Diplomacy Universalis 1.5 - AAR and rating thread

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Players who still have to write an AAR for the fourth session (deadline tuesday evening):

Players who still have to rate their fellow players for the fourth session (deadline thursday evening):

 

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SPAIN AAR 1520-1539

• Added 66 provinces to the realm, which should be a record for 19 years
• Anexed Zapota, Aztec, Maya, Dakota, Creek, Iroquis, Shawnee, Cherokee, Navaho and of course the inca's. Cortez was a busy man.
• Increased trade to level 4
• Colonised a good chunk of the caribbean and monterey.
• Invested twice in CEN (but forgot to move sliders for 1.5 years. Dammit).
• Dowed Morocco to secure the access to Timbuktu and manpower for Spain
• The OE made some noise and attacked Austria because of this.
• Spain joined the war in order to help Austria, but wasn't able to do a real effort in the Balkans. We did fund Austria.
• Finished Morocco, attacked Algiers and Tunesia to score more provinces in north-Africa
• Shipped Cortez to North Africa to let him fight there, he was able to do some succesful assaults.
• Finished Algiers
• Alba arrived and Spain is close to LT 14, so it started to look good...but then France dowed.
• At the moment I am in a defensive position, recruiting new troops and waiting for LT 14. After that Alba should be able to secure at least a WP
• ...but the WE is a plague.
• Also, we took a 1,000 ducats lag-loan (ouch!), probably because of a lag spike shortly after Lurken hosted.

All in all, I am quite content. I did some good trading, and secured my American position. Also, in North Africa I have at least a solid buffer against a future dow by the OE. (In Finding Neverland I only had Morocco with Spain and it took a long time before I was more secure there).
However, I failed to foresee a quick French dow after their peace with Venice and was quite surprised.
A smart move by Cheech, since I was just about to ship 120K under Alba to Egypt

Nevertheless, France has enough enemies. England and Venice were bullied by them so there lay diplomatic possibilities. Also, Persia perhaps can turn the tide in favour of Austria against the OE.
And LT 14 arrives soon enough for Spain. France is too far from it. Only stab hits will mean a victory for them.

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My Ratings

Like smn I start with 5/5/5 and upgrade/degrade when one performs better or worser than average.
I am conservative and won't give very high or low scores
But then again, No one should expect a 9 after 19 years of playing.

Rating in Diplomacy/Administration/Warfare

Austria: 7/4/5
Diplomacy
+ For securing Poland as an ally against the Ottomans
+ For befriending Venice
Could Austria have a better diplomatically position? I think not.
Administration
- For not investing all and everything in LT, though building a few fortresses is nice. I would save the conversions for after LT 14.
Military
- For losing Hungary and not reacting faster to the Ottoman dow
+ For keeping a CRT-Suleyman time Ottoman Empire so long at bay.

France: 8/4/6
Diplomacy
+ For being able to attack England in a one on one
+ For being able to take down Venice when the Habsburg were involved otherwise
++ For the quick dow against the Habsburgs after the peace with Venice, using the fact that the OE was fighting two countries as a nice way to prevent it from being called lame.
- For getting only hostile neighbours.
Administration
- For not investing in LT
- For the minting at start.
+ For building a strong fleet which helped to secure a victory against England. But is this more important than LT 14?
Military
+ For winning against England
+ For winning against Venice
- For not blitzing Spanish Netherlands immediately and stab hitting Spain

Sweden: 7/5/6
Diplomacy
+ For securing peace with Denmark after the End of the Union, allowing Sweden to choose the time to strike.
+ For not facing a Russian invasion during the war with Denmark
Administration
Will have to check the save, but as far as I can see, nothing special good or bad.
Military
+ Succesful campaign against Denmark, crushing her army.

Denmark: 4/4/4
Diplomacy
- For not securing Russia as an ally against Sweden
Administration
- a bit too much inflation
- For the German-culture event option (which is brave, but not good for the economy)
+ for taking early gains in Germany
Military
- for losing a war against Sweden

England: 5/4/4
Diplomacy
Average. No friends, but also no enemies except France, which is hardly something England could prevent since Cheech just wanted to dow as far as I know.
England did solid in diplomacy with Spain (giving in, but protesting , accepting to sell a TP in Florida, which is just smart)
Administration
- for not building a fleet. (But to be honest, I rarely see England doing this in the first session)
Military
- for the quick loss against France

Ottoman Empire: 6/5/6
Diplomacy
+ For securing peace with Persia
+ For the NAP with Venice
- For not being able to prevent Poland helping Austria
Administration
++ For getting a CRT advantage
- For a lack of conversions. It's suleyman time!
- For not having a grand galley fleet, which makes the OE unable to touch Spain
Military
+ For taking Hungary early and without much effort. As Mulli said, good job in doign an early peace first.
+ For probably winning the war against Austria, Spain and Poland
- For not crushing Austria with a CRT AND Suleyman and ignoring the North-African theatre.

Russia: 6/3/5
Diplomacy
+ For having only Poland as an enemy (but perhaps it would be better to strike against Sweden with Denmark early on)
Administration
- Too much badboy (yes it will dissapear, but it could be far less)
- Too much inflation
Military
Average. WP against Poland is not bad since Poland had the leader advantage, but Poland did fought against multiple enemies.

Poland: 4/6/6
Diplomacy
- For getting Sweden, Russia and the OE as potential enemies. This doesn't outweight getting Austria as an ally.
Administration
+ Solid performance. Not much inflation despite the war, and Poland will probably get a CRT against Russia in the future.
Military
+ For signing WP with the OE and Russia. Against such foes it could very well end up in a defeat, especially since OE had a CRT.

Portugal: 4/5/5
Diplomacy
- Portugal can only do one thing wrong in these times and that's annoying Spain. By giving a MA to France, Portugal did exactly that.
Administration
Solid. Good trade and such. But also not very special.
Military
N/A, so a 5.

Venice: 7/6/5
Diplomacy
+ For securing Spain and Austria as allies and the NAP with the OE
+ For being able to take so much in Italy while France did nothing
Administration
+ Above average certainly. Good trade!
Military
Lost the war against France, but Venice hardly can win such a war in a one on one in these times. So, average.

Persia: 6/4/5
Diplomacy
+ for preventing an Ottoman dow (but perhaps it could be a - too, for not backstabbing the OE at an excellent opportunity)
Administration
- For not investing in LT instead of infrastructure. For the rest, solid performance.
Military
N/A. So a 5

Brandenburg: 5/6/5
Diplomacy
Can't rate this good enough, but at least no Polish invasion
Administration
+ Solid. In fact, as Brandenburg should have been played. Used AI and vassals well.
Military
N/A against humans, so a 5

 

[smn_]

Ratings & AAR re-post

Session summary:

A very fun and interesting session overall.

Major events seemed to be the Ottomans getting a good win over Hungary, then advancing against Austria and now sieging Vienna.

Polands story in a simple and easy list:
- Protected Teutonic Order against a Swedish invasion
- Invaded and won against Heretics ruling Mecklemburg
- Built strong relations with the Habsburgs, tried to build relations with Russia.
- Several successful conversions. Poznan, Danzig, Polotsk, Mozyr, Chernigov
- +2 cent +1 innovation
- Invested slightly in infra, lots in land tech. That didn't advance the techs much. Poland is damn poor really.
- invested in small forts in Mozyr, Chernigov
- Tried to help the emperor against the turk twice. In the first war, Ottomans peaced out and snatched 3 hungarian provinces before any combat.
- Polands efforts to scramble and stop the Turk in the second war were destroyed by a Russian backstab which we fought to a standstill, having some really unlucky battles in the start of the war then getting the upper hand after a couple of good fights and finally getting a white peace.
- All the rehosts made me pour some extra shots
- Didn't trade really at all, except for getting 5 merchants in Anglia when the CoT opened there.

All in all, an average session for Poland.

AAR

Before the campaign started I made a threat to play 'RP-wise' at some level, I wasn't entirely bluffing However since this game hugely delivers even with no RP, I won't focus on it too much. This is the first post in my DU Chronicles series where I describe the monarchs and present their view on what happened. Depending if the people want to read these, I might even keep it up

Name: Zygmunt I Stary
Country: Poland
Personality: Honourable, Zealous, Reactionary
Agenda: Converting protestant and orthodox in Poland, resisting especially the advance of protestant and muslim faith in europe, resisting change in general

Zygmunt I of Poland, 1520-

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth stood strong between the Holy Roman Empire, The Kingdom of Hungary and Mighty Russia. In the north were his catholic* Prussian allies and the glorious Teutonic Order, bringing christendom to the baltics. The Order was a natural friend of Poland, it had after all played a major role in Polands conversion to the True Faith. All was good in the realm.

