Rex Germania - A Brandenburg to Prussia Strategy AAR

[jak7139]

The surrender of Chelmno in January and Inowroclaw in April resulted in the total annexation of Poland (which includes what used to be the last vestiges of the Teutonic Order) that month. That’s a centuries-long struggle finally resolved!

At last! Your eastern border is now secure.

Their numbers together are not slouchy, but probably not sterling either. Friedrich VIII isn’t going to be going into combat anytime soon (or so I believe – I actually think he may be a better commander than he is at military administration).

I wouldn't make Friedrich a general. His numbers are great and he's only 15. I'd hope you'd want him to reign for a long, long time.

You could perhaps disinherit your heir if you want to spend 50 prestige. You might get someone with better stats.

Sweden joins the war in alliance with Brabant. But, strangely, the only other countries that supported the Emperor were Mainz and East Frisia. What’s up with that??!

Only Brabant's allies can join the war. So, Brabant just doesn't have many allies to begin with.

So what’s your offered answer, strategy buffs? Why DID I do this?? It’s actually a relatively complex set of reasoning.

Perhaps you want more English Channel trade. It's not a bad idea. But not worth a no-CB war, I'd say.

Maybe you wanted to do @Bullfilter a favor and return cores to Friesland.

Or maybe you wanted the land taken here to be a jumping off point against the distracted GB.

Just FYI, no-CB does give a large amount of AE in addition to the stab cost. That AE might've been better spent annexing more from Saxony. But I don't know what your goals this war are, so maybe the gains here will be worth it.

 

[Rensslaer]

First off, thank you @StrategyGameEnthusiast, @Cora Giantkiller, @Nikolai, @TheButterflyComposer and @jak7139 for your recommendations on CK2 vs CK3. I'm still mulling this over in my mind.

I do still have alot of EU IV left to play, and I have competing interests as to what else to do with my limited time. I'm not sure now whether I'll jump into a CK game after this or not. But I've purchased both games now and can make that choice when the time comes.

My guess, Holland's Catholic (or Reformed), and the Defender of the Faith wouldn't protect them...

@StrategyGameEnthusiast a good guess! I'll let you know in the next update.

When you pillage , are you getting some development in your capital? Pillaging generates aggressive expansion so make sure it is worth it.

@mackwolfe I ummm.... I wasn't aware of that. And, while I'm sure it made me aware of the AE in the peacedeal stats, I'm not sure I would have known to look for additional AE on top of the territorial aggrandizement.

That might explain some stuff later on... But meanwhile, let me work on the upcoming update...

At last! Your eastern border is now secure.

I wouldn't make Friedrich a general. His numbers are great and he's only 15. I'd hope you'd want him to reign for a long, long time.

You could perhaps disinherit your heir if you want to spend 50 prestige. You might get someone with better stats.

Only Brabant's allies can join the war. So, Brabant just doesn't have many allies to begin with.

Perhaps you want more English Channel trade. It's not a bad idea. But not worth a no-CB war, I'd say.

Maybe you wanted to do @Bullfilter a favor and return cores to Friesland.

Or maybe you wanted the land taken here to be a jumping off point against the distracted GB.

Just FYI, no-CB does give a large amount of AE in addition to the stab cost. That AE might've been better spent annexing more from Saxony. But I don't know what your goals this war are, so maybe the gains here will be worth it.

@jak7139 yes. Yes! YESSS!!! Very glad to have my eastern border secure. Sure, there's still Muscovy and Lithuania. But my old enemy is finally gone. My old ally/enemy also.

Anyway, it'll be much better for me just to do the next update and explain all this then.

_________


I apologize for the lack of updates, and frankly for my lack of engagement on the Forum much lately. I've been ill for 3 days, which is part of it, and working and busy with taxes, which always really gets me in a bad mood. I've also tried 3-4 times to get back into making updates but I've been running up against problems with next steps. My next steps were always having obstacles, such as that somehow I'd filled up my memory on my laptop and I needed to clear some space in order to fully come back from the whole switching computers saga.

