WCFD Class of '02: Comfort Eagle & the Meck Daddy

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Mandatory Introduction

In the wonderful AAR “World Conquest for Dummies” Professor Ebbersen assigned homework to the class. That homework required taking over the world and posting your results. Unlike Mr. Ebbersen and many others who post here, World Conquest is quite difficult for me. Let’s me honest: I suck. However, that was the point of the class, and the AAR I suppose, to explain it so that even the mentally impaired (through natural or self-imposed beverages, I mean, self imposed causes) can do it.

If you have not read the WCFD AAR, please do so. It’s well worth it. You can find it

** HERE !! World Conquest for Dummies **

Further, this AAR of mine is rather a poor appendix to that AAR. I am doing my best to follow the lessons and conquer the world myself. Haven’t done it yet, generally if I’ve hit 80% of Europe or all the ROTW I’ve been content. So this is a first. Watch as I succeed or fail!

Finally, forgive me as I’m not really trying to be clever, funny, or insightful. This is for me, not for you. I hope that folks will point out my obvious strategic failings, and steer me onto the right course. I don’t have to make an “A” in the WCFD class, I just have to pass.

Which, not so finally seems, brings me to one last point. If you’ve read the WCFD AAR and participated, or not, feel free to post away. OT is fine so long as it somehow relates.

Now let’s bring the ugliness….

 

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Set Up

WCFD: Comfort Eagle - Enter the Meck Daddy

It was time to see what heagarty, the overwhelmed but dutiful football jock, learned from Professor Ebbersen. He would document his progress and submit it. Hopefully the professor would steer him in the right direction, and as an open-project, he was hopeful for peer review and comment.

His assignment was to pick a one-province German state, play Very Hard / Normal, not use any exploits and take over the world. He was allowed some diplo-annexations.

The first task: who to play? Heagarty strained his small little mind. So many German nations, but who to pick? He didn’t want to play a land-locked nation, so who does that leave? Prussia? Nope, two provinces. Pommern? Nope, two provinces. It had to be a one-province nation. So among those that qualified which one was the best?

It came to him in a spark - Mecklenburg. Or was it Mecklemburg? He’d go with the ‘n’ spelling for now. It was a one-province German nation, it had a port, and most importantly it had its own Center of Trade. And that had that cool cow on their flag. Or was it a Wlak? He had passed on Biology to take Rocks for Jocks, aka Geology.

Time to play.

How odd. Mecklenburg seems to fly a tri-color flag on the simulator screen for its armies and national maps. Yet when conducting diplomacy, making trades, receiving news, etc. the simulator uses that cow flag. Heagarty couldn’t make sense of this.

To hell with cows, the new national symbol of proud Mecklenburg would the Eagle, the same mascot as his football team. Oh yeah.

Religion: Only three known religions to the Mecklenburgers (MBs), and since just about all of Europe was Catholic he picked almost max tolerance for Catholicism. This would help his relations. The hell with the Orthodox and Muslims.

Budget: This was tricky. He intuitively wanted to invest in land tech, trade, and infrastructure, to reap long-term dividends later on. However, he had learned from the class that this was not always wise. Further, he had always been wary of inflation, but the professor suggested that it wasn’t the horrible burden he had thought. Thus all ducats went back into the royal treasury.

Policies: So much to do here. Eventually he might want to move a bit from land to sea policies, to get some explorers. But for now he would leave everything alone other than centralization. If he could strike a balance with between centralized/decentralized, that would suffice. He had heard smart people use that word, “suffice” and he liked it.

Trade: Luckily, the MBs started with Trade Level 1 technology and a CoT, so he would first try to dominate that market, then would move on trying to establish a strong presence in eastern markets, where his tech advantage should come into play and where he really didn’t care about upsetting the non-Catholic nations by stealing away all their trade.

Foreign Policy: The MBs start the game with a large alliance - Bremen, Holstein, Pommern, Prussia, and the Teutonic Knights. Prussia seemed to be a vassal of the TO. Early in the game all relations were neutral, though relations with Muslim and Orthodox nations began to dip steadily due to MB religious policies. Austria somehow became a close friend very early. Denmark, England, and Venice became disliked almost by everyone due to their early annexations of other lands.

