HABEMUS PAPAM! - A Papal States WC Attempt AAR

[Historywhiz]

INTRODUCTUM

And Cain said to Abel his brother: "Let us go forth abroad." And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and slew him. And the Lord said to Cain: "Where is thy brother Abel?" And he answered, "I know not: am I my brother's keeper?" And he said to him: "What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth to me from the earth. Now, therefore, cursed shalt thou be upon the earth, which hath opened her mouth and received the blood of thy brother at thy hand." - Genesis 4:8-11​

On the evening of October 18, 1444, the combined navies of the Papal States, the Duchy of Burgundy, and the Republic of Venice were engaged in a blockade of the Dardanelles, preventing the main host of the Ottoman Empire from crossing the straits to relieve their forces in Bulgaria. Shortly before midnight, the Venetians abruptly broke formation, and while the Papal and Burgundian fleets scrambled in confusion, a flotilla of Genoese merchant vessels, crammed to near-flooding with janissaries, stole across the straits.

And thus did Murad II return to Europe with 50,000 men, on Catholic ships, crewed by Catholic sailors, aided by the treachery of Catholic powers bribed with gold from Catholic trade through Ragusa.[A]

The news reached Rome on the 10th of November, coincidentally just about the time poor King Ladislaus was receiving some new and unexpected holes in his body on the field of Varna. On the surface, everything remained normal. His Holiness Pope Eugenius IV continued his daily routine and expressed mild disappointment, and all appeared to be nothing more than a tiny ripple in a glassy pond. Beneath the surface though, deep in those bowels of the Curia that not even the most experienced Vatican-watchers dared guess existed, the mood was apoplectic. This was no ordinary war, heck it was no ordinary crusade, 400 years after the Great Schism had begun, the Byzantine emperor and his bishops had finally bent their stiff Greek necks to acknowledge the pope as head of Christ’s Church on earth in exchange for help, and to make good on their promise, Rome had set itself up as the hub of an alliance network ranging from Valencia to Vilnius. Truces between warring rulers had been arranged, thousands of letters and missives had been exchanged, enough money to buy every peasant in Rome a pony had changed hands, and the largest force that Christian Europe had fielded in a very long time had, finally, after innumerable vacillations and screaming matches, been sent off in roughly the right direction towards the relief of Constantinople.

And it had all fallen apart.

Again.

As it had countless times before.

Honestly, this should have been expected. While the obvious comparison of the Fourth Crusade was near at hand, there had been plenty of other cases in the 240 years since where the Vatican had set out to accomplish something, only for secular rulers and renegade clergy to, at best ignore, and at worst outright invert or pervert the intent. Really, what appropriately-colored haze of scarlet was settling across the princes of the Church was not shock at unplanned insolence, but rather the acknowledgement that if their patience had been a fraying thread, Venice and Genoa had just taken an axe to it. In their hearts of hearts, the fuming cardinals gathering in forgotten chapels and cellars knew that the crusaders were already dead, even though that news would not reach the Eternal City for a few weeks yet. It was too much. The Catholic Church tolerated indignity after indignity, blasphemy after blasphemy, day in and day out for nearly a millennium straight, and what did it have to show for it? A Europe determined to fight itself to death, an Islamic horde happy to help ram the knife home, and a papal territory that was crumbling into ruin as the rest of Italy chipped away at it. Deep into the Secret Archives they went, pouring through the collections, going back through the pontiffs and the centuries, until at last the works of Boniface were found, and the ancient bull, buried under parchment for a hundred and fifty years, had light shone on it once more.

Porro subesse Romano Pontifici omni humanae creaturae declaramus, dicimus, definimus, et pronunciamus omnino esse de necessitate salutis…



**********************************************************************************************

[A] I wish I was making this up, but yeah, that's pretty much exactly how it happened and how the Varna Crusade was lost.

"Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff." - Unam Sanctam by Pope Boniface VIII, 1302.

Welcome one and all, to my first ever AAR on the Paradox forums!

