EUIII - The Naxos Campaign - COMPLETE!!!!
 

Hello all and welcome to a new EU dynasty by yours truly! This is my first time through the new game, so I may make some early blunders. I don't know how long my interest will last. The entire game? Only a few days? Who knows?

EU3 is an epic strategy simulation game where you can run any significant country in the world from any start date beginning at 1453 and going through 1780. I will be starting May 30, 1453, the first possible start date.

For my first game, I would like to take some country I have not experienced yet and play around with it. In EU2, I began by trying Wallachia several times, dying each time in around an hour to the Turks. Then I took Trebizond, an Orthodox state in the south east coast of the Black Sea, and made it through an entire Grand Campaign (400 years). My next trick was to play as a one province Holy Roman Empire province - Oldenberg. I took stauchly Catholic Oldenberg through a Grand Campaign as well.

After that I began my favorite campaign, the Mataram campaign, which is hear on the forum in a dynasty. The Hindu country in the Indies was a lot of fun to play. After that, I ran around with Granada for a while, including another dynasty here.

Once I left EU2 and moved into CK, I played heavily as Halsingland, a Swedish province and became the King of Sweden. In a later game, I began as Salerno, in Southern Italy, and became King of Italy and Naples.

Italian, Iberian, Scananavian, Middle Eastern, The Indies, and German have all been mine to explore. Where to start this time?

I want a one province country. Many nations now have two or three provinces where they had just one in EU2 (see: Wallachia). There are five seperate one province nations in Ireland, and I could try my hand at one of those. I could also try one of the Russian minors - there are several one province nations there, like Pskov. I could try a Muslim ME power, instead of an Orthodox one. There are several one province Muslim nations, but they are usually surrounded by major aggressive players in teh Muslim world. I could go back to SE Asia and try a main-land one province nation. I could also try that African campaign I always wanted.

There are a lot of choices, but at the end, I decide to make this one: Naxos.

The Duchy of Naxos is located in the Aegean Sea. It consists of many of the smaller islands in the Archipelago plus a few major islands there as well. Here are a few thigns to note about Naxos:

1). Naxos has no Casus Belli against any province out side of Naxos proper. I cannot reclaim land in the name of my ancestors or anything.

2). Naxos is a Catholic country with an Orthodox majority. This is very bad. My people will never be as happy or as productive as they would be under an Orthodox master. Conversion is very expensive.

3). Naxos Province has a straight to the province of Athens, which means that my army can cross to Athens without need of a navy.

4). Naxos is a wine province, which is fairly wealthy in the world, and very wealthy in Europe. (There are African, Asian and New World trade goods that kick the ass of wine, but for Europe, wine is almost as good as it gets. I mean, its not Spice or Ivory or Coffee or Chinaware or Sugar or Tobacco but it is good alright).

5). Naxos is right alongside the mighty Ottoman Empire. They could eat my nation as an appetizer along the way to a real war at any time.

6). There are several one province nations nearby that I may want to attack and expand into. Athens is poor, just a fish province, but is a fellow Catholic. Could be an ally or a victim. Morea, which is South Greece is another Wine province and Orthodox. The Knights are set up on Rhodes. Cyprus is not that far away. And Corfu is a vassal of Venice, but if that changes, I'd look its way. I could also opportunity attack up the Adriatic Coast and hit some one province states like Ragusa or swing by Turkey and hit up Kalamar or grab a farflung Italian province like Mantua.


With a little luck, I hope to make this an interesting campaign.


-Anxiety

Interested in a little info about Naxos? Here is a map:




As you can see, the Duchy of Naxos is north of Crete.

Strategy:

Normally, there are two strategies for a small dinky little one province nation like mine to survive the early game. One is proven and safe and the other is bolder and not so safe.

The first strategy is to ally yourself to some major power as soon as possible. By being in an alliance with, say, the Ottomans, you get several benefits. First of all, you aren't going to be attacked by your allies, so that removes one heavy from your worry list. Secondly, major powers may leave you alone because they don't want to risk a major war while minor powers don;t want to risk being annexed by your sugar daddy.

Additionally, you can go to war when your big brother goes to war, and you hope that you can nip a province behind the backs of your big brother's foes.

There are problems with this strategy. First of all, you never plan for war. The worst thing is to prepare for and declare war only to find that sugar daddy is laughing at you and leaving your alliance. So you have to fight only in reaction to events.

Secondly, if big brother gets into a fight with another major power, and you jump in, you could get annexed by said big power easily. If you are allied with the Ottomans, and Aragon comes calling, they aren;t going to be able to same me in time.

The other strategy is to ally yourself with smaller, one province powers. The goal here is to try to gang beat another one province nation with yoru ally and claim that nation as your own. This strategy should keep you safe from the small one province nations that may eye your territory because there;s a big difference in Athens decalaring war on me and Athens declaring war on both me and Corfu. We have double the provinces (or just one more, however you want to look at it).

The benefit to this is that you can act when you want to act. If I DOW on some one province nation, and my ally leaves me in a lurch, its not that bad. I may not win, but I'm not going to get chopped off at the knees in seconds. This allows you to expand at your pace, as you have need.

Disadvanatges are many. You have no protection should some nasty decide that your country's banner would look nice in their royal throneroom. There's no out, you are dying. This route is the fastest way to die in the game.

Now, my problem is this. All of the local major powers are natural enemies. Mamelukes and the Ottomans are natural enemies with their Islamic powers. I doubt I could get an alliance with them. I'm right next door to a whole mess of Ottomans.

The major Catholic Powers that are somewhat close are Venice (at Crete) and Aragon (at, um...Naples). Venice's power isn;t nearby though and Aragon is really far away.

There are some relatively close Orthodox mainland powers that might be of some use, but their lack of naval power means they couldn;t break a siege, for example. No sense allying with Hungary, for example, for just that reason.

As a result, I am not really close enough to Catholic Europe to rely on her for protection should things go poorly with the Muslims or the Orthodoxy. As a result, I can rely on alliances with Islamic powers, unlikely thing, or I can try strategy number two. Neither is appealing at the moment.

With the hit that my nation takes for having the religious disconnection, I am going to focus on research and trade, not the military - at least not right now.

I move my slider one step towards innovation. This gives us better chance at researching techs with obvious disadvanatges.

One thing I saw when I looked it up. My CATHOLIC nation is in the ORTHODOX tech group. In this game, some tech groups advance faster than others, with Catholocism as the fastest of those. Orthodox is 90% as fast as Catholics, so we'll be behind our Catholic brothers. Sad.

This is in addition to the religious disconnect hit.

I send out my five diplomats to get royal marriages with Athens, Cyprus, Morea, and two Italian powers I can't remember. Athens accepts and one of the Italian states accepts. Other Italian provinces send some marriage proposals over, and I accept.

I am now in the hurry up and wait stage of the game.

Here are some of my early actions. Sorry that I don't have dates. I'll have them for later things. I just played a few years, and since virtually nothing happened, I didn't log it.

I played up until I had my first national idea, so that's at the end of this post.

In the meantime, I have been laying the groundwork for an economy. I have been negotiating with every diplomat I get trade agreements with every country I can. The game tells me that I'll lose a bit of trade efficieny each time I sign a pact, but then those people won't take my merchants out of the posts. I'd rather have security so that when I want to turn my eye to another venture later - like war - I don't have to keep playing with traders. Plus, sending traders costs money, so who knows if they balance out or not, but in the early game, trader sending money is expensive. I definitely want the security early I suspect.

So I've been doing these trade agreements, and for the most part, people agree with me. I have a stockpile of 5 merchants, colonists, missionaries and spies. I have no need for them right now, so I am just sitting at my max.

Buying an advisor is to expensive right now. I am putting all of my monthly taxes back into investment, so I lose about 0.16 ducats monthly and gain around 3 ducats annually. As a result, I'm not making money quickly. I certainly don't have the cash to splash on an advisor.

In a few years of this, I get my first tech advance. Our Government goes up by one, which allows us our first national idea. National Ideas are a form of specializtion that your government takes. After reviewing all of the options, I take Age of Discovery, which increases our tech research by 2.5% in every category. I figure that with the Orthodoxy tech group and the religion disconnect, that I'll need any research I can get.

That it where I'm at now! Nothing major has happened, so let's keep going. I still have no alliances, since no one offered me one and no one has looked at me oddly. I've been saving my own diplomats for free trade agreements.

Simple, eh?

Nice idea, Anxiety, I'll be reading. Naxos sounds like it's an interesting country to start with.

Thanks!

It's December 10, 1457. We just chose our national idea a month ago. I get my first alliance proposal. Is it from the Ottomans? Maybe Aragon or Venice has taken a notice of us? Since we were a Crusader State created by Venetians during the Fourth Crusade, maybe they want to revisit our relationship and strengthen it?

Of course, it's more likely that its a local nation trying to find friends during the Long Dark. Maybe Athens or The Knights of St. John over at Rhodes is calling.

I open up the button and its none of those. It's...an odd choice. I decide to take it for now.

The Duchy of Naxos is now in an alliance with The Papal States.

Gathering Greeks


The past several years have been ones of quiet foundational building - gathering many trade agreements together.

17 October 1460 - We have a fully maxed stability and a realm of happy people.

6 March, 1462 - Our old King dies and Francesco II takes his place. I forgot to tell you about the old guy, but he was pretty poor. Francesco II looks pretty solid, with high marks in administration. I look forward to his reign.

13 January, 1463 - The Papal States are attacked by France! France and her vassals declare war upon the Papal States. Within moments, I am informed that Scotland and severeal other states have joined the war. The Papal States want me to support them.

I'm not that silly. I choose to not support them. As a result, we are now alliance-less. I decide to strike now and offer an alliance with Athens. I must choose the bolder and riskier of the strategies for survival and Athens is our friend.

January 7, 1465 - I decide that the time to begin our trade investment has begun. I send out all five merchants to Venice, where we will ply our trade at the markets here. We drive away competition and set up shop with two merchants. It took about half of the ducats that I had, and now we are beginning to get a small trickle of cash flow from the trade markets. It;s not much, I'll grant you, but its a start.

April 6, 1465 - I send out another merchant since it seems that someone left or died there. He appears to have set up shop as well, increasing our trade in Venice.


April 8, 1465 - I decide to send out a diplomat to Athens to offer them vassalization. We have perfect relations, a royal marriage, an alliance, and a trade agreement. Why not draw our realms closer together?

Athens accepts and they become our vassals.

This is good on some fronts. We get half of their income - which isn't much. Athens is a small province of fishers. Hardly worth notice normally, but we need to expand, so that when war comes, we won't be as easy to capture and take. Additionally, Athens is our land base for Naxos, and having the ability to send soldiers to and from Naxos without using ships allows us to send armies outw while also giving our capital a point of defense against ground armies that may have an interest.

In other words, despite its low economic value, it has tremendous strategic value to us. Gaining Athens is the most important step is waging war, and now she is our vassal, just a few years shy a possible annexation.




In other news, Aragon has been spreading up the Italian Peninsula, and now has over half of it under their control. It should be interesting to see if that spreads.

Naxos Stretches its Muscles for the First Time


February 27, 1466 - Muscowy wrestled away one of my merchants. I send in another to take its place. It has set up. We still have three there.

June 4, 1466 - Modena offers us an alliance. Modena is a three province Italian power in the northern peninsula. If Aragon were to attack them, they'd likely attack Tuscany or the Papal States first, then Modena would be next up the peninsula. Earlier, Modena was attacked by Milan but they fought Milan back and even took Parma from them. That shows some spirit.

We currently have a royal marraige and a great relationship with Modena, and she is also allied with Tuscany, meaning we could get pulled into an Italian Peninsula war against Aragon eventually.

Just the sort of situation we want in order to cherry-pick something like, say, Malta? Maybe one of the Sicily provinces?

Let's do it.

2 September, 1466 - We expand again in Venice to four merchants when I see a spot open up.

6 Spetember, 1466 - Grrr. The Qasim Khanate forced out one of our merchants, dropping us back to three.

November 30, 1466 - We expand again in Venice when another spot open up. All of this merchant spending, however, is reducing our treasury.

January 1, 1467 - Our trade technology increased and as such, we make more money from our merchants in Centers of Trade. We now make roughly half a ducat a year from our trade in Venice.

January 4, 1467 - I have an extra diplomat sitting around, so I send him to Cyrpus to hammer out a royal marriage. We are now closer to our brethren in Cyrpus.

March 29, 1467 - We expand in Venice again, taking us to the maximum of five merchants in that Center of Trade.

6 September, 1467 - Morea has joined war against Hungary, Lithuania and Poland with their allies Wallachia and Bosnia.

What this means is that Morea may not be long for this world if any of those major powers bothers to march or sail an army down to take out Morea. It also means that if Morea moves their army out, they may be vulnerable to a strike from a certain Naxos.


Does this change things?

Quiet in Naxos, Busy in Europe


15 September, 1467 - I'm watching the Morea situation closlely, and there's a naval battle between Hungary and Morea going on. Their army has not marched.

29 September, 1467 - Morea lost the naval battle. Is an invasion to follow?

December 1, 1467 - It doesn;t look like Hungary was interested in invasion, just blockading Morea.

January 17, 1468 - Bourbonnais blasted one of our merchants. In other news, Denmark has lost its entire peninsula to Austria, but it keeps its holdings in the sea and in Sweden, plus a few mainland provinces it captured earlier. Brittany was invaded hard by France and Provance and it down to one province.

February 14, 1468 - Our new merchant sets up shop. We are back to 5. There's still no move on Morea by anyone, nor has Morea moved to attack anyone.

July 2, 1468 – Another naval battle begins between Morea and Hungary.

July 16, 1468 – Bohemia and Hungary form a Personal Union, with Bohemia as the leader. I don’t know what that means. Let me look it up… Can’t find much. It’s obviously a really close dynastic tie, maybe its like a dynastic vassalization?

July 27, 1468 – Lithuania has inherited the crown of Hungary. Wow. That’s a super power now. Morea’s naval combat is over.

13 August, 1468 – Transylvania declared war on Wallachia. Morea joined war on behalf of her ally but Bosnia said no thanks.

26 August, 1468 – Muscowy and the Qasim Khanate have declared war upon Lithuania. Poland is aiding her ally, Lithunia. Eastern Europe is going to be in flames.

24 September, 1468 – Candar declared war upon Trebizond. The Ottomans join Candar. Georgia joins Trebizond. Seems like a lot of locals are beginning to fight this year.

6 November, 1468 – A new monarch rises to the throne of Athens. Antonio III. He’s really, really good. Great in fact. Amazing – on the level of the best monarchs of the major powers. A good ally.

