I'm just amazed at all the different factors you're juggling in this run. How planned out is the campaign? At what point does the evolving world make it impossible to stick to the original plan and you need to improvise?
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As far as a I know, this event would be the end of their event chain. After that they become a "regular" PU where I still have to manage liberty desire. BUt as Denmark's military might grows , the relative strength to Sweden stops being an issue . So if I survive the coming revolt, then we should be good.
NOw what I have NOT decided on is whether I will integrate them to create Scandinavia one day. The mission tree expects that and Scandinavia has a few more missions not accessible to DEnmark.
I think you are correct in the advice you give. There are several threads on this on Reddit, and most are players who chose bloodbath option and are stuck. I asked my teenage son who played Denmark a few months ago what he did, and he said the rebellion was hard and almost enforced demands because they took Stockholm while he was fighting elsewhere. I think I will be better prepared thanks to studying the event chain in detail ( the "Deep Dive Denmark" chapter).
ANd you are absolutely correct that young rulers can die. I had that happen to me in True Tsar when Ivan IV ( a 6/5/6 or something like that ) died within 10 years of assuming throne. So unless one is willing to save scum , "bloodbath" is the more risky option .
Thank you for noticing the preparation in this run. Unlike previous runs, I did a thorough study of the mission tree for this one and it is paying off . Of course it helps that Paradox gave DEnamrk over-powered bonuses.
As far as overall strategy for the run, I think I have it kind of planned to the end. As to details ( e.g who would I PU , which country gets to become the vassal of each culture) depends on events.
I will put my long term strategy here in a spoiler. I think reading the Spoiler helps to understand where this is going but also takes away a bit of the surprise element.
1. Idea groups: Influence, Merc, Diplomatic, Humanist. By 5th idea, I should be almost done with run and likely situational
2. religion. GO protestant for baseline +15% improve relations base bonus. I will be stacking those modifiers because there will be some throne-claiming and truce-breaking going on.
3. vassals vs PU. Vassals allow divert trade whereas PUs do not . So I want trade nodes feeding into Channel and Lubeck to be vassal controlled. Other places will be PUs. BUt vassals are limited in how much they can grow due to Liberty Desire going up with Dev , and they add all their power together. So at some point, I will have to turn vassals into PUs by installing dynasty, breaking vassal status, claiming throne.
3b. INfluence-Merc policy gives option for Client States early in run, so I may use those when more appropriate than vassals ( less LD, start with my dynasty)
4. making more money . Already rich but counting on COlonists from missions of Denmark to get merchant bonuses from CNs and Trade Company, so I will not need Trade or Economic ideas
5. Culture. I will accept English for sure . Then I may culture shift to Lower Saxon as I grow into that area ( there is a mission for Denmark that triggers a *defensive* war with the Hansa cities, so at some point I will be annexing those). Shifting to a German group culture will give me the most bang from the Empire Status cultural union. WHich is why I may NOT form Scandinavia because I will be stuck accepting Swedish and Norwegian manually
6. DEnmark branching mission . You have choice of taking Catholic, Protestant, HUmanist or Norse mission. I will be taking HUmanist because it meshes with the run ( there is even one mission called "Multicultural Kingdom" . Also one mission gives your ruler +3 DIP skill, so can come in handy in late game if I have bazillion subjects and get stuck with crappy DIP ruler) .
7 . I DO NOT KNOW if I will form Scandinavia or not . Pros is that I get an option to call my country "Kalmar Union" which is role-play appropriate and has a nice yellow color. COns is that I lose two PUs needed for achievement, and will need to keep Swedish and Norwegian cultures accepted somehow.
8. I DO NOT KNOW if I will try to become HRE or not, if I will participate or lead the league war or not., or even dismantle HRE . That is situational. Eventually I will need to rule all the HRE for my main aim.
2. religion. GO protestant for baseline +15% improve relations base bonus. I will be stacking those modifiers because there will be some throne-claiming and truce-breaking going on.
3. vassals vs PU. Vassals allow divert trade whereas PUs do not . So I want trade nodes feeding into Channel and Lubeck to be vassal controlled. Other places will be PUs. BUt vassals are limited in how much they can grow due to Liberty Desire going up with Dev , and they add all their power together. So at some point, I will have to turn vassals into PUs by installing dynasty, breaking vassal status, claiming throne.
3b. INfluence-Merc policy gives option for Client States early in run, so I may use those when more appropriate than vassals ( less LD, start with my dynasty)
4. making more money . Already rich but counting on COlonists from missions of Denmark to get merchant bonuses from CNs and Trade Company, so I will not need Trade or Economic ideas
5. Culture. I will accept English for sure . Then I may culture shift to Lower Saxon as I grow into that area ( there is a mission for Denmark that triggers a *defensive* war with the Hansa cities, so at some point I will be annexing those). Shifting to a German group culture will give me the most bang from the Empire Status cultural union. WHich is why I may NOT form Scandinavia because I will be stuck accepting Swedish and Norwegian manually
6. DEnmark branching mission . You have choice of taking Catholic, Protestant, HUmanist or Norse mission. I will be taking HUmanist because it meshes with the run ( there is even one mission called "Multicultural Kingdom" . Also one mission gives your ruler +3 DIP skill, so can come in handy in late game if I have bazillion subjects and get stuck with crappy DIP ruler) .
7 . I DO NOT KNOW if I will form Scandinavia or not . Pros is that I get an option to call my country "Kalmar Union" which is role-play appropriate and has a nice yellow color. COns is that I lose two PUs needed for achievement, and will need to keep Swedish and Norwegian cultures accepted somehow.
8. I DO NOT KNOW if I will try to become HRE or not, if I will participate or lead the league war or not., or even dismantle HRE . That is situational. Eventually I will need to rule all the HRE for my main aim.
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Chapter 4: Christian The Great (1470-1480)
Chapter 4: Christian The Great (1470-1480)
We left off with the Danish armies deep in the Pontic Steppes while a massive Swedish rebellion loomed over the horizon. After much consultations ( @stnylan @StrategyGameEnthusiast ), King Christian decided that the only way to deal with rebels was to crush them. He did not want to stain his legacy with a bloody massacre based on trickery. So he asked his generals for estimates of the travel time from Sarai to Stockholm , and it seemed his troops would arrive in June or July , before the outbreak of the rebellion . Furthermore, his advisors also reminded him that there will be about 90 days between the Swedish nobility voicing their discontent and the actual arrival of their ultimatum to Denmark . And he also had another 2 months where he could just delay his response . So there was ample time to prepare to handle the rebellion.