Zygmunt got soon alarmed with the rumours of infighting in the Empire with the meddlesome Duke of Brandenburg invading the Duchy of Saxony. For a few months there he was standing by, ready to invade Brandenburg to restore peace but after the messengers returned from Vienna, telling that the Emperor has accepted Brandenburgs punitive invasion of Saxony, the alarming situation quickly passed.

The First Baltic Crisis

Soon enough there was another event of great concern along the borders of Poland. The Kalmar Union under Swedish leadership invaded the Baltics, claiming Estland and Livland for Kungariket Sverige, whatever that meant. This was of course unacceptable at every level, so Zygmunt felt he had to protect the Order. Since a war against Sweden was not preferable, Zygmunt made a vow to protect the Order against any land grabs and placed troops troops to Livland and Polotsk, ready to fight should it look like Sweden would try to take over Estland or Livland.

Zygmunt saw the Czar of Russia as a fellow reactionary, a potential ally in stopping these excursions and decided to leave the Question of Ukraine for future generations to solve, initiating diplomacy in order to secure Russian friendship for now. Russia would handle the threats in the east, Poland would handle the threats in the west. Russia soon accepted this was a good idea and let Polish troops use their territory should a need arise.

When Sweden finally signed peace with the Order, Zygmunt thought that he could now finally have peace and concentrate in converting all his subjects to the catholic faith. The internal policies were adjusted to clearly allow the practise of the Orthodox faith and trying to convert them peacefully, while the lutherans were to be brutally wiped out.

The First Turk invasion

But peace was not to be. Messengers from the south told that the new Turk Sultan, Suleiman the Lawgiver, had started an invasion of Hungary. Since Zygmunts ancestors had transferred their claims to the crown of Hungary to the Emperor, it was clearly the Emperors responsibility to resist the Turk. As a token of friendship, Zygmunt decided to send 20 thousand troops under Tarnowski to support the Hungarians, and sent a declaration of war to the Ottoman court. Fearing the powerful lances of the Polish Cavarly, the Sultan stopped their advance, annexing some insignificant lands in southern Hungary.**

The Sultan then sent a proposal to Krakow. He would let Poland to annex the province of Ruthenia, if Zygmunt would let him have his way over the rest of Hungary. Zygmunt laughed at the Sultans idea, why should he want to annex rightful Hungarian lands ruled by his friend, to let the friend be conquered by the infidel. A joke, that had to be.

Matters of Faith

Zygmunt started to suspect that not everyone was taking the faith seriously. The Emperor was clearly allowing the Venetian Ducat-worshippers to invade Papal lands, while Zygmunt called after a good catholic to save the Pope. He even replied to the Sultans proposal that if he would save the Pope, he would clearly be a better catholic than anyone else and would have Polands friendship. The Sultan never replied. Finally, the Emperor defended his inaction, and funded a new mission to convert the Orthodox in Poland. THey cared for the faith after all!

Meanwhile, the Order finally decided to act against the heresy in the Empire, and declared war on Mecklenburg. The greedy church-robbing bourgeois in Lübeck would finally have to face the wrath of the church! Poland joined the effort, which the Emperor happily supported. Ostrogski lead his troops to Lübeck and effortlessly slaughtered the heretic army, laying siege on the city.

But what would happen next would leave its mark in the heart of Zygmunt forever. When the city surrendered, the Lübeckians offered all their gold, all they had robbed plus their own for Zygmunt to go away and let them practise their faith in peace. But they just plain refused to convert. They would rather die.***

Zygmunt was very impressed with the will and spirit of the lutherans, and realized he was acting on error, and pulled back to Poland, thinking of what he just saw. This event would be referred to in Polish history as The Resistance of Mecklemburg. When Zygmunt got back to Poland, he implemented more tolerant policies throughout the kingdom, giving the lutherans the same rights to practise their faith as the catholics and the orthodox****. He wouldn't either launch new conversion operations.

The Second Turk Invasion

During this time the Turk was moving again, this time with advanced new weaponry and quickly invaded Hungary, before Poland or the Empire managed to scramble the troops to resist. With King Lajos dying on the battlefield, leaving no heir, the Hungarian nobles were divided in loyalty. When the dust settled, most of the nobles had accepted the protection of the Sultan while some seek refuge in the Empire. In AD 1529, Hungary was no more.

The Third Turk Invasion

In the next years Zygmunt became rather isolated and slightly embittered if not cynical. The Order had converted Protestant, and Zygmunt thus renounced Polands protection of the Oredr. He reformed the Polish army and invested in fortifications since there was really nowhere else to spend. But Poland would still not see peace. In 1533, protesting the Spanish meddling in North Africa, the Turk decided to invade Austria again. Once again Zygmunt had to live up to his promise to resist the Sultan and help the Emperor.

This time the cost would be terrible. The Czar of Russia, Vasily III, a friend of Zygmunt was laying in his death bed, and the new Czar-to-be, Ivan IV, was seeing Poland as a potential threat and wasn't co-operative at all. Russia pledged to attack Poland even if Poland would only live up to its promise and send limited support for Austria. Zygmunt felt that the new Czar was greedily seeking to expand into the Commonwealth, which is understandable for these were truly the finest lands in the world.

But his excuse to turn on Poland, defending the Ottoman Sultan, was so ridiculous that Zygmunt decided to call his bluff, to fight and humiliate the Czar. Great preparations were made, army was reorganized into 4 major groups. There would be Tarnowskis army of 45k cavalry to attack the Turk. Two army groups, 30k and 20k under Jerzy Radzivil were left to slow down the Russian onslaught on the eastern border. A fourth army of 6k troops would be sent to siege Carpathia.

In August of 1535, Poland joined the war. Tarnowski swept through Moravia and Presburg defeating an Ottoman army there to the plains of Magyar, where a major battle was fought against 35k turks under the leadership of Bali. The battle was even and both sides suffered horrible losses. Russia was now invading, so Poland had clearly fulfilled its oath and Tarnowski with 15k cavalry was sent back to Poland, where the winter was as expected hindering the Russian advance. No more direct combats between Poland and the Turk were seen, but Poland managed to siege Presburg and Carpathia back to Austrian control before pulling those units too out to fight Russia.

The Russian Invasion

The war against Russia was a cold, methodical fight. The Russians started with the upper hand, having won a few unexpected battles and having better organized troops. Slowly but surely Poland gained the advantage and even proceeded to invade Russian land in the south. The war went on for a long time with both sides having the upper hand at stages, but finally Ivan IV gave up the fight and signed white peace.

Zygmunt would remember this invasion, and with Polands economy still going strong but Russian economy in shambles, the future will see a rightful revenge extracted*****.

Character Development: Zygmunt is no longer zealous, due to the The Resistance of Mecklemburg event. He is now cynical instead.

* Took me ages to notice that Prussia was, in fact, Protestant. They must thus have fooled Zygmun, practising the Lutheran faith in secret
** I applaud PJL for this decision, he managed to get those attritionally painful lands to his control without fighting Austria and Poland at all.
*** For some reason, I could not force convert Mecklemburg. I selected separate peace, clicked on cancel instead of annex, and the box was greyed out.
**** Clicked +1 inno, evened the religious sliders
***** Russia is facing 6% inflation, have a couple of loans, 1.3 times the tech costs of Poland and not enough income advantage to cover for it. They are 2 full LT tech levels behind (9 vs 11). Unless miracles happen, they will lose the rush for LT14 with a few decades.

Ratings:

All ratings start 5-5-5, then get modified if there were any good successes or bad mistakes.

1. FAL - Spain

Is a Spain that annexes 66 non-religion provinces in 18 years a bad Spain or a good Spain? At least it gets lots of dosh from production and taxation but can't be expected to trade if even the slightest stability crisis hits. I can't tell, thus no adjustment to admin or dip rating, but I think annexing that much demands good handling of the military at least. Aggressive North African expansion created a good buffer but got Spain in trouble with France and the Ottomans. EDIT: Boosted FALs Admin because I just noticed the generally low inflation, less than 10 badboy and good trade income. Thus 5-6-6.

2. Wonko - Austria

Austria was in a tight spot between an aggressive OE and France, with Venice in the south. The aggressiveness of Suleiman really made Austrias policy especially in the later session. Is it normal for a PE 1520 for the Turk to get that decisive land tech advantage? I feel Austria should have invested more in land tech. Diplomatically average, with getting help from Poland and Spain but not Venice and Brandenburg, also the help of Poland and Spain got greatly limited. A boost in MIL for giving a good fight against the Turk, a malus in ADM for giving so decisive tech advantage. 5-4-6.

