Rex Germania - A Brandenburg to Prussia Strategy AAR

[Legosim]

Okay, full disclosure on the delay... Yes, I've been working on research for a novelization of my Prussia story.

But I'm also a little lost for the next update. I have 1/2 of it completely prepared to post. And I just can't figure out where to END the last half. I have a muddle of things, none of which stand out. So in desperation I've been just going through 7 years of screenshots and annotating what's coming up. The benefit of this is it'll help me to craft future updates -- they're already halfway prepared. But I'm just having trouble putting the final dot on this particular update.

I am working on it. Thank you for your readership! Any lurkers want to post encouragement to help me along???

Rensslaer

I'm sure you'll figure it out! Trying to string a coherent narrative together with all the things going on in the game can definitely be tough. Great to hear you are still making progress with the novelization as well! Appreciate the details on that you left in the earlier comment.

 

[Rensslaer]

Dear readers,

Apologies for my absence. We're enjoying Florida this week after Christmas. Here's Fort Lauderdale Beach where I've just been swimming - can't beat swimming in the ocean after Christmas.

Never spent much time outside during winter when I was in Colorado.

Once I'm back I'll get an update finished. Thank you for your patience!

Rensslaer

 

[jak7139]

Apologies for my absence. We're enjoying Florida this week after Christmas. Here's Fort Lauderdale Beach where I've just been swimming - can't beat swimming in the ocean after Christmas.

That looks beautiful. I didn't visit that part of Florida when my family went there a few years ago, but the water and beaches anywhere are excellent. You don't need to apologize for relaxing with your family !

 

[RisKFactoR]

That looks beautiful. I didn't visit that part of Florida when my family went there a few years ago, but the water and beaches anywhere are excellent. You don't need to apologize for relaxing with your family !

Renns wasn't apologizing, apologizing. He was humble bragging.

This has been my view outside my living room window for the past month straight, every single day.

 

[jak7139]

Renns wasn't apologizing, apologizing. He was humble bragging.

I see now. It's really hard to tell with text sometimes.

This has been my view outside my living room window for the past month straight, every single day.

That looks rough. Hopefully, your weather clears soon. It's been super foggy and cold where I live, but at least there hasn't been any rain, snow, or icy roads.

 

[Rensslaer]

That looks beautiful. I didn't visit that part of Florida when my family went there a few years ago, but the water and beaches anywhere are excellent. You don't need to apologize for relaxing with your family !

Thanks! Where do you live, that it's so foggy?

Renns wasn't apologizing, apologizing. He was humble bragging.

This has been my view outside my living room window for the past month straight, every single day.

Ha! Sorry to hear that. Where do you live?

For Christmas my wife got me this Fokker D7 plane model (the most feared German fighter of WWI) that we found in a knick-knack store at Amelia Island.



I'm going to resolve the posting delay, I think, by shortening the current post and dealing with other stuff later. It appears it's quite some time before I get into the next war, so I have to figure out how to communicate a bunch of mundane stuff without being mundane. lol This next post (I think) will end up with some interesting events, though.

Thanks for reading and following, and especially for posting!

Rensslaer

 

[jak7139]

Thanks! Where do you live, that it's so foggy?

Southern Idaho. Weirdly, there's been very little snow this year. So we just have the fog and cold.

For Christmas my wife got me this Fokker D7 plane model (the most feared German fighter of WWI) that we found in a knick-knack store at Amelia Island.

That's very cool! Did you have to assemble it, or was it pre-built?

 

[Rensslaer]

I'm sure you'll figure it out! Trying to string a coherent narrative together with all the things going on in the game can definitely be tough. Great to hear you are still making progress with the novelization as well! Appreciate the details on that you left in the earlier comment.

@Legosim I'm having fun with the novel project. Feels good to be making progress on something for a change, considering how stagnated I'd felt. Thank you for your readership over so many years!

Southern Idaho. Weirdly, there's been very little snow this year. So we just have the fog and cold.

That's very cool! Did you have to assemble it, or was it pre-built?

@jak7139 It was assembled and painted by a local Amelia Island modeler - an older gentleman I understand. I should call to find out more about him. But he had about a dozen painted models on display and this was the one I chose. He had a Pfalz that I kind of wanted too, but the paint job on this one won me over to it. Not cheap!

I've made significant progress on the update, and organizing it more as soon as I'm done here...

Rensslaer

 

[Rensslaer]

Apologies for an overlong hiatus! Back in the swing of things...

