Welcome to what will, hopefully, be a fairly entertaining game play AAR. The country is Switzerland, the year 1399 and the difficulty/aggressiveness hard/high.
I’ll admit, I haven’t played the game for a while. I’m rusty, so if anyone would like to chip in with explanations for the various mechanics of the game that my understanding is incorrect on or that I simply don’t understand completely, feel free to chip in.
Updates will likely be daily or every other day in bundles of ten years at a time, unless the decade is particularly busy or some other issue prevents me from posting relatively healthily sized, middle of the way updates. As for goals, I’m not too sure. Becoming the foremost land/trading power would be a sufficient enough target; otherwise I’m just going to try and survive!
So, let’s get on with it, shall we?
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This is Switzerland. Its ruler is a regency council for the moment, though a competent one. As Switzerland is an Administrative Republic, and I have no plans to change this, these councils should be a thing of the past once this one is out of the way.
I decide to invest in stability straight the way. I want to get up to +3 as quick as I can to receive all of the juicy benefits that come with it.
I then use my free slider move to edge toward Free Trade. This upsets my merchants, firing an event that costs me all of my starting merchants in one, fell swoop. This isn’t all that bad, as we shall see.
This is the state of the armed forces – 2,000 infantry formed up in the Armee von Bern. Not a threat to the various powers around me – Burgundy, Milan, Austria, Savoy, perhaps even the German minors to the north – and hardly a sufficient defence against an incursion by any one of these powers. This will have to be improved gradually – my funds as of present are somewhat lacking.
Remember those merchants I lost? Remember how I said it didn’t matter? Here’s why.
These costs for sending just one merchant are, frankly, out of my reach for the moment. I’ll gradually send merchants, just as I’ll gradually improve the army – one regiment and one merchant at a time – but in this early stage of the game I simply can’t afford to send merchants even if I had them. Trade is going to be vital for me; Switzerland at present is a minor, two province power. I’m going to need a significant advantage in technology if I want to prevail over greater powers, and increased trade leads to faster tech research. Thanks to Switzerland’s natural advantage as a trading power due to its form of government, this shouldn’t be too tasking once we start lowering those sending costs.
With all that out of the way, I start up the game. Alliances from Ferrara and Tuscany are declined. I see little point in allying with powers that are likely to get munched on by Milan. Brabant is similarly declined – an alliance with them won’t provide much benefit around this area of the map.
11/11/1399 - I join Genoa’s trade league. I can’t for the life of me remember whether this is a good/bad thing to do for someone wishing to become a trading power, so for now we’re in Genoa’s trade league.
15/11/1399 – You may have realised by this point that I haven’t hired any advisors. This, as you will soon see, is all part of my strategy, one in which - alright, I forgot.
Two trade competition and a land tech advisor. These should help me both in tech advancement and trade – both interlinked.
23/12/1399 – The Palatinate offers an alliance. I accept, they’re a moderate German power and normally in my games they rise to quite a significant position in the HRE. They’re in a fairly close proximity too, so hopefully they’ll be useful.
10/02/1400 – 4/06/1400 Stability increases to +3. Nothing else really happens. Rebels are spawning everywhere but Switzerland. I shift my tech focus to Government Technology to try and get my first National Idea as quickly as possible – the slider tells me it’ll go up a level in June 1409. Eugh. Little too long for my taste, but trade will soon sort that out.
12/02/1400
...
...
...
...
Huh. Anyway, at the time I already had three merchants, so I figured getting another three was a waste. I settled for 1 extra merchant and an increase in overseas income.
In my haste to accept such a generous offer, I failed to recognise that I have no overseas provinces or overseas income.
2/10/1400 – I conduct a population census in the capital, Bern, to receive some nice bonuses to the local tax, manpower and growth stats.
8/10/1400 – The two merchants I sent to Liguria are successful. Their income from the centre lowers the Government tech ‘level up’ date by two years.
18/12/1400 – Baden accepts our offer of an alliance. No-one else would have me – they must think I’m going to attract all of the local predators or something.
But not Baden. Baden’s got my back.
24/12/1400 – Baden breaks the alliance.
28/07/1401 – Feeling confident in both funds and costs, I set Liguria to low priority and let the AI send my merchants there. By the 28th, 5 succeed and dominate the centre. This cuts the Government tech back down by another two years, setting the completion date back to 1405.
28/10/1403 – Honestly, except Savoy accepting an alliance and a couple of merchants broaching Lubeck, absolutely nothing of significance happened. Oh, and Cologne guaranteed us. Not really sure why, but I’m sure the AI has a good reason.
...
But seriously, I have no idea why Cologne guaranteed me.
The Papal States sends me an alliance offer, which I accept. After Ferrara took Romagna they’re only a minor power in Italy, but I’ll be down there soon enough and I may need their help.
Oh, and there’s the new guy. I clicked ‘Vote Administrative Candidate’ but the guy took my order wrong.
In any case he’s decent. He’ll also be useful for the immediate future.
6/11/1404 – Land tech level 4 is reached. I increase the army to a mighty 4,000 men – 3,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry. Are you excited? I'm excited.