SO he ordered all his armies , except the one sieging Sarai , to head north, and while they were at it to ask any allied forces in the war against the Horde to attach to them. And in fact a small contingent of Karelian and Norwegians did exactly that . As for the army conducting the siege, they were told to try one more monts, and then lift the siege if the city did not fall.
As luck had it , Sarai did fall next month and all the troops headed home. The troops arrived in early Summer 1470 and right on schedule the Swedish nobility made their discontent heard.
The King reacted by hiring the Grand Company and the Prussian Volunteer Army in Skane. And he checked on the status of a fort that he ordered built in Dalaskogen many moons ago, and that appeared to be almost operational. Then with all those preparations , he waited for the rebellion to break out. And in November, the rebels made their demands known. They also revealed their positions, giving the King more time to anticipate their moves.
And as luck had it , two rebel armies were going to assemble right at the newly made fort in Dalaskogen. So the King knew exactly where to send him troops, and after moving them into position, he gave his stern denial to the nobility on December 1, 1470
The first battle happened in Stockholm, where the troops under General Arenstorff were waiting for the Pretenders and quickly dispatched them to the afterlife.
This was then followed by twin battles at Dalaskogen and Varmland that ended with solid Danish victories.
So by the time a second wave of revolts arrived, the Crown had already taken care of the first wave. And the second one did not fare any differently. Again at Sotckholm, Varmland and Osergotland the rebels were soundly defeated.
And the last of the Pretenders was finally cornered at Viborg and destroyed.
And so while the Pretender Rebellion of Sweden was a massive rebellion, it was also a very short lived one thanks to General Arenstroff and his professional troops. And after that Sweden went back to being a historical friend of Denmark, and the King was able to discontinue the financial support to the Loyalists started way back in November 1444.
King Christian then turned his attention back to the war with the Golden Horde. During the rebellion, a separate peace was signed with Aq Qoyunlu who allowed their capital to be pillaged, growing the tax and production sections of Sjaelland
This was followed by peace with the Great Horde who ceded both Muscovite and Mishar culture lands. These lands were apportioned to Karelia and Ryazan respectively, following culture lines ( Karelia already accepted Muscovite, and Ryazan already had a Mishar province and would later accept it). And in both cases, development was concentrated from the newly annexed lands to Copenhagen before giving them to the vassals.
The nation was now at peace and had just survived a major rebellion in Sweden with relative ease. In fact, despite the hiring of mercenary forces over the force limit, the treasury never posted a deficit . As a result, the King rethought the country's naval doctrine. His late father had focused on a merchant navy with the idea that trade ships would form the backbone of Denmark's trade power . But reality was that the meagre 8 ship trade fleet was a non-factor in the economy of Denmark. And soon Christian was going to embark on more adventures in the British Isles. He had also heard about far away lands in a New World , a place called America, and had dreams that one day Denmark would venture there. FOr those reasons, Denmark needed a navy that could stand toe to toe with that of England and the colonizer nations. So he created the Danish Admiralty doctrine which promised to produce some of the best Admirals in the future [although for now I did not want to spend 50 DIP on one]. And some of the loss in trade ship power would be offset by admirals with high maneuver leading ships on trade missions.
And he celebrated the crushing of the rebellion by wearing a new Crown of Sweden, and improving his military skills in the process.
And with a significant surplus of military power, he had the province of Fyn become a major source of manpower for the army by settling it with families willing to send their sons to the army
Meanwhile, in foreign affairs, he watched the King of France grow his power at the expense of the Aragonese, who lost badly against Naples in her war of Independence.
Although Aragon would go into a personal union with Castile later in this decade, the Neapolitan war of independence certainly made the Iberian power weaker than her French neighbor to the North. And that stronger France decided to mark Denmark as her rival, a wise decision if you ask me.
Denmark, however, did not reciprocate. At least not yet .
After those events , things shifted to the British Isles. Here, through circumstances that were not noted by historians [no screenshots], one-province-minor Leinster had ended up isolated without allies ( previously they were allies with England, and had excellent relations with them, so they were likely to become a diplomatic vassal, but something happened and there was a truce between the two) . So Denmark took advantage of that and declared war on weak Leinster. And lest you think King Christian was just being a bully, you will later see that this was done for Leinster's own good.
There is no point in detailing the fighting between mighty Denmark and tiny Leinster. But during that fighting , another war broke out in the vicinity.
France had declared war on Brittany, allied to England. And while Scotland was allied to France, the Scots did not join the war. That presented Denmark with an opportunity to attack either France ( via Scotland) or England, while those two fought each other. And many in Copenhagen wanted to go at it against Scotland to teach the arrogant French a lesson. They argued that between Burgundian , Swedish and Danish troops the French could be beaten. Plus, in case of defeat in France, peace could be obtained from the Scots. But the King, after considering both sides, decided that war with France , while inevitable down the line, was not advisable at this time. Denmark was likely to continue to grow in strength and will outpace her rival, he told the anti-French faction. And so he decided to declare on the English while they were dealing with rebels at home and a French army was sieging Calais. But before he could get those plans into motion, a call to arms arrived from long-time ally Poland.
He mulled that decision for a bit. Certainly a war with Muscovy would net Karelia and Ryazan some provinces, as they had claims on land Poland could not reach . And Denmark's subjects were more than capable of helping Poland without the need to divert resources from the British Isles. But he also recognized that the time for a breach with Poland was coming . And decided that this is the best time for it. Poland had no major allies - Denmark filled that role- and while they were at war, they were unlikely to find one . And so Denmark could take advantage of that and ally Hungary and Austria to their South while they were busy with Muscovy. And so Christian declined the CTA , taking a hit to his diplomatic reputation. But also clearing the way to expansion South and South East of the Baltic.
Now back in the British isles, Leinster had fallen and was fully annexed. It was later released back as a vassal state of the Danish realm. And in that short window of peace, Denmark concluded an alliance with Hungary as well as a royal marriage, seeing how the Hungarian King had no heir ( alas an heir would be born a few years later).
It was then time to declare war on the English .
