So… After the last update, I had become involved in a very unwanted war with Sweden over Finland, just as I was loading my troops for an expedition against a few German minors (with a DoW on Münster, I would be at war alsi with Gelre, Trier and Cleves). Sweden has only 16k troops to fight my allies and my own 18k, but I lack manpower (only 550 new soldiers per month), and many regiments are not full (I have 22), especially in my Baltic army at Ostpreussen. However, I have 11 full regiments in Hamburg, which were to attack Gelre. The war with Sweden mostly prevents me to really put all my energy in the war in Germany.
I see Sweden as a very low intensity conflict. I have no interest in taking their territory, I would be perfectly happy if I could only weaken them, maybe for Finland’s profit. I will want to burn their colonies, so someone else might take them. My possible war with the minors, however, would be very advantageous: I would keep control over league members, and I plan to vassalize Münster and Trier, which would both give me a decent income boost (especially since this is Very Hard, so they collect 50% more tax than I do). I don’t really care about their fighting capacity, as they would be mostly enemy free warscore and an annoying distraction in the worst case and a very slight good if things turn out better, and they don’t have the advantage of a navy like Holland. I decide to go with both wars: my army in Lübeck, the Hanseatic Guard, will fight in Western Germany, while my Baltic Army will take care of Sweden the moment it will be in better shape. Wenzel Gevert, the general with 4 shock and 5 manoeuvre I had recruited earlier, is first assigned to the Hanseatic Guard, but I will send him to Sweden when possible so he can help with the Scandinavian winters, and he will be replaced by my leader, Albert Dreyer, in Germany.
None of the allies of Sweden answer their call, and Brandenburg doesn’t answer mine, but soon, I will get an offer from Muscowy, which is accepted. My landing in Gelre is a great success, and I destroy the entire enemy force. I leave one regiment to start the siege, and continue with quick victories in Osnabrück and Münster, this time not associated with peace, both with similarly small siege forces. Then it’s an easy victory against Cleves, I go through Hesse (I had military access since the early game), change my general, and attack the more capable army of Trier, which is destroyed after a few battles. With no more enemy armies to fear, I send more troops to the other sieges, and I wait. I gained nearly ten army tradition from these few battles. The field campaign ends June 30, 1448, after 6 months. Also, Utrecht, which starts with a core on Gelre, declared war on them. Funny. Friesland intervened.
In the meantime, there was some action against Sweden. They had built a new carrack fleet since the last war, and I had fought their 10 with the same number, plus 17 galleys. No ship sank on any side, but they fled in Halland. I sent all my ships to repair, apart from 4 galleys, which block Alands Hav. They sent a medium stack to Skane.
The end of the German campaign coincided with the moment when my Baltic army regained its full strength. Therefore, I send my army (with Gevert) to lift the siege of Skane, by landing in Smaland and walking, to avoid the landing penalty. It is a great success, with 5000 deaths on the other side. I follow them in Halland, and then Smaland. After this last battle, the 8 regiments only have 142 men, so I only send a small group to destroy them in Halland, while Gevert goes for Stockholm. After the annihilation of the enemy in Halland, the three regiments I had there are sent to the Swedish colonies. I will burn Österbotten in November 1448, take Kola (which was now a city, but without a fort) in January 1449, and finally destroy Lappland in March. Gevert is leading a decent stack in Stockholm, the three regiments assigned to the colonies are in Västerbotten, and I have 1-1 in Hälsingland. During that period, Finland took the province of... Finland... This made the transport fleet stationed there leave, but my galleys couldn’t destroy them. I sent a few more in order for the next encounter to be more favourable.
