The Great Cod war - Denmark in March of the Eagles

[WoodStove]

The Great Cod War

So march of the Eagles has been out and as a fan of Paradox I bought it as soon as I could and played around with it, by far my favourite thing to do in any Paradox game is to play as one of the weaker nations and try to turn it into a superpower (Bulgarian Empire in HOI2 anyone?) so as I played March of the Eagles my attention was drawn to the one nation in the north. Denmark. Ladies and Gentlemen get prepared for the wars that will both shape and ravage the earth this is the Great Cod War.

But first some history:

Denmark in 1805

Denmark in the 18th century had been a peaceful country the only war Denmark had been involved in was the great northern war which ended badly however after this war Denmark went through a period of prosperity, the economy boomed, the Danish fleet was one of the most powerful in the world and the nobles sought enlightenment, Sweden had ceased being a threat and Russia lost interest it seemed like Denmark could be content with sitting back and letting war trouble elsewhere. However all good things come to an end. In 1801 the Danish fleet was ambushed by the British at Copenhagen and 15 ships were sunk, captured or blown to pieces and Denmark has yet to recover from this. Now as the world is thrust into war it seems that the idea of peace is just too far-fetched.

The winds of change blow across Europe and Denmark is going to seize it's chance

 

[WoodStove]

First update will come tomorrow probably however I've found that I generally seem to postpone things so please don't get angry with me if it comes out a few days from now and also as my number of posts indicate this is my first AAR so if it is terrible and you want to tell me please do so while giving constructive criticism

 

[Avindian]

A Denmark AAR is certainly unexpected; I look forward to seeing how you do!

 

[WoodStove]

The Great Cod war - Denmark in March of the Eagles

Chapter 1 - A leaf blown in the winds of time

The plague of war has infected Europe, the French Emperor Napoleon and King George III wage war over Europe and more and more nations are brought into the conflict, however up north lies one peaceful nation. Denmark. Thus far Denmark has avoided war however on the 29th of January 1805 King Christian VII attacked the small nation of Mecklenburg, this was a shock both overseas and in Denmark. It was an unprovoked war and many were against it but nevertheless Denmark's long forgotten armies marched into Mecklenburg.



The Danish force was led by Wilhelm Friedrich Philipp von Württemberg an aggressive commander, as soon as the siege of Lubek started he ordered an assault, the siege was won a day later although a thousand dead Danish-men lay around Lubek. The Danish force then moved on to Rostock and here they faced a garrison of a thousand men, again an assault was ordered and again a thousand men died. Although these sieges had killed two thousand men they had done two things: firstly they had proven that Wilhelm Friedrich Philipp von Württemberg was masterful in command of artillery and secondly these sieges had won the war. A few days later Mecklenburg was annexed.



The war was over in eleven days, thus it was dubbed the "eleven day war" and Christian was celebrated as being a powerful king however in Britain things were different. The attack on Copenhagen had been to try and curb any aggressive ideas from Denmark however it now seemed to have done the opposite. The British Government was outraged but they could do little as the war with France demanded their full attention.

On the 24th of January British troops landed in Bremerhaven and France in retaliation tried to persuade Denmark to join an alliance to defeat the British, Christian VII quickly and politely declined this invitation, "Denmark was not ready for such a large war" he informed the French, this was a move that isolated Denmark diplomatically however and Christian knew it.



However Christian was planning something else, a small nation lay next to the Netherlands named "Oldenburg" and as the people of Oldenburg woke up and spotted the Danish ships coming towards them one simple fact could not be doubted. War was coming.

 

[WoodStove]

A Denmark AAR is certainly unexpected; I look forward to seeing how you do!

Thanks

 

[unmerged(346511)]

Played Denmark before too. I hope for King Christian that Prussia focuses on Sweden/Stralsund instead of your freshly conquered lands in Mecklenburg. Cause they sure love Lubeck

Good luck to you!

 

[Seelmeister]

Good luck, this will be a very interesting game! Do you intend to join the French coalition at some stage?

 

[WoodStove]

Played Denmark before too. I hope for King Christian that Prussia focuses on Sweden/Stralsund instead of your freshly conquered lands in Mecklenburg. Cause they sure love Lubeck

Good luck to you!

Thanks

Good luck, this will be a very interesting game! Do you intend to join the French coalition at some stage?

Right now I don't really have a long term plan, my main plan at this point is to bully weaker states and then try and form a coalition with Russia against Sweden.

 

[Alomoes]

You can only form coalitions against dominant powers? :unsure:

 

[WoodStove]

You can only form coalitions against dominant powers? :unsure:

Forgive me I haven't read much about the game and I'm figuring more stuff out as a go along.

 

[deadmeat1471]

Interesting AAr, I played Denmark myself because of this, it's really quite fun. Until Sweden and Britain steamrolled me!

 

[wwendler]

Good luck! This is the hardest Paradox game to be a minor power in. Egypt is the only minor I've seen do well.

 

[Vrael_1492]

Since this is the first AAR/LP with a minor I have seen, I am following. Good luck forward

 

[beezneez]

Definitely interested in seeing how you do with a minor, especially Denmark. In the two games I played so far they really took a beating. One small critique, your sentences run on a bit, but I love your writing style. Definitely not terrible, I want more please!

 

[Goodfortune99]

Love the title of AAR.

 

[Stuyvesant]

Good luck. That first war was very brief and successful, I expect Oldenburg will be more of the same. After that... Well, let's see if the British, or the French, or the Prussians take an interest in you.

 

[Belgiumruler]

Count me in!

 

[WoodStove]

A general lack of interest has been keeping me away from MOTE however I don't want to just completely abandon the AAR if people are still interested in it, however it seems like not many people visit the forums so if you're still interested in this AAR post a comment and I'll try and get an update out.

 

[DensleyBlair]

I'm definately interested. I'm looking forward to seeing the game played from a non GP point of view - and your beginning is good.

Please, do continue

 

[WoodStove]

I'm definately interested. I'm looking forward to seeing the game played from a non GP point of view - and your beginning is good.

Please, do continue

Well you managed to reply in 3 minutes so I suppose some people are still interested, I'll begin working on an update.