WCfD Class of 02: The Hannoverian Gambit

[Wyvern]

WCfD Class of 02: The Hannoverian Gambit

Wyvern had always felt confident smashing though enemy forces whilst carving out a large empire, but he'd never attempted a full world conquest before attending the Professor Ebbesen's classes. Wyvern had been impressed with the disciplined way in which the Professor controlled the class, metting out just punishment to temper the antics of rebellious class members, in much the same way as he dealt with rebels in the simulation, and he had extolled much sage advice that Wyvern was keen to try out.

With trepidation Wyvern received his final examination assignment:

"Your assignment is the German one-province minor of your choice. You will refrain from exploits and base your campaign on blood and iron, and a slight bit of diplomacy to unite some of the other German minors. Your chances of success in your chosen profession is slight, but since when has the threat of imminent demise, disembowelment, and decapacitation stopped a would-be conqueror? "

This seemed a common assignment given to a number of the class members, Heagarty and Legolas were already discussing which German state to play, though Wyvern wasn't sure Legolas would get away with picking a 2 province Saxony, he rather suspected Legolas's spirit guide might be downgraded from an Eagle to that of a Cuckoo, or perhaps even a Poodle when the Professor found out.

Anyway Wyvern knew which country he was going to pick - Hannover, the royal house that was destined to rule England. Well Wyvern was sure it would be so, but thought it might happen a little bit sooner than the early 1700's!

[Ok, rules: Very Hard/Furious. Patch level 1.04 - still waiting for Ubisofts 1.05 so may upgrade when it finally comes out.]

This is my first attempt at an AAR so be gentle.

 

[unmerged(8608)]

Good luck, young Mr. Wyvern.

 

[unmerged(1057)]

Hmm...Hanover...better not make it a Hangover..
Good luck to you Wyvern..you´re gonna need it..

 

[unmerged(6777)]

Daring choice! Enjoy

 

[Wyvern]

Student Notes - The early years

I spend the first few years looking for an opportunity to expand. Geldre, Munster and Oldenburg make an alliance offer which I accept. Denmark does his usual badboy invasion of north Germany annexing Bremen (went to Norway), Mecklenburg, Vorpommern and Madgeburg. By 1426 I'm getting desperate to expand - I have to conquer the world you know - and Denmark is looking ripe for the picking, so with a casus belli I declare war. It's all very well looking for defensive wars, but when nobody will declare war and you're broke and cannot afford the insults you sometimes just have to grab the bull by the horns.

Danish armies are few and far between and I'm easily able to route numerous small forces before capturing Madgeburg and Mecklenburg. In the middle of this campaign Burgundy declares war on Lorraine, who Geldre had foolishly invited into the alliance, I quickly drop out as I don't want a war with Burgundy/England/Aragon thank you very much! That alliance is very much the power alliance at the moment and to be avoided until I'm a little stronger. Ok a lot stronger.

1428 and Denmark surprisingly offers me both captured provinces for peace, yea-ha! I accept gaining my first COT. I join another alliance of German minors consisting of the Palatinat/Hessen/Kleves/Cologne and Mainz.

Time to start printing some money as the Professor would say, and rebuild the army. Oh and I succum and build a tax collector in Hannover, I know the Professor won't like that, but it's a core province, right religion/culture so I'll take the risk as I cann't see it rebelling even with a high war exhaustion. I don't intend to build them elsewhere.

Oldenburg contains one of my core province shields, ok the only other core province shield I have to be exact, so in 1429 I declare war and invite my allies to help. Yep I'm not feeling invincible just yet. The Oldenburg alliance consists of Oldenburg/Saxony/Wurzburg/Wurtemburg.

A swift campaign ends up with me force vassalising all members of the opposing alliance except for Wurtemburg with whom I had to agree a white peace to get 30K troops out of my face.

I feel it now makes sence to be in the same alliance with my new vassals so I can protect and nurture them [and avoid seeing them get gobbled up], so I drop out of the Palatinat's alliance and after a little bit of bribary join the Saxon led alliance. This actually brings me into an on-going war with two of my former allies - Hessen & Mainz - whom I proceed to despatch and vassalise. Oldenburg annexes Hessen afterwards, but what the heck, one vassal annexes another vassal, what do I care?

Situation in 1434: I own Hannover, Mecklemburg (COT), Magdeburg and Anhalt. My vassals are Oldenburg (2 provs), Mainz, Wurzburg and Saxony. Sensus taxes are 63, inflation 4%. Yeah I know the professor advocates printing money but I don't want it to get too out of hand. All tech spending is currently going to trade.