After the destruction of the army that was in Skane, Sweden started rebuilding. In May, a small 2k stack attacks Hälsingland, and I have to send Gevert with 3k men to rout them, with one cavalry regiment from Västerbotten for long term protection. They also started another siege in Skane, which was going well for them. After a short pursuit of the 1-1 stack that attacked me, I send Gevert to lift it. He then lets a small force for the siege of Halland (which would force their fleet out, and allow me to destroy it), and goes back to Stockholm with one cavalry regiment. In October, Sweden ends the siege of Tavastland, and attempts to take back Finland. I decide to help Finland by lending them Gevert and his good shock modifier, with 3k horsemen, but a weak Finnish general ends up leading, and the battle is a disaster. I take Västerbotten during the battle, and send the troops there to Stockholm. Not much action for a while, apart from a skirmish in Hälsingland that led to the end of the siege.
However, in Germany, war had ended. In the right order, Gelre, Cleves, Trier and Münster were defeated.
I send all my army in Germany to push back the Swedish siege in Finland. I also had an election. I selected a Bureaucrat, but he turned out to be very weak, with Adm to 5, the rest, 3. At least, no excommunication... He is made into a leader, but is a very poor one for any purpose.
Once my army arrives in Nyland, I send it on the Swedish army, but it loses with heavy losses. I decide to send the help of Gevert. On May 17, 1450, some good news: Halland falls, and I sink 2 carracks in the Öresund. Some enemies (without leadership) surround my position there, in Västergotland and Skane. They are promptly destroyed. I take Stockholm in July, and my full fleet destroys what remained of theirs, and captures the Treilus. A few days later, the siege of Finland is lifted by Gevert, though with heavy casualties. My objectives are achieved...
Denmark is a OPM, with only Halland, but it is one less province for Sweden. It is the third incarnation of Denmark in this game, and not twice as the capital been the same.
Normally, I wait for the end of the report to talk about international events not directly concerning me, but this is just too horrible...
I felt like Luke Skywalker in TESB. Three things can happen: it can make Spain (because I doubt Castille+France will have much of a problem with Aragon, even with its Mediterranean possessions) the worldwide superpower; it can make England take France and become the worldwide superpower, as it is less important inside Castille than it was when it was independent; for the same reasons, it can make Burgundy the European superpower. This is bad. Maybe it will weaken everyone from continuous fighting, and give me a chance at sneaking into a few Caribbean islands or South Africa, but I don’t count on it.
In December 1450, I completed Government 9. I could have researched it earlier, but I was slow to change to full Government research: it is a period with steady, though not dramatic, increase in shock modifiers, and I gave a bit too much focus to Trade. My income changed a lot, too. I could have ended Gov 9 on January 1st with better planning, or even before the early penalty is lifted, as ideas are more valuable than a few investment ducats. I should print the complete list of average tech dates, I had it at some point, but it’s apparently... somewhere, the same somewhere as my cell phone probably. Actually, I just did.
First, there is generally no interest in researching several fields at once, or even mixing Stability with research. If every investment goes to one tech, it will be discovered earlier, and then you can use that bonus to better reach the other tech. Especially obvious with Stability, Production (especially Production 9), Trade, and the Government levels that give new NI, but being stronger in a war can have economic effects, as you need less troops, or less maintenance. But one thing is sure: unless there is nothing better to do, there is no interest in researching techs that don’t give anything, like many Gov levels that give either nothing, or some random bad government type.
Also, never trust those who say that games are not played with a calculator. At least a few basic calculations are necessary for research strategy in EU3. The early research penalty only changes the amount necessary to complete research, not the investments themselves, so basically there is no penalty for researching too early, just for finishing too early. And that’s when I break the rule I stated earlier: when fully investing anywhere would make me pay too much for techs, I spend everything approximately equally, until, with the help of my calculator, I can determine that full investment would make me finish shortly after the right date. The trick is to time
Another important thing is not to research everything fully most of the time. In this game, I don’t really care about Production (except level 9), so I didn’t research it, except when I was going to be early for other techs. This way, I have a high neighbour bonus, and +15 bonus is like a free level 5 advisor. My investments in Production would probably have given me maybe one level at this point, but I was only behind Holland by two. It is another reason not to frenetically research uninteresting Government tech levels, as other people will discover them (Gov is THE priority of the AI, even in a game with none other than Holland, I had trouble following early on), and thus grant you a neighbour bonus, which will greatly help when catching up for the National Idea-granting levels.