Military Policy: First things first: Build the army then declare war. The MBs started with a reasonable army. They began to build cav units then looked around while the units were being built. There was some time to build as war could not be declared until they got a diplomat. Who to target? Magdeburg was a neighboring nation with no alliances. Perfect.

So the game began.

 

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First Progress Report - The Joys of Vassalization

First Progress Report - The Joys of Vassalization

Heagarty stepped up to the World Conquest for Dummies Simulator. He was unsure of himself, but unafraid. Here goes nothing.

Heagarty could not find the word “vassalization” in any dictionary, but it seemed like a word to him.

The first ten years of the game was spent placing merchants to dominate trade, building an army, then sending that army against unsuspecting German neighbors. At no time were members of the MB alliance (Were they the Hanseatic League? They had no team uniforms or logo, so if they were a team they were pretty loosely organized. Heagarty vowed to correct this later) brought into these conflicts.

One by one the neighbors fell: Magdeburg, then Hannover, then Oldenburg. Once conquered all were made vassal states and made to pay reparations. Why? Heagarty did not want to increase his bad boy ratings too much too early, so early in the game. If he maintained good relations, he could diplo-annex these nations later. Further, they gave him a screen from which to attack other nations through which they could not retaliate.

Before the subjugation of Oldenburg came the first problem - an alliance with Friesen, so more troops were built to try to vassalize two nations in one war. Then Geldre declared war. This still would not have been too difficult a task, however, Geldre brought their allies of France, Scotland, and various French minors. Though tempted, heagarty did not bring his allies into this conflict.

Taking the minor German states was not a problem, though Geldre did land troops by sea in the MB capital. The lowlanders were repelled but then the French and the Scots began to land in the capital. Time for some decisions.

Neither France nor Scotland accepted a white peace. Couldn’t hurt to ask.

Once Oldenburg fell, heagarty decided not to pursue Friesen - his troops were needed elsewhere. Oldenburg paid a fee and became yet another vassal. Friesen was out of the war.

But because he had only vassalized nations and not annexed any new territory, the occupation of Mecklenburg denied heagarty the opportunity to raise more troops. Since Geldre was being successfully besieged, the troops from Oldenburg returned to join the small force that had retreated from Mecklenburg into Magdeburg. After defeating the Scots and Geldre army, Scotland offered a white peace. Heagarty accepted.

With the capital clear, he began to build more troops, but a large French force landed driving away the defenders. When the newly built troops arrived, heagarty, knowing that their morale really sucked, retreated them to Magdeburg with the other survivors. Once moral was back to normal, the cav-heavy force would challenge the French. They did and they won. France asked for a nominal reparation, 25d or so, and heagarty paid it. Then he made short work of Geldre and it was added to the International House of Mecklenburgian Vassals (IHMV).

During this ten year time period, trade expanded and royal weddings were made with larger nations that seemed to be unpopular (Denmark, England, & Venice)

 

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Second Progress Report - Warfare and a Test of the Alliance

Second Progress Report - Warfare and a Test of the Alliance

In the second ten years of the game other prospective German targets protected themselves through alliance - Brandenburg teamed with Saxony and somehow must have allied with Magdeburg before the vassalization took place. Hessen and Munster had their own alliances, as did Friesen. The other nations were already MB allies.

But heagarty did not have to go looking for war, war found him. First a war began between Brandenburg and Pommern. By joining this war, heagarty found himself at war with his vassal, Magdeburg. Hmmmm - peace with Magdeburg would probably result in someone else just taking it, better to put it under his protective custody, heagarty thought. Thus, Magdeburg was annexed by Mecklenburg.

The MBs then went south against Saxony and after a few battles besieged Sachsen and Anhalt. The TO went to war against Pskov, and though there was little to contribute to that effort heagarty joined that war as well.

Saxony was also conquered, with Anhalt annexed, Saxony made a vassal, and some cash thrown in. Brandenburg and the Pommern had gone back and forth, but basically Pommern had the upper hand, constantly besieging Brandenburg, then retreating then re-launching their siege. How to get into Brandenburg without simply contributing to the Pommern conquest? Also, since accepting the Saxon surrender, the MBs were fighting their own war with Brandenburg, outside the Hanseatic Alliance. Some of the troops that had fought against Saxony marched east and besieged Kustrin.

