The MGC3 MP AAR

[Mowers]

http://www.europa-universalis.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=44222

The MGC3 Timeline

I have taken what I see to be the most important events and tried to put them into era’s so that this AAR make a little more sense. Interspersed are some analysis pieces from various players and mini-aars. There should be some pictures as well. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did/ are

1492-
THE GAME OPENS


Ulver- Spain (1492-1530)
Mowers- Portugal (1492-1530)
Jonicro- Poland (1492-1530)
Elisar- Austria (1492-1517)
Marttis- Austria (1517-1530)
PJL- Ottomans (1492-1530)
Enric- France (1492-1509)
Rex Mundi- France (1509-1530)
Harriman2- England (1492-1530)

Spain: Goals and strategy

Spain is the acknowledged superpower of Europa Universalis II. A 14-year-old newbi can conquer half the world in half a century unless everybody and their dog gangs up on him. I’ve seen it a dozen times: Spain takes over South and Central America, the trade centre in Manhattan and most of India by the mid sixteen century resulting in endless coalition wars where everybody and their dog do gang up on Spain. I firmly believe the only way to screw up with Spain is by overreaching and thus forcing everyone else to cooperate against her.

Now don’t get me wrong – I like playing the strongest, richest most powerful nation in the world. But I plan to be more like the United States then the Roman Empire in the way I go about it. The secret is to make the runners-up among the major powers feel a Strong Spain actually serves the interests. I’ll stay well clear of colonizing where others might reasonable feel I impinge on their sphere of influence. No Spaniards in Canada or India in this game. The second part of my strategy will be to act in the interest of preserving the Balance of Power, defending weaker players being bullied by stronger nations, helping AI nations getting ravaged, making sure the Netherlands gain their independence and generally acting like a benevolent superpower rather then the rabid aggressive expansionist Spain we all to often see. Hopefully this will prevent the traditional “beat up on Spain syndrome” that usually ends the golden age of Spain around 1650. Often an isolated far-flung colony is actually a liability rather then an Asset. I saw in a previous Mower game how a Russian Canada brought Russia into expensive conflicts with England and France, nations that would otherwise often be logical allies. As a rule Don Ulver tends to think of war as a necessary evil: To quota Tom Lehre “I’d rather kill them off by peaceful means”

Instead of martial glory my goal for Spain will be “a chicken in every pot and a manufactory in every village.”

April 22, 1492 : Austria joined the war on the same side as Hungary, Bohemia and Bavaria in their war against Wallachia.
May 18, 1492 : Poland declared war upon Mecklenburg.
May 29, 1492 : Naples declared war upon Papal States.
June 25, 1492 : France joined the war on the same side as Papal States, Savoy, Brittany and Lorraine in their war against Naples.
October 6, 1493 : France declared war upon Austria.
November 21, 1492 : Mecklenburg accepted peace with Poland on the following terms : Full Annexation of Mecklenburg by Poland
July 12, 1493 : Austria declared war upon Genoa.
July 12, 1493 : The Knights joined the war on the same side as Genoa, Tuscany and Modena in their war against Austria.
August 21, 1493 : The Holy Roman Empire has elected Maximilian I of Austria as emperor..
October 6, 1493 : France declared war upon Austria.
October 13, 1493 : Wurtemberg joined the war on the same side as Austria, Bohemia, Hungary and Bavaria in their war against France, Savoy, Papal States, Brittany and Lorraine.
April 2, 1494 : Austria accepted peace with France on the following terms : Artois to France & Franche Comté to France.

This is a standard 1492 move. Austria doesn’t have the power to see off France and doesn’t have the alliance to back him up effectively. Not only that but Venice can be very frisky at this time of the game and start wars which further destablise Austria’s borders; and then of course there is the Ottoman threat. Austria gets out of this war quickly and effectively and gets back on with the game without having mortgaged the future away. He may have lost but he has bought himself space which is critical.

I really think that Spain and Austria ought to be working very closely together against France at this stage. They have very common interests. I surprised that the opening Austro- Spanish move in any game is not to ally and present a common front. As you now will see France is able to defeat his three enemies in turn and take what he wants allowing him a free hand in Europe.

At the same time we have a ventian-Ottoman conflict in which the Ottomans take the Greek islands. This is a great move, he gets in there early before they become to heavily fortified and manages to get some bases in the Med. We didn’t have a venetian player and the Polish wasn’t really paying attention. It’s a common mistake to forget that you are selling your future by allowing other players to gobble up the AI. Intervene, threaten, blag, revoke treaties, place guarentees, go on big maneouvres up and down borders.- do something at least.


August 10, 1495 : Ottoman Empire declared war upon Venice.
November 27, 1495 : Hungary declared war upon Venice.
December 1, 1495 : Austria joined the war on the same side as Hungary, Bohemia, Bavaria and Wurtemberg in their war against Venice.
August 9, 1497 : Milan declared war upon Venice.
August 14, 1497 : Spain joined the war on the same side as Milan in their war against Venice.
October 29, 1497 : France joined the war on the same side as Papal States, Savoy, Brittany and Lorraine in their war against Venice.
July 2, 1499 : Venice accepted peace with Ottoman Empire on the following terms : Venice pays 100d in indemnities. Corfu to Ottoman Empire, Ionia to Ottoman Empire & Crete to Ottoman Empire.
January 2, 1500 : Milan went with Let the Habsburgs Inherit in The Inheritance of Milano.
February 13, 1500 : Austria went with Rule as part of Austria in The Habsburg Inheritance of Milano.
February 13, 1500 : Austria annexed Milan.
July 13, 1500 : Ottoman Empire declared war upon Ak Koyunlu.
June 22, 1501 : Poland declared war upon Brandenburg.
June 25, 1501 : Lithuania joined the war on the same side as Poland in their war against Brandenburg, Hannover, Saxony and Eire.
October 20, 1501 : Spain declared war upon Maya.
January 1, 1502 : Austria declared war upon Poland.

I remember it because it was either a very daft or very clever risk the Austrian took. With multiple enemies Austria cant really afford to alienate Poland as well. I don’t see the strategic sense here apart from slowing a possible Polish expansion into Northern Germany

May 4, 1502 : Maya accepted peace with Spain on the following terms : Guatemala to Spain.
July 22, 1503 : Spain declared war upon Aztec Empire.
January 20, 1504 : Brandenburg accepted peace with Poland on the following terms : Küstrin to Poland.
April 8, 1504 : Ak Koyunlu accepted peace with Ottoman Empire on the following terms : Ak Koyunlu pays 309d in indemnities. Azerbaijan to Ottoman Empire, Nuyssaybin to Ottoman Empire, Kurdistan to Ottoman Empire, Daghestan to Ottoman Empire & Armenia to Ottoman Empire
December 24, 1504 : Poland accepted peace with Hungary on the following terms : Galizien to Hungary.
December 26, 1504 : Ak Koyunlu accepted peace with Mameluks on the following terms : Ak Koyunlu pays 20d in indemnities. Kirkuk to Mameluks.Ak Koyunlu will have to give up military access.Ak Koyunlu has to change religion.
April 26, 1505 : Sweden declared war upon Teutonic Order.
July 20, 1505 : Naples declared war upon Papal States.
August 24, 1505 : France joined the war on the same side as Papal States, Savoy, Brittany and Lorraine in their war against Naples, England, Spain and Portugal.
September 25, 1505 : England accepted peace with France on the following terms : Return to Status Quo


Really not good. So much for my allies. Mowers, I’m disappointed in you! Things got worse as France consistently refused my peace offers including giving him the French culture province I held from the start even before a single shot was fired. Something close to panic broke out in the Spanish court as a cavalry army was mobilized and dispatched to lift a few sieges. This was a study in miscommunication as I thought France was planning nothing less then the complete destruction of Spain. What he really wanted was to plunder the capital for maps. Meanwhile the other Inter-player conflict ended.

This is interesting. I love wars like this, its what makes EU great. Players being dragged into a maelstrom that they cant prepare for. Obviously I bail out, Spain can hold his own and my army of 10K isnt really going to have an impact. I’ve already blown my initial cash and my islands are still unfortified, ready for the taking. I really don’t need this war. Spain is going to be able to hold up France and so is England- I hadnt actually noticed that they had signed peace already- mistake

April 18, 1506 : Poland accepted peace with Austria on the following terms : Poland pays 150d in indemnities. Mecklemburg to Austria.
May 24, 1506 : Poland went bankrupt!


Now this knocks Poland out as an effective power player. Rampant inflation. He also loses territory to hungary in a seperate peace later on. Austria has taken a real gamble and has got away with it. He has managed to stop Polish expansion into Northern Germany and financially weakened him. How Poland goes bankrupt I don’t know but he throws all away over 1 province. Now I don’t know the ins and outs of this but this was poor strategic play. If he was losing the war it would have been far better to accept Austrian dominance and back down. Far too often players fail to look forward.

Albeit it not without dire consequences After awhile it must have become clear to France that this – while likely to be an eventual French victory would not be cheap accepted a peace deal.

This is a good observation

July 4, 1506 : France accepted peace with Spain on the following terms : Spain pays 300d in indemnities. Roussillon to France.


Oddly enough he spurned it a few times costing him stability. I didn’t really mind losing Roussillon as it gave France a permanent Casus Belli. Anyway, hopefully this defeat will make Spain look less dangerous. See? It all fits nicely into my master plan!

France makes the mistake of allowing stability hits. Spain backs off and settles which isnt surprising as Austria has been engaged and his allies have been useless. England really shouldn’t have backed out of this conflict as it might have been a white peace all round in the end and slows down French expansion Eastwards that will eventually follow.

October 11, 1506 : Teutonic Order accepted peace with Sweden on the following terms : Full Annexation of Teutonic Order by Sweden
September 8, 1507 : Ottoman Empire declared war upon Mameluks
March 10, 1509 : Spain declared war upon Maya
May 26, 1510 : Spain accepted peace with Maya on the following terms : Maya pays 109d in indemnities. Tehuacan to Spain & Campeche to Spain. against Kazan.
May 28, 1512 : Spain declared war upon Inca Empire.
June 30, 1513 : Spain accepted peace with Inca Empire on the following terms : Cajamarca to Spain, Huanuco to Spain, Guayaquil to Spain & Cali to Spain

I absolutely love those religious conversion peace deals, as they’ll mean the Treaty of Tortillas are going to apply and I can just cherry pick their provinces, including the capital, at my leisure. This incur several benefits, no BB for annexation, you get cash as well as the right to take whatever provinces you like, and you can take them at a leisurely pace meaning no faster then they can be converted. You also avoid the Gold inflation problem as you only add the Gold provinces as your general income increases.

September 3, 1514 : The Hedjaz accepted peace with Ottoman Empire on the following terms : The Hedjaz pays 62d in indemnities. Arabia to Ottoman Empire, Medina to Ottoman Empire & Jordan to Ottoman Empire.
December 13, 1514 : Ottoman Empire accepted peace with Mameluks on the following terms : Nile to Ottoman Empire, Delta to Ottoman Empire, Aleppo to Ottoman Empire, Lebanon to Ottoman Empire, Samaria to Ottoman Empire, Syria to Ottoman Empire, Sinai to Ottoman Empire, Judea to Ottoman Empire & Quattara to Ottoman Empire.
February 16, 1517 : Ottoman Empire declared war upon Hungary.
February 28, 1517 : Austria joined the war on the same side as Hungary, Bohemia and Bavaria in their war against Ottoman Empire.

Austria quite rightly moves in to protect its inheritance. The Ottomans have a few years to spare but they eventually get in there having knocked the Mameluks for 6. I think this conflict was ruined by a crash and a player change so its difficult to analyse effectively. I believe that the Ottomans, who attack in force, get the 3 provinces and back off.

October 17, 1517 : Poland declared war upon Brandenburg.
April 5, 1518 : Austria joined the war on the same side as Brandenburg in their war against Poland, Lithuania, Würzburg and Saxony
January 21, 1519 : Austria went with Let the Habsburg Empire be ruled from Vienna in The Spanish Wedding.
February 10, 1519 : Hungary accepted peace with Ottoman Empire on the following terms : Hungary pays 45d in indemnities. Wallachia to Ottoman Empire, Transylvania to Ottoman Empire & Banat to Ottoman Empire.
April 13, 1520 : Savoy declared war upon Helvetia.
April 20, 1520 : France joined the war on the same side as Savoy, Papal States and Lorraine in their war against Helvetia, Cologne, The Palatinat, Navarra and Baden.§394mowers (Portugal) Jonicro (Poland)
June 14, 1521 : Brandenburg accepted peace with Saxony on the following terms : Brandenburg pays 37d in indemnities. Magdeburg to Saxony.Brandenburg will have to give up military access.
December 14, 1521 : Austria accepted peace with Poland on the following terms : Return to Status Quo.
May 26, 1522 : Spain declared war upon Inca Empire
September 3, 1522 : Brandenburg accepted peace with Poland on the following terms : Hinterpommern to Poland.Brandenburg will become a vassal.
February 18, 1523 : Ottoman Empire declared war upon Mameluks.
June 19, 1523 : The Hedjaz accepted peace with Ottoman Empire on the following terms : Full Annexation of The Hedjaz by Ottoman Empire
July 1, 1523 : The people of Mecklenburg declared independence from Austria.
July 28, 1523 : Spain accepted peace with Inca Empire on the following terms : Coquimbo to Spain, Atacama to Spain, Arica to Spain, Montana to Spain & Atalaya to Spain.
July 15, 1524 : Ottoman Empire accepted peace with Mameluks on the following terms : Mameluks pays 110d in indemnities. Cyrenaica to Ottoman Empire, Nubia to Ottoman Empire, Alexandria to Ottoman Empire, Kirkuk to Ottoman Empire & Cataract to Ottoman Empire.


Ottomans finish off the Mamelukes in good time.

What had I been doing as Portugal all this time? Well I had basically been playing an SP game in the background. I had taken over Brazil with little to no difficulty and got myself a chain of outposts all the way to India with a series of full colonies that had fortifications. Essentially building up Portugal for the long term. However, try as I might I could not get a colony going in India and after about 10 attempts I never managed to do it. This is of course stalled my efforts at expansion in the far east. My brazil set up was looking very good by the end, a series of strongly fortified colonies with numerous large scale trading posts around it and had turned the Tago COT into a powerhouse of about 450D with everyone trying to get in. My only concern coming with english and polish merchants trying to force me out of the COT. However, it turns out that England was on auto merchant and left me alone after I asked him to back off. Poland didn’t back off and I was just gearing up to ban him altogether when I had to switch countries. My designs for an invasion of vijansiers colonies in southern india never happened, I could never catch her and mysore apart and without a CB I was in trouble. I managed to get about 13k of men there but if I lost a single battle then I was going to be in trouble as I couldn’t reinforce without sending men all the way from Lisbon. So Portugese expansion in India was limited to trading posts sadly.

As for England? A very quiet game. He did nothing memorable at all other than build up quietly for the long term.


March 29, 1525 : Spain declared war upon Maya.
January 22, 1526 : Maya accepted peace with Spain on the following terms : Maya pays 153d in indemnities. Maya has to change religion.

PJL creates Siederbergn or something like in the balkans as a vassal which means I don’t get to inherit hungary. Instead Hungary becomes Siederbergn’s (sp) vassal, thus effectively becoming an Ottoman vassal. I am most unhappy and rather impressed that I have been conned so easily. A plan to get it back starts to emerge but the diplomatic complexities of it are confusing.

January 22, 1529 : Ottoman Empire declared war upon Venice.
February 1, 1529 : Austria joined the war on the same side as Venice and Moldavia in their war against Ottoman Empire.
June 21, 1529 : Spain declared war upon Creek.
January 27, 1530 : Ottoman Empire accepted peace with Venice on the following terms : Ottoman Empire pays 11d in indemnities

I guess Austrian support made the difference

PJL has played some great moves, Venice, Mamelukes, Hungarian war and the Hungarian inheritance and here he screws up and I flatten him. He failed to check who venice was in an alliance with and launched a clever naval landing into venice whilst driving up the Adriatic coast. Within 2 months he had every region under seige. Which was roughly about when the ‘mystery ally’ emerges and destroys a good 70K of Ottoman armies. I have the upper hand and hope to drive into the balkans and reclaim siederbergn, thus releasing hungary. PJL quickly recovers from his early blunder and gets a very decent peace out me and Venice before I can take advance of my early victories

March 30, 1530 : Inca Empire accepted peace with Spain on the following terms : Inca Empire pays 392d in indemnities. Inca Empire has to change religion.
September 7, 1530 : Creek accepted peace with Spain on the following terms : Creek pays 444d in indemnities. Creek has to change religion

 

[Mowers]

Part II

Aryaman – England

I always play continental powers, so I have no good knowledge of coloniztion tactics (any tip welcomed). My strategy was to get in the Caribe before the Spanish player. I succeeded taking 2 provinces at both ends of Cuba, but that was all. The Spanish player speeded up colonization, and I had no rssources to compete, France broke war with Spain and I hoped that will slow his expasion, but Spain bought a quick peace leaving Roussillon to France. Anyway, the Cuban colonies were valuable posseions, and after setting another colony in Carolina I turned my attention to Lenape and his COT. Here I completely mismanaged the campaign being soundly defeated by Lenape. At the same time revolts were constant in Ireland, and also in England, where I had no troops. I was running very short in cash, so I turned to solve my domestic problems leaving my revenge over Lenape to another time. France was expanding on North America, so I gave him Calais in exchange for no further expansion. I don´t think it was a good deal, specially because France is played by different players sometimes and they may choose not to honour that deal. Around 1520 I left the game (a very bad computer crash) and I resumed it in 1545. England was in a very sorry situation. It was protestant already, and revolts where erupting everywhere. Ireland was almost lost, I had no army there and a very small fleet to transport any reinforcement. My stability was –1, I had no cash and some debt. In 11 years I managed to get things under control again, all revolts crushed, Ireland reconquered and stability +3. The game is now in 1556, so hopefully I will be in good position for some expansion with Queen Elisabeth.

PJL- The Ottoman perspective
Being in the first serious MP game (I’ve played other games, but they rarely if ever last more than 20-30 years), I decided to try my luck as the Ottomans as they are a relatively easy country to play in MP (and also there isn’t the worry of colonising (at least at first) which just adds to the complexity of thing in MP, especially when time’s continuously moving forward).

1492 started with a quickie war with Dulkadir which last about 6 months, and most of that was because I was waiting for a diplomat lol! Incredibly the Mamelukes had joined the war about 2 weeks before I made peace, but I didn’t even notice it at the time – had I known, I could have made an early strike against them.

After vassalising Dulkadir I turn against Venice in 1495, noting that they were already in a war (or so I thought, but the history log shows they made peace with Ragusa about 2 weeks previously). Anyway soon afterwards Venice is at war with virtually all her neighbours, including of course Austria. This made it easier for me to take her islands, though I made sure I had a good start by positioning armies in my navies just off her islands, plus armies in the Bosnia/Kosovo area. Generally the island conquests went well, but the mainland was a bit more difficult, I’d lost a couple of battles there. Nonetheless, once my island-siege armies were freed up, I’d managed to overcome her armies there too, and siege the mainland provinces that were not already occupied by the Austro-Hungarian armies. The Venetians soon accepted my deal of taking Iona, Rhodes and Crete from them (plus a 100d), in 1498.

Next on the list was Ali Koyunlu – I tend to attack them first before the Mamelukes, as I feel it’s always better to get the weaker opposition out of the way before tackling the stronger countries, plus their Armenia goldmine always helps too. After 4 years (in 1504) I get all my CB shield provinces they own off them, plus 350d (though I only actually get 307d). I always try and get as much money out of my opponents as possible; otherwise it would only go to waste! If anything I make sure I go well above what I think they have, just to make sure – IMO any money gained from a peace treaty is a good thing (even now, 300d is nothing to be sniffed at).

Then the Mamelukes are next in line – I DOW them in 1507, and the war lasts for 7 years, and I accept their generous offer of over half their territory in 1514 (the Mamelukes are the worst at getting anything out of them – they will refuse even 60% deals when there is a 100% victory). I also achieve some successes against their ally, the Hedjaz.

I choose the historic option (Imperial Halic Shipyard) in the Great Naval Reform event in 1516, which causes me to get a couple of loans. Although I easily pay these off in a couple of years, I wonder whether this is really the better long term move, and whether I should have gone for one of the other two options. Generally I dislike taking loans, but I tend to auto-loan on historic events, if need be.

Still having the loans does not deter me from attacking Hungary in 1517, which I speedily overrun (though the fact that the Austrian player was experiencing connection trouble, and a player change was made half way through helped in preventing an effective Austro-Hungarian combined defence). I get Banat, Wallacia and Transylvania from Hungary in 1519 (actually I really wanted Croatia, but I got Banat instead by mistake).

I then pulled the Transylvanian card trick – by making them an independent vassal. This effectively delays the Austrian inheritance of Hungary by about 15 years (as well as cancels their vassalage when the event comes around in 1526), and help slows them down (something I learned from the forums, like so much of EU/EU2).

1520 sees the rise to the throne of the Ottomans greatest emperor, Suleyman the Magnificent, and the Algerian vassalship event, as well as the diplo-annexation of Dulkalir.

1523 sees the second Ottoman-Mamaluke war, a considerably shorter affair, lasting 18 months – and taking all of their other non-capital provinces from them. It’s always great to have wars last no more than 2-3 years, before war exhaustion starts setting in – I tend to find it’s the most effective period of any war where you still have plenty of cash and manpower to use as backup and reinforcements. Good planning is also essential (if anything I’ve been more careful in my plans beforehand than I normally do in SP).

Talking of planning, this leads nicely onto the rather short, and not so successful war against Venice in 1529 – the military planning was top notch with careful placements of naval and land forces, mounting an effective combined assault on the mainland and the island of Cyprus. However I had failed to do my foreign relations homework, and didn’t notice that the Austrian player (now played by Mowers) was in the Venetian alliance, not until I was actually assaulting Venice itself. At that point, Austria makes her counterstroke and undoes all the work I had made against Venice (save Cyprus). She was proceeding to advance on Ottoman soil, when the Venetian offer me to pay 11d, which I gratefully accept – not because I didn’t have the resources or manpower to carry on, but because I was not going to waste more time and money on a war that was not being conducted on my terms (and I doubt that I would have gotten a better offer two or more years later). Instead I got a quick wrap on the knuckles by Mowers, and the war lasted just a year.

Quite frankly my victory against the Mamelukes had made me high on arrogance and thinking this would be another quick victory again, which led me to neglect certain critical details (otherwise I would definitely have done things differently).

And that more or less wraps up my situation up to 1530, though the game has moved on since then (I think it’s about 1545 now).


