faith supporting Austria instead of Hungary. The next step in getting out of the HRE looks to involve the diplomatic annexation of Brandenburg, which should remove my most dedicated supporter, add several points of Infamy for the diplo-annexation, trash my Relations with most of the HRE (allowing me to burn the rest of that Imperial Authority to restore Relations with the non-electors) and vassals (vassals within the HRE will get both drops in Relations), and give a substantial ongoing penalty with the electors, Infamy, and Prestige for holding illegal HRE provinces. I will almost certainly need a little more Infamy above and beyond that to discourage a few of the other electors, but that should at least put me close to breaking loose. After that, the demise of my ruler should mean loss of the election for the Imperial throne, and then I can leave.

Once I've quit the HRE, I can use cash bribes (LOTS of them) to restore Relations with the electors, and the illegal province penalties don't apply to non-HRE states, so I should eventually be able to burn off Infamy quickly and get re-elected to Emperor, despite not actually being IN the HRE. After that, I can diplo-annex the vassalized member states one by one without all of the substantial 50 year penalties. Basically, "Bad King Al" needs to become the cartoon villain that everyone hates personally, without actually being Infamous enough to trash the country's diplomacy and trade after he is succeeded by the next king, especially since Ulaszlo's low Diplomacy skill will make it harder to get elected as Emperor. That means lowering Relations to 0 or less and picking up a few extra penalties that can be easily removed, but building only as much Infamy as it takes to lose an election.

 

[Kovax]

This session was mainly dealing with the aftermath of the succession. While Milan's provinces in Europe were all inherited as cores, the far flung colonies are NOT HRE provinces, and are therefore NOT cores, at least for another 50 years. There were a few other small matters to clean up as well. At any rate, here is the situation at the end of the previous session:



12/1710 - Much to my disappointment, Morocco accepts a white peace offer from Crete, despite occupying both of Crete's provinces for over a decade. A revolt breaks out in Kastamon almost as soon as the war ends, and rebels soon control the province.

6/1711 - Mongol Khanate declares war on Persia, which has begun to reclaim a few of its provinces from the various rebels.

9/1711 - Morocco apparently took Kaffa (adjacent to Crimea) in one of its recent wars, and previously gained Abkhazia next to it. Hungary declares war on Morocco to take ownership of these two provinces. Khiva, Iraq, and Swahili honor their alliances with Morocco.

1/1712 - Morocco's main army of 22,000 troops is attacked by two Hungarian armies, routed, and pursued toward Fez. Kaffa and Abkhazia are already under Hungarian occupation, and Iraq's province has been taken.

3/1712 - The Moroccan army is destroyed in Fez, and the province is taken by Hungary. Iraq's offer of 3 Ducats in reparations is accepted. Hungary accepts Khiva's offer of white peace after taking control of a province. 13,000 Swahili troops advance through a couple of Mamluk provinces and begin besieging Inhambane, but are chased back into Mamluk territory by a smaller Hungarian garrison in the region.

4/1712 -Morocco agrees to surrender Kaffa and Abkhazia to Hungary and to renounce its claims on Tunis.

5/1712 - Münster (I had to copy-paste the "ü" from another document) declares war on Morocco. Denmark joins the feeding frenzy and declares its own war on Morocco. Hungary is preoccupied with putting down revolts in South America, particularly along the west coast, and in Africa and a couple of islands beyond. More transports are constructed to facilitate control over these widely scattered colonies, but that is quickly put on hold by an event temporarily boosting ship costs.

11/1712 - There are two small matters to clear up before taking the plunge and getting myself extricated from the HRE. Hungary declares war on Naples to recover Firenze (formerly of Tuscany) for the HRE. Mantua and Kanem Bornu join Naples against Hungary, but Mantua is already occupied by Genoese troops. 12,000 Hungarian troops face off against 14,000 Kanem Bornu troops across their narrow mutual border, but neither sees anything to be gained by attacking. Hungary's Royal Honved, followed by the II Honved, advance into Naples from the north, leaving behind a small siege group in Firenze, which has an imposing Level 4 fort.

1/1713 - Naples' 24,000 man army in Italy is chased from Ancona toward Abruzzi. 22,000 Naples troops in the South American colonies are pursued from Cartagena to Chiancon.

5/1713 - the 22,000 Naples troops in the colonies are caught in Chiancon and eliminated by 28,000 Hungarian troops. The 24,000 troops in Naples are pursued to Abruzzi, then to Napoli, and from there to Apulia, where they are finally engaged and defeated, routing back toward Napoli.

7/1713 - Naples' main army is eliminated in Napoli, and several individual brigades are caught and crushed throughout the peninsula, as the II Honved is divided up into siege parties while the Royal Honved maintains watch with a solid formation. Hungary accepts Mantua's offer of white peace. Naples is left with 7000 troops scattered throughout its colonies, and one ship.

11/1713 - The king of Naples loses Legitimacy, making a forced Personal Union possible, but Hungary is already at war with them and cannot place a new war goal. Timing is everything, or you get nothing.

3/1714 - Candar declared independence from Crete. Meanwhile, the defenders holding the fortress in Firenze begin to waver, and siege progress advances to 13%. Another spy attack by Nevers fails, the third in as many months. As with Navarra and its earlier spy spam, they're allied with Toulouse and protected by Austria as Defender of the Faith, so it's not worth the trouble to wipe them off the map.

6/1714 - Slavonia culturally assimilated to Hungarian culture after 315 years, exposing the province of Krain to Hungarian culture. Only a couple of weeks later, Krain assimilates. Random behavior is random.

7/1714 - With the war going badly for them, the capital taken, and Hungary having 77% war score against them, Naples makes its first white peace offer, which is soundly rejected.

2/1715 - The siege of Firenze finally ends with the capitulation of its garrison. Hungary presents its demands to Naples: surrender Firenze to the Emperor and release both Ancona and Sicily as independent countries. Naples accepts the terms, and Firenze becomes a core province of Hungary for recovering it from a non-HRE invader.

That leaves only one small item to clear up as Emperor: Liguria, which is an illegal HRE province controlled by Genoa, whose capital is now at Gold Coast in Africa. Most of their African holdings, aside from their capital, are occupied by rebels, and most of their earlier formidable allies are no longer allied, leaving only Trier (2 provinces) and Armagnac (1 province), and Trier is an Elector, so getting on their bad side would be a bonus at the moment. Liguria would bring Hungary's number of domestic CoTs up to 11.

After that, Brandenburg gets integrated, and then I can take whatever additional (repairable) measures are necessary to scare off the other electors, like sending insults, annexing an illegal province, or building a little bit more Infamy.

 

[Kovax]

It's not exactly the classic "dog ate my homework" excuse, but I walked out this morning without my campaign notes. This will be rather vague, from memory, but it should cover most of the events. [ Edited later with several corrections and dates. ]

After dealing with another trivial revolt due to Nevers sending spies, Hungarian troops prepare for a confrontation with Genoa over the illegal HRE province of Liguria. The 14,000 man II Honved boards ship, bound for Gold Coast, and the main Magyar fleet provides protection for the transports. Additional troops to expand army size to 16,000 are started in a couple of provinces, but a random event about iron quality raises brigade costs for the next year, and the expansion is put on hold.

8/1715 - Hungary declares a war of Imperial Reconquest on Genoa for the province of Liguria, and both Trier and Armagnac join Genoa. Incidentally, 3 of the HRE Electors show Genoa (a non-member) as their second choice behind Hungary, while two prefer Thuringia as second choice, one (heretical) elector shows Austria as its primary choice, and Hungary automatically votes for itself.

Liguria is taken without a fight, and several of Genoa's colonies and lesser possessions are occupied by Hungary without incident. Hungarian troops advance into both Armagnac and Trier, with the latter putting up a harder fight, but still no match for the larger and more advanced Hungarian army bearing down on them. A lone Genoese ship finds itself in the path of the Hungarian fleet, and is promptly sunk.

The II Honved arrives off the coast of Gold Coast and disembarks. The adjacent province contains 23,000 Genoese troops, who immediately proceed to march against the much smaller Hungarian army. Fortunately, movement is slow in the tropical terrain. The Hungarian transports race to pick up 11,000 additional Hungarian troops from nearby Bonny before the II Honved gets crushed, and manage to deliver the troops ashore only 2 days before the scheduled arrival of Genoa's army. The Genoese halt, then flee farther inland from the combined 25,000 Hungarian troops.

The Hungarians advance against Genoa's army, catching them before they reach the next province. The Hungarian army has a marginal tech advantage (appx. 2 levels), marginally better Leadership (5 fire, 2 melee versus 2 fire, 3 melee), and a slight numerical advantage (25,000 versus 23,000), and suffer no terrain penalty in the ensuing battle, but the results are far more skewed than one would expect from the numbers. Genoa suffers more than 4:1 casualties, and the 8000 survivors of their broken army rout away. Rather than pursue or return to Gold Coast to besiege the Level 3 fortress, the Hungarians assault the various Level 1 forts in the surrounding provinces, quickly building up close to 30 war score.