It’s strange, I did not expect my first to be like this, in fact I have three other AARs in various stages of work on my computer, but they have all fallen victim to the same issue. I am working a full-time job, and living on my own, and I am hopelessly obsessed with history and playing Paradox games. This means that pretty much every time I get to work writing something, I wind up needing to look up something to flesh out a background detail, then this turns into a lengthy research project, and I get only two sentences and a state of grave exhaustion out of several hours/days of effort, and a desire to start a new campaign to take my mind off it all. Seriously, it doesn’t matter the context, this always happens – my dream of a Victoria 3 story where the Two Sicilies conquers Sweden to punish them for their effrontery in putting ketchup on macaroni and calling it pasta got utterly stalled out by me taking two days to look up precisely how many cardinals were active in 1837 (the answer it turns out is 51 Italian cardinals [one in pectore], 1 Austrian, 3 French, 2 Spanish, 1 Portuguese, and 1 English [with possibly another in pectore] for a total of 60).

This though, is going to be different from those. Those are narrative, this is gameplay. You see, in 2,940 hours of Europa Universalis IV, I have never actually done a world conquest or a one faith run. Nor have I accomplished many of the related achievements that are normally accompaniment to such, like Master of India or Over a Thousand. So it is high time I pick them up.

As for the nation, it has to be The Papal States. It has been a while since I played them, they have some impressive bonuses, I have never completed the Holy Trinity achievement (though I am not going to consider this AAR a failure if I do not pull it off – it is a very difficult achievement), and… at the risk of brushing up against the AARLand rules… it is topical.

Are there better countries to play? Absolutely. Are there better stories to read? Yes, and you should be reading them – I’ve recommended a number of them every time I get the Fan of the Week award. Is this challenge difficult? Absurdly so. Is this going to get mind-numbingly boring after a while? I expect so.

Is this possible?

…

…

…

If a guy from Chicago can get elected Pope, anything is possible.

 

[stnylan]

Will follow

 

[Historywhiz]

Eugenius IV (1431-1446)

Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek – by Dieric Bouts the Elder

But Melchisedech the king of Salem, bringing forth bread and wine, for he was the priest of the most high God blessed him, and said: "Blessed be Abram by the most high God, who created heaven and earth. And blessed be the most high God, by whose protection the enemies are in thy hands." And he gave him the tithes of all. - Genesis 14:18-20​

Our first act is to convince the pope to call a consistory and send an envoy to the Emperor for a military alliance.

Next it is to begin rebuilding our decrepit armed forces.

Then a general meeting of all the stakeholders was called to figure out what the first target should be. While initially, a punitive expedition against the Venetians was the most popular, influential nobles managed to point out that long-time Papal rival René, the so-called king of Naples and Jerusalem, has managed to isolate himself diplomatically in spectacular fashion, with the result that the whole of Provence is ripe for the picking. As this would give our enclave to Avignon access to the sea, we decide to pursue it.

The Greeks do the predictable thing and repudiate the Council of Florence. Though their reasons are understandable in light of the crusade’s failures, it is still a grave insult and we will not be assisting them further.

We decide to influence the pope to lift restrictions on the small Jewish population in order to stimulate development – getting some money to fund our future wars will make this slightly counterintuitive effort worth it.

Less than a few weeks later, another consistory is proclaimed, this time focusing on Western Europe. This is interrupted by the Bolognese, who want an alliance – this is most welcome and accepted.

They are swiftly followed by the Milanese. This puts us in a somewhat awkward situation – on the one hand we have been trying to convince the Swiss to allow us to recruit their unemployed veterans for a special military unit and they are hostile to Milan, but on the other, Milan is the enemy of Venice and if we spurn them now, they might not assist us later, or worse, be crushed by the Venetians. We decide to accept the alliance, and will simply accept that it will take longer to convince the Swiss.

The alliances of the last month put us in an excellent position to regain influence throughout the Italian peninsula that had previously been declining.

Now we turn north, to let our monastic orders know that they can count on our support, while also trying to improve relations with Ladislaus’s successor in Lithuania while he presses his claim to Poland.

Rather conveniently, some intelligent mason in Avignon proposed a series of upgrades to our fortifications there that didn’t incur meaningful cost and would improve our abilities to fend off the Provencials when war begins.

And we begin a partnership with our most storied surviving military order, the body that has gone by many names, but was currently known as the Knights of St. John.

With our alliance network set up, it is time to let Francesco Foscari, Doge of Venice, know exactly what temperature he could expect the afterlife to be after his treachery, that is, extremely warm, provided he does not repent of his actions.

The Jagellonian dynasty had once again managed to restore the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and they were profusely grateful to the Vatican for it.

