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Aaaw... That kind of sucks. But hey, a free core is a free core. :D

A possible free core. Damn random inheritance!

Hmm, is Austria making any threatening moves? They could be a major problem in the not-so-distant future.

Not yet, Austria and Transylvania are BFFs it would seem to anyone - both respond to every call to arms from the other and send armies across the border to go rebel whacking in their allies territory.

Austria is no longer your friend. :mad:

:(
Maybe just a little longer? :p

If Austria holds the European side in a grip
That's why you have a navy...:D
So Asia awaits

Well, we are on Easterly Winds after all haha
 
I'm going to run counter to everyone else and recommend you marry an Austrian every chance you get, aiming for a hopefully inevitable inheritance.
 
I'm going to run counter to everyone else and recommend you marry an Austrian every chance you get, aiming for a hopefully inevitable inheritance.

Yea I do, then they claim thrones and drop my relations which I have little cash to spare to bring back up (60g bribes! Ack). Buggers.

--

Oh, and I may have a corrupted savegame or some other issue with my EU3 game, since it keeps crashing the day after I load any of my saves. This is like...100 years ahead of where I'm writing though so hopefully I'll be able to fix it. If not I'll still plod on with the AAR since I have the plot all worked out anyways.

edit: Nvm was just that silly colonial building bug, everythings back in order now :)
 
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Phew... Before I read the last part, I was afraid that this AAR was dead.
 
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This Chapter’s Mood Music

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State of the World, 1527
(I had a map cache bug earlier, which is why France has somehow colonized South America)​


Christendom was being torn apart from within. Protestant and Calvinist factions had taken hold of a number of European states and were forcing their adaptation of Christianity among the populace, and nowhere did this happen more ferverently than in Northern Germany, where Protestanism spread like a plague across the German lands. Even Transylvania did not escape the spread of these heretic religions, and they began taking hold in some of the Empire’s westernmost provinces. The Pope was furious with anyone and everyone, and even Transylvania’s announcement of their annexation of the Muslim state of Ramazan did not quell the Pope’s rage, and on the 30th of September, 1530, cardinals in the pocket of the Kingdom of Castille arranged for the excommunication of Emperor Leopold.

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Emperor Leopold is excommunicated by the Holy Father, September, 1530

Leopold was not really concerned however. Though he hardly paid attention to the military of the empire, he knew it was sufficient to guard against any foe that should dare to cross Transylvania. No, Leopold took the excommunication as a chance to pass a number of religious reforms in Transylvania that would allay the fears of the growing number of the populace had that Catholicism was corrupted by greed and preached false doctrines. In an attempt to curb the appeal of the newly risen branches of Christianity, Leopold passed the Statute in Restraint of Appeals in November, and issued a law requiring churches to pay taxes to the state shortly afterwards. While it was an entirely unpopular set of reforms in the eyes of the clergy, the general population of Transylvania was more than satisfied with their new emperor’s conduct, and the spread of heretic religions slowed noticeably. This was helped again as Emperor Leopold adopted the policy of the Counter-Reformation in October of 1532.

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It was during this time that Transylvania saw a massive growth in their economy, thanks in no small part to Leopold’s brilliant administrative abilities. Grain depots, land reforms, population census’, all were pressed forward with ease, and Transylvania even managed to formalize a standard scale of weights and measures to assist with trade and business. It was also one of the most peaceful times Transylvania had seen as well, as while Europe tore itself apart in religious wars and bloody conquests, Transylvania sat comfortably, their avenue into Europe guarded by the Austrians, and the Muslim nations cowering away from them in the East. The Austrians were quite a bit busier, and on October 20th of 1533, after 3 years of bloody war with the Kingdom of Lithuania, they signed the Treaty of Bessarabia, which saw Lithuania cede a fair portion of their Polish holdings to the Habsburg kingdom.

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The Result of the Treaty of Bessarabia, October, 1533

Lithuania was in desperate need of allies, and they knew it. The Austrians carved out their territory in the West, and Scandinavia in the North. And so King Jogaila approached his cousin Leopold and they talked for hours about forming the alliance. Leopold had one condition that must be completed before he would ally with Lithuania, and that was for King Jogaila to arranged the excommunication of Leopold removed, which was done in July of 1534, and the alliance soon followed.

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Austria’s enemies were fortifying themselves against the Habsburg dynasty’s ambitions. The Luthuanians had secured the alliance of one of Europe’s major powers, but the Italians went a different route, unifying their country under a single banner, and on August 1st of 1535 the Kingdom of Italy was founded by the Neapolitans. While in Transylvania, the Croatian people gained shelter from Austrian ambitions by agreeing to assimilation within the Transylvanian Empire in 1537.