In this game, I have a mix between a naval and a ground power to control and my income is derived from international trade. Therefore, I need to lead in Trade, Land and Naval, in that order. Obviously, I need the useful Government techs for NI, but being a bit behind will give me a neighbour bonus, which, as stated, is basically free money. I just have to estimate the moment I need to start researching, with my income and the cost of each tech level in mind, and I should have all those juicy ideas at the same moment everybody gets them.
Oh, and basically, this was my introduction to say I chose Military Drill, but I drifted off course... I guess I’ll talk in depth about my national idea strategy at Gov 11... Military Drill because apparently, I spend more time at war that at peace, because early on, it is a major boost, and is more effective for small countries than National Conscripts, and because my opponents (IIRC, Bohemia, Lithuania and Sweden, at least...) already have it, and I have had more difficult results than expected at times. I already am a trading power, so I don’t have a dire need for Shrewd Merchant Practice, but it will eventually be on the list (possibly 11, otherwise 17).
So, I was peacefully rebuilding. I didn’t have much manpower left after the war, and decided to let it grow a bit before attacking Holstein, which was now only allied with Mecklenburg, and guaranteed by Austria and Hesse. Basically, I just have to walk by, and it’s over. But, before I could get full MP...
Of course. Novgorod is alliance leader, and I obviously am not, so I can’t snatch Lithuanian provinces. I only want to help Finland. The war shouldn’t be too demanding, because apparently, no one seems to want to fight right now.
Why Muscowy declared war in the first place seems strange, but anyway. I decide to send one of my armies to Lithuania (with Gevert), and the other is tasked to take Novgorod. I assign Vick, my worthless Statthalter, to the Northern army, which is a low priority. First, I start sieges in Riga, Livland and Kurland with Gevert, with 5k in Riga, 3k in the others, so I can have all my force in the same place quickly. The sieges are very successful, which is not surprising, as Lithuania has high Offensiveness from the start. Then, I send Vick to Ingermanland, and from there, he should go to Novgorod. However, I see an enemy stack (1-8) heading for Olonets, from where it could attack the Finns in Kexholm, so I send Vick to help them with his 8k men (3k are busy with Ingermanland). The battle is a great success, probably because, as you can see, Vick was not leading:
During the battle, this happened, too:
Not much of a concern, as I only need Muscowy as a counter-weight against Lithuania, but if the Horde overwhelms Muscowy, it can also occupy that role effectively (though with less... friendliness). I still will help Moscow, but I won’t do anything that would cause any regiment to be destroyed, and I will not risk attrition in enemy territory. Stopping Muscovite collapse is sufficient for my purpose.
Shortly after, I take Riga. It only took 106 days. However, it made me see something horrible: a 17-3 stack with a +4 shock general heading for newly freed Riga, and a 3-7 stack with a +3 shock general going for Kurland. That can’t be good... I order a retreat in both areas, but I can’t avoid a severe defeat and the loss of 3000 men out of 8000. I send the survivors to Gotland. Lithuania doesn’t care for Livland apparently, though. It was taken on January 31, 1453, after the enemy doomstack went away to do... something important, I guess.
In the meantime, I had an election, and, very surpringly, poor Vick was not elected... I chose a diplomat (3-7-8), which immediately became a general... Erwin Pape von Hannover has +5 shock, and +5 manoeuvre, which will really help. Sadly, I don’t have my useless general in Novgorod anymore, so I assign him to a unit in Gotland, which is sent to Russia.
However, he wasn’t of much help against the rival republic, as Muscowy signs a white peace with Novgorod (after vassalizing Smolensk, because the AI is not always that dumb). I am still at war with Golden Horde, and even though I only have minor objectives, the enemy has about 41 thousand soldiers, and Muscowy is very weak. I don’t even have the time to send my army (one 8k stack with Gevert and a 6k one with Pape) to battle that I see this pop up:
White peace? That’s great! But... what’s that shield doing down there? Does not sound good...