Plus I've had a couple AAR-related side projects. For instance, I started updating my Inkwell page (it's not done yet, but I've made some improvements). I've also (thanks to @son of liberty and his recent interest in reading my older AARs) begun the long process of updating my old screenshots, most of which were still "showing up" but had a stupid Photobucket watermark on them (many of us old timers used Photobucket to host images back in the day, but maybe a decade ago Photobucket decided they were going to replace their free accounts with I think a $400/year charge, so these accounts mostly became stale and unmanaged). So I've been replacing the old Photobucket images with images hosted in Imgbox.

And that brings us to partly my obstacle for making new updates. I've always tried to keep backups of my files, including my photos and AAR screenshots. I've mostly gotten rid of the original .bmp files, but I've at least kept the screenshot renderings I used in my AARs. So I have files of prepared screenshots from about a dozen old AARs on my hard drive. And since I'm kind of a nut for making sure I have backups it turns out that, over time, I ended up with maybe 2-3 copies of all my AAR screenshots. And so my hard drive was kind of filling up with all that extranea, and so I spent some time clearing all the duplicates. The good news is now I have good files with all the old AAR screenshots in organized folders and can draw upon them as I replace the old images with new ones.

All that to say I'm now finally in a headspace where I can get back to writing updates. Honestly, I feel like I should play through the current war in EU IV before I completely catch up in the AAR to where I am in gameplay. I'm worried that I may have only 2-3 updates before the "current" war starts, and I need to have perspective on that war before I really want to get into all that. So I need to do some playing, which is another place where I've been stuck lately.

But I will, in coming days, be making an update for Shining Stars in V2, and also doing more gameplay for EU IV. So hopefully I'll be back in good stead to make another update here soon.

Thank you all for your readership and comments!

Rensslaer

 

[Cora Giantkiller]

I'm glad to hear that you're feeling better, at least. IMO you should make updates on your own good time, and not anybody else's.

 

[Cromwell]

I'm glad to hear that you're feeling better, at least. IMO you should make updates on your own good time, and not anybody else's.

I agree, sometimes I think the authAARs here worry too much about the update schedules. The fans won't go anywhere if it takes a little longer and the better frame of mind you are in when you are writing the better the update will be. Look at the update schedule of our very own @El Pip; it hasn't stopped him from having one of the most outstanding AARs ever published on this entire forum with legions of fans.

 

[El Pip]

France had previously acquired an enclave in southern England, but now they took LONDON!

Oh, and THE PC TROUBLES!!! Gosh, here's my saga so far...

God works quickly these days it seems, for such PC troubles can only be divine intervention to strike down such a dark heresy.

You also may remember that both Poland and the Teutonic Order have resurrected at least once. I really intend for that never to happen again.

Statements like this really do temp Fate. As it has been established above that Fate is not in a good mood with you, is it wise to prod it further?

I had Prussians automatically added as an Accepted Culture, and for some reason at some time that ceased to be the case.

Prussians not being acceptable in Brandenburg makes me smile. I'm sure that's not how the mechanic works but I don't care, it is amusing to me.

So what’s your offered answer, strategy buffs? Why DID I do this?? It’s actually a relatively complex set of reasoning.

Your debt had got down to an unacceptably low level and there was a whole new generation of cannon fodder new recruits and mercenaries chomping at the bit. If you hadn't thrown it all into a massive war then all that money and manpower would have spontaneously caused a random war to start. So better to start a planned war than a random one?

I agree, sometimes I think the authAARs here worry too much about the update schedules.

Yes they absolutely do. At some level a regular drum beat of updates helps to build momentum (and stop people forgetting the plot from the last update) but even the benefits of that can be over-stated. Once someone has hit follow on an AAR then they are going to read the next update when it turns up, people will only hit unfollow if they are no longer enjoying it so better to delay and keep the qualit than rush something out to hit an arbitrary deadeline.

The fans won't go anywhere if it takes a little longer

Well if you take it to Pippian extremes some of them will leave, whether it is the forums or this mortal coil. But for normal levels of delay you are correct.

