I Burg Your Pardon? A Burgundy AAR!

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I Burg Your Pardon? An EU3 Divine Wind 5.1 Burgundy-to-France AAR.​

Index of Contents:
Coming soon!​

Hey everyone. I'm fairly new to Paradox and EU3 as a whole but this idea seemed too fun to pass up! I'd like to note that I'm probably not the world's best writer or the best with format either, but I'm going to try my best to keep everyone here entertained! I'll probably use a semi-historical and semi-personal style of writing.​

The year was 1399. The people of Burgandy sat in the midst of war, strife, and at the helm of the Holy Roman Empire. As it was to be, Philip IV Burgeois inherited the throne of the Holy Empire in 1400, shortly after our tale begins.

Making great strategical use of his power, king Philip went on a great warpath across central Europe, vassalizing Trier and Frankfurt, annexing Bar, and vassalizing Lorraine without much of any effort. This put Burgundy in a great position of power, but also one of great infamy. The king passed away in battle with Lorraine and regrettably, the holy seat was lost to one most vicious, Austria. However, our lineage is safe with several heirs!

Scouts from Burgundy did notice something odd, however. Many events in England seemed odd. The country was falling into disarray after a long and brutal war with France. The country itself was exploding -- losing territory to countries such as Denmark and even having the muslim nation of Tunisia force them to release Wales! Even the Frieslanders took chunks of the once mighty empire!

Burgundy now stands at a cross-roads while waiting for their heavy amounts of infamy to settle back into peace again: Do they conquer what's left England? Do they wish to restore their power as the emperor? Fortify the boundaries of their nation so France cannot attack? Only time will tell... but one thing is for sure: things are bound to get bloody between Burgandy and France. Thankfully, Burgandy maintains an alliance with Brandenburg, Castille and Brittany hopefully stifling some French advances. Onward, to glory!

(I'm sorry for the slow first post, but my first night of play wasn't documented in the AAR, I'm actually recalling this from memory and will have better recollection of tonight's events than the one prior. Thanks! I'd also like to note that I didn't detail the vassalization wars too much because they are simply 1399 missions and I completed them VERY quickly.)

 

[Johnny Canuck]

That's a pretty shocking development with England - takes them completely out of the equation in terms of the West European balance of power.

My suggestion would be to go after France ASAP, before they get stronger (as they certainly will if they aren't taken down). Try to force them to release nations - it's cheaper in terms of warscore, costs much less infamy, and gives you useful new allies.

 

[Ashantai]

France won big - they usually never reconquer all their lands at once so early!

Definitely look to knock them down to size.

 

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As we once again enter the fray, we are backstabbed by France! Those dirty, filthy, same-cultured but disgusting peasents must pay! Much to my chagrin, Austria has come to my aid and the war is heavily favored in my behalf.

Unfortunately for me, Austria decided that merely defending us was enough and has allowed the filthy French pig-dogs to keep most of their land! I was a junior partner under Holy-Roman protection, and while I am thankful for their aid, we are somewhat disheartened at the lack of war-spoils.

On a positive note for us, Aragon has also seperately declared war on France -- this was a long and bloody war, with no land changing hands, but Aragon finding a victory in the fall of France's king in battle with no heir-apparent! This is excellent for us, as France is currently beaten down and has no ability to declare wars, giving us much time to bolster our forces and move on with our missions. One of which consists of the conquering of the small nation of Brabant.

The mission was easily accomplished, with not even Brabant's allies coming to back her in war. From here, we moved on to completely conquering Liege as per his excellency's request. However, much to our duress, we now own unlawful imperial land that we are not willing to release. This greatly reduces the chances of Austria coming to help against France once more, which is highly unfortunate and at the same time quite frightening. Shall we return the land? I think not! Let them come. We will stand tall. Meanwhile, I feel it's a good chance for us to observe our advisors and monarch's standing! The people of Burgandy have been blessed with wonderful natural advisors that we have no intent on changing, and our lord's son is a fairly strong one indeed! He will surely overshadow his father, and in a more peaceful time, aspire to be the emperor...

We currently were assigned a mission to vassalize Aachen, but we are not going to do this due to the simple fact that they are guaranteed by TWELVE countries. We are choosing to abandon this mission rather than march into oblivion over such a simple and petty nation. What mission shall we recieve next?

It now appears we are tasked with taking Vermandois from France. But are we capable? Only time will tell. In the meanwhile, France is attempting to tarnish our reputation but failing like the pitiful pig-dogs that they are! Nearby, our old, beloved king has passed away and made way for his strong son. What this means, however, is that we're able to refine our mercenary techniques which could turn the tide of a losing war! We also have a fairly smart heir to the throne who will surely lead us to proper conquest against the filthy French!

