Rex Germania - A Brandenburg to Prussia Strategy AAR

[Rensslaer]

Just popping in to say that I'm finally current on this AAR and I'm enjoying when it's going. Rensslaer, I find your playstyle interesting because it is the exact opposite of mine: my flaw as an EU4 player is that I'm too cautious, which can come back to haunt you because your rivals will have grown much more than you have. I had to kinda teach myself to take more calculated risks along the way. Clearly that's not a lesson that you need.

Oh, awesome to hear @Cora Giantkiller! I'm committed to getting fully caught up on yours.

I guess I think of my playstyle as akin to a Miles Vorkosigan playstyle. My favorite author is Lois McMaster Bujold and her star character is Miles. He's just great at getting into ridiculous fixes and then being able to get out of them.

I describe it sometimes as leaping from one stone to another across a river without having fully planned where to go after the first couple steps.

Rensslaer

 

[Rensslaer]

Okay update is running late. I'm definitely working on it though. I'm 3 or 4 screenshots in.

I have to admit this snowstorm has thrown me for a loop! We're not supposed to have snowstorms in Savannah, Georgia. I've had to get up every couple hours overnight for 3 days to attend to the water pipes, because no one insulates pipes in Savannah. I got to drive around the city a while today and I've concluded Savannah doesn't even own a snowplow! You know how after a snowstorm the sidestreets have two tracks of pavement visible through the ice, just wide enough for a car because the traffic has worn the ruts? That's how the highways are here, 2 days after the storm. Just one lane clear enough to drive on at half speed so you don't accidentally hit a patch of ice and end up in the ditch.

Anyway, I'm right back at the next update now. Hoping to have one posted in the next few days.

Thanks for reading! Please go vote in the 2024 YAYAs and Q4-2024 ACAs! Only a few days left now!

Rensslaer

 

[coz1]

It was the craziest storm we've ever had in Georgia during my lifetime. The heavy stuff always hits the North Georgia Mountains. It does not surprise me that Savannah is not prepared. Shoot, living in the metro area of Atlanta...rarely prepared because we never know what it's going to be. I try to remind people all of the time...the state is the largest east of the Mississippi and more to that, we have three different regions (at least.) But at least we're not Florida!

 

[Bullfilter]

We're not supposed to have snowstorms in Savannah, Georgia.

Hope the weather relents! We had 38c here today. If only we could add the temps and divide by two!

 

[Rensslaer]

On 15 February, 1617, Brandenburg declared war upon one of its three Rivals, Great Britain (the others being France and Austria, at this point).

The primary purpose of this war – being a War of Humiliation – was to knock the British off their high horse and demonstrate Brandenburg’s preeminence. This would reduce Great Britain’s ranking, and hopefully improve Brandenburg’s ranking. The more immediate goal – in game terms – was to improve our Power Projection through a power play such as we achieved against Poland, once upon a time, and later the Teutonic Order.

Ironically, this was also our opportunity to annex the very last province of the Teutonic Order, as they had unwisely allied themselves to Great Britain.







The British brought their Colonial Nations into the war – Thirteen Colonies and Newfoundland. We debated whether to bring Denmark into the war. We didn’t really want their competition. But we would need their naval strength against the British. It was also because part of our strategy was to 1) stage our armies in Danish Scotland before the war, and 2) utilize Danish Scotland as a refuge if the British proved too difficult to handle.

The first clash on British soil forced the surrender of 2,000 enemy soldiers, for the loss of only 32 of ours. But massive opposing forces were en route from southern England. We could only advance at the rate our transport ships could carry, which meant they would arrive in blocs of about 12,000 soldiers at a time. Would we be able to put enough troops in theatre in time?

The French were still at war with the British, which was to our advantage, because a French fleet arrived in the Irish Sea at just the right time to aid in Brandenburg’s attempt to defeat the Royal Navy there and to seal off passage across the Irish Straits.

On 8 March the British fled into port, leaving 8 of our carracks (heavy ships) and 6 of our galleons, along with 17 French frigates to blockade the Irish Sea.







To the east of the British Isles a blockading and protective force loitered near Tyne while Brandenburger transports landed more troops in Scotland. Meanwhile the Danes had engaged a British trade fleet of barques and frigates at Coast of Holland, which we then joined.

There, our side held a serious advantage, but for some reason even though we ultimately won the Danes lost two barques. But the British were forced into port there, as they had been elsewhere.

By the end of March reports reached us that the British were sending two large armies north to contest our invasion. So it was a race – would we be strong enough to stand once they arrived? Once we had secured two Scottish provinces – Argyll and Aberdeen – our existing forces withdrew to the more remote location at Aberdeen to await reinforcements.