Look at the update schedule of our very own @El Pip; it hasn't stopped him from having one of the most outstanding AARs ever published on this entire forum with legions of fans.

Such appreciation feels far too generous, but is gratefully received. Also absolutely no-one should attempt a slower-than-real time speed of scheduling on a game with a time span of 377 years. With my current 10.5:1 ratio that means such a project would take at least 4,000 years, the ancestors could have started writing when Stonehenge was complete and still not be done. Though thinking about it, perhaps that is the real meaning of Stonehenge, a calendar for Pippian Time?

 

[Rensslaer]

Life continues to get in the way. As things are it'll be 2-3 weeks before an update. Apologies in advance! Nothing I can do about it.

But rest assured I'll be back and will get this moving again. There's war with Holland ahead, and our prime enemy Austria. It'll be a show!

Rensslaer

 

[Rensslaer]

Status report...

Still super busy! I'm moving from Savannah back to Colorado to be with grandkids. This is taking some time, obviously. House is on the market as of today.

In my little bits of free time I'm cataloguing screenshots from this war in preparation for writing the update. But I'm already realizing it's going to be a massive project just to go through the screenshots and find relevant shots, etc., much less even to tell the story. So it's going to be a while still before the next update.

But definitely more to come!

Rensslaer

 

[Rensslaer]

Apologies for such little action lately!

We were traveling for 4 weeks - St. Augustine one weekend, Charleston the next, then 10 days in Denver and a couple in Dallas. Now our daughter and grandchildren have been visiting us in Savannah for a week and it's our third time at the beach. Having a blast, but I'm exhausted and haven't had time to play or do AAR stuff in 6 weeks.

I'll be back with an update in a week or so I expect. Thanks for your patience!

Rensslaer

 

[coz1]

Having a blast, but I'm exhausted and haven't had time to play or do AAR stuff in 6 weeks.

Enjoy it, Renss. You know we'll be here whenever you get back to it.

 

[Lord Durham]

Enjoy your time away, @Rensslaer. AARland isn't going anywhere. Seeing as I have more spare time myself lately, I've been reading and almost caught up. It's a shame the war that started in 1618 didn't last 30 years .

 

[Nikolai]

Enjoy your time and take care @Rensslaer . Family and RL first.

 

[Rensslaer]

I'm glad to hear that you're feeling better, at least. IMO you should make updates on your own good time, and not anybody else's.

@Cora Giantkiller thank you! Gosh it's forever even since you left this comment. Thank you for reading! I've fallen behind on Sword of Virtanen, but am catching up. And I've started reading your Canada AAR for Stellaris.

I agree, sometimes I think the authAARs here worry too much about the update schedules. The fans won't go anywhere if it takes a little longer and the better frame of mind you are in when you are writing the better the update will be. Look at the update schedule of our very own @El Pip; it hasn't stopped him from having one of the most outstanding AARs ever published on this entire forum with legions of fans.

@Cromwell thank you, my friend, for keeping up on this! I've definitely had a bit of time away and distracted. Starting to come back to it now.

Prussians not being acceptable in Brandenburg makes me smile. I'm sure that's not how the mechanic works but I don't care, it is amusing to me.


Your debt had got down to an unacceptably low level and there was a whole new generation of cannon fodder new recruits and mercenaries chomping at the bit. If you hadn't thrown it all into a massive war then all that money and manpower would have spontaneously caused a random war to start. So better to start a planned war than a random one?

@El Pip thank you for keeping up! Yes, I was embarrassed to have seen the mercenaries begging in the streets and the bankers having to take out seconds on their third homes. Time to get back into true form!

Thank you for keeping me on my toes and for challenging and for keeping me and my readers in stitches over the years!

Enjoy it, Renss. You know we'll be here whenever you get back to it.

@coz1 thank you! Just to say I really appreciate your support and encouragement over the past couple of decades, my friend. Sorry I missed the video get together the other day. Even sorrier that we've lived 5 hours apart for so long and I've not been able to find time to see you. Thanks for keeping tabs!