And here Burgundy was called in to help because England was still allied to Portugal ( as well as Liege). But there was another reason Denmark was keen on getting Burgundian involvement, and that was the presence of Pretender rebels in Brabant, which the Burgundians seemed unable to reach due to France not granting them military access. And considering how Christian was still hoping to the get the Burgundian Inheritance one day, he did not want to see Brabant escape . So the first action of the Danish troops in the war with England was to actually go fight Brabantian rebels!!
After that the army in Brabant moved to Liege and sieged it down , while the Burgundian subjects chased the Liegian army away.
King Christian took advantage of the occupation of Liege to conclude a separate peace with them. But instead of pillaging the city ( an option that would have grown Copenhagen again), he decided to force Liege to cede Loon to his ally Burgundy .
There was no harm in growing what he hoped would be his future inheritance. Back in England, the war was won after Denmark hired the Grand Company there to tip the balance of forces , which were about even at the start of the war. And our King did not really pay much attention to that war, for he was distraught at learning that his beloved Margrete was cheating on him with an older man. Needless to say the advisor was beheaded.
Meanwhile , back in East Europe , Poland took Moskva from the prince of Muscovy .
The Poles were clearly encroaching on what Denmark considered her Sphere and a clash was inevitable. But Christian had to finish the English war first. And thanks to his Burgundian allies he was able to force Portugal out of the war with a monetary indemnity .
And he also mended fences with Queen Margrete , after they re-discovered their shared interests.
After that it was time to make peace with the English . And it was a harsh peace.
England lost much of Ireland , which was later transferred to Leinster ( I told you we declared war on them for their own good!!). But not before doing some "development concentration" to Sjaelland. And England also lost much of her North, areas that Denmark had permanent claims on.
Having just crushed England, CHristian now moved onto Scotland. Thanks to a fresh claim against Desmond, he was able to bypass the French alliance .
We will not detail that war, and instead focus on internal affairs where thanks to Christian's administrative and military skills, Denmark was able to adopt her next idea group 3 years early.
Our King chose mercenary ideas, seeing how useful they had been in preventing manpower shortages and were not too costly ( at least for now ) .
And as for Scotland and Desmond, peace was signed taking the two richest provinces in Scotland and giving them to Leinster ( who was expected to accept Scottish culture) . Sadly, no development could be concentrated from those provinces despite their high population ( Sjaelland had gotten really large and was harder to grow) . Desmond itself suffered a similar fate.
This aggressive expansion by Denmark triggered a coalition , started by Mann but really headed by France.
Denmark countered by allying Austria as an insurance.
THat coincided with the truce with Poland expiring, and with Poland declaring Denmark her rival. So a clash with the Poles was coming and having Austria secure Denmark's back was important. But before he started another war, Christian took time to finally ratify the Kalmar Union.
He had been waiting for that moment a long time, but needed perfect legitimacy and stability for it [ I was saving papal influence to Canonize a local Saint for stability but ended up not needing it ] .ANd finally that moment arrived . And the effect of the new constitution was most immediately felt with manpower as the Personal Union Crowns now contributed a lot more soldiers to Denmark's pool
And he took time to seize land from the Clergy ( privileges with the Estates were adjusted so that Nobility did not lose land anymore, and it now came out of the clergy).
And then it was on to the next war , this time against Poland.
Because Denmark had a lot of aggressive expansion notoriety, some had urged the King to take it easy with the wars. But he wanted to strike at Poland before they had the chance to create a troublesome alliance with someone like France, and so war was declared even though troops were not in theater.
And the first major engagement was a defeat for Denmark at Tuchola against the main Polish army
But Denmark had the help of strong allies like Hungary and Burgundy, and strong subjects like Sweden and Karelia ( and remember that Sweden now had all the benefits to manpower and such that Marches get) . So it was going to be just a matter of time before things turned into Denmark's favor. And this war saw Denmark's first use of Cannons
And thanks to the robust economy she was able to field a full battery of them for the siege of Polotsk . And thanks to Danish naval control of the Baltic, mercenary companies were able to drop on enemy armies sieging Riga and Koenibsberg and destroy them, before finally defeating the main Polish force at the second battle of Tuchola
And so as the decade ended, Danish and allied armies were advancing against Poland on all fronts and King Christian would soon need to start thinking about peace terms. His biggest challenge being not winning the war, but managing the aggressive expansion reputation that he has earned so far
And now we close with a summary of Denmark's status under awesome King Christian, who contemporaries were already labeling him "The Great".
PS: I just realized there is a 50 image limit on uploads. I guess I finally hit it
We left off with the Danish armies deep in the Pontic Steppes while a massive Swedish rebellion loomed over the horizon. After much consultations ( @stnylan @StrategyGameEnthusiast ), King Christian decided that the only way to deal with rebels was to crush them. He did not want to stain his legacy with a bloody massacre based on trickery. So he asked his generals for estimates of the travel time from Sarai to Stockholm , and it seemed his troops would arrive in June or July , before the outbreak of the rebellion . Furthermore, his advisors also reminded him that there will be about 90 days between the Swedish nobility voicing their discontent and the actual arrival of their ultimatum to Denmark . And he also had another 2 months where he could just delay his response . So there was ample time to prepare to handle the rebellion.
SO he ordered all his armies , except the one sieging Sarai , to head north, and while they were at it to ask any allied forces in the war against the Horde to attach to them. And in fact a small contingent of Karelian and Norwegians did exactly that . As for the army conducting the siege, they were told to try one more monts, and then lift the siege if the city did not fall.
As luck had it , Sarai did fall next month and all the troops headed home. The troops arrived in early Summer 1470 and right on schedule the Swedish nobility made their discontent heard.
The King reacted by hiring the Grand Company and the Prussian Volunteer Army in Skane. And he checked on the status of a fort that he ordered built in Dalaskogen many moons ago, and that appeared to be almost operational. Then with all those preparations , he waited for the rebellion to break out. And in November, the rebels made their demands known. They also revealed their positions, giving the King more time to anticipate their moves.
And as luck had it , two rebel armies were going to assemble right at the newly made fort in Dalaskogen. So the King knew exactly where to send him troops, and after moving them into position, he gave his stern denial to the nobility on December 1, 1470
The first battle happened in Stockholm, where the troops under General Arenstorff were waiting for the Pretenders and quickly dispatched them to the afterlife.
This was then followed by twin battles at Dalaskogen and Varmland that ended with solid Danish victories.
So by the time a second wave of revolts arrived, the Crown had already taken care of the first wave. And the second one did not fare any differently. Again at Sotckholm, Varmland and Osergotland the rebels were soundly defeated.