Well of course. Don’t ask me why Lithuania could do so without breaking truce, as it was at war with Moscow only months ago, and, as this screen shows, they haven’t lost any stability:
You’ll also notice they have lost their high war exhaustion, but that probably has to do with the Liberum Veto decision, which is quite a gamble on their part. I didn’t check if they actually took it, though, but I don’t see how they could burn over ten WE in a few months.
I had a similar plan as the last time on the Baltic coastline, namely to start a few sieges (Riga with general, Ösel, Kurland, Estland, Livland). However, I sent more troops there, as those are the provinces I want, and I need sieges. I send Pape there, with the 6k men he already has, and the 7 regiments waiting in Gotland. Meanwhile, Gevert (with a 4-5 army) will help Muscowy defend itself, with the intent of a) stopping Lithuanian expansion, and b) distracting most of the very large (55k) Lithuanian army while I snatch Riga and others.
Remember that Riga, Kurland and all the other Baltic HRE provinces will become cores when I get them, as they belong to a non-member country, so I get higher census tax and no BB penalty for them. I also want them to join my league, and maybe release a few countries if possible. The priority is Riga, though. A base tax 7 free core is always good news.
My first action of the war is the battle of Vyazma, the capital of Smolensk (as Smolensk itself is in Lithuania). I have much less troops than they did, but Gevert, being a good general, inflicts twice as much losses on their side, and wins. It is followed by a pursuit in Bryansk, but I have to order a retreat into Vyazma because of bad terrain. There, I meet a decent Russian force, which soon goes to fight a small stack in Tula. I react slowly, and eventually help them, but what once was a small enemy corps is now a large stack. Large here means 18k. I leave for Moscow itself, after inflicting a good amount of WE on Lithuania. I am still doomed in my ally’s capital, though, as the large stack follows me. I break the line as soon as possible, before the Russians that also followed me does, and go to Vladimir while they move for Tver, to be destroyed. My weakened army, now only 2200 soldiers strong for 9 regiments, goes into Novgorod (I have a truce!), and from there to Polotsk. Happily, I have enough MP to cure this wound. Polotsk is not one of my provinces, but it provides me with 100% recovery, and is located next to Vilna, so I can opportunistically start a siege from there, or be in position to help other troops attempting the same thing, while quickly reinforcing.
The Russian campaign was not much of a success (though I got 8% tradition from it), but after its end in December 1453, I start to see results in the Baltic sieges. Riga falls on Christmas Eve, and I send Pape to take care of a few Lithuanian cavalry regiments laying siege in Ostpreussen, destroying on his way an infantry regiment in Samogitia. A few unilateral skirmishes follow. Kurland falls in February, Estland and Ösel, in March, and I start sieges in Memel and Wenden. Nothing important happens for a while.
In June, some action once again. There is a Brandenburgian stack in Danzig, and I send Pape to destroy it. During his absence, some Lithuanians come for Ostpreussen, and are sent back to Samogitia, with the help of my siege force in Memel. Pape starts the siege of Trakai. I see a small stack (o-2) in Vilna, and decide to annihilate it with Gevert and my troops in Wenden. It doesn’t work as planned, but I don’t suffer much attrition somehow, so I start a siege of the enemy capital anyway. Soon after, I see (with the help of Russia, probably, as it doesn’t border any of my own troops) a 13-7 stack in Mogilyov heading West, and I monitor it. From Minsk, it goes for Trakai, so I send Pape back to Memel; the stack then goes for Memel (and I escape in Ostpreussen), and then, Ostpreussen (I send Pape on my transports). Then, the enemy’s main army seems to go toward Vilna, and I send Pape to help (since they have goldfish-like memories and don’t remember he was #1 target right before, but anyway). On his way, he destroys 2 regiments, and reaches the battlefield in time to have an effect, but, ultimately, even with a nearly equal loss ratio (and, at the beginning, advantageous), I can’t win, and I leave for Polotsk on September 5, 1454, losing 5 prestige and gaining 2.50 exhaustion. My exhaustion was quite high, and my manpower reserves were too depleted to reinforce my army enough for an expectable victory, so...