Enjoy your time away, @Rensslaer. AARland isn't going anywhere. Seeing as I have more spare time myself lately, I've been reading and almost caught up. It's a shame the war that started in 1618 didn't last 30 years .

@Lord Durham also thanks to you for so many years of support and encouragement, my friend! And thank you for your advice and reading/editing for my novel. Still working on the next novel, though I'm sad to say I haven't made much progress in the past year. I wish life would slow down and allow for projects, but all my projects seem to be chosen for me, rather than the other way around.

Enjoy your time and take care @Rensslaer . Family and RL first.

@Nikolai hope you're feeling MUCH better! I have had a good time with family over the past couple of months (more details below), and really I wish there was MORE family time and LESS "RL" stuff. I'll get to that point eventually, I hope. Thank you also for many years of encouragement and comments!


Okay, so yeah I've been busy. It sounds like when I left off I must have been a little ill, and now it was so long ago I don't even remember for sure, so it must not have been that bad. We were traveling for about 6 weeks, taking weekend trips to nearby locations along the coast, then traveling to Denver to see grandkids and then to Dallas to see my Dad's sisters who I'd never really gotten much chance to get to know, but now we're finding they're some of the most awesome 80-year-olds around, and great fun! Then once our traveling was done our grandkids came to visit US in Savannah, and we got to show them dolphins and a real beach (3 of them actually) and they had a great time.

Plus we're trying to sell our house (that's why we had all these trips -- figuring time was running out to enjoy where we're living now). Selling a house is no fun. Lots of stuff to do, and lots of waiting in today's sales environment. We have a showing tomorrow, but things are generally slow.

All that busyness made me kind of worn out, such that I didn't have energy for gaming or writing. I went to pick up where I left off in planning for the last update today and realized not only that I hadn't done feedback for a while, but it's been 3 months since I posted an update!

And MORE mind boggling is this... Keep in mind that I've slowed down on posting because I was afraid I would catch up to my point of play in the game. And I haven't been playing for a while either. But I realized today when I started to pick up on the planning that these battles I'm going to describe in the next update were played in August and September of LAST YEAR!!! So now I'm not so sure if I'm really catching up to where I am in playing or if I'm worrying about nothing.

Anyway. I am reasonably hopeful that I will have an update up before the end of this month. I will absolutely try. Thank you for your continued interest!

Rensslaer

 

[Bullfilter]

Just realised I’d missed the last ep, so did a quick catch up.

The surrender of Chelmno in January and Inowroclaw in April resulted in the total annexation of Poland (which includes what used to be the last vestiges of the Teutonic Order) that month. That’s a centuries-long struggle finally resolved!

Huzzah! It’s nice when these things happen after so long.

that month we received something I’d never seen before – an announcement of “Unconditional Surrender”! I guess if you hold all a countries’ territory and it has no remaining allies they will unconditionally surrender

Got one of those recently in my Friesland game. Thought it only right to accept!

Maybe you wanted to do @Bullfilter a favor and return cores to Friesland.

Chuckle.

Savannah

Visited there a few days on a family holiday about 20 years ago. Loved it!

 

[Rensslaer]

@Bullfilter @jak7139


<<chuckles too>>

Just wait!

Okay, so I've planned out the next two updates and all I have to do now is craft the screenshots and write the text.

Probably will post sometime next week. Not quite as soon as I'd planned, but soon enough.

Thanks to All for your continued interest!

Rensslaer

 

[Rensslaer]

I did this last August, so when I pulled it up in the screenshots this March I honestly wondered to myself, “Why in Hell did I do that??? Why on Earth would I do that??? I don’t remember why!”

So I declared war upon Holland and Austria (Holland first, which brought in Austria). Why?

I’ll tell you one reason why I started the war now, and not later… Because I was in a hurry (right?) and I already had a diplomat active in Austria, building a spy network.

