Though it seems the backbone of the French army in the south is broken, in the north there is still a substantial fighting force which continues to advance even as they continue to lose provinces in the south. France captures Vlaanderen while I continue the policy of striking at vulnerable smaller French contingents -- first wiping out 1,000 in Artois and then another 1,000 in Calais before returning to Artois. The newly reformed armies of Lorraine also start to move, marching in to Champagne to attack the small French garisson there and into Valenciennes to besiege the city. The French army in Vlaanderen sends a contingent north to Zeeland to try to prevent Holland from recapturing the province.
Despite constant patroling of the coast of France by Tuscan naval detachments, somehow the French navy has managed to cobble together a small force of 6 ships that appears in the Straits of Dover (possibly a remnant of the original fleet that may have been laying low in Scotland?). I send the Tuscan fleet to confront them and sink all 6, losing 1 ship in the process. The fleet then puts in at Holland for repairs.
In the south, Toulouse falls and the French army in Bearn is defeated and pursued to Girona where it is eventually completely destroyed. In addition, A rebellion that rose up in Gascogne and captured that province advances on Armagnac (
My intention is to allow as many rebellions to capture French provinces as possible in the hope that several independent nations will reappear, further weakening France over the long term). France attempts a last ditch attempt to turn back allied advances into Limousin (sending 2,000 troops from Blois) and Auvergne (3,000 from Bourbon) but Tuscan reinforcements are sent from Provence to Auvergne and from Bearn to Limousin to reinforce the front. Another French army moves into Bourgogne but I leave them alone for now, allowing them to waste time besieging the province while the rest of the southern front is consolidated...
Ulitmately, the attacking forces in Auvergne and Limousin are soundly defeated and the southern front is blown almost completely wide open. (
From this point on, I can continue to fight a holding action in the north while the armies in the south continue to roll forward capturing provinces with little further opposition).
To improve the prospects of our northern forces, 3,000 more mercenary troops were hired in Brabant at the beginning of June of 1542 and a joint attack from Artois and Brabant is launced against the Scottish army in Vlaanderen in August, wiping it out. The two forces then merge and move south to attempt the recapture of Calais. A large battle against the French forces there was eventually won, but with the loss of more than 2,500 men. Around this time, another pirate attack once again cripples trade income and I am forced to increase the minting of money once again to keep monthly losses manageable -- we are now fulling minting and inflation has ballooned to 20.5%.
France does succeed in recapturing Liege, which starts to rebuild it's army. It appears that France has abandon the south in order to consolidate it's forces in the north and continue to press the attack there. They also recapture Bourgogne, but hold if for less than a month as a refreshed Tuscan army subsequently moves in from Auvergne, destroys the French force and assaults the city, capturing it in only 1 day. This army from the south then moves through Othe (being newly besieged by Milanese and Genoese forces)to attack Vermandois. Pressure is now being brought to bear on the French armies on the eastern side of the northern front as Tuscan and allied troops from the south start to link up with those from the north on that end.
By December, 1542 Tuscany captures Bearn in the south and rebel armies have captured Armagnac and Armor (in Brittany). As I had hoped, more rebellions are breaking out in France, but the inablility to control our allied troops results in a Papal army attacking rebel-held Gascogne... I'm afraid it will be difficult for subject states to reform with my allied troops going out of their way to suppress rebel outbreaks on nearby French-held territory.
by March of 1543, the situation is as follows: 5,000 Savoy troops are attacking 2,000 French defenders in Blois, 2,500 Savoy troops are besieging Bourbon, 4,500 men from the Papal State are besieging Gascogne, 3,500 Tuscan troops are besieging Girona, 2,000 Savoy troops are in Auvergne, 6,000 Milanese & Genoese are besieging Othe, 2,000 men from Lorraine and Mantua are besiging Champagne, 2,500 from Lorraine and The Palatinate are besieging Valenciennes, 3,500 Tuscan troops are engaged in battle with 4,000 French in Vermandois (but with a further 9,000 Tuscan reserves en route from Artois, following remnants of a retreating French army) and 4,000 troops from Holland are besiging Zeeland with a further 1,000 men in Holland itself. On the French side, besides the defenders in Blois and Vermandois there are 1,000 men in Ile de France, 7,000 in Picardie, 1,500 in Hainaut, 8,500 men in Brabant under the personal command of Louis XIV and 1,000 troops from Liege in Liege.