11/1716 - Genoa surrenders Liguria, relinquishes its claim on Cuneo, and releases [Sardinia] as a sovereign country. Liguria becomes a Hungarian core as a reward for its liberation, and Hungarian merchants begin to work their way into the markets there, soon making it 11 CoTs under Hungary's control, dominated by Hungarian merchants.

Somewhere over the course of the session's events, Austria diplomatically annexes Lithuania. Also, during the war with Genoa, the brigade cost modifier expired, and a month later the same event occurs. Military expansion still on hold.

With the last of the HRE provinces illegally held by outsiders taken care of, only the relatively minor Personal Union with Savoy's two provinces makes continued membership in the HRE look attractive (the financial modifiers are moot at this level of income, and I don't need the manpower boost anymore).

4/1717 - Hungary diplomatically annexes its vassal Brandenburg, Hungary's most supportive Elector, building 3 Infamy for annexing the 3-province state. Holland is also a vassal of Hungary and an Elector, and will be the next diplomatic acquisition in another 10 years, if Hungary is still in the HRE at that time. Diplomats are sent to use up some of the remaining 44 points of Imperial Authority by restoring damaged Relations with non-Elector HRE states in the wake of the annexation.

4/1717 - Hungary declares a war of Imperialism against Mamluks for the province of Diamientia. The province is taken without a struggle, and a tiny Mamluk army is crushed in Nile.

7/1717 - After losing one more province to Hungarian assault, Mamluks accept the loss of Diamientia and renounce core claims on 7 provinces previously lost to Hungary (or lost to Syria and then lost by them to Hungary).

Nevers sends at least 3 more spies to incite revolts in Hungary, all of which fail.

Persia has been reduced by wars and revolts to about a 6-province main body and a 3-province enclave, plus a single isolated province. Taking a couple more Persian provinces (Hormuz is a coastal CoT) should provide 4 more Infamy to make Hungary even less attractive to the Electors. Kastamon is back in Candar's hands, so they're another alternative candidate for annexation at 4 Infamy, at a rare moment when the Infamy isn't a major drawback.

A bit of quick math shows that the majority of the Electors can be just barely driven away from voting for Hungary with the existing level of Infamy and Authority IF I damage Relations down to -200. Apparently size does matter, and at Hungary's size, it matters a lot. That means, I either need to burn off more authority, build more Infamy, piss off the Electors a whole lot more with insults, or some combination of the 3. Problem is, even with -200 Relations, 2 of them (Hungary and Holland) will still vote for Hungary anyway, 2 for Genoa, 1 for Thuringia, and 1 for Austria, with the one missing Elector (Brandenburg) due to be replaced shortly. In the event of a tie, Hungary would continue as Emperor. I never thought it could be so hard to LOSE an election. Clearly, I've got work to do.

 

[Kovax]

This was mostly opportunism, with a few steps toward an exit of the HRE.

Meissen is the new Elector, replacing Brandenburg, and Meissen is a vassal of Hungary, meaning that it's got a +250 point bias in favor of voting for Hungary. That defeats about half the purpose of annexing Brandenburg. I need to remove them as a vassal. Thuringia has a Border Dispute core in Meissen, and it would be such a shame if something bad were to happen to poor little Meissen.

8/1717 - Hungary releases Meissen from vassalage. Merely days later, Thuringia declares war on Meissen. A few days after that, Hungary declares another war of Imperialism against Candar, which is joined by Oman, Yemen, Hedjaz, Mamluks, and Tunisia. Tunisia becomes the war leader. The Hungarian army which just returned from Mamluk territory only days before turns around and heads back into the fray, taking Kargah by assault from its only partially reconstituted 250 man garrison. Mamluks quickly drop out of the war, relinquishing their claims on Diamientia. Troop expansion from 14K to 16K per army put on hold AGAIN due to another penalty boosting troop costs, after starting a couple of brigades.

10/1717 - A distressingly large Omani fleet of 43 ships appears off the coast of Delagoa Bay and begins unloading troops, and 7000 Hungarian troops in Inhambane move to intercept the invaders. A single brigade of 1000 Tunisian troops attempts to land in Gibraltar, and barely makes it ashore before the lone transport is sunk by the main Hungarian navy. The main garrison force in Spain is sent to deal with the minor nuisance, while another Hungarian army begins landing operations off the coast of Tunis. With Kastamon (Candar's sole province) taken, the tiny Candarian army wiped out, and its only ship sunk. Candar accepts annexation by Hungary, producing 4 Infamy for Hungary.

11/1717 - Tunis falls to Hungary. The 9000 Omani troops in Delagoa Bay are narrowly defeated by the 7000 Hungarian troops in the region, and chased toward Inhambane.

12/1717 - Oman's invasion force is destroyed in Inhambane. The 1000 Tunisians in Gibraltar evaporate on contact with 14,000 Hungarian veterans. The Omani fleet returns, and begins disgorging another army onto Delagoa Bay. The battered remainder of the 7000 Hungarian army in Inhambane needs time to recover before driving the invaders off again.

3/1718 - The dice are not kind, and 7000 Hungarian troops are defeated in Delagoa Bay, retreating to Inhambane, and the defeated army is in danger of annihilation. Another province falls in Tunisia, and Tunisia's offer of white peace is accepted, ending the conflict.

4/1718 - Thuringia annexes Meissen. Thuringian now has 3 provinces (tied with Hesse, which is heretical), and is the second choice of 4 Electors, with Hungary obviously voting for itself (whether I like it or not) and heretical Ansbach voting for heretical Austria. I'm only about 100 points away from having the one Elector support Thuringia, at roughly -50 Relations, so I just need to drop Relations below -150 or build a lot more Infamy. Two more Electors are around 200 points away, both with relatively low positive Relations, so the same -150 applies to them as well. Holland is a Hungarian vassal, so they're going to be next to impossible to dissuade, short of releasing them or annexing them in about 7 more years.

8/1718 - Hungary gains a Border Dispute core on Hammah, in Syria.

12/1718 - A Pretender take the throne of Würzburg. Hungarian agents go through the familiar drill, and Hungary gains the usual "Obscure Documents" CB. Würzburg is allied with Thuringia, Bavaria, and Frankfurt.

1/1719 - Hungary cancels its military access through Würzburg.

2/11719 - An insult drops Relations to around 102.

3/1719 - Hungary warns Würzburg, lowering Relations to 92.

4/1719 - While I hate to burn my last Diplomat in case I need one in a hurry, I decide to do so anyway, declaring war for the throne of Würzburg; its 3 allies all come to its aid. 29,000 Hungarian troops converge on Franken, where 14,000 Bavarian troops are waiting with low morale until the start of the new month, and a couple of lucky die rolls later, the Hungarians crush the Bavarian army where it stands.

5/1719 - Thuringia's 12,000 man army is defeated in Dresden, then pursued and wiped out in Meissen. Frankfurt's 7000 troops are caught in the province of Thuringia by one of the victorious armies in Bavaria, and flees toward Würzburg. Hungarian troops arrive there first, but the Frankfurt army continues moving without stopping right through the Hungarians, who chase it to Ansbach, and from there to Franken, where they stop and are defeated once again by the Hungarian troops besieging the province, this time fleeing toward Dresden.

7/1719 - Würzburg's 4000 troops besieging Ruppin (Hungarian, formerly Brandenburg) are suddenly faced with 4000 Brandenburg Nationalist rebels. Half of a Hungarian army catches the troops which fled to Dresden, while the other half begins sieging. A slider move becomes available, and Innovation is increased, with 5 points of Prestige lost as a side effect ("We look Weak"). There are still plenty of Missionaries per year, thanks to National Ideas and laws.

8/1719 - Half of a Hungarian army destroys the Brandenburg Nationalist rebels, who had lost and fled to Potsdam, and the Hungarian troops then advance against the Frankfurt army in Ruppin, destoying the already battered force almost immediately. Thuringia builds fresh troops in all thee provinces, forcing the Hungarians to split up into smaller siege groups while they chase down the few remaining stray brigades. Würzburg is taken by assault. Another level of Land tech is researched, and a new troop type becomes available, but the middle of a war is not the time to switch.

9/1719 - All of the provinces of the four adversaries are under siege or already taken, and there are no opposing troops remaining, but the Level 4 forts in most of the provinces will take some time to wear down. Thuringia has troops building in all 3 provinces, with a total of 12 brigades either started or in the queue.

1/1720 - The Bamburg (Bavaria) garrison surrenders after a long siege, and Hungary occupies the province.

6/1720 - The siege of Meissen ends with the capitulation of the garrison, and Hungary presents lenient terms to Thuringia: relinquish its claims on 3 other provinces. This is accepted, and Thuringian exits the war without loss of territory which might prevent it from winning a future election for Emperor.

12/1720 - Bavaria cancels its alliance with Würzburg and pays 100 Ducats, dropping out of the war. Würzburg accepts the Personal Union with Hungary and renounces its core claims on Ansbach and Bamburg.