I’ve been itching to go to war with our Rival Austria for a long time, but I knew I needed to finish annexing Ansbach before I could go to war. Was that a requirement, or a practicality? Well, considering the squirrelly things that Diplo points do during war, and the need for Diplo points to make peace, etc., I felt I needed to get it out of the way. Also I couldn’t annex during war, so… Yeah, it needed to be done first.

Another reason was my Manpower was sufficiently recovered from the previous war. The loans from previous wars?? Almost all paid off.

Nextly, I’ll refer back to two MAJOR things that were highlighted during the previous update (from March !! – Sorry!).

1) Austria has been at war with Spain for 2 years at this point (and look below at their Manpower reserves! – at the very bottom of the screenshot you’ll see they have only 11,000 Manpower left, and dwindling continuously).

2) France has recently invaded Brabant, so the Holy Roman Emperor is at war with France!

Of course THAT matters because if I attacked Austria they would almost certainly call upon the Emperor to protect them… Unless the Emperor were already heavily engaged, inwhichcase the Emperor must surely beg off.





So if you look at the options shown, between declaring against Austria and declaring against Holland, you can maybe see why I chose Holland instead.

Declaring upon Austria would bring in more than 80,000 MORE troops against us in the war because I’d have to fight (additionally) Venice and Ferrara and The Palatinate and Siena and Great Britain and Sweden. So yeah, I don’t want that.

The differences are huge! Huge enough that the -2 Stability drop (only -1 once I restore one) doesn’t hurt so much.

On my side, Bavaria won’t honor her Alliance with us because she has a Truce with Austria already. And Russia won’t join because she is 4,000 ducats in debt (ha! @El Pip – see how responsible Brandenburg is by comparison!!! )

And so, as we saw in the previous update, in May of 1626 I declared war against Holland, and Austria dutifully supported her ally.

Austria has an advantage in Defensiveness and Morale and Siege Ability, while Brandenburg has an advantage in Professionalism. We’ll see how all that balances out. I’ll have to be careful, of course.





So I’m facing many more light ships than I/we have, but we have the naval advantage in heavy ships and in galleys (which will help in coastal battles).

We basically outnumber our enemies on paper by 2:1, and that’s before I hire any mercenaries. Will I hire mercenaries? Well, yes. For one, I have no control over how my allies employ their forces, if they bother to employ them at all. I need control over a decisive force. I also want to not have to absorb all my casualties with Brandenburg’s finite Manpower reserves.

The war developed quickly. The Dutch Navy came out to challenge the initial Brandenburger blockade of their waters, but by 15 May the Dutch had lost 3 light ships sunk and 2 captured. They retreated into port.

We did take out loans, select 2 mercenary companies to hire, and also brought 3 more regiments of artillery into production.





Already by 24 May we had 4 city sieges underway and 6 provinces which would soon be occupied by us. Peculiarly, Spain was besieging Prag/Prague, in old Bohemian territory, which meant that we could not place it under siege ourselves. Was that a good or bad thing for us? At least we would not have to sit troops there, except for one regiment just to make sure the siege would not lift if the Spanish decided to leave.

So instead we placed Wien/Vienna under siege in the very opening weeks of war. Might as well get it underway.

Frankfurt was another of the first Austrian cities we placed under siege. However the Austrians were able to cobble together a coalition army of Austrians, Hainauters and Liegers that outnumbered our force 2:1. The battle raged at the end of June into the beginning of July. At times we held our own, but in the first week of July we were taking 1,000 casualties a day to the enemy’s 100, and on the 3rd our 18,000 Brandenburgers and Coburgers were forced to surrender their whole command. An unmitigated early setback!





But at the same time Stuttgart, just to the south, came under our control, and it was not the only sign of early success.

We also chose to land 10,000 soldiers in Holland by sea, since we had no means to march there. We figured these troops could secure early victories there, as well, since the Dutch armies were away and their fleet was already humbled.

Then came Heidelberg and Aschaffenburg in mid- to late-July.