The Guelphic and Ghibelline divide of Italian politics is centuries old, but our current diplomatic moves, the restlessness of the Italian principalities under the HRE, and the issues Austria has had with Bohemia and Hungary following the Hussite Wars and Laudislaus’s death, have given Guelphic parties across the peninsula a decisive advantage – our envoys in Vienna are reporting the Emperor is even weighing declaring Italy to be outside of his protection. Needless to say, this would be highly beneficial to our plans, but we cannot let the Austrians know that…

And at long last, a deal has been reached with a plurality of cantons that fine Catholic men of upstanding character, if they so choose and have a letter of recommendation from their parish priest, can serve in the Papal armed forces. They shall be our elite of elite, men of iron will and steely sinew. In great armor shall they be clad and with the mightiest weapons shall they be armed. They will be untouched by plague or disease… eh… ok maybe not that. We’re not God after all, just his representatives on Earth.

And speaking of representatives, we found a colonel in one of our regiments has an exceptional gift for siege-craft and was not otherwise bad at commanding armies in battle. Rather conveniently the commanding general position is currently vacant.

Unfortunately, our Holy Father is only infallible speaking on the chair, when he’s walking around, he’s as likely as anyone else to say something wrong and offensive. It is a bit embarrassing, but our diplomatic machinations require us to lose face this time.

No matter, the armies are ready, the agreements for safe passage have been signed, and the Jews have agreed to make a loan to our coffers. For utterly baffling reasons, Ferrara decided that the one state in Europe most resembling a man slathered in barbecue sauce dumped in a bearpit would make a fine ally. How convenient.

How very, very, convenient.

With Provence about to suffer sudden existence failure, the insane asylum better known as the Privy Council of England decided to reconsider the match of Princess Margaret to Henry VI, and the giving over of the County of Maine as part of the deal. France, who had brokered the deal as middleman and expected to get Maine and Anjou in turn in exchange for not eating Provence, was naturally disappointed, and decided to take out their anger on the English.

Cuius regio, euis religio has been the rule of Europe for centuries. And now Bohemia expects us to believe that their state religion will be in communion with ours even while their rulers practice the heresies we burred Jan Hus for. Do we look like we were born yesterday?

HABEMUS PAPAM! With our Eugenius IV going home to the Father, one of the chief diplomats responsible for our recent efforts has ascended the Petrine Throne. May God grant that Pius II have a very long reign, because we are going to need every last drop of his acumen.

 

[coz1]

Nice!! Being such a great commenter on my work, I can only return the favor and so happy to see your first ever AAR!

And clearly the Venetians deserve it.

 

[alonsom13]

first timers unite! and in the same region to boost. let's see how this one goes

 

[The Number 9]

I'm really interested. I have fond memories of a playthrough with the papal states.
And as I've never did a wolrd conquest when I played, I wish you best of luck with it !

 

[stnylan]

Who needs Kings and Khans, Dukes and Doges, Emperors and Emirs? One Holy Father is clearly just simpler

It started with Ferrara, I wonder where it will end.

 

[Chac1]

Definitely enjoying the sense of humor on display in this new one. Welcome to AAR writing @Historywhiz . A bit surprised you didn't name your new pope Leo to further make your point regarding potential tie ins to current times. But no doubt, you likely have a historic reason for your choice. (Or does the game simply give you a new pope with a particular name and you have no choice? As someone who doesn't play EUIV, but who likes reading AARs, this inquiring mind hopes to learn more.)

 

[Cora Giantkiller]

Oh this looks like a lot of fun. I'm in.

 

[Hootieleece]

Subbed. I need new reading material as it is almost summer.

 

[Chac1]

Subbed. I need new reading material as it is almost summer.

No doubt, this will make an excellent summer read @Hootieleece . Elsewhere in the forum in this thread, we are discussing other AARs in all parts of the forum that you might also want to consider adding to your reading list. (Just in case you want other suggestions too.)

 

[Historywhiz]

Pius II (1446-1456)
Part I

Story of Gideon by Maerten van Heemskerck

And when the people were come down to the waters, the Lord said to Gedeon: "They that shall lap the water with their tongues, as dogs are wont to lap, thou shalt set apart by themselves: but they that shall drink bowing down their knees, shall be on the other side." And the number of them that had lapped water, casting it with the hand to their mouth, was three hundred men: and all the rest of the multitude had drunk kneeling. And the Lord said to Gedeon: "By the three hundred men, that lapped water, I will save you, and deliver Madian into thy hand: but let all the rest of the people return to their place." So taking victuals and trumpets according to their number, he ordered all the rest of the multitude to depart to their tents: and he with the three hundred gave himself to the battle... - Judges 7:5-8​

And with a new pope comes a new focus. Being part of our schemes from the beginning, Pope Pius has decided that we no longer need to meet in secret, but rather that the whole machinery of the Church and state should be given over to formalizing our operations. This new apostolic constitution should do the job nicely, and allow us to better react to the wave of change sweeping the peninsula.