And the last of the Pretenders was finally cornered at Viborg and destroyed.
And so while the Pretender Rebellion of Sweden was a massive rebellion, it was also a very short lived one thanks to General Arenstroff and his professional troops. And after that Sweden went back to being a historical friend of Denmark, and the King was able to discontinue the financial support to the Loyalists started way back in November 1444.
King Christian then turned his attention back to the war with the Golden Horde. During the rebellion, a separate peace was signed with Aq Qoyunlu who allowed their capital to be pillaged, growing the tax and production sections of Sjaelland
This was followed by peace with the Great Horde who ceded both Muscovite and Mishar culture lands. These lands were apportioned to Karelia and Ryazan respectively, following culture lines ( Karelia already accepted Muscovite, and Ryazan already had a Mishar province and would later accept it). And in both cases, development was concentrated from the newly annexed lands to Copenhagen before giving them to the vassals.
The nation was now at peace and had just survived a major rebellion in Sweden with relative ease. In fact, despite the hiring of mercenary forces over the force limit, the treasury never posted a deficit . As a result, the King rethought the country's naval doctrine. His late father had focused on a merchant navy with the idea that trade ships would form the backbone of Denmark's trade power . But reality was that the meagre 8 ship trade fleet was a non-factor in the economy of Denmark. And soon Christian was going to embark on more adventures in the British Isles. He had also heard about far away lands in a New World , a place called America, and had dreams that one day Denmark would venture there. FOr those reasons, Denmark needed a navy that could stand toe to toe with that of England and the colonizer nations. So he created the Danish Admiralty doctrine which promised to produce some of the best Admirals in the future [although for now I did not want to spend 50 DIP on one]. And some of the loss in trade ship power would be offset by admirals with high maneuver leading ships on trade missions.
And he celebrated the crushing of the rebellion by wearing a new Crown of Sweden, and improving his military skills in the process.
And with a significant surplus of military power, he had the province of Fyn become a major source of manpower for the army by settling it with families willing to send their sons to the army
Meanwhile, in foreign affairs, he watched the King of France grow his power at the expense of the Aragonese, who lost badly against Naples in her war of Independence.
Although Aragon would go into a personal union with Castile later in this decade, the Neapolitan war of independence certainly made the Iberian power weaker than her French neighbor to the North. And that stronger France decided to mark Denmark as her rival, a wise decision if you ask me.
Denmark, however, did not reciprocate. At least not yet .
After those events , things shifted to the British Isles. Here, through circumstances that were not noted by historians [no screenshots], one-province-minor Leinster had ended up isolated without allies ( previously they were allies with England, and had excellent relations with them, so they were likely to become a diplomatic vassal, but something happened and there was a truce between the two) . So Denmark took advantage of that and declared war on weak Leinster. And lest you think King Christian was just being a bully, you will later see that this was done for Leinster's own good.
There is no point in detailing the fighting between mighty Denmark and tiny Leinster. But during that fighting , another war broke out in the vicinity.
France had declared war on Brittany, allied to England. And while Scotland was allied to France, the Scots did not join the war. That presented Denmark with an opportunity to attack either France ( via Scotland) or England, while those two fought each other. And many in Copenhagen wanted to go at it against Scotland to teach the arrogant French a lesson. They argued that between Burgundian , Swedish and Danish troops the French could be beaten. Plus, in case of defeat in France, peace could be obtained from the Scots. But the King, after considering both sides, decided that war with France , while inevitable down the line, was not advisable at this time. Denmark was likely to continue to grow in strength and will outpace her rival, he told the anti-French faction. And so he decided to declare on the English while they were dealing with rebels at home and a French army was sieging Calais. But before he could get those plans into motion, a call to arms arrived from long-time ally Poland.
He mulled that decision for a bit. Certainly a war with Muscovy would net Karelia and Ryazan some provinces, as they had claims on land Poland could not reach . And Denmark's subjects were more than capable of helping Poland without the need to divert resources from the British Isles. But he also recognized that the time for a breach with Poland was coming . And decided that this is the best time for it. Poland had no major allies - Denmark filled that role- and while they were at war, they were unlikely to find one . And so Denmark could take advantage of that and ally Hungary and Austria to their South while they were busy with Muscovy. And so Christian declined the CTA , taking a hit to his diplomatic reputation. But also clearing the way to expansion South and South East of the Baltic.
Now back in the British isles, Leinster had fallen and was fully annexed. It was later released back as a vassal state of the Danish realm. And in that short window of peace, Denmark concluded an alliance with Hungary as well as a royal marriage, seeing how the Hungarian King had no heir ( alas an heir would be born a few years later).
It was then time to declare war on the English .
And here Burgundy was called in to help because England was still allied to Portugal ( as well as Liege). But there was another reason Denmark was keen on getting Burgundian involvement, and that was the presence of Pretender rebels in Brabant, which the Burgundians seemed unable to reach due to France not granting them military access. And considering how Christian was still hoping to the get the Burgundian Inheritance one day, he did not want to see Brabant escape . So the first action of the Danish troops in the war with England was to actually go fight Brabantian rebels!!
After that the army in Brabant moved to Liege and sieged it down , while the Burgundian subjects chased the Liegian army away.
King Christian took advantage of the occupation of Liege to conclude a separate peace with them. But instead of pillaging the city ( an option that would have grown Copenhagen again), he decided to force Liege to cede Loon to his ally Burgundy .
There was no harm in growing what he hoped would be his future inheritance. Back in England, the war was won after Denmark hired the Grand Company there to tip the balance of forces , which were about even at the start of the war. And our King did not really pay much attention to that war, for he was distraught at learning that his beloved Margrete was cheating on him with an older man. Needless to say the advisor was beheaded.
Meanwhile , back in East Europe , Poland took Moskva from the prince of Muscovy .
The Poles were clearly encroaching on what Denmark considered her Sphere and a clash was inevitable. But Christian had to finish the English war first. And thanks to his Burgundian allies he was able to force Portugal out of the war with a monetary indemnity .
And he also mended fences with Queen Margrete , after they re-discovered their shared interests.
After that it was time to make peace with the English . And it was a harsh peace.
England lost much of Ireland , which was later transferred to Leinster ( I told you we declared war on them for their own good!!). But not before doing some "development concentration" to Sjaelland. And England also lost much of her North, areas that Denmark had permanent claims on.