Another step back. I apparently don’t have my AAR ducks in a row, quite yet. It’s been a while (especially since I’ve had 2 AARs running at the same time).

@HistoryDude asked about whether I demanded any gold from Wolgast in the peace, and also asked about the debt. Somehow I managed not to include this screenshot in the previous update.

So, yes, I did get 70 ducats (kept 61 of that, my ally taking the rest). And I immediately repaid one of my four loans (for nearly 47 ducats).



Now, I don’t know if any of you veteran EU IV players would fault me for paying off debt. It seemed to me that it was costing me interest that was taking up a good percentage of my monthly income, and I was afraid I might keep acquiring more debt such that it might become a problem/habit (anyone remember early days in Fire Warms???).

How much debt is too much debt for a large country in EU IV? Should I have just kept the money and plowed it into development and ships? It wouldn’t have bought very much, all in all, right?

Anyway, I previously mentioned Brandenburg’s Prestige increased to 33 from 21. But I’ve got a massive yearly drawdown. I notice this is primarily (-4.00/yr) because I now hold Imperial Territory “unlawfully”. Hmm….



And I see that my likelihood of rebellion is going down, partly because of my +2 Legitimacy and partly due to +2 Stability. Otherwise my war exhaustion and overextension would increase my chance of rebellion.

So… That’s one of the few “whole” screenshots showing the EUIV screen in its entirety. Anyone see anything you want to point out as a mistake, or a bad sign, or… maybe something good? Advise accepted if you’ve got it. I’ve read some of the Developer Diaries, and some advice stuff, and I’ve read some AARs, but I haven’t truly “read up” on EU IV to the point where I know what I’m doing. I’m mostly learning as I go. I haven’t even finished reading the manual. I know – I’m a bad, bad one-time manual writer. lol To be fair, I really don't have time to be doing one AAR, much less two, so I've shifted my manual and Dev Diary writing time into writing the AARs instead.

In a recent discussion with @coz1 in his The Rain In Spain Falls Mainly on Castille AAR he mentioned that he avoids spending Admin points on Stability because he needed Quest for the New World before others could beat him to it, and he has a point if you’re playing a colonial power. But I’m not. There may be another Idea that I would need just as desperately, and I plead ignorance of the full effect of various Ideas because I haven’t systematically studied them. But I believed in EU III and still believe in EU IV that Stability is of critical importance for just about everything. Coz1 was right in his particular circumstance, but for mine I like having decent Stability, especially since there are events that can knock it right out from under you and then you’re struggling with negative modifiers.

Here’s a look at Europe in general in 1451.



Brandenburg is all the brownish colors within that red oval. The yellow in the upper right is the growing Muscovy. And Lithuania remains the rather large lion sitting on the fringes of Europe, dwarfing pretty much everything else. Lithuania, Poland, Hungary and Austria remain those powers continually holding the line against the Mohammedans of the Ottoman Empire.

And Brandenburg, by some measures, isn’t doing half bad. The top statistics below are sorted by Prestige (we’re challenging Austria – the Emperor himself!). The bottom statistics are sorted by overall development (which I believe is all the development of each province, added together, yes? – that’s why Lithuania is so high, even though they were probably pretty backward, province-by-province, by comparison).



I’m losing 2.25 ducats a month – a negative balance I can’t afford to continue. So it’s time to do what I can to improve my economy (or to cut my expenses, but who wants to do that???).

I’m converting our new provinces to states. During the war I had too many diplomatic connections to earn Diplo points quickly, so I revoked the Military Access I’d used through Mecklenburg to get to Stralsund. Everything is give and take in this EU IV – more so, I think, than in EU III.

Then in August 1451 we receive an unwelcome and somewhat unfriendly message from the Emperor…

We’ve offended someone we maybe shouldn’t offend…



Friedrich II: “Err, uh… My Emperor, I humbly apologize for offending you so. I agree to release this small island, if it will make recompense for the offense…”

I admit I was unfamiliar with this mechanic, and the penalties appeared at first quite severe, and kind of scared me. Did I really want this little island that much? Bah!

This quickly became a farce!

Is this typical in the mid 15th Century? An HRE-member island becoming a Republic??! Then Feudalism a couple of days later??? A month after the demand from the Emperor, all this had happened, and Friedrich II’s head was spinning. He was pretty put out, too.

Then, after various improvements to our development and cashflow, we receive a visit from ANOTHER envoy in December…



We’re not in any mood to lose our Advisor, Ucklanski. Neither are we in the mood to have more distant powers and potentates dictating terms to Brandenburg.