The Provencials have met us on the field of battle. Really, they could have picked better ground or circumstances to attack us on. Or you know, not attack and wait for us to come to them; that was also an option they had. Oh well.

Their navy also decided to just slather themselves in sauce and walk into our lair. Really, if the English are a band of madmen, René’s advisors must be drooling idiots. At this point it's practically humanitarian to bring Provence under our rule if this is what the people are suffering from.

Ferrara has graciously decided to take diplomatic tutelage from us in order to better learn from their poor choices.

And we can actually understand why the Provencials thought they might win this battle. Problem is its horrible terrain for them, and a bunch of farmers against the finest warriors in Christendom.

Uhhh… forget we said that,

We are generous overlords.

This is a bit annoying, but only in the way that a mosquito or gnat is annoying. We’re half tempted to auction off the land their army is camped on the way the ancient Romans did vis a vis Hannibal, but unfortunately the cardinal whose estate it is isn’t interested in selling or donating.

And Burgundy has also come in to pick at the corpse of Provence. We’re only interested in Provence itself, so letting them have Bar and Lorraine is fine for now.

Speaking of which… No war reparations – they won’t exist as a state long enough for us to benefit from it.

Unfortunately, despite all our attempts to prepare the ground for the rest of Italy to swallow our conquests, Genoa and Florence, plus a few minor states, have decided to kick off and start talking anti-Papal coalition. Time to distribute some red zucchettos to shut them up.

And with Brittany joining in on the fun, along with Rene's death, Provence’s days are numbered.

We have reinvigorated the militant holy orders, and they can count on our support, just as we can count on their advice and experience.

And it is high time we appoint a minister of the treasury to actually keep our state functioning.

We sell Ferrara back some of the ships we captured from them at a discount.

And make clear the Occitans are as welcome in the realm we are building as any Italian.

1450 is already scheduled to be a jubilee year in the liturgical calendar beginning this November, why shouldn’t Munster be allowed a head start of a few months? It’ll take a good chunk of that time for the envoy to even get back up there in the first place. [A]

The gentleman claiming prophetic status is kindly reminded that Christ has made a complete and final revelation to us, His Church on Earth, and if he wishes to drag us all into sackcloth and ashes, he is free to do so five months from now when Lent starts.

Our war loans are in the process of being paid off already, so publicly committing to it to boost the loyalty of our merchant classes is an obvious choice.

Unfortunately, the people of Provence are somehow disappointed with our new government. Like you do realize we rescued you from the idiots you had before, right?

King Alfons of Aragon had died, and by the terms of his will, Aragon itself goes to his brother Joan, but Naples goes to his bastard son Ferrando. Technically, the Pope is supposed to be the suzerain of the Kingdom of Sicily (or rather, both Kingdoms of the Sicilies; the Sicilian and Neapolitan one… it’s a fine mess and too long a story to explain here) so Ferrando’s accession is dependent on paying dues to us, which he does, to the happiness of our treasury, and the minor disappointment of those that wanted to subjugate the new, friendless kingdom.

And our navy is one of the finest in the Western Mediterranean following an extensive rebuilding program.

It is a rather windy day today. The good cardinal should grab his zucchetto before it gets away from him.

Plans are being finalized now to revitalize the Roman Forum and many other fora in the cities we rule over. They shall be the hub of our new economy.

Well, the Ferrarese have taken well to our tutelage. So well that now, the student has become the master.

Dissent in Provence has reached a fever pitch, to the point where the peasants decided to take up arms against the Holy Father. Somehow though they seem to have all walked themselves right into the entire Papal army camped next door to their muster point. Rather lovely when they make it easy like that.

The crimes of Venice have gone unanswered for too long. It is time.

Well that did not go according to plan.

Nor that.

Or that…

Good grief. When the HRE has to bail out Papal forces, things have gone very wrong.

And Ferrando has decided to bite the hand he just gave money to. How strange and disappointing – we’ll deal with him eventually.

