Das Vaterland's Kaiser: Brandenburg AAR

[Qemarar]

Prologue

With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990, Germany would finally be reunited after 40 odd years. This would not be the first time she would be joined back together for the interest of her people. The “German Question” had been around for centuries. Asking the single question, “What is Germany?” It was Adolf Hitler's justification for Germany's absorption of Austria and the Sudetenland, Bismark's goal for stabilizing Europe, the brewer of the Franco-Prussian war, the creator of the German Confederation, the bearer for Napoleon's Confederation of the Rhein, even the Holy Roman Empire (neither holy, nor roman, and not an empire) which had held Europe under German guidance before the fall of the Roman (Byzantium) Empire had the same question: “What is Germany?” None of these nations would hold the answer. Germany would one day need a ruler. A ruler with the tile of Kaiser—Germany's Caesar—to lead her people. I ask for only one thing: Provide me with the people of Germany so I may provide her with a Kaiser.
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Introduction: Freedom

1404 had been the year Brandenburg flew her own flag without any interference from Luxembourg. The war had been short, involving only the state of Luxembourg and Holy Roman Austria. Although outnumbered, King Friedrich was confident that the Austrians would allow our troops to establish governmental control over the city after the successful occupation. With no army left, the Luxembourg government was forced to disband and hand over partial control to Brandenburg. Our state now held independent power with the ability to declare war and manage our own politics without censorship of a larger governing nation. Thus the North-Roman pact was founded. Now seeing eye to eye, Milan, Austria, and Brandenburg would forge an alliance in the hopes of preserving greater power for the empire in Europe.

Brandenburg's goals should be simple:
>Become the Holy Roman Emperor.
>Form Prussia (prussian reforms too?)
>Cripple Poland and Bohemia
>Form Germany
>Kick around France (end game boss?)

Minor goals:
>Form some colonial empire
>Attempt to lead European trade
>Rival the British Navy

Rules:
>No save reloads
>Stay under infamy
>Nothing cheesy like tag switches
>Stay on normal difficulty
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Chapter 1: Taste of Action

I'm currently using CanOmar's map (with personal modifications) tied with some country color and flag changes. Besides some visual changes, this game is pretty much vanilla on "normal." The year is now 1417, 5 years after King Friedrich's death. Brandenburg is now under regency council and is at war with Burgundy, Bohemia, and Scotland after an attack on my vassal of Luxembourg. Europe sits as it always does in 1400, turmoil. Denmark is running around in the north while Hungary is pushing the slavs around in the Balklands. England is currently sitting cooly after mucking around in Ireland and northern France. Spain is expanding in Africa while Aragon is pushing around in Italy. Milan is establishing a great kingdom with possible goals to form Italy while Austria leads the title of Holy Roman Emperor.

I'll give the expected peek at my different management panels. Nothing much to see so far. I know I'm going to need "National Bank" to prevent huge inflation spikes. Inflation isn't really that bad since that's the only way you can usually expand as a country. Having your inflation at 20% by the 1600's as I've had experience with, is a little extreme though so I want to kill that monster before it gets too big. I've chosen "Military Drill" so far because I know Brandenburg's army is usually limited in size for awhile and I'll need the moral boost to fight off larger foes when I'm in decent defensive positions. Sliders are going to start pushing to "free trade, free subjects and, centralization" for the research bonuses combined with trade and taxation bonuses.

I'm pushing my money into "land" and "government" for two major reasons. Having national ideas sooner is always better and if you're fighting a nation with better units in a war, you're gonna have a hard time. Production is next due to the advanced taxation buildings that come later while naval and trade fall in the back. No need for ships when you don't have a port and no need for trade when you're a half broke country with no way to dominate the market. (yet)

Under my court you can see that I don't have very great advisors, but they're still advisors all the same. I didn't have much to choose from besides some artists and theologians so I'm building up my culture for now. I know my infamy is going to start rising while fighting the common enemies of Bohemia, Poland, and the Teutons while I shave them down. Frankish minors might also drag me into wars and I want to take advantage of that all the same. Like I said previously, I don't want my inflation to get out of hand so I'm keeping that low the best I can. My manpower is also more limited than the big bruisers around me. Austria is going to have MASSIVE amounts of men due to their starting manpower pool combined with being the Emperor. Poland and Lithuania tend to be trouble while I know Bohemia will come knocking (again) sooner or later.


Questions or comments? Post them below and I'll reply the best I can.

 

[Qemarar]

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Chapter 2: Small War, Small Post

Considering that Burgundy and I were half way across Europe from each other, I knew this would be a short war. Considering my alliance was also outnumbered almost 2:1, that meant an even shorter war.

Most of the fighting took place around the Alsace-Lorraine region of France to liberate Luxembourg. If I remember correctly, my troops of 10,000 immediately got slaughtered by Burgundy's superior force of 23,000. In this picture we have my force (buried under Austria's) running back home to reinforce since I think they had a 50% casualty rate and were really short on manpower. Austria luckily came to the rescue with some extra 20,000 men while Burgundy pulled their reserves in for a total of 35,000 men. Those two forces would duke it out in Metz with the Austrians having to retreat home behind my army.

I wish I could report some more exciting moments of this war, except there were none. My national manpower was reduced to only 900 after being bled out by the Franks. Austria and I were outnumbered and with our war exhaustion rising, another offensive was out of the question. We were also losing territory and I didn't want to have to give up more than we already had. So I did what any war leader would do...

...I gave Burgundy some of my ally's land because it was more infamy. :rofl:
Like I said the war was very short. In hindsight I could have just given them Luxembourg since they're using the "Conquest" Casus Belli which suggests they have the mission to conquer Luxembourg. (I should have checked but I'm bad about doing those things) So I'll probably be facing Burgundy in the future to decide little Lux's fate once again.

Since I feel like this post is a little light about most the fighting (there really was none) I decided to cover the story of the little conflict north of my borders. This is actually pretty important to the future of Brandenburg, more than you'd think. During the Burgundian attack on Luxemboug, Norway had attacked Pommerania. This sparked a coalition between the Teutonic Order, Hungary, and Aquileia to declare war on Norway. I'm pretty sure only the Teutonic Order helped but it was still nice to see the defender fight off a bigger attacker, especially when it's two AIs working together. I wanted to cover this little war because I'll soon need to conquer Pommerania (it's even a mission) in order to get sea access and to aid me in forming Prussia. Because Pommerania was able to keep herself alive, I won't have to pry her from the cold hands of the Norwegians later.

So that concludes Chapter 2. I negotiated a separate peace deal with Bohemia since I cared much more about my neighbors than Austria's lost land. Saxe-Lauenburg was a vassal of Bohemia, so I had them annexed and liberated as my own vassal to avoid the event that fires when you have unclaimed HRE territory. I'll need Saxe to form Germany, so having them as a vassal is very nice. Silesia was liberated from Bohemia in order to reduce their power and to split off Poznan without any infamy. Poznan is also rebelling with Polish patriots, so they'll join back with Poland soon enough. Brandenburg has fought her first major war and I've knocked Bohemia down a notch. We'll have to see what Chapter 3 brings me.


As always, feel free to comment and ask questions.