2 December, 1468 – Wallachia accepted peace with Lithuania and Poland but lost half of its territory. That caused a truce between Morea and Lithuania/Poland. Now they are just at war with Transylvania.


Well, that was the most detailed year so far. Lots of things happening, just near us, not involving us. Now it may be time for a bit of creating our own luck, eh?

That's the one thing that has always bugged me about EU...land and/or naval battles that last half a month to a month?

Whenever battles are fought they should be almost instantaneous (2-3 days max).

One could make the argument that they represent campaigns...:cool:

I view it this way...your fighting for whole provinces...multiple battles will often occur in areas to decide the outcome of a region. While individual battles may take 2-3 days, regions take longer to conquer. I just treat it as the entire campaign in the region, not one battle.

WSU and Blade, I could probably go along with that concept for the land battles, especially those involving sieges and/or stalemates...but I have a much harder time of it with the naval battles. Just my personal nit.

Great dynasty BTW (hoping Anxiety doesn't notice the mini-threadjack).

Failures and Successes


Glad to see each and every one of you reading my dynasty! Now, if we can get back on topic, please?


I’m considering building another 1k troops to prepare for war. I can either do that or keep focusing on the trading thing. I only have around 10 ducats, and each trader costs 1.8 to send out, so I only have so many more shots. If build another 1k troops, then maybe I’ll have the manpower to take out a nearby country. I doubt I can build an army, get its morale up, and more once I’m in a position to DOW on someone.

Let’s do it.

March 2, 1469 – Our 1000 troops are fully equipped and armed, doubling our land power.

April 1, 1469 – We are now losing 0.22 ducats monthly. That translates to almost the full 3 ducats we make annually going to our army’s upkeep. Time for us to use those men.

I decide to make a bold move. I am going to try and bring in Dulkadir’s only province, Adana.

Where and who? Adana is situated in the armpit between the Turkish landmass and the Levant. It’s adjacent to the water and is currently at war with Trebizond and Georgia, so it might be a little busy at the moment. Bad thing, I can only cart my men over 1k at a time with my navy. Even worse thing, Dulkadir is allied with the Ottomans.

My hope is that the Ottomans will be busy with their several current wars and I’ll just slip behind Dulkadir, siege their capital, annex them, and then get peace with the Ottomans before much damage is done. That’s the plan anyways

BTW – Dulkadir is a Sunni state with a Sunni populace – so no hope for Christianity or Catholicism here. It’s merely an attack of opportunity.

May 4, 1469 – My navy is in the Gulf of Cyprus and there does not appear to be any visible troops in Adana. I declare war and launch my troops. We get a stability drop for not having a Casus Belli but it’s not as bad a drop as it would be if we had DOW’d a Catholic. We are still positive in stability, just barely so.

Modena has refused to honor our alliance but Athens has joined the cause. The Ottomans and Candar join the fight against us. Now, quick like a fox, quick like a fox, quick like a fox.

May 23, 1469 – Our 1st 1k in troops arrive to no resistance and begin the siege. I send my navy back for the other 1k.

June 24, 1469 – My other 1k in troops arrive and join the siege. In the meantime, there’s been a lot of cancelled trade agreements and embargoes placed. No battles except that Dulkadir sent my navy out of the Gulf of Cyprus once in a one day battle.

22 July 1469 – Finally some resistance as a large but demoralled Ottoman army engages us. Also today, Georgia was annexed into the Ottoman Empire. That’s bad. Also today, the Turks arrive in Athens and lay siege. I need to win in Adana, then sue for peace relatively quickly.

30 July, 1469 - We win the battle but lost 200 men. With this turn of events, and their attention that was turned elsewhere not resting fully on us, its time for peace. I offer a White Peace and it is accepted. Athens and us are now at peace with Dulkadir, the Ottomans and Candar. It was the right idea, but the wrong place and/or time.

I order my troops returned. This ain’t over yet. Time to push elsewhere.

It’s time to take Morea.

August 15, 1469 – Our stability increases, which is good. We need it to.

September 25, 1469 – My troops are back and I’ve moved them to Athens. I’m about to assault Morea. I declare war on them. Athens joins us. I march my men to battle. Wallachia joined battle against us.

October 12, 1469 – After a seven day battle, we win the Battle of Morea and our men begin the siege.

October 15, 1469 – Wallachia has accepted peace with Transylvania – full annexation. We are now no longer at war with the non-existent Wallachia and Morea stands or falls on her own! More to the point, an annexation by a power we were at war with previously led to us leaving that battle, but this time, it may aid us.

I move my slider towards innovative again. I can do this every sixteen years. I take another stability hit, but it’s easiest to restore stability when you are a one province country.

January 15, 1470 – We win the Siege of Morea. I annex Morea!

I drop my troop maintenance down to the minimum allowable again.

We now have a tarnished reputation. With the stability drop, we now break about even monthly, so we no longer have any monthly maintenance drops. This should improve our investment as our stability rises.

Let’s take a look at both of my provinces:

Naxos – 3434 people work the wineries here in the Duchy. The people here are Greek with Orthodox religion. It makes 2.1 ducats in taxes and produces a little over 10 per year at Thrace – the local center of trade where the wine is valued decently.

Morea – Also a Greek province, which is probably why it is not experiencing any rebel risk right now. We kept it all in the family, so to speak. They are also Orthodox as well. The people here also work the wine trade, making 1.14 ducats in taxes annually and sending around the same in trade to Thrace. There are 5726 people living here. This is a core province of the Ottomans. Ick.

Well, this should certainly change things a bit. I intend to stay clear of wars for a while, annex Athens diplomatically, until I get my reputation back up. We can’t DOW and annex in an aggressive war like this very often – it makes a lot of waves. But we needed the extra province, and I had to strike while the iron was hot after my failed war with Dulkadir and the investment in the military. Luckily, it paid off.

Nice movement!

So Lithuania-Hungary is turning into a blob I imagine? :D

Sorta like two blobs with Poland in the middle. Like a donut blob.

Can you post an updated map?

Let me see if I can figure that one out. Updated map. Hmm.

Also, I think I need to get this game. What is it, exactly? EUIII? Sounds really immersive.

Very much so. Here's a link to a thread here if you are interested. You can hear the good and bad.

http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...ghlight=Europa

Wroking on that map. I have a print screen and I added the country names in paint. Now I'm looking for a way to get it here.

I hope that this works. Here we go.







THIS WAS MY 4000TH POST!!! Again, since my WW posts were taken from me.

Very cool. I bet you're scared of the Ottomans - I would be.

What's the dark blue province south of Bosnia and west of Ottomans?

Montenegro - hard to write that in Paint :)

Years of Silence


After the war, I discover that I still have all 5 of my merchants in Venice! That’s pretty good. I only get 2.2 ducats annually now, though, so that dropped.

January 21, 1470 – Corfu is annexed by Venice. Ick.

February 19, 1470 – Trebizond is annexed by the Golden Horde. That’s two one province minors near me that are gone just like that.

May 4, 1470 – I get my first event! Peasants Getting Uppity. As a result, I have to choose either to give them a few freedoms or enforce serfdom. The result moves my slider either one towards serfdom or one towards free subjects.

What difference does this make? Serfdom makes it easier to recruit infantry, cheaper to buy stability, but the army morale, spy weakness, and production hits balance that out. Free subjects has the opposite strengths and weaknesses.

Which is better? I choose better morale for my army, and that’s free subjects. Choosing to side with the Peasants here will move my slider to the exact middle, so there will be no benefits or disadvantages.

There is no stability hit for making this choice as an event, so it’s essentially a free move, albeit not on a scale that I care much about. Now, if it had given me a chance on the quality/quantity scale or the land/naval scale or the innovative/narrowminded scale – that would have been really useful.

June 1, 1470 – Our stability increased

15 February, 1471 – Muscowy has offered us a Royal Marriage. I see no reason not to accept.

20 February, 1471 – Wanting a faster way out of my stability issues, I hire Bariq Abbinen as a court advisor. He costs me 1.2 ducats and 0.1 per month while helping out my investment in stability.

I check Venice and it appears that at some point in time recently I lost a merchant, but I don’t remember when. My purchase of Bariq means that I cannot send a merchant this year. Ah well.

March 1, 1471 – Modena offers us another alliance and I decide to take it again.

24 September, 1471 – Cesare I has taken over in Modena. He an amazing diplomat, and acceptable administrator and a weak war king.

8 October, 1471 – Modena wants to enter into a new royal marriage. I decide to accept.

12 November, 1471 – Milan offers us a royal marriage as well. What’s with all of the marriages all of the sudden this year? After review, I accept.

7 January, 1472 – Now Savoy wants a royal marriage. Again I agree, because it’s another small Italian nation, like Milan and Modena. Still, I have to wonder if something is up.

30 January 1472 – We expand our trade in Venice again. I hire a naval advisor to assist in our researches. His name is Linas Denhoff.

3 June, 1472 – I offer Lithuania a royal marriage and they accept.

1 February, 1473 – Bariq dies.

I don’t know when it happened, but I noticed that our reputation has increased to “slightly tarnished” from tarnished.

Also, Lithuania is experiencing a lot of rebellion in its southern-most provinces. Will this monster last or will it lose provinces as they revolt and defect? Who knows.

30 May, 1473 – Its now officially 20 years into the game.

31 May, 1473 – We sent up a merchant in Ile-de-France

August 1, 1473 – Stability increase

January 20, 1474 – I set up a merchant in Thrace. I figure that each January I’ll spend my money earned by setting up a merchant or two in the COTs that have space. I won’t bother telling you about the failures.

March 2, 1474 – We set up shop in Novgorod.

13 April, 1474 – Some country that’s not on the map and I;ve never even heard of (Funj) wrestled away our merchant in Thrace. Looks like we need to stick to COTs that are further in Europe.

17 July, 1474 – France declared war upon Lorraine. All of her vassals joined her. So did her ally Norway. Lorraine’s all, Cyprus, joined on her side. Now Cyprus is at war with France’s crew.

October 1, 1474 – I have a full slate of diplomats, so let’s send a few out. An alliance with Lithuania, who apparently cleaned up must of her rebel problem? In a war against the Turks, she’d be my best hope. They rejected our proposal.

Aragon and a royal marriage? Get us closer together? Accepted, so we are closer to Aragon.

November 13, 1474 – The Ottomans have finished their last war, this time defeating the Golden Horde. Will they turn their eyes towards Greece now?

10 October, 1475 – I have a diplomat and he is ready to go to Athens. I am going to offer them annexation. What happens now could be a major change in our destiny, or a major stumbling block.

Anxiety, I'm catching up on this thread while stuck in the hospital all week. So post frequent updates for me!

No promises sir :)

Harvesting Grain Before a Storm


Athens rejects our proposal of annexation. Ah well. I think I can identify several reasons:

1). We are just a two province country, nothing really large and major. It’s not like we can guarantee a really, really large empire or anything

2). Their leader is better than our leader.

3). We still have a slightly tarnished rep.


The combination of these three things leads me to conclude that now may not be the time for us to unite.

30th of November, 1475 – We ask Portugal for their hand in marriage and they agree.

February 14, 1476 – We set up in Thrace again. It’s one of the few places I can compete away a person as opposed to finding that open spot.

February 20, 1476 - Sitting on some extra diplomats, I decide to send them out for marriages, most turn me down but Bohemia agrees.

July 23, 1476 – More diplomats, royal marriage with France.

December 7, 1476 – The Ottomans are running at -3 stability with revolt risk up all over their country. They may need to play “we must protect this house” for a while instead of “mean land gobbler.”

17 January 1477 – We establish a second merchant in Thrace.

April 2, 1477 – Funj again drives one of our merchants out of business.

15 January, 1478 – We once again put a merchant in Thrace

Gathering Greeks II


I am considering another war. It’s been a while since our last war, and I think we need to expand if we are to get Athens to join us. Plus, we are still a bit poorer than many other nations, both is research and money. Let’s take a look at some targets:

Montenegro – Currently without any allies, Montenegro is an Orthodox nation also squeezed up against the Turks. It would be hard to defend if someone (read: The Ottoman Turks) wanted to attack. It had around 5000 people in the fish trade – not very wealthy.

The Knights – Attacking The Knights of St. John at Rhodes would give us another province close to ours, and it is also a Greek culture state. The people there are Orthodox. The Knights are allied with Transylvania and the Teutonic Order. They have 18000 people working the fishing trade. Poor in terms of production and trade wealth, but that’s a much better tax base than what I currently have.

Cyprus – 11250 people work the wine trade here, making Cyprus a solidly valuable province in terms both of size and industry. I’d be a leader in wine production with three wine provinces, that’d be neat. The people here are also Greek. They are father away than The Knights, and in the heart of Islam land, with the Mameluks or the Turks or Turk allies all around. Cyprus is allied with Lorraine.

I sent my boat to Cyprus and there are 1000 solders sitting here. I’d have a standing army too being this close to the enemy. Next I sail over to Montenegro.

Rhodes has no army currently. Neither does Montenegro.


These are really the only options. I mean, I could try Dulkadir or Karamon, the Ottoman allies. I could also try Siena, on the west coast of Italy just above Rome, but that’s really far away.

Montenegro is easy to take off the list, leaving The Knights and Cyprus. I could attack The Knights, take the badboy hit for attacking and annexing – major hits, and then chill out again for a while. On the other hand, I could try to Claim Cyrpus’s throne. We are married, and that would give me a casus belli – a reason to attack them without pissing other countries off or losing stability. I’d still take a hit for annexing them. And other countries with whom I have a royal marriage would be very cross with me, and that’s not what I want to do right now.

So, although Cyprus is the better prize, The Knights appear to be the better target.


March 14, 1778 – We declare war on The Knights. Our stability drops. Modena does not support us but Athens does. Transylvania and The Teutonic Order join The Knights.

March 26, 1778 – The Siege of Rhodes begins.

June 1, 1778 – Our production tech increases, we can now build a workshop in our provinces.

19 October, 1778 – After 211 days, Rhodes falls.

21 October, 1778 – The Knights accept our peace terms and we annex Rhodes. We lost some rep with all Catholics around the world, including Athens.

Oh, and I also gained a ship too.

1 January 1779 – I hire Zygfried Denhoff, a court advisor who will help increase our prestige in the eyes of the world.

27, February 1779 – Transylvania accepts our white peace offer.

24 April, 1779 – The Teutonic Order rejects our white peace offer. Makes sense that they’d get upset at us offing a fellow Order.

I just noticed that Rhodes has a workshop.