ULVER- SPAIN

The highlight of this session for me was without a doubt my favourite preacher Hernán Cortés and his grand tour of religious revival. Now, I don’t like to brag but…. Who am I kidding I LOVE to Brag: Check this out:
*numerous accounts follow*

The first 4 of these actually made sense, as they are included in the ToT the rest were just to show off. Obviously all those peace settlements involved a 100% victory so I could have been in physical control of America by now. I deliberately choose not to provoke the traditionally North American colonisers into a rabid anti-Spanish collation just to get a colonial foothold. The real reason for Cortés North American tour was a tentative plan being negotiated with England whereby he’d hand over his sole ToT position in Cuba in exchange for me taking North America and ceding it to him. He’d just previously made a deal giving up Calais for a promise of no further French colonisation in North America. Unfortunately he regretted that deal and was unwilling to agree to my suggestion of a swap of NA for Cuba leaving me with the choose of a pure shakedown for cash or converting the heathens
Actually this policy might have some interesting long-term effects, as the Indians are no longer Pagan, it will cost BB to DoW them and stability hits for lacking a causus Belli. It will cost a fortune in BB to take their provinces and they can only be military annexed when reduced to one province. None of this bother Spain of course as I can simply take over their territory at leisure using the ToT, but it might call for a radically different British policy for taking over North America.
Perhaps most interesting: They have begun converting provinces so we might actually see their culture surviving.
And of course let’s not forget the interesting new marriage possibilities this opens up. New dynasties are being created. Will we see the Habsburgs with a Iroqouis connection?

Here is some more of an update.

The 1530-1546 session was particularly interesting for me as Austria. Whilst the 1545-56 period was a bit quieter, in fact I dont think we had any conflcit at all. Anyway I'm going to add a history timeline brief sometime this week so people can see what happened. We could with some maps as well if anyone is capable of hosting them.

ULVER-SPAIN
Aryaman : I for one have a vested interest in agreements being honoured even when countries change owners and will gladly offer some assistance in enforcing them.To my mind a public agreement between players made in front of everybody has the status of a treaty. That doesn’t mean they can’t be broken by a new monarch obviously but the government of Spain will certainly be interested in fostering an atmosphere of mutual trust and would take a dim view of a ruler that simply disregard agreements made by his predecessor. Your fleet may be small but France essentially has none. 1 Warship I think. Since you currently find yourself at war with France that leaves his overseas positions pretty helpless. You might want to help yourself to a trade post or small colony as the price for peace. In many ways I think Calais is a liability rather then an asset for England. Once she is rid of it it becomes much easier to get enough of a war score against France to force her to hand over colonies to England.

Trying to oppose Spain in the ToT early is a virtually impossibility: I could have walked in and taken over anytime I choose while you were catholic using the ToT rules. Also the Spanish fleet is going to pretty much rule the waves for a while yet. Any conflict would be lost by England, badly.

Protestant is a good region for England as is reformed. Reformed is especially useful if you are not too big as it reduces the size penalty for research. Whatever you do use good monarchs to convert. It is often the best investment in the game. I do think you made a wrong event choice in going for the conscription centre instead of the shipyard. A Shipyard gives an additional colonist a year and with your explores you can always place cheap trade posts. BTW, be sure to explore with cheap transports rather then expensive warships.


1530-1546

Ulver- Spain
Mowers- Austria
Master(BCN)- Russia
Damocles (tear)- France
PJL- Ottoman Empire
Aryaman (Harriman)- England

1546-1556

Ulver- Spain
Mowers- Austria
Teutonic Knight- Denmark
Rex Mundi- France
PJL- Ottoman Empire
Aryaman (Harriman)- England
Jonicro- Poland


January 6, 1531 : Lorraine became Vassals of France.
August 13, 1531 : France declared war upon England.
September 4, 1531 : France accepted peace with England on the following terms : Calais to France.Damocles
November 19, 1531 : Poland declared war upon Hungary.
January 5, 1533 : The Palatinat declared war upon Strassburg.
January 27, 1533 : France joined the war on the same side as Lorraine, Savoy, Papal States and Bremen in their war against Strassburg.
April 8, 1533 : Strassburg accepted peace with The Palatinat on the following terms : Full Annexation of Strassburg by The Palatinat
May 20, 1533 : Cherokee accepted peace with Spain on the following terms : Cherokee pays 115d in indemnities. Cherokee has to change religion.
May 25, 1533 : Savoy declared war upon Helvetia.
June 1, 1533 : France joined the war on the same side as Savoy, Papal States, Lorraine and Bremen in their war against Helvetia, Baden and The Palatinat.
June 11, 1533 : Austria declared war upon Lorraine.
June 11, 1533 : France joined the war on the same side as Lorraine, Savoy, Papal States and Bremen in their war against Austria, Venice, Moldavia, Bohemia and Tuscany.
December 29, 1534 : Spain declared war upon Lenape.
January 26, 1535 : Austria declared war upon Gelre.
January 26, 1535 : Münster joined the war on the same side as Gelre, Genoa, Friesland and Modena in their war against Austria.
June 12, 1536 : Friesland became Vassals of Austria.
March 23, 1538 : Spain declared war upon Iroqouis.
June 1, 1538 : Brandenburg accepted peace with Pommern on the following terms : Full Annexation of Brandenburg by Pommern
August 1, 1539 : Civil War in England
November 8, 1539 : Ottoman Empire declared war upon Mameluks.
November 28, 1539 : Russia accepted peace with Austria on the following terms : Return to Status Quo.
July 25, 1540 : Austria annexed Hungary.
May 1, 1542 : Mameluks accepted peace with Ottoman Empire on the following terms : Mameluks pays 325d in indemnities. Mameluks has to change religion.
June 22, 1542 : Iroqouis accepted peace with Spain on the following terms : Iroqouis pays 415d in indemnities. Iroqouis has to change religion.
June 22, 1542 : Lenape accepted peace with Spain on the following terms : Lenape pays 525d in indemnities. Lenape has to change religion
October 1, 1545 : Mecklenburg became Vassals of Austria.
July 24, 1546 : Persia accepted peace with Ottoman Empire on the following terms : Persia pays 128d in indemnities. Persia has to change religion.
June 11, 1551 : Spain declared war upon Navarra.
September 1, 1551 : The people of Wallachia declared independence from Ottoman Empire.
August 16, 1553 : France entered a Military Alliance with Poland.
August 16, 1553 : Venice entered a Military Alliance with Poland and France.
August 24, 1553 : Lithuania entered a Military Alliance with Poland, France and Venice.
October 17, 1553 : Wallachia accepted peace with Ottoman Empire on the following terms : Wallachia pays 54d in indemnities. Wallachia will have to give up military access.Wallachia will become a vassal.
November 1, 1553 : Helvetia cancelled the Vassalization she had with France.
Palatinat.
August 6, 1556 : Spain declared war upon Navaho.
September 30, 1556 : We went with Let Ferdinand keep the Netherlands in The Abdication of Charles V.
October 2, 1556 : The Holy Roman Empire has elected Ferdinand I of Austria as emperor..


ULVER -SPAIN
We are up to 1556 and in many ways Spain has reason to be pleased. At this point in history it is easy to feel on top of the world, invincible able to take anybody and everybody on.

I begin to understand how so many Spanish players overreach: It would be so easy. A quick campaign and I’d have North America and India in a decade. The height of stupidity, of course, the only thing that could really kill me in medium term would be a British-French entente cordiale something a Spanish North America and India pretty much would assure. Actually a large part of my diplomacy has been directed at placing myself as the honest middle man protecting the colonies of one against the other and ironing out any misunderstandings that might lead to war

Peace suits me. There are several aspects to that

First of all Spain after the first half-century of play is like a lucky gambler eager to keep his winnings. She has no interest in not Iberian not catholic provinces and has a lot to lose with nothing to gain from war

I also have to consider the fact that I’m an inept tactician while I’m rather good at economic analyses and management so I tend to think an overall peaceful game will work to my advantage. The drawback to that is that I do tend to over invest leaving me very vulnerable to surprise attacks. After all a fortress doesn’t actually give a tangible return on the investment. And seeing it with an economist’s eyes it isn’t just the cost of the fort it is the accrued loss of return that makes any non-economic investment very expensive. After all if you’d invested the ducats you’d more then quadrupled them in less then a century. I once worked at a 100D forts build in 1419 ends up costing close to 10000 in 1819 cash if you calculate accumulated interest

Basically I have been poring all research into infrastructure trying to reach level 5 and the ability to control my inflation. I finally got to that point a decade or so ago This allowed my to take the last 4 gold mines I’d previously left alone because of inflation considerations meaning I can cash in around 4000 ducats a year if I need to. Unfortunately this means that my current level of Land military technology is just barely above the Stone Age level.

Oh, I can deal with an invasion in the Iberian Peninsula well enough. My army may be pathetic but I’m confident in the ability of my navy to blockade any enemy, protecting my colonies and allowing me to attack theirs at will. An invasion of Iberia will be very costly and gaining an attacker very little as anything worthwhile is overseas where he can’t get to it

And the proud Spanish navy rules the waves. I have around a hundred ships of the line constantly ready to take up blockading station if anyone should dare to attack the Spanish empire. I doubt England and France has half that between them; in a matter of months I can isolate any nation from their overseas colonies.

In short I was feeling damn please with myself. Thinking I had things well in hand. I had working relationships with France and England both. France had formally agreed to respect the ToT and while England refused to do so formally they were doing so in practice. With my economy booming and with my empire safe I could concentrate on economic development and otherwise retire into splendid isolation.

Then France crossed the Rhine beginning to annex German HRE minors and making noises about The Netherlands and Italy.

Under the new French King I suddenly found myself faced with player essential uninterested in building a colonial empire. My first line of defence against an attacker was always to occupy his colonies but suppose I’m facing an opponent that just doesn’t care? A navel blockade to cut off all overseas income only works if he actually have overseas income. I’m still reasonable confident that my navy makes any attack on Spain far more expensive than anything the attacker will gain. The terrain favours the defender and I’m building strong fortresses everywhere. My defensive position is very good: that’s not the problem.

The problem is my inability to influence events on the European continent. Suppose France decide to annex the Netherlands and Italy? As France crossed the Rhine and began building up for Continental hegemony I ,much to my dismay, found myself in a very poor position to prevent it. Entering any Austrian-French war would do very little good as France can slaughter any Spanish army outside Spain with comparative ease and could turn into a disaster if a France actually put serious effort into taking Madrid. He wouldn’t actually gain anything worthwhile but he’d sure as hell hurt me. The one Spanish strategy that might be effective was, oddly enough, perfected by Richelieu during the thirty year war where he essentially paid Sweden to fight his enemies for him, a good balance of power policy is to transfer obscene amount of cash to those putting troops in the field against anyone trying to control the Low Countries and Italy..

Oh I’m not in any immediate danger. My fleet pretty much rules the waves. As I said my real assets are overseas where my enemies can’t get to them. I have good relations with France unlike England he readily agreed to stay out of the ToT. In any case I honestly don’t think any would-be Napoleon wants to attack Spain, even in the long term. Sure with shifting players one must base threat estimates on capabilities more then intentions but I fail to see why any rational player would launch a crusade to occupy Iberia. No, my concern is more nuanced then fear of an eventual attack: If France managed to defeat Austria and size all of Italy, the Netherlands and Northern Germany I’ll have no choice but to essentially fall completely in line with the winner’s policy. He won’t need to Invade I’ll have no choice then but to become a satellite.

The game just became more interesting. Perhaps I’m not omnipotent after all
TeutonicKnight- Denmark
Being Denmark I knew that my economy and technology was weak as opposed to others. I had to put 50% of my tech bar into revenue just to make 1% profit. I decide to switch to land as I knew to expand economy I would have to expand my borders; against Sweden, not the best choice of an enemy, but the only logical one as all others in my area had strong alliances.

My first move was to Get my Army up to task. I looked at Sweden and from the territories that I saw, which was 3/4 of his land, I saw he had 4 army groups. The first army group was under 1k men the second, which was where I posted my strongest army, was 14k, and my army was 28k. The third was 11k against my 18k and his last was 6k againt my 15k. I had three more armies all of over 20k, two were in my capital, for the future attack by Sweden's lone allie Pommerania, and the other as a reserve unit of cavelry so I could either route a beaten enemy or use them as a fire brigade if I started losing a battle.

To better help my future conquest I broke my alliance with Crimnea and Kazakastan and allighned myself with Bremen, which I was hoping would keep Pommerania busy so I could concentrate on Sweden, which would not be easy given the fact that I have no leaders and Sweden's land tech is higher than mine.

I was also busy trying to negotiate an alliance with England to add more firepower to my future wars and the fact that he would be an invaluable allie for me in my colonies in the North Western Hemispere, as I had already colonized Greenland and was looking foward to a dip in the fur trade of Canada.

As I set ready for war the game crashed, thus leaving me hungry for blood and conquest.

BLADE
This is very enjoyable!

Ulver, I hope you fortify N.Spain, invest in Army tech. Hold your standing army back in Aaragon where no one can see them. Then IF war breaks out, you should have 3 battle groups; 2 standard really strong armies, and then 1 auxillary cannon groups, paid for with Spanish gold...simply for the purpose of seiging Bearn, while your two standard armies guard it and seige Gasgonne and Rousoulon. Move forward in a screening pattern that way, as your cannon army makes short work of forts with almost no attrition. SUe for Peace by taking Gasconne and Bearn... then you will weaken France while having the river act as a defensive barrier. It sucks to get "French" provinces, but France will continue to get stronger in the future, and that must be curtailed. Hopefully Austria would assist you as well.

Damocleas- FRANCE

Blade,


You highly underestimate even a mediocore French player. If Spain ever did something so undiplomatic and simply inconceivable (Especially with Ulver at the helm, who is an excellent player) as to find themselves in a war with France, considering the distinct lack of Iberian manpower compared to that of France, it would require a strong, dedicated coalition consisting of at least Austria and England, along with a relatively inept French player, to even get a status quo. Left alone face to face with a violent unfriendly France, Spain will be obliterated on the continent and all his provinces laid siege to, after his initial armies are destroyed.

Granted, me and Ulver have a strong understanding at the moment, so I don't forsee this ever happening. But, suppose another Spain player or another France player was particularly provoking? It will depend on the player.

My point being is that, Spain simply lacks the manpower to continue a war if he is the sole focus of France's attention. Austria and England will need to help to their utmost to make it an event fight.

Historically, Austria was alot stronger, if only because, as HRE, he should be able to use the armies of the German minors (At least until the HRE is torn apart by the religious strife). In fact, France was forced into an unholy alliance with the Ottoman Empire in order to offset the Spain/HRE alliance.

As it is now in the game, Austria is also crippled by low manpower provinces.


Damocleas- FRANCE

I took over as France in the second installment.

When I came to power, I saw that France was weak and being very poorly managed. The previous French King had been expending far too much effort in carving out a worthless, poor colonial empire and using entirely too many artillery.

This out of the way, I completely wrote off a colonial Empire, besides what was given to me in future peace deals, or perhaps, a stab at India later on, and decided to go about assuring myself continental hegemony.

My policy was to be the decisive factor in all European decisions.
This involved some strategic expansion while still staying in the the comfortable tarnished range. With a bridgehead across the Rhine, and with Switzerland mine, I had a secure position to be able to deal with Austria.

In the meantime, I was turning France from being a poor nation with 7 ducats into a economic superpower with near 8000 ducats in her war chest. With these funds, I started building some 8 manufactories. My eventual goal is to have a manufactory in every province, making me financially secure, and since the vast majority of my holdings are CB shields, the definite winner in any war exhaustion struggle.

Being one of the better EUII players around, many of the powers around me quickly changed their policies in regards to France, as evident in lots of defensive measures being taken. However, I do not wish to own Salzburg, or Murcia or Kent or Jylland. That they fall in line with my foreign policy is enough.

I am contemplating a seizure of Italy...I will only do so for sure if another player attempts to annex any part of it, and for now, I am going to allow the Netherlands to form, because they seem rather fond of allowing a player to take over the Dutch. I made this agreement in exchange for being able to annex Flanders to my empire.

I left France, the strongest, richest nation in Europe with the largest, most advanced army. Though normally I gear my forces towards almost max quantity, I had to make do, as the person before me seemed hellbent on maxing out quality which in my opinion, is a dangerous mistake in MP.

Throughout my tenure as France, I added Calais, Brittany, Lorraine, Baden, Mainz, Schwyz and Alsace to the French realm and my reputation at the moment is tarnished. Savoy is vassalized and will be diplo-annexed soon enough. Perhaps the rest of Helvetia as well, if just for a more aesthetic map. I was also pleased to see that Rousilloun, Franche-Comte and Artois had been added to the Realm.

As France, I have a fought a large coalition of nations before and inevitably, I triumph. With the armies at my disposal, I am secure in the knowledge that I can dictate the course of events in Europe without having to revert to military measures.

My greatest anxiety at this point, is that , because of an awkward working schedule, I will not able to guide France. Due to business, someone else even took over recently for a short time. Hopefully, it won't happen again, as the only event that can ruin France now is France itself.

Austria 1524-1556
Austria 1524-1556

This was perhaps one of the worst sessions I have ever had to go through. I had inherited an Austria that simply was not prepared to deal the political situation that had arisen. Indeed Europe as a whole was not ready for the political situation. I really can honestly say that I've never been quite so stressed since a game of war and peace in 1993 and Paths of glory in 2000. But thats what I love about MP, being under pressure and having had it easy for a good 100 years of play I now had to face someone who was definitely good but bent on upsetting the balance of power. He made it a great, if deeply unerving session.....

France, played by tear/damocles, turned from a balanced power that had won a series of wars and formed modern france with a great overseas empire, into one bent on European hegemony. Throwing away the future France turned on a path that really was going to see the Napoleonic wars 250 too early. In one of the worst deals I have ever witnessed France bought Calais from England for a promise not to expand in the new world. Abandoning the new world and a chance at long term success, France decided to go on a rampant war of contintental expansion. Spain and England seemed to be blindly ignoring the dangers and the Ottomans were getting wrestless. The situation was not good.

Realising that France was on the war path I had to switch from development to full war production. France is a colosus against Austria and I began to develop my fortifications and re think my strategy.

Taking advantage of a border war started by Rhineland minor- Mainz perhaps? I was able to stall France for 5 years by getting peace with a minor in his alliance who was the leader. The war had caught me unprepared but woke me up with a jolt- I was lucky to get out so quickly. I quickly rebuilt my forces and started to lay the strategic ground work. striking north and south against a mixed AI alliance of anti-austrian minor countries I was able to vassalise Friesland and Modena and buy peace off the rest. At the same time I was able to reduce my strategic vulnerability by vassaling Mecklenberg and securing my eastern frontier with the inheritance of hungary.

However during this truce I wasnt able to stop France from rampaging across the Rhine, seizing territory in 2 places across the Rhine from the Palatinate. Attacking Switzerland and seizing more territory was perhaps the final straw for the rest of Europe. It started to become clear to the others what France was attempting to do and the tide slowly began to shift. No longer faced alone, my own personal 1940 was over, I was now able to relax a little. With a military alliance of Venice, Tuscany, Wurzsberg and Wuttemberg, the promise of support from abroad, a full army and full L3 fortifications on all my Western border territories my military and political preperations were complete, war could begin and there was a glimmer of hope that Europe might survive the French challenge for complete Imperial hegemony over Europe.

However, I only ever had till 3pm. 60 years of EU MP in a weekend and reality called me back to the pub.

1545-1555.

Rexmundi returned to run France and the DEFCON level receeded. No longer faced by the genius of a califorian military madman I was able to relax again with a France that wasnt looking to start a world war. We were able to return a slightly more relaxed situation. Europe had a very peaceful 10 years with an almost complete lack of conflict. France and Poland allied, taking Venice out of my alliance, but this had its advantages. Venice, a likely Ottoman target, was no longer my concern, the French and Poles could deal with that. With the Holy Roman empire at peace, I was able to allow religious tolerance for all in the Empire avoiding wasteful bloodshed. The alliance structure in the HRE was stable enough, Denmark decided not to declare war on my Mecklenberg vassal and peace was secured in the north. Spain and England continued to expand in the new world and the Ottomans were very quiet- mainly due to continual player drops. With a stable balance of power returned all I had to do now was await the Dutch rebellion. Having sadly inherited a situation where I had the Netherlands- a crazy pre me reign Austrian move. Doubtlessly this will bring further turmoil to Europe but I may just have a plan....

Damocleas- FRANCE

I disagree somewhat with Mowers' assessment of France's strategy. Granted, it was with great hesitation and trepidation that I gave up the wealth that could be gleaned from Quebec, though I felt my interests were best focused elsewhere.

There are far richer areas to colonize in the proper time, and the vast majority of overseas trade for me has always been finding foreign CoTs. I have about a half dozen colonies in North America that I am happy with, revolving around Tobacco and Salt. The rest are worthless fish or fur. Fur should be almost the equilivant of sugar, I feel, when putting down trading posts, but it is not.

Calais on the other hand is a 3 manpower, rich coastal province and a CB of mine. It was infinitely more desirable to gain via peaceful means at the time, since I had no desire to annex Lenape and screw England out of it's primary deal. A tendency I've developed from house rules regarding colonization that me and JohnMK have developed.

Still, it would be wrong to think that I am just blindly annexing with no thought of tommorrow. I steadfastly build up my economy to support my military means while seeking to annex favorable strategical ground with which I could launch future operations.

Originally, three-four separate countries were in the way of me launching any significantly sized army into Austrian territory. Now, I am right up to your Tirol/Lombardia border, and able to attack your minor allies on your western flank.

Giving myself a foothold across the rhine and annexing Schwyz allows me to strike without a moment's warning into the HRE. Once Savoy is diplo-annexed I will have two clear routes into Italy. I would have taken the lowlands off of Austria, but I was told it was something of a house rule to let the Netherlands form, so I was content with Spain's promise for me to receive Flandern.

My reputation is merely tarnished and I feel for now, secure. I've warned Austria and Spain not to annex any German or Italian minors and so far as this is obeyed, I will have no cause for action. As soon as it is disobeyed however, I am well placed to launch a crippling blow in any direction I need to without suffering the attrition I would normally take for having to march an army through territories I have military access through.

Damocleas- FRANCE

Blade,

Ah yes, but I noted that even if France was involved in another war, and even if it was played by a relatively mediocore player, it would be a lucky Spain indeed, if in an aggressive war, they managed to even get a white peace.

Annexing the Acquitaine is right out.

With a large navy, Spain/England could easily occupy my colonial holdings in NA. Though, when I'm sieging Madrid and Andalusia, that is little consolation.

England is probably the most inconveniant nation to attack if they play a war strictly defensively. It requires sneaking up to a port provinces and disembarking before they know you're there, then rapidly assaulting and capturing the port to ferry more troops in easier.

I was just playing a Napoleon game the other night (Me as France, vs a England, Prussia, Austria, Russia). England was the last one standing simply because of how difficult it can be to sneak in. Eventually, I managed to find a way in while he was fooling around somewhere in the med going after my Italian possessions.

I remember the Austrian player bewailing England's lack of caution, and England responding something to the effect that I had used stealth, only for the Austrian player to respond there was nothing stealthy about an 80k army disembarking! The war ended shortly thereafter...

So in any case, Spain should never even contemplate a war in Europe against France unless A) They enjoy overwhelming support from England/Austria which is unlikely because Spain itself is ussually the superpower who everyone gangs up on, and B) France is played by someone relatively clueless or prone to panicking and making quick peace deals at a disadvantage.

Far better advice to give Spain would be to cultive a healthy friendship and working relationship with it's only serious threat, lest they ally with England.