3/03/1405 – Finally! I get to pick my first NI. I pick Merchant Adventures. Should help with the monstrous merchant costs we’ve been facing so far. (-33% merchant cost)
---
I’ll admit, I haven’t played the game for a while. I’m rusty, so if anyone would like to chip in with explanations for the various mechanics of the game that my understanding is incorrect on or that I simply don’t understand completely, feel free to chip in.
Updates will likely be daily or every other day in bundles of ten years at a time, unless the decade is particularly busy or some other issue prevents me from posting relatively healthily sized, middle of the way updates. As for goals, I’m not too sure. Becoming the foremost land/trading power would be a sufficient enough target; otherwise I’m just going to try and survive!
So, let’s get on with it, shall we?
---
This is Switzerland. Its ruler is a regency council for the moment, though a competent one. As Switzerland is an Administrative Republic, and I have no plans to change this, these councils should be a thing of the past once this one is out of the way.
I decide to invest in stability straight the way. I want to get up to +3 as quick as I can to receive all of the juicy benefits that come with it.
I then use my free slider move to edge toward Free Trade. This upsets my merchants, firing an event that costs me all of my starting merchants in one, fell swoop. This isn’t all that bad, as we shall see.
This is the state of the armed forces – 2,000 infantry formed up in the Armee von Bern. Not a threat to the various powers around me – Burgundy, Milan, Austria, Savoy, perhaps even the German minors to the north – and hardly a sufficient defence against an incursion by any one of these powers. This will have to be improved gradually – my funds as of present are somewhat lacking.
Remember those merchants I lost? Remember how I said it didn’t matter? Here’s why.
These costs for sending just one merchant are, frankly, out of my reach for the moment. I’ll gradually send merchants, just as I’ll gradually improve the army – one regiment and one merchant at a time – but in this early stage of the game I simply can’t afford to send merchants even if I had them. Trade is going to be vital for me; Switzerland at present is a minor, two province power. I’m going to need a significant advantage in technology if I want to prevail over greater powers, and increased trade leads to faster tech research. Thanks to Switzerland’s natural advantage as a trading power due to its form of government, this shouldn’t be too tasking once we start lowering those sending costs.
With all that out of the way, I start up the game. Alliances from Ferrara and Tuscany are declined. I see little point in allying with powers that are likely to get munched on by Milan. Brabant is similarly declined – an alliance with them won’t provide much benefit around this area of the map.
11/11/1399 - I join Genoa’s trade league. I can’t for the life of me remember whether this is a good/bad thing to do for someone wishing to become a trading power, so for now we’re in Genoa’s trade league.
15/11/1399 – You may have realised by this point that I haven’t hired any advisors. This, as you will soon see, is all part of my strategy, one in which - alright, I forgot.
Two trade competition and a land tech advisor. These should help me both in tech advancement and trade – both interlinked.
23/12/1399 – The Palatinate offers an alliance. I accept, they’re a moderate German power and normally in my games they rise to quite a significant position in the HRE. They’re in a fairly close proximity too, so hopefully they’ll be useful.
10/02/1400 – 4/06/1400 Stability increases to +3. Nothing else really happens. Rebels are spawning everywhere but Switzerland. I shift my tech focus to Government Technology to try and get my first National Idea as quickly as possible – the slider tells me it’ll go up a level in June 1409. Eugh. Little too long for my taste, but trade will soon sort that out.
12/02/1400
...
...
...
...
Huh. Anyway, at the time I already had three merchants, so I figured getting another three was a waste. I settled for 1 extra merchant and an increase in overseas income.
In my haste to accept such a generous offer, I failed to recognise that I have no overseas provinces or overseas income.
2/10/1400 – I conduct a population census in the capital, Bern, to receive some nice bonuses to the local tax, manpower and growth stats.
8/10/1400 – The two merchants I sent to Liguria are successful. Their income from the centre lowers the Government tech ‘level up’ date by two years.
18/12/1400 – Baden accepts our offer of an alliance. No-one else would have me – they must think I’m going to attract all of the local predators or something.
But not Baden. Baden’s got my back.
24/12/1400 – Baden breaks the alliance.
28/07/1401 – Feeling confident in both funds and costs, I set Liguria to low priority and let the AI send my merchants there. By the 28th, 5 succeed and dominate the centre. This cuts the Government tech back down by another two years, setting the completion date back to 1405.
28/10/1403 – Honestly, except Savoy accepting an alliance and a couple of merchants broaching Lubeck, absolutely nothing of significance happened. Oh, and Cologne guaranteed us. Not really sure why, but I’m sure the AI has a good reason.
...
But seriously, I have no idea why Cologne guaranteed me.
The Papal States sends me an alliance offer, which I accept. After Ferrara took Romagna they’re only a minor power in Italy, but I’ll be down there soon enough and I may need their help.
Oh, and there’s the new guy. I clicked ‘Vote Administrative Candidate’ but the guy took my order wrong.
In any case he’s decent. He’ll also be useful for the immediate future.
6/11/1404 – Land tech level 4 is reached. I increase the army to a mighty 4,000 men – 3,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry. Are you excited? I'm excited.
3/03/1405 – Finally! I get to pick my first NI. I pick Merchant Adventures. Should help with the monstrous merchant costs we’ve been facing so far. (-33% merchant cost)
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