4 August, 1779 – They again reject my offer.

1 September, 1779 – Our stability increased

12 October, 1779 – The Teutonic Order accepted our peace offer. That ties up the last end from the war that gave us Rhodes.

18 October, 1779 – The Teutonic Order lifts their embargo of us.

Really enjoying your dynasty I was wondering what are your goals for your little country?

Well, early on, just to survive! The Turks WILL attack eventually. They currently have four countries they have a Casus Belli on because we have provinces that they have a historical claim to - Us (Morea Province), Athens, Venice (Corfu) and Transylvania (Wallachia).

That means I need land, money, and tech. I need to spread, build my military, have the money to hire a decent army, etc.

Later I may have more goals, but for now, it's get better in every way as fast as possible.

Flocking to the Shepherd


13 May, 1780 – I have the first event in a while. Our Merchants have apparently been getting Harassed. The Ottomans have apparently been harassing my peops. I can press the claim and get a Casus Belli, probably temporarily, against them, or I can solve it diplomatically and have our relations increase significantly.

Well, I’m not going to attack the Ottomans. Might as well get the relation gain. Our relations are bad, but not that bad these days.

4 June, 1780 – Lorraine is annexed by France after a short war. There goes Cyprus’s ally.

29 August 1781 – A BEAUTIFUL thing happened today. Today, Cyprus offered us an alliance. Amazing! I’ll take it in seconds. This is great. We need to get our mutual relations up, but we now have all of the requirements to offer them vassalization, barring the relations.

February 2, 1782 - I want to start making money again. I fire my advisors. Well, I wanted to, until someone dropped a nice stability advisor for one of the naval advisors I dropped. I grab Revaz Asrendiz.

9 April, 1782 – Francesco II died and we have a new ruler. Francesco III has taken the throne. He’s adequate in diplomacy and administration, but solid at things marshal. (4 Admin, 4 diplomacy and 6 military in case you care)

20 May, 1782 – Sweden sends us a royal marriage proposal and I accept.

1 June, 1782 – Our stability increased Revaz is already working!

1 August, 1782 – Our naval technology increased. This is largely the work of those naval advisors I had.

8 May, 1783 – Montenegro joined Wallachia in a war against Poland, Transylvania and Mazovia.

13 November, 1783 – Lithuania just took a massive five provinces in a peace accord with the Teutonic Order. Geez.

10 December, 1783 – The new Wallachia that was formed by a rebellious state has been annexed by Transylvania.

7 March, 1784 – Lithuania offers me a royal marriage. I obviously agree.

16 September, 1784 – Montenegro and Poland are at peace.

23 September 1784 – A royal marriage offer from Savoy is met with happiness!

Several of our royal marriages have expired, including the one we had with Cyprus. I send them an offer to renew our vows.

I musta missed an Aragon – Venice war, because one broke out and they are fighting now. Wanted to get ya caught up on current events.

24 September, 1784 – We enter into a royal marriage with Cyprus!

25 September, 1784 – We enter into a royal marriage with Aragon!

12 February, 1785 – I fire my newest advisor, as we are getting close to the next upgrade and I don’t want to keep this additional cost.

8 March, 1785 – There’s a new king in Cyprus. Jacques II is great at diplomacy, decent at admin and very, very poor at the fighting.

9 July, 1785 – I can change another slider, which I forgot I needed to do, which lowers my stability, which I need my guy for, and I dumped him like an idiot. Tsk tsk, teaches me for not looking ahead. That was a rookie mistake.

I decide to take another step towards begin Innovative.

1 August, 1785 – Our stability increases. At first you might think that a good thing that it raised back so quickly. It’s not. We wasted some serious over-production. Each level of stability increase takes more than the previous one, and we had yet to reach the top level, and needed some more before hitting that top level, but the drop knocked us below what was needed to raise while what we had actually raised was well over. My advisors anticipate that at my current rate of investment and funding it will not be until March, 1491. Six more years! I may alter the funding, but you get the idea.

15 November, 1786 – We get another Merchants Harassed event, and again I choose to settle it diplomatically with the Turks. Our relationship again jumps. Is this what has been keeping us out of war with the Ottomans?

1 February, 1787 – The first nations are adopting a second national idea (needs several more government techs than we do.) Despite our innovativeness and our getting the Scientific Advancement national idea – we are still far behind. It’s because our people are Orthodox and we are Catholic and because we are in the Orthodox group – both. This is the result.

21 July, 1787 – A royal marriage from Milan is accepted.

3 February, 1788 – I decide to offer Athens annexation on a flyer. Maybe this time they’ll accept.

They do.


This is a good time to look at our nation, in alpha order:

Athens – 22513 people fish here in Athens. They create several ducats in taxes each year, but few in production as fish is not a major trade good. The people here are Greek and Orthodox. This province does not have the normal -30% taxes normally associated with not being connected to the capital by land.

Morea – 6625 Orthodox Greeks work the winefields and wineries here in south Greece. The taxes here are few, but the production value is pretty solid. This province does have the normal 30% for not being land connected, despite being adjacent to Athens.

Naxos – Our capital is also our smallest province by people. Just 3974 people here also work the grape and wine business. Like Morea, the people here are both Orthodox and Greek.

Rhodes – Our most recent military acquisition is the small island of Rhodes. 19541 people work the fish trade here, and like Athens, the Greek Orthodox people here give us a solid tax base but little production value.

Are you seeing major improvements in EU3 as compared to EU2?

This dynasty is making me want to fire up CK and start a game, and play it through EU2, Victoria and HoI2:D

I'm not sold on it yet. The same COT system is in here. Does it have the same four game changing events? We'll find out soon, because the first (The Treaty of Tordesillas) is around the corner. The game covers less time than the previous one - is it shorter to play? The tech difference between me and Italian minors is lready significant - are Catholics too strong in this area?

Those are the types of questions I have and I think of more all of the time. I guess we'll see.


EDIT: One issue I do have is with court advisors. There are a lot of court adivsors in the game, and hte unhired ones are in a pool. An advisor can be created at any time or released from another country. You have no way of knowing when the good advisors are available for pickup. The AI, on the other hand, knows exactly when it happens - so they get all of the good advisors in the best areas and all that are left are chumps that advise in poor areas - like extra spies or extra missionaries or somesuch. That's a real flaw, as countries not you have great advisors and you have dull ones.

Calm Times Come in Years of Three


28 June, 1488 – Another royal marriage offer from Lithuania and again accepted. My guess is that a new king took over and the old marriage was null and void.

5 July, 1488 – Hesse offers us an alliance. I am mulling it over. I do want an alliance outside of Cyprus now that Athens is no longer an ally nor a vassal but part of our state. However, Hesse is far removed and only a three province nation. As a result, I’d prefer someone closer or someone more powerful. I say no.

10 August, 1488 – An alliance offer from Pommerania has arrived. I refuse to ally myself with a country that is almost as far north as Scandinavia.

8 December, 1488 – An alliance offer from Austria has arrived. Now this is more interesting. Let me check out a few things.

Austria is a ten province power but she’s all spread out, from as west as eastern France to up against Lithuania. Some of her provinces aren’t even connected. She’s at least five provinces from the Turks at her closest. Her one ally is single province Baden.

The good here is that she would be a powerful ally compared to the chumps I normally align myself with. It’d give potential attackers of a smaller size something to question. But I don’t think it would stop the Turks. The good relationship I’m building with the Turks, on the other hand, may be working.

The bad here is that I might get pulled into wars in Germany and central eastern Europe. Frankly, I don’t care about these areas in the least. I’m trying to rebuild the Greek empire here, and I don’t care about Austria having hissy fits with Bavaria.

In summation, they may not be the best ally for me. (Where art thou Lithuania, Venice or Aragon?) But they are better than I’ve ever had, so I accept.

9 April, 1489 – The War of Bohemian Succession has begun. The Bohemian king died and left the throne to Transylvania. Mazovia claims that the king was not of sound mind on his deathbed. Poland joins their allies, Transylvania.

Lithuania is having serious rebel problems.

15 May, 1489 – Austria has declared war against Bavaria. I called that! Baden has joined Austria and this is great, ready? Bavaria’s ally – MODENA – chooses to leave the alliance. That’s right, Modena is still not honoring her alliances, eh?

Unfortunately, this is exactly the problem I foresaw in allying with Austria. Best to get out of this alliance now. I dishonor our pact.

3 March, 1490 – Denmark offers us an alliance. I again shirk off a northern European nation’s overtures.

20 April, 1490 – The Ottomans declare war against Bosnia. Their three allies (Candar, Karaman, and Dulkadir) join them. Montengro joins Bosnia against the Ottomans (are they crazy?)

19 July, 1490 – Montenegro has been annexed by the Turks. That was fast. And so goes another nation falling before the Ottomans.

19 February, 1491 – Poland dishonors their alliance with Lithuania, leaving them ally-less. I feel this is the perfect opportunity to offer my services as the new ally of Lithuania.

They reject my offer

20 March, 1491 – I send a new offer to Lithuania. This time, after considering my proposal, they accept!

and the Lithuanian blob grows. :D

I'm tempted to start an EU3 dynasty myself now, though I should probably get around to installing and just messing around with the game itself before writing a dynasty that'd probably get aborted :D

You don't have date based pre-determined events in Eu3 like Eu2. The events in Eu3 are based on what else has happened in Eu3. SO I don't believe you will be seeing The Treaty of Tordesillas show up. Eu3 is more of a start in a certain scenerio and then see how history plays out this time type of thing instead. Its not predeterministic.

Some things should be. The Catholic Church is on a crash course and the splinters will be Protestantism. There will be protestants. That's one of the game changing events, and it seems like it should happen - no matter what, you know?

Ending a Mistake


Lithuania apparently has around 5 provinces in rebellion and around 5000 rebels attacking another province, while a few Lithuanian troops are laying siege to one of the rebel provinces. They may be a bit too big.

28 April, 1491 – Burgundy wants a Royal Marriage and that’s fine by me.

23 May, 1491 – Moscowy wants a Royal Marriage and again I agree.

30 May, 1491 – Austria inherited Mecklenberg

1 July, 1491 – Land Tech increased

15 September, 1491 – Someone chose to give us 50 ducats. I’m choosing to put it into the treasury!

What to do with my windfall? I could build a workshop in a province, like Athens. That’d be a nice bonus.

I could use the money to make nice with Cyprus and then try to get them to accept vassalization. If it worked, that’d pay off more in the end than the workshop would.

I’m going to take the “make nice” path.

1 August, 1492 – I have spent all of my money and diplomats getting our relationship with Cyprus up almost to the max. Now, when I get my next diplomat, we’ll see if it pays off or not.

1 October, 1492 – It’s time for me to send a vassalization offer, but I’m told that it is very unlikely to fail. As a result, I decide to sit on the reputation increase for a while, and try later. Hopefully this will all pay off.

11 November, 1492 – Moscowy has declared war upon Lithuania and the Qasim Khanate has joined their ally. I have agreed to help our ally, but I’ll obviously just let them fight it out and officially remain neutral. It the meantime, I get a lowered maintenance on my troops because we are at war, so it’s not all bad. I also get an extra diplomat a year while in war to help me replace the ones just used on Cyprus.

1 January, 1493 – Our stability is raised and we are at the max again!

8 February, 1493 – A new kings sits on the Lithuanian throne

Recently our reputation climbed back up to slightly tarnished.

17 August, 1493 – An unexpected ally has joined our cause. The Ottomans and their allies have declared war upon the Qasim Khanate, and Muscowy joined the Khanate. As a result, the Ottomans are on our side in this war!

14 December, 1493 – Muscowy has sent a peace offer to us. I refuse because they want money.

1 January, 1494 – Hungary declared war on Lithuania. That’s right – Hungary. Hungary declared independence from Lithuania – she let the rebels go on too long.

Without her southern provinces, Lithuania no longer intrigues me as an ally. I use the rebellion as an excuse to break our alliance and do not join her in a war with a power that’s not that far away from me.

Yeah, some stuff still occurs such as kingdoms inheriting other kingdoms, the spread of reformism, etc.. Just that you don't have preset dates where X-event happens to join country Y and Z anymore. You may play one game where Aragon gets inherited by Castille, and the next they don't.

The Greeks Continue to be Sheep


10 February, 1494 – I offered the new Hungarian state a royal marriage and they agree.

4 April, 1494 – The Crimea has annexed the Qasim Khanate. In other news, Venice is still at war with Aragon, and they are started to have rebellions. The highly unlikely best case scenario is for revolters to capture Crete, and then for it to defect to us.

5 May, 1494 – I reject another peace offer from Muscowy due to them demanding ducats.

The Ottoman Empire has some issues with rebels as well with its mighty -3 stability. (The worst it gets)

22 August, 1494 – Damn Muscovites again rejected a white peace proposal.

1 September, 1494 – An AMAZING thing happened today! Morea became one of our core provinces! Morea is now considered part of our patrimony, and has fully accepted our rule! As a result, the taxes in Morea have gone up slightly.

17 October, 1494 – I decline another Muscowy demand for peace and money.

18 December, 1494 – They finally accept our white peace offer. We are now at total peace.

23 December, 1494 – Hungary guarantees their future existence by winning the war against Lithuania.

1 January, 1495 – After Morea became a core providence, we now get around 6 ducats annually instead of a little over 3.

9 July, 1495 – Venice annexed Milan through war. There is now no more Milan.

22 September, 1495 – Poland offers us a royal marriage and I gladly accept.

28, October, 1495 – After being under rebellion for a while, Dalmatia, formerly a province of Venice, has declared independence as Croatia.

6 November, 1495 – Our King has died. Francesco IV has taken the throne. He’s good with administration (a 6 outta 10), a great military mind (8 outta 10) and a solid diplomacy (5 outta 10).

Immediately, Cyprus offers us a new royal marriage to celebrate Francesco IV’s rise to the throne. I agree. I check to see if Cyprus would be more interested in vassalization now, and our court advisors say that it would be unlikely for Cyprus to say yes. That’s up from very unlikely. I decide to take a shot before I officially agree to the royal marriage. That way, if they reject the offer, I then accept the royal marriage, and our relations will increase.

Cyprus accepts our offer, and are now officially our vassals. Looks like the money spent to curry favor was well earned!

I was only interesting in the game changing events - The Treaty, Protestantism, Reformation, the Counter-Reform Movement, and then Tolerance.