If I am able to set myself up in Italy, I can be in a significant position to thwart any Ottoman ambition and control the med with a large fleet of galleys. Sooner or later the Turks will go on the warpath against Austria, Poland, etc, and who better to insure their good behavior then a strong French presence in the vicinity? Perhaps Austria should let me have my way for her own safety!

 

[Mowers]

Part III

ULVER- SPAIN

OH I’m very eager for friendship with France and have consistently pursued such a policy. The genius of these things, however, is the fact that players change and you need to take that into account. I actually think that facet adds to the game.

I don’t believe it very likely that a rational player would ever occupy Iberia as France unless Spain screwed up big time. The fact that both sides know he can will usually be more then enough. While Spain maintains navel supremacy little can be gained from a Spanish adventure, what he can do is hurt Spain.

Picture a Spanish player whose royal marriage with France just ran out and having 100000 French troops on his border. The French ambassador explain the, regrettably, his majesty is facing opposition from his merchants to renew the dynastic ties due to Spanish refusal to share maps. However, he is personally of the opinion that such refusals have been a regrettable mistake by lower ranking officials.

In fact The King of France has given the merchant houses assurances to that effect and promised that maps will be made available. The King of France is confident that his beloved brother the King of Spain shares his opinion that both sides would benefit from exchanging maps.

What do you think Spain will do? I know I’d hand over the maps double time. This is just an example. A French use of its forces to say: “Here is my fist – do what I want and I won’t hit you with it” is much more cost-effective then actually going through the expense of using it.

If a rabid French player does attack Spain I have done things as expensive as possible.
I have almost achieved maximum defensive posture on my domestic policy slider. The +1 siege leader applied to all forts will make taking them a lengthy affair especially as an opponent is unlikely to be able to blockade them from the sea. The Spanish army will concentrate on hit and run using fleets so sail large cavalry forces into vulnerable sieges were French Artillery is largely unprotected and run away to the ships afterwards.

Also I can start by offering enough cash to cause stability loss if refused a few times. Quickly occupying colonies will help here. This could end up being a French “shakedown” every five years but I find that unlikely as a DoW cost 3 stability and 4 BB points. Really worth the 1200 Ducats he can extort? I doubt it.

BiB- FRANCE

Two faced France
I played with France for 10 years tonight. Initially I had set out to maintain the strategical route tearjn had embarked upon seeing I was just there for a short while but that combined with the fact that just sitting there quite bored me out of my skull (I wasn't going into an European wide war for the little while I was in charge) and the other fact that I usually always aim for at least some colonial action, made me soon change focus to some extent. Continental domination is nice. Continental domination with a decent colonial empire is even nicer. So I kept one eye on Europe and one on exploration and colonisation. Back home religious troubles were being taken care of as we supported the moderate faction in the War of Religion event. Missionaries were sent out (not to great success anyway), fort levels being increased and rebels being crushed. Our vassal Savoy took care of Helvetia and annexed them, solving that issue for us. Spain soon dropped out and stayed quiet, while Austria decided to keep the Netherlands and give away his Italian possessions to Spain (mistakingly). Tech wise I switched to investing in moneymaking techs to catch up a bit as we were behind in those despite having the best army. We can now have monopolies and more is closeby. Generally, not much appening in Europe so plenty of time to keep myself busy overseas. I had 2 explorers just sitting there being unused which were promptly sent out to discover at the very least some colonial COTs which we were looking into to increase our income. Manhattan was loaded up already and Ivoria was soon discovered also. A COT in Rio de Janeiro was also found. Then I got caught up and left him unattended and he died (the other one died of old age). I used my steady stream of settlers to upgrade the possessions we already had in America and were lookig to get out of the deal with England to not expand in North America. We got that deal when I agreed to sign over my northern, Canadian provinces to England at the first opportunityin a war to come if no other ways were found (still to happen as the English player dropped out). This was the sign as we just had recived Ribaut, a conquistador and had a big army waiting in Roanoke, the capital of our tobacco belt empire. So, Chesapeake was colonised while the Lenape were forced to give up Manhattan, and Delaware and a tidy sum of money. This boosted our economy no end and France is now beter off than when I started with it.

EDIT : Which wasn't so smart really as I won't be playing France next time
BARNIUS- SWEDEN
Greetings to all, especially those I had an honour playing yesterday. I was Sweden and although it was my first game in northern Europe, it was very interesting.

One of the first messages, if not the first one, was Denmark declaring a war on me. And I am not very good in unprepared wars. After quick examination I saw I had 3 times smaller armies and lower land tech. The last was fortunately completely wrong, as I saw later, but in the beginning I reacted accordingly and started to withdraw with the intention of letting the attrition do it’s work.

The second big disadvantage was my almost no existing navy facing Denmark’s 40 ships altogether. Kurland, only minimally fortified and oversees, naturally fell first. My only ally Holstein was busy with Bremen there was no help from anywhere. But than my smaller army defeated a larger Danish and I checked again and saw that my land tech is actually great and everything looked brighter. I quickly arranged a white peace with Bremen, allowing Holstein to recover and perhaps stab the Danes in the beak. While I started to siege Skane, Ostlandet and in the end the island of Gotland. I have done some tactical errors and ended with occupying Skane. With Denmark holding Kurland I managed only to get some cash. Altogether I lost a war because Denmark managed to annex Holstein and I didn’t grab a single province from them. But on the other hand, I didn’t lost one neither

After this rather long time of adjustment, I realised my opportunities: leaders coming almost every year, good armies, great land tech comparing to other human players… and slowly started to put together a picture of a strong Sweden associated with neighbouring protestant states. Logically.

And with Holstein annexed I was free to join or create an alliance at my will. The Ledger was clear: (weak) Pommern, (“large”) Saxony with (“large”) Hannover as vassal and England. And the best was that AI Pommern was the leader – I don’t have to beg any of you guys to accept me in alliance , I’ll have my own…

But than reality have awakened me from my sweet dreams: Jonicro was leading Poland invasion on Pommern and England has just turned her head to America I sopose! We all (well, some of us anyway) witnessed my first human – to – human diplomacy attempts Eventually I had to join the war and was very unhappy because of that. Honestly, because Poland and Sweden should be allays against Russia in the future.

But I felt strong enough to send a cavalry army with one of many leaders and try to lift a Polish siege. Secretly hoping that Saxony will activate it’s big army. But how to get there? Transport ships necessary for the intervention were being constructed, but I had to wait just a little more. And even with that I will be able to ship only 11 units . Meanwhile Polish sieges were going very well for them, although Jonicro mentioned something about going rather slowly . Finally my expedition was on the way when first Brandenburg and shortly after Vorpommern were occupied. And my Kurland too, but I was starting to thing of it as a burden. Just a minimal fortress, with small one costing 213.000 ducats and for what? Later, when Memel just joined my kingdom, I started to think differently…

Here I am a little bit lost. I don’t quite understand what happened. I thought I saw Jonicro making a peace deal with final annexation of Pomern. I think I saw it, but than he generously offered a white peace with Sweden and everything was over. And Pommern survived still in alliance with me, meaning that it can’t be vassal of Poland. Or can it be? Till the alliance expired? I’ll analyse it today.

We ended the game here and I didn’t saved it . Could I have saved it and played it SP just to see the “future” ? And if I could have, is that allowed if I most definitely intend to continue playing with you? Sorry if I am asking too much question a time, but how else could a newbie learn.

Hoping to see you somewhere in Europe. And hoping that Jonicro and I can make a peaceful living up north .

Quick update. Another quietish 10 years in Europe with a minor war between Poland and Pommerania. Ottomans vassalise the Persians, who in turn trash the Mughals. France expands dramatically up the Eastern seaboard of North America. Spain and England were relatively quiet during this period as was Austria. However the Dutch revolt has started and I'm still looking for a good long term Dutch player who can take over and really make some of it for a 100 years. There will not be a session tonight but there will be a 6-8 hour session starting at 9am GMT on Saturday morning and we will need the Dutch player then. If you are interested ICQ me, if you havnt played before then at least let me know who you have played with.

1556-1565

France- BiB
England- Aryaman
Spain- Ulver
Sweden- Barnius
Ottomans- PJL
Poland- Jonicro
Austria- Mowers


September 11, 1557 : Spain declared war upon Benin
September 16, 1558 : Holstein accepted peace with Denmark on the following terms : Full Annexation of Holstein by Denmark
April 26, 1559 : Poland declared war upon Prussia.
April 30, 1559 : England joined the war on the same side as Prussia, Pommern and Saxony in their war against Poland.
October 12, 1560 : England declared war upon Lenape.
November 6, 1560 : England accepted peace with Poland on the following terms : Return to Status Quo.
January 24, 1561 : Ottoman Empire declared war upon Mameluks.
February 1, 1561 : Spain is now the sole defender of the Catholic faith.
May 20, 1561 : Sweden joined the war on the same side as Prussia and Pommern in their war against Poland.
August 10, 1561 : Mameluks accepted peace with Ottoman Empire on the following terms : Full Annexation of Mameluks by Ottoman Empire
August 13, 1561 : Helvetia accepted peace with Savoy on the following terms : Full Annexation of Helvetia by Savoy
November 27, 1561 : Prussia accepted peace with Poland on the following terms : Full Annexation of Prussia by Poland
January 17, 1562 : Sweden accepted peace with Poland on the following terms : Return to Status Quo.
December 16, 1563 : France accepted peace with Lenape on the following terms : Lenape pays 292d in indemnities. Delaware to France & Manhattan to France
July 27, 1564 : The Holy Roman Empire has elected Maximilian II of Austria as emperor..


Players this weekend

1565-1581

England- Aryaman
Spain- Ulver
France- Damocleas
Austria- Mowers
Poland-Jonicro
Ottomans- Rexmundi
Sweden-Cockney
Holland- BiB

1581-1601

England- Teutonic Knight
Spain- Ulver
France- Damocleas
Austria- DarthMaur
Poland-Jonicro
Ottomans- PJL
Sweden-Cockney
Holland- BiB


ULVER- SPAIN

Had an interesting discussion with Damocles. He was worried we might feel his style of play was disruptive. His inclination was to demand the Flanders from the Netherlands or even crush them utterly should they fail to accept his protection in exchange for Flanders.

I assured him no one minded his Napoleonic ambition beyond the fact that a collation was likely to form against a powerful France for beating up on tiny Netherlands. Personally I have enjoyed the tension an assertive French player has brought to the game and I’m sure Mowers feel likewise.

I shall watch the epic battles to come with great interest, and yes, I’ll offer considerable support to any anti-French collation protecting the territorial integrity of the Netherlands. Should France win I’ll accept defeat and submit to reasonable terms. I won’t complain about it either. Needless to say if France were to crush the Netherlands utterly we should offer the player a new country.

But I’d like to poll you on my statement that they’ll be no hard feelings. He told me he has been holding back considerable in the interest of not making a bad impression on his co-players. I assured him that was quite unnecessary and the he should act in the interests of France. If he succeeds in establishing a Napoleonic hegemony in Europe we’ll all respect him for it. (And then we’ll get busy planning how to take it away from him)

Obviously they’ll be in-game consequences such as a massive anti-French collation forming. Personally I feel we screw up if we fail to protect the Netherlands. I do not feel he is playing badly at all for annexing them if he truly feels that is in his interest.

In fact, personally I’d enjoy seeing him going for it.. It is just that an attempt to crush a player nation will likely result in him having to fight at least an English Austrian Turkish collation financed with Spanish money. Should he win I’ll happily submit to French dominance in Europe. (well officially anyway while I plot behind his back) We have a group of great players. On indicator is that we don’t mind losing – rather enjoy doing it to someone skilled. I assured him if he made formal statement claming the Netherlands we’ll respect that while we try to stop him.

Comments?.

POLAND- JONICRO

Ive been bit busy lately mostly with SPWAW (great strategy game too btw) so Polands AAR comes bit late but here it is.


1492-1530

As soon as game started i ran a war against Pommern-Mecklenburg alliance to control of Baltic seas southern coast and the COT. All went as planned and Poland gain both under her control. Some years later Brandenburg annexed 1 province Pommern becoming 4 province power in the area. My next plan was to run war against them regaining the land access to Mecklenburg. Situation changed dramaticaly when Austria decided to intervene in the conflict seeing Poland advancing too much into northern Germany.

War started with a row of several Polish victories until my main army was beaten. Shortly after this Mecklenburg was captured by Austria. This is where i did fatal mistake by continuing the war. I was getting my army back on its feets and it was on plans to make a landing to retake Mecklenburg. I also counted on either France or Ottoman intervention which to my suprise never happened. Finally Austria was able to fully destroy my army and i signed peace with giving 150 gold and Mecklenburg to Austria. I had earlier given province of Galizia to Hungary. War left by economy badly damaged and unlucky event led it to total bankcrupcy.

Until the end of this playing session i was able to regain most of my political strenth on the area by getting Saxony and Wurzburg join my alliance and vassalising Brandenburg and Prussia. My economy was still badly hurt with inflation in around 50%.


1546-1556

The 16 years between these two sessions i played Poland was run by AI. It was able to get rid off the inflation totally. On diplomatic front it was a disaster. I lost 2 allies and 3 vassals i had had and was myself vassal of Lithuania instead. This proved to be not as bad as it had first looked like though. Vassalization with Lithuania was quickly resigned. On the look for new allies to replace the lost ones i noticed France without one and the treaty was signed. This would effectivly stop another Austrian intervention. Also as Austrias alliance got expired i was able to steal Venice from his alliance to mine.

After this i started to plan expansion of my power back to the west. I got Austrias guarantee of not interventin and free hands to advance to Elbe. Luckuly i was able to get CB against Prussia through an event before the war. Pommers army was quickly beaten back but Saxony proved to have larger army than i had thought and they were able to win in our first battle. After reformation i was able to win it, signed white peace with Saxony and started siege on Prussia and Pommern. This is when Sweden intervened the war. I was able to invade their controlled Kurland. All went good until i decided to get Sweden off the war to get free hands on finishing the war against Pommern. Accidently i had chosen Sweden as leader of alliance when signing white peace and Pommern got away with it because of this. &%(#=. Well, atleast learnt the lesson of taking a look at it carefully in the future.

FRANCE- DAMOCLEAS

Perhaps I should elucidate France's position.


I made an agreement with Spain to where I would receive Flandern in exchange for agreeing to keep the Italian city states independent and not making an attempt for Dutch culture by conquering the Lowlands off of either Spain or Austria.

Now, Spain has somewhat reneged on the 'deal', in declaring that he is ready to support Dutch resistance. So this puts me in the position of either taking it quietly, or doing something about it.

France would be pleased to have Netherlands as a little protectorate whom would make a nice ally, in exchange for Flandern, however, France also knows that the Netherlands cannot afford to waste the precious time and ducats it would require to resist France. Whether or not the Coalition helps. Just about all of my provs are CB shields, so war exhaustion isn't a factor either. I am essentially all catholic as well except for a few stray provinces.

I am no stranger to coalitions against France...Should be very fun!




January 9, 1565 : The Dutch Independence happened to us.
January 5, 1567 : Lithuania went with Poland inherits Lithuania in The Act of Union with Poland.
January 11, 1567 : Poland went with Enact the Union in The Act of Union-'Rzeczpospolita Polska'.
May 6, 1567 : Sweden declared war upon Mecklenburg.
May 25, 1567 : England declared war upon France.
June 1, 1567 : Sweden joined the war on the same side as England, Pommern, Saxony and Russia in their war against France and Venice.
January 16, 1568 : Poland declared war upon Russia.
January 29, 1568 : Sweden joined the war on the same side as Russia, Pommern, Saxony and England in their war against Poland.
April 9, 1568 : Mecklenburg accepted peace with Sweden on the following terms : Full Annexation of Mecklenburg by Sweden
June 5, 1568 : Bohemia declared war upon Poland.
July 10, 1568 : Netherlands joined the war on the same side as Bohemia, Tuscany, Würzburg and Austria in their war against Poland, Venice and France.
January 17, 1569 : Poland accepted peace with Netherlands on the following terms : Return to Status Quo.
April 16, 1569 : Hannover accepted peace with Netherlands on the following terms : Hannover pays 52d in indemnities. Friesen to Netherlands & Oldenburg to Netherlands.
June 18, 1569 : The people of Luxembourgh declared independence from Austria.
November 20, 1569 : Poland accepted our generous peace offer.
April 25, 1570 : Luxembourgh accepted peace with The Palatinat on the following terms : Full Annexation of Luxembourgh by The
August 13, 1570 : Nubia accepted peace with Ottoman Empire on the following terms : Nubia pays 77d in indemnities. Bisharin to Ottoman Empire & Batn al Hajar to Ottoman Empire.
April 24, 1571 : Würzburg accepted peace with France on the following terms : Full Annexation of Würzburg by France§394mowers (Austria)
May 1, 1571 : Sweden accepted peace with Denmark on the following terms : Gotland to Sweden & Skåne to Sweden.
May 10, 1571 : Gelre accepted peace with Netherlands on the following terms : Full Annexation of Gelre by Netherlands
January 26, 1572 : England accepted peace with France on the following terms : Stadacone to France, Penobscot to France, Caniapiscau to France & Belle Isle to France.
July 23, 1572 : Ottoman Empire declared war upon Poland.
July 28, 1572 : Siebenbürgen joined the war on the same side as Ottoman Empire in their war against Poland, Venice and France.
February 16, 1573 : Bohemia accepted peace with Poland on the following terms : Silesia to Poland, Moravia to Poland, Erz to Poland & Sudeten to Poland.
May 14, 1573 : Denmark declared war upon Poland.
May 14, 1573 : Bremen joined the war on the same side as Denmark in their war against Poland.
February 2, 1574 : Sweden declared war upon Poland.
February 8, 1574 : England joined the war on the same side as Sweden, Pommern and Saxony in their war against Poland, Venice and France.Cockney (Sweden)
February 15, 1574 : Russia entered a Military Alliance with Pommern, Saxony, England and Sweden.
December 14, 1574 : England accepted peace with France on the following terms : Kent to France.
indemnities. Livland to Sweden.
July 24, 1575 : Poland accepted peace with England on the following terms : Return to Status Quo.
August 11, 1576 : Münster accepted peace with Hannover on the following terms : Full Annexation of Münster by Hannover
October 14, 1576 : The Holy Roman Empire has elected Rudolf II of Austria as emperor..BiB (Netherlands) Jonicro (Poland)
May 21, 1578 : Bohemia declared war upon Poland.
May 24, 1578 : France dishonored a Military Alliance she had with Poland and Venice
May 24, 1578 : Austria joined the war on the same side as Bohemia, Tuscany, Wurtemberg and Netherlands in their war against Poland and Venice.
August 24, 1578 : France accepted peace with Ottoman Empire on the following terms : France pays 750d in indemnities.
August 30, 1578 : Ottoman Empire accepted peace with Poland on the following terms : Jedisan to Ottoman Empire & Krementjug to Ottoman Empire.
June 16, 1579 : France declared war upon Wurtemberg.
August 24, 1579 : Netherlands joined the war on the same side as Austria in their war against Poland.
July 24, 1580 : Wurtemberg accepted peace with France on the following terms : Full Annexation of Wurtemberg by France
August 21, 1580 : France declared war upon Netherlands.Jonicro (Poland)
August 26, 1580 : Austria joined the war on the same side as Netherlands in their war against France
May 13, 1581 : Poland accepted our generous peace offer.
September 15, 1581 : Austria declared war upon The Palatinat.

ULVER- SPAIN

“The armourers, accomplishing the knights,
With busy hammers closing rivets up,
Give dreadful note of preparation.”

William Shakespeare
Henry V

As I arrived to once again take over a Spain whose wealth had been squandered by the staggering ineptitude displayed by the misnamed AI (unless it stands for Artificial incompetence that is) in my absence, I found a Europe rife with rumours of a great war coming. The simmering hostility between France and Austria for domination of the European continent had been building up for a long time. Being mindful of the terrible consequence that might befall the Spanish empire if she found herself at war my policy thus far had always been to give secret financial aid to the weaker party but not risk a public stand against my powerful neighbour for fear of possible consequences. One constant overriding concern of mine has been to keep out of any war unless absolutely necessary. My motto “My gold; Their blood”

I proceeded to pour cash into anybody and everybody willing to take the field against France and his ally Poland. At various times England, Sweden, The Netherlands and Turkey took up the fight to stop the French/Polish colossus. Due to religious differences I were unable to watch as much of the action as I’d have liked but Poland finally succumbed to war exhausting and was forced to break with France.

The French acquisition of Manhattan and further inroads into Germany had, however, solidified my belief that a more anti-French stance might eventually become needed. With a great deal of dread I may be forced to intervene directly to stop France from overrunning North America.

NETHERLANDS- BiB

Well, I joined in as the Dutch Republic. Got a cool 3 provs to start with and 1000 soldiers. Gelre chose to join the Republic but well it just didn't work. So I had to get them militarily at a steep BB costs and instead of inheriting their armies I had to slughter 40K. Great start. Well, at least I got loads of financial support from Felipe II, if Willem of Oranje would know he'd turn in his grave Then Hannover was attacked because they had Friesland, that was qutie easy with William of Orange himself at the helm and Friesland and Oldenburg were annexed (I got a bit greedy). Brabant was still being held by Austria though. Meanwhile Spain helped us get set up colonially and we have established quite some TPs and waypoints in North America and Africa though our "success" rate was abominably low. Lots of wars between France and its ally, Poland and the anti French coalition around me but I escaped the dance for now. Slowly I was building a trade empire with those wacky (for me anwyay ) dp settings that I had. The fleet is looking good, army wise, due to our manpower and dp settings it went slowly and expensively. At least we have good leaders. A war between France and Austria, my ally, and me was brewing though and I knew the score when France converted to CRC. War was declared soon after and 50K of crazy Dutch heretics, led by William himself, swept into France, Paris was sieged for a moment, some assaults failed and then we spotted a rashly assembled 100K French army coming our way We soon made our way back to Zeeland to defend our ground beyond the Schelde river with no manpower or money and Austria also in trouble ...


FRANCE- DAMOCLEAS

1565-1581 (Or thereabouts)

I once more returned to take control of France after a peaceful 20 year interlude. Once more the armies of France would march triumphantly upon the earth. Little did I know that French blood and ducats would be sorely taxed in nearly 15 years of continual warfare.

Beginning in 1566, France was in an immeasurably better position financially then it had previously been left. Knowing that I would be facing a large coalition of nations at every step, I began to reduce quality from an ugodly 8 to a more manageable 7 then to 6 throughout the course of the game, which gave me around 110 manpower. A considerable improvement.

The first year or so was fairly peaceful, I did not impose my demands on the Netherlands and was content to get my house in order. It was at this point, somewhere in late 66 or 67, England (Aryaman) decided to declare war on me. Sweden (Cockney) joined him but didn't do anything since via a bug and a reload, my ally Poland (Jonicro) didn't have to enter the war. This was first of one of the many dubious instances in which my erstwhile ally gave me something of a headache!

This was a misadvised war at best, and I could only guess that it was being urged on by Spain (Ulver), the war largely being fought with Spanish boullion yet with Anglo blood.