2/1721 - Hungary's army is upgraded to "Line Infantry", a small or modest improvement in practically every aspect. A couple more brigades are constructed, in a half-hearted effort to boost army strength to 16,000 men per army.

Both Naples and Genoa have rulers with low Legitimacy, but Genoa still has another year to go on its truce with Hungary, so I can't exploit that at the moment. There's also a core in Hammah (Syria) to consider, and another province in horde territory (it's changed hands to many times between Sibir, Kazakh, and Mongol Khanate that I can't keep track of the current owner). I've been throwing Magistrates at a bunch of HRE states to repair relations since annexing Brandenburg, and Imperial Authority just dropped under 20 points, but now I need to throw Insults left and right at the Electors to bring Relations down into the -150 and under range. I can easily build another few points of Infamy with Syria, and that should put me on bad enough terms with the Electors for 4 of them to vote for Thuringia, assuming that the new Elector to replace Meissen behaves similarly. If not, then I'll need to wait 7 years to vassalize Holland, my other vassalized Elector. The current heir's rather disappointing 4 Diplomacy should also make him a bit worse than the present ruler as a candidate for Emperor.

Potential HRE candidates for Emperor, by size:
Hungary - current Emperor wins ties and gets Imperial Authority as a bonus, major bonus for Large Country in HRE. Has one vote, but gets -1000 with the one heretical elector.
Austria - second largest, gets Large Country bonus, heretical faith is shared by only one Elector and -1000 points with others.
Switzerland - third largest with no bonus or penalty for size, major heretical penalty with all but one Elector, penalty for being a vassal
Hesse - heretical with NO Elector sharing that faith, Small Country penalty
Thuringia - Small Country penalty - second choice of most Electors
everyone else with only two provinces
everyone with only one province

 

[Kovax]

If half a loaf is better than none, how do you value half of a war?

3/1721 - 1/1722 - Scattered revolts, more spy attacks, and silly random events for the 30th time (at least). When you have hundreds of provinces, the odds of getting random province events go WAAAAAY up.

2/1722 - Hungary gains a Border Dispute core in Linz (Austria). I may have a use for that in another decade or two. Denmark declares war on Sweden, and Naples dishonors its alliance with Sweden, making Naples more vulnerable. Hungarian spies go through the familiar drill once again, and an "Obscure Documents" CB is generated against Naples, which is already in a bitterly fought war against Portugal and Brittany.

6/1722 - Genoa declares its own war on Naples, each of them having a large block of provinces in the area around Africa's Gold Coast, and Kanem Bornu dishonors its alliance with Naples. Hungary arranges military access through Urbino, then declares war on Naples.

8/1722 - 15,000 Hungarian troops begin the siege of Abruzzi in Italy. Hungary picks up another Border Dispute core in Gilan (one of the previously isolated Persian provinces). 1000 troops from Naples in Epekwitk (North America) reach Acadia across the strait and begin a siege, but are chased back to Epekwitk by 3000 Hungarian troops in Micmac, who pursue. 16,000 of Naples' troops are spotted in Napoli, and additional forces in the form of the fearsome II Honved are called in. Small Hungarian siege forces are dropped off in Guantanamo, and move to besiege both Havana and Moron on the island of Cuba. Several of Naples' colonies are already occupied by Portugal and Brittany, and Genoa and Naples each have one of their opponent's provinces occupied in Africa.

9/1722 - Münster unexpectedly allies with Naples and joins their wars. Hungary's forces are a long way out of position.

10/1722 - Ulaszlo, heir to the thrones of Hungary and the HRE, is killed in a hunting accident. The next in line for the throne is Janos (3/7/7) with a strong claim at age 16: well spoken and able to motivate troops to action, but financially clueless. In Italy, II Honved and XVI Honved converge on Napoli, heavily outmatching the 16,000 Naples' troops with 31,000 Hungarians and routing them toward Apulia. A small siege group is left behind, and a second small group is dispatched to Abruzzi. 14,000 of Münster's troops begin the siege of Hannover while 15,000 Hungarian troops begin besieging Münster until the Royal Honved can arrive, which will take a couple more months.

11/1722 - Münster's army takes Hannover by assault, and they advance on Brunswick as the Royal Honved draws closer.

12/1722 - The 8000 survivors of Naples' previously beaten army in Italy are crushed upon their arrival in Apulia, and Apulia is taken by assault soon after. Münster's army in Brunswick, still weakened by its assault on Hannover, is demolished by 16,000 troops of the Royal Honved supported by 12,000 of the troops split off from the siege of Münster. Hannover is retaken and the Royal Honved returns to the capital while the other army splits up to begin or continue the long sieges all three of Münster's provinces, which have Level 4 forts.

1/1723 - Two more spies fail to incite revolts in the Hungarian colonies, and one of those spies is captured and traced back to Nevers. Hungary begins the forced cultural conversion of Alexandria in Egypt, to open up an additional path for cultural conversion, although there's only about a century left for it to progress outward from there.

6/1723 - An advisor passes away, and Hungary uses its 100 Cultural points to create a Level 6 Inquisitor, providing an additional +24% spy defense, which raises the overall protection to 89%. Let those Nevers spies come, if they dare. All four of Naples' provinces in Italy are successfully occupied by Hungary, but most of their colonial provinces are either already occupied by Portugal or Brittany, or are in Africa. The IV Honved boards ship, bound for the Gold Coast region of Africa.

12/1723 - Kanem Bornu renews its alliance with Naples and joins the wars against Hungary and Genoa, but needs to clear out a couple of internal revolts before dealing with outside enemies.

2/1724 - Hungary accepts Kanem Bornu's offer of white peace, and Genoa does likewise shortly after. Nevers sends more spies, who are discovered and promptly "removed".

3/1724 - Westfalen's garrison (Münster) surrenders control of the province to Hungary. Another Border Dispute, this one over Fez in Morocco.

12/1724- Mantua allies with Naples and joins its 3 wars. Ferrara immediately sends troops to occupy Mantua, and Hungary's army arrives soon after to crush the tiny Mantuan army after a chase. The IV Honved crushes most of Naples' remaining troops in Africa, and takes province after province in rapid assaults, mostly from small groups of rebels.

11/1725 - Naples surrenders two colonies in South America to Portugal, leaving Naples to deal with its other two wars against Hungary and Genoa.

2/1726 - The siege of Münster is completed, and Münster agrees to renounce core claims in 4 provinces, each in a different country, and to break its alliances with Naples, Syria, and Persia.

4/1726 - Mantua insolently demands that Hungary surrender a province, despite having a negative war score against Hungary. Stupid AI is stupid (according to the Department of Redundancy Department). Even sillier, Naples presents Hungary with a surrender request, offering to give up 20 provinces (***80 Infamy***) to Hungary in exchange for peace. That would be political suicide to accept. Until Genoa and its allies settle with Naples, I'm at 78% war score, about 2-3% short of enforcing the Personal Union war goal. It requires 90%, and the AI will generally accept up to 10 points lower if War Exhaustion is high, which it is, so I need 80+.

Imperial Authority is now under 10 points, and there are 3 Electors within about 100 points of backing Thuringia instead of Hungary, and a 4th about 200 points away. All I need is a few more diplomats to convey insults to each of them, and then a couple more points of Infamy to replace those burned off during the current war. I can get those Infamy points from Syria or Persia easily enough at 2 points per province, and leave the disputed cores for the next time around.

 

[Kovax]

Ending a war can lead to a harder war, but fortunately I avoided the worst of it.

6/1726 - Yet another Border Dispute core, this time for Tyumen in Mongol Khanate.

7/1726 - Naples and Navarra settle for a white peace. Algiers (the province of Cyrenaica) breaks away from Naples, and is at war with Naples. Papal State declares war on Naples.

8/1726 - The siege of Mantua succeeds, and Ferrara takes control of the province. Mantua accepts peace with Genoa for a pittance in war indemnities. Hungarian troops already in Mantua immediately assault the fortifications before the token 100 man garrison can be reinforced, taking the province. Modena accepts Hungary's demands to renounce its core claims on Modena and Ferrara. With Ferrara out of the picture, Hungary quickly grabs another colony from Naples, tipping it a couple of points over the minimum 80 needed to enforce the intended war goal. With Naples still fighting against Genoa and Papal State, as well as Algiers, that's probably not a good idea.

9/1726 - Naples settles with Trier.

10/1726 - Genoa and The Knights sign a white peace agreement, while Naples settles for a white peace with Ferrara.

11/1726 - Hungary occupies Naples' province of Libya (vacated by Ferrara). Nevers fails with 3 more spy attacks.

12/1726 - The Papal State and Naples sign a white peace treaty, leaving Naples (and the Knights) with only the 3 wars against Hungary, Algiers, and Genoa's rapidly shrinking coalition, which is down to just them, Armagnac, and Hainaut.

4/1727 - As Hungary's siege of their sole province finally succeeds, The Knights' fleet is destroyed as it leaves port, and The Knights offer a fairly substantial sum of Ducats to exit the war, which Hungary accepts. Meanwhile, the timer has ticked down, and it is possible to diplo-annex another vassal.