The war against Pskov ended somehow. Obviously not too important. What was important was that Denmark invaded Holstein, and was joined by Sweden and Norway
The MBs of course joined the effort. It would have sucked to have Denmark annex the Hanseatic Alliance allies and potentially beat up on Mecklenburg itself.

More troops were built and those that had remained in the newly conquered Saxon territory went north to fight the Danes.

Long story short, the Danes annexed Holstein before the MBs could arrive. Then they annexed Bremen while the MBs were fighting the Danes in Holstein. Sweden opted out with a white peace after a failed attempt to take Mecklenburg. Oh yeah, and Poland, Lithuania and someone else went to war with Prussia.

War against Denmark went well. Eventually Holstein was taken and troops moved to Jutland and Bremen. These were taken, too but counter-strikes had to be made against a fresh invasion of Danes and Norwegians in Mecklenburg and Holstein.

The war against Poland and Lithuania seemed to be draining the other Hansa allies. Pommern had to abandon their efforts against Brandenburg. Heagarty conquered Kustrin, then moved to besiege the capital of Brandenburg. Eventually he accepted offers of white peace from the Polish alliance to concentrate on the Danes.

Once Jutland and Bremen were taken, the MBs rode to besiege the Danish capital. They were making great progress when the Danes offered cash, Holstein and Bremen for peace. Heagarty accepted then went to mop up Brandenburg. Soon it fell and Brandenburg joined the IHMV.

The war had been costly, but led to new territory being added to Mecklenburg. With the unfortunate passing of Holstein and Mecklenburg, new vacancies were made in the Hansa alliance, and heagarty used this opportunity to add Hannover, and eventually Oldenburg to the alliance. The eastern allies did poorly against Poland and Lithuania, with Prussia losing Memel, but that wasn’t much concern to heagarty.

Gifts were made to the members of the IHMV to improve relations and more royal marriages were made with the larger European powers first, then with the Hansa allies.

Now for an experiment: What would the professor think of this? Heagarty was doing well in his trade ventures. But if the members of the IHMV were paying him a healthy tribute, and if he needed their good will, why compete against them? He signed trade agreements with all his vassals, but not his allies. Novograd also offered a trade agreement, which heagarty pondered refusing but agreed to, since he already dominated most of the markets that Novograd was competing in. He needed guidance on trade strategy, but things seemed to be working well so far. He had dominated trade in Mecklenburg, Kurland, split with Novograd in Novograd, dominated Astrakhan, and was quite competitive in Veneto and Flandern. He had a presence in Alexandria and occasionally could slip into Tago, Liguria and Ile de France.

To close out the ten years, he continued his plan for IHMV expansion once Hessen left their alliance and soon brought them into the club as well.

Inflation was getting high, but heagarty continued to ignore it for now. He did decide to go ahead and begin building fortifications, before inflation made them too expensive, and soon better walls went up the MB coastal provinces.

 

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So that’s about 20 years. Mecklenburg has increased in size 400% and has vassalized 4 other nations of similar culture for future diplo-annexation. Seems like I’m off to an okay start. Am I on track?

I’ve actually played the first 100 years and am unsure of my progress. More to follow.

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

Faculty Progress Report #01

To the Honourable Members of the Faculty, one of your own bears witness!

Analysis
Despite the student's inability to spell my name (a flaw exhibited by many retarded students throughout the ages), he shows excellent progress. Having a strong initial economy he chooses to lie low and concentrate on vassal power....Until he is ready to reveal himself. While not as bold or succesful as a Wlak or a Dragon would be, he nevertheless would appear to be on track. He also shows excellent sense in signing trade agreements with his vassals to stop competition at an early stage, since the agreements will disappear overnight together with the vassals, when he finally begins diploannexing them. This shows the first signs of independent thought processes and ought, on the whole, to be considered a positive sign.

Conclusion
While not very impressive, the student remains well within the expectations of an Eagle-student, and as such, I recommend that he shall not be terminated prematurely unless we need the dorm space.

Ps. I must once again strongly object to the favouritism shown by certain honourable members of the faculty towards football jocks. I shall be following the escapades of this student very closely!

 

[Norgesvenn]

Well, as a non-conqueror, how would I know? But I laughed. Then I laughed some more. Good stuff, heagarty. Once more, I might add.