(Going to cut this post off here since I'm just idling my infamy down before the inevitable French war.. thanks for reading so far!)​

 

[Falc]

As a fellow Burgundy player, one piece of advice: if you have any intention at all of going after England, make sure you take advantage of the current situation. Do whatever it takes to get into a war with someone who has a province on the island and take it, no matter the BB cost. All of these nations will have a much smaller fleet than England and it'll be your best chance, ever, to guarantee an early conquest of the isles.

 

[dinofs]

As a fellow Burgundy player, one piece of advice: if you have any intention at all of going after England, make sure you take advantage of the current situation. Do whatever it takes to get into a war with someone who has a province on the island and take it, no matter the BB cost. All of these nations will have a much smaller fleet than England and it'll be your best chance, ever, to guarantee an early conquest of the isles.

I agree. If you can get a foothold in either southern England or Northumberland now, you'll have the chance to completely conquer the isles later, or at least to keep England from becoming a threat. I would start by invading Holland (I think it's them at least) and annexing their land in the south while you wait for a truce with France to end.

 

[blsteen]

England doesn't look like its going anywhere...pieces and chunks just floating around like in my mom's stew
France on the other hand needs to be dealt with ASAP.

 

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(Lots of great stuff transpired and I will be playing and posting more tonight! Consider this post reserved and it will be edited with more of my AAR late tonight! Thank you all for your generous replies so far and I am open to any tips as this is my first AAR and I am enjoying it so far. )

 

[Ashantai]

Great work! Unfortunate that Austria was the senior partner, but with their armies diminished it might not be long before victory is assured over France!

 

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As we once again return to the fields of glory, we have found ourselves in high favor this day. You see, Austria has once again come to our aid against France -- but no longer am I a junior partner. Our armies have combined and utterly decimated France!

All seems to be at a loss for France! Their monarch died, their stability is crumbling, disenfranchised rebels rise up to conquer the land! All is going well.

We managed to force France to release Dauphine back to their sovereignty and regained our precious core province of Calais! Austria has also forced France to release Guyenne which was a devastating loss of FIVE provinces to France! Furthermore and even further to our behest, we gained a province during the war because France was so defeated that it defected to us! This has allowed us ample time to continue gaining land and allies for ourselves, and we have acquired several vassal states in the mean time.

As for what we're currently doing? Only time will tell. We are guaranteeing the independance of several French minors as well as trying to regain our status as a liked nation. Our infamy is spoken of throughout all of Europe and must be eliminated...

It appears France, the filthy pig-dogs have decided to attack Dauphine with no provocation, taking advantage of a rebel situation! However, I (and the Normans, AND Austrians) have intervened to end their ignorant stupidity once and for all! To hell with Infamy, France must end!

France has been reduced to their capital as their only owned province. But again, questions are raised: What to do now? Pick off French minors? Try to ford our way to England to take land amongst the turmoil? Simply idle more for infamy reduction? Our king has heavy decisions weighing on his shoulders...

 

[dinofs]

Great work crushing France so quickly. Now on to England!

 

[delra]

Go Habsburg on them. It's always fun when you force PUs all over France so you can inherit countries and get cores immediately. Less BB, better end result.

 

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We start our adventure off tonight with a map of Europe, provided by our tireless scribes! As you can see, England is still in shambles and remains a target for our conquest. We have completely limited England's ability to expand by putting our influence or guaranteeing every country within their proximity -- a most wise decision our advisors tell us.

We have a mission now that we are going to seek to accomplish. We are to force the pathetic nation of Trier to be our vassal. There is nothing stopping us from doing this aside from a treaty, so in the mean time we will wait for it to go down while planning our battle strategy!

Vassalizing Trier was quite easy, but it did invoke a bit of a war. However, we were very easily able to dispatch them and accomplish our goal. We now have 7 vassal states!

Since it's now a time we could consider peaceful, it's as good of time as any to check out our technologies (most of which are 15+ years ahead of their time!) and such!

Afterwards, we decided it was time once and for all to eliminate the filthy French! Guyenne decided to aid them and also lost a province to us! The glory to our nation is strong, and one day we may be able to declare ourselves a proper French nation without the disgusting filth that proceeded us.

As things currently stand we are once again trying to lower our infamy. The people in Europe speak of unspeakable things that the Burgs have done. Not of which is limited to whispers that Burgundy might even intervene in a British war (as an aggressor) without a casus belli! We must improve our reputation before we fall into ruin from hatred! But our bloodlust cannot be sated yet, no no, we must annex Essex and Kent from England! And annex them we have!

