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Thank you all for your votes, and a warm welcome to all the newcomers!

Results:


7 Avignon
7 Brabant
3 Morocco
3 Polotsk
3 Oirat Horde
2 ERE
2 Oman​



We had a very close election this time around, and lots of votes spread amongst the runner-ups!

As per rules, if there is a tie, and one of the options is to extend the previous nation's time, I hereby announce Avignon as the winner of the third elections. I will get to playing and will give you an update as soon as possible. Let us hope I will not ruin my own creation.

I'm going to vote Avignon-the AI would lose all your hard-won gains within 50 years (as with Morocco). Honestly, I think you should spend more time with each country-20 years doesn't feel like enough.

I actually agree with that and if I were to restart this AAR, I'd probably set the time limit to 40 or 50 years. However, since I already started I am going to keep the 20 years for now. Besides, more often than not a country will have a chance to expand their period, like this time around.
 
One more last vote!

Brabant!

:D


Avignon is in a fairly solid position, and as you said - if France attacks then there's nothing you could do anyway.

Brabant is a new player that can become a regional power if guided.
 
I missed another election! :mad: I really need to check this more often..
 
@Roflpotamus: My apologies but the election was over by the time you cast your votes. I'm sure Brabant will be up as a choice next time around as well if they are still up and running. :)

@GreatUberGeek: Yes you should! :p I try to always inform readers that there's going to be an election couple of updates before a country's period comes to a close.




I - Avignon - Down Down, Into the Chaos Descend

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Here we go again! I immediately declared war on Tuscany despite the fact that I have quite a bit of AE in store from the previous period. I couldn't go against Savoy yet due to their alliance with a much stronger Aragon - or so I though, which proved to be wrong in many ways as you are to find out later on. The above picture is slightly wrong since the actual wargoal of my war was Siena (much richer a province).

I moved my fleet to the Ligurian Sea and began hauling men in groups of 4000 over to Tuscany since Ferrara hates me too much to grant a military access.

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Soon Austria collapsed and Luxembourg broke free, though the ex-emperor managed to keep rest of their holdings. Bohemia and Hungary agreed to a peace where the Emperor paid some ducats to the Hungarians.

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For some odd reason Naples thought it was more helpful to unite their forces with my stranded men in Liguria rather than come and aid my besieging forces in Pisa... at this point I had counted on the Neapolitans to take on with the Tuscan armies and thus took the risk of making an actual landing on enemy territory.

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I naturally suffered a defeat and retreated to Napoli where I began assembling my men through a tedious shipping operation. Also, that's an odd name for an Italian.

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More silly Germans appear out of nowhere to pester me.

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Oh great! I decided to take the risk and agreed to join the war, knowing that I would be taking most of the damage due to literally standing in the way of the enemy armies.

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This is starting to feel familiar! Loans are hoarded as I begin recruiting more men in Italy.

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Catalan hordes immediately cross the border and begin sieging my provinces despite the fact that they can't get any land from me.

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On the upside, since Ferrara is fighting on our side I can finally move my armies through their territories. I combine my forces with the Neapolitans and take on with the Tuscan army in Ancona, routing them to Firenze where the enemy was evaporated.

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As you can see we are greatly outnumbered by the enemy forces, though to my surprise I have complete naval supremacy in this war and moved my fleet to blockade Aragonese ports. I would be interested to know what happened to the Catalan fleet.

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My only hope is to keep the enemy armies divided and take them on one by one. The Neapolitans thought it more important to head south and besiege Aragonese Sicily rather than help me defeat their actual armies.

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Here I made a crucial mistake. The Savoyard armies were on their way to besiege Provence, which I should have let them do and attack the smaller Aragonese army in Brescia, but I was impatient and thought it more important to decimate the larger stacks first, counting on the Aragonese to stay put in Brescia.

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I was wrong.

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And that's how the war of Aragonese Conquest of Calabria began, the very first step on our way down into an abyss.​
 
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Yay, bloodshed! :p I BET you wish you went with Polotsk right about now, huh? Right? Right? ;)

This is actually going to be very interesting, hard times make for great stories in AARs and I'm excited to read how you go about aleviating the problems.
 
Just to let you know that you have won another follower for your entertaining AAR. Since I am a complete noob I will probably not comment a lot on it, but i'm sure to learn a great deal about how t effectively play EUIV
 
@Makkovar: Blame your co-voters. :p And indeed they do, and on top of that you haven't even been revealed the full extent of my problems at this point.

@Enewald: To be fair they became superior only after the Catalans moved in. But I told you I was impatient. :D

@Putzibram: Thank you welcome aboard! I hope you will learn a great deal by avoiding the silly mistakes I will be making during this AAR.




II - Turning the Tide for a While

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After realising that my armies have routed to their capital, the Neapolitans quickly dispatched their forces from the south and clashed with the enemy in Modena. They managed to win over the Aragonese, but were routed by an approaching Savoyard army that caught them on low morale.

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I couldn't make it in time to help in either battle and manoeuvred my armies to Romagna where the Catalans had retreated.

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I had to endure some casualties, but the Catalans were now on a retreat back to Spain and my armies moved onwards to take on the Savoyards.

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The victory was dear, but I followed their retreating forces to Lombardia were the rest of their army was wiped out for good.