 

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Progress Report 1440's

Progress Report : 1440’s


Heagarty made his way back to the simulator. He had scored Stanley Cup tickets (for two games at least) and had been distracted from his studies. Hell, if the Carolina Hurricanes could make it to the Stanley Cup Finals, then perhaps he could pull something off as Mecklenburg? How inspirational! He toasted Erik Cole and drank another beer.

Now then, where was he? Oh yeah, the 1440’s.

He’d been successful with his trade policies and that was good. Trade meant more money, and having a CoT helped. But he’d need help maintaining his trade position. Thus, he changed his budget, now putting 75% of his resources back into the treasury, but directing 25% into Trade, hoping to get to Monopoly level before his peers.

On the euro-political front, Burgandy was rapidly expanding, having swallowed up Kleeves, Munster, and a number of other provinces. Knowing that Burgandy would eventually revert to Austrian control, heagarty hoped to take as much Burgandian territory as possible before that happened. All he needed was an opportunity.

Unfortunately, opportunity didn’t knock on Mecklenburg’s door, but rather kicked in the door of IHMV member Gelre. Burgandy, along with England, Aragon, and Navarra attacked the small, but contributing, partner in the Give-Mecklenburg-Your-Money Club.
Heagarty waited until it appeared that England was about to conquer and annex Gelre then took action. Since Burgandy had created numerous CBs by annexing several one-province states, Mecklenburg declared war with the intent on preserving their vassal-who-wasn’t-an-alliance-member.

Navarra opted out of the war and Aragon offered a white peace soon after which heagarty accepted. The other Hansa allies weren’t invited to participate - it was heagarty-time.

The MBs weren’t quick enough to save Gelre, but beat up Burgandy and took Munster and Kleeves. Lose a vassal, gain two provinces - it was a net gain in heagarty’s book. Though that book had lots of pictures and big type.

Later in the 1440’s Mecklenburg joined w/the Hansa alliance partners in a war against Poland and a boat-load of Polish allies. The nearest target for the MBs was Bohemia, but Bohemia and Hungary had beaten up Austria and maintained pretty large armies. Heagarty was unable to seize any Bohemian territory. However he did manage to ride in several times to save the day when Pommern was about to lose territory.

Ten more years down. So far, so good.

 

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Progress Report: 1450's

Progress Report: 1450’s

Heagarty remained at the simulator. He needed to make up for time spent doing non-classwork related stuff. What was her name? Damn, he wished sometimes he was not a campus football star but rather just an average everyday person who understood the basic principles of mathematics.

The war with the Polish alliance continued, but then England attacked Mecklenburg, with Burgandy, Aragon, and Navarra. Heagarty invited no allies to participate in this second war. Then Denmark attacked. Heagarty still invited no allies, but three wars were a bit much for a formerly one-province German minor.

“Know your strengths, and be strong enough to know your weaknesses,” spoke the Comfort Eagle, the mascot of the university football team. Heagarty blew this off as a post-party hallucination. Birds don’t talk.

MB was in no position to take any territory in the war with Poland, and he had two other enemy alliances to contend with. He offered Poland a white peace, then concentrated on the other enemies.

Then the alliance of Bavaria and Sweden attacked. This was getting silly. For this, the MBs might need some help. The Hansa allies were called upon and every single one refused. Heagarty was able to invite each of them back into the alliance, but he failed to re-invite the Teutonic Order. Let them handle Poland on their own. Bastards. Unfortunately Pommern couldn’t join the alliance, as Bohemia vassalized them before the war with Poland was over.

By rejoining the alliance, the Hansa partners also declared war on the three enemies of MB, but contributed little to the effort. But heagarty needed little help. England was defeated in several battles and Gelre was captured. England made peace giving MB 152d, which heagarty took since he couldn’t get to a second English province.

The threat from Bavaria also disappeared. Did they get annexed by Austria? Seems like it, but heagarty’s attention was elsewhere. He beat up the Danes and accepted Jyland and Skane as part of the Danish surrender.

Thus, by 1460, Mecklenburg had grown to 9 provinces and 5 vassals. Or was it 6? No, it was probably 5.

 

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Progress Report: 1460's

Progress Report: 1460’s

With the war with Bavaria and Sweden ending anti-climatically, it was time to take stock of the situation. Mecklenburg now had an extremely bad reputation. Playing at the Very Hard Level, this could present some problems. Time to drop back a little bit and let the hostility cool down.