England had a 30k army in the colonies. He owned Bangor and Penobscot (or whatever) and a few trading posts. I was in command of roughly the entire eastern seaboard. It was a difficult fight at first, since I had to start recruiting many more troops from my colonies around Roanoake, Manhattan and Delaware to supplement the 19k I had in Manhattan. Luckily for me, England wasted his time chasing 4k cavalry all around New England.

What followed over the next 2-3 years was a series of fairly equal battles fought between my small colonial army and his, back and forth. He was constantly getting 20k reinfocements like clockwork yearly from England and recruiting in Bangor, and I was recruiting what I could in 1k and 3k increments with the occcassional war tax boost.

At this point, Bohemia DoWed Poland, dragging Netherlands and Austria into the war. Poland requested my help of course, and so now I find myself with a continental battle. Throughout 99 percent of this war, Poland largely ignored Austria, working on suppressing its revolters and fighting the AI. This left somewhere around 100k Austrians to surge across the border at 3 different places with the accompanying AI. I got a nobles ally with a foreign power, a meteor sighted, and a political uprising during the course of this war. Which made it all the more fun. (Bye bye war taxes!)

Laying siege to a couple Netherlands provinces, I settled in for a long war. I had to fend off England in NA, while arranaging an invasion of England, fighting off Austria, and keeping an eye on the Dutch. So, business as usual.

I decided to let the Austrian army attrition itself a good deal, allowing them and their allies to take Mainz. I had to be careful since in the last 20 years they had reached land tech 18 and I was still at 17, probably because those before me focused more on infra and trade.

Taking my time, I assembled a 90k army composed of infantry and cavalry. Some fresh-faced recruits, others veterans from the first battles across the Rhine. Throughout these preparations, I lost around 30k men total in various invasions of England (To secure a bridgehead) before I achieved naval supremacy with a brand new fleet. I built some 30 ships...Seeing a I started with 1 and some transports.d Luckily, England seemed too busy in NA to make an honest attempt to retake the channel waters.

Finally, I struck the Austrians in Baden, annihilating them to the last man. Then I destroyed the second army they had in France at this time, leaving some 64k total dead, and about 10k casualties on my side. Victorious, I began to invade Austria, now that their entire army was wiped out. The sieging in the lowlands was coming along nicely as well.

At this point, Poland made peace with Austria...White peace. Grrrr. I knew that letting the Austrians off so easy would come back to haunt me, which it did.

Eventually, England fell to my armies and I destroyed him in NA, but he kept not wanting to make peace. Eventually, I generously settled for a few colonies. Austria got off scot free, but not it's ally, Wurzburg, whom I annexed.

Peace for year or 2.

Suddenly Sweden dowed P-L who had taken all of Bohemia except Bohemia. This drew England back into the war. Simultaneously, the Ottoman Empire DoWs Poland-Lithuania. Russia was also invading them. P-L of course invites me.

The first stage of the war, I blitzed England, knocking them out of the war immediately with a large scale invasion. This time, he gave in to peace seeing it was hopeless, and I took Kent as a guard against further Anglo aggression.

I now launched my armies into Poland and navally invaded Sweden. Knowing that Sweden has very little manpower, I was intending to make short work of him, even knocking him off a siege and begin to land in Skane, when Poland made another peace, giving up LIvland and 500 ducats which in hindsight, he didn't have to do.

Now, it was just the Ottomans. The Ottomans aren't exactly that easy to get at, and as became apparent, they were being heavily funded, like a state gift a month, by Spain.

Spain/Austria tried to justify this in that they were preserving the Balance of Power by taking out Poland, my ally in the east...Ottoman at this time comprised all of their CB shields, and the ENTIRE middle east. Spain controlled all of it's colonial CBs getting a massive income, and Austria had inherited Hungary. Seeing these three great powers arranged against Poland in the interest of preserving the balance...Was amusing.

What followed was many years of Ottoman deliberately prolonging the war until war exhaustion began to rise to ungodly levels. He was doing this on instruction from Austria/Spain. This of course, was being a pain to me since I had little ability to reach the Ottomans, needless to say. Eventually, I broke my alliance with Poland because it was becoming a occupational hazard, and also because I wanted to diplo-annex Savoy.


At this time, Austria invaded Poland now that his W.E was super high. Now, Ottomans took peace with him, which seeing as how he didn't matter war exhaustion wise, he probably shouldn't have accepted. I accepted peace on exorbiant terms, but only because I knew OE was more then happy to just sit there prolonging the war and more importantly, I didn't want to be caught with outrageous war exhaustion in the next war that was coming. So it was worth it.

Austria now happily violated a barely breathing Poland-Lithuania. Though, I could understand Austria's reason. Poland shouldn't have tried to take all of Bohemia. Still, it was a brutal way to go about it, and I was surprised that the Ottomans were so complacent in doing everything Spain/Austria said.

At this time, I warned them the gloves were off, but despite Poland's begging, I did not attack anyone. Instead, I bided my time once more, spending two years raising a massive army. In the meantime, I had DoWed Wurtemburg and diplo-annexed Savoy. Netherlands and Austria dishonored their alliance with Wurtemburg rather then be drawn into a war with me.

Upon annexing Wurtemburg, I switched to Counter-Reformed Catholic. This now gave me a horde of screaming religious zealouts. Eyeing the Reformed Dutch (and the free CB), I launched an all out invasion. Which was timely, since the armies I had built were costing me 20 ducats a month.

Nobody ever expects the French inquisition!

I didn't expect the Dutch heretics to be so prepared however, as 60k of the bastards crossed the border towards Paris under William D'orange. Then they dithered around a bit taking attrition while I formed a 80k army and chased them back to Zealand where I defeated them.

While this was happening, the French were pouring over the border into Austria who was already heavily engaged with Poland...Well, as far as sieging several of it's provinces.

Since about all of Austria is a medium sized fort, I began to besiege all of his western German provs, leaving only Hungary uninvaded.

He must've pulled back his army from Poland, because then 69k Austrians counterattacked, but were defeated in Steirmark by my army of fantatics. (Invincible morale is nice).

At this moment of suspense, with the armies of Counter reformed Catholicism waging vicious war on two fronts, while Austria was sorely interrupted during it's conquest of Bohemia, Mowers called a halt to the game. I do not envy the next player who takes up Austria if we continue today.

 

[Mowers]

Part IV

MOWERS- AUSTRIA

1565-1581- Lost Opportunities
Well, a number of things to report really.

I guess I first better report on my time as Austria

Austria- 1565-1581

France had made it very clear that it was going to renew its attempt at Continental hegemony again and the tide was against the free people of Europe. Austria tried to stand up this knowing that it was the primary target. Having got off so lightly against Damocleas I knew that I wouldn’t so lucky this time. Here is a basic Austrian only time line with some comments

May 17, 1565 : Netherlands cancelled the Vassalization she had with Austria.BiB (Netherlands)

Expected, indeed I encouraged it. Having formed Netherlands I was keen to see them do well.

April 9, 1568 : Mecklenburg accepted peace with Sweden on the following terms : Full Annexation of Mecklenburg by Sweden

This was a major event although it may not seem it. I had good relations with Poland for a long time but they kept on demanding more and more in Northern Germany. First of all they wanted Pommern, then they wanted Mecklenberg and then they wanted Saxony. I couldn’t defend them all from Jonicro so I invited Sweden into Mecklenberg hoping that he would be able to stop Poland rampaging across Northern Germany whilst I tried vainly to defend myself from the oncoming French.

July 10, 1568 : Netherlands joined the war on the same side as Bohemia, Tuscany, Würzburg and Austria in their war against Poland, Venice and France.

Well. I wasn’t far wrong. War came in a matter of months, France driving into Austrian Lowlands with massive armies and unlimited manpower. I tried to hold off both front and free the german lands that France had taken on the East bank of the Rhine. Poland follows suit and drives into Northern Germany, although a minor AI war pits Sweden versus France and Poland solving a lot of my headaches.

October 26, 1569 : We lost a battle against France in Baden.Jonicro

I was doing fairly well till I lost this decisive battle in Baden to France- I lost about 70K of men to his 10K despite that I defending a river and it was fairly equal. My field army was destroyed and I was broke, the war was over.

November 20, 1569 : Poland accepted our generous peace offer.Damocles (France)

Yet again I escape with a lucky break. Both of us were confused about who was the war leader and I was yet again lucky to get out against France for no loss. War continues with Sweden to the north fighting against Poland and France.

January 26, 1572 : England accepted peace with France on the following terms : Stadacone to France, Penobscot to France, Caniapiscau to France & Belle Isle to France.Damocles

Meanwhile the war against France continued. England was the next victim, fighting a disasterous campaign in the new world France was able to establish itself a predominant in NA. Sweden alone stands. But Sweden is being overun by French forces that are fighting in Poland, helping to keep war exhaustion rebels at bay and landing troops in Sweden main. Sweden gets peace and a province in the baltics but the Ottomans continue the war so as to keep Poland at war.

July 25, 1572 : Venice joined the war on the same side as Poland in their war against Ottoman Empire.BiB

The Ottomans get involved with the mainland war and fighting breaks on my borders keeping the Polish army busy fighting very irritated peasants.

May 24, 1578 : France dishonored a Military Alliance she had with Poland and Venice.§
May 24, 1578 : Netherlands joined the war on the same side as Bohemia, Tuscany and Wurtemberg in their war against Poland and Venice
May 24, 1578 : Austria joined the war on the same side as Bohemia

I join in too to stop Poland from conquering Northern Germany and take an opportunity to knock it out before Ottomans take a peace, which they do and three provinces as well. I don’t want this war but I have to try and do something to relieve the Ottomans who now face the Poles and the French alone. I make some major mistakes and Poland, which is knackered from fighting the Ottomans is able to defeat me with the weather. I was inept to be blunt and lose thousands to the snow, men I cant afford to replace. Having been handed an opportunity to deal with Poland separately from France and try and drive it out of bohemia and Northern germany I throw it away.

May 28, 1579 : France has cancelled the treaty of military access they had in our country.BiB

This should have gotten me back up to speed- big warning. But I still continued to play capt incompetant in the snow. Even though Poland is now suffering massive war exhaustion and spends its time putting down rebels I am unable to reconquer bohemia properly.

I try to finish the war demanding Bohemia, Poland agrees. Great, but I cant quite conquer Bohemia, and the war drags on.

August 24, 1579 : Netherlands joined the war on the same side as Austria in their war against Poland.

August 26, 1580 : Austria joined the war on the same side as Netherlands in their war against France.

France invades with 100k. My army, weakened by my own ineptitude, is feeble and is still in Poland- all 35K. I manage to get Poland to sign a peace treaty and I am able to regather, 2KD comes from Spain and I have to buy 2kD of Mercs as my manpower is now 8K.

May 25, 1581 : We lost a battle against France in Steiermark.

What a note to go out on. I outnumber him 4:1 and lose. Disasterous. But its 2.52. I have to go and meet this Italian girl and I have 8 minutes to change from wearing my smeggy pants and surrounded by my own filth to something that is going to appeal to the fashionable girl from Milan.- All I want to talk about is EU, all she wants to talk about is horse riding. I sit there listening wondering what is happening to Austria and how badly I screwed up; not that it stops the old mowers magic. J

Well, I held up France for another 15 years. But I should have done better. Diplomatically I managed to convince Poland to change sides. His prime concern was being shredded by the Ottomans and Swedes and all I wanted was not be shredded by him so we decide to join together which suited me down to the ground. So on one level I managed to stop France from driving wedges in the alliance but militarily I failed.


August 9, 1582 : England declared war upon Scotland
July 29, 1583 : The Palatinat accepted peace with Austria on the following terms : The Palatinat pays 162d in indemnities. Luxembourg to Austria.The Palatinat will become a vassal.
August 26, 1584 : Kleves accepted peace with Austria on the following terms : Kleves pays 34d in indemnities.
August 1, 1585 : Civil War in Ottoman Empire
August 12, 1585 : Netherlands are now French vassals.
October 9, 1586 : Austria joined our Military Alliance with Netherlands
October 21, 1586 : Pommern accepted peace with Poland on the following terms : Poland pays 75d in indemnities. Hinterpommern to Pommern & Küstrin to Pommern.
September 11, 1589 : Spain annexed Naples.
March 24, 1591 : Saxony accepted peace with Austria on the following terms : Saxony pays 204d in indemnities. Magdeburg to Austria & Anhalt to Austria.Saxony has to change religion.
May 8, 1591 : England accepted peace with Scotland on the following terms : Scotland pays 146d in indemnities. Strathclyde to England, The Highlands to England & The Grampians to England.
September 25, 1591 : France declared war upon Spain.
January 1, 1593 : Spain accepted our generous peace offer
April 25, 1593 : Pommern accepted peace with Austria on the following terms : Pommern pays 300d in indemnities. Hinterpommern to Austria, Küstrin to Austria & Brandenburg to Austria.Pommern has to change religion.
November 24, 1594 : Netherlands declared war upon Malacca.
June 29, 1595 : Sweden declared war upon Austria.
November 21, 1595 : France declared war upon The Palatinat.
January 21, 1596 : Ottoman Empire declared war upon Venice.
January 21, 1596 : Poland joined the war on the same side as Venice in their war against Ottoman Empire
July 25, 1596 : Malacca accepted peace with Netherlands on the following terms : Full Annexation of Malacca by Netherlands
December 17, 1596 : Ottoman Empire accepted peace with Poland on the following terms : Jedisan to Poland.
October 8, 1597 : Venice accepted peace with Ottoman Empire on the following terms : Return to Status Quo
November 1, 1597 : Scotland accepted peace with England on the following terms : Full Annexation of Scotland by England§741DarthMaur (Austria) BiB (Netherlands)
April 16, 1598 : France declared war upon Kleves.
December 26, 1598 : France annexed Kleves
May 18, 1600 : Pommern accepted peace with Austria on the following terms : Pommern pays 274d in indemnities. Pommern will become a vassal.
May 18, 1600 : Saxony became Vassals of Austria.
May 18, 1600 : Sweden accepted peace with Austria on the following terms : Return to Status Quo.
October 18, 1600 : Austria has cancelled the treaty of military access they had in France..
December 16, 1600 : Austria declared war upon France.
December 26, 1600 : Netherlands joined the war on the same side as France in their war against Austria, Venice and Poland
April 17, 1601 : Ottoman Empire declared war upon France
October 9, 1601 : Austria accepted peace with Netherlands on the following terms : Brabant to Netherlands.



ULVER- SPAIN

Well the 1581-1600 se a new Austrian Monarch take the throne, something I must confess gave rise to a certain trepidation. Would he be able, and willing, to continue the anti-French policies of his predecessor. Austria stated off at somewhat of a military disadvantage so when France offered a peace deal for 2000 Spanish ducats I was happy to ransom my ally with such a minor payment from the petty cash. The Netherlands came to a separate agreement, becoming a French vassal.

A France, enraged by my massive constant financial support of his enemies then turned on helpless Spain. Having extolled everyone else to fight to the last drop of blood for their honor I naturally……hands over Lombadia and make a quick peace. He who lives to run away, well, in my case lives to run another day no doubt. Told you, Don Ulver dislikes war when he needs to fight it himself. One can get seriously hurt doing that you know. Almost immediately afterwards I see the formation of a French lead alliance including both the Netherlands and Austria. With all efforts to stop the Monster from Paris failed is this the end of the collation? Is Spain doomed to stand alone against the French menace? (well actually Don Ulver would be on his knees praising his new French overlords but that’s another story)

No, it is all part of the most cynical ruthless plan for the conquest of Germany I have ever seen on the part of Austria.

Under cover of the alliance Austria proceeds to completely ignore French warnings and goes on a rampage of conquest annexing German minors with a ice cold brutality Stalin would have admired. France, having invited Austria into his alliance is helpless to intervene directly.

Needless to say Spain reacts to this brutal subjugation of the Free people of Germany with a happy smile and sends a few thousand ducats more to Austria in appreciation. Realpolitik: I need a counterweight to French dominance so I’m quite happy to se Austria grab manpower any way she can.

By way of contrast Spain pursues very peaceful domestic policies in the period. Even going so far as the refuse to expel the Arabs twice. In a strange turn of events this has meant Spain is now the most innovative society in the world even exceeding our good friends the Dutch republic in our tolerance of freethinking. We have also proven to be believers in free trade and the rule of law. The latter giving rise to some rebellions “What do you mean we can kill our peasants as we see fit anymore? This is tyranny, tyranny I tell you!” A revolutionary new economic theory explaining that decentralization actually leads to increases revenue has also led us the decentralize considerably. (I suspect all players dread patch 1.06 as everyone is likely to have max decentralization)

MAUR13- AUSTRIA

As we took the throne facing big French armies overrunning our western German possesion, and Spain willing to buy peace for us, we made a decision to make peace, despite not knowing the whole situation much.

Yet, it seems that it proved to be right decision. Next twenty years saw Holy Roman Emperor deciding to end petty bickering of small German statelets, in face of dire threat from French expansionism, which already gobbled up southern HRE.
Our idea was to unite German people and manpower to counter the French threat, which would be only possible under stron Habsburg leadership. After all, we were already Holy Roman Emperor, and we didn't annex anyobody, as did evil French.
All that with our kingly brother in Spain using his New' World gold to finance our just cause.

First, we vassalized Kleves, and Palatinate, and also got Luxemburg, our old core province from the latter.

After that, French monarch dared to threat us not to continue our uniting of Germany. But we laughed at his threats, knowing that he just want to secure his position of subjugation of Europe, southern Germany in particular. And indeed, he demanded Lombardia from Spain, which was handed over, as we didn't want to risk war yet.

The worst thing was that our ally, Sweden was quite unwilling to let it's allies, German statelets of Saxony (3 provs) and Pommern (2+2 it took from ai Poland), whose monarchs were suspiciously French friendly, be absorbed into new centralized Holy Roman Empire of German Nation

France made dear mistake. We gladly accepted their invitation to their alliance, knowing that even French monarch won't be so machiavellian to ban us without formal cause for war. And since we Dowed Pommern (shortly declaring ourselves counter-reformed nation), along with Saxony, Sweden and Russia (with whom we made white peace shortly-Sweden player finally dropped out due to his frequent crashes), France wasn't in position to do anything, except throwing empty threats at us.

(Here comes one of the most fun statements- i DON'T take instructions, buddy-from Austria to France . If you remember AvP2....)

And here was XVII century coming. Using Spanish gold, we turned Austria into real industrial powerhouse. Weapon manufactories, producing arms for all-hailed War Of Liberation, were built all over lower Austria, which along with manpower from our new German provinces, pushed up our support limit sky high. We also appointed few new governmental bureaucrats in our Austrian heartland (read:infra 5 researched). There is also new idea in among our military men, of supplying firearms to our cavalrymen (read:we are about to discover land tech 21, only the fact that date is too early prevents us from that. Tech 21 is the first one cav get's firepower, so cavalry only armies are again viable solution)

French monarch, seeing he can't directly attack Austria, resorted to his barbarous practices, and Dowed and annexepd Palatinate and Cologne, our dear vassals. Annexation of Palatinate outraged us, as we had a feeling that existence of this state was crucial for our future (Read: it is needed for Austria to get CB shields on Bohemia in 1619). We immediately begun asking our kingly habsburg brother in Spain for financial support, and begun concscripting volunteers from all over Germany for new War of Liberation

And so we saw the dawn of XVII century. Our Nation is united, our King is focused, our military is strong, people from all over Germany are willing to join the Crusade against barbarous French tyrrants.

We have over 200k under arms, manpower is about 2/3 of French. Treasury is infinite thanks to our Spanish friends. War is imminent.


(Btw, i actually called for ending it's game, since i was kinda sick, and got severe headache yesterday. No way i would wage war when i was barely able to sit without throwing up)

And so was Austrian point of view. Yes, you guessed it. For 20 years, the only thing we did was preparing to war against Frenchies , i barely noticed the existence of other countries





BiB- HOLLAND

The Golden Age of the Dutch Republic seems set to start. After a tough start things are coming together. Maurits van Nassau has taken over from William of Orange and looked every bit as good. Our situation Europe wise was bound to the faith of Austria our ally and thus by extension Spain too. When Spain paid France 2000 ducats to get Asutria of the hook, we became vassalised. We're now in France's alliance. However this didn't mean things took a real turn for the worse for us. As the Dutchies most of ur income comes from trade and not taxes so being a vassal doesn't really hurt financially. Seeing France let us keep all the Dutch cultured provs I can't really complain. This left the way open for us, being taken out of the cross European tensions to an extent, to invest, colonise and build. Tech wise we closed gaps thanx to our innovativesness. Our money making techs are still low but our military ones are amongst the best in the world. Inflation is at 0 thanx to the many great financial institutes in Amsterdam (events). We also got a few manufactories thru events, which was very nice also. Our dp settings are set towards making money from trade and building a fleet (fully naval and plutocratic) so we did. Another event gift, a shipyard, helped nicely with that. We now boast a fleet that is amongst the biggest and best in the world (33 warships, 33 galleys and 10 transports). Our army is high quality, high morale and has great leaders. Shame our manpower is 16 Stab also is a pain as we have full free subjects and we have non state religion provinces. Yup, the lutherans from Oldenburg, whom I really should ditch, and sunni muslims as we annexed Malacca to get a serious foothold in the East Indies. Explorers had flocked in and had brought us places. We had gotten there thru a series of stopover cities (Louga, St Helena, Ciskei, Madagascar). We also managed to found Batavia. So things are looking up but till the moment is there till our colonial trading empire cannot be torched in 3 weeks we will not be safe Oman and Portugal still have quite a few lands in the area and we're on a conflict course for control of the spicetrade. So basically we're an economic powerhouse with a good fleet (just about every VP earned has come from the economy category) but one which doesn't have an leg (read army) to stand on in a large scale ground war

TEUTONIC KNIGHT- ENGLAND

As I took over for England in 1581 she was wrecked with unfavorable wars in which much of England's colonial empire was lost. The wars in which she was part of had destroyed her Navy, Army, colonial existence and trade; the situation was dire at best.

I decided that to help England, if anything at all could be done in such a short time, that I needed to secure her Northern border from the always uppity Scots. I was afraid that France or somebody else would ally with Scotland putting even more pressure on England, as they would have a jump point to either invade or to retreat if I defeated an invading army, or just keep me busy with Scottland wasteing troops.

I quickly readjusted the taxes and tech bar to allow me about 15% of all my revenue being liquid cash. I was able to raise an army of 40K infantry and along with the 22k cav that I inherited from the previous king, declared war on Scotland in 1582.

We both had the same land tech level so I knew I had the advantage because of my sheer size and manpower advantage; or did I? The initial attacks began with me launching into Lothain with about 15k infantry to lay seige to the Scotish capital. I then sent the reaming 22k cav and 15k infantry to deal with the 30k Scotish army camped in Strath. I thought that the battle would be fast and I already had another 9k cav army coming up from North Umbrel to route the defeated scots. Alas the reports came back from the front that we had lost the battle in Strath(I lost 8k infantry and 6k cavlery). I halted the Cav army heading for Scath and reorganized them in North Umberl.

