The Green Griffin - A Pomerania Death and Taxes AAR

[Naresh]

Hello!

I am Naresh and this will be my first attempt at an AAR, I am a long standing player of EU3, and a long time lurker of the forum, especially the AAR side of things.

I hope I'm not too forward just posting a thread without asking permission or anything, but I couldn't find a thread saying to ask permission before posting about an AAR, so I am assuming it is fine, if not, please let me know so I can rectify the situation.


I will be running a Pomerania AAR, using the grand old Death and Taxes mod, v. 10.4. Settings are standard (medium difficulty) - 100 years for sea and land spread, lucky nations are random, starting in 1356.

Goals!

• Survive the initial inevitable attack from Sweden, Poland, Teutons, Brandenburg /all of them
• Become Holy Roman Emperor
• Form Prussia
• ???

Self imposed rules:
Never attack without CB,
Never go over infamy limit
Don't form the HRE
Do not vassalise electors (even though D&T imposes fairly high penalties for vassalising them, it still means an easy route to the HRE and an arguably boring game)
Nothing gamey.


Having never written an AAR before, so I'll try to keep it light, using explanations of my actions, screenshots and minor dialogue / RP. I tend to get bored by RP heavy AARs, so I'll try to steer clear of that. As an added bonus I'll try to sum up each chapter with a small poem, though I can't promise any sort of quality...

Updates should happen every other day, maybe extending to 2 per week as things become busier (University and all).

So assuming I don't get shouted at for starting this thread, first update will be this evening!

Table of Contents
Reign of King Barnim II Gryf - 1356-
Chapter One: To Holland Back! Jan 10 1356 - Nov 29 1360
Chapter Two: The Tip of the Branden-Burg. Nov 29 1360 - Aug 5 1370​

 

[v1989]

Good luck, but I think you made mistake with colour of Griffin as it is red.

 

[Naresh]

Good luck, but I think you made mistake with colour of Griffin as it is red.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I know the Griffin is red, but Pomerania itself is green, sorry for the confusion.

First post INCOMING!

 

[Naresh]

Chapter One To Holland Back

Chaper One: To Holland Back
Jan 10 1356 - Nov 29 1360

Pomerania starts in a precarious position, a small nation bordering some aggressive kingdoms, with easy access to the sea as a blessing and a curse, but under the wise tutelage of King Barnim III Gryf (Barney to his friends), and his wiser advisor Redgrave, we hope to see this small kingdom grow strong, to take its rightful place in history, can you build an empire than can stand the test of time? (oops, sorry, wrong game )




“Sire, sire please get up, the cabinet have assembled, they require your presence to discuss matters of state”
“Peasants? With steak? Leave me be Redgrave, I am trying to sleep”
“But sire!”
“I have spoken Redgrave, now leave”
“Yes your highness…”

Some hours later King Barney strides into his council chamber
“What is this nonsense about the serfs eating king’s food? There must be a hundred of them in my dining room eating venison!”
“It was your order sire….”

“Redgrave, this displeases me”

“Of course sire, now if you would please attend to the other matters, such as the diplomatic brief I gave you to read?”
“Yes, yes, I read it, I mean… skimmed it… Glanced… I saw the title. And no matter! It has been arranged”
“Sire?”
“Well your letter requested a relations with other nations, so I took care of the matter, 5 lovely princesses are coming from all over the empire and beyond to take my hand in marriage!”
“Sire? You do realise as a Catholic you can only marry one of these girls?”

“Of course! We’ll hold a beauty pageant! The one with the biggest… coffers gets to marry me while the rest can work in the kitchens, it’s not like they can hold a grudge or use poison or anything is it?”
“Sire… I…”
“Yes Redgrave?”
“How about some more stable alliances? We are in a precarious position, perhaps some strong neighbours would solidify our position”

• I took a slider move towards free trade in the hope of securing a decent income from trade, but then forgot to actually send any traders out… Damned peasants eating my steak!
• I then sent off/received a load of royal marriages and alliance requests, Brandenburg and Hungary accepted.

