Sowing the seeds of their own destruction - A Montenegro Empire AAR

[Emeny]

Hello and welcome! Today we shall be following the progress of a humble nation known as Montenegro.

For those of you unfamiliar with them, Montenegro can be found here:

Spoiler

It's so cute!

But this is not where our adventure begins. You see, for 60 years Montenegro was left in the hands of a tyrannical ruler who, while quite capable, was completely reckless and had a total disregard for the future after his passing. This ruler will remain nameless (cough cough), but let's have a look at what they have managed to achieve.

Spoiler

Fantastic! Who can argue with results like that?! Montenegro must be unstoppable!

But just to be sure, let's take a moment to have a closer look:

Spoiler

Not too bad. Wait, what's that inflation there?

Oh dear. Before events you can only GET 1% inflation per year, and that's not counting any inflation reduction. The previous ruler must have been minting more often than not!

That core percentage...

Welp. That's a bummer. Still, they are only charts. Maybe the reality is better than it seems!

Spoiler

Uhh. Well we are paying tribute to the horde, so that's something. Looks like most everybody else hates us, though. And no wonder, considering we have broken our infamy limit.

I guess this explains our Revolt Risk. We just entered a peasant war and have 8 years of smugglers to deal with.

Well, we are about as advanced as the hordes. And 6 years to fully recover a point of stability at full investment. Ouch.

At least we have some very nice advisors, and hopefully that admin stat will help to get some of this stuff under control.

Sliders aren't too terrible. Seems like the focus was mainly on quality though.

Our army. All 25 regiments. Well we got this far, so surely they have some skills!

And that description sums it up pretty much perfectly. Sigh.

I suspect a couple of you have developed sinister grins at this point. I can't blame you; I probably would as well, if not for being the one who has to actually do this! Why do I agree to these sorts of things?!

Some quick notes:

• The game is DW 5.2 (QMXZ!) on normal with lucky nations off. Everything else is default and unchanged.
• Generic house rules apply: No cheating, reloading, overly gamey/cheesy techniques, reloading, abusing bugs and most importantly no reloading. If I crash and burn, so be it! Less work for me.
• No forming anything. It's Montenegro or bust.
• As always, feel free to speak up if you have questions, concerns, want to tell me what I did wrong, ect ect.

Anyway, enough of that. Onwards, before I change my mind! Will Montenegro continue on its path to greatness, or will it crumble under its own weight as all empires tend to do?


Update!

Beyond all reasonable expectations, including my own, we have not only manage to survive our predicament but also begun to thrive in our own right. As such, I have decided to add some "bonuses" at specific intervals, just to keep things interesting.

• 1500 - Difficulty changed from normal to hard.
• 1550 - Difficulty changed from hard to very hard.
• 1600 - Badboy wars. The infamy limit will be reduced to 0 and the purelynasty events will be removed. Basicly infamy will once again function as a warning flag for the AI.

If you would like to suggest a "bonus" you think is suitable then feel free to send me a PM! :happy:


Another update!

We have some new post-westernisation goals:

• Lose the top spot in inflation (The hordes don't count for this)
• Disband the HRE
• Annex Austria
• Push the heretical forms of Christianity out of Montenegro for good
• Win a war with at least 50% warscore against each of the European big bads (France, Spain, Great Britain)

Once these goals have all been completed the AAR will be considered successful!

 

[Personguyfellow]

I am equal parts giddy at the prospect of an enemy-led Montenegrin Empire and anxious that you not abandon your Timmie AAR.

And yes, Montenegrin is the correct adjectival form of Montenegro. I looked it up!

 

[Emeny]

I am equal parts giddy at the prospect of an enemy-led Montenegrin Empire

This had me confused for a moment! I thought perhaps I was unclear on how the game was set up, but I suspect you were simply too giddy to control your fingers while typing my name.

The timmies are still my priority, but I've not had much help working out how to preceed with that yet. And Montenegrin, huh? Makes sense to me.

 

[unmerged(88716)]

Nice work with Montenegro.
I'm trying something similar with Ragusa.
Well, not to fall so much back with technology, but it's always a fun game to start small.
Did you form your own COT to get more money? Monopolys from your own COTs would give you some speed in tech research.

 

[Webstantine]

I love Montenegro and all, but why is it already so big? I wanted to see a build up of it?

 

[MondoPotato]

I love Montenegro and all, but why is it already so big? I wanted to see a build up of it?

Well, judging from Montenegro's current position, if things go horribly awry it might shrink a bit, so you can watch it build back up later. Or just watch it get bigger and bigger until the whole world fears the mighty Empire of Montenegro!

Either way, it's an interesting start! Montenegro rarely seems to get much attention.