While waiting for my newly recruited army of 21k men and 10k cav to come up from Angilia, thanks to Spanish bouilion, I decided to hit the Scot army camped in Strath again. I figured his 22k infantry and newly arrived 2k cav, had no chance against a reinforced army of 15k men and 26k cav and launched with high hopes. Once again I was thwarted losing 12k infantry and 6k cav. He then routed my army in North Umberl as he laid seige to it. I decided to wait for attrition to help me as he laid seige to my land. When my newly recruited army arrived from Anglia along with various other recruits who were pouring in for the war effort, I swept in with 30k infantry and 28k cav, and thanks to Spanish boulion again, I was making cannons to lay seige while I routed his army.

I finaly checked the Scotish invasion and divided up my army to deal with his fresh recruits, and to keep the route of his main army going as I dispatched 20k of my cav to destroy him. The whole time my first wave of infantry in his capital had took its toll and the garrison of Lothain surrendered. With the news of victory more recruits came in(Army enthusiasim event) 5k infantry and 2k cav).

The war was going smoothly until I routed an army of 1k infantry into my army of 150 cannons thus annihilating them and lifting the seige of Scath. With one last boost of infantry I assualted Scath with almost 40k infantry and it fell like a house of cards. I then took over Grampians and the Highlands fairly easily.

In 1591, I sighned a peace with Scotland with him giving me Scath, Grampians, The Highlands and some money, don't remember how much though.

After seemingly securing my North border I then looked at expanding my colonial empire but thats easier said than done. I decided to turn my focus on the indian tribes as France in previous wars had taken almost all my colonial possessions, thus cutting me off from going to the interior of North America.

Because my income was so bad I knew that colonizing was going to be too hard so I decided to focus on two particular points to further my colonies, thus allowing me a point to recruit for my upcoming war with the Indians. I chose, not by any means of a real choice as I had nothing else, Nueltin, in Northern Canada as my base of colonization and springboard into the Dakota. I also had a buffer in Eskimalt because it would seal off that area from further exploits of others and allow me a free hand at tradeposts or colonies. I got Nueltin up to level 5 and Eskimalt is a tradepost, so my war there has yet to materialise.

However, the Southern area, while being more contested by the ever growing French menece, was a bit easier. I used my lone possession Santee as my base of operations. In the short year that followed peace with Scotland I was able to swing 9k infantry to Santee along with the 5k infantry and 2k cav that I recruited. I then DOW'd on the Cherokee and quickly overan thier pitiful armies. I recieved all thier cash, Tennessee and Alabama from them.

The downfall to this little incursion was that for some reason it would not allow me to make them change religion, but hey it happens. I now had a string of awful luck. While at war with the Cherokee my Stability was +2 then came an event that decreased my stability to -1 then about 3 months later I had a court scandal with another -3 stability hit. Within 1 year my whole empire was on the verge of civil war as all of occupied Scotland revolted and the Midlands, Lancashire and Whales revolted. In Ireland all but Meath had revolters. I had to spend my entire war chest in recruitments to help put them down.

In 1599 after all revolts were seemingly put down I DOW'd on Scotland to finish her off. This time it was much faster and painless as the war took less than a year and ended with me annexing Scotland. However, my whole nation again looked on the verge of civil war, as my stability was -2 and revolts would pop up anywhere and everywhere. I sent missionaries to the new world but a nasty revolt killed them off. I am now behind badly in the conversion race of the Pagan nonbelievers.

I already have my eyes turned towards Benin in Africa as Raleigh has just recieved a fresh army of 9k to launch from Guinie. I hope this time I can get them to change religion thus making my takeover less painless and more swiftly.

When I took over England she had a pitiful army of 2k infantry, 22k cav and 2 ships of the line. I have somewhat built her Naval power back a little to about 20 Ships of the line and an Army of over 100k. Will take some doing but England, if the stability gets better, will be able to make a comeback.


DAMOCLEAS –FRANCE

1581-1601

The next 20 years were not quite so hectic for France as the previous had been. Much more methodical. Maur took over as Austria in place of Mowers, and immediately, I knew I had a particularly uppity Habsburg on my hands.


It began with France victorious on all fronts, my armies sweeping over the Austrian hinterland. There was little Maur could do, thrown as he was, to the wolves from the get go. Seeing the desperate situation, Ulver intervened and bought a white peace in exchange for 2000 ducats to me.


In the meantime, the heretical Dutch acknowledged France as their overlords, becoming vassals.

What followed was a period of relative peace and prosperity for all nations. This continued until there was a trade altercation with Spain. Using this CB, in 1591, I declared to Spain that I was going to relieve them of Milan. Dutifully, the Spanish garrison withdrew, I entered, sieged and took it. He signed peace, handing it over. Milan was a small price to pay for a Spain all alone who did not want to see the entire Iberian peninsula in flames.

It was the first taste of physical conflict that Spain had thus far experienced, having been masterfully playing one nation off the other using France as a boogeyman. His maneuverings accounted for much blood being spilt in Europe. From every nation besides Spain.

In the closing years of the game, Austria under Maur directly defied my explicit warnings (And after I was good enough to invite him into my alliance and so share continental hegemony) and began to slaughter northern German minors wholesale.

I retaliated by annexing two of his vassals. One of them being the Palatinate whom without being in existance he cannot get his Bohemian CBs.

The tension was simmering, war threatening to envelop the continent again when we crashed and then called a halt to the night.

Austrian troops are certainly more plentiful and financed quite liberally with Spanish gold, yet France is secure and confident.

BiB- HOLLAND

The colonial theatre
The Golden Age of the Dutch Republic really has set in now. We are an economic powerhouse, 2nd only to Spain and have the world's largest and best fleet. While wars were being waged all over Europe we were fooling around in the Indian Ocean. We mpay not have done much in Europe but have fought quite a bit in the colonies. With the foundations being layed before 1600, the real building was set to start. The way to the East Indies was secured and a bridgehead in Indonesia established. From there we started colonising everything we could put out hands on. Sooner than later this would bring us into conflicts with the regional powers and the otehr colonisers in the Indian, Portugal and Oman. A deal was struck with Spain. I was not to flood his COTs and I'd get the Portuguese possessions in the Indian (mostly lowly tps anyway). This was teh first test for our new fleet as Portugal had an extensive fleet herself and was in fact the owner of teh 3rd largest fleet. MAny naval battles were fought and we lost quite a bit of trade posts in africa but we came out victorious. Our navy truly had proved to be "very strong" and on the basis of that we concluded peace with Portugal kicking them out of teh Indian but leaving them most of their African holdings and all their Brazilian ones. Only tps changed hands apart from the main prize of the operation, the Table COT. The deal with Spain also included established way points for them (Kerala, Karroo, ...) in a Dutch Ocean. Lots of setlers came to populate the new found territories. Wealth was waiting for them in huge amounts and we stopped caring for America and Africa (apart from Table obviosuly) even though we had quite a bit of tps left there. The whole of of India, Indonesia and Australia was littered with Dutch TPs and slowly those were built up. Now in the best interest of game balance Spain and I decided to help out a ravaged England and promised it India and Australia (minus our waypoints). As reward we were allowed access in teh Spanish COTs to even further expand our trade empire. We should also get New Foundland as our base in North America from Egnland. Seeing we're getting along fine with England on the rebound (they got the COT in Ivoria on their way to the Indian and had a valuable COT (0 ducats worth ) pop up in their first settlement in Australia. We had kept Tasmania and Goa as focal points in those lands. India was being dominated by a huge Mughal Empire which England will have its hands full with. China was big but started to have dynastical problems recently, and with Nippon we are on very good terms. Small fry nations we banned from our COTs. This left only Oman as real competition but they didn't stand a chance, surrounded by 3 human adversaries, even though having 3 COTs. Soon those will be split, England will take Kutch, Holland will take Zanzibar and the Turk will take Mascate. Seeing we already had muslims in our realm and India was promised to England Zanzibar was an easy choice. The war is in progress but despite the morale bonus for shia the Omani fleet doesn't stand a chance. Now for consolidation ...


1601-1621

England- Mowers
Spain- Ulver
France- Damocleas
Austria- DarthMaur
Poland- Teutonic Knight
Ottomans- PJL
Sweden-Smirfy
Holland- BiB

June 6, 1602 : Netherlands is now granting Austria military access to their country.
June 25, 1602 : Netherlands declared war upon Portugal.
July 11, 1603 : Netherlands accepted peace with Spain on the following terms : Colombo to Netherlands
February 18, 1605 : France accepted peace with Ottoman Empire on the following terms : Return to Status Quo.
November 12, 1606 : Sweden declared war upon France.Damocles (France) (Austria)
November 22, 1606 : Netherlands dishonored a Military Alliance she had with France.
October 10, 1607 : Portugal accepted peace with Netherlands on the following terms : Portugal pays 32d in indemnities. Buru to Netherlands, Flores to Netherlands, Salabanka to Netherlands & Table to Netherlands.Portugal will have to give up military access.
December 10, 1609 : Sweden accepted peace with France on the following terms : Caniapiscau to Sweden & Stadacone to Sweden
July 30, 1611 : Huron accepted peace with Sweden on the following terms : Full Annexation of Huron by Sweden
August 5, 1614 : Poland declared war upon Moldavia.
August 5, 1614 : Ukraine joined the war on the same side as Moldavia in their war against Poland.
July 21, 1615 : England accepted peace with Benin on the following terms : Ivoria to England & Accra to England.BiB (Netherlands) BiB (Netherlands)
June 14, 1616 : Sweden accepted peace with Russia on the following terms : Kexholm to Sweden, Karelia to Sweden, Arkhangelsk to Sweden & Kola to Sweden.
May 21, 1617 : The people of Kleves declared independence from France.
June 15, 1617 : The people of Helvetia declared independence from France.
June 19, 1617 : The people of Wurtemberg declared independence from France.
June 22, 1617 : The people of Baden declared independence from France.
September 20, 1617 : The people of Strassburg declared independence from France.
September 23, 1617 : The people of The Palatinat declared independence from France.
November 1, 1617 : The people of Savoy declared independence from France.
September 25, 1618 : Savoy accepted peace with France on the following terms : Full Annexation of Savoy by France
November 11, 1618 : France accepted peace with Austria on the following terms : Würzburg to Austria & Mainz to Austria.
September 3, 1619 : England declared war upon Oman.
October 22, 1619 : Netherlands declared war upon Oman.

 

[Mowers]

Part V

BiB- HOLLAND

The European theatre
Here we are mouse. We have a manpower of 16K and without protection we are doomed. So we walk a diplomatic tightrope keeping good relations with just about everyone. It's our only option. Being vasslised is quite good as I'd rather not have 250K enemy soldiers on my doorstep, besides he let us keep all the Dutch cultured provinces. Furthermore 81% of my income comes from trade so giving half our tax income to France is a small price to pay. But we also try to maintain good relations with the other powers, esp in regards to the colonies. We made many an agreement with Spain and now also England. As we're now dividing up Oman we cooperate with Turkey too. Not being involved in a decades long war xure is helpful if u have 16K manpower. Xure, we joined in in the war of France versus Austria but only to get Brabant of Austria as agreed and nothing else. During the war I killed of rebels for France and gave information to Austria. We cannot afford to pick full sides. I'm xure the other players understand. We also managed to get rid of our German, lutheran province by letting it defect to Hannover whom we took it from 50 years ago. So now we have our 6 core provs and that's it. We do not expect to expand and we do not intend to give one of those 6 up. Unless 250K decide otherwise about that We dug ourselves in, with brandnew level 4 forts in our swampy lands and a huge fleet of our coast led by 6-5-4 admiral Tromp. Army wise, we have a small 50K, led by a 4-5-5-1 Maurits van Nassau. We also have an emergency case stash of ducats to get us thru a crisis the mercenary way. Still, good leadership will have to see us thru this predicament. Our home provinces have all the latest in technology installed up to manufactories. Even though we have cracked down to finally get some missionaries (we have catholics and muslims after all which cost quite a lot of money) we are still near the top in the tech race. Land and naval 22 each, for land one of the pace, for naval in front of the pack. Our infra tech is so so at best with only level 5 while our trade level is up to 7. Combined with our plutocratic and naval ways, not to mention our religion bonus, we have a trade income modifier of 131%. Trade empire inderdeed. Seeing we own just 6 cities at home and 6 abroad we should not depend on taxes.

TEUTONIC KNIGHT- POLAND

MOWERS NOTE- TK FILLED IN A LOT HERE WHICH IS GREAT PLAYMANSHIP, FAR MORE DEMANDING THAN PLAYING ONE COUNTRY AND WAS A GREAT CONTRIBUTOR TO THE GAME OVERALL.

I Assumed control of Poland in March of 1605 and inherited a war I had no idea about. Poland, while not actually in any danger itself, was in about as good a postion as could be asked given the situation. I was able to help Austria defend North Germany from France with the help of my 60K cav army.
In 1607 the combined Austrian/Polish contingient had efectivly blocked the French advance into Northern German, and had switched to Austria and France exchanging blows to the South and my army was just there as an emergency defense and to take care of revolters.

October 11, 1609 I dow'd on Russia because I had a CB on them and my war attrition was high eough I might as well get something out of it. I viewed the war would be short and sweet and it would allow me to snatch some precious manpower points from Russia.

The war didn't turn out exactly how I had hoped it would. It started off great with me quickly taking Kursk and Tula. I then sent my army to thier capital, however, he had a surprise for me, he had over 30k men that intercepted me on the way. I managed to win, but with only 19k infantry and about 2k cav left. Once I reached Moskva and laid seige, I got blind sided by another large army of about 30k Infantry and was defeated since my moral had not fully recovered. I had to reteat because he would route and possibly destroy my army if I didn't.

The war soon shifted to Russia's favor as a seemingly endless amount of infantry poured into my country. Russia reached thier pinnicle when they owned Welika, Vorones, Bogitiar and Donesk, while taking back the two I had captured from him. I had but one hope to stem the tide, pull some troops from the French border to help squish the Russian hordes. With the influx of new troops I was able to take back all territory I had lost and once again take Kursk, however, with revolts all over and me losing Poltava to Ukraine and Jedisan to Moldavia because of defections, I sued for a white peace and was rejected. Fearing a colapse of the entire Russian front, I franticly recruited pushing my Manpower to 0 every month, Russia sued for peace in 1613 and I greatly accepted giving him 75$.

Still feeling cheapened by the defections I used the CB I gained from Ukraine for thier insolence and DOW'd on them less than one month after the Russian debacle. I was able to easily defeat his armies with the help of the fresh 20k army of cav sent from the French front, which was now starting to wind down. I captured Poltava then Krementjug and sued for peace gaining Poltava back and 53$ which was all he had. However, while at war with me the big dummy sighned an alliance with Moldavia effectivly sealing his doom if he honored his alliance when I dow'd on Moldavia, which he did.

Aug 5, 1614 I dow'd on Moldavia and like a good boy Ukrain followed and honored his alliance. I quickly captured Krementjug from Ukrain, while laying seige to Moldavia's capital and destroying his army. The war went without a hitch and I was able to annex the Ukrain in November 1614, thus freeing up more troops to speed the beating of Moldavia.

I captured Jedisan rather fast, but the Moldavian capital would prove to be a tougher nut to crack than I had anticipated. The war would drag on until peace was sighned in January 9, 1617 giving me Jedisan and 87$ which wasall they had


Looking at the map I had noticed something; the Ottomons were getting a bit too close for my liking. While militarily the OE had yet to do anything to me or any of my allies, I did see it as somewhat of a threat, so as a buffer I was going to snatch land from the Crimea and block his Northern advance. None of this could be possible without peace in Europe as my war exhaustion was reaching catastrophic levels(18) in none core provs.

While I waited for peace in Europe I reshuffled my troops and leaders so I would be able to best attack the Crimea when the time came. I recruited and recruited some more till I had a sizable armies in Jedisan, Bogutiar and Donesk. I was going to have three main thrust into the Crimnea out of each of those territories while keeping two cav armies(18k and 15k) back for reinforcements or to route an enemy.

Peace in Europe came to Poland in January 30, 1618 with a nothing exchanged. I was the first to sighn because I had no claim to anything pertaining to France. The others followed suit later in the year.


This dropped my war exhaustion and allowed me to start my camphaighn against Crimea. On Sep26, 1619 I DOW'd on Crimea. Everything was going as planned I launched a lighting fast attack from three directions quickly taking Crimea, Ufa, Samara and laying seige to Lugansk. My victorious troops in Samara are heading South to Uralsk. While the rest will branch off to lay seige to him and eventually occupy all orthodox provs.


Alas it was not to be the other people wanted to stop play and left me wanting still more blood.

DAMOCLEAS- FRANCE

In the last four wars that France has found itself in, every single one of them was in self defense. The last time I declared war on Netherlands and Austria was because Austria had dowed my ally, Poland. Well, a new player came to Poland and he was rapidly drawn into the anti-french coalition.


1601 saw the Spanish Empire, Ottoman Empire, Austrian Empire, Sweden, Poland arranged against France. Netherlands was a nominal French vassal yet played both sides. Putting down rebels in Artois for me, (Which due to an editing snafu is stuck with a perm +10 revolt risk), while telling Austria where my armies were. I'm pretty sure who got the better bargain.

Let us analyze the situation somewhat. The players allying against me repeatedly vindicated their actions by claiming it was in defense of the balance of power. I believe my actions have been more in defense of it then theirs. Desperately, I have tried to form a powerbase large enough to get by without a colonial empire manpower wise and so to rise as a counterweight to Spain. Little did I know that Ulver, by having been left alone the entire game, especially during the first 50 years where other people were France, had formed a massive colonial and trading Empire. Using these resources he has been able to buy his allies.

In a way, the powers that be feared conflict among themselves more then they feared me. A self-willed France was a conveniant target to form a coalition against, thus actually securing their own positions against each other, as long as there was a supposed common enemy to unite against. No doubt, this was great fun and comfort to the other 7 players, but somewhat hectic for myself.

Seeing as I was, in the obligatory role as the badboy of Europe, despite having less manpower and 1/4th the resources, I resolved to make a fight of it regardless. I had learned a valuable lesson the previous century when I saw them absolutely reduce Poland to a quivering mass through the skillful use of war exhaustion, round robin style. I knew then, that in order for me to survive, I would have to knock out each of my enemies quickly.

1601 began with a bang during which Austria and Poland, financed with 10,000 Spanish ducats had been building up a massive force. A month later, the Ottoman Empire declared war in support. At this same time, I got an unhappy peasants event. I then crashed, and the war went on a month without me. Thankfully, nothing dire occured. It was a inauspicious beginning.

The Ottomans with a 180k manpower at this stage, owning as they do, every single one of theri CB shields, launched a massive offensive against the south of France. Two armies of 30k-40k in size attacked from Spain, whilst some 150k were landed by Turkish ships in the med. Immediately, I had to raise an army to deal with this threat.

With some 70k French, I resolved to counterattack. My main advantage being my invincible morale thanks to CRC and home field advantage.

Fortune was with me, and whilst the Austrian army continued to build up to where he must have been supporting a unholy 300k within his borders. This could only have been possible with the full weight of the Spanish economic juggernaut thrown behind him. With 500 a month income and enough provinces to place a govenor so as to go full to treasurey for a 100 years straight, he had endless ducats. He was also full quantity, which is a tactic, I should have kept to myself . I was of course, consisting on census taxes combined with war taxes the entire time. It was amazing, that considering the war lasted 17 years, I was able to emerge economically stable. Judicious building up of the French economy having paid off in full.

The counterattack against the Ottoman invasion went beautifully, my 70k French sweeping away his armies that were combined with attrition, hopelessly slaughtered repeatedly, giving me a 40 percent victory. That I was even able to amass that much percentage should be an indicator of just how many troops he landed.

Though, seeing as how the Ottoman Empire has beeen massive for the last 70 years and left completely alone, it should come as no surprise that he was able to make the effort.

There then followed a relative lull in the fighting, coupled with desultory skirmishing. I knew this was not to last much longer and was proven correct when 150k more turks landed en masse. They attempted an immediate storm of Languedoc, but the invincible garrison withheld, allowing me to counterattack with their morale at it's lowest ebb. This alone saved me from having a messy situation at my hands. I then continued to follow and crush the Ottoman armies, their morale in the gutter. This drove my war score to 50 percent and the Ottoman Empire was beginning to take stab hits for refusing peace. Finally, he acceded, and it was over.

The Ottoman equation of the unholy coalition was finally removed. Though, for the next 15 years I was living under the threat that he would re-declare war. I was lucky in that the Ottoman Empire gets some shitty events around this time and he was dealing with revolts. But still, to understand my mindset, his
re-entry was constantly on my mind and the consequences thereof.

More time elapsed, and then Sweden was bribed into declaring war on me as well. He did this during a period of intense army maneuvering between myself and Austria, and it took a formidable effort to constantly switch back and forth between the theatres of war. Dealing with a large Swedish army in NA led by a good commander, and with the Austia making trouble with it's immense army...It is amazing the amount of troops that a 93k manpower capable Austria can build up given time and limitless ducats...

Eventually, I systematically built up a large enough army in North America to kill off Sweden's army + leader over there and recapture the colonies he took, but it was a few years of distraction. I ceded protestant anglosaxon colony to him and surprisingly, he accepted. I regretted it somewhat however, when 5 years later he was saying he would re-dow me for extra funds. But surprisingly, Spain didn't pay up. In any case, it gave me the invaluable opportunity to focus on the Austrian front.

What followed was a disastrous miscalculation. Considering that my own funds are limited, I had been building my armies with moderation, lest I be run into bankruptcy or be forced to (heaven forbid) divert money to treasurey.

Thus, when I launched a 120k army into Austria to take care of his own 100k army, I saw he had two in the region, one behind the other, and drawn further back. (I attacked from Wurzburg, into Anhalt, then to Madgeburg).

What followed was mutual annihilation for the most part, a 45k polish army helping somewhat, after I attempted another attack. At the end of all this, I saw that 200k French were dead, and some 150k Austrians had perished. The benefits of defending I suppose.

In hindsight, perhaps I should have conserved these troops, but at the time I was operating under the assumption that somehow, someway, I had to end the war with Austria before Ottoman Empire dowed. Or someone else in the interest of dragging out war exhaustion. This was a threat to me because it was the exact same tactic I wittnessed them use against Poland. To just play defensively and drag the war out as long as possible until someone else enters. This is ussually only possible when it is a large coalition. In my case, it was everyone cept BiB. Though, telling them where my armies were surely hurt me, because Austria knew just when to strike deep into France with the interest of hitting minor armies sieging rebelling provinces while I did not know where he was. Information is power for sure. I only realized this, when Maur forgot to exclude from his chatting

I also came to another realization. Past land tech 21, it is impossible to perpetuate the kind of blitz tactics that is so common prior to 1600. Even taking a single province, when built to large, can be a powerfully difficult undertaking and yet, you are still at the phase where the fire phase is not sufficiently strong enough to make artillery a worthy investment. It is is the hardest period for the attacker.

So I knew that Austria had an advantage, and because of the decade or so of preparation with Spanish ducats, was effortlessly able to hold an army that was actually, larger the mine. I found myself with 0 manpower each month because of my need to recruit more and more.

What followed over the next 7 years or so, without getting into too much painful detail, was a series of about 20 major battles. I would invade Austria, and inevitably, I'd have to retreat. He would invade me, and inevitably I would destroy his army.