Illusions of Grandeur


1 June, 1496 – Ragusa declares independence from Venice.

16 July, 1496 – Pommerania offers us a Royal marriage. I accept.

18 July, 1496 – Aragon rejects our royal marriage proposal. Bastards.

2 August, 1496 – The Irish dukes go to war after one dies and will’s his throne to another.

23 August, 1496 – We enter into a royal marriage with Hungary after I send an envoy.

1 September, 1496 – Our Trade Tech increased.

24 October, 1496 – Mazovia offers us a Royal Marriage and I agree, of course.

13 November, 1496 – Mazovia follow up with an alliance offer, but its too far north. No sense allying with a Russian power.

22 March, 1497 – Tripoli has ceded two of their provinces to the Mameluks. They are left with just their capital – a nice, wealthy, Ivory state. This would be a perfect opportunity to cherry pick a plumb reward here in the Mediterranean. I send my fleet over to investigate after loading it with all of my troops.

Outside of Egypt, Tripolitania, Tlemcen and Oran are the only North African provinces worth having. Seeing one available right now makes my mouth water.

I really wasn’t expecting to go to war anytime soon. I was expecting to wait until I had Cyprus fully annexed before moving militarily to expand, but I can’t quabble over opportunity.

25 April, 1497 – Sweden offers us an alliance, and I turn them down.

26 April, 1497 – My fleet arrives off the shores of Tripoli and I am happy to discover that there are no defensive troops there at all. How can I not pick this plum?

Stealing Candy


26 April, 1497 – I declare war on alliance-less, army-less Tripoli. My stability drops twice for declaring war without a Casus Belli. I order my 1850 troops to disembark and begin the siege of Tripoli.

27 April, 1497 – Cyprus joined us.

4 May, 1497- The Siege of Tripoli has begun.

27 July, 1497 – Saxony wants an alliance. I thank them, but no.

1 September, 1497 – Our government tech has increased

30 September, 1497 – Venice has requested military access, and I don’t mind, so I agree.

30 October, 1497 – After 181 days, Tripolitania is ours.

31 October, 1497 – Tripoli has agreed to be annexed by us.

8 Nivember, 1497 – The North African states protest our rule. Tunisia declares war upon us. Algiers and The Mamluks join them. We are now at war with North Africa. Cyprus joins us.

Thought you might want a new map before I begin this war:

Why did you attack Tripoli? Easy pickings?

A province generates two major forms of wealth - taxes and production. Many things affect taxes - the population, are they the same religion or not, are they the same culture or not, are they land connected to your capital or not, your internal policies and those sliders, etc. Take muslim provinces would not nomrally pan out, because of the tax hit that woudl accompany it - there are several penalties in play.

The other form of wealth is production, which remains relatively stable and is based around the good. In this case, Tripolitania Province's good is Ivory a very, very wealthy good - probably the best you'll find in this area of Europe/Asia/Middle East. There might be sugar or spices or coffee somewhere in the ME that I haven't seen or something, but Ivory is just about the best you are going to do here. Taking this province will get me a major production income, despite the lack of tax income.

So, here is this ripened fruit with no army, no ally just sitting there and waiting to be taken. Why wouldn't I want to grab that? I need to get land away from the Turks, and this is really far away from them. It's nearby - just two sea spaces away, and valuable.

I just didn;t expect the eh, warm greeting by my fellow North African Neighbors

Lamentations


I need to create a strategy for victory. Here are the things I need to do.

1). Up the maintenance on my navies and armies.

2). Order more troops over in the main areas of Naxos. I order 2000k Azab Infantry built in Athens and Morea (my best infantry, but can only be built in Athens and Morea)

3). I turn my really good military leader into a general for my armies. Francesco IV makes a great general!

4). I change my production income to cover the increased price of my army.

The strategy:

I have a fleet with two ships and around 1850 men that have just finished boarding in the Malta Channel. I can slide my fleet to the Gulf of Gabes and strike at Tunisia. I am not looking for land in this war, but I’d be happy with some ducats and having Tunis give up their claim to Tripolitania.

Then I send my fleet back to my shores and wait for the new armies to be built, and then curry both them and my newly minted general back to the shores of Tripoli or Tunisia. These troops, plus my first attack, knock Tunis down. Tunis declared war. Get peace with them quickly, and I may get peace with them all quickly.

Problems: My army doesn’t have a lot of financial support and needs a few months to get back up to speed. In the meantime, if Tunis has any defensive troops, or if Algiers can mobilize what they have quickly, they could really ruin what I have. Part of this will be seen as soon as my fleet arrives in the Gulf of Gabes. I’ll have a better idea then.

18 November, 1497 – Okay, my fleet has arrived in the Gulf. Tunisia has no troops in either Gabes (which is next to Tripolitania) or in Tunis itself, the capital. Now I have a choice to make. Send my troops to the capital and try to besiege it, or do the same for Gabes. If Algiers has troops, then they’ll arrive more quickly in Tunis than Gabes, but capturing Tunis will end the war with them, doing so with Gabes may not.

Unfortunately, Tunis has a bunch of boats in harbor, and they are about to pop out. My fleet cannot win with its lowered maintenance. I need to run now.

29 November, 1497 – My troops arrive back in Tripolitania after my fleet returned. Now I’m popping my fleet back to Morea to pick up the new soldiers when they are built.

6 December, 1497 – Our fleet is docked in Morea.

21 December, 1497 – My troops arrive in Gabes. Stay here or move on to Tunis? Well, since Gabes has no fort, we just captured it! I move my troops on to Tunis.

12 January, 1498 – My new troops are built. I’m grab my new leader, load them, and them send them off.

14 January, 1498 – My old troops arrive in Tunis and begin the siege.

16 January, 1498 – An Algiers Fleet arrives in the Aegean Sea.

6 February, 1498 – My new troops are loaded and ready to go. New decision. Go after Algiers? Support the Tunis troops? Harass the Mamluks?

Mamluks, I Choose You!

14 February, 1498 – I send my troops to Beirut. Why Beirut? It’s near Cyprus, so I can support my ally if Mamluks try to attack them. Beirut also doesn’t have walls, so it’s an easy capture. Plus there are no troops nearby, so I can be here for a while.

Around 1000 rebels in Sirt (the Mamluks province adjacent to Tripolitania) are rebelling. Might slow down the Mamluks!

24 February, 1498 – We capture Beirut when our troops unload.

26 March, 1498 – Mamluks reject our offer of white peace.

23 April, 1498 – Algiers has sent an army to challenge our siege of Tunis.

25 April, 1498 – My troops are caught in Damascus by Mamluks Calvary.

28 April, 1498 – Mamluks have arrived to besiege us in Tripolitania.

4 May, 1498 – After losing the battle of Damascus greatly, I choose to retreat to Beirut.

3 June, 1498 – My newer army arrives back in Tripolitania only to fight the Mamluks here.

7 June, 1498 – We drive the Mamluks out of Tripolitania. I order my men to follow.

23 June, 1498 – We won the Battle of Tunis after a great battle.

13 July, 1498 – Tunis falls!

15 July, 1498 – My army defeated the Mamluks in Sirt but it was close. I order them back to Tripolitania.

2 October, 1498 – The Mamluks offer to pay us 6 ducats if our entire alliance agrees to peace with their entire alliance. I take the deal.

4 November, 1498 – Anathos D’Anoe has arrive din Rhodes and is an advisor available exclusively to me for a year, after that, if I don’t hire him, he goes into the general pool. He’s a natural scientist, which mean that he’ll help our tech investment in production. He costs 3.1 ducats to hire and 0.1 monthly. I hire him without hesitation.

One thing about the war that surprised me was that when I sacked Tunis, I did not get her maps. I should know what she knows, but I do not. That was very disappointing. They removed the trade maps ability from diplomacy, and now you don’t get them when you sack a capital? How are you supposed to get new maps, then?

Can the capital ever move?

It almost sounds like you'd be better advised to move to Tripoli when it becomes a core.

Some updates:

Looks like you can only change a capital as an edit of the files. Maybe some events will help here.

On maps. In EU2, you get expand your map by the following:

1). Getting an explorer or conquistador and sending them into Terra Incognita (either sea or land, respectively.)

2). Capturing the capital of a nation that had maps

3). Annexing a nation that had maps (after all, you get their entire military, you should get their charts as well, right?)

4). If you were at war with a country, you could march an army into enemy TI but it was very slow. This prevented hit and fade tactics by the AI jumping into TI, and it allowed you to continue to wage war.

5). Capturing the rudders of ships. If you won a naval battle, there was a slight chance that you would get that nation's maps as part of your capture. Since in this game, you can actually capture ships at sea, this would make even more sense in EU3.

6). One diplomatic activity was the trading of maps. Sometimes this worked out a bit cheap, so I'd understand why they puilled it out. (In fifty years, I could have a map of the known world if I cared to by continuing to trade maps with countries. )


In EU3, there are two ways:

1). Way the first. Explore with conquistadors and explorers. In order to get them, you need to get the Quest for the New World national idea.

2). A new way. After 50 years of a nation in a tech group knowing about a place on its map, everybody in that tech group gets that place. As orthodox, I will never get Catholic tech maps. Feh.

And that's it.



6).

Brother Against Brother


12 January, 1499 – We get an event. Regulation of the Medical Profession. States began to expand the number of doctors and midwives. I get two choices.

Choice the First, “Let’s Use This Knowledge”: Morea gets Medical Evolution for 500 days: Population Growth Rate increases by 10%. I’d get another 2k per year or so, so maybe another 3.2-3.5 k overall. That’s not bad.

Choice the Second, “Let’s Keep Studying”: Get a free move towards Innovate on the policy sliders – no stability hit or anything. I’ll take the permanent policy slider move.

6 March, 1500 – We get another event. Military Reform. Francesco IV has begun a wide sweeping reform of the military. I have three choices this time.

1: Only Reform the Army – Innovate and quality increase by 1, 1000 ducats invested in land tech, Naxos gets Land Reform for 200 days which increases morale, reduces maintenance costs, etc.
2: Only Reform the Navy – Innovate and quality still increase by 1, investment is in naval reform, ability goes to Naxos and has the same effects for 200 days.
3: Reform Both – Innovate and quality each gain 1 again. 400 ducats invested in each. Military reform in Naxos for 200 days.

Since I’m getting innovative and quality for sure, I decide on Army Reform.

I’m actually now one step more innovative than I wanted to be. Ah well.

24 August, 1500 – Austria offers us an alliance. I thank them but decline.

8 February, 1501 – I now have a full slate of merchants in Liguria, which is Genoa’s center of trade in northwest Italy.

15 February, 1501 – Like it was a prize, Genoa just offered me an alliance. I decline.

17 March, 1501 – I send a royal marriage proposal to Croatia, and they agree.

15 July, 1501 – I can move my sliders again. There are several things I am looking at:

Quality over Quantity – My military machine will not be able to produce mad amounts of troops – so let’s focus on making them better, not bulkier. This helps troop morale and increase my leader’s fire characteristic, but makes troops more expensive to purchase while decreasing our manpower.

Offensive over Defensive – Our troops benefit from higher morale and higher leader shock value in exchange for an increased artillery cost.

Free Trade over Mercantilism – We are very Mercantilistic, and I’d like to eventually change all of that. Moving towards free trade would increase my cost to send merchants, increase the number of merchants I have, and decrease my spies while increasing my colonist production.


We are maxed at Innovative – here is what its like: Land Tech, Naval Tech, Production Tech, Trade Tech and Government Tech research are all at +10%! On the other hand, my stability rise cost has also risen by 25%! And I can’t make any missionaries nor colonists and I’m losing the ones I did have.


I decide to take Offensive move. I need to up my armies. The morale bonus is fine but the disadvantage can’t be felt yet, so for now, it’s a free move.


1 August, 1501 – Our stability increases.

5 September, 1501 – I again decline Pommeranian offers of an alliance.

12 October, 1501 – Genoa just got in a major war. Glad I wasn’t part of that.

15 October, 1501 – Aragon and Venice have finally declared peace. No land changed hands. Venice is still at war with another nation and has a huge revolt risk because of war exhaustion. Still hoping for Crete to rebel, or maybe Corfu.

7 November, 1501 – Tuscany offers us an alliance. Another declination.

1 February, 1502 – Our land tech increases.

6 April, 1502 – Mamluks declared war upon Candar. The Ottomans joined Candar. Dulkadir dishonored their alliance with Candar. Tunisia joined the Mamluks. Note that Karamon and Algiers are not involved – but since the Ottomans are now at war with Mamluks – the sand will be awash with Muslim blood.

An Unlikely Inheritance


20 April, 1502 – I send a royal marriage offer to Austria and they accept.

13 May, 1502 – We enter into a royal marriage with Aragon.

I get a missive from the Ottomans. They request military access. I’m inclined to grant it. We’ve yet to go to war, it’d give them another reason not to kill us, and they’d have to cancel military access before attacking, so we’d have a warning. My guess is that they want to use Tripolitania as a staging ground.

15 May, 1502 – Crimea entered into an alliance with Dulkadir.

7 June, 1502 – I accept a royal marriage offer from Bavaria.

28 August, 1502 – I don’t know when it started, but while I was sailing my fleet past Crete while observing the unfolding Ottoman-Mamluk war, I saw that rebels were besieging Crete!

10 September, 1502 – I decline an alliance offer from Austria.

9 October, 1502 – We have inherited the throne of Modena upon the death of the last Scion of the line in battle! I have instantly and dynastically added four provinces to our nation!

4 November, 1502 – Venice is being besieged by 4000 rebels.

29 November, 1502 – Venezia falls to rebels.

Venetian rebels are all over the place. I decide to load up my armies and send them to my new provinces to protect them from over-zealous revolutionaries.

3 December, 1502 – I decline an offer of alliance from Sweden.

20 December, 1502 – Venice finally declares peace with their last enemy – Savoy. Now they have much to repair.

5 January, 1503 – Venice is offering us an alliance.

Venice.

There was a time when I would have died for an alliance offer from Venice. As one of the Mediteranean powers (After Aragon, Mamluks then comes Venice), I would have died for an alliance.

Now I’m a power with nine provinces and a vassal. Not a major power, I’ll grant you, but a solid enough one. I’d rather tie myself to a smaller nation like Croatia or Ragusa and then offer them vassalization than ally myself with a weaker medium level power. I’d still jump at the opportunity to ally myself with Aragon. But Venice?

Not any more. I reject their proposal.

I release Bern as the new Switzerland, and our vassal. I have no desire to keep it. It also lowers our badboy image in the eyes of other countries when we voluntarily surrender land.

10 January, 1503 – The Papal States and their allies (Siena and Wurtemberg) declare war against Venice. They are pounding Venice in Europe, geez!