3. Ozzeh - Portugal

Whined about bad luck and AI killing merchants. Not noticeable otherwise. 5-5-5

4. PJL - Ottoman Empire

An excellent aggressive Ottoman. Really made the first session for me. Good call to rush land tech before taking Hungary. The win against Austria could have been faster and more decisive given the chances. Excellent diplomacy getting essentially a 1 on 1 with Austria despite Polands and Spains attempts to help. 8-6-4.

5. Lurken - England

Seemed not to be very active diplomatically, yielded to pressure from France and failed to protect the islands. Given the strength advantage of France, an ally would have been needed to stop the French menace, but no luck. 3-5-5.

6. smn - Poland

Not rating myself.

7. Tonio - Venice

Didn't really pay attention, but strong expansion for Venice even with losing Liguria to France. 5-5-6.

8. Robertus - Russia

Might have doomed Austria by preventing Polands help. Fought a mistakeless war agaisnt my Poland, even though didn't do any exceptional maneuvers either. Administratively a disaster for Russia, racking up 6% inflation and 29 BB points with the early expansion in the east. It all didn't yet belong to mother Russia. 5-2-6.

9. Cheech - France

An excellent ruthless and cunning France. Took all diplomatic space and managed to wage an aggressive war against England, Venice and Spain without any outside intervention. Made a lot of enemies for France, but that is expected for nobody really loves France anyway. All in all a strong performance, even if the war against Spain will probably end in disaster when Spain gets the next land tech level. 7-6-6

10. Raspoutine - Denmark

Lost Holstein as vassal, lost a war that should have been won against Sweden. Converted three times, which raised annoyance, even if in the end it was Denmarks loss with the extra conversation. 5-4-3.

11. Eskimo - Persia?

Didn't notice at all. OTOH Poland doesn't know about Persia in game, so maybe it was just excellent RP

12. Fredrik - Sweden

Failed to win against the Order, but managed to score a good victory against Denmark. No special diplomacy. 5-5-6.

13. Mulliman - Brandenburg

Annexed a couple of provinces, but that is to be expected from Brandenburg. 5-5-5.

Extra nominations for good fun go to PJL for being a real scourge of Europe, cheech for being a ruthless and cunning France, FAL for annexing so insanely much.

 

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Session report for Portugal 1520-1538:

We colonized in brazil and far east, traded around the world and explored a lot. Diplomacy was virtually non-existant and not needed, since apart from protection by Spain there is nothing Portugal needs from Europe in this era. No competition yet in the east. I had a LOT of bad luck considering colonizations and trading... a few 50 percent chance colonizations managed to fail over 10 times. I've never before seen it THIS bad. Also, a few stabhitting random events took me at bad times. Because Porto has some muslim provinces its stab cost is quite high. So that took away tech and more importantly, trading. Being at negative stab is so bad for trade that those random events matter a lot... Lag loans gave me another hit, I got 3 of them this session and I had to mint to pay them back. The interest rate was 11 percent for some reason, which meant I had to pay a lot extra. Either case, I did the best I could to salvage the situation and managed to get to the position of second trader after Spain. Also managed to explore Shanghai and Ganges. Couldnt take Ganges as planned though since Bengal was allied to too many large asian nations for most of the time. Now they have left that alliance for a smaller one though, so next player can probably take it. Some preparations to that end have been made already.

 

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Diplomacy / Administration / Military rating 1520-1538

FAL - Spain

I agree with FAL on the annexation of the pagans (and am probably one of the few people that do) so I'm gonna rate him high in Admin for this one. Militarily he seems to perform suprisingly well, taking Africa, fighting OE and still being able to hold off France (for now at least). Diplomatically however, I say he failed a bit, letting France pick apart Venice and then himself at the same time. Also causing war for Austria that obviously wasn't ready for it. Perhaps he should've waited for CRT parity before drawing OE agression?

4-6-6

Wonko - Austria

Don't like his economy, nor his ignoring of Italy. Militarily seemed to perform badly at the start of the OE war, but slowly got into it. I'll rate him average for that. Diplomacy was good, getting Poland to help, though perhaps more cooperation with Spain would've been better (for example making clear to Spain that a war with OE was not yet desirable until CRT parity).

6-3-5

Ozzeh - Portugal

I suck and I whine way too much.

1-1-1

PJL - Ottoman Empire

Got Russia to help him vs Poland, and France to bother Spain now (even though perhaps that had nothing to do with his diplomacy, impossible for me to tell) AND he made sure Persia didn't stab him in the back. So I'd say good diplomatically. Economically I don't really like the amount of conversions, that should be much higher with his current uber monarch. Maybe that's a matter of preference, but I'm gonna rate him a bit lower for that anyway. Militarily, he did good getting Hungary though it seems he got clobbered down in Austria too much at the moment. I think with CRT advantage and leaders a quicker victory would've been possible. I'm going out on a limb and declare it average.

7-4-4

Lurken - England

When France was building a fleet (which he could've easily seen) he should've gotten worried right away and built galleys of his own. Especially when he saw France colonizing NA. Now, I know England is dirt poor at the start, but it could've built more than France surely... Anyway, trade seems to lag a bit even though he didn't receive that many stabhits (I checked his stab regularly to compare with my own England in FN). So all in all, militarily is below average, economy average. Diplomacy I would consider bad as well for not gathering support in case of a French attack. Though of course, England is a tough country to play at the start and IIRC Lurken said he'd never played them before.

4-5-4

smn - Poland

I very much like smn's style of play, concerning defending the TO without annexing them, trying to convert protestants in germany, etc. etc. I also liked how he managed to get on the good side with Austria, a very good potential ally against the OE and Brandenburg. Diplomacy was good. War against Russia seemed to be fought to WP despite Russians having luck in battles and the upper hand at the start, so that would look good as well. Economy wasn't wrecked because of the war, is actually pretty good for dirt poor poland. So: a bit above average is my general rating.

6-6-6

Robertus - Russia

He expanded a lot fast. I usually think that is a good tactic with Russia, since your monarch have nice DIP ratings (full aristocracy). So BB will go down fast (see my Russia in Chill 3, only 10 BB left even though it once had over 50). However, racking up the inflation is a bad idea with Russia, especially since it'll be some time to infra 5 for orthodox techgroup. Economically I would call that a bad idea. Militarily he seemed to perform average. Getting WP from Poland was perhaps less than aspired, but attacking in a cold country is always difficult and Poland had the leader advantage on this one. There will be time enough to kick Poland once the bad events and lack of leaders kicks in a century later. Seems to have secured OE friendship, which is also a good thing (after all, the southern border has poor provinces with wrong culture/religion and are not worth fighting over IMO... attention should go to Poland and Sweden). Letting Denmark get kicked by Sweden was perhaps also a bad idea... could've jumped in to force a WP perhaps, and let them fight it out amongst themselves to secure western border. All in all, bad economically, average diplomacy and average militarily.

5-3-5

Cheech - France

Cheech played very opportunistic this session, which is very good. He foresaw too much bickering over Italy so decided to concentrate on a weak England first, taking what he needed. Then the war in the east erupted and he took advantage by getting a very valuable Liguria from Venice. Even more advantage was taken by attacking Spain when it had 8 WE. Very nicely done diplomatically I'd say. He alienated only neighbours that would already look at him with jealous eyes, yet gave them no opportunity to strike against them. His military performance is hard to rate since he didn't really have to put much effort in any of his fights. This is of course the best way to wage war IMO, although it doesn't get you a good MIL rating Economically, he secured a rich colonial base which will certainly help his war efforts in Europe. Also good in the area. All in all, probably the country that came off best after the first session. And I'm sure a lot of players secretly hope to switch with France (let's see if FAL switches himself )

8-7-5

Raspoutine - Denmark
Very stupid event choice taking the german culture, also not nice to switch religions so often. IMO he could´ve also taken more of Germany, after all who cares whether you have 10 or 0 BB? Provinces are worth more IMO (I´m just adding a lot of IMO´s because I know lots of people won´t agree ). Anyway, bad diplomacy since he didn´t secure Russian aid, or that of any other party in case of the inevitable Swedish attack. Economically I´m putting it on average since it´s hard to do anything wrong (or right) with Denmark at this stage. Militarily he performed very badly, even though he had a larger fleet (and probably larger army support too) than Fredrik he still managed to lose the war big.