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The Kingdom of Italy is formed, August 1st, 1535

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Croatia is annexed by the Empire, December 31st, 1537

The next five years simply droned on with little of note. In the west, Austria bled the Bavarians dry and cut deeper into the German lands, and Utrecht expanded eastwards, away from the other Dutch cultured provinces. Finally, in 1543, after numerous petitions by ranking military staff, Leopold agreed to pursue war against the Muslim nation of Persia, who had been raiding trading caravans that were leaving the Kingdom of Georgia. Once again the armies of Christendom would meet those of Allah.

The Transylvanian and Georgian armies advanced quickly, shattering the forward guard of the Persians and driving deep into unmapped territory. The going was slow as the Transylvanian armies lacked proper maps of the area, but eventually they found their way, and on October 21st of 1544 the joint Transylvanian-Georgian army met the main Persian force in Qarabagh and smashed it to pieces. The Persians, used to fighting against other Muslim nations, were completely unprepared for the iron discipline and unwavering morale of the Transylvanian soldiers, and so the Transylvanians destroyed them, inflicting over 8,000 casualties while taking barely a thousand themselves. The Persian force retreated in inglorious defeat, and was pursued by the Christian armies with glee.

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I. The Battle of Qarabagh, October 21st, 1544

The Persians did not take defeat lightly however, and the rest of their armies from their eastern lands made their way to the border region. Garrisons were stripped completely as the full might of Persia marched to defeat the armies that Transylvania threw against them, and the two sides met again in Azerbaijan; 40,000 Persian soldiers pitted against 30,000 Transylvanian. The battle was fought for two full days and at the end the field was littered with Persian dead. Of the 40,000 men Persia had assembled, only half that managed to survive the blades, bullets, and cannons of Transylvania, while Transylvania lost barely 3,000 men in the fight.

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The Battle of Azerbaijan, December 27th, 1544

The survivors of Persia’s army retreated to Sharizhor, where they were trapped and destroyed by Transylvania’s veteran forces, and after that the Persians had no choice but to sue for peace. Though Leopold could have pursued the war, which was requested of him multiple times by senior military advisors, he had no stomach for prolonged warfare, and so the Persians were luckily presented with the Treaty of Armenia on June 3rd, 1545, which they promptly accepted.

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The Treaty of Armenia, June 3rd, 1545

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The Transylvanian Empire, 1545



I. Painting of the Battle of Lutzen in 1632 More information can be found here.
 
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I knew by the first sight that it was the death of Gustav II Adolph. :D

To clean Anatolia and Balkans?
Destroy the Austrian menace and save Lithuania?
 
An alliance with Lithuania looks like a clear means of preparing for war against Austria . . .

Is it coming soon?
 
I knew by the first sight that it was the death of Gustav II Adolph. :D

To clean Anatolia and Balkans?
Destroy the Austrian menace and save Lithuania?

Good catch!

And why not...both? :p

Truly I actually can't remember what I did next, I'll have to check my notes.

An alliance with Lithuania looks like a clear means of preparing for war against Austria . . .

Is it coming soon?

We shall have to wait and see!
 
Absolutely brilliant AAR! My hat is off to you.

How do you get an Excommunication lifted in game? Only way I know of is for the Pope to die.
 
Absolutely brilliant AAR! My hat is off to you.

How do you get an Excommunication lifted in game? Only way I know of is for the Pope to die.

Thank you very much :) And welcome!

The papal controller can lift an excommunication, so if you're excommunicated you should try and get your relations up with whoever controls the curia, and hopefully they'll lift it. Idk, was pretty random to me that Lithuania lifted it, so I figured I'd be nice to them as well :p
 
Absolutely brilliant AAR! My hat is off to you.

How do you get an Excommunication lifted in game? Only way I know of is for the Pope to die.

Pope's death doesn't lift excommunication, alas. There're only two ways: death of your ruler or lifting by the excommunicator.
 

The Austrians were busy again. It seemed to Emperor Leopold that the Habsburgs never tired of war, and shortly after their fight with the Lithuanians, the armies of Austria turned again upon the Bohemians, hoping to cripple their sole rival for the crown of the Holy Roman Empire. The results of the war were predictable, however the treaty was not. Instead of taking their bite out of Bohemia and letting them recover a bit, the Austrian king must have grown annoyed with fighting Bohemia constantly, and so instead decided to have a feast, taking well over half of Bohemia’s lands, leaving them with just their capital and two other provinces. It was not a treaty that bode well with other European powers, and grumblings about Austria were very frequent – even in Transylvania (Austria is ‘dishonourable scum’).