6/1727 - Both Armagnac and Hainaut sign white peace deals with Naples, leaving Genoa alone in its war. Naples offers to cede a long list of 23 provinces to Hungary, which would incur 92 Infamy. Clearly, this cannot even be considered. I intend to get all of those PLUS Napoli for zero Infamy if/when I inherit Naples.

9/1727 - Since Genoa doesn't seem to want to end its war against Naples, despite nothing left to take that isn't already occupied by someone else, Hungary tires of waiting and presents its own demands for peace with Naples. Naples accepts, and enters a Personal Union with Hungary.

10/1727 - Hungary sends a gift to Naples to improve the devastated Relations between them, and to help them present some opposition to Genoa.

12/1727 - Hungary and Naples enter a military alliance.

1/1728 - Hungary's aging 5 star Theologian passes away, and a 4 star replacement is created with Cultural points. The only province still in the process of conversion is Isle-de-France (still not converted after a couple of decades), and there are no other Hungarian provinces in need of conversion at the moment, so apparently I'm not beating up Syria and Persia often enough. Naples calls Hungary to arms against both Genoa and Algiers. Impressively, the entire Hungarian coalition of vassals, allies, and Personal Union partners enters the war in support of Hungary.

3/1728 - Hungary's Second Fleet engages Genoa's main fleet off the coast of Gibraltar, suffers a couple of abysmal die rolls, and loses 5 ships. Further east, Hungary's main fleet catches four Genoese ships near Malta, and sinks them.

5/1728 - Cyrenaica is taken by Hungary, and Algiers is annexed without any Infamy cost, as Hungary has taken over control as defender against a war of independence. Hungarian troops from Inhambane march into Genoa's incomplete colonies of Natal and Transkei, and seize both colonies at a cost of 0.1 Infamy each (incidentally eliminating the unruly natives in both cases). Colonists are sent, in order to culturally convert them, as well as to bring them closer to completion.

9/1728 - 15,000 Hungarian troops of the XXV Honved, brought from North Africa to Napes' territory in west Africa, engage Genoa's 10,000 man main army in Konian, wiping them out in a one-sided battle. The troops then head toward Genoa's remaining 5000 man army.

11/1728 - Genoa's fleet, hiding in Gold Coast from the huge array of ships from the long list of Hungarian allies, see an opportunity and race out to ambush a small Hansa fleet. Aquileia sends a ship to assist the Hansa until Hungary's main fleet can arrive from Bonny. 4 of the 5 Hansa ships and one Genoese ship are sunk before Genoa is able to break contact and race back to port for repairs. Meanwhile, further south, all of Genoa's South African provinces are occupied by Hungary, and a Aquileia and other Hungarian vassals land troops on Genoa-owned Madagascar. The 5000 Genoese troops still in Naples' territory are eliminated, and Hungary's troops move into Genoese territory in west Africa.

3/1729 - A ship from Holland is attacked off the coast of Gold Coast (oddly, the sea province of Gold Coast is one zone to the west of the Gold Coast land province) and sunk, and the Genoese fleet races back to port, but the Hungarian fleet arrives just in time to catch 3 Genoese transports following the main fleet, sinking all three.

5/1729 - As all of Genoa's provinces except its capital (with a Level 3 fort) fall and are occupied, Hungary dictates terms: cede Cape and Little Karoo in South Africa, and renounce claims on Liguria and Corsica. As a defender, Hungary gains 3 points of Infamy for each of the two provinces taken, gains +10 Imperial Authority for defeating a non-HRE attacker, and has the entire South African coastline under its control.

9/1729 - Persia annexes Haasa. Time to head East again?

12/1729 - Hungary diplomatically annexes the two provinces of Holland, removing another vassalized Elector from the equation.

1730 - Hungary continues to repair Relations with Naples and several HRE states, while damaging Relations with the HRE electors. Trier will now vote for Thuringia. Thuringia is the new Elector to replace Holland, and will vote for themselves. Cologne is within 50 points of voting for Thuringia instead of Hungary, and one or two more diplomats should tip that over the edge. The problem is that the other two Electors who can be swayed will both vote for Sweden (and one of those will require another 5-6 diplomats to chase away), rather than Thuringia, and if it's a tie, the current Emperor (Hungary) will retain the title. I need to do this BEFORE my current ruler passes away, because I'm rapidly running out of time to diplo-annex HRE states before the end of the game. It's already impossible to annex all of my vassals in the time remaining, but I'd at least like to get some of the more important ones and have a solid path of owned territory (rather than vassalized or allied) across the HRE.

I've never tried quitting the HRE before, so I'm not sure whether or not I'm going to be bombarded by a constant stream of demands to release illegal HRE provinces to the new Emperor, each of them causing a Stability hit if refused. A few demands are to be expected, but I've got dozens of HRE provinces from Bohemia, Burgundy, Milan, and a long list of smaller states, plus a few in Hungary itself.

I've also got cores in at least 4 countries in the east to take advantage of, and at some point I'm planning to break up Austria, unless I miraculously manage to acquire a Personal Union in the next couple of decades.

 

[Kovax]

Turns out, getting out of the HRE had a few hidden costs I wasn't aware of.

12/1730 - 3 of the HRE Electors now prefer Thuringia, 2 still choose Hungary, one will vote for Sweden, and the last for Austria. The stage is set, and now I just need to wait for the curtain to fall on the Hungarian Emperor.

6/1731 - Hungary declares a war of reconquest against Mongol Khanate over the disputed provinces of Tyumen and Zheteru. Kazakh and Korea honor their alliances with the Mongols. Trier, Mamluks, and Kanem Bornu all send warnings to Hungary. Nizhny Novgorod sends a warning a few days later.

7/1731 - Kyzl Kum (Kazakh) falls to a Hungarian assault. Alimuly (Mongol Khanate) is taken a few days later. Kazakh offers white peace, and Hungary allows them to exit the war.

8/1731 - Zheteru is occupied by Hungary after a brief assault.

9/1731 - Mongol Khanate settles its other wars with Baluchistan and Kokkand.

11/1731 - Janos (3/7/7) ascends to the throne of Hungary, while Thuringia becomes the new head of the HRE. Istvan (7/7/5) is the new Hungarian heir at age 2. Hungary makes the radical decision to quit the HRE. Unexpectedly, all non-core HRE provinces are released and all core provinces are removed from the HRE. That means, Hungary loses both Brandenburg and Holland as they become independent states, for a total of 5 provinces lost, which had not been owned by Hungary for the required 50 years. This had better be worth it. On the positive side, the +1.25 annual Infamy gain for holding illegal HRE provinces is gone. On the negative side, the massive military and financial perks for being Emperor of the HRE are lost, along with the annual Prestige gain. The next step is to repair Relations and renew Royal Marriages.

2/1732 - Korea offers a white peace, and Hungary accepts. Utrecht declares war on Holland. So far, only one of Hungary's Royal Marriage offers has been accepted, and most prospective marriage partners show "impossible". 15,000 Hungarian troops are engaged by 19,000 Mongol Khanate troops in Kerey, and the result is a massacre. Level 35 Land tech versus Level 7 isn't a fair fight, the Mongols have a poorer general, and they suffer a -4 terrain penalty on the attack. Hungary loses 121 men in the exchange, and the 19,000 Mongols are killed or captured to the last man. That's quite a difference from back in the 1400s, when the horde troops had a significant military advantage.

4/1732 - Persia declares war on the Mongol Khanate. Tyumen's Level 3 fortifications reach 100% siege progress, and several other Mongol provinces with Level 1 fortifications have been taken, plus a couple of individual brigades crushed.

6/1732 - The siege of Tyumen is completed, and Mongol Khanate accepts the demands to cede Tyumen and Zheteru to Hungary. The Mongols are now free to oppose Persia with their full resources, minus the two Hungarian cores.

11/1732 - Morocco declares war on Münster. Mainz, Thuringia, Portugal, and Utrecht join Münster, while Kazakh and Kiva support Morocco.

1/1733 - New cavalry becomes available to Hungary, and Latin Hussars are chosen as the new troop type. Hungary gains a Border Dispute core on Augsburg (Austrian). A second Border Dispute for a colonial province of Portugal is settled peacefully. Three more spy attacks by Nevers fail within a two month span, all of them detected.

7/1733 - Hungary declares a war of Reconquest over the disputed province of Hammah in Syria. As expected, Najd, Iraq, Kokkan, and Morocco join Syria, and Morocco takes control of the war. Hungary's III Honved quickly takes Al Karak, and advances toward Najd's sole province of Al Jawf. XIII Honved attacks the Syrian army in Damascus, routing them toward Hawran.