Of interest elsewhere, France look to have lost the 100 years war, they only own Ile-de-France and Dauphine in the south. Orleans actually survived (this is a first in my experience) and also conquered Berri, not sure what happened to the Bourbonnais, but they must have broken vassalage at some point. Orleans are still vassals so France might still rebuild. The rest of France is split between England, Burgundy and Aragon, with Helvetia getting Provence. Guess everyone and his dog jumped on France what a shame

Wonder how the rest of the class is doing.

 

[unmerged(2377)]

Good luck.

 

[Wyvern]

Thanks for the encouragement guys, I think I'm gona need it

This was my second attempt at Hannover, the first one ended in disaster after less than a decade. Was beginning to consider trying an easier country like Japan

This one seems to be going ok though, but whether I'm expanding quickly enough to conquer the world remains to be seen. So far I've played the first 100 years, so will post another update soon.

 

[unmerged(1057)]

Good start, Wyvern..I am going to follow the developments..

 

[Wyvern]

Student Notes - vassalise

Wars seem few and far between and when you most want a CB you never seem to get one. Well there are ways and means to manufacture CB's, expensive stability wise perhaps, but that's not such a problem early in the game. The plan is simple, I arrange a royal marriage with Bohemia, claim the throne and after recovering a bit of stability go to war. Bohemia are fighting a long war against the Teutonic Order and have few forces back at home, so I can quickly nip in and occupy most of their country. The Bohemians however prove to be rather stubborn and I'm unable to deal the knockout blow. Whenever I'm about to capture their last province they always seem to have a force that's able to recapture another one. I spend the next 5 years playing cat and mouse, swapping one province after another, never able to defeat their last land force and desperately wishing I had a higher man-power. In the end I'm happy to take just Silesia, Erz and 250d for peace, rather than the original vassalisation I'd envisaged. The year is now 1448.

The next few years are peaceful, intersperced by good fortune in 1456 when Munster throws off the English yoke and joins our glorious realm, very nice thankyou . Still, 10 years at peace and just one province to show for it, I think it's time to go to war again. 1458 and I get a random CB against Bohemia so once more I march into the fray against Bohemia/Brandenburg/Poland/Lithuania/Cologne and Novgorad.

Whilst making no mistake on the field of battle, I do screw up by inviting my allies to help, which leads directly to Wurzburg being annexed by Bohemia during the fighting which is a real pain as a few more years and I'd have been ready to diplo annex them. I guess I'll just have to vassalise Bohemia and get the province from them later. By the end of the war in 1465 I've force vassalised Brandenburg and Bohemia and made seperate peace deals with everyone else.

The consensus seems to be that if you wait 30 years annexing vassals is a doddle, so when 1465 comes around I annex Saxony and am about to do the same to Oldenburg when they decided to have a last fling before the inevitable event by declaring war on Denmark. Well I've been peaceful long enough so a little war to relieve the bordom isn't to be sniffed at. Militarily Denmark is no longer a threat and it isn't long before Denmark offer me the provinces Holstein and Finnmark (a level 2 colony in northern Scandinavia) for peace. I could have held out for more but I don't want to raise my BB too much at this stage in an offensive war.

Oldenburg remain at war for a few more years, but finally in 1471, after 4 annexation attempts Oldenburg agrees to join our empire. I now control 11 provinces in Germany, plus the Finnmark colony. Mainz (1 prov), Bohemia (4 prov's), and Brandenburg (2 provs) are vassals.

Looking further afield, Burgundy is my most powerful neighbour controlling 10 provinces and it's a concern that Austria might get too strong if they're able to inherit them, it would also go a long way towards resurrecting France which I'd like to avoid. England have lost a couple of provinces to defections in France, one going to Orleans, the other to Auvergne whilst Aragon also lost Guyenne to a successful revolt by a now independent Guyenne. Elsewhere a 7 province Papal States seems set on uniting the Italian peninsula.

Cometh 1473 and I incorporate my vassal Mainz into the realm and start looking for a new alliance to join, one that is preferably in a defensive war against a decent sized country that I can easily get at. The Papal States initially look promising being at war with Burgundy, but they make peace before I can raise my relations high enough. In the end I settle on joining a Suzdal/Moscowy alliance which is currently fighting 2 large alliances. One is a Burgundian/Swedish/Bavarian/Savoy grouping, the other a Polish/Lithuanian/Novgorad/Moldovian alliance. Both are defensive wars.

I proceed to invade Poland, sending a large cavalry complement to beseige Wielkopolska, and an infantry army to take the woodland province of Poznan. The Burgundian war turns out to be defensive both in status and reality as Burgundian forces defeat my initial expeditionary forces and take the fight to my own territory forcing me to agree to hasty seperate peace treaties with Savoy and Bavaria, both of whom were bearing down with considerable force. This does have the effect of turning the war with Burgundy into an offensive war, meaning 2 BB points per province taken, assuming I can capture any, but I wasn't confident my alliance leaders would stay at war long enough for me to make any gains so I'm not too fussed.