Heagarty had tried to help avoid BB wars by engaging in several royal marriages and occasionally giving gifts to key nations. But he thought that everyone did this, so he hadn’t been documenting it. After all, Professor Ebsen knew that was elementary and documenting this tedious task would certainly earn no points. He scratched at the stitches in his neck. This was a tough class.

During this cooling off period, MB succeeded in dominating trade in most every known market. Investments in trade research were also given a bit more attention

Heagarty built up the army. He would need it again, soon.

Special attention was given to the IHMV, and gifts were given to them all, moving them closer to diplo-annexation, or at least moving them further from breaking the vassalization.

No real CBs or opportunities to take advantage of at this point, and with the MB reputation slow to regenerate, this probably wasn’t a bad thing.

The MB alliance expired, but it was renewed with Oldenburg, Hannover and Hessen. The vassals of Saxony and Brandenburg still could not join because their alliance kept renewing due to constant warfare.

All in all a quiet 10 years.

 

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1470's

Progress Report: 1470’s

Until now most changes of domestic policy were to balance Centralization/Decentralization and Innovativeness / Narrow-mindedness. Now heagarty thought it was time to consider more naval-friendly policies. If he could get a couple of explorers or conquistadors he could begin some overseas expansion while his BB rankings recovered.

He was in a frustrating situation. Around him he was surrounded by nations that were either vassals belonging to a different alliance, enemy nations that belonged to the same alliance as a number of IHMV members, or nations belonging to a super-alliance.

Further, there were not any CBs he could take advantage of. He considered a daring raid into Iberia, but his navy couldn’t get half way there without starting to take attrition losses. Damn.

Austria inherited Burgandy according to schedule.

Heagarty strained his small brain. What could he do? Maybe guaranteeing the independence of his non-allied vassals Saxony and Brandenburg would afford him some opportunities, or at least buy him an easy ticket into a local war. He looked over at the image of the Comfort Eagle, his spirit guide and football team mascot.

“Pussy,” the steely-eyed mascot seemed to say.

Heagarty was ashamed. At least his reputation was now only Very Bad and not Extremely Bad.

For lack of a better idea he diplo-annexed Oldenburg. Frustrated at this progress, he left the simulator, heading for the pub.

 

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1480's

Progress Report: 1480’s

Heagarty remembered some professor at some point saying something about “patience being a virtue”. If that were true, he thought, that’s why no anemic, scrawny professor had set the conference record for scoring two years in a row.

This was the kind of thinking that tended to get heagarty in trouble, and on more than one occasion helped spur the creative process to inspire a number of self-composed blues songs, such as “Stuck in jail with nothing in my pockets but forty-five cents, a concert ticket stub, and this stupid harmonica Blues” and “She said she was Twenty-One, Officer”.

Just like those unhappy times in his short, charmed, life, heagarty was starting to see things in the world-conquest simulator slip from where he wanted them. He was starting to lose his enviable market positions around Europe and saw few opportunities for expansion.

He adopted more exploration friendly policies, chugged a beer, said “Eff it!” and declared war on Austria, not inviting the not-really-Hansa-anymore allies.

Modena and the Palatinat joined Austria in the war. Then Wurzburg joined their alliance and jumped in. Heagarty polished off the Palatinat as if it were a plate of All-You-Can-Eat-Chicken-Wings and demanded cash and vassalization from them, which they gave up. They were weak.

Heagarty kept fighting with Austria, and took several territories, but settled for Flandern and Koln in the peace settlement.

That was much more fun, heagarty thought. Yes, he was not well liked throughout Europe, but he remembered another professor saying something like “Let them hate, so long as they fear”. Or was that a coach who said that? Niccolo somebody, he thought. Oh well, thinking hurt, where was his beer?

Turning back to the simulator, it appeared Austria was getting into war with everyone as the 1480’s progressed. The Palatinat fell to one of these enemies and was annexed. Dammit! Just like Gelre, heagarty thought. There had to be a better way to do this.

Should he declare war on the annexing nation? No, they were allied with this vassals Saxony and Brandenburg, who were STILL in their original alliance. Dammit!

Well, if everyone else was at war with Austria, and it was a free for all, heagarty figured he should get into the scrum before everything was gone. So, once his truce expired he declared war on the CB laden Austria again, still not inviting any of his allies.