Meanwhile, in Italy itself over the previous year another Ottoman army had finally made it's way into Italy, besiging and eventually capturing Apulia before then moving into Abbruzzi. All of Tuscany's forces are in France, so I am reliant on the Italian allies to fend off the Ottoman invaders -- Sicily does move an army into Apulia behind the advancing Ottoman forces to initiate a siege while an army from Modena takes on the Ottoman army itself in Abbruzzi. However, another Ottoman army then managed to make it's way into the peninsula from the north and began to besiege Pisa, but an army from Siena marched in to head them off. Unfortunately, the Swiss are no longer holding the passes in the Austrian alps, but by March of 1543 Swiss armies have taken the fight to the Empire itself and have been besieging Dalmatia!
Lucky for us, it appears that the Ottomans now have their own problems, as they are also at war with Poland and Bohemia, taking much of the pressure off of Tuscany in the east.
As 1543 progresses, Tuscany's first loan comes due but there is little choice but to extend it. Pirate raids continue like clockwork, consistently keeping trade income below 40% and thus requireing me to keep minting at maximum, just to maintain the (predominantly) mercenary army that is now in the field (
once manpower hit zero the only way to keep force-strength up was to continually hire mercenaries to keep parity with French forces in the north to prevent them from being able to overun those provinces and turn this into a one-front war, allowing them to then reinforce and consolidate resistance in the south). Provinces in south and central France continue to fall, Holland recaptures Zeeland and by the end of July, a large battle is shaping up as Tuscany finally launches an attack on the capitol...
The battle in Ile de France rages until September and Tuscany is eventually victorious, but again at too huge cost -- the battered army retreats back to Vermandois in the face of approaching French reinforcements and is pursued there where we soon lose the battle with further losses. These 2 large battles severely taxed the northern army and 8 mercenary units that had been driven to 0 manpower were disbanded. The French army in Brabant also launches another attack on Hollands forces in Zeeland, easily dislodges them, then assaults and recaptures the province. In October, we loose another battle in Artois which again is besiged but now further Tuscan and allied forces begin arrive from the south and in December a 5,000-strong Milanese army moves into Ile de France from Othe. This draws 7,000 French troops back to the capitol from Picardie to try to oust Milan, leaving only about 2,500 behind as a juicy target for the Tuscan army in Vermandois to launch an attack against...
The battle in Italy against the Ottoman armies continues... by early 1544 Sicily has recaptured Apulia but The Ottoman's succeeded in capturing Abbruzzi and then split their army to launch simultaneous attacks on Napoli and Rome. They are victorious against he small Papal State army, but thwarted by the Sicilian troops and retreat into Calabria. Troops from Siena subsequently moves south to try to lift the siege of Rome. In all there are about 5,500 Ottoman troops in Italy...
They eventually beat off the attack by Sienna and renew the siege of Rome.
Meanwhile, back in France, the Tuscan army succeeds in driving the French army out of Picardie while the French succeed in removing Milanese troops from Ile de France. Just to the south, Orleans falls to Savoy in March. France desperately sends most of it's troops from Zeeland south via Hainaut to Valenciennes to help vs. Tuscany but only succeed in opening up their small holding force in Zeeland to renewed attack by Holland. In May, Tuscany wins the battle in Vermandois while the French army led by Louis XIV trounces the combined armies of Lorraine and The Palatinate in Valenciennes and pursues them into Barrois (conveniently taking France's largest stack out of the immediate theatre of battle around Ile de France). French armies retreating from Vermandois move back north and eventually counterattack in Zeeland and push Holland back out. Holland retreats first to Vlaanderen and then to Hainaut when pursued by part of the French force while another contingent moves into Holland itself, seeking to capture the whole country. In July, Champaigne falls to Lorraine and in a lucky break for us, a large revolt occurs in Vlaanderen that destroyes the small French army still occupying the province...
In september, there is a renewed attack by 7,500 troops from Milan and Savoy on 2,000 French troops in Ile de France which results in the complete destruction of the French forces and in November, Vermandois is finally captured. Suddenly, in December we recieve this message...
The problem is, Corsica is allied to Bohemia and I don't want to distract Bohemia from it's current war with the Ottomans. On the other hand, I don't want to encourage Bohemia to send an army against Modena alone, so I regretfully agree to help Modena and recruit 2 more mercenary units in Pisa with the intention of quickly conquering Corsica and then trying to make peace with Bohemia.
And again, immediately thereafter, another severe pirate attack drops stability to 0. Grrrr!
Battle continues in France, Tuscan forces move into Vlaanderen and initiate a siege and an attack on Picardie is rebuffed when another request for aid appears...
Sorry Toulouse, not really in a position to Fight Castille (and Navarra and Portugal) at this time!
By Valentines day, 1445, the situation in france is well in hand, it's really only a matter of time now till the whole country is ours!