Having just crushed England, CHristian now moved onto Scotland. Thanks to a fresh claim against Desmond, he was able to bypass the French alliance .
We will not detail that war, and instead focus on internal affairs where thanks to Christian's administrative and military skills, Denmark was able to adopt her next idea group 3 years early.
Our King chose mercenary ideas, seeing how useful they had been in preventing manpower shortages and were not too costly ( at least for now ) .
And as for Scotland and Desmond, peace was signed taking the two richest provinces in Scotland and giving them to Leinster ( who was expected to accept Scottish culture) . Sadly, no development could be concentrated from those provinces despite their high population ( Sjaelland had gotten really large and was harder to grow) . Desmond itself suffered a similar fate.
This aggressive expansion by Denmark triggered a coalition , started by Mann but really headed by France.
Denmark countered by allying Austria as an insurance.
THat coincided with the truce with Poland expiring, and with Poland declaring Denmark her rival. So a clash with the Poles was coming and having Austria secure Denmark's back was important. But before he started another war, Christian took time to finally ratify the Kalmar Union.
He had been waiting for that moment a long time, but needed perfect legitimacy and stability for it [ I was saving papal influence to Canonize a local Saint for stability but ended up not needing it ] .ANd finally that moment arrived . And the effect of the new constitution was most immediately felt with manpower as the Personal Union Crowns now contributed a lot more soldiers to Denmark's pool
And he took time to seize land from the Clergy ( privileges with the Estates were adjusted so that Nobility did not lose land anymore, and it now came out of the clergy).
And then it was on to the next war , this time against Poland.
Because Denmark had a lot of aggressive expansion notoriety, some had urged the King to take it easy with the wars. But he wanted to strike at Poland before they had the chance to create a troublesome alliance with someone like France, and so war was declared even though troops were not in theater.
And the first major engagement was a defeat for Denmark at Tuchola against the main Polish army
But Denmark had the help of strong allies like Hungary and Burgundy, and strong subjects like Sweden and Karelia ( and remember that Sweden now had all the benefits to manpower and such that Marches get) . So it was going to be just a matter of time before things turned into Denmark's favor. And this war saw Denmark's first use of Cannons
And thanks to the robust economy she was able to field a full battery of them for the siege of Polotsk . And thanks to Danish naval control of the Baltic, mercenary companies were able to drop on enemy armies sieging Riga and Koenibsberg and destroy them, before finally defeating the main Polish force at the second battle of Tuchola
And so as the decade ended, Danish and allied armies were advancing against Poland on all fronts and King Christian would soon need to start thinking about peace terms. His biggest challenge being not winning the war, but managing the aggressive expansion reputation that he has earned so far
And now we close with a summary of Denmark's status under awesome King Christian, who contemporaries were already labeling him "The Great".
PS: I just realized there is a 50 image limit on uploads. I guess I finally hit it
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I don't think that coalition will be much of a problem for Denmark...
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Make sure you can get mil access in the HRE if they get pretenders.
You ripped the band-aid off, but are in a much stronger position for it.
I've never seen Aragon not give up Naples peacefully. Interesting.
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It's 1480 and while i expected a marathon, the start feels like a sprint. Very well done.
Curious to see what will happen with the Burgundian Inheritance, 1500 is getting closer and Charles isn't getting any younger.
Curious to see what will happen with the Burgundian Inheritance, 1500 is getting closer and Charles isn't getting any younger.
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INdeed. I got a bit lucky with him being 5/4/4 to start, and also his father croaking when he was 14. But I was planning to abdicate the dad when Christian turned 15 anyways and then pop the Novgorod mission to improve his stats.
GOod tip. thanks. Given that I will eventually get too much AE with the HRE , I may not be able to get MIL access in the future. So it is probably best I annex one province bordering Palatinate capital to Denmark directly so I can recruit a merc company there if rebels pop up in Palatinate. This is one of the ways where writing AAR helps because I would not have thought of this otherwise.
It was much easier than I thought. I think the guides should stress that this is the better option as long as player is prepared ( and you have a 10 year notice really if you pay attention). But that was also another situation where I played better because writing the AAR made me pause in January 1470 , and I would have forgotten about it otherwise.
Made me look it up. It is rare ( 5% chance). ANd seeing what happened, probably AI is choosing wisely most of the time.
DEnmark missions are OP. But I think my best move was beating Muscovy to Novgorod, then using Poland to kill Muscovy early. Now I can expand East without opposition
Absolutely correct about Charles. I played next chapter. it will be titled New Culture, New City, New Crown . YOu can guess which Crown I am referring to.
Chapter 5: New Culture, New City, New Crown (1480-1490)
Chapter 5: New Culture, New City, New Crown (1480-1490)
The 1480s witnessed a continuation of the explosive growth of Denmark under King Christian I the Great . He had defeated both England and Scotland , creating the large vassal state of Leinster in the process . And as the 1490s started he was in the process of defeating Poland to enlarge his existing vassal states in the region. And he had put down a large Swedish rebellion and ratified the Kalmar Union. As a result the nation bestowed upon him the well earned title of "Arch-King" .
Even his personal life was going great , with his now 45-year-old queen bearing him another child , just in time to celebrate the fall of his enemy's capital .
And while the war with Poland continued, he spared a few troops to finish off the Livonian Order, who had no allies and just 2 provinces . Those provinces went to vassal Latgalia who had cores on them and shared their Latvian culture.
And then it was time to make peace with Poland after knocking out Brandenburg from the war.
When signing the peace, the Arch-King tried to minimize aggressive expansion by having Hungary take a good share of the spoils, much higher than they earned with their efforts. This also had other benefits, including cutting off Ottoman expansion on the West shore of the Black Sea , and earning a lot of favors with the court in Budapest, favors that could one day be used to help install a von Wittelsbach on the Hungarian throne. And he also grew the lands of his vassals Ryazan and Latgalia, but not Karelia. In the case of Latgalia, he made sure that Denmark annexed all provinces in a single Area, so that he could reap the rewards with concentrate development ( as that is applied to one Area at a time) . But even though Samogitia had 25 total development, that was not enough to enlarge Copenhagen due to the latter's size. This was very disappointing to our King. Because the result of the war with Poland would have been that Latgalia and Ryazan got bigger , but not Denmark. And long term this would present a problem in keeping vassals under control . Just looking at Karelia, his largest vassal, he realized that his son or grandson would face a bit of problem keeping them loyal
As time went on, Karelians were going to become less and less loyal as they forgot the generosity of Denmark in giving them lands , and when Denmark's special ability to keep vassals loyal disappeared with the current Age. And he still anticipated that Karelia, the vassal who accepts Muscovite culture, was going to grow a lot more ( Moskva itself was yet to be added). The only way Denmark would keep them under control is to outgrow them- and all other vassals- economically and militarily . But Denmark had a limit on her potential growth, namely the concern about keeping all subjects equal under the law, by not annexing large swaths of land with unaccepted culture ( a few locales here and there like Memel and Chelmno could be dealt with by assimilation, but that could not become official policy on a large scale ) .