3-5-3

Eskimo - Persia

Seems to have secured a border with OE in order to tech infra rather than LT. Seems a good choice to me as he would have to take wrong religion and culture provinces anyway. Apart from that I didn´t notice him doing much, so perhaps I´ll have to adjust this after he posts his story.

6-5-5

Fredrik - Sweden

Economically not noticable, as normal with Sweden in this age. Diplomatically he seemed to do well enough, preventing intervention in his victorious war vs Denmark, though not being able to secure anything of the TO might be seen as a mistake. War was good versus Denmark. Very little to say apart from this, since Sweden is just too weak still to make a serious impact on the world yet.

5-5-6

Mulliman - Brandenburg

Economically there is not much to say about BB in this age. Diplomatically he seemed to have done nice enough up till now, at least preventing too much invasion in his northern german turf War was good versus AI, securing a province and some vassals. BB can start growing next session.

6-5-6

Tonio - Venice

Managed to build a nice economy built on trade. Captured more of italy than I would´ve imagined possible with all this competition, while building a large enough fleet to secure Veneto itself. Diplomatically he prevented an OE invasion so far, which is good, yet was invaded by France. That he stalled this long enough for him to take Liguria and the rest of Italy himself though was a good point. Counted on Spanish help vs France but was left dry when Spain was warring OE. This was more a Spanish fault than a Venetian one I´d say though. In war, he fought bravely, killing more French than would´ve seemed possible (though this might´ve had something to do with Cheech´s lag) even though the odds were very much against him. All in all, above average on all levels.

6-7-6

Ok those were mine. I might edit them a bit if people explain their viewpoints some more (or if I reread my own stuff ) so don´t hesitate to try and influence me.

 

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First we begin with 1000 ducats as cash, a 30/0/6 navy, and a 30k army.
I was hesitating first about waring anyone but since Sweden had declared
war upon TO and Brandeburg against Saxony i though i had to grab some german land quick.. I decided to take Bremen since the BBian King told me he really needed Mecklenbourg. That was done a bit after and Bremen was incorporated in our realm.
I continue the developpment of the 2 colonies Denmark gets at the beginning of tis 1520's scen., promoted missing bailiff...
I tried to diploannex Holstein, who was my vassal since the start, but it failed and then the revasslization failed again.
At the time my fleet was in Gotland's waters to put down a rebellion. Sweden attacked me.
They had 16 k in south west scandinavia (near norway) and about 20k in capitol, a 10/38 fleet waiting here too. They attacked first norway and took 2 prov, and then mooved to another which they besiedged.
Meanwhile i was taking my fleet to the Aland sea near Svaeland , the capitol.
As my 46k army was landing to fight the swedish army, Fred's fleet risked to fight my fleet. It was 10/38 sweds against 40/35 danes, and he won cause of national water and luck...
Then he pursued me till my fleet could retreat into Gotland...

And here comes the only mistake i made that cost me this war : i landed my 40 k army in Skane, cause i wanted to free the prov and then take his cap, but he defeated me there (after a failed assault) and then force the army to go ghost by attackin my fleet and thus cutting off my retreat, which was a trick i wasnt aware of.....I guess the issue of the war would have been totally different if i had sent my army to vastergotland but life is life......
I teched land and controlled inflation.

Im a little disgusted.....but always good to fight a good war eh !

To sum it up i would say that it was either sweden or denmark who could survive this session, and Fred made it...Maybe i should have dowed him from start or should i have built more army ??
__________________

Ratings (1520-1538)


Diplomacy/Administration/Military (Base = 5/5/5)

Spain

++ for annexing all the pagans in America
- for the stab cost so far not reduced even if the idea to "offer" them to a puppet is good
++ for getting yet african connection, and further for pushing far through Maghreb which i think xcreates a very good rampart against the turks
+ for good trading (3 monopolies)
- for not pursuing any fench policy (letting France war Venice alone and then let them free to dow Spain)
+ for supporting Austria

5/6/6


Austria

+ for unifying ealy the HRE
+ for getting POland on her side
+ for pusuing a pro-Venice policy for the moment
- for loosing war against Oe

6/5/5

France

+ for good fighting in the rhine ,liguria, and calais
+ for good diplomacy, wasnt really disturb by his neighbours
- for inflation and not investing enough in LT
+ for building a fleet
+ for getting MA from Portugal

7/5/6

England

- for not colonising in NA enough and for not reacting against french colonization
- for loosing against France
- for no protestant diplomacy
- for no fleet built

4/3/4

Portugal

- for giving MA to France when his income is still low
+ for good trading and exploring

4/6/5

Venice

+ for the NAP with otto and for having Spain/Austria as allies
+ for trading well
- for loosing against France

6/6/4

BB

+ for vassalizing german minors instead of anexing them to save BB
+ for vassalizing Holstein when denmark couldnt do anything

5/5/6

Poland

+ for his diplomatical talk
+ for pursuing an anti protestant policy which lead him to war Mecklenburg without annexing them
+ for conversions
+ for the WP with Russia

6/5/5

Russia

- for inflation (6%)
- for WP with Poland
- too much bb
+ anexing soon prov form GH

4/4/5

Sweden

- for the war against TO
++ for a good fighting against Denmark
+ for not minting a lot

5/6/6

OE

+ for the wars against Austria and the annextion of Hungary
- for letting Spain anexing Maghreb

5/5/5

Persia
4/4/4

 

[unmerged(41253)]

Ratings (1520-1538)

Diplomacy/Administration/Military (Base = 5/5/5)

Spain 6/7/6

Ottoman Empire 6/5/6

Russia 5/4/5

France 7/7/7 he was the best of the session

Austria 6/5/4

Portugal 4/5/5

Poland 6/5/5

England 4/4/4

Sweden 5/6/6

Denmark 4/5/4

Venice 5/6/5

Brandenburg 6/5/5

sorry that i can't say more, but dont have much time i have exams next week

 

[Lurken]

Before the start:
Something was wrong, something was amiss. A disturbance, where no disturbance should be. Gaia is the name where the disturbance came to be. The powers, could not stand silent. Action, was decided the right thing to do. Eventhough action is wrong, but it is still better then inaction. To avoid too much action, not one king would be affected, mearly the ones behind the king. To adivice, to guide him and help himself to rid Gaia of the disturbance. Lord Chancellor Thomas Cardinal Wolsey of England, was one of few who dreamed a strange dream, beings of light decended into him, the pious man as he was, taught that it was angels. He and the others, would always have a source of advice and tutor, of how to guide the King of England in the quest to rid the world of the disturbance.


Afterwards:
Failure. The disturbance wasn't found. The powers decided that "England" was too far of, and a more "central" realm would be good. Poland was chosen.

My Ratings

Rating in Diplomacy/Administration/Warfare

Austria: 6/4/5

France: 8/5/7

Sweden: 6/5/7

Denmark: 4/3/4

England: 5/4/3

Ottoman Empire: 6/5/6

Russia: 5/3/5

Poland: 5/6/6

Portugal: 5/5/5

Venice: 7/6/5

Persia: 6/5/5

Brandenburg: 5/6/5

Spain: 4/7/7

 

[PJL]

Summary and ratings of the 1520-1538 session:​

1. Made a deal with Venice (NAP)
2. Teched towards land 14 (which occured in 1531)
3. Went more centralised twice, but events forced me back one there.
4. Avenged the annexation of Wallacia (my vassal) by Hungary
5. This sparked off a war against me and Austria and Poland
6. Because of this, I decided to quickly peace out Hungary (she offered 3 provs, which I accepted).
7. The Hungarian deal satisfied both Austria and Poland, hoping that I could take Hungary again while they were occupied.
8. Meanwhile had a short war against Tunisia to vassalise them
9. 2nd war with Hungary in 1529, virtually straight after the truce - wanted to strike fast while Austria was fighting the German minors. Was a complete success as most of Hungary became mine within 6 months (due to the event).
10. Decided to DOW Austria in revenge for Spain attacking Morroco. Manage to secure de facto Polish neutality once Russia DOWed her (thanks to informal talks with Russia to counter the mighty Hapsburg alliance)
11. Before the second war I gave Poland a free reign to take Ruthenia from Hungary or whoever controlled it
12. The inital storming of Austria was less than expected, however remember that I was fighting Austria, Spain AND Poland to begin with. Austria will lose this war though. She won't hold out for much longer.