3 March, 1503 – I get an alliance offer from Genoa. This time, I consider it more. Could I get Genoa to the point where her three provinces would join us as vassals? All three suit my long term Mediterranean goals (Liguria is a COT and Italian/French province, Corsica is an island, and that province in the Black Sea is nice too.)

However, I realize that someday I may want to attack Genoa to grab her lands, so I need to be non-allied.

March 10, 1503 - I get an event:

Revolt in Tripolotania. Differences in culture and religion have created an environment of rebellion in Tripolitania. How do I handle it?

1 – Ignore Them. Two rebel regiments rise up against us in Tripolitania.

2 – Lower Taxes. 730 days the taxes in Tripolitania are reduced by 10%. Our prestige ranking lowered by 1.

I choose option number two – the peaceful one.

30 April, 1503 – Crete falls to rebels.

30 May, 1503 – Our 50 years anniversary arrives. Time for a look back.

The 50 year retrospective:


Naxos: We began the era with only the Duchy of Naxos at our hand. In the past 50 years, we’ve grown to 4489 people working the wine trade. We only make around 5.5 ducats annually in taxes and production combined – hardly a plum province, yet the wine trade gives us what wealth we do get. Nobody, other than us of course, has this province as a core province.


Morea: We set our sights on adding the fellow Greek state, Morea, to our nation. As a Catholic in charge of Orthodox Christians, we have problems collecting taxes and inspiring work. Many of our fellow Catholic nations were in the same boat, but Morea was an Orthodox nation, and thus returning her to the glory that is the Catholic Church was worth attacking her first. Morea has 7485 people working the wine trade. We get almost 6 ducats from Morea. She has since became a core and vital part of our nation. The Ottomans have Morea as a core province.

Rhodes: After a peaceful period, we then set our sights on The Knights of St. John, currently in administration over the island of Rhodes. We decided to bring our fellow Greeks into our fold. A quick and decisive campaign brought Rhodes to us as our third state. Rhodes has 22075 people working the fish trade here. Because of the disconnect form our capital and the religious difference, we only make a little over 2 ducats annually from Rhodes, combined production and taxes. Nobody has this province as a core province.


Athens: After conquering Rhodes, there was another decade of quiet, until we annexed peacefully the state of Athens. The 25433 people here also work the fish trade, with around 4.7 ducats annually being yielded. The Ottomans has Athens as a core province.

All four of these provinces are Orthodox.

Tripolitania – After another period of calm and quiet, we began a war against the beleaguered nation of Tripoli. A fast victory against the Islamic nation brought the North African province of Tripolitania into our nation. We get 12.95 ducats here annually, although 12.56 of it comes from the ivory trade here. The 29881 people here work the ivory trade but only send us a little in taxes each year. This is largely because of cultural, religious and distance that create a void between us. The people here are Sunni. Tunisia has Tripolitania as a core province.

Ferarra – 57741 people work the salt trade in this province located just south of Venice proper. Ferarra was one of four provinces brought into our fold when Modena ceased to be a country and we inherited her provinces. 15.79 ducats are made here annually for us. The people here are Catholic and Lombard. The province came with a University, Workshop, Marketplace and Temple. Nobody has this province as a core province.

Modena – Modena proper has 42437 people working the wine trade making 14 ducats for us annually. Modena is located southwest of Ferarra and on the west coast of the Italian Peninsula. The people here are also Lombard and Catholic. His province came with a temple and a university. Nobody has this province as a core province.

Parma – The province of Parma is north of Modena and is the uppermost province still on the west coast of the Italian peninsula, snuggled up against the European mainland. Like the other provinces from the Modenan Succession, Parma is Lombard and Catholic with a temple and university. The wine trade is also popular here, with 61999 people creating 14.45 ducats annually for us in combined tax and production. Nobody has this province as a core province.


Vassals:


Cyprus: Gained eight years ago, the province of Cyprus is wine province with 13671 people and is also Greek Orthodox like so many of our provinces. It is hoped that Cyrpus will join our fold one day voluntarily.

Switzerland: The former province of Bern was captured by Modena in war and then passed on to us one of her provinces. We had no desire for a province up on the Alps. It is currently under assault by Venetian rebels who made their way there after capturing a Venetian province. 4381 people work the iron mines here in Bern.


Military:

We have four regiments, three of which are currently stationed in Ferrara to handle any rebels that come our way. The remaining 1000 are stationed in Tripolitania as a garrison force and front line defense.

We have two cog ships that are currently sailing the Gulf of Taranto and observing a rebel siege of Corfu.

What exactly is a "vassal" in this game?

Basically someone who gives you money

It's an independant country that is a part of your umbrella, sphere of influence so to speak. They pay you have of their monthly income, but none of their annual income. You can ask a country with who is your vassal to be annexed by your country and it requires a virtually maximized relationship and ten years as your vassal.

There are three ways you can have a vassal.

1) Release a part of your country which has an independant streak. This is determined by what the developers consider an independant streak to be, but virtually every European province counts. You release them as a vassal with the same religion as you and maxed relations. In my case, Switzerland has been annexed by Venice and thus I was able to relese Bern, one half of Switzerland, as a new Switzerland as my vassal

2) Get a vassalization diplomatically. This requires a royal marriage (which means they have to be able to do royal marriages. Some European countries are not monarchies - like Venice, Ragusa, Genoa, Tuscany, etc. Also, while Christians can always intermarry, as can muslims from Sunni to Shiite, there's no intermarrying across religions - I'd have to check to see what Hindu, Confuciousism, and Buddhism rules are.) and an alliance and virtually maxed relations. You also typically need to be bigger and better than that country.

3). Vassalize in war. You can vassalize anybody in war, regardless of religion or government type. This was the most common form in the Middle Ages. Many countries were vassals of other countires (Granada of Castille, Wallachia of the Ottomans, etc)


Hope that helps!

Another example of real life vassalizaiotn would be mnay of the Crusader States that popped up during the Crusades as European powers took land so far away that they didn;t want to bother ruling it. The Duchy of Naxos was a Crusader State (sometimes referred to as The Duchy of the Archipelago)

-Anxiety

Entangling Alliances



20 August, 1503 – I reject an alliance offer from Wurttemberg.

1 September, 1503 – The Venice government is broken by rebels, and they take over. The new Venice government has arrived. That means no more rebellions in Corfu or Crete, and no more need to worry about Venetian rebels exporting to my provinces.

1 November, 1503 – Rhodes is now officially part of our patrimony, and we get a core province bonus from it!

1 December, 1503 – The rebels captured Bern, and Switzerland is broken. They are still our vassal, just new people are in control – loss of financial stability, inflation, etc.

1 January, 1504 – AMAZING!!!!! Anakethos Getsi has arrived in Athens. He is a major advisor on a massive level. He is a six star government advisor. Unfortunately, I cannot afford him. He requires 18.7 ducats annually and 0.6 monthly. However, I only have 13 ducats right now. I have a year to figure out what to do with him. Otherwise, he goes to the general pool and any state can hire him.

10 January, 1504 – A major problem has occurred. Cyprus has converted to Protestant. That means our relationship drops to neutral and she is no longer in an alliance with us. Ick. She’s still our vassal, but now looks unlikely to be our annexation target next year.

I jack up my minting for a few months, taking the inflation hit, so I can hire Anakethos Getsi.

18 January, 1504 – Poland wants military access and I grant it.

1 February, 1504 – After one month, I have minted enough money to hire Anakethos. I also decline an alliance offer from Denmark.

4 February, 1504 – I accept alliance offers from Croatia and Castille.

Why?

Croatia is a one province minor on the Adriatic Sea that if I can buddy up to might agree to be a vassal someday. Easy decision.

Castille is more difficult, yet there are several reasons why –

1). We are brothers on North Africa. After the Ottomans and the Mamluks finish up their war, one or both could legitimately look my way. Since I’ve never been able to get Ottoman assistance with a legit power in the area, we might as well take assistance against the Mamluks.

2). And even if we didn’t fight the Mamluks, can you imagine the land we’d gobble up between us against Tunisia and Algiers if they get antsy? It’d be very useful to expand our holdings.

3). Eventually, and it’s not going to be for a while, but eventually, as we continue to grow into a serious Meditteranean power, we’re going to have to tussle with Aragon for the title of greatest power in the region. Castille would be the single best ally for such a battle.

Okay, now I have serious issue with maps. You can see everything that happens in an ally’s provinces and adjacent sea zones – the fog of war is lifted there. But I can’t see Castille’s provinces that I havne’t discovered. Now, I could understand Castille being dodgey with the New World info, but certainly they’d want us to have all of their North Africa info, right? Or else, how could we lift a siege in our ally’s territory or use it as a base camp or anything?

It’s still a stupid, stupid decision by the coders, and it appears to be getting stupider the more I play.

18 February, 1504 – I accept a military alliance from Tuscany, now that they are a neighbor. See: Croatia, except with two provinces.

25 February, 1504 – I decline a military alliance from Pommerania.

9 March, 1504 – I accept an alliance offer from Ragusa: also see Croatia.

11 May, 1504 – Venice and Genoa have reached peace. Liguria was about to fall, so Genoa was wise to seek peace.

20 January, 1505 – Crimea declared war upon Candar. The Ottomans dishonored their alliance. Dulkadir has joined the war. Dulkadir is no longer an Ottoman ally, although it can’t be long before they grab them back. Cracks in the Ottoman armor? One of their perma-allies is gone, at least for now, the other looks to be gone for a while, and two of their perma-allies are at war. If I had the stability, I’d attack Dulkadir again, only this time I’d win.

3 February, 1505 – In a move that may portent war, Hungary laid claim to the throne of Croatia (by having a royal marriage with them). That gives them a casus belli on Croatia, our erstwhile ally.

Just added a bunch of titles to the individual game posts. Hope you like them. My favorite is "Harvesting Grain Before a Storm," which I thought was much better than "Gathering Resources Before a War."

Angering the Dragon



13 September, 1505 – Aragon declares war upon Tuscany. Portugal and Burgundy join forces with their ally Aragon against poor Tuscany.

What do I do? Aragon had the lower half of the Italian Peninsula for ages and hadn’t made a move to grab more land. However, I’m not ready to take on Aragon on a long campaign right now, and if Portugal and Burgundy should actually send forces over?

On the other hand, if I go to war with Tuscany and manage to grab a province or two, like, say, Napoli? That’d be a huge swing for us.

Best case scenario if I go to war:

Portugal and Burgundy ignore the war. Aragon concentrates too much of her forces on Tuscany, I sneak around back and hit her Hard ™ and force peace after a province or two falls into my hand. This is a defensive war, so less badboy if I take land here.

Worst case scenario:

Portugal and Burgundy get involved and kick my ass. I lose land, likely either Tripolitania and/or one or more of my Lombard provinces.


I risk it. We are now at war with Aragon.

I jack up the maintenance on our troops and order my fleet to head to Ferrara and pick up some troops.

1 November, 1505 – We win a battle with Aragon in the Straits of Messina. We also capture one of their ships.

20 January, 1506 – 2000 of our troops are kicked out of Ancona because the Tuscany leader chose to assault the city and we lost troops.

21 January, 1506 – We won a land battle against Aragon in Malta where our leader led 2000 of our infantry in a successful campaign against Aragon. The Siege of Malta has begun.

I order 1000 Condotta Infantry, which are great at defense, built in Ferrara.

I order war taxes to begin being collected.

25 January, 1506 – My fleet arrives off the coast of Napoli and I see way too many Aragonese troops on the Italian shore to make a serious attempt – however the two Sicilian provinces are open.

5 March, 1506 – My fleet bearing my Italian forces dodges the Aragonese fleet and arrives by Malta. I order my men to disembark into Sicily.

16 March, 1506 – The Siege of Palermo has begun. I expect the Aragonese to backtrack and head here with troops, thus pulling them away from Tuscany.

19 April, 1506 – I march my new troops in Ferrara to Modena. There they will be a reserve if needed by Tuscany or to defend my own territory if a backside attack is called for by Aragon. My fleet in between Malta and Sicilly is watching the sealanes to see if any Aragonese try to break into my backside and hit me in Naxos, Morea, Rhodes or Athens.

7 May, 1506 – After pushing Aragon back out, Tuscany takes Ancona.

8 July, 1506 – We accept a royal marriage from Lithuania.

10 July, 1506 – Malta falls. I order the troops here into Palermo to assist in the taking of that province.

13 August, 1506 – Palermo falls just before my troops were set to land!

18 August, 1506 – I send Aragon a peace offer for them to give us Malta, they refuse. I order my 4000 troops into Messina the other Sicilian province where 1000 Aragon troops await.

2 September, 1506 – We win the battle of Messina and begin besieging the capital.

27 September, 1506 – The Ottomans have inherited Dulkadir so they have them now dynastically.

30 September, 1506 – We get a peace offer from Aragon. They will give us peace and Malta. We would be at peace with their entire alliance. Malta is poor land, but gaining it is more than we would have done, otherwise.

Smart money says to take the deal and move on. Of course, I could capture Messina and then push for either Messina or Palermo as my prize. Those are much better provinces.

What ultimately sells me is the relative cheapness of Malta in terms of value. 7k people working the fish trade? Get real. I decline.

1 November, 1506 – Our production tech increased.

5 December, 1506 – The Aragon push has defeated Tuscany at Ancona and is now besieging their on province.

15 January, 1507 – We defeat another Aragon advance at Messina.

29 March, 1507 – We defeat an Aragon scouting navy in the Straits of Messina.

15 May, 1507 – I turn down another Malta offer from Aragon.

30 July, 1507 – We capture Messina. I order my men to the mainland of Italy in the province of Calabria where 2000 Aragonese await.

23 September 1507 – We lost 627 men but won the Battle of Calabria. In the meantime, Aragon has moved some her front line troops back to Napoli. An army I’d lost to. 5000 calvary.

20 October, 1507 – Now the peace offer is Messina and Malta. That’s much better. I accept.

Thought some of you might want to see an updated map:

Look at how natural Messina and Malta look next to Tripolitania. It looks much less isolated now, eh?

Let's take a look at my new land:

Malta: 7528 people work the fishing trade here. They are Catholic and Maltese. We are currently only getting 3.25 ducats from her annually in combined tax and production - like I said, hardly worth the bother. Aragon has Malta as a core province. A Workshop has been built here.

Messina - The 69949 Catholic people are Sicillian, which is fine. See, when I inherited the Lombard provinces three, my main culture became Lombard. Lombard is related to Sicilian. Thus, my country tolerates the culture here. Therefore, the cultural hit to taxes is only 10% instead of 30% for not being a culture that we tolerate but being related to one. We make 6.5 ducats annually here from the taxes and produciton from the oh so mighty fish trade. Aragon also has this as a core province. Messina also has a Workshop built here.