8/1733 - Iraq's lone province of Sharizor is taken by XXII Honved, and Iraq offers to pay 2 Ducats. Hungary accepts, and Iraq exits the war. In Morocco, XXV Honved attacks a small Moroccan army in Fez, which is quickly joined by a much larger army, adding up to 28,000 Moroccan troops against 15,000 Hungarians. Hungary's morale advantage (+1 from a National Idea) proves to be the deciding factor, and the Moroccan army's morale breaks first. The larger Moroccan army heads toward the Hungarian province of Tlemcen, while the smaller one runs toward Atlas. In rough shape, the Hungarian army chooses to pursue the smaller force. The VI Honved takes Constantina, then turns back to support the XXV Honved. Syria's army is crushed upon arrival in Hawran, and the province taken by assault. Al Jawf falls to assault, and Najd's offer of token reparations to exit the war is accepted.

10/1733 - In the East, Samarkand's Level 2 fort is taken by a determined Hungarian assault. Kokkan offers to surrender its core claim on Bukhara, and Hungary accepts that offer. Iraq-i-Arab is taken, followed by Hammah. Syria accepts Hungary's demands, breaking its alliance with Persia, and Hammah is turned over to Hungary.

11/1733 - Morocco assaults and takes control of the Hungarian province of Oran, then returns to reinforce the token force besieging Tlemcen, but Hungary's XXV Honved arrives first, destroying the 2000 man siege group, then routs the 18,000 Moroccans remaining from the 25,000 previously encountered. The Moroccans are still disorganized after the assault on Oran, while the Hungarians are relatively unscathed from their encounter with the tiny Moroccan siege party. Meanwhile, 2000 more Moroccan troops lay siege to Constantina, and the VI Honved reverses course again to deal with that problem.

12/1733 - The main Moroccan army routs again, heading toward Atlas. With Morocco still at war against other HRE states, Hungary settles with Morocco, and Morocco cancels its alliances with Syria and Kazakh.

Restoring Royal Marriages is becoming a problem, and I've only managed 2 with the new King. Without the illegal HRE province penalties, and with the "Cabinet" National Idea, I can burn off close to 2 Infamy per year, so that's already down to under 3 points, but still not a lot of takers for Royal Marriages.

The large number of unresolved disputes over cores wasn't an issue with the Prestige gain for being Emperor, but -2.1 Prestige per year (after resolving the two cores in Mongol Khanate) is significant when you're not getting that boost. I need to take a few more of those 7 provinces, one way or another. Austria has 2 of them, another is in Persia, one in Morocco (which I would have had to pay the full 4 Infamy to get in the last war), and I could diplo-annex Ryazan for another in a few years, except that I'm already expecting to vassalize Switzerland next, which also has a core.

A few small gifts and I now have two Electors back up to positive Relations, but it will take close to 150 Relations before they'll vote for Hungary again, now that I don't have the massive +250 point "Large country in the HRE" modifier since I'm not in the HRE. From what I've seen so far, being a member of the HRE is a positive in the earlier stages of the game, before you blob, and the ability to inherit HRE countries AS CORES is not to be ignored. Once you've grown to the point where the Emperor's protection isn't important anymore, and the colonial provinces start to become economically viable, membership gradually becomes more of a hindrance than a help. I intended to exit the HRE during the 1500s, but that turned out to be more difficult and impractical at the time than expected. In contrast, being Emperor gives you most of the benefits without most of the drawbacks, but you need to already be powerful enough to deal with the wars that being Emperor will drag you into. While I don't regret joining the HRE, I do regret not making it a top priority to get back out of it a century earlier than I did, but the lure of those core provinces from the existing Personal Unions (Milan in particular) was hard to ignore.

 

[Kovax]

Last post before a long holiday weekend, followed by possible jury duty.

9/1734 - After numerous diplomats and a long list of bribes that would make the Mafia look innocent (raising Relations from roughly -150 up to +180), Hungary now has the electoral support of Mainz, Münster, and Wurzburg, as well as its own vote. As Infamy bleeds off, the electoral support numbers improve even further.

11/1734 - After a couple of failures, Portugal finally accepts a Royal Marriage offer, bringing it up to 3 total, a far cry from the 20+ arranged by previous kings and emperors.

1/1735 - A spy from Nevers actually succeeds in provoking a small revolt, but is detected, and the revolt is crushed within two weeks. Not much to show for 10+ attempts within the past couple of years.

2/1735 - Hungary declares a war of Imperialism against Persia, which is already embroiled in a couple of small wars. Kazakh and Adal honor their alliances, and support Persia as expected, and Khiva, Qara Koyunlu, and Mutapa act on their previous warnings to Hungary, the last of which I had forgotten about and not prepared for. Kazakh troops reach Khawarzam before the end of the month and initiate a siege, while XII Honved stationed in Bukhara heads in the opposite direction and takes the province of Khiva from Khiva before turning around to deal with Kazakh.

3/1735 - Luristan is taken from Persia's control, and the XII Honved crushes Kazakh's army in Khawarzam. Hungary accepts Khiva's offer of white peace. Dagestan is besieged by Qara Koyunlu's small army, and VIII Honved has already been dispatched from Kouban to deal with them, but will take a couple of months to arrive.

4/1735 - XII Honved takes Turkestan from Kazakh, and Kazakh quickly offers white peace. Hungary accepts.

5/1725 - XIII Honved takes Khuzestan. Qara Koyunlu's troops are chased from Dagestan to Qarabagh. Meanwhile, in Persian territory, XIII Honved and XXII Honved play cat and mouse with 21,000 Persian troops in the vicinity of Kerman, Persia's capital.

6/1735 - Persia surrenders to Mongol Khanate, releasing Haasa (1 province).

7/1735 - Laristan (not Luristan, which was taken earlier) and Dash-i-lut fall to Hungarian assaults. 31,000 Hungarian troops of XIII and XXII Honved begin a long march against the main Persian army in Kerman, and the Persians have no place to run in time to escape battle.

9/1735 - With Infamy reduced to a tiny fraction of a point, 3 more Royal Marriages succeed (out of about 7-8 offers), one of them an "Unlikely" one with Austria. Qara Koyunlu's 4000 troops in Qarabagh are attacked by VIII Honved and eliminated. The battle against Persia's main army goes better than expected, and the casualties in melee go 10:1 against Persia, while the somewhat lower numbers of absolute casualties due to fire combat go far worse for Persia, on the order of 50:1 or higher. The Persian army simply evaporates. Things go less well in Africa, where Uteve is taken by Mutapa after a brief siege followed by a costly assault, but XI Honved coming from Cape reaches Delagoa Bay and heads toward Inhambane. Mutapa's troops halt in Uteve, rather than advancing to Inhambane. Soon after, the Persian capital of Kerman falls to a combined assault.

10/1735 - Murgan (one of Quara Koyunlu's two provinces) is taken, and Hungary accepts a modest sum in Ducats to let Qara Koyunlu out of the conflict.

11/1735 - Persia's valuable Center of Trade in Hormuz falls to Hungary. Uteve is retaken from Mutapa, and the 12,000 Hungarian troops of XI Honved advance against the Mutapan army in its capital of Zimbabwe.

12/1735 - Khurasan is taken from Persia, and Zimbabwe falls to assault in Mutapa. Hungary makes a tough call between a more defensible border by taking Luristan and Khuzestan, or the more valuable but dangerously extended provinces of Laristan and Hormuz. Hungary chooses the safer route....for now. Persia surrenders Luristan and Khuzistan, and Hungary sends Missionaries from its recently enlarged group of bored clerics, to convert the two provinces.

1/1736 - Utrecht's attempts at conquering Holland have been frustrated by a sizable group of Dutch peasant rebels, and Utrecht and Holland finally sign a white peace deal. Hungary sends an army to put down the rebellion in its former vassal, now that it's outlived its usefulness.

9/1736 - With the "Poor Uniforms" event due to expire in less than a month, Hungary gets a "Poor Uniforms" event. Hungary gains another Border Dispute core in Switzerland, making two disputed Hungarian cores in each of Switzerland and Austria.

5/`737 - Morocco settles for white peace in its offensive war against Münster, since neither has had any practical way to access to the other since the totally pointless war began. Münster's allies and supporters, led by Portugal and including Brittany and Thuringia, are still at war against Morocco, but making little or no progress.

10/1737 - Much to my surprise, the ruler of Thuringia, a distant relative of King Janos of Hungary, passes away. A new Emperor is elected for the HRE, and Janos von Luxemburg of Hungary is chosen, despite Hungary not being a member of the HRE.

Hopefully, I can diplo-annex Switzerland in a few more years, which will give me an owned path across the HRE to connect my eastern and western sections.

Austria is a real problem, since they have 106,000 troops (second largest army in the world), and are allied with several other fairly powerful countries. Depending on what order the allies are called in and who takes control from whom, any war involving Austria could drag Toulouse, Portugal, and Brittany (3 of the 4 biggest colonizers, Hungary being #1) into it. The really sticky point is that MOST of the remaining HRE states and several other countries outside of it are allied to one of that loose collection, or to a slightly bigger country that is and would take control of the war, then call in one or more of those big countries. That would certainly be epic, pitting the worlds most powerful army and its collection of small allies and vassals against the 2nd through 5th most powerful countries gathered into one alliance, with close to a million troops involved between the two sides. It would also be stupid, because all that slaughter and destruction would still be for limited gains, only taking one or two provinces and a few minor secondary concessions due to Infamy costs. I just might keep this save and play that situation out for amusement one of these days.