Friedrich II’s spine stiffened at this latest request, and he rather brusquely told the Pope’s envoy that this was none of Rome’s business. This was a local matter, and would be dealt with locally.

Some wrestling with sales and crownlands to balance things out followed to restore some loyalty.

We used about 1/2 of the proceeds from the sales to pay off two more loans. So I think we only had one left.

More development spending, and Pommeranean becomes an accepted culture, which improves our economy yet more.

At the beginning of 1452, in a fit of confidence and desire to aggressively pursue better Administrative Point gain, we promoted our “Heretic Advisor” to +2.



Ugh! What a disaster!

Not only did it leave us with little on-hand cash, but it increased our expenses greatly and put us in deficit territory again. If I had paid more attention I could have done a little math (“so I’m increasing his salary fourfold…”) and figured this out, but it’s not like I could demote him again…

While Friedrich II was still understanding the implications of his decision, ANOTHER envoy arrives in February 1452…



Okay…. Well…

Friedrich II: “Okay, so the Emperor is just going to keep sending demands to us for all the territory we’ve taken?! That’s not going to happen. Who does he think he is? Oh…. Well, yes, he IS the Emperor…





…Maybe we’ll just not answer him this time and see if he forgets he asked.”

Actually, instead we just started improving relations with Austria, hoping that would split the difference.

More development spending. Treasury dwindling… I actually considered loaning my armies out as Condottieri in a Lowlands conflict with Utrecht, but decided it might well cost us more in lives than it would be worth in gold.

By September we had been forced to take a loan to support our Heretic Advisor, AND we got ANOTHER demand from the Emperor.

This is about where Friedrich III decided he didn’t give a damn what the Emperor wanted. Brandenburg had grown, and wasn’t just a little Electorate anymore.



Having grown used to, now, making tough decisions. Friedrich II “Irontooth” decided to admit he had made a bad play, and decided to fire Bishop Ucklanski. We couldn’t afford him, and he was dragging us down.

In replacement I was able to hire a +1 Military Advisor and ended up with a +.55 income balance.

That meant we were back in business.



And we round out 1452 with another small victory – the dawn of the Brandenburgian Navy. Its first cog transport.

Small steps. Small ones. <sighs>

 

[HistoryDude]

Let's hope that Austria doesn't feel the need to enforce their unlawful territory complaints. That does have a bit of basis in OTL, although the emperor often had allies (notably the Swabian League). The Reformation kind of killed that for a while, though.

As for Rugen, could the republican government be due to the Hanseatic League? That's my best guess for why it would be a republic.

It's nice to see this back!

 

[Historywhiz]

Oh great, you released Rügen. You’re about to become very frustrated indeed…

 

[Bullfilter]

Given I’ve been going through some similar stuff with my current EU4 AAR (as Friesland, another HRE minor) having never played any EU game before, I’ve had a go at either answering or being equally mystified with some of the questions you’ve posed. All offered with the caveat that free advice is worth everything you pay for it!

Advise accepted if you’ve got it. I’ve read some of the Developer Diaries, and some advice stuff, and I’ve read some AARs, but I haven’t truly “read up” on EU IV to the point where I know what I’m doing. I’m mostly learning as I go.

You’re already ahead of me no dev diaries or manual read at all! Just started playing then, 250 years into my first ever game (well, 2nd technically after the first one crashed and burned very quickly, forcing a restart) just mucking about, retrospectively decided to do an AAR about it using save games!

I haven’t even finished reading the manual.

There’s a manual?

To be fair, I really don't have time to be doing one AAR, much less two

That’s what I thought … until I got to 4 at once

believe in EU IV that Stability is of critical importance for just about everything. Coz1 was right in his particular circumstance,

I came to the same conclusion and have tried to keep it at 3 whenever possible. But per Coz’s example, sometimes a tactical priority to do something else might temporarily override the principle. The old EU Rome was like that too. Stability pretty important.

I admit I was unfamiliar with this mechanic, and the penalties appeared at first quite severe, and kind of scared me.

Within reason, I just kept ignoring these cheeky demands and (second time round, anyway) survived it. I found coalitions against over-aggressive expansion far scarier (it’s what destroyed my first attempt). I figured if I had to keep handing things back to the HRE I was never going to expand at all.

Friedrich II: “Okay, so the Emperor is just going to keep sending demands to us for all the territory we’ve taken?! That’s not going to happen. Who does he think he is? Oh…. Well, yes, he IS the Emperor…

Precisely. Toothless tiger - wave him away.