But the war would be fought into 1490’s, not the 1480’s. There was a volleyball game starting outside on the courtyard, a co-ed game with lots of beer between points. He saved his progress then left the simulator for the joys of conquering the real world.

 

[Wyvern]

Nice going Heagarty and a fun writing style. Looking forward to reading what happens next.

And besides I want a yard stick

 

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Originally posted by Wyvern
Nice going Heagarty and a fun writing style. Looking forward to reading what happens next.

And besides I want a yard stick

Hey! No cheating off my paper! :

Cuz if you do, you'll fail just like me!

Actually I think it's fun that everyone seems to trying a different German minor. I've played the first 100 years and will be posting later tonight.

This might be tougher than I expected, you'll see what I mean soon!

Good luck with Hannover!

 

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1490's

Progress Report: 1490’s

Heagarty returned to the simulator hung-over. The Hurricanes had defeated the best team in the National Hockey League on the enemy’s rink. There had been quite a party following the game.

But now it was time to return to World Conquest for Dummies. He resumed his game at war with Austria. And the war went well.

Trade and diplomacy suffered a small bit. Heagarty tried to keep on top of that, but war with the new Burgandian/Austrian Empire was quite a task for over-achieving Mecklenburg. He focused on military conquest, building regiment after regiment of cavalry and taking advantage of the breadth of Austria’s lands to first conquer the entire Austrian Netherlands then to delve into Germanic Austria.

At the end of the 1490’s, the MBs controlled Zeeland, Luxembourg, Brabant, Wurzburg, Wurtemberg, Ansbach, Bayern, Salzburg, and the capital province of Austria. However MBs treasury and manpower resources were depleted. Armies attempted to besiege Tyrol and Salzburg, but free Austrian territories in Italy and the Alps continued to produce enough resistance units to prevent the total conquest of the enemy.

The 15th Century was about to come to an end, and the MBs had clearly won their war with Austria. It was time to sue for peace, but what to do?

Heagarty’s head spun. Why or why didn’t he stay away from the tequila last night? The cold light of the simulator glowed through his closed eyelids. He rubbed his temples - was he hearing voices?

He opened his eyes and realized (though the eyes have very little to do with the process of hearing, nevertheless the two events seemed related) that he WAS hearing voices. He turned his head to follow the voices.


On his left shoulder was the Comfort Eagle. The mascot of the university and the football team for which he played. It was speaking to him, though he thought birds couldn’t speak, in calm low tones.


On his right shoulder was someone else. It looked like him, only dressed much cooler. It was a faded shadowing image, a phantom self, which seemed to be surrounded by very comely lady phantoms, all of whom were enraptured to be in the presence of the he-phantom.

The bird spoke:

“Heagarty, I am the Comfort Eagle. I am your spirit guide and it is my job to lead and advice you. Heed my words and I shall deliver you the world.”



Then the phantom image of himself spoke:

“Dude, Eff that shit! I’m you, or what you could be! I’m the Meck-Daddy! I wanted it all and I took it all! I’m livin’ large with all the fine ladies, and you can too! Dump the bird, and follow my advice.”



The World Conquest Simulator was paused. Thanks to the miracles of interactive technology a new question flashed on the screen.


“DO YOU WANT TO FOLLOW THE ADVICE OF THE COMFORT EAGLE OR THE MECK DADDY?”


Heagarty waited.

He weighed each option in his mind, and struggled to process all the variable through the dull thudding pain that enveloped his hung-over brain.

He typed. . .“Yes”

 

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OOC: I know, I know. Cheap and shameless, but all my stories seem to end up with some sort of critical split in my decision making.

Therefore, I’m going to (and if this sounds familiar, it is) pursue on path as far as it will go, then compare that to the second path. Hopefully, between the two, something should work.

 

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Progress Report: Enter the Meck-Daddy

The simulator churned and shimmied and behaved in a way most unexpected for such an advanced piece of technology. It actually began to smoke before it finally resumed proper functioning.

A new message appeared:


“REALITY SUCCESSFULLY DIVIDED. BEGIN SIMULATION 1.01 - FOLLOW THE MECK DADDY. SIMULATION RESUMING”


If it were possible for the simulator to give a disdainful chuckle after displaying the words “Meck Daddy”, it did, but Heagarty chalked this up to more mechanical error.