Due to real-life vacations and other concerns, the next post probably won't happen until either next Tuesday or Thursday.

 

[Kovax]

Holiday over. Some very significant changes.

1/1738 - Trier declares war on Cologne. Genoa joins Trier and takes control of the war, while Utrecht supports Cologne.

2/1738 - Thuringia declares war on Brandenburg.

3/1738 - Hungary declares war on Genoa to prevent the annexation of Cologne by Trier. As expected, Trier, Armagnac, Navarra, Ferrara, Hainaut, and Kanem Bornu come to the aid of Genoa. Toulouse declares war on Armagnac, which pits Toulouse, Norway, Nevers, and Hesse against Genoa (which takes control of the war), Armagnac, Portugal, Orleans, and Bourbonnais.

4/1738 - Trier's 12,000 troops besiege Koln, where 15,000 Hungarian troops engage them and narrowly defeat them. Trier's defeated army is chased back to the province of Trier and eliminated. Ferrara is taken by siege. The Hungarian army in Trier splits up and besieges both of Trier's provinces. Another army begins the siege of Hainaut. In Africa, Cameroon is taken from Genoa by a Hungarian assault, while slightly to the north Kanem Bornu begins a siege of Pindanga.

6/1738 - Ferrara offers token reparations to exit the war, and Hungary accepts. Navarra's province of Labourd is taken by Hungary, and Navarra agrees to renounce its claim to Vizcaya.

7/1738 - 10,000 Kanam Bornu troops are wiped out in Pindanga by the Hungarian force returning from Cameroon, who win only a couple of days before the scheduled arrival of 17,000 Genoese troops. The Genoese halt and turn around to deal with another 14,000 man Hungarian army shipped in from Tlemcen and besieging Gold Coast. The Hungarian army in Gold Coast abandons the siege of the Level 3 fort to assault the weaker provinces.

9/1738 - Armagnac's army is defeated in Bearn, pursued to Armagnac, and destroyed. The Level 4 fort in Armagnac is placed under siege. A second Kanem Bornu army of 15,000 men is engaged and routed in Benin, pursued back into its home territory, and eliminated upon arrival.

10/1738 - Sweden declares war on Kanem Bornu.

11/1738 - Genoa and Norway settle for white peace. With over half of its provinces occupied by Hungary, Genoa offers white peace, but the Hungarians have other plans. Armagnac presents insane demands that Hungary release several vassals.

12/1738 - 9000 freshly recruited Kanem Bornu troops attempt to retake Genoa's province of Wagadugi from Hungarian control, while 17,000 Genoese troops besiege Kumasi to retake it. 14,000 Hungarian troops sit in Gold Coast, waiting for the arrival of another army to take on the Genoese at better odds. Offshore, Hungary's Benin Patrol fleet of 4 ships is ambushed and destroyed by the Genoese fleet with no losses for Genoa's 8 ships. Two revolts break out in Kanem Bornu.

1/1739 - Genoa's fleet is caught by the main Hungarian fleet before it can enter port. All 8 ships are sunk, with significant damage but no losses to the 16 Hungarian ships. Kanem Bornu offers white peace, and Hungary accepts.

2/1739 - Another 14,000 Hungarian troops arrive in Gold Coast, and march against the Genoese in the adjacent province of Kumasi. Genoa's 17,000 man army is no match for the 28,000 Hungarians, and the army is almost completely shattered, fleeing to Worodugu, where the Hungarians are waiting for the scattered remnants and eliminate them as they arrive.

6/1739 - Hungary is at 46% war score against Genoa's coalition, and most of Genoa's provinces are taken, but Genoa makes the absurd demand that Hungary release a vassal. The AI in this game is absolutely clueless when it comes to surrender terms. Gold Coast's walls are breached, and the province falls to a combined assault.

10/1739 - The siege of Hainaut is completed by Hungary, and Hainaut agree to surrender its claim to Namur.

11/1739 - Utrecht accepts white peace with Trier. The latter is still under siege by Hungary. In the distant East, North Ufa converts to Hungarian culture, as the horde provinces are more easily assimilated. Sierra Leone it taken by a Hungarian assault, leaving Genoa with only one isolated province still under its control.

1/1740 - After a lengthy siege, the fortress garrison in Koblenz (Trier) surrenders to Hungary. Hungary takes control of Borgu, the last of Genoa's provinces to fall. The sieges of both Trier and Armagnac continue. Much to my amusement, Nevers is under siege by both Orleans and Bourbonnais in its war against Genoa, Portugal, Orleans, etc.

5/1740 - Hungary diplomatically annexes Switzerland, taking a Stability hit and 6 points of Infamy as a result. Two of the provinces are already cores by way of Border Disputes, and missionaries are sent to convert three of the provinces, while the first of a long line of magistrates is sent to begin construction of the lost province upgrades. This provides a solid path connecting the eastern and western regions of Hungary's European provinces. Brittany declares its own war on Genoa.

10/1740 - Cologne and Trier sign a white peace treaty.

11/1740 - Brandenburg is annexed by Thuringia, giving it 3 illegal HRE provinces which I can at least hope will be handed over to the Emperor.

6/1741 - Genoa settles with Hesse.



So, I'm back in the Empire, in good graces with 3 other Electors (besides Hungary itself), and am close to being able to vassalize Trier, but hoping it takes its time in surrendering so I can burn off some of the current Infamy before that happens. At least 4 more countries (3 in the east) have issued warnings to Hungary in the past year or two, so any wars I get into over the next couple of years may involve unexpected guests.

As I expected, the incorporation of Switzerland as Emperor without being in the Empire confirms that I get no penalties for taking non-core HRE provinces, but on the other hand I will gain no cores for any inheritances within the Empire, which is a good enough compromise at this late stage of the game, considering that I've already inherited 3 of the 5 biggest pieces as cores (Burgundy, Bohemia, Milan), Switzerland was a mix, and now only Austria is left. Thuringia depends on how they handle the random demands for the illegal provinces: either I'll get a couple of provinces for free, or else I'll have to fight a war to retake Brandenburg from Thuringia, which will most likely bring Austria into it on Thuringia's side, and may involve Portugal as well. I'd need to call the entire alliance in for that one, which would turn it into a "World War" in the 1700s.

 

[Kovax]

Completed my real-life obligation, and now back to the game:

7/1741 - Navarra cedes Labourd to Brittany.

8/1741 - Genoa and Nevers sign a white peace treaty.

9/1741 - Toulouse and Orleans agree to white peace. The Hungarian forces besieging Trier reach 100% siege progress, but the garrison refuses to give up.

10/1741 - Another "Poor Uniforms" event. That's about the 10th so far this century.

12/1741 - The siege of Armagnac finally succeeds, and Armagnac goes from making demands to renouncing its core claims on Bearn and Rouergue.

1/1742 - With the Hungarian army gone from the province, Armagnac is almost immediately besieged by both Brittany and Toulouse. Several more spies from Nevers attempt to instigate revolts in Hungary. One spy from an unknown country succeeds in starting a small uprising in Guayana, while several other spies fail to incite violence, are arrested, and are traced back to Nevers.

2/1742 - Nevers fails again. I'm beginning to wonder if the AI actually pays for its spy missions like the player does, since the sheer number of spies they send should quickly bankrupt a country much wealthier than them. They also seem to accumulate spies MUCH faster than the player is able to.

3/1742 - Hesse answers Austria's call to arms in their long drawn-out war against Polotsk. Austria's 3 isolated provinces in the east (formerly belonging to Lithuania) have been occupied by Polotsk for over a decade, and Austria's war exhaustion is maxed out, yet Austria still has not used its military access through Hungary to deal with Polotsk.

5/1742 - Toulouse settles with Armagnac.

1/1743 - Genoa and Toulouse settle. Sweden accepts white peace with Kanem Bornu. Somewhere along the line, Austria and Polotsk appear to have settled for a white peace.

5/1743 - The 6 points of Infamy for annexing Sweden are now gone. The siege of Trier is still at 100%, but the fortress defenders will not surrender...."any day now" for over a year.

8/1743 - Hungary gets to make a slider move toward Innovative, and gets "We look weak", which reduces Prestige by 5 points.

9/1743 - Hungary passes the "School Establishment Act", giving a boost to Production income at the expense of a small reduction in direct taxes and other effects.

10/1743 - The garrison of Trier finally surrenders to the Hungarian besiegers, and Trier accepts vassalization by Hungary. Hungary gains 4 Infamy.

11/1743 - Alexandria finally assimilates into Hungarian culture, after a lengthy process of forced conversion. Previously, several more provinces in the distant eastern end of the Empire were assimilated from horde culture to Hungarian, forming a cluster of around 6-7 provinces.

12/1743 - Spies from Nevers succeed in instigating a small uprising in Yaqi (N. America), which is garrisoned by 7000 Hungarian troops, and the revolt is over almost before it began. Two more attempts fail.