The war in Poland goes well and by 1479 they offer Wielkoposka and Poznan for peace which I accept as I figure it won't be long before Moscowy makes an alliance peace. I can now turn all my forces towards dealing with Burgundy. It takes until 1486, but we finally have all Burgundian provinces captured and I am offered Flandern, Holland, Zeeland and Alsace for peace. 8 BB points but I decide to accept rather than vassalise. We now have a Very Bad reputation.

Here's a visual of the situation, courtesy of care2. [Please note I'm using the colour mod, I think it was the one by Lord Barking Dog, so some country colours won't be quite what you're expecting]

Brandenburg have finally dropped out of their alliance so I am able to annex them, Bohemia however are stuck in a 6 country alliance which is forever at war and they've been pretty much dismembered by Austria and Hungary, I doubt I'm going to gain anything from them (and I was right, Austria finally militarily annexed them around 1500).

The 1490's lead to me joining the Austrian/Hungarian alliance. I'm thinking Austria might be a good country to keep on side once the BB wars start, especially as they'll inherit Hungary soon though they won't get Burgundy as they have stayed independent due to constant warfare. I soon find myself in another war against Poland and am able to force vassalise a one province Cologne and take 4 provinces off Poland as part of the peace deal.

I've been trying on and off for the last couple of decades to get England to declare war by sending them insults, in 1502 they finally oblige. By 1504 I've captured 4 mainland provinces but France have now joined the fray and are starting to steal seiges from me. I seriously consider dow'ing France but finally decide to bear with it and see what I can get. Despite losing a couple of sieges to France I capture 2 more provinces from the English and force them to give me Friesen, Calais, Picardie and Normandie, a good deal at just 4 BB points. A couple of unhappiness amongst the peasantry events at +5 revolt risk during the later stages of the war spice things up a bit (thankfully not both at once), but come 1509 all is peaceful once more and I switch to sending insults to Denmark .

This is about where the game currently stands, so any advice on how to proceed next is welcome. BB is around the 30 mark, inflation is at 17%, tech levels are

Land: 6 (nearly 7)
Naval: 3
Trade: 3
Infra: 3
Yearly census tax is 272.

Advice is allowed in an exam right

 

[unmerged(6777)]

You're doing very well. That's a lot of growth for 90 years! Unusual map colours though...takes a bit of getting used to.

I'm thinking that you may want to continue your expansion to the east and south, surrounding Hungary/Austria on three sides so you can really swarm in there when the time comes.

You should also push up the coast and see if you can take Moscow before 1535 when IIRC Russia forms. It's far easier to stay on top of a number of smaller proto-Russian states instead of the one that gets all of those juicy bonuses for forming Russia. With the fragmentation of the French territories I doubt they'll be particularly dangerous to you for quite a long while. Just a thought.

I'll be interested to see what you decided to do.

 

[Carolus Rex]

Finally someone from Class of '02 doing sommink good with their game.

 

[Wyvern]

Interlude

One hundred years gone and Wyvern had to make a pivotal decision, one that could well spell success of failure in his WCFD exam. Ah but if his choice worked out, well that way let to glory.

It was simple really, he’d built Hannover up to be pretty much as strong as was possible at this stage in the simulation and he felt proud of his achievements to date, but now doubt was beginning to nag at his confidence. What should he do next?

Was he to sit back for the next few years, just nibbling away here and there, perhaps doing a bit of colonising, and diplo-annexing the odd minor nation? Or should he grab the Bogwat[1] by the horns as the ancient saying went and follow in the footsteps of his famous – some would say infamous – grandfather, the world conquering Butcher of Duer-nord, and really kick off the BB wars?

[1.The Bogwat – a ferocious beast found only on the sparsely populated world of Erwat 7, used by parents to frighten children. “Go to bed or the Bogwat will get you”. Wyvern always found this saying amusing, surely it was more likely the child would stay up all night hiding under bed?]

The Butcher – ah father really hated that epitaph, just mention it in his presence and his face would drain of all colour. Of course he tried to deny that grandfather was ever involved in the atrocities, but he was the commander in chief after all and some things just stick. For sure the families political enemies had made sure of that as well.

Wyvern’s feeling on the subject was why not make use of the situation? Anything that helped frighten the opposition surely had to be a plus, but father didn’t see it that way and was rather disapproving at his eldest son’s ambition to follow in grandfathers world conquering footsteps. Still, father hated a loser more than anything else, so it wouldn’t do to screw up now.