Denmark already accepted Prussian culture and was set to accept English as well. But once all of England was annexed, there will be no more "wide growth". The other way Denmark had grown so far was with "tall growth", through pillaging and concentrating development to Sjaelland, and through Christian's own efforts at spending monarch power on development. But Sjaelland had become too large, and he could not count on his progeny to be as vigorous as he was (this was not a Republic after all!). Christian had to solve this conundrum and could not leave it to his successor, like many "Great" monarchs in history left their heirs with intractable problems [looking at you , Louis XIV].
Our Arch-King was visiting Bornholm , a tiny fishing island town in the Baltic , when he came upon the solution. A painful and costly solution, but a solution nevertheless. First , he decided that Denmark had to switch her official language to German, as that was by far the most popular culture in Europe. That would solve the "wide growth" problem as it would allow expansion into the rich North German lands inhabited by Pomeranians, Lower Saxons, Westphalians and Frisians. Second, he decided to move the capital of the Kingdom from Sjaelland to a smaller town that was cheaper to develop.. That would solve the "tall growth" problem as pillaging would become profitable again . As for the location of the new Capital, it had to be in the same state as the current capital, because otherwise the government capacity cost of the nation would explode without a means to rectify it (Courthouses were not invented yet) . Bornholm fit both conditions perfectly, and was very defensible.
Both the culture and capital shift would demand large administrative resources. But luckily Christian was a superb administrator, and thanks to not needing to core any new lands , Denmark was sitting on a large stockpile of administrative power, with really no way to spend it . Doing the shift now would be painful, but doing it later would be excruciating torture.
The Capital and Culture shifts were a very costly process. After demoting all states to territories except the Capital State of Denmark and Prussia, and developing the Prussian lands so that they were over half the nation's population, and then spending diplomatic power on the shift itself, and then re-stating all the de-stated land, and full coring as much of it as possible, Denmark found herself with depleted administrative and diplomatic resources and a weakened economy. And to rub salt in the cost wound, she lost her naval doctrine that required a Nordic culture as primary
The Danish Admirality was shut down, having never produced a single Admiral!!
But now Denmark was poised to begin reaping the rewards of the shifts. ANd first it was the concentration of development, not just from Samogita, but also from Ryazan's share.
And once all the concentration to Bornholm was completed, the former Polish provinces were formally transferred to Ryazan and Latgalia to give nice borders on the map.
And that map shows that Poland was soon about to suffer more misery as Bohemia declared war on her.
After the painful culture and capital shifts, Denmark rested for a bit. But then war was resumed , this time on Muscovy, after Kazan had turned them into a rump state.
Muscovy was fully annexed and fed to Karelia, after stealing some development for Bornholm, growing it by about 4 .And with armies already in the region of Russia, the Arch King decided it was a good time to attack Kazan, while there was no Sunni defender of the faith [in my True Tsar run, Kazan was inconveniently defended that way by Ottomans]
During that war a happy event saw Estonian Osel grow quite a bit, a nice boost to Denmark's economy which was slowly recovering as more and more states were fully cored again .
The war with Kazan dragged on for a long time because of the involvement of their ally Chagatai ( aka Moghulistan?). But the Arch-King was in no hurry to conclude it because he was still working on re-coring all the de-stated provinces from the culture shift. And so it was not until the latter part of the decade that peace concluded ( May 1487 to be precise)
Kazan was pillaged ( [see footnote on why pillaging may be better than concentrating]) enlarging Bornholm by 6. And then a large swath of Kazani culture provinces were annexed and given to Ryazan ( unfortuntaly they were useless in enlarging Bornholm). Ryazan at the time had only two cultures: Ryazanian and Mishar. So it was expected that they would accept Kazani as well . In addition, the Arch-King released Perm from their bondage to Kazan , forced them to free one province Novgorod and also freed one province Beloozero. He hoped that all the princes of these tiny states, guaranteed by mighty Denmark for a while and isolated from large neighbors, will have nothing to spend their resources on but develop their frigid climate capitals. And then , when they became ripe and plump, Denmark would come visiting for some pillaging, turning them into a "development farm" so to speak .
After the Kazan war, the last de-stated province was finally fully cored back ,officially completing the culture shift process.
After that Denmark entered into two simultaneous wars , one called for by her ally Hungary ( against weak Bosnia and Serbia), and one she started against the Golden Horde , to further expand Ryazan and block off Ottoman expansion .
Just like the Kazan war, this was also a lengthy affair due to the alliance of Great Horde with Uzbek. And again I will not detail the fighting, much of which was carried by Denmark's subject swarm ( yes, we can start to call them that). Instead we will note the 4th tier government reform that netted Denmark a diplomat and improved Estate Loyalty.
And it was during the Great Horde war that the most anticipated event of the era happened ( h/t @Steckie ). The Duke of Burgundy died, leaving all his possessions to his daughter Marie ( who brushed aside the nominal heir Jean) . And Marie, married into the Wittelsbach family, wisely chose the protection of Denmark .
Christian I , already Great, added a new Crown to his many possessions. And it was a prize of a crown, with all the low countries ( Brabant, Flanders, Holland ) coming along with Burgundy itself . And that event catapulted Denmark to the top of the Great Power rankings, well ahead of the rising power of Ottomans
And thanks to the years of good relations with Burgundy, and to Denmark's many laws and ideas to keep subjects happy, Burgundy was a very loyal subject to her new overlord.
And in an expression of their loyalty, the Burgundians sent a large army to help against the Great Horde, although by then the war was almost done, with Danish troops battling Pretender rebels in the capital of Uzbek and occupying most of Great Horde lands already
And as the decade ended, peace was concluded with Uzbek , pillaging their capital to grow Bornholm by a hefty 6 development.