In other news, that alliance with Castille looks amazingly smart in hindsight. With a pair of Aragon cores, they could declare war against us at any time, and now I have an ally to call on that's much more powerful than I, and could really take it to Aragon.

Your provinces are spread a little thin. You should go ahead and overrun Aragon in Italy to consolidate your territory a little better! ;)

The Aragonian army was waaaaaaay too powerful for me, I merely avoided it by going around their backside while they tussled with Tuscany. I beleive that when I got peace, they forced Tuscany back out of Ancona and then the peace forced Tuscany to pay some gold.

dang I was hoping for an update today.

Enjoying this muchly.

Although there is a copy of EUIII comming to my house as I type. I will not be able to play for a couple of weeks as my 6 year old PC would require a new video card. Instead of that I am just gonna build a new PC and hope to get 6 years out of it. TMI I know


Anyhow I am following along daily

The Rewards of Patience


25 October, 1507 – Burgundy is wanting military access. I grant it.

18 December, 1507 – I accept a royal marriage offer from Poland.

3 March, 1508 – We get five merchants in Lubeck, a Center of Trade near Denmark on the north German coast.

1 June, 1508 – Our stability increased.

6 June, 1508 – The Papal States and their ally, Siena, declared war upon Venice.

10 June, 1508 – Tuscany and Aragon come to peace terms.

7 November, 1508 – I get an event. Boundary Dispute. The lack of good maps created a lot of wars and conflicts. Clever rules used vague boundaries to gain an advantage.I have two options:

1) Press Issue: I get cores on Pisa, Firenze, Romagna, and Mantua. My relations with those owners (Tuscany, Venice, Papal States, and Tuscany again) are decreased by 30 per core (so 60 for Tuscany, 30 each for the Papal States and Venice.)

2) Settle Issue: I lose one prestige.


After quick consideration, I decide to press the issue. You never know when those cores could become useful. Especially for declaring war against, say, Venice in the future.

12 January, 1509 – Genoa declared war upon Savoy.

26 March, 1509 – Francesco IV has been elected the Holy Roman Emperor!

The following countries are electors:

Provence
Hamburg
Hesse
Wurzberg
Genoa
Siena
Liege

We received votes from five of the seven states! We did not get votes from Hamburg and Hesse. Obviously my royal marriages and good relationships has taken us far. This was never my intent, but it’s a nice bonus!

What benefit do we get from being Holy Roman Emperor?

+1 diplomats annually
+5% spy success
+1 prestige annually

The number of countries in the HRE (currently 18) give us:

+18 monthly stability investment (massive amount)
+9 manpower increase
+36 land forcelimits

The monthly stability investment is amazingly good for us. It accelerates the anticipated date for our stability to increase from 1521 to 1513!

The Penance of Patience


9 April, 1509 – I accept a royal marriage proposal from Pommerania.

10 April, 1509 – I decide to send my troops to Ragusa to put down a 1000 group of rebels from the Ottomans. I ask for and receive the right to move through Ragusa with my troops.

26 April, 1509 – I accept a royal marriage offer from Mazovia.

16 May, 1509 – Our troops arrive in Ragusa.

5 June, 1509 – We crush the rebels in Ragusa. I send them back to Messina.

16 June, 1509 – Venice and Savoy are now at peace.

26 September, 1509 – A new king rises to the head of Cyprus. He great at diplomacy and military and pitiful at administration.

18 December, 1509 – We get another Boundary Dispute action. This time, the following provinces are available to be added as cores: Verona and Venezia itself (Venice). I’ll take Venezia for sure. Relations with Venice drop by 60.

1 February, 1510 – I hire Hasan Hirsekli, an army reformer, as an advisor for my nation. He was generally available I just got lucky to find him here.

1 March, 1510 – Siena has adopted their third national idea and we aren’t even close to our second.

9 March, 1510 – Wurtemburg captured Lombardia of Venice. Venice needs to pick up the pace.

1 May, 1510 – Our government tech increases.

1 August, 1510 – Our naval tech increases.

30 August, 1510 – Rebels capture Janina, an Ottoman province northwest of Athens.

13 September, 1510 – I accept a royal marriage from Sweden. I also ask for and receive Military Access from Tuscany.

1 December, 1510 – The Ottomans have recaptured Janina.

2 March, 1511 – Bosnia declared war upon Ragusa. None of their allies accepted the call, but Ragusa asks us to join their efforts. I agree.

11 April, 1511 – Castille declared war upon Algiers. Morocco and Tunis join Algiers. I join Castille. We are now at war on two fronts.

War Against Everybody


I jacked up my troop maintenance and move 3000 of my troops to Ragusa. Two thousand more are sent to Tripolitania, including my leader. I order another 1000 in Ferrara.

No, nevermind. I intend to win this war one front at a time. I send all 5000 troops to Ragusa. Let’s win this against Bosnia, and then win it against North Africa. I will leave Tripolitania defenseless for the moment.

18 April, 1511 – Hungary declares war against Croatia. I’m at war with everyone else, might as well support Croatia as well, plus my army in Ragusa can do double duty. Hungary’s two allies, Bohemai anad Denmark join.

22 June, 1511 – My troops are all in Ragusa.

25 June, 1511 – 1000 calvary from Tunis arrive in Tripolitania to besiege the city.

5 July, 1511 – We won the Battle of Hum and begun besieging the city.

8 September, 1511 – 2000 Bohemiam troops arrive in Ferrara to being a siege.

30 September, 1511 – My fresh 1000 troops from Ferrara arrive in Croatia to aid in their defense.

15 December, 1511 – I offer Bosnia a white peace and they decline.

23 December, 1511 – Hungary wins a battle in Dalmatia against Croatia.

1 January, 1512 – We have captured Hum. I order my troops into Dalmatia. I order 1000 more troops built in Modena.

3 January, 1512 – Tunisia captured Tripolitania.

13 January, 1512 – Bosnia offers us peace for the entire alliance and they pay us six ducats. I accept. I order more troops built in Parma. One war down.

27 January, 1512 - Our army arrives in Dalmatia and begins to fight Hungary for the province.

31 January, 1512 – We force the Hungarians out of Dalmatia and have broken their siege!

1 February, 1512 – I order my leader at the head of my 3000 best infantry to head over to Ferrara and break the siege.

5 February, 1512 – More Hungarians arrive in Dalmatia to fight my remaining troops here.

10 February, 1512 – My troops arrive in Ferrara to fight the Bohemians.

22 February, 1512 – Algiers sends us a peace offer and we pay them 4 ducats to be at peace with their entire alliance including Tunis. I agree. Two wars down.

23 February, 1512 – My troops have lost the Battle of Dalmatia and are retreating to Ragusa to regroup.

6 March, 1512 – We drive the Bohemians out of Ferrara.

16 March, 1512 – Some Hungarian troops arrived in Ferrara only be to savaged and sent back in three days.

31 March, 1512 – Our 1000 new troops building in Modena have joined our army.

10 June, 1512 – Ragusa declared war against the Ottomans. They have asked me to join them. Nope, if they have gotten delusions of grandeur, I’ll not support that.

11 July, 1512 – I have an almost 3k army arrive from Ferrar at Ragusa, join them up with the remnants left over from the previous battle, and order them into Dalmatia.

26 July, 1512 – We defeated Hungary in the Adriatic Sea.

3 September, 1512 – We force the Hungarians out of Dalmatia again

There have been a large number of skirmishes in Northern Italy with my troops and opposing forces.

It’s becoming obvious that I am going to lose this war with Hungary. I cannot stab them in the back because they are landlocked. They keep my main force pinned down and are harassing my Northern Italian provinces and forces at will. I need to find an exit strategy.

4 October, 1512 – I lost a ship running the Hungarian boat gauntlet in the Adriatic but brought my beleaguered Italian forces to Dalmatia. All of my forces are here.

4000 opposing troops are besieging Parma. I need to similarly hit my opponent in the mouth in order to get neutral in this war.

5 January, 1513 – We lost 1200 troops but defeated Hungary at the province of Croatia. We begin a siege.

1 March, 1513 – Athens is now part of our Patrimony and is a core province.

21 March, 1513 – Parma falls.

9 May, 1513 – We breach the walls of Croatia province and I order a full scale assault.

11 May, 1513 – As we assault the walls of Croatia, Hungary offers us a white peace on behalf of their entire alliance for our entire alliance. I accept. The third war ends.

All heck breaks loose!

Holy crap!

We're gonna need a new map after all that, I think.

Yeah wow, busy year...

To be fair, in no cases did land change. I'll get you that map though

Here's teh new map. A few things. Genoa has expanded, and Savoy is down to that one pink province to my north east. The French minors have come in and taken over. Also, Ragusa is now Ottoman. The Bohemian provinces in former Transylvania are just a satellite of the full country to the north.

how did Naxos avoid losing territory when Tunisia captured Tripolitania?

also nobody thought twice about attacking the leader of the HRE? Isn't there some sort of penalty for doing that?

And thanks for the info about Bohemia, I am no early European scholar, but even I know Bohemia was near modern Germany

Just because you capture a province doesn't mean you get it in peace negotiations. I captured both Scilian provinces when fihgting Aragon, but only was able to take one. I captured Hum, the southern Bosnia province, but only accepted gold for peace, the same is true of Algiers/Tunisia/Morocco. They captured Tripolitania, but only demanded gold for peace, which I readily accepted.

I don;t think there is a penalty for attacking the HRE, especially by these guys. They didn;t attack me, but my allies.

Progress Goes Before A Fall


24 May, 1513 – Ragusa falls and they are annexed by the Ottomans.

15 July, 1513 – A new Galley that I ordered built has been constructed in Naxos.

9 September, 1513 – Castille accepted a white peace with Algiers.

9 October, 1513 – The Mamluks and the Ottomans are finally at peace after years of fighting. The final exchange? The Mamluks ship 83 ducats to the Ottomans, and both countries are riled with rebellions with the war exhaustion.

1 November, 1513 – Our stability increased to max.

3 March, 1514 – I accept a royal marriage from Bavaria

25 May, 1514 – I accept a royal marriage from Saxony.

11 June, 1514 – I accept a royal marriage from Mazovia.

16 June, 1514 – We get an event:

One of our Advisors Publishes a Great Work:

Aniketos Ghisi publishes a major work, The Spirit of Laws, that could get great renown. I have two options:

His Efforts will be Admired Throughout the Nation: +3 stability (wow) and a major tech gain for government tech over the next few years.

His Efforts Will Bring Glory to the World: +5 prestige, same tech gain bonus.

I choose number two, since we are already stable.

18 July, 1514 – France and her vassals declare war on Portugal. Aragon joins the war.

1 August, 1514 – I offer Royal Marriage to Castille and they accept.

1 July, 1515 – Our government tech increased again. One more increase and we hit our next national idea.

21 September, 1515 – We enter into a royal marriage with Lithuania.

22 September, 1515 – A white peace between France and Aragon has been reached.

1 March, 1516 – Our government tech increased to five! We can now get our second national idea. Here are my serious options:

1) Quest for the New World – Get explorers and Conquistadors and explore the world, followed by colonizations!
2) Military Drill – 50% morale to all of our armies permanently. Many land based European countries have this already. It’s pretty good in land war.
3) National Trade Policy – Trade efficiency increases by 10%. This would give us some extra money each year.
4) Deus Vult – We no longer require a Casus Belli to declare war against a country with a different religion.


I toss out Deus Vult and Quest quickly. They are nice, but not needed, certainly not now. Getting extra dough and getting extra morale are both useful. After consideration, I take the Military Drill. It helps a lot against countries with out, and brings us back to the table against those with it.

24 July, 1516 – Savoy was annexed by Genoa.

1 August, 1516 – Our government tech increased.

1 July, 1517 – I fire our advisor Athananasios D’Anoe, a philosopher who helps our Production Tech. He’s 17 years into his job. I hire Omar Beli. He’s twice as good and just seven years into his career.

22 July, 1517 – Time to change one of our sliders. It’ll drop our stability but help us in the long run. I move us one more towards Offensive. Now our leaders will always get one extra shock value in combat. Our stability drops, but the HRE investment will hopefully curtail that.

17 December, 1517 – We enter a royal marriage with Burgundy.

15 January, 1518 – Venice declared war upon Genoa.

14 March, 1518 – We enter into a royal marriage with Wurttemberg

1 April, 1518 – Our government tech increases.

Experiences Repeated


11 December, 1518 – Castille declared war upon Algiers. Tunisa and Morocco joined Algiers. I join Castille again.

19 January, 1519 – Venice defeated Genoa and won two provinces.

10 March, 1519 – We defeated Tunisia in Gabes.

17 March, 1519 – I lose my Galley in a quick exchange with Tunisian fleets. I now have around 5500 troops in Gabes including my leader. I march to Tunis itself.

19 April, 1519 – We defeat a Tunisian army in Tunis. Around 1000 opposing troops have slipped behind our line and are besieging Tripolitania. They came from the province(s) I can’t see.

13 June, 1519 – Portugal declares war upon Morocco. Algiers joins Morocco. Aragon and England join Portugal. I won’t have to worry about help from Tunisia’s allies on m front of the war now.

9 July, 1519 – 2000 troops I detatch from Tunis arrived in Tripolitania and broke the siege.

30 August, 1519 – We capture Tunis.

11 October, 1519 – We again defeat Tunisian troops in Gabes and recapture the province.

15 October, 1519 – We get another Press Boundary Dispute issue. This time we gain core provinces on two Turkish Greek provinces, Janina and Salonica, and our relations with the Ottomans thus drop 60.

1 November, 1519 – Venice declared war on Austria. Their ally Burgundy joins against Venice.

1 January, 1520 – I order a workshop built in Athens.

3 January, 1520 – I send a peace offer to Algiers demanding 50 ducats for peace. They accept and send us the money.

So the only way you can see the dark countries would be to get either conquistidors or an explorer? In the future will new tech's open up that will allow you to see more of the map?

What areas are available for you to start a game with? Is it just Europe, Africa and Asia?

Victory and Victory


With my war victory money, I order another Workshop built in Modena.

6 March, 1520 – I accept a royal marriage offer from Wurttemberg

11 March, 1520 – I accept a royal marriage from France.

15 June, 1520 – The event that gave us additional government tech bonus from our advisor’s seminal work has ended.

1 July, 1520 – Our land tech increased.

1 October, 1520 – Our government tech increased.

7 December, 1520 – Siena declared war against Venice and the Papal States left their alliance with Siena.

31 December, 1520 – Tunisia accepted peace terms with Castille and gave up Gabes and some province inland I can’t see, so Castille are now our neighbors. I think I misplayed it by accepting peace so soon. Had we held onto the Tunisian, land, Castille would not have been able to have gotten it for themselves. We probably will never take that land from Castille, but we can cherry pick Tunisia.