French have kicked out the English, and now are going after the Bretons (and somehow Provence survived?) [C]

And of course, conveniently after the French declare war, a French cardinal suddenly brings to Pius’s attention that one of the advisors to the Breton duke is of the Greek church. Does this really matter? No, but Brittany is probably not going to exist much longer, so keeping the French and the traditionalists in the Curia takes priority.

Christ made all men equal, and while we thank the nobility of our state for their steadfast service over many generations, if we do not allow some promotion by merit, we will become nothing more than another one of the feudal aristocratic realms we’re trying to replace.

Somehow, it escaped the notice of our diplomatic corps that Aragon was also allied with Brittany, and thus at war with France too. A house cleaning may be called for here.

The Terraferma is now solidly under Austrian and Papal control. Only the Milanese are having trouble with an obstinate garrison at Brescia.

Our navy has recovered.

Never mind.

It has become apparent that our primary obstacle to dominating Italy and eventually the planet is not our piety or strength of arms, but our finances. Time to increase the role of the merchant in our state.

Just in time too, as some enterprising architects have proposed some new and innovative church designs which… we can’t exactly have lesser churches than other Catholic nations now, can we?
[A] Ever since 1450, jubilee years in the Catholic Church are celebrated once every 25 years, with this year of 2025 being a jubilee year. Plenary indulgences are being granted to all who attend mass or other services at a designated jubilee site, as well as attending confession, from now until January 6, 2026 (Ephinay).

Uh, Paradox? I get that this makes sense for not only the secular states of Europe but also some of the monastic orders, and localization is more difficult than it looks, but mind explaining to me how THE PAPAL STATES is not ruled by the clergy?!

[C] Looking at my files, I found out that the Breton army was less than 9,000 men, so they never were able to siege down Anjou and had to white-peace.

 

[Historywhiz]

Pius II (1446-1456)
Part II

The Sermon on the Mount by Fra Angelico

But he that had received the one talent, came and said: Lord, "I know that thou art a hard man; thou reapest where thou hast not sown, and gatherest where thou hast not strewed. And being afraid I went and hid thy talent in the earth: behold here thou hast that which is thine." And his lord answering, said to him: "Wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strewed: Thou oughtest therefore to have committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with usury." - Matthew 25:24-27​

Barcelona has fallen, and the navy is finally in a somewhat functional condition.

Pay no attention to the ledger books, the sums spent on the war are vitally important, just look at the progress we’re making in Aragon and the Venetian army camped just outside!

While the cavalry secure the Balearics, the most patriotic and loyal band of rebels in history blindside our siege forces in Osca.

Not that it ends well for them.

But with the weakening of our forces and the sallying forth of the Aragonese navy to smack our own for a third time, its decided that peace is the order of the day. We get the northernmost county of Sardinia, war reparations, and a hefty ransom of gold for their fortifications back. We decide to invest this money in patronage of the new scientific and artistic pursuits sweeping the peninsula. [Forgot to take a picture of the peace deal]

With the crowning glory being a new wing to the Vatican Library.

This war could have gone on for longer, but in the end, it was decided that a more limited peace now to better keep the alliance network intact and preserve the relations with the rest of the Italian states trumped attempting to gain total vengeance. Besides, Milan was effectively out of the war with their internal issues, and the Venetian navy made assaults on Venice itself impossible. In the end, Milan got Bergamo back, Austria gained Cilli and Istria, and we got Ravenna, the island of Crete, and a nice amount of gold.

And with that done, the nobles deserve a bit of a reward; some conquered estates perhaps?

We were already thinking about how to govern Sardinia, this just makes that conversation more urgent.

And the money we get from Venice is promptly spent on reconstructing the Sistine Chapel.

You’re next.

It is Ordinary Time, you’re too early, we’ll get back to you in a few months.

Perugia and Urbino have been reintegrated into the realm, and we have decided to set up a government on Sardinia under a bishop. We are not directly claiming the title of King of Sardinia yet from the Aragonese, but it pays to be prepared.

Sweden gets its first cardinal. Maybe they will be emboldened to declare independence from Denmark?

Well, His Holiness has decided to take an interest in all of our new construction projects. Maybe too much of an interest. Maybe.

As Portugal and Castile are at war with the Tunisians, we have decided to call a crusade against them to formalize their endeavors, maybe we could get in on this too one day?

Alas, it hath pleased God to grant Pius II a short reign. HABEMUS PAPAM!

 

[Historywhiz]

Alright sorry for the delay everyone. I actually had this written up on Thursday last, but I needed to leave for a lovely Memorial Day vacation before I could finish posting it. Thank you everyone for your very warm reception so far!