As has been mentioned, our transports were ferrying troops across the North Sea from Stade as quickly as possible. This wouldn’t have been so convenient, and would have taken much longer, without this port we had recently acquired on the Frisian coast.







By mid-April, the British had two armies totaling 50,000 in Scotland, and Brandenburg had 32,000, with more on the way.

And, though it was distant and not particularly relevant to the main theatre of conflict, the Battle of Kulm, in the Teutonic Order, had eliminated the Teuton army just days into the war, and only the siege remained. And would remain for some time.

That was where the King found his employment – at the head of that siege army. He was not thought to be risked in battle, but this quiet corner was a place where he could do good.

As we waited in Aberdeen for the British threat to pass… or change… or whatever we were waiting for, behind the protection of the Danish fort at Perth, we saw an opportunity at the end of April. The British were sending troops north in packets, with the main force at the head, and reinforcements trailing behind.

We decided to hit their supply chain first. We would end up fighting their main army, too. But we figured it would favor us better if we knocked out some of their armies first. There were only so many British soldiers on the islands, and not much time to produce more. We would use that to our advantage, and whittle down the opposition.









The Battle of Ayrshire joined on 30 April, and the campaign ended on 16 May with a Brandenburger victory against King Henry IX himself! Henry IX turned out to be no slouch in combat, with 4 Fire, but our Gen. Siegmund Casimir matched him there, and beat him with 4 Shock.

The total campaign involved 55,000 British soldiers and only 32,000 of ours. But the battle was lopsided from the first because the initial forces we hit were made up entirely of cavalry and artillery! Under the EUIV rules, that force suffers something like a 50% penalty in combat because they lack infantry to hold ground. Early casualties for the British were severe, and Casimir’s Shock and Brandenburg’s higher starting Morale ultimately ruled the day. We lost 10,000 against their losses of 17,500 (including 4,500 artillery).

Another thing to note is that the 3,000 British in Ulster Ireland are stuck there because of our blockade. It turns out there’s a significant fighting force in Ireland, but because of the blockade – so long as it stands – they cannot hurt us.

This was, of course, a global war. However, Brandenburg lacks the resources to send troops abroad. Denmark had extensive colonies in North American Canada, though, and since the French had already taken much of Britain’s Atlantic holdings, the Danes began to capture provinces in the interior.








Throughout the Spring of 1617, despite the defeat of the main British Army and their King, the enemy forts at Dumfries and Northumberland stymied our attempts to move south. Beginning in May, we tried to land an army of 12,000 at Chester, in Central England. But, again due to the rules of EU IV, it took some weeks to complete the landing, and they didn’t arrive until 9 July.

And then, once Gen. Luitpold von Benekotter arrived, he unexpectedly found King Henry and 27,000 enemy soldiers descending upon this region he’d hoped to secure. Actually, it looks like they had been marching north, but as soon as Benekotter landed he shifted priorities. The king’s army – defeated in May, but having had June 1 and July 1 to recover Morale and Manpower losses – was certainly not at full strength to oppose them. But they outnumbered us 2:1 and we wouldn’t have time to get reinforcements to central England before the battle was over. Von Benekotter would have to stand and hold against their king without outside aid.

The good news, if good news can be found in that screenshot, is that there don’t appear to be a great many more British troops on the board. Just 7,000 at London and a few stragglers.

Battle joined at Coventry on 16 July. At first we were fighting a small contingent of straggling recruits who had found themselves at Coventry. The fight against them was very productive. Then the main British army arrived. Oddly, King Henry decided not to participate (this was his army that we’d fought at Ayrshire, but maybe he’d been unassigned after the last battle?).

Due to von Benekotter’s skills, and the lack of a competent enemy leader, and the Brandenburger Morale advantage, and die rolls, the fighting did not entirely favor the British even though they outnumbered us 3:1. The army was still partly spent from their previous clash.







In time the superior numbers of the enemy told, and on 5 August we were forced to withdraw to the south. The British lost 2,500 casualties, and we lost 4,500 – not an auspicious beginning to the campaign to capture central England.

But after that first amphibious landing at Chester, a small detachment had remained behind to secure that port city. On 16 August it secured control of the port. We immediately landed another army of 12,000 there, and it marched forward to Coventry to attack more British stragglers. That second Battle of Coventry ended 31 August with the surrender of 2,000 British, evening out the losses from the previous battle. The main British army had disappeared again into the “fog of war” provinces of central England. They re-emerged later, heading north again.

Also boosting our spirits was knowledge that 20,000 French troops had settled around the city walls of London in early August. That was not enough to fully invest the city – Brandenburg would contribute to their number and the two adversarial countries worked side-by-side against their common enemy together.

