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"lose Low German as state culture
gain Low German as state culture"

At first, this boggled my mind, until I realised the practical outcome.

I'm a little slow. :p
 
God, I feel ashamed. My updating pace is just ridiculous, I know it, and I feel really bad about it. And nevertheless, it seems that this AAR is the winner of the last AARland Choice AwAARds in the category Favourite Gameplay AAR. Thank you a lot for this reward, although, due to the aforementioned reasons it doesn't feel exactly right for me to receive it. Once again, a huge thank you to all who have voted, and to all and every single reader of this - for your patience :).


Rzeczpospolita - hehe yeah, it does look a bit odd at first ;).

And now... Well, as I've failed to achieve much in the history competition I had mentioned (I think) some time ago, and because of that I have a bit more free time, which means that the possibility of more frequent updates is rising. Unfortunately, I can't promise anything yet, but I'm hoping to write something within the following two weeks.
 
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Congratulations Emperor_krk - don`t worry about updating rate, it`s ok in comparison to some lazy, witcher-playing writers :D ;).
 
Olav - indeed, a colorscale mod is what I use with MyMap. However, I'm not fully satisfied with it being too dark (especially in the diplomatic screen) - but nevertheless I think I won't change it before I end this AAR. It would look 'odd' to have totally different colours for both halves of the AAR :).

Don Matito - well, as I've fulfilled all the goals I had stated in the first post of the AAR, I will have to set myself more of them. But I don't know yet, what exactly I will do - be sure to watch some more colonization efforts though :). How about you wrote a new update to your Ottoman AAR? ;)

thrashing mad - thanks mate :D. You know... I too own the Witcher already. :p :D And although I've played only until the fight with the green dogs in the village, I must say I'm certainly satisfied with the game. Pity though that I have to play on 1024*768 with average other settings - too weak a comp do I have :(. But still, the graphics look very nice :).
 
Wow, great ;) I have write it, haven't I?
Anyway, my dream of Pommerania, capital in Gdańsk now came true! :D But there is one thing - why the hell have you captured Polonia Maior? ;)

MyMap is so unfriendly.. those colors... :D
 
Morgoth_Edain - Thank you :). It's nice to see someone else's dreams fulfilled :D, esp. in such an easy way as this :p. Polonia Maior? Because the Poles don't deserve it :D.
And now, it's not MyMap that is unfriendly, it's the bold colourscale that I'm using, and seriously considering the changing of, despite my declaration from 4 days ago... What do you guys think? Please, respond whether to change it to 'normal' or at least 'normaller' looking colours? :)

Update incoming!!! :cool:
 
Emperor_krk said:
Morgoth_Edain - Thank you :). It's nice to see someone else's dreams fulfilled :D, esp. in such an easy way as this :p. Polonia Maior? Because the Poles don't deserve it :D.
And now, it's not MyMap that is unfriendly, it's the bold colourscale that I'm using, and seriously considering the changing of, despite my declaration from 4 days ago... What do you guys think? Please, respond whether to change it to 'normal' or at least 'normaller' looking colours? :)

Update incoming!!! :cool:

Well, brighter colors would do better IMO. :)
 
More of the New World

Barnim, the new King of Pomerania, albeit, as mentioned earlier, somewhat less capable than his predecessors, understood well enough that the West was where the riches of the world lay, and that the more land Pomerania could acquire as soon as possible through peaceful colonization, the richer and the stronger she will emerge in the future. All of the realm's financial efforts were laid upon the encouragement of overseas travels and enlargement of Pomerania's first colony, Filipina. In the middle of the year 1562, Barnim issued the official document, declaring the location of Filipina in Pomeranian law. Moreover, he ordered that the city be encircled with strong walls, so that once a hostile force would lay siege to it, it wouldn't be lost immediately.