During the several consecutive wars, Gelre left my league after the end of our truce. Probably the case with Cleves too, but I haven’t any notes to that effect (and the screenshot I took at the end of the session is not of much help, for reasons that will become apparent). And anyway, Cleves is not a very interesting vassal, or even league member. I decided to go to war with Gelre to at least force it back into my league, and, possibly, make it a vassal in 5 years (it has a good base tax, after all). I still have some BB to burn, so now is not the time... yet.
The landing in Gelre and the battles against Cologne and Brunswick were easy victories, even for my weary army (9k in 13 regiments). I set siege forces everywhere but in Köln, as Hesse used the occasion to declare war on the archbishop for the Reconquest of Westfalen, and had already started a siege. I take Brunswick in June, Gelre falls in September, but I can’t take Westfalen because it was given to Hesse in a peace settlement, so I go for Köln before the garrison is back full, and assault. These are the peace treaties:
Brunswick still has its alliance with Gelre, so I only have to declare war on one to get both. I also had to kill a few rebels with Gevert’s army in Denmark because of my high exhaustion from the last wars in Lithuania, if that interests someone... I succeeded at making a full sentence with two words in my notes (Denmark: Rebels), which is always fun. As far as I can remember, I mentioned every rebellion I have had so far, so this won’t be the exception. When I convert to Reformed (or Protestant, we’ll see), after I get into Religious Turmoil, I probably will forget all of them, and won’t mention that “A wild PEASANT appeared!” in Gotland... Time to prepare for Holstein, so I have to regain MP, reinforce (my army is at two thirds of its capacity), and let BB go away. I built a new cog to in order to have more asymmetric transport-capable armies, and one or two more warships... I also hired a diplomat by spamming the Festival cultural decision, hoping it would be a level 2 advisor... Which it obviously wasn’t. Too bad. As I said, I won’t waste money for the other decisions, and I don’t need magistrates right now, so it was basically free. I won’t do this in Divine Wind obviously, I don’t know about you, but I like a new workshop more than +5% cultural tradition... Unless I really don’t know how to spend a magistrate, which probably won’t happen that often.
I was well on my way to full manpower, but then Novgorod decided that checking alliances was too difficult, and decided to wage war against Finland, forgetting that it would be protected by Sweden, Norway, and me. Stupid AI. As you might have guess, I don’t give squat about this completely counter-productive war that will serve little other purpose than to waste some time burning off badboy... Getting some compensations would be fun... What a strong, powerful, patriotically binding objective for my passionate soldiers to fight about! I didn’t even send my two armies there, only Pape, with 6-7.
I won’t go much into the details, as I still have a lot to write about, and only a few lines of notes for this war, but basically... I crushed Novgorod’s army at several occasions, leading to their having none at all in September 1458, which allowed me to leave only 6 regiments for the siege of Novgorod, and send the rest to Denmark, in preparation of the war for Holstein. Then I let my allies occupy a few provinces, including Neva, where the enemy fleet was stationed, which allowed me to capture one galley. To give you an aperçu of the margin by which I won, I have these, in chronological order:
In June 1459, the garrison of Novgorod surrenders, and I sign this very harsh peace settlement:
Concede defeat? No one gets back up from that! (Actually, they technically don’t seem to have recovered from their forced conversion decades ago, but anyway...) I let some time go to get full manpower (you never know...), and I attack Holstein.