4/1744 - Infamy dips back below 3 points, and Hungary presents lenient terms of surrender to long-occupied Genoa: surrender the province of Great Karoo (S. Africa) to Hungary (+2 Infamy), renounce core claims on Cape and Little Karoo, and cancel Genoa's alliance with Portugal. The terms are accepted, and Hungary immediately sends a colonist to culturally convert Great Karoo. In Europe, the throne of Ferrara is occupied by a usurper, while the country is at war against Brittany and a couple of smaller states, and then another uprising occurs. Hungarian agents produce the usual "Obscure Documents", providing an excuse to step in and stabilize the situation. The agents succeed, but their work is discovered, causing another point of Infamy.

6/1744 - Hungary declares war on Ferrara over the disputed throne. Sicily and Urbino honor their alliances and guarantees, while Genoa dishonors its alliance with Ferrara. Hungarian troops advance into Ferrara uncontested, as Ferrara's army is apparently off fighting Brittany somewhere in the colonies, and takes a colony from Brittany.

7/1744 - Papal State declares war on Urbino. Hungarian troops from Tlemcen in North Africa land on Sicily and rapidly take both provinces by assault, casually brushing aside the individual brigades that attempt to offer resistance. The diminutive Sicilian fleet flees from the occupied port, and is engaged and sunk almost instantly by the main Hungarian fleet. Sicily agrees to retract its claim to Sardinia. Urbino's province of Romagna is taken by a determined Hungarian assault, while Ancona is besieged by a small army from Papal State and Urbino's even smaller army begins the siege of Roma.

8/1744 - The walls of Ferrara's fortifications are breached, and Hungary takes the province by assault. Ferrara accepts a Personal Union with the Emperor. It will take several diplomats and a substantial sum in bribes to restore Relations to positive numbers, but the cost is irrelevant at this point. Soon after, Ferrara's troops seize another New World colony from Brittany. Hungary allies with Ferrara, but is not called into the war because Ferrara is not the war leader.

11/1744 - Thrace culturally assimilates, becoming Hungarian and doubling the odds of the culture crossing over into Asia Minor. A constant stream of revolts in Brittany's provinces of Labourd and Armagnac keep drifting into the adjacent Hungarian provinces, and I've got two units constantly moving just to catch up. In some cases, there are two or even three simultaneous revolts in the two provinces, and in one case there was a stack of 3 separate rebelling armies, each with 7000 men. They'd better break free from Brittany soon, because I'm struggling just to keep them out of my own provinces. Unfortunately, taking them from Brittany to end the problem isn't a good option with Brittany allied to Portugal and several other states.

7/1745 - Hungary gains a Border Dispute core on Caracas (S. America), owned by Brittany. Their alliance with Portugal makes it an expensive proposition to act on it at this time.

3/1746 - Thuringia turns over the illegal province of Neumark to the Emperor. I'm hoping that they'll hand over Ruppin, and Brandenburg province would be icing on the cake, putting me back up to 14 owned CoTs. Thuringia still has a huge army for its size, with one stack of around 32,000 troops plus a smaller one of about 10,000, leftovers from the drastically increased force limits during its time as Emperor.

7/1746 - Genoa and Brittany sign a white peace, so Ferrara is no longer at war.

The Infamy from Genoa is now gone, but there's still most of the point left from the discovered claim for the throne of Ferrara, which will burn off in well under a year. Morocco, Syria, Persia, and Khiva are looking like possible targets, but the latter three have a long list of guarantors and will all bring in Morocco as Defender of the Faith. That makes Morocco itself the most vulnerable target. I'd like to take on Persia again, to regain proximity with Hormuz for later conquest of yet another coastal Center of Trade (recently taken from Persia by Oman), and to get one province closer to linking up my provinces around the Caspian Sea. Khiva is also in the way, and conquering their capital will take two wars, to first isolate and then take.

I'm up to 3 Personal Unions again: Naples, Savoy, and Ferrara. Royal Marriages with Austria, Thuringia, and Portugal give at least some possibility of an inheritance or Personal Union with one of them before the end of the campaign.

Taking on Austria still looks daunting, since they've got 3 stacks of 24,000 to 32,000 troops each, all within easy supporting distance of each other, plus several smaller detachments in the scattered provinces that Austria picked up by annexing vassals all across the HRE, plus the remnant of Lithuania. Fortunately, they have no colonial presence at all. I have more than enough troops for the task already, but most of them are widely scattered around the world and needed where they're at, which means building another 50-60 brigades for the war. It's been a few years since the last "Poor Uniforms" event, so I should probably crank out a bunch of brigades before I get the event again.

I've been slowly but constantly modernizing the fleet, disbanding one of the old carrack or barque ships for about each two Two Deckers or Heavy Frigates that I build. Since leaving the HRE, my Naval techs have been falling behind a bit, although the tech boost for being adjacent to so many other countries in the same tech group does provide a substantial increase in research points (like 40-70 in a couple of techs).

 

[Kovax]

A few promising developments, but no guarantees.

1/1747 - Hungary declares a war of Imperialism against Morocco. Khiva honors its alliance with Morocco, and Swahili steps in as Defender of the Faith.

2/1747 - Hungarian troops take the province of Khiva, and Khiva offers a trivial sum to exit the war. Hungary is happy to see them go. Sofala in Swahili is taken from the rebels occupying the province, and Swahili's offer of white peace is accepted. 33,000 Moroccan troops maneuver between Aures and Biskra, with 8000 men splitting off and heading toward Hungarian owned Tlemcen. Both Hungarian armies in the region pursue the larger group aimed for Constantine.

3/1747 - 8000 Moroccan troops reach Tlemcen and begin a siege of the province, while 30,000 Hungarian troops engage and rout 25,000 Moroccan troops in Constantine. One Hungarian army (XXIV Honved) pursues the Moroccans toward Bone while the other (VI Honved) makes its indirect way toward Tlemcen, stopping briefly to reduce the low-level forts along the way.

4/1747 - Hungarian troops reach Bone first, and the already beaten Moroccan army finds itself at a severe terrain disadvantage. Despite virtually identically skilled generals, between the shattered morale, terrain penalties, and 10 levels of military technology difference, the Moroccans suffer catastrophic losses at a rate of nearly 1000:1, with the last 5000 survivors fleeing back toward Constantine.

5/1747 - The Moroccans put up a feeble but determined defense in Constantine, losing all 5000 remaining men while inflicting only 5 casualties. Constantine and Biskra are taken by assault a few days later.

7/1747 - Aures falls to a Hungarian assault. A regency council governs Austria until the legal heir comes of age in another 2-3 years, with the King of Hungary as the next in line. Atlas and Gafsa are taken by assault.

8/1747 - The siege of Tlemcen is broken, as 14,000 Hungarians charge the 8000 Moroccan besiegers, routing and pursuing them toward Fez.

10/1748 - The Moroccan army reaches Fez, finding the VI Honved already there and waiting for them. Morocco's army is crushed, leaving the country with no land army for its defense.

11/1747 - Fez falls to assault by VI Honvend, while XXIV Honved captures a line of provinces all the way to Sirt. The Moroccan fleet is intercepted in the Canarian Sea before it reaches port in Safi, and is sunk, leaving Morocco with a single ship. In Europe, Thuringia turns over Ruppin to the Emperor.

12/1747 - Hungary demands Fez and Ceuta from Morocco, and the termination of the alliance with Syria. Morocco accepts the terms. Missionaries are sent to both provinces. Münster declares war on Morocco.

11/1748 - Crimea culturally assimilates to Hungarian, as the Tartar provinces gradually benefit from their exposure to Hungarian culture present at the opposite ends of the region. Infamy is under 2 points again, reducing at a rate close to 2 points per year.

1/1749 - Genoa calls Portugal to war against Brittany, and Portugal refuses the call.

8/1749 - Thuringia joins Brittany against Genoa. Days later, Genoa and Thuringia sign a white peace deal.

10/1749 - Toulouse declares war on Orleans. Nevers and Hesse join Toulouse, but Norway refuses to get involved. Genoa abandons Orleans, dishonoring their alliance.

11/1749 - Rebels in Armagnac take control, and declare independence from Brittany. Hainaut joins Genoa in its war against Brittany. Austria declares a third war against Polotsk, calling Hesse and Galicia to its aid. Thuringia and Yaroslavl throw their support behind Polotsk. Zaporozhie and Nizhny Novgorod enter the war a day later, on opposing sides.

12/1749 - Hungary declares a war of Imperialism against Armagnac, which would connect the isolated province of Gascone to the Spanish provinces. Armagnac currently has no allies to call upon, but the Level 4 fortress will take a long time to capture, and they could form an alliance unexpectedly at any time.

Austria, Holland, and Thuringia all have either Regents or rulers with no legal heirs, and the Hungarian king as next in line. Doubtful that it will happen, but any one of these would make for a fine inheritance or Personal Union.