And then the Arch King was getting ready to fully occupy Horde ally Gazikumukh to subject them to more pillaging, when notice came from the Holy Roman Emperor demanding the low countries
The Emperor wanted the richest parts of the inheritance for himself, threatening war if Christian refused. Our Arch King pretended to think about [I have not clicked the button yet], but considering that he went to great effort to switch the culture of his nation to German, there was no way on earth he was going to give up the provinces inhabited by the sister-cultures of Dutch and Walloon. But he used the delay in responding to conclude the war against the Great Horde as that needed peace to allow transfer of provinces to his vassals.
In the peace he gave Mishar lands to Ryazan and Muscovite lands to Karelia. And he managed to grow Bornholm a bit in the process. And it was just a bit because the tiny fishing village of 1480 has turned into the second largest city in the realm, just behind the old capital of Sjaelland
Growing tall is back!
And that brings us to the end the decade . Our Arch-King has to give a reply to the Emperor soon, but has time to conclude some alliances to tip the scale of the war into Denmark's favor, although Denmark is more than capable of defeating the HRE on her own .
footnote : pillaging and concentrating use the same mathematical formula : take development at source , multiply by cost of development at source , waste 20% and then apply to destination. When concentrating development, player development discounts decrease the cost at source making it less useful. Since player generally has better Dev cost reduction than AI, pillaging is better because cost at source is higher. This is why pillaging high dev cost places like Perm yields surprisingly good results.
The 1480s witnessed a continuation of the explosive growth of Denmark under King Christian I the Great . He had defeated both England and Scotland , creating the large vassal state of Leinster in the process . And as the 1490s started he was in the process of defeating Poland to enlarge his existing vassal states in the region. And he had put down a large Swedish rebellion and ratified the Kalmar Union. As a result the nation bestowed upon him the well earned title of "Arch-King" .
Even his personal life was going great , with his now 45-year-old queen bearing him another child , just in time to celebrate the fall of his enemy's capital .
And while the war with Poland continued, he spared a few troops to finish off the Livonian Order, who had no allies and just 2 provinces . Those provinces went to vassal Latgalia who had cores on them and shared their Latvian culture.
And then it was time to make peace with Poland after knocking out Brandenburg from the war.
When signing the peace, the Arch-King tried to minimize aggressive expansion by having Hungary take a good share of the spoils, much higher than they earned with their efforts. This also had other benefits, including cutting off Ottoman expansion on the West shore of the Black Sea , and earning a lot of favors with the court in Budapest, favors that could one day be used to help install a von Wittelsbach on the Hungarian throne. And he also grew the lands of his vassals Ryazan and Latgalia, but not Karelia. In the case of Latgalia, he made sure that Denmark annexed all provinces in a single Area, so that he could reap the rewards with concentrate development ( as that is applied to one Area at a time) . But even though Samogitia had 25 total development, that was not enough to enlarge Copenhagen due to the latter's size. This was very disappointing to our King. Because the result of the war with Poland would have been that Latgalia and Ryazan got bigger , but not Denmark. And long term this would present a problem in keeping vassals under control . Just looking at Karelia, his largest vassal, he realized that his son or grandson would face a bit of problem keeping them loyal
As time went on, Karelians were going to become less and less loyal as they forgot the generosity of Denmark in giving them lands , and when Denmark's special ability to keep vassals loyal disappeared with the current Age. And he still anticipated that Karelia, the vassal who accepts Muscovite culture, was going to grow a lot more ( Moskva itself was yet to be added). The only way Denmark would keep them under control is to outgrow them- and all other vassals- economically and militarily . But Denmark had a limit on her potential growth, namely the concern about keeping all subjects equal under the law, by not annexing large swaths of land with unaccepted culture ( a few locales here and there like Memel and Chelmno could be dealt with by assimilation, but that could not become official policy on a large scale ) .
Denmark already accepted Prussian culture and was set to accept English as well. But once all of England was annexed, there will be no more "wide growth". The other way Denmark had grown so far was with "tall growth", through pillaging and concentrating development to Sjaelland, and through Christian's own efforts at spending monarch power on development. But Sjaelland had become too large, and he could not count on his progeny to be as vigorous as he was (this was not a Republic after all!). Christian had to solve this conundrum and could not leave it to his successor, like many "Great" monarchs in history left their heirs with intractable problems [looking at you , Louis XIV].
Our Arch-King was visiting Bornholm , a tiny fishing island town in the Baltic , when he came upon the solution. A painful and costly solution, but a solution nevertheless. First , he decided that Denmark had to switch her official language to German, as that was by far the most popular culture in Europe. That would solve the "wide growth" problem as it would allow expansion into the rich North German lands inhabited by Pomeranians, Lower Saxons, Westphalians and Frisians. Second, he decided to move the capital of the Kingdom from Sjaelland to a smaller town that was cheaper to develop.. That would solve the "tall growth" problem as pillaging would become profitable again . As for the location of the new Capital, it had to be in the same state as the current capital, because otherwise the government capacity cost of the nation would explode without a means to rectify it (Courthouses were not invented yet) . Bornholm fit both conditions perfectly, and was very defensible.
Both the culture and capital shift would demand large administrative resources. But luckily Christian was a superb administrator, and thanks to not needing to core any new lands , Denmark was sitting on a large stockpile of administrative power, with really no way to spend it . Doing the shift now would be painful, but doing it later would be excruciating torture.
The Capital and Culture shifts were a very costly process. After demoting all states to territories except the Capital State of Denmark and Prussia, and developing the Prussian lands so that they were over half the nation's population, and then spending diplomatic power on the shift itself, and then re-stating all the de-stated land, and full coring as much of it as possible, Denmark found herself with depleted administrative and diplomatic resources and a weakened economy. And to rub salt in the cost wound, she lost her naval doctrine that required a Nordic culture as primary
The Danish Admirality was shut down, having never produced a single Admiral!!
But now Denmark was poised to begin reaping the rewards of the shifts. ANd first it was the concentration of development, not just from Samogita, but also from Ryazan's share.
And once all the concentration to Bornholm was completed, the former Polish provinces were formally transferred to Ryazan and Latgalia to give nice borders on the map.
And that map shows that Poland was soon about to suffer more misery as Bohemia declared war on her.
After the painful culture and capital shifts, Denmark rested for a bit. But then war was resumed , this time on Muscovy, after Kazan had turned them into a rump state.