Now, Tunis province is, I believe, the final province of Tunisia. It’s a cheap grain province but the taxbase is nice with over 125000 people there. I’ll look at taking it down later.

14 January, 1521 – Castille got five provinces from Morocco in a peace accord. Castille is now a North African power of significance.

27 February, 1521 – Venice gave up two provinces to Austria for peace.

1 September, 1521 – My reputation has decreased from tarnished to slightly tarnished.

Since I am currently able to be a but more aggressive in getting land, I take a look around. I have a Casus Belli on

The Papal States (I have Romagna as a core province)
Venice (I have four provinces as cores, including Venice itself)
Tuscany (I have cores on both of her provinces)
Ottomans (I have cores on two upper Greece provinces)
Denmark – Don’t know why
Bohemia – Don’t know why

Well, I’m not starting a war with the Ottomans. That’s just stupid. I’m allied with Tuscany, so that’s a no go. Denmark and Bohemia I don’t have any core provinces on, and they are too far away.

That leavesVenice and the Papal States. Romagna is a solid province, adjacent to the south of Ferrara. The Papal States just have two provinces – it’d be an easy war geographically, and they currently have no allies. I just did a float by with my navy. They only have 1000 infantry in Romagna – an easy capture. But they have 3000 calvary and 2000 infantry in Roma.

Venice is tempting. They have far flung provinces like Crete and Corfu that I could hit easily. They are already at war with Siena, although its not much of one. They have no allies either. Lombardia, a province on which I have a core, is a great province from a financial perspective, with over 200000 people as well as cloth as its main export. Plus, the culture Lombard is my main these days, with Greek as second, accepted culture. Lombardia is Lombard (Romagna, the Papal province, on the other hand is Umbrian, which, like Sicilian, is related to Lombard, so just a -10% drop, but still worse that Lombard).

Venice has 4400 troops, 2400 of which are infantry, sitting in Mantua, just north of my provinces. They also have a higher land tech than the Papal States. There are a few provinces I can’t see that could be hiding troops. Venice would be a tougher fight.

With a greater prize.

Slowly, for the future, I’ll move all of my troops to Northern Italy over the next month or two.

13 December, 1521 – There are no Venetian troops in either Crete or Corfu.

1 January, 1522 – I’ve found 3000 more Venetians, 2000 of which are calvary. They are marching back from their Savoy provinces. I order some troops built.

7 February, 1522 – I now have two regiments of troops stationed in my fleet off the coast of Crete, ready to land.

The Venice Strategy:

1). Take Crete relatively unopposed. Then move this army to Corfu. Taking these provinces jacks up my warscore – how well I’ve done. The higher the score, the more I can get in peace negotiations.

2). Smash my main forces into Lombardia, besiege and take it.

3). Then play defense on those armies that penetrated my Italian provinces and are besieging me.

4). After that, take Venezia proper.

5). Hope that Croatia and Tuscany attack it, and that Castille joins in order to scare them and maybe win a naval battle or two.

With four provinces under my control, including Lombardia, it should be easy for me to get Lombardia, and maybe another province of my cores or captured groups.


That’s the battle plan. Now I just wait a time to operate it.


15 May, 1522 – I jack up my ground military funding.

1 July, 1522 – My troops are in position. The funding has increased. I am ready.

However, after seeing even more troops, I do not believe I can defeat Venice. I currently see a total of 12000 people in the Italian provinces, much more than I have.

So the Papacy it is.


28 July, 1522 – I declare war upon the Papal States.

Tuscany joins us, as does Castille, but not Croatia. I thought Castille might sit this one out, so I’m pleasantly surprised, but I was hoping Croatia would join us and that was not to be the case.

I order my large army to Roma and the small one to hold ground in Modena.

1 August, 1522 – Our stability goes back up from the hit it just took.

15 September, 1522 – Algiers gave up five provinces to Castille.

1 October, 1522 – After a very costly battle, we defeat the Papal troops in Roma.

1 November, 1522 – Tripolitania is not a part of our patrimony and we will defend it completely. It is now a core province.

12 December, 1522 – After an assault, we have captured Roma.

1 January, 1523 – Our production tech increased.

26 February, 1523 – I accept a royal marriage from Sweden

1 March, 1523 – After rallying my troops in Tuscany, I order them to march to Romagna.

5 May, 1523 – After a mammoth battle during which each side lost over 4000 troops, we finally defeat the Papal troops and begin the Siege of Romagna.

2 June, 1523 – The Papal States accept our offer of peace for Romagna!


Romagna:

93483 people work the salt trade here in this Umbrian Catholic province south of Ferrara and south east of Modena. They make around 21 ducats annually for us in taxes and production, although that includes that +50 from War taxes currently in effect. There is no nationalism here, because they are a core province. This province has a temple, workshop and university.

The workshop and temple are of small value, but I want to impress how valuable a University is. It costs around 1500 ducats to build one. I now have three, all captured. It gives an annually income bonus, a significant monthly increase to my governmental tech advancement, and a minor population growth increase as well for the province. All in all, it’s very valuable to capture one.

Because it was a core province, and because we didn;t annex our foe, our reputation did not that that major of a hit, and we can still play the mad land taker later.

All of Europe, coastal North Africa but not inland, the near Middle East, Russia and the steppes, Mecca, that's it. Other European countries, like the Iberians, probably have different lands available to see.

Catching One's Breath


22 July, 1523 – Venice and Siena are now at peace.

29 October, 1523 – I accept a royal marriage from Poland.

1 January, 1524 – I order 1000 calvary built in Romagna. These are Stradioti Calvary, a special unit available to me as a Greek that are light and have great morale and shock value.

11 April, 1524 – We enter into a royal marriage with Burgundy. To make this post earlier, from now on, I’ll do it like this “RM: Burgundy.” Fair enough?

15, April, 1524 – Venice and Genoa are at war. Again.

11 June, 1524 – Aragon declared war against us.

Time to overrun Italy!

Wrestling 24 Hours with an Angel

Both Castille and Tuscany honor our alliance. Excellent. With Iberian power Castille attacking Aragon, we should have some breathing room in the Mediterranean. My years of planning may be coming to fruition.

Portugal and Burgundy joined Aragon.

The good: I haven’t jacked down my maintenance since my last war. I was rebuilding my devastated armies, so morale is up and I just built 1000 calvary. I have three regiments in Messina ready to move into Palermo.

The bad: Aragon is still a better country than us militarily.

I order my armies into Ancona and Palermo.

4 July, 1524 – We win in Palermo.

30 July, 1524 – After a long struggle, we win in Ancona.

1 September, 1524 – A large Burgundian force arrives in parma and begins a siege of us.

2 September, 1524 – We drive away an assault force from Palermo, but I don’t think we can keep winning down there without reinforcements.

I order another 1000 troops built in Modena.

20 September, 1524 – I win a naval battle in the Straits of Messina.

1 December, 1524 – Our trade tech increased.

6 December, 1524 – We defeat the Aragonese navy in the Sea of Liguria. I’m sending two regiments around the back to assist in Palermo. Messina is about to fall from the remnants of several Aragon assaults, but the combined forces from that assault are fairly strong.

25 December, 1524 – My troops arrive in Palermo.

1 January, 1525 – I order another 1000 calvary built and I send 1000 troops from the siege in Ancona to ships off the coast of Tuscany, to head to Sardinia and do a behind the scene siege there.

12 January, 1525 – Messina falls to the Aragonese.

14 January, 1525 – Palermo falls to us.

10 February, 1525 – Portugal offers us peace for us paying 24 ducats. Nothing doing.


26 February, 1525 – We capture Ancona. We are now in a pretty dominate position, since Burgundy has yet to take Parma, although it is about to fall. If I can drive peace through Aragon, I might have a chance at getting a good peace settlement early.

I send a peace for Palermo, and they reject it.

28 February, 1525 – My regiment lands in Sardinia and begin a siege here.

12 March, 1525 – I get a peace offer from Aragon. The entire war stops, they renounce their claims on Messina and Malta, and we get 2 ducats.

Let’s stop and assess:

I’ve captured Palermo and Ancona.

I’ve lost Messina. I’m about to lose Parma.

My main army is headed to another Aragonese province in Italy, and thence to Napoli or stay there and besiege the place.

No, I’m going to stay firm. I think I am going to win this war. I set up my allies just to win this war. This is one I’m going to see through.

29 March, 1525 – We drive the Aragon forces out of Abbruzzi and begin a siege? Or head to Napoli? I order my troops on to Napoli. That’s where my opposing forces are headed, and I want to hit them while they are demoralized.

14 April, 1525 – We drive them out of Napoli. Keep following or begin a siege? I decide to follow them back to Abbruzzi. Hit them again.

29 April, 1525 – We defeated them in Abbruzzi again.

8 May, 1525 – I get a new peace offer from Aragon identical to the last. I reject it.

11 May, 1525 – My new calvary are built. I order them to my lines.

14 May, 1525 – I decline another Portugese offer of peace for my ducats.

28 May, 1525 – Sardinia falls before us!

1 June, 1525 – Parma falls to Burgundy. Before the forces there can get out. A force of Rebels attack them. They’ll win, but it slows them down.

3 June, 1525 – Francisco IV dies. Francisco V secedes him. Our stability drips with the changeover in leader. Francisco V is elected Holy Roman Emperor, he has a 6 in admin, 8 in diplomacy, and 8 in military. Even better than his father!

20 June, 1525 – My regiment from Sardinia arrives in Palermo. I order my king as a general, and to Palermo. He’s about to lead his first battle as king. He’s a great general! I order 1000 calvary fromt eh Napoli siege to break off and join the attack on Messina.

1 July, 1525 – Our stability increases.

8 August, 1525 – We won in Messina.

8 September, 1525 – I reject another Aragonese peace offer. The Castillians were stupid enough to let Portugal capture Andalucia. That dropped the warscore tremendously.

10 September, 1525 - A few Burgundy troops arrive in Modena and begin a siege.

8 November, 1525 – I get a boundary dispute event, and I get a Core province on Ancona.

11 November, 1525 – I get a peace offer from Portugal. They will go to peace with our entire alliance and pay us 4 ducats. I accept. Now Castille can concentrate on just Aragon

6 December, 1525 – Austria declared war against the Teutonic Order. Why is this a big deal? Burgundy is Austria’s ally and joins the war.

6 January, 1526 – We recapture Messina!

8 March, 1526 – After a long siege, we assault and capture Napoli.

9 March, 1526 – Aragon accepted my peace offer for Palermo and Napoli!



Palermo – The other province in Sicily, 115040 people work the wine trade here. The Catholic and Sicilian people here make us around 14.4 ducats annually, split almost evenly between trade and tax. Palermo has a workshop.

Napoli – The prize of the war, and one of the best plums available in the area. 283548 people work the wine trade here – almost 300,000! The Catholic Sicilians make us around 17 ducats annually, again split almost evenly into tax revenue and production revenue. They have a workshop and a marketplace.

I've realized that Italy is my ticket to greatness and wealth. It's provinces are typically much more wealthy than the relative scraps in Greece. Plus, the powers here are eligible to be taken out, as opposed to say, the Turks.


Oh, and because we took those provinces in a defensive war, our badboy is still okay.

Nice work! So the Mediterranean's basically becoming a three way dance between you, Castile, and the Ottomans it looks like.

And Mamluks. Aragon is still a power too, it took me and Castille and Tuscany to take them out int eh last war, remember.

Ironically, I'm adjacent, land wise, to all four other major powers (Tripolitania borders the Mamluks on the east side, Castille on the West, Napoli is surrounded by Aragon, and of course, the Turks are adjacent to Athens and Morea).

There are questions though. Can I strike and take the gems provinces? Genoa's Liguria and Venice's Venezia would be among the wealthiest provinces in Europe, and both are adjacent to my territory, but both are capitals. Wars need to reduce Venice and Genoa down to one province nations before i can jump in and take them.

Targets:

Croatia - Our old ally is now just a bum on the Adriatic Sea. They are still one province, and we could swiftly take them

Tunisia - Tunisia is down to one provine, Tunis, which has over 100k people as a nice tax base.

Siena - If I want to keep expanding in Italy, one province Siena has been hanging around for a long time.

Cyprus - I could try to restore relations with our Protestant vassal,, and then try to diplo-annex them.

Tuscany - Their value as a buffer state between me and Aragon and in war with the Papacy has diminished. Beacuse of their form of government, I can't give them a royal marriage, and as such, I can never ask them to become our vassals. They came may come to attack this two province nation.

Venice - I wanted to go to war with Venice before and grab some territory. I was afraid of their military. Now, my army is built up more. If I could catch Venice in a war and stab them from behind, I think I could grab some tasty provinces. Stuff better than Crete or Corfu.


If I could change capitals, I'd consider Ferrara or Napoli.

A Harvest of Eternity



13 March, 1526 – I accept a royal marriage offer from ally Castille.

1 May, 1526 – Our government tech increases. We can choose a new national idea!

What idea do I want? This could be my last idea for a while, so I need to make a good choice.

Quest for the new World: It’d be useful to start surveying this world that we live in. I’ve seen Venice send out colonists, so I know that they are involved in this process. On the other hand, I could not make any conquistadors or explorers right now, because I have no colonists. I have no colonists because my sliders don’t allow me to get any. In other words, if I want to explore and colonize, I need to change my sliders around. The next time I can move a slider is in 7 years or so. However, if I want to do this later, I’ll have to wait until my next national idea. The only reason I had this massive growth in governmental tech was because of my amazing advisor and the book he published. He’s starting to get old, however, and this won’t continue for much longer. It could be 50-75 years before my next national idea. If I don’t take this now, I may not get a chance to get it before the colonization is too far along for me to have any impact.

Deus Vult: If I want to go to massive war against the infidels, this will help. To be frank, I could take it right now, and then attack Tunis. One of the things holding me back is the -2 stability I get to attack Tunis. Take this, and I’ll have Tunis in less than a year. Then I’d have it for the rest of the game. However, with the recent hits that Morocco, Algiers and Tunis too against Castille, do I want this that badly? I already have a CB on the Ottomans after I got two cores in upper Greece. Do I want it to attack the Mamluks or something? It goes well with QFNW above, allowing me to attack native nations for free, but that’s not that great.