“Sire, it seems Brandenburg has declared war on Bavaria”

“Why?”
“We don’t know sire…”
“Um…”
“It seems they don’t know either sire, they couldn’t give a reason. They haven’t asked for our help, but Bohemia has joined in too sire, it would be good for our prest…”
“I HAVE IT! Redgrave, it is the battle for the biggest B and only the biggest B can win, we must not dabble in their affairs, for they are a B and we are a P, I believe I own a small P too Redgrave, can you believe it?”

“Almost certainly sire…”
“We must redress this issue immediately! Find me the charter of stately affairs!”
“Sire?”
“Who can we bully Redgrave…”
“It seems Holland is fairly open sire, They are allied with Bavaria and Gelre, but…”
“Do it! Cry wrath and summon the weasels of skirmishes!”
“I think the war cry needs work sire…”
“Otters?”

• Brandenburg declared war on Bavaria with no Casus Belli, Bohemia joined in, and Hungary decided to take a piece of the pie too. Using the Alliance Casus Belli I slip some ships over to Holland in the aim of scoring some gold

“Sire it seems our ships have spotted the enemy fleet off the coast of Holland, it is loaded with troops sire.”
“Sink it!”
“Certainly sire, did you realise our ships were leaking sire?”
“Leaking?”
“It seems you did not pay the repair bill last time the ships were serviced and now the men refuse to patch the holes.”
“All the better Redgrave! You see, with these holy ships the war cannot be lost!”
“Sire…”

• Forgot to crank up the maintenance on my ships… Whoops, luckily it was a piece of cake.

“Sire, your wife has given birth”
“Which one?”
“The attractive one with the nice legs sire”
“Umm… second hint?”
“Bohemian sire”
“This is not the time to comment on my wife’s hygiene Redgrave!”

“It seems Hungary wishes you to join the war sire, to help fight the Bohemians”
“I think we’ll pass here Redgrave, and go find me another wife, one who knows what a shower is”

“Yes sire…”

• A nice little event, unfortunately I was in no position to help with the war, as it was still 50/50 on who would win in the south.

“Sire, it seems the Gelrian troops have landed at Vorpommen, and have moved through Stettin, how could you miss this sire?”
“I was busy picking a new wife…”
“Orders sire, there is no time to waste”
“Ready the battle chariot! Polish my lance collection, we shall ride out to the field and take them on like men! We shall show them what four thousand sturdy, well equipped, hearty Pommies can do!”
“Sire… You forgot to pay the men too… Their uniforms are tattered, and their weapons rusty”
“Excellent, Our holy army shall kill them via tetanus!”
“Sire…”

• Somehow missed this army landing, must have slipped out before I positioned my fleet off the coast of Holland, I once again forgot to change my maintenance slider, but the enemy had just assaulted, so it looked fairly equal…

“Redgrave… Redgrave!”
“Yes sire?”
“There were so many of them, at least twice our number! They were everywhere, slaughtering our men left and right! They must be using advanced weaponry!”
“Sire?”
“The Gelrians Redgrave!”

“Sire… You look ill, please rest before the exertion becomes too much”
“Yes Redgrave… Perhaps you are right, find me another wife, something Scandinavian.”
“Yes sire…”

“Feeling better now Sire?”
“Hearty as a hearth Redgrave, what news of the war?”
“Holland has surrendered, they are acknowledging you as their ruler and new king”
“Redgrave! All I asked for was some coin to pay for the drycleaning!”
“Sire… this is a great tactical opportunity!”
“And now I hear the Croatians have beaten us to Gelre itself? How did this happen Redgrave?”
“The men sire, they were tired…”
“Bah! Sack them all”
“Sire, they are..”
“I don’t care Redgrave, we can’t have this, focus some money on the damned army, get them up to scratch, we can’t afford losses like this!”
“Also sire, your holy ships are sinking, it seems they were left out at sea too long and..”

“Isn’t that the point of a boat Redgrave, to be at sea?”
“But sire, they’re not seaworthy!”
“Then land them in Holland, give them something to do, nothing beats the spirit of a nation like fixing their oppressors boats”
“Sire?”
“Yes Redgrave?”