Emperor Leopold did not shy away from fighting, he just lacked the willpower to see a brutal fight to the bitter end. If he needed to go to war, he would prefer it to be quick and decisive, and certainly not a burden to the common people. Very concerned with the common people Leopold was; at least his own. So, it’s not really a surprise when a very well known bishop from the cardinal came to him claiming to have been sent a vision from God himself, one that required the removal of Iraq from the maps of the world. Leopold was a good Christian, and knew that listening to the man could bring Transylvania back into the good will of the Pope after his excommunication, and so Emperor Leopold obliged the vision, however silly he saw it as, and on June 27th of 1547 shortly after the Army de Stiboricz had stormed the walls of Baghdad, Iraq was officially annexed into the Transylvania Empire.

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Iraq is annexed by the Transylvanian Empire, June 27th, 1547

The Mamluks had joined in the war as well, to help defend their fellow Muslim neighbor, and they were punished severely for it. Though Leopold had simply wanted them white peaced away, the commanders of the Army de Stiboricz and Mihály had simply set their men to rampage across the Mamluk lands until they were begging for peace, which of course Leopold finally caved and gave them.

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The Mamluks sign the Treaty of Baghdad, July 10th, 1547

Apparently this was not warning enough for the rest of the Muslim world, and on the 31st of July in 1547, the Jalayirids declared a Jihad against the Transylvanian Empire. Count Miklós Csáki simply laughed when he heard of it, and led the Army de Stiboricz to do the same as they did to Baghdad just months previously. The city fell easily enough; however, in the fighting Count Miklós was gravely wounded after having insisting he lead the assault as he always had. The Jalayirids were annexed on January 5th of 1458, and Count Miklós was sent on the first carriage back to the capital, barely clinging to life.

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The Jalayirids are annexed by the Transylvanian Empire, January 5th, 1458

Shortly thereafter, Scandinavia accepted an alliance proposal from Emperor Leopold, and shared with Leopold his information about the lands farther East. It seemed that the Scandinavians were carving a path through pagan and heathen nations, driving deeper into the unknown and taking chunks out of territory that had belonged to the scourge of Europe – the Mongol Empire. It was quite a delightful turn of events, and Leopold even sent a handful of soldiers to help, though it was merely a diplomatic gesture. There was more good news as well on the tail of this new alliance, as the province of Osijek became populated by a majority of Hungarian families, at least according to the census.

And then disaster struck Transylvania. Not one that would cripple the country, but the people’s hearts. On the same day, both Emperor Leopold and Count Miklós Csáki passed away from the mortal world, Count Miklós dying of his wounds from numerous battles fought for his King, Emperor, and Country, and Emperor Leopold dying of cancer, a disease which there was no known cure. They would both be buried within the Citadel of Tarten, an honour reserved only for Transylvania’s rulers and most noble of champions, and also the site where Count Miklós had earned his fame defending for three full days and nights against the full might of the rebel nobility’s army. Emperor Leopold had done one last thing before he had died, securing an alliance with another country, bringing about the Grand Alliance. For the first time in history, Eastern and Western Europe stood united, and the world trembled.

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I. The statue of Count Miklós Csáki outside the Citadel of Tarten, September 6, 1554

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The death of Emperor Leopold and the Coronation of Emperor Ferenc ‘Mudbrain’ Plater, September 6th, 1554

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II. Emperor Ferenc ‘Mudbrain’ Plater, September 6th, 1554

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I. Statue of Bertrand du Guesclin More information can be found here.
II. Portrait of King Henry VII of England More information can be found here.
 
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Age of true Empires.
Only one can stand victorious in the end.
Eastern Mediterranean is Transylvanian sphere of influence. :mad:
Sarmata is yours too!
The Madjars came via those plains!
 
Age of true Empires.
Only one can stand victorious in the end.
Eastern Mediterranean is Transylvanian sphere of influence. :mad:
Sarmata is yours too!
The Madjars came via those plains!

I think it's bad that I understood that completely, idk though.

Nice blobbing over there, huh?

Oh yeah. And it's the 4.1b patch so Castille always says 'Bugger the new world, there's still enemies left in the old one!'
 
Nice work. I have a feeling war with Austria is coming ever closer. :D