On his shoulder only the Meck Daddy remained. The Comfort Eagle was gone.


“Aww right! Time to make this shit work! Go for it, dude!” cried out the phantom figure, then it, and its consorts, disappeared.

Heagarty made peace with Austria, demanding and receiving the following provinces:

ZEELAND
BRABANT
WURTEMBURG
WURZBURG

He now had a corridor to Flandern and a nice swath of land south into the center of Europe.

Then all hell broke loose.

Luxembourg declared war. The MBs entered the war and did not invite their allies.

Novograd declared war. The MBs still did not invite their allies.

It was doubtful, Heagarty thought, that Novograd would provide much of a threat. And Luxembourg was a suitable next target on the road to world conquest.

A month or two passed, and the situation changed.

Pommern declared war. This time Heagarty DID invite the MB allies, figuring one of them could take some territory in the war against lowly Pommern. However his allies surprised him by all refusing to honor the alliance.

It continued , before he could reform his alliance . . .

Poland declared war, with their ally France.

Hannover and Hessen were invited back to the MB alliance. The other members of the IHMV, however, were still entangled in other alliances and could not join other alliances. Not only could they not join other alliances, but they seemed less than friendly toward their master-state.

Brandenburg broke their vassalization with Mecklenburg and declared war.

The Teutonic Order declared war.

Portugal, declared war, along with Spain, Siena, and Aragon.

Friesen declared war.

Saxony broke their vassalization with Mecklenburg and declared war.

Then after another month. . .

Venice declared war, along with the Papal States.

Hannover and Hessen, by rejoining the MB alliance entered into war against Luxembourg, Novograd, Pommern, Poland, and France. However, Heagarty saw no reason to risk the alliance by inviting them to fight against the other four, five, eight, however many other nations he was now at war with.

“Hmmm,” thought Heagarty, “I may have chosen poorly”.

 

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Progress Report: Bad Boy Wars 1500’s

Progress Report: Bad Boy Wars 1500’s

At the beginning of 1502, Mecklenburg was at war with:


POMMERN
LUXEMBOURG
NOVOGRAD
POLAND/FRANCE
BRANDENBURG
TEUTONIC ORDER
PORTUGAL/SPAIN/SIENA/ARAGON/NAVARRA
FRIESEN
SAXONY
VENICE/ PAPAL STATES


At the end of 1502, here was the situation with those nations:


POMMERN - at war
LUXEMBOURG - Vassalized
NOVOGRAD - at war, no hostilities yet
POLAND/FRANCE - they occupy Skane
BRANDENBURG - at war
TEUTONIC ORDER - white peace
PORTUGAL/SPAIN/SIENA/ARAGON - White Peace with Navarra, at war with others
FRIESEN - at war
SAXONY - at war
VENICE/ PAPAL STATES - at war


However, these were not the only nations Mecklenburg had to contend with. During the year 1502, the following ADDITIONAL nations declared war:


GEORGIA
HUNGARY, with ENGLAND, LITHUANIA, BOHEMIA, & SWEDEN
OTTOMAN EMPIRE, and various scrub Muslim nations
CORSICA


But Heagarty fought bravely and worked and worked at the simulator. At the beginning of 1504, the situation had changed for the better.


POMMERN - white peace, ‘03
LUXEMBOURG - vassalized, ‘02
NOVOGRAD - at war, no hostilities
POLAND/FRANCE -They occupy Skane, Wurzbrug, Flandern
BRANDENBURG - white peace, ‘03
TEUTONIC ORDER - white peace in ‘02
SPAIN - paid us 226d in ’03,
NAVARRA - white peace in ‘02
PORTUGAL/SIENA/ARAGON - white peace in ’03.
FRIESEN - white peace in ‘03
SAXONY - beaten and vassalized, and paid 200d in ‘03
VENICE/ PAPAL STATES - we paid 26d for peace in ’03.
GEORGIA - at war
BOHEMIA - we paid 24d for peace in ‘03
HUNGARY, with ENGLAND, LITHUANIA, & SWEDEN - at war
OTTOMAN EMPIRE, and various scrub Muslim nations - at war, no hostilities - yet
CORSICA - at war


But by the end of 1504, the situation had changed again. During that year, Heagarty received the following news:

Denmark declares war, along with Austria, Mainz, Scotland, and Baden.