“We captured a Gelre ship this morning, the Hertog Gerard”

“Isn’t that my wife’s name?”
“Which one sire?”
“The one with the legs of course”
“Bohemian sire?”
“I told you stop talking about her hygiene, now go finish this war!”
“Sire, the war is over, we won”
“Excellent Redgrave, perhaps it is fine, bring the men home, put on a feast… perhaps some steak?”
“Of course sire… "

"Sire, it seems the nobles are requesting pay for the war"
"We pay them for the honour of fighting for the Glory of our Kingdom?"
"Apparently so sire..."
"Tell them no Redgrave, send them a bag of apology steak"
"Sire? That will lead to..."
"Just do it Redgrave! What am I paying you for?"
"You don't pay me either sire..."
"Ahh, then send yourself so apology steak too."

"What now Sire?”
“I was thinking of another war Redgrave…”
“Sire, the men are wounded, our nation is weary, would it not be better to wait sire? The political situation is not in a good way.”

• I got lucky, Holland had no army when I attacked (due to sinking their navy) , but Croatia beat me to Gelre, so I had to settle for money, I decided to take cash from Bavaria while I could, before the other nations whited out, leaving me to hold the Bavarian Proverbial Baby of Battle as It were…

And so the first chapter is over, almost.
Poem time!

Barney, a king so wise and brave,
And his loyal advisor, one Redgrave,
Ruled the nation of Green, where the griffin strode,
And paid a princely sum for this royal ode,
A king who was in need of a wife it seemed,
So a Pageant was held for one to be queened.

When war broke out the King seized his chance,
And charged (by boat) to the border of France,
“To Holland back!” the army cried,
While their King so nearly died,
Eventually the land was seized,
And even Redgrave was mildly pleased.​

On a side note, I feel these pictures may be a tad big (840 x 540ish) Shall I change to 640 x 480?

 

[Webstantine]

Nah the pictures are a nice size, and it's nice to see someone else who crops and neatens their images.

 

[CanadianRocket]

Good luck with Pomerania, also dont worry about the Teutons they are a peaceful nation.

 

[Naresh]

Nah the pictures are a nice size, and it's nice to see someone else who crops and neatens their images.

Thanks, I will keep on as I started then.

Good luck with Pomerania, also dont worry about the Teutons they are a peaceful nation.

I am absolutely bricking it over the Teutons... it's only a matter of time before they see me as an easy target...

Incoming!!!

 

[Naresh]

Chapter Two: The Tip of the Branden-Burg
​

Nov 29 1360 - Aug 5 1370​

I’m going to drop the RP a tad now, I got caught up with it in session one, but it’ll be reduced, adding more gameplay talk, and hopefully have the added benefit of stopping me looking like a complete idiot.

1361 starts with the sending of merchants to Novgorod, the chances aren’t great (well, won’t be, due to the free slot bonus for the first one) but any income is good income at this stage.

Late in 1361 a war breaks out between Venice and Austria for no good reason (no CB), and I am not called in to help, given Venice’s alliance with Bohemia, this war could go very badly very quickly and a war of intervention is declared on Venice, using the alliance casus belli, primarily to drag Brandenburg (Whom I am starting to think of as my little lap dog) in to counterbalance Bohemia.
Of course, I stay out of the fighting, consolidating my forces and letting the brutes do all the heavy lifting. This action also cancelled the war exhaustion mission. And is replaced with “establish trade in London", easily done)

Poland seems to be recovering nicely from the trouncing Hungary gave them earlier on, I’ll have to keep an eye on them…

In late 1362 Austria peaces out with no significant gains, and we follow suit rapidly before they cotton on at how weak we are.
Early 1363 and Brandenburg has been excommunicated (screen shot lost…) they are my buffer, with them excommunicated my line of defense is looking shaky to say the least. It’s time to expand, mission or no mission.