 

[Emeny]

@moonsik: I'm not sure if your used to mods, but I am nowhere near able to make monopolies. I doubt I could even afford a CoT, though I'm also currently in a trade league anyway.

@Webstantine: Well there is actually a bit of backstory to this one. This save is from a failed attempt at one of ATBKINGs challenges and I literally had no intention of playing it past this date. (Which is why its on normal and not very hard.)

The idea behind this AAR isn't just to show that OPM can grow big and conquer lots of things. I'm sure there are plenty of AARs who have done just that. Rather, it's to take the reins of an empire of the verge of colapse and try to hold it together against all odds. Times are tough to say the least, and in the hands of the AI our dear Montenegro would vanish almost in an instant.

But just to make you feel special, have a couple progress pictures I took for the challenge.

Spoiler

Claim throne + pray to GOD.

War with Venice drags in DOTF Castille. I am being extremely stubborn, but they are pretty much out of troops at this point.

Another big war. Bohemia is the Emperor.

Everybody wants a peice of the Ottomans.

Karma for Hungary, probably.

@MondoPotato: Welcome! I must admit I am something of a fan of your work. Though I don't often enjoy historical AARs I do admire your skills at writing. I hope this goes well so you stick around and teach me some things, but honestly I have no idea how long it will last. It is really set up to fail and there are plenty of countries that will dogpile me if they see any weakness, so if I do any shrinking it will probably be a lot.

 

[Emeny]

Chapter One​

First things first, we need to drop that infamy down under the limit before we attract any unwanted attention. Hungry was recently integrated, and will make a fine ally without taking any of our precious cores.

With that taken care of, we can look to the economy. First order of business is recovering some of that stability. With the release of Hungary and infamy cut in half, the cost should go down dramatically.

We have a huge stack of cash, but income is pretty poor. We will have to spend it carefully. The tribute to the horde is very minor and removes one of our major threats. Besides, it would costs 2 stability to break and we can't afford to capture any horde territory anyway so that shall stay for now.

We are also going to have to start chipping away at that inflation sooner rather than later, but getting a strong economy first is far more important.

The first step to a strong economy is religious unity, and with a good admin ruler and plenty of missionaries we are in a good position to go a-converting.

The next thing we will need to deal with is our god-awful military force. Our current forces are barely enough to keep the rebels under control, let alone deal with any sort of invasion. Our regular troops are near useless however, so let's have a look around to see if we can't find a better option.

That's more like it! It seems those Ottomans have powered ahead in tech with the loss of their Greek provinces, and we happily reap their benefits by recruiting 8 of their infantry and a couple cavalry. That's really all we can afford for now.

Now that we have some troops to handle ourselves with, let's have a look at what the rest of the world is up to. Our two biggest threats, Bohemia and Austria, are unfortunately allied to each other. This could be disastrous if they were to attack us in unison. The most we can do for now however is send out warnings and guarantees to try to split them up. Austria doesn't completely hate us so they can have a nice guarantee.

England also doesn't utterly hate us, so they can have a nice guarantee too. We really need to find a strong ally somewhere so we can at least appear somewhat threatening.

Hopefully sometime soon too, as Austria is currently in control of a pretty scary HRE. Bohemia next in line is even worse, as they are looming far more threateningly over us.

But enough worrying about what might be. Since our advisors are all young and fantastic, let's see if we can't use our culture to make some more cash. We can always use more cash.

We also aren't likely to be completing this mission any time soon. Perhaps another would be more useful!

Well I guess that's everything we can do for now. As we don't own a CoT there is not much point is sending out merchants as our compete change is next to nothing outside our borders. Time to *gulp* unpause...

Good news! The world didn't suddenly implode! And also even better news: our new mission.

It's really about time we removed this blemish from our empire, but we should really have a look at how their ally Sicily would react before we go diving into a war.

Can't get much better than that! Sicily has managed to not only get into a war with the Emperor, but France as well. To battle!

They still honour the call though and leave us outnumbered. I suppose there is nothing to do but quickly annex Achaea and bet on France feeling grumpy today.

Come to think of it, that's a pretty safe bet. Let's get some war taxes going.

Some buildings probably wouldn't hurt either. So far the people of Montenegro have seen nothing but armouries.

It turns out that wasn't enough to placate them, as more rebellions break out over being forced into yet another war. At least the rebels are helping.. kind of.

 

[Emeny]

Chapter Two​

The war with Sicily continues with little incident. Troops from France and Austria seem to be keeping them busy, so we are left with just a couple minor naval battles. Achaea is quickly conquered and annexed, completing our mission.

