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-   -   EUIII - The Naxos Campaign - COMPLETE!!!! (http://forums.operationsports.com/fofc//showthread.php?t=57190)

Abe Sargent 02-25-2007 07:24 PM

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

Abe Sargent 02-25-2007 07:27 PM

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




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

Abe Sargent 02-25-2007 09:18 PM

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.

Abe Sargent 02-25-2007 09:28 PM

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.

Abe Sargent 02-25-2007 09:49 PM

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?

Peregrine 02-26-2007 05:28 AM

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

Abe Sargent 02-26-2007 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peregrine (Post 1403103)
Nice idea, Anxiety, I'll be reading. Naxos sounds like it's an interesting country to start with.


Thanks!

Abe Sargent 02-26-2007 01:34 PM

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.

Abe Sargent 02-26-2007 02:31 PM

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.

Abe Sargent 02-26-2007 03:14 PM

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?

Abe Sargent 02-26-2007 07:45 PM

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?

SFL Cat 02-26-2007 09:06 PM

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).

WSUCougar 02-26-2007 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SFL Cat (Post 1403777)
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:

Blade6119 02-26-2007 09:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SFL Cat (Post 1403777)
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).


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.

SFL Cat 02-26-2007 10:08 PM

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).

Abe Sargent 02-27-2007 01:17 AM

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.

Izulde 02-27-2007 11:50 AM

Nice movement!

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

Abe Sargent 02-27-2007 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Izulde (Post 1404289)
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.

st.cronin 02-27-2007 01:10 PM

Can you post an updated map?

Abe Sargent 02-27-2007 01:23 PM

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

st.cronin 02-27-2007 01:29 PM

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

Abe Sargent 02-27-2007 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by st.cronin (Post 1404428)
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.

Abe Sargent 02-27-2007 01:56 PM

I hope that this works. Here we go.







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

st.cronin 02-27-2007 01:57 PM

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

Izulde 02-27-2007 02:38 PM

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

Abe Sargent 02-27-2007 03:45 PM

Montenegro - hard to write that in Paint :)

Abe Sargent 02-27-2007 05:16 PM

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.

Alan T 02-27-2007 06:02 PM

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

Abe Sargent 02-27-2007 06:26 PM

No promises sir :)

Abe Sargent 02-27-2007 09:44 PM

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

Abe Sargent 02-27-2007 11:35 PM

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.

nilodor 02-27-2007 11:57 PM

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

Abe Sargent 02-28-2007 01:30 AM

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.

Abe Sargent 02-28-2007 04:15 AM

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.

SFL Cat 02-28-2007 08:08 AM

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

Abe Sargent 02-28-2007 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SFL Cat (Post 1405721)
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.

Abe Sargent 02-28-2007 11:46 PM

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!

Izulde 02-28-2007 11:58 PM

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

Alan T 03-01-2007 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anxiety (Post 1405941)
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.


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.

Abe Sargent 03-01-2007 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan T (Post 1407061)
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?

Abe Sargent 03-01-2007 12:46 PM

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.

Alan T 03-01-2007 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anxiety (Post 1407150)
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?


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.

Abe Sargent 03-01-2007 02:54 PM

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!

Abe Sargent 03-01-2007 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan T (Post 1407158)
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.


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

Abe Sargent 03-01-2007 04:05 PM

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?

Abe Sargent 03-01-2007 06:49 PM

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.

Abe Sargent 03-01-2007 07:02 PM

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


st.cronin 03-01-2007 07:20 PM

Why did you attack Tripoli? Easy pickings?

Abe Sargent 03-01-2007 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by st.cronin (Post 1407535)
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

Abe Sargent 03-02-2007 12:48 AM

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?


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