The final phase of the war came as a great shock to me. Austria began to get great army leaders, while I didn't have a single one. The greatest of them, Von Wallenstein made his entrance with a bang when a Austrian army destroyed a invaluable 100k French cavalry in Milan taking maybe 15k-20k losses. It was a combination of a great leader and abominable luck during the tricky shock rolls.

This swung the balance into Austria's favor dramatically, giving them a massive advantage in army size. It is worth pointing out that Austria is at 1 quantity, and after annexing most of northern Germany, had a 93k manpower base, combined with mercenaries that I could never hope to afford.

Now, I had to scramble, taking out a dangerous war taxes, despite the considerable war exhaustion to scrap together an army. Pulling completely out of Germany behind the Rhine, I eventually formed an army big enough to chase Wallenstein back. At this time however, I found myself with one respectable army continually chasing back and forth to fend off the Austrian incursions. Time and time again, 7k or 10k armies of austrian cavalry would pillage their way across France emerging from the Spanish border which I eventually had to completely blockade, or sneaking past Milan after I had to focus my attention in the north. This armies required chasing down.

Down to my last ducat and last soldier, after nearly 17 years of fighting just about everyone except Spain (Who must have been bleeding itself dry at times with the huge amount of ducats it poured into my enemies), the bad war exhaustion revolts began to break out.

Now, came something especially annoying. Austria was able to swoop in and go after my armies sieging occupied Kleves or Picardie, or Savoy, by passing through Netherlands and the the HRE territory, and receiving from some mysterious source, their exact location and size.

Now, to truly imagine my situation, know that I felt the Ottoman Empire was on the verge of re-entering (which had been delayed, to the best of my knowledge, due to it's own revolt risk, and something about losing 300k troops in 3 years of fighting). Sweden also was clamoring to rejoin, and I was positive, England would, to retake Kent.

At this juncture, Spain declares its own intent to join the war if it went on much longer. I.E, past 1618. I don't know if Ulver meant for me to hear it or not, as I caught quite a few pieces of enemy intelligence by forgetting to gray my name out. Seeing as how I was the only name that needed graying out, everyone else being a virtual ally, I'm not quite sure how it was so difficult.

At this stage, I began to know what Napoleon felt like, or what must have driven Hitler to fight it out to his bunker. The absolute difficulty of a individual, who having been assured of his superiority, (or the unlikely probability of losing his allies under new player management and having the entire world unite against you), to be faced with impending doom.

Now, at this stage, I could have dumped everything I had into treasurey, and run my economy into the ground, prolonging the war to painful degrees whilst everyone rejoined. I knew I could not take Austria. It was fortified with spanish gold to large fortresses. Not for the time, I remarked to myself (And to my shame, to everyone in a fit of bitterness) that for now on, I would not subscribe to any merciful peaces that merely give my enemies the chance to recuperate and attack again. I should not have offered to let Austria off the last war, but should have taken Tirol, Bavaria and Ansbach as I originally planned, giving me a much firmer footing. Oh well, live (die) and learn.

I was not willing to sacrifice my country. Mostly because I had not lost hope. The most dangerous opponent is someone who loses hope too easily. They will uncaringly commit their country to destruction.

So with regret, after 17 years of fighting, and faced with the re-entry of Sweden, Ottomans into the war, along with Spain, I knew that especially considering my lack of leaders and inability to keep raising troops (even if they were available) or to resort to mercenaries, I had to make peace.

The terms they imposed on me were unfortunately harsh. Provinces that I had controlled for almost a hundred years, I was forced to set free. German provinces that I had spent almost a 1000 ducats each on converting to catholicism, I was forced to give to Austria. I then had to release 9 others.

To add insult to injury, Savoy managed to declare independence, but I managed to re-annex them. My sole consolation was that not one of my enemies had managed to forcefully take any of my provinces during the war with the exception of wall-less colonies in NA by Sweden.

In hindsight, I wonder if perhaps I should have continued the war to it's bitter bloody end, but then what would that have gained me? My enemies had no intention of ever backing down, Ulver having once declared that he would rather see half of Iberia in french hands then see my position grow stronger.

With the advent of land tech 21 allowing large castles, It was patently impossible to force my way in, and even so, I lacked the resources to do so.

It is important to realize that via every measuring stick, with the sole exception of individual skill, France was roughly third power wise. Austria, having gone on a mad annex spree, was a close fourth. Sure, in a stand up fight, Pure France, vs Pure Austria, Austria would eventually lose. But financed as they were and with years of preparation, and with France bearing the burden of attack, they were plenty able to hold their own. Austria's own rebels were not a problem since half the Spanish, the Swedish, the Ottoman and the Polish armies were commited to putting down Austrian rebellions, which must have been a considerable relief, as scrambling to produce an army out of nothing to put down a revolt somewhere was taxing, at sometimes the most vital moments of the war.

If a war exhaustion free Ottoman Empire or Spain had DoWed or re-DoWed, I would not have stood a chance. Simple numbers point to the coalition being rediculous in the first place...Again to my shame, I lashed out at Mowers or Ulver (?) when they claimed to be preserving the Balance of Power. I claimed this had nothing to do with the Balance of Power, this was a crusade, pure and simple.

Being down 1200 victory points probably added to my conviction.

Seeing Spain, Ottomans, Poland, Austria, Sweden with nominal Dutch intelligence gathering and English cheerleading, (Though admittedly, Mowers might have done alot of the organizing behind the scenes, previous players of England had left it in such terrible shape that he was in no position to even think of war).

It was a little like World War II. Which basically saw the entire world (America, Russia, etc) allied against a nation the size of Texas. I feel that is a closer comparison then the Napoleonic war, which was actually, nearly even in it's way.

I had to make a decision...Did I want to fight this to the walls of Paris, or did I want to preserve myself after a fashion for a better future? I swallowed my pride, (reflecting on Napoleon's exile or perhaps, Hitler's suicide) and asked for peace terms.

Well, of course the coalition took no undue pleasure in exacting the most exorbiant terms possible, with even a Sweden piping up to reserve some colonies for them, but I gritted my teeth and watched as Austria took about 2 years sieging mainz and wurzburg which was allocated to them.

The original objective of the allies had been for me to free a few german vassals, including Palatinate. I did not like them suddenly taking advantage and asking for much much more, but I knew that ultimately, I was in no position to object. I had done the best I could, under the circumstances, but conversly, there was nothing I could do, as it was a waiting game. Even if I somehow overcame Austria's large fortresses, I would still be at +18 war exhaustion when Spain or Ottoman dowed.

So yes, it was a tough loss to swallow, but I never had any chance to begin with, realistically speaking. I am used to fairly brief campaigns, a opponents army is annihilated, and then a reasonable peace term is conducted. For example, when I sieged and stormed all of England, I took 2 colonies and 2 trading posts out of fairness. This was altogether, a different sort of war. Total war, in which the participants only goal was to see me in flames. I felt a distinctly Carthaginian frustration.

In any case, I am no stranger to coalitions (Hell, Napoleon's Ambition is my favorite campaign), and by all accounts and purposes, all 7 of them performed their duties masterfully, working very well as a team.

It appears for the moment that French hegemony has been replaced by Austrian hegemony in Europe, though it is a tenuous bet to say the least if Austria can hold it without continuing to receive such substantial Spanish funding. The answer is a definite negative. So it is only right that Ulver became the Holy Roman Emperor. For all intents and purposes, it was his war, and it was his sweat and ducats if not blood that won it.

In almost any GC game, you will see a coalition of nations forming against Spain. For some reason, Spain was allowed for over a century under near constant player leadership to expand to it's desire, with zero obstruction. It is thus obvious that Spain is the premier superpower. Allied as they are with six other players, Ulver masterfully directed their attention to a assertive French player. I deeply respect Ulver's diplomatic abilities. That is one of the main reasons I enjoy Multiplayer. The diplomatic aspect to it. Though, I think if I hear one more person mention the BoP, I am going to do something very rash indeed. The Balance of Power was a facade by which Spain assured it's own world dominion with the help of well, everyone else. It is normally France's duty to attempt to offset Spanish power, and Ulver knows this. That the nations whom over the last 4 decades I found myself at war with, England, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Sweden, and the Ottoman Empire, were only too happy to oblige, is a testement to the persuasive powers that infinite ducats can assure.

So now, France finds itself needing to take a new course in this game. For now, continental hegemony seems denied to them...But what is more preferable? A tyrant in Madrid, Vienna or the Sublime Porte? Only time will tell.



SMIRFY- SWEDEN


Sweden 1602-20
My Regency began in 1602, I could not complain of the condition that I found Sweden, Meckleberg (COT), Gotland, Memel,Courland and Livland. A treasury of 1000GP a large army though small navy(20 ships) and couple of refinerys. In my first steps of office I fortified the Baltic Coast (first session in this game Human Poland and Austria, also human large and in control of most of Northern Germany). Looking over Europe with England shattered the balance of power had been twisted out of recognition, Spain with no overseas competitor was rich with Ulver funding An Austria/Polish Axis against France (who controlled North America).While a European war was shaping up I launched a war on Russia and was soundly beaten when Denmark entered the war and was lucky to escape with a white peace to both powers. My income was low and expansion possibilties limited. I asked for an alliance with the Ottomans but was turned down PJL obviously did not want to become embroiled in any petty wars of my makin. Meanwhile the main European war had kicked off with Damocleas holding Austria and Poland despite Spains handouts.With the war going slowly for Darthmaur's Austrians Sweden offered her services to Spain and for 2000 gp 10k troops duly embarked for the New World to join the war (also started shortly after this were infrastructure improvements and 2 weapons factories ). Trading posts were burned and undefended colonies captured a further 10k arrived to join the advance guard. This force was pursued by a stronger French Army of 30k duly reported to the courts of Europe as 60k (probably due to fog of war ). This Enduced another 2000gp gift from Spain and 10k troops were embarked north of the Saint Lawerence; and 2 naval factories started.( Hey! Gustavus dont come cheap also outside of Spain and Holland, Sweden had the only navy to transport any army to the States). After destroying one Swedish army Damocleas realized that without a navy he would be chasing shadows up and down the coast and sued for peace. Sweden accepted the offer as Spanish money had dried up and a weak beaten France would gift the game to Spain. Having come out of the Great Austro/Franco War in good shape I Annexed Huron to my overseas empire and Gustavus added 4 Russian Provences in short order.By this stage the Great Austro/Franco War was in the endgame and Sweden tried to influence the ontcome but despite my attempts was in no position to. With England in such bad shape (no fault of Mowers) there was no counterbalance to the dual powers to exert influence. My twenty years of rule left the nation 4 European Provences 6 Colonial Provences and 6 trading posts;Four manufactuary were constructed, fortresses expanded and infrastructure generally up to full.

MAUR13- AUSTRIA

War. Almost one thing the last generatio knew was war.

Well, at least in France and Germany

As we said, the war was drawing near. Yet, it came as surprise for almost everyone, as we decided to shorten the prepartations considerably, as we had strange feeling that we might not be able to see free Palatinate before 1619 (which somehow we considered important for our Bohemian holdings-hint, existence of Palatinate is needed for Austrian player to have CB over Bohemia), and vassalized Saxony and Pommern (with whom we were at war-they converted back soon, though), made white peace with Sweden, and formal declaration of war against kingdom of France was issued.

There was unfortunate accident, when our only leader was killed assaultingn Pommern fortress...

War plans were agreed with English, Ottomans, Spanish and Polish allies(though actually England did nothing in this war ). We had over 200k soldiers under arms, while our Dutch spies told us French had over 250k. Our manpower was a bit under 80k, while French was well over 100k. Armies were split in two, one 100k army (up to the support limit ), consisting of 80k cavalry, guarded Magdeburg, with 40k backup in Brandenburg, while some 150k total (yes, i know it makes my whole army over 300k. I might be mistaken when i said i had just over 200k ) guarding Austrian heartland in Salzburg and Steimark.
Upgraded forts in Bayern, Ansbach, Tirol, Ostmarch, Steimark, Sazlburg, and Austria were to assure that no French blitz is possible. Also, as we gained land tech 21 shortly after the beginning of the war, we upgraded them even further.

Well, the war started, but... not much hapenned. Well, except plundering sortie based in Spain, which got killed fairly easily by French forces, and French capture of Luxemburg (Brabant was handed over to Netherlands, as previously agreed)

The main burden of perhaps first two years of war was carried by Ottoman Empire, who joined the war shortly after Austria. In two waves, they landed like 300k troops in southern France, though, as it was supposed, French destroyed those forces, and shortly thereafter, Ottoman Empire left the war for good, acting as a rebel peacekeeping force in Hungary at few moments much later.

During next year or two, not much hapenned, our armies sat on their positions, French sat in border provinces, and our Polish allies kept handy 40k cavalry in western Poland, ready to support our northern armies in case of French attack.
Not much hapenned, only few small French incursions into Tirol and Anhalt we easily defeated, and few small Austrian plundering expeditions thru Netherlands, and western France to safe Spanish haven. All this time army our army was build up,

Then, maybe in the 6-7 year of war, massive French offensive was procured, striking at Anhalt and Magdeburg. There were some really great battles, involving around 200 thousands troops on both sides. Lady luck shined on both on French and Austrians sometimes, but in the end our army was severely depleted, so we even called our Polish allies repeatedly (well, they even made it in time once ).
Just when we had only 30k left in Brandenburg, and no desire to move our southern army guarding Austria, French gave up.

And then went few more years of rebuilding army, we were able to replenish our troops, and get some reserves. It was probably the time Swedish waged their colonial war in America.

As the war dragged on, German and Swiss people begun to took up arms in France, and rebellions started to appear. To deal with some treacherous elements in Bohemia and north Germany, we called our Spanish allies to take care of them so we could concentrate fully on fighting France. We also created provincial government in Hungary, and agreed to extend cities rights, effectively making new centralized HRE new decentralized HRE (i lowered my centralization slider by some 5 points due to events...)

Up until 1615, not much more hapenned, except we made more agressive stance, which mainly meant we moved our armies to the borders, and French moved them back one province . Actually, France was getting apparently nervous with this prolonged war, seeing it's inability to defeat Austria and our determination.
Only military actions were our repated invasions of Milan from Tirol, each one costing us and French well over 40k troops for each one of us. Then we decided to make an agressive move, seeing that it's time to start depleting French forces and dragging his attention away from his rebels. Initial offensive, which saw some of our 200k troops pouring into Wurzburg, ended rather bad, with French taking far fewer losses than us, though the war definitly turned from defensive one to offensive.

It was only when Wallenstein appeared, along with ever increasing revoltrisk in French provinces, we were able to make significant progress, especially in Italy, as we repeatedly relieved siege of rebel held Savoy. (actually, Savoy declared it's independence few months after peace treaty, but France annexed it soon thereafter).

Though French standing army due to constant warfare was severely diminished, France still had plenty of manpower and was able to regain it's fighting ability over and over again.

But in 1617 we already spent more time negotiating peace, seeing as French will to fight was gone, and we were as determined as ever.

The negotiations took quite much time, and in early 1618, peace treaty was finally agreed by all participants, along with Spain, and England (what the heck England was doing in peace conference? It hasn't even participated in war at all )

The result can be clearly seen. France had to relase every German minor as vassal, and cede non-relasable provinces (Mainz and Wurzburg) to Austria, and also relase Switzerland.

The war was finally over, France defeated but still intact, having only lost it's Germanic possesions. Austria come out slightly stronger, but not much. There were some thing going out in the ROTW and rest of Europe, but don't ask me about it, i was waging war against France!

Ah, btw. Spain poured 10'000 ducats into Austria of which i made good use, raising my fortification levels and buying troops.
The war was mainly attritional one really. There were long periods when nothing at all hapenned, with short period of extremely intensive warfare, with huge armies involved. Only after 1614 real Austrian offensive begun, this was 13 years after the war started.

Ah, there was very bad sign right after the end of the war. Spaniards were elected HRE, and this after all the things i've done to defend the HRE! We should really edit this thing!

 

[Mowers]

Part VI

ULVER- SPAIN

1620: The 100-year feud is finally over with France being forced to give up her dream of European hegemony

So France thought he was tough? I laugh at feeble France. All it took to bring the sissy down was a Spanish-English-Ottoman-Swedish-Polish coalition with the Dutch acting as spies providing detailed information on French movements. See? Piece of cake just as I always knew it would be.

Seriously, kudus to our visiting Californian madman for almost doing the impossible and establishing effective dominance over the European continent against what I would have considered impossible odds. At several times he might actually have succeeded in crushing Austria making effective resistance on land all but impossible.

Seen from Madrid this was a truly titanic struggle between French blood and Spanish gold. The French armies were brilliantly directed as had been demonstrated in countless victories one more stunning then the other but eventually the mountains of Spanish bullion overcame even the most brilliant French generalship.

To illustrate I present a hypnotically discussion between the Spanish Ambassador in Vienna and the noble Holy Roman Emperor

“I bring another shipment of Gold for your glorious struggle against the French!”
“On no, we’re running out of places to stack it. Well, just put it anywhere.”
“But it is meant for the war effort! Don Ulver expect it to be put to use at one in killing Frenchmen”
“Oh, really. And how would I do that?”
“Buy troops!”
“Come on man. You honestly think we have unused manpower?”
“Buy mercenaries”
“Hired them all long ago.”
“Weapons manufactories then, to arm your brave troops better.”
“Nope, no more room.”
A thoughtful pause. Then “This is terrible, how is the war going?”
“Well, so so. The Ottomans just had another two hundred thousand-man strong invasion force wiped out in the South of France. It may take, well several months before they can invade again. Please tell Constantinople not to slack off like that. We are both at +10 war exhausting so that is a bit of a drag, the neutral Spanish army deployed to fight rebels is very nice and all but it keeps getting in the way of Poles on their way to the front. How are things at sea?”
“The sneaky French keeps hiding. We thought we found their fleet last month but it was just another wave of Swedish forces on their way to invade overseas French positions.”
“Well. What can I say? War is hell”

How France resisted as long as she did is a source of wonderment to me. A great opponent. I don’t really have much to say on the war itself as the Spanish contribution basically consisted of two things:
a) Giving stacks of cash to those putting troops in the field against France
b) Offering stacks of cash to neutral powers if they’d care to put troops in the field against France

Eventually France gave in and set all Non-French provinces in Europe free as vassals thereby retreating back from the Holy Roman Empire. I should point out that this only happened when Spain and England explicitly made it clear they were about to enter the war against a France dealing with +18 in war exhausting. Austria demanded two provinces bordering France to guard the HRE and would set Brandenburg free as compensation. The net result was an awful lot of newly independent German minors who promptly elected me as the new holy roman emperor well; I am the one who always insisted on their independence so I think it only fair. Austria, however was somewhat nonplussed asking if that meant I now took over responsibility for protecting the newly independent German minors. Well, that might be a problem.

Meanwhile the age of enlightenment has begun in Spain with the freest and most tolerant society in the world. Religious zealots rioting demanding our citizens of Arab decent should be expelled were calmly ignored: They were among our most renowned scholars and merchants. “Yes” I told my priests ”I know mosques aren’t going to burn themselves but we have converted all the heathens in our realm already. These riots really have to stop – they are bad for business ” The age of Reason has dawned in Spain with even the Dutch Republic in awe of the freedoms enjoyed by all in my enlighten nation. A Spain with max freedom, max inventiveness and working on becoming plutocratic. It is indeed a new world.. No wonder the Spanish always supported the independence of the Dutch Republic – we are both well on the way to becoming the worlds first secular parliamentarian nations - light-years ahead of everyone else in the arts and sciences. Having achieved Liberalism (trade 8)with a Spanish Adam Smith publishing his “Wealth of Nations” a few centuries ahead of time we are quite comfortable competing with the Dutch in an environment of free trade. Of course the 20+ breweries doesn’t hurt either. Despite Dutch boosts the Spanish fleet ranks equal with the Dutch in technology and outnumber it with a 150 ships of the line ready to take up station at any hint of danger to the Spanish empire. The Dutch may have better admirals but quantity has a quality all of its own a conflict at sea could go either way.

Not that any is likely: we share the ideals of freedom, both of inquiry, of politics and of the seas. Together we shall deal with old-fashioned backward-looking intolerance by reducing it to irrelevance in our brand new world of science instead of superstition. Truly my objective of a chicken in every pot and a manufactory in every village is coming true.

As for the future. Well hoping to demonstrate the 100-years feud was truly over I offered one of my prettiest daughters in marriage to the King of France along with a state gift for the wedding. If I never have to be embroiled in another conflict I shall be well pleased.

Of course Spain still has hot-blooded young men eager to follow the example of Cortez. While I’m keen not to step on anyone’s sphere of influence I’m sure I’ll find some harmless outlet for their energy: Next objective the vassalasation of Japan! And, obviously, there is always China should that proved to easy. Seriously Spain will continue to be very careful not to make to many enemies. Luckily the nightmare of a British-French Alliance seems to be gone with France in possession of most of North America including the Manhattan trade centre

In response to the French post:
I actually agued forcefully for France to keep Savoy as it has French culture and made sure Swedish demands for colonies were rejected out of hand. I actually think my policy have made perfect sense and dovetailed nicely with my opening strategy stated in my very first post. Once France decisively beats Austria or is allowed to take large chunks of HRE she becomes unstoppable. As a matter of self-serving realpolitik I had to stop you. Every French triumph on the battlefield increased my commitment to Austria in response. Had Austria attempted to incorporate Dutch culture or to unify Italy I would happily have financed you to stop him. Once France crosses the Rhine into Germany I begin to worry. It should be noted it took a huge collation to stop you.
You are right that I to deserve a collation against me by now but I have been very careful to stay out of other peoples core interests. If meet with strong complains, as in Indonesia or Australia I have even burned down my own trade posts to avoid making waves. I have, quite deliberately, set out to lose several wars to avoid the greater danger of uniting several great powers against me.
You are one of the best tacticians I have ever played with but you are a bit of a bull in a glasshouse when it comes to diplomacy.

MOWERS- ENGLAND

England 1601-1620

I’ll be brutal. England was a mess, infact it was a right off. A series of mistakes through inexperience and a disasterous series of wars with France had basically crippled it. A few colonies in NA, rampant inflation, horribly religious diverse, no shipyard, no COT- he chose barracks!!!, no army, France owned kent, no navy, a series of unpayable bank loans, slider to army instead of navy, internal policies that meant it took 4 years to regain 1 point of stability. To be honest I fought rebels for 10 years and altered the file. Cutting inflation back to 15 percent, wiping the loans and switching the land/ navy slider. It was unplayable. The lesson here is that you cant play MP like SP. This was 109 years of disaster and England was out. I don’t often alter files – this is the 3rd time I have done so to alter massive player inexperience.

In this time I did nothing until 1616 when I attacked benin and got a COT. I sat there and fought rebels and tried to get stability back up. In 1620 I attacked Oman but that war continues. That’s my AAR

So this AAR isn’t about England its about the 4th Damoclean War for European hegemony.


May 18, 1600 : Pommern accepted peace with Austria on the following terms : Pommern pays 274d in indemnities. Pommern will become a vassal.
May 18, 1600 : Pommern became Vassals of Austria.
May 18, 1600 : Pommern broke the Royal Marriage she had with Sweden.§394mowers (England)
May 18, 1600 : Saxony accepted peace with Austria on the following terms : Saxony pays 230d in indemnities. Saxony will become a vassal.
May 18, 1600 : Saxony became Vassals of Austria.

