Poland isn’t exactly our favorite country. We were, at one point, intending to become an ally with them (against the Ottomans, if I recall, though it seems a long time ago when they were really rivals of the Ottomans). In more recent years, Poland has expanded deeply into Germany, making them a rival of Milan’s for control of those central European territories.
I actually might enjoy this war! It at least has some serious opportunities to present.
Just so long as no one of my other enemies (or five!) jumps on my back while I’m busy with Poland (which isn’t exactly a piddly country these days!).
The angry frontier with Poland:
Gen. Pico immediately led a force from Bremen, while Gen. Alessandro marched forth into Polish central Germany with two columns, one directed against Anhalt, another toward Leipzig, placing both under siege.
Pico, however, was advised of a Polish landing of a regiment at Vorpommern. He, with 4 regiments, changed direction to attack this target of opportunity.
We did not stay long in Vorpommern, not having time to reduce it, and having other armies we need to intercept, Gen. Pico meets more Poles in Brandenburg.
In the middle of all this combat, we didn't need to lose one of our good generals. Gen. Carafa died in battle, as he would have wanted it, I suppose.
Our naval battle finally ended, with the sinking of one Polish ship, and the capture of their transport ship (and we kind of need that kind of ship right now, having not had time to restore our fleet from the Algerian war).
We sent this little guy back to port, to recover. Then, find more Polish ships marauding the Med.
We’re about to get a new regiment recruited in Bremen, and since there’s a level-2 fort there, and there’s no blockade at the moment, I take a minor risk in sending the mobile garrison to guard Altmark, which frees that garrison to go elsewhere.
We’ve basically cleared the couple regiments of Polish troops out of German provinces, and have all of them under siege (the Austrians have one province besieged, we have the rest, though that’s sure to change with new Habsburg regiments arriving to steal our sieges).
Gen. Alessandro is giving up on Bamberg, which isn’t really of interest to us, so much as it is a likely target for Austrian armies, so he will simply head to the Polish capital to press the issue. The Austrians have played around with Poland proper, and even attacked their capital at Krakow, but then retreated for some reason. I don’t see a lot of Polish troops out there.
Our troops besieging Anhalt had been suffering high attrition due to the winter storms, and unfortunately we lost another of our great generals – Gen. Medici – to consumption, acquired from a winter chill.
As a result, King Francesco V, who proves to be not a bad leader, takes to the field in a morale-boosting effort, though he will stay within the Lombardian realms until truly needed.