Austrian General von Stubenrauch, victor of Frankfurt, had moved his 25,000 soldiers south to Heidelberg, where Brandenburger General Hofmann caught him with 32,000. The Austrians were already sapped from the sharp earlier fight. They had recovered some, but certainly were not at full Morale, whereas Hofmann’s army was fresh. A lucky die roll meant that for a time casualties were 10:1 against the Austrians. By the 21st, most of the Austrian infantry had been forced to retreat, and a good portion of their front line was artillery (which can produce grievous losses for them).





Meanwhile, at Aschaffenburg, immediately to the north, 23,000 Brandenburgers had grappled with 18,000 Dutch soldiers. Both battles favored Brandenburg in terms of strength and casualty ratios.

On the 25th Stubenrauch’s entire command was forced to surrender to the commander of our reinforcements, Gen. von Osterensee. That’s nearly 26,000 Austrians knocked out of the war – losses they could ill afford. And by the 3rd of August Aschaffenburg had been decided in our favor as well, with 3,500 lost to our side, and more than 10,000 lost by the Dutch.

The 8,000 survivors retreated to Ulm where Gen. von Osterensee pinned them in another severe battle. On the 17th these troops, also, laid down their arms and were removed from the enemy order of battle.





Meanwhile the Spanish had won their siege at Prague, and the former Bohemian capital was also lost to the Austrians.

And on the 11th of August Gen. von Viederlitz had engaged an enemy force that had besieged our vassal Nassau’s walls, and by the 23rd of August Viederlitz there defeated the Austrians and their allies, who retreated with the loss of another 16,000 soldiers!

The fact that Brandenburg now had several large armies roaming across the face of Germany meant that Austria had much to fear. This strategy was grossly expensive for us, but quite worth it.

From the very beginning we had moved aggressively into Austrian lands – trying to occupy as much as possible and also to put the outer rim of castles under siege.

By September Brandenburg had already occupied at least 14 enemy provinces, had another 10 which would soon be, and was maintaining sieges at 6 fortresses. The Warscore was 9% in our favor.





Brandenburg’s Manpower was at 98,000, while Austria’s had hit a low of 3,000!!! This was one of several reasons why this epic war we’d waited decades for HAD to be now, not earlier or later.

We used some of our Manpower surplus to build 8,000 new infantry, 2,000 new cavalry and 4,000 new artillery regiments. More soldiers gave us more options, and the huge expense was worth it to me.

It still felt like our situation was precarious, in places, which feeling was only reinforced in mid-September by a surge of enemy armies back to the Netherlands, where Gen. Colln’s 15,000 Ulmers caught 8,000 Brandenburgers at Zeeland and forced their surrender.

But Utrecht and Amsterdam fell to us around the same time, and the tatters of the Dutch Navy were forced back out to face our blockade.





Adm. von Quitzow had 5 Maneuver, which in naval combat increases your chances of capturing enemy ships. This time we devastated the Dutch fleet by the first week of October – we sunk 13 of their light ships, captured three, and only 3 lived to flee to shelter elsewhere! Von Quitzow earned the Naval Engineer trait, increasing ship repair rates.

And likewise, Gen. von Slesvig was able to grapple with Gen. Colln days after his initial victory at Zeeland. His troops had not yet recovered their Morale (there’s a boost after a victory, but not enough to make your troops fresh again), and though the numbers were equal the Ulmers lacked the fight they’d had in previous days. The Battle of Amsterdam cost them nearly 6,000 lost, for only 2,000 of ours.

By October, Austria was in even worse shape, with our armies having sent their fleet to sea for lack of an Adriatic port. We had occupied more of their provinces, and placed more of their cities under siege. Augsburg was key – the gateway to their central lands. We could see about 16,000 Austrian troops meandering this way and that through the lands they still controlled, but effectively Austria had lost its ability to resist. It might only be a matter of time and patience, now.





And yet, our enemies still kept us on our toes. Having forayed into the Netherlands once, and caught us off guard, it happened again at the end of October. And it was one of those Austrian armies we knew they had – they still had nearly 60,000 troops total – but just hadn’t known where they were. We had assumed maybe they were busy with the Spanish somewhere.