All rating are Diplo/Admin/Military

FAL (Spain)
4/6/4
+for getting so many provinces so quickly(M)
--for getting so many provinces so quickly(A)
+for relatively low inflation for Spain so far(A)
-leaving Venice in the lurch whilst occupied(D)

Robertus (Russia)
6/3/6
--for the high inflation so far(A)
+for fighting Poland to a draw (most people lose to Poland at this stage)(M)
+for helping the BOP in Europe (D)

Cheech (France)
7/5/8
++for winning against England (especially the naval victory)(M)
+for fighting (and winning) against Venice despite Hapsburg hostility(D)
+for helpimg the BOP in Europe(D)
+for taking Pfalz to prevent Habsburg encirclement(M)

Wonko (Austria)
4/5/4
-for letting the OE get the edge in LT(A)
-losing Hungary to the OE due to being distracted by getting Germany(M)
+for taking several German provinces early (although BB is a bit too high)(M)
--Not securing enough support from Venice(D)
+Getting Poland friendship (although it doesn’t really outweigh the Venetian loss)(D)
-losing in the current war(M)

Eskimo (Persia)
3/6/4
-virtually no diplomacy, apart from one or two brief messages(D)
-failure to backstab OE while she is occupied in the west(D)
-getting bogged down warring the AI Mughals(M)
+for virtually nil inflation (A)

Ozzeh (Portugal)
4/5/5
-Pissing off Spain – is getting MA for France really worth it?(D)

SMN (Poland)
4/6/4
-for having so many enemies, and not even Brandenburg as one of them yet.(D)
-for not winning against Russia (M)
+for having virtually nil inflation(A)

Lurken (England)
5/6/3
--for losing a naval war with France (England is weak, but she should still beat France with ships even at this stage)(M)
+low inflation(A)

Fredrik (Sweden)
5/5/6
+for a good start against Denmark (in the one time Denmark is with parity with Sweden)

Raspoutin (Denmark)
5/5/4
-bad start against Sweden (M)

Tonio (Venice)
6/5/5
+good diplomacy with Habsburgs and OE, especially over Italy(D)
+biggest fleet(M)
-unfortunate war against France(M)

Mulliman (Brandenburg)
5/7/6
+Low BB (A)
-A bit too small still (A)
++very low inflation (especially for such a small country)(A)
+several forced-vassalastions made (M)

 

[unmerged(10915)]

Deeds of Brandenburg 1520 - 1539

* Fought Saxony and took Ansbach.
* Allied Pommern, to later vassalize it.
* Invited Hannover to later vassalize it.
* DoWed Saxony after her conversion to vassalize it.
* DoWed Hessen and alliance with the intention to annex Mainz and vassalize the other two. As the war dragged out and i noticed that Denmark had chosen the German path in an event, i switched my support from her to Sweden, made peace with Hessen through a vassalization and DoWed Dk's ally and vassal Holstein. With DK peacing separately, they are now ripe for annexation and vassalization, blocking DK from Germany.

* We have a relatively good treasury and infra has been invested in the entire session. The next player can also choose what to do with her vassals, to diploannex them or not.

Ratings
Diplomacy/Administration/Warfare

Austria 2/5/3
+for having consolidated the HRE relatively fast.
-for lagging behind in LT.
-for doing nothing against the French invasion of the HRE, letting her gain positions that are unfavourable for Austria and Spain. France now has an advantage BOTH on the Rhine and in Italy.
-for not involving herself in Italy, the area that is often very valuable for her.
*Cant evaluate current war, but seems to go in OE's favour.

France 8/6/6
+for taking a strong position on the Rhine without repercussions.
+for her war against England, having caught her with her pants down and giving France a colonial foothold.
+for the war against Venice, gaining Liguria. Italy is amazingly important for France, both for the strategical value against Austria and for the wealth.
+for staying active against the Habsburgs, giving her side the advantage at this point.
*Cant evaluate the current war.

Sweden 6/5/6
+for the war against Denmark. These early ones are always a gamble, but he pulled it off this time.
-for an unnecessary war against TO, which she had no ability to win.

Denmark 4/3/3
+for her early gain in Germany, utilizing the Brandenburgan inability to do anything about it.
-for her loss to Sweden.
-for taking the German path in that event, opening her up like a carcass in the middle of the savannah.

England 4/4/3
-for the loss against France, losing out on colonies.

Spain 3/7/5
+for early colonial and economic expansion. Will secure dominance in the next few years and valuable money to fight France.
+for getting African connection.
-for not cooperating with Venice against France, but letting her DoW them separately. She could have been in an entirely different situation now.
*Cant evalutate the current war.

Ottoman Empire 6/4/7
+for the way Hungary was handled. The usual mistake is hanging in there when Austria DoWs with Frunds, but peacing out and taking the rest at a later date was smart.
+for staying active against Austria, giving the anti-Habsburgs the advantage so far.
-for the failure to utilize Suleyman in conversions.
*Cant evaluate current war, but seems to go in OE's favour.

Russia 5/3/5
+for expanding into the GH early without Poland intervening. Both good and bad, but the purposes in this session, it proved slightly beneficial.
-for embroiling herself in a war against Poland, where she failed to help DK. Russia will be the next on the list of Swedish dominance.
-why oh WHY the inflation?

Poland 3/5/6
-for not utilizing the early Polish advantage and taking the Ukraines and crippling Russia.
+for "winning" the war against Russia, delaying them in their conquest westwards.

Portugal 5/6/5
-+cant say much. Shes supposed to be at this stage in the 1520 scenario, maybe a little richer. Still, better than average.

Venice 4/6/6
+for taking Italy early without a conflict arising with the other major powers.
-for loss of Liguria. Some cooperation with Spain could have resulted prevented defeat and averted France attacking them in two separate wars.

Persia 4/5/5
-for not utilizing OE war to expand westwards.

For a winner of the session, i would have to say France/cheech. Gaining a foothold and strong positions in all areas that are important for France at first, he left a very stable and strong country with lots of choices for the next player. Sure, he pissed off many neighbours, but those were likely to cooperate against him anyway and as it is now, they are not likely to be able to retaliate in the near future. The reason i "only" gave him 6'es in administration and warfare is because i think he pulled this off mainly through good diplomacy and also because i was not RM:ed to him to be able to gauge his fighting.

 

[smn_]

Portugal 1538-1565

Summary:

- Minted about 5%
- Gave Tangiers to Spain, got 3 gold mines, Baleares, Galicia and Sardinia from Spain (+3 euro ports)
- Colonized a bit, notably Table because there was no good resupply stop in Africa

- Snatched Ganges from Bengal
- Spent a lot of time at low stab becuase of province transfers and a few political crisises, thus trading didn't go too well, but trade income is still decent.
- Teched trade 5 and now approaching LT13
- Built two refineries in Brazil
- Made a huge diplomatic effort to get Spain and Austria to attack France, since France was obviously doing too much what they wanted.
- Portuguese armed forces under Ozzeh XVI fought the French in England, killing a few thousands and liberated some provinces! Ozzeh XVI died a state hero.

On the other hand saving England is not the best long-term strategy for Portugal, but in my judgement stopping France while we could was more important

Ratings

Spain - Daniel A: 7/8/6
Daniel plays the Optimizer and it shows. Spain was very well administered with lots of conversions, good income etc. Slight malus for a forgotten revolt in the Lowlands. His diplomacy concentrated on playing ball with Portugal and Austria, which in my opinion is Good. I admit being biased here since my Portugal did benefit much of it Militarily the wars went well, his campaign had clear aims and he made no big mistakes. This was a good session for the Habsburgs.

France - cheech: 5/3/7
France continued on the path of aggressive expansion, and allied Venice to get more lands in Italy. Good choice there. However his luck ran finally out when attacking England again. Luckily for France OE took Austrias attention early on so France got out of it with relatively little territory loss. Diplomacy was thus average this session, ADM gets a malus for inflation rose so much and France was burning with rebels, losing so much in terms of economic development when pride forced him to hang on to Artois and France-Comte. Militarily he did very well.

England - delosandes: 3/5/5
England had again not secured any allies and was isolated, ripe for picking for France. It was only due to power politics dictating that France needs to be kicked that England was saved. Also 'saved' since I don't know the original french demands, England would might have been better off yielding early for a colony or so. Ratings malused for diplomacy.

Brandenburg - Mulliman: 6/8/6
I must finally recognize Mullimans good admin and sneaky expansion. Even with the unfortunate Poland DoW, he came out of the war unscatched and managed to strengthen Russia. This is a very anti-Polish move and might be dangerous, but I think Brandenburg has not gotten enough badwill yet to become a target because everyone has more important enemies and don't want to bother with them.

Denmark - Raspoutine: 5/2/5
Really Denmark played about as well as it could considering the circumstances, the ADM is more or less punished with second sight from the disastrous event choice previous session. It's funny how one mouse click can utterly wreck a nation.