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At this point I concluded that I could ignore Aragon for a while and let them besiege my provinces while concentrating my efforts on winning in Tuscany. I could have just made a white peace with the latter at this point, or demanded some ducats from them but I weighted my options and came to a conclusion that I could safely end this war before continuing wrestling the larger opponent.

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In April 1482, our coffers were filled in a proper Avignonese fashion and more mercenaries were hired.

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Since 1.2 seemed to change the cost of technology by altering the ahead of time modifier, I am over 10 years ahead in military tech and could safely spend some points to unlock yet another idea, which also unlocked first of my Divine Ideas, giving me a 10% boost to discipline.

In other news, the great Anti-Turkish coalition collapsed, enabling the Ottomans to declare a war on ERE, taking Constantinople later on in a peace.

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And wham! More Germans begin crowding in Avignon, only of different sort though, and this time there's too many of them to bear. It seems Münster has joined the war against Bohemia on the side of the Teutonic Order, and as natural strategists they came down south to pester the main culprit of the war.

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Well, at least I don't need to worry about the Hansa splashing more troops against my walls. In the other hand, the entire Bohemian armies are now indefinitely stuck in Hanseatic territories since nobody likes them well enough to grant a military access, which means this silly war will drag on and on and I must keep enduring these German intruders.

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Well, I would definitely love to see his stats for fire in place of shock during this time period. Still an improvement over my previous general though.

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It is January 1483 and nothing worthy of reporting has happened in the war. The Neapolitans redeployed some troops to besiege Sicily after sitting idle in Napoli for six months.

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Elsewhere, Granada is annexed by Portugal, while Gibraltar was handed to Morocco in an earlier peace deal. The rereconquista is practically a distant dream at this point.

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Suddenly, out of nowhere a newly built Aragonese navy appears, catching my blockading fleet unaware and forcing me to abandon the seas. Not a big loss, but a setback nonetheless.

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Tuscany falls under full occupation in June 1483 and a peace is quickly signed. It is time to concentrate on the western front.​
 
:rofl:
Did anyone else notice that the Tuscan armies in the first new Avignon update were led by Vahktang IV Bagrationi?
 
Some bloody wars this time around. Hopefully that nice discipline boost will let you kick the Germans out without getting your manpower nuked. And was that an Indian-Italian general? Didn't think the Europeans would get around to there for a few more centuries.
 
Great AAR! I really like the style you've chosen (with the 20-year intervals), and the way you're narrating. Keep up the good work, hopefully you'll be able to force the Spanish bastards into an uncomfortable peace. Although I would have liked to see an update with Brabant.. :p
 
@Enewald: I was actually thinking of the Great War myself when posting that update. :D

@WizardOfYendor: Well I do hope you are right about the extra discipline!

@WizardOfYendor, GreatUberGeek: Don't think that it's an Indian name. I did a quick google-search and turns out its a name of Persian origin, apparently used by a handful of Georgian monarchs so who knows, it might have something to do with Genoa's holding of Kaffa, though I didn't see any mention of it being used by Greeks. Then again I have no idea how the naming mechanisms work in EUIV, funny nonetheless.

@DaVegaNL: Thank you and welcome aboard! I feel humbled by all the praise I've been receiving, and I'm especially glad to hear you like my style of narration since I often consider it to be rather plain and simple (ie. boring). I do try to add a pinch of humour wherever I can though. And no worries, I haven't finished playing the whole period yet but Brabant is still alive and doing well at this point!




III - There's a Bottom Somewhere and I Don't Think We Hit It Yet

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The French didn't take kindly to my fast expansion and joined the coalition against me. It seems I have also grown powerful and dangerous enough for them to actually consider me a rival now. Strangely enough I feel a bit humbled by that...

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I marched my men back to Occitania to properly open up the western front. Once again the Neapolitans thought it more important to keep their armies in Italy. The Aragonese main army fled to France ahead of my advancing men, but I managed to catch their secondary forces and their little German friends in Provence.

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I can't say I felt sorry for them.

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Elsewhere Aachen is cut down by a half. I was hoping for the purple patch to spread around Northwestern Germany but I guess that remains a distant aesthetic dream for now.

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Meanwhile Aragon's remaining forces cross the border back into Languedoc, and despite their attempt to flee to France once more (who knows what lies behind this brilliant manoeuvring), I managed to cut their escape short and a battle ensued.

At this point I also realised that due to the previously mentioned changes to the average year new technologies should be unlocked at, I am a step or two ahead of a lot nations including Aragon, which gives me a bit of an unfair advantage over them. Most unfortunate about this is that the main difference between my military tech (level 7) and that of Aragon's (level 6) is a +0.25 increase to military tactics that reduces one's casualties. This combined with my newly-gained discipline boost and superior morale of troops turned each battle with the Catalans into a massacre.

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I'll just let the results speak for themselves.

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I chased their retreating forces deep into Spain where another slaughtering took place.

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The Turks were appalled by this inhumane blood-letting and threw a warning at me.

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I chased the Catalan's back to our mutual border and reduced their armies by over half to barely 4000 men. Rest of the war will now be like a walk in the park. :)



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Ooh. I wonder how you could win this.
 
Heh, but you might manage to keep your armies intact as long as they are in Aragonese terrain where the French cannot enter. Then do hit and run tactics back and forth, hopefully hitting small French forces that they leave behind to siege your provinces.

And pray a lot! :D
 
Fantastic AAR :)

Cannot wait to see France steamro- I mean be crushed by your forces!