But no… Prince Esterhazy stormed out of the forests to the south and assaulted our army at Den Haag. Nearly 40,000 troops versus our 12,000. It was kind of an interesting battle… If you can see in the screenshot above, the enemy actually started the battle with artillery on the front lines! Why? Because they had so much artillery they couldn’t fit it all behind their infantry. But it mattered little, since our force was so small that we could not attack the undefended front-rank artillery, and neither could they fire on us because they were too far to the edges. I suspect even some of their cavalry was out of the fight for the same reason.

But it wasn’t a long battle. Gen. von Slesvig was forced to surrender his command.

We still had 13% Warscore. Not that we could effectively do anything with merely 13%. We had to wait through the winter and siege down these cities. This would, surely, be a long war. Especially if we still had to defeat the Dutch and our armies kept getting sniped.

Thoughts on the progress of the war? Or the wisdom or folly of the whole episode? @jak7139 has already pointed out the silly level of Aggressive Expansion points I’ll suffer from this. And I’ll admit I hadn’t really factored that into my plans. Maybe I’ve become too comfortable with aggressive expansion?

 

[StrategyGameEnthusiast]

We still had 13% Warscore. Not that we could effectively do anything with merely 13%. We had to wait through the winter and siege down these cities. This would, surely, be a long war. Especially if we still had to defeat the Dutch and our armies kept getting sniped.

Thoughts on the progress of the war?

As long as you can continue affording mercenaries, you can grind them down until they give up.

 

[Cora Giantkiller]

I agree with SGE. The big question is the size of your warchest. (Admittedly, I am solidly mediocre at this game.)

 

[jak7139]

Glad to have another update! Hope life continues treating you well, @Rensslaer!

Also I couldn’t annex during war, so… Yeah, it needed to be done first.

You can annex vassals during war, just not if they end up getting occupied. You also need to start the process while they're at peace. If you don't need their troops, you can scutage them (one of the subject toggles), meaning they don't join wars but pay more taxes.

The differences are huge! Huge enough that the -2 Stability drop (only -1 once I restore one) doesn’t hurt so much.

But the AE though...

And Austria isn't the main participant (or a cobelligerent), so stuff costs more to take from them.

I had to look back at my previous feedback since you said I'd already mentioned this. It's been so long I forgot about it.

This is too late to influence things, but I'd not take any land from Austria here. I'd break alliances instead, hoping for a short truce so Brandenburg can attack them again without those strong allies next time.

Will I hire mercenaries? Well, yes.

Not a bad idea, but this lowers your professionalism, one of your quality advantages over Austria. And you do hire regular troops later, and from the screenshots your manpower seems fine, so mercs are probably not necessary for this war. Just use regular troops.

On the 25th Stubenrauch’s entire command was forced to surrender to the commander of our reinforcements, Gen. von Osterensee. That’s nearly 26,000 Austrians knocked out of the war – losses they could ill afford. And by the 3rd of August Aschaffenburg had been decided in our favor as well, with 3,500 lost to our side, and more than 10,000 lost by the Dutch.

The 8,000 survivors retreated to Ulm where Gen. von Osterensee pinned them in another severe battle. On the 17th these troops, also, laid down their arms and were removed from the enemy order of battle.

Revenge gained!

Thoughts on the progress of the war? Or the wisdom or folly of the whole episode? @jak7139 has already pointed out the silly level of Aggressive Expansion points I’ll suffer from this. And I’ll admit I hadn’t really factored that into my plans. Maybe I’ve become too comfortable with aggressive expansion?

Maybe you have become too comfortable with it, not sure. AE is increased in the HRE, which is another factor to consider here. The Dutch land by itself is really rich, so I would leave Austria be (breaking alliances and taking money though, of course), and come back for them later.

 

[Bullfilter]

on the 3rd our 18,000 Brandenburgers and Coburgers were forced to surrender their whole command. An unmitigated early setback!