(A personal and small edit on this post with some facts:

Hardly ever changed advisors on this game.
Money has always been easy.
Burgundy gets RIDICULOUS manpower, even without the national idea. This will probably allow me to colonize early, too...
Thinking of switching to reformed when I can.
Bit behind on buildings.. the magistrate system is VERY rough in DW.
The emperor of Bohemia dying in 1400 and the HRE passing to me has made this possibly a BIT easier than I've liked.
I'm interested in forming France.
I'm interested in leaving the HRE and fighting it, eventually.)​

 

[dinofs]

I think you should try to get the HRE to form independently of you so you can take it on in a final climactic war to decide the fate of Europe.

 

[unmerged(181060)]

I think you should try to get the HRE to form independently of you so you can take it on in a final climactic war to decide the fate of Europe.

This is an excellent idea, but what about all my HRE vassals? Do they come with me, or become part of the HRE? Thanks for the great gameplay idea. I'm really enjoying this so far, even if Burgundy is MUCH easier to play than the Teutonic Order, they're still an excellent nation with a ton of great missions.

 

[delra]

Whether they join the united HER depends on their relations with the emperor. Some countries will rebel, most won't.

 

[dinofs]

This is an excellent idea, but what about all my HRE vassals? Do they come with me, or become part of the HRE? Thanks for the great gameplay idea. I'm really enjoying this so far, even if Burgundy is MUCH easier to play than the Teutonic Order, they're still an excellent nation with a ton of great missions.

Good point. I say let them decide for themselves, but I think if you lower their relations with the emperor a bit through wars you should be able to make them join you.

 

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As we once again return to our glorious country, our scribes have provided an updated map. We have noticed a few things: Brandenburg has taken advantage of a collapsing eastern European stability climate and Austria has annexed Hungary in a peaceful manner! The emperor himself is now quite strong, putting us at possible ends with him.

As we flow through time, our king (shortly before passing, LONG LIVE THE KING!) tasked us with the mission of vassalizing Alencon. The poor, filthy nation was easily taken over, and we now await further orders from the new king. Unfortunately, the new king's administrative skills are a bit lacking... so we must find new ways to lower our infamy.

As an observation from our king's VERY high seat in Europe, we have found out something disheartening and disgusting. France exists again! The pathetic nation of Provence could not hold itself together and as such, melted back into France! How dare they do such disgusting TERRIBLE things such as existing? -WE- wanted to reform the French nation as a true and PURE version of it! Our anger has been provoked.

However, and happily in the mean time: our current king has reformed our government into an empire. The strife to offset this will be great, but all will know our name! All will know of our bloodline and our power! Most definitely the pig-dog French...

Fortunately for us, France declared war on a country with a guarantee from us! This allowed us to attack France and completely annex their remaining land, setting us once again on the path to forming a proper and true French nation! Favor smiles upon us, but we are always subjugated by our infamy and extremely poor diplomatic skill. This is now improved at all by our heir apparent and will be a time tasking issue for us -- we are currently supporting renaissance schools in Florence to allow some erudite minds to tell us how to become less infamous.

I promise to work on my formatting and entertainment skills. This is my first AAR, sadly. I'm not a complete blaggart, but I do require some practice. Thank you for the interest shown thus far.

To do:

Get links to each battle post in the original post.
Perhaps add some more flavor text to the newer posts I make from here on out.
Work on some color for important text.
More text-to-image ratio.

Any other tips? Much appreciated.

 

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It is with great pleasure that we should once again return to managing our glorious nation. Our nation is currently in what one could call a golden age of prosperity, even hearing whispers of a new world filled with untold riches and savage hordes! Our king has ordered that we stop war in order to stabilize ourselves and spread our good name. We are an empire now, it cannot be taken for granted that we have achieved this position! We must perservere unto greatness! So, without further ado, we continue!


One could consider us to be fully entrenched in a golden age at this point! Our scholars and governers help us advance our tech more than any other nation in the world, and the universities in Florence speak of our great advancements! We are years, if not decades ahead of the rest of the world in our technological advancements!

To avoid complacency in our glorious nation, our king (who is aging now!) has tasked us with vassalizing York. This proves quite an easy task as they have no allies and our forces outnumber them 17 to 1. Due to the fact that they are now under our care, the rest of Europe has recognized our generous deed and our infamy is slowly reducing.

An ally of ours, Castille declared a war against Portugal which created a very nice opportunity for us through an alliance war. We have gained another province in the land of England without gaining much infamy, and our empire continues to expand! Our size and strength is heralded throughout all the lands.

After the minor skirmish war, we acquired a rather interesting mission from our new king! He requires the destruction and capture of Poitou, however -- they're quite fortified with alliances and we will need to find a way to get an ally on our side for the impending war, lest we fall into ruin fighting several sovereign nations!

 

[Avindian]

Although I despise Burgundy for personal reasons (see my AAR ), this is really great work! Ever since HttT, Burgundy is a lot more powerful. I wonder if a WC could be in the cards?