Continually, and specifically in two seas during September, our alliance was winning naval battles that forced the British Royal Navy into port. These battles often did not sink any ships. But by ceding the seas to our side, the British conceded to blockade and the freedom of movement of our transports around the British Isles.

King Henry, again in command of his army, led an attack in early October to attempt once more to break Brandenburg’s hold of central England. This campaign became known as the Third Battle of Coventry.







Third Coventry again placed Brandenburg in the unenviable position of being outnumbered. But the British, again, had not had sufficient time to recoup from their two previous battles which had sapped their Morale and readiness. The struggle was a near-run thing until mid-October when another Brandenburger army arrived, having been disembarked at Gloucester shortly after that port city was captured by far-ranging Brandenburger detachments. These reinforcements were led by General Karl von Berwitz, who had a 6 Shock rating.

In the end, on 25 October, King Henry was forced to retreat with the loss of more than 11,000 of his soldiers. Brandenburg had lost barely 6,000.

Then on 1 November Brandenburg and Danish colonial ships prevented a British attempt to break the blockade of the Irish Sea. Two British barques and two Danish galleys were lost.

After the victory at Coventry von Berwitz pursued King Henry until the army took a stand at Lincolnshire. The intent was to put the nail in this army’s coffin, but somehow the British lasted until they could retreat (i.e. they hung on past the time when retreat was prohibited and surrender was forced), and they slipped away again.








The casualties at Lincolnshire were slightly in Brandenburg’s favor, but essentially both sides lost equally. I’m personally unclear – and it’s not made more clear from the screenshots – why von Berwitz didn’t continue to shadow King Henry for a coup de grace. His army retreated to the east and we’ll see him appear in the narrative again shortly.

Then on 27 November the fortress at Northumberland fell, and the Brandenburger troops who’d been stuck in Scotland were able to fall upon England to the south.

This phase of the war, near the end of 1617, involved several battles where our armies picked off small newly-recruited stragglers of English troops.

It was also at the end of the year when our blockade of the Inner Hebrides Islands was challenged by the British Royal Navy. We had for months kept an eager army of 16,000 Brits locked in the islands, where they had gone to capture it from the Danes. Problem was, we blocked their return path.

But on 4 December a number of British warships arrived to contest our blockade. By the 10th we and the Danes had lost a barque and two galleys, and had been forced to sail for safer waters.









The Brits had reminded us we did not have complete control of the seas. In fact, if they sent all their navies to sea at once, we’d be unable to maintain any blockades across the whole of the islands. It was a challenge, now, that we had a fresh army of British troops headed into combat.

On the other hand, by the end of 1617, the British controlled fewer and fewer ports outside of Ireland. They were clearly losing this war.

The joint French/Brandenburger siege force breached the walls of London on 18 December, and the fort at Dumfries surrendered on Christmas Day, 1617.

In mid-January, 1618, the British broke our blockade of the Irish Sea, too. Now we had TWO marauding armies in the north to deal with! Fortunately, some of the British soldiers in Ireland had left for other duties, and the crossing force numbered only 5,000 at first. But before they could arrive, another victory for us…

It was King Henry’s hubris, perhaps, or maybe just a desperate passion to see a victory, which drew him into conflict in mid-December before his troops had fully recovered from their previous defeats. And it may or may not be possible that Gen. Luitpold von Benekotter deftly enticed this clash. On 20 December King Henry led his ragged 18,000 soldiers against von Benekotter’s fresh 7,000, who had been “hanging out” around Montgomery, looking like a kildeer with a broken wing.







At once, when notified the bait was being taken, another 17,000 troops had begun marching from Chester to reinforce. This campaign concluded on 7 January with yet another victory over their king. His tattered remnants wended their way toward Cornwall, where Brandenburger armies fought two battles in mid-February to finally force his surrender.

The 5,000 British troops I’d mentioned before were able to successfully cross from Ulster into Ayrshire, but there wasn’t much they could do without their compatriots who followed after them from Ireland. But we did, fortunately, get our navy to sea on 13 January, just in time to prevent another 34,000 British troops from crossing. The 5,000 could be contained once all these other unresolved points were settled.

The army which had escaped from the Hebrides Islands had marched south and found one of our armies at Cumbria. Fortune favored us for two reasons. For one, I had another 5,000 soldiers nearby who could reinforce our army.







For another, take a look at the composition of the British army under Gen. Tarleton! He’s rolled a modified 6 versus our modified 3, and yet he’s taking twice as many casualties as we are! Why?

Well, Artillery I think, takes double casualties when it’s in the front ranks, where 8 whole British regiments here are. Secondly, there’s I think a 50% penalty in combat whenever your Cavalry outnumbers your Infantry. And here, we’re faced with a strangely comprised army of only Artillery and Cavalry!