The next mission is... less than helpful. Thanks game. At least Sicily is happy to accept white peace, so we can start clearing up those rebels.

Our peasant war also progresses, giving us the next event in the chain. I'll happily take a free subject move for a slight temporary loss of max manpower. Not to mention the Revolt risk.

Things are looking slightly better now.

We also get the cash from buying up all those advisors coming in. Always happy to see that! It's just a shame our tech group is so small now, for some reason...

We also gain a point of stability! Just under 4 years for another one.

Another event with some cash, which is always welcome. We are getting pretty lucky with these events, eh?

To top it all off, we get the fantastic great man event from our alderman, who was hired pretty much solely for that purpose. Our stability is now back up to +3! Next up for research is government, heading all the way to tech 9 and a new idea.

Some ominous news arrives from Austria however. What are they planning..? It's not like we would have any interest in their CoT anyway. Just look at that thing.

It's pretty quiet for a while until we finally get a province to convert. It's only Corfu, but still. It's a start. Our economy needs all the help it can get!

1464 begins with us reaching gov tech 5! We power on towards 6, letting neighbour bonus drag the others along. We also get the unfortunate "Scandal at the court" event. It's a stab hit either way, so we will just take the prestige hit as well.

I have been trying pretty desperately to get our manpower back up to a reasonable amount, but all the rebel hunting is actually draining it faster than we gain it. I really hope that peasant war ends soon...

Sometime after we hit land tech 5 through neighbour and leader bonus alone. We are so behind...

We also get a slider bonus though, so time for some centralisation! We are still not at the government limitation for it, and maybe one day I'll even manage to actually westernise.

It kind of figures that we end up with the stability hit, though. Kind of a shame, but we can let it regain naturally for now.

It's another peaceful several months before anything else happens, though I can't complain. We are still in no shape to get involved in more wars.

Oh well. Let us leave our dearly beloved and fairly stupid heir's fate in the hands of the gods!

Ahh... Well, back to the uhh... bedroom then, I guess.

 

[Emeny]

Chapter Three​

It's thankfully been pretty smooth sailing so far, but we are still pretty vulnerable and I think I spy some dark clouds ahead...

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The new year begins with fantastic news; The end of the peasant war!

Revolt Risk is reduced significantly, hopefully meaning a drop in rebels that will allow us to recover some manpower. We also get a nice boost to our tax income!

It's not all good news though. We also get a particularly harsh event and both options are pretty terrible for us right now. In the end I decide to go with the inflation as going in negative stability and spending a good 8 years or so getting it back up sounds pretty unpleasant. We are already so far behind, and until we fix that we won't be able to even start working on our inflation.

Not long into 1468 we finally see the problem with smugglers starting to decline.

We also see another stability point regained! We are back up to +2, though still focusing investments heavily into government.

All is well so far and when we reach 1470 income is finally back into positive territory!

Another silly event tries to bring us down, but we haven't seen much spy activity yet. Hopefully we can ignore things for now and it will be fine...

And it is! For, you know, a while. Uhh... I hope you all brought umbrellas, because this would be a great time to hold them towards the fan. Even without a CB, Bohemia was far too tempted to resist trying to gobble up some of our lands.

So much for trying to reduce inflation! We dive right into full panic mode, and start minting like there is no tomorrow! And indeed, if things go badly then there very well might not be...

Enemy forces flood across the border en mass while we flee like scared little girls. Even Hungary is unwilling to meet them!

We mustered the best of troops under our most capable general and advance north to protect Kiev; probably the most valuable province we own. Even the capital is expendable next to this!

The battles goes surprisingly well. Incredibly well in fact, and we are even able to run them down after a clear victory. (On the last day of the month!) These Ottoman troops really are quite amazing!

An opinion that is shared among the enemy, it seems. After seeing the battle play out so poorly for their war leader, Sicily reconsidering supporting their ally and sends us a peace agreement. It's kind of harsh, but a clear sign of their reluctance and we use our temporary advantage to gain something more reasonable.

Milan quickly follows suit. We are only outnumbered ~5-1 now!

No such luck with Austria however, so we bring our entire force down upon a small section of theirs. Victory seems likely, but even so we are losing land and manpower rapidly. If that runs out we may end up with more unwanted external interest.

As if things weren't bad enough already, our ruler shows his wartime inexperience and loses his nerve. Perhaps the pressures of being compared to the previous ruler got to him?

It seems Bohemia has taken pity on us, and offers us a fairly reasonable peace. Pressburg is a Hungary province, so not a huge loss, and Albania is a core.

Should we accept...?

 

[ATBKING]

heck no

 

[cuendillar]

Consolidating doesn't sound so bad, your country is in a pretty poor shape. You could probably make better use of the truce than they can, I think you should take a step back now in order to take three ahead later.