Sweden - Ozzeh: 8/8/6
Ozzeh was the big winner of the session. He used Poland to survive the Russian DoW and proceeded to wipe the floor with Denmark. Infla is still very slow and he even built a refinery. A very good session for Sweden indeed. I'm tempted to give him a better MIL score too but then again killing a Denmark so badly hampered by the event is not a too big feat.

Poland - Lurken: 4/5/4
Got a bit isolated on the diplomatic front, for example Austria could easily have convinced Brandenburg to not DoW Poland had they had the diplomatic will. That cost him the war against Russia. Tactically, Poland started the war with a very small army, and proceeded to mint and recruit when the country was already burning (bad ADM decision, yields less money for the infla and lacking the troops in the start lead to losing more troops comparatively in the initial battles). When the Russians were sitting out the winter in the start he should already have recruited like mad.

Russia - Robertus: 7/3/6
Bonus on diplomacy for sending this hilarious DoW:
"Robertus (Russia) :Ahha but you see there so much more of us Russians"
"August 17, 1549 : Russia declared war upon Poland."
Another bonus in diplomacy for establishing Russia as an aggressive force that needs to be taken seriously.
ADM is not disastrously bad this time, only getting a crapload of BB but not too much inflation. I wonder if there will ever be a day when I give Rob a good ADM score.
Militarily he fought a good war I think, small bonus for that.

Austria - Wonko/Ampoliros/Ebola the man of many identities: 6/5/7
Diplomatically participated in convincing Spain to DoW France when needed, bonus for that. Got slightly too much inflation this session. Good war against OE, killing Suleiman and getting two provinces.

Ottoman Empire - PJL: 6/7/3
OE was strong in the admin dept this time, converting lots and teching infra 4 and LT 16.
Good diplomacy for finally getting Poland secured.
The war against Austria was very badly started, with splitting up the army and letting Austria to whack them all, and then not following it through properly with enough reinforcements. Fortifying Balkans up a bit would be an excellent idea to reduce the attrition of friendly troops there, this would immensely help in operations against Austria.

Venice - Tonio: 4/7/5
A very questionable move towards France. Helped short term, true, but what's there to protect Venice from the Habsburgs and Portugal now? The message is spelled clear, Venice is a potential trade/navy rival with too many french connections and thus a great threat to Iberians, less so for Austria.
Tonio makes a great admin, that little inflation for a strongish Venice is good effort. Can't really rate mil so left to be average this session.

 

[PJL]

Summary of the Ottoman Empire 1538-1565​

1. WP with Austria and Spain in the first war due to France peacing out with them.
2. Got a NAP with Poland, became more freindly with Venice.
3. Converted all but 3 provinces (at least 9-10 sucessful conversions)
4. Inflation up a bit, although an exceptional year helped
5. Went more centralisation and more serfdom to reduce stab costs (slightly less inno as well)
6. Got to infra 4, land 16, and heading for trade 4
7. DOWed Austria again due to them DOWing France, but lost badly, ceding Maros and Croatia to Austria (lost Suleyman too) It probably helped France to a leinient peace with Spain.
8. Annexed Ragusa, Moldavia and Transylvania. BB still reasonably low though (10bb). This was done to make the rest of Hungary more defensible
9. Started converting those provnices as well, plus the others that had failed to convert.

 

[unmerged(38752)]

Session report for Sweden 1538-1565

At the start of the session I had a loan and a few provinces to put taxcollectors in. So that took a few years worth of money to fix. I realised that for Sweden to remain competitive, Denmark had to be robbed of its provinces. So, I started to prepare for war with him.

I knew from the stats that Denmark was in bad economic shape with 3 loans, so I though I'd be able to outbuild him in the naval race, even though he started with 60 ships more or so. So, I started building galleys from my census, massively. After I had dinner and such my fleet outnumbered Denmark's by 50 ships, almost all galleys on my part, while Denmark had more warships.

I got to trade 4 in that time, and started investing in LT with the hope to get 14 before Russia (which would be a potential enemy in the future). Built a refinery too with some spare cash.

I informed with Russia how he stood regarding a Swedish DoW on Denmark. He gave no definite answer, which for me was reason enough to suspect a Russian DoW in case of war with Denmark. So, when Lurken came in and Poland was no longer AI, I talked with him and we agreed on a pact, if Russia DoWed me Poland would go for Russia.

When Russia started building troops we decided to just ally instead, to make clear he could not face either of us alone. In the meantime, Brandenburg was approached. I figured they would be interested in Bremen, were as Sweden was not at that time. They were indeed interested, and agreed to DoW Denmark with us. I hoped that would take some of the Danish troops towards germany while I struck in the north.

Oh btw, about trade, I got it up to a nice sum in the years of peace but due to the stabhit of DoWing and later of some random events and one historical (fate of teutonic order) trade was down again at the end of the session.

Anyway, Brandenburg went first, DoWing Denmark. I followed a few days thereafter. One of my armies moved to take Norway, while another was stationed in Skane and a third, 10k army, was on my fleet to attack Gotland. We hoped the attack on Gotland would draw out the Danish fleet from Sjaelland, where it had a defensive bonus. The plan worked, the Danes attacked us. Through luck they won the first battle, but subsequent naval battles saw the Danish fleet cut in half and blocked in Gotland, even though he succeeded in cutting off the retreat of my 10k army which became ghosted (expected, but a necessary sacrifice).

I moved to take Kopenhagen and Jutland, which was easy with almost no more Danish resistance. He had a 23k army that lost a battle in Sjaelland, and was then cut off by my fleet. Annihilated. Iceland was also taken. Russia DoWed around the time of the naval battles, but was mostly fighting Poland since I had medium forts on the border with him and he would've attritioned like hell I was therefore free to finish of Denmark first. After I captured Norway, Iceland, Jutland and Sjaelland, I moved on Gotland to go for 100% warscore. However, the Danish government fell at that time. I gained Norway, Iceland and Jutland. Cost me a little too much BB though, but nothing could be done about that.

I then turned towards Russia, taking Kola and marching on Ingermanland. However, Brandenburg used the opportunity to attack Poland. I viewed Poland and Brandenburg just as friendly so focused on Russia. Poland then peaced Russia, giving me no more reason to war them. So I WPed. Brandenburg WPed too.

Something not mentioned yet: Denmark was in alliance with Prussia and Teutonic Order, which he was foolish enough to call for help. Brandenburg had vassalized Prussia and taken Memel, while I moved to attack the Teutonic Order. Gained Livland, Estland and some money. In the following "Fate of the Teutonic Order" event, I even got cores on them.

After this there was a time of peace. I built taxcollectors everywhere. Got army back to a reasonable level. Fleet was deemed large enough with the Danish competition falling away. I was just gonna start trading again when I got a random stabhit that put me at -2. I decided to use this to attack Denmark again (stabhit of 3) and force-vassalize them. However, there government fell again, giving me greenland. I decided to go for diplo-vassalization and annexation instead, so gifts were sent and Denmark invited into the alliance with Poland. At the end of session, relation with Denmark was around +20. A few more gifts should do the trick. Oh, DP slider movements were done for offensive, to give Swedish soldiers even better morale (its already pretty great).

Very good session for Sweden. Increased income by almost 100% with relatively low inflation (second lowest of all nations in the game). We are almost at LT 14, which will give us a good weapon against the aggressive Russians. After that, infra 4 can be teched. Also, offensive is at 9 so only one click away from an extra shock. With a few of those good leaders Sweden has, it is very strong...

 

[unmerged(6147)]

Report for SPA. I am not doing any rating since I was a sub.

- Before session agreed to peace with FRA for Artois and France-Comté for them, I could have kept on battling with Alba, but SPA needed peace. We had somehting like 15-20 WE in most provinces (since they were non-state religon)

- I thought PJL would agree to WP as well, I threatened with Cortez would take Alexandria but the bastard kept on. Well Cortez swept through NorthAfrica (taking Tripolitana from Tunisia, thus breaking the land connection for OE to their vassal Tunisia) and beat the turks in Alexandria although they had strengthened it and had like 40/20 vs 30/10. Hehe. Then sieged until capture that medium fortress. Then OE gave in and accepted WP with alliance leader AUS.

- built a huge fleet, mostly galleys, at game's end our fleet is around 60% the size of all other nation's fleets together

- built min fortresses in pagan america (many of the provinces where without fortresses), necessary not least because planned conversions and lack of soldiers to guard all provinces

- What I never forgot during the wars was conversions. Some 30-40 successes I guess. Only 17 pagan left I believe.