By September we had been forced to take a loan to support our Heretic Advisor

That seems rather - er, “courageous, Minister!”

This is about where Friedrich III decided he didn’t give a damn what the Emperor wanted.

Exactly. Hard earned territory and all that. It’s still in the Empire - just your part of it.

In replacement I was able to hire a +1 Military Advisor and ended up with a +.55 income balance.

That meant we were back in business.

That seems far more sustainable. I found I needed to build the economy quite a bit before gradually introducing advisors at the +1 level, then gradually getting better ones as I could afford them. Then, I am playing a small power relying more on trade and building a colonial empire to furnish parallel expansion at home. I gather your trajectory is more about territorial expansion near home.

Anyway, hope your shiny riding boots are soon stomping all over your neighbours in classic fashion!

 

[jak7139]

Now, I don’t know if any of you veteran EU IV players would fault me for paying off debt.

How much debt is too much debt for a large country in EU IV? Should I have just kept the money and plowed it into development and ships?

Debt for a small power, such as Brandenburg, is a tricky thing to manage. I agree that your money should go towards paying it off.

How much debt is too much? It depends. Generally, if you're spending 40-50% of your income on the interest then that's pretty bad. However, if you can't pay that debt off within a reasonable timeframe, lots of players like to do a "planned bankruptcy." That is where you purposely go bankrupt to clear the debt. Not something I would recommend at this early stage of your game (planned bankruptcy also has certain steps you need to do that you might not know about for your first time).

Anyone see anything you want to point out as a mistake, or a bad sign, or… maybe something good?

It all looks good. One thing is that one of your armies is taking attrition in the screenshot. With manpower being so finite at this stage, you'd probably want to move that army to somewhere else.

but for mine I like having decent Stability, especially since there are events that can knock it right out from under you and then you’re struggling with negative modifiers.

There are also many sources of free stability as well. I like to wait for one of these to come along, boost my stability, then click the event to go to +2 for cheap.

Admin points are crucial since you need to expand and core new lands (and take tech to unlock new idea groups). So staying at 0 or +1 is fine. It never hurts to save your points for when you need them and have too many, rather than too few.

(which I believe is all the development of each province, added together, yes?

Yes. You can also see your country's total development on the GP screen and in the economy tab (next to where you decrease inflation).

Everything is give and take in this EU IV – more so, I think, than in EU III.

I've never played EU3, but I think this is an accurate statement. The semi-randomness of monarch points and ruler stats means that each point you gain or spend is precious. It's only later in the game when you can afford higher-level advisors and start to stack discounts to tech/ideas that this applies less. Having that extra ally might save you in war, but are you willing to maintain the diplo point cost for going over the limit for something that might never come?

I admit I was unfamiliar with this mechanic, and the penalties appeared at first quite severe, and kind of scared me.

Friedrich II: “Okay, so the Emperor is just going to keep sending demands to us for all the territory we’ve taken?!

They do seem rather large and severe. I don't fault you for giving in, since you didn't know the mechanic.

Every time a nation takes a province in the HRE that isn't their core, the Emperor can demand they return it. If they refuse, those modifiers apply to the province for some years.

However, as you found out, giving in to one demand means the Emperor will continue to ask for the rest. And giving in does not refund whatever AE or diplo points you spent to conquer the province in the first place. So it is not worth it. The provinces will revolt anyway, so the extra unrest really isn't much of a concern. Ah well, live and learn!

And we round out 1452 with another small victory – the dawn of the Brandenburgian Navy. Its first cog transport.

A cog? Interesting. Gotland is independent...or maybe you're going to no-CB Ireland.

As for Rugen, could the republican government be due to the Hanseatic League? That's my best guess for why it would be a republic.

@Historywhiz is correct at the reasons for Rugen's form of government. I won't spoil anything though.

 

[RisKFactoR]

Thanks! Where do you live, that it's so foggy?



Ha! Sorry to hear that. Where do you live?

For Christmas my wife got me this Fokker D7 plane model (the most feared German fighter of WWI) that we found in a knick-knack store at Amelia Island.



I'm going to resolve the posting delay, I think, by shortening the current post and dealing with other stuff later. It appears it's quite some time before I get into the next war, so I have to figure out how to communicate a bunch of mundane stuff without being mundane. lol This next post (I think) will end up with some interesting events, though.

Thanks for reading and following, and especially for posting!

Rensslaer

Sorry for not responding. Holidays and all of that.