So we’re winning that battle for many, many reasons. It concluded at the end of January with 2,600 casualties for us and 11,000 for them! We destroyed half their Cavalry and 3/4 of their Artillery.

In January three naval battles raged in the waters around the British Isles. We won all three. One transport was captured and the British were sent to port where they wouldn’t harass us any longer. The Irish Straits were secure, and 30-40,000 soldiers would remain in Ireland, where they couldn’t harm us. More naval battles in April, after the British had repaired some, were similarly won, and a barque and another transport were captured. We did lose 3 galleys.

The City of London fell on 22 February. It fell to the French, and so I don’t believe it contributed to our Warscore. But it was another nail in Britain’s coffin, where she would be less willing to hold out against us. We still couldn’t make peace, though, because Kulm, in the Teutonic Order hadn’t fallen. We still hoped we might annex them. We sat our siege impatiently.







British Colonial Nation Thirteen Colonies went Bankrupt in March as a result of fighting two wars.

The final naval battles and the final land battles – none of them were in question at all.

In May Kulm finally fell. But we had too many War Aims. We couldn’t Humiliate Great Britain if we Annexed Teutonic Order. <sighs> Okay, well, we made TO withdraw their claims to our lands, and they agreed to pay indemnities.

Great Britain, on the other hand, accepted Humiliation and agreed to pay reparations. They paid us more than 1400 ducats (woo hoo!). Plus they still had the French occupying their capital, and so their other war continued.

What’s more, Brandenburg hit 79 Power Projection! That’s 9 from declaring war on Britain, 5 from having them as a longtime rival, 2 from our Embargo, and a whopping 30 points for Humiliating Great Britain, which was our primary aim from the beginning.

King Friedrich VII was satisfied. So was I.

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

In May Kulm finally fell. But we had too many War Aims. We couldn’t Humiliate Great Britain if we Annexed Teutonic Order.

I'm guessing this means that Humiliate Rival prevents any land from being taken.

 

[Rensslaer]

I'm guessing this means that Humiliate Rival prevents any land from being taken.

@StrategyGameEnthusiast As I recall through the rules, you are correct. The Humiliate war aim does not allow conquest of territory. I know that "threw" some of my readers who thought I'd be fixated on territorial conquest.

But it's also a matter of math.

At that point we had 66% overall Warscore to be divided between the two combattants. The Humiliate war aim requires 40% by itself. And the War Reparations were 10% and the monetary compensation I asked for (1400 ducats) was another 7% I think.

Annexing Teutonic Order would have -- if allowed -- required a large percentage of Warscore just by itself. I'm just guessing maybe 30-40%? In looking through my screenshots I don't think I captured what the cost would be, probably because as you say it's not allowed under this war aim.

So there would be another war down the road to finally disposition the Teutonic Order.

Rensslaer

 

[jak7139]

Another thing to note is that the 3,000 British in Ulster Ireland are stuck there because of our blockade. It turns out there’s a significant fighting force in Ireland, but because of the blockade – so long as it stands – they cannot hurt us.

You would actually need to occupy/control one side of the strait (either Ayrshire or Ulster) for the blockade to block movement. At this early stage before you took control of Ayrshire, the blockade is just giving warscore, not preventing enemy movement.

I’m personally unclear – and it’s not made more clear from the screenshots – why von Berwitz didn’t continue to shadow King Henry for a coup de grace. His army retreated to the east and we’ll see him appear in the narrative again shortly.

Then on 27 November the fortress at Northumberland fell, and the Brandenburger troops who’d been stuck in Scotland were able to fall upon England to the south.

Perhaps you felt Northumberland would soon fall, and you wanted the reinforcements to get a clean, easy victory.

Well, Artillery I think, takes double casualties when it’s in the front ranks, where 8 whole British regiments here are. Secondly, there’s I think a 50% penalty in combat whenever your Cavalry outnumbers your Infantry. And here, we’re faced with a strangely comprised army of only Artillery and Cavalry!

Artillery does take double when it's in the front rank, yes. Having too much cavalry gives a penalty to your tactics. Depending on how much cav you have over the limit, it can be quite severe.

But we had too many War Aims. We couldn’t Humiliate Great Britain if we Annexed Teutonic Order. <sighs> Okay, well, we made TO withdraw their claims to our lands, and they agreed to pay indemnities.

Couldn't you separate peace TO for Kulm? I don't think Humiliate disallows separate peaces.

Still, that's a nice sum of cash you got from GB. Enough for some mercenaries!

I'm guessing this means that Humiliate Rival prevents any land from being taken.