Muscovy was fully annexed and fed to Karelia, after stealing some development for Bornholm, growing it by about 4 .And with armies already in the region of Russia, the Arch King decided it was a good time to attack Kazan, while there was no Sunni defender of the faith [in my True Tsar run, Kazan was inconveniently defended that way by Ottomans]
During that war a happy event saw Estonian Osel grow quite a bit, a nice boost to Denmark's economy which was slowly recovering as more and more states were fully cored again .
The war with Kazan dragged on for a long time because of the involvement of their ally Chagatai ( aka Moghulistan?). But the Arch-King was in no hurry to conclude it because he was still working on re-coring all the de-stated provinces from the culture shift. And so it was not until the latter part of the decade that peace concluded ( May 1487 to be precise)
Kazan was pillaged ( [see footnote on why pillaging may be better than concentrating]) enlarging Bornholm by 6. And then a large swath of Kazani culture provinces were annexed and given to Ryazan ( unfortuntaly they were useless in enlarging Bornholm). Ryazan at the time had only two cultures: Ryazanian and Mishar. So it was expected that they would accept Kazani as well . In addition, the Arch-King released Perm from their bondage to Kazan , forced them to free one province Novgorod and also freed one province Beloozero. He hoped that all the princes of these tiny states, guaranteed by mighty Denmark for a while and isolated from large neighbors, will have nothing to spend their resources on but develop their frigid climate capitals. And then , when they became ripe and plump, Denmark would come visiting for some pillaging, turning them into a "development farm" so to speak .
After the Kazan war, the last de-stated province was finally fully cored back ,officially completing the culture shift process.
After that Denmark entered into two simultaneous wars , one called for by her ally Hungary ( against weak Bosnia and Serbia), and one she started against the Golden Horde , to further expand Ryazan and block off Ottoman expansion .
Just like the Kazan war, this was also a lengthy affair due to the alliance of Great Horde with Uzbek. And again I will not detail the fighting, much of which was carried by Denmark's subject swarm ( yes, we can start to call them that). Instead we will note the 4th tier government reform that netted Denmark a diplomat and improved Estate Loyalty.
And it was during the Great Horde war that the most anticipated event of the era happened ( h/t @Steckie ). The Duke of Burgundy died, leaving all his possessions to his daughter Marie ( who brushed aside the nominal heir Jean) . And Marie, married into the Wittelsbach family, wisely chose the protection of Denmark .
Christian I , already Great, added a new Crown to his many possessions. And it was a prize of a crown, with all the low countries ( Brabant, Flanders, Holland ) coming along with Burgundy itself . And that event catapulted Denmark to the top of the Great Power rankings, well ahead of the rising power of Ottomans
And thanks to the years of good relations with Burgundy, and to Denmark's many laws and ideas to keep subjects happy, Burgundy was a very loyal subject to her new overlord.
And in an expression of their loyalty, the Burgundians sent a large army to help against the Great Horde, although by then the war was almost done, with Danish troops battling Pretender rebels in the capital of Uzbek and occupying most of Great Horde lands already
And as the decade ended, peace was concluded with Uzbek , pillaging their capital to grow Bornholm by a hefty 6 development.
And then the Arch King was getting ready to fully occupy Horde ally Gazikumukh to subject them to more pillaging, when notice came from the Holy Roman Emperor demanding the low countries
The Emperor wanted the richest parts of the inheritance for himself, threatening war if Christian refused. Our Arch King pretended to think about [I have not clicked the button yet], but considering that he went to great effort to switch the culture of his nation to German, there was no way on earth he was going to give up the provinces inhabited by the sister-cultures of Dutch and Walloon. But he used the delay in responding to conclude the war against the Great Horde as that needed peace to allow transfer of provinces to his vassals.
In the peace he gave Mishar lands to Ryazan and Muscovite lands to Karelia. And he managed to grow Bornholm a bit in the process. And it was just a bit because the tiny fishing village of 1480 has turned into the second largest city in the realm, just behind the old capital of Sjaelland
Growing tall is back!
And that brings us to the end the decade . Our Arch-King has to give a reply to the Emperor soon, but has time to conclude some alliances to tip the scale of the war into Denmark's favor, although Denmark is more than capable of defeating the HRE on her own .
footnote : pillaging and concentrating use the same mathematical formula : take development at source , multiply by cost of development at source , waste 20% and then apply to destination. When concentrating development, player development discounts decrease the cost at source making it less useful. Since player generally has better Dev cost reduction than AI, pillaging is better because cost at source is higher. This is why pillaging high dev cost places like Perm yields surprisingly good results.
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quick addendum . forgot to show the unaccepted culture as promised in our additional rule
WIth the culture shift, keeping under the 20% threshold as suggested by @MatthewP will not be difficult going forward
WIth the culture shift, keeping under the 20% threshold as suggested by @MatthewP will not be difficult going forward
You've got your Germanic culture, time to expand into GermAEny.
Curious to see what direction you will choose next: HRE Emperor? Dismantling? Form Prussia? Form Germany?
Maybe even form Hannover and do the Anglo-German Unity mission? That could be interesting with your plans for England.
But then again, you're already taking bites out of them and the Restoration of Union may be worse for you than just outright conquering them.
Choices, choices
No need to start posting spoilers, I'm just curious to see how you plan to go forward. You always seem to do something i never expected.
Curious to see what direction you will choose next: HRE Emperor? Dismantling? Form Prussia? Form Germany?
Maybe even form Hannover and do the Anglo-German Unity mission? That could be interesting with your plans for England.
But then again, you're already taking bites out of them and the Restoration of Union may be worse for you than just outright conquering them.
Choices, choices
No need to start posting spoilers, I'm just curious to see how you plan to go forward. You always seem to do something i never expected.
I'm sure Friar Jean will have a wonderful garden.
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I surprise myself too sometimes. A Prussian Denmark with capital in Bornholm was not on my Bingo card.
Perhaps the Arch-King could Arch-Emperor become?
There is something Peter the Great - St Petersburgy about the move to Bornholm
There is something Peter the Great - St Petersburgy about the move to Bornholm
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Time to start currying favors to increase trust?
And what a creative and unique solution it was! You always have such interesting solutions.
If you subsidize these states (assuming you had the money), I wonder if the AI would buy better advisors for more mana generation.
The Austrian diplomats had to be so confused after you offered them alliance. "Wait, I thought we were about to go to war?"
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