I'm from Pennsylvania. So basically, the same dreary, cloudy, wet weather as the UK, surrounded by essentially the same kinda hills as makes up the Scottish Highlands. Except all covered completely in trees instead of grass and rocks, that decide to turn into a dreary brown in the winter after all their leaves fall off. lol.

 

[RisKFactoR]

I see now. It's really hard to tell with text sometimes.

That looks rough. Hopefully, your weather clears soon. It's been super foggy and cold where I live, but at least there hasn't been any rain, snow, or icy roads.

It did! We had some nice blue skies yesterday and into today! But supposed to get 6 inches of snow tonight (dont see that happening at all. It's barely ever dipped below freezing yet this winter, and was a balmy 38 degree today. If it snows, its just going to be heavy, wet, sloppy, and be all melted by 8:00 AM. Ground needs to be frozen for a good bit, not swampy and soft.)

ETA (Edited To Add): I really need to learn to start using the multiquote. Been on this forum for 14 years, and still forget to use it. lol.

 

[coz1]

Ah, the old demand unlawful territory. If you give in the the Emperor every time, you will never expand inside the HRE. Last time I played Brandenburg, I pretty much ignored him.

And yes, pay off those loans. The interest payment is never good. Especially when you are trying to hire good advisors. Every ducat counts.

Huzzah for a cog!!

 

[Rensslaer]

Dear Readers,

I am concerned that we've only seen 6 votes so far in the The 2023 Yearly AARland Year-end AwAARds, and there's less than a month to complete the balloting (ends Feb 3 and it may take a bit to finish your ballot, so it's good to get a jump on it).

This is a yearly award to honor the best writers of the best AARs of 2023. It is configured differently from the Q42023 AARLand Choice Awards (also currently running with less than a month to vote!) -- the Year End awards allow you to choose the best AARs on the forum by category -- Comedy, Historybook, Narrative, etc.

I do hope that you'll go take a look and put in a ballot, even if you can't complete it all. I'm not asking you to vote for this AAR (though I'd value it if you do), but please do go through what you're reading (at least) and rank those AARs. If you are more serious about it do some additional reading (as I am doing) and find worthy AARs you hadn't previously looked at. You all know which AARs you really love to read -- just go ahead and let us know by voting!

Thank you! And it might help if you plug this in your own AARs as well.

Rensslaer

 

[jak7139]

I do hope that you'll go take a look and put in a ballot, even if you can't complete it all.

My ballots for both the YAYA's and Q4 Awards are being worked on. I should be able to get them in before the deadline, I just don't like posting things before they're ready.

 

[VILenin]

Ticking off the Emperor and the Pope, a bold strategy! Although I guess their demands are mostly bluster? As someone who never learned the ropes of EU4, I'm even more in the dark than you as to how things will shake out. Keeps it exciting!

I'm enjoying learning by proxy, both through the gameplay and the insightful comments from the EU4 vets here in the thread.

 

[Rensslaer]

It hasn't been that long since I did feedback response, but it seems like there's alot to catch up on!

Thank you ALL for reading! And for commenting! Anyone reading but not commenting??? I want to hear from you!

Let's hope that Austria doesn't feel the need to enforce their unlawful territory complaints. That does have a bit of basis in OTL, although the emperor often had allies (notably the Swabian League). The Reformation kind of killed that for a while, though.

As for Rugen, could the republican government be due to the Hanseatic League? That's my best guess for why it would be a republic.

It's nice to see this back!

Thanks! It's good to be back. I realize I haven't actually played the game since September, when I stopped because I didn't want to get too far ahead of the AAR. I'm itching to get back to playing (plus I just paid another 3 month subscription!) so I'd like to get this caught up.

I guess when I look around there are a fair amount of republics (small ones) around. Hmm... Well, what does it mean when they go republic and then adopt feudalism? Does that make it not a republic? Or just a weird republic? haha - sounds contradictory.

Aww... Austria doesn't scare me. I'm used to playing Victoria, where Austria is this huge empire and rival of Prussia. I'm (perhaps unwisely) underawed by this Austria. Hmm...

Oh great, you released Rügen. You’re about to become very frustrated indeed…

Okay @Historywhiz this sounds like a good story, if you want to tell it! I haven't played far enough to have experienced trouble, but I can imagine, now that I think about it, I'll want that territory back eventually.

Given I’ve been going through some similar stuff with my current EU4 AAR (as Friesland, another HRE minor) having never played any EU game before, I’ve had a go at either answering or being equally mystified with some of the questions you’ve posed. All offered with the caveat that free advice is worth everything you pay for it!