- colonised the Antilles and yukon. Encircled French NA posessions with TPs thus stopping them from breaking out in NA. Colonised down to Timbuktu and thus SPA is ready to capture that COT. We have a truce with Songhai for some more time since I had to get rid of the DotF title quickly after the war with FRA (more of that later on) and lost a war with them on purpose

- traded on well, increased trade income with almost 60%, our trade compared to the 2nd trader is now 73% larger, at start of hte session it was 33% larger

- gave Galicia, Baleares and Sardinia to POR for making them a stronger ally

- Got Tangiers from them to get land connection to north Africa and that MP

- gave three gold mines to Portugal around 1545 to avoid later SPA bankruptcy. A brilliant stroke indeed! We lose nothing from that since POR is our good and trusty ally. We will of course get them back in around 1640 or whatever the year is. Those interested in the rules can read "Avoiding the Spanish bankruptcy events, despite owning the provinces that trigger them for the majority of the time." Thus we will not have owned them for a majority of time when the 1st bankruptcy event hits in 1590/94.

- Before session tried to get VEN into ganging FRA as punishment (VEN lost a province or more to FRA the previous session). But Tonio was too scared I would not support him later on so he declined the offer. I say -1 in DIP ability for him to miss out on this nice opportunity and misjudging my character

- later on FRA made war to ENG and smashed it, POR and AUS convinced me we had to save them. I claimed DotF and used Alba in FRA. Cleaned ENG from FRE armies and took all back in England proper. We issued perhaps 10 stab hits for Artois and Franche Comte until FRA finally offered Bearn which we accepted since WE andDotF made RR high. At that time I was alone in war with FRA. POR and AUS had meanwhile defeated the OE.

- a loan for 1000d existed from start, Repaid, but towards the end I had to take another one to avoid a corruption event. Something to think of for the next SPA player

- the big fleet program, the minimal fortresses in NA, the conversions, the colonising and the wars meant inflation increased by 10%, but income increased by more than 20% despite POR got those gold mines

- at start stab costs was somewhere around 4500d. That was the price to pay for all the pagan annexsations. Unfortunately we had a sum of 16 stab hits during the session of which 2 was from DP slider and one from a DOW. For the rest we had a nice collection of one political crisis, one unhapiness among peasentry, one nobles and foreign power, one meteor sighted and some more. The cost for those other 13 was 13 times perhaps 3500d in average, meaning around 40,000d if we had paid for them all which we did not, got around +3 in total because of events. Not one +1 stab from event was not utilised. Stab cost is now down to around 2500d. I.e. around 9 months full invest, at start it was around 23 months.

- BB is low (around 3) despite Forceannexation of Morocco (SPA needs to keep it low because of stab cost)

- Moved +1 quality to reach 9 and +1 serfdom (which was down 1 because of an earlier event)

- Always chose +stab in the Dutch events. Since HOL will be a new nation there was no use making another choice

- After the first war Flanders broke loose together with Brabant. Took back Brabant and vassalised Flanders. However, since I do not know whether Flanders will belong to the new Dutch nation or not, I did not DA them later on. But if they do not go to Holland then a DA is of course 1st priority for the next SPA player.

- After the 2nd war with FRA Burgundy declared indepence from FRA (because of FRA being able to contain the rebs from the stab hits). Something that was greated with great joy all over

- Besides a little inevstment in LT to reach LT14 I pushed all in infra, raised from 4500d to 27,000 invested closing in to infra4

- looking back at FAL marvellous expansion in pagan areas the previous session I would, after having been the one facing the enormous stab costs resulting from that, say that it was too much. Better to take a little less. Perhaps starting with the North-eastern NA Indians to keep FRA and ENG away from that. Waiting with Navaho, Dakota, Maya and Zapotec until later.

- And yes, the muslim tolerance slider was at zero when I started the game... Is it too late to deduct a point or two from FAL's ADM rating the previous session :rofl:

 

[unmerged(10915)]

Deeds of Brandenburg 1538 - 1565
-Vassalized Mecklemburg and annexed Holstein, blocking Denmark from Germany (later proved not to be a big deal).
-Attacked Denmark and took Bremen in a separate peace. Attacked her ally Prussia and vassalized and took Memel, making that important state alot more safe for Brandenburg.
-Attacked Poland while she was at war with Russia, securing Sweden from intervening. Later backfired as Russia peaced out for a province, leaving us with no gains and a WP.
-Made a NAP with Poland and milked the Oldenburg-Munster-Kleves for cash and converted them.
-Kept on investing in infra 4, so if the next player does that too, it will be reached within the next session.
-The next player can now decide whether or not to diploannex her vassals and will also have alot of free choice since ive left Brandenburg with a sizeable treasury.

 

[Tonioz]

Venice report 1538 - 1565

There were plenty of diplomatic opportunities before the session for Venice. Nothing seemed to threat our state itself, but our low census taxes showed Venice can hardly count as fighting nation until infra 5. So we dealed with France, OE, Austria and Spain, who were leaded by same players, except Spain.

- NAP with Austria was signed above other things, it was obvious Venice can hardly waste troops in mountains, and Istria would be too costy target.

- Spain (both FAL and Daniel) offered "gang France and take what you lost". Previous session i got near same promising from FAL, which returned at lost of CoT at the end. I had lack of time to talk with Daniel, but i asked him two important questions - "for example what would happen if you are in war with OE and England, and France is attacking me". Daniel replied he would acted like FAL did, explaining by own situation. But that would be completely unacceptable for Venice to be able to lose Liguria again very easy, while, for example, OE dows Austria, and Spain assists Austria.
Besides last time i saw Daniel in Spain there were lack of support to my Austria, so i definetely didn`t look at him as reliable ally, who can defend Venice.

- OE. PJL wanted Bosnia and wanted to support Marche and Rome for Venice. It took time to accept this deal and his help (400 ducats to poor Venice treasury), while there were conversation with Spain and France. After all i was happy with this deal, because OE help for Naples and Apulia was requested too and received.

- France. I thought which style to play regarding this - harsh or not much. While there is an war, i could try to steal from Savoy not only Firenze and Marche, but Piedmonte too, which would split Lombardia and Liguria from french mainland. Then Piedmonte could be sold out for the definite help to get Naples and Apulia. Or could be used if Venice chose Spain side.
Then Cheech offered French support anyway, and judjing him as reliable good defender had much higher rate than Daniel. Spain couldn`t guarantee me that Liguria will be secure after being taken in gang, while France declared their help supporting aims of Venice for Naples and Apulia.


Well, following session made Venice quickly drop intension to get Naples and Apulia, and be very careful to get Marche and Rome - Spain built upto 500 galleys, while after grabbing Firenze Venice has 344 support only. All treasury gold were spent on paying two loans, maitenance and merchants, Venice didn`t have extra funds for troops. That prevented us from taking part in global war, because our support would be misery anyway. Choosing France as main partner, we didn`t backstab him, when he had bad situation and helped a bit vs rebels.

Global war.
Well, i saw plenty of missed chances at both sides. France should withdraw from England in time instead of loosing 40K there. Alba did good going at first, but it was seen he is doing that with too low support. Anyway Spain assaulted enough for stabhit, France started intercept him, but almost didn`t care to reassault back min forts, which was big mistake - France was stabhitted and revolted. Alba left this war theatre for some time even, while there were the war with OE, and then returned. Anyway Guise had about 2 times more troops at this front, but didn`t hurry for many years to retake provinces, he only sieged some of them. That leaded to stabhits and finally France ceded Bearn. At the same time Spain sent plenty of troops to France not caring much about attrition, and not caring to be dominative fist around Alba there. It was clearly that Spain could end this war before by if your max army around Alba only 30-40K, you can hardly count on successful invasion.

I didn`t watch much for Austria-OE front, but i saw Austria was passive in trying to attack France, waiting for OE dowing, and accumulated 94K in Vienna when was dowed. OE immediatly sieged 4 provinces around it, which is always bad tactic against big enemy fist.