We hire a Spymaster, with my terrible cultural tradition, he’s only level 1, hopefully it’s high enough, at 36% the odds are not great, but I’ve always been a fan of big risks, big reward, so using the last three years income, he is sent off to his fate…

Nicely done if I say so myself, Boguslaw lives up to his name (BOGUS-law, get it? ) He may even go down in history as the man who gave the Pomerania Kingdom its kickstart.

I forgot to at least insult them before hand, but I can’t afford them gaining an alliance with a major German power, so war is declared, it’s not like stability is a hard commodity to come by at the moment.

The odds are in my favour by quite a margin thanks to Brandenburg, but I raise the maintenance up just in case as Barney starts his march. Battles are won with minimal help (heh) from Brandenburg, and in an attempt to grab more land, I sneak into Saxe-Lauenburg.

September is a good time of the year, ending in the swift vassalisation of Saxe-Lauenburg.

The stability was nice, but not necessary. 11 months after the siege of Saxe-Lauenburg is over, Mecklenberg finally falls, and due to the house rule of not vassalising electors, Saxony is let off the hook, nicely covering our war expenses.

The following months bring a wave of innovation to our tech levels, and in a fit of giddiness the King passes the advancement of religion act, with no good reason. The upper classes are quick to catch onto this and claim their rights.

The common folk are also worried about this recent fit of madness and decide to leave, presumably for somewhere nicer and warmer… Maybe Italy… The next mission arrives in 1367, and while not as dire as “naval race vs the Teutons” or “we must defend against Brandenburg” it’s still not going to be easy, with minimal maintenance and 0 inflation we can barely afford to keep our army of 7,000 as it is. Maybe they will go to war and save us the trouble… But just in case the mass recruiting begins as the mints are ordered to work overtime.

Idea time…

Cue cliffhanger of miniscule proportions!

“Our allies have fallen from the grace of our Lord!”
“’Tis because they are German, they fight when they’re bored!”
“We must expand, unite and protect our shores,”
“Redgrave, my man, check Mecklenberg, their mothers are whores.”

The king was restless and eager to fight,
But his neighbours were strong so he turned to the night,
The man promised land, of fortune and fame!
The king signed him up, simply because of his name.

Barney was nothing but the simplest of men,
And why he invested was beyond Redgrave’s ken,
Despite his protestations, the spy was dispatched,
The king’s zany schemes about to be hatched.
“The chances of success are one in a third!
My lord forgive me, but this is absurd…”
“Redgrave my fellow there’s no need to fear,
I can feel, it, the Griffin’s glory is near!”

Despite absurdity, the plan did proceed,
“Within a year they did concede!”
Redgrave could hardly contain his relief,
Though this reprieve was seen to be brief.

“We need army!” Cried Barney,
“To match with the best!”
“My lord,” whispered Redgrave,
“Let’s start with the rest…”​

 

[lukew]

CORE_PAUSED on the screen, don't you just hate incompetent modders ^^?

(sorry!)

 

[Naresh]

CORE_PAUSED on the screen, don't you just hate incompetent modders ^^?

(sorry!)

Heh, there's loads of minor bugs like that around, but on the whole it's a decently balanced mod. My only real complaint is how hard it is to get some stuff... everything that was +1 x per year (missionary, colonist, legitimacy) has been dropped to 0.1. When I hit the reformation (more like if...) it's going to be hard going to covert everywhere.

On another note, my image hoster is playing up, will try again this evening

 

[hitchens]

This will be interesting, I've never played Holland Pomerania..




Theres one thing I dont like though.....

 

[Naresh]

This will be interesting, I've never played Holland Pomerania..

Theres one thing I dont like though.....

I chose Pomerania because I haven't played them for a long time, starting to realise why

The New Heir appears event... I've never actually had anything come of it, I assume it's just an heir from your dynasty, not a personal union or anyting, will check on Bohemia later on. Maybe Lukew can shine a light on this?