I came to the same conclusion and have tried to keep it at 3 whenever possible. But per Coz’s example, sometimes a tactical priority to do something else might temporarily override the principle. The old EU Rome was like that too. Stability pretty important.

Within reason, I just kept ignoring these cheeky demands and (second time round, anyway) survived it. I found coalitions against over-aggressive expansion far scarier (it’s what destroyed my first attempt). I figured if I had to keep handing things back to the HRE I was never going to expand at all.

Exactly. Hard earned territory and all that. It’s still in the Empire - just your part of it.

That seems far more sustainable. I found I needed to build the economy quite a bit before gradually introducing advisors at the +1 level, then gradually getting better ones as I could afford them. Then, I am playing a small power relying more on trade and building a colonial empire to furnish parallel expansion at home. I gather your trajectory is more about territorial expansion near home.

Anyway, hope your shiny riding boots are soon stomping all over your neighbours in classic fashion!

Well... foreshadowing a bit, I'll tell you that Brandenburg stays at peace for a while. Then a pretty sharp, interesting war, and that's where I stopped playing. So I imagine I'll take advice from @Bullfilter and @coz1 and build up my economy before trying ANYTHING else!

Debt for a small power, such as Brandenburg, is a tricky thing to manage. I agree that your money should go towards paying it off.

How much debt is too much? It depends. Generally, if you're spending 40-50% of your income on the interest then that's pretty bad. However, if you can't pay that debt off within a reasonable timeframe, lots of players like to do a "planned bankruptcy." That is where you purposely go bankrupt to clear the debt. Not something I would recommend at this early stage of your game (planned bankruptcy also has certain steps you need to do that you might not know about for your first time).

It all looks good. One thing is that one of your armies is taking attrition in the screenshot. With manpower being so finite at this stage, you'd probably want to move that army to somewhere else.


A cog? Interesting. Gotland is independent...or maybe you're going to no-CB Ireland.

@jak7139 Thanks for the advice on debt. I'll be careful.

The cog? It's just the first waterborne craft I could afford. Plus I've played MANY games where I had transports and not much of a navy, and in some circumstances (usually when I have a large coastline) I could slip and slide my transports around the enemy warships to accomplish some rather astonishing things (I'm thinking about Imperio Novo primarily - Portugal as Germany's best ally in WWII - but many of my others also).

And the attrition? I noticed that myself as I was looking over the update, and wondered "Why in hell?!" Then I checked the date against my timeline and realized that screenshot was taken 3 days after the peace with Wolgast, so the army had just succeeded in its goal of conquering everything but Wolgast itself, but it was still stuck in what was then an enemy city and was attempting to march out. So... that didn't last long. I got them clear.

Btw my parents and coworkers in Denver are suffering some pretty extreme temperatures this week/weekend, so I'm imagining that Idaho must be pretty frigid also? Denver is below zero fahrenheit Saturday through Monday I think.

Sorry for not responding. Holidays and all of that.

I'm from Pennsylvania. So basically, the same dreary, cloudy, wet weather as the UK, surrounded by essentially the same kinda hills as makes up the Scottish Highlands. Except all covered completely in trees instead of grass and rocks, that decide to turn into a dreary brown in the winter after all their leaves fall off. lol.

It did! We had some nice blue skies yesterday and into today! But supposed to get 6 inches of snow tonight (dont see that happening at all. It's barely ever dipped below freezing yet this winter, and was a balmy 38 degree today. If it snows, its just going to be heavy, wet, sloppy, and be all melted by 8:00 AM. Ground needs to be frozen for a good bit, not swampy and soft.)

ETA (Edited To Add): I really need to learn to start using the multiquote. Been on this forum for 14 years, and still forget to use it. lol.

@RisKFactoR Are you getting this arctic cold front in Pennsylvania? Might ruin your record.

Also btw, I've started reading a biography of Kaiser Wilhelm I in German, so I'm hoping I'll learn quite a bit from it, and might get my German reading ability back up to tolerable levels. Why am I reading in German? Because there are precious few English-language titles about Wilhelm I. Most of the books are about Wilhelm II. I have "The Kaisers" which covers Wilhelm I, but doesn't seem to be very detailed. There are other histories which cover him along with alot of other stuff. Does anyone have recommendations on English-language bios on Wilhelm I? I'd love to hear them!

Okay.... I just screwed up the multiquote, and instead of trying to untangle spaghetti in the coding I'm going to do a second post with the missed folks.

Rensslaer