Venice achievements for this session.
- Firenze and Marche were grabbed
- Rome was annexed later when BB decreased a lots and Spain was busy by global war and WE. Papal army was annexed too.
- Minted to get over 1100 ducats to send 3 missionaries to orthodox provinces in 1556 when i got ADM 9. 67% chance, and 2 of 3 were converted, leaving only Cyprus orthodox.
- A bit fleet built, poor Venice can`t compete with Spain, but at least second world fleet.
- LT 14 was reached, and then LT15 was got first all over the world - anyway it was cheap.
- Around 2/3 of infra4 were done.
- Inflation raised by couple of percents, no deflation years. Venice has 3rd lowest inflation with gap 0.5% from the leaders.
- Trade didn`t let us go more than 55-57 ducats for long time, because we knew only european CoTs + Isphanan. But at the end finally we could make breakthrough upto 72 ducats at top. The trade income almost matched Portugal, who trades all over the world, so we are third in trade.
- but more income raising will go, because around 1562 we got random explorer !!! We got MA via Spain before, so exploring from Canarian islands was started. Halfway to Brazil was discovered, and West Africa is more known to us, though it is around 2 seazones to Tables probably. TP in Dakar settled, 1st colony attempt failed. Mali discovered and gave us MA, so we are heading to search Timbuktu CoT. With more less competitive non-eu CoTs known Venice can increase trade pleasantly.
- +1 qual to 9, -2 merc, so Venice are starting to get more merchants. It was big annoying to trade at 4.8 merchants per year.

 

[unmerged(7276)]

Recieved artois and french comte with very little effort. There were no conditions attached. I assumed he would at least demmand I didnt dow austria straight after. If i had i would have ran him over like a dog but since spain and austria said they wanted to be peacful i decided to be merciful and show france wasnt evil like some thought.

I then allied venice and we split savoy. I was slightly suprised he didnt go for the ‘gang france’ option but he has claims in spain and really they are just as likely to turn on him than I.

Taking 2 provs from savoy/swiss alliance i was now 4 provs up from session start. I then turned my attention to england who had vassaled my friend scotland. As a potential competitor in NA i decided it would be benificial to weaken them. I organized my fleet which was still larger(i thought) than englands and dowd. To my suprise the naval chart was wrong and a large english fleet came to meet me. However my superior leader won the day and english fleet wa crushed. I took all of English NA fast and invaded England proper. He didn’t really stand a chance against such a vicious and unexpected attack. He did however defeat my fleet as my leader died unexpectedly. Despite this I had an army large enough to conquer England on his mainland. I demanded 1 colony and him to release Scotland. He refused and so war continued. I took anglia and received some surprisingly crappy maps.

Now came the dow. Spain, Portugal and Austria invaded. I had few troops in france but enough to kill quiet a few Austrians. I continued to stab England who was suffering quite bad. Spain was going for the blitz stab move and he seemed to be sure of victory. OE managed to take austrias attention away though and so they got nothing.

Spain could manage little more than assaulting minimal forts. They lost a lot of men fighting me but I couldn’t quite make WS back. Alba is a bitch. Still spain kept his cool. He wouldn’t accept WP and his stab hits were hurting bad. I couldn’t quite clear him out and depite my comeback I had to accept peace. I gave bearn which seemed like the better choice. Frankly I would have surrendered if spain had been more resolute but he was suffering too I guess.

So despite alba and being fully occupied with England france very nearly managed a draw. This does show they have some serious strength. Also I claimed Luxemburg which is better than bearn anyway. +5 provs this session including a colony from England.

Diplomacy/Admin/mil

Spain 5/7/4
couldn’t really comment n diplomacy but he gave in too quick to my demands at start IMO. Also I think he could have got more in final war. Didn’t think much of his tactics to be honest. I think I should have been beaten to a pulp against an undefended border/alba full prepared spain. Blocking me in north America was smart though and spain did well this session.

Austria 5/5/6
Again cant really comment on diplomacy as it was behind the scenes from what I could see. He did well to win that second war against OE though.

Sweden 6/5/5
I guess they should get credit for destroying denmark though It didn’t look too hard from where I was sitting. His neighbours didn’t seem too bothered about it and Brandenburg was happy to see a dead denmark.

Denmark 4/4/4
Not much they could do really…

Brandenburg 4/6/5
Its hard to rate but I think killing denmark is bad for them. Sweden is likely to become uber now and Brandenburg will likely suffer from this. I like their expansion though. Not too fast and not too slow.

Russia 5/4/6
Expansion way too fast but I like that they are aggressive. They are feared by their neighbours and a force to be rekoned with.

OE 5/5/4
I feel bad rating them low for mil score but should really have won against Austria with suleyman.

5/5/5
Poland
Im going to have to look at stats but they seemed to hold against Russia quite well.

6/5/5
Venice
Good diplomacy I think but hard to judge much else. No player wars and fairly quiet.

3/4/4
england
navy too small, strange converting, didn’t watch its enemys.

 

[Lurken]

Deeds for Poland of 1538 - 1565:

- NAP with Ottomans, which was more beneficial for the Ottos, then for Poland, but Ottomans has nothing I want.
- Allied myself with Sweden, good move according to me. Since we have no real reason to be enemies and we have a common foe, Russia.
- Managed to hold of Russia quite well. He had numbers, my Bob, he had numbers. But he only managed to take one prov with russian culture, could have ended slightly differently if not Brandenburg stabbed my back.
- Due to the war I had to mint a bit, but it payed of. A big army, and good amount of gold.
- Crushed the attack made by Brandenburg, and demanded gold for WP. Got the money from Russia.
- Repaid all the loans I started with, the gold came from minting and peacemoney from Russia.
- Started to convert my orthodox provs. One succesfull, and three unfinished but with good chances.
- Got elected Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (w00t?) and denounced Venice for annexing the Papacy.

EDIT:
+1 Cent & +1 Land in DP slides.

 

[unmerged(16285)]

What I tried to do with my tiny Danes​

Here are the setting i went through the "entire" session (i played 3 hours and then when Denmark's goverment fall i quitted)

- +15 rr due to event caused constant revolts in Iceland and Groenland, so i had to make "aller-retour" with a 3 ws fleet to free them again and again.

- 60 ducats per year, with it i rebuilt an army for Denmark, and i built some ships too, galley mainly , about 20.

- invested in trade 4 with a 25 ducats per month income and sent merchants to Copenhagen to hold a monopoly there sometime, sent also in Danzig and Ile de France, nut in Ile de France they disappeared very soon.

- received a proposition form Russia, a country apparently full of troops, to help us against the future dow of Sweden.

- suffered a concerted attack from Brandeburg and Sweden. BB wanted to have Bremen back when Sweden opted for Scandinavia. AT least they had the gentry to announce their whishes before beginin of war. Ideed Ozzeh 2 years before announced us that he would dow and what he wanted.The Scandinavian aera would be soon invaded, as manner an expedition force composed of 15 men : There, we didnt made any reaction nor resistance, ineed we had only a 25 k army and has to try to destroy first their main army which wasnt evidently the scandinavian one. Brandeburg quickly invaded Bremen and begin siedging it, when a 16 k german cavalry was waiting in Holstein. The 16 k cab mooved to Jutland were we attaked it from Copenhagn where ou main army was standing. We won the battle twice and then siedged Holstein.
But the fact that the victorian army didnt returned to Copenhagn made the country undefendable against the Sweeeds, which would hold Copenhagn a few month later.When Bremen fall to BB i decided to give it to, them, assuming that Denmark was totally fucked up and that the furute fight would become BB against Sweden.
Russia did join, but he had to fight Poles at the same time and the war was already lost from the first session for Denmark.When our government fall, Sweden had Jutland, Iceland and Scandinavia.

 

[delosandes]

Report England 1538 1565

- Started with 7 TP level 1 and 3 colonies level 1, considering I was poor I decided to grow the TP to level 6 in order to get better chances of increasing colonies when I get the money.
- Started with one loan, ended with one loan.
- Taking the opportunity when Scotland left the French alliance, DOW Scotland. France had Calais and 100 galleys in the channel while England had 20 WS and 20 galleys in London. France realised of my attack on Scotland, allied with them and asked me to not take any land. I agreed and considering I had 10 cent I vassallized them at the end of the war.
- Diplomatically annexed Scotland.
- Converted to Calvinism as there were a lot of Gaelic reformed provinces and some Anglo-Saxons, while reformed gives a big boost on trade which is great for England.
- Discovered 2 COTs in America and have been trading there since beginning of session.
-Monopolized Anglia
- Increased TE from 52 to 72, got trade 4 in tech.
-Increased the navy before the war from 20 galleys to 100, and after the war from 20 WS to 46. The army is at the Maintenance level.
- I had to mint a lot during the war.
- Asked aid from Spain, offering 500 if they get me a WP, I got no WP but they deserve the money anyway as they saved us (including Portugal, even though I offered 500 for both, anyway I don’t think they did it for the money ).
- During the war blockaded French navy in Calais in order to leave the Iberian alliance to move freely troops around the channel.
- Got MA from Spain.

I think thats all. About ratings I really dont know how the rest did so I will leave that to you.

Edit: - DP moves +1 naval, +1 pultocracy.