Correct. But I think that only means for the war leader/main participant. So GB is off the table but TO is still fine as long as you aren't negotiating with GB directly.

 

[Historywhiz]

War of Humiliation – was to knock the British off their high horse and demonstrate Brandenburg’s preeminence. This would reduce Great Britain’s ranking, and hopefully improve Brandenburg’s ranking. The more immediate goal – in game terms – was to improve our Power Projection through a power play such as we achieved against Poland, once upon a time, and later the Teutonic Order.

Ironically, this was also our opportunity to annex the very last province of the Teutonic Order, as they had unwisely allied themselves to Great Britain.

@StrategyGameEnthusiast As I recall through the rules, you are correct. The Humiliate war aim does not allow conquest of territory. I know that "threw" some of my readers who thought I'd be fixated on territorial conquest.

I confess I actually slapped myself and groaned aloud when I saw that you had declared a war of humiliation and hoped to take the Teutonic Order’s territory - although it’s not a terrible plan actually to break their alliance with Great Britain so you could eat them at your leisure.

That was where the King found his employment – at the head of that siege army. He was not thought to be risked in battle, but this quiet corner was a place where he could do good.

I know it sounds like a good idea, but please don’t do this if you can help it. For reasons known only to Paradox, a king dying while sieging an enemy city incurs a stability loss of 2 instead of 1.

 

[Bullfilter]

A generally successful spot of warfare.

we waited in Aberdeen for the British threat to pass… or change… or whatever we were waiting for, behind the protection of the Danish fort at Perth

Good tactics.

We lost 10,000 against their losses of 17,500 (including 4,500 artillery).

A heavy toll on both sides but a good victory. They’re throwing away all that expensive artillery.

the two adversarial countries worked side-by-side against their common enemy together.

Some useful loose cooperation.

In the end, on 25 October, King Henry was forced to retreat with the loss of more than 11,000 of his soldiers. Brandenburg had lost barely 6,000.

Looking at the screen, wasn’t the casualty count the other way round? With your superior morale outlasting the enemy, but incurring heavier casualties in the process.

King Friedrich VII was satisfied. So was I.

As you both should be. Got most of what you wanted.

For reasons known only to Paradox, a king dying while sieging an enemy city incurs a stability loss of 2 instead of 1.

Interesting factlet!

 

[Hootieleece]

Humiliation War was actually successful and useful even though annexing Teutonic Order wasn't achieved.

 

[Rensslaer]

You would actually need to occupy/control one side of the strait (either Ayrshire or Ulster) for the blockade to block movement. At this early stage before you took control of Ayrshire, the blockade is just giving warscore, not preventing enemy movement.



Couldn't you separate peace TO for Kulm? I don't think Humiliate disallows separate peaces.

Still, that's a nice sum of cash you got from GB. Enough for some mercenaries!

Correct. But I think that only means for the war leader/main participant. So GB is off the table but TO is still fine as long as you aren't negotiating with GB directly.

@jak7139 I wasn't aware that controlling one side of the straits was required for the crossing prevention to work. I'm glad I didn't get punished for that remiss-iss-ence. But I did take Ayrshire very quickly - it was probably the first province to fall. So that protected me.

I think I was aware that I could have made a separate peace with the TO. But for one it might have been quite expensive to annex. And for another it would have left me with too little warscore to complete the conditions of Humiliation. I was already handicapped because the French, not I, would get the warscore for capturing London. I didn't have much left to play with.

I confess I actually slapped myself and groaned aloud when I saw that you had declared a war of humiliation and hoped to take the Teutonic Order’s territory - although it’s not a terrible plan actually to break their alliance with Great Britain so you could eat them at your leisure.



I know it sounds like a good idea, but please don’t do this if you can help it. For reasons known only to Paradox, a king dying while sieging an enemy city incurs a stability loss of 2 instead of 1.

@Historywhiz it wasn't a serious consideration -- just one of those things I thought might work if allowed, but of course it wasn't.

I wasn't aware of the extra penalties to Stability if the king dies during siege. That is strange.

A generally successful spot of warfare.

Good tactics.

A heavy toll on both sides but a good victory. They’re throwing away all that expensive artillery.

Some useful loose cooperation.

Looking at the screen, wasn’t the casualty count the other way round? With your superior morale outlasting the enemy, but incurring heavier casualties in the process.

As you both should be. Got most of what you wanted.

Interesting factlet!

@Bullfilter thanks! Yes, Gosh I love destroying artillery. The AI tends to overbuild, I think. Yes, it is very valuable to have, and at times I find myself with too little artillery. But once the bloodletting starts there are often too few infantry units to cover the cavalry and artillery and they get massacred.