My plan is to send Pape, with the Army of the Baltic, on Slesvig, destroying the enemy there, while Gevert attacks Mecklenburg. 5k soldiers will go to Holstein and start a siege. After, some soldiers from the Army of the Baltic will attack Brunswick, now an OPM because of a war with Hesse. Easy. Obviously, as always, Sweden decided that originality was unimportant, and declared war on Finland within days. Its allies joined. Those allies are Bohemia, and Pommerania, which was freed a few years ago from Poland after some obviously horrible decision to attack a HRE member... Great idea, Poland. That’ll help you to take your cores back from Bohemia, clearly, no question there. Bohemia is a dangerous foe, but taking Vorpommern from Pommerania would be good, if practical from a BB point of view (it’s in the Empire, and I don’t have a core). Also, Sweden should join my league, and maybe Bohemia, too.
For my sieges, I leave 1-1 in Meclenburg and Holstein, and 1-2 in Slesvig. Pape (2-5) will attack Stockholm, Gevert will take care of Brunswick with 2-3, and then go help the 1-2 force in Vorpommern. However, before Pape could achieve this objective, he dies, and is replaced by a less militaristic diplomat (3-7-4). I hire a general, which probably is some kind of relative of Wenzel Gevert: he is named Niklas Gevert, and is better than is brother/cousin/father/whatever, with shock +6 and and manoeuvre +4.
The war with Pommerania and Bohemia starts with bad news: Danzig is taken on March 24, 1460, by Pommerania through assault, though most of the infantry was Bohemian, and Ostpreussen is under siege. However, I myself take Slesvig in a record 80 days on April 15. My army there leaves for Lübeck, where I assign it to Niklas Gevert, and then goes to Mecklenburg, to defend against a very obvious move from Pommerania on the besieged province. As predicted, the counter-attack happens, and I am victor, easily, even though I was outnumbered by 2k men. I launch a small attack of my own into Hinterpommern. It starts well, but Bohemia decided to join the battle with 8k men, costing me nearly a thousand avoidable deaths. However, the pursuit is only partial, and easily pushed back. It started a relatively quiet period in the area. During that time, I started sieges in Stockholm and Hälsingland, and ended those of Brunswick, Holstein and Mecklenburg. Obviously Holstein was annexed, giving me a core on it, and the mission to bring Sweden into my league (didn’t I see that one before?). Brunswick had to cancel all its treaties and join my league. As for Mecklenburg:
Well, I guess there is no need for minting now...
In September, the real counter-attack on Vorpommern started. It was 14 000 men strong, which, against 6 regiments, even before I could have the help of my forces from Brunswick and Mecklenburg. (I lied for simplicity’s sake, the siege ended a few days after Vorpommern... It was true... from a certain point of view.) Happily, I was able to give 3 times more than I received in that battle, and it didn’t hurt my siege (0%), but it still isn’t good for manpower. The next month, I try myself at a quick counter-attack, but it was too early, and I lose many soldiers. I’ll have to wait a bit...
At least, the war up North is going well. I took Hälsingland and Stockholm, and my fleet destroyed theirs completely. I had just researched Naval 9 (well... discovered through my several decision boni, actually, as I’m researching Production 9, because I was slow with it), so I split up my fleet to blockade everything. I started a siege in Bergslagen after an attack on a regiment there. Also, there was a war going on between Norway and Sweden, which included Aragon, England and Brittany. Poor Sweden.
Back to Pommerania. For some reason, I didn’t notice that the Pommeranian fleet was not in Vorpommern, but in Hinterpommern, so my token galley there was attacked by four on the other side. They were destroyed by my 18 others. I started a new, more effective offensive, with better planning: first, I start a siege in Vorpommern, and then, I use an aggressive defence force in Hinterpommern to wait for opponents, and effectively pursue them, instead of simply. Niklas is sent with the more aggressive stack, while Wenzel should help the siege with his siege bonus. This strategy was effective, and here is the proof:
However, in October, I lost an important battle against Otokar Trutnov, the best Bohemian general with +5 shock, but no pursuit occurred. When it had recovered, Niklas Gevert’s army went back to Hinterpommern, destroying a Pommeranian force there, before Vorpommern fell in December 1461.