Austria under Maur sweeps up in Northern Germany giving him the extra manpower to face a predominant France.

August 30, 1600 : Austria left the Military Alliance she had with France and Netherlands.
October 18, 1600 : Austria has cancelled the treaty of military access they had in France..
December 11, 1600 : Austria entered a Military Alliance with Poland and Venice.
December 16, 1600 : Austria declared war upon France.
December 20, 1600 : Venice joined the war on the same side as Austria in their war against France.
December 23, 1600 : Poland joined the war on the same side as Austria and Venice in their war against France.
December 26, 1600 : Netherlands joined the war on the same side as France in their war against Austria, Venice and Poland.§51hUlver (Spain)
April 17, 1601 : Ottoman Empire declared war upon France.

Europe unites to fight the French who now control large parts of the HRE which they don’t even vassalise as a way of distracting attention from themselves.


May 17, 1601 : Sweden declared war upon Russia.BiB (Netherlands)
July 28, 1601 : Denmark declared war upon Sweden.
July 28, 1601 : Hessen joined the war on the same side as Denmark in their war against Sweden.

Sweden enters the first of many odd little wars to the north

October 9, 1601 : Austria accepted peace with Netherlands on the following terms : Brabant to Netherlands.

Netherlands is unified.

November 24, 1601 : Sweden accepted peace with Russia on the following terms : Russia pays 29d in indemnities.

Sweden narrowly misses getting a hammering here.

June 6, 1602 : Netherlands is now granting Austria military access to their country.
June 25, 1602 : Netherlands declared war upon Portugal.
July 20, 1602 : Spain joined the war on the same side as Portugal in their war against Netherlands.

The Netherlands moves against Portugal and Spain stands back essentially saying take a bit and then back off please.

May 2, 1603 : Pommern joined the war on the same side as Denmark and Hessen in their war against Sweden.

Sweden fights another odd little war


July 11, 1603 : Netherlands accepted peace with Spain on the following terms : Colombo to Netherlands

Spain and the Netherlands relationship is getting tighter. They agree that Netherlands can have the east indies without competition if it stays out of French alliance and out of Spanish spheres of influence.

February 18, 1605 : France accepted peace with Ottoman Empire on the following terms : Return to Status Quo.

The Ottomans drop out of the war. Note that the war between Austria and France is already in stalemate. Massive subsidiaries from Spain keep Austria in the game. It sits behind its ever increasing fortifications waiting for France to attack which it doesn’t. Massive battles over Lombardia happen though but neither side is able to take advantage from their victories.

March 15, 1605 : Sweden accepted peace with Denmark on the following terms : Sweden pays 11d in indemnities. (Austria) Teutonic_Knight (Poland)

Sweden manages to wriggle free again

July 1, 1605 : Netherlands is now granting Spain military access to their country.


November 12, 1606 : Sweden declared war upon France.Damocles (France) (Austria)
November 22, 1606 : Netherlands dishonored a Military Alliance she had with France.

Netherlands moves out of the French sphere of influence and firmly into the Spanish one. Sweden joins in the war against France in NA.

October 10, 1607 : Portugal accepted peace with Netherlands on the following terms : Portugal pays 32d in indemnities. Buru to Netherlands, Flores to Netherlands, Salabanka to Netherlands & Table to Netherlands.Portugal will have to give up military access.

Portugal is finished outside of Brazil.

October 11, 1609 : Poland declared war upon Russia.

I cant remember what this was about/

December 10, 1609 : Sweden accepted peace with France on the following terms : Caniapiscau to Sweden & Stadacone to Sweden

Sweden wins quick victories in NA establishing its self as the clear No.2 in NA after France. France busy in Europe, doesn’t even move its navy out to assist its forces in NA.

May 2, 1611 : Pommern joined the war on the same side as Denmark and Hessen in their war against Sweden.

Sweden upsets some more people somehow

July 30, 1611 : Huron accepted peace with Sweden on the following terms : Full Annexation of Huron by Sweden

Sweden upsets someone and wins for once

March 5, 1613 : Sweden accepted peace with Hessen on the following terms : Return to Status Quo.
March 6, 1613 : Sweden accepted peace with Pommern on the following terms : Return to Status Quo.

Sweden manages to make peace successfully.

May 7, 1613 : Poland accepted peace with Russia on the following terms : Poland pays 75d in indemnities.

Poland gets stung badly…

January 2, 1614 : Russia declared war upon Sweden.

Sweden mouths off some more

February 19, 1614 : England declared war upon Benin.

I finally do something other than fight rebels and do my cheerleading bit on the touchline. Nothing really seems to be happening in the Franco-Austrian war. No gains no losses.

August 5, 1614 : Poland declared war upon Moldavia.
August 5, 1614 : Ukraine joined the war on the same side as Moldavia in their war against Poland. (Austria) Damocles (France)
November 9, 1614 : Ukraine accepted peace with Poland on the following terms : Full Annexation of Ukraine by Poland

After a rough patch Poland finally clears up the mess left over from previous conflicts.

December 16, 1614 : Sweden accepted peace with Denmark on the following terms : Sweden pays 63d in indemnities.

Sweden bits off too much to chew

July 21, 1615 : England accepted peace with Benin on the following terms : Ivoria to England & Accra to England.

I win a war- ‘surely not’ -ED

January 14, 1616 : Moldavia joined the war on the same side as Russia in their war against Sweden. (Austria) Teutonic_Knight (Poland)

Sweden upsets some quiet little country merely by existing. Or having a country that begins with an S followed by a W.

June 14, 1616 : Sweden accepted peace with Russia on the following terms : Kexholm to Sweden, Karelia to Sweden, Arkhangelsk to Sweden & Kola to Sweden.

OH- Sweden finally beats the AI, big celebration and cheers us up as Franco-Austrian conflict drags on with nothing happening. (I’m not going to touch on this too much as their AARs are up and good)

January 10, 1617 : Sweden is now granting Spain military access to their country
August 29, 1617 : Hannover declared war upon Sweden.

Sweden gets hello and fuck you confused when he tries to greet the player with the german language course he has been taking

September 20, 1617 : Strassburg became Vassals of France.
September 23, 1617 : The Palatinat became Vassals of France.

PEACE. France finally agrees to vassalise all its non- French provinces as a peace deal. Austria gets 2 provinces but has to cede Brandenberg. France faces massive rebellions across its country and is slowly but surely burning up and with threats from Sweden and England to join the war its looking grim. Huge Spanish subsidies keep France on the backfoot. Undefeated in the field France is stopped from conquering Europe by war exhaustion.

November 1, 1617 : Savoy declared war upon France.
January 30, 1618 : France accepted peace with Poland on the following terms : Return to Status Quo.

April 10, 1618 : Pommern declared war upon Sweden.
April 10, 1618 : Denmark joined the war on the same side as Pommern in their war against Sweden.

Oh dear me…..

September 25, 1618 : Savoy accepted peace with France on the following terms : Full Annexation of Savoy by France
November 11, 1618 : France accepted peace with Austria on the following terms : Würzburg to Austria & Mainz to Austria. (Austria)

September 3, 1619 : England declared war upon Oman.

Oman has some tasty provinces in India and on the horn of Africa….

October 22, 1619 : Netherlands declared war upon Oman.

Netherlands joins in.


ANALYSIS

This would seem to be the end of an era. France has been comprehensively stopped from gaining continental hegemony but who are the winners and losers?

Austria has gained provinces and didn’t have to pay for much thanks to Spanish sliver. Its in a strong position, certainly a great deal stronger than it was at the beginning of the war, maybe even capable of standing up to further French aggression alone in the future.

England has lost out big time. All but cleared out of North America and financially devastated England is not a world player in any sense of the word.

Spain has spent 10’s of 1,000s keeping nations in the war against France. Was it worth it? Well Spain has had to directly fight France for most of the war. He has been able to romp all over the globe without France competing against him. Spain is a definite winner and is elected HRE at the end of the war. Spain has managed his economy well and has a massive economic tech lead.

France has lost out although he remains very powerful indeed. His strategy has failed for a number of reasons. He won a number of wars at the beginning, very well as well. But whilst his operational skills were unquestionable one has to look at his grand strategy. He is able to repeatedly knock over his chosen targets but they are repeatedly put up again by Spain. The coalition against him strengthens ever stronger every time he wins another war. Eventually though these mistakes they unite and form a strong enough front to take him down through war exhaustion.
France’s grand strategy is flawed as his actions only unite Europe strongly against him whilst he never manages to take out the real opposition which is Spain, in fact he barely ever fights Spain. Ulver lets others do his fighting whilst he operates in the new world. France doesn’t even attempt to take on Spain which is the country is directs and finances the war against him. He doesn’t build a navy to strike at vulnerable Spanish possessions he just keeps attacking a very heavily fortified Austria.
When it becomes clear that the end is nigh he does play a good end game and manages to swallow his pride and take what is a very good peace really.
France has missed out on building an empire and has slipped economically. It does remain strong though but it is not quite as overwhelmingly dangerous as it once was. What he does now will really determine whether he is capable of doing more than just fighting well.

Poland suffered badly at the beginning but was able to make a good comeback. He has realised that the rest of Europe is less interested in breaking down his empire and more interested in protecting what they have against France. He changes sides at a good time and secures his future which had started to look a bit bleak. I would say that Poland is a winner, it has survived and is strong enough to last a long time into the future despite the disadvantages it suffers

Sweden is another winner, he gains provinces in NA and is economically sorted out. How he does so well I’m not sure as he was continually at war with minors who seemed to beat him a lot. However, Sweden comes out a lot stronger than it was and is now no longer a bit player on the fringes of Europe.

I cant make my mind up about whether the Ottomans did well or not. They aren’t any weaker but are they established enough to resist the decline that most surely come? Its unclear. But they did contribute a lot to the war and insure there position on the edge of Europe as the major land power in a strong position to deal with Russia and Poland should they turn. By backing the alliance it has avoided a crusade against it which could be fatal especially in these years whilst it is still regarded a threat to Europe.

Holland is perhaps the country that benefits the most from the war. Read BiB;s AAR and you can see why, an economic powerhouse and secure in Europe with a fantastic empire in the east Indies. BiB emulates the dutch success and it can only go from strength to strength in the coming years. He manages to avoid most of the war by becoming a French vassal which allows him to take advantage of English and French absence in the the rest of the world. He plays a very good game indeed, politically he manages to avoid a disastrous war with France- he loses no territory, whilst keeping on good terms with Spain.

MAUR13- AUSTRIA

Indeed, an end to an era.

French incursion into HRE is finally ended. This means that peace in west europe can be finally achieved. Or will France will claim the chambers of reunion, and try to expand it's borders to the rhine, making second claim for what Austria considers the HRE?


Austria is by no means stronger than France, rather the opposite, the war hasn't strenghtened Austria that much. It was indeed paid mostly with Spanish gold, some 10'000 ducats arrived (Ulver conversation was hilarious but actually he got a point. When he sent me his biggest loan, about 4000d, i had already 4000d and about 9k free manpower )

But don't forget that the war lasted 17 full years, and i bought every single soldier i could, and lost them all against France. This means about a million soldiers, including few mercs i bought, were lost. And since i bought mainly cavalry (funny, at first mine and Damocles armies consisted of about 1/3-1/2 infantry, in the latter phase of war, first me, then he switched to almost exclusively cavalry armies), it means i spend about 9000 ducats at this war, not counting upgrading forts in Austria, which costed me 2000d. Seeing i only got provinces France couldn't relase as vassals, and also lost Brabant, my core province, quite valuable, to Netherlands, i'm really considering if i wasn't actually ripped of in the war i carried the burden essentially, though it's called 'coalition war'. Which makes me think if i really should get rid of Brandenburg, seeing as Ottoman Empire, Dutch and England are busy ripping off Oman, and Sweden just trashed Russia, Poland is waging war on Crimea. At least, i will convert them to catholicism before i relase them, if ever.


France expansion was ended, but don't forget that French heartland wasn't touched at all. Actually, France lost provinces which were liability rather than an asset. It's manpower is still way higher than Austrian, not to mention income, and Ottoman Empire is also much stronger than Habsburg German domains. To add insult to injury, Spain got elected HRE...
Which makes met think twice about letting all those petty German statelets having it's independence, after all i've done to reinstate HRE

Ah well. For sure, punishing Bohemians for instating "winter king" is the next Austrian objective. Scandinavian powers in HRE aren't exactly the thing that makes me smile. (Sweden holds Mecklemburg, and Denmark Bremen and Holstein)


I never denied that uniting Germany was my ultimate goal. Though i'm not going to subjugate any German member of the Hre. But if any other power wants to keep German soil, it can be sure to have Austria as it's mortal enemy.

Imperial Bureau of Statistics raport:

During the war:

French BB value was lowered from 56 to 46
Austrian BB value was lowered from 23 to 22

French Vp rose from 1149 to 1307
Austrian Vp rose from 1418 to 1645


Losses during the war:

French, in combat.
Inf 425'936, Cav 600'134, Art 72, totalling 1'026'070 lost in battles.
French, attritional losses:
Inf 257'845, Cav 167'859, Art 0, totalling 425'704 lost from attrition.
Total French losses: 1'451'774

Austrian, in combat:
Inf 121'919, Cav 357'684, Art 66, totalling 479'603 lost in combat
Austrian, attritional losses:
Inf 96'672, Cav 292'392, Art 0, totalling 389'064 lost from attrition.
Total Austrian losses: 868'667

No ships were lost during the war.

Ottomans, Polish and Swedish losses are hard to estimate.
Polish are probably very small, mainly from attrition. Swedish are very hard to estimate, but judging from Swedish raport, they must lost about 20k men
Ottomans should be easy to judge, as all troops they landed were lost, totalling about 300k?
There were some Spanish, Turkish and Polish losses against rebels in Austria, but those doesn't total more than 50k probably.

All in all, other members of the coalition probably lost well under 500k men, which put all allied losses under 1'400'000 soldiers, closer to 1,3 million IOHO.

There were also Dutch mercenaries putting down revolts in Artois, but even in 17 years their losses must have been only about 10-20k, though it's really a figure pulled from the sky

During the war, French raised their tech from 19/13/4/4 to 23/15/5/5

During the war, Austrians raised their tech from 20/13/4/5 to 22/16/4/5
(huh?What hapenned to our tech lead?)


Financial losses are very hard to estimate. Troops alone must have costed France well over 20'000 ducats, including maintenance. There is also lost income from plundered provinces, which should be considerable. Austrians spent on military over 10'000 ducats, including maintenance, basically whole Spanish monetary support. Interests from Spanish loans counted probably for another 1'500 ducats.

ULVER- SPAIN

Thought I’d elaborate a bit on the thinking behind my gameplay

In a way I see the hundred-year feud between Spain and France as showdown between the thinking of Clausewitz in Paris and Sun-Tzu in Madrid. This is reflected in the very different ways we go about choosing and pursuing our national objectives. Our Californian military genius, not doubt having studied Clausewitz at length, is the apostle of relentless will, convinced there is no substitute for victory, while I’m something of a closet pacifist, weary of victory’s hollowness. The Policy of France has consistently been to sharpen the sword; mine has consistently aimed to restrain it.

Master Sun teaches us that the best military policy is to attack the enemy’s strategies rather then his forces. Perhaps the most famous quite being “To win a hundred victories in a hundred battles is not the highest excellence; the highest excellence is to subdue the enemy’s army without fighting at all.”

I firmly believe that to be true. Obviously that is not always possible but it always remains the ideal to me. Of course I tend to pick countries that lend themselves to that kind of strategy. My most cherished victory in Empire in Arms were when I won the game playing as the Ottoman Empire without ever firing a single shot.

Queen Elisabeth the first is attributed as saying she disliked wars since she could never be certain of the outcome. I share that sentiment. A sentiment that is crucial to understanding why I choose the strategy I did. And I did choose a strategy – This was not just mindlessly pouring ducats into an anti-French crusade out of some gleeful malice. A strategy, I might add that was far from the obvious one at the time. In fact I can honestly say I embarked on my own style of campaign against the explicit advice of my allies.

When France began their advance into The Holy Roman Empire I began getting increasingly frantic calls for help from Vienna. Once French forces crossed the Rhine I got scared as it was quickly becoming clear that Austria would need massive help to survive. At the time Spain was 5 tech levels behind France her land tech and had spend her policy changes expanding her economy rather then improving her ability to fight. I was advised to close the technology gap and prepare to aid Austria on the battlefield. I can honestly say Mowers, as Austrian chancellor, was somewhat perturbed when I informed him that building up the Spanish army and land technology would not be a cost-effective use of resources. Instead I continue to pour every ducat of research onto infrastructure while my actual military build up was warships. I have explained my reasons for a strong Spanish navy at length in an earlier post but note the choice of weapon: I didn’t build a fleet to engage my enemies – I build it so I wouldn’t have to. Basically my fleet discouraged an attack by making sure the attacker couldn’t gain anything worthwhile.

Infrastructure, as we all know, gives the ability to control inflation so in this case it allowed be to take the remaining half of the Gold in America. Now, and only now, did I have virtually unlimited gold to give away but I still had a horrible gap in terms of military technology. There were also the facts that even if I did close the technology gap my domestic policy sliders were not set for waging war. Just being at war would lead to a considerable drop in income without my land forces being able to accomplish much. Selfish desire apart I honestly believed a neutral Spain was actually in a better position to impose her will on France then one actively engaged in hostilities.

To my mind the applicable concept here was the one that has formed the basis of economic theory since Adam Smith: The advantages of specialisation. Spain was specialised to earn gold, as a cash cow it was an invaluable asset in that regard; thus it would foolish to squander the advantages of specialisation by making her fight. Far better to transfer her gold to someone else. The way I sew it 1 ducat bought more leverage elsewhere then in Spanish soldiers fighting France. For one thing the stability cost of a DoW against France comes to about 10000 Ducats. I’m sure you will agree those 10000 ducats could better employed to buy Austrian mercenaries

One thing Clausewitz and Sun-Tzu agree on is that the goal is always to impose your will on the enemy. For all his tactical brilliance I think Damocles forgot this simple axiom. He openly stated a policy that would be intolerable to his neighbours, continual hegemony, and then failed to break our will to resist him. He advanced a bit at a time failing to press his advantage and ruthlessly crush his enemies thereby giving me time to put together a grand collation and transform gold into military assets blocking his ambition. In many ways he offered traditionally mild peace treaties after each successive victorious war. His state goal was effective control of the European continent to achieve that he needed to break our will to resist him, he needed to convince us, in the words of the Borg that “Resistance is futile” taking one province or a bundle of cash was never going to achieve that. A ‘mild’ peace only makes sense if at the same time you declare, “this is my last territorial demand in Europe” (unlike the other guy you may actually mean it) and then act conciliatory showing that you are not a mortal threat.

My verdict on Damocles thus far: Brilliant tactics, flawed strategy.

DAMOCLEAS- FRANCE

To the best of my memory, Swedish losses were probably around 40k-50k as he kept landing troops in NA.

As for my own expenses, 20,000 ducats is a vast overestimate. Consider my income, with war taxes, is 180 a month, and I wasn't putting any into treasurey. Census taxes were enough to raise whatever manpower I could up until the closing years. Granted, before the war I'd built up a considerable treasurey with which to buy manufacturies. I'd still estimate my expenses at a quarter of the Coalition's.



An all too accurate assessment, Ulver. I admittedly favor relatively swift, decisive wars, followed by a reasonable, honorable peace. I made it known that I was content, so far as my dominance was acknowledged and they didn't make trouble. I.E, fall in line with foreign policy. Yet, I had no desire to actively crush them. Perhaps it is a shortcoming I've developed from watching too many players get destroyed in a war, then quit the game after being extorted. When you're in a 400 year game with many of the same people, it is never much fun crushing a friend in 1434 for example.

However, as I bitterly remarked during the course of the war (Perhaps, as a testement to the Coalition's continual resourcefulness and adept strategy) that I would be loath to settle a peace deal in the future with the equilivant of a pat on the cheek and a firm handshake.

But everything you've said is true...And the opposing mindsets with which each side (Ok, so I'm a side unto myself) entered the conflict were markedly different reflecting each's combination of desperation and hope. I wasn't in that war to destroy, cripple my enemies, yet the other 6 (7 nominally including BiB) were. This added bit of drive proved decisive. Austria spent years before the war recruiting troops in advance, I was caught, to my dismay, with what I thought was an adequate army, but was proved otherwise when I noted that Austria must've been paying 50 ducats a month in army maintenance and ottomans were landing in numbers already 2 times my own by itself.

Thank God for French manpower, as it just barely allowed to me to meet the Coalition one a mostly equal basis manpower wise after the Ottomans were knocked out. That is, until Austria began getting generals.

SMIRFY- SWEDEN

As the paint drys on the new European map (i ctd a couple of years before end of session hence the revolts and unfinished war.) the consequences of the settlement become evident. France having turned down my proposal (supported by Spain i may add) to turn over Her New World colonies to England will spell the decline of the Northern Protestant powers (England Denmark Sweden Hannover Holland etc) and the isolation of France.
Where's the reason in this I here from the subdued courts of Europe, is the Lion of the North drunk i hear from my illustrious neighbour in the America's. No I say! we will all drown under the weight of Spanish gold unless we can create a power in the Americas that can give their UNDIVIDED attention to eroding Spanish Power, also a revitalized Britain might be the Spur to bring your vassel (thats in the loose sense of the word as at the minute they are in Spains pocket) to realize the benifits of a northern alliance.How cocky will Austria be when Spains gold defends the New World and is flushed down the Pyranees. With no outside money and armies facing her on the Elbe Mass and Rhine and maybe our Moslem brothers will realize why travel to the south of France to wash their blood on your great bastions when they can set the Balkans aflame with the name of Islam. Poland to might see that it is more than a anti-partizan unit of the Hapsburgs(no Swedish forces were involved in these operations during last war) or their buffer against the emerging Russian bear and sieze the rich Carpathian provences to secure her place in the east.
Why give such charity you say.Your execellent and undevided generalship in continental Europe. The rich provences of Lombardy the Guardianship of the Papacy and French becoming the official language of Venice do not strike me as charity. They will be the fruits of your victory. You mercenary Swede what do you get. I am but after the freedom of the HRE giving freedom of religion to any country within, the establishment of Prussia(not likely under the Austrian tyrany) my expansion can be at Russias expense and in the lands north of the St Lawerence. My acceptance of a modest peace from a desperate though honoured foe is a sign of my good will.
The fate of Europe lies with Frances next move. Spain can no longer loose but with Brave actions the second round of the Thirty years may have a different outcome.



plz excuse any mistakes in grammer and spelling etc am rushed and in work

MAUR13- AUSTRIA

RESPONSE TO FRANCE


you are vastly overestimating my preparedeness. Actually, the war was direct consequence of your annexation of Palatinate, i would have wait another 5 years to prepare myself, or at least two, to replenish manpwoer pool which was at 0 at the beginning of the war.

This also means my initial maintenance costs of maybe 15 (at half), hadn't rose during next two years, as i didn't recruited more troops, instead waiting for manpower pool to replenish. It wasn't an issue later, too, as you attacked, and my army was cut down to size soon, my mainenance costs were never higher than 25d at full morale.