He noticed that the simulator booths were starting to empty as students began to leave for the night. That jock Heagarty was still there in the adjacent booth fast asleep as usual. He’d picked Micklenburg and after arriving in a drunken stupor that morning singing and carousing apparently because some football team had won a game, had promptly dow’ed Austria and seemingly kicked off a mini world war, despite only controlling a handful of provinces. You had to laugh really. True, the old Professor hadn’t always appeared too steady on his feet either during some lessons, but then the weasel had been at it for years [the simulator that is, not the liquor, though who knows now you mention it, but I digress ].

So Heagarty’s team had won again, what were they called? the Eagles he thought it was, or was that their mascot? Wyvern thought he’d heard Heagarty muttering about “following the Eagle” through the booth partition, but he’d sounded half asleep at the time so god knows what he was on about. What a jock, going to sleep in the middle of a war with Austria!

Football – bah! Wyvern didn’t know what the big deal was. Sure he followed the World Cup, one had to be seen to support ones country after all, but he knew that to progress in the upper power circles of the world one had to have an appreciation for the finer arts, and being seen watching a bunch of smelly humans hurl [for the North American audience/ kick for the rest of the world ] a pigs bladder around a pitch was not going to help his cause.

Actually on reflection maybe it was hockey Heagarty played? He’d really have to ask him some day, one should be polite to the lower classes after all, but it was all much of a muchness to Wyvern, he had one goal that consumed all his attention, which was to prove himself worthy of grandfathers inheritance and uphold the family honour.

His decision made, Wyvern fired up the simulator….


[Hope you don’t mind the change in pace, figured my character needed a bit of fleshing out - and forgive the plagarism for those who spot it].

 

[Wyvern]

[OOC Yea Ha England 1 Argies 0 - now if only Burnley could get into the top flight next season ]

 

[unmerged(4271)]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....snort...mmmh?wuzzat?....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

Aha. A succesful student. How truly delightful - I'll notify the board of my success right away!

Hey, wait a minute.

HE PROMOTED A TAX COLLECTOR!

Mark my words. When his silly little proto-empire finally goes down in the flames of civil war, and his puppet dies screaming in agony in the capital province, it will be because of that promotion. It always is.

This goes into the black book.

 

[Carolus Rex]

Oh my, the horror!

 

[Wyvern]

Dear Father,

I trust my latest missive finds you well. We’re in the middle of exams now at the academy, I think I mentioned I’ve been assigned the task of conquering a simulated world with Hannover, a noble challenge as I’m sure you’ll agree. The Professor, Ebbesen is his name, has been counseling a cautious approach in his weekly progress briefings, but I fear he is more concerned at maintaining his pass percentage than in actually helping students achieve the higher pass grades I’ve set my sights on.

I have hatched a plan that I believe will knock off as many as 50 years of simulation time from my project and will hopefully display a boldness of purpose that will go down well with the examination board. I intend to declare war on Burgundy and then Austria, after manufacturing suitable Casus Belli of course, and then I will proceed to occupy all of their territory and that of any of their allies I am able to. Only when both are fully beaten will I make peace. At that point, rather than simply vassalising them and waiting half a century to diplo-annex, which is what the predictable student would do, I will instead speed things up by demanding most of their territory immediately. Both are of a size where I can take 5 or 6 provinces, and I should be able to take out one or two minors at the same time. This will of course trigger the second stage of the exam – the dreaded Bad Boy wars, but with the extra territory I will have gained, I should have the economic strength and manpower to cope.

For sure it entails some risk. One of the powers could turn down my peace offer after the other has accepted, the BB wars might then start whilst I’m suffering from a high war exhaustion, but this is a minor risk really, easily avoided for example by only accepting peace offers they make. The biggest risk is whether I can then deal with the BB wars immediately afterwards as I will only have a limited opportunity to re-arm.

Well this is my plan, I leave to execute it just as soon as I have finished penning this letter. If it fails you need no longer worry about my pursuit of this career you deem so ill advised. I know you could have prevented me from enrolling at the academy in the first place and I am forever honored that you have given me the opportunity to make my own mistakes.

Your Obedient son,

Wyvern.

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

On the other hand, the benevolent Teacher thought as he read the private mail of his students as was old faculty practise, this bears watching. It is one of the marks of greatness, after all, to boldly go where no sane world-conqueror would go, and only a few of the insane ones, and survive to rewrite the curriculum.

But for some reason I am reminded of young Bozo-Moonchild and his ill-fated invasion of the realm of the deathlords of Xont. Pity about the loss of his soul, though, but he did get a page in the book for his innovative use of pygmy zombies. But I digress.

 

[piawak]

Very entertaining. When's the next installment?

 

[Wyvern]

Originally posted by piawak
Very entertaining. When's the next installment?

any minute now