On the 25th Stubenrauch’s entire command was forced to surrender

by the 23rd of August Viederlitz there defeated the Austrians and their allies, who retreated with the loss of another 16,000 soldiers!

After some early losses and the occasional later surprise, some big victories and largely free rein to siege is what’s needed of course.

From the very beginning we had moved aggressively into Austrian lands – trying to occupy as much as possible and also to put the outer rim of castles under siege.

And that’s being done, but the attrition will be mounting.

Not that we could effectively do anything with merely 13%. We had to wait through the winter and siege down these cities.

A big and therefore slow war. Seems nothing for it but to grind it out. How much is it you’re after?

This would, surely, be a long war.

Seems so.

Thoughts on the progress of the war? Or the wisdom or folly of the whole episode?

Well, it was good to strike them when the opportunity arose. How could I not endorse having just done the same thing to Franconia in my game?

Aggressive Expansion

An issue of course, but again it depends on how much you want to grab: time it so you don’t exhaust your manpower completely, grab a decent slice without triggering a big coalition? But other than keeping Austria down, how much core German territory are you looking to get? Small and manageable or large but enduring years - or even decades - of a possibly powerful coalition?

 

[Rensslaer]

As long as you can continue affording mercenaries, you can grind them down until they give up.

@StrategyGameEnthusiast indeed! It seems that I'm most of my EU and Victoria AARs my strategy is many times reduced to grind, grind, grind.

I agree with SGE. The big question is the size of your warchest. (Admittedly, I am solidly mediocre at this game.)

@Cora Giantkiller yeah my philosophy during war is that the warchest exists to get us through the war in decent shape, winning rather than losing. It's become my habit to spend till victory and pick up the pieces later. I know many will fault this strategy, and I know I've seen many succeed with different ones. But one way or another this is my style and it's hard to get me to change.

This game has pointed out to me that I'm not a master of the game by any degree. EU 3 was the game I knew intimately and studied. This game, honestly, I've mostly learned on the fly. It's different enough that between said that's new and stuff that's changed and stuff I've forgotten, I'm at a disadvantage. I realized that more fully while playing just yesterday, actually.

Glad to have another update! Hope life continues treating you well, @Rensslaer!


Maybe you have become too comfortable with it, not sure. AE is increased in the HRE, which is another factor to consider here. The Dutch land by itself is really rich, so I would leave Austria be (breaking alliances and taking money though, of course), and come back for them later.

@jak7139 I'm doing well, thank you. I would be doing better if our house would sell. Moving back to Denver is not a wise move financially, not in this climate, but we need to get to where we can grow up with the grandkids.

After some early losses and the occasional later surprise, some big victories and largely free rein to siege is what’s needed of course.

And that’s being done, but the attrition will be mounting.

A big and therefore slow war. Seems nothing for it but to grind it out. How much is it you’re after?

Well, it was good to strike them when the opportunity arose. How could I not endorse having just done the same thing to Franconia in my game?

An issue of course, but again it depends on how much you want to grab: time it so you don’t exhaust your manpower completely, grab a decent slice without triggering a big coalition? But other than keeping Austria down, how much core German territory are you looking to get? Small and manageable or large but enduring years - or even decades - of a possibly powerful coalition?

@Bullfilter thank you! Jak was recommending taking Dutch land because it's richer and cheaper. But I don't know that it fits with Brandenburg's plans. We're looking to 1) weaken Austria and 2) enlarge Brandenburg and increase her control of Germany.

So take from that what you will. You wouldn't be willing to sell some of Franconia would you? Or sell them out? Of course nothing like Franconia formed in my game. It's a bunch of small territories, many of them smaller than they were before. Generally encroached upon by France.

I guess I need to plan for that one day, huh? What to do about the French?


Thanks, everyone, for reading! I'm preparing the next update now. I'm also continuing the war I guess I started playing in November. Got to get this done and move past it. Having great fun playing though!

Posting an update in a few days I hope.

Everyone remember to please vote in the Q2-2025 AARLand Choice Awards! But please remember that this AAR was not updated during that quarter.

See you soon!

Rensslaer