Who needs Kings and Khans, Dukes and Doges, Emperors and Emirs? One Holy Father is clearly just simpler

It started with Ferrara, I wonder where it will end.

No idea where it ends, but there will be a lot more to come.

Definitely enjoying the sense of humor on display in this new one. Welcome to AAR writing @Historywhiz . A bit surprised you didn't name your new pope Leo to further make your point regarding potential tie ins to current times. But no doubt, you likely have a historic reason for your choice. (Or does the game simply give you a new pope with a particular name and you have no choice? As someone who doesn't play EUIV, but who likes reading AARs, this inquiring mind hopes to learn more.)

Game gives me a pope with a name and I have no choice. Unlike with monarchies, where the player could exert some control over names by naming the newborn heirs (available with the Cossacks DLC I believe, though this may have since been integrated into the base game), the names of the popes is determined by the game by randomly selecting from a list of papal names that I believe are drawn from a list of 15th-19th century historical popes. Theoretically, Leo is on this list as Popes Leo X through XII reigned in this period, but I suspect that not only would I not have a Pope Leo XIV before 1821, but I would not even have it by 2025 in game (and I'm not playing that long). The main issue preventing it is that Leo would be competing in the randomization stakes not only against names on the list used more recently, like John, Paul, Benedict, Pius, or Gregory, but also against names that have not been used since the EUIV time period - Nicholas, Calixtus, Urban, Adrian, Julius, Innocent, Clement, etc.

Eugenius/Eugene IV is the historical pontiff reigning in 1444, and historically he died in February 1447 and was succeeded by Nicholas V. The historical Pius II was not elected until 1458 and, while he is alive at this time, was not even a bishop in 1446, much less a cardinal.

 

[Cora Giantkiller]

Christ made all men equal, and while we thank the nobility of our state for their steadfast service over many generations, if we do not allow some promotion by merit, we will become nothing more than another one of the feudal aristocratic realms we’re trying to replace.

Equal but not too equal, I would imagine.

 

[Historywhiz]

Equal but not too equal, I would imagine.

You’re absolutely correct, but just to provide further gloss, the Curia of this period is still an institution whose members are mostly drawn from the Italian city-states, and as such have considerably more experience and comfort with republican practices and values than many would expect. Obviously we’re not appointing just any farmer’s son to become commanding general anytime soon, but the wealthier merchants, tradesmen, and yeoman landowners who are not yet technically nobility have to have a shot, otherwise they’d disqualify many of their own number and kin from consideration. To use an example on a bit more ambiguous end of the scale, while the Medicis have technically been of the patrician class of Tuscany since the 1200’s, their famous bank and subsequent power (and cardinals and popes) was only founded in 1397, so the case could be made that they’re nouveau riche by the standards of traditional European nobility.

 

[KaiserWilhelmI]

It’s strange, I did not expect my first to be like this, in fact I have three other AARs in various stages of work on my computer, but they have all fallen victim to the same issue. I am working a full-time job, and living on my own, and I am hopelessly obsessed with history and playing Paradox games. This means that pretty much every time I get to work writing something, I wind up needing to look up something to flesh out a background detail, then this turns into a lengthy research project, and I get only two sentences and a state of grave exhaustion out of several hours/days of effort, and a desire to start a new campaign to take my mind off it all. Seriously, it doesn’t matter the context, this always happens – my dream of a Victoria 3 story where the Two Sicilies conquers Sweden to punish them for their effrontery in putting ketchup on macaroni and calling it pasta got utterly stalled out by me taking two days to look up precisely how many cardinals were active in 1837.

I feel this so much. I was just writing about the (East) Roman army in the age of pike and shot for my AAR, and spent hours reading about the Spanish Tercios, the reforms of Maurice of Nassau, and the organization of the Ottoman Janissaries.

Subbed

 

[Cora Giantkiller]

My first week writing Sword of Virtanen, I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out if the Kokemäenjoki River was navigable by longship as far inland as Ulvila.

 

[coz1]

It is not surprising the war with Venice was touch and go. As you stated, their navy makes it difficult to siege Venice proper and thus keeps war score too low to really make gains. I think a success you did as well as you did. And nice work with Provence.

 

[stnylan]

I had to chortle at the line about it being a sad day when the HRE has to rescue the Papacy. Innocent IV and Frederick II will both be turning in their graves'.