 

[Lord Curlyton]

Do you think you can get Austria out of the war in any way, shape or form that isn't crippling to you? If yes, get them out and focus on Bohemia. If no....well, you'll have 10 years to try and form a useful alliance and get ready for Round 2.

 

[Hughrocks123]

Of Course, there will be a time to attack Albania later. I think it is in your culture group, so it won't go away either.

 

[Emeny]

Some good points being made on both sides! The gamble is, of course, whether or not I can get Austria out of the war without having to take a similar or worse deal than what Bohemia is offering, and that I'll still have enough juice left to then take on Bohemia directly. If not, I doubt Bohemia will be offering such a generous peace deal again.

But alas, ATBKING knows me far too well. Update will be sometime tomorrow!

 

[unmerged(540854)]

This is an interesting read so far. Once your economy is more stable will you go bankrupt on purpose to reduce inflation (after just having made peace with the biggest threats ofcourse, don't want them moving in during to two years of low morale.) or will you keep picking away at it with advisors and a bank?

 

[Emeny]

@Gruzmog: I wasn't planning on it, nope! It does seem like a decent way to take a big slice out of inflation, but it's not necessary by any means. Are you sure it only lasts for 2 years, though?

 

[Emeny]

Chapter Four​

The Bohemian offer for peace is boldly rejected; This would be a grand war to utter defeat. Let's just hope it will not be on our part.

The battle against Austria goes well and they quickly offer a peace deal of their own for another Hungary province and some cash. But well, if we won't accept such a deal from Bohemia than we won't from Austria either. For now we press onwards!

As the war continues we get some heartening news: Bohemia has gotten itself into another war with a few other bordering nations. This is a welcome distraction to say the least!

Chasing down Austria troops has taken a harsh toll on both our current forces and manpower pool, but good progress is being made. We have overwhelmed several of their armies and in one case managed to completely wipe them out.

Thoroughly bloodied, Austria offers a peace that is much more to our liking. With them now out of the war we may actually have a change of pushing back against Bohemia!

But first we must deal with Aquileia. Their army is defeated in Dalmatia and ran down in Croatia, then sieges establish in their homelands. They shouldn't be bothering us too much now.

With that done, and our armies back to full capacity, we can start our push against Bohemia. Manpower is basically drained at this point and Bohemia has far more troops than us so we shall have to be wary of casualties.

Once again the Ottoman troops excel in battle and some well timed victories allow us to do massive damage to the Bohemian forces. We also spy our allies of circumstance, making their own push from the north.

For the first time since the war began we are no longer outnumbered, and Bohemia tries to buy us off with a white peace despite holding 4 of our provinces. We will have none of it!

Our king seems to have a found a effective way to relieve his stress from the war, and soon a new heir is born. He is quite similar to the previous heir.

Our friends in Brandenburg are not quite as stubborn however, and are quick to accept white peace when it is offered. Now alone in this war and with a severely diminished army, we charge forth for a climactic battle in Bohemia's capital. Bohemia will be fighting with everything they have left, and a loss here could easily turn the tide against us.

The fates are on our side however, as a hard earned victory is gained. Not only that, but the timing was fantastic and we prepare to chase the fleeing army to its end. We can't celebrate just yet, though.

The final Bohemian army is successfully ran down and we can now start establishing sieges throughout their nation.

The glorious news starts to spread across our country, and one of our ministers in particular is hailed as our savour where our ruler had been lacking.

Our armies were spread out and Bohemia is now completely under siege. There is little they are able to do at this point.

We are now nearing government 6, and an embassy would be a huge help if we are to take any of the land. We decide to take advantage of our glorious victory to establish some war taxes and once again turn minting back up to full.

Aquileia is an Austrian vassal, but as Austria has already left the war we are free to interact with them however we wish. Don't mind if I do!

Bohemia is now fully occupied, but we stall the peace deals for a bit longer in order to raise some magistrates (and maybe to max out their war exhaustion). Do orthodox countries have to deal with HRE demands? I guess we will find out...

It seems that Ratibor can't wait that long though, and attempts to defect immediately despite not even having a border with us. Well.. it will probably be fine?

And with that, it's time to forge a proper peace deal. Ideally we want to weaken Bohemia as much as possible, so splitting their empire in half seems like the best option. Hopefully some of those provinces will manage to revolt back to Poland.

 

[Lord Curlyton]

Excellent play! Break the Bohemians like that and they likely won't recover. Though I'm betting your next HRE will be Austria, though...

 

[ATBKING]

Wonderful!! Thats what Im talking about!! Honour has befallen your troops!!