I then adopted a more aggressive stance by starting sieges in Hinterpommern and Danzig while also having an advanced army of 9 regiments in Kalisz, led by Niklas Gevert. It didn’t work well: the next month, Bohemia sent a stack of 20 000 soldiers under Trutnov to Kalisz, and pushed me back out of Danzig too, and I decided to retreat in Vorpommern to recover my heavy losses (9k over the two battles). To avoid being caught off guard there, and to get back the warscore, tax and manpower of Danzig, I signed peace with Pommerania on May 30, 1462. Yes, I was slow on this: I hesitated because it could lead to Bohemia taking Danzig instead. After the peace treaty, the warscore was in my favour by 1%, as I had lost control over Stockholm and Hälsingland.
After some time of reinforcing my armies, I sent them to Sweden (which had peace out with Norway for the Kola peninsula) in order to throw their army out of besieged Hälsingland and Skane. The battle in Hälsingland wasn’t going well, and on December 30, after victory in Skane, I checked to see if it would accept an offer to join my league. After all, their WE was above 15... Mine was actually at 19, but they forgot that, apparently...
Great!
It’s pretty much the end of the action part of this report. I killed some rebels in Vorpommern and Holstein. I reached Production 9, and started workshops everywhere (thank you, Mecklenburg!). That’s pretty much it...
Europe saw a few changes during this period, the most important of which is, obviously the fact that CASTILLE INHERITED FRANCE, as mentioned. I repeat: CASTILLE HAS INHERITED FRANCE. It is also winning a war against England right now. Closer to me, Hesse is becoming somewhat powerful: it got Westfalen and Brunswick with Reconquest, and annexed Cleves for the fun of it. In the war between Muscowy and Lithuania I left, Lithuania gained provinces from Moscow’s influence, and annexed Smolensk. Friesland has annexed Utrecht, which means that only two nations have provinces necessary to form the Netherlands, my vassal, and Friesland. Hungary was annexed by Bohemia, which also got Neumark from Brandenburg: Meissen attacked the Margraviate during the that war, but... it was a bad idea, to say the least. Poor, stupid Meissen. Also, Finland, my faithful ally, is now in a union with Lithuania, one of my most hostile enemies.
On the trade front, many people are acting in a characteristically stupid manner by creating worthless CoTs. I don’t remember those I already mentioned, but anyway... First, Burgundy. It starts with a top 5 CoT in Antwerpen, but they created one in Artois, and another in Breda. They are both slowly stagnating, apart from the “slowly” part. Venice created a half decent one in Crete, but it should go downward now, with the new Ottoman CoT in Edirne. Hesse left my league to create Westfalen, which started with a value under 30, and is now at 50. There is also Al-Djazair and Worms, which were a very peculiar way for such minors with tight budgets to spend their money: you’d think Algiers would like more cavalry, but apparently, it is not the case. The only useful ones so far are Edirne (which probably draws a bit from still unknown Astrakhan) and Barcelona, with level 3 and 4 respectively. Altogether, the stagnating, level 0 or 1 CoTs are worth 1000 ducats. I trade in the cheapest ones with relatively good value and very high merchant chance, like Lisboa and Île-de-France, but the total value of those in which I don’t trade in is worth 600 ducats. If it was distributed otherwise, I would have probably nearly 20% more trade revenue. It so reduces the value of the “real” CoTs that I have two under 500 greens, and my lowest yellow is Alexandria at 271.5. I send merchants to a few other decent ones when they the chances are favourable, but otherwise, I want them to stagnate, and do all I can to get trade rights near useless CoT to decrease their value, especially with nearby ones like Worms and . This comes even before getting back my grain trade rights from Lithuania, now worth over a full CoT level, which is not a probable prospect in the nearby future. This is what the trade map looks like:
I played a few more days, though, until the autosave, and gained Sjaelland and Jylland as cores. Great!
Next update probably tomorrow, otherwise, Tuesday. Once again, long update... phew! The next one should be shorter.