Good catch on the casualty count -- my mistake.

Yes, I did get most of what I wanted. Very happy with that little war.

Humiliation War was actually successful and useful even though annexing Teutonic Order wasn't achieved.

Indeed it was @Hootieleece! I don't know that I've ever actually completed a Humiliation before in any of these games. There is "Cut Down to Size" in V2. And there was something like it in V1 but they didn't have the same model for "kind of war" back then.



Regrettably it's been a silly week and I haven't gotten to working on the next update. What's more, I'm having to send my new laptop back for repairs again!! Yes, they fixed the broken hinge, but when they put the laptop back together they didn't 100% secure the screen to the screenframe, so it's been kind of peeling away until last night when it just popped off entirely and I caught it before it fell. So the screen is falling. I'm also unable to use my SD card reader, which is annoying because I have all these wildlife cameras set up to watch our stray cats and raccoons and opossums, not to mention any hypothetical burglars (I DID one time actually catch a guy in my backyard with a flashlight one morning at 3am! I have no idea what he was doing -- he certainly didn't take anything from our house. All I can figure is he was trying to get away from another house in the neighborhood and was fence hopping so he didn't get caught). Anyway, those cameras use SD cards, and I've had to use my old computer to get the videos off the cameras.




One final reminder to please go vote in the Q4-2024 ACAs and the 2024 Year-End Awards! There's less than a week to go, and the numbers of folks voting is way down from previous rounds. Please go and support your favorite authors! As always, I love to get votes but there are many, many deserving writers on the Forum and I am happy to see them honored instead of myself!

I will get back to the updates soon! I'm transferring files again so I have material to work with and don't have to wait for the computer to come back from repair.

Thanks again to everyone for reading and commenting!

Rensslaer

 

[Rensslaer]

I swear... I've spent the past month fighting through a year's time in the game (yes, I'm slow), and my cats have played more than -I-have!

The cats love to step across my laptop, or even lay on it because it's warm, and I have a habit of leaving the game unattended overnight.

The cats have played 18 years of game time in the past couple of weeks! That includes 16 years at one stretch!

I'm glad I save religiously and don't rely on the autosaves, as the autosaves would be overwritten hundreds of times over.



Yes, I've started working on the next update.

If you haven't voted in the 2 rounds of voting currently underway in the AAR General Discussion section, please go vote! It's down to a handful of hours now. The ACAs especially seem to lack votes.

Rensslaer

 

[Rensslaer]

I want to take a moment to thank all of you who voted for me and/or Rex Germania in the 2024 Year End Awards!

For that matter I appreciate anyone who voted, whether you voted for me or this AAR at all. It's a really important duty that keeps the Forum and AARLand vibrant.

But I was honored to find that Rex Germania came in 2nd overall in the Best Gameplay of 2024 category! The silver cup is a tremendous recognition. Thank you!

I was also quite surprised to find our voters honored me as the 2024 WritAAR of the Year! I know the competition was stiff amidst so many very talented writers, and I'm very appreciative of this award!

I also want to thank @coz1 for putting in all the work it takes to organize, run, promote and tally these yearly awards!



I have been having an off-balance couple of weeks (not in a bad way, just all my routines are disrupted) and I've made only sketchy progress toward the next update. Hoping to be able to pick up the pace this week and get an update out.

Thank you again for your valued readership and comments!

Rensslaer

 

[Bullfilter]

The cats have played 18 years of game time in the past couple of weeks! That includes 16 years at one stretch!

This made me chuckle

 

[Rensslaer]

Delays again, I apologize.

Did I mention I had to send my laptop back to the shop? They fixed the hinge but they didn't reattach the screen really well and it eventually fell out. Also my SD card reader stopped working.

So it came back yesterday and all those things were fixed fine ...

But they erased my old install and gave me a fresh OS with bare bones everything. I actually think I'd be better off doing a factory reset at this point instead of trying to fix this.

But worst of all, I backed up everything onto a removable drive before I shipped it... and now the computer won't recognize the removable drive!

So my other option is to transfer my backups from my 1TB drive onto the new 4TB drive I just bought, using my old computer to transfer, and then reinstalling from the new removable drive!!!

Aaargh!

This means I'll probably do this update on my old computer even though my new one is back.

Rensslaer

 

[Bullfilter]

Aargh, that kind of thing really ‘gets the goat’. At least you should be able to navigate a path through it all <crosses fingers>

 

[Rensslaer]

I sincerely apologize for not updating for almost a month!



We concluded our war with Great Britain (and, recall, the tiny remaining Teutonic Order) in May of 1618.

