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EASTERN EUROPE, 1525-1549

In contrast to the upheaval that characterized France and to a lesser extent, Central Europe, in the first half of the 16th century, Eastern Europe experienced a relatively peaceful time. The reformation had not been embraced as rapidly here, and Danzig had ruthlessly crushed such protestant congregations as had emerged.

The countries in the region were often called upon to join the Catholic side of the wars in central Europe, but the battlefields were far away and these wars had little impact in the East. There were also a number of uprisings in the area for various reasons. The most significant of these was a peasants revolt in Grodno led to that province being reattached to Poland in 1525

In the 1520’s, King Caesar Galta attempted to position Prussia as a regional power.. He was able to persuade Duke Friedrich II of Augsburg that he would only be able to survive the threat of Danzig by surrendering his autonomy in 1525, and he also gave Franciszek Pak of Pommerania his personal guarantee of independence, even after Franciszek was excommunicated by the Pope.

This guarantee proved Prussia’s undoing. The following year, King Franz Joseph Gryf of Danzig used the excommunication as a pretext to reassert the control over the region it had been forced to relinquish a few years earlier by Frankfurt. King Aleksander Ostrorog of Poland, eager to revive his nations flagging fortunes also declared war on Pommerania. When Poland’s ally in Muscovy joined Aleksander, Caesar found himself in over his head. Even a Norwegian invasion of Muscovy failed to save him from losing Plock to Poland in 1527, and being unable to prevent Danzig’s annexation of Pommerania in 1530, one year after Muscovy fell into Norwegian control.

Eastern Europe in 1533:
EasternEurope1533_zps80984f83.jpg


In 1541, rebel forces in Stettin led by Helmfried Oelrichs sought to reestablish Augsburg as an independent state. The rebellion quickly spread to Brandenburg and by 1545, Oelrichs had succeeded in declaring independence…but not for long. Despite having backed Augsburg’s bid for independence, King Kaspar Gryf of Danzig treacherously declared war to subjugate it himself the following year. The relative peace enjoyed by the area for thirty years was shattered as it soon became a regional war.

The new Duke, Georg von Habsburg, had done his best to establish alliances quickly, with Cologne and with his former master in Prussia. Gelre, seeking to prevent the Polish kingdoms in the east from expanding westward had guaranteed its independence. Gelre did not frighten Kaspar, but among Gelre’s allies were Bavaria, Aachen and most importantly, Frankfurt.

With the danger of the powerful German state looming large in his mind, Kaspar called upon his own allies, Moldavia and King James van Vlaanderen of England. With Frankfurt and England on side, it had become yet another Catholic vs Protestant struggle, despite the fact that Augsburg itself was Catholic. Frankfurt countered by bringing in Hungary, but Caesar managed to persuade Austria to join his side, Catholic or not. With Austria distracting Frankfurt and Hungary in the south, he was able to press his war successfully against Prussia, forcing it to surrender the province of Danzig, which had been held by foreign hands for decades.

However, the war elsewhere was not going so well. Hungary had marched on Moldavia and seized the province of Pinsk. But Kaspar’s diplomacy hooked one last big fish, and the other great catholic power, Norway entered the war. King Sigismund von Luxemburg of Hungary weighed out his options and decided that he had no stomach for a protracted war and made peace for his side of the war in 1549. The Catholics had finally managed to stop the Protestant tide, at least for the time being, albeit with the help of Protestant Austria.


Eastern Europe in 1551:
EasternEurope1551_zps419ee452.jpg
 
Still an absolute mess in Eastern Europe. I wonder if any state (perhaps Danzig) can actually consolidate enough to stop Hungary or if they will wind up owning all the land from the Baltic to the Adriatic to the Black Sea.
 
GO VIKINGS! I'm secrelty hoping for Denmark and Norway to take over the world together.

Danzig, Denmark, Norway and Byzantium are the 4 powers I am currently cheering for the most.

I hope the Byzantium-Timur war is the feature of the next update.

Also whats happening in Asia? Has Ming annexed her first neighbour yet?
 
Very interesting situation here, it seems that a conflict between Danzig and Frankfurt is on the cards at some point. I hope both these states can survive, or even expand, as this could make for a fascinating battle over Germany!
 
Great AAR. Navarra and Etruria are my favorite countries. Hopefully, we see Spain, Italy and Germany before the Vicky timeframe.
 
I've been archive binging my way through this AAR from CK2 onwards and I must say that you've done a great job turning the game's random occurrences into something approaching a narrative. Now that I'm caught up I'm waiting for the next update with baited breath!

I do have a question though: I've only played CK2 and not EU3 so I'm curious, how does the resurgent Byzantine Empire compare with the Ottomans in EU3? Aside from the Byzantine's lack of progress into Eastern Europe (so far) and their conquest of Ethiopia and parts of Persia, the territory of the resurrected Byzantines seems pretty close to that of the Ottomans at the same period in time. Yet I'm getting the impression that everyone's dreading an inevitable onslaught of Byzantine power that will push all competitors aside.

So my question is this: are the Ottomans horribly unbalanced in EU3? Because it seems to me that if the Byzantines as they stand now are poised to take over the world that the Ottomans must be in a similar position (assuming you start playing at about the height of their empire). Just curious.
 
Oh gawd, the culture map in this game must be horrible!
 
By the way, thanks to everyone who voted for this as one of their favorite AAR's for Q4 in the AARland awards!

@Wolfsnakecoffer, I'm currently planning one last update in Europe and then a few elsewhere in the world before getting to the Byzantines. The Byzantines & Timurids are going to be at war for about 120 years, so it's hard to slot it in chronologically; it's even worse than the French civil war. I will be covering Asia soon, but don't plan to say much about Ming which has been extraordinarily passive. There were no changes in its borders in 1489 and 1627.

@Nivenus, in fact the Ottomans tend not to do very well at all in EU3, though it might go better for them if you started the game around 1550 or so. And because the Byzantines are also eastern tech they may fall behind Western Europe, though one thing in their favor is it's harder for the rich, advanced European powers to get CB on them. So they may not get plowed by Austria the way the Ottomans usually do in my games.

@Thoctar, I probably willhave a culture map in the next global update. It's a horrible culture map if you're a fan of Russian culture, that's for sure. Not so bad if you like Norwegian, Danish or Basque.
 
Ottoman are defacto screwed by their muslim tech. While they had actually better tech than westerners in 1400-1500 (hello janissaries)

I seriously hope EU4 will fix the tech non-sense of eu3 :p
 
Actually, at least in DW5.1 the Ottomans have their own tech level which is halfway in between the "Oriental" tech of the Byzantines and the Muslim tech. But in general, I agree that EU3 gives the western tech countries too much of an advantage too early, when they really weren't that far ahead until the 18th century.
 
Actually, at least in DW5.1 the Ottomans have their own tech level which is halfway in between the "Oriental" tech of the Byzantines and the Muslim tech. But in general, I agree that EU3 gives the western tech countries too much of an advantage too early, when they really weren't that far ahead until the 18th century.

I forgot about this yeah, but point is, Ottoman get always smashed very early on, while they should beat the crap out of everyone near them :p