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In the course of 1562 a loan, taken sometime during the long-forgotten war against Denmark, was repaid to the bankers of Gdańsk. Soon afterwards, the Dutch explorers were sent to the west, into a bay, as it turned out, banks of which were already partially occupied by French and English forces. Thankfully, as some of the shores remained untouched by other Europeans, some two thousand men-and-horse strong cavalry force was sent to make landfall, to the north of the ships' position. By the end of 1562, new lands were discovered, a region called Naskapi in the language of its native inhabitants, with whom Pomerania maintained friendly relations, providing them with fine European steel, alcoholic beverages and other products that the Overseaanians needed or found useful in any way.

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At that time as well, an envoy from Riga arrived in Gdańsk, asking for peace with Pomerania's alliance in return for 105'000 ducats - which Barnim found fairly acceptable, knowing that the Swedes' growing hunger for land and power in the region had had to be tamed, if he didn't want to breed a future enemy on Pomerania's own womb. Soon after this though, sad news arrived in Gdańsk: the Dutch captains, from whose services Pomerania was profiting for the last decade or so, had retired. This came sooner than the king had expected, but still their contribution to Pomerania's presence on the other side of the ocean was not to be overrated. The foothold would prove to be of much use to the state's economy, prestige and international power.

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This, however, could never stop Barnim from further encouragement of colonization of the newly explored land. Thus, waves of settlers were sent into the regions of Innu and Naskapi, enlarging the Pomeranian settlements quickly. The kingdom's warship fleet was kept anchored off the shore of Naskapi, in order to keep eventual pirates away from Nowy (New) Gdańsk, the capital would-be city of Naskapi province.

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Shorter this time, because I've actually come to the point when I have to play the game yet, to have anything to write about :). I hope you guys like this, I myself am quite satisfied with the language... I would appreciate a lot a comment from some kind English or American readAAR, whether the style/language of this is ok or...?
(*is going to write a Cambridge CPE exam in the following June...* ;))
 
Congrats on you acceptance.

By the way, yes, I agree. myMap is a work of art. I love it completely.
 
YAY! It has returned!

And yes, I do depise the AI settler spam capability...though it has never stopped me from dominating colonization.

TheExecuter
 
thrashing mad - so, would this be alright? Quite a lot brighter, despite being called the 'sinister' colourscale:
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RGB - congrats on what? :) Sorry, I must have misunderstood something... But thanks nevertheless. :D

TheExecuter - indeed, and probably another update will be due within the next few days... ;) And yeah, I know it is needed for the AI, for without it the comp wouldn't be able to colonize anything, but still it makes me want to kill somebody when I see it :).

Thank you all for reading and commenting, I appreciate it a lot!
And would certainly appreciate some more comments from those 80 other lurkers who visited this thread within the time from the update... :p
 
Nice to see Pomerania expanding in The New World. It will be interesting to see how France and England responds to Pomerania taking a share of the (fairly) rich lands.

As for the colorscales, I think it's very nice the way it is. Bold colorscale has beautiful terrain map IMO (but the political map is perhaps not so good). I use Sinister colorscale, and I think it is just as good as Bold colorscale. However, I don't want you to go back to vanilla colorscale... it's too bright ;)
 
Olav - I've changed the colourscale to Sinister for good, which you will see in the update that will come after the one I'm going to write and post this week(ish) :). England, thankfully, has good relations with me, so I suppose they'd rather encourage me to colonize than fight me for this ;). As for France... You'll see :cool:.

Don Matito - Me too :D.

M4 Emperior - well, in the beginning of the game my primary goal was to destroy it :D, which I've fulfilled better than I had expected. And well... The League was a German invention, and my Pomerania is much more of a Polish Baltic state ;).

All: - sorry again for the delays :( , as I've said above, I will write and post the new update this week (hopefully - if I find the time for writing one...).
 