However there was some good news: A white peace was made with Georgia and Lithuania accepted 38d for peace.

Luckily for Heagarty, no new nations declared war until the end of the decade. Were their any other nations, just about every nation he had encountered had attacked him after achieving a reputation equivalent to “dishonorable scum”. Yet, despite this, he had survived.

In 1504, cut off from Wurtenburg, which was rebelling and soon, it was feared, on its way to independence, Heagarty restored its independence as a vassal state. It joined the MB alliance, which unfortunately meant it joined the war against what seemed to be every other European nation.

Heagarty fought the Bad Boy Wars with this philosophy - keep enemies from taking any territory, worry about seizing territory later. He tried to keep a number of large regiments, dominated by cavalry, that would roam the provinces of Mecklenburg engaging, and hopefully defeating, enemy units. In some cases, this strategy was unsuccessful. For example, against the much larger armies of France and Poland, little could be done. France marched through the MB Netherlands and Poland took territory away that the MBs couldn’t get to by land. However, some smaller forces of mostly infantry were built, and they succeeded in capturing territory from smaller nations, such as Saxony and Luxembourg.

By the end of 1906, this is what the battle score-card looked like:


POMMERN - white peace, ‘03
LUXEMBOURG - vassalized, ‘02
NOVOGRAD - white peace - no hostilities for 36 months
POLAND/FRANCE - they occupied Skane, Wurzbrug, Flandern, & Brabant, BUT demanded peace when MB was out of money. Heagarty was happy to pay the full 0d they demanded for peace!
BRANDENBURG - white peace, ‘03
TEUTONIC ORDER - white peace in ‘02
SPAIN - paid us 226d in ’03,
NAVARRA - white peace in ‘02
PORTUGAL/SIENA/ARAGON - made white peace in ’03.
FRIESEN - white peace in ‘03
SAXONY - beaten and vassalized, and paid 200d in ‘03
VENICE/ PAPAL STATES - we paid 26d for peace in ’03.
GEORGIA - white peace in ‘04
BOHEMIA - we paid 24d for peace in ‘03
HUNGARY / ENGLAND - paid 41d for peace in ‘06
LITHUANIA - we paid 38d for peace in ‘04
SWEDEN - we paid 40d for peace in ‘05
OTTOMAN EMPIRE, and allies - white peace after no activity, ‘05
CORSICA - white peace, ‘05
SCOTLAND - white peace, ‘05
DENMARK/AUSTRIA/MAINZ/BADEN - paid us 19d in ‘05



Once war ended with the alliance of Hungary and England, Mecklenburg remained at peace until 1509. Heagarty ignored the advice of the Meck Daddy and decided to try to improve relations with other nations, but for some nations this was cost prohibitive.

Those cost of gifts to France:
State Gift: 1147d
Personal Gift: 458d
Letter of Introduction: 114d

After surviving this round of Bad Boy Wars, Heagarty and the Meck Daddy emerged intact. The nation of Mecklenburg now consisted of:

MECKLENBURG
FLANDERN
ZEELAND
BRABANT
KOLN
KLEEVES
MUNSTER
OLDENBURG
BREMEN
JUTLAND
SKANE
MAGDEBURG
ANHALT
WURZBURG

The following nations were members in good standing of the International House of Mecklenburg Vassals (IHMV):

HANNOVER
HESSEN
SAXONY
WURTEMBURG

Heagarty ended his session at the simulator in 1508, knowing that he had made a solid beginning and had withstood a stiff challenge, but that world conquest was still a very distant dream.

 

[Sharur]

heagarty: I've sent you a PM, and it is vital that you respond! Please!

 

[Wyvern]

Originally posted by Heagarty
Hey! No cheating off my paper! :

Cuz if you do, you'll fail just like me!

Actually I think it's fun that everyone seems to trying a different German minor. I've played the first 100 years and will be posting later tonight.

This might be tougher than I expected, you'll see what I mean soon!

Good luck with Hannover!

Thanks, you know I think the Professor tricked us all, I'm sure a single province German state is harder than say Japan or the Golden Horde who have all those extra provinces. With either of those countries you're going to be a lot stronger when you come to kick off the BB wars, something I'm dreading happening in the next few years in my game. Oh well, advance in glory or go down in flames as they say