 

[Naresh]

Chapter Three: Banking on a Prayer
Aug 5 1370 - 1 Jan 1376​

Last chapter saw the Great Pomerania empire expand by baby steps, Brandenburg our closest ally has been excommunicated while the powers of Poland, Bohemia and the Teutonic order grow rapidly. These are dire times. I left the last chapter on a cliff hanger over choice of idea. A war footing was needed, strong brave men were required to hold the line, glorious leaders to rise up and take to the field of battle!

National Bank. Nothing more and nothing less… Slightly anticlimactic, but the sheer truth of the matter is that there is no way on earth I can maintain an army to match my rivals without minting… And I’m planning long term here, less minting means less inflation, less inflation means less “oh crap” moments later on.

Apparently this doesn’t sit well with the hippy esoteric artists, who apparently keep their money in their shoes or something. Hehe… JOKE, they don’t have money! Or shoes… They sold them for bread

This is an interesting point, recently a lot of nations have been hitting regency councils, and my heir (with decent stats) is 50. Ouch.

Mid 1370 the mission is complete, replaced with the same mission… with an extra 5k on top

Apparently this intensive restructuring of the financial institution was too much for one poor merchant. Shame, luckily his money is put to good use… On another two regiments, poorly equipped and underpaid!

Easy stuff. Going to fill maintenance is going to hurt, not even war taxes are going to stop us haemorrhaging money, wars are going to have to be quick.

Ahh, a chance to calm down, spy out potential targets, find the weak point in our enemies chain shirts and…

Nope, ok… Poland it is. Brandenburg is still ex communicated, I have no idea what they’re on.

This seems to justify matters a little, Poland is weak from its wars with Lithuania. An easy opportunity for us. Brandenburg must have heard our prayers! (or our complaints…)

Once again good old Barney takes to the field of battle, screen shot to remind you just have truly awful a soldier he really is…

This nicely covers maintenance. Quite happy over this turn out, will have to watch over these two nations when we grow big and strong. Don’t quite know why they’re helping us though…

The state of affairs in the east, Poland and Lithuania are both taking a battering! We’re sieging two of Poland’s provinces with the aim of taking one (Torun), it’s not HRE territory and doesn’t actually give us borders with any new countries. So win win!

Poland is devoured, Brandenburg’s peace deal looks suspiciously benign, perhaps they are trying to atone? We grab Torun, making our nation a nifty 5 province minor.

Bad news… If our heir was 50, how old is the King? On a humorous note, I bet he died trying to get onto his horse before his old brittle bones gave way and the dogs got him… Did I say humorous? I meant sadistic



Then we get an event "Serfs Upset" And we choose the move towards free subjects, seems he was well loved by the populace! Ahh poor Sir I can’t remember your name even though I saw it five minutes ago, you will be missed!

Apparently they went hunting together… He is quickly replaced with a finer specimen allowing us to work the banks even harder!

Given our dire position I feel this choice was justified… He may have poor legitimacy, but a few marriages can sort that! (less than vanilla… Each marriage in D&T only gives +0.2 a year)

A fine leader for times of peace! Shame we don’t want peace right now isn’t it?

Poor old Barney finally cops it… He will be missed, he may have been a terrible king, but through sheer determination and luck he got Pomerania through the Hard(est – please be hardest…) times…
And todays cliff hanger, how is the rebellion dealt with given the lack of maintenance, do other nations take an interest in the now arguably weaker state of Pomerania, and will Mecklenberg still be under our control?

Decided to drop the poetry… I just can’t write about national events without it sounding stupid. I’m much better at a personal scale of writing… Perhaps I may start that in a future chapter

 

[InvisibleSandwi]

Personally, if I'd gotten the "Carnal Sins" event with such an old monarch, I would've passed it up and hoped for a new dynasty. Then again, I really hate regencies because they interfere with warmongering and blobbing; a particularly ill timed one often makes me rage-republic.

 

[Naresh]

Personally, if I'd gotten the "Carnal Sins" event with such an old monarch, I would've passed it up and hoped for a new dynasty. Then again, I really hate regencies because they interfere with warmongering and blobbing; a particularly ill timed one often makes me rage-republic.

I hate regencies too, but for RP purposes, keeping the line going was more important.
Sorry for the delays, image hosting issues again...