The war between Austria and Thuringia offers other possibilities, although I consider Thuringia to be somewhat outmatched, roughly 1:2, but slightly more concentrated, while Austria is dividing its forces. As in its previous war against Polotsk, Austria's provinces from Lithuania are under siege, and Austria is not sending troops through Hungarian territory to defend them, even though it has had permission to do so for most of the last several centuries. Thuringia has just accepted a Hungarian offer of military access, and will hopefully use that to reach the scattered Austrian provinces instead of taking on the huge stacks and getting crushed.

Syria and Oman are at odds (throwing warnings and embargoing trade), and I'm hoping to take advantage of any conflict between them to take a couple of provinces, but the expected 4 Infamy for annexing Armagnac will likely put at least another year's delay on that.

 

[Kovax]

All things come to those who wait...or fight for what they want. This was a long session with major results, some hard earned, some not.

12/1749 - Wurttemburg joins Thuringia against Austria, probably a suicide move considering its proximity to Austria.

1/1750 - Brittany and Genoa settle for a white peace, and Brittany's pending call to arms to Portugal becomes moot before it can be accepted, but Portugal refuses the call, breaking the alliance.

2/1750 - Hungary offers an alliance with Orleans, which is losing a war against Toulouse, Nevers, and Hesse. The Unlikely offer is accepted.

3/1750 - Thuringia refuses Hungary's offer of military access.

5/1750 - Portugal restores the broken alliance with Genoa. Hungary can now annex another vassal, but chooses not to do so while in one minor war against Armagnac and with a bigger one against Toulouse possible at any moment, if Orleans issues the call to arms.

6/1750 - A new event occurs: "Founding Father", which permanently increases revolt risk in the colonial provinces where it happens.

3/1751 - King Leopold von Luxemburg is crowned in Austria, with king Janos von Luxemburg of Hungary as next in line.

4/1751 - Syria declares war on Oman, both sides bringing in a few minor allies.

6/1751 - Hungary declares a war of Imperialism against Syria. Iraq, Kokkand, Adal, and Delhi rush to aid Syria against Hungary. Another Border Dispute gives Hungary a core in Brandenburg, currently held by Thuringia. The siege of Armagnac finally succeeds, and Armagnac is annexed by Hungary for 4 Infamy, connecting the isolated province of Gascone. Iraq-i-Arab and Al Karak both fall to Hungarian assaults, and an assault on Damascus is started before the end of the month.

7/1751 - Austria's new king passes away after only 4 months on the throne, and Janos von Luxemburg of Hungary becomes king, joining Austria into a Personal Union with Hungary. A diplomat is sent to boost the already decent relations between the two long-term friendly nations. Damascus falls to assault. 3000 Iraqi troops besiege Van. Hungarian armies take Samarkand in Kokkand, and Hawran in Syria.

8/1751 - Kokkand offers white peace, and is permitted to exit the war. A Level 2 fort completes in Leone, fulfilling a mission requirement for a minor bonus. The new mission appears: "Build a Fleet", which is unreasonable.

[ I am NOT about to build over 200 more ships for a couple of trivial points of Naval Tradition. Reload, and the same mission appears. 6 reloads later, I accept that the mission is inevitable, and this will likely be the last mission I get, because I'm not going to do it. If I cancel it, it comes back again.

A brief scan over the colonies spots a Separatist revolt in one of Toulouse's adjacent colonies. This is FRIGHTENING! Separatists are absolute death for overseas colonies, since if they succeed in controlling ONE province of a historical country, ALL of the provinces of that country will automatically join that country as it forms, regardless of who owns the province at the time. I send an army to exterminate the rebels to the last man, and will need to keep constant tabs on the entire New World for Separatists in ANY country. ]

9/1751 - Iraq's army is pursued from Van to Armenia, where it is caught and destroyed. A new type of Infantry becomes available for Hungary, but the middle of a war is not the time to make the change. Sharizhor (Iraq) falls to assault, and Iraq surrenders, renouncing a core on a Syrian province which I might take in some future war.

11/1751 - The entire historical US coastline becomes cores of America by event. A single Separatist rebel could liberate the entire coastline by taking just one of those provinces. Syria surrenders, handing the provinces of Mosul and Iraq-i-Arab over to Hungary and renouncing its claims on Hammah. A day later, with Hungary at peace, Orleans issues a call-to-arms. Hungary first cancels its military access through Toulouse, and THEN joins the war against Toulouse and its allies. The following day, the entire Hungarian coalition of allies, vassals, and PU partners join the war, and Hungary takes control of its side of the conflict.

12/1751 - A Hessian army takes Brunswick by assault, while Hungary takes the province of Toulouse in the same manner. A week later, a Hungarian army routs Hesse's army in a mutually catastrophic engagement, and Hesse's army flees through several provinces of Hungary's allies without stopping to fight. The main Hungarian fleet engages Toulouse's navy off the coast of North Africa, and sends it to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.

1/1752 - Toulouse's and Nevers' main armies are engaged in Bourbon by the combined forces of three Hungarian armies, breaking and fleeing toward Berry with two of the Hungarian armies in pursuit while the third recovers.

2/1752 - Nevers' small defeated army arrives in Berry, only to find the faster Hungarian army (without artillery) already there and waiting. The Nevers troops are crushed almost instantly. Two days later, Toulouse's army and the heavier Hungarian army arrive, and a one-sided battle ensues. A day later 65,000 Austrian troops pile onto the beleaguered Toulousians, and their army is all-but annihilated, with barely over 2000 men remaining from the original 20,000+ troops, fleeing back toward Bourbon. Once again, the lighter Hungarian army is able to easily outrace the artillery-bound heavier armies, and Toulouse's army evaporates on contact.

3/1752 - True to its usual belligerent attitude and hubris, Nevers makes a long list of demands for Hungary's surrender, despite their negative war score, lack of a single brigade of troops, and their province being in the last stages of siege before a total surrender. It's really a ridiculous oversight by the developers that an AI country with a negative war score can make surrender demands other than "white peace". Perigord falls to a Hungarian assault, and Toulouse agrees to withdraw its claims on Bearn and to release Bourbonnais (2 provinces) and Auvergne (2 provinces) as independent countries. Hungary gains +10 Imperial Authority and zero Infamy. With the war over, Hungary waits until just about the end of the month, and upgrades its infantry to the new Frederickian type, minimizing the window of extreme vulnerability before at least a shred of Organization is restored.

4/1752 - A the beginning of the next month, Hungary is called into Austria's war, taking control of it. With its troops still at a small fraction of their normal Organization, Hungary is in no shape to fight and needs to avoid ANY battles for at least another month, and at least two or three for any serious fight. Once again, the vast array of Hungarian allies, vassals, and PU partners join the fight, with the exception of Bourbonnais, which dishonors the new alliance formed when they were liberated. The other side of the war is led by tiny Yaroslavl (2 provinces), and includes Thuringia, Polotsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Crete, and Wurttemburg. Hungary's Aegean Fleet quickly sinks the modest Cretan fleet blockading Athens and neighboring provinces.

11/1752 - After multiple battles, sieges, assaults, and other grim acts of war by all concerned, Thuringia's provinces are all under siege and their armies chased down and destroyed all across the HRE, with the last major group being pursued and engaged repeatedly by Austrian and Hungarian troops all the way to Parma on the coast, before finally running out of men and room to run. In the colonies, at least 4 countries have been repeatedly throwing spies at Hungary in attempts to incite revolts, only two of which briefly succeed and spawn Separatists, the other 15-20 attempts failing and their origins mostly discovered. The colonial garrison armies are divided up into smaller groups to cover more area, and are still barely able to keep pace with the revolts as they occur, whether from espionage or events.

2/1753 - Polotsk is occupied and concedes defeat.

4/1753 - All of historical Mexico's provinces become cores of Mexico, and revolts begin there as well.

5/1753 - Thuringia surrenders, releasing Meissen as a free country and canceling alliances with Brittany, Holland, and Portugal. Nizhny Novgorod offers token reparations, and has nothing else worth taking, so the offer is accepted.

7/1753 - Yaroslavl settles with Hungary, releasing Tver (1 province) and breaking its alliance with Wurttemburg.

Hungary now has undisputed control of the HRE, with the unanimous support of all Electors, is the current Papal controller with 50% of the Cardinals, and has no serious threats to face on land (other than Separatist rebels), with only Portugal able to compete at sea (for the moment, with Hungarian research into new ship types about to complete, to be followed by a major ship building spree - NOT the 200+ more needed to "build a fleet"). Austria, Savoy, and Naples are waiting to be inherited, and I can annex another vassal at any time (once a few more diplomats spawn, so I can fix at least some of the damage quickly). Hungarian culture is spreading in the settled horde territories, and the gap between the spread from the west and the spread from the couple of colonies in the east is steadily closing. Cultural Assimilation in other areas is extremely rare, however. I should have just about enough time to conduct one more forced conversion in a CoT, possibly either Liguria or Trebizond, since there won't be enough time to take Hormuz or diplo-annex the Hansa, gain a core, and have the province convert.

My Infamy spiked at almost 8 points for a brief period, but that's now dropping rapidly, and the few lost merchants during the height of that Infamy are now being replaced, rather than losing ground, in all 13 owned CoTs.