Time to rebuild and recover and absorb our Manpower losses. Peculiarly, for me anyway, there were no territorial additions to have to absorb. The whole purpose for the war was to Humiliate our Rival and get all those Power Projection points. The money was pretty nice too.

Financially, we’re in good shape. Less than 4 ducats monthly interest, still. We have a sizeable surplus in the budget, even with Army Maintenance still at 100%, which will change soon enough. We’re over the Forcelimit slightly, and paying for it. Mainly at this point our financial drain is just the reinforcement of our army regiments.

We got some good loot from the war, and we have a steady income from our defeated foes of almost 2 ducats a month.






I’m showing our Trade screen, not for any particular purpose, but just to show it. I’m curious whether those “in the know” on the Trade strategy would have any recommendations for me. I’m well past this point in the game, but I and perhaps others would benefit from the knowledge.

May of 1618 became a very impactful month. In March, we’d noted with keen interest that Austria had lost her ally, Bavaria! In May Austria began supporting Wurzburg’s independence (they’re a little late to that game, as I recall – at least France and I think someone else who’s maybe no longer around (Bohemia??) were doing this beforehand).

Then on the 3rd day of the month Austria declared war upon Mulhouse, and brought their allies Ferrara, Venice, Holland and Cilli along with them. Bavaria, coincidentally, found herself as Mulhouse’s faithful ally against her erstwhile ally Austria. By the end of the month Sweden had also joined as Austria’s ally. A year later, to foreshadow, Sweden would accept a Habsburg as their heir, strengthening these ties to our enemy.





Brandenburg chose to poke the Austrian bear, for our part. We later began supporting Bohemian Separatists. But, still in May, we began improving relations with Bavaria. Before the month was even out (i.e. before our diplomats had any real effect upon the relations) the Bavarians had left the Coalition against Brandenburg. It should be said that most of the rest of the Coalition partners left in the next few years.

By February 1619, Austria had acquired Strasbourg from Mulhouse and took Ingolstadt from Bavaria. Two more provinces to grow their empire.

In May of 1619 Holland declared a war against its neighbor Friesland, bringing in Austria, Liege and Hainut as allies against Friesland’s own allies Saxony and Mantua. Before the year was out, the hapless Friesland had the Emperor himself in Brabant declare war against them also, with Mainz and East Frisia dogpiling on.






During 1619 alone Brandenburg is building a number of new buildings (Courthouses, Training Fields, Universities) and several ships and new regiments.

But there’s a problem! I’ve been teasing this for a while now. I never understood the dangers of high Influence from any of the 3 Estates. I remember saying, in previous updates, that THAT was when I realized… I think in reality I didn’t realize until THIS point. It was when the Burgher Influence went over 100 due to an event, and I got this warning of “Looming Disaster”! A Plutocratic Coup?? This was a mechanic I was (at the time) unaware of.







Thus began a sub-game of trying to get their Influence down. This is partly accomplished by increasing their Loyalty to a higher level so they will allow you to start removing Privileges. I won’t bore you with this process, except to say that I did get out of this jam through some painful processes, and eventually the threat abated.

So… That long war between France and Great Britain, which began before my own war with Great Britain? It started in May of 1616. It’s concluding now in January of 1620. Notice anything???





France had previously acquired an enclave in southern England, but now they took LONDON!!! That’s a game changer – makes me think Great Britain is pretty much done as a major player, right? I’ll foreshadow that this is just the beginning…

You’ve seen plenty of screenshots of Europe. The shot above shows most of what Brandenburg is concerned with. Let’s take a tour around the rest of the world about which Brandenburg is aware of…

The French beat the British in North America also. This is how things stand over there. It’s like Denmark has the north, France has most of the east, and Spain has the west and south.





As you can see below Spain also pretty much controls Central America and the Caribbean, as well as the northwestern portion of South America. Portugal and its Colonial Nation controls the rest.

Africa itself remains largely impassable, without colonization. But Great Britain still has enclaves in west Africa and south Africa. Spain has part of south Africa, as does Portugal. Holland, I believe, has some enclaves in west Africa on the southern coast.

Interestingly, Ethiopia remains independent and reasonably powerful in the path of Ottoman expansion. South of them is Kilwa, which also appears to be somewhat powerful.






Brandenburg is generally not concerned with Asia at all. We’re aware of things, of course – who is Vijayanagar or Delhi, etc. And Portuguese Australia is interesting. And we’re aware of China and its various governments, but mostly just that there ARE various governments, all of which are mostly outside of our concern.

I’ll also mention that Brabant (the Emperor) left the anti-Brandenburg Coalition in 1620. As I recall there were more countries who left in 1621.





So… Back to the dogpile on Friesland… Peace with Holland in September 1621 ceded 3 whole provinces – BIG ones! – to Holland, leaving Friesland with only Groningen in the far northeast.