National Trade Policy - +10% trade efficiency. It’d be great to get more money from my merchants, but I don’t have that many out there. Many trading posts have nations that trade there that I can’t see, so I can’t make trade agreements with. That includes Thrace, Andulusia, Lisboa, the Dutch one whose name I can’t recall, and Alexandra. I have merchnts in Ligurian, Venezia, Lubeck and Novgorod. With that limitation, this is much less attractive.

National Bank – Inflation reduction 0.10%. I really feel like I may have an inflation problem soon, because I have had to increase my money to pay for my military, and that brings inflation with it. My inflation is nearly 6%. On the other hand, I can probably wait on this one.

Bureaucracy – National tax modifier +5%. In all of my provinces? This seems like a serious money maker.

Engineer Corps – Leader siege value +1. If my land tech wallows too far behind, then people will build bigger and bigger forts. I’d need a way to crack these nuts. That hasn’t happened yet, however, but I want to keep an eye on this.



After consideration, I take Quest for the New World, knowing that I won’t do anything with it for maybe 20 years. But I’ll have it when I do need it.

3 August, 1526 – The Papal States, with their mighty one province, declare war on Genoa, with more than one province.

14 August, 1526 – I check and Genoa is in a seriously losing war with Venice, I think the Papacy just wanted to hop on.

18 October, 1526 – Siena declares war against Genoa. Wurzberg joins Siena. Everybody little power with delusions of grandeur is attacking Genoa right now.

18 January, 1527 – Lithuania annexed Mazovia, which was one of the countries who liked us best.

1 February, 1527 – I get another event. Again it’s the Regulation of the Medical Industry. I choose to use it now, because we can’t get more innovative. Morea, for the next 500 days, gets a +10% population growth. As of right now, the population is 9050. We’ll come back in two years and check on it.

14 February, 1527 – I get another event. Merchants Harassed. This is against Venice. I choose to settle the issue and our relations jump 50.

13 March, 1527 – I accept a royal marriage offer from Silesia.

1 April, 1527 – My armies are built back up after the Aragonian war. I drop my maintenance in half.

24 April, 1527 – I accept a royal marriage from England.

1 May, 1527 – I am still looking for ways to expand. I send out two diplomats. One to Genoa and one to Tunisia. What do they say? The one to Tunisia carries an insult. Maybe I’ll tick them off enough to attack me. The one to Genoa carries a guarantee, that anyone who attacks them I’ll get a Casus Belli for a few years.

1 June, 1527 – Well, that didn’t appear to war. Tunis didn’t flinch and no one attacked Genoa. Ah well.

13, June1527 – Someone declared war against Genoa! But it was Tuscany. I decide to take this opportunity to thank them for their time, but we need to go our separate ways now.

31 July, 1527 – RM: Poland. Sorry, forgot the abbreivaition.

25 August, 1527 – An alliance offer from Saxony arrives. They are strong, but I’m not that interested in landlocked allies from Germany.

1 November, 1527 – The Modena provinces, Parma, Modena and Ferrara are now core parts of our nation.

I just got a crazy idea, now that I’m down to one ally. My relations with the Ottomans are neutral. If I jacked up our relations, would they want to be allies with us? I’ve always feared the Ottomans, but maybe we can be friends?

29 December, 1527 – RM: Lithuania. Our relations are maxed.

1 January, 1528 - I order a workshop built in Parma.

26 May, 1528 – I decline an alliance offer from Wurzberg.

2 June, 1528 – Aragon declared war against Genoa. Burgundy and Portugal join. Aragon needs to gobble up more land after they lost some to me, I suspect.

22 August, 1528 – RM: Sweden

25 September, 1528 – I decline an alliance offer from Utrecht. They are a Netherlands power with 6 or 7 provinces in that area – very naval but too far north.

1 February, 1528 – Two years after the event that increased population growth in Morea and we are now at 9318. Not much of a growth spurt, that.

1 August, 1528 – Cyprus just had a major rebel event and are now besieged by almost 3k rebels.

16 September, 1529 – I get an alliance offer from Tuscany. I consider, and then decline.

28 December, 1529 – The rebels capture Cyprus and force them back to Catholic. Good for them! Cyprus’s relations with me jack back up.

31 December, 1529 – I have offered Cyprus annexation, and they have accepted. Cyprus is under siege by rebels, so I need to lift this, before I can tell you what they are like here.

27 January, 1530 – Genoa has given up nice. I expect Aragon will take Corsica and the Black Sea province, leaving just Liguria. In preparation for this, I will be moving some of my troops from Sicily to North Italy.

16 February, 1520 – We blast the rebels from Cyprus. Let’s take a look at our new province:


Cyprus: The Greek and Orthodox people here live in the shadow of the Turks and Mamluks. 16797 people work the wine trade here, making around 10.27 ducats annually. There is already a workshop here, or I would have ordered one built. This province came to us long ago from a gift of 50 ducats to our estate which we turned into amazing relations with Cyprus, and then vassalized them. Now, decades later, they are annexed by us peacefully.

Great work!

I believe you can switch your capital in the save game file. And to make it fair you could drop your stability to -3 and take away most of your ducats. That should make it somewhat realistic and fair. Just a suggestion.

edit: forgot to say that this is a great read.

Harmonies Heard in Parts


13 July, 1530 – I reject an alliance from Wurzberg

23 July, 1530 - For some silly reason, Aragon accept a white peace with Genoa.

14 September, 1530 – Hungary declares war upon Bosnia. Croatia joins Bosnia.

3 October, 1530 – RM: Castille

19 July, 1531 – I decline another alliance offer from Utrecht.

6 September, 1531 – In a very foreseeable event, Croatia was annexed by Hungary.

1 December, 1531 – Our stability increased and is maxed.

11 December, 1531 – I order a workshop built in Naxos and Morea.

5 February, 1532 – I decline Denmark’s alliance offer.

14 March, 1532 – Lithuania offers us an alliance. I decline, but I thought about it for a
bit.

1 April, 1532 – Our naval tech increases.

1 May, 1532 – I decline an alliance offer from Saxony.

18 May, 1532 – Castille declared war upon Algiers. Tunisia and Morocco join. I join as well. This may be the last such war in North Africa.

I move my troops to Tunis.

29 May, 1532 – RM: Silesia

10 June, 1532 – Our first troops land in Tunis and begin the siege.

18 June, 1532 – I ask for and receive permission to move troops through Castille.

14 July, 1532 – 2000 more troops arrive in Tunis to help with the siege.

19 August, 1532 – I lose a boat in the Gulf of Gabes fighting the Tunisian navy. In other news, 2000 more troop landed in Tunis to help our cause. I order a Cog built in Naxos.

1 September, 1532 – Our government tech increases.

18 September, 1532 – After an assault, I capture Tunis.

1 November, 1532 – Messina and Malta are now core provinces of our nation.

6 December, 1532 – I reject a white peace from Algiers.

17 December, 1532 – Castille captures the Algiers capital and sole remaining province.

18 December, 1532 – A single day later, the Moroccan capital of Marrakech falls to Castillian forces. All three one province states are now in our hands.

12 January, 1533 – Algiers is annexed by Castille, and thus peace is made with Tunisia and Morocco.

18 February, 1533 – A new Cog is built in Naxos. I order another.

1 July, 1533 – I decline an alliance with Sweden.

30 July, 1533 – I can change our sliders! I move back one step away from Innovative. I moved one step too far, and now, although we still won’t get colonists, we won’t be as bad. Our stability drops.

19 August, 1533 – I again decline an alliance offer from Utrecht.

12 September, 1533 – Bohemia rejects our RM offer. Aragon accepts our offer. Austria declines us.

28 February, 1534 – I order a workshop built in Tripolitania.

14 April, 1534 – RM: Castille

Opportunities


4 May, 1534 – Hungary offers us an alliance. While I don’t want to get pulled into any land wars, this is also a good opportunity to step up relations with a neighbor, but I know that I ultimately will leave the alliance, and that makes them very pissed at you (-50 ) relations. If you don’t think relations will improve, look at us and Castille, up to 126. Sure, I’ll accept. Hungary and I are at -74. So its not like negative relations will hurt us that much.

1 July, 1534 – I order a 5th Cog built in Naxos.

20 August, 1534 – Hungary declares war upon Bohemia. I’m already done with this alliance and leave. It was obviously a mistake to ally with them.

23 August, 1534 – Tuscany annexed Siena.

14 November, 1534 – RM: Poland

7 December, 1534 – With their new acquisition, and the studied lack of any alternates, I accept an alliance offer from Tuscany.

13 March, 1535 – Our badboy reputation is almost completely gone. I need to find a target and acquire new territory. For now, I’ll try to remain the opportunist, but soon I may need to make my opportunities.

6 April, 1535 – Venice declared war on Genoa.

7 April, 1535 – Pskov declared war on Genoa.

15 December, 1535 – Crimea declared war on Genoa.

7 January, 1536 – Aragon declares war against the Papal States. Burgundy and Portugal join Aragon. Are they going to annex the Papacy? That’d be a ballsy move.

1 March, 1536 – Our land tech increases

15 February, 1537 – My badboy is now completely gone. I’m going to wait until the end of the Genoese wars, to see if they are eligible to be taken finally, and if not, Ill attack somewhere else.

2 March, 1537 – On a lark, I send out royal marriage proposals to all four Irish powers. Two accept, and two decline.

5 June, 1537 – Venice and Genoa are at peace. Crimea looks to be pushing in however.

3 August, 1537 – RM: France

1 October, 1537 – Our production tech increases. A level 3 merchant maker advisor arrives in Romagna and we have the exclusive rights to him for a year. I’m not impressed however, with the merchant maker.

10 December, 1537 – RM: Castille

25 December, 1537 – RM: Austria

1 January, 1538 – Western Arms Trade happened to us. Our prestige decreases -1% annually while 6 ducats are added to our land tech. I do not know for how long.

1 February, 1538 – Our government tech increases.

13 March, 1538 – RM: Poland

1 May, 1538 – A crappy level one diplomat making advisor arrives in Palermo. No Thanks.

21 June, 1538 – Aragon and the Papal States come to a white peace. No bullet was ever fired, no sword ever unsheathed.

9 July, 1538 - My opportunity may have arrived. Venice declared war upon Austria. Burgundy joined Austria. I order my African and Napoli forces to North Italy.

A Struggle Against History


1 November, 1538 - I sack land advisor Hasan Hersekli, who is 31 years into his job and only level one. I hire Ilhami Sokullu, a naval advisor who is twice as good and has just 21 years on him.

23 November, 1538 – I declare war on Venice. Our stability drops. Both of our allies join us.

I order my forces outside of Crete to land and begin a siege, and my main army to plunge into Lombardia.

1 December, 1538 – Our stability increases back to 2.

7 December, 1538 – We begin The Siege of Lombardia.

9 December, 1538 - Venice forces arrive in Ferrara and begin to besiege us.

19 December, 1538 – I agree to give Burgundy military access when they ask.

21 December, 1538 – The Siege of Crete begins.

1 January, 1539 – Our land tech increases. Lotsa stuff going on. Austria is besieging two Venetian provinces, Tuscany one, us one, and Venice one of ours.

5 January, 1539 – Aragon declares war against Tuscany. I agree to help them. War rages across Italy now. I’m at war with Burgundy and Portugal. Burgundy is at war with me and Venice, I’m at war with Venice and Burgundy and Venice is at war with me and Burgundy, and all of our forces are all over Venice.

I order some more troops built. I’m going to need some help.

8 February, 1539 – Crimea takes the two remaining Genoan provinces, and now Genoa is ripe for picking, and I’m in the middle of a two front war. Grrr.

21 February, 1539 – I defeat a major Burgundian army in Lombardia.

4 April, 1539 – I land some newly built troops on Corfu to beign a siege there. I need to win this war as fast as possible.

12 April, 1539 – Tuscany captures Mantua, the first enemy province to fall to us.

18 April, 1539 – Tuscany routs Venice from Ferrara breaking the siege on our North Italian “capital” so to speak.

19 April, 1539 – Crete falls to us.

I lost a ship in the Adriatic. I order another built in Naxos.

1 May, 1539 – 1000 Portugese troops land in Malta and begin a siege there.

24 May, 1539 – I hire a bunch of mercs in Napoli to hit Aragon when they aren’t looking.

13 June, 1539 – Our 4000 mercs arrive in Calabria and begin a siege.

2 August, 1539 – We capture Lombardia. I send a peace offer for Lombardia. Venice agrees and sends us Lombardia.

Now for our nemesis, Aragon.

Thought I'd let you know that I'm following and enjoying this dynasty immensely (since I know how it sucks to do one that has little feedback). Keep it up and good luck.

ditto, I'm very interested in this

Glad ta hear it fellas

Put me down as another avid reader. :)

Well then, let me give you folks some more posts!

War Continued


I order my large troops in the north to break the small Aragonian siege in Romagna.

10 August, 1539 – RM: Saxony

19 August, 1539 – Malta falls to Portugal.

20 October, 1539 – We drive Aragon away from Romagna. I order my forces into Aragonian territory.

31 October, 1539 – Burgundian troops arrive in Lombardia to begin a siege.

8 November, 1539 – We crack the Aragon defense in Ancona.

25 November, 1539 – Bosnia was annexed by Hungary.

5 December, 1539 – I sneak three regiments to Sardinia to begin a siege there.

26 January, 1540 – Our Crete forces land in Malta and drive away the Portugese. The Re-Siege of Malta has begun.

1 March, 1540 – Two countries declare independence from Lithuania. Transylvania and Moldavia.

Also a level FOUR army reformer appeared in, of all place, Lombardia, the new province. I will hire him, but who to dump?

The naval guy is okay, but not great. He’s younger, but he’s the weakest of the lot. I fire him and hire Demosthenes Giustiniani. Very Italian that name.

10 March, 1540 – RM: Poland

30 March, 1540 – Lombardia falls to Burgundy. I order a large chunk of our forces back north while we besiege Aragon in numerous provinces.

1 April, 1540 – Our land tech increases.

19 April, 1540 – Burgundy arrives in Parma and begins a siege.

9 May, 1540 – Calabria falls to our mercs.

16 May, 1540 – The first peace offer from Aragon arrives. A white peace. I reject it.

19 May, 1540 – Our large army arrives in Parma to break the siege here by Burgundy.

5 June, 1540 – Venice declared war on Genoa. I will not let them get the prize of Liguria first.

12 June, 1540 – Our large forces drive back the Burgundians with ease at Parma.

I declare war on Genoa. Our stability drops by three to negative one. I order my force into Liguria. Tuscany and Castille join us.