War in the Gulf

Barnim IX was spending most of his time concentrated on what was happening in the region of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, sending waves of colonists across the ocean and assuring their safety by keeping a strong fleet in the region, in order to be able to answer to a potential invasion or corsair raid. What was also a goal for Barnim, however, and what had to be kept in absolute secrecy, was a plan of invading the rich, but badly protected, French colonies. The Pomeranian army stationed overseas wouldn't be sufficient in numbers to win a war, so Barnim ordered the fleet to return and transport part of the army overseas. The shipyard in Gdańsk repaired those of the ships that needed service, and also produced new transports.

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Thus, a 10'000 men strong army was ferried across the ocean. The attack on France was scheduled for the spring of 1566, just after the melting of snow. This, however, had to be procrastinated because of another conflict in the Baltic area - a new war had erupted between Denmark and Sweden, the latter asking Pomerania and her vassals for help. At first, the 7'000 strong army kept in Holstein was defeated by the Danish force under Daniel Rantzau. They didn't siege the city, and withdrew quickly northwards, probably in order to fend off a Swedish invasion of Skane. It wasn't long afterwards when the Pomeranian home army was rebuilt and loaded onto the galleys waiting in the port in Lübeck. The plan was simple here: the forces would unload outside Kobenhavn and besiege the city, while the ships would cut the city away from any support. The Danish capital would refuse to fall for more than a year, despite numerous assault efforts. At the same time, the pathetic Danish forces in Jylland were easily defeated by the large forces from Meissen and Saxony.

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Seeing that the war against Denmark is progressing without many problems, and knowing of the internal problems France was suffering from at that time (her government fell during a civil war which had erupted because of the corruption in the administration of the state - or so it was explained in the European courts at that time), Barnim decided that now is the time to strike. On the sixteenth day of July, 1567, a declaration of war against France was issued, and soon afterwards the Pomeranian colonial army disembarked in Labrador, a province surrounded by Pomeranian lands. The settlement there was taken quickly and effortlessly - the government in France hadn't even been able to afford to build a simple palisade around it!

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The regiment was then ordered back on the ships, and sent to the south-western banks of the gulf, to a territory yet uncharted, but known already to be owned by France. The province there turned out to be better protected, but the French outdated military technology and weak morale was no match for the Pomeranian veterans - the rich center of trade in Gaspe fell in a quick assault. Shortly beforehand a peace agreement had been reached with the Danes who, having lost Kobenhavn to Pomeranian soldiers, were more than eager to pay our alliance almost 200'000 ducats for peace.

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By the middle of summer of the year 1569, two more French settlements were taken: Acadie to the south, and a trading post in Stadacone to the west. Barnim IX was overjoyed - he was leading a successful war against one of the largest countries in Europe, which meant enormous prestige for Pomerania. It meant also that the ever King, growing in power, was becoming very unpopular among the nobility, who wanted more power for themselves. Barnim didn't realise this until it was too late, and was forced to abdicate in favour of his nephew, Ernest Ludwik, until then a prince of Wołogoszcz (Wolgast), who thankfully turned out to be competent enough to run the country without destroying it. The event, however, became a warning for Pomerania's monarchs that the aristocrats were a growing power, and the future leaders of the country would have to work hard for Pomerania not to become another Lithuania, with its Grand Princes being puppets in the magnates' hands... Speaking of which, very soon Lithuania was absorbed by Poland - it seemed that the Lithuanian magnates, despite almost a century of warring against Poland, for some reason (most probably very liberal and democratic - naturally, only toward the nobles - laws of the Kingdom of Poland).

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Ernest Ludwik's first move was signing a peace with France - a very favourable one, actually, on terms that even Barnim in his time hadn't expected the French to accept: all the lands controlled by Pomeranian troops were handed to Pomerania.

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An update! Predictably as you see, a colonial war started. Not so much predictably, France was in such a sorry shape that they couldn't put up a solid resistance against 10'000 men! I don't know why they are in such a bad condition - they have only level 6 in LT and 3 in NT, while I have respectively 11 and 10... But it's a good thing for me :D. I hope you enjoy the update. Read and comment people - your interest keeps me writing this!
 
Wow!

But yes, I remember that in EUII this kind of thing used to happen once in a while.