Look at the size of Holland now!

Friesland lucked out in the conclusion of the 2nd war which took until February 1623. The Emperor accepted only financial payments and not territory. Friesland lives! If only as a much weakened power on the corner of Europe.





Of more consequence to Brandenburg, our neighbor Saxony, in April 1620, was forced to give Austria yet another province. Austria grows again!!! And we had designs upon Saxony, so this takes away more of the provinces we might have made our own without warring with Austria.

As you might imagine, if you’ve been following this AAR for long, it’s been 5 years of peace, and Brandenburg might be looking for some other place to start an adventure…

We’ve actually acquired a number of respectable generals, and one admiral. Admiral von Siegau is pretty competent, with 3/4/2 stats. And Generals von Osterensee, von Viederlitz and von Berwitz, have pretty good stats, with 4/4/2/1, 4/3/1/0 and 0/6/3/0 stats, respectively.

Brandenburg has been drilling its soldiers, and has achieved almost 40% Professionalism (I don’t think we quite made it before it started withering away again due to losses). And, yeah, I’ve been maintaining about 22 regiments more than our ForceLimit, which is costly monetarily, but pays off in war.





Wonder of wonders, our former enemy, Bavaria, accepts an ALLIANCE with Brandenburg against Austria at the end of 1621! With 27,000 soldiers that’s a decent ally. And in 1622 Austria leaves the anti-Brandenburg Coalition, meaning there’s no one of any consequence still mad at us.

I’ve been lucky! Haven’t had a Coalition war against me. How long do you figure that’ll last?

Militarily Brandenburg has strong Professionalism and Discipline and Tradition. Our Morale looks low, there, but it’s only because of reduced Army Maintenance funding. We’re probably better than Austria at this point. Maybe up to 5. We’re at nearly 73,000 Manpower, which is good, even compared with our likely opponents. Forget France – can’t beat France. But note that we actually have as many soldiers, almost, as France at present. Austria has more.

I will also mention that I was able to achieve a number of Tech and Idea gains during this period, but I don’t want to take the time to detail them in a screenshot. It involved an improvement of naval ships (galleon and early frigate now) and a reduction in cost of Infrastructure. Our artillery will be 10% more effective. And finishing two Idea Groups allowed us to finally implement the Weapon Quality Standards Policy, which improves Discipline by 5%. Another tech gives us 25% cheaper Fort costs. The constant march of Tech.





We’ve had designs upon Saxony, which is no secret to any of you. Our alliance with them ended a while back, and we’ve been at war with them a couple of times already.

We choose to fabricate claims on Zwickau, their largest remaining province. It’s also the one that’s no longer contiguous with the rest of their country.

Here’s where we get to the “Funny, Not Funny” graphic… We are staggered by news of King Friedrich VII’s passing! Our Stability drops. The Queen Consort takes over as Regent for our 12-year-old heir. That’s not funny.

But before you look at the bottom part of the graphic, take note of that set of Rebels sitting on Kulm, the one-province-minor rump of the Teutonic Order…





What’s funny is that they won (which naturally they would – these rebels had more cavalry and artillery and better leadership than most small countries!!!). And when the Polish Separatists won, they joined with the existing rump Poland to create a two-province Poland!

And we got a casus belli on them because we’ve already claimed that territory! That’s funny too!

Now, I’d learned – and this might as easily be from EU 3, not EU 4, as I don’t recall where – that a Regency government cannot start a war. So I wasn’t sure if I could do it. But I could.





On Mayday 1623 Brandenburg declared war upon Saxony in order to wrest from them at least one province that rightfully should belong to Brandenburg. Oldenburg begged off from the war. But we ended up at war with not just Saxony but Dortmund, Mulhouse and, funny enough, Poland.

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

Now, I’d learned – and this might as easily be from EU 3, not EU 4, as I don’t recall where – that a Regency government cannot start a war. So I wasn’t sure if I could do it. But I could.

Consort Regencies can, you were able to declare the war because the former Queen is the regent.

 

[Historywhiz]

OXFORD HAS FALLEN! THE GREATEST UNIVERSITY IN THE WORLD HAS BEEN CRUSHED UNDER THE FRENCH HEEL! O what a calamity! O what a wretched disaster! Henceforth, how can any man not beat his breast, or any woman shed a tear, when they reflect on how that brilliant light, that pillar of flame that was leading the mass of all humanity through the desert to a promised land of divine wisdom, was eclipsed?! Cursed be the day Oxford was lost! It would have been better for the sun to never rise again than to shine upon such a dark day.

Ah, London fell too I see. Meh… the North probably got plastered in celebration.