You are also forgetting that it WAS "peace deal with the equilivant of a pat on the cheek and a firm handshake"

If not, we would go even more, forcing you to relase your French vassals, then you would be effectively weaker than Austria, or maybe even Sweden. Peace we imposed on you only meant you lost your European conquests, whose didn't really contributed much to your country, except prestige maybe. And a lot of rebellious provinces

 

[Mowers]

Part VII

MOWERS- ENGLAND

RESPONSE TO FRANCE

hmm,

At the end of the day you lost 2 territories and vassalised a couple more. Hardly a big setback, you pointed out that we could have fleeced you. But do you understand why we were so lenient? And more importantly why we fought so hard to survive against you?

In big, proper, long term games against vaguely reasonable players the destruction of france would have again upset the balance of power but this time in the other direction. Most of wanted a strong france because we need you to ensure that neither Spain nor Austria tries to do what you attempted to do. Most of the players want a strong France but they dont want a France that was going to rampage across Europe.

Also if we had gone on to trash france there would have been a war between those who wanted a powerful France and those that didnt.

For all your tactical ability you failed to divert attention from yourself, indeed you actively attracted it. This isnt a wargame its a BoP game.

Classic example. You invade very rich provinces but you dont vassalise any of them, not a single one, which is just asking for trouble. I first noticed this at the begining when I started to vassalise off a few provinces- your reaction to my moves? "You are funny mowers". I thought then that you didnt seem to grasp how the game is meant to be played and that you cant get achieve hegemony through sheer aggression, (or as someone once very simply sumed up " lets have a game and just all meet up in the middle after we have taken out the AI" -Age of Empires style game) and that a coalition against you would have to be arranged. Indeed, your hegemonic attempts were based on fear alone, rather than a combination of stick and carrot. ( read your own words above) If you had vassallised half of the provinces you invaded you may have avoided the war and would be a top runner in the colonial race.

Example no.2- You rightly claim that you dont trash other countries and this is the correct way of strategic thinking. But you point out that you do this because you basically a nice guy and that losers drop- which is true, but it totally misses the point.

In many respects the coalition against you didnt harden quickly at the begining because you were reasonably lenient and not madly aggresive. Indeed I had real problems rallying support against you. Now can you imagine what would have happened if you had knocked a player totally out of the game? The anti- French feeling would have gone through the roof and you would have played the W.E. round robin game much earlier on and to a much more unpleasant end.

Its strategic nonsense to trash other countries in this sort of game as everyone else will simply turn on you and W.E. you back to 1419. Sure if you are playing for a couple of hours in a one off then so what? But I run long term games in which that sort of style of play, which is deeply flawed, doesnt pay.

In addition, you often claimed that you would never be lenient again during the war if we didnt pull back but that only hardened our resolve and undermined your cause as 'underdog' and thus you forced us closer together against you.

However, having said all that what ensured your surival as a major and probably your greatest politcal moment was that you finally stopped saying that you were going to smash us all in the next session and accepted a reasonable peace as the loser, which I was impressed with as in the end you saved France from a terrible defeat and an even worse fate by a simple back down that cost you stuff all.

In conclusion- a general point to all. EU is not about annexing all the minor AI nations and then fighting it out, its about a careful and continual reexamination of who is winning. Blatent aggression will attract attention to yourself and is to your inevitable detriment. Whilst expansion is necessary and important dont concentrate on what you need to conquer, concentrate on what others are trying to conquer. There are numerous under utilised diplomatic tools to do follow this strategy effectively. Protect minors and bring them into your fold, dont engage in this silly land grabbing business that I see all to often. It only takes a couple of players with an understanding of this concept in a game to ensure that any would be aggressor is quickly put out of business.
FRANCE- DAMOCLEAS

RESPONSE

Actually, Poland wanted white peace, but I refused. Why shouldn't they suffer for going turncoat?

Again, Maur...I do not know how you mean by me getting off easy. In 17 years, not a single province of mine was actually conquered except for a couple colonies and TPs.

Now, I could have dragged the war out decades yet. Granted, it would see France in flames vs a Spain, OE and England entering and re entering, but I could have. As it is, I was inclined to see France remain economically sound.

Still however, I lost eleven provinces. Eleven rich provinces that had been mine for a few of them, a hundred years. Provinces I had painstakingly converted to catholocism that were a stable part of my empire and providing around 20 in manpower.

What I received, was the equilivant of a Versailles treaty that France inflicted on Germany partly in revenge for Prussian victory in 1874 (ish).

I may not be the pre-eminent power in europe anymore, but I still have not chosen whose camp to find myself in. My predecessors (besides BiB) disastrously strove to max quality, and it has been a involved process lowering it down notch by notch. Or perhaps, France will retire to a peaceful private existance?


ULVER- SPAIN

RESPONSE

Satan (cool name btw): In Empire in Arms the ottomans are the only nation that scores sufficient points without winning any battles - not losing any is sufficient. Hard enough given their rotten morale and minuscule economy but still.

Blade: The maps are the latest position. I always post a screenshot at the end of a session if there have been any changes.

Smirfy: You do realise I can crush Sweden like an eggshell? The only power that could effectively intervene would be the Dutch Republic and they have absolutely no reason to do so. Publicly proposing an anti-Spanish collation when you are totally unable to protect yourself against Spain might not be the smartest move. Apart from me France and the Netherlands can take over your North American colonies without much difficulty and you are holding German lands – something I’m sure Austria is less then pleased with - while your Baltic possessions are partly Polish core provinces. You might consider being a bit more careful

Damocles: In no way did I wage war to crush or destroy France If I had, frankly, the map would be dotted with a fascinating collections of minors were France used to be. I actually think the collation offered quite reasonable terms all things considered. I would remind you that France currently hold two Spanish core provinces and I personally went against the advice of several collation members by letting you keep one of them (Milan) You showed real character as a player by accepting the inevitable and making the best peace you could without throwing a tantrum. Had you refused France would have been stripped of all colonies both Spanish Core provinces and Savoy would have been made independent. Add to that that we might well have seen France simply fall apart. I honestly do not feel the terms imposed were particularly harsh. You have to understand that neither Austria nor Spain could accept a France expanding deep into Germany and claming hegemony in Europe. I didn’t spend some 50000 ducats because I hate you or because you were an easy bogyman. I did it because I was genuinely terrified of your power and the way you were using it. I was in no way criticizing your standard method of short swift wars followed by mercy in peace. That is the way I prefer to do it. I’m simply pointing out that – in this case – such a tactic did not support your strategy. It works fine for what are essentially political football matches.

Crossing the Rhine into Germany in force is violating a vital Austrian interest, declaring your intention to dominate Europe makes it an existential life or death struggle from an Austrian viewpoint – and if Austria goes so goes I. Without Austria Spain is completely at the mercy of France. This was not some minor skirmish over where to draw the border this was about life and death for me. You did show great restraint when you were victorious don’t think we didn’t noticed. That is why I took what I consider minimal steeps to ensure my safety and that of my Austrian ally. You will noticed that we did not strip your core provinces I had to argue at length to assure you kept Savoy and faced really stiff resistance to letting you keep Milan. (I had to repeatedly point out it was mine core province and that I didn’t mind)

This was no Carthaginian peace.

Yes the war was unfair and I don’t think anyone could have fought it better then you did. But if I start a war and it is a fair fight I haven’t done my homework. After all Sun-Tzu teaches us only to fight a battel when you have alrady won.

(Tip for fighting those giant collations in the future: refuse to make peace with any member until they all do – the weakest link may pressure the others to settle because he is breaking apart)

SMIRFY- SWEDEN

To the best of my memory, Swedish losses were probably around 40k-50k as he kept land
Swedish Military Operations in The Austro/Franco war

European Operations
An army of observation was formed in Meckleburg from various domestic garrison units under the command of HRH Gustavus Adolphus consisting of approx 30k inf 5k cav 40 art. This force undertook no offensive or defensive operations for the duration of the war. No forces were supplied to the coalition for civil disorder purposes.

Colonial Operations

Three expeditons where sent to the New World, The first had 10k inf 1k cav and some artillery subsequently it recieved a further
10k inf reinforcements in its operations south of the St. Lawrence. After a heroic stand the above units were wiped out by a superior French force. The third expedition 10k approx under the command of a conquistador landed North of the St. Lawrence meanwhile a fourth combined arms force 10k in total was waiting embarkcation to an operational area in the New World and a fifth was in the process of Forming. Peace was accepted before these deployments occured.

Naval Operations

With the size and location of the French Fleet unknown (coalition inteligence supply to Sweden non existant) the Fleet was limited to the transportation and escort of the three expeditions to the Americas though one escorted convoy stumbled on four French transports in the Gulf of St Lawrence and sank all four. The fleet was also involved in the assembly of the army of observation in Meckleburg. No naval ship was lost during the war.

Estimates

France deployed an army of 30k against the first expedition which was beaten and reduced 15k in the first battle of Arcadie it was pursued and defeated losing a further 5k. The French were reinforced and their army of 30k+ approx defeated the first expedition at the second battle of Arcadie which was now down to 13k effectives from 20k +/- 1k. French losses must therefore be but in the region of 25-30k for the war against 21k Swedish Losses.

In Conclusion

Though "loose change" by the other powers losses, it proved what even a small nation can do against a continental super power when they are distracted in a European war. The territorial gains without even taking the Spanish subsides make the Swedish campaign a pretty successful one.(despite my several errors) Though now with a dominant Austria and a France probably blinded by revenge the future is at best uncertain or as Clausewitz teaches us than the end of the war is not the end of the struggle.


TEUTONIC KNIGHT- POLAND


I had said to Austria, since negotiations were already on going if I could peace out; he replied yes. There was less than 1 year left, of actual warefare, when I proposed peace, even then I would have kept killing off his rebels for him in North Germany.



On a side note, I am going to explain a few things so people will understand why I did what I did.

My war with Russia was an ill-advised plan on my part. I recieved an event CB against them, and because of my manpower being about half of Austria's I thought I could help myself to some of his provs. Not to mention I was thinking of the long picture that Europe will soon become too costly to wage war and will switch to colonies, which Poland has none of.

Had the W.E. not been at ungodly levels as it was, I could have taken them, but at any given time I had about 25-35% of my military on Austrias border or stationed really close to it, and another 25% dedicated to putting down rebellions that raged all across my land. So the war went bad against Russia as less than 50% of my army was fielded against Russia. I actually thought I had sighned a white peace with Russia as I had wiped out all but one of his armies had I known otherwise I would have simply prolonged it until I could turn my fortunes around. He lost prolly 4 to every one of mine and I was facing his entire army whilst he faced less than half of mine.



Two reasons I never invaded in France or went to South Austria to engage France there. The first was that while other nations were being finaced by Spain, I recieved none, not one piece of gold. Poland is not exactly a rich country to begin with and in order to keep up matienece and still recruit I had to put a lot of my slider to treasury as I didn't have a Spanish sugar daddy(as Damoclese put it)

The second reason had more to do with the first because I didn't have a huge influx of Ducets from Spain, or any for that fact, I could not afford to lose many troops to attrition, which would have been awful for me had I invaded France.

My reasons for invadeing the Crimea was/is to block the Ottoms from coming any further North than they already have and by gaining a foothold East, I can eventually start colonizing the area that Russia tradionaly colonises. This will allow me to exapand without actually drawing attention to myself and getting involved in another costly was of attrition.

By attacking Crimea I can Hopefully get all Orthodox provs and vassilize the Crimea to add a buffer. This will keep the Ottomons contained down South and will also prevent the absorbstion of another CoT in Astrakastan.

Any war against me will surely include a powerfull allie in Austria and I don't think the Turks would want that, while they could be quite content on expanding further East.


On a side note, my inflation is horrid and I need peace to get it tamed, otherwise it will be my undoing.

BiB- HOLLAND

Game Midwaypoint Analysis
I only joined in as the Dutch in 1565 (only a short spell as France before that) but it'd be nice to have a look at the geopolictical evolutions in this game. As I see it there are 2 absolute superpowers left, namely Spain and Turkey. France isn't too far behind but was brutally crushed in the last war while the other 2 have never been defeated. As is well known Spain is THE econolmic powerhouse of the world and has managed to stay out of wars by financing otehrs to fight for him, just about always against French agression. They have colonised the vast richess of Latin America and their peaceful nature also recently brought them the HRE title, this puts them firmly in place atop the VP rankings. But then again what are VPs? FWIW Spain is leading by a huge margin over Ottomans and Austria who share 2nd and not too far behind is France. The Ottomans have expanded exponentially since the start and have been quite in recent years (well apart from taking part in the long anti France war) however they can take out Oman now and Persia with its vast manpower resources should soon be ripe for the diplo annex pluckings. Whereas Spain has the money, the Ottomans have the manpower (and still a sizeable amount of money obviously ). France has lost its HRE possessions but still has its core and colonial empire intact to still be a considerable force. However Spain and the Ottomans working together, let alone with extra help, is a formidable coalition. It'd be interesting to see whether the unhloy alliance lasts now France has been humbled. IMO it'd be nice for the game if the suspected power vauum was used to form 2, maybe even 3 human coalitions to spice up things in the 17th century. Subtop powers are the lieks of Austria, England and Holland. Austria profited very nicely from the anti French coalition as it was able to get many German cultured lands under its rule, however can it do without the Spanish funding? England with mowers had a very capable player at the helm and it showed as much colonial progress was being made. Still I wonder if the initial ravage hasn't been too bad. Holland as described above have a lot going for them but are hampered by the one but huge fact they can't put a decent army together to save their lives iof human players come aknocking. Then there's Poland and Sweden. They had mixed leadership throughout the game. Poland was forced to ally against France after losing in a war and because they are all allies now he can't look to expand much beyond his current PLC borders and colonially it hasn't achieved anything. Only Russia is till there but there soon may be a Russian player (maybe even from Poland?). Sweden has its ups and downs but has by now managed to get its core provs and a Baltic thing going in Europe. Ad to that the fact they have nice sizeable holdings in North America and it looks quiet good, still they're not too strong in some areas which leaves them vulnerable. Getting Norway would not be bad either.

The main action the latest decades, if not century has been focused on French aggression and getting an anti French coalition going. Now France has been seriously beaten by a large coalition the stage is set for a new theme, what it'll be remains to be seen though ...

Maybe the stage shifts to teh colonial aspect. Things are getting full there and the ones left out may claim a chunk. Will Austria keep looking from the outside? Will Holland and England clash in the East Indies desptie good agreements with the Spanish and Ottomans looking in? What will happen in the balkanised North America? Spain, Holland, France, Sweden and England all ahve holdings there. The same to a lesser extent is true for Africa. The safest thing looks to be latin america due to the sheer fact that it all belongs to Spain. Xure, Brazil is Portuguese but they're a Spanish vassal.

What will happen to the HRE, Italy, the Low Countries, Scandinavia and Poland in Europe? France and Austria could be at loggerheads over the HRE and Italy or do the unthinkable and agree on a settlment to divide them. Poland could be partitioned 200 years too early by Austtria, Sweden and a new Russian player. Spain will have to find a new badboy to draw attention from itself and stay out of war. What will the Ottomans do? Will England seek to keep teh Balance of Power at all cost on teh continent like it did historically?

 

[PJL]

Hmm, shame no-one has actually responded to them, but then again the posts are very long.

 

[unmerged(6777)]

Actually I've been finding it a great read but wasn't sure it they wanted any feedback in the thread or wanted to keep it "pure" so to speak. Now that the brave PJL has broken the ice, I say "bring it on"!

Yes, they're long, but there are some very intructive lessons to be learned for those seeking to start playing MP games. It's fascinating to read about the strategies being used, and also to see what an experienced group of players has developed into a set of workable house rules that can make the game very enjoyable without getting too bloodthirsty.

A good case in point is the humbling of France. Read carefully as to what was actually done to the nation once a peace was rammed down his throat: very little, really, considering what could have been done. A brokered deal like the one they achieved at least leaves the defeated player with some measure of dignity, while slapping his wrist for being just a little bit too acquisitive.

Good stuff gents.

(Oh, and if you'd prefer to keep this thread free of clutter, PM me and I can delete this.)

 

[PJL]

Well, as the Ottomans in this game, I'm not exactly an experienced MP myself, though I am well versed in single player mode, but yes it's certainly been an eye opener as to how MP games really work.

Actually, I was thinking whether it might be better just to move the whole MG3 MP AAR thread from the MP forum to here, because it would make great reading as it is, rather than consolidating the threads onto here.

 

[unmerged(6777)]

Originally posted by PJL
Well, as the Ottomans in this game, I'm not exactly an experienced MP myself, though I am well versed in single player mode, but yes it's certainly been an eye opener as to how MP games really work.

Actually, I was thinking whether it might be better just to move the whole MG3 MP AAR thread from the MP forum to here, because it would make great reading as it is, rather than consolidating the threads onto here.

Heh! You seem to be doing all right for yourself...or at least that seems to be the general consensus of the other players. I'd be watching my back if I were you...

IMO, moving the original thread into this forum would probably not be worth doing since many of the posts in it are very long as well and, in a survey that we conducted in the AAR forum a while ago, it was noted that people are hesitant/reluctant to begin reading a thread that they haven't been following if it is already many pages long.

What I might suggest as an alternative would be to post a link to this thread from the current end of the other, and to make future updates here. The above half-dozen posts aren't too excessively long for interested persons to read and get caught up on the game situation at the moment; and the ongoing (and shorter ) additions would be more likely to garner attention.

A couple other things that either arose from the surveys we did or are my own speculation/experience with the AAR forum...

Active threads are far more likely to be read and commented upon than ones where there are long periods of dormancy. I doubt that will come as much of a surprise. There are, at present, a very large number of AARs that are extremely good and very active, which makes it very difficult to keep up with them all. The more often a thread is updated (even with a little light-hearted banter between the participants), the more likely it is that other people will get curious about what all's being said.

A very good way to garner an interested and active audience is to follow the "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" principle. As the players in this thread express an interest in what other people are doing in their AARs (i.e reading some of them and posting comments/"attaboys"/etc.) they will tend to stimulate a reciprocal interest from those people who's threads you've been "supporting". Essentially, this is a "you read mine and I'll read yours" kind of symbiosis.

There's also the "being known" factor. I think that many of the sub-forums have their own "cliques" and that the members of these rarely "travel" outside their own circles...or at least actively so. As a result, although someone may be very well-known and extremely active in one sub-forum, they're pretty much an unknown entity elsewhere. This will tend to make people a little less likely to check out what you're doing since there isn't the same "friendship factor" that would exist with other members of their own "clique". This would, for a time, hamper the likelihood of garnering responses in the AAR forum.

I'll confess that I've felt much the same as I've browsed - lurked - through the original thread since most of you in the MP forum wouldn't have the faintest idea who I am since I spend 95% of my forum time in AAR-land. If I suddenly started posting comments in your thread, most of you would be wondering just who this "fool" is who's suddenly started opining - and, as you can tell, I can get more than just a little bit verbose at times.

Anyway, there's my 2 ducats' worth.

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

Originally posted by PJL
Hmm, shame no-one has actually responded to them, but then again the posts are very long.

Well, some of us have been lurking in the MP forum and posted the occasional question there

But if you'd like feedback, by golly, you'll get feedback. General feedback, that is.

While I find all of the posts informative and well worth reading, they don't as a rule engender the...oh no, what will happen now! sort of suspense so liked by many.

Part of that is the game dynamics. It seems quite clear that nobody, with the possible exception of Spain, is allowed to grow much beyond what Mowers feels is needed to maintain a historical feel to the game, which, while it and the ever-flowing Spanish gold maintains a precarious balance of power, also means that even the worst spanking a country receives is rather mild. (And yes, I'm referring to Damocles and France).

I understand how this makes for a consistently interesting game to play, but it does cut down on the potential drama, when it is a given, that players should try to behave historically (such as the Sweden shouldn't have been trying to conquer and convert parts of what will become Russia, because a Russian player will take over 50 years later, and then just about everybody will support the Russian player in reaching his historical limits issue)

This means that for the reader, guesses about long-term strategies are less exciting, because any really wild guesses will be duds. France won't be allowed to invade England. The Ottomans won't be allowed to enter India, and France and the Ottomans together won't be allowed by the game dynamics to try to carry these goals out in alliance. Sorry, but while it may make excellent sense gamewise, guessing whether Sweden will keep Gotland or not is just not as exciting

Anyway, to in an attempt to be as verbose as MrT (quite a feat, I tell you), I'll reiterate that I like reading this AAR - especially the conflicting reports on intentions, the very different interpretations of the causes and outcomes of wars, and the actions of the Dutch Secret Service.

As a bit of advice, if you want more replies, ask questions to the general public on your strategies, our opinion of the colour of your provinces, or try to make us guess your next move, or make provocative statements. Simple, really, but otherwise there isn't much to do but adding an 'attaboy' every now and then, since you are all experienced players, who won't commit simple mistakes.


And as for you, PJL. You've got a huge Ottoman Empire. We'd all like to see you use it for something other than slow expansion and gradual stagnation. All things considered, the African Sunni Muslims are in your sphere of influence, right? I'm sure they would dearly love to come under your protection. That goes for Persia and India as well. It would be the charitable thing after all, and that is one of the pillars of the faith.

In fact, it could be said to be your religious duty to unite Islam under a single Khalif again, and I'm sure that your Imams are busily preaching such, while you happily click on armies and build infrastructural enhancements. As you next fire up your computer, think twice before putting down the scimitar, and ask yourself: What would Mohammed do? I'm sure a solution will suggest itself.

(EDIT: Yes, I know that the obvious solution is incompatible with what I claimed the game dynamics would allow to happen, but I could be wrong. So sue me )

 

[BiB]

I'll soon move it over to the GD2 forum anyway so it gets exposed to a larger audience.

About the game dynamics. It's only common MP sense. IF u let one nation grow and grow it's unlikely u will see it back. This isn't just gamedynamics for the sake of it or history's sake, they decide the game History is a good guidance in that but is far from followed at all times.

 

[Damocles]

One of the reasons why countries feel...I don't know...Less then ambitious, is because the moment a country appears to be a threat, they are for the most part, automatically destroyed. I.E, England and Sweden working in tandem, even tho they are very weak, could destroy the Ottomans via war exhaustion. I.E, dowing and just not accepting peace...Then passing it off to the next one. So a player realizes that no matter how good he is, especially in the era of mighty-maximum forts coming up, there is absolutely nothing he can do, if it would turn more people against him.

This might not be a problem with the emergence of shall we say, more balanced coalitions. But as long as there is only one threat to concentrate on, it is rather easily dealt with due to the game mechanics.

To be fair however, there is a massive amount of actions on the diplomatic front. Behind the scenes wheeling and dealing so to speak. So even if something appears an obvious conclusion, it likely happened due to painstaking negotiation.

Because of this, instead of asking What would Napoleon do? , most ask themselves What would Bismark do?

 

[TeutonicKnight]

Exactly what BiB said, if a country is let loose to grow without some constraints, then the game will become a bloodfest of the big country spanking all others. The single biggest factor in Multi-Player is Manpower. He who can call the most troops will more than likely win.